Democratic Sulzen Republic

Players: Golden Floof

Language

The national languages of Sulzen are informal Sulzenese, and Formal Sulzenese.
Informal Sulzenese is equivalent to a mix of German and Finnish in both root words and grammar, though being extremely synthetic, with one or two words often representing an entire sentences worth of information. Each part of a word heavily influences the rest of the word, and the rest of the sentence in a very complex and often blurry ruleset. It has a moderately low syllable rate, meaning to a foreigner, it sounds like native speakers are talking kind of slow. However, it also has a very high information rate of any major language. Meaning that, on average, conveying a piece of information will take less time than most other major languages.
            Formal Sulzenese, despite the similar name, is a very different language from informal Sulzenese. Like how English and German share language roots and a lot of similarities, but are still two very distinct languages. Formal Sultz is equivalent to a mix of German and English, with both root words and grammar. It’s much closer to the analytical side of the language spectrum. Meaning it has many more distinct, and smaller, words representing the same amount of information compared to Sultz, but significantly less complex grammar rules.
            All Sulz people are required to be fluent in both informal Sulzenese, and formal Sulzenese. Informal Sulzenese is used in informal and everyday speech, and formal Sulzenese is used in formal speech. The person with the higher social rank will usually determine which one will be used. Laws, contracts, legal documents, instructions, and other formal writing are almost exclusively done in Formal Sulzenese due to it being generally less ambiguous, useful for when the exact meaning of a sentence has drastic consequences. Given formal Sulzenese is a significantly easier language to learn as an adult, it’s also the language the vast majority of foreigners choose to learn. Leading to the stereotype that all foreigners are always so formal and uptight.
            Informal Sulzenese used to be the one and only language, however, in the mid-1700’s, trade relations with Falkre led to the senate and nobility taking on english. That language was influenced by informal Sulzenese, leading to the creation of Formal Sulzenese. Between the mid-1700’s and the revolution in 1832, Formal Sulzenese started becoming less of a class-based language, and more of a formality-based language. There was debate whether to get rid of Formal Sulzenese entirely post revolution, but given it had ingrained itself into the default formal lexicon of most of the population, it was left as is. By 1947, there’s some mixing of the two languages, though the cultural norms of keeping them separate within formality have remained fairly steadfast.

Capital City

Vopar is the country’s capital, located on the northeast edge of lake Vopar, on the edge of the Vopar mountains. Population of 7 million.
There are plenty of different landmarks in the city, some of the ones that stick out include: Luck Mountain, is a mountain to the south of the city, standing 3 km tall with the plateau on top being the country’s largest granite mine. The Tower of high spirits was built and owned by SNC, the Sulzen News Company, the largest news network in the country. It’s the tallest building in the country, it’s a 150-meter-tall cylindrical skyscraper, with a 100-meter-tall radio tower on top. The entire building is also a fountain, with thousands of liters of water pumped out every minute, and running down a spiraling staircase that circles the building all the way from the roof to the ground. There’s Capitol Park, a large circular park surrounding the Capitol building, about a 1.5 km across. It includes a 20-meter statue of Ruff Hemling, the first president after the constitution was ratified. And finally, the Finger of God, a giant rock formation sticking up 80 meters in the air at a 45-degree angle on the eastern side of the city, pointing west. The capitol itself was built so that the Finger of God pointed at it, and that you could clearly see it from the top.
Any country wishing to have an embassy in Vopar, can buy or build a building at the standard rate, with some limitations (Sulzen doesn’t want some superpower to buy out three city blocks just as a flex).
Most of the major corporations are based in Vopar City, and with a central position in the country, a significant amount of goods flow through there.
There’s the Souls festival, held every year to celebrate the violent and peaceful revolutions in the 1832 and 1850 respectively. It’s celebrated in Capitol Park every year in May between the 1st and the 5th. A feast on the 1st, a concert on the 2nd, a parade on the 3rd, a carnival on the 4th, and a grand fireworks display on the 5th.

Population

The population of Sulzen is 76 million, with most people living towards the northeast. With a population breakdown of 42% 0-18, 28% 19-40, 22% 41-65, 8% 65+. The majority (80%) ethnic group is the Salz, a people mainly characterized by their light tan skin, and long legs and long arms proportional to their height. Roughly 30% of the population has blue eyes, so not the majority, but by no means rare. Rarer is gray eyes, with about 5% of the population. What is much rarer, is white eyes, with about 0.5% of the population having pure white iris’s, often giving the appearance of just having the pupil, kinda like a cartoon character. Men average 183cm, women average 170cm. Other than the salz, there is a large number of those with Nykean heritage in the west, mostly those who left due to poor working conditions under the old Nykean royal family. As well as Nylean heritage in the east due to the Nylean nation on the border of Fane.

Government

            The government is a democratic republic, with a legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch.
The legislative branch, or Congress, is made up of 200 legislators, split up into two groups. The Electors, and the Representatives. Each of the 6 regions are split up into 16 districts, with each district getting to vote for their own Elector, plus 4 for the capital. In order to run to be an Elector, one must either place in the top 4 for write in signatures, or put one’s name in a lottery, where 4 names are drawn at random. A minimum age of 30 is required. Each of the 8 candidates are then given a set, equal budget to campaign with. They cannot use that budget for anything other than campaigning and paying for the extra costs associated with campaigning. They also aren’t allowed to get favors for free or reduced costs associated with their campaign. Electors can serve up to 2 terms.
Representatives are chosen in a simpler process. Every eligible voter between the ages of 25 and 65 is put in a national lottery. One can have their name removed from the lottery, but this revokes a tax credit. 160 are chosen 6 months before the presidential election. Representatives go through a 6-month learning process, to get themselves acclimated to what being a representative and all of their duties is gonna be like. The strict specifics for how this process is carried out, were put into the constitution itself, and hasn’t changed in a meaningful way since the constitution was ratified in 1850. This is mainly to prevent bad actors from changing the process in a way that would bias the representatives towards a specific agenda. At the end of this process, everyone who didn’t drop out, is put into another lottery, where the 100 representatives are chosen for the next 8 years.
If an elector dies, then the governor of their region chooses a replacement, if a representative dies, then another is chosen at random from the pool that didn’t win the second representative lottery.
The Executive branch includes the president, vice president, the presidential cabinet, and diplomats. The president is head of the military and the national economic forum, and can call emergency meetings of congress. They, and their vice president, are elected every 4 years using the same 8 candidate system as the electors, only on a national scale. The president can serve a maximum of 3 terms.
The President, and Electors, serve 4-year terms. However, national elections are held every 2 years, as the Presidential election and Electors election are held 2 years apart. Representatives are chosen on the same election as the President. Representatives serve 8 year terms, getting chosen every other presidential election.
The first week of June, every even numbered year, is election week. Every eligible citizen is required to vote at some point during that week. Each person must rank their candidates from most favorable to least favorable. Once all the votes are cast, then each district goes through the sorting and counting process. All most favorable votes are counted up, and the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. Each ballot this candidate got, is recounted for the second most favorable candidate on it. Then, once all of the votes are counted again, the person with the least votes is eliminated. This process repeats until there are only 2 candidates left, or a candidate is guaranteed to win. See “Sulzen Voting Details” for more info.
 
For a law to be enacted, it must be proposed and discussed. If it gets at least 10% of the votes, then it’s allowed to continue, where it’s further discussed and modified. It then moves into a final vote, where a simple majority ratifies it into law. The president, if they choose, can force a revote after any bill has been voted on, even the ones that fail. They can do this if: 1, The bill was voted on within the last week. And 2, the bill didn’t get more than a 2/3rd majority either way. They can choose when the revote will take place, up to 6 months after the initial vote. Historically, this has swayed opinion enough to change the outcome roughly 50% of the time.
There are also different government agencies, such as the Protection and Integration Patrol (Legacy name), which deals with investigations. Or the Forestry Administration, which deals with the environment. Or the Economic Forum, which deals with the economy. Or the National Bank, which deals with Federal money.
The Judicial branch is made of up the 7 high court judges. Each is voted in for only one 16-year term, each region gets to elect one judge, with the region that gets 2 being given to a different region each time. Same process as the Electors and President, only they have to be certified lawyers, and at least 30 years old to apply.
Each one gets their own court within the Country Court building in the capital, where they deal with higher profile cases mostly pertaining to their region. But, when there’s a really high-profile case, they convene to form the Country Court.
All criminal and civil cases are done by the lowest applicable court, with people having the ability to appeal their case to a higher court. In criminal cases, defendants are guaranteed a public defense attorney free of charge. And in civil cases, public defense attorneys are available at a fee based on the yearly earnings of the person requesting them.
All criminal, and certain high impact civil cases, have a 9 person Jury, who determines a verdict. While the judge determines the punishment upon a guilty verdict, and ensures a fair and regular trial. After the peaceful revolution of 1850, it was decided that the sorting of the soulless would be put in the hands of the courts. This means, that there’s now three options of verdict for criminal cases.
Not Guilty, Guilty, and Guilty without reformation. The Guilty, are sent to a reformation center. These centers have dorms, psychiatrists, and job training. This is to ensure that those sent there actually have a chance of becoming reformed, and not just going back to doing more crimes. Though, on lighter cases, the judge can just give them community service.
The Guilty without reformation… However. Those are the people who’ve committed such heinous crimes, or have repeatedly committed lesser crimes, that the jury has found them to be unreformable. Those that can’t be changed for the better. They’re sent to more standard prisons, with the option to go from a cell to something more akin to a dorm if they’re good and work for it. They can request a retrial every 5 years, with the hope of getting a different verdict if new evidence has come up. However, if the retrial is never granted, then they’re never getting out. Guilty without reformation, isn’t seen as a punishment, it’s seen as removing dangerous individuals from society in a more humane way than just killing them. Though, if the crime is heinous enough, then capital punishment is on the table.

Economy

            Sulzen is a regulated free market. People can start businesses as they please, and private corporations make up the majority of goods and services made in the country. The government, for things such as public transportation, utilities, or healthcare, with often contract out to a company. These contracts come with more stringent requirements, such as ensuring that electricity prices never spikes above 150% the national average, or that drug research has to cooperate with public universities.
Companies cannot hold a monopoly, with the usual cutoff being about 60%, though this can vary based on the situation, as well as how the monopoly is dealt with. They also cannot make use of anti-consumer practices, please see law N01-0204 for what counts as an anti-consumer practice.
During the 1810’s and 1820’s, with the industrial revolution taking off, publicly traded companies quickly expanded to fill their respective markets. And when a company hit market saturation, it could only continue to expand as fast as that market did, so returns slowed down. Investors, who had gotten hooked on the high returns prior, demanded (more so forced) companies to continue achieving those returns. They did this, through lowering working conditions, price fixing, predatory sales tactics, the works. This is a large part of why the violent revolution took place.
 There is no stock market, as only those who work for the company as their main job can own stock in that company. The system is set up to incentivize one of two things, either keeping the company owned by a single person or select few people (such as a family). Or, pushing for a more employee-owned company, where most, if not all of the ownership resides with all of the employees. In order to accomplish this dichotomy, it enforces special taxes.
If the CEO wants to retire, and sell his stocks, then there’s going to be a fairly steep tax that he has to pay. However, that tax does not apply if he sells enough stocks to all the employees. For example, if he has to pay 10 million para worth of taxes to sell his stocks, then he could avoid those taxes by selling at least 10 million para worth of stocks to all of the employees as a whole (excluding the higher ups). This way, a company would naturally become more employee owned over time.
However, there is another option. The CEO could choose to gift his stocks to someone else. He wouldn’t get the money from the stocks, however the gift would be tax free, regardless of who he gave it too. This would ensure that the CEO would always have the option to ensure the company would remain owned by someone he trusted. This is common with family-owned businesses, where they want to keep the business in the family. Besides, CEO’s, by the time they retire, are almost always absurdly wealthy even without their stocks taken into account. Of course, special legal attention is given to when the stocks are gifted, to ensure they weren’t paid for indirectly.
This system ensures that if a CEO isn’t super greedy, and wants to keep the business running true after they retire, they can do so. If a CEO is greedy, however, then it’ll always make more sense to sell stocks to the employees to avoid paying those taxes. While the CEO will often times just eat the taxes, and sell the stocks without selling any to the employees at large, this system does help to push companies towards either high centralization or high decentralization of ownership.
Also, that doesn’t apply just to the CEO, or when somebody has soul ownership, it applies to anyone who owns stocks in the company they work far and aren’t a regular employee (Please see Law N05-0355 for a definition of ‘regular employee’).
There are unions, and they’re helpful for companies without employee ownership, which is most of them. They advocate for the workers for better wages and conditions, they also can advocate for employees to get stocks as part of their pay. Companies can and do, just give employees stocks as part of their pay if they so choose (Please see Law N04-2541 for more in-depth information regarding potential loopholes of selling stocks, gifting stocks, and giving stocks as part of pay.)
Of course, the actual laws are much more complicated than what’s laid out in this document, to deal with edge cases, loopholes, and perverse incentives. Such as hiring someone on for the sole reason to buy a bunch of stock, or companies purposefully laying off employees to force stock buybacks. Those potential issues, and many more, are dealt with within the law, but this document isn’t meant to be that in depth.

Centralization

There is the federal government, located in Vopar City, and there are the regional governments. The regional governments are smaller versions of the federal government, with a governor, regional legislature, regional courts, etc. The federal government holds most of power when it comes to governance, with most policies eventually being written into law by the national congress. The federal government also dictates guidelines that the regions have to follow. Such as requirements for the implementation of healthcare, law-enforcement, education, infrastructure, utilities, etc. Regions have more autonomy in how they accomplish those guidelines, such as from where taxes are collected, or how contracts are distributed. But they can’t go against national laws in doing so.
Most of the funds for such things are collected at the regional level, however the federal government maintains their own funds for the same things, which they can distribute at their choosing. For example, the region of Corry, being much more rural, would be significantly more effected by infrastructure costs. So, the federal government uses part of its own infrastructure fund to help out. Or, if the region of Fane can’t get enough doctors to adequately maintain their universal healthcare. Then the federal government could help subsize doctors’ wages to incentivize doctors to move there.
The federal government, then regional governments, then city councils, in that order, have ultimate control over projects. This was particular impactful when rail was centralized and expanded during the 1860’s. For a regional example, a region might decide that it needs a new train line. But said train line; would hurt the property values for a wealthy town that it’d need to go through. In this instance, those people could try and convince the regional government, but the region would have ultimate say, and probably place it there anyway. The federal and regional governments aren’t much swayed by stuff like that. Since on the scale of a whole region, the benefits a project would have would greatly drown out the few that would be negatively affected. Of course, depending on how they were negatively affected, some aid could be provided (but those property values probably aren’t gonna count).
The country was, historically, split into 4 regions, each controlled by their own duke. When the republic era started, the region surrounding the capital, and accounting for most of the population and commerce, was split into 3. During this time period, the federal level had complete control over the regions, but surprisingly little control over the cities. This was because cities were often controlled by very influential people, who could strong arm senators into giving massive amounts of control over to them. This changed during the violent revolution, when it was solidified that the regional government has ultimate say over the cities. It also helped that practically every powerful person in control of a city got killed off during that time.

Government Cohesion

The government, as a whole, is fairly put together, with people generally listening to experts, each other, and trying to make the right choices as part of the government. The system relies on the fact that positions of power naturally draw those who wish to exploit it for their own gains. So, a group with a lot of people chosen at random, despite not being perfect, would have much fewer people with such negative traits. There’s obviously going to be idiots and bad actors, but the average person tends to actually care about their country and want to make the best decisions. Plus, those people chosen at random go through a training process detailed in the main government document to ensure they’re prepared for their duty.
The legislative and executive branches tend to keep good relations. The legislature doesn’t want the president to be constantly forcing them to revote, and the president doesn’t want the legislature getting disillusioned with him to the point where revotes stop mattering. The judicial branch, is there to ensure that the other two follow the constitution.
There are political parties, and they almost always represent the 4 signature candidates for any district election. Though, with the ranked voting system, it’s often the case that smaller parties can suddenly gain a lot of ground. This is especially so when a lottery candidate happens to be affiliated with them. Of course, between the 4 lottery candidates for electors, and the entirety of the representatives, people don’t need to rely on being tied to a political party to get into the government. This means that, generally, political parties themselves aren’t quite as influential as they otherwise would be.

Terrain and Climate

The country has several different major regions of climate, split up by its location and geography. The land in the northeast, and the north in general is more wet, making for warmer, wetter forests on par with the likes of Georgia and Alabama in real life. In the center of the country, it’s more warm prairies and grassland, like a much more tame version of African Savanna’s, with much less giant wild animals, and much more farmland and regular wild animals. There’s the mountains in the east, the north central mountains, just south of the capital, and then the western central mountains, on the border of Whinkle, Bennly, and Tom. The warm moist air coming from the northeast dumps onto the eastern and north central mountains, making the northeast wetter. The rain shadow causes much less precipitation, until the moisture accumulates, and dumps on the western central mountains. With the rivers coming from those providing most of the water to the less wet grasslands of the central region of the country. South of the central grasslands, it’s generally much hotter and less hospitable, causing the southern edge of the country to be closer to a desert than grasslands. This is also the case, but to a much lesser extent, with the land west of the western central mountains.

Major Cities

Vopar: Population 7.0 million. The capital, resides in the Bennly region, has some weird exceptions for laws made by Bennly. Some laws apply, some don’t, it’s complicated. Already covered separate dock.
 
Do note that basically all of the cities have a decent amount of general industry, but only industry that’s notable enough will be mentioned here.
BENNLY REGION
Getonland: Population 1.6 m. The capital of Bennly. This was the capital of the Salz Kingdom until 1621. Vopar overtook it economically by such a large margin by then that king Lefroy the first decided to switch. Due to it having been the capital for most of the country’s history, but less prominent in modern history, it has by far the most surviving major medieval architecture.
Such as the Hounds Tower, a church built in 1590 with the 20-meter statue of a Goldhound holding the bell. Or the city wall, which was estimated to have been built as far back as 200 AD. It consists of several concentric rings as the city grew throughout the centuries. With the outermost ring being built in the 1650’s and still clearly defines the limits of the city proper. The inner rings are smaller, and can generally be built over, with special care to ensure a building collapse doesn’t destroy them. The outer rings are generally too large to be built over, with roads being restricted to only going through the gaps in them. These are old cultural relics, and while the outer rings are thick enough stone to force modern ground forces through the choke points, they’re no longer used as a practical means of defense.
Litzenvern: Population 2.6 m. It’s widely known for having the best cooking in the country, with most high-end chefs coming here to learn the trade. It’s also got a significant commercial sector, fueled by its large port and its position on the land bridge. As well as it being the main connection between the land bridge and the rest of the country. A unique landmark it has, is the 5-star restaurant hung by cables between two larger buildings, with a very good view.
Tempra: Population 4 m. This is the second largest city in the country. Despite being half the population of the capital, it’s got the most rich people. A lot of the city’s economy is based around the wealthy, tourists, and retired people. It’s got a smaller port, more for catering to the wealthy and their yachts, and the well offs and their boats.
The coast line is characterized by the rows of mansions that the wealthy have as their vacation homes, and popular resorts. Further in, and there’s a significant number of retirees, mainly those that wanted the larger number of old people activities they could attend. There’s also plenty of other events, such as boat racing, car racing, horse racing, yacht parties, other such rich person stuff. One of the most recognizable landmarks would be the Yachts Opulence. A massive building on the coast that’s part of a resort, acts as a high-end hotel, events center, and yacht club. This building is shaped like a massive yacht.
Of course, with rich people, there’s gonna be some organized crime. While the Bennly region government has been pretty good at stamping most of it out, it still rears its ugly head from time to time. Such as a child prostitution ring that became popular among certain wealthy circles in the late 1930’s. It was based out of a wealthy 5 story apartment complex on the western side of town, which was raided by the PIP in April, 1938. It was covered up as a massive robbery by an unknown organized crime group with 23 perpetrators. But this was both so PIP had time to use the evidence to build a strong case against the wealthy child predators, and so the child predators wouldn’t feel the need to escape the country. Over 50 high profile individuals from across the nation were arrested in the following months. A whopping 200 million para in assets was seized when the individuals were arrested, and 150 million para worth of assets were sold off after the trial ended in late 1939. The money was used to create a fund for victims (especially children) of domestic violence and abuse in the country.
TOM REGION
Uelen: Population 2.2 m. The capital of Tom. It has a large fabric and clothes production industry. A major landmark is the massive bronze spike in the center of the city, rising 100 meters tall, and marks the grave of the cities founder, a man whose name was lost to time. The spike itself is over 1400 years old, having managed to survive every war, riot, and fire in the city’s history.
Oolo: Population 1.5 m. It has a very expansive agricultural and food production industry. Along with this, it also has a substantial amount of industry relating to farming and food production, like tractors and chemical fertilizers.
Micco: Population 1.7 m. The capital of Whinkle. Given its position on the strait, it has a very strong shipping industry and regularly serves as a stop for ships passing through the strait. It has a large fishing and sea food industry, with most of the sea food sold in the country first going through here. With a lot of the population very used to being at sea from their families small fishing business, this city produces a disproportionate amount of the country’s sailors. Roughly 10% in a city that only makes up 2.6% of the population. There’s the annual “slapped silly” festival, where everyone grabs a fish and starts slapping each other in the streets on March 18th.
WHINKLE
Ammila: Population 3.3 m. The capital of Whinkle. This is the second tourist capital of the nation, with the 3rd largest population. It has a significant number of resorts and hotels with events centers and the like. Despite having a smaller population and being much further from the major population centers in the country, it actually has a higher number of people visiting it each year than Tempra. This is mainly due to being cheaper overall for most tourists compared to Tampa. It also has a decent sized port, as well as a decent sized naval base.
Barrior: Population 1.9 m. It also has a significant art industry, which stems from the cities early history of being a safe haven for pirated art.
HOZAY
Passou: Population 1.5 m. The capital of Hozay. It has a lot of pharmaceutical production, with a significant number of pharmaceutical companies headquartered there. It has a history of snake oil drugs, that were especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, but over time, actual medicine started selling better, when people realized it was more profitable to make and sell actual drugs rather than placebo snake oils. It, also has a smaller naval base.
Dorovanintles: Population 1.9 m. It has a substantial aircraft industry, especially with it producing a substantial number of engines for not just aircraft, but for all purposes. Also, along with the aircraft and engine industry, it has a significant amount of munitions production. A unique characteristic is its long history of theatrical performances. It’s got several high-end theaters, with performing groups from all over the country coming to show their work at them.
FANE
Detmond: Population 1.4 m. The capital of Fane. Is the hub of most small commercial and private boat building. Most of the countries fishing boats, yachts, tug boats, etc, are produced here.
Pups: Population 1.0 m. Wine. A large alcohol refinery in Pups, owned by the Fraint Brothers who are well known for their high proof wines, was firebombed in October of 1946. The surrounding streets were flooded with 800,000 liters of burning 160 proof alcohol. That led to a massive fire covering 12 city blocks in downtown Pups, killing almost 200. This was found to be the doing of a terrorist group linked to Kalleria.
CORRY
BellField: Population 800k. The capital of Corry. Well known for its mining industry.
Graf: Population 640k. Also has a substantial mining industry. Has the third largest library in the country in the city, with the largest library in the country 30km to the east. The latter isn’t accessible by the public, and mainly serves as an extra archive for other libraries around the country.

Major Ports and Harbors

Micco: Largest commercial port, and second largest naval port in the country. Located in the strait to the east, basically all trade from the south goes through this port. As the largest and busiest commercial port, it can handle a very large number of even of the largest commercial and naval vessels. Despite having two large mountain ranges behind it, it has access to major railways and roadways to the rest of the country. The port is located on a drained swamp, and they had to drain far out to reach a depth large enough to handle contemporary ships. The required ground stabilization for large buildings was only deemed necessary to support the port facilities, to reduce costs. This means that there is a several square kilometer patch of flat land that can’t be built on in-between the port and the city itself. But it can be used for lighter construction less sensitive to large soil shifts, such as storage. This means that it has an almost absurd amount of potential storage capacity. It’s also home to one of two major salvage ships in the country. This port was originally built as a means to bypass the Fane dutchy stranglehold on trade in the late 17th century. It also caused the Fane reason to secede from the Salz kingdom, resulting in the Fane war, and the eventual recapture of the Fane dutchy.
Litzenvern: Second largest commercial port, and largest naval port in the country, located on the land bridge in the north. Can handle a large number the largest contemporary commercial and naval vessels. Access to major railways and roadways with a moderate amount of storage capacity for its size. Most of the trade coming from the north goes through this port, as to not have to deal with the strait to get to the port in Micco. It serves as the largest naval port, because it’s not in strait to the east, they don’t want something happening and getting most of the fleet trapped in that strait. It’s also the home port of one of two major salvage ships in the country.
Detmond: Located in the northeast in the Fane region, it’s a smaller commercial port, incapable of handling the contemporary behemoths of the time. It’s main focus, is the construction of boats and smaller ships. Most boats and ships in the country under 40 meters long, were built in Detmond, from 5-meter sailing boats, the 35-meter yachts and tugboats. There is also the largest fishing industry in the country there, mainly based out this port. Also has access to major roads and railways.
Ammila: Located in the southwest, and representing the only major port on the Carinidal Sea, it has a moderate sized commercial and naval port. It’s a major hub for tourists, generally lower cost tourists than in Tempra, but that still means lots of ocean activities out of the port to support it. The naval aspect of the port fairly isolated from the rest of the navy, given the thousands upon thousands of km required to go from it to any other port in the country. This means that it’s a bit more autonomous than other naval ports, and tends to do things a bit differently. Also has access to major roads and railways.

National Resources and Economic Produce

Without a resource map, all of this is speculative.
In the central and northeast regions of the country would be where most of the agricultural produce is. Wheat, potatoes, corn, more european style produce in the central region, while rice, grapes, berries and such would be more prevalent in the wetter northern and far eastern regions. While Sulzen is still a well industrialized country, agriculture continues to be a strong export, propped up, in part by cheap and advanced chemical fertilizers.
Advanced chemical manufacturing in general is the highlight of what Sulzen produces industrially. Whether it be advanced fuel additives, chemical fertilizers, industrial processes… Anything that requires highly advanced chemicals, materials that require advanced chemical processes to produce, or just chemicals in large quantities, and Sulzen can provide. This is boosted by the presence of a large quantity of rare mineral deposits across the country which allow for the mass production of many advanced chemicals in large quantities.
There are substantial iron mines in the mountains south of the capital, a lot of such ore gets smelted and refined in Dorovanintles. Coal and oil are generally found more in the southern regions, especially in Corry and southern Whinkle. Significant mining of all sorts is Corry’s specialty, as the land there is less habitable for farmland than elsewhere in the country. Rivers flowing down from the mountains in provide the opportunity for significant hydroelectric energy in the Bennly and Tom regions. There are also substantial forests in eastern Tom stretching from the central mountains, all the way to the mountains in the east. While there are substantial amounts of wind in Hozay, Fane, and northern Bennly. There is also substantial fishing out of Detmond.
A significant factor to take into account, is the general unwillingness of the general population to extract and use unreplenishable resources. This is due to one of the main principles of the religion in Sulzen, to look ahead a thousand years, and base your judgements of that. Which, if such mining resources would run dry before a thousand years is up, it makes it a hard sell to get support from the general public. This has resulted in reduced mining, and increased reliance on trade for certain resources, that which it cannot replenish through natural processes. Leading to an industrialized economy that is generally a bit more agricultural than it otherwise would be. This is reflected in its somewhat reduced GDP per capita compared to its neighbor Falkre, who is similarly industrialized, but doesn’t have the same cultural restrictions.

Economic Boons

Sulzen has many sectors of industry, but the two that stand out as national highlights are chemicals and agriculture. The country boasts very advanced research into chemical processes, reactions, production, and uses. Combined with significant deposits of rare minerals containing the ingredients for many specialized chemicals, there is a very substantial chemical manufacturing industry. Not only for the chemicals themselves, but for certain materials and products that rely on advanced chemicals for their production. Exports of chemicals and such materials make up a solid portion of the economy.
Such uses for advanced chemicals, are fertilizers, which help boost the countries agricultural output. This, coupled with the generally flat and fertile terrain comprising most of Bennly, Tom, and Hozay, and the strong industrial farming, has led to Sulzen’s agricultural exports to be very substantial.

Economic Struggles

There was significant legal centralization and unification of the country after the violent revolution of 1832, and subsequent further unification after the peaceful revolution of 1850. However, the city state republic era of Sulzen still echoes through modern times, leading to sort of a competition between cities. The political influence of individual cities on their surroundings and others is still very prominent. While this sort of city competition has significantly helped in the general industrialization of the country… This has also led to cities attempting to exert influence on each other, as well as making decisions which may help them, but hurt the country as a whole. The government is aware of this, and is actively working on restricting the practical power of cities. Through giving more power to the regions and government agencies, readjusting districts to de-emphasis the cities in them, and generally campaigning for greater national unity.
The Great War, despite ironically helping with the city state mentality, came with its own set of struggles. While the actual conflict never reached the shores of Sulzen lands (despite often coming close), the economic emphasis on defense, and the significantly reduced trade during the war, has significantly hampered the industrial efforts of the country. The country itself is more reliant on its agricultural export than ever before, relying on industrial bases such as Falkre for many of its products. Through government incentives, increased trade due to the war ending, and the potential for a revival of its industry through rebuilding efforts in neighboring countries, Sulzen hopes to get its industrial might back up to snuff quickly. Of course, despite not being as industrial as Falkre, it’s still a well industrialized country that managed to avoid the worst of the war. So, despite not being as good as many would like, it’s industrial base is still significantly better than ravaged countries like Nykea.

Technology Level

Due to the emphasis on education that a Congress half filled with random citizens requires, there is a substantial technological development base within the country. While its general technological level is about average, at least about on par with its neighbors such as Falkre, two fields that it excels in technologically are advanced chemicals and materials, and industrial farming. Research into and very high-level education into those fields are well funded and very well respected. This has led to military applications of high octane (non-leaded) fuels, certain advanced materials for use in all sorts of vehicles and equipment, especially armor. But, of course, advanced chemicals research has lead to a very strong field of explosives and chemical warfare.

Education and Research

As stated previously, half of congress is chosen from random citizens throughout the country. Because half of congress at any given time is a representation of the general education level within the country, there is a very strong emphasis on education. It was mainly the founding fathers of the modern Sulzen constitution getting lucky, and their public push for education was well received by the public after the peaceful revolution in 1850. This created a self-sustaining cycle of the general population being educated, and then those who ended up in congress pushing for more education. Many things could have gone wrong, and caused a repeat of the ‘violent times’ (1832-1850), but they didn’t, and that self-sustaining cycle of education emphasis has remained very sturdy for the past 100 years and counting.
General education goes up through the age of 16, with an additional 2-4 years of more specialized education being required. This comes in the form of either vocational or technical schools, or more traditional universities. Such universities of highlight being those in Vopar, Getonland, and Uelen. In terms of advanced studies, there is a general emphasis of them across the board, science, engineering, technology, etc. However, one that is emphasized more so than the others, is any relating to chemicals or materials science, as this industry is the pride of the nation, and tends to draw young minds towards advancing. University programs for this field being pretty well funded also helps significantly.

Military Strength, Composition and Focus

The total military active duty is 1.25% after the post-war cutbacks, equaling roughly 1 million total personnel. The reserves represent 2.00% after the post-war cutbacks, equaling roughly 1.5 million total personnel. Active-duty personnel are split up roughly 30%, 50%, and 20% between the army, navy, and air force respectively. The Sulzen general reserves make up 60% of the total reserve forces, with the rest split among the 3 main branches in accordance with their total active-duty percentages. Generally speaking, regional and coastal defense are priority within the military, mostly due to the effort to stay out of the war as much as possible. Within the army, speed and agility, the ability to get places quick, and get out of places quick, is emphasized. Please refer to the proposal excel sheet for more information.

Military Struggles

Three main struggles persist within the Sulzen military, especially after the war. Underfunded army, low production volumes, and a severely undertrained reserve.
As the war progressed, the possibility of land invasion was reduced, and the possibility of sea invasion was increased, this led to a strong shift of funding away from the army, and towards the navy. This, plus general cutbacks after the war, has left the army very underfunded, with older equipment and reduced ability for thorough training.
Industrial hang-ups during the war, mostly from lack of trade, had left the arms industry unable to produce the sheer volume of equipment necessary to properly equip all its soldiers. While quality was emphasized to make up for it, meaning the divisions that did get the necessary equipment were very effective, not all of them did.
The reserve is highly specialized for strong logistics; however, this has also caused a significantly reduced training regime for actual combat. Resulting in the reserves being incredibly inexperienced with anything more than basic equipment operation.

National Welfare

Sulzen spends a significant amount on welfare in general, about 20-25% of the GDP. The welfare state was set up in the 1910’s as a way to undercut socialist movements at the time. They’re main platform was based on lack of access to healthcare for the poor, so when universal healthcare was established, enough support dried up and the movement fizzled out. Despite initially being a scheme to undercut the socialists, the program ended up surprisingly successful, and has continued to this day. Of course, there are private hospitals and even private health insurance, but given they’re competing with a free option, they had to get good at offering low prices and good service. Generally speaking, all citizens are entitled to free general checkups, surgeries, prescription drugs, mental health services (although people are often encouraged to just spend more time with their dogs, which is a lot cheaper for the system), that kind of stuff. Eye and tooth care are not considered separate forms of medicine, and hence are covered as well.
            Companies are required to pay 108.4% of an employee’s paycheck, that additional 8.4% going to a special fund within the national bank to keep until that employee leaves the company for any reason. This amounts to one month's pay per year of employment, not adjusted for raises, and is given back to the person in 1-month intervals in sums equivalent to 1 month of pay. This ensures that somebody who got laid off after 5 years, now has 5 months of pay to ride on to get back on their feet (maybe only 4 if they recently got a raise). Of course, Sulzen still has an unemployment system, and special job training courses for such people, but the colloquially named ‘108’ system takes most of the financial burden off of the unemployment system.
            Overall, quality of life in Sulzen is decently high, sure, it’s hard to get around not making triple as much money like the superpowers and being absolutely unaffected by the war. But despite that, people tend to live fairly happy lives. Given most of the country is on a 10-hour day, 4-day week work setup (or even 12-hour, 3-day per week), there’s ample opportunity to enjoy recreational activities. Plus, almost everybody has a loving and attentive golden retriever, which significantly helps with quality of life. It’s been shown that, at least within Sulzen itself, people who don’t have dogs report an 80% decrease in overall unhappiness and increased stress. Such findings are not quite as exaggerated with immigrants, but the point still stands.

Culture and History

The Sulzenese love golden retrievers. It’s extremely intrinsically linked to the very foundation of their society. From before the concept of agriculture itself was even a thing, the ancient ancestors of the Sulzenese had been the first to domestical the dire wolf, and the regular wolf, both separately resulting in two different species of dog. One is the normal one, about 40 kg, life span of 10-12 years, and slightly above average intelligence for an animal. However, the ‘dire dogs’ so to speak, were very different. Ranging from 120 kg all the way up to 300 kg and living for 40 years, they were more like small horses, size and lifespan wise. Intelligence wise? They blur the line for what counts as truly sapient. Around 500 BCE, the first golden retriever was born. Being an exceptionally caring and intelligent breed, even among dire dogs, they quickly became extremely popular, and have shaped Sulzen culture ever since.
In more recent terms, there was the war with Nykea in 1720, which started the old republic era, which saw the rise of mostly independent city states held together under a very loose banner that was the republic. Then, in 1831, after yet another war with Nykea, the country underwent a violent revolution, which saw a shadow government put in place under the guise of weeding out the ‘soulless’ the psycho’s and narcissists. They never achieved their goal and ended up being super corrupt, which lead to the peaceful revolution in 1850, and the establishment of the modern government.
The general rule of thumb for Sulzen society is to be as loving and caring as the golden retriever, and since everybody has a golden retriever, they have a prime example right there, all the time. The old republic era saw the rise of personal identity being tied to the home city, rather than the region or country. While this has been reduced with over 100 years of centralization efforts, it’s still there, and still causing some problems for national unity overall. The so called ‘violent times’ still have an effect on the public perception, albeit to a much, much smaller extent. There is still suspicion and distrust of people that show signs of being ‘soulless’, although often those signs are hard to track. It is helpful in sniffing them out, to have an extremely intelligent and caring species of animal that is acutely aware of subtle behavioral signs. Golden retrievers are not like the ones in real life, as mentioned previously, they are incredibly intelligent. So much so that they can often tell when somebody is ‘soulless’ through their behavior and their scent. This isn’t a perfect test, and people aren’t jailed for golden retrievers not liking them (not since 1850 anyway), but generally speaking, if most golden retrievers don’t like you, then most people are probably going to be more suspicious of you in general.

Modern Culture and Society

People really like dogs, everybody has one, most people have golden retrievers. Depending on where they live, they either owned a ‘standard’ golden retriever, 100-200kg, or a dwarf golden retriever, 30-40 kg. The dwarf golden retrievers are the same species of dire dog as the regular, just the same size as a non-dire dog would be, these are popular in the cities where space is more limited and food is more expensive. Golden retrievers, and dire dogs in general, do genuinely work and help. From working on the farm, to working as police dogs, their extreme intelligence and loyalty make them very useful for far more than just having a pet.
One of the cultural highlights is making stuff. It’s a very common pass time to make things, any kind of thing, sculpture, painting, garden, nick nack, gadget, whatever. Just something that they can point to and say “I made that”. It’s often the case that rich people will fund art in the city, or some weird, unique building, just so they can point to that and say “I made that”. Of course, they paid people to build it, but the sentiment is still there. This results in cities with a surprising amount of art, from sculptures, to street side gardens, from statues to giant solid steel cubes. People like leaving their mark on the world, even if it means something kind of ridiculous and funny, like a giant steel cube in front of their house.

Religion

(not government mandated of course) It’s said God himself sent down the ultimate golden retriever, to watch over and guide all of humanity. And that he uses his army of angels, all the golden retrievers of the world, to help keep an eye on and guide humanity. Of course, the other dire dog breeds are also under his guidance, but not quite as directly under his guidance, seen as lesser forms of the true divine being. It’s said that the ultimate golden retriever is still out there, somewhere…
So, when it’s said that people like golden retrievers, they mean it. They literally see them as divine agents sent to help guide and love them. With this, there’s August 20th, the day of the dog, where people all around Sulzen throw parties in celebration of their dogs. No fire works though. There are certain principles, like thinking how things will be in a thousand years, or to not envy someone else’s golden retriever (applies to not envying after really anything somebody else has).

Civil Struggles

There are some civil struggles, such as the drugs. With a very strong chemical manufacturing base and a large number of people having education on the subject, it’s not surprising that illegal drug manufacturing is an issue. There are federal programs meant to curb the issue, and individual regions and cities are doing their own programs, some more successful than others. So far, attempts to curb the supply have failed, as more labs simply pop up, even quicker and dirtier than before. Right now, there is a federal proposal to attempt the very opposite, to produce and distribute the drugs themselves. A legally operating factory can produce drugs cleaner, safer, and cheaper than any illegal operation, and would drive those illegal operations out of business. Plus, if the easiest place to get your fix is a rehab center, then it’s much easier to reach out to get help. So far, this proposal is only under consideration because other more traditional methods haven’t worked.
Another civil struggle is with foreigners regarding dogs. They often treat dogs poorly, treating them like animals, and that can really piss off native residents. That, plus the fact that immigrants often only speak formal Sulzenese, rather than informal Sulzenese, can make them seem super uptight and wicked, causing tensions. There have been efforts, especially recently with the influx of many Nykeans during their civil war, to give basic introduction classes into how to treat people and dogs respectfully. It remains to be seen whether these efforts bear fruit.

Foreign Relations

Sulzen is part of the outer core of Dario, an international military and economic alliance. It is also currently in talks with Falkre, Nykea, and Raiware to form the North Economic Carinidal Organization, NECO, which would be an economic agreement to promote trade and prosperity amongst the members. However, while this organization hasn’t been officially formed yet, the talks have been going well and it’s expected that it will become official in the very near future. Sulzen is not part of any conflict at the moment.
Sulzen wants to ensure the prosperity of its citizens, and helping to achieve that through preemptively ensuring peace isn’t something it’d be unilaterally opposed to. However, seeing the superpowers gear up to exert their influence on anyone and everyone… It is opposed to becoming a pawn in another countries game, and is opposed to the superpowers treating other countries like pawns as well. This is a large part of why its current goal is to form economic partnerships with equal standing countries, mainly the proposed NECO organization. It’s hard to be the pawn in another countries game when you’re just as, if not more powerful as that country. And if you string enough local countries together in such a way, then suddenly the bundle is a lot harder to bend than the single twig.
Sulzen wants to promote peace, for all people to at least have the chance. This of course involves full human rights, regardless of age, race, gender or belief. As dogs are considered on par with humans in terms of the right to not be abused, it doesn’t take too kindly to cultures that purposefully treat them poorly… Or worse… Eat them. It also is willing to put prosperity over its own, mildly anti-socialist views. Generally speaking, most people in the country, including the government, doesn’t believe socialism can work long term. That it’ll fall well short of its proponents’ lofty claims. However, to protect the peace, and to promote prosperity, it’s willing to work with, and even form strong relations with socialist or other such far left-leaning governments. This is most evident with the fact that it secretly funded the socialist revolution in Nykea, and is currently in talks to form a major economic union with Nykea, despite it being a syndicatalist country just out of a brutal civil war.

Border Statuses

Sulzen has three major borders, Nykea to the west, Raiware in the east, and Ashran to the south
The border with Nykea has historically been a rather tight border, especially when Nykea banned its citizens from leaving. During the civil war in Nykea, Sulzen accepted some refugees from the conflict, but still generally fairly closed. After the civil and up to current day, the border tightness has been in flux. It’s been tightened at times, loosened at times, trying to figure out what the relations are with the new Nykean government. Hopefully, in the future, a much looser, maybe even open, border will be in play after NECO gets established.
The border with Raiware is fairly loose, there’s still checkpoints and people are screened, but it’s a fairly quick and relaxed affair, mostly to prevent illegal food items from making their way into the country. Trade can travel easily between the two countries, afforded by the generally good relationship with that country.
I don’t know much about Ashran in the south, so I can’t say how the border with them would be.

Additional Lore

Osmen library, being established in 1469 by duke Osmen of Corry. As he was the kings right hand man, and had repeatedly saved his life from assassination attempts, the king agreed to funding the library. The Graf fire of 1640 burned down the building, leaving only the archives underneath untouched. The modern building built shortly after, is the third largest library in the country between 4 floors and the underground archives. It was by far the largest in the country at the time.
While the public library of Vopar is larger than it, it’s not the largest. That title goes to Buddies library, named after duke Osmens dog. This library is not open for the public, and the massive complex 30km east of Graf serves as a remote archive for the entire country. Construction started in 1890, after it was decided that public access libraries alone could not be trusted with storing the most important of historical documents. As of 1947, the complex consists of 12 buildings, and an extensive network of underground fortified chambers. Only authorized government personal can enter the Buddies library, with security protecting the complex, and extra high security protecting the underground chambers. Every building is built in a compartmentalized fashion, with no open shelves, and well insulated rooms, to ensure that even if a fire starts, it’s incredibly unlikely to spread past a few dozen books.
The Sulzen Library Foundation, based out of Buddies Library, works to collect and store all records that can be accessed by the general public, to the best of their reasonable ability. Generally speaking, anything sold or produced in Sulzen with more than 20 copies total, at least one is required to go to the foundation. While a minimum of 4 copies is preferred, it’s often not practical to get or store 4 physical copies of every single book, newspaper, magazine, government doc, etc sold or produced in the entire country. So, to ensure at least 2 copies of the information are available, they’ll often use film. It’s not preferred, but when they’re responsible for millions upon millions of documents and books, it’s often what they have to do.
The Foundation works through all the major public libraries in the country, spreading its archive out to ensure that the destruction of any one library can’t destroy any knowledge forever. But there is at least one copy (preferably two), either physical or film, of every single item in their archive, in Buddies Library. They also, to the best of their ability, ensure that there’s at least two copies of the information (either physical or film) in two separate, safe, known locations at all times. They also take book and document donations, though they are careful to ensure they don’t end up being a free archive for companies.
While the Foundation is focused on ensuring Sulzen records aren’t lost to the sands of time, it can and does collect books that aren’t sold in the country. Though, this is much more limited, and biased towards the more popular books or documents, usually sending someone to that country to buy it if it’s important enough. It’s often the case that they can’t get a physical copy, and end up just having to make a film copy. This even applies to Sulzen based documents, sometimes something is important enough to save, but there’s only one copy, and whoever owns it can’t let the Foundation keep it.
It does not, however, deal with stuff the government does not want publicly available. It’s not going to put its collection at risk by having secret government or military documents that bad actors would gladly break stuff to try and get.
History
22654 BCE: Some guy decides to feed a wolf that’s been hanging around, eating the scraps that his village has been throwing away. The wolf starts sleeping closer and closer to where he does, until they start sleeping next to each other.
 22653 BCE: This she-wolf decides to have her pups in his presence, and he helps take care of them. These pups, who he names (very rough translation) Wolf, Other Wolf, Slippy, and Craig Jr, are the first known examples of domesticated Canis Lupus, and are the ancestors of all modern dogs.
 454 BCE: The predecessor to the Salz ethnic group arrives on the northern shores of modern day Sulzen.
814: Salz Benedralz becomes king of the Benett kingdom, unifying most of the modern region of Bennly.
820: War breaks out between the Benett kingdom and the Hozaiog kingdom to the south.
822: Upon seeing the Hozaiog kingdom about to fall, the Corpitcus and Tom kingdom join together to help defeat the Benett’s.
823: Victorious, Salz renames his newly quadrupled land to the Kingdom of Salz.
1380: The second unification wars start when the kingdom of Salz is under the rule of King Jenns. It attacks the kingdoms of Wiiiilks and Fjouirigyhngn
1390: The kingdom of Wiiiilks falls, and the kingdom of Fjouirigyhngn barters for peace. They eventually strike a deal to become more of a puppet state to the kingdom of Salz.
1415: The Strait war starts.
1421: The Strait war ends.
1422: Most of the kingdom of Fjouirigyhngn has been fully integrated into the kingdom of Salz, however, the portion that controls the west side of the eastern strait splits off and becomes the kingdom of the Nyles.
1423: The kingdom of Salz attempts to take over the kingdom of the Nyles.
1424: They fail.
1621: King Lefroy moves the capital to Vopar, after it significantly overtook the previous capital of Getonland in economic and regional influence.
1675: King Lefroy dies of food poisoning at the age of 76. King Lefroy II moves his family back to Vopar to ascend the throne. He was a fairly well-liked statesmen and general, and since he chose not to make any major changes upon his ascension (unlike his father), the transition of power was fairly smooth and uneventful.
1685: The Fane region has been doing fairly well, with a practical monopoly on all the countries trade on the eastern strait, as well as all the trade with the small, but wealthy, kingdom of the Nyles. However, this changed when the city of Micco had filled in its tidal swamps to the point that it had direct access to water deep enough to build a port. With many merchants wanting to circumvent the taxes of the Fane region, a large amount of investment went into the port of Micco. By 1685, cheaper trade from the port of Micco, and the increased tensions with the kingdom of the Nyles, has led to a significant drop of money flow into the Fane region. This caused the leaders within the Fane region to push for Micco’s integration into Fane, which unpopular with the rest of the country, and ultimately denied by king Lefroy.
1686: Growing unrest amongst the nobility of Fane, and a strong desire to return to the more flush times prior to Micco’s growth, led to a push to break away from the kingdom of Salz entirely.
1686 April: With king Lefroy visiting outposts along the border of Nykea, due to an ongoing internal border war within the neighboring nation, duke Youngmanton of Fane uses the opportunity to declare independence and invade Micco.
1686 May: King Lefroy had known a war for independence was likely, and had started mobilizing resources towards the east by the time Youngmanton had made his announcement. However, due to the successful buildup of Fane forces in secret, Lefroy hadn’t begun the mobilization early enough. Micco was attacked by Fane forces from the northeast, the battle dragging on for days as the city waited for reinforcements to arrive. The first reinforcements finally arrived, coming from the west, in between the mountains. It was a Fane surprise attack masked as reinforcements to not raise the alarm before they reached the city.
1686 June: With the city of Micco having been captured, and fortifications being built to establish the independent state, the last thing Lefroy should have on his mind is the tax fraud his 16-year-old son committed. Training under his father as a general, Tarough had made a few friends, and one of those friends convinced him to use his connections to fudge some numbers before tax collection came around. Word got out, and suddenly Lefroy had to deal with the mini political crisis along with staging a swift counterattack against the Fane’s. Given those taxes were meant as emergency funds to pay the soldiers for an unprecedented mobilization, he decided to punish his son in an appropriate way. His hair shaved, his face scratched, and he was thrown in with the rest of the foot soldiers. No royal protections, as if anyone would believe he was the prince anyway.
The counterattack was nicknamed “twin pines”, the main force split in two, one headed east along the coast towards Detmond, the other headed around the northern edge of the eastern mountains, looping back around to attack Micco from the northeast. It wasn’t just defeating Youngmantons army, it was also the dissidence of the people in general, they took up arms to try and protect their positions as benefactors of the trade monopoly. So, along with the main forces forming the two trunks, following forces would branch out to help settle dissent, preventing a potential popular uprising, or at least preventing one from spreading.
1686 July: The Fane forces were being pushed back, resorting to poisoning the crops as they retreated. The inability to live off the land without getting poisoned, and stifling civilian resistance movements had dramatically slowed their approach in the north. However, thanks to an almost carbon copy of the strategy the Fane’s used on Micco, only in reverse, allowed for Micco to be recaptured and the front lines pushed all the way up to the northern edge of the eastern mountains. This allowed for trade to resume through Micco, albeit to a lesser extent. It’s said that if Fane was able to hold onto Micco for long enough, then the growing economic toll of the war would’ve pushed Lefroy into accepting Fane independence.
1686 December: The Fane war for independence had ground to a standstill, a no man’s land of booby traps and entrenched riflemen stood in-between Fane and the rest of the country. After battling it out for six months as a soldier, Tarough is wounded trying to pull another soldier to safety, and is sent home.
1687 February: Fane and the kingdom of the Nyles have a falling out, Lefroy takes advantage of this, pays off the Nyles with a very favorable trade deal, and begins planning out a final push.
1687 April: Salz troops march across the Nyles border into Fane. A blitz of action across the land, the Fane forces hadn’t had time to prepare, and were wiped out. The final battle of the war, the siege of Detmond, was short but violent. The citizens of the walled city, growing increasingly fed up with Youngmantons antics, had revolted. It was small, and wouldn’t have been able to stop Youngmanton, but it was able to give the Salz army the foothold they needed to get into the city.
1687 May: The war is over, Fane is officially back under Salz control after a year of fighting, king Lefroy is given the nickname “The Unifier”.
1700: At the age of 60, king Lefroy II dies from an unforeseen illness he picked up during a state visit to Nykea. Given king Drusis II of Nykea died shortly after the visit, foul play was suspected, but ultimately never proven. King Tarough, having lived through the horrors of war as a disposable foot soldier, makes it his mission as king to promote peace, so that his eight-year-old son may not have to go through what he did.
1710: Ten years on the job has worn down king Tarough, he had led his country through some of the best years they’ve ever had economically. He made trade agreements, set up diplomatic ties to countries most Salz people have never heard of. He was a well-liked king, especially amongst the international community. He tried setting up a trade route between Falkre, Nykea, and Salz, pulling on the similar lives of him and Nykea’s queen to win her over to the idea. But it ultimately failed, and trade between Salz and Falkre still had to be conducted via ship.
1713: Despite being a well-liked king, he still hadn’t lived up to his father’s legacy, no serious war has happened since Fane. He was known as the king that brought better lives through his deals and diplomacy, but to him, that never held a candle to the king that saved their lives, the king that was known as the Unifier. The thought of this started affecting him more and more, becoming increasingly apathetic in his deals and diplomacy. This was most evident in the relationship Salz had with PLACEHOLDER in the south, with the two countries relationships beginning to strain.
1715: Tarough, starting to become desperate for a grand legacy, begins actively sabotaging the countries relationship with PLACEHOLDER, while beginning to amass his army in the south. War eventually breaks out, and the swift tactics he learned from his father lead to an eventual stalemate that gained them 125,000 square km of land in the south. His impressive negotiation skills led to Salz keeping 80% of it.
1719: Despite officially claiming the land in the south, with a signed treaty to prove it, the inhabitants of the land don’t take kindly to the new Salz presence. Unwilling to kill them off or drive them out, king Tarough requires the upkeep of a very substation portion of the countries military just to keep the peace in the south. Mainly there to protect the Salz settlers from the original inhabitants.
1719 September: Drusilla, queen of Nykea, takes advantage of this, and invades the kingdom of Salz. A three-pronged approach, one headed along the land bridge on the north, one headed towards the south to stall the Salz armies from getting back and protecting the capital, and one headed straight for Vopar.
1720 February: With the Nykean armies fed off the autumn harvests, and the majority of the Salz armies stalled in the south, it was a slow but sure march towards the capital over 5 months. Tarough, given the option to flee as the capital’s defenses are slowly overrun, decides to stay. He has a lot of time to think over what he did, why he did it, and what happened because of it. There were two weeks between when it was obvious the capital would fall, and when its defenses were finally breached. In that time, king Tarough writes a memoir. Detailing his time as king, why he did what he did, and what happened because of those decisions. The manuscript for the memoir was snuck out of the capital as Nykean forces were storming through the streets. It survived and remains today in the Graf federal library.
As the Nykean forces breached the king’s palace, all his servants, diplomats, and members of the court were allowed to flee. And there he sat in the throne room, with his right-hand man and a few servants, when Drusilla walked in, along with a few dozen soldiers. She approached the throne, quietly spoke something to the king, and then slit his throat. It’s not known what she said, as the only servant who spoke Nykean was killed shortly thereafter. But his body was paraded through the streets as the successful conquer of the kingdom of Salz.
1720 March: with the head of the country cut off, and the chain of command crumbling, the dukes of individual cities started coming together to form their own action plan against the invasion forces. This called this the intercity war council, and they formed a plan to take the capital back.
1720 June: The capital was burned, and the queen of Nykea had begun systematically squashing resistance around the country. This started with the Whinkle region, being the closest to Nykea, but she soon turned her attention to the Fane region. It had repelled all the previous probing attacks, and was now declaring itself an independent nation. Veterans of the Fane war pulled out all the stops, scorching the land, setting up booby traps, and entrenching miles of riflemen. Most Nykean forces were pushed east, where Drusilla would conquer the final remnants of the Salz army once and for all.
1720 July: There was just one problem, the lives of her and the late king Tarough rhymed quite often, and this was no exception. She had done the same thing he did, moved most of her troops away from the capital, leaving a strong vector for attack from an unexpected source. Salz forces started coming out of the woodwork everywhere from Graf to Tempra, having hidden their weapons and lived amongst the population, biding their time. The coordinated surprise assault on 20 different fronts, all while their queen was away in Fane, put even the well-trained royal army of Nykea into disarray. This marked the beginning of a 6-month guerilla campaign.
1721 January: Finally, shoot and scoot warfare had whittled down the Nykean forces enough to force a retreat out of the capital. But it was still extremely taxing on everyone, and the Nykean still had it in them to drag on the war for months to come. The intercity war council decided enough was enough, and started peace talks with Nykea. They ended up agreeing to a treaty which saw Nykea keep all the land west of a roughly straight line between Barrior and Ammila. It was a bitter pill to swallow, to lose almost an eighth of the countries land area, but it had to be done to achieve peace. It wasn’t an entirely one-sided deal, the guerilla warfare and proven to Nykea that Salz was not going to give up, and that keeping Whinkle and ending the war was probably the best outcome they could hope for at that point. So, they took it, a treaty was signed, and the two countries were at peace at last.
1721 April: The months of debate and deals, the Salz Republic was formed from the basis of the intercity war council. It would be run by the Senate, made up of 100 people, 50 from the 25 most populous cities in the country, and 50 from the 5 regions, split up based on population. The Senators would be chosen by the leadership of the cities they came from, usually from the still remaining royalty within the city.
1738: The first major war after the formation of the Republic, again with the country to the south. This war solidified the power dynamic within the country, where the cities acted more like separate city states, and the Republic government mainly being there just to coordinate national defense and intercity trade.
1756: Improved trade relations with Falkre led to the increased use of English into the Salz royalty and the Senate.
1806: English and Sultz had mixed to the point within the government and royalty that it had formed a new language. This language was codified into law as the official language of the Republics government. This new law also forbade the further mixing of formal Sultz and regular Sultz by founding the language college within the University of Vopar. Which enforced a uniform way of speaking formal Sutlz and regular Sultz across the entire country. The only reason why the law was accepted by all the city states at the time was just because formal Sultz was still in vogue with most cities’ royalty.
1808: The industrial revolution had made its way to the Republic, and companies for various products quickly started popping up in individual cities.
1812: Companies started branching out into other cities, starting the trend towards monopolization. These companies were often backed by their home cities and used as a way to unofficially exert power over other cities.
1814: The Vopar Stock market becomes the first stock exchange to handle stocks from companies from every major city.
1825: Initial industrialization slows, with company profits following suit. There’s a wave of lawsuits from investors against the companies for not keeping up with the previous quarterly returns. Many of these companies, now with the added pressure from investors, start trying to increase profits even after their markets are saturated. This leads to a significant increase in monopolistic behavior and reductions in worker pay and working conditions.
1829: The Republic gets into a war with Nykea. During a naval invasion of the city of Litzenvern, a sailor happens to see an enemy artillery rocket and a friendly artillery rocket collide mid-air over the water just after sunset.
1830: The war was won, but it had cost the nation a great deal of money. Throw in a huge lack of money, very poor working conditions due to corporate exploitation, and a draught induced famine, and there was the perfect recipe for a revolution.
1831 March: The city of Tempra backs an uprising in the city of Getonland, an attempt to capitalize on the civil unrest to gain influence over it. It goes well, much too well. Word gets around that an uprising in Getonland is occurring, and those spreading the word the most fervently start instigating uprisings in other cities as well.
1831 October: After months of mass uprisings and infighting, the Senators are found trying to escape and are killed. This marks the official end of the Republic.
1833: After over two years of a brutal civil war, things finally settle down and a new government is put into place. The country became the Peoples Democratic Soulful Centralist Utilitarian Republic of Salz. This instituted many changes, and caused the formation of something more comparable to the modern form of the legislative and executive branches. As many of the radicals that ended up the in government attempted to weed out the kinds of people that exploited others prior to the revolution. They created the Protection and Integration Patrol, which would be the ones to weed those people out. The psychopaths and the manipulators, the opportunistic and the malicious.
1849: After 16 years of the system that had been in place, PIP had turned into more of a shadow government, removing people who they saw as a threat and leaving be those that they didn’t. Now granted, often times the people that were the most threat were the same kind of people that they were originally created to remove from society. However, that overlap had become increasingly a coincidence. Instead, they used their power to heavily influence the government to do basically whatever they wanted, at threat of removing individuals from society if they didn’t play their way.
1849 August: Smithers Smith was a beloved boy scout leader in his area, and was nominated to the governor after the senator for his district died half-way through the term. Having practically no knowledge of the system and generally being considered a lovable oaf, he was disregarded by PIP. However, the first thing he did in office was try to get a national boy’s camp established for troubled youth. This conflicted with a new infrastructure project that was supposed to go in the same spot, and the nature of the land acquisition would incentivize a lower price tag.
This was a problem for the other senator from his city, and a Pipman that owned a large newspaper company in that region, because they had bought up all the land through fake names and were planning on turning a massive profit through the imminent domain buyout from that infrastructure project. They launched a massive campaign against him and tried to make it look like he orchestrated the whole thing. It all culminated in Mr. Smith holding up the Senate for over a day, talking non-stop before finally losing hope at securing his innocence. With the sheer guilt of seeing what he had done to an old friend, the fellow senator announced to all how he and a Pipman had orchestrated it all and that it was all their fault, before trying to kill himself.
News of this spread like wildfire, and sparked outrage within the public. They had known for a long time that PIP overstepped its bounds to oppress the people, but they had never seen anything quite as horrendous as their treatment of Mr. Smith. With the pressure from a lot of very aggravated civilians, the government detained most of the nation’s rather extensive secret police network. Over the coming months many changes were done to the government, most members of PIP were given life sentences, the highest level of the judicial system was put in place as the 3rd balancing branch within the government, the Senate was replaced with the modern form of Congress, and many other changes.
Although buildings were burned and some people were hung in the streets, in comparison to the sheer brutality of the revolution 17 years prior, this was very tame. Hence, it got the name “the Peaceful Revolution”. The country changed its name to Salzland, and then to Sulzen shortly after, and the sailor from the war in 1829 submitted a new flag design based on his experience in that war, and it became the new flag of the country. PIP remained, albeit different in almost all but name, with none of the original members at any level. It took until 1862 when they finally got enough people into the new PIP to start fulfilling its new role as an investigative organization for the much more tame judicial system.
1851: One of the changes were focused on preventing exploitation by companies. The system put in place in 1832 was meant to prevent it via getting rid of those that would, but other than that, not much was changed. So, after the peaceful revolution, public trading of company ownership were banned, made exclusive to the people who worked for those companies.
1870: Stock Bonds were introduced as a way to help companies gain capital when they needed it, without having to give up control over the company.

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