Abeis
| Abeis | |
|---|---|
| City | |
 |
|
 |
|
| Region | Haifa |
| Present administration |  Imperial Federation |
| Population (1663 AN census) | |
| • Total | 1,230,193 |
Abeis is a city on the Maccabi River east of Lake Morovia, in the region of Haifa in central Keltia. It was the capital of the Free State of Haifa from the republic's proclamation in 1602 AN, of the autonomous Hammish territory that followed it, and of the Caputian state of Haifa until the kingdom fell in 1668 AN. As of 1758 AN, it lies within the Imperial Federation. At the census of 1663 AN it returned 1,230,193 inhabitants, the most populous city of the state and among the largest in Caputia.
The city stood on the diamond fields that were the wealth of Haifa and among the banking houses that were its second industry, and under Caputia it ranked among the kingdom's international banking centers. Its governor sat at Luxor Palace, a building older than the republic, and its streets carried the largest demonstrations of the independence years. The House of Meir, whose fortune was built in the city's real estate, was among its founders, and Benjamin Meir, the last Prime Minister of the Free State, was born there.
Name
No meaning is recorded for the name Abeis. Like the names of the other mainland towns of Haifa, it came from the Israati-descended settlers of the lake shore, whose speech named the country and its capital while the southern and island settlements carried Afrikaanian and Babkhi forms.
History
The recorded history of Abeis runs through the successive sovereignties of Haifa: the Free State of Haifa that was proclaimed in the city, the autonomous territory of the Commonwealth of Hamland that followed, the Caputian state of which it was the capital, and, after a period under Bassarid authority, the Imperial Federation within which it lies.
Foundation and the Free State
The Free State of Haifa was proclaimed at Abeis in 1602 AN under Ismael Todochev, and the city was its capital for the eighteen years of the republic. Within weeks of the proclamation the republic concluded the Treaty of Abeis with the Empire of the Alexandrians, a mutual-defense pact signed in the city and named for it, whose obligation outlived the republic and passed to its successor state. The House of Meir was among the founders of Abeis and built its fortune in the city's real estate; Joseph Meir was the first City Police Commissioner at its foundation, and his son Benjamin Meir, born in the city, rose to the premiership of the republic.
Hammish rule
When the republic dissolved itself in 1620 AN, Haifa passed to the Commonwealth of Hamland as an autonomous territory, and Abeis remained its administrative capital for the thirty-three years of Hammish rule. On the handover the Commonwealth allocated the whole of its currency reserve, 16,762.85 obols, to Haifa for immediate investment. The governorship of the territory was held by the House of Meir, drawn from the branch of the family that had remained in the city while Benjamin Meir went into exile in Natopia. The banking of Haifa was concentrated in Abeis.
Caputian state capital
Haifa passed with the rest of the Commonwealth into the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia in 1653 AN, and Abeis became the capital of the state of Haifa, the third-largest state of the kingdom. The state was governed through the Haifa State Assembly, which sat in the city, and a Governor who resided at Luxor Palace, the seat the government had taken over from the pre-Caputian Haifan state; Rachel Dresner of the National Salvation Party held the office.
Abeis was the center of the independence movement that ran through the two Haifan referendums. On the night the first referendum was certified in 1663 AN, clashes between the police and independence supporters left seventy dead across Abeis, Keybir-Aviv, and Diamandis. In 1665 AN Leia Clemens brought 850,000 people into the city by the count of the Caputian Broadcasting Corporation, and nearer a million by the estimate of the police, the largest demonstration ever staged in Abeis. After the referendum of that year, masked protesters camped before Luxor Palace and set the center of the city alight, and more than four hundred were arrested and one demonstrator died. The laundering of the Blue Rinse Scandal ran more than two billion laurels through hairdressers and dry cleaners in Freedom City, Abeis, and Zalae, part of it earmarked for National Salvation Party campaigns in Haifa.
Fall of Caputia
Caputia was dissolved on 30.XV.1668 AN, and no further government was returned in Haifa. The White Plague reached the Sternberg estate at Beit Shalom outside Abeis early in 1669 AN, after the kingdom had already fallen. The region afterward passed under Bassarid authority, and Abeis was numbered among the cities of the strait held within the Bassarid sphere.
Present day
Bassarid authority in the strait broke down around 1718 AN, and the Imperial Federation occupied Abeis and the cities of the western shore. As of 1758 AN, Abeis lies within the Federation as one of its Haifan cities, and the Federation has founded a new city, New Haifa, to the northwest. Much of the wider territory of the former Haifa is held by the resurgent Bassarid state of Bassaridia Vaeringheim on the northern shores of Lake Morovia.
Geography
Abeis stands on the Maccabi River east of Lake Morovia, at the center of the territory it governed, on the western and central shores of the strait and lake system that divides central from eastern Keltia. The diamond fields that were the source of Haifa's wealth lay to the south of the city. The country around it was generally flat, of coastal and high plains, with no highlands, mountains, or ground at sea level; though it lay inland, Haifa kept the character of a seafaring country, and its trade moved through the lake and river ports.
Demographics
The people of Abeis descended from the three settlement streams that had met on Lake Morovia before the republic: the Israati-descended communities of the mainland, who were the largest and gave the city its dominant culture, together with families of Afrikaanian and Babki descent. Its recorded population at the 1663 AN census was 1,230,193.
Economy
Abeis was one of four banking centers in Caputia and one of only three doing international business, alongside Zalae and Gotfriedplatz. The banking houses kept the tradition of client secrecy and held gold, silver, and diamonds in private bunkers beneath the city. The diamonds fed the cutting and jewelry houses of the capital, and the wedding rings of Queen Elizabeth I were made by an Abeis jeweler she favored. Foreign companies took offices in the Abeis Business District, and the grain and freight of the interior moved through the city by water.
Government
Abeis was an independent city, standing outside any municipality. Its government was headed by the Mayor of Abeis, also styled the city official, an office Benjamin Meir held for two terms before he took the premiership of the republic. The Caputian crown kept one of the three offices of the Council for Internal Affairs, an executive commission of the Crown whose deliberations were sealed, at Abeis alongside those at Port Tablot and San Francisco.
Culture and landmarks
Luxor Palace in Abeis, which Haifan tradition held to be a remnant of a feudal state that had risen and fallen before the migrations, was the focus of the unrest of the independence years. A house in the city was built bearing Todochev's name after his disappearance. Abeis was a center of Caputian film: the Meir Networks studio used Benjamin Meir's former home in the city as the set of its first film, the 1653 AN romance The Lands We Met, and produced the serial Dazed Instances in Abeis, set among the young of the capital. In music, Abeis stood among the best-known scenes in Caputia, beside Judah, San Luis, and Zalae. Its football was played at Hapoel Field, and its clubs included the Abeis City Wolves and the Abeis All-Golds of the Haifan Rugby League.
Transport
The Haifan International Airport at Abeis was the larger of the country's two airports and carried flights across Micras; the smaller Keybir-Aviv International was the secondary airport. The Haifan Rail was the major train line of the country, and four numbered trunk roads, H1 to H4, ran between the cities.
Education
The Haifa National University, also known as the University of Abeis, was the leading school of the country and drew students from across it. Benjamin Meir took his juris doctorate there before entering politics.
