The Dominion of El Cay

[elcay]

Dominion of El Cay
Short form: El Cay or Bay.

National Capital: Elversbingen
Shires:
Ewcross
Osgoldcross
Skyrack
Staincliffe
Staincross
Strafforth
Tickhill

Free Cities:
Elversbingen
Rosenburg
Los Rouls
Francistown
Hoza
Alamea
Marina

Political System: The Dominion of El Cay is led by four Seniör: Chen, Mil, Cinc and Chato. They are elected every year and each has a term of four years; in their last term of office they are the Chefseniör, the nominal "head of state." (The term is largely honorary). Until recently these elections have gone largely uncontested, but Chen and Cinc especially have been seeing competition of late.

The real power lies with the Senate, which has a real bottom-up and federalised nature. There are two types of Senator; knights of the shire and Burghers. They elect the Premié Minister, ("head of government") who runs the executive. The senators are thus the lower house and the Seniör; the upper.

Religion
38% Christian, of which 22% Presbyterian, 10% Congregational and 5% Independant Baptist.
35% Atheist
22% Professing No religion
5% Other

The national culture is really four cultures based on the four main religions and Ideologies: Anationalism, Kirkism, Humanism and Socialism. This is also the origin of the main political parties; they are the Association Mondiál Anacionál (International Antinational Organisation), Party du Travay; (Workers Party), Party Liberté (The Free Democratic Party) and the Eglis Evangelic. Minor parties include the Alliance Party (which believes "Versaōlung" or pillarization oughtn't be a political issue) and the Murrayline Liberation Front. There is almost never a majority in parliament, but the priorities are often compatible. Dress and mannerism often distinguish them apart; for instance the Quircists believe in moderate dress and in the conservative countryside this amounts to not wearing any coulours except on fet-days and not wearing anything to distinguish male from female. Similarly only an Socialist would call a friend "Camrada" or "Yenossa", and there are very few Vulpines who are Anacionál.

Kirkism is origin in Calvinism.

The Regions:
Thee nation is divided into 20 shires and 9 free-cities, of roughly equal population. Shires are divided into hundreds, cities and boroughs; hundreds into tythings and tythings into hides. Cities, free-cities and boroughs are divided into Wards, and Wards into Cadastres. All land in hides is in private ownership, covering rural areas; one family owns a hide. The family-leader of the hide nominate representatives for the tything at the hundred moot. At the moot, an alderman is nominated to represent the hundred at the shire-cross; At the shire-cross two knights of the shire are nominated to represent the shire.

Priorities of Government:
The government is a high-tax, welfare-oriented government. Private health and education are banned, but the economy is on a high-spend mode. By contrast, the military is very weak. In fact, the only force allowed to carry weapons are the Military Police, the Máráchósé, and foreign aggression is banned unless ordered by the WA. Private weapon-owning is illegal, with a few exceptions (registered sports etc).

Somewhere is only part of a city or borough if it is incorporated, and a shire if it is part of a family estate (a "hide".) This means that more than a third of the land area is not part of a shire or city, because it is officially owned by the Department of Lands. It has no Senate representation and its residents are not officially citizens. A vast mountainous forest area is part of the Murrayline mountains. The indigenous people who live in the Murrayline Mountains, the Murrayliners, are generally very poor nomads and have little contact with the outside world. The Maračosee have been building infrastructure roads out into the Murrayline. (On maps more than 25 years ago they are generally called the Máráchósé mountains; the use of indigenous names is spreading). Clashes between the Máráchósé and the Murrayliners are spreading and there are too many questions about what to do about it.

Lots of Humans come to the beach-lines in the South part of the West Coast for holidays, and many retire here. The government often give high tax breaks to these in return for a one-off fee, often at times when debt is about to reach an uncontrollable phase. This is controversial in a country with high tax, meaning these areas are over-populated by the very rich.

Species
The main species in the bulk are Lapine, Vulpine and Lupine. The Murrayliners are Avian in Nature; they are part Eagle, part Man.

25% Lapine
21% Lupine
20% Vulpine
15% Feline
12% Human
6% Avian

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Dress:

The standard dress in the bulk-quarters is made of a simple habit for men and women; a tunic covered by a shawl and cap. These are often made of different colours or trims to symbolise political allegiance; these are made in Red, white, brown, orange, yellow and deep-purple. As for the Murrayliners, the dress in many instances amounts to zero - although this can never be taken as the norm. Many also have complex jewelry of copper and amber (this is based on the homes of mountains).

Technology:
Technology is definitely rooted in "light" industry, only recently having made transition from an agricultural setting. Computers are widespread but largely unrelated to those used elsewhere; for instance the Internet is largely inaccessible due to "The National Grid", a network of computers which the government loan out cheaply to households through the Education Dept. Wireless access points are common, with distribution following the Railways. The computers use a cheap yet durable hard-ware, running Linux with a bizarre GUI (it does not convene to WIMP ideas.)

Transport:
Roads are poor, so transport is dominated by the National Railways and, in rural areas, feeder-buses for these railway lines. Some rural lines where coal is available easily enough still rely on steam-power; nonetheless, the coast line is high-speed to 300 kph.

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Scenery:

Most people in the city live in low-rise (3 to 5-floor) flats, often with shops on the ground floor. Most large cities - including Elversbingen - are built on land drained from the marshes. The centre of the town is an island, usually topped by a C15-ish "Merri"/"Otel de Vi" as the town hall. Elversbingen's town hall was converted from being a cathedral 40 years ago. In the centre of town, most streets are very narrow, and cobbled, surrounded by the island's edge road. Beyond this are most houses, built along canals. Because of narrow streets, in the centres of towns most people cycle, with cars being forbidden. Trams can often lead from the suburbs to the edge of the CBD.

Rural Landscapes are most lavish, and this is where the richest - and also the poorest - people live. The poor tend to live in inns called Óberg', situated at the corners of major post-roads and at railway stations. Because of the rather lax benefit law the parishes must maintain these at their expense. The fields here are very flat, on account of the swamp drain also, seperated by man-made mounds and ridges. Cherry trees are popular (Ceris) and much of the land has been given over to the plantation of rice (Ris) on the site of former swamps.

Language:

An ancient hymn.

Vọ tọ chi la ter abitē; ciantē a hōt vey, ciantē;
Rēgiọisē-vọ ō Seniör; Par ön imn a soṇ onör.

Sacē chil e le Sọveren; Chi, san nọ, nọ fi de sa men
Nọ, lē pöpl chil vö cerir; E le trọpō chil vö nọrir.

[elcay]

Elversbingen

Elversbingen's main boulevard that runs along the Paradysgrāght Canal is Paradyscāde, running right along the coast, extending from the Alē Vert to the Che ō fein. It is covered with short, squat department stores built in the 1980s in a neo-classical style made from wrought-iron pillars and gothic arches interspaced with glass paneling. The surrounding streets are: Ru du laith (Milk street), Alē Stratton, Niukerkstrāt, Genfstrāt and Ru Brighstou. In the other direction are the parishes. During the reconstruction they were supposedly organised according to a national unity of a plan. But, reflecting the bizarre burocracy that generally shows in El Cay, none of them totally follow the orignial plan. Eg. Ru du laith was supposed to be built so every parish has a clear view of the Tampel Sent Estieṇ, but la Tọr is now far bigger than the Tampel, obscuring the west side of the Mount. The parishes are Dicaeosynia (lit. righteousness), which lies low and still retains thatched houses from before the foundation, Thymus ("wrath") which is mainly assorted cottages built from red brick around 200 years ago, Sophrosynia ('sobreness") built during the reconstruction