Sidestreamer

Sidestreamer

Flag of Sidestreamer
Motto: God, Money and Arms!
[1]
Region	Imperialis
Capital	The Altogether
Official Language(s)	Latin
Leader	Maximus IV
Population	approx. 1,500,000,000
Currency	1 Torrent=100 streams
NS Sunset XML

Map of Sidestreamer

Overview

The Corporate Christian Empire of Sidestreamer, led by the Emperor Maximus IV, is a temperate island nation that recently left Gatesville to join the splinter group that would be known as The Imperium, and shortly afterward became the Lord Commandant of the Empire. Noted for its religious culture and Catholic churches that appear like giant vases within its capital's Emberlight District, Sidestreamer is also the headquarters for the controversial Moral Alliance, the former UN delegate for the now-defunct Militaristic Legions and Plans, and the founder of the former Gatesville franchise of Balmora Gatesville. The empire adopted a strict Catholic doctorine under which it rules, and the religious ferver of the government is portrayed both through the establishment of the Moral Alliance (where St. Jude City native Archbishop Veracos presides as Chairman and representative for the Empire) and through its previous activism in the United Nations, before the Gatesville era.

(Note: As of January 31, 2006, Sidestreamer has vanshied from existence in Nationstates and has instead taken residence in ogame.)

Government

The current government is considered an authoritarian empire entrenched in a laissez faire capitalist economy, yet also holds some resemblence to a federal republic in its structure and use of cabinets and governmental departments. Provincial governors and local mayors are elected by the public, but the Emperor, the Papacy, and the Catholic church can overturn such elections at whim. Such intervention by the church, however, is infrequent. The islands that comprise Sidestreamer are divided into seven provinces, each ruled by an elected provincial governor. Each governor appoints an ambassador to represent the provincial interests inside The Altogether, and the Secretary of Provincial Affairs serves as a laison between these ambassadors and the Emperor's inner circle of advisers and "cabinet" members.

Provinces

Jonesland

A sparsely populated forest area on the north-eastern part of Sidestreamer, Jonesland accounts for 80 percent of Sidestreamer's forest acerage. The giant Malquota trees, a rare hardwood evergreen that could grow to heights greater than 150 meters and live for 4,000 years, grow within Jonesland's southern forest. During the Holy Inquisition, Jarrod Jones, a fur merchant and namesake of the province, established the Jones Shining Sea Trade Company at the site of what would later become the provincial capital, Easter Bay. Located at the northern shore of Jonesland and the southern rim of its namesake strait, it remains the only major metropolis in the province, and while the fur trade has since diminished, it still remains a vital center for trade in wood products and meat processing, and is a major industrial hub for northeastern Sidestreamer.

Average January low is 1.5 degrees Celsius. Average June high is 21.0 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is 119cm.

Provincial Capital - Easter Bay
Highest Elevation - Hilt's Forest--979 ft. above sea level
Lowest Elevation - Irvine Spring--24 ft. below sea level

Isle of Jenova

Detatched from the Sidestream mainland, the perdominantly Jewish and heavily populated Isle of Jenova, northeast of the province of Vanhala and due north of Jonesland, remains the only province that has not unconditionally accepted the rule of the Catholic Empire under the leadership of Maximus IV. While tensions have relaxed due to current international pressures (particularly the previous wars against Coreys Land and Tocrowkia), the Isle of Jenova is considered a renegade province, with a strong separatist movement rooting from the Belharva District.

Average January low is 1.9 degrees Celsius. Average June high is 21.2 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is 108cm.

Provincial Capital - Kippur's Square
Highest Elevation - Samuel's Peak--4,693 ft. above sea level
Lowest Elevation - Shining Sea--sea level

Saint Jude

Formerly called "The Sterling Shore," the central and south-western shore of the Sidestream mainland is named after Saint Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of desperate situations, forgotten and impossible causes, hospital workers and hospitals. During the province's incorporation in the old republic, the area surrounding modern-day St. Jude City and Iversdale suffered a severe typhoid fever epidemic, which claimed an estimated 300,000 lives at the height of the epidemic in 1844. Since the ordeal, a religious revival movement overtook the area, and a growing group of Catholic converts elected Bishop Thomas as their provincial leader. Under Thomas, the Catholic Saint Jude became their patron saint, in reverence of the hardships caused by the epidemic, and the underpinnings for the Holy Inquisition were set in modern day Iversdale as a priest, pondering the cause of the epidemic, blamed its onset on the "satanic fairy-worshipping" of the Newhardt cult. After the Holy Inquisition, the patron Saint Jude became the Sterling Shore's new namesake.

Provincial Capital - Bellamy
Highest Elevation - Faschia Township--1,023 ft. above sea level
Lowest Elevation - Sterling Sea--sea level

Papalia

Papalia is located in the south-central portion of the mainland and comprises the Capital Valley, Sour Shores, Cisten Plains and the Neuse Highlands, being bordered to the west by the Montif Ridge. The Capital Valley in the north-west part of the province and the Neuse Highlands comprise the third most heavily urbanized region in the nation, while the Cisten Plains further down the Papal River and the Sour Shores are more agrarian in nature and organization, yet Canteberry, at the mouth of the Papal River and the northern extremity of South Bay, remains a mid-size urban center with a large tourism industry. Sidestreamer's most desired pasture lands are located near the extensive creek systems that cross the plains and the highlands through the Capital Valley, south of The Altogether.
The Altogether is located at the northern end of the valley, while Vastavia--the provincial capital of Papalia--is 50 miles Southeast, situated within the edge of the Neuse Highlands.
The climate within the Capital Valley and Neuse Highlands is temperate, with the average January low temperature at 3.8 degrees Celsius and the average June high at 24.3 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is 134cm.

For the Sour Coast and southern Papalia, the average January low is 4.5 degrees Celsius and the average June high is 25.5 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is 120cm.

Provincial Capital - Vastavia
Highest Elevation - Mt. Jericho--7,238 ft. above sea level
Lowest Elevation - Canteberry--5 ft. below sea level

Shraver Shores

The entire eastern shore of the mainland is named after Preston Shraver, a famed poet during the time of the old republic. Along the southeastern shore lies Orca Bay, a major source for trout, clams and other commercially viable fish as well as the location of the Orca Bay Naval Port.
Freehold, Sidestreamer's second-largest city east of the Montif Ridge (after the Altogether), the heart of the second-largest metropolitan area, and a principal commercial and industrial hub, is located along the southern tip of the Freehold Peninsula, lining the north and east shore of Orca Bay. While having a well-developed financial market, Freehold is best known as a major automobile-manufacturing center, containing the headquarters of all 4 major automobile manufacturers and containing the plurality (40 percent) of Sidestreamer's auto manufacturing operations.
Shraver City, 60 miles north of Freehold, houses the famed Orca Bay Naval Port and numerous rifle-manufacturing plants.

Throughout Shraver Shores, the average January low is 4.9 degrees Celsius and the average June high is 26.0 degrees Celsius. Average yearly rainfall is 118cm.

Provincial Capital - Shraver City
Highest Point - Freehold Municipal Sanitary Landfill--945 ft. above sea level
Lowest Point - Shining Sea--sea level

Vanhalla

(under construction) The north-western province of Vanhalla is a relatively cold, grassy plain with a densely-populated shore near the Isle of Jenova. The southern interior hosts a thriving cattle and dairy industry, while the northern shore is heavily industrialized. The Northampton/Bhrama metropolitan area, which has a noted Jewish demographic and has been sometimes referred to as "West Jenova," houses the historic Myshan Naval Yard, the site of the Battle of the Long Plancks and a symbolic victory for the Catholic invaders of Sidestreamer during the Holy Inquistion. While the local Jewish population treats it with lukewarm enthusiasm at best, tourists from the rest of Sidestreamer's mainland visit the area during the week of October 17 in celebration of the key battle with a yearly display of vintage sea vessels.

Provincial Capital - Perdition
Highest Point - Travesty's Peak--3,842 ft. above sea level
Lowest Point - Northern Sea--sea level

History

(under construction) Ironically, the name "Sidestreamer" derives from the anti-establishment mentality of Gale Newhardt, the founder of the Sidestream Republic that was the predecessor to what became, after years of civil uprisings and counter-revolutions, the Holy Empire of Sidestreamer. Showing a disdain for what he referred to as "the mudane mainstream cultural standards" of his native Christian society, Newhardt lead a new-age theist cult to a large, uncharted island at approximately 1700 A.D. to establish "The Sidestream."

Little is known about this cult as its texts and scriptures were destroyed by the Holy Inquisition of Cleric Mario Limbardi, who would later become Emperor Maximus I in 1907.

Since the reign of Maximus I, the new government became increasingly conservative and Catholic in its composition. By the time the current emperor Anthony Fitzgerald ascented as Maximus IV, 98 years after the Holy Inquisition, the Catholic tendencies have become so prevalent that Latin became the official language of the Empire, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Sidestream citizens are fluent only with the English language.

Additional Resources

(under construction)

Sidestreamer's World Factbook

Sidestreamer creates the Moral Alliance