MANDATES - SOUTH DAEMONDRIAL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

The People’s Republic of South Daemondrial was formed in the aftermath of the Treaty of Hoffgarten, when the Union of Meridian ceded its colonies in South Tuvhalia to the Eastern Union. The new People’s Republic is an ethnically and religiously diverse country which stands on a political knife-edge, and its future is deeply uncertain. Nevertheless, it has great potential for economic growth. Its population of roughly 3 billion is wildly divided between Eulessian mountain tribals, Eszari Nodanese, and Daemoris of both the Seraphic and Sahmanic faiths. The ruling Southern National People’s League, under the direction of Chairwoman Erszun Kalist, will face a difficult and trying time keeping the state together against threats from a militant Korahlia, internal terrorism by the fundamentalist Kadi Al-Seiv, and economic uncertainty.

People

Seraphic Daemori – 36%

The single largest group is made up of Seraphic Daemori, who are mostly settled in the Northern half of the territory. The precise terminology for this group is in contest, given that the precise linguistic and cultural history of the population is closer to the Farami. Although the territory was long dominated by Sahmanic powers to the East, the Daemori who held true to the faith saw their greatest period of glory during the halcyon days of United Korahlia, when they prospered close economic connections with Faemariael. Most of this people work in farming, mining, logging, and lower-level industry. However, the city of Najin hosts an educated and wealthy of this population who were elevated during the days of the Korahlian Union and provide cultural, economic, and social leadership to the people.

Seraphic Daemoris are hardy, proud, and fiercely loyal to their religion and culture. Education is mostly provided through the church, and increasing state centralization and imposition of the Nodanese language is viewed with great disgust. They obey only their priests, and view the proliferating bureaucrats, Eszari capitalists, and secret policemen as despicable. They resent the East’s economic grip, which cuts off Northerly trade and ensures domination by non-Seraphic foreign business, and the SNPL’s cultural agenda which gives government jobs to other groups. Opinions are broadly divided between a Northern secession and union with Korahlia and a revolution to overthrow the whole People’s Republic and reunite it with the homeland after decades of disunity. Few, if any, believe the People’s Republic should stand. The Kadi Al-Seiv are an increasingly popular movement, as well as the United Korahlia People’s Party.

Sahmanic Daemori - 30%

The Sahmanic Daemori are more settled in the nation’s South. While ethnically similar to the other Daemori branch, having come from the same great waves of Korahlian migration and settlement, their local dialects and cultural assumptions are closer to those of the Nodanese. Their Sahmanic faith is also a deep and distinguishing factor which completely sets apart their cultural, social, and political life. While they could theoretically fit in a secular Korahlia, the Meridian colonial period was not a bad run for them. Unlike their Seraphic cousins, more of their economic and cultural life is tied to the ports and fisheries of the Southern and Eastern coasts. They are bound together as a people not only by religion, but by the Nodanese merchants who ship goods between towns and out across the sea. Their major industries are farming, small-scale industrial production, fishing, and mining. New government plans to build up infrastructure and Southern ports could mean an economic renaissance, while a Korahlian conquest would see them transformed from a potentially prosperous people into a tiny minority under a religiously hostile regime.

The Sahmanic Faith varies wildly from town to town, reflecting scattershot conversion and different economic patterns. Earlier conversion was carried out by fundamentalist sectarians, while later Nodanese merchants scattered increasingly syncretic variants of the faith as they spread their trade networks deeper and deeper inland. This, coupled with a long period of social domination by both state-atheist and pan-Korahlian regimes, means that many local Sahmanic variants are totally different from whatever is present the next town over.

As a whole, however, the people recognize themselves as a common nation with a destiny closely tied to the new People’s Republic. While some join the Equalist movement in hopes of overthrowing the state and rejoining Korahlia, the vast majority view that path as leading to cultural death. Instead they look to the SNPL’s agenda of a new nationalism with favour. On a more self-interested level they view the government’s promised funding for new port infrastructure along the Southern coast favourably, and see the increasingly dominant position of big Eastern capital with favour. The Istanis are a Nodanese people, which has a good historical precedent. And Eucadians have no cultural stake in the bitter feuds that define South Daemondrial, so as long as their money is good nobody has any problem with it.

Eulessian – 10%

To the nation’s East, the mountains of Eulessia loom. This territory is underdeveloped, chaotic, and still dominated by the hard-bitten tribes which once elevated Zarov Achala to leadership of Telemarcia. Although most of their countrymen are across the border in war-stricken Telemarcia, the Eulessians still present a rather difficult and independent united front. They adhere to a rather harsh interpretation of the Seraphic faith and disdain most of the lower-land peoples as effete. They are strongly traditionalist, closely loyal, fiercely jealous of their language and culture, and fanatically devoted to the Seraphic faith.

However, three things binds them to the People’s Republic. While the average Eulessian is of the opinion that nobody could ever take their ideals or culture away, they still see themselves as being within the Sahmanic world and deeply distrust the Seraphic Church and the Korahlians. Although they feel no particular affinity for the Nodanese, accepting a friendly government in Najin is seen as better than a probably hostile one in Kor’Savan. The other major factor is money – while many Eulessians retain traditional tribal occupations such as highland farming and herding, the local mining economy receives major government subsidies and large Eastern investments. And Eulessian mercenaries provide vital security services for the government and party, and are in high demand from Eastern powers worldwide. This last point brings in the final trap for the Eulessians – if the Republic were to collapse, they would swiftly be within a government led by a people that resent them with a passion.

Eszari Nodanese – 9%

The Eszari Nodanese, also known as Najini, are a people first deposited onto the coast by the ancient Kasadanian Empire. They are proud of their Nodanese heritage, and have flourished by building trade, enterprise, and progress. They are mostly concentrated in the city of Najin, where they work in advanced electronics, shipbuilding, and steelworking. However, some have also scattered into the coastal towns where they engage in fishing, or inland where they hold skilled jobs in the big enterprises. Najini tend to be outward-looking, curious, intellectual, and ambitious. They hold their Nodanese heritage close to them, and thus present something of an outlier in a region dominated by old tribes and Korahlian peoples. They are not a soldierly people by temperament, and while their Kasadanian naval heritage serves them well at sea they generally prefer politics or humor to combat. They are a broadly affable and good-natured people and are democratic by temperament. The Sahmanic faith is the main religion of their community, but they don’t take it (or much else) particularly seriously.

With that being said, they are deeply devoted to the new People’s Republic and the Eastern Union. While the Najini have an ancestral fear of Sahmanic power dating back to the period of Sahma Daemori rule over the city, they dread Seraphic domination even more. The People’s Republic offers them the chance to make extremely large quantities of money, link up culturally with the other Nodanese peoples from whom they have long been isolated, and sell their products in a previously closed market. Coupled with the People’s Republic offering them plenty of cushy government and corporate jobs, this makes the new order a winning proposition. Many of the SNPL’s strongest supporters, including academics and financial tycoons, hail from this group.

Sudumi Nodanese – 9%

In contrast to the Eszari Nodanese, the Sudumi are poorer, less open-minded, more politically fanatical, far more devoted to the Sahmanic faith, and if anything more aggressively pro-Western. While the Eszari are broadly descended from the Kasadanian upper and middle classes and would be categorized as “New Nodanese”, the Sudumi constituted the colonial undercaste. The residual resentment from this is potentially quite deep. However, the cultural ties are also very strong, as the two groups share the same language, faith, and racial origin. Economically, the Sudumi tend towards rice farming, as opposed to the grains and vegetables preferred by the Daemori. They also are involved in the lumber and mining businesses, and some work in the fisheries or in low-skilled jobs in Najin.

Politically, the Sudumi are split. While in general they are pleased with the People’s Republic, their dearest hope would be a resurrected Telemarcian state. Many of the community are devoted members of the SNPL, but the League competes with the Kasadanian Reunification Society popular among Western farmers and the better-off in Najin. The Society is officially a benevolent organization for settling Sudumi refugees and promoting Telemarcian culture, but its long-term ends are to turn South Daemondrial into a base from which a reunification campaign can be launched. The community is quite divided on the issue.

Elaran – 3%

The Elaran people are a great naval race hailing from the Westwind islands, where they once ruled over a great maritime empire. The times have changed, though, and now they are a fraction of their once-glorious selves. However, Elarans hang on along the Western coast and in Najin, where they work in fisheries, steelworks, and the shipping industry. Their cultural impact is minimal, and the best they can mostly do is nurse their bitterness over the collapse of their homeland and the Korahlian empire that followed it. Elarans are a haughty, reserved, and disdainful race who hew closely to their old traditions and value order, communal solidarity, and obedience to those they see as their rightful leadership. They mostly speak their own language and adopt Nodanese only by necessity. Elarans hate the Nodanese as only one naval race can hate another, and despise the Eszari for occupying the same place on the economic totem pole as them but seeming to take it so much less seriously. They long for a Greater Korahlia under the leadership of the new Ayamir, and regard the Kadi Al-Seiv as a distastefully fanatical tool to bring it about and exact their revenge.

Assorted EU Immigrants (Nordic) – 1%

A mixture of Rechians, Stadtds, and Aes. The Rechians tend to work jobs in public security and law, while Stadtds offer specialists in agronomy, the construction of a one-party multiracial state, and economic planning. Both of these peoples also often flock to South Daemondrial for its wide reaches of arable land, which they see as offering great opportunity as opposed to the crowded rural territories of Central Tuvhalia. The Aes are concentrated in the shipping and naval construction industries, and are much more clannish and insular than their cousins. Their connections to organized crime are known and tolerated.

Assorted EU Immigrants (Pandoran) – 0.5%

Pandoran immigrants also see South Daemondrial as a land of opportunity. Keeping to their mercantile natures, Eucadians were quick to flock into the land and take over a vital mid-level economic position that the Meridian withdrawal hollowed out. Eucadians tend to start small businesses, offer community finance, broker trade deals, and put their bending skills to use in the construction trades. Many in particular open storefronts to import the luxuries of Eucadia for sale to the booming new upwardly-mobile classes. Like their homeland cousins they are proud of their identity and culture, and as an affable and friendly people do their best to share the benefits of their civilization with others. Few particularly despise them outside the Kadi Al-Seiv, and they have a bright future.

Assorted EU Immigrants (Istani Nodanese) – 0.5%

The Istanis, a fellow Nodanese people, cluster in Najin where they mostly work for the Eulessian Long Service Group’s vast apparatus as managers, bureaucrats, skilled labourers, and agents at large. Many also work at the Port Liberty Naval Base around the Istanistani 11th Fleet and the 1st EUDF. A sizeable sub-group were also lured in by the promise of teaching jobs, as they spoke similar languages to the Nodanese locals. They are culturally well-integrated with their Eszari cousins, but occupy a fairly high place on the social totem pole. Many of them came to Najin to experience a new pan-Nodanese cultural flourishing.

Other – 1%

Politics

The South Daemondrial People’s Republic is extremely unstable and in a transitional period. At present, it is a one-party government led by the catch-all Southern National People’s League. The SNPL’s broad aim is to maintain the state as an independent EU-integrated power separate from Korahlia and industrialize the economy, but beyond that its goals are extremely uncertain. At present, the nation is ruled by Chairwoman Erszun Kalist. She is a populist aligned with the Foundation for Pan-Occidental Studies who combines a wide variety of cultural, economic, and plainly xenophobic arguments to bludgeon a shaky coalition into place behind her. She has promised elections once the “period of crisis” is over, but that remains in doubt.

Until then, the People’s Republic will continue to be centrally ruled from Najin. It possesses nominal control over domestic policy, where the government is devoted to boosting education, increasing security, and luring in Eastern megabusiness. In practice, economic policy and the Development Bureau are fundamentally under the control of the Istanistani-based Eulessian Long Service Group combine and its business partners. The collapse of the PMTC privileged the few local actors who already had plenty of money and were organized, and the result has been total cartelization. This has created the conditions for great economic flourishing, but also enflamed social tensions.

To overcome the resentment this kind of thing kicks up, the government has enacted a reactionary cultural policy. Although freedom of religion is theoretically respected, the Sahmanic faith is privileged. Economic subsidies are mostly aimed at the capitol and the country’s South. Eulessian militias provide most of the regime’s security. The Seraphic Church has been under close supervision since the beginning of the Kadi Al-Seiv’s attacks, and corporate PMCs made up of immigrant muscle control increasingly large sections of the capitol. The government has also enforced Nodanese as the language of state and education, and is slowly aiming to “Easternize” the entire nation. Cultural funding and policy also goes towards fostering a pan-Eastern identity, and the Foundation for Pan-Occidental Studies is present in all the schools.

These policies didn’t come from nowhere. Although the SNPL was always a dubious populist movement, recent declines in the security situation have only worsened things. The primary causes of this are the Equalist movement, which is mostly active in Najin and seeks to overthrow the government as the first step to a pan-Korahlian revolution, and the militant Seraphic Kadi Al-Seiv, which seeks to overthrow the “infidel” government and institute a new one. Major terror attacks already killed thousands of civilians, and the government crackdown has escalated tensions deeply. The flows of refugees over the mountain after the Korahlian offensive into Telemarcia have only worsened.

The major political party and movement is the Southern National People’s League. This party has always been pro-Eastern in orientation. Its close ties to big Istanistani business were known from the beginning, as it was originally founded as a tool in a proxy war between Istanistan, Meridian, and Titananium. Its main project is to create a uniting identity for South Daemondrial to preserve it as a state against any external threats and to bring the new territory safely into the East. At present, it is the only party in government.

Its largest competitor is the United Korahlia People’s Party, which seeks the rights of Seraphic Daemoris and a more welcoming policy towards Korahlian influence and integration. The party is currently split, but most of its followers support the Sephanos lineage and quietly hope for an invasion. Their end goal is to either separate the Seraphic regions and weld them to Korahlia or to gradually effect an integration. Either way, as the Civil War heats up it finds itself in hot water.

Among some, the Pan-Korahlian Communists hold increasing appeal. They protest against the power of Eastern business, as well as the Sephanos imperialists and the state’s authoritarian tendencies. Their platform is doubtful and their future is in question, but they still present a potentially powerful force.

Foreign policy is dictated by the Union Council of the East, and will likely remain so for a long time. At present, the Council takes a hands-off approach but may intervene to curb the SNPL’s radicalism and restore security.

Economics

The People’s Republic’s economy is dominated by Eastern capital. Meridian’s trade barriers long barred most foreign competition excepting well-entrenched examples, and its complete liquidation opened up space. Now major Eastern combines dominate the lucrative shipbuilding, naval trade, mining, and construction businesses. The state owns most of the steel mills which fuel these trades, and Eszari businesses construct consumer electronics and conduct internal trade. Most of the labour for the logging and mining which provide invaluable economic contributions comes from local populations, and farming still makes up a significant amount of the economy. Finally, fisheries provide a strong

The state is strongly developmentalist and has adopted a “three arrows” approach to industrialization. The “first arrow” is state investment in industry. The government offers major subsidies to Eastern capital moving in, and works with big business and major local players to coordinate the nation’s rapid economic growth for maximum efficiency. A Development Bureau staffed by political appointees, economists, and representatives of major businesses offers loans. The Southern Investment Bank offers major low-interest loans for growth as well, although it only does business in Nodanese dialects.

The “second arrow” is education. Huge investments are being made in bringing universal state schooling to the masses. 100% literacy, high numeracy, work-applicable skills, and patriotism are to be instilled in the youth. Of course, the language in question is Eszari Nodanese, as a key assumption of the program is that unless everyone speaks a common language no economic growth will be possible. Eulessians still in tribal lifestyles are exempted for “cultural reasons”, most likely so the state can retain control of its security forces. By having a work-ready, trained, and culturally united populace South Daemondrial can flourish.

Finally, the “third arrow” is Easternization. Meridian represented a major market for the region, but now that it is gone new sources for imports, exports, capital, and higher-skilled labour must be found. Eastern immigration is subsidized to bring in people with money and skills. Eszari is a good language because Nodanese is a widely-used Eastern tongue. The state subsidizes the influx of Eastern business. Ports, airports, and railways are being rapidly constructed to increase exports. While Najin will likely gain a status as a special economic zone so it can serve as an experimental economic contact point between East and West, for now the emphasis is on using massive Eastern money to expand the economy and secure the nation’s place.