Bérasar

Bérasar
State Capital
Nickname(s):  City on the Edge of Forever
Country	Kiravia
State	Fariva
Countyship	Amrām
Government
• Body	Board of Estimate
• Provost	Jakee Shanahan (DPF)
• Chairman of the Board	Michael Vick
Population	5,608,920
Climate	Thermoboreal subcontinental

Bérasar is a major coastal city in northeastern Great Kirav, the capital and largest city of the Kiravian state of Fariva. Bérasar is the economic, cultural, and transportation hub of the Far Northeastern region, and has an almost thousand-year-old history shaped principally by its status as a major port of the Kilikas Seaway. Along with Valēka, it was a leading Kiravian nexus of the intellectual, cultural, and technological movement known as the Northern or Kilikas Enlightenment, and is regarded as the "most Levantine city" in Kiravia due to its strong historic and demographic ties to Faneria, Burgundie, Fiannria, and Calinthia. It is the northernmost major city in Kiravia and one of the most northerly in the world, at a slightly lower latitude than Dol Awraidd and trailing the northernmost national capital, Rolvssvik.

Contemporary Bérasar stands at the forefront of many knowledge-intensive fields, such as higher education, biomedical research, high-tech manufacturing, naval architecture, and venture capital, while still maintaining the robust shipping, fishing, brewing, and papermaking sectors that have been active in the city for centuries. It has a longstanding rivalry with its southern neighbour Valēka that extends from economic competition for dominance in certain industries to cuisine, music, and, most importantly, sports.

Geography and Climate

Bérasar has a thermoboreal subcontinental climate. It lies on the Kilikas Storm Belt.

Snowfall starts in Bérasar as early as mid-September and as late as early October by the Gregorian calendar. Bérasar Harbour freezes in the winter and depends on a fleet of icebreakers to clear the harbour for winter shipping.

History

During the Colour Wars and the general social and political tumult of the early 20th century, Bérasar's high society was a stronghold of Occidentophile and Whiggamore-Freetrader sentiments, as well as the "national bourgeoisie", while strong support for populist movements and Kirosocialism simmered among the city's working-class population and sparked numerous demonstrations and (mostly short-lived and alcohol-fuelled) episodes of revolt.

On October 14 2023, an liquefied natural gas tanker exploded while docked at the ÁLO KiliGas LNG terminal in Bérasar Harbour, triggering a chain of explosions that destroyed the terminal and caused extensive strucutral damage and loss of life in surrounding areas of the city. Among the casualties were Provost Jakee Shanahan and the majority of the Board of Estimate - killed when half of the city hall collapsed, and the entire Kirav national soccer team, who were practicing 500 meters away at Pitchblende Park. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. State, federal, civil, and international - from the Cape and Alstin organisations were involved in the containment and relief efforts.

Economy

Ship-shipping ship shipping shipping ships

SHIPPING

Bérasar is home to the Bealdeir Corporation, a major global shipping company.

Bérasar is the principal port serving Northeast Kirav and has for centuries been an major node of trading networks crossing the Kilikas Sea. The city's maritime industry was bolstered by the ice trade to Sarpedon and South Levantia, with Bérasar serving as the main point of departure for ice from the many small lakes of the Northeast, and a transshipment hub for ice from the North Coast. Prosperous, tropical Burgundie, with its well-developed merchant navy, was a key market for ice, and it was this commerce that brought lasting Burgundoix influence to Béyasar. Ice was gradually overtaken as the city's main export by a wider range of goods, including coal, tin, lead, and zinc from the Ensciryan Massif, and then locally produced manufactures from Bérasar's own mills and factories.

Fishing: Actual fish. Lobsters. Oysters.

Timber processing and papermarking.

High-tech knowledge- and capital-intensive shit. Finance. The Bérasar metropolitan area hosts the second-largest concentration of biomedical research and business activity in the Federacy, after the Primóra-Kartika Metropolitan Area.

Bérasar is home to Kilika Brewing SAK, the largest Kiravian beer company outside the Alquifer concern. Its best-selling product is the Kilika Ice™ Bérasar Lager, an affordable mass-market pale lager.

Society and Culture

Public housing in Southwest Bérasar

Bérasar has a rich culture that is reflective of its geographic foundations and the cultural traditions set in place by its earliest settlers, as well as by centuries of dynamic urban evolution, migration, and international contact. It has strong commercial and demographic ties to Levantia, and is regarded as the most Levantine-influenced and Occident-oriented Kiravian city.

Ethnic Makeup and Demographic History

Bérasar has been shaped by multiple waves of immigration from different parts of the Coscivian world, the wider Far Northeast, the Eastern Highlands, and Levantia. While less monumentally diverse than Valēka, Escarda, and Saar-Silverda with their hundreds and hundreds of ethnic communities, Bérasar manifests a unique and characteristic blend of cultural influences from the various ethnic groups that have come to call it home.

>Foundational groups

>Lúnstem, Sea Coscivians, Keregūlem ans similar maritime groups

>Ĥeirans, Gaels, and Highlanders. Meridian Finns.

>South and Southwestern Coscivians + Vānskans and North Elutes

>New Coscivians

>Demarești in North Bérasar

>Burgundines with their various layers of history

>Urceans, Fanerians, and Fiannrians

The Burgundine presence in Bérasar is old and illustrious, built on multiple historical strata of immigration reflecting the city's prominence as an international port. Some members of the local Burgonné community have roots in the city dating back three, four, even five generations, while others are direct immigrants from the Burgundique lands. It would be inaccurate to describe recent immigrants as "fresh off the boat", because no good Burgognese ever truly leaves the boat. Burgundais ethnic enclave neighbourhoods such as Carcanesse, Argenyonne, Nanrac, and Langlare are vibrant points in the city's ethnic mix, and are frequently visited by Burgundoise citizens living in Nauta Normand and Wintergen.

Religion

Bérasar is a predominantly Christian city. Just under half of the population belongs to the Catholic Church, with the next largest denominations being Insular Apostolic, Coscivian Orthodox, and Mercantile Protestant. Most of the non-Christian minority adheres to Ruricanism or Læstorianism (monotheistic religions of Coscivian origin) or fall into the spiritual but not religious category.

Catholic influence in Bérasar has always been very strong, owing to the city's close links with the Levantine mainland. Bérasar and its satellite city of Epsilar are the only Kiravian cities of significant size outside of New Ardmore where more Catholics belong to the Latin Rite than to the Coscivian Rite. The Archbishop of Bérasar is usually a Cardinal and has strong influence over the Kiravian Church as whole.

The city's Ĥeiran Coscivians, Féinem, and most of its Kiravian Gaels belong to the Insular Apostolic Church. Coscivian Orthodoxy is the traditional faith among most of the Coscivian ethnic groups who immigrated to Bérasar from southern and southwestern Éorsa, as well as from the New Coscivian countries. Mercantile Protestantism arrived in the city with Burgundine merchants.

Language

The most commonly spoken languages in Bérasar are Eshavian Coscivian, Kiravic Coscivian, and Gaelic. Eshavian is the "native" language of the city and official language of the state, and the prevailing language in its suburbs and surrounding periurban mosaïc. Native speakers of Eshavian are concentrated in the northern and western neighbourhoods.

Kiravic is... It is the preferred language for inter-ethnic communication over Eshavian, and the leading Kiravian language acquired by immigrants who settle in Bérasar. Native speakers are concentrated in the central and upper-western areas of the city.

Bérasar has the largest concentration of urban Gaelic speakers in Kiravia, centred in the neighbourhoods of South Bérasar.

Sports

Bérasarites are known for their fanatical devotion to the city's sporting teams, and for their heated rivalry with Valēka-based teams. Fieldball (also known as "Kiravian-rules football" or "Kiravian gridiron") and hockey are the most popular sports in the city, represented at the professional level by the Bérasar Blues of the Federal Fieldball League, Bérasar Blue Helmets of the Boreal Hockey League, and the Bérasar Longshoremen of the Seaboard Hockey League. Bérasar is sometimes considered the easternmost extension of the Hockey Belt running across Great Kirav's northern coast (though this is disputed by hockey fans from core Hockey Belt cities like Xūrosar and Xistódarin). Television viewership for fieldball games in the Bérasar media market is somewhat higher than viewership for hockey games, but hockey viewership has been known to edge out fieldball viewership in years that the Blues perform poorly.

The athletic rivalry between Bérasar and Valēka is deep-seated and bitter. In Valēka, which has two teams in both major professional leagues, and where affiliation with one of the two teams is a social and political fault line, residents from opposing fanbases will, as a rule, root for their intra-city rival over Bérasar. Similarly, Bérasar observes an unofficial holiday called Tæn Lakuśikorsk ("Day of Futility") whenever two Valēkan fieldball teams play one another, customarily "celebrated" by going to the pub, drinking a great deal, and making a point to not watch the game.

Pitchblende Park in Bérasar was the home field of the Kirav national soccer team until tragedy struck in 2023 AD.

Points of Interest

Potato Monument

• Maritime Cutter Service Memorial - Memorial to fallen personnel of the Maritime Cutter Service, featuring a statue of the branch's founder, Talorgan Leonoix.
• Potato Monument - A monument honouring the nation's staple crop.
• Pitchblende Park - Home pitch of the Kirav national soccer team.
• Saint Joseph Cathedral - Largest Latin Rite cathedral in Kiravia