Sazarin

Most Illustrious Republic of the Assemblies and Peoples of Sazarin الدستورية الأشهر مجالس و جماهير لقتنيا ad-Dustūrīyah al-ʾAshhara Majālis wa Jamāhīr Laqitanīyā راپبلكا السترسما دس اصمبلايسي ا پوافلس دا صزرن República Ilustrísima das Asambleias e Puevlos de Sazarin
Flag
Motto: هذا من فضل آلهتنا Hādhā min faḍli 'ālihatnā mozarabic Este per la gracia de nostres dioses This by the grace of our gods نقدر حريتنا و نجرؤ على دفاع عن حقوقنا Naqdiru hurriyatnā wa najru'u 'alā difā' 'an huqūqanā mozarabic Prezamos nostra libertad e atrevemos defender nostres dereitos Our liberty we prize and our rights we dare defend
Anthem: arabic translit mozarabic translit tbd
Capital and largest city	Almezraquivir
Official languages	Arabic, Sazarine
Recognised regional languages	Khlamese
Ethnic groups	XX% Mozarab XX% Cerutian XX% Other
Religion	tbd
Demonym(s)	Sazarine
Government	Unitary constitutional oligarchic republic
• Emir	tbd
• Suffetes	tbd tbd
Legislature	‌‌Grand Assemblies
• Upper house	Assembly of the Councillors
• Lower house	Assembly of the People Assembly of the Guilds
tbd  tbd
• tbd	tbd
• tbd	tbd
Area
•	342,750 km2 (132,340 sq mi)
Population
• 2015 census	21,710,617
• Density	63.34/km2 (164.0/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	20XX estimate
• Total	tbd
• Per capita	tbd
GDP (nominal)	20XX estimate
• Total	tbd
• Per capita	tbd
Gini (20XX)	tbd
HDI	tbd
Currency	Sazarine dinar (SDN)
Time zone	tbd
Date format	DD/MM/YYYY
Driving side	right
Calling code	tbd

Sazarin (Arabic: لقتنيا, translit. Laqitanīyā; Sazarine: صزرن, translit. Sazarin), sometimes known more formally as the Sazarine Republic (Arabic: الدستورية اللقتنية, translit. ad-Dustūrīyah al-Laqitanīyah; Sazarine: راببلكا صزرنيا, translit. República Sazarenya) is an oligarchic republic in Midgard. Located in the continent of tbd, the Sazarine mainland shares land borders only with Mondejar and the de facto independent region of North Alaouasem, both to Sazarin's northeast, and borders the tbd Sea to its northwest and the Lazarene Sea to the south. Sazarin also controls the Liburine Islands, an archipelago located in the Lazarene Sea, and Kambunray, an overseas territory located in other tbd and bordered by Cherakh. The country's capital and largest city is Almezraquivir.

[history - ancient lacetania, colonization by !greeks and !phoenicians, conquest by !rome and integration as lacetania caesariensis, fall of !western rome and the foundation of the kingdom of the cerutians]

[foundation of !muslim trading ports and amsar beginning in the 700s; unification of most of these coastal towns as the sazarine republic in the 900s; war between cerutians and sazarines in late 1000s results in latter conquering former; sazarin becomes a thalassocracy, dominating lazarene trade for centuries, with a stato da mar heydey called the Beautiful Centuries from 1200s to 1600s]

[falls behind and resists reform in subsequent centuries, losing most of its overseas territories, and naval dominance, to sjealand in the 1600s-1700s and part of alaouasem to mondejar in the 1700s-early 1800s; does manage to keep Bitol and take Kambunray though; gets forced to make a series reforms and, in the 1970s, concede bitol in order to avoid outright revolution, though unrest is periodic; ties with ambrose warm over mutual sjealand-resentment and relations with mondejar cool after alaouasem becomes the donbass]

[geography, major geographic features, climate]

[demographics - ethnicity, religion, language; gap between the mozarabs and cerutians in most things]

[government - oligarchic republic based on a centuries-old system, albeit with many reforms; current leadership; calls for reform, problems with the oligarchy shtick]

[diverse economy based mostly around tourism and commerce, though agriculture and light industry remain strong]

Etymology

Both the Arabic Laqitanīyā and the Sazarine (and, thence, the English) Sazarin derive from the name of the !Roman province of Lacetania Caesariensis, which contained most of what is today western and northern Sazarin. The province itself was named for the Lacetanii, a major tribal confederation within the region whose name is of unknown etymology, and the provincial capital, Colonia Caesarea Victricensis, named for the !Roman general Aetius Veturius Caesar. Lacetania Caesariensis was so named to distinguish it from the province of Lacetania Sybariana, consisting of what is now eastern Sazarin and western Mondejar.

[after rome falls and the cerutians come and the arabs set up outposts, the arabs stick to "lacetania" whereas the natives (and also the mondejos) begin to refer to the country by a truncated form of "caesariensis", hence the gap between the arabic and sazarine names]

History

The remnants of an Iron Age oppidum near the town of Sedella.

Prehistory and antiquity

Prehistory and early antiquity

[prehistoric humans and stuff; early iron age tribesmen and whatnot]

[colonization by !phoenicians and !greeks during distant antiquity; possible rise of a !carthago nova as a regional power which clashes with the lacetanii tribal confederation]

!Roman Lacetania

[!rome moves in, conquers the region, and thoroughly romanizes it; it becomes prominent in the empire as a center of agriculture and mining, and many later leaders and figures are of lacetanian origin]

The !roman Amphitheater of tbd.

[as rome begins to weaken it clings jealously onto lacetania, fearing that losing its breadbasket would have catastrophic effects, but eventually everything's gone to such shit back in nabolon that they let it fall to the cerutii]

Medieval period

An illustration depicting the Cerutic ruler Sigeric entering Vetrenza.

Kingdom of the Cerutes

[the kingdom of the cerutes is a germanic-origin barbarian kingdom that does stuff and things, like civil wars and wars with neighbors]

Formation and expansion of Sazarin

[in the late 500s-early 600s ihtiram arises in the !mideast; in the late 600s-early 700s, as conquests by the caliphate slow, muhtarim merchants go out and establish ports and garrisons across the lazarene, including in what will become sazarin]

Ambassadors in the Court of the Suffetes, painted by tbd.

[one of these port-garrisons, almezraquivir, becomes especially prominent and it unites the smaller city-states in the 900s with the Golden Constitution, which creates the sazarine republic with its emir-two suffetes-assembly of councillors situation; the cerutes periodically harass sazarin so there's a war in the 1000s and sazarin wins, but then has to create the assembly of the people to avoid rebellions]

[sazarin increasingly dominates lazarene trade over the subsequent two centuries, becoming a mercantile capital (which leads to the creation of the assembly of the guilds as a recognition of mercantile power); the 1200s-1600s are the Beautiful Centuries, a glorious heyday where sazarin is a thalassocratic empire controlling territory and trade across the entirety of the lazarene sea, and it revels in culture and gold]

Modern period

The Sazarine defeat at Aljezur marked the end of the Beautiful Centuries.

Thalassocratic decline

[the wealth and power of the beautiful centuries masked that the northern bits of !europe were pulling ahead technologically, and in the late 1600s and early 1700s sjealand demolishes sazarine naval dominance and runs off with much of the stato da mar, and in the 1700s mondejar seizes the region of alaouasem, controlled by sazarin since the conquest of the cerutes; sazarin is vastly reduced, though it does successfully retain the liburine islands, which it uses to exert some measure of naval power, and bitol]

Reformism and reaction

[in the 1800s sazarin tries to salvage its pride by putting vast effort into keeping control of bitol and by seizing the port of kambunray from cherakh, which helps, but there's still social turmoil, especially in the latter half of the century; this nearly spills over into revolution a few times but civil war is staved off by a series of reforms to the assemblies]

Sazarine troops during the Bitolan War of Independence.

[has warm ties with ambrose during the various ambrose-sjealand kerfuffles, and periodic tensions with mondejar; from the 50s to the 70s there's a protracted guerrilla Bitolan War of Independence which ends in bitolan victory; sazarin grants kambunray full equality and makes reforms to the country's judiciary and assemblies to stave off unrest; the War in North Alaouasem erupts in the late 80s, sazarin-mondejar relations plummet, in the 90s it becomes a frozen conflict after sazarin sends in its army and the !UN intervenes]

Politics

Governance

[very old and complex system of checks and balances ultimately originating in the Golden Constitution, heavily reformed by centuries of subsequent legislation]

[executive power is divided between the Emir and two suffetes; the emir is elected for life by the assembly of councillors head of state, nominates magistrates, governors, and judges, can issue pardons, and signs or veto whatever legislation gets to him; most executive power is held by the suffetes, however, who are elected for nonconsecutive five-year terms by the assembly of the people, are dual heads of government, must sign off legislation before it is sent to the emir, must approve all of the emir's nominations, are the military commanders-in-chief, can sign treaties, and oversee the council of ministers; the council of ministers is the cabinet and answers mostly to the suffetes but also sort of to the emir, who can play a role in how the council does legislation]

[legislative power is divided between the assembly of councillors, assembly of the public, and assembly of the guilds; councillors is composed of the patricians of select noble families and the holders of certain priestly titles, as listed in the Golden Book, must approve all emiral nominations, can proclaim how laws are to be interpreted, must approve all legislation and can overturn an executive veto, but lacks legislative initiative; public is composed of individuals elected for five-year terms in geographic constituencies, typically initiates legislation nowadays, and must approve all nominations of governors; guilds is composed of seats representing various economic sectors and major unions, elected every five years by recognized members (but not associates) of guilds and professional organizations, can but usually doesn't initiate legislation, and must approve all nominations of magistrates]

[judiciary is relatively typical since the 1970s, with a supreme court, appellate courts, etc., as part of a series of reforms aimed at staving off public anger following bitol; before this there was a weird and complicated system of inquisitors that was regarded as particularly byzantine, opaque, and unchecked, hence replacing it with something far simpler and more straightforward]

Administrative divisions

[tbd]

Foreign relations

[member of the !UN and any other standard international institutions]

[member of the golden circle pact, associated relations issues]

[relations with the ex-colony of bitol]

[the mondejar-alaouasem issue]

Military and intelligence

[military and gendarmerie and intel stuff]

Geography

[look to spain, portugal, and italy for inspiration]

Climate

[mediterranean; again, spain, portugal, and italy for inspiration]

Fauna and flora

[again, spain, portugal, and italy for inspiration]

Economy

Agriculture

[not necessarily the largest sector, but well subsidized; list major crops]

Resources

[timber and mining]

Industry

[most post-industrial now but some stuff left, decent mix of light and heavy; probably an ex-industrial area along a river, like catalonia/northern italy]

Commerce and technology

[commerce, tech, and finance and whatnot are growing sectors, though the roots stretch back]

Tourism

[this is the one that's really taking off, thanks to sazarin's pleasant weather, lovely scenery, and rich history]

Infrastructure

[roads, ports, airports, whatever]

Media

[pretty free, if consolidated in too few hands and a bit corrupt]

Demographics

Ethnicity

[the mozarabs and the cerutians, though the dividing line is more of a gradient as one becomes more or less arabized; there's a rich-poor aspect]

[the khlamese in kambunray, and bitolan communities who came over at various points]

Religion

[mostly ihtiram now, though pockets of (jovianism?) persist in some tough-to-reach areas; local religions in kambunray and bitolan stuff]

Language

[MSA holds cultural and political prominence and official status; mozarabs speak a local dialect, Sazarine Arabic, though]

[sazarine - the most widely spoken language - had to fight hard to get recognized as equal to arabic and wasn't given that until the late 1800s-early 1900s]

[khlamese is recognized as a regional language; the bitolan community speaks bitolan but this has no official status]

Education

[tbd education system; try to mix european and mideast systems if possible?]

Healthcare

[public healthcare implemented in the 20th century to appease the masses]

Culture

Architecture

[moorish, mudejar, neo-mudejar, taking bits from ottoman styles in the late beautiful centuries and european styles from 1700 on]

Art

[sazarin interprets muhtarim rules on figurative representation very loosely so there's a lot]

Cuisine

[mediterranean, with an iberian-maghreb flair]

Literature

[a blending of muhtarim religious and poetic traditions with aldinean methods]

Music

[tbd]

Theater and cinema

[tbd]

Sports

[soccer is king, probably, but other stuff too]