Nerotysia
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The Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union Ȿàzvi Sácijàldèmákràcki Nirzàcki Nyrtengiai Szociáldemokrata Unió Črnazska Socijaldemokratska unija Земљоре Социјалдемократска унија Feumerische Sozialdemokratische Union Ziemorzski Społeczno-Demokratyczna Związek | |
|---|---|
| Motto: "Nè nèćàʝiji jè nèzimji" (Pelkish) "To not go forward is to go backward" | |
| Anthem: Nácijǔ, Ispà Zvèdà (Pelkish) "Tonight, Underneath the Stars" | |
| Location of Nerotysia in Orda Location of Nerotysia in Orda | |
| Capital | Shynka |
| Largest | Victaža |
| Official languages | |
| Recognised national languages | see Languages of Nerotysia |
| Ethnic groups (2015) | 25.71% Pelkish 18.11% Tyrish 14.45% Nyrossi 9.32% Eslian 8.26% Laprian 5.59% Celniki 4.90% Daklian 4.18% Apnian 3.29% Snuvian 1.97% Okranic 4.22% others |
| Demonym(s) | Nerotysian |
| Government | Factional socialist federal republic |
• Premier | Izaak Żernowski |
| Lara Glasnović | |
| Béla Zsolnay | |
| Sofija Polković | |
| Independence from Kolintha | |
• Declared | 5 December 1921 |
| 3 December 1922 | |
• End of the Revolutionary War | 5 April 1924 |
| Area | |
• | 423,750 km2 (163,610 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2015 estimate | 237,202,093 (3rd) |
• Density | 559/km2 (1,447.8/sq mi) (2nd) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2016 estimate |
• Total | $11.84 trillion (1st) |
• Per capita | $49,922 |
| Gini |  .26low |
| HDI (2015) |  .92very high |
| Currency | Kapka (NRK) |
| Time zone | Peninsular Ordan |
| Driving side | left |
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The Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union, more commonly known as Nerotysia, is a Marxist state in northern Ordis. It is the second most populous nation in the world with over 237 million inhabitants. The Social-Democratic Union is a factional republic, ruled by the Revolutionary Nerotysian Labor Party (RNLP), which functions as a democratic "party of parties" in which numerous informal factions compete for power, thereby making Nerotysian politics are similar to those of multiparty democracies. Officially, the nation is a federal union of 233 city-republics, with the government exercising jurisdiction over a further 6 embryonic republics and 4 all-union territories.
The first peoples to inhabit the Nerotysian peninsula were the Nyrossi, who settled the fertile plains of the interior. The arrival of slavic tribes from the west during the 7th century BCE brought major conflict with the Nyrossi. By the collapse of the Acheric Empire, both the peninsular slavs (who became Ordis' east slavs) and the Nyrossi had consolidated into small city-states and kingdoms. Several of these city-states developed trade routes with the eastern world, and became very wealthy, most notably Victaža, Celnikar, Ozika and Rupalvik. Out of those, Victaža rose to dominate these cities until the 13th century, when the Kannic Keiserate began raiding the peninsula. This paved the way for the rise of the Shynka as a peninsular power - by the 15th century it had expelled the Kans from the peninsula. In 1502, an ascendant Shynka proclaimed the Nyrossic Tsardom, which would eventually include the entire peninsula and much of northern Orda. The Tsardom was a great power of the early-modern period, but declined during the 18th century before being subjugated by the Kolish Empire in 1789.
The Nerotysian Revolution in 1921 overthrew Kolish rule and established the Social-Democratic Union as it exists today. As a newly sovereign nation-state, Nerotysia played a key role in the Second Endwar, defeating the Second Kolish Empire and the Spanish Imperium and establishing numerous communist states in the liberated territories of northern Orda and western Escar. Leading the communist bloc during the Cold War, Nerotysia saw many of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century, including the launch of the first man-made satellite into space and the first man in space.
Today, Nerotysia retains its superpower status, possessing the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and the largest defense budget, as well as the second-largest standing army. It is a founding member of the League of Ordic Communists, and is a permanent member of the Ordic League Security Council. It is also a recognized nuclear state and possesses the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal, smaller only than the arsenal of it's geopolitical rival, Khornera.
Etymology
The English word for the peninsula is derived from the Pelkish name, Nirzàcijà, which developed as a compound of two prior words. The first was Nir, the Pelkish name for the peoples who inhabited the peninsula before the arrival of slavs, the Nyrossi. The second is Àcijà, the Pelkish word for 'ocean.' Thus Nirzàcijà can be most directly translated to "Nyrossi by the sea," which would have developed in the pre-peninsular Slavic tribes as a name for the lands to the east. After the Slavic migration, the name stuck despite the outdated meaning.
History
Politics
The Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union is a socialist republic in which the ruling Avantist, multi-tendency single-party holds supreme power over state institutions, which are organized around the principle of council democracy. The Revolutionary Nerotysian Labor Party (abbreviated in English as RNLP) is composed of hundreds of localized cells known as Cadres, which compete for popular influence and power. The cadres dominate political life in Nerotysia's 233 constituent republics, and elect the national Party leadership (known as the "Inner party") which dominates national politics and the federal government.
The Chief Secretary of the RNLP Central Committee, as the head of the Party legislature, fulfills the role of head-of-government for Nerotysia, while the head-of-state is usually considered to be Nerotysia's Premier, who is elected from the members of Nerotysia's executive council, the Directory. The RNLP General Secretary also plays a significant role in national politics, as the head of the administrative link between the Party and the government and the director of foreign affairs of the nation.
The Revolutionary Party
The Revolutionary Nerotysian Labor Party is the ruling multi-tendency political party of the Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union. Though it’s unity has waxed and waned, it retains exclusive control of the Nerotysian government and political institutions to this day. The RNLP is organized under the principle, developed by Viktor Chalyar, of Avantism, which demands intra-party competition and popular control over party operations. New members join Cadres, which are small, localized cells responsible for popularizing Marxist theory among a chosen demographic of workers, and representing those workers' interests in the wider party. Before the revolution, Cadres operated quasi-independent of the rest of the party to thwart police investigations, and they have retained much of this independence to this day. The design of the party fosters a democratic political pluralism in the central party organs, and as such numerous political factions compete for power in a manner very similar to multiparty democracies. Chalyar coined the term "party of parties" to describe this phenomenon, which he considered key to true socialist democracy.
The Cadres elect representatives to send to the Congress, the highest party organ, responsible for electing and overseeing the rest of the central party organs. The Congress directly elects the Central Committee and the General Secretary, the two primary organs of the party. The Central Committee elects the Political Committee, the Perpetual Committee, and numerous General Committees, Leading Committees, and Special Committees which hold day-to-day legislative duties. Together, the Congress, Secretariat and Central Committee apparatus constitutes the Inner party, which describes the party's central organs. The cadres are said to make up the Outer party.
Government
The Premier of Nerotysia is the country's official head-of-state, elected from the nation's executive council, the Directory. Unlike the official legislature, the executive bureaucracy wields both de-jure and de-facto authority, containing most of Nerotysia's administrative agencies and possessing some leeway in the interpretation and implementation of Party policy. The Directory contains twelve major Directorates, which administer various services and oversee the country's many numbered Departments. The executive bureaucracy also features numerous State Committees, which are advisory bodies that assist the Directorates with interpretation and implementation of policy. Some of these Committees are nearly as important as the Directorates, however, and oversee their own independent bureaucracy. The Directorates and important State Committees are listed below alongside their purview, ordered by their age.
- State Progress Committee (21 December 1921) - technological progress, science, space exploration, officially "Advancement of the Revolution"
- Defense Directorate (21 December 1921) - military affairs, officially "Defense of the Revolution"
- Security Directorate (21 December 1921) - police, intelligence, counter-terrorism, officially "Defense of the Proletariat"
- Education Directorate (21 December 1921) - education, financial aid, student visas, officially "Enlightenment of the Proletarian Youth"
- Labour Directorate (21 December 1921) - industry, public works, manufacturing, mining, officially "Administration of Production"
- State Committee for Justice (3 January 1922) - oversight of the judicial system, supreme court, officially "Peace and Stability within the Revolution"
- Transportation Directorate (12 January 1927) - transportation infrastructure, air traffic, shipping, officially "Administration of Transportation"
- Agriculture Directorate (12 January 1927) - agricultural practices and technologies, officially "Administration of Agriculture"
- State Committee for Culture (12 January 1927) - culture, artistic outreach, officially "Administration of Cultural Welfare"
- Border Directorate (29 February 1929) - visas, border control, officially "Administration of the Borders"
- State Committee for Commerce (20 January 2002) - foreign trade, finance, officially "Administration of Trade and Finance"
Military
The All-Union Revolutionary Defense Forces (AURDF) of Nerotysia are divided into the Revolutionary Army (AURA), Revolutionary Navy (AURNA), and the Revolutionary Air Force (AURAF). As of 2016, there are a total of 1,510,000 personnel on active duty, with a further 640,016 personnel in reserve. All youths are required to undergo twelve weeks of basic military training once they reach the age of 18, and then can freely choose to serve in the military or leave.
Nerotysia has the second-largest nuclear stockpile in Ordis. It maintains the largest and most capable navy in the world, with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage, the largest aircraft carrier fleet, and the largest nuclear submarine fleet. It's army is highly-trained and well equipped, designed to defend Nerotysian territory and "expand the revolution" abroad. The air force is large and well-funded, and is often considered to be Ordis' most potent air force.
Administrative Divisions
The Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union is extremely federalized, and is divided into 233 semi-autonomous Revolutionary Socialist Republics, in addition to six Embryonic Republics and four All-Union Territories, which enjoy varying degrees of autonomy. The 233 Republics are considered to be the core of the Nerotysian state, while the Embryonic Republics and Union Territories were annexed after the revolution and are often considered extraneous territory. The Embryonic Republics possess some autonomy, similar to the RSRs, but they are largely administered by the federal government, a status-quo which is maintained partially due to their proximity to the border and their importance in border defense. The territories, meanwhile, possess little or no autonomy, due to their small or nonexistent permanent populations.
The borders of the Republics and territories are outlined below, with the Embryonic Republics highlighted in red and the All-Union Territories highlighted in blue.
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Demographics
The 2015 census recorded Nerotysia's population as 237,202,093 people, making the country the second-most populous nation in Ordis, behind only Khornera. There are 102 females for every 100 males in Nerotysia, and the average age in the peninsula is 44.5. Nerotysia experienced its demographic transition beginning in the late 1920s, and extending into the early 1970s, interrupted by the mass deaths of the Second Endwar. During this time, the population nearly tripled, breaking 200 million by the late 1980s.
Nerotysia's average life expectancy is 83.797 overall, 81.623 for males and 86.331 for females. The country has maintained a literacy rate of 99.9% since the early 1980s, and roughly 95.3% of Nerotysians are connected to the internet. The peninsula is heavily urbanized, with more than 97% of Nerotysians living in urban or suburban areas. The top twenty cities in Nerotysia account for 76.7% of the population, if their metropolitan areas are included. Population density is 559 people per square kilometer, the highest for any large country in Ordis.
Ethnicity and Language
The Nerotysian peninsula is ethnically and linguistically diverse, and for most of its history was dominated by disparate city-states, each boasting their own unique culture and language. Nerotysia is home to nine major ethnic groups, hundreds of minor ethnicities and local dialects, and recognizes six official languages. The Nyrossi are the oldest inhabitants of the peninsula and are the wealthiest group, making up 14.45% of the population. Pelks and Tyrs are the two largest ethnic groups on the peninsula, making up 26.71% and 19.11% of the population, respectively. Pelkish is the primary language of business and government, although Nyrossi is also widely spoken.
Most of Nerotysia's ethnic groups are Slavic, however the Nyrossi are distant descendants of the ancient Escaris, and the country is also home to a significant portion of Kans, who are ethnically Nordic. The prevalence of Pelkish has been cemented by the Nerotysian education system, which teaches the language to all students of the peninsula, usually alongside one or more local dialects.
Religion
The Nerotysian government practices state atheism, and views religion as incompatible with the Marxist spirit of scientific materialism. The RNLP embarked on an anti-religious crusade in the 1920s and 30s, and as a result, a vast majority of modern Nerotysians identify as atheist or agnostic. Orthodox Christians, once dominant on the peninsula, have been reduced to a significant minority of the population, and other religions are even smaller.
Uniquely, most Nerotysians engage in a pseudo-religious movement known as the Cult of Science, which derives its name from the set of policies and programs implemented in the 1920s by the RNLP in order to eradicate religion. The Cult is characterized by a devotion to, and worship of, science and technological progress, and a quasi-mythical belief structure surrounding that worship. Prominent scientific minds are idolized on the peninsula, similar to Saints in Christian religions, and important scientific figures of history are also glorified by individuals and the state. Nerotysian burial practices are one of the most marked examples of the Cult - funerals are strictly secular, and corpses are not buried, but permanently frozen, in the hopes that science might one day find a way to revive them. Nerotysians on the verge of death anticipate reawakening in the distant future to enjoy a technological paradise and eternal life, an atheistic form of afterlife.
The state actively sponsors the Cult in a variety of ways, and encourages the religious and irreligious alike to adopt scientific practices. As a result, even most religious Nerotysians have incorporated the Cult into their own belief structures, occasionally creating new branches of old faiths which profess a devotion to both spirituality and rational thinking. By 2015, 98.4% of Nerotysians reported that they "followed scientific principles in their thought and spirituality," indicating near-universal adherence to various aspects of the Cult.
Geography
Topography
Nerotysia primarily contains two distinct topographies. Along the coast of the peninsula stretch vast swathes of temperate mixed forests, dominated by coniferous spruces and broadleaf oaks. Meanwhile, the inland areas of the peninsula are highly mountainous, and so most of these areas are either tundra or subalpine coniferous forests with very limited biodiversity.
The massive Valkan mountain chain, which stretches across much of northern Ordis, terminates in Nerotysia and gives it its distinctive mountain ranges. There are many dormant and active volcanoes on the peninsula, and one of them reaches to one of the highest points in Ordis, Mount Svarog.
Nerotysia's coastlines are extensive, sweeping along both the Haderic Ocean to the north and the vitally important Neptic Ocean to the east and south. The peninsula is crisscrossed by thousands of rivers and streams, such as the Ciniska, the Lilkas and the Oklast. Accompanying these are equally massive numbers of lakes and other inland bodies of water, giving Nerotysia an abundance of accessible liquid fresh water, one of the highest abundances in the region. The nation's capital, Shynka, is centered around the prominent Lake Kyska.
Climate
Despite it's small size, the Nerotysian peninsula experiences a small array of different climatic features, although several common traits characterize the entire peninsula. Most of the population resides in the relatively temperate southern and eastern regions, which can be said to experience four seasons and enjoy a moderately warm summer season. However, even these temperate areas are subject to extremely cold winters, and often severe snowstorms which can engulf swathes of the country at a time. These temperate areas, stretching from Ivizov in the west to Victaža and Celnikar in the east, largely conform to a cool-summer humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb), although certain coastal areas could be more accurately called oceanic or subtropical.
The central mountains and northern reaches of the peninsula are dominated by subarctic and polar climates (Köppen climate classification Dfc or ET), featuring exceptionally cold winters and very little seasonal variations. Some of Nerotysia's northern islands support glaciers, and the northern city of Janiclaw is one of the coldest urban centers in Ordis.
Precipitation ranges from average to heavy in the south of the peninsula, due to the country's proximity to the climate patterns of the central and northern Neptic. Victaža, for example, experiences high levels of rain and snowfall throughout the year, and the Nyrossi-dominated areas between Shynka and Farsakely are also rather wet. The north tends to be drier than the south due to the rain shadow cast by the Valkan chain, however it too can experience harsh snowstorms in the winter.
Economy
The Nerotysian Social-Democratic Union has a market socialist economy which relies on the nation's vast manufacturing and service sectors and high productivity. According to the Ordic Economic Bureau, Nerotysia has a GDP of approximately $11.84 trillion, making it the largest economy in the world, closely followed by Khornera. The Nerotysian Kapka is one of Ordis' two largest reserve currencies, alongside the Khorneran Crown.
Nerotysia's economy grew rapidly throughout the 1920s and 30s, and decentralization after the Second Endwar fueled Nerotysia's rapid rise as an economic superpower. The Ordic Grand Depression in 1992 devastated Nerotysia's stagnating GDP and productivity, and forced the RNLP to implement a series of sweeping reforms, changing to the current mixed-market system under Rakoszalyan market socialism. These reforms spurred a second boom in the Nerotysian economy, reversing the economic malaise of the previous decade.
Nerotysia is one of Ordis' primary exporters of rare earth metals, especially dysprosium. Aside from those, manufactured goods such as various electronics, plastics, glass, cement, and military equipment make up large portions of Nerotysian exports. Raw resources such as coal continue to be major exports, although Nerotysian coal reserves have declined dramatically since the early 20th century. Newer resources, such as natural gas and uranium, in addition to silica, are beginning to outpace coal as major sources of trade income for the nation.
Most of the nation's imports are centered around agriculture. Wheat, corn, coffee, and fruits are all imported in massive amounts from countries such as Gran Altiplano. Beef and livestock are also significant imports.
The private sector is highly regulated and constitutes around 70% of the economy, with state-owned industry and government activity making up the other 30%. Entertainment and cultural services make up a large chunk of the nation's service sector, and Nerotysia's entertainment industries constitute some of the largest in Ordis. Ràdàćà International is one of the world's largest broadcasting companies, and the Susa Company is one of the largest and most recognized media conglomerates in the world.
Culture
Nerotysia contains almost two-dozen major ethnic groups and more than a hundred minor ethnicities, a product of the peninsula's history as a center of trade and migration. The Nyrossi kingdoms of the interior developed a rich folk tradition, and Nyrossi writers and musicians commonly drew inspiration from rural themes and popular folklore. Nyrossi universities became famous for a tradition of "Népitanulás," literally "folk-learning," which engaged students in the local cultures of the commoners. The Slavic kingdoms of the coasts, meanwhile, developed under the influence of both eastern and western traditions, as a result of their extensive trade networks and empires. The Pelkish and Tyrish city-states competed to build the largest and most ornate architectural wonders, and rich literary scenes evolved in many of the cities, some of the earliest in the world. Nerotysia has historically been called "the land of letters and songs," due to its immense literary and musical output, and its influence on wider Ordic cultural canon.
Following the Nerotysian Revolution, the new social-democratic government sought to both reclaim traditional Nerotysian culture and reform it in a more scientific and materialist direction. The social-engineering projects of the revolutionary party were often enacted through the Education Directorate, which lists "cultural education" as one of its primary concerns. In 1927, the State Committee for Culture was established, giving party planners even further control over the development of cultural life on the peninsula. The eradication of religion in Nerotysia has been heralded as the greatest success of the party's social engineers, however critics contend that their efforts degraded age-old customs and crippled Nerotysian cultural expression. Most of these cultural projects came to an end with the Second Endwar, which saw a shift from delicate engineering to broader propaganda efforts, designed to bolster the war effort and, later, Nerotysian leadership in the Ordic Cold War.
Since 1947, Nerotysian culture has developed largely free of government restriction or oversight, and the rise of popular culture has spawned a vast entertainment industry, one of the largest in Ordis, which dominates much of public life in the country. Traditional culture remains strong, however, usually supported heavily by state initiatives and educational programs.