Overview

Rakzhia, officially the Epicrateia of Rakzhia (Rakzhian: Epikrateia Rakzja), is a country in The South Pacific. Wesovana is Rakzhia's capital and Simylo its largest city; other major cities include Demstrich, Lacov, and Raksden. Rakzhia is divided into 15 eparchies which rank immediately below the Epicrateian government and form the first jurisdictional and administrative levels of the country. Each eparchy's chief executive is an eparch appointed by the High Basileus, head of the Epicrateia.

The High Basileus sits atop a complicated hierarchy of military power across all of Rakzhia that delegates many functions (such as taxes and transportation) to the eparchies and local governments, creating various levels of administration with high degrees of independence from one another. The Epicrateian government was established shortly after a 1992 military operation captured the then-capital city of Simylo and installed an "interim national unity government." It has been described as stratocratic, ultraconservative, totalitarian, ultranationalist, and as a police state.

Etymology

The origin of the name Rakzhia is unclear. Historically, authors refrain from identifying Rakzhians as a single people prior to 1775. Instead, regional distinctions such as: Simyline, Lacovite, and Demstrichar, among others, are employed. In the same context, Rakzhian is only used when referring to the peoples in areas currently occupied by the Rakzhian state. However, some scholars argue the term first appeared as early as the 12th century to identify a tribe in the modern Lodl eparchy.

History

Duchy of Simylo

According to later records, early settlements in what is now Rakzhia developed into large urbanized centers by 1382. Under Albert the Great, Duke of Simylo, newer settlements during this period automatically gained township status to win the support of local bishops. Prior to this decree, which sought to win church approval of his expanded domain, Albert had successfully annexed the smaller duchies of Astatan, Mucnispol, and Khișidița. He subsequently promoted Simyline migration and homesteading into these lands at the expense of the local populations.

Starting in 1387, the Duchy of Simylo became involved in a twelve year long armed campaign against the Most Loyal Order of Brothers of the Rakzhian Blade, a military order established by displaced feudal lords. Over time, the experience and maneuvers displayed by the ducal units proved decisive against the order. By 1399, the Battle of Zulestia ended with a clear victory by Simyline forces under the command of duke Coniulus the Brave, who used this personal triumph to legitimize his rule (and that of the House of Stralonik) over the previously annexed lands, further consolidating his power in Simylo as a counterweight to the emerging nobility that profited from an extensive network of fiefdoms and land grants. The feudal nature of the country would continue for several centuries, outliving the Duchy of Simylo itself, as noble families insisted on directing local affairs within their townships. With such families assembling in councils to discuss trade and transportation duties, the first parliament on Rakzhian soil, the Galorchi House of Nobles, was established without ducal approval in 1436, earning the ire of Anastasius the Short-lived who promptly disbanded it before being murdered by order of the local lords he confronted. This act allowed for the landed nobility to exercise de facto power over the affairs of state for the next half century.

The duchy's agricultural economy flourished during the 16th century as external trade out of the Port of Demstrich intensified, allowing for the establishment of new diplomatic ties, an expansion of domestic infrastructure, and improvements in military training and cooperation. Simyline nobility used this newfound prosperity to force the creation of a bicameral parliament, the Grand Court (Wielki Sąd), upon Roland the Charmer in 1568. Both houses, the lower Sublime Council and the upper Ducal Senate, exercised most of the duke's former legislative powers within Simylo and its annexed territories. Although the lords initially governed by consensus, it became apparent that defining a clear majority in parliament would be necessary to prevent military uprisings and keep the duke from asserting his control over the government. By 1624, the role of General Counsellor of Simylo and its Territories emerged as the de facto head of government and depositary of political power in place of the duke.

Establishment

Throughout the 17th century, as Simyline expeditions pacified separatist uprisings, the nobles felt the need to endorse the creation of a distinct Rakzhian culture to quell subversive sentiments. Investments were made, particularly by the ducal family, towards the standardization of a Rakzhian language, as well as customs, food, and architectural styles. This allowed for the strengthening of political administration and control over Rakzhia, doing away with most regional languages, cultures, and traditions. The concept of a Greater Rakzhia encouraged James Adolf I to abolish the remaining separate institutions left behind in the former duchies and crown himself as the first king of a unified Rakzhia at Simylo Basilica in 1775.

In contrast with his predecessors, James Adolf I exerted his power over the nobility, using his reserve powers and granting new peerages to liberal thinkers in order to push reform from within the Grand Court, coinciding with the Rakzhian Enlightenment. In addition, he appointed several intellectuals to lead the kingdom's bureaucracy and judiciary, decreeing the creation of Simylo University in 1783. Such actions stabilized the country's finances, bringing much needed improvement to the educational, artistic, and political fields. The latter field saw the outright establishment of parliamentary factions (the precursors to political parties) by the end of the century, at which point the nobility's permanent grip on power was gone.

Subsequent land reforms by the Grand Court abolished the latifundia imposed on the peasant class by the nobility and, in 1811, the first elections for the lower house (albeit with an electorate that only amounted to six percent of the Kingdom's population) were held, signaling the start of a period of democratization for Rakzhia's government and society at large. As suffrage was extended to tenant farmers, small landowners, merchants, shopkeepers, householders, and the urban working class in 1846, the king was formally stripped of his power to issue laws without the consent of the populace, represented by the two houses of the Grand Court, now called the House of Nobles and the House of Deputies. King Charles Alphonse II's acquiescence to liberal and populist reforms provoked serious backlash, particularly in the army, as it was seen as a betrayal of traditional monarchist and conservative values.

_{Flag of the Kingdom of Rakzhia between 1785 and 1994}

The proposed introduction of the liberal Constitution of 1851, inspired by the democratic uprisings of the previous decade, proved the catalyst for a series of mutinies and a march on Simylo led by Major General Konstanty Ziemniak that ended in the House of Stralonik's deposition. Ziemniak then seized the Crown of Rakzhia for himself as Constantine I of the new House of Ziemniak-Maclov, commonly known as the House of Maclov after the Kilok town in which the new king was born. Under Constantine, the Grand Court was dissolved and replaced by the Royal Chamber of Assembly, a half-appointed, half-elected unicameral legislature with largely advisory properties. A new constitution, the Royal Charter of 1852, limited suffrage to men with considerable property holdings, and just 3% of the citizenry was qualified to vote. Many of the reforms and liberties that had been achieved during the preceding forty years were limited or entirely abolished as Constantine sought to restore Rakzhian nobles to their former place in the country's political system.

Shortly after, uprisings broke out throughout the country and it became apparent that the Rakzhian people refused to accept Constantine's rule. As provincial governments began to oppose the new king, a serious government crackdown sparked a ten-year long civil conflict (Provincial War) in 1854. During this time and after his victory in said conflict, Constantine indefinitely suspended elections, suppressed his political opposition, and closed all institutions of higher learning programs. At the time of the king's death in 1866, a fragilely peaceful Rakzhia faced economic ruin after years of domestic upheaval.

When Constantine II succeeded his father on the throne in 1866, he lacked determination to assert his authority over the army and nobility, allowing many sympathizers of the exiled Straloniks to ascend the ranks or sit in the Chamber of Assembly. With the economic crisis turning into a panic in early 1868, banks failed en masse and the Simylo Stock Exchange closed for two weeks starting on 3 February. By mid-March, factories began to dismiss workers and inflation was unrestrained. At Demstrich, where the effects of the panic had a broader impact, unpaid soldiers revolted against the king in May, initiating a chain reaction of mutinies whose momentum was diminished in the short-term by increasing royal censorship of newspapers and military correspondence. Eventually, they would cause the army to lose total confidence in Constantine II.

Stralonik Restoration

On 3 July 1871, a regiment under the command of Colonel Celestyn Krupa marched north towards Simylo from Byolcie to depose Constantine II. As the king led the army to meet Krupa on the outskirts of the capital, many of his troops began to desert him, forcing his return to the Royal Palace to recall various generals and organize a defense of the city. Nevertheless, Krupa marched into Simylo unopposed on 6 July and unilaterally proclaimed the restoration of the Stralonik dynasty. Due to Krupa's unopposed entrance, the king's generals were arrested before they could reach the palace and were deprived of their commands. With Constantine II inside the Palace, the Royal Guards refused to surrender and the building was sieged by an enlarged number of troops now acknowledging Krupa as their commander.

As the siege of the Royal Palace continued, Colonel Krupa pursued the the return of Prince James Adolf, son of the late Charles Alphonse II, from his twenty-year exile. After holding out for nearly two months, with almost nonexistent supplies, Constantine would abdicate the throne and surrender on 21 August 1871. His fate was left to a reestablished Grand Court, before which he appeared to answer for his reign. On 3 September 1871, the former Constantine II was sent to Niebieska Prison in Lacov, from which he would be released after six years. He later joined a monastery in Khișidița, where he died childless in 1903 after issuing several refusals to various 'Maclovian' nobles who wanted to sponsor uprisings and restore him to the throne.

On 13 July 1871, the future James Adolf IV had issued the Intent Manifesto, in which he promised a return to the previous "liberal order" of his father and amnesty "for all officers of the current regime" if he were to return but asked that his accession be ratified by the people through a referendum. The vote took place on 30 September 1871 and the exiled heir reclaimed the Crown of Rakzhia upon his 12 October return. King James Adolf IV and his consort, Queen Caroline, were crowned in a ceremony in Simylo Basilica on 18 May 1872.

With the Stralonik dynasty having reestablished dynastic control over the kingdom, absolutism was once again replaced by a parliamentary monarchy in which the king possessed limited prerogatives and executive power was decentralized. The monarch appointed the General Counsellor as well as the government with the House of Deputies' approval, but he could only dissolve the Grand Court with its consent. In addition to being responsible for legislative initiative, the Grand Court was given supervisory control over the executive and judiciary as well. The Executive Council became responsible not to the monarch but to the now fully-elected parliament. Moreover, the king's power to enact decrees was limited by the requirement that the General Counsellor and the respective other Counsellor had to countersign royal decrees. Rakzhian society saw massive progress as political freedoms, religious liberties, and compulsory primary education would become constitutionally guaranteed, leaving behind the strict conservative and authoritarian tendencies of the House of Maclov. By the turn of the century, labor rights were also protected and tenant farmers were allowed to unionize to settle disputes with their landlords. Most of all, trade unions protected workers that migrated from the countryside to the cities as a result of industrialization.

For most of the 20th century, the centrist Liberal Krupist Party (LKP) led successive coalition governments with centre-left parties that focused on expanding university intake by abolishing tuition fees and hiring more instructors, created a state-sponsored pension system, and increased agricultural payouts. During this time, the Christian Social Party (CSP) and the Rakzhian People's Party (RPP) also led centre-right governments, which extended the period of compulsory education and expanded technical education curricula. Both the CSP and the RPP prioritized traditional Rakzhian values, even over monarchism. In July 1946, over a dozen fragmented left-wing groups reunited under the Radical Socialist Party (RSP), which emerged as the third most powerful political force by 1958, followed closely by the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).

By the late 1960s, the mishandling of large-scale student riots against the government led to the collapse of the LKP vote in the 1969 general election, resulting in the worst defeat a sitting government in Rakzhia has ever suffered and the RSP becoming the second largest party in the Grand Court by inheriting most of the LKP's base. The latter party, saddled by infighting, was disbanded in 1970 whilst the CSP and the RSP led an increasingly fragmented political scene. The CSP-led government of General Counsellor Zenon Sokół fell in early 1973 after the publication of documents related to the surveillance of RSP and other opposition leaders. Afterwards, the RSP came within thirteen seats of a rare parliamentary majority in the snap 1973 general election. Sokół, who actually faced charges during the election campaign, would later be sentenced to five years in prison. The Christian Social Party was forced to reckon with its severe shortcomings during the next sixteen years in opposition.

On 6 November 1989, after the failure of government formation talks between the RSP and the PDP following that year's election, king Charles Alphonse III called on CSP leader Athanase Marek to form a government, which he did with the RPP's support.

Under the influence of Benedykt Kozłow, then Counsellor for Regional Development and a member of the pro-autonomy Paszekist wing of the CSP, the Marek government came to embrace devolution as the most efficient route to grant greater levels of self-government to the country's administrative zones. Kozłow had argued in his essay Devolution to the People that the central government abused the structure of the unitary state to dissolve regional differences and ignore local priorities, calling for a move towards decentralization through devolution as a way to circumvent the need for constitutional reforms that would create a federal Rakzhia. During the 1970s and 1980s, his views were broadly adopted by conservative and religious factions within the CSP as a way to overturn what they saw as the invasive welfare and social policies of the left-wing coalitions of the time. They successfully pushed for their inclusion in the party's manifesto for the 1989 general election, breaking a longstanding political agreement regarding the paramount role of the central government.

The opposition Radical Socialist Party initiated a parliamentary enquiry to assert the legality of such proposal and also launched legal challenges to declare any move towards devolution as unconstitutional. Through the "Hostile Takeover" (Wrogia Przejęciek) media campaign, the RSP called out the government's betrayal of the constitution. The opposition's media strategy proved effective as, in late 1992, Marek asked the king for a new general election after the RSP and the PDP rallied the opposition (and the CSP's traditionalist wing) to vote against a bill to devolve power to the administrative zones.

Valdivieso Coup

On 27 December 1992 a group of right-wing army and air force officers led by Brigadier General Kacper Valdivieso seized power in a coup d'état by occupying the Grand Court, the Royal Palace, various television and radio studios (mainly the Rakzhian public television broadcaster CTR), Simylo's main airport, and the headquarters of all major political parties. Following the kidnapping of king Charles Alphonse III and General Counsellor Marek, several arrests of leading politicians, local authorities, journalists, intellectuals, union leaders, and other left-leaning ordinary citizens were enacted and Valdivieso announced the suspension of the Rakzhian constitution as the first act of a new "interim national unity government." At the time of this announcement, Rakzhian paratroopers landed on Demstrich and took the port city in a bloodless operation. In contrast to Simylo, major opposition strongholds were heavily occupied by armored units. During the following weeks, all social and political activity ceased whilst more than 12,000 people, including many leading politicians and journalists, were arrested and led to makeshift prisons within military bases. Although the new regime also purged liberals and democrats from all state institutions alongside the known leftists, several bureaucrats who secretly sympathized with the growing clandestine opposition would avoid detention for years. However, most of them were outed by their participation in a failed 1997 insurrection.

By early 1993, the isolated Charles Alphonse III was formally placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. He had previously decided not to leave the Royal Palace so as not to submit to the authority of the Epicrateia, which still acknowledged him as king. His refusal to swear-in Valdivieso and the other coup plotters as the legitimate government of Rakzhia led to the re-engineering of the political system to remove the head of state from all affairs and create the hereditary stratocracy that governs the country to this day. This process would eventually lead to the enactment of epicrateia as the country's official name (as opposed to kingdom) and the construction of the new capital city of Wesovana, inaugurated in 2011. Currently, the monarch is barely referenced and real power lies with the High Basileus and the armed forces.

Charles Alphonse died, aged 67, in the early hours of the morning of 12 January 2012 at the Royal Palace. As he and Queen Anne had no children, the Crown of Rakzhia passed to Prince Alphonse Richard Henry George, the firstborn child of Princess Jeanetta, Charles Alphonse's younger sister. The 15 year-old prince arrived in Rakzhia the following day, becoming Alphonse, King of the Rakzhians with a brief regency by Queen Anne until his sixteenth birthday later that year. Alphonse is the first Rakzhian monarch from his father's House of Caeringham.

_{Charles Alphonse III, King of the Rakzhians between 1973 and 2012}

Population

The Epicrateia of Rakzhia is a fledgling, orderly nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service, restrictive gun laws, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 17 million Rakzhians are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

Language

The languages of Rakzhia are the languages spoken or once spoken in the Epicrateia of Rakzhia. Most languages spoken in Rakzhia belong to either the Romance or Slavic language families, of which Rakzhian (formerly Simyline) is the only language which has official status for the whole country. Multiple spoken dialects, sometimes with standardized written forms that vary in sophistication, have co-official or recognized status in specific eparchies, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities.

Religion

Various religious communities exist in Rakzhia, with most Rakzhians adhering to Christianity and, in particular, the Roman Catholic Church. Its most conservative members consider the Catholic Church in Rakzhia as the moral constant of Rakzhian culture and history. Several Protestant churches make up the rest of the population and irreligious persons are rumored to be about 4% of the population. In prior centuries, a pagan faith now known as the Church of Rakzhia, or Rakzjismus, was the dominant congregation. It later coexisted with the diverse practices of the Simyline people once they annexed most of the current territory of Rakzhia.

Since 1992, the Epicrateia has undone much of the progress that had previously characterized Rakzhia in the field of religious tolerance. Although there is no state religion, some atheists and religious minorities experience discrimination by the government and the media. All eparchies require their civil servants to be sworn-in at a religious ceremony by a Catholic bishop and say a prayer before taking office. Christian fundamentalism is also a problem at the local and national levels. This hasn't prevented many followers of other religions from exercising their faith and performing their religious rituals within the defined statutory and constitutional limits.

Largest Cities

Government

The Epicrateia of Rakzhia is a hereditary military government with executive power vested in the High Basileus (Wysoki Bazyleus), who holds office for life despite being a de jure military deputy of the King. While the King officially has the prerogative of appointing the High Basileus and receives generous subsidies as head of state, the monarch has no say in state affairs. The High Basileus is statutorily entrusted with foreign relations, national security, trade, administration, and monetary policy. The members of the executive (composed of multiple agencies and other specialized bodies) are selected by the High Basileus. Legislative authority is shared between him and a unicameral Council of Officers, which presents laws and discusses their ratification. The power of the officers is extended to electing the High Basileus if the line of succession expires. The Council includes all general officers (those commissioned officers above the field officer ranks) in each of the country's Armed Forces, the eparchs, a deputy from each of the staff colleges and the Military Academy, eight members chosen by Rakzhian nobility for four years, three representatives elected by the chambers of commerce (two by that of agriculture, one by the trades), one mayor representing local interests, and eight members (two of them solicitors, barristers, or advocates) nominated by the High Basileus. The officers meet at least every two months.

The large, moralistic, well-organized government juggles the competing demands of Law & Order, Defense, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Wesovana. Civilian bureaucrats are rewarded for their loyalty with agricultural surpluses or government services and nepotism runs rampant. Thus, the current regime is reinforced by close ties of loyalty between eparchs, civil servants and their subordinates. The average income tax rate is 45.8%, with other direct and indirect taxes forming the chief sources of revenue alongside railways and toll roads.

As all civilian courts are banned, the Kolegium Trybunów Epikrateia (College of Tribunes of the Epicrateia), the highest judicial authority, is composed of military judges appointed by the High Basileus until mandatory retirement at age 70. In addition to designating the procedural rules and accepting appeals from tribunals within the Armed Forces, it provides the final legal review of all proceedings in the country, participates in the appointment of eparchian judge advocates, junior military magistrates, presidents and members of courts martial, and legal officers for various purposes, and reports upon disciplinary laws in the Armed Forces. Lower courts are located in Wesovana, Simylo, Demstrich, Lacov, Raksden, Moștie, Frastë, and Femcia, from which appeals pass to the Kolegium Trybunów.

Eparchies provide such government services as maintaining roads and official postal stations, seaport administration, providing troops, and administering food aid. They can be created, dissolved, or redrawn by the High Basileus, who does not interfere in their governance unless major rebellion or incompetence is at hand. The current eparchies replaced the 1930-1999 administrative zones originally created to allow for greater centralization of power at the expense of local government, leaving zonal assemblies as mere enforcers of national laws and regulations to accomplish local needs. As with a portion of such assemblies, eparchs are strategically appointed by the central government to balance each other based on influence and can ask the High Basileus to be succeeded by their descendants, establishing regional dynasties called sippen. In addition, the Chancellor of the Royal City of Simylo (mayor) is also appointed by the High Basileus, who usually selects a close member of his own family given the virtual status of its foremost resident, the King, as a prisoner of the High Basileus under house arrest.

_{Basilḗïon Palace, seat of the Rakzhian High Basileus}

The Epicrateian Army (formally the Royal Rakzhian Army, RRA), Royal and Epicrateian Air Force (REAF), Royal and Epicrateian Navy (REN), Central Military Gendarmerie (CMG), and Epicrateian Border Guard (EBG) comprise the five branches of the Armed Forces of the Epicrateia (AFE). Although nominally only a military deputy of the monarch, the High Basileus is the commander-in-chief of the AFE, with military command then passing to the Counsellor for Defense, a Fleet Admiral or General who is in charge of the general staff as Chief of Staff. Subsequently, each branch of the AFE is also headed by its respective Chief of Staff. The highest military rank, the five-star Marshal of Rakzhia (Grand Admiral in the REN), is reserved to the incumbent High Basileus although members of the High Basilean family have been promoted to the rank after periods of service.

Active forces now number about 474,000 soldiers whose rank is determined by heredity, with an additional reserve of 188,000 troops. Military income is paid in the form of a stipend paid by the Epicrateia from a crop tax of about 40 percent levied on farmers. Some of the most powerful officers, including the High Basileus, own extensive estates (seized from jailed or imprisoned dissidents) from which they also receive income. In case of invasion or mass revolt, Rakzhia is prepared to mobilize every able-bodied man between the ages of 17 and 59 as the role of the AFE as defenders of the Epicrateian polity is enshrined in the Constitution.

Culture

Political freedoms and civil liberties (including freedom of thought, freedom of the press, and the right of assembly) have been suspended since 1992. For example, Harry Potter books are banned whilst the nation has nearly as many history museums promoting the official propaganda of the Epicrateia as Rakzhians. No political parties or demonstrations are allowed. Historical commemorations regularly devolve into militaristic jingoism. Citizens are barcoded to keep track of their movements and their surveillance, even during permitted social activities, is a given. Immigrants are required to salute the flag five times a day. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to the all-pervasive Central Military Gendarmerie (CMG), which constantly monitors the populace for any breach of social boundaries or the discussion of forbidden subjects. Drug distribution is tightly controlled by the government. All telephone traffic is monitored for 'national security reasons.' Nonetheless, thousands are currently jailed for political reasons and thousands more have been forced to live in exile. Photography and video recording by ordinary Rakzhians are banned in public locations. Blood stains the floors of the execution room and the hands of the state. Rakzhia's national animal is the Brown Adder, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities.

Mass media

Chief among Rakzhia's major media outlets are the national television channels, known for their propaganda and broadcasting of right-wing cultural programming. CTR (Companyje Telavizyjna Rakzja) is Rakzhia's public broadcasting corporation. It operates three channels (CTR 1, CTR 2, and CTR Sport) in addition to the CTR Zew international channel, and is funded by viewers' payments of a broadcast receiver license. CTR Zew is co-funded by CTR and the Rakzhian Department for Foreign Affairs, being targeted at Rakzhian-speaking audiences outside Rakzhia. Rakzhia also possesses a variety of free-to-air television channels, mainly NTV, TV8, and Rakzat, financed by sponsorships and commercials.

In Rakzhia, there are also daily broadsheets like Epikrateia, Aktualności, Rakzja Popołudnie, Darmowa Pras, Codzienny, and Państwo which provide traditional opinion and news, and tabloids such as Południk and Szczyt Wiadomość. Major magazines include Sieciówka, Naród, Równość.rz, Odwiedzający, Pospolity, Jesteśmy, and Amarant.

Economy

The strong Rakzhian economy, worth 750 billion florins a year (RP), is highly specialized and led by the Automobile Manufacturing industry, with major contributions from Uranium Mining, Arms Manufacturing, and Woodchip Exports. State-owned companies are reasonably common. Average income is 41,704 florins, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.7 times as much as the poorest.