Dunnmaar
Dunnmaar | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| First Habitation | c. 2000 BCE |
| Establishment as Capital of Jormundea | 385 CE |
| Incorporated (in Ottonia) | 1872 CE |
| Proclamation of the Dunnmaar Autonomous Republic | 1936 CE |
| Founded by | Unknown |
| Government | |
| • Type | City Council and Directorate |
| • Body | Dunnmaar Metropolitan Council |
| • Director of Oversight | Soren Wyrnur (Labor Party) |
| Area | |
| • City | 3,872 km2 (1,495 sq mi) |
| • Land | 3,008 km2 (1,161 sq mi) |
| • Water | 864 km2 (334 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 19,136 km2 (7,388 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 20 m (70 ft) |
| Population (2022)(estimated) | |
| • City | 5,352,223 |
| • Density | 1,400/km2 (3,600/sq mi) |
| (metropolitan) | |
| Demonym | Dunnmaarish |
Dunnmaar is a city, metropolitan area, and constituent republic in the Federation of Ottonian Republics. It is the country's second-largest single city and metropolitan area by population. The city was one of the principle industrial hubs and commercial centers of a succession of states, starting with the Dunnmaar Confederation following the collapse of the Ottonian Empire, then as a part of the Kingdom of Tyrrslynd, then in the Ottonian Federation, and then North Ottonia. As a constituent republic within the FOR, Dunnmaar is autonomous in its internal affairs, and interacts directly with the other republics and the federal government, rather than being a municipality within a republic.
The city is one of the country's industrial hubs as well as a major port, linking the mountainous interior of the country with the Jormundsea, and plays host to a number of North Ottonian enterprises, including the state enterprise Vulksaron, the cooperative heavy industrial company Svaartaron, and the headquarters of North Star Freight & Shipping. This significance in industry also means that historically Dunnmaar has been a hotbed of the Ottonian labor movement, and to this day the cities politics are notably dominated by left-wing parties, even by the standards of North Ottonia.
Dunnmaar's economic and cultural footprint takes up much of the southeastern coast of the Jormundsea and reaches partway up-river on the Dunn River to the ancient city of Yorwyk. The metropolitan area is divided into nine boros: Nuboro, Aldboro, Svaartaron, Bronnswyk, Grayhuld, Aldpurt, Erikspurt, Oakwyk, and Haensley. While the municipal governments of the city of Dunnmaar proper are situated in Aldboro, the Republican government is based in Grayhuld out of facilities adjacent to the historical Grahulm Castle.
Geography & Climate
Dunnmaar is situated at the mouth of the Dunn River where it meets the southeastern corner of the Jormundsea, where the Bluwaald Mountains give way to foothills and then coastal plain. The advantageous position gives Dunnmaar both a set of natural harbors that have long been the city's advantage, but an easy entrepot to the interior, with relative shelter from the storms that wrack the mouth of the Jormundsea where it gives way to the Salacian and Boreian Oceans.
However, despite the comparative calm, Dunnmaar does receive frequent cold, Boreian winds from the north, as well as humid air from the west, combined with the climatic effects of the nearby mountains. As a result, Dunnmaar experiences a high volume of precipitation year-round, receiving frequent, steady rains during its cool summers and frequent, if light snows during it's relatively-mild, but still cold, winters.
History
Settlement in the area dates back to prior to the arrival of Latins in what is now Ottonia. Following the Latin conquest of much of the Ottonian Salacian Coast and southern Jormundsea, Dunnmaar became one of the principle cities of the province of Eona Ulterior, with robust city walls guarding a valuable commercial and fishing port for contacting barbarian tribes further north. Following the Latin retreat in the 5th century CE, Dunnmaar established a hegemony in the southern Jormundsea and and Eona regions, creating the Dunnmaarish Confederation. The Confederation would accept the suzerainty of Otto the Invincible in the 9th century CE, but once Otto died and his empire contracted significantly under his descendents, the Dunnmaarish increasingly found themselves able to act independently. By the 13th century, Dunnmaar was the largest city and crown jewel of the Jormundsea League, a maritime empire that contained the whole of the Jormundsea and reached its tendrils into Eona. However, this increasingly brought it into conflict with its expansionist western and southern neighbors from Tyrrslynd, Draakur, and Onneria.
By the 14th century, the pressure was causing the League to crack, with many member cities flipping to Tyrrslynd's side. In an effort to stop the fighting and secure a less-disadvantageous peace, the lords of Dunnmaar, the House of Grahulm, secured a dynastic marriage with the Tyrrslynder ruling family. Draakur, Tyrrslynd, and Jormundea would be a unified kingdom for the next 400 years, expanding to hold Skraelingia and Corvaea as well. The next four centuries would be fairly peaceable ones for the southern Jormundsea Coast. However, divergences in the interests of the urban Dunnmaarish sphere, the maritime Jormundean people, and the other eastern Tyrrslynder people from the Salacian Coastal areas would eventually prove too vast to ignore.
In the late 1700's, inspired in part by the teachings of Reytled and its pagan revival movement, Jormundea, Dunnmaar specifically, Skraelingia, and Corvaea had erupted in revolt against the Tyrrslynder crown. The Jormundean Revolution would lead to the independence of the Jormundsea Republic (with Dunnmaar as its principal city once more), the Skraeling Republic, and the Corvaean State. The Revolution would also inspire the successful revolt of the neighboring Kaamrykers against their Ostmarker overlords. The Northern States, as they came to be called, were key to leading the effort of Ottonian Unification, and their elites would be well-represented in the ensuing Ottonian Federation, even as industrialization transformed the region, transforming Dunnmaar more than any other city into a bustling hub of industry. This also meant that Dunnmaar quickly became one of the centers of Ottonia's nascent labor movement, including seeing the foundation of the first chapter of the Ottonian Labor Front.
War would come again in the early 20th century when the Ottonian Civil War broke out, followed not long after by the Great Ottonian War. Dunnmaar was hit particularly hard by Ghantish troops during the latter, enduring a 2-year long siege that would eventually be broken with the help of Eonese and Skraeling forces. Initially left on their own by the distintegrating federal government, Dunnmaarish people and forces declared the "Free Republic of Dunnmaar" as they stood against the Ghantish and South Ottonians. By the time the dust settled in 1943, Dunnmaar was in ruins, and it would take more than a decade of concentrated rebuilding efforts before the city returned to glory, especially as the city played host to significant fighting during the Ottonian Revolution between Popular Front and Ottonian National Party partisans.
Under the subsequently-ratified New Foundation of Ottonia constitution, Dunnmaar was recognized as a republic alongside other larger political entities, forming a government as the Dunnmaar Autonomous Republic.
Politics
Metropolitan Council
Dunnmaar is currently governed by a pair of assemblies, with most legislative duties falling to the directly-elected Metropolitan Council, consisting of 1 representative for every 50,000 residents of the city for a total of more than 130 members. Elections are held every two years on March 15th.
Directorate
Executive duties are fulfilled by the Directorate, a set of ten department executives plus the Director of Oversight, who is the nominal head of the body and is responsible for overseeing and holding the others accountable. Each of the Directors is immediately responsible for one of the city's major service departments. The directors are appointed by the Metropolitan Council but must be confirmed by a direct confirmation election every three years that they remain in office.
Represented on the Directorate are the following departments.
Department of Transportation
See Also: Dunnmaar Metropolitan Transit System, Grenbyke
The Department of Transportation is responsible for all roads in Dunnmaar, as well as for running and maintaining the extensive Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) and its accompanying infrastructure. The DoT is also responsible for traffic control and is directly responsible for the Dunnmaar Port Authority, making the DoT one of the most critical departments in the Directorate.
Department of Public Safety
The Department of Public Safety is responsible for the Dunnmaar City Watch, which performs fire fighting, conflict-and-crisis deescalation, law enforcement, search-and-rescue, and, in emergencies, civil defense duties. In addition, the DPS also coordinates closely with most of the other departments to help enforce their regulations (usually in regards to repeat-offenders or obstinate citizens), as well as the Department of Health to ensure those in crisis are routed to appropriate care.
Department of Health
The Department of Health is responsible for the enforcement of health, sanitation and safety regulations, as well as running and administering the Dunnmaar Republican Health & Medical Service (DRHMS), which operates the city's hospitals and clinics and oversees certification and inspection of private medical practices.
Department of Housing
The Department of Housing is responsible for the administration of the city's public housing stock, as well as ensuring that privately-built housing is built to proper safety and accessability standards, as well as inspecting all housing.
Department of Education
The Department of Education is responsible for the administration and operation of the city's extensive public school network, as well as for accrediting the city's few private schools. The Department of Education is primarily concerned with schools administering the Standard Education, but the city's universities also fall within the Department's purview, although in practice their operations are largely autonomous.
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor fulfills the dual functions of overseeing staffing for the DAR's government agencies, as well as acting as a mediator between unions and workplaces throughout the DAR.
Department of Justice
The Department of Justice administers the court system of the DAR and works closely with the Department of Public Safety to enforce the law.
Department of Culture
The Department of Culture is responsible for the funding and encouragement of the arts, public discourse, and entertainment within the DAR. It also administers institutions such as sporting venues, theaters, opera houses, and public parks.
Department of Energy
The Department of Energy is mostly responsible for sourcing electricity for Dunnmaar, including the operation of the city's own few power plants, and its other electrical infrastructure. There are relatively few powerplants within the DAR itself, which means that besides internal infrastructure, much of the Department of Energy's job involves coordinating with neighboring republics to ensure enough power is being generated to see to the DAR's needs.
Department of Public Works
The Department of Public Works is, in many ways, a catch-all agency that oversees welfare/social safetynet programs, infrastructure or civil engineering projects, or public policies or programs that fall outside the purview of any of the other agencies.
Party Politics
Dunnmaar has historically been a center of the Ottonian labor movement, and as a result, although no one party maintains a stranglehold on electoral politics, the Ottonian Labor Front (OLF) has only rarely left power (and only for very short periods) in the Dunnmaarish government since the declaration of the Dunnmaar Autonomous Republic in 1935. Presently, the ADP runs a coalition government with the OLF, a coalition that mirros the national-level government.
Demographics
Dunnmaar constitutes Ottonia's second-largest mainland city after Onneria (City), with a total metropolitan population in excess of 5.3 million. Due to the hilly topography of the area and restricted space in which to build, the city has been constructed in an extremely dense manner, only absorbing the peripheral boros of Bronnswyk and Haensley in the past half-century. In addition, due to the city's nature as a hub of commerce, it frequently experiences influxes of newcomers, and is one of the more cosmopolitan cities of Ottonia.
Ethnicity & Language
In addition to attracting foreigners (especially from other Kiso nations (to the point that Dunnmaar has the third-highest foreign-born population in Ottonia after Onneria and Koppenhulm), Dunnmaar experiences a high degree of diversity in terms of Ottonian ethno-linguistic groups, with an estimated million of its inhabitants identifying as either ethnically Eonese or speaking Eonese as a first language, with another 700,000 Skraelings and 400,000 estimated Corvaeans.
Economy
Like all constituent republics of the Ottonian Federation, Dunnmaar has legally abolished private property, and maintains a legal distinction between private property (that is property intended for income generation or economic production) and personal property. With that said, Dunnmaar has some of the more liberal economic policies in Ottonia, and much of its economy is dominated by worker's cooperatives and family businesses, with state enterprises only predominating in sectors that present natural monopolies, and public services.
Industry
The single largest employer within Dunnmaar after the Metropolitan Government is the Svaartaron company, one of Ottonia's premier defense contractors and manufacturers, particularly of machinery, although the city also plays host to significant facilities for Vulksaron, the Ottonian state enterprise, and direct competitor to Svaartaron. The city also holds one of the largest offices for Ottonian technology firm LiberSoft and the international logistics firm North Star Freight & Shipping.