Germanalasia

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The Imperial, Empirical State of Germanalasia
germanalasia.jpg
Map Currently Unavailable
Region Anarchy Camp
Motto "Never be mediocre."
Anthem William Tell Overture (finale)
Capital Beranostra
Population Approx 2,658,000,000
Largest City
  - By Area
  - By Population

Beranostra
Penzenes
Government
  - Alpha Minister
  - Minister of Defence
  - Foreign Secretary
Autocratic Single-Party State
M. B. Findlaich
General L. Dite
Joan Beckett
Language(s)
  - Official
  - Unofficial

English
Nalasic English
GDP (PPP)
  - Total (USD)
  - Per Capita (USD)

Approx $70,000,000,000,000
Approx $26,000
Colours Maroon, Black
National Animal Highland Cow
National Dog Breed Saluki
Currency Diadem Mark (DiM)
Tech Level Modern
Internet TLD(s) .gma
Calling Code 437

Stats: NS NSDossier NSEconomy Sunset XML

NSTracker

Germanalasia, or fully, The Imperial, Empirical State of Germanalasia, is a totalitarian, militaristic nation notable for being one of the most dominant exporters in the Anarchy Camp region. It is an industrialised corporate police state that has, in recent times, attracted attention for its highly pervasive policing techniques and its former membership of the Royal Anarchy Collaboration.

History

Prehistory

While there has been little archaeological research in the more long-standing and built up areas of Germanalasia due to tight laws prohibiting any unauthorised digs, specifically the Germanalasia Land Misuse Act, archaeological work on less populous areas suggest place the earliest settlements as over thirteen thousand years old. Some artefacts suggest that primitive man may have inhabited - or at least crossed - the area as far 600,000 years ago.

The nature of the recovered finds from early settlements suggests that many of the residents were nomadic to a level, moving between sites with the seasons, possibly acting as traders to other settlements.

Founding of Germanalasia

Prior to 542 CE, what is now Germanalasia was part of three separate and highly contrasting states, in addition to a further two large city-states: Kolnadda, Gerandara, Dyattica; and city-states Myln and Penzenes.

Myln was a prominent sea port, and traded a variety of goods, primarily selling canvas and rigging for sea fairing vessels and importing food and silks. In the early autumn of 542, a Myln ship - The Seafarer - was spotted floating, apparently hit heavily by a storm. On investigation, it became apparent that the ship was perfectly intact, apart from the shredded main sail that appeared to have been slashed into pieces not by the weather, but by knives. The first boarders thought she was deserted, until they found in the cabins five crewmen, all dead, covered in welts and buboes. This ruled out attack by pirates, and on investigation of the cargo, it was found that the ship had returned from its destination with a large amount of corn and fabrics.

The cargo was raided by the crew of the investigating ship - Whisperer - and the abandoned vessel scuppered.

Shortly after they returned and sold the corn and fabrics, the first reports of dying rats and animals came in, and days later, reports were coming in around the city of people dying, and coming down with welts and buboes. People fled into the large, adjacent state of Kolnadda, and Kolnadda too was infected. Kolnadda was in the middle of a military campaign against Dyattica, and their reinforcements brought the sickness with them.

Historians understand this to be the Bubonic Plague, carried by fleas which were present in the blankets salvaged from The Seafarer. There is also some evidence that the fleas were present in the corn - it is likely that they were stored in rat-infested granaries in their country of origin. Where the plague originated from is not known, as the ships logs were lost when it was sunk, however it is true that there were plague outbreaks in other areas of the globe at this time.

The plague was aided by the fact the area was just coming out of a long drought - the very reason Kolnadda was at war, in fact - which had weakened the population's immune system.

When the plague eventually burnt out in late 544 CE, the entire city of Myln was deserted and Kolnadda had lost a massive three quarters of its population to the plague and approximately an eighth to the war in Dyattica. The plague had also devastated the majority of Dyattica's peripheral regions and almost their total armed forces. The core of the state only survived due to strict quarantining that had been put into place at the last minute.

In all this, Gerandara, the second largest state in the area, after Kolnadda, was left almost untouched. A massive civil war was being waged at the time, and all trade was cut off. In 547, when government was re-established, Gerandara was by far the largest state by population despite heavy casualties during the civil war. The government seized the opportunity to offer "aid" to it's neighbour Kolnadda in the form of taking cities under Gerandara's military control and repopulating them with the survivors. In the course of this, Gerandara's government declared them Gerandara's territory until the Kolnadda government was able of taking control again - a possibility Gerandara's taking of the capital and disposing of the parliament eliminated.

Myln was also taken by Gerandara, and the abandoned regions of Dyattica. At the start of the the seventh century CE, a marriage of the King of Penzenes into the Gerandara's Royal Family, which was independent of the government following the civil war half a century earlier but still had considerable political weight merged the highly defended city-state into Gerandara, and at the King of Penzenes' encouragement, the nation was renamed, Germanalasia.

End of the Germanalasian Monarchy

King Alexander III died in 1871, without an heir. He had lost public favour due to his suspected insanity and blatant flaunting of the law. Biographers note that he suffered from paranoia, and it is widely believed that it was he who had his siblings' and his siblings' families assassinated. He was known for regularly visited brothels and had many high-status consorts. However, it is believed none of these encounters lead to any illegitimate children and that King Alexander was infertile, a trait shown by his uncle Prince Tobias and some other Royal Family members.

After his death, he was not succeeded by any of the distantly related families that were left with some Royal blood, primarily because public opinion of the Royal Family had reached a point where they might be exiled in a revolt should the throne be filled. The closest potential heirs would have been Rhys Sailbury, the last surviving member of an offshoot of the Royal Family, where King Alexander III's great aunt Princess Odessa I lost her title by marrying a commoner, or Bartholomew Porter, who's great grandfather was accepted to be the illegitimate child of Queen Anne IV.

Royal Anarchy

See also: Royal Anarchy

In the early 1980s, Germanalasians became increasingly suspicious of the military dealings of the large, nearby communist nation of Transcarpathian Lovkia. While neither government acknowledged it, an arms race ensued, and intelligence programmes from both states escalated. It was during the course of this that Germanalasia became more of a police state, and the media was heavily restricted.

Official Insignia of the Royal Anarchy.

The island nation of Bockeklasia, a commercial paradise and mutual ally of the vying countries, worried about the impact to its economy if its two main trading partners went to war. It also did not wish to choose between its two allies who to support. It's leader, the Supreme Lord Protector, sought to hold peace conferences, but the leaders of the other two countries refused to acknowledge their status of cold war. The Bockeklasian leader privately contacted the deputy leaders in their respective governments, and managed to hold a meeting in utter secrecy to discuss the fate of the nations.

Partly because of their uncertainty of the other's armed forces, and partly because both of the deputy leaders aspired to govern their countries, after several such meetings an agreement was made to create, with Bockeklasia acting as initial administrator, a union to unite the three nations and help settle their disputes. The collaboration was to be called Royal Anarchy.

No press releases were filed, nor any information made available to the public until 1984, when the Germanalasia Alpha Minister of the time, Michael Ruaidri, resigned "for medical reasons", often believed to have been encouraged by Deputy-Alpha Minister Duncan Friedike, on the 10 April. The Transcarpathian Lovkian ruler Karlyon Centurii died of suspected food poisoning two days earlier - the events may have been related.

The relevant successors of each leader ascended to their relevant positions, and immediately backed Bockeklasia's proposition of the union (that had, in fact, all been decided upon earlier), and offered the hand of friendship to each other. Both nations contributed greatly, with money, resources and manpower, to the creation of Royal Anarchy, RA, as "a sign of good faith".

Bockeklasia's leader had been contacted four weeks before anything about the union became public by a young, former general in Germanalasia's military, with the knowledge of a considerable amount of the RA Collaboration project, heavily classified material. The Supreme Lord Protector dared not have the man imprisoned as he refused to reveal his sources. The man, a Mr M B Findlaich, was appointed to be the head of the RA to prevent him leaking any information.

Findlaich proved to be a capable, if behind-the-scenes, leader. Several RA departments were set up, and a standing armed section of the Royal Anarchy was recruited. Special levels of diplomatic immunity were given to the employees of the Royal Anarchy group, and, coinciding with the slip into greater levels of totalitarianism for Germanalasia, RA personal became above the governments of the constituent nations, a law to themselves holding the entire collaboration in a stranglehold.

Resistance efforts began by several terrorist organisations, and several speculated incidents of a supposed Royal Anarchy Secret Police department intervening with what was believed to be terrorist traffic were rumoured to have occurred.

The RA Ministry of Government Propaganda had public speaker systems installed in numerous cities of constituent nations to broadcast nationalistic messages, displayed pro-government posters throughout the states, and established The Five-Edged Star, a regional newspaper, to promote RA policy.

The Loss of Royal Anarchy Control

The increasingly totalitarian and oppressive style of Royal Anarchy came to a head in mid-2006. The terrorist organisation The Home Guard, stationed in Germanalasia's capital of Beranostra, lead an operation to assassinate several high-status members of RA on their way to The Government Building. While the convey was intercepted, it was revealed to be a decoy, and The Home Guard tried to fall back on their reserve plan, to storm the government building via its loading bay in an articulated lorry, supposedly carrying food stocks for the banquet held in honour of the RA ministers that evening.

Royal Anarchy had intended to use the arrival of the RA personnel in the government building as a decoy itself, and stormed The Home Guard's primary weaponry storage area, the location of which they had established by tracking conveys of weapons they had deliberately let through. In the ensuing battle, the team which had attempted to intercept the RA ministers seized the opportunity and, with equipment from their second, reserve store, broke into The Government Building themselves.

The battle at the first store spilled out onto the street, and a great amount of damage was inflicted on nearby buildings. When Alpha Minister Friedike was told of the conflict between Royal Anarchy forces and the unidentified men, he confronted his guests, requiring to know why he hadn't been informed of this operation, and why he his permission wasn't required. The RA personnel, one believed to be a General of some description, realised that the operation to put down the section of the terrorist unit was not going to plan, and declared a state of Marshall Law. When they resisted, the Alpha Minister and several of his Sub-Ministers were shot.

The order was given for the regular Germanalasia standing army to converge in the capital, but The Home Guard members who infiltrated the building prevented the message being sent. Further reinforcements from Royal Anarchy HQ were successfully called, however.

During the battle outside of the HQ, a Home Guard member was killed in a stolen SAM truck, and as he died accidentally fired the entire battery into The Government Building. The massive central tower, which made it one of the tallest buildings in Germanalasia, the tallest in the capital, crashed down in an avalanche of steel and glass. The RA personnel died almost instantly, and only a few of The Home Guard recovered. Few government personnel were in the building at the time.

As RA forces converged on Germanalasia, the Administrative Centre in Transcarpathian Lovkia of the RA was attacked by the local branch of The Home Guard. The entirety of the communist nation fell into civil war a few days later.

When the RA troops arrived, the majority of The Home Guard had gone into hiding. Smuggled in equipment was confiscated, but before the government could be fully reinstated, all available units were called to Bockeklasia in emergency, for another terrorist organisation had taken control of one of their nuclear missile silos.

Although the nuclear weapons were never fired, Bockeklasia, too, fell into civil war. Germanalasia, the only of the three constituent nations to maintain a large army outside of the Royal Anarchy were left to re-establish their government on their own, RA completely dissolved.

Post-Royal Anarchy

To indicate a new, reformed face of the Germanalasian government, the Royal Anarchy insignia was replaced with this emblem to signify government office.

After several months of a national chaos that some predicted would plunge the nation into a massive civil war, a strict Marshall Law controlled by the Germanalasian Army put every city under a curfew, beginning at eight forty five in the evenings, and ending at six o'clock in the mornings (except in the capital, where the curfew began at seven thirty); and heavily armed patrols eliminated various riot groups and looters - often by force.

Technicians and scientists of the Germanalasian Government were drafted in en masse to help to re-establish order. RA technologies - including the public information loudspeaker systems and the navigation satellites - were reworked and control over them was re-established, classified information on new RA technologies in development were collated, and sleeping projects restarted.

Most of the Government ministers and departmental heads who had survived The Home Guard's strike on Beranostra were protected by the army while they grappled to regain order. By December, the country was in a controlled enough state to reinstate the Government and pass over full law enforcement to the Police Force, which had been working closely with the military.

Former head of the RA M. B. Findlaich had re-assumed his old rank of General in the Germanalasian Army in order to help secure the country, and when it came to electing the new Alpha Minister, he was almost universally accepted by the Cabinets. While this may seem an unusual choice, he had distinguished himself as a more than capable leader in settling the country, and the excellent connections that had established him as head of the Royal Anarchy still held weight.

Curiously, those few Cabinet members who disapproved of his acquisition of the position have all since retired or resigned in order to "spend more time at home" or "for confidential, medical reasons".

Government

The Germanalasian government is stationed in the capital of Beranostra. Lead by the Cabinet, the government passes all laws and authorises all government appointments and diplomatic messages from the capital.

The Government Building

The current government seal depicts a stylised icon of The Government Building.

The Government Building in central Beranostra is one of the most recognised sites in the city. Colloquially called The Diamond by the locals after the catchphrase from the marketing campaign following the announcement of its construction, the huge glass-and-steel structure was built over three years between 1979 and 1982.

The building consists of eight floors spanning the length of the building and three towers, two smaller ones at either end and a taller tower in the centre. The shorter towers are a further thirty floors high, in addition to the eight floors below, and the main tower spans fifty nine floors, in addition to the eight floors below.

The shorter towers hold two large bells that are rung against the large clock in the central tower. The clock face is made from white-tinted glass, and the floors behind it are fully functional. The Government Building is the tallest building in Beranostra - in fact, a law was enacted to prohibit any structures within one hundred feet of the height of The Diamond being constructed.

This law had to be rewritten in order for repairs to the central tower following the destruction of a considerable part of this by The Home Guard to be carried out. The rewritten law does not actually prohibit the building of such constructions, but requires planning permission from The Cabinet.

The Cabinets

The Cabinet is the council of the fifteen most senior and/or influential Ministers of various government departments as chosen by the Alpha Minister. The primary purpose of Cabinet meetings is to share knowledge of the member's various departments and advise the Alpha Minister on international issues.

Additionally, there is the Extended Cabinet. These make up all the Department Ministers who are not part of the main Cabinet. They do not have the same Cabinet wages or privileges of the main Cabinet, and can only sit in on a Cabinet meeting by invitation.

The Core Cabinet consists of the two most important members of the Cabinet in addition to the Alpha Minister. As it stands, and as it has been for recent years, these are the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Cabinet Meetings occur on the seventeenth floor of the central tower of The Government Building (also known as CT-9, as it is the ninth floor of the central tower exclusively) in a specially designated meeting room. Only Cabinet members and Extended Cabinet members with invitation's can enter, and only after the Core Cabinet have taken their place. The room is soundproofed with an armoured door, reinforced walls, and no windows. These measures are designed to ensure the secrecy of the meeting.

Administrational Centres

Each major city in Germanalasia has its own Administrational Centre which are designed to "direct conduct within their Administrational Zone in order to follow the laws as past by the government" (Charter of Administrational Centres, 1865). Administrational Centres cannot revoke or pass laws, and can only interpret laws "within reason" for their Admin Zone.

List of Active Administrational Centres
City Head of Centre Centre Address
Carpathianside Methuselah A. Heart 5 Hall Rd
Carmaine General Donna Paine 2 March Parade
Dannubay Karen James 4 Marllbonne St
Maleco-on-Klyne Amanda Mandate 34 New Admin Rd
Penzenes Stephen Porterson 1 Council St
Shagoth Darren Curran 1 Council Rd
Terrat-on-Klyne General Kofi Barker 171 GMA Section

To become an Administrational Centre, a city must apply to the government Department for the Monitoring of Administrational Centres in Beranostra directly. They must boast at least three hundred thousand residents, and the Department must acknowledge that they either are more suited for an Administrational Centre than an existing site or that they fill a gap between sites.

The Administrational Zones (abbreviated to Admin Zones) are defined as being "in excess of the city boundary", but there is nothing further specified about this. Administrational Centres have been known to accept this as being various distances from their respective cities in order to make enforcement of certain laws easier, but very rarely has there ever been a case where no Administrational Centre has taken responsibility for an area, and on the few occasions in the past where such a case has happened the government takes responsibility itself.

Culture

Germanalasia has something of a crude class system, with high income inequality separating the high-flying upper class that benefit from the numerous pro-business laws from the low-paid underdogs of the lower class. A healthy middle class does exist, with high levels of literacy, however the difficulty experienced by aspiring entrepreneurs in order to establish themselves in the market makes it quite difficult for citizens to move up this system.

While little money is spent on national educational institutions, numerous schools funded directly from private individuals provide education and qualifications for the middle and upper class pupils. Universities rarely offer scholarships and typically charge high fees, but there is still a healthy uptake on them. However, training programmes involved in the Police Force and the Military careers also endeavour to give members of society marketable skills, which makes moving from the under, lower class to the middle class in one's life time much more frequent than moving from the middle class upwards.

Germanalasian architecture and designs are heavily influenced by the Art Deco movements. Business often take pride in giving their head office and elaborate look, with spires and complex patterns of glass panes, and the designs of their buildings are often used in product branding.

The majority of Germanalasian citizens live in tightly policed cities, in tall stacks of apartment blocks. These range from relatively small facilities to more luxurious, modern apartments closer to the city centres. The stereotype, to which many upper class businessmen conform, is of having a larger, more luxurious and expansive home in the country - which frequently does not correspond to more 'traditional' Germanalasian Art Deco look - supplemented by an inner-city apartment which they use when their work load requires them to remain in the city. This results in many of Germanalasia's more expensive apartments being left empty at any one time.

Ethnic Diversity

Germanalasia is considered broadly ethnically diverse - while no special laws exist to promote the rights of any particular group, the general consensus is that a person's ethnic background does not effect their ability to contribute to the economy.

The 2006 breakdown for ethnic groups, according to government figures, is as follows:

Religion

The government of Germanalasia is devotedly atheist to the point of being antireligionist, and few religious institutions exist in the nation. Churches are heavily taxed, and non-atheist citizens are required to declare their religious stand point on all job applications (although religious beliefs is rarely a cause for dismissal or a refusal of employment).

Despite this, rumours occasionally circulate of religious involvement by certain members of the government. If it is suspected a Cabinet minister's religion has come in the way of their work, they are frequently pressured to step down.

The 2006 breakdown for religious groups, according to government figures, is as follows:

Sport

There are few organised, professional national sports that have much, if any, following. While the Government does not go out of its way to promote sporting pursuits, the long-standing, bourgeois trend of signing up for membership to gymnasiums of various standings result in few major problems from unfitness.

Currency

Main article: Diadem Mark

Germanalasia uses the Diadem Mark (DiM), a system adopted in 547 in Gerandara, the later decimalised in 1981. 1 Diadem Mark = 10 Tenths Diadem = 100 Hundredths Diadem.

Coinage comes in denominations of 1 Hundredth Diadem, 5 Hundredths Diadems, 1 Tenth Diadem, 5 Tenths Diadem, and one, five and ten Diadem Marks. Banknotes come in denominations of 10, 20, 50 and 100 DiM, with some plans to introduce 5 and 500 DiM notes in the future.

Economy

Germanalasia has a highly industrialised economy, exporting a considerable range of products, primarily motorcars and military craft. While the secondary industry is the most dominant, a high number of Germanalasians are employed in uranium mining. The majority of the nation's food is imported, along with large amounts of cosmetics and sanitary products.

Most markets in Germanalasia are dominated by large limited businesses, whereas smaller limited companies, sole-traders, and partnerships have little influence in any market. However, partnerships are becoming more common in Germanalasia's minute healthcare sector, which has expanded slightly in recent years.

The law in Germanalasia is criticised as being written to help the well established, large companies over smaller or newer businesses. The Germanalasian government has adopted many of these policies to attempt to push forward technology - large businesses are more capable of developing new and improved technology due to their larger budgets, they believe, and this should be encouraged to keep Germanalasia competitive on in the international marketplace.

Foreign imports are often subjected to tariffs to help promote growing internal companies.

Germanalasia Aerospace

Main Article: Germanalasia Aerospace

One of the primary suppliers of Germanalasia's large Air Force, Germanalasia Aerospace is a partially government-funded organisation building and developing a wide variety of distinctive and effective military aircraft. While initially their operation was focused on fighter aeroplanes, the acquisition of their primary rival Aeronautical Horizons has lead to much more work on a variety of heavy-artillery Zeppelins. There are several un- or low-armed designs for a private market as well as the armed forces.

Broad Automobiles

Main Article: Broad Automobiles

First established in 1936, Broad Automobiles adopted the assembly-line production system some of their foreign rivals had developed in order to bring the first low cost, economy cars to Germanalasia. In 1966, thirty years after their founding, Broad launched several collections of cars in an attempt to capture different target markets. Their attempt was successful, with the range of sleek, expensive cars becoming something of a status symbol alongside their more affordable cousins.

Broad Automobiles are so named because their motorcars are notably slightly wider and squatter than many foreign competitors - slight, wing-like side extrusions have become a marketing point of many models. Because of their prevalence in the Germanalasian market, the duel-carriage motorways in the country often have slightly wider lanes.