Emnia
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Kingdom of Emnia Miomhláiche t-Eamhna | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Motto: Flōrēbō Quōcumque Ferar "I will flourish wherever I am brought" | |
 | |
| Capital | Cártuaist |
| Largest city | Baight Chnaghn |
| Official languages | Emnian |
National minority languages | Eastonian |
| Demonym(s) | Emnian |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
• Monarch | Príoma II |
| Ríobhca beáth t-Annraoi | |
| Legislature | Sainidinn |
| Establishment | |
• Unification | 872 |
• Union with Southerland | 1397 |
• War of Independence | 1812–1814 |
• Constitution Adopted | 1814 |
| Area | |
• Total | 385,207 km2 (148,729 sq mi) |
• Water (%) | 5.2 |
| Population | |
• 2021 estimate | 5,402,171 |
• Density | 14.0/km2 (36.3/sq mi) |
| Gini | 25.4 low |
| HDI |  0.957very high |
| Driving side | left |
| Internet TLD | .emn |
Emnia (Emnian: Eamhna /avˠɾˠə/) officially the Kingdom of Emnia (Emnian: Miomhláiche t-Eamhna /mʲʊvˠlaːçə tʲ‿avˠɾˠə/), is the northernmost sovereign state in Calatania. Emnia's capital is Cártuaist, and its two largest metropolitan areas are Baight Chnaghn and Seolmhac.
Emnia has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres (148,729 sq mi) and had a population of 5,385,300 in 2020. The country shares a long southern border with Southerland and is bounded by the Endless Mountains to the north and east and the Great Sea to the west. Emnia is situated on both sides of the River Thoibhronn which flows from the northeast of the country through its heartlands and out into the sea through the Thoibhronn Delta. The maritime influence dominates Emnia's climate, with mild lowland temperatures along the river valley and seacoast. Even the eastern interior of the country, while colder, is milder than areas elsewhere in the world on such northerly latitudes. High rainfall and snowfall are commonplace.
Príoma II is the current Queen of Emnia. Ríobhca beáth t-Annraoi has been prime minister since 2021, replacing Mairéad beáth Lorcán. As a unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Emnia divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution. The Kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of several petty kingdoms and tribal realms which had existed largely unchanged since the bronze age. From 1397 to 1814, Emnia was in personal union with the Kingdom of Southerland until the Emnian War of Independence. Emnia was neutral in the first world war, and remained so until the second world war when the country was invaded and occupied by Austrasia until the end of the war.
Emnia has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: prefectures (míogalaimh, sing. míogall) and municipalities (cairdheoth, sing. cairdhe). The Eastonian people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over their tradtional territories through the Eastonian Parliament and the Far East Act. Emnia maintains close ties with both the Calatanian Union and Westralia, and is a founding member of the Global Forum, Free Trade Association, and the Boreal Council.
Emnia maintains the Boreal Welfare Model with universal healthcare and comprehensive social security infrastructure, and its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals. The Emnian state has large ownership positions in industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, and fresh water. The petrochemical industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
Although the majority of the population is ethnic Emnian, in the 21st century, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth; as of 2021, the largest minority groups in the country are the descendants of Austrasian, Westralian, and Sudric immigrants.
History
Prehistory
The first inhabitants of modern Emnia were the White Rock Culture (11th to 10th millennia BCE), which was a late Upper Paleolithic culture during the Younger Dryas, the last period of cold at the end of the most recent period of glaciation. The culture is named for the village of White Rock in northwestern Southerland, where wooden arrow shafts and clubs have been excavated. The earliest traces of human occupation lie along the delta coast, which was first exposed by the melting ice sheets between 11,000 and 8,000 BCE. The oldest stone tools recovered date back to between 9,500 and 6,000 BCE, and were discovered near Lake Cheirbheoth in the east and Caoislíonn in the west. Those findings were initially described as two separate material cultures (one inland culture and one along the coast), but this was later revealed by more extensive findings to be attributable to being different types of tools, rather than tools belonging to different material cultures.
Dwelling sites dating from approximately 5,000 BCE provide a clearer image of the life of those hunting and fishing peoples. Their tools vary in shape and size, and are made from various types of stone; those of later periods are exceptionally skillfully made. Rock carvings (i.e. petroglyphs) have been found, usually near hunting or fishing grounds. They represent game such as deer, reindeer, elk, bear, fowl, seals, whales, and fishes (especially salmon and halibut), all of which were vitally important to their way of life.
Bronze Age
Between 3,000 and 2,500 BCE, new settlers (the High Lake Culture) arrived in eastern Emnia and began to spread westwards. They were Proto-Emnitic speaking farmers who grew grain and kept cattle and sheep. The hunting-fishing population of the coastal region was gradually incorporated into the new farmer culture, though hunting and fishing remained vital secondary means of livelihood.
From about 1,500 BCE onward, bronze was gradually introduced, but the use of stone tools continued; Emnia had few riches to barter for bronzewares, and the few finds consist mostly of elaborate decorative weapons and jewellery that only chieftains could have afforded. Huge burial mounds are typical of this period. Rock carvings from this period differ slightly from in their motifs from those typical of the stone age; representations of the sun, animals, trees, weapons, ships, and people are all highly stylised.
Thousands of rock carvings from this period depict ships, and the large stone burial monuments known as "Ship Henges" suggest that ships and seafaring played an important role in the culture at large. The depicted ships likely represent sewn plank canoes used for warfare, fishing, and trade. These ship types may have their origin as far back as the neolithic period, and they continue into the Iron Age, as evidenced by the Olmhat Ship
Iron Age
Little has been found which dates from the early Emnian Iron Age (the last 500 years BCE). The dead were cremated, and their graves contain few burial goods. During the first four centuries CE, the people of Emnia were in contact with Equatorian-occupied Neustria. About 70 Equatorian bronze caulrdons, often used as burial urns, have been founds. Contact with other countries farther to the south led to the spread of writing during this period, with the innovation of Emnian runes in the final century BCE. During this later part of the period, the settled area of the country increased dramatically. This is particularly evident in the upper part of the Thoibhronn valley, where new Emnian settlements appeared as far as an Taocmha.
Archaeologists have largely arrived at the consensus to divide the Emnian Iron Age into distinct pre- and post-Equatorian Iron Ages, defined by the onset of extensive contact between Emnia and the Equatorian Empire. This has been the case since Béinn Gunn unearthed a number of Iron Age artefacts on the Isle of Uairt in 1866 which exhibited none of the permeating Equatorian influence seen in most other artefacts of the early centuries CE — indicating that parts of northern Calatania had not yet come into contact with the Equatorians at the onset of the Iron Age.
Migration Period
The destruction of the Western Equatorian Empire in the fifth century by migrating Emnitic peoples is marked in the archaeological record by a sudden abundance of rich treasures, including tribal chiefs' graves filled with magnificent weapons and golden objects. Hill forts were built on precipitous rocks for defence. Excavation has revealed stone foundations of farmhouses 18 to 27 metres (59 to 89 ft) long — with one even measuring 46 metres (151 ft) in length — with rooves supported on wooden posts. These houses were family homesteads where several generations lived together.
During this period, there were a number of petty kingdoms in Emnia. The number of these realms varied from time to time, and the borders between them are often unclear. These polities were based on either clans or tribes, and by the ninth century each had a local sainidin. The meeting places of each of the sainidinimh would eventually have an open-air sanctuary or temple, and were usually located on or near the oldest and best farms in a polity, which belonged to the chieftains and the wealthiest farmers. The regional sainidin would unite to form larger units — assemblies of representatives from several regions. In this way, the modern baight dhínn developed.
Heroic Age
From the eighth century to the tenth century, the Emnian region was the source of the Reavers. The looting of the monastery at Churchill (Monastery) in Southerland in 792 by Emnians has long been regarded as the event which marked the beginning of the Reaver Age. This age was characterised by expansion and emigration by roving Emnian seafarers. They colonised, raided, and traded in all parts of Calatania throughout the northern Great Sea. According to tradition, Dhaeilde Green-Eyes united the petty kingdoms of Emnia into one realm in 872, becoming the first monarch of a unified Emnian state.
Feudalism didn't develop in Emnia in the same way it did in the rest of the continent. However, the administration of the government took on a very conservative and feudal character. The North Sea League forced the royalty to cede to them greater and greater concessions over foreign trade and the economy as repayment for delinquent loans to the crown — and as a result of these economic pressures on all classes, no real burgher class developed in Emnia during the middle ages.
Civil War and Peak
From the 1040s to the 1130s, the country was at peace. In 1130, the civil war era broke out on the basis on unclear succession laws which left several strong claimants and no legitimate heir apparent. The Temple inevitably had to take sides in the conflicts, with the civil wars also becoming an issue regarding religious authorities' influences on the Monarch. The wars ended in 1217 with the ascent of Queen Aedna, who introduced clearer succession laws.
From 1000 to 1300, the population doubled, resulting in more land being cleared and farms being subdivided. While in the Heroic Age all farmers owned their own land, by 1300 nearly seventy percent of all farmland was owned by the Crown, the Temple, or the aristocracy. Tenants remained free men, however, and the large distances and often scattered ownership meant that they enjoyed much more freedom than serfs elsewhere in Calatania. In the 13th century, about twenty percent of a tenant farmer's yield went to the Crown, Temple, and landowners.
The 14th century is often described as Emnia's Golden Age, with peace and increases in trade, especially with Southerland, although Westralia became increasingly important towards the end of the century. Throughout the High Middle Ages, the Crown established Emnia asa sovereign state with a central administration and local representatives.
In 1349, the Great Plague arrived in Emnia and killed more than a third of the population outright. Subsequent outbreaks of the Plague reduced the population to half by about 1400. Many communities simply ceased to exist, all residents having died — which resulted in a great abundance of land, allowing farmers to switch to more animal husbandry. The reduction in taxes weakened the position of the crown, and many aristocrats lost the basis of their surplusses, reducing most to mere farmers. High tithes to the Temple made it increasingly powerful and the High Priest became a member of the Council of State.
Union with Southerland
The North Sea League took control over Emnian trade in the 14th century and established a trading centre in Naimhill an Sáphuinidh. In 1397, Margaret I of Southerland inherited the throne of Emnia, creating a union between the two countries. She waged war against the North Sea League, resulting in a blockade and higher taxation on Emnian goods, which caused the Emnian economy to fail. This combined with centralising policies that heavily favoured Southerland's development over Emnia's meant that the country slipped into relative obscurity for the duration of the Union.
Emnia remained in a union with Southerland until 1814, a total of 417 years. During the national romanticism of the 19th century, this period was referred to by some as "the four-century night", since all of the Kingdom's royal, intellectual, and administrative power was held in Southerland. Contrary to this perception, this would be a time of great prosperity and social progress for Emnia, especially in terms of shipping and foreign trade. The country would also finally be revived from the demographic catastrophe that it had suffered during the Great Plague. Based on the respective natural resources afforded by each, Southerland-Emnia was actually quite a good match since Southerland supported Emnia's needs for grain and food supplies, and Emnia in turn supplied Southerland with timber, metals, and fish.
The famine of 1695–1696 killed roughly ten percent of Emnia's population. The harvests failed in Emnia at least nine times between 1740 and 1800, with great loss of life in each instance.
Independence
In 1812, there was an uprising of Emnians in the Thárann Valley against local officials. What began as a localised uprising spread into a war for independence. By 1814, Southerland no longer had the resources to subdue the Emnians by military means, as the ongoing Neustrian Wars demanded the full attention of the Sudric military; this led to the signing of the Convention of Seolmhac, in which John II of Southerland formally abdicated any claim to the Emnian throne and authorised the Emnian parliament to dissolve the personal and legislative union between the two countries. On 4 November 1814, the parliament elected Mairghréad II as Queen of Emnia, establishing it once more as a sovereign state. Following the global economic recession caused by the Neustrian Wars, the economic development of the newly reformed state was slow until growth picked up around 1830.
This period also saw the rise of Emnian romantic nationalism, as Emnians sought to define and express a distinct national character. This movement covered all branches of culture, including literature (Marcas béinn Iáson [1808—1845] Sara beáth Irimia [1832–1910], Tomás béinn Huiginn [1812–1845], Gráinne beáth Prímiona [1813–1882]), painting (Aindriú béinn Siobhán [1825–1903], Máire beáth t-Iúd [1814–1876]), music (Séamus béinn Eistir [1843–1907]), and intellectual policy.
Despite the significant social and political reforms, Emnian society remained relatively conservative in comparison to life elsewhere in Calatania. Life in Emnia was dominated by the aristocracy, who filled most of the important posts in the central government. There was no strong middle class to demand a breakdown of this aristocratic control of the economy. Thus, even as revolutions swept over most countries of Calatania in 1848, Emnia was largely unaffected that year.
Gorm béinn Mára was an Utopian Socialist who made his appeals to the labouring classes, urging them to change social structures "from below upwards". In 1848, he organised a labour society in Baight Líomainn. In just a few months, this society had a membership of around 500 and was publishing its own newspaper. Within two years, 300 such societies had been organised in Emnia with a total membership of over 20,000 persons, drawn from the lower classes of both urban and rural areas. Gorm himself was jailed for three years for disturbing the public safety and peace, but this did nothing to stop the strong labour movement he began.
In 1898, all women and men were granted universal suffrage.
World Wars
Throughout the First World War, Emnia was theoretically neutral, although diplomatic pressure from Southerland meant that it favoured heavily the Pact during the war. Emnia also proclaimed its neutrality during the Second World War, but, despite this, it was invaded by Austrasian forces in 1940. Although Emnia was unprepared for the surprise attack, military and naval resistance lasted for months. During the five years of Austrasian occupation, Emnians built a resistance movement which fought the Austrasian forces with both civil disobedience and armed resistence. More important to the Pact's war effort, however, was the Emnian Merchant Marine. At the onset of the war, Emnia had the fourth largest Merchant Marine fleet in the world. These ships were utilised by the Pact for practically every major military operation throughout the war as supply and troop ships.
Postwar History
From 1945 to 1962, the Labour Party held an absolute majority in the parliament. The government, led by Maois béinn Easrá, embarked o na programme emphasising state-financed industrialisation and cooperation between trade unions and employers' organisations. Many of the measures of state control of the economy imposed during the war were continued. Price controls and rationing of housing and cars continued until 1960.
The close wartime relations with Southerland and Westralia continued in the postwar years. ALthough pursuing the goal of a socialist economy, the Labour Party distanced itself from Communism, expecially after the Communists' seizure of power in Slavonia in 1948, and strengthened its defence policy ties with Westralia.
The first oil was discovered in the Delta region in 1967. Oil production didn't provide any net income until the early 1980s due to the high capital investments that were required to establish the country's petrochemical industry.
In 1981, a [[Conservative Party (Emnia]|]] government led by Eiscéill béinn Priscille replaced the labour party with a policy of stimulating the economy with tax cuts, economic liberalisation, deregulation of markets, and measures to curb high inflation (13.6% in 1981). The following prime minister, Létha beáth Phól, continued many of the reforms of her Conservative predecessor while backing traditional Labour Party concerns such as social security, industrialisation, workers' rights, and feminism. By the late 1990s, Emnia had paid off its foreign debt and had begun to accumulate a sovereign wealth fund. Since then, a divisive question in Emnian politics has been how much of the income from petrochemical production the government should spend or save.
The 2013 Emnian parliamentary election brought a more conservative government to power; contrastively, the 2021 Emnian parliamentary election saw a massive win for the left-wing opposition in an election fought on climate change, inequality, and petroleum.