Educandi

Grand Commonwealth of the Educan Realm Dye Groß-Geminwes Eduryke
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Panosak as Tara Freedom or Death
Anthem: Our land is the sea
Capital	Edurre
Official languages	Edu-Grothic
Recognised national languages	Grothic, Kathic, Aldemarker
Ethnic groups	85% Educan, 10% Grothic, 5% General Auroran
Demonym(s)	Educan
Government	Semi-Unitary republic
• Lord-Magistrate	Karls Baker
• Opposition Leader	Andre Krafer
• Executor	Anton I
Republic under Delegated Authority by the Executor
• Bonifacius comes to power in the city	1495
• The Council of Ten is established	1500
• Formation of the Syndication as a union of guilds	1602
•	1655
• Act of Nationhood	1875
• Joining the Auroran Community	1990
Population
• Estimate	14,500,000
Gini	1.02 low
Currency	Auroran Credit (AUC)

Educandi, or the Grand Commonwealth of the Educan Realm (Dye Groß-Geminwes Eduryke) is a nation and city in north-west Aurora, bordered by Grothbord to the east, and the sea to the west and south. Known commonly as Educandi, the capital is known in the local language as Edurre, and when referring to the city, that name is usually used, whereas Educandi refers to the nation as a whole. The country enjoys a climate that in the summer months is quite warm, but cold temperatures and snow often dominate the winter months, which due to being so far north, is long and dark. Formerly a city-state with a large expansive sphere, it is now a unitary representative constitutional monarchy. Ruled by the Executor of Educandi, the government functions with sovereignty granted to each body by the Executor by way of delegated authority, having the intended effect of leaving the Executor virtually powerless.

History

Before Bonifacius

There is evidence of settlement near the city of Edurre dating to neolithic times, but no evidence of settlement on the islands of the city until the 14th century. Very early Educandi was a unpleasant place to live, as it is believed settlement started on different islands, and spread until all 6 islands were the same urbanized area, and the name Edurre might have initially meant only one of these small towns. Different factions controlled different areas of the city, and no mention of a city-wide government or body exists until the 1430's, decades after the first mention of settlement. By the late 15th century, there were 5 clear factions within the city, 4 being controlled by different families, and one by the newly established College of the Sixteen, a religious institution founded with a church by the same name. At this point, life in the countryside was dominated by independent cities and republics, and further into what would become Educandi, local lords and feudal states ruled large swaths of agrarian land. These lords were in name subservient to the Confederation, but during its existence, were effectively independent.

The first city-wide entity that could be called a government was the City Guard, starting out as an association of citizens staging watches against fires. The first mention of this guard comes from 1380, but probably existed before that. By the 1400's, the Guard became both a fraternal organization, charitable company, as well as performing municipal services in addition to it's fire-fighting duties. Eventually, the Guard became so extensive and its membership large and rich enough to pool resources in order to start purchasing arms, used to protect the property of the membership. At this point, it transformed itself from a firefighting association of citizens, to an organization of local-level merchants protecting their interests, as well as charitable and municipal services. This brought the Guard into conflict with the families who controlled the wharfs, harbors and waterways between the islands of the city. Their control of these places gave them immense power and riches, as it allowed them unilateral control of trade outside the city. These families used their wealth to hire private militias to attack, vandalize and seize the infrastructure of each other, and occasionally, the church.

In the later half of the 15th century, this had progressed to make Edurre effectively four or five large towns, depending on how one counted, all merged together and only held there by the City Guard. Bridges, docks, and walls all linked the islands and neighborhoods within the sphere of each family, but not with each other. Traveling from one end of the city to the other was difficult and often dangerous. The City Guard started holding elections for leadership amoungst the citizenry of the city, as opposed to within its membership- although you still had to be a wealthy member to run. In either 1460 or 1470, the armed portion of the Guard hired a Bonifaas Changehisnamelater as a captain, who rose through the ranks and transformed the Guard again from a small militia to an organized small army, as well as appointing financial ministers to raise money through what would eventually evolve into taxation. At this point, in the late 1480's, he had near unilateral control of the City Guard, and used it to lead the effort to unite his city.

Rise of the City

In 1490, Bonifaas (later Bonifacius) began his program of reforms, using the resources at his disposal to build bridges, repair buildings and infrastructure, regulate and reform trade, forcefully uniting the city. Part of these reforms was the institution of a bureaucracy, imported from his probably travels to Thrace. This bureaucracy made it possible to effect law and policy, as well as organize the logistics of the reforms of infrastructure and the economy. This also had the effect of recording law, policy, economic matters and almost everything else on paper, massively increasing the amounts of documents available to historians after 1490. Bonifaas used mostly clerics and others from the church, as they had a high degree of literacy among them, and were able to teach others how to write.

Bonifacius' reforms

Bonifacius used his power and influence to unify the building policy of the city. Due to the fragmented control of the islands that make up Edurre, there were several small ports on the river and sea-sides of the city. Defenses and bridges also followed factional lines, being slipshod structures meant to keep ruffians of the other families out. Bonifiacius combined the ports, built bridges between the islands, dredged the canals, and started construction of a series of seawalls and defenses.

All of this authority he assumed grated against the four noble families, who attempted to resist the changes, and keep control of their many small harbors. They used their mercenary militias to attack Bonifaas's men, raid marketplaces, and cause general disorder. Bonifaas reacted by issuing the Edict of Arms, declaring that anyone who used violence against the efforts of City Guard traitors, and outlaws. This is viewed today as the declaration of the singular state of Educandi, with Bonifaas as it's head. The four families were completely unable to resist this centralization, as to remove Bonifaas meant they had to work together. They would prove unable to do so.

Things came to a head when the nobility attempted to wrest control in the Coup of 1493, or the Battle of the Fgtrgrvf, in which the four heads of the households agreed to pool their resources and manpower. Following a failed assassination of Bonifaas, the now combined army tried to seize the Guard Hall. Following an altercation, the rebel army barricaded itself in the home of one of it's leaders. The reformed army, no longer just a guard but two full regiments of infantry and a unit of cavalry, laid seige to the building for five days, before a the walls fell and all the rebel combatants were killed or thrown into the sea. The episode lead Bonifaas to forbid cannons in the city.

Perhaps Bonifacius' most important reform was his last will and testament, accepted as the last part of the Educan constitution. It laid out the succession, as well as the role of the Executor, and where his powers lay. It, in essence, established that while the Executor was a monarch, Educandi was indeed a republic.

Continued Rise

In 1495, Bonifaas declared himself the Executor of the city, it's supreme head of the state. Five years later, on the new year of 1500, he formed the Council of Ten, supplanting the City Guard as the government and guaranteeing that the nobility of the city would never rise again. Any citizen could vote in the elections, but one had to be of the patrician noble class to run. Bonifaas strengthened the army, but critically, began to focus on building a naval force, and had all his infantry trained as marines. He soon used this new force to expand the city's domain into the countryside, and in 1503, waged war against the city of Vos. The conflict was a success, and there was two more wars, each weakening the enemy further until it was under the domination of the city, giving Edurre the control of the river upon which it stood. This would set the policy of Educandi for the next 300 years, as it epanded and maintained control of every major waterway it could.

Soon, Bonifaas created the Guardian of the Seal, an elected executive position that he delegated much authority to, as well as the establishment of a judiciary. Upon his death, his will cemented these positions as constitutional law, thus leaving his successors with virtually no power of their own. That notwithstanding, the city continued to expand it's borders, controlling much of the sea lanes and inland waterways around it, either directly, or through puppet states.

Thracian Succession

In the mid 1530's, the line of Martelus was struck a blow when Rutchelos Martel, heir to the throne, died in a canal. As he was the only child of the current executor, Barbarossa I Liscentos, the grandson of Bonifacius by adoption. The only possible successor was the lord of Thrace, Charlie XXXXIII, who married the late sister of Liscentos. Upon Liscentos' death, Charlie ascended the Executive Office, as was declared Executor. The Thracian lord and his successors ran into conflict with the different governmental bodies of Educandi. The Council of Ten, and later the Syndicate, was staunch in it's republicanism, whereas the allies of Charlie favored Thracian-style absolutionism. After the death of Daeron the Terrible, as he became known in Educandi, a law was passed saying that no foreign sovereign may serve as Executor concurrently, meaning that any other foreign royalty to inherit the crown would need to choose between their home country or monarch of Educandi.

17th and 18th Century

Following the death of Daeron, Educandi had most of the Hofzung sea around it under it's control. The lack of Thracian imports from the New World was a problem, however, as Educandi has specialized and focused on controlling the sea immediately around it, as opposed to oceanic colonial empire. It's navy was comprised mostly of littoral or river-based vessels, and would not be effective at maintaining it's own Atlantic-colonial sphere.

As it had need for a state that could maintain a long-distance empire, but wouldn't challenge Educandi's hold of the Hofzung Sea, the main candidate was the Grothic kingdom of Zonnenbord, a state that had an effort to start trading posts abroad. The following Hofzung Trade League was based on the Educan navy protecting the Hofzung and both nation's interests there, while Zonnenbord could specialize and maintain a long-distance trading-post empire. Needing assistance with maintaining it's existing ports and posts, Educandi and Zonnenbord worked together by establishing joint colonial companies to take over management and expansion of the existing dominions. In order to raise capital, the companies offered to sell portions of their companies to interested persons, to buy complete control of their companies back when the worth of said colonies had risen. With the success of this method, other companies wanted to mimic it, eventually earning regulation and legislation in the Educan House of the Exchange of Stock.

19th Century and Decline of Empire

ah fuck, I can't believe you've done this

Culture

Food

Educan diets tend to sample from foreign shores. The Educan mentality hold that a good meal consists of "Ichori bread and Kathic wine." With that said, there are quite a few native dishes that still hold strong; clam chowder as well as lobster are favorites near the coast, and apple orchards further inland are popular and plentiful. Educans typically have a cultural sweet-tooth; confectioneries and soda-fountains are popular social locals,

Government and Politics

The government of Educandi is, in effect, a unitary parliamentary republic. The legislature is made of two bodies, the Chamber of Consuls and the Syndicate (or Syndicated Council of Ministers). The chief executive, the Lord-Magistrate, appoints the ministers of his cabinet from the elected Consuls, the cabinet being the Syndicate.

Political Parties

There are several small, local parties in Educandi due to the nature of elections in the country using instant-runoff voting. The two main parties only ever hold 60%-70% of the legislature at a time, meaning effectively, all governments have to be coalitions lead by one of the two primary parties, and with the backing of several smaller parties.

The two primary parties are the Conservative Union and the Liberal Voters Party, and respectively they lead the Conservative League and the Parties of the Left. Presently, the Conservative Union has 135 seats, the Liberal Party 105, the Pro-Business Party 53, the Blue-and-Greens 44, the Family Issues party 30, the Collectivist Association 15, the Legion of the Early Morning 7, the Agriculture Bloc 6, the Students Party 4, and the Futurists Association 1.

The Syndication

The Syndication, or House of Elected Syndics, (change this later) is the legislature of the Grand Commonwealth. Historically, it was made of Consuls, who served as the representatives of Educan citizens in geographic constituencies, and Syndics, the representatives of guilds and companies within the jurisdiction of the historic Syndicated Union of Trades and Mercantile Associations of the Educan Citizenry, the predecessor of the current modern Syndication. Following the end of the Educan civil war and the victory of the Constitutionalists, the Syndicate was given control of trade policy within and without the Educan controlled trade bloc, effectively making it the national government and confining the Council of Ten to be no more than a municipal city council.

Today, the Syndication is made of elected Syndics; those who serve as officers in the Government, as appointed by the Lord-Magistrate, are High-Syndics, also often referred to as Lord-Ministers. Those who are not appointed to high office are known as Consuls, and make up the majority of the legislature. Collectively, the Lords-Ministers and the Consuls are simply referred to as Syndics. The Lord-Magistrate can vote as a member of the Syndication, but is not technically a Syndic, but simply the representative of all the people within the Commonwealth. Traditionally, this vote is not used except in a symbolic fashion, due to the Lord-Magistrate's veto power.

There are 400 Syndics, each representing a Consulate of around 36,250 people. Following the formation of a new Syndication, the Lord-Magistrate invites 5 of the newly-elected or re-elected Syndics to his cabinet (Lord-Secretary, the second in command, the Treasurer, the Military Minister, a Minister of the Interior, and a Minister of Foreign Affairs.) All those who receive an invitation and want the position respond, and then they become Lord-Syndics. The rest of the legislature, now Consuls, then choose their own Speaker, who upon being elected, takes a chair in the opposite end of the Chamber from the Lord-Magistrate. The new Syndication then receives Letters-Patent, by the authority of the Executor via the will of the Lord-Magistrate, and then the Syndication recognizes the Lord-Magistrate as head of the government, thus officially opening the new government. This is all mostly ceremony now, but used to be the mechanism by which the Syndicate was guaranteed their power, while also protecting the authority of the Lord-Magistrate.

The Lord-Magistrate

The Lord-Magistrate is elected separately from the Syndics,

Geography

The Geography of the country is generally flat near the coastal cities, rolling hills further into the country-side, and with larger mountains on the fringes of the Namelater mountain range. The nation itself is made of the basins of three rivers the rtbsv, trgwrfa, and gsefd.