Upper Elwynn

Upper Elwynnese Republic
Flag Coat of Arms
Motto: Elwynn prevails!
Anthem:
Map versions	The Congressional Counties are shown in purple
Capital	Araxion
Largest city	Fieldburg
Official language(s)	Elw, Babkhi, Istvanistani
Official religion(s)
Demonym	North Elwynnese
- Adjective	North Elwynnese
Government	Autonomous Republic
- Archon	Adam al-Osman
- Legislature	Chamber of Guilds and Corporations
Establishment	1672 (AN)
Area
Population	16,341,949 (1697 cenus)
Currency	Benacian Sovereign · Elwynnese mark
Calendar
Time zone(s)	CMT-8 (except Raikoth, which is CMT-6)
Mains electricity
Driving side
Track gauge
National website
National forum
National animal	White Stag, Hangover Owl
National food	Desert Berries
National drink	Tea
National tree
Abbreviation	CCE

Northern Elwynn directs here; see also the Northern Commonwealth

The Upper Elwynnese Republic, until 1685 known as the Congressional Counties of the Elwynnese Republic, also known as the Congressional Counties, Congressional Elwynn, Congress Elwynn, and, sometimes, also Northern Elwynn, or, simply, The North, is the northern autonomous republic of Elwynn. The traditional counties referred to in the name of the autonomous republic are Agnesia, Araxion, Cape Farewell, Eliria, Fieldburg Iserdia, and Leng. The borders between the counties are not determined by law and are largely regional identities with some overlap.

Background

History from 1672 AN to 1692 AN

Unlike its neighbours, the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic and the Northern Commonwealth, the Congressional Counties did not have a flag or symbols of their own, choosing instead to use Elwynn's. As implied by their name, the Congressional Counties were governed by a Congress elected by the people. The Congress functioned in a parliamentarian sense, with an executive government answering to the Congress.

Before 1675, the Congressional Counties also encompassed the Northern Commonwealth. Due to the ideological differences between these two parts of Northern Elwynn, the Northern Commonwealth split. Two years later, however, the Northern Commonwealth was returned to the Congressional Counties. But in 1682, Asantelian and Wintergleam were transferred to SCAR, and in 1684, the Amokolian Republic was established, taking the counties of Automatica, Vattnaland and Mishalan with it.

Congress Elwynn was imbued with a fundamentally liberal and secular character, which was accordingly deeply ingrained in the culture and politics of the Elw majority . The refusal of the "Ayreonist" north to accept that the doctrine of multiculturalism, pursued over generations, had allowed the descendants of the Babkhi settlers of Alalehzamin to become the majority community in Elwynn (especially after the Auspicious Occasion) set the country on an inexorable path towards schism. The enfranchisement of the descendants of foreign migrants who adhered to fundamentally different moral and sectarian values had permanently shifted the electoral balance in favour of conservatism and Nationalist Humanism parties. The disparity in the rate of natural increase between the indigenous Elw and the incoming Babkhi, especially after the Froyalanish population had been removed from the mix, had seen the Ayreonist parties weaken over time, a trend that predated independence in 1672 AN and obliged the liberal elite to embrace a policy of cooperation with the Verionist Union, thereby becoming entangled in the separatist aspirations of the Northern Commonwealth's heirs and fatally compromised in the eyes of the southerners.

The federal model that was adopted by Elwynn upon its independence had been a consequence of the conscious on the part of the Provisional Government to avoid the tensions that had led to the First Elwynnese Civil War scarcely a decade after the Auspicious Occasion. That conflict, between North and South, had seen Elwynn suppressed by the Imperial Government and would perhaps, if the Kalirion Fracture had not occurred in 1672 AN led to the erasure of Elwynn's distinct cultural and historic identity. The Court of the Prince and the Council of Eliria had therefore been restricted by the provisions of the constitution, to focusing upon only those matters which pertained to the defence and security of Elwynn, relations between the autonomous republics, and dealings with foreign powers. However, the entanglement of the Ayreonist political classes with the cadres of the Verionist cause, especially prominent in Agnesia and Cimmeria meant that Upper Elwynn became unwilling host to a "home front" during the Verionian-Raspur War. Skirmishes around Fieldburg, and clashes in Eliria, between Humanist and Verionist partisans would invariably see Ayreonist politicians and activists caught up in the dragnet of state repression that would follow. For the Ayreonists it became clear that the Humanists were seeking to use the Verionist connection as a pretext to essay the destruction of the democratic opposition, while the Humanists similarly saw the Ayreonists engaged in treasonable associations with the fifth column of a foreign power. The principates of Frederik Haabye Truls (1676–1683) and his wife Kamilla Winther (1685–1695) would see an expansion of the powers of the Court of the Prince beyond the bounds set by the constitution and an increasing seep of Humanist ideology into the bureaucracy and supposedly apolitical civic institutions such as the People's Academy of Elwynn.

The proscription of the Ayreonist Independence Party in 1681 AN, enabled by the scandal of the Coldwater Company, had convinced the liberal elite that the experiment of a liberal-humanist Elwynn united under a minimalist federal system had failed. For the remainder of the decade therefore, a conspiracy began to take root in the heart of the Congress of the Upper Elwynnese Republic.