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
- Martial Law Administrator	Riksamiraler Wilhelm Wartensleben
- 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" redirects here. For the former Elwynnese region of a similar name, see 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, was 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.

History

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.

The Occupation and Reconstruction Era (1696 AN onwards)

For Benacia Command, following the atomic immolation of both the loyalist and the separatist administrations during the nightmarish days of the Scouring, there was no longer a viable administration with whom to conclude an armistice, nor indeed a reliable and functioning native administration to install in its place. Instead the obligation was to now set upon it to create a formal occupation government - a duty which fell to the Political Directorate, already well versed in the administration of the Unified Governorates of Benacia. By dint of Ardashirshahr being spared the destruction visited upon Islus and Kingsgate through a fortuitous ballistic missile interception, the pool of native collaborators who Benacia Command could call upon to flesh-out the new administration had, out of necessity, a distinctly Babkhi tint.

Whilst a formal peace was naturally impossible to conclude, it being both ideologically contrary to the Humanist ideology of the regime taking shape in Ardashirshahr and conceptually abhorrent to the irreconcilable "Free Elwynnese" survivors who had gathered in Wolfraven, the eradication of the last of the evacuation ports marked a natural termination point for the conflict. The last of these, Caligae, was captured by a combined arms assault that was conducted by the Szodanin-Uihmanz of the Black Legions as an extermination action. From this last battle of the war, pointedly, no rebel survivors, be they SDF, Home Guard, or civilian, emerged alive. It was an appropriately sanguinary note for the overly long, bitterly contested, and exceptionally brutal conflict to finally conclude - leaving Elwynn facing an uncertain future and the economic and material prospects of the entire continent of Benacia at their lowest ebb since the Kalirion Fracture twenty-five years before.

Control of access to food rations was one of the means by which the Union Defence Force enforced the semblance of authority over the newly recaptured territories. Bailiwicks in which partisan attacks and brigandry were reported could face the prospect of food embargoes lasting for a week, a fortnight, or a month, depending upon the UDF bailiwick-commandant's assessment of the severity of the transgression. In especially serious instances of defiance, the withholding of state mandated rations could be supplemented by a total prohibition of food imports into a bailiwick and policing actions by the Elwynnese Landstorm aimed at confiscating foodstuffs from farms and warehouses in the area under interdict. Within a bailiwick subject to such a stoppage, provision would only be made for those citizens who had taken up roles in the service of the UDF, the Honourable Company, or the N&H. It swiftly proved expedient and necessary to remove cooperative citizens from their communities into adjacent fortified cantonments to ensure their safety against the reprisals of their erstwhile neighbours.

Decided on the margins of the Congress of Chryse, the post-war Babkhi-dominated government of Elwynn determined that its foremost goal in reconstruction would be the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment that would have any conceivable use in any future rebellion by the Elw or Amokolian peoples. Steel production was immediately outlawed in the former autonomous republics of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn and the Union Defence Force instructed to mobilise local corvée labour to support industrial disarmament. All industrial plants and equipment not destroyed by military action was to be completely dismantled and removed from the capitulated territories, or else destroyed in situ if removal was impossible. A proposal to demolish, through controlled demolitions, the mines of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn was entertained but eventually dismissed. The former rebel territories would instead be resource extraction zones, with refining processes and manufacturing would take place in the autonomous republics which had remained loyal during the conflict. Light industries, without an identifiable dual military purpose, would be permitted in an unconsolidated form at the level of the bailiwick, for the purpose of facilitating reparation payments. Economic enterprises, with preference given to those focused on activities that would facilitate reconstruction and reparation payments, would be permitted by the UDF bailiwick-commandant on a case by case basis.

The bailiwicks of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn faced a double indemnity, not only to cover the repayment to Benacia Command of the costs it had incurred in sustaining the war to reconquer the north, and its subsequent occupation, but also to make reparations to Alalehzamin and the Sovereign Confederation for the destruction of three major urban bailiwicks during the rebel counterstrike on the day of the Scouring. Naturally there would be no funding available for the four northern population centres obliterated during the initial orbital bombardment, nor for the other cities which had been subjected to conventional aerial bombardment during the war. Reconstruction was only funded to the extent that the infrastructure restored would facilitate the payment of reparations, and the cost of the reconstruction work itself would be added to the total reparations bill.

The burden of reparation payments was initially divided equally between each bailiwick, irrespective of size and ability to pay. Eventually exactions were scaled to taking forty-percent of a bailiwick's pre-war economic output.

Upper Elwynn would subsequently be restored, albeit in a truncated form, as the Governorate of Nordland within the Circuit of the General Government of the Realm of Elluenuueq.

Economy

Prior to the Second Elwynnese Civil War the Upper Elwynnese economy was largely focused on four sectors: industry, finance, service, and energy. Tourism, fishery, and forestry played a limited, but in certain areas, significant role in the economy.

Industry in Upper Elwynn was for the most part restricted to refining raw metal to fine metal. Elwynnese harbours played an important role in securing transport. The destruction of Eliria and Vijayanagara during the Scouring, an orbital bombardment and limited nuclear exchange which occurred over the course of one day in the final months of the war, was instrumental in the collapse of much of this metallurgical heavy industry. Surviving industrial plant, salvaged from the irradiated dead-zones or else captured intact in other cities following the collapse of the rebel cause, had been for the most part dismantled and shipped to the Unified Governorates of Benacia during 1696 AN–1697 AN as part of repayments made to service the war debts incurred by Elwynn for the rebellion against the Raspur Pact.

In terms of energy, Upper Elwynn once housed nuclear power stations of good quality; however these were heavily damaged during the Pact's strategic bombing campaign against the infrastructure of Upper Elwynn. Following a criticality incident in Araxion after one such raid, it was deemed prudent to hurriedly decommission the remaining nuclear reactors. The nuclear energy infrastructure of Upper Elwynn was subsequently sought and dismantled as part of the reparation payments demanded by Benacia Command from the rebel bailiwicks at the conclusion of the war. This has left Upper Elwynn, formerly a net energy producer, dependent upon the Unified Power System of Benacia for its energy needs, these being strictly rationed to prioritise reconstruction work and those forms of economic activity deemed most useful for advancing the payment of reparations. Where Upper Elwynn (and the Amokolian islands) is still able to make a contribution to the Benacian energy mix, is in the realm of thermal energy (from the hotspots under the ground). This has historically been important for ensuring the habitability of many Upper Elwynnese cities in the inhospitable Boreal regions.

Upper Elwynn, especially the Greater Eliria area, was once the financial centre of Elwynn. Banks, insurance companies, financiers, and so on, had their headquarters in Upper Elwynn – largely thanks to no-nonsense regulations and belief in the rule of law. Thrice, this belief has been placed in doubt, the first two occasions involving Verionist businesses, the Iron Company and the Coldwater Company – with Verionism gone, confidence in the Elwynnese market has recovered, with great yields to shareholders in Upper Elwynn ensuing. The final time however, which saw the Ayreonist inspired effort at secession which gave rise to the second civil war, resulted in an unprecedented capital flight, as it became clear that the rebel government was attempting to detach itself from the economic and political structures of the Raspur Pact and subsequently saw the physical destruction of the infrastructure that has sustained the financial sector, along with the greater part of Eliria itself. As such, it may be said, that the financial services sector for which Upper Elwynn was once so justly famous, has literally been burnt away.

Taxpayer funded health-care, once considered by many in Upper Elwynn to be less a benefit than a right, was abolished as one of the many efficiencies demanded to cover the cost of reparation payments to Alalehzamin and the Sovereign Confederation for damages inflicted during the war.