Aivintis
Aivintis (pronounced [āv-int-is], officially the Greater Republic of Aivintis, is a sovereign nation in southern Gondwana. Aivintis is situated on the coast of the Concord Ocean, bounded by the Spine mountain range to the west and the Nymphs of the Evening to the south; it covers an area of 599.833 square kilometres, with a population of 86,5 million within its five constituent governorates. It borders East Cerdani to the north, Korćetta and Strazsko to the northwest, and Joralesia to the southwest. The nation's capital and largest city is Greater Asluagh. Various Aivintian nations have inhabited the current territory of Aivintis since classical antiquity, with the Lerasian Empire. Following its collapse, Aivintia was regarded as a political and cultural region even before the unification of Aivintis in 1656. That year, King Martin Dale of Teronia began a war of conquest, before establishing the United Kingdom of Aivintis in 1660.
The Greater Republic of Aivintis | |
|---|---|
 Flag of Aivintis | |
Motto: Vitam Impendere Vero | |
Anthem: "Mane Honoratum" | |
 Aivintis, in Southeast Gondwana, beside East Cerdani (yellow) and Joralesia (purple) | |
| Capital and largest city | Greater Asluagh |
| Official languages | Staynish Ethalrian |
| Ethnic groups (2018) | 96% Human 0.8% Elf 0.9% Vulpine 0.8% Lupine 0.6% Dwarf 0.5 Aurian 0.4% other |
| Demonym(s) | Aivintian |
| Government | Federal Republic |
| August Byrne | |
| Legislature | Senate |
| Establishment | |
• Imprisonment of Eduard Stoker | 25 June 2023 |
| Population | |
• 2020 census |  86,540,371 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | 3.378T |
• Per capita | 39k |
| Gini (2023) | 0.54 low |
| SDI (2023) | 0.865 very high |
| Currency | Crown (ℂ/CRN) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 |
| Date format | DD/MM/YYYY |
| Driving side | the left |
| Calling code | +49 |
| ISO 3166 code | AIV |
| Internet TLD | .aiv |
In 1801, the United Kingdom was dissolved when Daniel Dale won the First Aivintian Civil War and declared himself God. The Ascendancy of Aivintis lasted slightly over a decade, in which Daniel, renamed the Aeternus, initiated the Aeternist Inquisition, burning thousands of religious and historical texts in order to revise history according to his purported religious truth. In 1812, the Second Aivintian Civil War began, in the form of the Stuart Rebellion, wherein Royal Cartographer Theodore Stuart, the government official charged with overseeing exploratory expeditions and overseas settlement, overthrew the Aeternus and rewrote the old Aivintian constitution, establishing the Kingdom of Aivintis under his own dynasty. Theodore was assassinated in 1815, replaced by his adopted thirteen year old daughter, Sasha. The Order of Enlightenment, a religion which had grown to replace Aeternism, infiltrated her government, establishing the Free Enlightened Order of the Kingdom of Aivintis as the governing body of Aivintis, usurping power from the monarchy.
The Order of Enlightenment grew throughout the country exponentially, replacing all other religions and political interests with their own, shaping the future of the nation as they pleased, industrialising and expanding their power. Sasha reigned as their puppet Queen alongside their oligarch Magisters until 1908, when her death sparked the Third Aivintian Civil War. Thaddeus refused to follow in his mother’s footsteps, and defied the absolute power of the Order’s fanatic religious leaders. The less religious Order officials supported Thaddeus in his rise to power, unhappy with the direction of the Order, and his status as King allowed him to gain the support of most of the Aivintian counties and high officials. The remaining Order members supported Magister of Foreign Affairs Peter Florence in his attempted seizure of power. The Third Civil War ended with a Stuart victory, abolishing the central power structures of the Order of Enlightenment and establishing the Aivintian Empire in 1911.
The Aivintian Empire was an imperialist military power, surviving for the next hundred and two years. The democratic components of the United Kingdom and the Stuart Monarchy were brought back. Personal and political freedoms were valued in society, and fiercely protected by the Emperor. The government incorporated votes and even a democratic legislature, overseen by the Emperor. The Aivintian Empire was an extensive bureaucracy, and its legal system was unnecessarily complicated. However, it brought with it free education and healthcare. The Empire is responsible for most facets of modern Aivintian politics and society. In 2013, the Emperor was overthrown by his Chief Minister, George Whitcher, who also served as a Justice of the Aivintian High Court. Whitcher established the Kritarchy, which shifted power to the newly created Chief Justice office, and granted the judiciary absolute legislative power. Executive power wasn’t vested solely in them, however, and government departments were still created outside of the Judiciary. The Kritarchy was incredibly corrupt, however, which was its downfall. The Fourth Aivintian Civil War, a violent coup d’etat, dismantled the government from the inside, and the Republic was established.
The new Aivintis is a federation, divided into five major governorates, borders aligning with important geographical and political boundaries. The less economically developed inland region, coalesced into the northwestern governorate of the Weald. The southern region, nationalistic and historically prone to political upheaval, became New Marnacia, named after the historical Kingdom and then Duchy of Marnacia. The coastal region, home to the most industrialised and urbanised cities, was created as the Marble Coast. The former kingdom of Serdemia, culturally and economically distinct from the rest of Aivintis, was established as the Governorate of Serdemia. The capital city and its surrounding territories constitute the Capital Governorate, colloquially known as the Byrne Governorate. These governorates are semi-autonomous, retaining regional powers over certain internal affairs granted by the Constitution and national law. The federal government remains dominant, however, not undermined by regional autonomy, and has the final word on all matters of inter-governorate and foreign affairs. The Republic is built on the core principles of democracy and freedom, and thrives on a spirit of debate.
Aivintis has a large and fast-growing economy, following a system akin to laissez-faire liberalism and mercantilism in some aspects. The average income of an Aivintian citizen is low, with significant income inequality, but the average middle class income has been rising steadily in recent years, a rise supported by the government in federal legislation. Under the Order of Enlightenment in the early 19th century, the nation was quick to industrialise, contributing to its powerful economy. Aivintis maintains reasonable economic, scientific, and diplomatic influence, and is considered a military power. Its citizens are offered significant social benefits. Aivintis has been a member-state of the Union of Commonwealth Alliances since 2013, and is a founding member of both the International Forum and the Council of Gondwana, in the latter of which it serves as the Co-Chair of the Council and its auxiliary Gondwanan Community.
Etymology
The word Aivintis is derived from the name of the Aivintii tribe, one of the original tribal settlers of modern-day Aivintis. The word Aivintis was first used before the Lerasian Empire, referring to the land between the Children of the Spine mountains and the Nymphs of the Evening, on one of the first maps of the territory. According to archaeological evidence, the word Aivintii means “People of the Stars” or “Descendants of the Stars” in an ancient language known only to the Aivintii people. This is the only surviving phrase in this ancient language, which has since been lost. In the years of the Lerasian Empire, the lands of Aivintis and Serdemis became known collectively as Lerasia. This nomenclature remained even after the Empire fell, and the division between Aivintis and Serdemis, later Serdemia, was only returned during the Novoska Crusades, wherein the Children of the Spine mountains remained the mapped boundary.
Geography
The total area of Aivintis is 599.833 square kilometres, bordering the Kaskada nations of Cascadii and Straszka in the west, the Morstaybishlian colony of Joralesia in the south, and East Cerdani to the north. Aivintis is also bordered by the Concord Ocean to the east, ocean access which has defined Aivintian population centres and politics throughout history. In the south, along the Joralesian border, the Nymphs of the Evening mountains mark the cultural and political boundary of Aivintis. The largest mountain range, the Spine, is located to the west, mostly along the East Cerdan and Cascadian borders. The highest point is the mountain Father-of-Griffins, in the Spine to the west of Derrim. The lowest point in Aivintis is the Grandys River Valley, in New Marnacia. The flattest plain in Aivintis is Remington Field, a site of many ancient battles. Other notable topographical features include the Valley of Kings, where Teronian kings were buried. Although not considered a topographical feature, caves are often found in Aivintis around the main mountain ranges, especially near the northern Spine.
The climate of Aivintis is classified mainly as “cold continental” without a dry season and with a hot summer. Average winter temperatures in Aivintis range from 1 to 7 degrees celsius, and average summer temperatures range from 15 to 25 degrees celsius. The people of Aivintis have become accustomed to regular rain, with an average annual rainfall of 55 mm, and cloudy skies, which is the most common weather forecast in Aivintis. This has led to somewhat of a stereotype that all Aivintians are pale. Heavy storms are not entirely out of place, leading to established systems and procedures for dealing with flash floods and lightning-induced fires. In addition, tornadoes are often seen on average once every year. Due to this, the design of storm shelters commonly used for severe thunderstorms often accommodate tornado safety measures. Earthquakes and tsunamis are almost completely unheard of in Aivintis.
Rivers and beaches in Aivintis are the centre of Aivintian civilization. The first and second largest rivers, Nisava and Grandys, respectively, are the site of two major cities by the same names, each a cultural capital in its own right. Most Aivintian cities are ports, such as the capital, Asluagh, which is built around the West Asluagh Bay and East Asluagh Bay. The abundance of river and coastline settlements have made fishing a common practice. Although most major rivers are freshwater, brackish and saltwater rivers are not any less central to the fishing industry or Aivintian settlement. Other notable rivers in Aivintis include the Zmija River in southern Serdemia, which is known for its large snake population, the Morava River, which is the location of the small city of Borloza, an important historical site, and the Casten River, located adjacent to the city of Castenor, which features a prominent role in the city’s founding myth. Lakes are far less common, and mostly very small, with the largest being only 18 square kilometres. There are no swamps.
Forests are even more common in Aivintis than rivers, forming most of the wilderness even in the modern day. Chesterfield Forest is the largest forest in New Marnacia, which had been coveted by the mediaeval nations of New Marnacia for some time, finally being ceded to Westhafen during the Unification of Aivintis. It is the only Boreal Forest in Aivintis, and the southernmost forest in all five governorates. The trees of Chesterfield are mainly spruce and pine, but fir trees are plentiful as well, and other tree species appear in small numbers. The main wildlife in Chesterfield forest is birds - it is home to owls, kingfishers, woodpeckers and passerines, but also moose and small rodents. Logging operations in Chesterfield Forest began in the 15th century by Marnacia and Westhafen during their “cold war” of competition in the realms of shipbuilding and exploration, but was frequently disrupted by skirmishes and full blown battles in the forest. These disruptions, and the passing of the territory back and forth between the two kingdoms, managed to keep a large part of the forest alive long enough to become mostly protected by law.
The Weald is home to the largest forest in all of Aivintis. Frontierwood Forest, mostly undisturbed due to its location in the fringes of Aivintian civilization, has become the main source of lumber in Aivintis, and has been home to a large number of religious communities exiled from the civilised Aivintian world by the Aeternist Inquisition and the Order of Enlightenment in the 19th century. The Aldergrove is also located in the Weald, near its border with the governorate of Serdemia. It is the densest and least explored Aivintian forest, as well as the most prominent in mythology and folklore, due to its supposed sentience. Both forests are classified as temperate broadleaf forests, similarly including pine, maple, ash, fir, and birch trees. Oak is less common, but not as noteworthy. The undergrowth of these forests is vibrant as well, with many woody plants and berry bushes, which is the reason for the hunter-gatherers of the Aivintii to value them as much as they did.
King’s Game Forest is located in the Valley of Kings outside Teronia, and acted as the royal hunting grounds of the Dale royal family since the construction of the Teronian hunting lodge in 1562. Similar in biodiversity to the other temperate broadleaf forests in Aivintis, it notably provided the wood used in the construction of the Palace of Teronia and the royal flagships HES Victoria in 1600 and HES Aivintia in 1760. King’s Game Forest, as the name suggests, is home to a large array of diverse wildlife. As in other forests, there are wolves, foxes, bears, lynxes, fishers, martens, muskrats, raccoons, rats, and woodland birds, but King’s Game Forest has maintained an especially thriving population of hares, deer, turkeys, pheasants, and other game throughout most of recorded history. Poaching, which used to be a major problem in the forest, was practically eradicated during the reign of King Edward II Dale in the late 16th century, with the institution of the death penalty for any who poached in King’s Game Forest. Dogs were often used in hunting by the Teronian and later the Aivintian kings, but hunting in general mostly ended in the forest by the 20th century.
Outside of forests, and especially inland of larger cities such as Castenor, Waerham, and Warris, the geography of Aivintis is characterised by fields and grassland, with hilled regions dotted in between. The flattest region is Remington Field, northwest of Redmondburg, which quickly became the site of large battles in major wars fought over Redmondburg. As such, Remington Field holds cultural value to the Aivintians. The shores of Aivintis are often rocky rather than sandy, with very few beaches serving as tourist locales. The land is cold and often infertile, which only increases the value of the fertile ground around major rivers and in valleys. The Aivintians rely on subsistence farming and the keeping of livestock, mainly cows and sheep, to keep themselves fed. The natural resources of Aivintis include lumber, stone, silver, iron, and gold. The national plant of Aivintis is aconite, curious due to the Aivintian people’s strange natural resistance to its harmful properties. Aconite grows mostly around the capital, additionally making it a symbol of the Aivintian government. In mythology and folklore it is seen as a natural deterrent to the supernatural.
Due to the Order of Enlightenment’s heavy focus on industrialization and urbanisation during the industrial revolution, an attempt to modernise Aivintis and contribute to their dreams of its rise to global power, urban areas in Aivintis are much more concentrated and planned than in other countries. This has contributed to both a steady population growth, the creation of many jobs, but also a great disparity in areas of population density. As such, more of Aivintis is wilderness than not, especially inland, which the Order believed to be useless without ports, and much of the urban and suburban lands of Aivintis are located around major historical cities, all of them ports. The few exceptions to this rule were founded under the Aivintian Empire, most prominently the city of Thaddea. However, this focus on industrialization and urbanisation has also contributed to deforestation and factory development around these population centres, disturbing much of the natural world.