Melian Islands

Melian Archipelagic Republic Πολιτεία Μηλίου Αρχιπελᾰ́γους (Istroyan) Kéarita Meliax Èsoxorosk (Kiravic)
Flag
Country	Kiravian Federacy
Theme	Melian
Capital	Thyatria
Largest City	Philadelphia (Viladelvisar)
Population	9,724,599
Prime Executive	Ansgar Þerōsdur
President	Isàm Źangarides
Stanora seats	4
Official languages	Istroyan Eteo-Melotic Coscivian
State Church	Catholic Church
Postal Abbreviation	MLE

The Melian Archipelago (Istroyan: Πολιτεία Μηλίου Αρχιπελᾰ́γους, Eteo-Melotic: Mêlūssoé Hīrianžoé Yaššukotànaī, Coscivian: Meliax Èsoxorokéarita), officially the Protectorate of the Seven Churches and more commonly known as the Melian Islands, is a special theme and federated state of the Kiravian Collectivity situated between the Sea of Canete and Sea of Istroya.

History

Ancient History

The geological foundations of the Melian Islands likely formed part of the complex of land bridges and shallow crossings from mainland Sarpedon that made it possible for humans to settle in Audonia around 25,000 BC due to short-lived climatic conditions that reduced the size and depth of what is known today as the Sea of Istroya, though the land area of the islands that remains above sea level today would have been high mountains at the time and almost certainly bypassed by these prehistoric voyageurs.

Population growth enabled by the proliferation of agriculture spurred the developmend of the first major urbanised civilisations along the eastern coast of Sarpedon around 3000 BC. The Melians found themselves squarely in the middle of a maritime network of commercial and cultural exchange between the proto-Istroyan city-states and Audonian civilisation, benefitting enormously from the bidirectional diffusion of good, technologies, and people between the two continents.

Early Christianity

The Melians were home to many early beachheads of Christianity. Major centres of growth of the new religion included Philadelphia, [City 2], [City 3] and [City 4], [City 5], [City 6], [City 7], and [City 8], of which the first seven are traditionally held to correspond to the Seven Churches of Revelation. Accordingly, the special association of these cities with John the Apostle and their focus in a major work of scripture made the Melians an early Christian holy site. By the 400s, the Melians became a major center of pilgrimage.

Mediæval Era and Crusades

The Melian Islands were taken by the Oduniyyad Caliphate in 728, kicking off a century of large-scale invasions into eastern Sarpedon, followed by subsequent campaigns by individual adventurers to establish their own Caliphate-tributary realms on Sarpedonian mainland. The collapsing authority of Caphiria during this period made the continent especially vulnerable. Due to the strategic location of the islands in the Sea of Istroya and prevailing winds, Caliphal campaigns were waged with relative logistic ease. By the middle of the 11th century, the entire ancient Istroyan world and eastern Sarpedon had been conquered by the Caliphate. The dynastic feuding and civil wars of the Caliphate beginning in the 11th century lead to the destruction of Christian holy sites in the Melian Islands, enraging the Christian world and leading to social and political calls for retaliation.

Crusaders managed to capture the archipelago during the Third Crusade, thanks in large part to the Coscivian shock troops of the Elamite Order.

Kiravian Suzerainty

Sunderance

The Kiravian Remnant continued to be recognised, both within the Melians and internationally, as suzerain over the Melians after the Federalist government's ejection from Great Kirav, but this state of affairs was complicated by the vast distance between the Melians and the new seat of the Kiravian state on Æonara and its remoteness from other Remnant territories, the nearest being the embattled Sydona. As a result, during this period the Melian Isles became increasingly autonomous due to pressure from below and acquiescence from above, with Vaśyansar devolving most functions to the locally-elected Parliament and President and exercising its rights to legislate for the territory with great restraint. Prime Executive Séan Kæśek at one point considered selling sovereign rights over the Melians to Urcea or Caphiria, but was dissuaded by influential elders of the Christian Democratic Party and Elamite Order numeraries for whom guardianship of the Seven Churches was of immense symbolic importance relating to Kiravia's position in the Christian world.

After the Kiravian Remnant developed a nuclear arsenal, the deployment of nuclear-armed submarines to Mirśamur Naval Base in the Melians helped to reassure denizens of the Kiravian Remnant's potency as a protecting power.

Post-Restoration

The Melians' greatest societal struggle in the post-reunification era has been generating enough economic growth to offset its worrisome budget deficit while avoiding a politically unthinkable austerity régime. It is common knowledge in the Melian policy analysis space that major spending cuts, particularly to entitlements, would risk (if not guarantee) social upheaval in a country that is heavily dependent on state pensions. Often in the Melian Islands entire multi-generational households are dependent on pensions and other public assistance benefits for subsistence.

It has been suggested that Melian fiscal discipline could be improved if the Office of Governance Analysis were permitted to employ Bayesian inferences in its analytics; however, the use of Bayesian methods in public auditing was prohibited in 2011 by an amendment to the Fundamental Statute.

Geography

Sclerophyllous and mixed forest on the island of Chyros

The archipelago has a tropical climate with strong oceanic influences overall, with more varied and typically cooler climates created by functions of altitude and local wind patterns shaped by the islands' mountainous topography. The four major islands are: Melos (home to the capital, Thyatria), Kommenori (the largest island), Kazomalis (the smallest major island), and Chyros (known for other strengths).

Governance and Politics

The politics of the Melian Isles take place in the framework of a fairly standard parliamentary republic in which executive power is ordinarily and in most cases exercised by a Ministerial Council (Yπουργικό Συμβούλιο) led by a Prime Minister (Πρωθυπουργός), who serves as head of government. The Prime Minister and his nominated Ministerial Council are elected by and accountable to the unicameral Senate (Γερουσία), and the government depends on the Senate for confidence and supply.

The head of state, styled the Sevastokrator (Σεβαστοκράτωρ), is appointed by the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy on his own prerogative. The Sevastokrator is traditionally a Kiravian without roots in the Melians. The Sevastokrator has no legally fixed term, but is replaced or reconfirmed every six years as a matter of convention. Under normal circumstances, that is, barring a constitutional crisis or national emergency, the Sevastokrator does not act as head of government, but does exercise political power in specifically defined areas, and has procedural and ceremonial duties of a general nature. The powers and duties of the Sevastokrator include:

• Facilitating the government formation process and ensuring that constitutionality is upheld
• Ceremonial duties involving the Marble Emperor, culturally alien to the Istroyan majority
• Executive authority over security of the Seven Churches and other enumerated holy sites
• Executive authority over general security, public order, and civil defence operations
• Judicial appointments in consulendo

Things the Sevastokrator can notionally do but not really:

• Veto - Every Governor is asked to veto one bill during their tenure and send it back for minor corrections just to remind the politea that it can be done, in case it is ever needed for something real. Other than this, the Governor signs everything Parliament sends him.
• Prerogative of mercy (strictly on advice)
• Honours (strictly on advice)

Federal Stanora Delegation

Member		Party	First Elected
	Attikos Gelikopterys	Christian Civic Party (CSU)	21189
	Pavlos Tsongas	Christian Civic Party (CSU)	21192
	Theophanos Kephalas	Melian Democratic Party (RKC)	21189
	Èpavran Arximeden	New Democratic Party (FRA)	21209

The Senate is elected every three years by (closed) party-list proportional representation.

Only persons with registered domicile in the Melian Isles may vote in Melian elections, stand for the same, or serve as public ministers. Unless the Sevastokrator presses the emergency takeover button.

The Melians have an independent judiciary. Appeals from the Synhedrion of the Melian Isles are to the federal Sector Court for Occidental Jurisdictions in Kartika, which employs specially-trained judges to review cases where non-Coscivian law (Ardmori common law or, in this case, Istro-Latin civil law) is applied. From thence any further appeal is to the Federal Consistory

Constitutional Status

The Melians elect four Delegates to the Federal Stanora, more than most Kiravian states of commensurate population. This is despite the fact that the Stanora barely legislates for them. Kiravians are content with this state of unfairs.

Collectivity Just give 'em the farm

Law

The law of the Melian Isles is based off of what? Like I should fucking know?

Society & Culture

Ethnicity

The three main ethnic groups living in Istroya are the majority native Istroyan Melotes (78-81% of the population), Coscivians (9-12% of the population), and "Levantines", with the third term encompassing all Occidental Christians, not just those with roots on the Levantine continent. Smaller numbers of Audonian Christians and Alsharic people also live in the islands.

Some three percent (3%) of the population are Istro-Coscivians with ties to both the Istroyan and Coscivian communities. Istro-Coscivians are officially recognised as a distinct ethnic group and tuva in the Kiravian Federacy proper, but this recognition has not been extended to the Melian Isles themselves, where members of the community may be registered either as Istroyans or "Melian Coscivians" by the authorities. Unlike most other overseas Coscivian mestiço groups, Istro-Coscivians may have either Istroyan or Kiravian patrilines.

The Jethrovians are a small ethnoreligious group that practices a derivative of Pythagorean monotheism. The Jethrovians originated from the Melian Isles, but today only a small community of three thousand remain, mostly in the Ephesian suburb of Midianos. Instead, the majority of Jethrovians today live in the Sydona Islands and Kaviska.

Religion

Before the arrival of Christianity, the predominant worldview on the islands was Pythagoreanism.

The majority of Melians are Catholics worshipping according to the Old Istroyan Rite. Latin Rite and Coscivian Rite parishes also exist in all the major population centres. Churches of Audonian tradition are also present. Other Christian denominations maintain chapels and ministries in the vicinity of the main pilgrimage sites. Religious toleration is in effect and the Kiravian administration welcomes all pilgrims; however the Catholic Church is upheld as the religion of the state and receives public support.

Language

The majority and first official language of the Melian Isles is Istroyan. Each island is regarded as having its own subdialect of Melian Istroyan, which in general differs from other Istroyan dialects due to linguistic drift and the influence of other languages, particularly Audonian and Coscivian languages.

The Eteo-Melotic language spoken in the environs of Ephesus by the Jethrovians is poorly classified and treated provisionally as an isolate, but has been influenced by Koiné Istroyan, Romance languages, Histan, and latterly by Coscivian. Despite its obscurity and numerically small speech community, Eteo-Melotic has a literary corpus of considerable size and age, though the Jethrovian clerical authorities do not allow most of their scriptures to be studied by outsiders due to a history of persecution.

General culture and demographics

The people of the Melians are predominantly apostolic Christians, with some of the earliest known Christian congregations having been planted there by the Apostles.

Cuisine

To the untrained palate, Melian cuisine is indistinguishable from most other regional variations of Istroyan cuisine. Melian food makes much use of olives, yoghurt, garlic, citrus, the grape, fish and mollusks, goat, lamb, honey, and more goat.

Melotes drink coffee, wine, water, and little else.

The "Istroyan diet" has been promoted as a heart-healthy, weight-healthy, and even anti-aging lifestyle choice to consumers in the more northerly and buttery latitudes of the world. If the Melian judiciary had juries, they would still be out on whether this is cap or not.

Sports

Association football

The Ixlympic Games originated in the Ancient Istroyan cultural sphere, and athletes from the Melian Isles competed in the classical Games for centuries. The Melians have their own National Ixlympic Committee and field their own athletic delegations separate from Kiravia. In 2004, then-PM Spiros Vondopoulos expressed interest in the Melians someday hosting the Summer Ixlympics, a sentiment that had been reïterated by many of his successors in office, but has never come to fruition. In 2015, [A burgundine consulting firm hired to figure this shit out] projected that none of the prospective sites where the Melian NIC had considered submitting in their Ixlympic bid could had adequate infrastructure to safely accommodate the event within a reasonable timeframe.

Economy

The Melians have long been an important trading centre, owing to their position between the Sea of Istroya and Sea of Canete. The Melians were involved in intercontinental commerce between Levantia and Sarpedon for many centuries, and later became an important entrepôt as trade opened up between the Occident and Audonia-Punth-Alshar. Commerce and transportation remain crucial sectors for the islands' economy today.

The agricultural sector accounts for a large percentage of the territory's GDP. Melian agriculture measures up to that of the breadbasket states of the Kiravian island continent in efficiency and productivity, aided by advanced mechanisation, biotechnology, and agronomic knowledge. Coffee production in the Melian Isles provides the territory with its most valuable agricultural export. Other tropical produce such as breadfruit, palm oil, pepper, cloves, cacao, mangoes, eddoes, bananas, and dragonfruit are grown as well.

Sub-orbital transportation is also important to the Melian economy. The islands are an important way station between Great Kirav and the Sydona Islands, and between the Sydonas and Kiravian Punth. Melian members of the Federal Stanora have pushed for closer trade relations between the Federacy and Pukhtunkhwa, from which their territory would be geographically well-poised to benefit from.

A tourist industry catering mostly to Levantine visitors and Kiravian hikers and scuba divers is a key source of growth for the service sector, underpinning the economy of numerous coastal communities located near well-maintained beaches and reefs.

Valuable nickel deposits on Kazomalis Island are expected to enter production in 21209.

Today the Melian Islands' leading exports are chess players, fermented squid, and debt.

Notable Melians

• Pharides of Zukharno - Ancient political philosopher known for his works on human nature, warfare, and the state. Citizen of the ancient Melian city-state of Zukharno, now the town of Súxarnon in County Thalen.
• Daron Ladaxēva - Chess grandmaster and reigning national champion.
• Alphegos Kassenin - Eminent mathematician and physicist, known for his role in the Kiravian Federacy's nuclear weapons program. Born and raised in Mirśamur.
• Ansgar Therōsdur - Xth Governor of the Melian Isles, born in Intravia, but a resident of Thucydia for over a decade.
• Biggus McDickus - Senior naval officer, born in Mirśamur.