New Caputia

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Region of New Caputia Région du Nouvelle Caputia Región de Nueva Caputia
Region of  Nouvelle Alexandrie
Flag Coat of arms
Motto	"Fortitudo, Unitas, Prosperitas" (Courage, Unity, Prosperity)
Location of Region of New Caputia
Geography
Status	Region
Capital	Ravaillac
Largest city	Corcovado, St. Melusine, Port Victoire
Demographics
Population	11,683,219
Religion	Melusinian Faith (majority)
Government
Governor	Governor Maria Elena Roussillon
First Minister	Georgette Anderson
Legislature	Parliament of New Caputia
History & Other
Established	1722 AN
Abbreviation	NCA

Etymology

The region takes its name from Caputia, the Kingdom of the Union of Caputia, a Keltian kingdom destroyed by the White Plague on 30.XV.1668 AN. The territory itself was known for most of its recorded history as Passas, a name carried in turn by the Republic of Passas, the Passasian states that followed it, and the Bassarid administration, in whose usage it appeared as Paßaos. Nouvelle Alexandrie renamed Passas to New Caputia on 11.VI.1717 AN, at the establishment of the New Caputia Provisional Authority. The name marked the territory's constitution as a homeland for the scattered Caputian people, who resettled it in large numbers in the years that followed the annexation.

History

The territory that became New Caputia was held in succession by the Republic of Passas, the Kingdom of Hamland, and the Pallisican and Bassarid states that followed the Treaty of Bel-Air, before Nouvelle Alexandrie annexed it in Operation Purple Splendor between 1717 AN and 1719 AN, part of the wider Wars of the Disinherited. The Federation governed it through the New Caputia Provisional Authority and admitted it as a Region by the New Caputia Admission Act, 1719, which received Royal Assent in 1722 AN. The mass resettlement of the Caputian diaspora that followed the annexation gave the region its present character.

Background

The oldest recorded people of the region are the Kralians, descendants of its earliest inhabitants, whose lands were claimed in turn by Passas, Gralus, Alexandria, Hamland, and Passio-Corum. The first state recorded in the territory was the Republic of Passas, with its capital at Northman; the Republic was overthrown by the Pallisican nation in a civil war.

The Kingdom of Hamland later established settlements in the territory, among them the city of New Northman, which fell into ruin. Hamland afterward re-established Northman as the administrative center of Eastern Passas. By the Treaty of Bel-Air, the Commonwealth of Hamland ceded the Second Republic of Passas "in perpetuity" to the Greater Pallisican Trade Association of Passio-Corum; the treaty was signed for Hamland by Donat Ravaillac, Minister of the Homeland, Governor of Hammish-Monovia, and father of the future Queen Elizabeth I of Caputia.

Under Bassarid rule the territory was held as a Minor Domain within the Associate Domain of Keltiania of the Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union of the Bassarid Empire. Communities of Caputian Melusinians lived in the ports of Passas, where they faced persecution; displaced Hammish families had been admitted to the territory earlier still.

Operation Purple Splendor

The authority of the Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union over its Keltian territories collapsed slowly in the years before 1717 AN, leaving the lands along Nouvelle Alexandrie's Keltian borders in disorder. The purpose of the operation was to annex those territories. The invasion followed attacks on Raspur Pact air patrols enforcing no-fly zones; sectarian violence and famine, including riots in which at least 35 churches were damaged, among them 18 monuments of culture demolished, burned, or severely damaged; and growing public outcry within the Federation for an intervention.

Before the invasion the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie spent months conducting a campaign of espionage and subversion in Passas, seeking the cooperation or defection of key Passasian figures. Some were offered "money, protection, amnesty, or positions of power"; others "were threatened with exposure, arrest, torture, or death if they refused to cooperate." Special forces missions infiltrated the territory to gather intelligence, sabotage infrastructure, and assassinate leading figures, while Raspur Pact aircraft enforced no-fly zones over Passas and Tanah-Baru and bombed air-defense targets. A parallel federal effort aimed to identify, locate, and extract key Bassarid scientists, engineers, and technicians from the collapsing empire.

The operation opened on 11.VI.1717 AN, with a second phase from 23.XIV.1717 AN, and the fighting ended on 1.XIII.1719 AN. Forces of the Raspur Pact, principally Nouvelle Alexandrie and Constancia, fought alongside the Israati-Haifan Defense Force and the New Order of Rochefort against the Confederacy of the Dispossessed; the Wakara Pathfinders fought for the Confederacy until 1718 AN, then changed sides. On 20.VI.1718 AN King Manco Cápac I of Nouvelle Alexandrie and Basileus Giakoumis of Constancia were killed when the royal aircraft, Condor One, was shot down over Passas by the Gunsmith and ballistics unit of the Confederacy. The shoot-down was answered by Operation Purple Shroud, a reprisal campaign against the leadership of the Confederacy in which the Gunsmith was killed.

By its end the Confederacy of the Dispossessed was defeated in Passas, and Nouvelle Alexandrie annexed the former Bassarid territories in Keltia, founding out of them two new Regions, New Caputia and Boriquén. During and after the fighting, Caputian, Alexandrian, and Haifan paramilitary groups waged "campaigns of vengeance" against the Confederacy and carried out attacks on Bassarid civilians and collaborators "often with little regard for human rights or international law."

New Caputia Provisional Authority

The New Caputia Provisional Authority (NCPA) was established by Letters Patent of the King on 11.VI.1717 AN, the day the operation began, and was later headquartered at Ravaillac. It derived its authority from the Humanitarian Assistance and Protection Act of 1717 AN and vested itself with executive, legislative, and judicial power over the territory, to be held until the territory's admission as a Region by the Federal Assembly. With the Authority's establishment the territory received its present name.

Residents were encouraged to identify Bassarids who had held prominent political, military, economic, or religious positions under the old regime. Those identified were interned pending inquiry before the Keltia Command Tribunal for Bassarid Accountability and Justice; those who passed investigation, and many of those convicted of lesser crimes, were granted parole to depart for Corum.

Under the Authority's Child Integration and Rehabilitation Initiative, children under the age of seven belonging to Bassarid families were declared wards of the state and sent to foster homes in Lyrica and Alduria, while children between the ages of seven and fifteen were assigned to the Honourable Company as apprentices, often serving in the ports of Eura. The federal program for the Integration of Bassarid Knowledge and Expertise for Nouvelle Alexandrie (IBKENA) established re-education camps, styled Centres of Prevention, Integration, and Citizenship, at several locations in the territory; their curriculum covered the history, culture, and political system of Nouvelle Alexandrie, with interventions directed against Bassarid propaganda and against anti-New Alexandrian and anti-Caputian attitudes.

The occupation was accompanied by the Pallisican Migration of 1718 AN to 1720 AN, the movement of the Pallisican and Bassarid inhabitants of Passas to the continent of Corum, primarily by sea and air. An estimated 80% of the ships attempting to reach Corum sank. The Confederacy of the Dispossessed abducted refugees useful as replacement crew or for ransom and abandoned the remainder. Human rights advocates accused the Federal Humanist Party government of encouraging the Federal Forces to bring down suspected refugee flights from beyond visual range and over international waters. Federal coroners were reported to have been directed to record such deaths as attributable to people smugglers and pirates. In 1720 AN alone, 247 bodies suspected to have come from downed aircraft were recovered at sea. The federal government rejected the accusations, and no inquiry was expected.

Admission to the Federation

The New Caputia Admission Act, 1719, an Act "to Provide for the Admission of the Region of New Caputia Into the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie," was presented to the Cortes Federales in 1719 AN by Deputy Felipe de la Vega of the Federal Humanist Party. It admitted New Caputia "on equal footing with the existing Regions," fixed the regional capital at Ravaillac, extended the Proclamation of Punta Santiago to the region, entitled it to elect Deputies, and dissolved the Provisional Authority, with its duties, resources, and facilities passing to the Regional Government of New Caputia. The Act received Royal Assent and came into force in 1722 AN, and the office of Regional Governor was established upon admission.

Resettlement and regional government

The first Regional Governor of New Caputia was Elizabeth I, the former Queen of Caputia, who held the office from 1722 AN to 1723 AN and declined to seek election. She was succeeded in 1723 AN by Frederick Landry of the Federal Humanist Party, a son of the former Caputian Prime Minister Christophe Landry.

The mass resettlement of the Caputian diaspora had followed the annexation, the settlers entering under the citizenship by graces of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago; with admission New Caputia became the Federation's second Caputian region, after the Isles of Caputia. They joined the Caputian Melusinian communities already present in the ports, and the Melusinian Faith became the church of the great majority of the region's people. Ravaillac, an old Hammish foundation, received its current name and its elevation as regional capital in 1719 AN, in the aftermath of Operation Purple Splendor, while the coastal port of St. Melusine took its name in the resettlement, for the goddess of the faith its people carried. The University of Ravaillac, founded in 1720 AN, houses the diaspora's Caputian Historical Society and Hammish Historical Society. In 1745 AN the Synod of St. Melusine, meeting in the city of St. Melusine, reconstituted the offices of the stateless church there, making the region the seat of the Matriarch of New Zalae.

In 1758 AN the Caputian Legion, a foreign legion recruited from the families of the Caputian diaspora, was transferred to garrison the region as the heart of the 302nd Combined-Arms Army.

Politics

Governance

Governor

Article III, Section 1 of the Local Government Act, 1694 provided that, "Every Region as defined by the Proclamation of Punta Santiago, or admitted thereafter into the Federation, shall, after their election in accordance with this Act, thereafter be administered by a Governor, who shall be elected at large by the voters of that Region, and shall serve for a 6-year term. The Governor must be at least 25 years of age, able to read and write, of sound mind, and must be a registered voter of the Region where they intend to run for office."

The Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699 repealed Local Government Act, 1694 and Article 7, Section 3 provided that, "Every Region as defined by the Proclamation of Punta Santiago, or admitted thereafter into the Federation, shall, after their election in accordance with this Act, thereafter be administered by a Governor, who shall be elected at large by the voters of that Region, and shall serve for a 5-year term."

Legislature

Article III, Section 3 of the Local Government Act, 1694 established a unicameral legislature, known locally as the [[ ]]. Article III, Section 4, provided that, "The regional legislature which shall be elected at large by the voters of that State shall serve for a 3-year term, and shall have a name and shall be in such form as each Region may provide."

Article XI, Section 3 of the Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699 authorized regional legislatures, "to create and charter Special City governments as they may require and provide for their organization", while Section 4, further authorized that regional legislatures "...may provide by general laws for the incorporation of Special Cities. Such laws shall limit their rate taxation for their purposes, and restrict their powers to borrow money and contract debts. Each Special City is granted power to levy other taxes for public purposes, subject to limitations and prohibitions provided by the Proclamation of Punta Santiago or by law."

Article XII, Section 2 of the Regional and Local Government Organization Act, 1699 further empowered regional legislatures, stating that they "...are authorized to create and charter localities below the level of states such as: municipalities, burghs, and other local communities as they may require. Regions may use different terms to refer to a “Municipality”, but the general term for this subdivision shall be generally known as a “Municipality”." Section 3 states that, "Localities shall have such structure as the Regions may require, provided that the boundaries of localities shall be established in consultation with residents of the aforesaid localities and provided that a simple majority of the residents therein assent to the aforesaid establishment of locality by plebiscite or referendum."

Article XII, Section 5 provided regional legislatures with the power of legislative review: "The regional legislatures shall have the power to review legislation adopted by legislative bodies of their localities, and may declare them invalid if found to be in conflict with the law."

Article XII, Section 6 also granted further authority: "Localities created by Regions under authority of this Act may be dissolved by regional legislatures, provided that a simple majority of the residents therein assent to the aforesaid dissolution by plebiscite or referendum."

Court

Article III, Section 2 of the Local Government Act, 1694 created a Regional Court.

Youth Assemblies and Civic Assemblies

Articles V, VII, and VII of the Local Government Act, 1694 instituted Youth Assemblies and Civic Assemblies in "Each existing city, town, and burgh, and such other localities that may be created under authority of this Act", (with subsidiary neighborhood youth and civic assemblies where the adult residents of a locality shall number more than two hundred) which were deliberative bodies composed of all individuals therein resident for at least six months and aged at least twenty-one years. These Youth and Civic Assemblies meet at least once a month to discuss community and youth issues, and adopt such resolutions as its members may see fit. Members of the Youth and Civic Assemblies may present petitions for redress of grievances at meetings of a Civic or Youth Assembly, with the right to speak governed in accordance with the rules of the respective civic or youth assembly.

Demographics

Religion

The Melusinian Faith is the majority religion of New Caputia and lies at the heart of its identity as the reborn homeland of the Caputian diaspora. The faith, devoted to the goddess Melusine, the Cow of the Sea, spread into the region with the Caputian settlers who resettled the territory after its admission to the Federation, and it is woven into the civic and cultural life of the region as the church of the great majority of its people.

The region is the living seat of the faith. At the city of St. Melusine the Matriarch of New Zalae, the head of the Melusinian Faith, resides in exile, governing the stateless church from the city where the Synod of St. Melusine reconstituted its offices in 1745 AN; there stand her residence, the Matriarchate, and the great Tidal Temple that is the chief church of the faith. New Caputia thus holds within it the administrative center of a religion spread across Micras, and draws pilgrims from the wider Caputian diaspora to the seat of their Matriarch.

Alongside the Melusinian majority the region is home to smaller communities of the other faiths of Nouvelle Alexandrie, among them the sister Bovic churches with which the Melusinian Faith holds communion. The historical Church of Caputia, the established church of the old Kingdom of the Union of Caputia, is honored as the institution from which the living faith descends.