Nua Taois

Nua Taois Nutis
Town
Motto(s):  Pride and industry
Country	Imagua and the Assimas
County	Saint Isidore's
Founded	1535
Government
• Mayor	Bob Manning
Population  (2011)
• Town	49,127
• Rank	3rd in Imagua and the Assimas
• Urban	49,127
• Metro	89,978
Time zone	UTC+11 (Imaguan Standard Time)
• Summer (DST)	not observed

Nua Taois (Western Imaguan Creole: Nutis, Eastern Imaguan Creole: Niu Tish) is the fourth largest settlement in Imagua and the Assimas, the third largest on the island of Imagua, and is the capital of Saint Isidore's County. Established in 1535, it is the third-oldest settlement of Imagua and the Assimas, after Cuanstad and Altaithe.

Etymology

Nua Taois was named after the Caldish word for "new Taois," with Taois deriving from the Caldish country of Taois. It is believed to be named that by settler (TBC), who noted the similarities of the area around the mouth of the Wensley River to the county of Taois.

The Western Imaguan Creole name is Nutis, coming from a translation of Nua Taois into Geatish as Nytis, which was adapted into Western Imaguan Creole as Nutis.

While during Estmerish rule, it had been called New Taois, Nua Taois was still the commonly used form, and was officially adopted in 1921. This is the etymology of the Eastern Imaguan Creole name for Nua Taois, Niu Tish.

History

Pre-colonial era

Due to its position on the coast, there is substantial evidence that prior to Imagua's discovery by Euclean explorers, the site of Nua Taois was a major centre inhabited by indigenous Arucians. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of Arucian settlements, especially under the present-day central business district of Nua Taois, where evidence of Marai artefacts and architectural styles have led to a conclusion that the area around Nua Taois was a trading settlement established by the Marai around 300 CE. However, at the time of Euclean discovery, the Marai settlement had "largely been abandoned," although its urban plans influenced the development of Nua Taois' central business district.

Settler (TBC) noted when he first named the area that "the homes of the natives were spread out across the land, separated by farms," and noted that save for a settlement "where the river expelled its water into the sea," with a harbour, there was "not as much settlement."

Colonial era

Nua Taois was established by Caldish settlers in 1535, along the banks of the Wensley River. While it was initially a minor agricultural village like Altaithe, due to Nua Taois' distance from Cuanstad, in 1536, it was made the capital of Saint Isidore's County.

A church, Saint Isidore's Church, was opened in 1545, and by 1550, it had a population of around fifty settlers, and seventy indigenous people.

Following the annexation of Imagua by Geatland in 1562, Nua Taois fell under Geatish rule, but still remained the centre for the northern plains, as it was still remote from the primary economic centre of the island, Cuanstad, despite the administration of the archipelago was still carried out primarily through their colony in Eldmark. Geatish rule continued until Estmere captured Cuanstad in 1658.

(TBC)

Contemporary era

As more people left the countryside from the 1950s onwards, those in the counties of Saint Isidore's and Saint Fiacre's gravitated towards Nua Taois and its surrounding communities, as Nua Taois was substantially closer to them than Cuanstad, while providing many of the same opportunities that existed within Cuanstad.

This benefited Nua Taois, which expanded in both area and in population between 1951 and 1981, when most of the rural migration to the urban centres took place.

(TBC)

Geography

Nua Taois is situated on the northern coast of the island of Imagua, where the Wensley River empties out into the Arucian Sea. It is situated at the transition between the northern plains covering much of the coast of Saint Isidore's and Saint Fiacre's, and the central mountains on the island.

The highest point is Commodore Hill, at seventy-eight metres above sea level, while the lowest point is sea level, making Nua Taois relatively flat.

Like the rest of the country, Nua Taois experiences a tropical monsoon climate, with average high temperatures being 32 °C (89.6 °F), and average low temperatures being 20.5 °C (68.9 °F). The wet season is generally from May to October, while the dry season typically lasts from November to April, although the months of April and November receive more rain than any other month in the dry season.

The highest recorded temperature in Nua Taois was 37.2 °C (99 °F), recorded on 26 July 1939, while the lowest recorded temperature in Cuanstad was 17.7 °C (63.9 °F), recorded on 4 January, 1912.

Government

Aerial view of Nua Taois' town hall, 2016

Nua Taois' civic government is, like other municipalities on Imagua and the Assimas, based off a mayor (Etrurian: sindaco), elected at large by the citizenry every four years, and a twelve-member town council (Etrurian: consiglio comunale), which is elected at the same time as the mayor, although residents of each of the twelve wards elect their own councillor to represent them.

The current Mayor of Nua Taois is Bob Manning, who was first elected in 2004, and has been re-elected in 2008, 2012, and 2016.

On the county level, Nua Taois is represented by eleven of the fourty seats on the county council of Saint Isidore's.

On the national level, Nua Taois is represented by five constituencies in the Lesser House of the Imaguan Parliament, due to its large population.

Population

As of the 2011 census, Nua Taois is the fourth largest city in Imagua and the Assimas, with a population of 49,127 people, and has the third largest metropolitan area comprising of Nua Taois, Knowleston, and other smaller communities, with its metropolitan population being 89,978 people, making up 6.9% of Imagua's population.

Ethnically, Nua Taois is split, with 31,883 people, or 64.9% of the population being Bahio-Imaguan, and 10,834 people, or 23.6% of the population being of Euclean descent. It has the highest percentage of Native Imaguans living in an urban area, with 4.4% of the population, or 2,177 people, being of indigenous descent. The remaining 2.1% of the town's population, or 1,028 people, belong to other ethnic groups.

Religiously, 99.9% of the population, or 49,078 people, follow Sotirianity, with the remainder following either other religions, or are irreligious.

The largest Sotirian sects are Bahrism, with roughly fourty percent of the town's population, or 19,651 people, following it, followed closely by Catholicism, with 39.3% of the population, or 19,307 adhering to it, with the remainder of the Sotirian population following other sects such as the Embrian Communion.

Linguistically, Estmerish is the most predominant language, with 48,292 people, or 98.3% of the population using it on a regular basis. Only 1.2% of the population, or 592 people, speaks Etrurian on a regular basis, while 0.5% of the population, or 243 people, do not use either official language on a regular basis.

The largest non-official native language is Western Imaguan Creole, with 42,249 people, or around eighty-six percent of the population speaking it as a native language, with only 0.3% of Nua Taois' population speaking other non-official languages such as Eastern Imaguan Creole. Thus, the remainder speak either Estmerish or Etrurian as a native language.

Transportation

View of the Imaguan Motorway from Nua Taois, 2016

As the second-largest metropolitan area on the island of Imagua, Nua Taois is a key node in the country's road network, with the Imaguan Motorway passing through Nua Taois, and Nua Taois being the origin of many roads spreading into the rest of the northern plains.

Nua Taois has a public transit system called Nua Taois MetroBus, operating seven days a week.

Culture

Due to Nua Taois' history and location in Imagua and the Assimas, it has developed its own culture.