Shuell
Incorporated States of Shuell Shuell | |
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Flag | |
Motto: Shuell Stands Strong! | |
Anthem: Shuell, tis for thee. | |
| File:Shuell map.png Shuell, colored green, in the north-east portion of the IDU. | |
| Capital | Central |
| Official languages | English Shuellian (OOC: German) |
| Recognised regional languages | Algebronian (OOC: Italian) Vizalatti (OOC: Hungarian). |
| Ethnic groups (2018) | 65% Mainland Shuellian.
21% Vizalatti Shuellian. 7% Algebronian. 5% Iustonian. 2% Other. |
| Demonym(s) | Shuellian. On some occasions, colloquially referred to as "Shellties." |
| Government | Single Party Dictatorship. |
• President | Edwin Sloan |
• Chief Administrator | Richard Prescott |
• Chief of Directors | Johann Kruger |
| Establishment | |
• Kingdom of Shuell | c. 8th century |
• United Kingdom of Shuell | 1700 |
• Democratic People's Republic of Shuell | 1920 |
• Incorporated States of Shuell | 1973 |
| Population | |
• 2018 estimate | 37,000,000 |
| Currency | Credit (SHC) |
| Calling code | +990 |
The Incorporated States of Shuell, commonly called Shuell, is a capitalist one party dictatorship in the International Democratic Union. It is bordered on the north-west by Bears Armed, on the south by Algebron, by the east by the Alyeskan Sea and on the west by badlands. Shuellhas has an estimated population of 37 million.
The history of Shuell is one of war and tyranny. Originally the Kingdom of Shuell, it allied with the nearby Kingdom of Algebron, before soon uniting altogether into the United Kingdom of Shuell. This lasted for nearly 200 years. This would not last, however, and rising tensions between the monarchy and populace led to the Red Revolution in 1920, and the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Shuell (DPRS). The DPRS was a single-party communist state controlled by the Communist Party of Shuell. While the DPRS was officially an equal federation of the Socialist Republic of Shuell and the Democratic Republic of Algebron, in practice Shuell continued to dominate the union in nearly every way.
Economic and cultural stagnation led to the collapse of the DPRS in the early 70s, culminating in a civil war that ultimately led to an overthrow of the government. The civil war ended with Algebron splitting off from the DPRS into the communist People's Republic of Algebron, while Shuell became the capitalist Incorporated States of Shuell in 1973.
Today, the two states retain their governments and have settled into a cold war of constantly opposing each other diplomatically and politically, while direct armed conflict has remained minimal. Shuell is under the control of President Edwin Sloan - elected 5 years ago, the Shuellian Council of Directors, and the Kronos (also known as the Loyalist) party of Shuell. After relatively recent terror attacks shocked the nation, more and more authoritarian measures have been placed, such as a recent emigration ban. President Sloan had announced his plan on maintaining the safety and stability of the nation, increasing funding to both the Internal Security Division and the Shuellian military.
Etymology
The reason why Shuell is referred to as Shuell has since been lost to the annals of time. Shuellian historians believe that "Shuell" most likely came from one of the many warlords in Shuell's history.
The standard way to refer to a citizen of Shuell is as a "Shuellian."
History
It is extremely likely that the oldest Shuellian tribes migrated over as hunter-gatherers on a land bridge connecting Shuell to the rest of the continent, before becoming isolated when it was swallowed into the sea. These people generally consisted off a diet of fish, fruit, goat, sheep, goose, honey, and a kind of lichen known as "Yvesta moss." While a good portion of early Shuellian history is now gone, what can be gathered shows that for a long period of time various warlords ruled Shuell, before eventually getting unified as the Kingdom of Shuell under the warlord-turned-monarch Ludwig Stieler, who claimed to have been crowned by the Shard-being itself. Shuell expanded from their island home, establishing various towns and villages on the mainland, before coming into contact with the Kingdom of Algebron.
In 1500, the Kingdom of Shuell came into personal union with the Kingdom of Algebron upon the death of Algebron's King Isidoro. King Johann I of Shuell was Isidoro's first cousin and the next eligible male in the line of succession, due to the latter's lack of legitimate sons. The Shuellian kings ruled the kingdoms separately for 200 years until King Reinhold III declared the union of the two kingdoms on the personal union's anniversary in 1700, forming the United Kingdom of Shuell (UKS). Shuellian nobility took control in all Alebronian political offices, after abolishing the Algebronian court.
This was met with massive resistance in Algebron by the native aristocracy, who feared the loss of their privileges and independence. These fears proved to be prescient as Shuellian nobles took more and more power, and Algebronian nobles got pushed further to the sidelines. Increased tensions led to the Noble Revolt of 1731 by Algebronian nobles. This uprising failed miserably, as Shuellian troops crushed the rebel forces and stripped many of the rebellious nobles of their lands and titles. Shuellian nobles were inserted in their place and Shuellians became the dominant linguistic and cultural group of Algebronian high society.
This state of affairs would remain relatively stable until the 1880s when the UKS underwent massive, large-scale industrialization, causing huge ripples through Shuellian society. New conditions brought new ideas along with them, as the Enlightenment reached Shuell's shores.
Intellectuals in Shuell-proper and Algebron (now called "South Shuell") began adopting ideals of nationalism and liberalism. Algebronians, especially, took to the ideal of national sovereignty and independence movements became evermore prominent in society. However, not long after this wave a new ideas another set of ideals hit the shores of the UKS--the ideals of Karl Marx. By 1905 The Communist Manifesto was the most widely-read of banned political texts.
The rising tide of anti-monarchist forces pushed King Johann V into a difficult position--reform and give up some power or resist and risk losing everything. The king eventually relented and promulgated a new Basic Law (constitution) which re-established the Kingdom of Algebron within the framework of a federal monarchy, with the United Kingdom being renamed to the United Kingdoms of Shuell & Algebron and Algebronians being granted limited levels of self-rule. Parliaments were established in both countries and general elections were scheduled to take place.
However, the Basic Law still retained extensive powers to the monarch, including full control of the military and the power to disband both parliaments at will. The first legislative elections in 1908 occurred as scheduled, but not without accusations of intimidation and vote-theft in favor of the conservative and monarchist Royalist Party.
Many parties--including the (Marxist) Social Democratic Party--boycotted the elections, demanding that a new electoral law be instated promising secret ballots and weakening the king's ability to disband the parliaments. Even amidst the strife, liberals and socialists still gained a significant enough of a minority to prevent the Royalists from passing their agenda with ease. This prompted the king to call for new elections, hoping left-wing parties would implode from infighting and that anti-Marxist sentiment would result in more votes for the Royalists, but this didn't work out as planned. In fact, liberals and socialists increased their share of the vote to a majority in both countries.
These results led to the king disbanding the new parliaments before they even had the chance to sit, even sending the military to ensure that MPs couldn't refuse the disbandment and barricade themselves in. The closing of the parliaments led to massive unrest among the general populace with the Social Democrats calling for the abolition of the monarchy altogether. Troops were sent in to quell the protests, but refused to fire on demonstrators, with many even defecting to their side. With no recourse left, the king abdicated and fled with the royal family to the nearby badlands.
A new, temporary government was established in the monarchy's place, which called for new elections to establish a permanent government. The government was composed entirely of liberals and socialists, who both called for a republican government. The Provisional Government re-established parliament and attempted to establish order in the country. While some unrest was quelled by the king's abdication, issues still remained.
Workers held a strike in the capital square demanding better wages and shorter working hours. The Provisional Government accused the Social Democrats of being behind the strike (which turned out to be true) and sent in the military to suppress it. While the military had sided with the people against the king, they were now loyal to the revolutionary government and perceived the strikers as dangerous. 5 strikers were killed and 20 more were injured in the crackdown.
This brutal action quickly turned popular opinion against the new government and towards the Marxists. The Provisional Government were denounced as traitors to the revolution. Led by leader Giuseppe Luca, the Social Democratic Party stormed the parliamentary house in Shuell, overthrowing the government in a largely bloodless coup.
The Socialist Republic of Shuell was declared in 1910. The government was reorganized along Communist lines, with workers councils being established all over the country. All opposition parties were banned and a new legislature was inaugurated along the lines of democratic centralism. Capitalists fled the country en masse as industries were brought under worker control.
Revolutionary fervor was running high when Giuseppe Luca, the founder of the SRS, died of kidney failure in 1912. His death sent shockwaves through the country as the question arose of who would replace the architect of the socialist revolution. A power struggle ensued within the Social Democratic Party of Shuell & Algebron, which was won by Detlev Faust, a dark horse candidate unknown to wider society.
Upon Faust's rise, the country was renamed to the Democratic People's Socialist Republic of Shuell, and the SDPSA was renamed to the Communist Party of Shuell. Faust set about purging the party of everyone who'd opposed his candidacy, as well as removing Algebronians (who'd been granted equal status by Luca--himself Algebroni) from government offices and replacing them will loyal Shuellian party functionaries.
This kicked off further purges and terror in society as Faust endeavored to bring the political system completely under his control. By 1930, the country was completely under the control of Faust, who ruled as an autocrat. Faust managed to live to 1956 before dying at the age of 85. His death caused the total collapse of Shuell's political and economic system, as well as an explosion of ethnic tensions between Shuellians and Algebronians.
Nico Raskob was elected as Faust's replacement by the Communist Party Central Committee. Raskob, as a Shuellian nationalist and supremacist, supported a brutal crackdown on Algebronian rebels--up to, and including, mass killings. Raskob's brutality led to the outbreak of full-on civil war by 1967. Interestingly, the conflict was split entirely along ethnic lines, leading to schism in the Communist Party between Algebronians and Shuellians. However, there was also an ideological component to the schism, as Raskob also instituted a series of economic reforms (modeled on smaller-scale reforms instituted by Faust) that re-introduced private property and allowed large-scale private industry, effectively turning Shuell into a capitalist state.
This move incited ideological conflict within the Party, as hardliners (overwhelmingly Algebronians) clashed with 'reformists' (mostly Shuellians). The civil war continued on unabated with atrocities committed by both sides (ethnic cleansing and concentration camps were common) until 1970, when the Central Committee voted to remove Raskob from power due to his failure to quash the Algebronian rebellion and the continued strain it was placing on Shuell's resources. He was replaced by a moderate named Lenz Oberst, who negotiated a settlement to the war.
The peace led to Algebron regaining its independence after being part of Shuell for almost 300 years, as the People's Republic of Algebron was declared. The war had long-lasting political effects. The strain Shuell's economy (and the loss of half the country) cemented Shuell's transformation into a capitalist state, as the government officially abandoned Marxist ideology and the ruling party dropped the 'Communist' label, declaring the "Incorporated States of Shuell." Economic liberalization did not mean political liberalization, however, as Shuell has remained an authoritarian one-party state into the 21st century.
The 'reformist' group that rose out of the Communist Party of Shuell renamed itself to the Kronos Party (also commonly known as the loyalist party,) and quickly took power. The Committee of National Security and Restoration took power for 5 years, with executions of former communist party loyalists and collaborators in the streets being common, before one of the committee members, Roman Becker, took power as President. The CNSR was dismantled, and most of President Becker's close friends and family quickly filled in the vacant positions, along with anyone who gained the favor of Becker.
In 2015, President Becker began, in an attempt to solidify his power completely, to execute members of the Kronos Party who he saw as too ambitious, politically powerful, or disliked in general. This move was wildly unpopular, with Becker's loyal-to-himself death squads needing to be called to quell mobs and small uprisings. On March 9th, General Edwin Sloan (after building up a sizeable portion of both the Shuellian military and the civilian populace loyal to his cause) laid siege to the capital city of Central for 8 months. After Sloan and his men stormed the Administration House - a heavily fortified location where Becker and the last remnants of the military supporting him had retreated to, Becker was captured and capitulated, naming General Sloan the new president.
Becker himself was executed by President Sloan's own military saber on December 9th. During the time after this, supporters of Becker along with his family and friends were demoted or removed from power, a bloodless equivalent of the CSNR's purge. President Sloan still remains popular with the general populace and the military, thanks to his origins as a "nobody" who enlisted into the army, as well as his generosity towards loyal military veterans. On February 27th, 2017, Sloan's wife, Adelaide, was killed in a failed assassination attempt against President Sloan by the United Democratic Front, a radical left-wing revolutionary group. Following the death of his wife and bombings in Central, President Sloan began enacting harsher and harsher policies against anyone plotting against the Incorporated States of Shuell, along with increasing surveillance on the civilian populace, and increasing funding towards Internal Security and the military.
Geography
The Shuellian archipelago sports a rugged coastline and many low, rolling hills. Faults and fold axes are found, along with granite, certain kinds of sandstone, ophiolite, gabbro and peridotite. As well, oil-rich sediments have been found in the seas surrounding Shuell. On clearer winter nights, the northern lights are visible.
The climate of Shuell is of the subpolar oceanic climate, that features mild summers, large amounts of storms, little sunshine, and semi-common snowfall. There are on average around 3 months of temperature around 50 °F (10 °C.) Temperatures never fall under 26.6 °F (-3.0 °C), however, and in the warmest months the maximum temperature is below 63 °F (17 °C,) and in the coldest months the highs are just above freezing, with the colds just under. Temperatures over 68 °F (20 °C) are generally treated as extreme weather events, even in the summer. In general, the climate is moderate.
The harsh conditions on Shuell have limited the total number of plant species to about 380. Native trees such as rowan and crab apple are only found in a few isolated places such as cliffs. The flora is dominated by Arctic-alpine plants, wild flowers, moss and lichen. Spring squill, buck's-horn plantain, Stieler lovage, roseroot, various grains, and sea campion are abundant, especially in sheltered places. The most iconic flora present, however, is Yvesta moss, which was and still is commonly used in Shuellian meals.
Many kinds of seabird colonies are found on Shuell, including the Alyeskan puffin, storm-petrel, red-throated diver, northern gannet and great skua. Some rarer birds have been spotted, such as the black-browed albatross, snow goose, Shuell wren, Fragment wren, and Shuell starling, the last 3 listed being endemic. The most iconic domesticated animals on the Shuellian archipelago are the Shuell Sheepdog (also known as the "Shelltie",) Yvesta Goose, Stieler Sheep, and Shuell Goose- all of which are noticeably smaller than their non-native variants.
Demographics
Population
65 percent of the general Shuellian population are "mainland" Shuellians, who grew up on the largest portion of the archipelago. 21% of Shuellians are known as "Vizalatti" Shuellians, born on the smaller islands of the archipelago. 7% of the population are Algebronian - most of them second or third generation immigrants who've fled from Algebron for various reasons. 5% of the population are Iustonian, hailing from the tropical country of Iustos, a former colony of Shuell. The remaining 2% are immigrants from other nations - due to the nature of Shuell's government, this number has stayed at a steady 2-3 percent since the 1970s.
Language
The two official languages of Shuell are English and Shuellian (OOC: German), with two regionally recognized languages being Algebronian (OOC: Italian) and Vizalatti (OOC: Hungarian.)
Religion
The state religion of Shuell is Szilankism, which is taught in schools though not mandatory to worship. A brief explanation of it is that before the big bang, an "other-dimensional being" was destroyed by another similar being. However, instead of dying, this being fragmented in innumerable fragments, or shards. Some of these pieces landed on the archipelago where Shuell now is. In pre-Stieler times, an unknown person referred to as the First Szilankist discovered one of these shards, and came into contact with the consciousness of this god. However, due to being split and isolated since the beginning of the universe, the god's consciousness was nearly "faded", but managed to convince the First Szilankist through visions to find their scattered pieces (which existed infinitely small in everything, though with individual/disconnected shards varying in size from pebble to boulder)and bring them back into existence, where it will lead those deemed honorable and valorous into an eternal paradise.
The Szilankist Teachings are one of the only still existing works from this era, and have been studied constantly by Szilankist priests, many of whom risk their lives in tracking down what they believe to be fragments of the shard-being. The average Szilankist worships by praying to this Shard-being before every meal and in the morning and evening, and place offerings of wooden figurines, animal bone, and talismans at shrines. More fanatical Szilankists exist, however, many of whom practice animal sacrifices and self-mutilation in order to "free the portion of the shard-being in them." Szilankist churches are found in every town in Shuell, and are known as fragmentums.
Szilankist Priests speak what is known as fragment-speak, which is taught in fragmentums to loyal followers and is the language used in prayers. Linguists believe the fragment-speak is a warped version of Old Shuellian.
Race
Mainland Shuellians tend to on average be long skulled, very tall, fair skinned, with somewhat wavy blond, brown or red hair and light colored eyes. Vizalatti Shuellians differ from mainlanders by having a darker hair color, shorter stature, a rounder skull, and growing more facial hair.
Economic
Shuell is capitalist in nature, employing elements of both authoritarian and state capitalism in their economy. While private corporations exist, there's a close relationship between them and the state, often taking lucrative contracts from the government. Though individual rights in Shuell are repressed, most economic rights and market forces are maintained and supported. State-owned enterprises in Shuell are common.
The largest and most prominent employers in Shuell are:
1. Shuellian State Company
2. Souller GMbH
3. North Light Technologies
4. Apex Manufacturing
5. Sailbetter Food Co.
Culture
Shuellian culture strongly values discipline, loyalty to the state, honor, diligence, valor, and hospitality. Many of these values evolved from the various warrior codes developed in Shuell during the 11th century. While these warrior codes had evolved over the centuries, many core values remain the same.
There is a common overlap between the ethoses of Shuell and Szilankism. Followers of the Szilankist faith tend to value charity, hospitality, honor, humility, diligence, and temperance.
Hospitality in Shuell
The Shuellian value of hospitality is theorized to have come from a common practices during harsh winters, where travelers were given shelter and food for the night. Hospitality is an important part of Shuellian tradition when receiving guests. Bread and salt also remains associated with hospitality in Shuell. Although bread and salt commonly is only used in formal or religious ceremony, the expression "with bread and salt" is used in the same vein as "with open arms." During traditional Szilankist holidays, a seat is left open in the case anyone requires a place to stay.
In the Szilankist faith, hospitality is a religious requirement. At most if not all Szilankist fragmentums, there is a community kitchen known as a Konyha. In a Konyha, anybody regardless of faith or background is able to get a free meal. This meal generally consists of some form of lichen, potatoes, and lean meat, save for certain holidays.