Sydona
The Sydona or the Sydona Islands, officially the Popular Republic of Sydona, is a theme and quasi-autonomous province within the Kiravian Collectivity comprising a roughly triangular archipelago of continental islands off the southern coast of Continental Ixnay in the Pelian Ocean. The islands have a long and convoluted history, having come under the rule of many different nations and empires over the course of the centuries. The gradual conquest of the archipelago by Coscivian rulers began during the Crusades and was complete by 1343; the islands would be ruled as an independent state until their submission for Kiravian sovereignty in 1783. Sydona was an important theatre of the Kiravian Civil War, which left it politically divided for the duration of the Sunderance, its status remaining unresolved until Kiravian Reunification in 1985. Today, Sydona is a country in transition, navigating the restructuring of its economy and grappling with the contentious politics of national identity. It is known for its cultural diversity and rich heritage, and for its valuable natural resources.
| Popular Republic of Sydona ꍈꁻ ꆥꈜꌕ (Coscivian) Zajdunska Narodna Respublika (Thrakoslavonic) | |
 Flag | |
| Sovereignty |  Kiravian Collectivity
|
| Theme | Sydonan
|
| Capital | Destransar |
| Population | 23,528,230 |
| First Executive | Aþanasius V.M.L. Kalvitoryn (I) |
| Chancellor | Jovx̆ioğeny Takavić (SPS) |
| Legislature | Destransar Soviet |
| Stanora seats | 6 |
| Official languages | Austral Coscivian Pelian Thrakoslavonic |
| Other Languages | Kiravic Coscivian Xosmiri Coscivian Leinish, Istroyan, Melotic Thrakoscivian Creole |
| Postal Abbreviation | SYD |
Etymology
The name Sydona is first attested in Istroyan-language sources from the 600s AD as Ζιδονα, in reference to a species of sea snail once abundant in the waters surrounding the islands and harvested for food.
Thrakoslavonic textbooks in Sydona teach that the name of the archipelago ultimately derives from the proto-Slavonic zid'.
History
Ancient Sydona
Early in the Bronze Age, Sydona was characterised by small, scattered settlements primarily engaged in agriculture and local trade. By the Middle Bronze Age, there emerged fortified settlements and relatively larger townes, suggesting increased social stratification. It appears from archæological evidence that by this time Sydona had become integrated into wider regional trade networks connecting it to communities across eastern and southern Sarpedon and their associated islands. Bronze Age Sydonan civilisation would come to a turbulent end ca. 1200 BC, falling victim to a series of disruptions that included the destruction of major urban centres and a decline in long-distance trade. The archæological legacy of the Sydonans that survived this collapse shows a dramatic reduction in the size of population centres and a loss of societal complexity, but also a clear continuity with regards to artistic themes and religion.
The first recognisable modern ethnic group to settle in the Sydonas were the Pregoshans, an independent Japhetic offshoot people, related to today's Pelians. Pregoshans of the Sydonas were among the first Japhetic-speaking communities other than Istroyans to begin adopting Christianity, and according to tradition the Christian presence in the islands dates back to the Apostolic Age, albeit with a limited geographic and demographic footprint in comparison to more northerly and easterly areas of coastal Sarpedon. The Pregoshans would subsequently be conquered and absorbed by invading Flurrian people fromt the Sarpedonian mainland, who would themselves gradually adopt Christianity by cultural transfusion both from above (through continental elite networks) and from below (from intermixture and cultural contact with the conquered Pregoshan subalterns), and be absorbed into the modern Pelian people. Slavic peoples would subsequently enter the archipelago's ethnic mélange by sea from the northwest, with the ancestors of the Thrakoslavs colonising the western shores of the archipelago and establishing fortified enclaves in other areas of the islands.
Mediæval Sydona
Iddryitine Despotate
The Iddryitine Despotate was a nominal dependency of the Caphirian Second Imperium that functioned for all intents and purposes as an independent state. Ruled from the island of Idyres, in 1080 AD its domain would extend to all of Sydona in the South, northward into the hinterland of modern South Solis, and also westward to encompass the southeasternmost corner of what is now Greater Salesia, including its offshore islands Elvanum and Bores. The Despotate's elite were Istroyan-speaking with Caphiric cultural pretensions, and its court conserved the symbolism, ritual, vocabulary, and pageantry of the Caphiric state system despite being isolated from the rest of the Istro-Caphiric cultural sphere of Sarpedon by Slavonic and Audonian conquest of the lands to its north and east. In the Sydona Islands under Iddrytine rule, the rural population was predominantly Pelian, while an Istro-Caphiricised, mainly coastal urban populace dominated commerce and politics.
During the Second Crusade, the Iddryitines would take advantage of the Audonian states' preöccupation with the Crusader threat on their northern flank to capture the island groups of Prevoy, Savoy, Tyadoæa, and the Tetyres from Audonian emirs by 1140 AD, as well as to enlarge their mainland holdings eastward in modern South Solis. It would continue this strategy during the Third Crusade, but with more mixed results, gaining the isles of Diakronum in the Founders' Sea and some additional mainland territory at the expense of the Audonians in South Solis, while also losing some of the same to the Slavic Ticheskan Kingdom by 1160 AD.
Elamite Sydona
During the Fourth Crusade, the Iddrytine Despotate, particularly the outer islands, was beset by an island-hopping Crusader offencives led by the Elamite Order that sequentially captured Diakronum, the Tetyres, Tyadoæa, Prevoy and Savoy, and Elaiussa. The Elamites established a crusader state in the captured islands in 1197, ruled from Elaiussa, which they renamed Mar-Kśaver.
The Elamites would subsequently capture Manētuva and parts of Teğer and add them to their domains as well. The Iddrytine Despotate, though reduced, would survive until the 1220s AD when it lost its mainland provinces to expanding Slavic kingdoms, and consequently in its weakened state lost the outer Sydonas and parts of Yerduran to the Elamites. It would finally cease to exist in 1237 when the Thračician duke Zvonimir conquered its capital on Idyres and then easily subdued the remaining Iddrytine holdings on Yerduran. This area corresponds to the cultural and demographic heartland of the modern Thračicians.
Free Cities of Sydona and the Order State
From 1270 AD to 1343 AD, Sydona would be politically divided between two entities: the Order State, which ruled the majority of the archipelago's landmass, and the Free Cities of Sydona, a discontiguous confederation of ethnically Thračician merchant republic city-states scattered across the coasts of Yerduran, Teğer, and Fauda.
The Order annexed the Free Cities between 1319 and 1343, finally bringing the entire archipelago under its sole control. It did however allow most of the conquered cities to maintain their previous ruling institutions and certain foral rights, especially in regard to taxes, professions, and trade.
Archduchy of the Sydonas
The 1566 reforms of the Elamite Order imposed by Pope Anonymous V compelled the Order to relinquish civil authority over Sydona.[1] Sovereignty over the islands was sold in 1569 to Lord Maxamór, a Ventaryan nobleman whose family had a long history as benefactors to the Order. The terms of the sale were generous to the vendor, and reserved many premises and privileges that would remain with the Order. The relevant authority figure granted Sydona the dignity of an Archduchy. While the inaugural Archduke dispatched his eldest son to the islands as his captain-general, the son in question would remain in Sydona upon inheriting the throne, beginning a tradition of resident Archdukes that would last until AD 1719. The Archdukes of Sydona paid periodic symbolic tribute to the Marble Emperor and recignised him as their liege lord in the Coscivian tradition, but in all respects ruled Sydona as an independent state in its military affairs and diplomatic relations.
Archduke Terentius married his daughter to the Duke of Bourgondi and gifted the Bourgs the Great Prince's Own Royal Thračician Foot Guard as dowry.
The Archducal government encouraged immigration; mainly from Kiravia but also from the Istroyan lands and elsewhere to help increase agricultural productivity and develop the realm's economy. Many foreign and immigrant scholars, advisors, and administrators were employed by the archducal court and government bureaucracy. The court itself, however, was multi-ethnic, incorporating nobles from all of the landholding races of the realm.
Of the immigrant peasantry, most Istroyan homesteaders hailed from Xelphia, the Melian Isles, and the islands of what is now North Solis. Most Coscivian immigrants had roots in South Kirav or the Baylands, where population pressure was strong and land prohibitively expensive. These were the same regions from whence a plurality of the Elamite crusaders had come, so ancestral and cultural-linguistic ties helped facilitate the immigration and absorption of southern and southeastern Kiravians. A small but notable contingent of settlers came from Fiannria, including Fiannrian Illyrians.
It should be noted that the discrete ethno-national categories of Thračician, Pelian, Coscivian, and minorities were not a salient social reality during the Archducal Period. Fiefdoms often encompassed villages speaking different languages, towns were frequently multi-ethnic in character, and intermarriage across linguistic lines was not proscribed. Feudal rank was the basis of social power, and although the linguistic makeup of the nobility was not reflective of the population at large - Coscivians were overrepresented, especially in the upper ranks, and Pelians were significantly underrepresented, though many nobles with Coscivian names may have been Coscivised Pelians - its composition was insufficiently exclusive and rigid to effect a caste hierarchy. Indeed, modern advocates of a multiëthnic Sydonan civic nationalism often look to the culture of this period before the birth of ethno-nationalism as inspiration for their optimistic visions of a future Sydonan society.
Modern Sydona
Kiravian Sovereignty
After the death of Grand Duke Sorditur the Pockmarked without heirs in 1783 AD, the Coscivian law doctrine of nohúr (roughly escheat) dictated that his domains would revert to the Emperor. And so they did, with the Government of the Kiravian Federacy accepting ultimate responsibility for Sydona as the Emperor's stewards and providing it with the same political status enjoyed by Suderavia-Wintergen-Scapa. Those at the helm in Kartika regarded the reception of Sydona as advantageous to the country's wide-reaching commercial, colonial, and geostrategic interests, but initially treated the distant archipelago with salutary neglect, dispatching an appointed Governor-General but leaving most governmental affairs in the hands of a local Stanora representing the country's landowners. Over time it became apparent that this hands-off approach was insufficient to maintain defence, order, and good governance, and reforms were adopted to bring the administration of Sydona closer in line with that of a typical chartered Kiravian colony of the time.
The industrial revolution took root relatively late in Sydona during the latter third of the nineteenth century anno Domini but progressed relatively quickly. The rapid growth in industry was made possible by Sydona's abundant reserves of coal, minerals, and other raw materials, and encouraged by Kiravian mercantilistic policies: Intended to prevent Sydona from coming under foreign (specifically Burgundine) commercial domination, high tarriffs had the secondary effect of making manufactured goods imported from nearby foreign countries comparably expensive to goods imported from distant Great Kirav, giving local manufacturers a strong advantage in the market.
It was during the modern period, with the rise of mass-circulation print media, that distinct Thračician and Pelian ethno-national identities and consciousness began to emerge. Similarly, it was during this time that the Austral Coscivians began to consider themselves a discrete and distinct Coscivian people.
Kirosocialism
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During the early 20th century AD, socialist movements that had taken root in Great Kirav in response to the poor conditions of the labouring classes spread to Sydona. Here the socialist message was more warmly received among the large Sydonan mineral and industrial workforce, in contrast to other Kiravian colonies, which tended to be more agrarian and commercial. The unequal and highly concentrated ownership of land, particularly on Yerduran, also lent socialism some appeal in the countryside.
To the 1934 Constitutional Convention Sydona elected two delegates off the Communist list, nine off various Socialist lists, five off the Catholic Social list, one off the Thračician list, two off Rightist lists, and three off other lists.
Sydonan Civil War
After the dissolution of the Constitutional Convention and the outbreak of civil war in Great Kirav, the same quickly occurred in Sydona. The Sydonan Civil war may be (and is) analysed as either a remote theatre of the Kiravian Civil War or as a related but functionally independent conflict; in either case the Sydonan Civil war was more factionally complex, proportionally deadlier, and longer-lasting than its mainland Kiravian counterpart.
The agrarian, traditionalist outermost isles (Mar-Kśaver and Manētuva), with their more Coscivian populations, were firm in their allegiance to the Federalists and later the Kiravian Remnant. The multiëthnic industrial cities and mining towns were Socialist strongholds. Everywhere else in the archipelago was contested betweent the Federalist and unitary Socialist forces, as well as various ethnic nationalist militia diverse in their ideological leanings. Nonaligned, apolitical peasant self-defence militia groups also participated in the conflict. The geographic intermixture of opposing ideological bastions would contribute to the carnage of the war and complicate any efforts at pragmatic resolution.
The phase of the Sydonan Civil War that overlapped with the Kiravian was adjective, taking a great many lives and wreaking havoc on the islands' economy, with numerous documented atrocities committed by both sides. The ferocity of the conflict moderated soon after the defeat of the Farravonian Counterrevolution and flight of the Federalists to Æonara, the fighting capacity of both sides having been diminished by the toll of the preceding years and support from the Kiravian Union and Kiravian Remnant not especially forthcoming as both governments were preoccupied with stabilising themselves in their respective core territories and managing the aftermath of the Civil War in their home theatres. In Sydona, both the Socialist and Anti-Socialist militants were forced to turn their guns off one another and onto the civilian populations of the areas they occupied: Socialist troops relied on predatory requisition of provisions from rural communities surrounding their positions in order to feed and supply themselves, and Anti-Socialist troops relied on terror tactics to maintain control of the strategically-important cities that they still held in face of their numerical inferiority to the generally hostile resident population. Under these conditions, the pace of the war 'slowed', with new offensives progressively fewer and further between and correspondingly less lasting change in the overall lines of control.
In the later phases of the war, the Socialist side would receive support, military and otherwise, from other socialist governments around the world, and the conflict took on a certain symbolic significance for the international socialist movement. Likewise, the Kiravian Remnant was able to procure some aid to the right-wing combatants from capitalist governments and recruit some foreign volunteers to join the counterrevolutionary forces.
The failure of Kiravian Remnant Prime Executive Séan Kæśek to bring the war in the Sydonas to a satisfying conclusion significantly lowered his proverbial stock in the eyes of the Federalist officer corps on whom he relied, and this would hamstring his leadership of the Remnant for the latter part of his tenure. Some historians propose that this contributed greatly to maintaining a degree of collegiality and relative pluralism within the ruling Renaissance Party by limiting Kæśek's ability to cultivate an effective cult of personality around himself.
Frozen conflict
After a long period of time of gruelling warfare and the thorough destruction of the archipelago's economy, little remained in the way of funds or political will to mount new offensives. Both sides settled into defensive postures and the Civil War would cool into a frozen conflict during the early 1960s.
The frozen nature of the conflict and its corresponding state of affairs was confirmed and formalised by the 1968 Marmasse Protocol, negotiated in the Equatorial Ostiecian city of Marmasse, which agreed to a bilateral ceasefire, League of Nations monitoring of points along the line of control, and procedures for routine communication between the socialist and federalist administrations in Sydona.
During the Sunderance, very different domestic policies would be enacted in the People's Republic of Sydona and the Commonwealth of Sydona. The People's Republic established itself as a Marxist-Devinist single-party state and worked to build a centrally-planned command economy using material balance planning. Industrial development, a high priority for the PRS government, took the form of very large, labour-intensive state-owned enterprises. Large agricultural estates were collectivised to a much greater extent than in the Kiravian Union. Although capitalism prevailed in the Commonwealth of Sydona, the war-torn country and its precarious security situation, even after the congealment of the conflict, was not very attractive to private investors, so the state had a central rôle in its reconstruction and development process as well. A Georgist land reform process was begun in the Commonwealth by the Kiravian Remnant in the 1950s under martial law, bypassing the objections of the aristocratic rump legislature. This was judged a strategic necessity by the Kæśek regime, who sought to stem the recruitment of landless peasants by the Socialist forces and solidify the loyalty of the populace in areas under Federalist control. The Commonwealth's economy would rely heavily on offshore oil and gas drilling and revenues from fuel exports to sustain its public services and fund its reconstruction and economic diversification efforts.
Reintegration
By 1983 the Kirosocialist administration in Great Kirav was spiralling toward collapse, struggling in vain to reverse the implosion of its economy and stave off emboldened opposition movements. In Sydona however, despite the presence of various increasingly visible opposition movements, the Kirosocialist status quo remained reasonably popular. Sustained demand for Sydona's energy resources and the semi-autonomy afforded to the antipodean republic in economic planning sufficiently insulated Sydona from the mainland's mounting economic crisis, and its public ration-distribution system had always performed better than the mainland's due to less cross-regional inefficiency and a smaller disparity between supply and demand. In addition, many in the Coscivian population and certain minority groups who might have been otherwise uncommitted to socialist ideology were wary of deviation from the status quo, fearing that an overthrow of the established régime and the decidedly pan-ethnic socialist formulation of Sydonan identity that it sponsored would open the door to ethnic unrest and radical movements such as the Apocatasarpedians, who sought to turn Sydona away from Coscivian civilisation and towards a Sarpedon-centric cultural ethos and geopolitcal alignment.
In the (southern hemisphere) autumn of 21184, just after Élív, word began to filter through the Party nomenklatura that Chairman Ástūkétra and the Politburo had fallen into defeatism and were considering transition negotiations with the Æonara authorities in the hope of arriving at some sort of power-sharing agreement that would accomplish Kiravian unification under a Two Systems in One Nation (Yulentun Þuğudrē) framework and move toward market socialism on the mainland. These rumours (now known to be true) alarmed Kirosocialist hardliners in across the Kiravian Union and precipitated a wave of overt pushback against the central leadership from regional soviets and delegates to the Supreme Soviet, the likes of which had not been seen since the consolidation of single-party rule. The Destransar Soviet was particularly ardent in its opposition, passing a resolution condemning the rumoured negotiations and, should the rumours prove true, denouncing the revolutionary legitimacy of any officials involved. The resolution pledged to maintain the socialist path and the comprehensive leadership of the Socialist Party in Sydona no matter what.
Although some, such as Tragran Folestrin, insisted that distant Sydona not be allowed to single-handedly obstruct Kiravian unification when completion of the multi-generational project was so near at hand, National Reunification Front recognised the importance of the archipelago, not only due to its energy resources and the considerable symbolic cost of abandoning such a populous and important overseas region, but also due to fears that the islands would become a "Red Æonara" acting as a haven for socialist hardliners and compromising the unification effort by keeping the torch of Kirosocialism alight and challenging the legitimacy of a restored government. After the Ilminsar Soviet Insurrection dashed any realistic hope of a Two Systems in One Nation arrangement for Great Kirav, the NRM began preparing for a full Federalist restoration while the Destransar Soviet prepared to assume independence. As a last-ditch effort, the Reunification Council presented a version of the Two Systems proposal to Sydona:
- Sydona would accept the sovereignty of the Kiravian Federacy but would not revert to its pre-Kirsok constitutional status, instead becoming a sui iuris overseas entity with a high degree of autonomy within the Kiravian Collectivity.
- No market reforms would be imposed from above. Bilateral ground rules for energy, commerce, and travel would be negotiated.
- Sydona must come into compliance with the Statute of Liberties, and Sydonans would have recourse to the federal judiciary in matters of civil rights. Sydona and its officials would be exempt from the jurisdiction of any transitional justice tribunals.
- The Socialist Party of Sydona must nominally disaffiliate itself from the Socialist Party of Kiravia (expected to be dissolved and banned), but would be allowed to persist as a standalone party and maintain single-party rule for a period of 7 years, after which multiparty elections were to be held in which the SPS would be free to compete. No further constitutional changes would be required.
Since Reintegration
The general trajectory of historical evolution in Sydona since Kiravian Reunification has been one of unsteady but definite economic liberalisation and growth leading to correspondingly modest but appreciable improvements in living standards, coupled with the emergence of a more pluralistic but contentious political landscape.
The Socialist Party remained the ruling party after the first multiparty elections in 1992, but was forced into governing minority status in 1995 and lost overall control of the government for the first time in 1998, yielding to a federalist and pro-market coalition. The Socialists had adopted some market reforms during their post-reintegration time in power in order to stabilise the economy and increase the adaptivity of the socialist model. The 1998 coalition's reforms would be much more ambitious in terms of privatisation of state property and enterprises and bringing commercial and financial law into closer harmony with that of the Kiravian Federacy. This period also saw the growth of organised Thrakoslavonic nationalism in the form of the Democatic Union Party, which forced issues of identity, language, devolution, and partition into the foreground of Sydonan politics, whereas the other major political groups had sought to minimise and ignore such divisive matters as much as possible. The DUP's crowning achievement during this period came in 2003 with the formation of the West Yerduran Autonomous Division, devolving significant governmental authority to a nigh-homogeneously Thrakoslavic part of Sydona where the Thrakoslavic community would be permitted to pursue cultural autonomy and adopt a Thračician civic identity.
Geography
There are over 20 natural and currently 3 artificial islands in the Sydona archipelago. The five largest islands are Érdoran (Yerduran, also known as Lordasydona or "Grand Sydona"), Fauda, Manētuva, Teğer, and Mar-Kśaver. Érdoran comprises over 35% of the state's land area and is home to just over half of its population.
The archipelago lies entirely within the temperate belt, with a broadly humid subtropical climate (Trewartha Cf), with ample rainfall and a narrow, moderate annual temperature range. Sydona's antipodean seasons are well-defined: Spring is usually cool, windy, and damp, while warm summers and mild autumns create a long growing season for crops. Winters, though mild, are generally chilly and humid.
Important cities include Destransar, Resava, Vansarvan, Tertkert, Ğrigurêkivon, Batjikalovo, Vander, Chjuraskovo, and Asturiupol'.
Governance and Politics
Sydona is outside the Kiravian Federacy but within the Kiravian Collectivity: While not an integral part of the Kiravian nation-state, it is nonetheless subject to Kiravian sovereignty[2] as an unincorporated and external territory.
In the modern constitutional context of thematic federalism, Sydona belongs to the Sydonan Theme. The Sydonan Theme is a unitary theme (comprising only one federal subject) as well as a special theme (having devolved authority to in certain matters normally within federal competence). In practical terms, this means that Sydona has significant latitude to set its own policies with regard to migration, customs, and interstate commerce, above and beyond the considerable rights reserved to regular Kiravian states. The Government of Sydona actively exercises its autonomy in these areas, and presently maintains a separate migration and customs régime from other parts of the Collectivity, as well as numerous interprovincial trade barriers and its own currency, the Sydonan dram. Sydona was accorded this special status along with the Melian Isles during Kiravian Reunification in the late 1980s AD due to political and strategic considerations at the time (see §Reintegration above), and retains them in recognition of its geographic isolation, unique ethnic and cultural makeup, and divergent development path. Nonetheless, Sydona has voluntarily taken significant steps since the 2000s AD toward closer integration with the rest of the Kiravian Federacy, in tandem with the gradual liberalisation of its domestic economy and institutional setup.
The political life of Sydona takes place within the framework of a constitutional directorial republic. The current Constitution of Sydona has been in place since the last round of federal status compacts and referenda in 1998. Although it is now a multi-party electoral democracy, Sydona retains some institutional forms and symbolic trappings that recall its past as a Kirosocialist single-party state on the Devinist model.
The unicameral legislature, the Popular Congress, is elected every 36 months by a mixed-member proportional system that returns congressmen from geographic constituencies corresponding to the state's cities and raions by plurality, as well as from the electorate at-large from party lists.
The Popular Congress elects a State Council that serves as a collective head of government, appointing public ministers and issuing binding directives in the form of conciliar ordinances. The Chief Executive of Sydona is elected annually by the State Council from among their own number, and during their term serves as the procedural presiding officer of the State Council and ceremonial head of state with regard to Imperial rituals. Unlike most overseas states, election of the Chief Executive of Sydona does not require any confirmation or nominal appointment by the Prime Executive or Federal Stanora.
Politics
| Party Name | Popular Congress | State Council | Federal Caucus | Platform | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socialist Party of Sydona Sokšàlrısax Stranga Sydonáv |
52 / 110 |
4 / 7 |
Sydosocialism, Antifederalism | ||
| Social Compact Party Askolexriśtovix Stranga |
15 / 110 |
1 / 7 |
CSU | Conservative socialism, Neo-corporatism, Christian democracy | |
| Unitary Federalist Party Thūritix Vuntirektārkarisēx Plaiduv |
15 / 110 |
1 / 7 |
FRA | Conservative liberalism, Federalism | |
| Democratic Union Party Sokšàlkonvırisax Stranga |
15 / 110 |
1 / 7 |
KR | Big tent, Thrakoslavic nationalism | |
| Islamic Republic Party Islamix Respublikax Stranga |
7 / 110 |
0 / 7 |
AHC | Islamism, Islamic democracy | |
| Sydonan Alliance Party Sydonax Ixbovuntilix Stranga |
7 / 110 |
0 / 7 |
KR | Classical liberalism, Cosocionationalism, Antifederalism |
The post-Kirsok political landscape of Sydona has been shaped largely by issues surrounding ethno-national identity, federal integration, and the economic transition. The Socialist Party of Sydona, which had ruled Sydona under the one-party system, has managed to remain the strongest political force in the country, campaigning on a platform of ethnic and religious neutrality, opposition to independence or ethnic separatism on one hand and further federal integration on the other, and maintaining high social expenditure financed largely by resource rents. This platform, combined with effective voter-mobilisation networks among sympathetic constituencies such as organised labour, have enabled the SPS to turn out a "critical mass of lukewarm supporters" and usually prevail over the fractious opposition.
Communal identity is a major element of the Sydonan political landscape, but not the main predictive variable of voter behaviour. With the exception of the Democratic Union Party, which appeals exclusively to Thrakoslavs, the major Sydonan parties all portray themselves as multi-ethnic and draw varying levels of support from the principal demographic sectors. The UFP dominates the Overseas Coscivian vote and generally performs well among Austral Coscivians and the Pelian upper and middle classes, but has weaker support from Thrakoslavs. The Social Compact Party most often earns a plurality of the Pelian vote and is the favoured party among rural Christians of all ethnicities and much of the lower-middle class.
Status Question
The question of Sydona's constitutional relationship to Kiravia - whether it should change and, if so, how - has been described as "the spectre haunting Sydonan politics". The issue is no longer at the forefront of political debate in the country but looms large in its political culture and shapes political socialisation, and could easily return to prominence in the future under different conditions. There are two dimensions to the issue: The integration-independence dimension on the question of closeness with Kiravia, and the unity-partition dimension on the question of whether the constitutional status of Sydona should be uniform or varying constitutional settlements should be applied to regions with diverging interests.
Among the major ethnic groups, Thrakoslavs are the most favourable to independence and to partition, having a stronger nationalist movement and a more compact ethnic territory than the Pelians. Although Pelians can credibly claim to be "indigenous" to Sydona, their national aspirations are tempered by practical concerns, namely that their more geographically-dispersed community stands to lose the most from any potential ethnic cleansing precipitated by partition, and that Pelian-majority areas are generally underdeveloped and resource-poor compared to Thrakoslav- and Coscivian-majority areas. As such, they are moderately unfavourable toward independence and strongly against partition. Coscivians are naturally the least favourable to independence but have a significant minority, mainly residing in the outer islands, whore favourable toward partition. Minority communities such as the small ethnic groups and Muslims tend to be against both independence and partition, as they do not stand to gain their own states by partition and often view the Kiravian Federacy as a stabilising force and a hedge against ethnic cleansing.
The cross-ethnic majority of Sydonans are neither Kiravian loyalists nor supporters of independence. Most either support the status quo (whether on principle or otherwise), prefer moderate reforms in one direction or another, or are ambivalent or undecided.
Partitionists for independence are given pause by the fact that most of the country's energy resources are located in waters belonging to the more heavily Coscivian and loyalist outer isles, which would likely choose to remain tied to Kiravia. Indeed, the status quo is mainly held together by the weakness of the unitarian independentist camp and the electorate's strong reservations about the risks of partition.
Outside of Sydona, some Kiravian political figures have proposed disengagement from Sydona. Most support for wholesale disengagement emanates from the Labour Front of Kirav, though some associated with the Coscivian National Congress and Federalist Republican Alliance have endorsed allowing greater autonomy or independence for some parts of Sydona while retaining Kiravian control over others, generally those with Coscivian and/or loyalist majorities or otherwise economically or strategically valuable. However, under the current Kiravian constitution it is unclear whether this could be legally accomplished without going through the difficult amendment process.
Federal Politics
Sydona returns six members to the Federal Stanora by at-large single transferable vote.
The Emergency Backup Executive, a designated survivor elected to lead the Federacy's continuity of government efforts in the event that all other constitutional successors to the Prime Executive are killed or incapacitated in a catastrophic event, has their official residence at the Prehnite Hill Tracts on Grand Sydona.
| Member | Party | First Elected | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Íoan Aluneryn | Socialist Party (PDF) | 21189 | |
| Nikola Begić | Socialist Party (PDF) | 21197 | |
| Ḱassim Nasrallav | Unitary Federalist Party (FRA) | 21205 | |
| Dennis Kučinić | Social Compact Party (CSU) | 21205 | |
| Kayser Söszay | Unitary Federalist Party (FRA) | 21205 | |
| Sandor Orban | Social Compact Party (CSU) | 21212 | |
Public Policy and Law
Sydona has a comprehensively socialised healthcare system with universal access. However, quality and timeliness of care lag behind mainland Kiravian standards. Most hospitals in Sydona are public; since 2000 AD, a few hospitals and clinics outside of the state system have been established under the auspices of the Catholic Church.
Capital punishment was abolished in Sydona in 2007 AD.
Sydona has a seatbelt law that is enforced only as a secondary violation. Citations for seatbelt violations are relatively uncommon.
Defence Forces
Like other Kiravian provinces, Sydona maintains its own local defence forces. A ground and air force, Territorial Defence of the Sydona Isles, is part of the Territorial Defence Forces. Sydona's Territorial Defence troops are notified as "permanent home guard" by the Kiravian Defence Executive, meaning that they are not available for deployment outside of Sydona. STD units are called upon by the Government of Sydona for civil defence and public order missions.
A maritime force, the Sydonan Navy, functions as the islands' coast guard, discharging roughly the same responsibilities in Sydonan waters as the Maritime Cutter Service does in the Home Islands.
Local Governance
The third-level administrative divisions in Sydona are known raions (Coscivian: raion) instead of countyships (amtra), but perform the same essential functions. Notably, whereas most Kiravian countyships have a countyship executive, Sydonan raions do not, with executive functions exercised collectively by the elected raion council (raiosovèt).
Society & Culture
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Sydona has a rich and diverse culture, blending the dominant mores of Coscivian civilisation with Pelian, Slavic, Istroyan, and Audonian influences. Although a thoroughly multiëthnic and multilingual country, Sydona's overarching socio-political institutions and cross-community mainstream culture have been primarily shaped by Coscivian culture for the past several centuries, and as such, under the successive Elamite, Kiravian colonial, and Kirosocialist regimes, much of the non-Coscivian population of Sydona has become substantially Coscivised in many respects, especially in urban areas. However, since the end of Kirosocialism, a more pluralistic political and media environment has made space for stronger assertions of non-Coscivian, even non-Kiravian identities among these peoples.
In terms of statistical demography, Sydona has suffered from an overall decline in population since its 1940s AD peak of 34 million people. This is a compounded result of multiple factors, including typical demographic transition, the direct effects of midcentury armed conflict (increases in excess mortality and emigration, moderate dampening effect on fertility), and later socioeconomic factors associated with continued net emigration and smaller family sizes. Secondary contributing factors may also include excess mortality due to alcoholism, pollution, and the gender and contraceptive policies of the Sydonan People's Republic. Only since the 2010s has Sydona's population begun to stabilise.
Ethnic groups
The main ethnic divisions of Sydonan society are:
- Pelians - Japhetic ethnic group speaking the Pelian language. Pelians are the largest individual ethnic group in Sydona and are in plurality across southern and eastern Yerduran and much of the Lesser Sydonas. The Pelians are the cultural group with the deepest roots and longest presence in the Sydonas, having formed the native majority of its population from early antiquity until the middle of the Middle Ages.
- Thrakoslavs ( Thračislaveni ) - Sydonans of Slavonic heritage, also known as Thračicians or Sea Slavs. Thrakoslavs are in majority in the West Yerduran Autonomous Division (82%) and the North Sydona Division (62%). Other pockets of Thrakoslav settlement, mainly urban, have existed scattered across the coasts of the Sydonas since the Middle Ages.
- Čuvidins - Thrakoslavic Sunni Muslims
- Coscivians, including:
- Austral Coscivians or Deep South Coscivians - Social amalgamation of Coscivised Pelians and long-settled multigenerational Coscivian-Kiravian colonists.
- Thrakoscivians - Social amalgamation of Coscivised Thrakoslavs and mixed Coscivian-Thrakoslavic families, mostly living in West Sydona and speaking Thrako-Coscivian Creole.
- Black Coscivians - Resettled evacuees from Kiravian trading posts in Punth expelled during the course of the Kiro-Burgundian Wars. Mostly found in the Destransar metropolitan area and urban-type settlements in North Sydona.
In a few rural localities on Yerduran, generally relatively remote, often in upland areas, and usually with a history as ethnically-mixed villages or small towns since the Middle Ages, there are people who retain a parochial-localist rather than ethno-national identity. These communities may be Thrakoslavonic-speaking, Coscivian-speaking, or fully bilingual. These identities have not official recognition and are ignored by the Sydonan government, but are recorded on the federal Kiravian Census.
Smaller but notable ethnic groups include:
- Istrojans and Istro-Coscivians - The largest of the minority peoples. There is a long history of immigration to Sydona from the Istroyan Sea, especially the Melian Isles with which Sydona shares important historical linkages. The ruling élite of the Iddryitine Despotate were Istroyan speaking; however, most Istrojan Coscivians today descend from immigrants who arrived during the Archducal Period.
- Anatolians - Umbrella term for various Audonian Christian minority communities who have settled in the islands. The roots of the Anatolian community date back to the Oduniyyad Caliphate, which involuntarily transmigrated thousands of Christians to Sydona from their Audonian lands. Their numbers would later be augmented by a trickle of voluntary migrants after the Crusades and some brought to Sydona in modern times by the Institute for the Christians of the Southeast, an humanitarian NGO associated with the Elamite Order.
- Jethrovians - A Pythagorean ethnoreligious group similarly expelled from their original home in the Istroyan islands by the expanding Caliphate.
- Leinish - Small-numbered community descended from Gothic-Fiannrian Crusaders, mostly concentrated in Leinland Autonomous Raion.
- Alkali - Displaced Illyrians, traditionally pastoral and involved in rearing water buffalo and producing buffalo dairy products. Alkali youth have forged a distinctive subgenre of heavy metal music known as Alkali metal.
- Absuri - Local relict Arab populations
- Rumelis and Rumelite Coscivians - Followers of the Rumeli Islamic tradition.
- Welsh Sydonans - Immigrated from Caergwynn and Faneria to work in the mines and ironworks during the latter half of the 19th century.
In both common parlance and - despite the term having no legal definition - official communications, ethno-social communities other than the Coscivians, Thračicians, and Pelians are referred to collectively as "minorities".
The Coscivian share of the population was once much higher (34-37%) before the Civil War, but declined due to emigration and a higher war fatality rate than other ethnic groups. Nonetheless, the Coscivian influence on the general, cross-ethnic mainstream culture of Sydona is disproportionately strong on account of long Coscivian institutional and economic dominance. Much of the urban Thračician, Pelian, and minority populations are heavily Coscivised in many respects, particularly the middle and upper classes. In premodern times, Thračicians and Pelians who took up residence in Coscivian-majority cities and towns and entered the nascent middle classes generally assimilated into Austral Coscivian society. In modern times no comparable process still occurs, and upwardly-mobile non-Coscivians in culturally Coscivian cities invariably retain their native ethnonational identities even if their language habits and lifestyles converge with those of similarly-situated Austral Coscivians.
Language
Austral Coscivian, an offshoot of Maritime Coscivian superimposed over a Pelian substrate, is the most widely spoken language in Sydona, by 35% of the population as their native tongue and an additional ~25-35% as a second language. It is the lingua franca of the archipelago. The other two major languages of Sydona are Thračician (a Slavonic language) and the Pelian language (an independent Japhetic language). All three languages have official status
Thrako-Coscivian Creole is spoken by some 120,000 families in western and northern Érdoran (~1.54% of the Sydonan population), with a significant diaspora in Destransar and Valēka. It received official recognition in 1993 and authorised for use in public elementary education for the first time ten years later in 2003.
Kiravic Coscivian is an auxiliary state language, and is understood by up to 30% of the population, overwhelmingly as a second language. It is common as a first language among the "Mainlander" / "Overseaser" community present in the larger conurbations, and is important in the corporate world. Public information is increasingly made available in Kiravic. However, Austral Coscivian remains the dominant language of the Coscivian sector and the heavily Cosconised cities, and native Kiravic-speakers living in Sydona, even the Destransar metropolis, must learn at least the rudiments of Austral Coscivian in order to navigate everyday life.
Other languages spoken in Sydona by sizeable communities include Istroyan, Istro-Coscivian Creole, Aramaic, Arabic, and Leinish (an offshoot of Faekst). Caeric is conserved by some families in Juzovac Raion, but its status is vulnerable.
Religion
Catholicism is the primary religion in Sydona, followed by Islam in various forms, and is an important shared characteristic across the three main ethno-linguistic blocs. The Catholic Church was present in the islands from very early on, with the native Pregoshans being early converts to the faith. Islam became the institutionally dominant faith under the Caliphate, and remained so until conquest by the Elamite Order, which strengthened the influence of the Church and marginalised Islam. Under Kiravian rule, the state adopted confessional neutrality, and minority religious communities enjoyed greater freedom. In its early phase, the Kirosocialist government heavily repressed the Church hierarchy and Muslim clerical bodies, though it would later shift toward a relatively more relaxed approach involving infiltration and coöption of religious leadership. Catholic religious expression in Sydona often takes the form of elaborate devotional practices and the local veneration of patron saints. Monasticism and the role of the Elamite Order in religious life were prominent before Kirosocialism and are slowly being reëstablished in the decades since.
Smaller subsets of the Christian population adhere to Audonian churches, Coscivian Orthodoxy, and minor Kiravian sects. Patrajan Christianity has a small presence in Sydona, mostly in Resava and Destransar, with some parishes on Teğer as well. Protestanism is represented mainly by Neo-Protestants and Pentecostals, and is concentrated heavily among the archipelago's itinerant communities.
Islam has been practiced in Sydona since its conquest by the Oduniyyad Caliphate. 60-70% of contemporary Sydonan Muslims are Sunnis, belonging mostly to the Slavic Čuvidin and Arab Absuri communities, while 30-40% are Shi'as, virtually all Rumelis of either Rumelistani or Coscivian background.
A community of a few hundred Karaite Jews was documented in rural Hekuvici Raion from the 1660s, but was probably established much earlier. It is no longer extant today, having disappeared around the time of the Civil War, though its exact fate and the presence of any descendants among the contemporary Sydonan population is unknown.
Sports
Sports are an important part of Sydonan cultural life. Sydona forms a separate territory from Kiravia for international sporting purposes, with its own national teams.
Association football (Austral Coscivian: kʊʉrat, from Arabic kura "ball") is the second most popular sport in Sydona, in stark contrast to the rest of the Kiravian Federacy, where it receives little attention. The Sydona Islands are represented by their own national team in international competitions, separate from the notoriously irrelevant Kiravian national team. Although the Sydonan national team outperforms its Kiravian counterpart, it is still not particularly successful in tournament play. Soccer is generally played during the antipodean spring and summer in Sydona, coinciding with the fall/winter regular season for fieldball in Great Kirav, though it is evolving into a more year-round sport. The Austral Coscivian language has its own distinct vocabulary relating to soccer, much of which is locally coined or borrowed from Continental Ixnayan languages, unlike Kiravic Coscivian which has mostly borrowed or calqued its soccer terminology from Levantine or wider international usage.
Basketball is a very popular sport in urban Sydona, where the decaying industrial landscape offers large areas of hardscape suitable for low-cost conversion into basketball courts. Basketball had entered Sydona by the 1930s, would not be organised until the Sydona War wound down in the 1950s. A unified league system was established in 1988 after reïntegration. The Admiral's League, with 18 clubs, is the top tier of Sydona's professional men's basketball league pyramid, which operates by promotion and relegation. The league is sponsored by Admiral Tobacco.
Sydona is home to the famed tennis champion Hinko Karthinović. Although tennis was not previously an especially popular sport in Sydona, Karthinović's success has stoked great interest in tennis, and Karthinović himself has helped to fund and develop youth tennis programmes to deepen Sydona's bench of elite players and promote love of the game. Hayk Melkonyan, a State Councillor, has said "it is a national imperative that we as a society dedicate ourselves to raising up the next Karthinović."
Economy
Sydona has a an upper-middle income transitional mixed economy with a large public sector. The extraction and processing of natural resources - particularly offshore oil and natural gas and handwavium - are the most valuable sector of the economy and main source of public revenues. The economy is presently export-oriented, with a comparatively underdeveloped domestic market for consumer goods, though the Sydonan Popular Bank projects a positive trajectory for domestic consumption over the next five years.
Sydona has its own currency, the Sydonan dram. The Kiravian saar is widely circulated and commonly accepted by local merchants. However, the Sydonan government only accepts tax and fee payments in drams, and similarly pays out pensions and welfare transfers (upon which a large share of the population rely) in drams.
Energy and Mining
Sydona has extensive (mostly offshore) deposits of petroleum and natural gas, the easily the largest of any Kiravian province by proven reserves. The Sydona Resource Development Authority, a state-owned commercial entity under the purview of the provincial Secretariat of Energy, has a statutory monopoly on oil drilling in Sydona and its waters, though since 21202 it has begun licensing an increasing number of oilfields to private companies, such as Kiro-Audonian SakOil. Oil and gas are Sydona's leading export and source of government revenues.
The eastern islands hold major deposits of handwavium, while Érdoran and Manētuva have significant reserves of tin and tungsten. Offshore natural gas exploration is underway in the Sydona Sound. Sydona's handwavium industry is tightly supervised by the federal government, as the mineral is of great strategic value to the Kiravian Navy and shipping industry, which require it for certain long-haul voyages.
Agriculture
Agriculture employs some 16% of Sydonans, and is focused on the production of Levanto-Sarpic staple crops (e.g. wheat, barley), Kiravian staples (potato, drallion), wine grapes, beef cattle, and a wide selection of temperate fruits and vegatables. A warm temperate to submediterranean climate, level terrain on Grand Sydona, and comparatively low labour costs have helped establish Sydona as an agricultural exporter to the Kiravian and international markets. Ducks are raised widely across Sydona, and are a major ingredient in Austral Coscivian cuisine. Sydona is the leading producer of yerba mate in the Federacy.
Sydona is by far the largest producer and per-capita consumer of wine in the Kiravian collectivity. Vineyards are an important pillar of the rural economy on the hilly outer islands, which offer many locations with desirable terroir for viticulture. Sydona Œnotechnical Enterprises SAK, better known by its trade name 'Swallowtail Wines', took over management of the largest state-owned vineyards when they were privatised in 21192, and produces affordable varietal wines, mainly for the Kiravian market. It is the best-known wine brand among Kiravian consumers. Another major commercial winery is SAK Évard Cellars, a subsidiary of Alquifer operating in Yeğvard Raion (Marketing consultants rendered Yeğvard as Évard to dupe customers into thinking the wine was Burgoniesc and therefore good, when in fact it is neither).
Manufacturing & Services
Sydona inherited a large industrial base from the Kirosocialist period that has struggled to compete in a more liberalised trade environment and has remained largely stagnant despite generous subsidies and protectionist policies. It is perhaps best knowns for its manufacturing enterprises focusing on agricultural machinery, including combine harvesters, forage harvesters, and grain headers. The fortunes of the manufacturing sector have improved mildly since the Deluge thanks to contracts with the Overseas Development Executive to provide large quantities of outdated but low-cost agricultural machinery, construction equipment, and chemical fertilisers to promote economic development in Kiravian-controlled areas of Crona, contributing to the mechanization of local agriculture.
Sydona is a major exporter of paving stones and curbstones, benefitting greatly from the post-Kirosocialist suburban development boom in Great Kirav and the growth of "air-conditioner colonies" in lowland Æonara which have spurred a surge in demand for patios.
The Kashun Oil and Fat Complex produces a range of edible oils, margarine, and mayonnaise products. The majority contributor to Sydona's regional condiment supply, Kashun Oil & Fat also produces a large volume of goods for export, mainly to Great Kirav, the Saxalins, and Crona. Originally a state-owned enterprise, Kashun Oil & Fat was semi-privatised in 2012 AD under a UFP-led government, and is now 50% owned by Banya Sēora SAK. Banya Sēora also owns a massive dairy processing plant in Ijevan, which produces cheese, butter, and yogurt. The Ijevan plant was wholly privatised in 2008. Under Banya Sēora management, the application of the parent company's technical know-how, efficient management, and wide-reaching distribution networks were combined with the sheer scale of the existing plant in terms of physical capital and manpower to quickly become a crown jewel among Banya Sēora's assets.
The aerospace manufacturer AK AvMax is one of the better-performing state-owned heavy industrial firms, and the leading industrial employer in the outer islands outside of the mineral and energy sectors. Under Kirosocialism AvMax was initially tasked with building utility aricraft (mainly for agricultural use) and military transports. It would later concentrate primarily on large cargo planes, including strategic airlifters, producing replacement components for smaller passenger and military aircraft as a secondary activity. AvMax corporatised its governance after Kiravian Reunification but remained state-owned, and diversified its operations to include a wider range of smaller craft, aviation components, and services. In addition to fulfilling Kiravian defence contracts, AvMax sells utility aircraft primarily to less developed countries. Since the late 2010s AD, several of its component-building subsidiaries have faced lawsuits for patent infringement, most of which have been lost or settled unfavourably by AvMax. Both foreign and Kiravian competitors have alleged that selling patented aviation components on the global black market is a major part of the firm's business model.
Other major heavy industrial enterprises that have remained state-owned include the Asturiupol Steel Works, the ZydTalav family of mining equipment and haul-truck builders, and the Krapovo Motor Works. Unlike AvMax, these firms mainly serve the Sydonan market and are reliant on protectionist policies, contracts with other SOEs, and other forms of state aid to remain viable.
Tourism
Tourism is a developing sector of the Sydonan economy. The islands are not especially scenic and their cities and towns have been described as "charmless".[by whom?] However, they do have ample beach frontage and a mild climate, suitable for the development of shore tourism. Agritourism and the touristic development of some Archducal-era castles and manor houses also present opportunities to bring in tourist revenue. Many[who?] believe that the main impediment to the tourism sector's growth is a lack of investment to develop world-class accommodations and attractions, and that more government subsidies are needed for Sydona to truly "break out" as a desirable tourist destination.
Notable Sydonans
- Hinko Karthinović - International tennis champion; from Resava
- Iśmaev Taym - Founder of Orbital Resonance SAK; born in Alovudin Raion, Manētuva
- M. Hasuarin Talév - Kiro-Marxist historian and critic of Kirosocialism; from Destransar
- Josip Travolta - Celebrated novelist, poet, and translator