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Dispatch → Factbook → Overview
by 
The Republic of Brovora.
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Free State of Brovora
Stad dieub Bro-Vor (
Arvoric) National flag | Coat of arms |
Anthem:
“Me ‘zo ganet e-kreiz ar mor”
“I was born in the midst of the sea”
Motto:
“Unan hag holl”
“One and all”
The cantreds and islands of Brovora proper.
Area | 56,841 km2 |
Population | 11,989,192 |
Capital | |
Largest city | Henlez |
Official language | Arvoric |
Regional languages | Cambric, Cernevoric, Carvetic |
Demonym | Brovoran, Brovoric |
Ethnic groups | Arvorian (73%) |
Religion | Brovoric Shepherdism (68%) |
Government | Unitary parliamentary republic |
First Citizen | Loeiz H. B. Faouenneg |
Minister-President | Arianrhod Teg |
Establishment | |
Brovoran Rising and Kingdom of Brovora | 1761 CE |
Prov. Constitution and Free State of Brovora | 1901 CE |
Currency | Brovoran lur (pl. lurioù) (Ⱡ) |
GDP (nominal) | $492.47b; $41,076 per capita |
Template credit to Soleanna.
The Free State of Brovora (Arvoric: Stad dieub Bro-Vor) is a cold, humorless, rain-swept island democracy west of Angland (Bro-Angl), southwest of Wintermark (Marz-Goañv), and southeast of Sorlyset (Bro ar Skorn). Literally “land-of-the-sea”, Brovora sees much of its national identity through the lens of its centuries-long resistance to Anglish domination, much of which was under direct Anglish occupation. Its petty kingdoms of antiquity were easily conquered by its larger, more centralized neighbor, until a coalescing national consciousness and the so-called Long Alliance with Franka leveraged complete Brovoran independence in 1761.
1. Overview
2. Etymology
3. History
4. Geography
5. Government
6. Foreign relations
7. Administration
8. Military
9. Economy
10. Culture
The Kingdom of Brovora that resulted from independence was originally unified by the fire of national youth, but the unpopular and profligate reign of Riwallon III Halegoed resulted in a four-year period of unrest between 1899 and 1903—the Brovoran Civil War—that culminated in the unceremonious bayoneting of Riwallon III in 1902 and years-long reprisals against royalists by the Brovoran Republican Party, the anti-monarchist faction that then established a fledgeling democracy on the Obsidian Isle. The Free State of Brovora has persisted since, largely avoiding the Second Great War in favor of an unsuccessful flirtation with isolationism before an opening-up in the 1960s. The once-unmatched coal-mining and export industry has crumbled in the face of renewable energy; even the island of Brovora itself is powered by a mixture of geothermal energy and hydroelectrics. A pivot to exporting hydroelectric turbines and other power-generation equipment is underway, as well as a campaign to expand tourism and cultural exports that leverage Brovora’s well-preserved ancient and medieval history as well as its bardic tradition. Education, a longtime pillar of Brovora resting on its medieval universities, also draws in much money from home and abroad. However, no industry rivals the fishing and whaling industry, the oldest and surest in Brovora, in perceived importance and national visibility.
Brovora’s political system has remained largely unchanged since the Provisional Constitution of 1901 and the later and more complete Pan-Brovoran Constitution of 1905, which received approval in a national referendum. Every year, a national election chooses the representatives of the Brovoran Assembly, while specialized elections in unions, regional minorities, trades, and other smaller bodies choose those who sit in the Brovoran Senate, an approval and advisory body for the Assembly. Every four years, the nation elects the First Citizen, the largely symbolic head of state; every year, or after one falls out of favor, the Assembly elects a Minister-President (also called the Premier), the head of government, to organize the other national ministers. Though rated highly for its transparent and generally functional political culture, Brovora is socially conservative relative to other liberal democracies, but progressive in relation to much of the world. A national dress code was enforced through 1961 and briefly returned between 1983 and 1986. No-fault divorce was only legalized in 1993, and though there is no formal prosecution or criminalization of LGBT persons, they have no unique protections and gay marriage remains in limbo, though cities maintain largely safe and accepting LGBT communities. A recent expansion of abortion access now sees it legal up to the sixteenth week of pregnancy with exceptions thereafter. Universal healthcare has been enshrined in law since 1938, pensions since 1942, and parental leave since 1943.
The Free State of Brovora has historically had a somewhat bristly foreign policy. Unfavorable to Angland and any other perceived historical “bullies” (except for Franka, which occupies a pleasant spot in the national imagination), Brovora maintains an oversized, controversial, and culturally embedded military, the Free Brovoran Army, under which are the Free Brovoran Navy, Free Brovoran Air Fleet, and Brovoran Security Directorate. A prominent military base is seated at Kasnevez, the sole Brovoran overseas possession: three tiny, freezing islands north of Occidentia.
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Brovora, the Free State’s Anglish name, derives from one of the three main Tudic languages on the island, but likely the largest, Arvoric, where it is Bro-Vor—that is, land, bro, of the sea, mor, undergoing the usual consonant mutations in compounds. The Cambric form, Brofora, and the Cernevoric form, Bro Vor, are also reflexes of this ancient, probably proto-Tudic, name for the isle; Bro-mor, the Carvetic form, appears to preserve it most faithfully. The element bro is commonplace in rendering the names of foreign countries in Arvoric; the Empire of Gustavovich, for example, is Bro-C’houstav, “land[-of]-Gustav”.
The island’s nickname, “the Obsidian Isle”, was derived from the prevalence of obsidian amid formerly volcanic areas in the northwestern reaches of ar Menezioù and was reinforced by the black field on the Brovoran flag.
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Antiquity and later Anglish rule
Ancient proto-Tudic hillforts are regarded as
national birthmarks and are well-preserved.
Though Brovora was the name of the rocky isle itself, it was not the name of any of the petty kingdoms that emerged on the isle, the largest and oldest of which were the Kingdoms of Laen, Mouen, Konnezh, Oc’hriezh, and Dehou-Vouen. Ulad, in the north, was the strongest of the old Gouselic people. These persisted for centuries until, in the late medieval period, increasingly conquest-minded Anglish kings mounted repeated invasions that exterminated the native kingdoms, none of which managed to form a unified front together. Invasion became conquest which, by 1200, became total domination; in time, Brovora formed a mere dominion of greater Angland. Repeated invasions, however, became repeated rebellions against Anglish domination, usually coinciding with Anglish conflicts with foreign countries, especially Franka. This was the genesis of the Long Alliance, a centuries-long friendship between Brovora and Franka designed around opposition to Angland.
Independence
See main article: Kingdom of Brovora
Young Brovorans scheme at a clandestine
meeting. Young Brovorans, painted 1874
by Yann ar Bihan.
Bleiz’s line subsequently ruled the entirety of the Obsidian Isle for 141 years. For its first decades of reign, the monarchy enjoyed high popularity, especially as it battled off repeated attempts at foreign incursions and drew closer to the highly popular Franka. However, public approval began a slow decline in the late eighteenth century that continued throughout the nineteenth. The first blow was a series of disastrous attempts at colonial projects in Occidentia, which inevitably left stranded groups of starving or diseased pioneers in rocky, resourceless places thousands of kilometers from home. The Cantred of Kasnevez, whose inhabitants regularly complained of neglect, was the only overseas cantred to survive, though as a shell of its former size: just three rocky islands at the northern fringe of Occidentia.
The proverbial nail in the coffin came in the late nineteenth century with the reign of Riwallon III Halegoed, a prolific abuser of cocaine and spender of extravagant wealth who supposedly slept on a bed of gold-dipped feathers and communed with the divine via cocaine use. Riwallon’s excesses embittered much of the broader populace, and the countryside once more became the refuge of political criminals and rebels. During a deep economic slump in 1899, a huge popular revolt erupted that devolved into a four-year-long war between royalists and republicans now termed the Brovoran Civil War.
Republic
Republican reprisals against royalists
continued unabated for years.
The Brovoran Republicans ruled through to the 1930s, though the success of the Humanist Party in a period of economic depression saw a more liberal slant in the 1940s, wherein significant social legislation was passed. It was only in the 1960s, however, that the relatively reclusive Free State began to open up to the world in trade and diplomacy.
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The Brovoran mainland has rather prohibitive geography to centralization, with each coast slowly sloping up to a central mountain range literally called ar Menezioù, “the mountains”; these were called the Menezics under Anglish dominion. The lower slopes are cool, wet, and oceanic, but, especially in the south, still receptive to farming and animal husbandry. The middling and upper slopes, though striking, heather-clad and beloved by tourists and photographers, are far more sparsely inhabited.
Brovora’s sole possession outside Elysia is the Cantred of Kasnevez (a contraction of Kastell-Nevez, “new-castle”), the sole remnant of Brovora’s early modern colonial ambitions, in the western Pale Sea, just twenty kilometers north of the Occidental mainland. Initially an intense drain on national wealth to keep, Kasnevez’s strain has alleviated considerably with its use by fishermen, researchers, and Pale Sea tourists.
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FIRST CITIZEN | MINISTER-PRESIDENT |
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The Parliament of Brovora is bicameral, composed of an upper Senate and lower Assembly. The Assembly is elected in annual national elections; the Senate is elected through specialized annual elections within specific groups, with seats allocated to specific social, ethnic, and professional groups; for example, seats are reserved for the national Cambric minority, veterans of the Free Brovoran Army, schoolteachers, et cetera, to elect from among themselves. The Assembly elects the Minister-President, the national head of government, and drafts legislation for Senatorial assent, which seals legislation into law. The First Citizen, the mostly symbolic head of state, is directly elected by the public every four years.
Although each Senator is customarily asked to set aside his or her political party—as does the First Citizen—a number of parties thrive in the Assembly:
The Brovoran Republican Party (Strollad Republikan Bro-Vor) is the oldest among them, predating even the Free State of Brovora. Beginning as a fraternal society against the monarchy, it emerged as the main force in the Brovoran Civil War and was virtually uncontested in the Assembly for the first years of Brovoran democracy. It is relatively conservative in social outlook but strongly democratic and anti-corruption. The current Minister-President, Arianrhod Teg, represents this party.
The Humanist Party (Strollad Denelour) is the second-oldest party, formed less than two weeks after the drafting of the Provisional Constitution to encompass more liberally and peacefully minded politicians. No Minister-President came from the Humanist Party until the late 1930s, when it succeeded in enacting several social programs that form the bedrock of the modern Brovoran welfare state. The current First Citizen, Loeiz H. B. Faouenneg, represented this party.
The Communitarian Party (Strollad Kumuniezhour) is a small step further than the Humanists. Its members, communitarians, advocate for the elimination of wealth inequality through extensive taxation. Though popular in the 1920s and again in the 1940s and 1950s, it diminished in the late twentieth century, though some renewed modern interest has seen an electoral uptick for the party.
The Syndicalist Party (Strollad Sindikadour) is a far more radical variation on communitarianism, advocating for worker seizure of their places of work and the creation of local worker federations as the primary organ of government. This Party has not had an elected Assemblyman since the 1980s and is nearing disbandment.
The Autonomist Party (Strollad Emrenerien), though a relatively modern creation, takes its name from the Autonomist Society, a mid-eighteenth century group of intellectuals that advocated for Brovoran independence. It claims that the freer the market, the freer the people, and so supports more open laws for corporations and entrepreneurs.
The Brovoran National Party (Strollad Broadel Bro-Vor) is the largest strictly conservative party, advocating for strongly conservative social stances and skepticism of international organizations. It is regularly one of the larger parties in the Assembly. Wings of it also support the dismantlement of the welfare net; most support the strengthening of the executive.
The Self-Respect Party (Strollad an Emzoujañs) is a national-conservative group that loudly advocates for a strong military, protectionism, an assertive foreign policy, and a reversal of the social progress of the last century. It never manages more than a few seats at a time.
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See main article: Foreign relations of the Free State of Brovora
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Penn-ar-Vro (Penn an Wlas in Cernevoric)
in the Autonomous Cantred of Kammbronn,
Brovora’s southernmost point.
After reforms in the early 1950s intended to quell separatist violence, four of the southern cantreds include ‘Autonomous’ in their formal names and enjoy greater powers of government to improve the self-determination of the national minorities, speakers of Cambric (~15%), Cernevoric (~5%), and Carvetic (~5%). These are the Cambric Autonomous Cantreds of Kernarvon and Kerverzhin in the southwest, the Carvetic Autonomous Cantred of Kerlouel in the middle-south, and the Cernevoric Autonomous Cantred of Kammbronn in the southeast; the Cantred of Kammbronn includes Penn-ar-Vro (Penn an Wlas), the southernmost tip of Brovora. No provisions have yet been made for the Cantred of Korzeg, where the revived Gouselic language is spoken in small numbers.
The degree of authority held by the cantreds has fluctuated throughout the history of Brovora, but each has always been subordinate to an elected national government sufficiently to call the Free State a unitary one. The highest elected official in a cantred is its Seneschal, the elected governor; the title is a remnant of Franka’s historical influence over Brovora’s political science and resulting modern republic.
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See main article: Free Brovoran Army
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A geothermal power plant in
northwestern Brovora.
The Brovoran economy is modern, service-based, and accompanied by the comforts of modernity, but the Free State is still working to find its footing in industry and exports after the relative deindustrialization of the 1980s and 1990s, when sections of manufacturing departed to the developing world and coal-mining ceased to be lucrative. Fishing and whaling remain as profitable as it was in the early twentieth century, if not more—and the other traditional enterprises such as cheese, wool, zinc, and lead are still steady—but successive governments have recently labored to make inroads in new, more sophisticated forms of manufacturing, where Brovora might find a niche. Power generation equipment has been one such venture; Brovora’s relatively small size, geothermal resources, and long coastline have allowed it to swiftly complete a transition to renewable energy, with all of the island’s needs met by geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind energy. New firms, many in Kernarvon, now jockey to export such equipment abroad, supported by generous government encouragement and incentives.
Brovora’s attempts at autarky in the mid-twentieth century only left the country poorer, but a few specialized industries survive. Pinvidig, a family-owned auto-maker, manufactures light trucks for farm and utility workers, now electric; Koadlosket Consolidated Armory designs and constructs select pieces of military hardware, such as the KL-98 Tourc’h. The most successful of these developments are the massive shipbuilding concerns in Roz-Veur and Poull-Holen, which provide most of the ships of the Free Brovoran Navy as well as a variety of ships for tourism, research, fishing, leisure, and otherwise. More than half of the households of Poull-Holen fully or partially depend on income from the shipbuilding industry. A last niche resulting from this era is airships; several government initiatives attempting to revive large-scale rigid passenger airships (also called “aerostatics”) for transit and tourism made surprising strides and such ships are now common sights drifting over Brovoran cities and coasts. The University of Kernarvon even has a degree in Aerostatic Engineering and has hosted an annual International Aerostatic Symposium since 1995.
More distinctive sectors in Brovora are in education, research, and culture. Brovora’s universities, stemming from its long tradition of the written language, are centuries old and punch well above their weight, particularly in linguistics, ocean science and marine biology, engineering, and philosophy. The University of Aber-Istwizh is considered to be the strongest in the arts; the University of Kernarvon excels in technology and engineering. The nation has a uniquely high number of research papers published per capita, and the majority of Brovorans are college-educated to some degree. The ancient bardic tradition of the Brovorans also attracts foreign tourism; poetry and other rhetorical arts are ranked annually at the national eistezvod, a traditional gathering of artists. More attractive to tourists, though, are the sweeping landscapes and well-preserved ancient history, which range in form from ancient hillforts to medieval blades and shields to seminal letters of modern politics and philosophy kept at museums that dot the landscape, rural and urban.
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Winners of the national eistezvod are
ritualistically crowned before a huge audience.
Museums are everywhere in Brovora and museum science is an encouraged degree for the historically inclined. Preservation of ancient hillforts and tools, medieval weapons and manuscripts, and modern works of art and historical artifacts is regarded highly, and the profession enjoys much social prestige. The Comprehensive Museum of Kerdiz contains the largest single collection of artifacts in Brovora, collected from around the island and abroad, presenting a roughly chronological experience of history from profound antiquity to the present. This also includes the rich history of the Brovoric games, keystones of the national identity and a meaningful part of Brovoran life and economics.
As a result of its status as an island nation, the sea and its vessels feature prominently in Brovoran identity. The whaling industry, though stagnant in recent years, continues to be a point of pride for many; others take pride in Brovora’s historic coastal defense and naval prowess. Villages, most inhabited since antiquity, dot the coasts and have been the retreat of artists and thinkers from Brovora and abroad. Many such settlements still bear fleets of traditionally small, hand-powered fishing skiffs for transport, leisure, or small-scale fishing; larger whalers and commercial fishers sail the deep, frigid seas far beyond the beaches. Traditional foodways naturally include fish and shellfish, as well as many types of seaweed; meat, dairy, grain, and fruits and vegetables grow on the temperate lower slopes of the interior of the island. Brovorans often pair their meals with the national drink, sun-bleuñv, a hot, herbally-flavored beverage served in traditional hand-crafted clay mugs. The national dessert is toaz, a mixture of grated potato, milk, eggs, cream, and sugar, which gained prominence in the seventeenth century and remains popular today.
Religion
The prevailing religion in the Free State is Brovoric Shepherdism, the dominant faith on the isle since antiquity. It is a considerably syncretic form of Shepherdism, having assimilated many of the beliefs of the natives; worship is largely silent, taking the form of “expectant waiting” for divine inspiration, and clergy have never wielded substantial political power. Brovoran conservatism, however, is thoroughly informed by interpretations of the modesty, self-sacrifice, and moral seriousness embedded in Brovoric Shepherdism. Other clearly pre-Shepherdist elements that survive in Brovoric Shepherdism are several holidays celebrating the power of the wind and tide; the reverence of several natural wonders as holy sites; the many natural motifs present in religious architecture; and the blending of the names of pagan gods and Shepherdist elements to designate the days of the week. The Arvoric word for God, Neved, once referred to a goddess of groves.
