Vanic Elwynn
| Elwynnese Union | |||
 Kalirion Restoration -- (1623–1651) -- Elwynn under SLORC
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| Motto: Elwynn prevails! | |||
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| Capital | Eliria | ||
| Largest city | Ardashirshahr, Islus, Echo | ||
| Official language(s) | Elw and Froyalanish (both official) See Languages of Elwynn | ||
| Official religion(s) | |||
| Demonym | Elwynnese | ||
| - Adjective | Elwynnese | ||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||
| - Prince (1623–1626) King (1626–1651) |
Noah | ||
| - Steward | Hallbjörn Haraldsson (ruling Steward 1623–1632) | ||
| - Legislature | Royal Parliament of Elwynn | ||
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| Currency | Shirerithian erb | ||
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Vanic Elwynn, officially known as the Elwynnese Union and sometimes referred to as the Elwynnese monarchy or the Kingdom of Elwynn by Elwynnese academics and Daemonic Vanic State pejoratively by populist movements, the N&H party, and the government of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic, as well as by Shireroth during the Stewardship of Liv Dravot, refers to Elwynnese state and monarchy 1623–1653.
In terms of geography, Vanic Elwynn was Elwynn's largest incarnation, extended from Batavia in the west to Wintergleam in the east, with Arietta, Jorvik and the Lady Esther Isles as overseas territories.
The excesses of the Vanic state culminated in the Imperial Republic's overthrowing of the Vanic monarchy through the Auspicious Occasion in 1651, the exiling of most members of the Elwynnese royal family, including King Noah (who lost his citizenship), and the Froyalanish genocide. A new constitution was signed in 1653 by the new king, Vilhjálm (son of Noah), which proclaimed the first Elwynnese Republic.
Organisation of the State
At the apex of society was the King of Elwynn. Under the constitution he held all legislative, executive and judicial powers of the Elwynnese State. In 1635, after much pressure from democracy activists, the King allowed for elections to an all-Elwynnese legislature, the Royal Parliament. It was a largely powerless body as any bill passed needed to pass not only the democratically elected chamber, but also the upper house (appointed by the King), and then receive the King's assent through an imperial decree. As such, some democracy activists saw the house as legitimising the Vanic monarchy, while others recognised its imperfection and instead as a staging ground for democratic propaganda, and for highlighting the class divisions in society and the system of discrimination of non-noble, non-Froyalanish, and non-Vanic persons in society.
The Elwynnese state gave much favours to members of the Froyalanish community, the Vanic church, and to the practices of the Froyalanish and Vanic religion. The so-called hierogamy, or "divine marriage" of Noah with the Goddess Elwynn was a live-streamed affair including the consummation of the "marriage".
Elwynn was divided in several royal precincts for local government with some autonomy (varying at the whim of the King), and each precinct was further divided into bailiwicks. The bailiwicks had democratic elections to fill their assemblies, but their powers were largely restricted to the running of local services.
Colonisation of Elwynn
Aside from the native Vattnalanders who have been living in the Vatnaland area of Amokolia since time immemorial and a pre-existing community of Storish merchants in Wintergleam - some of them descendants of Valtian traders and others being associates or staff of the Sameinaða Erlendur Kaupsýsla Einokun Félagið - Froyalaners came to Elwynn in four waves:
- The first wave happened when Harald of Froyalan was Count of Araxion. A signification portion moved to the Old East with him when he was appointed Count of Wintergleam several Elw years later. Those people are nowadays known as Haraldian Wintergleamers;
- The second wave took place during Harald of Froyalan's Reign as Duke and the name of Elwynn was Froyalan;
- The third and largest wave was triggered by the ascension of the Storjarl Thorstein Noah to the White Orchid Throne;
- The fourth wave, which has an overlap with the third wave, occurred when the Jarlorð of Jorvik became a part of Elwynn.
Froyalaners generally lived on the northern coast - as well as the islands along that shore - and in the western part of the Royal Precinct called the Kingdom of Amokolia. They also lived in and around the areas of the Sjöhöfn, a Royal Precinct which was composed of a group of seven port cities, to wit: Avaldsnes, Esthersbýur, Fjǫrleifsbýur, Haraldsby, Hyfrost, Joelsby, and Noahsbýur. The Froyalanish also formed the vast majority of the population of the Principality of Arietta, the Jarlorð of Jorvik and the Duchy of the Lady Esther Isles.
There are also notable Froyalanish communities in the Pale of Angularis and in the Bairbank. The same applies to the Royal Precincts which are known as the County of Araxion and the City and County of Eliria.
Following the Auspicious Occasion and the Partition of Elwynn, the remaining Froyalanish, those who were not deported under Imperial Decree 969 and who proved unresponsive to reclamation by their ancestral ethno-cultural communities, were evacuated west for resettlement in the Froyalan National Reservation for their own protection in the face of the simmering ethnic hatreds that their misrule had occasioned.
Álfarnir
Álfarnir was a demonymn bestowed upon Elfinshi who collaborated with the Vanic State and acculturated to more closely resemble the Froyalanish and Wintergleamish. For this reason they were administratively treated as being part of the Froyalanish community during the era of the Elwynnese Monarchy. Following the Auspicious Occasion many of the so-called Álfarnir were redeemed from servitude by the Elfinshi community and restored to liberty as Elwynnese denizens with full civic rights in the Elwynnese Union by virtue of the charity of those kinsmen who they had once disparaged as lesser folk.
History
1623: 9 Vixaslaa: Prince Jonathan abdicates, leaving the princehood to Noah under Noah's fathher Hallbjörn Haraldsson's stewardship. Hallbjörn immediately signs the Concordat of Avaldsnes, granting the Vanic church extensive rights and securities in Elwynn's until-then secular society. Decrees to establish a state song for Elwynn that becomes so unpopular that the every-day Elwynnese ends up only knowing the parody words to it sung in pubs.
1624: Steward Hallbjörn announces the one-million manifest, whereby one million Storish people every year would be granted residency rights (and property and work) upon setting foot in Elwynn. Concordat of Avaldsnes ratified by Landsraad, perpetuating the Vanic supremacy in Elwynnese civil society. Hallbjörn decrees the return to "elf snuggling" for the Elfinshi population. New territorial division enters force, Elwynn is now divided into several princely precincts. Harald decreed to be patron saint of Elwynn, despite not being Christian nor dead. New rules for succession which excludes those not descended from High King Harald from it.
1625: Lady Elwynn appropriated by the Vanic church to fill the role of Freyja. Worship cult of Freyja transferred to Lady Elwynn.
1626: Sonta Green, Lady of Iserdia, emigrates.
1627:
1628:
1629: Prince Noah elevated to King of Elwynn by constitutional amendment. The Union Defence Force reestablished.
1630: Prostitution and catamitate outlawed by decree.
1631:
1632: Elwynn cedes Mishalan to the communist government, gets the entirety Vale of Angularis (formerly Transelwynn Territory) as compensation from the imperial government.
1633: Regency under Prince Hallbjörn ended; King Noah rules in his own right. Later the same year, Noah marries then Grand Duchess Noor of Goldshire at a cermony in Craitish Hurmu.
1634:
1635: Noah's and Noor's son Vilhjalm is born, becomes first in line to Elwynnese throne. First Elwynnese legislative elections since Nathaniel's coup. The Froyalanish party Royal Union gets a plurality of seats (163) followed by the Ayreonist Independence Party (144) and the Nationalist and Humanist Party (81). Results in Cimmeria deemed invalid by the royal government which allocated seats in that county according to a statistical formula.
1636:
1637:
1638: Noor gives birth to Noah's second son, Esther of Anglia.
1639:
1640:
1641:
1642:
1643:
1644: Kaiser Dominus travels through Elwynn, beginning in Tuulersbyur in the west, on a state visit. Upon the Kaiser's return in Shirekeep, he is assassinated (Year of the Four Kaisers). Elwynn remains stable, Landsraad prætor Fjorleif hosts the Landsraad sessions in Alejian Castle in Wintergleam. The Landsraad elects Noor to Kaiseress of Shireroth.
1645:
1646:
1647:
1648:
1649:
1650: Kaiseress Noor murdered by her son Adam, succeeded by Adam's four-year-old son Vidar. Imperial Steward Kyle Kilynn issues Imperial Decree 940 which disestablishes the communist government in Mishalan in accordance with the Treaty of the Two Bears, and then cedes the territory to Elwynn. Protests erupt in Mishalan and all over the Imperial Republic, including in Elwynn, where a wave of resignations - especially in Babki majority regions in the south of the country signalled the beginning of a new crisis of legitimacy for the regime.
The frivolities and all-consuming vanities of the Froyalanish monarchy eventually had the cumulative effect, over the course of a generation, of hollowing out Elwynnese civil society and inflicting near irreparable damage to "Elwdom", the sense of ethno-linguistic and cultural unity which had sustained an Elwynnese national consciousness during the myriad crises of ages past. Because of the Froyalanish emphasis on playing up the separateness of Elwynn's ethnic groups in order to effect a divide and conquer strategy for ruling Elwynn and thereby subordinate it to their own overpowering cultural hegemony, there was no-longer any real sense of unity in the realm, and when the facade of Vanic power was smashed during the Auspicious Occasion, the land was riven by ethnic and regional separatists with dire consequences for the future.
Cultural peculiarities
See also Froyalanish sexual rites for more information
The Froyalanish claimed to belong to a separate, superior, race of humanity known as the Vanamaðr. The more extreme amongst them also claimed to be elves, dwarves, merfolk, faeries, halflings, and zotrians. The Froyalaners who renounced their humanity undertook extensive body-modifications to become clans of so-called otherkin. The Elwynnese state under the rule of the Froyalanish monarchy was massively committed, for ideological reasons, to establishing and verifying the claims of these otherkin to have been born into the wrong bodies. Whole branches of psychology and reconstructive plastic surgery were given over to the realisation of these delusions in physical form.
The Froyalanish were in fact a broad cultural coalition rather than a specific race or ethnicity per se, deriving from Storrish migrants, Wintergleamers, Amokolian collaborators and indoctrinated Elw.
The Froyalanish Vanafolk practiced a form of public nudity which they termed being loftklæddir (skyclad). It formed an integral part of their ideological claim to be a divinely-blessed master-race who celebrated the golden liberty provided by their proportedly perfect phyiscal forms. The ideology of the Daemonic Vanic State held that the preference for their fellow citizens of other cultures to remain clothed was attributable to "guilt, shame, embarrassment, self-loathing, fear, and suffering" occassioned by the normative values imposed by "an unholy alliance of patriarchial religions and commercial exploiters".
Religion
The vast majority of the Froyalanish professed the Froyalanish Ancient Ways although there are few of them who belonged to the Bovic Faith, the Hurmudanish Faith, and the Batavian Catologian Faith.
Economic life
Froyalaners are renowned for their entrepreneurial spirit as well as fair and ethical business practices. This makes them highly appreciated and sought after business partners around the globe.
The Sameinaða Erlendur Kaupsýsla Einokun Félagið (SEKEF) plays an important role in the Froyalanish economic system with its Elwynnese investment and asset management branch incessantly monopolising contracting opportunities, and its Elwynnese social-economic think tanks providing pro-regime propaganda and indoctrinating the public on socio-economic issues. The purpose of which was to lend credence to the sometimes questionable economic decisions of the White Orchid Throne. Froyalaners greatly benefited from Royal Patronage, which was used to stimulated and encourage inwards Storrish migration.
Other key features of the Froyalanish economic system was the desire to appropriate lands and funds to provide for all Froyalaners as well as collaborators who supported the Elwynnese Monarchy and the Vanic faith.
The Froyalaners inherited a developed export-oriented economy featuring a modern distribution system, excellent internal and external communications, and a skilled labour force which is aided by oil, natural gas, huge quantities of fertile arable lands, timber, hydropower, aquatic resources, and mineral ore. These constitute the resource base of an economy oriented toward foreign trade. The main industries include motor vehicles, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, industrial machines, precision equipment, offshore construction and shipbuilding, chemical goods, home goods and appliances, fisheries, agriculture, forestry, iron, and steel. Following the Froyalanish assumption of the White Orchid Throne in 1623 (check) the large, somewhat inefficient, state owned corporations were broken up and apportioned out to regime favourites via patronage, building the Elwynnese branch of SEKEF up from next to nothing.
Large agricultural collectives were broken up and parcelled out to members of the royal family and the newly established nobility. This sudden reversion to a manorial farming system resulted in a shocking drop in productivity and output. For ideological reasons, the Froyalanish were obliged to continue to insist that Elwynn under their rule remained a divinely blessed land of plenty, and mandated the export of grain to other famine hit portions of the Imperial Republic and its allies even whilst experiencing shortfalls in production at home.
This tension in the declining agricultural economy explains to a degree the ravenous land hunger of the Elwynnese Monarchy, which launched huge expansion drives westwards to gobble up the Vale of Angularis (Transelwynn & northern Tellia) and Batavia, before overreaching itself when it tried to annex Mishalan.
Languages
Among themselves Froyalaners spoke Froyalanish, Valtian, Hurmu Norse, Diets, Jorvish and Wintergleamish. Since the Auspicious Occasion they have been obliged to learn to obey commands made in Praeta whilst answering humbly in Istvanistani. Speaking their ancestral tongues, even in private, is a flogging offence with escalating severity for repeat offenders.
Stereotypes
The following stereotypes concerning the Froyalanish are widely held: Self-regarding religious fanatics who carried the stench of mead and their own fornication into whichever land they infested. Blasphemers who defiled the highest divinity. Shameless land-grabbers who insulted and humiliated their victims by falsifying history. Petty bureaucrats bedevilled by an inexplicable love of meaningless titles and self-aggrandisement. Carpetbaggers and parasites. Betrayers. Storrish cuckoos in the Elwynnese nest. Vermin.
The propaganda ministry of the Daemonic Vanic State on the other hand valiantly strove to depict the Froyalanish as being: Strong and tall. Tough as nails. Inhumanly handsome. Hardworking and hard-partying. Well-endowed high-fantasy fertility culters. Nudists. Vikings. Overpaid, oversexed, and over here. Legal eagles. Dashing gastronomes and bon vivants with schwung and joie de vivre. Excessively fond of pomp and circumstance, pageantry, extravaganza, hólmganga, and pit fighting.
Unfortunately, many of the behaviours that the Froyalanish considered to be most praiseworthy caused them to be even more detested by their neighbours. As such, once their political power faltered, the community that shared the values of Froyalan was on borrowed time.
Aftermath and legacy
"How swiftly, in the name of diversity, they overturned and set at nought the ancient customs and proud traditions of the Elw. How readily they sought to divide the population and set communities against themselves, identifying no longer with the nation but with ever more reductive ethnic groups whilst these Storrish invaders heaped the spoils at their own tables, around which hangers-on from their wretched "High Realm" soon came to cluster. Quietly and patiently we endured the perversions of their religion, the abominations and presumptions of their propaganda, and the material and carnal greed of their so-called King."—Malarbor, in a rare moment of semi-lucid reflection.
In the decade since the Auspicious Occasion the Froyalanish, first reduced to servitude and now banished to "workers colonies", leave in their wake a legacy of fascination and revulsion. Even those who lived through the era were unable to come to terms with the extent to which the Froyalanish believed their own propaganda, the seemingly overwhelming imperative to force everything that had existed before to conform to their orgiastic conception of the sacred, and the boneheaded unwillingness to compromise in any way shape or form when confronted by the objections of their neighbours. They thought that the law was their immutable and impervious shield, forgetting that the law only exists whilst the will to uphold it maintains. With their conduct over the span of a quarter-century they eroded the good will of the custodians of the law to such an extent that when the push-back finally began there was scarcely a person to be found who took their part.
| Preceded by: Kalirion Restoration |
Government of Elwynn 1653–1664 |
Succeeded by State Law & Order Restoration Council |
