Tyreseia
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Workers' Federation of Tyreseia Name in national languages
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 Flag
 Great Seal
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Anthem: "Djispepa ti, Tiriani!" "Arise, Tyrian!"  | |||||||
 Location of Tyreseia (dark green) within the Rubric Coast Consortium (light green) in North Scipia | |||||||
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| Capital | none specified | ||||||
| Largest city | New Tyria | ||||||
| Official languages | none at national level | ||||||
| Recognised national languages | Tyreseian Latin, Takelat, Hebrew | ||||||
| Recognised regional languages | Tamashek | ||||||
| Ethnic groups (2020) |
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| Religion | Secular state | ||||||
| Demonym(s) | Tyreseian, Tyresene, Tyrian (historical) | ||||||
| Government | Federal syndicalist directorial council republic | ||||||
• President of the Council of State | Lazarru Chichera | ||||||
| Legislature | Supreme Workers' Council | ||||||
| Unification | |||||||
• Foundation of Tyrian city-state | c. 800s BCE | ||||||
• Latin conquest | 62 BCE | ||||||
• Latin withdrawal | 776 CE | ||||||
• Halimid conquest | 878 | ||||||
• Proclamation of Tyreseian Nation | 1861 | ||||||
• Xidduni's Revolution | 1883 | ||||||
| Area | |||||||
• | 527,552 km2 (203,689 sq mi) | ||||||
• Water (%) | 0.84 | ||||||
| Population | |||||||
• 2020 census | 33,275,404 | ||||||
• Density | 63.075/km2 (163.4/sq mi) | ||||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2020 estimate | ||||||
• Total | $714,373,343,528 | ||||||
• Per capita | $21,468.51 | ||||||
| HDI (2022) | 0.915 very high | ||||||
| Currency | Rubric (Ⲇ) (RCR) | ||||||
| Time zone | UTC+1 (Central Scipian Time) | ||||||
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy (CE) | ||||||
| Driving side | right | ||||||
| Calling code | +54 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .tyr | ||||||
Tyreseia, formally known as the Workers' Federation of Tyreseia, is a sovereign state in northern Scipia. It borders the Periclean Sea to the north, the Republic of Charnea to the south, the Talaharan Commune to the west, and the Emirate of Cyrassinia to the east. Tyreseia is a decentralized, worker-led federation laid out along syndicalist principles. The nation is home to a diverse number of ethnicities, religions and languages, all reflecting the various empires, kingdoms, tribes and other civilizations that have inhabited the region over millennia. In Tyreseia's north, large, bustling cities like New Tyria hug the coast, sandwiched between vineyards, farms, and drydocks. In the south, the Arkelbi Mountains dominate the skyline and halt the encroaching Ninva desert, itself dotted with river valleys, oases, trade posts, and numerous nomadic tribes who make the hinterlands their home.
In antiquity, the region now known as Tyreseia was ruled by the Tyrian civilization, a conglomerate of city-states led by the eponymous Tyria. The Tyrians were known for their extensive thalassocracy and distinctive purple dye, which remains a symbol of the Tyreseian people to this day. After a fall from grace and a decline in Periclean trading power, the entire region was subsumed by the Latin Empire in the 2nd century BCE. Tyreseia fluorished again under Latin control and cultural influence until the Empire shrank away from the area under both internal and external pressure in the 6th century CE. Following this, the region fractured into various petty kingdoms, chiefdoms, merchant republics, and pirate havens, with a united Tyreseia not to be seen until the mid-19th century.
Over the intervening centuries, the Tyreseian region was plagued by disease, banditry, and factionalism punctuated by repeat Ninvite invasions in a time known to Tyreseian historiographers as the Medieval Period or the Dark Ages. These times came to an end when intellectuals like Hanno of Tyria jumpstarted the Tyreseia Movement, a socialist ideology that eventually formed the sociopolitical and philosophical basis for a modern-day Tyreseian state. In a period known as the Springtime of Tyreseia, a series of bloody wars and revolts of unification culminated in the establishment of the Workers' Federation of Tyreseia at the National Proclamation of 1861.
Today, Tyreseia is a stable nation, weathering the transition to a post-industrial economy, fueled by an influx of tourism. Tyreseia is a member of the Forum of Nations, the Kiso Pact, the Rubric Coast Consortium, and the Society of Latin Peoples and States, engaging regularly in international trade and diplomacy.
Etymology
Tyreseia, as a term, is wholly artifical and derives from the 19th century. The term was invented by the philosopher(s) Hanno of Tyria in order to create a name that would encompass the Tyreseian region, but be ethnically neutral and not serve to exclude the Latins, Jews, or other groups.
History
The area known today as Tyreseia was likely first inhabited by nomadic tribes around 5000 BCE. Farming techniques originating from western Scipia likely came soon after, with more peoples then settling both along the Periclean and in fertile river valleys. Very little is known about these First Peoples of Tyreseia, as no writing system has ever been found predating the Aradian migration. Early sites at x and y contain both copper and ivory tools, indicating that these peoples engaged in trade with neighboring groups of people. Additional finds suggest a reliance on a diet of fish and cereals, supplemented by a meager supply of pastoral beef; this supply seems to have disappeared around the beginning of the Bronze Age.
The utter lack of solid evidence as to these early peoples' lives is likely compounded by their lifestyles. A site 50 kilometers southeast of Gebayl, is likely the remnants of a Middle Bronze Age city, and one of the best-preserved ruins from the period.
Ancient Tyria
Archaeologists debate the circumstances and exact year in which the city-state of Tyria was founded. 814 BCE, 842 BCE, and 812 BCE have all been floated as possible founding dates, based on varying corroborations of archaeological digs and the testimonies of Tyro-Latin historians writing on the period. According to Tyrian myth, the city was founded by Aradian settlers fleeing the eruption of a volcano in their homeland, generally believed by archaeologists to be the city of Gadir to the west. As the legend goes, the future site was revealed when Baʿal Ḥammon, the chief god of the Aradian mythos and controller of weather, parted the mists and raised the foundations of the gleaming city walls from the silt of the river delta. While the historicity of this creation myth is dubious, excavations around the walls of Tyria indicate that the lower layers were built much earlier than the 9th century BCE. X scholar of the National University of Tyreseia theorizes that a previous civilization may have colonized the TBD River Valley between the First Peoples and the Aradian migration, though this is disputed by others, who suggest that Tyria was built on the site of a yet-unknown First Peoples city.
Regardless of origin, Tyria would quickly prove a jewel in the Aradian crown, as its strategic location at the junction of the TBD River and Periclean Sea trade networks led to a rapid explosion in economic and political power in the following centuries. As the Aradian civilization fell to repeated assaults in XXX BCE, the Tyrian civilization filled the power vacuum and rose to become a Periclean power in its own right. At its territorial peak around 300 BCE, the confederation of Tyrian city-states spanned much of the southern Periclean basin, with a vast patchwork of satellites, colonies, and trading outposts asserting the civilization's mercantile power throughout the rest of the region. Tyreseians often cite this period as the origin of their strong maritime tradition, thanks to the commanding presence Tyria held in early antiquity.
While nominally under the command of the city of Tyria, city-states on the periphery of the polity would often function on a tribute system, sometimes with the autonomy to wage their own wars and hire their own mercenary armies. Generally, though, the inner cities would be governed by a shofeṭ (Tyrian: šūfeṭ), elected from the wealthy merchant families much like an ancient Latin consul. These shofeṭim would meet in Tyria and run the Tyrian mercantile empire through the Senate (Tyrian: Drm), similar to the contemporary Latin Senate, but without a figurehead monarch to rule them. Indeed, the power of the Tyrian merchant families was profound and deep-seated, with power conflicts between the two sometimes erupting into violence and full-blown civil wars. Outside of Tyria itself, these families often maintained extensive connections and properties throughout the Periclean both to express their wealth and secure their mercantile holdings. These families would often finance their own armies of citizens and mercenaries in times of both interstate and intrastate conflict, often far dwarfing the size of the Tyrians' standing army, the Sacred Band. The Tyrian navy, however, was almost always in state hands, and was one of the few standing navies in the ancient world. Historians have credited the navy and its capable commanders with singlehandedly bolstering ancient Tyria's military might and with ushering in a golden age of maritime trade that coincided with the peak of Tyria's territorial expansion around the end of the 4th century BCE.
Tyria's downfall came during the time of the XXXth Council (in XXX BCE). The mercantile Houses of Hiram and Eshmun had, by this time in history, become the most wealthy families in Tyria, with each patriarch being valued as among the richest men in world history and controlling the local politics of several cities. Their rivalry had lasted for centuries, and frequently boiled over into conflict that had crippled the state's treasury and nearly destroyed the once-mighty Tyrian navy. During that year's shofeṭ elections, an attempt by the Hiramites to finance a candidate in a typically Eshmunite-controlled city broke out into civil war. As families and their associated cities began taking sides, the Latin Empire, long jealous of the Tyrian power in the Periclean, began preparations to invade. The Eshmunites consolidated their position within the city of Tyria, while the Hiramites took over the western cities around Tsabratan and appealed to Latium for assistance.
Latin Tyreseia
Almost immediately following the Latin occupation of the city of Tyria, the House of Hiram was installed as the sole familial line for the city's shofeṭim, and the region was trimmed down and reorganized into little more than a client kingdom for the Latins. The capital of this kingdom was moved out of Tyria and installed in the Hiramite House's home city of Tsabratan. The region, even when beaten down after a century of civil conflict and instability, proved immensely valuable for the Latins to control: victorious Latin generals organized triumphal parades in Alba to celebrate the conquest of a formerly powerful rival, and the once-intermittent trade of Tyrian purple dye, essential for the Imperial pageantry, was now secure. Old trade routes and Tyrian connections were now exploited to generate indirect wealth for the Empire. Much of the planned economic gains from the victory, however, were offset by the earthquake that decimated much of the Rubric Coast in X BCE. Oyat and numerous other cities were almost removed from the face of the Earth. As such, governance could not continue from Oyat, and the only city that could possibly be used was the old city of Tyria. Due to its sheer size, it had enough rubble and surviving buildings to be rebuilt quickly and economically, unique for most of the ruined cities along the coast. As such, the Latins pressured the Hiramite rulers to move their seat of government to a new site near Tyria (modern-day New Tyria). Misjudging their relative positions of power, the House instead chose to rebel, attempting to throw off the Latin yoke and reestablish an independent Tyria. The House quickly found itself bereft of allies and with exhausted soldiers, and were summarily routed by Latin forces. The lineage of Hiram was finally extinguished, its principal members either executed or taken hostage and their wealth taken to Alba for public display.
Following the revolt's suppression, the region was reorganized as a direct province of the Latin Empire. The province of Scipia Proconsularis was allocated a total of 5 legions to protect the area and keep the more pliable local nobility in line. Over time, these Tyrian noble houses declined in power, and were joined on the scene by Latin patrician families, usually related to the governor of the time or the Imperial bureaucracy.
The Latin period came to a close around the late 8th century CE, in the midst of a period of mass retreat across the empire. The first signs of trouble came as
Fragmentary Period
Following the end of Latin direct authority, the Transrubricine region quickly collapsed and devolved into the control of local elites. At first, the remaining Tyrian family houses and aristocracy from Latium clashed; many of these families attempted to secure singular control over the whole province, to no success. Instead, political power concentrated around the city of Coptia (now Oyat), and the former provincial capital of New Tyria. Political authority rarely expanded beyond the city-state level, and most new polities had wildly varying political systems devised by desperate Imperial-era elites to hold onto what little control they could maintain.
The Tyreseian region produced numerous vessels and fleets throughout the early modern period. These ships were highly sought-after for their versatility and high cargo capacity, while the sailors were sought after both for their experience and linguistic ability, with most sailors speaking multiple languages in their homeland. The introduction of oceangoing ship technology from the Rezese in the 7th century CE via Latium led to the modernization of Tyreseia's shipyards while under Latin rule. As the Greater Tyrian region fell away from the Latin empire in the late 8th century CE, the ships similarly fell from central control. As the new breakway statelets could not afford to maintain all of these ships, many were hired out on contract or sold outright to other nations, often with crews included on retainer. This contract system was originally limited to deals with Latium, but gradually extended to other Belisarian and North Scipian nations, and eventually to states across the Oorupaqi and the Salacian Ocean. By the 1200s, Tyreseian ships were the primary ferries of Latin troops in the Belfrasian Crusades. Ships both owned by other nations crewed by Tyreseians and owned by Tyreseian states themselves dominated trans-Oorupaqi trade from the 900s onward.
These traders and transports could just as easily turn to piracy, and the line between trader and raider was often thin and always blurred. Numerous pirate havens have been recorded across the region, with many originating from Onigamyg raiders from modern-day Wazheganon in the 9th century CE. These havens were often transient and temporary, but some had the permanence and political capital to organize into full-fledged statelets. Tyreseian pirates were also seen across the Oorupaqi trade networks, either crewing their own vessels or working alongside with Latin, Mutulese, Kayahallpan, Rezese, and Zacapine sailors in multinational pirate crews. Tyreseians were also the targets of piracy, as well. Tyreseian sailors were highly sought-after by Mutulese and Rezese slavers for their experience and skills. Rezese slavery functioned on a ten-year contract system, but often left Tyreseian former slaves with no way to return home after their servitude ended. As many Tyreseian sailors, and subsequently Rezese slaves, were women, these communities of former slaves were uniquely equipped to self-perpetuate in Sante Reze, especially in the port city of Eporte Kiriz in the Nine Cousins. The Eporte Kiriz community of Tyreseians still exists to this day, while other, smaller communities have mixed into both the freeborn and slave creole groups in the intervening centuries. In the Mutul as well, communities of slaves and ex-slaves of Tyreseian extraction formed self-sustaining and insular communities that persisted for centuries following their establishment, though the practice of ritual human sacrifice initially thinned the numbers of prisoners captured through conflict by the Mutulese. Various communities formed by slaves, expatriates, pirates and immigrants existed in other realms across Norumbia and Oxidentale throughout the Fragmentary Period and beyond, with some persisting into the modern day but the rest assimilating into wider society or mixing with other immigrant groups to form mixed creole societies.
Reunification
By the time of the 1830s, satisfaction with the patchwork, laissez-faire system of mercantilism and capitalism across the various independent Transrubricine city-states had hit a new low. The failure of the disunited national polities to reflect a resurgence in nationalist loyalties drove dissatisfaction among the literate middle classes and intelligentsia. The growing acceleration of industrialization had disenfranchised numerous artisanal workers, and threatened the power of the traditional guild system. As a result, many industrial workers found themselves partial to socialist ideas, particularly those that had formerly belonged to guilds and other work-community organizations now rendered redundant, sometimes even illegal, by new governments. To make matters worse for the dissatisfied, political avenues remained extremely limited. A merchant-nobility class, one which derived its wealth from generational inheritance and ownership of industrial concerns and international shipping lines, dominated most city-state political spheres. Even in nominal republics (few and far between among the numerous kingdoms, principalities and even theocracies), this elite class effectively shut out social mobility through mass infusions of capital into political parties and their own political careers. For centuries, the traditional route to find freedom in Transrubicine societies was to go to sea, either as a merchant mariner, a sailor in the navy, or perhaps even crossing over to the pirate republics. These small pockets of libertarian anarchy were reviled in their time, frequently mobile and often fluctuating between patronage as privateers and severe government persecution. In first two decades of the 19th century, however, the Principality of New Tyria, the most powerful of the pre-unification city-states, united numerous tributaries and allies into a league that sought the destruction of pirate havens once and for all. For those that weren't killed or forced into prison labor, former pirates faced a difficult and treacherous road re-entering society. Many of those thus deprived of their previous freedom became the first radicals, performing the action encouraged by revolutionary intellectuals. In the years leading up to the 1830s, numerous authors penned a body on works constructing an umbrella ideology of unification, liberal democracy, and secularism that, for a time, became the dominant political force of both reform and revolution.
The 1830s saw Tyreseia's western neighbor, Talahara, collapse into revolution. An initial 1834 coup by the landed liberal classes failed, plunging the nation into civil war. This civil war saw numerous socialist armies take to the field for the first time, including numerous radical volunteers under the leadership of Valerius (also known by his revolutionary pseudonym "Gracchus") Papin. The legion was a motly crew of radicals, former pirates, and intellectuals. Upon the Talaharan Communard victory in 1838, the Gracchus legionnaries returned to almost-certain arrest at the hands of their local governments' law enforcement; nevertheless, the Papinists' radicalization and return brought socialism, a previously fringe ideology, to the fore as a viable rival to the previous liberal unification philosophy. The liberals and the socialists gathered supporters across the region in tandem until the late 1840s. This decade saw numerous intellectuals spring to the fore, chief among them being the enigmatic Hanno of Tyria. It is still unknown whether the works attributed to Hanno were written by a single philosoper or several; nevertheless, the works borrowed heavily from post-Asherionic Norumbia and the council system of Mniohuta, proposing a system of syndicalist rule based on these regions. These works garnered few supporters in the 1840s, but proved hugely influential in the later decades of reunification. In 1848, a series of popular uprisings broke out across the Transrubricine region.
Modern Period
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The Social War was one of the most impactful events in Tyreseia's moden history. From 1945 to 1947, socialist rebels under the command of Orestes Cotta rose up across the Latin Empire, attempting to install the Latin Social Republic. At first, support for the war in Tyreseia was overwhelming, but debates formed over the form and quantity of aid to be provided to the rebels. Ultimately, the Supreme Workers' Council voted to dispatch volunteer units and equipment to the Social Republic. The equipment, including a cruiser and two squadrons' worth of aircraft along with artillery pieces and small arms, were either reported as "donated" to the Tyreseian volunteer command (nominally independent of the government), or reported as stolen. All of this equipment and personnel, however, were not enough to make a difference, and the Social Republic collapsed in just two years. What followed was a massive and haphazard operation to rescue as many leftists and volunteer fighters from Latium as possible. Operation Rescue involved the ships donated to the Social Republic and Tyreseian Naval Fleet vessels, along with civilian ships, sailing through contested waters to pick up refugees and ferry them to Tyreseia. Following the induction of thousands of these x, as they were known, Tyreseia entered a period of paranoia, social disorder, and disruption that spanned most of the 1950s and 1960s.
As news of the defeat came to Tyreseia, the major pre-war political salons suffered a crisis of leadership. For all of them, and indeed the whole country, the threat of a Latin counter-attack was the paramount issue. Many of the salons experienced realignments and shakeups as political priorities shifted in the face of invasion. The Salon for World Revolution, the main force behind advocating all-out military intervention in the Social War, fractured. Members who supported a pre-emptive second invasion to forestall the Latins attacking Tyreseia left to form the Salon of Proletarian Strength, while members who wished total isolationism in the hopes of avoiding further Latin provocations joined Tyreseian Peace. Ironically, this salon was one of the few pre-war salons advocating no military action at all in the Social War. Members of the SWR who believed in seeking out other socialist allies as a bulwark against Latium became the salon's ideological vanguard for decades to come. Tyreseia's alliances with socialist states worldwide in the late 20th and early 21st centuries were later spearheaded by members of this salon.
The pressure of imminent invasion engendered numerous political actions, as well. During the 1950s and into the early 1960s, numerous "lone wolf" agents, trained and equipped by the Salon of Proletarian Strength, attempted to foment more revolt in Latium as foreign provocateurs. All of these failed, and any connection found to Tyreseia served as a further provocation towards Latium that worsened tensions between the two nations. At the time, the Tyreseian government denied backing these "lone wolves." Later declassified documents reveal, however, that some members of the Supreme Workers' Council and the Council of State were endorsing these attacks, and coercing their constituents into aiding these agents. The pressure was felt domestically, too. Starting around 1952, numerous members of the SWR and SPS began spreading baseless accusations that salons opposed to a preventive invasion of Latium were, as one salon member described, "under the evil auspices of a grand Imperial conspiracy." This theory hijacked the widespread paranoia of the time and fomented it into mass hysteria. Large sections of the population fell under the belief that pacifism and isolationism was being propped up by Latin agents. People who had voiced pacifist opinions suddenly faced discrimination, and were at risk of losing their union jobs. If they were prominent people, like politicians or celebrities, they could suffer the indignity of being hauled in front of the Supreme Workers' Council for lengthy interrogations of their character. In addition, the Red Guards, the militia force at the time, saw a massive increase in civilians forming "readiness battalions," drilling in such areas as defensive combat techniques and as air raid wardens. While the fervor began to die out in the late 1950s, the undercurrent of paranoia ran unabated until the 1970s. During the 1950s, Yisrael was under the domination of the political left, which led to Tyreseia and Yisrael fostering markedly warmer relations at the expense of their mutual relations with Latium.
In contrast with the militarism and paranoia of the 1950s, the 1960s was defined by a clash between the establishment and a young, anti-war generation. Children born during an economic boom in the mid-1940s were coming of age in the 1960s, having grown up during a period of hypocrisy and paranoia. This time was, for many, extremely grating and frustrating, leading to the formation of a counter-culture with two distinct wings of thought. One group, known as the (!hippies), claimed to see through the lies of statehood and established society, which they saw as hierarchical, authoritarian, and needlessly restrictive. Their solution was to "drop out" of society, often drifting around the nation and living on itinerant work or by moving into the remote wilderness and forming antinomian communes. Others fought the system, protesting and organizing mass actions to force dramatic political change. For a time, the interest of this latter group was represented by the countercultural salon known as the New Revolution Society. The aims of these countercultural activists were varied and scattered; in the end, while they had a large impact on contemporary culture, their constant infighting and lack of a single cohesive message meant they had little lasting political effect. The !hippies, by contrast, sought a new society elsewhere. The spiritual ideals of Ochran and the Ozeros Sea region, in particular, served as an intriguing alternative to the largely secularized society of Tyreseia. The N'nhivara faith, present in small minorities since the 14th century, was the most accessible so-called "Eastern" religion, and it attracted many new practicioners during the 1960s, along with the requisite fractalizing of sects and splinter groups. Some new faithful simply chose to tend to temples and practice rituals in Tyreseia, while many new converts chose to express their red-hot faithful fervor by exploring ancient sites around the Ozeros Sea and studying under spiritual teachers in N'nhivara's native Pulau Keramat.
Geography
Demographics
Tyreseia's total population is 33,275,404 as of the 2020 Census. The majority of these people live on the northern Rubric Coast and on the coastal side of the Adrasic and Arkelbi Mountains. The second axis of settlement follows the course of the Exec River, which snakes between the Arkelbi and Adrasic Mountains and empties into the Periclean Sea near New Tyria. The conurbation along the river is called the "Bent Banana" and the pale along the sea coast the "Red Banana." Where these two intersect, in the region of Tyriae Maior, sits the largest and densest population group in the country. Around 30 million people live in one of these two population bananas. Some waves of migration were made to the southern Ninva Desert in the latter-half of the 20th century during the petrochemical and solar energy booms, but as the oil fields dry up, many have been returning to their cities of origin. This, combined with waves of immigration from elsewhere in the world, are offsetting Tyreseia's below-replacement birth rate (X as of 2020) and are contributing to a slow yet steady overall growth.
Largest cities or towns in Tyreseia
Census data, 2020 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Region | Pop. | |||||||
 New Tyria  Oyat |
1 | New Tyria | Tyriae Maior | 8,764,231 | |||||
| 2 | Oyat | Coptia Serenissima | X | ||||||
| 3 | Oñulba | Gallaecia | X | ||||||
| 4 | Arramu | Fluminia | X | ||||||
| 5 | Balmun | Gallaecia | X | ||||||
| 6 | Leptis | Tyriae Maior | 2,390,131 | ||||||
| 7 | Utica | Fluminia | X | ||||||
| 8 | Tsabratan | Lower Qeshet | X | ||||||
| 9 | Gadir | Edetania | X | ||||||
| 10 | Gebail | Teneria Proxima | X | ||||||
Climate
Tyreseia's climate is governed by the Periclean Sea to the north and the vast Ninva Desert to the south. The Arkelbi Mountains in the east and the Adrasic Range in the west provide dual barriers that help buffer the otherwise harsh desert climates coming from the south and keep the north relatively fertile and climatically mild, though still arid and generally warm.
A Rubric Deer, common in the western foothills
A taxidermied Periclean Rat, the largest rodent in the region
A Rubric Lion resting
A rough-toothed dolphin, common in the Periclean Sea
An Adrasic Bear, once nearly extinct but now rebounding
Agabus scipii, a form of diving beetle, underwater
A scene typical of the eastern Arkelbi foothills
A road in the western Adrasic mountains, typically more arid than the Arkelbi range
A stretch of the Ninva desert in the south
A wetland, of the kind found near river deltas like the Exec
A forest in the Gallaecia region
A stretch of the Arkelbi mountain range
Government
Main article: Government of Tyreseia
Legislature
The Tyreseian legislative branch is headed by the Supreme Workers' Assembly, a unicameral body of 708 members. Seats on the Assembly are determined via proportional representation—each municipality in Tyreseia is entitled to representation in the Assembly, with levels of municipal and regional representation determined by population. Representatives are elected by their constituents within a region, after a region's assembly creates a list of candidates from within their ranks for the office. The candidates are then subjected to a round of ranked-choice voting to determine a winner.
Salons
Political parties were outlawed in 1880 under the transitional military rule of Tyreseian strongman Azmelcart Xidduni. The proscription was directly inspired by the entrenchment of parties and self-interest of political machines in pre-unification republics like Oyat and Adramut. Trade unions and federations, therefore, tend to fill many of the roles of a political party in the Tyreseian system. Their influence, however, is often limited to issues regarding their represented profession, and as such entities known as political salons have come into being. Much more loosely-organized and unofficial than political parties, the salons act as informal collections of intellectuals and elected Assembly members, brought together by either a single hot-button issue or a range of political ideals. Such collections may have full-time dedicated members and regular meetings, though Assemblymen and other politically-involved individuals are just as likely to frequent multiple salons, or even no salons at all. Much like the salons of the art world, political salons exist to exhibit, craft, critique, and debate political ideals and solutions to current issues, usually under the auspices of guiding ideals or philosophies.
For much of Tyreseia's history, political salons were an event more than a permanent group. The salons started out as ad hoc gatherings of like-minded politicians, debating current issues and topics within a certain ideological framework. By the mid-20th century, however, salons would elect as many permanent staff as they could without running afoul of the party ban. These staff would organize venues and campaigns for the salons, sometimes even fundraising and standardizing an ideological platform, though the last two options might run afoul of the law if that money or platform were to end up in candidates' pockets. Gradually, by skirting the laws and meeting more regularly, the salons became institutions and an integral part of Tyreseia's non-partisan democracy. Most were forced to lay off their permanent staff and curtail fundraising during the 1960s; most will now employ a small dedicated volunteer staff for the purposes of organizing meetings or publishing salon media.
Today, the salons are regular meeting places for the political intelligentsia and elected officials of Tyreseia, with each salon serving as an open forum for candidates to debate the fine points of a broad perspective or a standpoint on a hot-button issue. Politically-minded citizens and regular Tyrians also frequent these events, thus forming an unofficial avenue through which the average citizen might influence government policy. These groups traditionally meet in New Tyria City, though some will organize meetings in other municipalities in order to allow for more citizens to have influence in the groups. Below is a non-exclusive list of some modern-day salons in Tyreseia:
| Name | Logo | Colors | Founded | Ideology | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green Salon | .svg) |
|
December 18, 1970 | Agrarianism, communalism, green politics | The Green Salon was founded to encourage the de-industrialization of Tyreseia and conversion to subsistence agriculture, now mostly advocates for greater environmental protections and for sustainable practices in agriculture and resource management. |
| Kel Tenere Sovereignty Movement |  |
|
January 22, 1965 | Regional autonomy, anarchism, cultural nationalism and preservation | The Movement is allowed more leeway with political action than other groups in order to avoid provoking conflict with the Republic of Charnea. This salon organizes to protect the cultural property and autonomous lifestyle of the Kel Tenere people. |
| Pax Tyreseiana |  |
|
August 4, 1935 | Socialism in one country, pacifism, anti-globalism, non-interventionism | Tyreseian Peace advocates eschewing Tyreseia's global foreign policy and membership in the Kiso Pact, believing instead that Tyreseia ought to tread a nonviolent path and détente in order to avoid provoking conflict with Charnea and the Western Monarchies. |
| Salon of World Revolution |  |
|
November 27, 1902 | Latin socialist irredentism, proletarian internationalism, world revolution | Founded originally to spread leftist revolution worldwide, the Salon of World Revolution lost numerous members following a schism after the Latin Social War in the 1940s. Those that remained in the Salon helped welcome refugees and political leaders from the collapsed Social Republic, and advocated Tyreseian government support for a government-in-exile. In modern times, the SWR advocates for increased integration with the Kiso Pact as a bulwark against conflict with the Western Monarchies. |
| Salon of Trade Anarchism |  |
|
July 13, 1883 (traditionally) | Anarchism, proletarian internationalism, regional autonomy, world revolution | The Salon of Trade Anarchism traces its heritage to the anarcho-syndicalist labor traditions in 19th-century Tyreseian Hebrew communities. As such, much of its employed symbolism and imagery come from Jewish cultural symbols. The salon's perspective has also been historically influenced by this origin, though in recent decades efforts to include other minority communities have broadened the group's appeal. |
| Society of Werner Thought |  |
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March 29, 1910 | Proletarian internationalism, vanguardist socialism, Wernerism | The Society of Werner Thought was born out of student philosophy groups at the National University of Tyreseia and Periclean University. Due to its age and size, it remains the most broad Wernerist salon in Tyreseia. In effect, the Society serves somewhere between a big tent salon and a philosophical study group, with numerous disparate strains of Wernerist thought frequently present and debating each other. As a consequence, the Society has undergone numerous secessions that birthed splinter salons during its existence. |
| Salon of the True Syndicalists |
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August 8, 1965 | Anti-revisionism, industrial democracy, statist socialism, social conservatism | Formed to advocate a return to more orthodox form of Tyreseian syndicalism, the Syndicate Salon formed largely in opposition to the trends towards devolved government, civic democracy and counterculture exhibited in the 1960s. | |
| Young Salon |  |
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August 8, 1953 | Civic democracy, intersectional feminist issues, social progressivism | The Young Salon initially formed to house the beginnings of the anti-establishment counterculture movement after the loss of the Social War. Following the movement's decline, the Young Salon pivoted into championing the rights of sexual, gender, and religious minorities as well as general progressive causes. With the group's mainstreaming in the late 1970s, several other groups split off to form their own, more radical, salons. |
Military
Main article: Tyreseian Workers' Navy
The Tyreseian armed forces are organized under the banner of the Tyreseian Workers' Navy. The subservient branches of the Navy include the Naval Fleet, the Naval Infantry Service, the Naval Air Service, the Republican Guard, and the Worker's Militias. The Tyreseian national military is one of only a few of its kind in the world to revolve around a naval force as its so-called "primary" force, rather than an army. A lack of modern-day land-based threats, the primacy of maritime commerce, and the historical significance of naval flotillas in the Tyreseian Wars of Unification all played a part in shaping this irregularity. The beginnings of the modern Navy came into being under the command of Admiral Azmelcart Xidduni, who commanded a fleet of ships commandeered from the merchant republic of Oyat to great success in the Wars of Unification. Following the wars, the military came to overshadow, and eventually overthrow, the unstable Popular Front government in the 1880s and prove instrumental in creating the groundwork for the modern Workers' Federation. The head of the military, the Commissar of National Defense, is required to be an active-duty military officer; this is the only such requirement for a Commissar and a reflection of the historical domination of the military over the civilian government.
The Navy hierarchy is primarily structured around an rank-election system. Many ranks have education requirements, and those that are not conferred by election are awarded for seniority or conspicuously meritorious conduct. Once a new unit officer is elected, they are expected to spend time learning command skills at the dedicated academy for their service branch. Following this and even before it, they spend time drilling with their new subordinates in order to increase team cohesion and effectiveness. Through a constant routine of drill, long election terms, and strict mandates on education, the Navy has avoided the problems of disorganization and ill discipline that many other election-based militaries face.
The Navy is largely restricted to the Rubric Coast region of Talahara and Tyreseia and the Periclean Sea, save for an overseas base in Pulau Keramat. Joint Base Birhanu is home to X personnel and X ships alongside a comparable number of Pulaui troops. The base was constructed in the early 1960s as a means to facilitate a join anti-piracy task force; the base has expanded in scope to provide numerous services and amenities including a shipyard and repair drydock facilities. To support this base, a large number of Tyreseian citizens have migrated to the nearby city of Pasuruin Poi to work as support personnel.
The Red Guards served as the Workers' Militias' antecedent, being replaced during the 1970 reforms. The Red Guards served as a catch-all organization, with every adult citizen without exception technically eligible for service. In practice, communal and municipal governments would be required to assemble certain numbers of able-bodied citizens for the Guards, acting as reserve forces with training over one weekend every month. In wartime, these reserves could be called up to augment the Workers' Naval Infantry Service, or in some cases, the Naval Fleet. The Guards would also serve as the basis for law enforcement in most areas, with the Republican Guard focusing on military or federal crimes. Guardsmen who enforced local laws could often be one and the same as those in the "readiness" battalions, but many communities enforced a system whereby constables were full-time guardsmen commanding units of part-time reservists. The Red Guards saw their peak of active-duty participation in the mid-1950s, as fears of a Latin counter-invasion following the Social War led many communities to organize additional readiness battalions and air-raid auxiliaries. Following the anti-war campaigns of the 1960s, the Red Guards were reformed into the Workers' Militias, which are now totally divorced from civil law enforcement and include much fewer citizens in their potential personnel pool.
Foreign Affairs
Tyreseia maintains embassies or other diplomatic nations in nearly every nation in the world. In addition, Tyreseia participates in numerous international organizations such as the Forum of Nations, the Kiso Pact, and the Society of Latin Peoples and States. The national government engages actively in foreign affairs through the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.
Tyreseia is aligned geopolitically with other leftist and republican states, primarily through the Kiso Pact. Foremost among these allies is the Talaharan Commune, its western neighbor. Their ideological closeness and geographical proximity led to Tyreseian volunteers fighting alongside Talaharan troops in most of its conflicts, and vice versa. The two nations maintain a healthy friendship to this day, manifested through the Rubric Coast Consortium. The Partnership facilitates the numerous agreements made between the two states, including customs unions, monetary policies, free-movement agreements, and military agreements. Formed shortly after Tyreseia's unification, the organization has solidified the close relationship between the Union and the Workers' Federation and ensured that the two nations remain each others' closest allies. Another leftist friendship comes from Tyreseia's foreign military presence in the Ozeros Sea, an operation made possible through extensive cooperation with the nations of Pulau Keramat and Ankat. Even before the Kiso Pact, the three nations formed a strong defensive bond with each other, originally over anti-piracy measures but later extending to various other military and socialist economic measures. Tyreseia's strong connections to both the MU and the Ozeros nations were instrumental to the foundation of the Kiso Pact, which aimed to draw together the disparate socialist and leftist pacts and treaties under a single organization.
Tyreseia has had a much rockier historical relationship with its southern neighbor, Charnea. The precursor Charnean states have attempted perennial invasions of the Tyreseian region for centuries in the Latin and Fragmentary Periods, with varying amounts of success. Large communities of Amaziɣ and Imuhaɣ peoples also exist south of the Arkelbi Mountains in Tyreseia, a product of trade and said invasions; these communities have at times been a source of national security concerns under Tyreseian governments who feared that the Charnean government might use them as justification for an invasion or annexation. Modern-day security concerns now stem more from Charnea's internal instability resulting from environmental and sociopolitical factors rather than any fears of a state-level invasion. Smuggling out of the Ninva Desert into Tyreseia, both as a destination point in itself and as a transit point through its ports to southern Belisaria, has been an issue for decades. The practice reached a crescendo during the Ninvite War, but was temporarily lessened following Operation Baggage, when elements of the Tyreseian Workers' Navy occupied parts of the northern Ninva desert until the end of the conflict to restore order. In the present day, the two nations are tied together by numerous road, rail, and other transport networks, which have fostered trade and tourism with both nations. Such commercial exchange has softened relations between the two nations, and the Tyreseian government now engages cordially with their Charnean counterparts.
Tyreseia maintains a complex and nuanced relationship with the Latin Empire. In Late Antiquity, the Latins served as both a colonizer and occupying force, imbuing the region with much cultural and technological wealth in exchange for exploiting it for resources. Following the withdrawal of Latin legions, the region now known as Tyreseia fell into breakaway regimes, many governed by ethnic Latins or at least peopled with many descendants of the Empire. As a result, many statelets in the area felt an allegiance, or at least a kinship, to Latium and would make concerted attempts to preserve Latin cultural traditions and language. This gave Tyreseians a unique advantage in the new burgeoning space of overseas trade, which saw trade vessels crossing the open oceans instead of hugging the coastlines. Tyreseian sailors and vessels were prized throughout the Belisarian region, and both were frequently used, both in the service of their own nation and in the service of others, as traders, naval patrols, and privateers alike. This endeared the Tyreseian states to many Belisarian and even Oxidentalese nations, as well as directly exposing the region to much of the world. In the modern day, however, relations with Latium are much rockier. During the Social War in the mid-20th century, numerous armed socialist bands rose up in Latium in an attempt to form a workers' state. This caused an uproar in Tyreseia, as the political sphere was overwhelmed by the debate over the merits of sending volunteers to aid the rebels. In the end, the Tyreseians sent a substantial volunteer force, but not without opposition from home. Despite winning key victories, especially outside Ravenna, the force proved to be too little too late, and the rebellion was crushed. The Latin government was outraged at the Tyreseians, and relations were further worsened when asylum was granted to fleeing members of the former Latin Social Republic to become Tyreseian citizens. The move proved controversial in Tyreseia as well, with Tyrians accusing ethnic Latins of attempting to increase their voting bloc and pacifists worrying that such actions would cause Latium to invade in a retaliatory military action. Such an action failed to materialize, though, and over the decades, the wounds of war have healed, in part thanks to the two nation's mutual relations with Zacapican. The two nations now engage cordially, though warily, on the international stage. Many Latins, including students, flock to Tyreseia to visit or to study, and many Tyreseians do the same in Latium. Trade between the two nations is strong.
Unions
Trade unions, also known as Societies or Federations, serve as both the economic and political backbone of Tyreseia. The national headquarters of these federations will host Trade Union Congresses (TUCs) once or twice a year, made up of representatives from every municipality, to plan overarching goals for their set industry and to share new innovations and processes. Local industries, such as factories, are governed by local branches of unions. These branches are horizontally managed and are responsible for paying for members' transportation, recreation, childcare, and other needs and wants through profit-sharing agreements and financial management. Depending on the union, membership dues might also be required and passed up the chain to the national level. The Society of Neptune, which governs longshoremen, merchant mariners, shipbuilders, and other maritime personnel, is also required to furnish people for the Naval Fleet Reserve in times of conflict. The Society will therefore maintain mothballed ships and Fleet facilities in peacetime, and man and repair ships in wartime.
On a local level, unions also play a crucial role in government. In municipalities, all local union chapters are required to consult regularly with the ward or neighborhood and municipal councils on policy issues. These meetings allow for unions to promise labor and economic capital towards projects that might not otherwise happen through government power. Given this power, local unions are often the venue by which petitioners push recall petitions for local Assemblymen. As Supreme Workers' Assemblymen are members of municipal and regional assemblies, all it takes to recall one is 50% +1 of their constituents in their smallest and most local constituency. In rural communes, the plethora of unions are replaced by a local branch of the Magonic Society, which serves as the agricultural workers' union. Magonic branches are thus the direct local governance for these communes, with local commune meetings often filled with some of the exact same people who regularly attend Magonic Society chapter meetings. In general, unions have a nested-council structure, with representatives of local chapters being elected to successively higher bodies with greater jurisdictions.
Education
Childcare and education is guaranteed as a right by the state, and so it serves as a perennial subject of review and reform. As a baseline, the national literacy rate is 99.6%, with nearly equal gender parity. National groups like the Tyreseian Congress of Educators and the Higher Education Federation often form baselines to ensure that children across the nation receive a similar education. The aforementioned unions staff all schools in Tyreseia, and the regular Trade Union Congresses ensure that new innovations in the field of education are shared uniformly across the nation. Schools are often funded by a mixture of payments from municipal unions and government subsidies, with the latter being the near-exclusive funding source for numerous major universities.
The basic structure of Tyreseian education closely follows the Latin model. Children are required to enter the first stage of school, nursery (seminoju), at the age of 3. From there, students will enroll in marraza primoja, for ages 5 to 11 (Years 1 through 6). Students will receive elementary instruction in subjects such as their native language's grammar, history, the sciences, arithmetic, geography, the arts, music, and physical education. Many of these subjects will carry into the students' further studies at the level of the gimnoju infejoru, or the Lower Gymnasium. The Lower Gymnasium, consisting of Grades 1 through 4 and ages 11 through 15, exposes students to elective courses like foreign languages and home economics to prepare them for the gimnoju supejoru, or the Upper Gymnasium. Students are required to learn at least one language at this level and beyond. The most common foreign languages studied by Tyreseian students are Audonian, Anglic, Tsurushimese, Hellenic, and Nahuatl. Following matriculation from Grade 4, students are required to take an aggregate exam based on international standards, designed to gauge both their progress and the efficacy of the Tyreseian education system. Finally, in the Upper Gymnasium (Grades 5 through 7, ages 15 through 18), students experiment with future career paths or potential college degrees, with schools offering numerous electives ranging from the social sciences to the industrial arts. From matriculation at age 18, the Tyreseian student has completed their compulsory education and may choose to either pursue college education after taking a General Education Exam. Departure from school before graduation is extremely uncommon, as even students who are ill, injured or incarcerated in some fashion are expected to finish their studies as soon as they are able.
Higher education is popular in Tyreseia, as tuition payments are subsidized by the national government. Traditionally, students sign on with a union of their choice before entering university, then will pursue degrees and career paths that local unions might need in exchange for their remaining tuition being paid off by the union. This practice, though still common, is growing less popular as parents have begun investing savings into their offspring's education to ensure they may pursue a career that they choose. Colleges and universities, even technical or other specialized schools, require numerous general education courses to create well-rounded students. Room and board costs are covered by the government for all Tyreseian citizens; international students must pay for these and for tuition, but may receive financial aid to cover these costs if they are of low means. Scholarship funds exist through the work of unions and private individuals to help pay for the education of traditionally marginalized groups in Tyreseian society.
International exchange students make up a large percentage of tertiary students in Tyreseia, especially at the National University of Tyreseia in New Tyria. Numerous left-wing educators and intelligentsia fled Latium in the aftermath of the Social War, with many flocking to the welcoming arms of Tyreseian higher education. There, they brought large amounts of knowledge from the cutting edge of Latin academia, and established attractive Latin-language curriculae at their new homes. In the following decades, tensions cooled and Tyreseia opened up its borders for more and more Latin exchange students. In the modern day, low consumer costs, tolerable climate, and widespread use of the Latin language have all made Tyreseia a favorite for Latin college students looking to study abroad. To a lesser extent, students from Yisrael and the Jewish diaspora find the widespread use of Hebrew, especially in the Jewish Quarter of New Tyria, attractive. The interplay bewtween numerous cultures over Tyreseia's history has also encouraged students of the social sciences from around the world to visit Tyreseian universities to study firsthand.
Judiciary
Main article: Judicial system of Tyreseia
Economy
The Tyreseian economy is a syndicalist, mixed-market economy dominated by trade unions. All businesses function as localized collectives, with horizontal management structures and profit-sharing-based payout schemes. Unlike other systems, such as in the Talaharan Commune, the Tyreseian economy possesses many regulations and strict quality controls. This discrepancy can be traced to the significant power of unions both within and without the government, which will often push for union bylaws and standards to become the mainstream through the government, or otherwise be pushed by other unions to develop new standards via legislation. Oftentimes, disasters or crises like the SS Steja djal Scipia fire have historically prompted reactive regulatory changes from the government in cooperation with relevant union expertise.
Since 1980, Tyreseia's currency has been the Rubric, shared with its neighbor, the Talaharan Commune. Within Tyreseia, the subunits of 1 rubric are known as piasters. (Talaharan coins are known as qarit, with 1 qarit equaling 1 piaster.) The modern-day Rubric currency is governed by the Rubric Currency Committee, which regulates fiscal policy and monetary supply. Other banking and financial services in Tyreseia are usually provided by union-managed credit unions, with savings accounts insured by the government and minimal interest rates.
Tyreseia is highly industrialized, with an annual GDP of $714 billion and per capita GDP of $21,468. Dominant industries include shipbuilding and the global shipping industry, machinery manufacturing (especially medical instruments), and linen production. The services sector is growing, but its growth is slowed by the strength of the industrial trade unions. The economy is heavily intertwined with that of Talahara's through the Rubric Coast Consortium, an intergovernmental body which facilitates such ties as a common currency, relaxed border controls, and cross-border union cooperation. The combined Consortium economy is the largest economy in Scipia and the 11th-largest in the world by gross domestic product.
Energy
Tyreseia's energy grid is powered by a mix of fuel oil, liquified natural gas (LNG), thorium-salt and fission nuclear, and solar power plants. Originally totally reliant on coal and lumber to provide heating and fuel to early factories and homes, the turn of the 20th century brought refined petroleum, which became the dominant energy source by the middle of the 20th century. A multi-pronged push for decreased reliance on petroleum, increased exports of Tyreseian crude oil, and increased use of environmentally-friendly alternative energy sources led to a diversification of power starting in earnest in the 1970s. Currently, Tyreseia is pursuing an eventual net-zero usage of petrochemical energy in the near future, to be fully replaced by solar and nuclear power following international innovations in clean energy production.
Tyreseia possesses two nuclear power plants. The largest, Atomus Majorus, was constructed from 1965 to 1974 by a team of Tyreseian and Zacapine engineers. Stationed across the X River Delta from New Tyria City, the plant provides most of the capital region's electricity and adds 3,660 MWe to the Tyreseian power grid. The second nuclear power plant in Tyreseia is the Atomus Minorus plant outside the city of Balemun. The plant was a joint construction with Latin specialists through the 1990s; the facility began adding 2,259 MWe to the power grid following its official opening in 1999.
Transportation
Much like its neighbor Talahara, Tyreseia maintains an extensive rail network that serves as the primary means of both intercity and intracity transportation. Personal motor vehicles remain rare outside of where they are strictly necessary for work or commuting. Historically, Tyreseia's socialist economy and government structure encouraged the development of a communal culture which inspired both the structure of the workplace and urban planning, facilitating a public-transit-first philosophy. Highways are thus sparse and often poorly-maintained, with the best rural road access provided by coastal communities usually heavily reliant on tourism or truck-based shipping for their incomes. By far the most common personal vehicles in Tyreseia, outside of rural agricultural communities, are rental cars. This service is used by both foreign tourists and Tyreseian citizens, usually as a means to obtain a temporary means of transport for vacations and other leisure. Additionally, municipal governments often maintain fleets of taxis and ride share vehicles. Despite the lack of personal automobile use, driver education is very common in Tyreseia. All citizens must possess a note on their locally-issued identification cards denoting that they passed such a course in order to rent or purchase a vehicle. Such modified identification cards are the most widely-held versions in the nation, and passing a driver education course is seen as a rite of passage into adulthood in many communities.
Rail travel is by far the most ubiquitous form of transportation in Tyreseia. Over 90% of both passenger and freight traffic in Tyreseia is carried by rail. All railway operations fall under the state-owned enterprise, FerroTyr, and branch out from the capital city of New Tyria. Tyreseia's rail network carries regional importance through the binding of Periclean maritime trade with inner Scipian land-based trade at critical seaports like New Tyria and Oyat. New Tyria in particular serves an outsized role in Scipian shipping, with the West Scipian Railway's eastern terminus and the termini of several of the most-populated lines on the Awakar Route all meeting in the same city, within reach of extensive port facilities and the nation's single major civilian airport. All rail lines in Tyreseia follow a standard gauge of 1,500 mm (4 ft 11 in), matching the gauge followed by almost all other railways in Scipia. Many light rail and other urban commuter rail services in Tyreseia use a broader 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) gauge. All cities in Tyreseia boast extensive metro and commuter rail systems, with the New Tyria Metro serving as both the oldest and most extensive network. The first NTMetro line opened in 1897, and now boasts 313 stations on 15 lines on the subway network alone. Often, these systems will include trams and trolleybuses alongside subways, light rail, and commuter rail as well as municipal taxi and minibus companies.
Maritime transportation is the form most indisputably intertwined with Tyreseian cultural identity. Sailors from modern-day Tyreseia have dominated and guided commerce on the rivers, lakes, and seas of Belisaria, Scipia, and even Norumbria for millennia, representing either their home nations or others'. For centuries, Tyreseian shipbuilders used accumulated expertise and knowledge garnered from international trade to craft durable, nimble, and fast sailing vessels that were the envy of the maritime world. Many shipyards weathered industrialization and the introduction of metal ships, and a handful of large shipbuilding communities continue to produce world-class warships and commercial vessels to this day. In addition, many Tyreseian-flagged shipping vessels are hired by international shipping firms, extending the Tyreseian maritime presence to all corners of the globe. As a result, one of the prime prerogatives of the Tyreseian Workers' Navy in the modern day is to protect Tyreseian shipping from global piracy and conflict. Alongside open-water trade, shipping on stretches of the River Exec continues to prosper as it did in antiquity. People and goods have been moved up and down the river, and other waterways, likely since before written records. Such trade fuelled the pre-Aradian civilization in the region during the Bronze Age, and the city of New Tyria grew wealthy in medieval times off of its strategic location in a natural harbor near the headwaters of the Exec. Unlike all other shipping in the nation, Exec trade is governed by the Exec Shipman's Guild, an organization that traces an unbroken lineage to early medieval times. Riverine shipping in Tyreseia carries a high percentage of passengers and ferry cargo compared to other cargo. Ships on the Exec are also much smaller than Tyreseia's maritime shipping fleet, and are often made of wood. Use of the "dumb barge" system to ferry freight is also common.
Air travel is most commonly used to access international destinations. Periclean Airways, the flag carrier of Tyreseia, is headquartered at New Tyria-Celiceten International Airport. The airline operates numerous flights to hub cities around the world, as well as filling the regional low-cost carrier niche in the Periclean Sea region via its PeriConnect service. Celiceten Airport remains the only major civilian airport in the nation; numerous airstrips exist across the nation, but most serve as auxiliary military fields, emergency landing points, or pilot training facilities rather than as actual regional civil airports. In addition, many are mined or otherwise rigged to be destroyed at a moment's notice should an enemy force invade the nation. As such, aside from international travel, air transportation is heavily associated with government and military operations in Tyreseia, as opposed to forms of maritime or land transportation available to the everyman.
A bridge on the M-1 highway in the Gallaecia region
A Periclean Airways liner at New Tyria-Celiceten Airport
A taxi outside a cafe in Leptis
Revolution Square Station on the New Tyria Metro system
A barge on the Exec River near Adramut
A passenger train on a viaduct near Utica
Culture
Religion
See also: Coptic Nazarism
Religiosity in Tyreseia has been on a steady decline since the institution of state secularism in the 1900s, with a sharp acceleration towards the turn of the century. "Irreligious" overtook Coptic Nazarism as the largest religious self-identity in Tyreseia following the 2000 Census. As of 2021, it is estimated that a full 41% of Tyreseia's population does not follow an organized religion. Religion often plays a minimal part in the average citizen's life, even if they profess belief. A recent survey by a non-governmental organization identified that only 25% of people stated that their primary values in life were based on their faith, and only 22% stated they were "absolutely certain" that their religion was correct over all others. Historically, Tyreseians have also been known to mix and syncretize various religious celebrations and rituals into their lifestyles.
The plurality religion in Tyreseia is Coptic Nazarism, a wholly indigenous form of Gnosticism. Around 30% of Tyreseians are Coptic, according to the 2020 Census. The second religion in terms of adherents is the Yen faith, which 8% of the population adheres to according to the 2020 Census. Judaism accounts for the faith of 7% of Tyreseians.
Language
The Tyreseian government does not officially recognize any language as the language of government or of the nation. Regardless, around 96% of Tyreseian citizens speak Tyreseian Latin (or simply Tyreseian), a Scipio-Latinic language. Most affairs of government and business are conducted in the language, and most of the nation's laws were originally drafted, discussed, and debated in Tyreseian before being translated into other languages. Such an arrangement without official recognition stems from the 19th-century unification of the country, with many intellectuals and political leaders wishing to incorporate as many groups as possible into the young and fragile nation. In the modern day, however, this has led to an awkward situation whereby Tyreseian is the most-spoken language in the country and is used most frequently in economic and government spheres, yet cannot be designated an official language as breaking the previous precedent would risk sending an exclusionary statement to linguistic minority groups within the country. As such, accomodations and workarounds are common within Tyreseia.
In many Tyreseian schools, Latin is used alongside Tyreseian as the language of instruction. Such practices are conducted to immerse students in Latin, a language which holds significant worldwide clout in trade and business. Programs typically start around the age of 7 or 8, and continue until the age of 15 or 16 to allow for other foreign languages to be taken. The similarity of Tyreseian as a Scipio-Latinic language to Latin likely aids the learning process significantly. Currently, around 78% of Tyreseians self-identify as Latin speakers, with higher numbers in younger populations. Such widespread fluency has encouraged many citizens of Latium to travel and study in Tyreseia, and grants Tyreseians greater access to the parts of the world dominated by Latin influence. Though dual-immersion education is a largely modern phenomenon, the roots of the practice in Tyreseia can be traced back to the post-Latin Fragmentary Period, when many Rubricine merchant families would hire out ships and crews to the medieval Latin empire. Crews that spoke Latin were much more likely to earn contracts and wages, leading to an encouragement for at least basic understanding of Latin.
In places where minority languages such as Hebrew, Takelat and Tamashek are spoken, local governments typically provide services and regulations in the language of the locality, with Tyreseian translations available. In such locations, local governments are nonetheless behooved to elect Tyreseian speakers to federal office, reinforcing the overwhelming dominance of Tyreseian at the federal level. Language schooling in these regions may take one of two distinct forms: a minority of schools forgo Latin education in favor of dual immersion between the local language and Tyreseian, with Latin available as a tertiary language in upper secondary schooling; the majority, however, engage in a soft form of so-called "triple immersion" where efforts are made to give students a trilingual education. Triple immersion programs are sometimes controversial, with many doubting their efficacy in spreading education thinly across three languages and potentially overworking children in their linguistic understanding. Regardless, these programs are often seen as the best compromise between keeping students connected to the minority language of their roots and allowing them to be as globally competitive as their native Tyreseian-speaking peers. Much of Tyreseia's overseas diplomatic corps, for example, is made up of current or former residents of the town of Tsabratan. A majority of denizens speak Takelat in day-to-day life, but are educated in Tyreseian and Latin for their entire education. Almost the entirety of Tyreseia's presence within the Rubric Coast Consortium is staffed by Tsabratanites.
The federal government of Tyreseia has spent recent decades investing significant amounts of money into preserving minor languages of historical importance. Languages like Sabir, Ladino, and Classical Onigamyg, once either extinct or on the brink of extinction, have been revitalized as cultural relics or as secondary languages through government educational and cultural projects. The Linguistics department at Periclean University in Oyat is also actively engaged in preserving minority languages from across the Periclean Basin, including its most famous project with Balzac University in Philippopolis to archive and revive the Aradesque language in Sydalon.
Holidays and Festivals
Tyreseia's cultural calendar is punctuated with numerous holidays donated from numerous religious and secular traditions. Most festivals have differing levels of celebration; religious people's devotion to their faith often directly correlates with the number of religious festivities they observe, while a person's participation in communal and social spheres more widely has been found to correlate with their level of participation in the rituals of secular holidays.
Most secular holidays in Tyreseia reflect either moments in the nation's political history or promote values that align with the government's own. A good example of both types of holiday is the so-called "Golden Week" or Holiday Week of early May. This four-day string of holidays features the Day of International Labor (1 May, commonly known as May Day), a holiday meant to promote the syndicalist values of the Tyreseian state and encourage solidarity with the working classes worldwide. Typical celebratory activities include marches, rallies, demonstrations for labor-related causes and grievances, and fundraising/aid-collecting for leftist organizations worldwide. Following this day is Azmelcart Xidduni's Birthday (May 2nd), the most controversial of the Golden Week days. Originally celebrated through to the 1950s, the period of cultural reckoning and gradual changes in historical portrayals of the naval strongman led to the holiday gradually falling out of favor. Now, it is legally not a required work leave day; many municipalities have replaced it with their own, non-official holidays, and most workplaces arrange to observe alternate holidays on that day to preserve the uninterrupted Golden Week tradition. The subsequent Day of the Environment, on May 3rd, is usually used by local communities to encourage group efforts to beautify and clean their spaces. Some places organize voluntary "blackout days" to bring attention to national energy consumption, while others may organize group "shock labor actions" to improve public green spaces or expand greenery in urban areas. The final holiday of Golden Week is May 4th, or Youth Day. On this day, the children of the nation are celebrated, often with celebratory carnivals and children's entertainment events put on by local unions and community groups.
Other secular holidays include Revolution Day (14th of March), which celebrates the 1883 Revolution and introduction of syndicalism to the country; Unification Day (22nd of October), which commemorates the National Proclamation of the First Tyreseian Republic; Revolutionary Martyrs' Day (15 August), which honors the slain and wounded of Tyreseia's military forces; and Mariners' Day (22nd of September), a secularized version of the Feast of St. Phocas meant to commemorate the seafarers so central to the Transrubricine region for millennia. These holidays often have less intense levels of involvement from citizens; unlike Golden Week holidays (with the possible exception of May Day), these holidays receive only intensive participation from a select few patriotic Tyreseians. Typically, Revolution Day is celebrated with a military parade in New Tyria, along with the wearing of the purple-white-purple national cockade on the lapel, hat, or other dignified location. This cockade is also worn on Unification Day. Mariners' Day is typically reserved for coastal communities, which might choose any number of ways to commemorate the event. Usually, a memorial service is held for those citizens of the area that were lost at sea. Revolutionary Martyrs' Day sees former wounded veterans or the families of deceased soldiers wearing red or black cockades and other memorial services. Given the lack of significant armed conflict in the past 65 years of Tyreseian history, this holiday has fallen out of regular celebration, and is now usually the reserve of particularly rabid patriots and nationalists.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of major holidays in Tyreseia.
| Date | Occasion | Celebrators | Work Holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day | Secular | Yes |
| 7 January | Nativity (Naxibadu) | Coptic Nazarist | No |
| 14 March | Revolution Day | Secular | Yes |
| Varies1 | Easter | Coptic Nazarist | No |
| 1 May2 | International Labor Day | Secular | Yes |
| 2 May2 | Xidduni's Birthday | Secular | No |
| 3 May2 | Day of the Environment | Secular | Yes |
| 4 May2 | Youth Day | Secular | Yes |
| Varies3 | Rosh HaShanah | Jewish | No |
| 15 August | Revolutionary Martyrs' Day | Secular | Yes |
| Varies3 | Yom Kippur | Jewish | No |
| 22 September | Mariners' Day | Secular | Yes |
| — | Feast of St. Phocas | Coptic Nazarist | No |
| 22 October | Unification Day | Secular | Yes |
| Varies3 | Chanukah | Jewish | No |
| 31 December | New Year's Eve | Secular | Yes |
1Easter typically falls at the middle of April or beginning of May, following the end of Lent according to the Coptic calendar.
2These four holidays are typically known as "Golden Week" or "Holiday Week". Xidduni's Birthday was formerly a recognized work holiday after its creation in the 1950s; most workplaces treat it as a holiday due to surrounding holidays even today.
3Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, Passover (Pesach) and Chanukah all follow the Hebrew calendar, which is lunisolar as opposed to the solar Gregorian calendar. As such, the dates shift from year to year.
Entertainment
Both the radio and television industries fall under the control of the state-owned cooperative Radjutelevijuni Tirejani (RTT). Unlike other "radiotelevision" groups, the RTT functions more like an overarching body containing all licensed broadcasting stations in the country (along with one overseas station at Joint Naval Base Birhanu in Pulau Keramat).
The film industry in Tyreseia is governed by the Tyreseian State Cinema Guild, which functions as a total monopoly on film production, distribution, and screenings. The self-regulatory body is more of a conglomerate of producers, directors, and cinemas rather than a single studio. Consequently, the Guild is one of the largest producers of art house cinema in the world relative to its size. The industry found its start in Tyreseia shortly after Latin films were exported worldwide, starting in 1912. At first, stage companies would earn extra income in off-times by rigging temporary projectors and screens in stage theatres. Distribution and importation was done at first on an ad hoc basis, with individual distributors often responsible for cutting out intertitles and replacing them with translations. By 1920, however, several directors had begun importing film cameras and an indigenous film production industry sprang up. These silent films were heavily influenced by stage theatre, and the two saw frequent overlaps in appearances; one of the most iconic Tyreseian silent films, 1923's Indictment, featured world-famous stage actor Juancarlu Kaminsky playing a stage director in trouble with the law.
Cuisine
Tyreseia's cuisine is heavily influenced by Latin cuisine, as well as by a high prevalence of seafood from the Periclean Sea and historical trade links across the world. Many of the simpler dishes in Tyreseian cooking derive from Aradian and Tyrian recipes. One dish of this caliber in Tyreseia is the pultem, which is a porridge consisting of farro, cheese, honey and egg. In contrast to many spice- and herb-imbued recipes deriving from Latin cuisine or elsewhere, this item offers a subdued flavor profile. With numerous items offering strong spicy, umami, savory, and other flavors, Tyreseian cooking is recognized both for its cosmopolitan nature and its presence of strong flavors.
Spices, brought from regions like the Ozeros Sea by Tyreseian sailors during the Fragmentary Period, play an outsized role in Tyreseian cooking, even making it one of the spiciest cuisines in the Periclean Basin. Such spices include the tebel, a traditional mix featuring coriander, caraway, garlic powder, and chili powder. Numerous dishes are flavored with this spice profile, sometimes even with other spices added to augment certain flavors. The practice evolved from the use of salt and spices to disguise the taste of spoiled meat, as much of Tyreseia's meats were imported from Belisaria and thus more likely to spoil on the long ship voyage to the nation. Other imported elements of cuisine include the Asida, which came along Ozeros trade routes from Kembesa in the 12th century and is now a typical Tyreseian breakfast food, alongside omelettes or other items typically constituting of egg or fish.
By far the most unique culinary cultural property of Tyreseia is garum, a type of condiment. Derived from fermenting salted fish, the sauce is extremely savory and a source of umami-producing glutamates. The condiment has been frequently used to garnish dishes in need of a savory flavoring in Tyreseia for millennia, and garum works have been patronized by numerous civilizations in the region. Originating somewhere in the Aradian Sea cultures, the technique of producing garum was brought to modern-day Tyreseia by the Tyrian civilization, which quickly began producing and exporting it around the Periclean Sea. The sauce also found the support of many Latin elites during their period of rule, eventually finding its way into Latin dishes at all social levels over the centuries, continuing even after the region's loss from the Latin Empire. Nevertheless, garum enjoys only mixed support outside of the country, with many even in the former garum-importing epicenter of Latium decrying its often-strong aroma and overpowering flavor. The sauce is frequently both praised and mocked worldwide, and remains one of Tyreseia's most controversial cultural exports. Common dishes featuring garum include the x, which I will elaborate upon its ingredients when I can be bothered to look it up.
A popular traditional drink in Tyreseia is posca fresca, a sugared vinegar drink consisting of fruit juice, herbs and spices. Other popular drinks in Tyreseia include wine, with vineyards in great abundance on Tyreseia's fertile coastal plains. Such wine, including the fortified vinum porti, is altered by processes specifically tailored towards export and longer keeping, leading to Tyreseian wines becoming popular in locations abroad over the centuries. Wine has held a near-monopoly as the consumed alcohol of choice for centuries in Tyreseia until the Industrial Age saw new forms of spirit arrive on the nation's shores. Nevertheless, into the modern day, vinum porti has remained a recognized cultural property of Tyreseia, and the national government has taken steps at home and abroad to protect its integrity. Other farms in the region typically grow olives, which are used in local cuisine and exported either in their current form, or after processing into olive oil. Unlike Tyreseian specialties of wine, the olives grown in Tyreseia are similar to those found across the Periclean Basin, and as such, the most competitive markets for such exports is usually found in the nations of the Kiso Pact.
Many drinks native to Tyreseia, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, heavily feature the use of mint. Atay, or mint tea, was introduced to the country via the Tamaziɣt cultures of the south. Various forms and adaptations of atay are served today, in both iced and hot adaptations along with mixes like alcoholic cocktails and an ice-blended lemonade drink known as limonana. Another popular mint drink is Lavaxarrava Menta, a mint soda from the Lavaxarrava brand of soft drinks. Other drinks from their catalogue include Lima, a carbonated lemonade; and Cidra, a non-alcoholic soft cider drink.
Sports
The most popular game in Tyreseia is pitz, or Mutulese Ballgame. Introduced to the country via Tyreseian sailors returning from captivity or trade missions in the Mutul during the golden age of Oorupaqi trade, the sport maintained a relatively small, but loyal following for centuries, typically among coastal communities. Unlike soccer, pitz requires serious training and practice, which limited the pool of players in Tyreseia to skilled players. This kept the sport from becoming widely popular until the 19th century, when semi-professional and professional athletic leagues became common across the country. At that time, an effort was made to re-adapt the rules of Tyreseian pitz to match the standards of the Mutul, bringing Tyreseian teams into the international stage. In 1950, Tyreseia's national pitz team, il-Barqa, or the Lightning, was founded. This team competed in its first Mulawil Halaab, or Pitz World Court, later that year. The team had decently average performance for decades, with serious winning streaks in the 1980s culminating in three consecutive championships (1986, 1987, 1988) in the K'anich Halaab (Golden Flower Court), the Scipian regional tournament. In 2021, the team achieved its first-ever victory in the World Court, beating Tsurushima 5—2 in the final game and the Mutul 5—4 in the previous game. Such a performance has accelerated the already-growing popularity of pitz in Tyreseia, which saw a first surge in the 1980s but slowed down during a losing streak in the early 2000s.
Tyreseia's newfound rabid pitz fandom generated controversy in 2021, following il-Barqa winning the 85th Mulawil Halaab. In celebration of the victory and in protest of the Divine Throne regime's actions, several flags of the Mutul were burned. Flag burning is a common activity of protest in Tyreseia, but the burning of the Mutulese flag, so soon after beating the Mutul in that country's own national pastime, served in this instant as a serious provocation that inflamed issues surrounding international sanctions on the Divine Throne. [Insert Mutul actions of protest here.]
Soccer, or association football, has traditionally been the most popular sport in the country. Local sports involving moving a ball on the ground via foot have been recorded as early as Late Antiquity, and the introduction of other primitive forms of football to the country via trade with other Belisarian and Periclean nations made what is now Tyreseia fertile ground for the sport's flourishing. The popular place that soccer has held in Tyreseian culture has been overshadowed by pitz in recent decades. Unlike pitz, soccer requires very little skill to play, which gave soccer an edge over sports like pitz in early Tyreseia. Despite the rise of pitz, soccer still enjoys a healthy fanbase; it is the most popular sport for school teams, with lacrosse in second and pitz a distant third.
Another sport imported via the Oorupaqi trade from the Western Hemisphere is lacrosse, which is the third-most popular in the nation.
