Sarcanza

Sarcanza is a province of The Golden Throne. Its capital city is Marsa Bruth and the province's population in M.C. 2031 was 460 million, according to that year's census record. It formally entered the imperial federation at the moment of its founding in M.C. 2004 and has remained so since, despite a suppressed revolt during the War of Golden Succession. Since the war's conclusion, Sarcanza has become part of a growing commercial port infrastructure connected to Macabea, dominating mercantile trade in central Greater Dienstad.

Government

The provincial government of Sarcanza is composed of three branches: executive and legislative, as well as a judicial branch subordinate to the imperial justice system.

The executive branch is led by that Althatul, a three-member council responsible for signing legislation into law. The Althatul also holds authority over the Sarcanzan Iilmanjadeen, a paramilitary law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over unincorporated provincial territory and the capital city of Marsa Bruth. Each member of the Althatul holds a six-year term and cannot be reelected. Elections are held every two years, each election focused on replacing one seat. The Althatul as a body holds veto and line-veto rights.

The Maja Alshajal (People's Council) and Mutamar Aldijar form the legislative branch. The Maja Alshajal is composed of 51 elected representatives known as Bayalis, while the Mutamar Aldijar is made up of 18 shayk. Only the Mutamar Aldijar holds the authority to overturn legislative vetos with a two-thirds majority vote. Both chambers can propose legislation and all proposals must first pass the Maja Alshajal, with a majority vote, before being voted on in the Mutamar Aldijar for passage to the Althatul.

Vote trading is legal within and between chambers of the legislature.

Administration

Sarcanza is subdivided into 9 muntaqas. These include four coastal and five interior mutaqas. Each contributes two shayk to the Mutamar Aldijar, while contribution to the Maja Alshajal is proportional to population.

Because the coastal mutaqas have the largest populations, they dominate politics in the Maja Alshajal. On the other hand, because the interior mutaqas contribute more representatives to the Matamar Aldijar, they can use this chamber to block any legislation counter to the best interests of the mountain tribes. This system has brought resentment from the coastal populations, especially as they cotinue to grow. However, tax and fiscal distribution legislation that benefits the mountain populations has also helped mitigate some of the inequality created by the economic boom along the coast.

The post-war period is the most stable and prosperous in the province's history.

History

Antiquity

The area of Sarcanza has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with a strong sedentary pastoral lifestyle developing in the foothills of the northern Sarcanzan mountains as early as the BMC 19th century. Fishing and trading communities, oftentimes composed of foreign colonists from the western port cities, thrived at intermittent points and established cities like Ben Harab, Sidi Azur, and Filandorij. By the BMC 11th century, most of these communities had built strong walls. Despite a recorded civilizational disaster sometime in the BMC 10th and 9th centuries, many of these sites revived in the subsequent centuries and new towns were founded.

However, the heart of indigenous Sarcanza has always lived in the foothills of the northern Zarbian mountains. The land is tough and arid, making it particularly bad for agriculture. The hill tribes have long relied on the grasslands of the small coastal plains to feed their livestock.

Frequent raiding and fighting between the coastal and hill communities was a persistent feature of life throughout antiquity. Improved defensive measures in the towns necessitated political and military improvements among the hill peoples, leading first to the development of petty chieftains, then of petty kings and other nobility. The first recorded state in what is today Sarcanza is the Kingdom of Mirbah, which was founded by Kalifata Malik jal-Hadid in BMC 247.

In BMC 162, much of coastal Sarcanza fell under the sway of the Roik of Díenstad. Between BMC 162–149, a series of bloody skirmishes took place between Díenstadi and indigenous military forces. The conflict was eventually settled with a resolution to respect the hill peoples' grazing rights on coastal grasslands, although the seasonal migration of herders and herds alike was regulated under the watchful eye of the army. A long period of peace persisted until the MC 4th century, during which the Dienstadi navy was incapable of defending the Sarcanzan coast from raids originating from across the sea, within the interior, and even from across the mountains. Dienstadi control over the trading and fishing towns slowly dissipated into the eartly MC 5th century, after which it ceased permanently.

First Empire of the Golden Throne

Ruins of an ancient coastal fortress on the northwestern Sarcanzan coast.

In the MC 9th century, much of the area between the coast and the mountains came under the control of Fatih bol-Shakir. He was proclaimed Kalifata by a divine collegiate composed of high priests of Fatuuma, Alii Orbana, Hajadmali, and Ras, and dozens of other minor gods and godesses, in MC 871. His dynasty ruled for three generations, until the kingdom dissolved in MC 907.

In MC 931, Zaahid gyl-Khalili was proclaimed Kalifata and led a large army out of the mountains and into the lush valleys of the western fiefdoms and principalities. Order to the west had broken down during the long wars between the local warlords and the all-conquering Frommian armies that carved out the Empire of the Golen Throne. The Kalifataj-alal of Qadehla, as gyl-Khalili's kingdom became to be known, prospered at first thanks to the loot brought back from the warzone around the city of Sidi Rezegh. The war also meant that the lands of Qadehla were relatively free from outside raiding and invasions. The Kalifataj-alal prospered for five generations, until MC 1014.

By MC 980, Frommian cavalry armies were raiding into the coastal desert plains of the northeastern frontier, as well as into the central continent rainforests south of the northern Zarbian mountains. By this time Frommian rule was consolidated in the west, the territory of what today are known as the core provinces, aside from Sarcanza, having been formed into the Empire of the Golden Throne. A full fledge invasion of the coastal plains east of Sidi Rezegh was launched in MC 1009, the war ending six years later with the conquest of the territory. The first known record of the use of the name Sarcanza to name the far eastern imperial territory was in MC 1079, in an extant letter from the imperial governor Iwan Verhagen to Radiant Jochum II. Into the MC 12th century, Sarcanza as the official imperial name for the territory became established and is well recorded in the primary sources and archeological record.

Fatja of bal-Haran

A general rebellion broke out in MC 1217 over a dispute on pastoral rights to the coastal grasslands, after the imperial territorial capital at Marsa Bruth attempted to restrict the range of pastoral migration. After initial outbreaks of violence in the inland towns that spread to the coastal cities, a fatja—holy war—was issued by Kalif Miqdaad bal-Haran.

However, the rebellion's forces were poorly organized and there were severe internal disagreements between the tribal authorities over the direction of the war. The rebellion was put down by MC 1224.

Fatja of bel-Lasak

In MC 1247, a second fatja was issued against the Empire of the Golden Thorne, this time by Kalif Muhadma bel-Lasak. Bel-Lasak had served in the imperial army and had campaigned in the vast central jungle and the endless southern steppes, rising to the rank of cavalry officer and leading a unit of Sarcanzan horsemen. His military experience and knowledge for matters of war allowed bel-Lasak to quickly consolidate power in the territory's highlands, bringing all the foothill towns to his side in an effort to expel imperial garrisons from their coastal forts.

In MC 1249, after an eighteen-month siege, bel-Lasak took Marsa Bruth, slaughtered thousands of its inhabitants, and sold the rest into slavery. The city itself was sacked and set on fire. For this achievement, he was given a coveted priesthood of Lusaib. In 1250, after a two-month siege, bel-Lasak took the fortress town of Wadi Madarq. He took Wadi Jebilah and its fortress, which sat above the fishing town atop a height which overlooked the main route through a valley leading into the rolling hills of Sidi Rezegh. With Wadi Jebilah in his hands, bel-Lasak could intercept an imperial army before it entered into the territory. He proceeded to mop up the imperial garrisons throughout the territorities and established the Kalifataj-alal of Khamaz.

In MC 1251 and 1252, bel-Lasak led raiding parties into Sidi Rezegh. In the latter year, he was given a priesthood for Fatuuma and the next for Alii Orbana. That year, MC 1253, Kalif bel-Lasak launched an invasion of the Principality of Kozechia, to the north of Sarcanza. The principalities' lands were put to waste and its capital, the fortress town of Kopel, besieged, taken, and razed.

After raiding Kozechia again in 1254 and 1255, bel-Lasak was surprised by a sudden advance on the fortress at Wadi Jebilah. Imperial forces marched by land, but also landed by sea, to assault the fortress on both sides. The garrison was finally defeated and slaughtered after an eight-day siege of the castle keep.

Using the opening of the valley gates into Sarcanza to their immediate advantage, an imperial army marched into the territory under the command of Rid Jelle do Veldpape. Bel-Lasak met the enemy on the open fields on a site 11 kilometers from Marsa Bruth on 15 May 1256 and was defeated after an eleven-hour battle that lasted well into to the evening.

Both armies survived the engagement largely intact, despite the long struggle. They met again four weeks later, at Dibbirah. Again, bel-Lasak was defeated and forced to withdraw from the field, but the two armies remained largely intact despite heavy losses. Do Veldpape pursued bel-Lasak into the Sarcanzan interior, where the kalif planned to give battle again, this time on much more favorable ground. The two armies pitched camp outside the town of Khasarin in preperation for battle on the next day.

That night, bel-Lasak and do Veldpape met between the two camps in complete secrecy, apart from the few picked men they had both brought for guards. The two men agreed to end the war in exchange for a submission on bel-Lasak's part to Emperor Mechiel II. For his part, bel-Lasak retained his overlordship of the Sarcanzan territory as hertog, or duke.

High Imperial

Inner Sarcanza remained on the margin of the momentous centuries between MC 1300–1700, while the coast benefited from from newly discovered to rapidly converging worlds across the seas.

Autonomy afforded the hilltop lords to tax commercial activity in the port cities. It also invited long periods of instability when no one lord was capable of submitting the rest. Fighting between the tribes and clans of the foothills remained frequent and raiding into the coastal plains common. Marsa Bruth was besieged and sacked for a second and third time in MC 1471 and 1543. The first, by a bandit army. The second, by the rebellious Masaf Arif Corakaskan, who sought to embarass his rival, Kalif Usum ben-Natal.

Sarcanza ultimately benefited little, less than any other corner of the empire, of the revolutions in science, society, and economics that swept the world during those centuries. By the turn of the 18th century, most Sarcanzans lived as they did 400 years before.

Late Imperial

Sarcanzans remained largely out of the main events concerning the First Empire of the Golden Throne during the MC 19th century. Its autonomy, as well as distance from the imperial capital in Beda Fromm, allowed the territory to slip out of the imperial orbit by MC 1840. As such, Sarcanza was one of the first core appendages of the empire to breakaway.

Kríerstat Epok

Sidi Rezegh occupied the various tribes and cities that made up the stretch of land east of this republic and north of the Zarbian mountains in 1914. Administration of the territory as a single entity officially ended with the dissolution of the First Empire in 1898 and governance devolved down to dozens of small councils, city governments, and hill tribes. The occupation was initially opposed by indigenous rebels under the command of Kalif Thaamir bal-Ghanem, a priest of Alii Orbana from the vibrant fishing town of Thadmuk. Under bal-Ghanem, Sarcanzan militants known as Iilmanjadeen (Army of Faith) waged an ongoing and initially successful guerrilla war against overstretched Rezeghian occupation forces. The Rezeghian army eventually snuffed bal-Ghanem's forces out of the coastal zones and into the hills, culminating with the Wadijh operation of 1926 that permanently broke bal-Ghanem influence over the populous areas of the territory. Although sporadic fighting and ongoing terrorist attacks continued into the 1970s, the war against Rezeghian occupation of Sarcanza officially ended in 1927 with the signing of the Treaty of Erbibayr.

Administration of Sarcanza peacefully transitioned to the Kingdom of Dienstad in 1974, when the city of Sidi Rezegh was occupied by the Dienstadi Ejermakt. In 1979, a revolt broke out in response to the arrest and execution of Kalif Wisaam gyl-Mannan, a renown priest of Fatuuma and loud advocate for Sarcanzan independence under indigenous rule. In response to terrorist attacks in Macabea, Sidi Rezegh, and other cities of the kingdom, Dienstad surged its forces in the territory from an initial garrison of just 4,000 soldiers in 1979 to a peak force of 200,000 soldiers in 1984. By 1989, Dienstadi military forces had reduced down to 40,000, and the 'Rebellion of gyl-Mannan' ended in 1994 with the Treaty of Habafal.

By the new millenium, parts of Sarcanza had undergone tremendous change. Cities like the administrative capital of Marsa Bruth, as well as a number of urbanities along the coast, atracted colonists from Dienstad, Weigar, and Sidi Rezegh, as well as retired military personnel awarded land allotments at the 'wild' margins of the kingdom.

Large parts of the interior remained underdeveloped and although taxes were collected, the hill tribes continued to exist largely outside of the direct influence of either the royal government in Macabea or the territorial authority in Marsa Bruth. In exchange for peace, this arrangement was tolerated.

Twenty-First Century

The Treaty of Habafal held until 2016 and ended with the outbreak of the War of Golden Succession. The transition of royal to imperial government went largely unnoticed in Sarcanza, despite the nominally momentous change of status from mere territory to full-fledge core provence of the empire. Although the elevation in administrative status certainly came welcome to the large minority of western colonists, it did not alter the status quo among the hill tribes. These remained effectively autonomous.

Although living standards did improve somewhat in the mountanous and arid interior of Sarcanza, the economy of the coastal townships boomed in the mid- and late 2000s. Marsa Bruth grew from around 17,000 inhabitants in 1930, to 260,000 in 1950, 490,000 in 1990, and 570,000 in 2000. By the outbreak of the rebellion in 2016, Marsa Bruth had 710,000 inhabitants. Other towns and cities experienced a similar, although perhaps not quite as dramatic, pace of growth.

Rebellion, MC 2016–22

The divergence in the pace of growth between the coastal and rural communities provoked resentment. And while the coastal population had grown significantly, so did that of the mountain tribes. With the outbreak of the Weigari rebellion and Heinrik's challenge to the throne, the Iilmanjadeen was mustered by decree of Kalif Hudhaifa bal-Nagi, a priest of Alii Orbana. Because the Ejermacht had stripped its various garrisons across the empire to reinforce the defense of Fedala against the early war Weigari offensive on the imperial capital, when the Iilmanjadeen launched its large offensives against the administrative cities of Marsa Bruth and Prokhorovka in mid-2016, these were underdefended and fell easily.

After the Havenic invasion of Ruska a few weeks later, the central governments capacity to put down the Sarcanzan revolt was effectively neutralized. Fighting continued throughout the province, but the bulk of the armed forces were fighting in the central and southern fronts. A series of amphibious raids on rebel fortifications along the coast between MC 2016–17, culminating with the Siege of Pir-Sar in September MC 2017, led to the eventual reoccupation of Marsa Bruth in February 2018. Prokhorovka was retaken in April, Falluppur and Gal Miroh in July, and Kamyazd in October.

By spring MC 2019, coastal Sarcanza was firmly in imperial control and over the next three years a series of military offensives in the hills methodically reduced the Iilmanjadeen's presence, driving it further into the mountains and eventually into Zarbia. These campaigns resulted in significant destruction of property and loss of civilian life among the indigenous foothill communities.

The Treaty of Pir-Sar, signed in MC 2022, officially renewed Sarcanza's status as a core province of the empire. Fighting in the upper hills continued until 2027, after the annexation of Zarbia into the Golden Throne and the eradication of rebel safehavens in that country.

Post-War Commercial Hub

In the immediate aftermath of the War of Golden Succession, Sarcanza remained under effectively military administration until the official end of wartime emergency status in MC 2022. However, even as soon as early 2020, the Kríermada invested heavily in port infrastructure along the Sarcanzan coast to better distribute the warships of the significantly-sized Kríergrup Macabea. This was deemed a national defense priority after the Stevidian nuclear strike on Macabea harbor in 2018 and so saw willing financial involvement from the imperial government.

The gradually growing military presence revived civilian migration to the coastal cities from the western provinces, as well as from Sarcanza's interior. This migration increased after the Treaty of Pir-Sar, and commercial maritime infrastruture expanded in its wake.

By MC 2031, Sarcanza's commercial ports are highly integrated with the much larger international freight hub of Macabea. The smaller ports in Sarcanza often provide overfill support, allowing Macabea to take on a much larger volume of freight than overwise possible. The Macabea-Marsa Bruth commercial zone is the largest in central Greater Dienstad, through which more than half of the trade between eastern and western Greater Dienstad flows.

Insatiable demand for labor in the coastal cities attracted millions of Sarcanzans from the hill towns down the coastal plains, and by MC 2031 roughly 92 percent of the province's population is urban.

Iilmanjadeen

Iilmanjadeen patrolling the Sarcanzan foothills.

Provinces of the Golden Throne are entitled to a paramilitary organization dedicated to internal security. In Sarcanza, this regional paramilitary force is known as the Iilmanjadeen, taking on the name of the seasonal armies that Sarcanzan religious leaders could muster in the name of their liberty. Allowing the provincial government to maintain the traditional name of its army was an important point during the negotiations over the 2022 Treaty of Pir-Sar.

The Iilmanjadeen is armed to the limit allowed by federal treaty law. It primarily operates as a ground army of roughly 90,000 personnel, composed of three light infantry divisions—with both mechanized and non-mechanized components. Each division is made of six brigades, including two cavalry brigades and four mountain infantry brigade.

Air forces are commanded by a deparment of the Iilmanjadeen, the Quat Jawiya. As by treat, the Quat Jawiya is restricted to utility helicopters, as well as light attack and stealth variants.

The Iilmanjadeen also maintains a fleet of light unmanned and manned littoral combat naval vessels.

Economy

Poppies and Narcotics

Because Sarcanzan soil is so poor and arid, few crops grow in the province. The primary cash crop since time immemorial is the poppy, with about 160,000 hectares of poppy fields currently in cultivation. The crop is grown primarily in the foothills and lower mountains of the Northern Zarbian mountains. And the province is the largest domestic grower of poppy crops after Nicaro. Raw opium has historically been the form that the poppy's harvest has been exported in most signficant numbers, although that has changed entering the 21st century.

Today, Sarcanza has a burgeoning pharmaceutical industry that exports heroin, codeine, morphine, and dozens of other narcotics that are legally distributed and sold throughout the Golden Throne. The province's pharmaceutical manufacturing is regulated primarily at the quality assurance level. It is also one of Sarcanza's most important sources of tax revenue — taxed at the VAT and income levels.

International Maritime Trade

The Golden Throne's most important northern harbor is the city of Macabea, however the aftermath of the nuclear explosion outside the city's harbor toward the end of the War of Golden Succession required the empire to build alternate commercial shipping infrastructure along the coastlines of Sidi Rezegh and Sarcanza. This trend continued well into the decade of the 2020s, despite the reopening of commercial port services in Macabea and adjacent harbors by 2020.

Most significantly, regional and global trade ballooned in the post-war decade, as the Golden Throne took on a greater financial and commercial role within the Greater Dienstadi economic system. Today, most Greater Dienstadi maritime trade passes through the straits separating Ordena from the empire. Since 2028, Macabea has surpassed Beda Fromm as the single-most heavily used commercial maritime port in the country. Because of volume limitations, satellite harbors like Marsa Bruth have prospered in the role of taking overflow and allowing more direct access to parts of the imperial interior, including Zarbia, Monzark, and Sidi Rezegh.

As migrants flock to coastal Sidi Rezegh and Sarcanza, most of these coastal regions have formed a dense urban agglomeration that starts on the Dienstadi peninsula and ends only as one reaches Wadi Madarq. As such, the growing role that Sarcanza has within the imperial trade system means a growing population and a dramatic decade-long urbanization that has completely changed the province demographically, culturally, and socially since the end of the War of Golden Succession.

Tourism

In MC 2030 there were a total of 155 million visitors to Sarcanza. Its beaches are among the most popular in the provinces, as being among the very few with a desert aesthetic. This quality also makes Sarcanza a popular destination for yearly music festivals and other cultural gatherings.

Some 40 percent of transient visitors work in some capacity or another for the commercial shipping industry. An estimated 25 percent of tourists arrive through the Marsa Bruth International Airport, while another 15 percent arrive through the various private cruise companies that sail along the northern imperial shore, or between the Golden Throne and the various northern Greater Dienstadi states — Ordena, Arcaenia, Imbrinium, and Killia in particular. The remainder are distributed among the other smaller regional airports, and also by train, bus, or personal vehicle.

Because of the population boom and the growth in tourism in the post-war period, coastal Sarcanza has developed a vibrant and renown sex industry, as well as gambling, combat blood sports, and regional entertainment.

A significant portion of annual tourism to Sarcanza, estimated at seven percent, visits specifically for the world famous Poppy Tours. Thousands of private 'finqarats,' which are pharmaceutical bussiness of various sizes that operate both farms and manufacturing centers, have opened tours of their facilities. Visitors can learn about "how their heroin is made from seed to bottle, with all transparent and traceable ingredients" — so reads the website headline for el-Tabet Farms.

Transport

The Inter-Territorial 700, also known as the Sidi Rezegh-Gus'líam Highway or IT700, is a major freeway system that primarily runs up the coast and connects the two cities that give it its name. It serves as a major artery for truck-borne container trade from the province's commercial ports to the interior, whether over the mountains into Zarbia or further west into the provinces. Although the highway remains an extremely important component to the province's and empire's economy, its importance has lessened somewhat since the construction of the Fedala-Gus'Líam Highway (IT800).

Sarcanza's state government owns a 15 percent stock in the highway, sharing majority control with Sidi Rezegh (30 percent) and Monzark (10 percent). All three imperial federates exercise their corporate votes as shareholders through the joint Desert Imperial Highway Commission.

Its road system was expanded well into the interior after 2022, connecting every town, village, and hamlet to the IT700 and port cities.

Between 2024–26, the Imperial Bureaucracy financed the construction of high speed rail connecting all of the major port cities of the province with the heartland of the empire. This rail was extended to Gus'Líam, in Monzark, between 2027–28. A high speed rail route was burrowed through the mountains seperating the two countries to facilitate travel south, to Zarbia.

Water Supply

Although Sarcanza has recently invested heavily in coastal water desalinization plants, most of its inhabitants' water needs are met via imported supply. Desalization plants currently provide about 12 percent of the province's water needs, with the goal of reaching 25 percent by 2035.

30 percent of Sarcaza's water is imported from Zarbia, which enjoys almost all the water runoff from the Northern Zarbian mountains. Another 20 percent in imported from Monzark and an equal amount from the other provinces. The remainder of Sarcanza's water comes from carefully managed groundwater supplies.

Over 99 percent of Sarcanzans have access to potable water, with 97 percent of rural areas meeting this standard.

Energy

70 percent of the province's energy needs are met by its 610 nuclear reactors, organized around 176 plants. Around 20 percent of energy meeds are met through solar farms. The remainder, almost exclusively petroleum and natural gas, is imported from Monzark, Guffingford, and Theohuanacu.

Science and technology

The provincial government of Sarcanza invests substantial yearly revenue into the maintanance of a public higher education system. The government also entirely subsidizes the higher education of adults who live in the rural hill and mountain villages. It sees investment in its population's human capital not only as a path for economic growth, but also as a method of better integrating the mountain tribes and clans into the modern society that has developed along the coast.

Culture

Religion

Temple of Jonak the Benefactor, in Marsa Bruth.

Paganism is the primary religious belief system in Sarcanza and actual beliefs can vary quite widely. The primary pagan religion is the Imperial Cult, a pantheon of gods native to Díenstad and spread through the reunification of the empire. These include Fortune, Will, and Fate, as well as past emperors of the Golden Throne. Marsa Bruth's public Temple of Jonak the Benefactor serves as the center of the Imperial Cult in Sarcanza, attracting millions of visitors every year.

Local dieties include Fatuuma, the mother goddess. Alii Orbana is the ancient goddess of wisdom, while Hajadmali is still in worship as the god of the mountains, and Ras god of the sky. Lusaib, a god whose worship first started sometime in the 9th century MC, is the god of the heavens and commonly considered the lead god of the Sarcanzan pantheon. Minor dieties include Mamadooh and Ya'eesh, minor gods of the harvest and flocks, respectively.

Blood Sports

Blood sports involving animals are common, especially in the Sarcanzan interior. Fighting between dogs, chickens, and even camels and horses is widely practiced throughout the indigenous tribe- and clanlands. These have also encroached on the coastal cities, especially in the post-war era, as sailors and other tourists frequent animal fight events in large numbers.