Argyrea
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Workers State of Argyrea Εργατική Πολιτεία Αργυραίας (Argyreo-Istroyan) | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
Motto: Η Διεθνής Εργατική Τάξη θα είναι η Ανθρώπινη Φυλή! ("The International Working Class Will be the Human Race!") | |
Anthem: Argyreannaise '17 | |
 Location of Argyrea (dark green) In Audonia (gray) | |
| Capital and largest city | Argyreopolis |
| Official languages | Argyreo-Istroyan, Kemetoid, Gajiakh |
| Ethnic groups | Argyreo-Istroyan, Kemetic, Gajiakhstani |
| Religion | None, Laïcité society. |
| Demonym(s) | Argyrean (noun) Argyreic (adjective) |
| Government | One Party Bolshevi-Leninist State |
• Chairwoman | Zoe Alafouzos |
• Plenary Head | Ophelia Vissarion |
| Party Plenary | |
| Parliament | |
| Establishment | |
• Founding of Crusader State of Argyreopolis | 1257 |
• Founding of the Dual Empire of Argyrea-Kemet | 1609 |
• Bolshevi Revolution | 1921 |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 328,993,212 |
• Census | 308,900,122 (2024) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2030 estimate |
• Total | 22.334 trillion |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | Your GDP = GDPPC x Population (This is calculated for you after first entry) |
• Per capita | Your GDP PC |
| Gini | Your gini coefficient Error: Invalid Gini value |
| HDI (2019) | .898 very high |
| Currency | Ducat (DCT) |
| Driving side | right |
Argyrea, officially the Workers State of Argyrea, is a One Party Bolshevi-Livasist state in Audonia, the largest city and capital being Argyreopolis. Argyrea consists of the Workers State as a federal entity encompassing 7 nations divided into 300 cataracts and 19 autonomous Toliz ethnic councils that grant nominal equal power to the many ethnic groups in the Workers State. The Nations are further subdivided into cataracts that represent local party branches, which make up the Plenary, the indirectly elected legislative body that consists partially of Party coordinators and Trade Union representatives.
Argyrea has been settled since the earliest record of human history with the arrival of the Proto-Kemeti civilization in the 10,000s BC, shifting to being part of the Kemeti civilization around the dawn of the 3000s BC , being part of the birthplace of the first writing system, the dawn of architectural engineering, and the emergence of city polities. Argyrea as a specific entity has existed arguably since the founding of Argyreopolis over the ruins of Old Akhmatiea by Carlo Luis Melachrino, a crusading knight commander. The City of Argyreopolis evolved into the Duchy of Argyrepolis under the steady but chaotic rule of the Melachrino Dynasty. The rule of the Melachrino Dynasty has seen the growth of Argyreopolis into a hub for trade, the slow conquest of land through war and through diplomatic ways, the use of intrigue to turn small and large nations against each other. By the early 1600s, The Melachrino dynasty restored the crown of Pharaoh after centuries of dormancy, and formed the Imperial Dual Crown of Argyrea-Kemet. From here, Argyrea rose to the status of local powerbroker. Argyrea's position in Audonia enabled the nation to be one of the first ports of import for distribution of luxuries to the continent. Imperial Argyrea's conquests of the Islamic nations around it would cement it as truly an empire, and the wealth brought from trade established a basis for native industrialization. Argyrea's economic identity was defined by the founding of Régie, a corporation that exists today initially ran by the Imperial family. Luxury clothing designed in Occidental styles from silks, muslins, and cotton was exported, high quality perfumes, and the lifeblood of Argyrea's existence, tobacco, became the main export of the country to this day. Argyrea's society straddled between rapid industrialization and serfdom, and a strict hierarchy of class and ethnicity decreed by the Pharaohs. This led to the Bolshevi Revolution, named for Dawud Boshevi, the Judeo-Felahidi intellectual expelled from the early Livasist movement. This bloody revolution led to Argyrea becoming the Workers State, led by Bolshevi from 1921 to 1955. Argyrea was one of the earliest adopters of social rights such as gay rights, trans rights, and reparations to former slaves under the leadership of Emma Abravranel, who is considered alongside Livas and Bolshevi to make up the Ideological Core of the Workers Party of Argyrea. Argyrea's constitution and party line espouses a focus on the Revolution of the Oppressed, a political doctrine focusing on revolutions led by the most oppressed workers with the masses of all working class peoples. Argyrea is a wealthy country for its regional position, due to the focus on monopolies directed towards international corporate trade, with the profits from this trade being put back into the hands of workers. Argyrea, as the Workers State, made combat and diplomacy with both Deviationist Livasist states and Capitalist states, opportunistically taking sides when convenient. Currently, Argyrea considers itself to be the last true bastion of Livasism, considering any other form to be deviationism. Supporting weaker countries throught the world against Imperialism, regardless of ideology, Argyrea sees itself as a diplomatic power that counters the superpowers of the world, the torchbearer of true socialism. Argyrea is currently under the governance of the Hardliner Bolshevi government of Zoe Alafouzos, the youngest Chairperson in Argyrean history, who took power in 2020.
XXX is a member of the League of Nations.
Etymology
Argyrea is named for the ethnic majority of the nation, the Argyreans, who are a mixed-culture of Istroyans and the Kemeti, who have lived on the southern coast of Argyrea for a few centuries before the arrival of Carlo Melachrino. The ethnic group is named after the silver mines where the early Istroyans began to work in on the behest of local Emirates.
History
What is a general overview of your country's path through history?
Kemeti Civilization
How was your country originally settled?
Pseudo-Pharaohs
What were the first political structures of your country? Did it have any very early rivals or was it controlled by a foreign country?
Khedivate Era and Early Crusader activity
What were your country's first major moves on an international level?
The Melachrino Dynasty and early Colonization
Argyrea's coast was already settled by Istroyan peoples who began colonizing the coast of Old Kemet since the 900s, but the colonization of Argyrea truly ramped up once the Crusades reached the shores of Audonia and began carving out small Crusader States among themselves. The most notable of these was the group led by Carlo Melachrino, a Conquistador and son of a petty Baron from ((country)), who was able to conquer the ruined city of Akhmatea, a port city that while still having some importance in local trade, was mostly unoccupied by this time.
The Dual Empire
With the conquest of the Gajiakhstani Tribes to the north and the secure position that the Duchy of Melachrino had, and the simultaneous loss of support from Occidental countries as the days of the crusades became less relevant come the dawn of the 1600s, Argyrea was put into a position of being between two worlds culturally and geopolitically. The Gajiakh Tribes were not necessarily obedient to a Christian overlord, especially not one from across the sea, and especially not one that ruled via subjugation. Instead, the Duke Melachrino at the time, Casimir I, made the choice to convert to Islam and bring most nobility with him for the stability of the realm.
The conversion of the Melachrino dynasty gained mixed reactions from the world, from revulsion of the Occidental states to relief or skepticism from their Audonian neighbors. Fundamentally, little changed.
In 1609, a year after Casimir I converted to Islam, his Parliament decided to reorganize the country and his other holdings. First, the title of Pharaoh was revived by decision of Argyrea's parliament, the Tomb of Tessalon was opened for the first time since 877 BC, and the Pharaonic Crown was restored, with Casimir I being crowned Nabucco I under a Pharaonic name. Next, the Duchy of Melachrino was elevated to the Empire of Argyrea. Smaller vassal duchies were put under this empire's jurisdiction, and the capital of this Empire was decreed to be Argyreopolis. Another Empire title was formed as well, Emperor of the Gajiakh. After Casimir I converted to Islam, coercing the tribal members to submit to him was much easier. The Empire of the Gajiakh was created on the condition that it would have a separate parliament, would be barred to Christian missionaries, and have equal investment from royal coffers into the jurisdiction.
Argyrea as an empire maintained a position as a go-between for the Audonian east and the Occidental west, being the most familiar location to travelers from Levantia and Sarpedon. Because of this new position, Argyreopolis needed to be renovated to have a higher capacity for trade and to be more familiar to the travelers from the Occident. Before the creation of the empire, Argyreopolis was stuck in time aesthetically, looking as it did in the 1200s. Emperor Casimir I sent out a team of diplomats, engineers, and architects to remedy the matter. The team visited Caphiria, Kiravia, Urcea, and Burgundie in order to brush up on their knowledge. When they came back, they came back with bounties of information that was used to found the Argyrean Royal Academy, now known as the Worker-Peasants Academy, the most prestigious university in the nation. Argyreopolis was expanded and rebuilt to great expense, adding a massive public park at the foot of the Imperial Palace and building multiple new Gothic style Mosques and Churches in the city. Later on, the rebuilding doctrine was extended to other large cities.
Argyrea also entered a new market at this time; slaves. Argyrea already was in the process of cementing their Occidental style of serfdom into the fabric of Argyrean society. Slavery was an added bonus as it afforded the possibility of bolstering the country's workforce when needed, but also afforded the possibility of selling the slaves for profit during times of trouble. 100 million slaves passed through the harbor of Argyreopolis throught the time slavery was legal in the country, from the 1400s to 1911. Slaves were sold as far as Caphiria. However, Argyrea needed a system to control the growing population of the country, and before his passing, Casimir I codified the Ritual Purity Castes as law, something that would last until the end of the Empire in 1921 to some form.
The expansion of Argyreopolis led to an extension of the Southern Route that forwarded Occidental goods to Daxia, but due to the volatility of Daxia's demand for said goods, Argyrea needed to expand their capacity to produce goods of their own. The introduction of tobacco produced an amazing opportunity for Argyrea to begin making money, and Casimir I founded the Regie des Tabacs to handle this trade, buying all smaller tobacco companies in the process to consolidate production and export. Argyrea was able to have trade ports in Crona and in northern Audonia for this purpose, and the popularity of tobacco inside the country led to innovations like the invention of sun cured Argyrean tobacco, which became one of the three types of tobacco used in cigarettes. Argyreans in Crona also pioneered flue curing, inventing the Varshani and Borlish varieties that were cultivated in Crona at one time, but are now also manufactured and grown in Argyrea.
Argyrea's army was also modernized by Casimir I, to expand conquests. The Imperial Citadel was founded as a military academy in 1623, and Argyrea's army adopted pike and shot tactics, phasing out the irregular ethnic-based and feudally based system. Large caliber cannons, of high quality, were built in large factories and supplimented the army of Argyrea, making a prelude to the industrialization of the country.
Casimir I passed away in 1648, and some of the Melachrino Princes returned to Catholicism. For 77 years, Argyrea had a silent succession crisis between the Muslim and the Catholic factions within the family, with constant assassinations and duels occurring. Argyrea's Islamic subjects continued to sporadically revolt, but as they were in a dominant position, many moved to the south to partake in the economic boom of the nation. Directly after his passing, Alexander I "The Hafiz" took the title of Emperor and Pharaoh, His rule overlooked the conquest of further reaches of the south, taking both sides of the River Darshe. Conquests to the East also took place, and Islam was spread to the farthest reaches of the maximum extent of the Argyrean Empire.
Alexander was assassinated by his own son, a Catholic, who took the throne as Emperor Ioannes. Ioannes attempted to restore Catholicism to the position of the religion of nobles, but this was a poor effort, as Ioannes' brother, Emperor Casimir II, was the one to take the garotte to his neck. Casimir II ruled for ten years after that, then was assassinated again by the Catholic faction to put Casimir III into power, but that only lasted a few months when a Muslim revolt unseated him briefly in favor of Alexander II.
Alexander II was a devout Muslim who made the unpopular move to implement the Jizya tax upon the Christian majority of the southern parts of Argyrea, and to demolish many churches in the city limits of Argyreopolis. He put the young Casimir III into exile in the Occident, alongside his mother, who both pleaded to the Occidental powers to intervene with another crusade. This was fruitless at first, as the age of the crusade was over, until the increase of piracy in the seas near Argyrea's coast and the ransoming of Occidental sailors began.
(pending clearance from inxayers) The Occidental nations acted swiftly. In 1698, the crowns of the Occident got together in a conference to deal with Argyrea, and decided to invade the country the next year. The war was brutal, lasting until 1715. At first, Argyrea was able to easily defeat the combined fleets of the Catholic Coalition, but internal Christian revolts made it harder to muster those brutal defeats against the Catholics and they were able to land their armies on Argyrean shores. The irony of a dynasty that got into power by virtue of the crusades now being the victim of one was palpable. Alexander II was killed in battle in 1713, and Alexander III ruled for two years uncrowned.
In 1715, Alexander III and Casimir III met to propose a compromise to the Catholic Coalition; the two would convert to Audonian Christianity, enshrine that as the religion of Argyrea for the foreseeable future, and pay token indemnities to the Occidental nations for 10 years that could be easily paid back to them once the trade routes were opened up. The Occidental nations agreed in separate treaties, and Argyrea's succession crisis was solved by putting Casimir III back on the throne until his death in 1738, with Alexander III taking the throne again that year and ruling for 12 more years.
The Workers State
Argyrea by 1900 was at the peak of it's economic power. Argyreopolis was a bustling city of 12 million souls, a beacon of civilization and the success of the modernization campaign the Melachrinos put into motion beginning in the 1880s. The Melachrino dynasty became fabulously rich, investing it into the capital and into strengthening their ongoing industrialization efforts. Immigrants from all over the world flocked to Argyreopolis to live a life of constant stimuli with their own wealth, or in hopes of attaining the drops of that growth for themselves, to start a life anew.
However, this did not work out for any worker, and many of the immigrants that came to Argyrea realized this. They became prime recruitment material for the communists who came with them, and so did the rest of the country.
The Famine of 1903 resulted in the deaths of two million Argyreans, due to the forced focus on tobacco, cotton, and aromatics farming in the North and Interior South of the Empire. Because of this, nobles were unable to use their serfs, seeing them as a liability, and the increasing mechanization of agriculture forced many nobles to emancipate their serfs. This threatened the very fabric of the Argyrean caste system.
Geography
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Climate and environment
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Government and Politics
How is your country ruled or governed?
Executive
The Executive body of the Argyrean state is the Plenary, a collective of both high ranking party members elected to the Plenary by card-carrying Workers Party members, and representatives from trade unions elected by the members of those trade unions. This body is 170 seats strong, with a proportion of 85 Party Officials and 85 Union representatives. The structure of the Plenary ensures nominally that the Workers Party of Argyrea does not have complete control over the running of the nation. In practice, however, many aspects of Argyrean life are directly controlled by the Workers Party. Still, a citizen of Argyrea, as the nation is 90% unionized, has influence to oppose the party should the need come, in line with the Permanent Revolution perspective. The mission of the Plenary is to carry out the Revolution from Below, this concept being that the true revolution originates not from the party but from the workers themselves. The Party simply carries out the revolution on behalf of the workers. The function of the Plenary is to rubber stamp legislature from the Parliament and to clearly define the ideological mission of the Party and the nation of Argyrea.
The Plenary is led by an Executive Body of 10 Plenary members, divided equally between the Unions and the Party, the most powerful of which is the Party Chairperson. The Party Chairperson can be elected multiple ways; typically the Plenary chooses a pre-elected successor. However, the other path to this position can be through popular election among the rank and file of the Party. This has happened once when Zoe Alafouzos was put into power in the aftermath of a popular revolt against the Liberalizer government of Soussa Perieira. As the people demanded, the previous pre-elected successor was disqualified and party members voted directly for Alafouzos.
Legislative
Argyrea's laws are decided by the Parliament, a body with 300 directly elected members, one from each Cataract. As Argyrea is a single-party state, only Workers Party members are allowed to hold this office. However, all Argyrean citizens in good standing may vote for the specific candidate they like for their Cataract. The Cataracts are divided through cultural and population concerns.
Federal subdivisions
Argyrea is divided into; 2 Self-Governing Cities (Argyrea City and Xanadu), 7 Nations, 31 Koinéa, which are Party Branch groupings, 300 Cataracts, which are smaller branch groupings, and 3800+ branches, which are rank and file groupings of individuals within the party. Some of the cataract borders are very ancient, some dating to the 3000s BC, with the divisions being based on local cultural groups and their degree of Hellenization. There have been changes in borders over the years however, a notable one being making the Lémoncello-Vorakis Cataract separate from the formerly larger Manitë cataract due to the Vorakis region being separated by mostly impassable mountains. Cataracts are governed by a Local Plenary Council and Koinéa are governed by a Regional Plenary Council. These councils elect Plenary members. Self governing cities have their own popularly elected Mayors that theoretically can be elected from any citizen at all, as well as the Regional Plenary Council respective to those cities.
Politics
Argyrea has used Early Livasist aesthetics in the past for propaganda in the early ages of the country, but due to the failures of Livasist countries, a few reforms were implemented. Emma Abravranel theorized the "subculture" doctrine, which proposed that through multiple problems, namely the isolation of the party from the workers, and because of the problem of the cult of personality, communist ideology could easily become a replacement for a state religion. The earliest program for propaganda reform was a law that banned the glorification of revolutionary figures specific to the Argyrean revolution beyond medals and awards. No statues of Emma Abravranel have been built where she stands alone due to this law. After her death, further reforms were implemented by Comrade Boutros to "decultize" Argyrea. First, in 1962, the emblems of the Workers Party discontinued the use of likenesses of Marx and Livas, and of Bolshevi as well. Statues and murals of these individuals can be built, but they must depict them humbled amongst the proletariat. In 1964, aesthetic decultization was complete with the removal of the use of Hammer and Sickle logos from all official ideological propaganda, with the exception of parades celebrating May Day, and the 1921 Bolshevist revolution. It goes further than that, however. Despite Argyrea being mostly a planned or worker run economy, surface level aspects of capitalism that have been created naturally have been artificially grafted onto the fabric of society based on the harmlessness of the customs. For example, the Argyrean public transit system is not standardized by name, with different cities allowed to decorate their subways and buses in different ways, and allowing them to choose different names. Products are varied and markedly different from each other in quality in terms of commodities, with control of prices kept in mind.
Public protest is legal and protected in the Argyrean constitution, with some caveats. Protests against policies and laws passed by the Parliament and Plenary are fully allowed, but must be registered with Cultus-Public Order a week before. Otherwise, no restrictions, CMPO will only intervene if a fascist is found within the crowd and will only arrest the individual. People on the Fascist Registry are technically allowed to protest, but this is a Honeypot rule created by CMPO to monitor non registered individuals who stand with them. However, CMPO still only observes. It is up to the local Party branches to physically intervene and prevent the protest from happening. This is a theoretical doctrine to involve the workers in anti fascist fights. Fascism is attacked via surveillance and via imploring citizens to be the first line of defense against it. This includes bringing non ballistic, non bladed weaponry to the counter protest and beating them away. Unless the right wingers die during this process, there is no legal consequence. In the rare event where a party branch cannot muster the numbers to put a challenge against the anti party citizens, the branch still cannot call on CMPO to break up the protest. They must first contact nearby branches to send cadre via public transit to reinforce their numbers.
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The Democracy Network currently is the primary representative of the right-wing dissent movement inside Argyrea and abroad among Argyrean dissidents. Officially Democracy Network is a liberal and democratic organization that seeks to turn Argyrea into a popularly elected multi-party democratic state. However, most of the members and participating parties in the Network seem to be quite illiberal; The largest party in Democracy Network is called Freedom for All, which has 89,000 members and professes to be a classical-liberal party, but their social policies are considered to be far-right. The second largest is Prostasía tou Laoú/14/83, a far right and white supremacist organization that translated loosely to "Defense of the People", referencing the fourteen words and "Hail Casimir". This organization operates primarily as a paramilitary organization that physically harasses left-wing Argyreans abroad. The third largest is the People's Zionist Organization, the oldest organization inside Democracy Network which also represents the interests of Argyrean Jews in the Diaspora who are anti-communists as well. Formerly also opposed to the Monarchy before 2004, afterwards they joined Democracy Network in a front against the Communist government. There are smaller organizations in Democracy Network as well, such as the Traditional Homemakers, who represent women in the Diaspora, the Argyrean Orthodox Church in Exile, which is a rogue split from the official Church, and We Remember, an organization that commemorates the falsified "genocide" of white Argyreans that Democracy Network claims to have happened.
Maison Melachrino was a front for the Imperial Melachrino family of Argyrea to move assets from Regié into foreign banks. Seeing the end of the Empire from miles away, Emperor Casimir V declared that the foreign entity of Regié and the Argyrean State Monopolies were now separate entities. Tobacco stockpiles and seeds were transferred to (nation), the location of Regié's largest retailer store, as soon as possible, with rebranding and renovation to the building being underway, turning it into Maison Melachrino's international headquarters. Billions of dollars were transferred and most of the Imperial family were rescued from death before the revolutionaries took ultimate power in 1921. Maison Melachrino operated as the legal remnant of the Argyrean Empire, and Castle Ozymandias was the Argyrean Empire's de facto embassy and point of contact for nations that refused to recognize the Workers State as the true Argyrea. Maison Melachrino used their profits from diversified ventures to grant loans to Argyrean diaspora business owners and landlords, who then in turn donated to the government in exile and trained as paramilitary to prepare for a retaking of Argyrea in the future. At peak, Maison Melachrino was the second largest tobacco corporation behind Regié itself, but began declining as Regié was able to convince governments to delist Maison Melachrino's products in exchange for favorable tax deals. By the late 80s, the Government in Exile had problems connecting with the diaspora as the children of the emigres began assimilating in the cultures of the countries they settled in. In 1989, the Emperor in Exile founded Democracy Network, which put the exiled political parties and paramilitary organizations under a united front that agitated for an end to communism in Argyrea.
Law
The Constitution
Party Bylaws
The mission of the party is as follows;
The Twelve Points of the Argyrean Workers Party;
For the export of Socialist and Bolshevist ideas worldwide. No socialism in one country could truly liberate even those inside of their respective nations, only the continued permanent revolution could accomplish that goal. Anything short is incomplete.
For Socialist Feminism; Feminism without Socialism is chauvinism, the liberation of women is imperative to the strengthening of the working class.
For Revolutionary Integration; All races and peoples must unite under one banner to smash the enemy.
Against chauvinism of all kinds; The Workers Party refuses to recognize that marginalized peoples can be liberated through having "their turn" realized in the current system.
Against Fascism; Fascism is the vanguard action of the agitated bourgeoisie. Without a strong Bolshevist movement, Fascism prevails.
Against Imperialism; The small nations of the world must be able to forge their own fates. Argyrea dedicates their strength to ensure this.
For personal freedoms; Prohibitionist policies and restrictions are inherently antithesis to the reason Proletarian parties exist. A socialist nation is a free nation.
One party, many peoples; The Internationale joins together the nations of the world in struggle against capitalism and reaction.
For Reason; Bolshevism is secular, but state atheism is poison and dogma. Citizens must be allowed to have their own reason provided their education is robust.
For the leadership of the most oppressed; Transgenders, Travellers, Jews, and untouchables are the most intimate in their knowledge of the system's problems. They lead the way in unity with all workers.
Against Racism; Racism is a disease that the enemy uses opportunistically to control working class people and turn them against their brother and sister. It will be eradicated not through one revolution, but a permanent ongoing one.
For a classless, stateless society; The worker states of the world unite to build a better world through the progressive history they struggle towards; economic growth for ALL. Once capitalism is smashed, class is abolished, and the state is as well.
Death Penalty
Argyrea's death penalty is not carried out by the state, but by Argyrea's State Board of Psychiatrists. The courts may recommend what is called a "psychiatric euthanasia", but the State Board is the one to determine if such a procedure is important. Executions are carried out via manual cleaver. The knife is a medical-grade cleaver of very large size that is to be kept as sharp as possible, disinfected, and in pristine condition. These knives are given to only the highest ranking psychiatrists, of which there are around 6,500 in the country authorized to legally euthanize citizens. The execution is carried out via attempting to cleanly decapitate a sedated patient with one chop. There is risk of failure however, so the chop begins where vital organs that supply oxygen and blood to the brain are, then passes between spinal segments. The head is then put into deep freeze and the brain is studied for abnormalities later down the line. Most executions via this method are requested by the legal courts in responses to cases of serial murder or child molestation, but some cases are requested by the legal guardians of the citizen who has been legally declared to be unable to consent to psychiatric help.
Repression in Argyrea
Critics of Argyrea's political system claim that Argyrea's Workers Party engages in severe repression of people it deems to be "enemies of the state", including the very religious, right-wing dissenters, and far-right citizens.
Argyrea has made steps to obscure any semblance of this from the world, typically portraying foreign critics as uneducated and paranoid anti-communists who are not open minded enough to accept Argyrea's system as fundamentally different from what was considered mainstream Livasist governance pre-Kipling, and citizen dissidents as bloodthirsty sociopaths who genuinely have a mental illness.
Psychiatry is used as a main tool to suppress dissent in the state, as the nation of Argyrea has named Liberalism (under "Latent Sociopathy"), and right wing beliefs (lumped into Anti-Social Personality Disorder) as psychiatric malignant mental illnesses.
Cultus Amuse, Argyrea's intelligence organization, is the main source of repression in the country. Cultus is divided into five sub-bureaus that manage different parts of societal order, with Cultus-Public Order and Cultus-Healthy Society being the main divisions responsible for the suppression of dissent. Cultus-Civil Order primarily deals in both police activity and "active propaganda" on behalf of the Workers Party, which entails aiding citizens with their daily problems from the small to the catastrophic. Cultus-Healthy Society deals in censorship, direct political repression and promotion of Argyrean art.
Cultus has been accused of stripping Argyrean dissidents from their basic human rights, with the main source of this accusation being the implementation of the Registry of Fascists , a website-based registry that is public to all citizens in good standing which catalogs the location and information on dissidents who are considered a physical and ideological imminent danger to the Workers State. Despite the name, left wing dissidents have been put on this registry as well. The Registry includes comprehensive information, including rumors presented as fact of the individual dissident's personal life. The registry was created in response to an antisemitic attack against a child perpetrated by far-right monarchists and the law at the time pre-registry requiring a mob that killed the monarchists to be prosecuted criminally. The registry is presented as a middle ground to vigilante justice versus the rigidity of the Workers State's criminal code, enabling the wider citizenry to publicly shame dissidents, and is also presented as a more humane solution rather than a work camp system or directly prosecuting dissidents.
Cultus' censorship is geared towards spinning most criticism of the state as insane rambling, into a positive perspective, or preventing malignant ideas from entering the country. Cultus Amuse is aware that the nature of information does not lend itself to a complete closing of society, so many methods such as appropriation are employed. One example of this is when an anti-communist muralist painted Zoe Alafouzos and Prib Dodd engaged in a fraternal kiss, and Cultus Amuse made the decision to leave the mural up, not crediting the muralist, and taking full credit for the creation of the mural. When Cultus Amuse does completely censor something, it is presented as being a preservation of Argyrean culture. From 1987-2020, the government of Nicolas Soussa Perieira made the decision to penalize citizens who dressed in an "alternative" manner, banning punk, goth, and emo styles from being used in public life. This was to prevent Levantian and Sarpedonic culture from becoming popular in Argyrea, and to continue Argyrea's soft propaganda abroad with their own cultural output. This policy was also presented as preventing racism, as Cultus Amuse claimed some makeup styles were disrespectful and a mockery towards Kemeti culture. Black lipstick, for example, came with a warning that it could only be used by Kemeti natives for their cultural costume. The counter-cultural ban was deemed a failure however, that painted Argyrea as a repressive society. When Zoe Alafouzos came to power, Cultus Amuse repealed the ban and approached the situation with the policy of appropriation instead, now directing artists to engage in state-sanctioned creation of alternative art and music.
Demographics
What kind of people live in your country?
Ethnicity
Self-reported ethnic origin in the Workers State (2030)
Argyrea's people are considered culturally to be part of a metaphorical soup, yet there are cultural and linguistic differences through the country. The majority of Argyreans are Mestiko, a term for mixed race peoples from Istroyan stock of any combination who also speak Argyreo-Istroyan as a language. Mestiko people come in varied phenotypes and behaviors. Argyrean villages have more ethnic diversity among them than two other countries in Ixnay would. The Gajiakhstani Peoples of the North are the second biggest ethnic group, and this ethnic group is further divided into a great number of tribes. The Gajiakhstani have their own Sub-Nation and are guaranteed equal rights to the majority, with their pre-conquest land returned for the most part after multiple conferences. Afro-Argyreans are the third biggest ethnic group in Argyrea, descended from slave populations. Formerly the poorest ethnic group, Afro-Argyreans now are quite wealthy due to; reparations, investments in Regie, having a great outsized influence on musical and visual art commercially, and holding high positions in the Workers Party. The Kemeti indigenous people live mostly in the large cities or in the most isolated reaches of Argyrea, having legal protection and their own Toliz.
Language
The lingua franca of Argyrean is Istroyan, specifically the Argyreo-Istroyan dialect that is spoken by 85% of the country. The dialect is known to be highly divergent from Mainstream Istroyan, due to the heavy presence of Arabic and Kemeti loan words. However, Gajikh languages are used as well in the north, especially the Haki-Gajikh dialect, the most used variety of that language family.
Religion
Religious affiliations in the Workers State of Argyrea
Argyrea is no longer a religious country due to the policies of the Workers Party, but State Atheism did not hold to the majority of the country on a technicality. Islam is the largest religion by proportion, with most Gajikh and some Mestikos in the North and North-east professing to be believers in Islam, divided equally between the Sunni and Shia. The Jews in Argyrea have two main communities, with the Sephardic Mestikos making up 40% of their population and the native Judeo-Gajikh being the rest. Audonian Christianity is the religion found among most religious Mestiko and the native Kemeti.
Education
Argyreans typically are highly educated, with education that is ongoing for trades workers that takes place in the workplace to relevant subjects.
Culture and Society
What do your people do, and what are they like?
Education
Argyrean education is free and mandatory for all children aged three to eighteen. Public and Charter schools are banned, and any parent who attempts to give their child an alternate education is jailed and charged with petty Reactionary Activity. School generally lasts from 6 am in the morning to 1 pm in the afternoon, and subjects taught are the basic academic classes such as language, math, history, and literature. Political education is started as soon as possible, theoretics being read starting with Horace Hears a Hmm by Klein, Esquire and ending with an exam on Capital by Carlos Marx by the end of the final required academic year around age 14.
After 14, the student may choose to extend their academic schooling by four years or go into the building and industrial trades right away. Most choose the latter, the required academic schooling is considered sufficient and effective enough. Those who extend their schooling typically go into universities.
Attitudes and worldview
Argyreans are known to be quite polite and friendly, unless one is disliked by them. It is common for a visitor in Argyrea to step into the cities and be *unwillingly* helped by the locals almost immediately. Argyreans tend to be very amicable and have no fear of talking to others. Many walk around with a smile on their face and indicate they are not available for a conversation with a blank expression, because a frown also invites conversation about why one might be sad. Argyreans are typically very knowledgeable about other cultures. It is common for an Argyrean to stop a foreigner and say "excuse me brother/sister, are you from x?" and be correct most of the time. However, they are *not* knowledgeable about how people live in other countries due to extended travel being somewhat restricted to the citizens of the country. There is some regional variation to this, as Portékyrea residents are considered rude (although friendly from an outsiders perspective), Argyrea City residents being considered somewhat snobby, and rural folk being a bit more clueless about the world's current state in general.Almost everywhere possible is a third space for Argyreans, with people having a beer and a cigarette in the most strange of places, especially in public. Argyrean politeness extends even to bigotry. It is a joke that right wing Argyreans will raise their hands, shake their head, and say something like "I'm so sorry you're a pronoun but have a wonderful day regardless!", then still invite the person for tea and continue asking incredulously why the person chose to be a "pronoun." It takes a lot for an Argyrean to personally dislike another individual. This usually is due to repeated small violations of one's boundaries, but a few things could get an Argyrean to dislike you. Biggest manner is inauthenticity. If one seems to brag too much or lie quite often, that is seen as inauthentic. Speaking too formally is also seen that way. Another way is to be messy in public. To some Badlanders shock, although Argyreans are chainsmokers they also carry around portable ashtrays just in case they cannot find a public one. Littering in general is seen as a mark of not caring about others (except in Portékyrea which is quite a dirty city). Argyreans, when they dislike someone, are not pleasant people. Typically they will straight up tell that person to not speak to them, or will ridicule them to their face. Ridicule behind someone's back is considered incredibly rude however. An Argyrean typically would tell someone, for example, "One second, isn't X your friend? I am only ranting to you." if someone begins a two way ridicule when someone isn't there. Argyreans somewhat have trouble when they visit other countries. Stopping people on the street for random small talk is not well received in most places and it confuses them further when the person they stop won't answer a ton of questions. If an Argyrean is in diaspora however for quite a while, they tend to learn the culture and code switch partially. It is very common for an Argyrean to invite people to their house for tea, coffee, or a cocktail/beer. One must have a good reason to say no like prior plans or being late for the train, lest it be considered as unfriendly.
Kinship and family
Who is considered "family" in Argyrea is quite loose. Argyreans freely call their close friends their "brothers and sisters", and even people they dislike that they know would be called "my lost brother/sister". Especially interesting is a holdover from more Christian times where a mother of a martyr is considered the mother of every son who lives on her block or her village. The only change is that it is now for party members who have been martyred and their mothers. The purpose of this is to immediately take over the duties her son had before to lessen her grief. This has been slowly extending to the mothers of woman martyrs as well.
Gender Roles in Argyrea
Argyrean gender roles are looser than other nations due to decades of Bolshevi-Feminist rule, with programs to encourage young girls to exercise and be on par with boys in sports leading to the meme that women in Argyrea are "masculine". This wasn't always the case, as in the past, Argyrean women were second class citizens before the 1920s, with female literacy not being legal beyond the nobility until 1888. Under Comrade Emma's reforms, literacy was expanded to all citizens and a program to abolish physical and social discrepancy between the two sexes was enacted, under the Bureau for Feminist Struggle. This Bureau is still active. Transgender people have been guaranteed full rights in Argyrea to change name and gender with minimal prerequisite (pretty much only a previous physical ID to hold onto for as archive purposes) since 1956.
Cuisine
Argyrea's cuisine is varied and could look different to the north of the country vs the south of the country. Coastal Argyrea's fare is dominated by seafood, especially raw seafood. Delicacies are raw oysters paired with multiple specialized and localized vinegars, bacharikó neró, which is raw shrimp or fish in a lemon and unripe jalapeno sauce, and achiváda amvrosía, which is a cold soup of white beets, avocado, and raw clams. In the coastal region, cooked fish is also eaten, usually roasted over open coals. Tuna and shellfish are the most popular in the coast, but it is a real stereotype that the Coastal Mestiko would eat anything that swims.
Inland Mestiko cuisine on the other hand, is dominated by the former pastoral culture of the interior part of the Istroyan speaking section of Argyrea. In the past, before industrialization, the mixed-breeds of Argyrea herded sheep, camel, cattle, goat, and pigs while off season from the tobacco harvest. Here is where the Gyros were invented, originally cooked on a spit turned by two people with any meat on hand, but now a wrap that is made from mostly lamb, mutton, or beef. Argyrea's barbecue culture comes from here too, with cuts of meat having a complex system for cooking with different fire fuels and vessels to cook them in. The Inland Mestiko cuisine is known through the world due to the presence of Argyrean steakhouse buffets, that offer cuts of meat for a fixed price alongside classic Argyrean dishes.
Gajiakhstani food in the far north is marked by what is available in the deserts and in the tough to traverse jungles and hills. Food is usually hunted for, but the lamb and mutton meats are the most common meals, paired with rice. The most popular dish in Argyrea from this region is the Gajiakhstani variety of Biryani that includes wild fowl game meat in the mix with the rice. However, green curries and a variety of sweets come from this area as well. Confectioners from Gajiakhstan are considered to be some of the best in the country.
Argyrea's alcohol consumption is high, but not to the level of some countries in the Occident. Argyreans typically drink rum in the south and arak in the north, with even Muslims except for the most devout partaking in the consumption of a shot of liquor with their daily mezze. Wine is also made in the south as well, with the sparkling red wines of Argyrea being quite famous and sought out for. Beer came much later in the early 1800s with the arrival of immigrants from Levantia who came to Argyrea in order to fill skilled jobs. Argyrea's beer, unlike the liquor which is under Regie's jurisdiction, is made by a collection of 100+ independent worker owned companies united under one trade union, the Brewers and Vinters Union. The most famous of these firms that brews beer is Black Priest Brewing, an Ardmore style brewery that focuses on stouts and ales.
Religion
Religion in the Workers State is heavily regulated and restricted by the Constitution of Argyrea. At first, it would seem that Argyrea allows religious practice, turning away from the State Atheist practice of the early Revolutionary period. A plurality of Argyreans are registered as Atheists by the state, due to this early policy. Argyrea adopted a different approach in the late 1930s, allowing religious services in registered places of worship once again. However, surveillance of religious people is heavy, with alleged persecution of those registered under a religion via methods of harassment and allegations of right-wing behavior and anti-state activity being thrown around by the State Intelligence agency quite often.
Arts and Literature
What type of art do your people make? Do they have a tradition of painted art, well-crafted television shows, or great music?
Argyrea's musical heritage is varied and long, from the early hymns of the Kemeti to the contemporary and popular rap music of today. Argyrea is the birthplace of many genres of music, from blues, to soul, to rap music. Argyrea's high Sub-Saharan population, with the influence from Occidental musical styles has resulted in a rich musical culture that produces a high proportion of world-renowned musicians compared to the importance of the nation in other aspects. Argyrea's government has an aggressive policy of pushing musical influence onto other nations as a form of soft propaganda. Unlike some socialist nations, Argyrean music and propaganda have a subtle relationship, which is intended to portray Argyrea as a luxurious and cultured nation. Very rarely will music from Argyrea be overtly Bolshevi in lyrical content or even promote socialism directly. Artists like Samuel Davidos Jr, Michel Ioannes, Dawud Ben Yoel, Ye Diseos, Kallistos Lamron, are considered to be the Argyrean artists with the greatest artistic cultural reach throught the world.
Argyrea's musical legacy extends to other art too, with Argyrean Opera being renowned by some as well composed and written. Advertisements are not seen as throwaway efforts to sell products, but as art in their own right. Argyrea continues to have cigarette advertisements to be legal, and these advertisements are considered to be the first frontline of the cultural war against Capitalism. Advertisements for cigarettes and other tobacco often last a minimum of two minutes, have a soundtrack, storyline, complex cinematography, and selective casting. Not only is the lifestyle of Argyrea put on display, but these ads show that the luxury of a gold-inlaid Argyrean cigarette is just a half-block away on sale.
It predates the revolution and has origins in the 1600s; it came about as an evolution of an earlier costumed storytelling style that involved one man in elaborate traditional dress who would sit down and tell a group of nobles an epic story, usually from the early Pharaonic era for hours. This preformance style can last for twelve hours and occasionally involved singing, but was mostly focused on the memorization of tales with perfect Ancient Istroyan diction, with no errors.
Early forms of Argyrean Opera were tweaks on this style by adding multiple storytellers, then it evolved into choral singing, and dancing was added. Eventually it got more popular with the emerging merchant classes commissioning new stories and opening up the performances to the public.
Famous Argyrean operas include *Nabucco* which tells the tale of Argyrean jews escaping the rule of Nabucco I, which was written in 1820. Post-Revolutionary operas that are famous are *Oliver and Marie* (1971) which tells the tale of a noble who falls in love with a peasant communist, and *Miss Varshan* (2007) which tells the tale of an Urcean man and an Argyrean woman's doomed romance, as she's abandoned in Varshan as a single mother.
Sports
Does your country have any major sports leagues? What types of sports are played, both professionally and for fun by your country's people?"
Symbols
Economy and Infrastructure
Industries and Sectors
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Housing is also allowed to have some flexibility. Individual housing still exists in rural areas, but are built with a communal perspective in mind. Apartments are communal, but built with classical and elaborate architecture instead of typical commie-bloc style façades. Individuality is encouraged when it comes to personal expression, and collectivism is emphasized in the mindset of cooperative labor and love for the defense of Party and Argyrea itself. Essentially, this creates an artificial feeling of choice for the citizen of Argyrea that is not alien to a citizen of a capitalist nation, but can introduce that foreigner to communist ideology. It also divorces the need for ideological purity in the comrades, and instead has them focus on political fundamentals. In some cases, there is Early Livasist-style standardization, such as the cars formerly built in Argyrea. This is due to the fact that the government of Argyrea aims to reduce the need for personal vehicles as much as possible. Foreign products in these sectors are imported from the general world, and are distributed to the people on a need basis.
Currency
Argyrea uses a unique method to their currency; they have two currencies. The first is a tiered benefits system called the UBI Credit, which replaced the old direct distribution of goods system that the Workers State employed before the 80s. Depending on one's wages and career, and depending on ranking within the Union bureaucracy or the Party Functionary, one could get more or less credit in their bank account. This currency is able to be used on basic goods, such as food or transportation. The Ducat is hard currency that is used for internal and external purchasing power. Ducats can also be used for food or transportation, but most of the population uses it for non-necessary goods and luxuries.
Healthcare
Argyrea's Tobacco Monopoly pays for Argyrea's health care system directly, and surplus is added to other programs. Argyrea's healthcare is free for all citizens, and non-citizens may access it for a fee of 75 ducats a year. Argyrea's quality of healthcare is quite high, and the medical sector produces a surplus of doctors who are sent to more rural parts of the country or abroad to aid poorer nations.
Labor
Argyrea's Labor Union system is quite robust, with multiple dozen unions being constitutionally protected as equal in political power as the Workers Party. Argyrea has these two entities as the entirety of the United Front For Permanent Revolution, with the role of the unions being the arbiter of the will of the workers, while the party carries out the revolution in the face of increasing capitalist encroachment. 90% of the country is unionized, with 10% being either small business owners, those on the State Enemies List, or those who are disabled. Tribals and the disabled are represented in political structure through their respective Political Associations. Unions are structured as councils of elected workers who oversee safety and productivity progression in the respective sectors they are in.
Transportation
Argyrea has a robust rail system with the national and regional public transit rail of the country covering every large city. Argyrea further has a detailed bus service that covers most of the country as well, only being unable to reach the most rural parts of the country. Argyrea employs a maglev train system in the southern part of the country. Use of the rail is limited to citizens of good standing or tourists who are given a ride-ticket card. Those who are on the State Enemies List are not allowed to board rail in the country. Cars are used for transportation as well, but a long term goal of the party is to reduce car usage for the benefit of the environment and to be able to conduct effective surveillance on the population.
Energy
Argyrea is a country that uses nuclear energy for the most part, supplemented by hydro-dams and some natural gas usage.
Technology
The Workers State has a reputation for dynamic technological process, albeit slowed down after the neoliberal reforms of the late 80s. Argyrea's innovations in computers have enabled it to create wonders of technology such as the COM-system for faster responses to discrepancies in its planned economy. Advances in public transport are notable as well, with high speed trains being built as early as 1979 beginning with the linking of Argyreopolis and Portekyrea, the two biggest cities in the Workers State.Technology is governed by a decentralized system of research societies tied to different industries that report to the Labor Union Council, which translate into progression in multiple fields. Notably, the Tobacco and Cigarette Workers Union's research society, Society for Medical Harm Reduction, made bold moves in collaboration with the Bureau of Health to invent a vaccine that functions as a prophylaxis against lung cancer.
Military
How large is your country's military? Is it large but poorly equipped or small and elite? Does your country have a martial tradition?
Argyrea's military is based upon a voluntary recruitment system synergized by a robust paramilitary. While the Argyrean Worker-Peasant Army is subservient to the Workers State itself, Cultus Ministry for Civil Order, the paramilitary, is subservient to the party. There are 700,000 Active Duty personnel in the Argyrean Worker-Peasant Military Force, and 800,000 agents of Cultus-Civil Order. The AWPMF's purpose is to defend the nation against the machinations of anti-communist nations, which it did with the fortification of the nation during Operation Kipling, and to enforce the independence of foreign pro-Argyrean countries abroad. Cultus-Civil Order has a dual purpose of being a police force, to enact surveillance, and to be a reserve force to augment the army in the case of a land invasion by a superior force.