Æonara
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | East Crona Sea, Ixnay |
| Adjacent bodies of water | Æonara Sound |
| Total islands | 7 |
| Major islands | 2 |
| Administration | |
| Federal subjects |  North Æonara Central Æonara.svg){kind=small} East Æonara.svg){kind=small} West Æonara South Æonara Umcara Tævuon |
| Largest settlement | Sirana (pop. 1,240,420) |
| Demographics | |
| Demonym | Æonaran |
| Population | 69,180,000 |
| Ethnic groups | 64.4% Coscivian (Æonaran, Umcaran, other) 24.5% Sinyolan |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone |
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Æonara (/aɪʲ.oː.na.ra/) is a continental island off the northeastern coast of Crona. Along with its smaller sister island of Tævuon, Æonara was colonised by Coscivians from 20762 and has been governed in its entirety by the Kiravian Federacy and its predecessors since the 20780s. The island is divided among the Kiravian states of Central Æonara, North Æonara, South Æonara, West Æonara, and Umcara, as well as the Kiravian territory of Tævuon.
Geography
Æonara is laid out roughly in the form of a scalene triangle, extending from the Kanaveron Peninsula in North Æonara south to Xsādiróva, West Æonara and southeast to Kesta Kobra, Umcara. Tævuon lies just to the southeast of the main island, separated by the Tævuon Strait. The most prominent landforms on the island are two mountain ranges, the Emerald Mountains, which trace along the northern and western coast, and the Jade Mountains, which rise near the geographic centre of Æonara and continue in a southeasterly direction toward Kesta Kobra.
Æonara is well within the tropical belt has a tropical climate overall, though with altitudinal variation. Many lowland areas east of the Jade and Emerald mountains (i.e. in Central Æonara and East Æonara) have a tropical maritime climate, as do some areas directly on the southern coast. Other lowland areas generally have a more classical tropical wet-and-dry climate. Upland areas exhibit variations on a subtropical highland climate with more moderate temperatures. Locally there are three customatry gradations of the different life zones resulting from this altitudinal variation, known in Æonaran Coscivian as the bréaśad ("hot land"), lúaśad ("mild land"), and thóaśad ("cool land").
Important cities in Æonara include Sirana, Sar-i-Paul (Saripáuv), Prevarda, Saravena, Vaśyansar, and Ærhorn.
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History
The history of Æonara is closely intertwined with that of the Cape.
Pre-Coscivian History
It has been accepted that the first humans to settle Æonara and Tævuon arrived around 12,000 years ago. Indigenous peoples in Æonara today can trace their ancestry to those groups, the two most significant being the Anahuak and Cahokian peoples found also in what would become the Cape. Originally hunter-gatherers, these indigenous societies would become increasingly sedentary and socially complex over the succeeding millennia. Although it is difficult to estimate the indigenous population of Æonara at the time of Coscivian colonisation, the generally accepted number is between 200,000 and 900,000; with the modern Federacy's Cultural Executive recognizing a figure of 600,000. By the 1200s, these societies would coagulate into the Cahok Confederation, a loose federation of three Cahok nations and two Anahuak nations, people of the longhouse. The Confederation would expand to include most of the interior of the modern-day Cape, fighting two documented wars against Polynesian empires and the indigenous states of modern-day Paulastra.
Colonial History
Initial contact between Coscivian settlers and the nations of the Confederation were relatively peaceful, in large part because early Coscivian settlements remained confined to the coast, leaving inland indigenous settlements generally undisturbed. Those of mixed Indigenous and Coscivian descent played a vital role in establishing Kiravian colonies and trade connections. Indigenous relations with Coscivian Æonarans would remain relatively peaceable until the transplantation of coffee spurred a rush of Coscivian settlers into the interior, severely disrupting the lives of the upland Indigenous, who would find themselves violently displaced, subjugated, and even exterminated.
Highland Coffee Civilisation
Late in the 18th century, it was demonstrated that the mild lúaśad altitudes of the Æonaran uplands harboured ideal growing conditions for a valuable Audonian crop, coffee. The healthful and stimulating brew derived from the roasted beans of the tree was in extremely high demand, globally - yes, but even more acutely in the chilly and dismal climes of Great Kirav, where people of all classes were taking a liking to a draught of the fortifying beverage before venturing out into their cold and wet surroundings for the day. The first coffee plantation in Æonara was established in 1776 by Águstin Xiráus, in what is now County Xiráus, South Æonara. Although the trees took time to mature and bear fruit, once they did the results were delicious. The subsequent proliferation of coffee plantations, mostly by the younger sons of landed aristocrats and wealthy yeomen from the South, Baylands, and Farravonia, quickly drew great wealth to the Æonaran colonies, as well as great numbers of colonists. Before the advent of coffee cultivation, the central uplands of the state ha been settled by Coscivians, but only sparsely, due to distance from the coast, limited infrastructure, and relatively few economic incentives. However, opportunities in the coffee plantations drew thousands of immigrant workers from Kiravia to the more agreeable climate of the uplands, where good working conditions and high pay made possible by the crop's high value encouraged them to settle permanently, putting down roots and sending for wives and families of metropolitan origin, solidifying the Farakoskix ("Sea-Coscivian") transplant culture of the uplands.
United Empire Loyalism
Kiravian military supremacy and political control was more complete and secure over Æonara, as a relatively smaller offshore landmass (along with Tævuon, an even smaller island), than on the South Cronan mainland, and as such, it was regarded as a safer destination for aspiring smallholders and families emigrating from Great Kirav. By the time of the National Revolution in the Cape, around three-quarters of the population of Æonara were either mestiço or Coscivised Cronite Kolakoskem ("Land Coscivians") or creole Farakoskem ("Sea Coscivians") of Kiravian extraction; a markedly higher proportion than on the Mainland. For this reason and others, the revolutionary spirit did not burn brightly in Æonara, which emerged as a key Loyalist stronghold.
After the success of the National Revolution and the Kiravian withdrawal from the Cape, Æonara was flooded with Loyalist emigrés and became the new base for government bureaux and numerous commercial enterprises previously located in Cape Town.
The Loyalist emigrés tended to be of an archconservative and Coscivian imperialist mindset and were staunchly opposed to modernist ideologies such as nationalism and socialism. Keen on preventing the revolution in the Cape from replicating itself in Æonara or the other colonies, prominent Loyalists organised themselves into a fraternal association, the United Empire Loyalists, through which they and their descendants would become an eminent political and social force in Æonara until the Sunderance, after which they would continue to influence the ruling Renaissance Party.
Kiravian Remnant
When the Kirosocialist Party promulgated a new constitution establishing single-party rule, opposition forces denounced the new constitution as illegitimate, and non-Kirosocialist Delegates led by the Renaissance Party convened a rump Stanora in Saar-Silverda, beginning a period of dual sovereignty that quickly escalated into the Kiravian Civil War. Despite initial advantages, the Federalist military struggled to maintain adequate manpower and supplies, aresorting to appropriation and impressment as the tide of the war turned against it. Soon, Federalist forces were beaten back to the fringes of the island continent in Farravonia, South Kirav, and Ilánova by the Kiravian Red Army, though it retained control of the overseas colonies. With the defeat of the Farravonian Counterrevolution resulting in the total expulsion of the Federalists from the Mainland, the Rump Stanora and governmental apparatus were evacuated to Sirana.
With the backing of conservative elements in the Kiravian Armed Forces and civil service who refused to serve the new régime on the mainland, as well as partisan militia, the rump Stanora organised a government-in-exile in Æonara under the leadership of Séan Kæśek as Prime Executive.
Land Reform
Post-Kirosocialism
The decade immediately following the consummation of Kiravian Reunification was difficult and turbulent for Æonara, and is remembered as a time of bittersweet zeitgeist due to the conflicting emotions surrounding, on one hand, achievement of the overarching National mission around which so much of modern Æonaran culture had been organised, and on the other the loss of Æonara's central position within the Kiravian Federacy and Coscivian world as a direct consequence of this success.
The mixed implications of reunification for the Æonaran economy - which had formed the core of the economy of the Kiravian Remnant - were evident from the very beginning. As progress in reunification negotiations became public knowledge, investor confidence in certain segments of the Remnant's economy, most acutely real estate, higher-order industries within the high technology sector, the defence industry, and primary sector industries reliant on resources in Atrassica and Cusinaut, began to waver, while confidence in the financial sector hit a fever pitch. Market actors anticipated (correctly) that the the merger of the two Kiravian economies would entail significant structural adjustments. Despite the vastly increased potential for long-term growth by extension of the Remnant's successful economic and political systems over the enormity of Great Kirav, there were well-founded concerns that in the near-term that Æonara's well-established market-oriented economy was essentially taking on a gargantuan, severely distressed asset in the form of the Mainland's imploded command economy, and that the demands of the transition would be a massive drag on Æonara's own efficiency and productivity.
As predicted, reunification brought on dramatic changes to Æonaran trade dynamics. Æonara had by then been punching above its weight in global trade for several decades, and a reunification redirected the patterns of its commercial relations away from its established foreign trading partners and peripheral overseas colonies and toward the opening Mainland market. Integration with the Kiravian Mainland provided access to a massive, thitherto untapped domestic market, presenting new opportunities for Æonaran businesses, especially those selling consumer and light capital goods, and professional services. On the flipside, it also decimated many local Æonaran industries (such as bauxite and coal mining), and killed critical public subsidies to strategically-important sectors and to industries oriented toward exports to other advanced economies, these government funds being needed to finance the political transition and economic reconstruction on the Mainland. Foreign direct investment patterns were also similarly affected: Æonara had been a major beneficiary of significant foreign investment due to its stable political environment and robust economic fundamentals. Reunification and liberalisation of the former Kiravian Union altered the perception of Æonara as a separate investment destination from the Mainland, resulting in the redirection of some foreign investment towards Great Kirav-based enterprises, largely at the expense of Æonara's FDI inflows. However, the attractiveness of Æonara's skilled workforce, technological capabilities, and transparent legal framework did help to retain and attract foreign investment, even in the midst of such changes.
After Reuinification had been fait accompli for a few years, its economic and social impact became more visible and tangible to the average Æonaran, especially so when it came in the form of enterprise relocations and job losses. During the Civil War, many major antebellum Kiravian corporations, for example the Bay Trading Company, had fled Great Kirav and established new headquarters on Æonara from which they continued their operations. After Reunification, most of these corporations returned their headquarters to the Mainland, and even some companies founded on Æonara moved their main offices to Great Kirav to gain a more secure foothold in the rapidly opening business landscape there. Hundreds of thousands more jobs (and billions in public expenditure) left Æonara as the Federal government gradually moved its bloated bureaucratic apparatus back to Kartika. The knock-on effects of this move for local economies and for sectors such as education were negative and severe.
As a result of the economic downturn, the Æonaran electorate handed control of several provincial and major municipal governments to parties other than the Renaissance Party, including the Social Democrats KF and the left wing of the Christian Democratic Party, in many cases for the first time ever.
Governance
Æonara is divided among seven Kiravian federal subjects: Six states - Central Æonara, North Æonara, South Æonara, West Æonara, East Æonara, and Umcara - and one territory - Tævuon. During the Sunderance, the Kiravian federal government became more directly involved in governance of the island, resulting in a more *de facto* centralist arrangement described today as "strong federalism" (lādivuntiārkarisēn). Several other federal subjects existed on Æonara during the Sunderance, including the Vaśyansar Federal District in present-day North Æonara, which contained the seat of the federal government, and several smaller provinces erected on the territory of Central Æonara and East Æonara as part of Rump Republic's "creative constitutionalism". After the federal seat of government returned to the mainland, an Æonaran Council based in Sirana and headed by the seven provincial Governors took over many interstate functions left behind and facilitates inter-province coöperation. The seven provincial defence forces in Æonara operate as an Æonaran Battlegroup with a joint command structure.
Politics
Æonara is regarded as a solidly conservative region that has historically rejected revolutionary movements such as Bannerism, Novialism, Kirosocialism, communism, and the national-revolutionary Restarkism prevailing in its neighbour, the Cape. Æonara reliably elects slates of Delegates that sit with the Federalist Republican Alliance and (to a lesser extent) Authentic Historical Caucus in the Federal Stanora. Politics in the individual states tends to be dominated by the local chapter of the Renaissance Party. This state of affairs has been explained as a "layering of conservative elements in the electorate", beginning with the anti-revolutionary Empire Loyalists, continuing with the conservatising influence of Sunderance-era anti-communist refugees and the pervasive cultural presence of the Renaissance Party, and maintained in the present day by the "sunshine conservatism" of post-unification migrants from the Mainland and Overseas Regions, who skew older and wealthier than the national average and tend to approve of the SRA's prominance in national politics.
Society and Culture
Æonara has a Coscivian culture shaped by the rich heritage of Coscivian traditions transplanted by Kiravian settlers, as well as influences from the indigenous peoples absorbed and subsumed into the settler society, particularly as regards foodways, agricultural techniques, and the culture's relationship to its natural environment.
The Æonaran Coscivians, who trace their ancestry back to the first and (to a lesser degree) second waves of Coscivian settlers, form the largest ethnic group on the island. They share most of their culture in common with the Umcaran Coscivians. Their language, Æonaran Coscivian, is characterised by many archæic and divergent features that differentiate it from modern Kiravic Coscivian (with which it is not mutually intelligible), as well as by a great many loanwords from local Cronan languages. It is an official language in all states of Æonara; and is spoken natively by an outright majority of the population in South Æonara. There are numerous communities, castes, and subgroups within the Æonaran Coscivian population, with different traditional lifestyles, dialects, and degrees of admixture with the indigenous peoples. The second largest Coscivian ethnic group on the island are the closely related Umcaran Coscivians, concentrated in South Æonara and Umcara. A large share (35-50%) of Æonaran Coscivians and all Umcaran Coscivians can be considered Kolakoskem ("Land Coscivians").
The turmoils of [whatever the 20th century is] brought new waves of Coscivian migration to Æonara, first Kiravian loyalist refugees from the Cape after that country's independence, and later anti-communist refugees from Great Kirav and Sydona after the Kirosocialist takeover. Socially, the Capetian Loyalist community is well-integrated with the established Æonaran Coscivian population, already sharing a similar culture rooted in a shared colonial history. The Xátihomem or "Mainlanders" who settled in Æonara during and after Kirosocialism are more socially distinct from the Æonaran Coscivians. They tend to be urbanised and concentrated in select metropolitan areas and certain highland towns. The Xátihomem use Kiravic Coscivian as their common language, though many speak other ethnic and regional Coscivian languages at home and in other contexts. Between a quater and a third of Mainlanders speak West Coast Marine Coscivian, making it the fourth most spoken language in Æonara.
The Æonara Migration Act of 211XX gave the Æonaran territorial governors authority to grant expedited sponsorship of 3,000 guest worker and medium-term residency permits annually to eligible Capetian citizens wishing to settle in Æonara and Tævuon, exempting them from normal immigration procedures. The Capetian population is concentrated in West Æonara, South Æonara, Tævuon, East Æonara, and Umcara, making up 14% of the total population in South Æonara and 19% in Umcara.
After Capetians, Paulastrans account for the largest number of foreign nationals living and working in Æonara. Paulastran is the most widely-spoken foreign language among Æonarans after Portuguese and along with it is the language taught in schools, whereas in most other parts of the Federacy Latin or Lebhan are preferred. In Sar-i-Pául, the largest city of West Æonara, some 72% of Coscivian-Kiravian (including Sinyolan) residents reported having a "good command" of Paulastran or better. The total percentage of residents speaking Paulastran is estimated to be around 90-94%, accounting for Paulastran nationals living in the city and Kiravian citizens of Paulastran origin or ethnicity.
There is a substantial Lusophone population in Æonara, which includes Lusonic-speaking Capetians, Tryhstians, and Cartadanians. The Lusophone community is mainly urban, but there are some rural settlements in South and West Æonara populated by Lusophone guest workers from mainland Cronan countries.
Architecture and Urban Design
Art Deco is big in Æonara.
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The architecture and spatial design of lowland Æonara departs from the pronounced verticality characteristic of Coscivian architecture elsewhere. Although Coscivian towerhouses and trilevels are not uncommon, especially in older settlements and developments near urban cores or high-value beachfronts, the architecture of lowland Æonara is notable for its lower and broader profile. This region was the first area of the Kiravian Federacy to experience Urcean Valley-style suburban sprawl, emanating from the major coastal metros of Sirana and Laśerna.
Æonarans culturally classify the island's various spatially distinct physical settlements into several classes based on which wave of development they originated during and other characteristics. These include
Settlement Types
Old Towns (Æonaran: Berisartha) and Old Villages (Beridasa) - Any settlement built before the Sunderance, including the historic downtowns of cities such as Prevarda and Sirana that were built up mostly during and after the Sunderance. Rural old-towns and old-villages are inhabited predominantly by old-stock Æonaran Coscivians, Umcaran Coscivians, and Empire Loyalists, and occupy an important place in the island's culture as representative of the Æonaran heartland an living Æonaran heritage. Old-towns and -villages have more irregular layouts and architectural variation as a product of centuries of organic growth. Many old-towns, especially in city centres, are anchored by historic buildings formally listed for preservation.
New Towns (Æonaran: Innosartha) - Cities and towns (or city disticts) built during the Sunderance, usually to accommodate new (or relocated) industrial and/or commercial enterprises and their workers. Many such 'new towns' were master-planned, while others were more organic products of the island's rapid economic development. New towns are architecturally modern and often highly vertical in profile. Post-reunification, some new towns have suffered from monotown syndrome as their sustaining industrial firms have closed or relocated, while others have endured or diversified their economic base. Some prosperous new towns now have outlying suburbs.
Air-Conditioner Colonies (Æonaran: Asxathuatoriaxerka, Thuatuosartha) - Exurban and suburban developments built during the island's post-Reunification economic resurgence from the late 1990s onward. Air conditioner colonies consist mostly of single-family tract housing, sometimes with a few townhome blocks. They are stereotypically inhabited by recent middle-class arrivals from the colder climes of Great Kirav or the Overseas Regions, especially retirees and empty-nesters, though in reality many Æonara-born people and families with children live there as well. Many exurban AC colonies include a small commercial district for grocery shopping and other basic services, and offer substantial community amenities.
Quartering Blocks (Sitnaram) - Settlements built in the 1930s-50s AD to house the military evacuees - Federalist soldiers and other servicemen who had retreated from the Mainland - along with their families. Intended as a temporary measure, the quartering blocks were hastily constructed according to prefabricated military housing models, and scattered across Æonara[1] wherever land was readily available. However, as the Sunderance wore on, they solidified into permanent settlements and developed local cultures distinct from their surrounding areas, and most are now multigenerational. Quartering blocks are no longer necessarily located near centres of employment, and many residents, particularly older persons, survive off of military pensions and other government benefits. Most residents have been granted intergenerational tenure in their homes, many of which are overcrowded, but most housing units remain owned by the government, which in subsequent decades up to the present day has used vacant units to quarter disabled veterans and the dependents of military casualties as some of the original residents have become upwardly mobile and moved out.
Ranch Tracts - Suburban tracts of ranch houses laid out with Urcean Valley-grade density. They are laid out in square or rectangular grids and built mostly on drained swampland in the coastal plains of Central Æonara and East Æonara. During the 1970s AD, the ranch tracts surrounding Sirana were home to the Mondego man, and remain associated with the more prosperous stratum of the working classes and the lower-middle class, although the median income in these areas declined during the 1980s and 1990s as more affluent residents variously returned to the Mainland or moved to air conditioner colonies.
Settlement Towns - New towns built to accommodate emigrés - initially mainly dispossessed petty bourgeois, professionals, and the middle classes, but gradually broadened to a wider demographic scope - from the Kiravian Union, as well as to help drive national economic development. Settlement towns have come to be retrospectively regarded as the ideological and architectural forerunners of the Settlement Movement.
Exits - Periurban settlement patterns created by land reform policies of the Kiravian Remnant. Exits generally formed from the dispersal of farming families out of old villages when land reform programmes gave them the rights to live and work on their own nearby farms. These old village centres evolved into local commercial and service centres, and some located on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas have prospered as hubs serving AC colonies and other exurban communities.
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Religion
Catholicism, represented primarily by the Coscivian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Crona, is the largest religion in Æonara by number of adherents, followed by Coscivian Orthodoxy. Catholic institutions in Æonara were greatly strengthened by clergy and consecrated religious who emigrated in the face of anticlerical governments in the Cape and later the Kiravian Union. Historically Lutheran communities presently associated with the College of Levantine Churches are prevalent in Umcara State, and Æglasta-i-Xristul, an Adoptionist denomination founded in Æonara, also has a significant presence. Other religions with a significant presence in Æonara include the Iduanism, the Insular Apostolic Church, Ruricanism, Reformed Orthodoxy, and the Chantry. The Kiravian National Church was founded in Æonara and its governing synod was based in Rembrēsar, West Æonara until 1990 AD, when it moved to Kartika.
Due to strong business connexions with Caphiria and the Hekuvian Coscivian community during the Sunderance, there are Caphiric Catholic parishes in Sirana, Laśerna, Sar-i-Pául, and Vaśyansar.
Æonara has a relatively large Protestant population by Kiravian standards, composed mostly of Lutheran Umcarans, but also including some smaller denominational families, such as Methodists, Adventists and Arcer Anglicans. The Mormon Church has a long history of missionary activity on the island, and has left a non-trivial Mormon presence, concentrated mainly in County Kronner, West Æonara.
Education
Major universities on Æonara include Sarosten National University, the Coscivian Culture University, the University of Sirana, the Pontifical University of Kiravia, Ignatian University, Æonara International University, the University of West Æonara, the University of South Æonara, and Umcara State University. The Institute of Cronan Studies, sponsored by the federal government to train personnel for the Overseas Development Executive, Overseas Governance Executive, and foreign service, is located in West Æonara.
Economy
Nicknamed Nassán Sorolá ("[Continental] Island of Abundance") since the 207th century, Æonara is the Federacy's wealthiest and most productive overseas region, boasting a diversified and developed economy with high growth rates driven by multiple sectors. Industrial and commercial development in Æonara occured around the same time as in the Cape, [when??]. However, the biggest boon to the island's economy came during the government-in-exile period when Æonara became the principal destination for capital flight from Great Kirav in the wake of the Kirosocialist takeover and absorbed much of Kiravia's financial, technical, and mercantile élite who fled the régime. This massive influx of human and financial capital spurred rapid growth and transformed Æonara into a sophisticated modern economy. The restoration of constitutional rule in Great Kirav and the repatriation of the federal government and many business enterprises caused a significant economic downturn for Æonara, though recovery therefrom came relatively quickly as Æonara was well-positioned to benefit from the mainland's economic transition, trade liberalisation, and a real-estate boom precipitated by the widening availability of air conditioning.
The island's most important economic asset, however, is its geographic position, which has made Æonara a major conduit for commerce between Kiravia and its major trading partners in Southern Crona, most importantly Paulastra and the Cape. The highly-developed Saripául-Sirana Corridor between the island's two principal ports is also known as the "Whiskey-Cola Road".
Imperial Cola vending machines are ubiquitous throughout the island, located in nearly all employee breakrooms, waiting rooms, apartment complexes, schools, transit stations, laundromats, and even churches. Tævuon has the highest level of Imperial Cola consumption per capita of any Kiravian federal subject at 822 standard eight-ounce cans per person in 211206.
Agriculture
Æonara has a large an highly valuable agricultural sector that utilises the islands' long growing season and diverse microclimates to produce a wide variety of crops.
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Notes
- ↑ A smaller number of quartering blocks can also be found in Atrassica and in Sarolasta's Leviti State.