User:AcetonitrileShortage/The Eclipsed Sun

The Eclipsed Sun
The Eclipsed Sun, officially the Oceanic Union of the Eclipsed Sun, is a sovereign island city-state in the Vermillion Sea. It’s main island, Eclipsia, is north of the equator with Shiria to the north and south of it.

The modern Eclipsed Sun was founded in 2172 by Empress Nupur Floreza, after the Silken Revolution toppled the Bhuret Regime which ruled the country since the end of the Great Collapse. After unrest following the Empress’ sudden death, the Eclipsed Sun went through a turbulent period of rapid development. Despite this, the Eclipsed Sun has come out as a growing economic and military power.

The Eclipsed Sun is a center for technology, manufacturing, trade, and transport, and has an outsized GDP for its size. However in most international rankings it is middling or low, it’s HDI rating is 0.612, it is one of the world’s least safe, poorest, and most unequal countries. However, it still remains a regional center for refining, information technology, chemicals, and textiles.

The city-state is home to nearly 2.2 billion people, 3% of these people live in Eclipsian overseas territories. The Eclipsed Sun has three official languages which are enshrined in its national charter: Eastern Common, Verna, and Modified Marcian. Multiculturalism has been ingrained into the Eclipsed Sun since the Silken Revolution, and is reflected in the nation’s cuisine, festivals, art, and music. The Eclipsian Museum District is widely regarded as one of the best in the world.

The Eclipsed Sun is a self-described federal constitutional elective monarchy, with a bicameral legislature. The International Democracy Index lists the nation as an “anocracy.” The Eclipsed Sun is a member of the Free Association of Nations (FAN), and the Vermillion Economic Conference (VEcoC), among other regional and international organizations.

Geography
The Eclipsed Sun consists of 108 islands including Eclipsia, 30 of which are artificial (not counting overseas territories). Naga’s Hill, Astrona is the highest natural point in the Eclipsed Sun at 200 meters above sea level. Under Emperor Ionia, the Eclipsed Sun expanded throughout the world by taking unclaimed islands in international waters under the Acquisition Acts of 2110, this was further increased by the annexation of Eclipsian Pandora after the Chimera War. Eclipsian overseas territories are estimated to be in excess of 160,000 sqkm.

Land reclamation and construction has dramatically changed the landscape, none of the original landscape of Eclipsia is visible due to hyperurbanization, subterranean environments have been turned into living space for the Eclipsian population, and massive reclamation projects have vastly expanded the size of the Eclipsia by nearly 300 sqkm.

Due to the Eclipsed Sun’s hyperurbanized environment, none of the original desert that used to make up the island exists and most species of flora and fauna inhabiting it have gone extinct locally. However unique adaptations to the urban environment in existing species have been noted. The Eclipsian government, in order to alleviate the psychological stresses associated with the hyperurbanized environment, has throughout its history set aside land for parks. A recent development is the establishment of new underground parks, an initiative supported by the August government.

The Eclipsed Sun has a dry tropical climate, with no distinct seasons, high temperatures, and rare torrential rainstorms. The temperature usually ranges from 25 to 37°C however it has been known to drop as low as -10°C in some subterranean areas. It is relatively unaffected by hurricanes due to it being located in a climactically calm area.

Early History
The earliest records of the Eclipsed Sun found by archaeologists from 1910 CE were from a Marcian colonial administrator remarking upon resource surveys on a “large isle of sand in the Durobian Seas [pre-collapse name for the Vermillion Sea] which the natives refer to as Gernjool [it remains unknown what natives the administrator was referring to]” later documents confirm that the administrator was indeed talking of what is now Eclipsia and that it had been a Marcian colony since 1899 CE.

Due to unknown reasons, a group colonial aristocrats began attempts to obtain independence from Marcia, these ultimately boiled over in 1930 causing a short revolution which ultimately ended in failure, with the wealthy leaders captured and executed, along with many of the soldiers who fought for them. A later attempt in 1932 also failed. It wasn’t until 1940 that mounting domestic tensions forced Marcia to give independence to an increasingly unruly colony on a barren piece of land.

Over the next 110 years the Eclipsed Sun would be ruled by a series of dictatorial regimes punctuated by coups. However in 2051, a democratic government was able to take over and hold on to power until 2294, near the beginning of the Great Collapse. Aside from its existence, little is known about this regime.

Bhuret Regime
In 2110, the Provisional Eclipsia Recovery Congress was founded in order to establish a post-Collapse Eclipsian nation. It found some initial success, eliminating Collapse-era warlords, subsidizing the now gigantic Eclipsian chemical business, and securing critical food and water sources. Despite these successes, the Congress was highly susceptible to corruption and the chairman of the council stepped down and had his deputy, Bhuret Meeks take over.

Meeks immediately began encroaching on the semi-democratic framework of the Congress, such as an incredibly authoritarian emergency powers act. Meanwhile he stoked the anger of the people by supporting and illegally bribing members of the Congress in order to have unpopular legislation pass, and would later dissolve and suspend it. The dissolution of the Congress caused massive riots and protests, which the police and military quelled violently in the November Massacres.

Bhuret ruled over the country for 50 years until his death, his reign was known for mass privatization, deregulation, the forced disappearance of hundreds of thousands of political dissidents, and violent suppression of his opposition. After his death in 2171, his government was peacefully deposed by democratic forces led by Nupur Floreza, in an event known as the Silken Revolution.

Reign of Empress Floreza
Empress Floreza was coronated as Emperor after a hasty election in 2172 in which she received overwhelming support. Her first decade in office mainly involved her helping the development of the modern Eclipsian government and military.

Empress Floreza didn’t reverse many of Bhuret’s neoliberal economic policies, and in some cases even expanded them. However, many of Bhuret’s anti democratic policies were repealed and a restorative justice commission was established for those affected by the crimes committed by the Bhuret regime.

During Floreza’s last decade of power she planted the seedlings for the hyperurbanization of the Eclipsed Sun, heavily subsidizing the construction industry and removing the few remaining land protections. She also helped pass several amendments to the constitution which helped to tighten her and her successors grip on power. Empress Floreza died suddenly of a stroke in 2192 at 60 years of age.

Reign of Emperor Ionia
After the Empress’ death, the fledgling Eclipsian economy plunged into recession, due to the lack of planning for the election of the next Emperor. Civil unrest, food, and water shortages, and mass unemployment made the 2190s one of the most tumultuous decades in modern Eclipsian history. The country was ruled directly by the High Council until 2194, when the Imperial Elections were finally organized. The field of candidates was crowded and despite four years of preparation the election was highly disorganized, it took nearly 2 months for reliable results to be published. These results showed a councilman in the People’s Council named Ghiblio Ionia winning the election by a thin margin.

Ionia was coronated as Emperor immediately and fashioned himself as a spiritual successor to Floreza. He immediately got to work developing the Eclipsian industrial and commercial sector, pumping substantial funds into them, and drastically reducing taxes to invigorate businesses. Emperor Ionia cleared a number of infrastructure projects, including several new railroad lines, an expanded port, and a new airport. These policies appeared to help as Eclipsian GDP began to increase exponentially under his administration.

Emperor Ionia expanded massively upon the urbanization strategies of Floreza. The first large subterranean living areas were established in 2200 under his reign, and the density of the Eclipsed Sun increased by 3,000% by 2210. This would increase another 2,000% by the time of his death in 2226, the same year that the Eclipsed Sun was declared as the world's first fully hyperurbanized country.

The military of the Eclipsed Sun was also vastly expanded under the reign of Ionia, going from 500,000 to 2.7 million active personnel. Numerous organizations, such as the Advanced Military REsearch and Development Division (AMREDD), dedicated to the advancement of the Eclipsian military were founded. Chemical weapons became a key part of Eclipsian military doctrine thanks to Emperor Ionia’s support, and Eclipsian troops were deployed throughout the world on disaster relief and peacekeeping missions.

One of the most influential acts of his reign were the Acquisition Acts of 2110. This law allowed the Eclipsed Sun to claim unclaimed islands in international waters around the world. Despite being widely popular within the Emperor’s Internationalista Party (InteP), opposition parties claimed that it was imperialistic and jeopardized the Eclipsed Sun’s diplomatic position. It was later discovered that during the military annexation of these islands, natives were evicted from their homes on threat of imprisonment.

Emperor Ionia died of natural causes in 2226 at the age of 92. Massive vigils were held in the wake of his death and the election process for the next ruler of the Eclipsed Sun immediately began.

Reign of Emperor August
By the time of the 2227 elections, a party system had formed in the Eclipsed Sun made up of two large parties: the Union of Eclipsian Laborers (UEL) and the Internationalista Party (InteP), along with several smaller ones. The UEL began to make large gains in the People’s Council, High Council, and district governments in the beginning of the 2020s, due to disenchantment over the policies of the InteP in the working class. The UEL confident that they would succeed in the elections selected Aksharan August as their candidate for Emperor.

August won in a landslide, owing to large support and a poor showing from the InteP candidate. With ample support in the legislature from his party, he set about rolling back the deregulation of the previous two rulers while also placing tariffs on foreign goods and restricting trade in order to preserve Eclipsian industry. These policies were quite popular with the lower and middle class but also attracted plenty of criticism from the wealthy.

In 2253, the UEL was rocked by a scandal involving Union affiliated counsilors giving concessions to companies who paid the party a substantial sum of money. Emperor August initially said that he was not involved in these dealings, this was later corroborated by an official report from the following investigation into the party’s actions. Soon after the scandal was revealed, nearly a third of their existing membership defected to form the Citizen’s Caucus.

Near the end of his reign, Emperor August established several sweeping new regulations on population, limiting the number of children a family can have to two and endorsing the usage of birth control. These regulations were received coldly by his supporters and were quietly repealed with a more lenient law, which also continued to subsidize the construction industry.

Emperor August was killed in 2265 by an assassin affiliated with the Children of Equality; he was 91.

Reign of Emperor Linus
Emperor Branca Linus, the current emperor of the Eclipsed Sun, was elected in 2266, helped by the split of former UEL voters between the Reformed Union of Eclipsian Laborers (RUEL) and the Citizen’s Caucus (CC). His first years in office were mostly made up of reversals of August era legislation and the negotiation of several high profile trade deals. In 2270 he pushed through legislation that would legalize the operation of domestically-owned private military corporations, a massive change to Eclipsian policy which worried both the military and the opposition parties.

In 2272, the High Council, with the Emperor’s support, formally declared war on Chrotia, citing the existence and protection of chimeras within their borders, which many countries alleged were bioweapons. The Eclipsian military joined that of several other countries in the invasion of Chrotia and its ally, Avalon. Massive bombing campaigns took place on civilian targets, and chemical weapons were used en masse during the war to eliminate the chimeras and their defenders. The war formally ended in 2274 with the creation of Eclipsian Pandora, and a chimera-free Chrotian state.

Tensions flared up with the nation of Meridian in 2284 after a series of strikes by longshoreman over their treatment by the Pan-Meridian Trade Company (PMTC). These strikes were put down by the Avninej District police after a picket turned violent, but a leaked memo from them showing the intentional planting of agent provocateurs throughout the crowd spurred a large general strike in Avninej, widely considered the heart of Eclipsian manufacturing. Facing a mounting crisis, the government gave into the strikers demands and expelled the PMTC from the Eclipsed Sun.

The relationship of Delfiniya and the Eclipsed Sun would later be strained in 2290 after the laser defense system on an Eclipsian cruiser shot down a Delfiniyan Army cargo jet that failed to identify itself as it entered an Eclipsian ADIZ, causing the deaths of several Delfiniyan soldiers. A series of increasingly aggressive naval maneuvers between Eclipsian and Meridian fleets followed, with an Eclipsian frigate at one point firing multiple warning shots at a Meridian frigate. An independent diplomatic conference in Receg Bell later that year defused the crisis.

Politics
The Eclipsed Sun is a federal constitutional elective monarchy. The Emperor/Empress of the Eclipsed Sun acts as the head of state. They are elected by the citizens of the Eclipsed Sun and its territories directly. Their term is for life or until they resign or are removed from office. The Emperor controls the activities of the armed forces during peacetime, appoints ministers and High Councilmen and women, and can field legislation in the High Council.

Legislative power is split between district legislatures and the bicameral federal legislature which contains the People’s Council and High Council. The People’s Council has 357 members (51 for each of the 6 districts plus Eclipsian Pandora) who serve a maximum term of 4 years and are elected by the citizens of their constituency. All 100 senators sit for 10 year terms; 30 of them are appointed by the Emperor, while the other 70 are elected from and by the People’s Council. Both Councils use a first-past-the-post voting system. The legal voting age is 18.

Executive power is vested in the Emperor/Empress and their cabinet. The cabinet is appointed from both Councils and controls all critical government organizations. Since 2266, the Eclipsed Sun has been ruled by the Internationalista Party.

The judiciary of the Eclipsed Sun is made up of Lower Courts, District Courts, and the Supreme Court; a separate system is used in Eclipsian Pandora. The Supreme Court is made up of 12 judges (2 for each district) who are appointed from and by a District Court when a vacancy opens. Prison was abolished under the Floreza regime, however correctional vocational camps, essentially prisons in all but name, took their place as the regular form of punishment. The death penalty is used in cases of treason, terrorism, and murder, however extrajudicial executions remain common in many areas.

Political Divisions
The Eclipsed Sun is made up of 6 districts. Each district is then divided into administrative areas. In Knoxace, Avninej, and Vebarette-Sik, administrative areas are grouped into divisions.

Governance in these districts is divided more or less equally between the federal and district governments. Each district has a unicameral District Council whose members are elected by the citizens of their constituency. Districts are led by a Coordinator, elected from and by the members of the District Council.

At the level of administrative areas, authority is usually vested in a municipal or town council, although special administrative bodies can be created by the district and federal government in certain cases. Administrative areas are considered by the constitution to be under the sole jurisdiction of the district governments except in “extraordinary and exceptional circumstances.”

List of Districts and Their Capitals
Asterid, Yuht

Avninej, Devprayag

Imperia, Imperia

Knoxace, Kegalle

Milo, Golvelisk

Vebarrette-Sikh, Acchabal

Foreign Policy and Military
A founding member of the Free Association of Nations, along with Aviv and Zelka, the Eclipsed Sun is involved in numerous international organizations including the Vermillion Economic Conference (VEcoC), Santisa Accords Organization (SAO), Global Assembly (GA), Pandoran Cooperation Mandate (PCM/PaCMan), and is an observer member of the Marcian Reconstruction and Peace Council (MRPC).

Eclipsian foreign policy is firmly based in neutrality and the “preservation of complete national sovereignty”, and has historically maintained cordial relations with all countries. The Eclipsed Sun is highly invested in maintaining the stability of its resident Vermillion Sea and Sea of Tranquility, and involves itself heavily with other countries in this region. The Eclipsed Sun is a signatory of the GA Treaty on the Prohibition on the Usage and Stockpiling of Nuclear Weapons (PUSNW).

The Eclipsed Sun has been involved in several territorial and diplomatic disputes. There have been several incidents over the jurisdiction of the Eclipsian Straits between Shiria and the Eclipsed Sun. The annexation of several unclaimed islands around the world by the Acquisition Act of 2210 has faced some backlash internationally and domestically, flaring up particularly after documents were released pertaining to the Eclipsian army’s usage of force in order to evict inhabitants from some of the islands.

Military
A sizable standing military force of approximately a million, is supported by the Eclipsed Sun, it is divided into three branches: the Army of the First Oceanic Union, the Navy of the First Oceanic Union, and the Air Force of the First Oceanic Union. In addition to standing forces, all Eclipsian citizens older than 21 are required to enter into the Tertiary Military Reserves, although alternate service is offered under certain circumstances. The Eclipsian military budget as of 2190 is 150 billion Eucadian Credits (E$).

As a signatory and ratifier of both articles of the Prohibition on the Usage and Stockpiling of Nuclear Weapons, the Eclipsed Sun operates no nuclear weapons and is not pursuing the development of them. However, the Eclipsed Sun maintains a massive stockpile of chemical weapons, estimated to be in excess of 500,000 metric tons of varying chemical agents. The nation has come under fire for this stockpile after the chemical attacks on Delfiniya and Receg Bell at the end of the Alliance War, which while not conducted by the Eclipsed Sun, sharpened criticism of the stockpiling and potential usage of chemical weapons. The government and military maintain that Eclipsian chemical weapons would only be used as a last resort, and solely against military targets.

Economy
The Eclipsed Sun is an open, market-oriented, recently developed economy. State-owned companies remain prevalent, but are declining in influence, especially after the sudden mass privatization of multiple state-owned companies under the Linus regime. Eclipsian economic growth has accelerated since the 2270s, with GDP growing 5.0% annually since 2286, largely due to the rapid industrial growth in Eclipsian Pandora. The Eclipsed Sun has an estimated GDP of 8.1 trillion Eucadian Credits (E$) and a GDP per capita of 3,681E$.

In recent years the Eclipsed Sun has increasingly oriented itself towards high technology industries, with the pharmaceutical and electronic industries growing dramatically since the 2270s, however petrochemical and industrial chemical production are still a substantial part of the Eclipsed Sun’s industry. Emperor August developed the New Employment System in the late 2260s in an attempt to push the country towards a service economy, though the program was ended under the Linus Administration, the legacy of it can still be seen in the country’s vibrant tourism sector.

Infrastructure
Owing to its extremely high density and extremely low amount of vehicles per capita (0.5 vehicles per 1000 people), the Eclipsed Sun has a robust public transportation system consisting of 10,400 km of light rail systems, 35,000 km of bus routes, and 10,700 km of heavy rail systems. The Eclipsian roadway system is considered one of the most advanced in the world, largely due to the fact that many roads are used by both pedestrians and vehicles, nearly all high-use roads are equipped with specialized warning systems for pedestrians and vehicles alike to prevent accidents.

Outside of its overseas territories, the nation only has one airport, located 10 miles off the coast of the main island and connected to it by a maglev train, along with several underground freight rail tunnels. Due to the main island being on the Eclipsian Straits, it is also a major port, with nearly 50,000 ships passing through it each year.

Energy
Energy production in the Eclipsed Sun is largely dominated by the state-owned Metanational Power and Nuclear Systems (TEPaNS). On the main island, power is transmitted through one of 3 regional power grids, the Northern Grid, Southern Grid, and Central Grid. The next two largest utility companies, Solar Eclipsia and GeoDynamo Power Conglomerate, largely specialize in supplying power for skyscrapers and deep subterranean areas respectively.

The Eclipsed Sun largely relies on nuclear energy for power. Most Eclipsian reactors are molten salt reactors, however the advent of efficient fusion energy has led to the development of numerous commercial fusion reactors. The nation’s estimated power production as of 2290 is nearly 3,959 TWh.

Science and Technology
The Eclipsed Sun has become a leader in the world of science and technology, due to its critical role in the application and diffusion of new technologies. Eclipsian factories have become critical test beds for emerging industrial technologies, and with this has become highly involved in the production of high technology, especially electronics, materials, and chemicals.

The Eclipsed Sun is generally considered to be one of the largest contributors to the development of the first viable fusion reactors, along with Shiria and Receg Bell. Under Emperor Ionia, the Ministry of Engineering, Science, and Technology (MoEST) created a consortium of Eclipsian universities, several government organizations, and the state-owned power company MPNS. The creation of the first Eclipsian-made viable fusion reactor was announced in 2270.

Along with contributions to fusion research, public and private Eclipsian institutions have made great strides in fields such as medicine (the development of safe and affordable human gene transfer technology, and the application of rudimentary nanomachines in fighting certain diseases), materials science (the discovery of the Kapila process, dramatically cheapening the creation of nanocarbons), nuclear chemistry (the development of a relatively inexpensive experimental carbon-based betavoltaic cell), and particle physics (the construction of the Trans-Pandoran Megacollider and the discovery of the sterile neutrino).

Culture
Cultures from around the world have been transplanted to the Eclipsed Sun through immigration. Within the Eclipsed Sun they changed, divided, and merged with other cultures. Eclipsian culture is highly varied and is in a constant state of flux, due to this it has been of intense study by cultural anthropologists.

Eclipsian art is diverse, however most of it is not a unique cultural product of the Eclipsed Sun. Eclipsian Street Art (ESA) is an exception to this, it is commonly conducted by amateurs, includes performance art and visual art, and has no ascribed meaning. It is highly divisive among art critics, some considering it to be a critical and positive movement in the arts, others seeing ESA as a nihilistic and meaningless exercise.

Traditional Eclipsian music uses several unconventional instruments to achieve its unique sound. The icelolehorn uses a modified internal combustion engine to create a low booming sound, generated by the controlled explosion of the fuel in the engine, the character of the sound can be changed by adjusting the fuel mixture. The balnaphone uses water to generate a wide range of sound. These instruments, among others, lends Eclipsian music its unique tone and timber.