Anisora
| The Anisoran Regency La Reggenza Anisorana (Anisoran) | |
| Flag | Coat of arms |
|---|---|
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File:Coat of arms of Anisora.png |
| Motto: Sequens Viam Vindi, Floremus (Hallish: Following the Path of Vind, we thrive) | |
| Anthem: Imperium Auri (Hallish: Empire of Gold) | |
| Locator map | |
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| Capital city | Pena |
| Largest city | Pena |
| Official language | Anisoran |
| Other languages | Lusavanic, Parnethian |
| Ethnic group | |
| Religion | Peratolian Orkanan, Mellanhand Orkanan |
| Demonym(s) | Anisoran |
| Government | |
| Government Type | Unitarian authoritarian dictatorship |
| Empress | Victoria IV (in absentia) |
| Regent | Emmanuele VI da Vattoro |
| Legislature | Imperial Senate National Assembly |
| Establishment | |
| Regency proclaimed | 7616 |
| Area | |
| Total | 641,219.80 km2 |
| Population | |
| Total | 43,967,993 |
| Density | 68.57/km2 |
| Economy | |
| Economy type | Semi-planned, mixed |
| GDP (total) | Ꞡ 716 billion |
| GDP per capita | Ꞡ 16,285.43 |
| Currency | Grana () |
| Other information | |
| Time zone | 0 |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | ANS |
| Internet code | .an |
- This article is about the modern nation state of Anisora (7616-present). For the imperial state, see Anisoran Empire, and for other uses, see Anisora (disambiguation).
Anisora, officially the Anisoran Regency (Anisoran: La Reggenza Anisorana), is a nation state in Anaria Minor.
The modern regency is the direct successor state to the Anisoran Empire and was unofficially proclaimed at the culmination of the Anisoran Civil War (7613-7616) immediately after the disintegration of the Empire. However, the Anisoran Regency is technically the same state as the Anisoran Empire, with the government acknowledging no official break from the foundation of the Empire in 7365. The Anisoran Regency today is an authoritarian unitarianist state ruled by the current regent, Prince Emmanuele VI da Vattoro, who has been in power since 7662. However, the exiled Victoria IV remains nominally Empress of the Anisorans and de jure head of state, though in reality the empress and the imperial stim retains no power in Anisora and the unitarian regime of the regent retains absolute power.
History
Pre-regency history
- Main article: Anisoran Empire
First Regency
The Regency traces its routes back to the end of the Wolgos Scourge, which resulted in the abdication of Emperor Titus III in favour of his young son, Titus IV. Given the new emperor's minority, a regent was needed to execute the responsibilities of the sovereign. In 7603 the Privy Council of the Anisoran Empire met at Colombera Palace in Pena and voted to elect a regent, the first regent since Victor I's infancy in 7472.
Numerous factions vied for their preferred candidate. The Liberal Party and many of the reigning royalty in the Empire principally supported the election of Prince Bruto, the Count of Relivetta, the younger brother of Titus III and the new emperor's uncle. However, Prince Bruto was himself reluctant to take the position given the increasing instability in the Empire and the open hostility of the military to his election. The military, the Orkanan alfs as well as the majority of the ruling National Party meanwhile backed Lord Laurito, a prominent career politician and former Tribune for the Interior. Given the growing instability in the Empire, Lord Laurito's supporters lauded his record in government and lauded his role in putting down the Tenevalan Riots in 7598. However, his suspected unitarian sympathies were a source of major concern for the Liberals, but these connections were downplayed in the run-up to the vote and given strong backing from the Orkanan leadership and military he emerged as the dominant candidate.
Lord Laurito was elected regent in 7603, and he vowed to guide the hand of the young Emperor Titus IV and support the National government led by Sir Adriano D'Orbuzzo in stabilising the Empire. The Regent's powers were originally curtailed by the constitution, which had steadily transferred the sovereign's powers to the elected government over the previous hundred years. Lord Laurito worked closely with D'Orbuzzo's government for the first three years of the regency, but the prime minister's authority began to steadily wane and growing factions within the ruling National Party began publicly calling for a new leader. D'Orbuzzo's weak handling of the Ghermona Pogroms of 7606 saw the prime minister's authority collapse and a vote in the Imperial Senate, supported by the lower house, to grant the regent emergency powers. Lord Laurito subsequently declared a state of emergency and sent Anisoran forces into Ghermona to stop the bloodletting.
Three months later Lord Laurito ended the state of emergency and, answering growing calls from within both the National Party and the opposition for fresh elections, he called a vote to reestablish stable government. However, the 7606 election resulted in a fragmented parliament, with the regent appointing the Lorenzo Codeno of the National Party as prime minister. The ensuing years saw a period of increasing instability and political deadlock, with the minority National government struggling to pass laws and respond effectively to numerous crises.
It was during this tumultuous period that paramilitarism gained particular prominence in Anisora as law and order frequently broke down amid growing sectarian violence, terrorism and agitation. Suspicions began to grow that various unitarian and ultranationalist paramilitary groups, most notoriously the 'Lamevo' (Anisoran: La Mano di Exemplare Volundo; The Hand of Exemplar Volund), were operating under the orders of the regent. The regent's suspected employment of paramilitary groups to maintain law and order, while also inevitably propagating street violence and sectarian tensions, led to growing tensions with the imperial military. However, the regent maintained plausible deniability, and the fact that he renounced his emergency powers in 7606 placated many concerns that he posed a genuine threat to the status quo, with Laurito reaffirming that he supported the elected government and constitution. However, when the emperor Titus IV reached maturity, many expected him to be formally crowned emperor. However, Lord Laurito refused to proceed with the ceremony, citing the growing instability and fears that a transfer of power would destabilise current negotiations with the Lusavanic nationalists. The young emperor himself remained a broadly silent figure throughout the ensuing power struggle, having remained under Lord Laurito's control over for the last decade.
Anisoran Civil War and disintegration of the Empire
- Main article: Anisoran Civil War
The First Regency under Lord Laurito was defined by deteriorating government authority, paramilitary violence, sectarian strife and secessionist agitation. However, in the run-up to the formal outbreak of the Civil War, the regent had expanded his powers significantly and had largely sidelined parliament, with many openly calling for increasingly authoritian policies in order to restore law and order. The ultranationalist and Orkanan factions were increasingly aligning themselves with the regent, and the outbreak of the Lusavanic Revolt brought simmering tensions to a head.
The 7612 secessionist movement in the Grand Principality of Lusava formally set off the course of events that would lead to open civil war and the collapse of the Anisoran Empire. Following an assassination attempt against Princess Adriana in 7613, the imperial family fled initially to Pilano, but after the Cadrian Declaration of Independence, Pastana was considered unsafe. Lord Laurito arranged for the young emperor Titus IV to flee to Auresia, but this move merely confirmed that the emperor had been totally sidelined and was only retained to legitimise Lord Laurito's authoritarian rule. This allowed the regent to take full control of the imperial government during the civil war, and the subsequent state of emergency formally banned all opposition movements in the Empire.
During the civil war, Lord Laurito served as the leader of the ultranationalist and so-called 'imperial' faction that sought to keep the Empire together, utilising increasingly harsh methods to put down revolts and emergency powers to suspend civil liberties. However, a growing anti-unitarian coalition made up of non-Lusavanic Anisoran liberals, socialists and moderates also emerged opposing the regent's growing authoritarianism and unitarian extremist religious policies. Some supported the restoration of the young emperor Titus IV as a figurehead and the removal of the regent, while others were republicans and called for the abolishment of the monarchy in its entirety. This anti-unitarian movement eventually allied with the Lusavanic nationalists in exchange for promises to grant Lusava independence after the civil war, but it was always an uneasy alliance.
The three-year civil war resulted in the independence of Tavonia and East Lusavan and the establishment of the Cadrian Republic, and precipitated the collapse of the Anisoran overseas colonial Empire. However, the remaining components of the Anisoran Empire, now reduced to the core Anisoran-speaking regions of Anaria Minor, remained under the control of the regent.
Attempts to restore the monarchy
While the treaties of Gaaze and Rubizhne formally brought about the end of the Anisoran Civil War, violence did not completely cease inside Anisora and the wider Anaria Minor region. Paramilitarism still remained widespread, with the regent's unitarian regime entrenching itself as revanchist sentiment grew. The post-civil war regime had maintained its continuity with the old Anisoran Empire, and the Treaty of Rubizhne had set out conditions for the return of Emperor Titus IV to Anisora as a constitutional monarch. However, the Laurito regime never formally invited the emperor to return and Laurito was once again proclaimed regent in 7616. Officially Laurito was to remain regent only until the emperor returned. However, despite frequent telegrams from the exiled imperial family in Auresia, the regime continued to claim that the 'time was not right' for the emperor to return and that the government could not guarantee his safety. Titus IV died in exile in 7624, but by then the regency had fully entrenched itself as a unitarian authoritarian regime.
Following his father's death, Titus V assumed the title Emperor of the Anisorans in exile. However, no formal invitation was extended from Pena to welcome the new emperor, with Lord Laurito actively suppressing nascent royalists who called for his return. In 7625 Titus V launched an ill-fated attempt to regain his throne and, in disguise, took passage by ship to Rena. The town was the historic seat of the Dukes of Rena and was chosen for its symbolic importance to Anisoran royalty. However, the regent's spies in Auresia had warned Pena of the emperor's attempt and he was met by troops loyal to the regent and was placed under house arrest. The 117th Regiment under the command of the royalist general Alessandro Vorento did attempt to free the emperor from Rena, but this failed and Vorento was arrested. Faced with an incredibly embarrassing situation, Lord Laurito ordered the emperor to be returned to exile in Auresia, and reports of the emperor's attempted landing were suppressed - though it rapidly became known across Anaria. Further attempts to return the emperor to Anisora were prevented by Laurito and his regime.
Lord Laurito's proclamation as regent in 7616 after the end of the Civil War marked the de facto end of the Anisoran Empire the beginning of the Anisoran Regency proper, though some historians and political scientists argue that the Regency began back in 7603 following Laurito's initial election. Nevertheless, following Titus V's failed attempt to return to Anisora, the regency was well entrenched, and Lord Laurito's grip on power absolute.
Triumvirate Regency
In 7626 after some 23 years in power, the aging regent Lord Laurito died of a heart attack, raising the question of who will rule Anisora, and whether the regency would continue at all.
Given the nature of the regency, which still professed to be a caretaker government until the emperor assumed his throne, Lord Laurito's death once again raised calls for the return of Titus V. However, these calls were ignored and suppressed by the government in Pena and procedures began immediately to elect a successor from within the Regency Council. Lord Laurito's daughter, Luisa di Valero-Laurito, was the regent's preferred choice of heir, but there were other prominent members of the unitarian regency council that vied for the position. Three candidates emerged from within the unitarian regime as the most prominent candidates, but given that none managed to secure enough support to be elected in their own right, a Triumvirate emerged. On 17 September 7626, each of the following were elected as co-regents by the Privy Council:
- Luisa Valero-Laurito 'Lady Valero', Chief Secretary to the Regent's Office. As daughter of the First Regent, she was the preferred choice of heir and successor, and as effective head of the regency administration, she wielded significant influence across the government and wider unitarian movement;
- Giorgio della Pasqua, head of the Unitarian Party;
- L. Ermino Sorrentio-Nardovino, 12th Duke of Pedriano and Albina. While the Duke was a committed unitarian, and had acted as the regent's spokesperson in the Imperial Senate, many opposed his election to the regency given his ancestor's claims to the Kingdom of Casella. The Duke remained the most prominent member of the deposed Tortagno-Nespola dynasty in Anisora, and some feared that he wanted to seize the throne and crown himself King of Casella or Emperor, though he himself denied this as ludicrous.
The so-called Triumvirate Regency ruled Anisora for the next 10 years in a precarious balance of factional interest. However, the ongoing disintegration of the remnants of the Anisoran colonial empire, most notably in Aspasia, severely strained the Triumvirate. The outbreak of the Pakatayan secession from the Anisoran colony in 7626 led the Triumvirate to double down on its efforts to retain control of its overseas positions, leading to the highly costly Anisoran Colonial Wars (7626-7639). Despite the expenditure of significant blood and treasure during these wars, the loss of Aspasia to the emergent Federal Republic of Sokoku led to a steady breakdown within the Triumvirate. The Triumvir Giorgio della Pasque, backed by the militant paramilitary group the Green Griffins, blamed Lady Valero for being too conciliatory with the Aspasian rebels and argued that Anisora should have doubled down on the failing military campaign by sending even more troops, despite the dire economic strain this was placing on the government's budget.
The announcement of the formal withdrawal of Anisoran troops from Aspasia on 10 February 7638 led Giorgio della Pasqua and his supporters to attempt to seize control of the regency and launch an abortive coup d'etat attempt, which became known as the Torentino Plot. The failure of the coup resulted in della Pasqua getting shot, his supporters arrested and mass purges across the military. Lady Valero then moved to sideline the Duke of Pedriano and assumed total control of government, whereafter she was duly elected and proclaimed sole regent, beginning the period known as the Third Regency.
Third Regency
Government and politics
Regent
The Anisoran Regency's government is highly authoritarian, characterised as a unitarian dictatorship. Under the unitarian system, supreme political and religious power is traditionally vested in the monarch, as the divinely chosen leader of the nation by right of inheritance. However, since the Anisoran Civil War and the exile of the imperial stim, supreme power has been wielded by the Regent, who constitutionally remains the representative of the exiled emperor, currently Empress Victoria IV. However, in reality, the Regent is an independent power who claims by right ex officio to be the divinely appointed ruler of Anisora - historically as a result of infighting and purging their rivals.
The Regent is the head of state, supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Anisoran armed forces and Wayfinder of the Congregation of Anisora. The Regent, currently Prince Emmanuele VI da Vattoro, is directly involved in ministerial appointments for War, Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Unity, as well as other top ministries after submission of candidates from the prime minister, whom the Regent appoints.
As Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Anisoran Armed Forces, the Regent controls security operations and military intelligence, and has the sole power to declare war or peace. Given the semi-theocratic nature of the unitarian dictatorship, the Regent's religious authority is supreme and heavily intertwined with paramilitarism across Anaria Minor, with the Regent's military authority extending far beyond the borders of Anisora and the conventional military. Claiming the title of Protector of the Holy Shrines under the Holy Shrines Covenant, the Regent exerts influence and control over various Peratolian communities and paramilitary groups across Anaria Minor, via the Bureau of the Covenant, colloquially called the Covenanters (Anisoran: Convenzieri).
The Regent's powers are outlined in the Constitution of 7639, which formalised the unitarian authority of the regent over all state and religious institutions. While often classified as an authoritarian regime, some political scientists and commentators have described the Anisoran Regency as blending classical unitarian authoritarianism with elements of ideological and religious totalitarianism.
Legislature
Administrative divisions
The administrative divisions of the modern Anisoran Regency have been directly inherited from the Anisoran Empire, which was organised by highly complex and historical states, ranging from the largest grand principalities to the smallest free cities. Following the end of the Anisoran Civil War and the independence of East Lusavan and the Cadrian Republic, a slight reorganisation of the territories on the Anisoran mainland was conducted, including the significant reduction in territory of the Grand Princiaplity of Matrignano (which was 'downgraded' to a principality in 7632) and the ceding of the Nepolades islands by the newly independent Cadrian Republic to Anisora.
The majority of the administrative divisions of the Anisoran Empire have nevertheless been retained, resulting in a patchwork of historic borders and states. Nevertheless, administrative reforms undertaken by the Regent Lady Valero in 7640 created a new layer of administrative 'regions', which grouped together various smaller states into a more coherent and administratively efficient areas.
Each constituent state has their own head of state as well as seats in the Federal Assembly, which nominally gives them representation at a national level - though today this is largely ceremonial. Most territories are still nominally headed by royal families, although all the Free Cities operate republican-style governments. Constituent states range from the largest and most important state, the Grand Principality of Casella, through to lesser principalities, arch-duchies and duchies, to the smallest territories, the dependent islands and Free Cities. Today there are 38 constituent states including one Grand Principality, seven Principalities, two Arch-duchies, seventeen Duchies, five Dependent Islands, and six Free Cities.
Foreign relations
Law and justice
Geography
Anisora is located in east Anaria Minor, with its lands arrayed along the Tova Coast, also known as the Merigno-Tsova Coast, extending north to entrance to the Medio Sea at the Western Strait. The Pequinella Islands litter the east coast further south, connecting Anisora to the Sea of Derutta and the Sea of Castarena, which connects Anisora to the Cadrian Peninsula via the Pasticello Islands. The capital city Pena is located in the north of the country, sitting inside the Bay of Prieste, a large natural harbour that connects to the Sea of Garna in the West Medio. Anisora's northwesternmost coastline in Casella borders onto the Sinean Sea.
The country's total area is 641,219.80 km² (247,576 sq mi). Due to its highly indented coastline and numerous islands, Anisora has one of the longest coastlines in Anaria and features a large number of bays and inlets, including Colombera Bay, the Bay of Cantoira and furtherest south-east of all, the Bay of Peritia. The longest river in Anisora is the Vequio River, which flows from Lake Parrona along the border with East Lusavan and into Matrignano, emptying into the Bay of Peritia in the South Medio Sea. Lakes Parrona and Karamon are the largest lakes in Anisora, and are the second and third largest in Anaria after the Åstillevatn Basin in Aedeland.
The North Bhazen Mountains (known as the Garda Mountains in Anisoran) along the western border in Anaria Minor are the largest and tallest mountain range in Anisora. The tallest mountain in Anisora, Monte Poravetta, is located in the Northern Bhazens, and stands at 4,247.1m (13,934 ft). Anisora is generally very fertile, although there are some areas that are rocky and unsuitable for any intensive agriculture due to the high temperatures and geological composition of those areas, notably some areas of the Tovan coast. Casella is the most fertile regions of Anisora, sporting some of the most productive farm land in the Medio.