Ardmore: Difference between revisions

'''Ardmore''' ([[Garán people|Garán Gaelic]]: ''Ardmór''), officially the '''Ardmori Cooperative Republic''' (Garán Gaelic: ''Ardmóri Comarchun Poblach''), is an archipelago country off the western shore of [[Levantia]] in the [[Odoneru Ocean]], consisting of one large island surrounded by four much smaller peripheral islands. Its closest neighbors are the [[Kiravian]] protectorate of [[New Ardmore]] to its east, [[Calinthia]] to its north, and [[Urcea]] to its west. Ardmore's government is a {{wp|parliamentary democracy}} under the guidance of {{wp|syndicalism}}; its ruling party has maintained {{wp|dominant-party system|dominance}} even after allowing for the formation of other political parties as part of its wide-sweeping [[Ardmori Millennium Reforms|Millennium Reforms]]. Although the country is a {{wp|unitary state}} and not a {{wp|federation}}, the principles of syndicalism means that Ardmore is largely decentralized with economic and political power being vested in autonomous and worker-owned cooperatives.

The people of Ardmore, known as Ardmoris, are considered members of the [[Garán people]], sharing this identity with the people of [[Carolina]]. Much of their heritage results from the blending of [[Gaelic people|Gaelic]] and [[Gothic people|Gothic]] cultural traditions that occurred in Carolina and adjoining areas in the years leading up to the collapse of [[Great Levantia]]. Garáns are thought to have invaded Ardmore and settled it in the mid-6th century, though no unified Garán polity emerged on the main island of Great Ardmore; loose alliances of mainland cities and tribes were formed with the newly established Garán cities and tribes on the island. These cities and tribes were able to remain independent from the mainland Levantine powers through said powers perceiving the Ardmori Isles as being a backwater with little economic value, and soon these polities became various feudal polities before the 10th Century. These new polities frequently battled and raided against one another, often with grave consequences on its agriculture before resulting in an economic collapse in the 1140s after the end of a major power struggle between two of its major duchies.

The uneven prosperity of Ardmore, combined with a greatly uneven period of industrial development in the 18th and 19th centuries, lead to considerable class resentment and domestic problems. The growing rifts between the parts of society lead to the [[Ardmori Civil War]], which resulted in the establishment of a {{wp|syndicalist}} republic in Ardmore. The Civil War resulted in the partition of the country into Ardmore and what is now New Ardmore, which existed briefly as a {{wp|constitutional republic}} under the personal leadership of the last Prince-Regent of the Kingdom of Ardmore before subsequently becoming a protectorate and overseas region of [[Kiravia]]. Ardmore today is a relatively developed nation which is adjacent to, but not part of, the [[Levantine Union]]'s political and economic sphere. Although an outspoken critic of [[Urcea]] and Levantine foreign policy in general, and despite its revolutionary form of government, Ardmore has been making an effort to more closely align with Levantia in recent decades such as through token reforms.