Sicinia Salis

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Sicinia Salis
sicinia_salis.jpg
Flag of Sicinia Salis
Motto: "Nous tirons pour tuer"
See Location
Region Namura
Capital Saint Michele
Official Language(s) Sicinian, Akaeian, Borriad
Leader Premier Adrian Laroux
Population large
Currency coronum or couronne 
NS Sunset XML


National facts

Location

Sicinia Salis is a large, populated nation on the border between Borrados and Akaeia. However, more than 70% of its people live in the narrow strip of land between the White Tooth Mountains and the Gulf of Semantaria. The Northlands are almost entirely empty, with sheep and cattle stations running for thousands of miles across the empty lands. Although there are quite a few cities scattered along the Southern Coast, the three main cities of Sicinia are Saint Michele, Chanaud and Martinique. Sicinia imports most of its crops, preferring small manufacturing and trade to large scale agriculture. What agriculture exists is mainly vineyards and sheep stations, mostly centered around the Salis River System.

The Salis is also the main artery of trade within the nation, with all manner of goods going up and down it. The west bank of the Salis is the West Downs, an area of good farmland recently taken from Akaeia during the Three Day's War. The border of Sicinia now runs along the Western Mountains from the Channel d'Tenedos to the headwaters of the Salis.

History

The area now known as Sicinia Salis was once a territory of Akaeia, with its capital as Sicinium (Now Saint Michele) at the mouth of the river Salis. Beginning the Year of the Rose (979 C.E.), tribes collectively called the Sicinii were forced from the north of what is now Borrados by the advancing Borriads. They crossed the channel east of Chanaud (Then called Caedentereus) and swiftly captured that city. The Akaeians were in the process of a long and bloody war with marauding Laatzenians, and so saw the Sicinii as possible pike fodder. However, diplomacy dissolved into bloodshed, and after less than two generations all land east of the Eastern Range and south of White Tooth Mountains weas under the barbarians' control. But then a strange thing happened: they settled down, repaired the cities, and began living beside their former enemies. In time the two cultures slowly blended into what is now Sicinia Salis.

Akaeia and Sicinia have had a love-hate relationship through the centuries. Constantly fighting, Sicinians found themselves at times fighting beside their foes, such as at the siege of Ma'avar during the Second Crusade against Avalya. At one point Sicinian warlord Anguiever sat on the throne of Akaeia, while Akaeian armies have reached the gates of Saint Michele on more than one occasion.

The most recent conflict before the Three Day's War was the Panselle War (also called the Olmestead Wars) was 33 years earlier, in which both nations fought themselves to a bloody standstill. However, on the seas the Royal Sicinian Navy won total victory over the Southern Akaeian Fleet, the final crushing victory at the battle of Cape Temerine. It was this engagement that shaped the current leaders of Sicinia and set the stage for the end of the monarchy.

The Panselle War had left the people of Sicinia weary and the treasury drained. To complicate matters the King Auguste fell suddenly and strangely ill. Seizing the moment Minister for Trade Henri Rechamp overthrew the King and took power. However, his rule was short-lived, for after Auguste's death his son Reynarde retook the throne. Rechamp was forced to flee into the mountains, while Reynarde began a bloody reign of Terror to hunt out possible enemies.

However, Rechamp partnered with outlawed Admiral Jean Francois de la Martinique and raised an army of dissidents. They met the king's forces at Bas-Armand and won a stunning victory that convinced most Sicinian lords to switch allegiances. The rebels besieged Saint Michele on the first day of the Festival of the Lilies, and by the end of the mont-long celebration had slain Reynarde and were absolute rulers.

With the death of the aged Admiral Jean Francois de la Martinique his lieutenant and important statesman Comte Peter du Chanaud became Premier and with the discovery of new lands in the East promised to be one the most successful leaders of Sicinia. He lived up to this promise, bringing a new era of peace and prosperity to Sicinia. However, a scandal involving Sicinian support for Eskinantine rebels in Akaeia forced the Comte to resign as Premier, his place taken by anti-Akaeian radical Adrian Laroux.

Government

Sicinia Salis might be termed a federated feudalistsociety. The head of government was traditonally the king, and the returned Prince Joseph is considered to be the ceremonial Head of State. The head of government is the Premier, a position appointed by the Parliament and the Congress of Lords that holds great executive power. The two legislative houses. the Parliament and the Congress of Lords, exist as well. The Parliament is populated with elected and self-appointed representatives from the Common Lands and the local lord from the County Lands, while the Congress of Lords is exclusively the latter.

Political Divisions

Even though the king was overthrown, the lords already in place were too great a force to be overcome, and so they were incorporated into the local governments. The nation traditionally is divided into county land and common land, with county land being held by a lord and common land controlled directly by the state. It is from the common land that Sicinia's armies are taken, though most major lords are required to levy troops in times of war. The county land is usually centered around towns and cities, with the rank of the lord equivalent to the proportional stature of his town. A duchy is a large area of land, an effective city-state, ruled by a Duc. A demesne is smaller, though still mostly self-sustaining, and are controlled by Comtes. The smallest, baronies, are usually a town and several satellite villages, with a large amount of rural space. (Note: a fourth class, baronees, also exists, but these are mostly found on borders , almost always a border that cannot be properly defended by the State or County army. baronees are essentially non-government military garrisons, and are ruled by baronets)

The list of duchies, demesnes, and baronies follows:

Principality of the West Downs (Percy Escheane, Commodore)


Sicinian Popular Political Practices

Of all the Sicinian government, the only branch that could be considered democratic or popularly reporesentative is the Parliament, though several differences make it unique from other democratic processes in Namura.

The Sicinian Parliament contains four hundred seats, though the number of delegates present can range from a low of 180 and a overpacked 1200. There are no official requirements to be a delegate of Parliament other than being a native Sicinian, and even this is not always the case. However, the process for becoming a delegate requires influence, money, or both.

There are no such things as elections in Sicinia, but instead a process called 'listing'. A prospective candidate must, to achieve a seat, collect at least 10,000 signatures; any 10,000. However, seating is based on the total number of signatures, and those who have the highest number will be seated, forcing candidates and incumbents to try to accumulate as many signatures as possible. Listing is not a one-time occurrence, for a person may add or remove a signature from a delegate's list at any time. The official lists are posted outside the Parliament building in Saint Michele, but there are copies of the list in every city and major town and lists for local candidates everywhere else, giving people full access to view their choices and adjust them accordingly. The challenges posed by those requirements result in several different methods for obtaining that number.

Lords, who are allowed to sit in Parliament as well as the Congress of Lords, frequently require their tenants to list their names along with paying the rent. Ohers use debts owed them by other lords to bring in more signatures from that lord's tenants. While these tactics are generally successful in rural County lands, they are faced with difficulties in more developed and urban areas, where most of the residents are freemen and private owners.

These areas of freemen, along with the Common lands, spawn groups other delegates from non-aristocratic landowners, wealthy merchants and industrialists, and even a good number of popular radicals and idealists. However, the people are fickle and competition is fierce, so in an attempt to secure their own lists more signatures while removing singatures from their opponents', many candidates and incumbents resort to the large and well-developed trade of blacklining.

Blackliners are professional persuaders, inciters, and crowd manipulators. They are so called because when a name is stricken from a list it is crossed out with a black line. A candidate will pay an upfront fee to a blackliner, with additional money for each name removed from an opponent's list or added to theirs. The skilled blackliner will use any means at his disposal, working in close coordination with a team of assistants mingled in with the crowd to excite people and manipulate them in the desired manner. It is in its way a risky profession, because should the blackliner let the crowd go too far and turn into a mob, he could be paving himself a short road to the gallows. However, most are adept at their trade and use many of the same tactics as used by Army recruiters attempting to enlist recruits. Indeed, many blackliners are also involved in the crimping trade, or the private recruitment of soldiers who then sold to the army for profit.

While many scorn the blackine r- 'mobmaker' is another of their nicknames-- no politician ever refuses to use their services, although some politicians prefer to do the work on their own, in a process called campaigning. The means are so similar to blacklining as to at times be indistinguishable, to the point that some listers, or voters as they are known elsewhere, were unaware that the person atop the soapbox speaking was in fact the candidate and not a blackliner.

Regions

Sicinia Salis is crisscrossed by mountains and rivers, clearly dividing the country into several distinct regions.

The northern and southern peoples of Sicinia are very separate in culture, beliefs, looks and appearance, so much that they might have been separate nations.

The two sections can be split roughly at the Green Bend, the curve of the River Salis nearby Herakleia. Northern Sicinians are of pale skin and fair complexion. This can be traced to intermarriage with native Akaeians and especially Laatzenians, to the point that in some isolated northern reaches locals speak a dialect almost identical to Middle Laatzen. These Sicinians are scorned by their coastal brethren, being seen as provincial, dull, and backward. A typical derogatory term for Northerners is "Akaeian," as they are seen to have too much in common with their neighbors over the border. If it were not for the excellent soldiers the regions produce, there would not be a single Northerner of note outside the North.

Coastal Sicinians, from the lowliest labourer to most powerful aristocrat, see themselves as true Sicinians. Next to the Scriptures, the most prized document in a Southern Sicinian's possession is a family tree tracing the lineage of the line back to someone who killed Akaeians at some point. Coastal Sicinians are darker then their northern brethren, being more olive of complexion with dark hair. A more traditional influence from the Southern Continent is visible, along with many Akaeian customs. What is fashionable in Akaeia is fashionable Sicinia. Borrados is a strong presence in Sicinia, especially County Chanaud, where to function one must learn both Sicinian and T'losh.

Although the two groups think very little of the other, there has yet to be violence between the two groups. It seems that muttered jokes and crude comments will continue, but war will never come about so long as Akaeia is along the border.

Customs

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