South Lyrica
| Region of South Lyrica Région de Lyrica du Sud Región de Lyrica del Sur Urin Lyrika Suyu | |||
Region of  Nouvelle Alexandrie
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| Motto | Uno sumus animo ("We are one in spirit") | ||
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 Location of South Lyrica within Nouvelle Alexandrie | |||
| Geography | |||
| Status | Region | ||
| Capital | Lausanne | ||
| Largest city | Lausanne | ||
| Other cities | Humahuaca, Triunfo de Carrillo, Buenaventura, San Antonio de Río Blanco, Dorwynne, Benavides, Intilaqta | ||
| Demographics | |||
| Population (1758 AN) | 55,454,882 | ||
| Demonym | South Lyrican | ||
| Ethnic groups | |||
| Languages | |||
| Religion | Alexandrian Nazarene Church (majority) | ||
| Government | |||
| Governor | Marguerite Fontaine (Since 1749 AN) | ||
| • Party | Democratic Socialist Party | ||
| Legislature | Senate of South Lyrica | ||
| • Total seats | 120 | ||
| Economy | |||
| GDP (1757 AN) | NAX€4.0 trillion (est.) | ||
| • Per capita | NAX€72,000 (est.) | ||
| HDI (1757 AN) | 0.884 (Very High) | ||
| Currency | New Alexandrian écu (NAX€) | ||
| Main industries |
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| History & Other | |||
| Established | 1687 AN | ||
| Admitted to Federation | 1687 AN | ||
| Abbreviation | SLY | ||
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The Region of South Lyrica (Alexandrian: Lyrica du Sud; Martino: Lyrica del Sur; Wechua: Urin Lyrika Suyu) is a Region of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie, occupying the southern half of the island of Lyrica in the eastern seas off Apollonia. Its capital and largest city is Lausanne, and it had a population of 55,454,882 as of 1758 AN, among the largest of any New Alexandrian Region. It is bounded to the north by the Region of North Lyrica, with which it divides the island along the line of its two major rivers, and faces the Regions of Islas de la Libertad, New Luthoria, and the Isles of Caputia across the surrounding seas.
The southern coast of the Region is a warm agrarian country of vineyards, olive groves, and the flax fields that make South Lyrica the Federation's largest producer of linen. Its capital, Lausanne, is unlike that hinterland. The city is a port and industrial center on a broad inland bay, with shipyards, a growing semiconductor industry, and several Raspur Pact institutions. The Region is one of the strongholds of the Democratic Socialist Party, its politics shaped by the labor traditions of its textile towns.
South Lyrica has one of the longest and most contested histories of any New Alexandrian Region. The island took its name from the ancient Lyricans, a seafaring people known for their music, and passed in turn to the Norse empire of Stormark, whose capital of Haraldsborg stood on the site of modern Lausanne. The collapse of Stormark in 1685 AN plunged the island into the statelessness of The Green, and South Lyrica was established as a New Alexandrian Region in 1687 AN during the resettlement that followed. The Storish legacy shaped the Region for decades, nowhere more than in the Great Vanic Revolt that convulsed Lausanne from 1706 AN.
Etymology
South Lyrica takes its name, together with North Lyrica, from the island of Lyrica and the ancient people who first united it. The name is remembered as descending from the ancient Lyrican Republic, the maritime civilization that gave the island its identity, and it has passed down through every polity that has since held the island to the present Region. The distinguishing element "South" reflects the island's modern division into two Regions along its central rivers.
History
The recorded history of South Lyrica runs from the ancient island-uniting civilization of Lyrica, through the long ages in which the island passed among foreign powers, to its establishment as a New Alexandrian Region in 1687 AN and the turbulent decades that followed.
Ancient Lyrica
The island was first united in antiquity by the Lyricans, a seafaring people whose republic is counted among the formative powers of early Micras. Older chronicles remember them also as a kingdom and record their skill as musicians. Their singers and the instrument known as the Harp of Lyrica were sought at courts across Micras. Their principal seat lay in the north of the island, at the site of the modern city of Montchéry, but their settlements and sanctuaries reached the southern coast as well; the greatest of these in the south was Lyrïon, a coastal sanctuary-city whose ruins survive near the modern wine country. For reasons unknown to later historians the Lyrican Republic collapsed, and the island fell into a long age of statelessness from which its name alone survived.
Stormark and Haraldsborg
In the centuries after the collapse the island passed among several powers, and around the northern lakes of the Lake District the state of Hurmu took root. From the 1470 ANs the whole island was conquered and unified by the Norse empire of Stormark, which made Lyrica its heartland and seat of power. The Storish capital, Haraldsborg, was founded on the southern bay where Lausanne now stands, and for more than two centuries South Lyrica was the political center of the Storish world. The Norse Vanic population and nobility were concentrated in and around Haraldsborg, and in 1608 AN the Temple of the Lakes was raised in the city as an enclave of the northern Hurmu faith within the Storish state.
Collapse and the Lyrican Wars
Stormark collapsed in 1685 AN amid economic crisis and revolution, and the island fell once more into the statelessness of The Green. The years that followed saw the destructive Lyrican Wars among the peoples the empire had left behind, in which a Lyrican Union of native islanders, Alexandrians, Caputians, and Anticans rose against the remnants of Vanic rule. The fighting devastated much of the island and cost millions of lives, most heavily among the ethnic Storish.
Pacification and settlement
From 1685 AN the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie, acting within the Raspur Pact through the Allied Mission in Eastern Apollonia, Hurmu & Lyrica, intervened to relieve and pacify the southern half of the island. South Lyrica was organized as a Region in 1687 AN, and from 1688 AN the Federation opened it to settlement under the Law of Graces, drawing colonists of Alexandrian, Caputian, and Wechua stock into the ruined land. Reconstruction was financed by the New Prosperity Plan and by the Lyrican Reconstruction Bonds of 1688 AN and 1689 AN. The former Storish capital of Haraldsborg was refounded as Lausanne, and the transformation of the Storish city into an Alexandrian and Martino one, a policy known as Devanicization, became the defining project of the Region's early decades.
The Great Vanic Revolt
The concentration of the displaced Storish population in the south made Lausanne the center of a long insurgency. Between 1706 AN and 1712 AN the Great Vanic Revolt set Vanic advocacy movements and armed groups based in the capital against the federal authorities and rival loyalist organizations. The revolt drew federal security operations into the Region, among them Operation Bellona of 1709 AN, and prompted the Lyrica Emergency Powers Act, 1709, which would have granted the Governors of North and South Lyrica sweeping emergency powers but was defeated in the Chamber of Peers. The suppression of the revolt confirmed the Region's Alexandrian and Martino character while leaving an enduring, if diminished, ethnic Storish minority.
Rediscovery and revival
Interest in the Region's most ancient past revived in the 1720 ANs and 1730 ANs, when the archaeologist Camille Sartène of the University of Lausanne excavated and identified the ruins of Lyrïon on the southern coast. The rediscovery drew wide attention to the Lyrican legacy and inspired a cultural revival, most visibly the Lyrican Games, a festival of music and the arts first staged at Lausanne in 1731 AN.
Geography
South Lyrica occupies the southern portion of the island of Lyrica, the largest island on Micras aside from the continents, together with its offshore archipelago.
Location
The Region takes in the whole of the island south of the line of its two major rivers and the low ground between them, which divides it from North Lyrica. Off the southern coast lie the Islas de Lyrica, a small archipelago. South Lyrica faces the Region of Islas de la Libertad to the south, New Luthoria to the southeast, and the Isles of Caputia to the east across the surrounding seas, with a maritime boundary to the west with the Kendall Isle holdings of Çakaristan.
Climate
South Lyrica spans a pronounced north-to-south gradient. Its southern coast has a warm, dry-summer climate that supports viticulture and olive groves; the central districts are oceanic, with rainfall through the year; and the northern districts, approaching North Lyrica, are cooler and wetter. The island as a whole is low-lying and well watered, with three major rivers and extensive lakes.
Environment
The Region's terrain is largely flat, rising only to low hills in the interior. Cork oak woodland is worked on the southern coast, eucalyptus plantations and natural forest supply timber in the north, and the inland waters around Lausanne form the broad bay long central to the city's life. The crustacean grounds off the southern coast and the Islas de Lyrica are among the richest in the Federation.
Administrative divisions
South Lyrica is divided into six states, each administered from its capital.
| State | Capital |
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| Mailly | Lausanne |
| Vitroluire | Humahuaca |
| Perpimans | Triunfo de Carrillo |
| Toucourt | Buenaventura |
| Píaz Rosa | Ciudad Rosa |
| Islas de Lyrica | Benavides |
Government and politics
South Lyrica governs its own affairs as one of the Regions of the Federation, exercising the powers devolved to the Regions while sending representatives to the Cortes Federales. It has a long-standing reputation as a Democratic Socialist stronghold, rooted in the organized labor of its textile towns.
Regional Governor
The chief executive of the Region is the Regional Governor, elected by popular vote. The office has been held since 1749 AN by Marguerite Fontaine of the Democratic Socialist Party, who won that year's election with 60.91 percent of the vote. Her predecessors were Henri Beauchamp of the Federal Consensus Party (1729 AN to 1739 AN) and Sofia Laurent of the Federal Humanist Party (1739 AN to 1749 AN).
Senate of South Lyrica
The regional legislature is the Senate of South Lyrica, a unicameral chamber of 120 members seated at Lausanne and elected alongside the Governor. It legislates on the matters devolved to the Region, including regional taxation, land use, industry, and the administration of the states. Its politics have long been dominated by the Democratic Socialist Party and the labor movement of the textile districts, and it has been a consistent voice in federal debates over port policy and industrial investment.
Law and the courts
Justice is administered through the federal courts together with regional courts seated at Lausanne. South Lyrica has figured in the federal constitutional case law of the Federation: in South Lyrica v. Council of State (1754 AN), the High Court of Justice held that the general police power over local roads is a residual power reserved to the Regions under the Proclamation of Punta Santiago, striking down a federal mandate as beyond federal authority.
Federal representation
South Lyrica is represented in the Cortes Federales, the federal parliament, through both the Federal Assembly, to which it returns deputies in proportion to its large population, and the Chamber of Peers.
Economy
South Lyrica has a large and diversified economy, estimated at NAX€4.0 trillion in 1757 AN, or roughly NAX€72,000 per head. Its wealth divides between the agrarian south coast and the industrial and maritime economy of Lausanne.
Agriculture
South Lyrica is the Federation's primary producer of flax, and the linen woven from it has been central to the regional economy for generations and remains a leading export. The southern states of Mailly and Perpimans are noted wine producers, and the coast also yields olives and olive oil; tea is grown in the cooler central highlands, and cork oak is harvested for export in conjunction with the vineyards, an industry the Region shares with Valencia. The northern districts produce timber, and extensive pasture supports beef cattle.
Fishing
The crustacean fishery of the southern coast and the Islas de Lyrica, yielding lobster, crab, and shrimp, is among the most productive in the Federation and supplies both domestic and export markets.
Industry and technology
Lausanne is the industrial heart of the Region. The Port of Lausanne is a major center of federal trade, the Grand Lausanne Shipyard a leading shipbuilder, and the city anchors a growing technology corridor that has attracted substantial semiconductor manufacturing investment. The Region is also home to the defense contractor Lyrica Defense Technologies.
Demographics
South Lyrica had a population of 55,454,882 as of 1758 AN, recorded at the 1758 New Alexandrian census, one of the most populous Regions of the Federation, concentrated in the Lausanne metropolitan area and along the southern coast.
Ethnic groups
The population is chiefly of Alexandrian and Martino descent, the product of the resettlement that followed the fall of Stormark, together with a substantial Wechua community drawn to the island under the Law of Graces. Smaller communities preserve the island's layered past: an ethnic Storish minority, chiefly Vanic, descended from the Storish population of Haraldsborg; a Hurmudan community around the Temple of the Lakes at Lausanne; and a Wechua-descended fishing community at Intilaqta in the Islas de Lyrica.
Languages
The principal languages are Alexandrian and Martino. Wechua is spoken within the Wechua community, while Storish and Hurmu Norse persist among the Region's Storish and Hurmudan minorities.
Religion
The majority religion is the Alexandrian Nazarene Church. A Hurmu community worships at the Temple of the Lakes in Lausanne, maintained by the Order of the Holy Lakes and restored after the resettlement, and a smaller Vanic minority endures among the ethnic Storish.
Education
The Region's principal university is the University of Lausanne, founded in 1688 AN under the motto Sapere aude. Built on the endowments of the former Storish and Alexandrian institutions of Haraldsborg, the university adopted a policy of Devanicization that emphasized the city's Alexandrian legacy, and it is today the center of Lyrican archaeology and classical scholarship.
Culture
South Lyrican culture joins the agrarian traditions of the coast to the cosmopolitan life of Lausanne, over the shared inheritance of ancient Lyrica.
Heritage and the Lyrican Games
The Lyrican revival is expressed above all in the Lyrican Games, held at Lausanne, a festival of music and the arts that takes the ancient Harp of Lyrica as its emblem and draws performers and visitors from across the Federation each year.
Lausanne
As a former imperial capital and a seat of the Raspur Pact, Lausanne is among the more cosmopolitan cities of the Federation. It hosts the Raspur Pact Parliamentary Assembly, and in the late 1730 ANs it received a wave of Shirerithian émigrés fleeing the Mango Anarchy, whose settlement gave rise to the city's "Little Shirekeep" quarters.
Cuisine
South Lyrican cuisine draws on the produce of the coast: olive oil, wine, and tea, the lobster, crab, and shrimp of the southern fishery, and the beef and dairy of the interior.
Media and sport
The Region's principal newspaper is The Lyrican Herald, published at Lausanne. In sport, South Lyrica is represented by the football clubs Lausanne Lions and Dorwynne Dragons.
See also
References
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