NationStates Jolt Archive

"Oh, where does faithful Gelert roam? The flower of all his race! So true, so brave -- a lamb at home, A lion in the chase!"
-W. R. Spencer

OOC: Beth Gellert, when I first joined NS, struggled along with an imploded economy, suffering repeated terrorist attacks and random acts of foreign aggression apparently provoked by its socialist atheism, and that was quite fun.

Then it became a multi-billion nation with one of the fastest growing left-wing economies in the multiverse, and, as other nations grew, it became almost impossible to play 'modern tech' as everyone had ETC this and super-sized that and claimed it as modern because in theory... and BG was expected to swim with these fishes, and theoretical military technology just doesn't interest me the same, I'm afraid.

It ceased to be fun, and BG retreated to AMW instead. But now I may have only a few months left at NS, so we're back-ish, with built-in limitations to make life more fun.


A PLACE AND A PEOPLE, A HISTORY AND A FUTURE - A FACTBOOK

INTRODUCTION

Place

Geletia (also known as Beth Gellert, or Beddgelert [pronunciation as Beth Gellert]) is a continental territory situated in the Indian Ocean, straddling the Tropic of Capricorn. It covers some eleven million square kilometres, and though its climate varies from the tropical to the subantarctic, continental to temperate highlands and valleys characterise the larger part.

People

This is a land discovered by Celtic peoples formerly living in Galatia (in modern day Turkey), who began an epic migration over two thousand years prior to this day and stumbled upon a virgin continent several centuries later.

The Geletians have, over the course of several centuries, dispersed across their continent and settled eventually into nineteen distinct tribes, each with a vast territory and millions of residents. Since then, one of these, the relatively weak Regni clan-based confederation, has been absorbed into a colonial territory, the only one on Geletia, which belongs to the North Pacific state of Azazia.

Society

Geletians are perceived as having rejected outside influence for most of their history, and while this is not entirely true, for they did trade and engage in some cultural exchange, it is evident that the industrial revolution never really arrived, and that modern concepts of mass production, party politics, and property rights were not absorbed on the continent, except where the Azazians gained a long-fragile toehold on a northeastern peninsula.

It was only late in the C20th that the Durcodi tribe embarked upon a campaign of conquest that incorporated trade for modern armaments, the establishment of a standing army, and enforced a parliamentary government system upon much of Geletia, insisting that this meant democratic progress, while creating private enterprise and property law that was said to be in protection of human rights.

None of these concepts meant a thing to the Geletian masses, who have since pre-history held land and work-tools in common, considered defence and warfare a popular issue, lived communally, and met face to face when matters of law and society required decision-making or action.

The result was continental war, with billions of Celts skirmishing across millions of square kilometres until the Kingdom was driven from the mainland and saved on Victoria and Salvador only be the intervention of the old Iansislian empire.

FURTHER INFORMATION

History (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10548130&postcount=2)

Tells of the epic migration of the Geletian ancestors from Central Europe to Geletia via the Balkans, Asia Minor, India, and beyond, a story, based in fact, which serves in an important role as something of a creation-story for the Geletian people, and binds them together inspite of modern differences.

Political Geography (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10548693&postcount=3)

This is a run-down of the many lands that cover the Geletian continent, explaining a little of the traditional leanings of the tribal residents of each territory. It shall eventually include information on regional political systems and more.

Physical Geography (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=10548701&postcount=4)

Where is Geletia? How big is Geletia? What resources does it give-up? Find out, here.

HISTORY
Origins, Migration, Discovery, Kingdom, Revolution

Europe

The Geletian Celts originate in Europe more than two thousand years ago. An independent gathering of clans numbering a few thousand individuals in all, they controlled little territory and small few fortified villages, but were noted as unusually tall and fierce even amongst their lofty Celtic kin. They were described by classical witnesses as rowdy, drug-addled, fierce, but sharp, and several times are indicated as creators of an ordered society, in which village captains were often elected and always represented their people's interests when in several times yearly commune with the high chief.

The Geletians joined the great invasions of the Balkans as hardly a foot-note, their entire community uprooting and moving but still dwarfed in size and significance by the armies of Cerethrius, Brennus and Acichorius, and Blogius as they attacked the Macedonians and others. They were keen volunteers to the cause of Brennus when he moved on Greece itself, and provided several hundred infantry and almost as many in cavalry and grooms.

It is now believed that the Geletian warriors were amongst those Brennus picked as his tallest and his strongest swimmers to cross the Spercheius, and though their contribution here was significant, the later defeats in narrow ground caused the Geletians to loose faith with Brennus. They split from his armies and followed the example of Leonnorius and Lutarius in migrating to Thrace.

Asia

Not much later the Geletians went with the Trocmi, Tolistobogii, and Tectosages into Asia Minor. It is true that at this point, and when they settled to the creation of what would become known as Galatia, the Beddgelen ancestors were probably not known as Geletian but by some other name that referenced so few people amongst tens of thousands that it has been long forgotten.

The Geletian name was adopted possibly in the first or second century BCE as this minority broke from Galatia. It is not clear exactly when the split happened, but, if not before, then it was certainly by the time that Caesar's contemporary, Deiotarus, was recognised by Rome as King of Galatia, an appointment that was in defiance of ancient traditions and structures.

The Geletians moved on, apparently migrating through Armenia around the time that it was suffering conquest by Rome, and reputedly offering mercenary service to both sides at various times, always as it suited their continued progress away from the classical world to which the Geletians have always, for whatever reason, been violently opposed.

By the time that they reached the Parthian Empire the Geletians found it too falling into war with Rome, and they were happy to lend their experience against the Romans, essentially trying to impart a better understanding of the combined arms of the day to cavalry-obsessed Parthia. Still, the small tribe did not linger in Parthia, apparently being unable to trust the expansionist empire, and moved with its offences into the Indus, trading their skills as warriors and artisans for rights of passage. The wanderers pressed ahead into India by some time perhaps as early as the first century AD, a truly epic rate of migration that had taken the Geletian homeland from Central Europe to the edges of modern India in much less than half a millenia.

When they hit India the Geletians were perhaps the most experienced war fighters on earth, having battled half a dozen major enemies along almost every step of the last five thousand kilometres and fifteen generations. Skilled metal workers they had picked up the fashioning of early steel before they were far inside India; had witnessed, carried-out, and resisted countless fortress sieges from northern Macedonia to eastern Parthia; were natural horsemen who adapted new cavalry tactics from Parthia's cataphracts and mounted archers, and there had also become fond of the bow; and of course were physically dominant over all opposition in India.

The Geletians stayed a long time in India, though rarely long in one place. It seems that the Gupta Dynasty and the golden age of Hindu administration over-shadowed the slight numbers of the previously immune Geletians, who moved south and came into conflict with Tamil kingdoms where they had more success and carved-out new influence for themselves.

After several generations, it seems, the Geletians were encouraged to leave, frustrated by the endurance and pressure of such independent civilisations as that of the Pallavas. On reaching the southern tip of India, the Geletians apparently acquired a fascination with seafaring, possibly sick of journey across the land after a thousand years of fighting, or simply believing that either they had gone so far as it was possible to go, or that Sri Lanka offered something especially desirable.

The Indian Ocean

It was here, more than one thousand years ago, that the Geletians finally changed tactics. They took a great interest in ship-building once they'd begun, wanting, as intelligent people, to take command of a new science once it was introduced to them. They apparently traded with local people, Arabs, and possibly Chinese sailors (judging by the varied influences evident in wreckage found dating from the time) for help in constructing a seaworthy flotilla.

The Geletians may have split in two at this point, many refusing to take such a radical leap of faith by setting out to sea. These apparently tried to maintain their old position as a significant military power on the sub-continent, but were too few in number and too much isolated, eventually being absorbed over several often violent generations by larger Dravidian and other populations.

Those who sailed were perhaps genius, though more likely inexperienced and fortunate. Having a poor understanding of the sea and of the conventions of travel and trade there on, not to mention of geography, they ended up heading south rather than along the the more usual east-west axis. Passing the equator, they sailed on and found the Chagos Archipelago and near by it another that they would call Parmis. Used as a base, the already populated Parmis Archipelago was the stepping stone from which further progress took the Geletians towards the Tropic of Capricorn and to the discovery of a massive new land that they found unpeopled.

Geletia

Eleven million square kilometres of land to the east of Madagascar, it was sub-tropical in some areas and barren in others (both hot and cold), but the largest parts were ideally suited to the Geletians and they seemed almost to have a genetic memory of its cool temperate expanses moderated on the one hand by warm waters and the other a highland configuration. The Celts settled in the valleys, the mountains, and the forests, and expanded rapidly.

They called this new land Geletia, and for hundreds of years since have worked to make it their own. As their numbers grew, which they did rapidly through the fertile valleys, the Geletians began to fragment and soon Geletia looked like a second Europe, dominated by the Celts but not as a united empire. Having escaped the march of the great monotheistic faiths they would later quite miss the industrial revolution as well, and continued to war with one another in tribal tradition. Though the finest riders, archers, wrestlers, and swordsmen imaginable, and farmers able to turn yields equal to early C20th levels in the industrial world, not to mention artists of great merit, the agrarian Geletians were ill prepared for a much belated embrace of the free market, which came only in living memory.

A chieftain named Adiatorix changed everything in Geletia by a campaign of conquest that was considered quite un-Geletian. The common result of Geletian war was plunder, in some cases the taking of slaves, a little killing, and sometimes the extraction of tribute, then a return to the normal order of things in readiness for another fight. Adiatorix, though, subjugated his defeated opponents after a victory that had been a particularly long time coming, and thereby almost doubled his power, which made his next victory relatively easy. Early confederations arranged against him did not really take his threat -or their own alliances- very seriously, and were easily broken-up or convinced to disband. Later ones were simply too late, and Adiatorix began to buy fire-arms from the outside world, making his conquest complete with surprising ease as brave highlanders thundered towards his fusiliers, often naked and brandishing agricultural blades, only to be cut down by automatic fire.

The [Long] Story of Conquest

Adiatorix's Durcodi kin started their epic campaign with a hard-fought victory over the neighbouring Tolistobogii, after which they built massive earthwork fortifications in the southeast and refused to yield several hundred square kilometres of captured territory. This place was a corridor to the highland domain of the Sygenii, where the Durcodi attack was unexpected since the two people had not previously shared a border, and it was probably only this element of surprise that allowed Adiatorix his key early victories on which the campaign pivoted. The Sygenii were subjugated because Adiatorix knew their highland domain to be a rich source of copper, which he planned to sell over-seas in order to acquire modern arms.

Next, Adiatorix dispatched to the Parmisi islands a ship filled with plunder taken from his conquests, which was given as payment to the islanders for help in constructing a fleet of fast transport and warships in a time-honoured fashion (of wooden hulls quite out of step with the C20th, but beyond anything the Durcodi could devise, and improved by linings of Sygenii copper). The resulting fleet -looking, in living memory, as if it was lost en route to Trafalgar- took Durcodi and Sygenii warriors to the shores of the unsuspecting Scordisci, who had usually to worry only about the nuisance cross-border raids of the semi-nomadic Pitovriii inhabiting the vast tundra between Scordisci and Sygenii lands. Maritime assault was unheard of, and the stunned Scordisci fell like the Sygenii before them.

At this time, Adiatorix faced a coalition assault by the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi, who previously had shared a common border before the Durcodi annexation of some Tolistobogii territory. This two-fronted attack might have been the end for Adiatorix, but his fleet returned in time to land on the Trocmi's coast. The Durcodi in turn launched a dual-pronged assault towards Tavium, the Trocmi capital. Seeing defeat and annexation as a possibility, the Trocmi came to terms, agreeing to recognise Adiatorix's claim to some Tolistobogii lands in exchange for a lifting of the siege of Tavium, and the coalition disbanded, leaving the newly formed Kingdom of the Geletians to press ahead with the plans of its infamous leader.

The Parmisi islanders, having helped Adiatorix in the past, soon found themselves absorbed into his new Kingdom, and, when mainland settlers arrived in force, they were able to mount no more than a limited guerrilla defence that proved ultimately unsustainable.

As his rise became impossible to ignore, Adiatorix was able to manipulate the Druids of the Deceangli, Geletia's spiritual guardians, to his design. The Deceangli were not a great military power, but their perceived connection to other worlds made them much respected across the continent. They might have called a holy war against the Kingdom, like a Pope calling for Crusade, but were fearful of the Durcodi fleet, elements of which now lay at anchor just a few miles away in Scordisci ports. The decision was made to support Adiatorix, on the understanding that he would not try to Christianise the Deceangli populace as he was attempting to do to the peoples of his other territories.

Even with this support, Adiatorix may yet have fallen foul of the continent's greatest warrior peoples, but the half-mad Durotriges and highland Silures were never able to cease fighting one another for long enough to secure a lasting alliance against the Kingdom, despite several short-lived clashes with Adiatorix's Generals.

The Demetae, famous farmers, were safe usually because they bordered the Silures, who had no time to spare from fighting the Durotriges; the Deceangli, who were more interested in influence by spiritual rather than martial means; and the Parisii, who were perhaps the world's most luckless people, suffering flooding one season, drought the next, and disease when the weather was kinder. Though the Demetae did fight when Adiatorix crossed from the Deceangli frontier, and though they were brave beyond their modest skill as warriors, most of their fighting men disbanded when it was time to gather the harvest, and they were unable to sustain their armies on the scale of the Kingdom's.

The Parisii tried, in the final days of Demetae resistance, to join the defence, but natural disasters causing hardship at home, combined with the reduced Demetae harvist -a part of which would usually have been purchased to stave-off famine- made the attempt futile, and was used ultimately as pretext for the Kingdom to send forces into Parisii territory, paving the way for their own rapid defeat. In some respects, life for the Parisii was improved by Adiatorix, who was able to export foodstuffs from across the wider Kingdom to make its newest province viable.

The Selgovae represented the Kingdom's last expansion. These people, thousands of kilometres remote from the Durcodi homelands, were known usually as the jungle celts, and had fame as hunters and as guardians of a substantial bounty in gold and precious stones, not to mention exotic animal skins and rare hardwoods. The Kingdom's initial assaults against the Selgovae met with horrific defeat as men fell to alien diseases, their battle formations broken by dense jungle while whole units were isolated and picked apart by barbarian enemies they rarely even saw. In time, though, Adiatorix was able to incorporate Parisii and some Selgovae into his ranks, giving relative immunity to local diseases and learning the nature of jungle warfare. Even so, the fighting was fierce and progress was slow, draining the Kingdom's wealth and limiting development in the subjugated lands, which began to rumble with discontent.

Adiatorix began to gather foreign debts against import of modern firearms, buying heavily from Western Asia and Europe, and with these weapons he was able finally to crush the Selgovae.

The strain of protracted war and the burdon of debt, along with the enforced arrival of the so-called free market and the first ever cases of Geletian unemployment and the creation of property rights, concepts alien to the Geletians, lead eventually to revolt, which spread quickly across the face of a continent. Almost the instant that it reached its zenith, the Kingdom of the Geletians fell under the burden of its own success.

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

A Basic Political Map of Geletia (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/geletiapolitical.jpg)

Parmisi People's Federation

These are the most ethnically diverse of the so-called Geletians, being largely mixed-race since the integration of European-origin Celtic populations with small populations of aboriginal peoples believed to have arrived many thousands of years ago in two waves, one from Africa and another from Asia.

The native populations have adopted Celtic culture, but Parmisi customs, art, and dialects remain distinct from any found on the mainland.

Annexed by the Kingdom, the Parmis Islands had no hope of winning independence alone, but were well placed to take advantage when troubles reached a critical point on the mainland, and revolutionaries here favoured a cautious approach leading up to a peaceful abolition of parliamentary authority when revolutions elsewhere allowed.

Population, being 2.4 million at the time of the great census that revelead a 6bln continental population, was around 0.04% of the Geletian total, or 400,000 Parmisi in every billion Geletians.

The Durcodi Parliamentary Protectorate

The Durcodi, whose capital is at the eclectic and beautiful village of Portmeirion, are famous warriors, proud and described by visitors as a handsome race, but they have been the first to stumble into the successor to the classical world that Geletians have so long opposed.

It is from the Durcodi that Adiatorix rose to conquer half of Geletia, and later to attack Sel Appa in pursuit of wealth and political distraction.

Decadence is widely attributed by other Geletians to the once noble Durcodi, and it is perhaps the recognition of this shame that is the best spur to revolt in a land that invented Geletian inequality.

With 252 million citizens at the six-billion census, the Durcodi represent 4.2% of the Geletian populace, or 42,000,000 in a billion.

The Revolutionary Trocmi State

The Trocmi never accepted the rule of the kingdom, but did suffer a measure of defeat that imposed limits upon them. Since then, Durcodi influences have seeped into what is described as one of Geletia's hardcore anti-classicalist lands, and, as the Trocmi see local and individual power rolling up-hill to their capital, Tavium, in what looks like parliamentarianism by stealth, radicalism takes root here in both traditionalist and modern communist theory.

162 million strong at the census, these people are 2.7% of the total non-colonial population of the continent, being 27,000,000 in every billion Geletians.

The Democratic Tolistobogii State

With their capital at Pessinus, these too are a people called hardcore anti-classicalists, and since the loss of some territory to the Kingdom they have been staunch in their refusal to accept any modern western influences, though their proximity to the heart of the Kingdom has enabled a limited bleed-off of technological progress that makes these ancient Celts with tractors and assault rifles.

With 384 million heads counted in the six billion census, the Tolistobogi are 6.4% of the Geletian population, or 64,000,000 in every billion.

The Sygenii People's Republic

Highlanders made miners by the government and redundant by the market, the Sygenii are perhaps the continent's most avid Marxists, though they embrace amongst them a range of radical theories and are united primarily by a common desire to obliterate the influence of the Kingdom that subjugated them.

222 million strong at the census, 3.7% of Geletians, live in the land of the Sygenii, or 37,000,000 from every billion on the continent.

The Pitovirii People's Association

The Pitovirii are a fascinating people of contrast. One of the three most primitive of Geletian sub-groupings in technological and arguably in cultural terms, they also remain the most independent and free of influence from foreigners or Kingdom. Living in the largest single Geletian territory, they number amongst the fewest.

These semi-nomadic people inhabit vast tundra and expansive sub-antarctic lands, and remain opposed on principle to property rights and almost any form of centralisation.

Their numbers 12 million strong at the six-billion census, just 0.2% of Geletians live in the vast domain of the Pitovirii, making them 2,000,000 in each billion roaming the continent.

The Soviet Republic of the Tectosages

A third group described as anti-classicalist in a hardcore manner, the Tectosages have their capital at Ancyra, while Tolosa is their largest city, being a hillfort of breathtaking scale and an epic physical imposition upon the landscape.

The Tectosages are reasonably advanced and wealthy in tradition, but it remains to be seen where they shall head in future as their revolutionary course is hard to judge, as is the proability and scale of their immediate scientific progress.

As of the six billion census some 423.6 million -7.06% of Geletians- live in the Tectosages territory, making for 70,600,000 of them per billion total population.

The Scordisci Soviet Republic

Invaded by sea and annexed to the Kingdom, the Scordisci people are famous for their ability to adapt not only to different geographic and climactic settings but to political change. They have coped reasonably well under the Kingdom and engaged the freemarket with what has been described as success, but this term hides deep emotional disturbance at seeing a large minority made idle by market forces and discontent at the creation of a criminal element outside of alien law and beaten with a stick marked rights. They caused little trouble to parliament, but threw themselves ably on the passing wave of revolt without worry for the challenges it presented.

The census recorded 72 million Scordisci, making them 1.2% of the Geletian population, or 12,000,000 in a billion.

The Durotrige Soviet Socialist Republic

"The Durotriges", said Adiatorix while on campaign, "are best left alone, so long as there are left also enough enemies for them to fight".

Militant to a totally reckless degree, the Durotriges are known to join battle even in the face of the most ridiculous odds, and to do so often naked and without any obvious thought on the tactical situation. In brief skirmishing against Kingdom forces the Durotriges used frontal assaults supported by flanking cavalry and chariots and longbowmen even when facing mechanised forces, machineguns, and artillery, and were effective enough to encourage the all-conquering enemy to by-pass their territory.

Living still in hillforts, the Durotriges seem happy to blend tradition with leftist radicalism as they advance into the modern age practicing direct democracy and drunken blade-wielding.

480 million in number at the census, Durotriges account for 8% of the Geletian people, making them 80,000,000 to the billion.

The Deceangli Commune

With a mysterious island, off the coast of their main territory, that is widely believed to contain forces beyond understanding and with these most religious of Geletians regarded as respectable , the Deceangli were able to live in relative peace.

Their submission to Adiatorix and the coming to Geletia of western leftist political theory has seriously hurt the privileged position long maintained by these people, but that their druidic tradition did at least delay the spread of new religions (this term applied disparagingly to the likes of Christianity, which the Geletians at large regard as an hysterical flash in the pan) may be enough to save for their domain a valued position in the continental movement to revolution.

204 million strong at the census, 3.4% of Geletians are Deceangli, for 34,000,000 in every billion across the land.

The Allied Nervii Soviets

Based on a large island off the north coast of Geletia, the Nervii were able to live in relative peace for much of their history, but have proven themselves capable of great sacrifice, sending many volunteers to various short-lived coalitions against Adiatorix and placing themselves at the fore in periodic encounters with explotative foreign powers visiting Geletia through the ages.

On their island the Nervii have come to embrace humanitarian and left-socialist ideas on revolution, and were early proponents of a grand commonwealth of free Geletians spanning the whole continent, essentially world-revolution for Geletia.

At the census, an impressive 150 million people, or 2.5% of all Geletians crowded the island of the Nervii, who account for 25,000,000 people in each billion.

The Cornovii Democracy

The Cornovii are traditionalists who rarely look to conquest, favouring prosperity and popularity by farming and trade, though they have often fought to defend their peninsula, deploying warriors in a proud cavalry tradition and with a string of commanders skilled at manoeuvre warfare. They never fell to the Kingdom, but have feared the technological superiority of their near-neighbours in the Azazian colony.

270 million Cornovii registered on the six billion census, meaning that 4.5% of Geletians live on the Cornovii peninsula, which contains 45,000,000 of every billion people on the continent.

The Silures Soviet Republic

These people, the Silures, make war for sport, clashing time and again with the Durotriges in ancient history, always managing to hold-on to their territory by bracing against the mountains and sinking their fingers into the valleys of home. Despite their love of fighting, the Silures are rarely accused of unusual brutality, and are in fact described usually as a jolly lot, fond of drink and story-telling: some have observed that they go to war only when in need of new tales to be swapped over a bowl of wine and a leg of mutton.

The Silures today have embraced the Soviet with enthusiasm, enjoying comraderie in social groups based around the warrior tradition. Their prime struggle is almost post-revolutionary, being between leftists and Leninists for the future role of the Soviets in society and government.

540 million heads on the six billion census meant that 9% of the continental population live the life of the Silures, making them 90,000,000 in the billion.

The Democratic Demetae Republic

Successful farmers fortunate to have few powerful and aggressive neighbours, the Demetae were brought into the Kingdom by a military coup that coincided with an invasion for which they were not best prepared. Their interest in revolution is mainly for national independence, but it is likely that after any defeat of Adiatorix they will face important decisions over traditionally and politically structured modes of co-operative agricultural management.

The six billion census indicated that the Demetae's rich farming culture supported a population of 356 million, equivalent to 5.6% of the Geletian whole, or 56,000,000 in each billion.

Regni

The smallest population in the smallest territory of Geletia, the Regni were also primitive in society and technology, and most were welcoming of Azazian colonial enterprise on their peninsula. Clan-based rather than a united tribal structure, Regni society lost cohesion after a relatively short period of co-existance with the foreigners and their small population has been absorbed into colonial life with a high degree of success.

The Regni's population is counted in the total belonged to the former Azazia, and the distinctness of the small Regni race is in some doubt.

The Averni Celtic People's Republic

The Averni highlanders are keen revolutionaries of a traditional bent, and violently opposed to westernisation. The term enthusiasm barely does justice to their excitable nature as a people, and many would accuse the Averni of hyperactivity. They will typically spring to the defence of anything perceived as Celtic and attempt to shout-down ideas taken to be alien.

408 million hits on the six billion census meant that the Averni were confirmed as representing 6.8% of all Geletians, or 68,000,000 in every billion.

The Selgovae Soviet People's Republic

The Jungle Celts. Selgovae are known as hunters, the people always said to be in touch with nature, though they are almost as famous for the natural wealth contained in their territory. Felled by the Kingdom's forces only after an especially ferocious war of resistance, Selgovae independence is likely to be returned by the most authoritarian of political revolts anywhere in Geletia.

Selgovae military tradition is of intermediate intensity and repute, boosted by the people's painful and long-lasting opposition to the Kingdom, and it is the sudden rise of warriors to the fore in their society -a trend encouraged by the applause of Geletians from other lands- that has put an unofficial military junta at the head of the main rebel movement in this forested land.

402 million on the census means that 6.7% of Geletians are Selgovae, accounting for 67,000,000 of each billion in the populace.

The Celtic Soviet Alliance of the Parisii

Parisii misfortune is a standing black-humour joke in Geletia, for these are a people who right themselves from one disaster only in time to be struck by another, in a pattern that repeats throughout history. Frequent droughts and unexpected floods frustrate attempts at self-sufficiency and attempts by the capital, Lutetia, to plan for development, and hardships such as these discourage visitors and trade. Parisii numbers have never grown very strong, and while those that do endure here are hardy people, they remain assaulted by bad luck, and serious endemic diseases.

Valiant attempts to help their neighbours against annexation by the Kingdom left the Parisii themselves vulnerable to eventual conquest, but the long-suffering people here, famous for chariot burials and sports, remain ever willing to see themselves first as Celts or revolutionaries, and only second as Parisii.

It was with some difficulty that 1.23 billion heads were counted here in the census, indicating that a massive 20.5% of Geletia's populace is gathered in the under-developed domain of the Parisii, making them 205,000,000 of every billion. The CSAP alone, just one of many Geletian lands, now houses more citizens than does the PR China.

The Venetii Free State

Along with the Parmisi the Venetii are the best of Geletia's sailors and have defended themselves with a tactical flexibility resulting from this. They have tended to be the most agreeable to foreign contact, and are marginally less traditional in outlook, though the sale of Celtic arts and crafts has at least kept alive many traditional skills.

450 million people, 7.5% of Geletians, live in the Venetii domain, or 75,000,000 in each billion.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Location

Geletia is situated in the Indian Ocean, intersected by the Tropic of Capricorn. To the west lies Madagascar, a short distance to the north is the British Indian Ocean Territory, and further to the east may be found Australia.

Area

Territorial extent of home-ruled Geletian peoples extends to around 11,000,000 square kilometres.

Area is comparative to around two-thirds the size of Russia, eleven times the size of Egypt, or almost four times the size of Argentina.

Note: Several thousand square kilometre territory of former Regni clans administered by Azazia remains an issue of contention for many revolutionary groups in position to take power around the continent.

Land Boundaries

While there are many internal borders shared between centuries-old Geletian tribes, the only non-Geletian territory is in the form of an Azazian colony still disputed by some tribes (that, it can be argued, have no strong case), and, since this is based on a narrow peninsula, the total border is but a few kilometres long, connecting with Averni territory.

Climate

The Geletian climate, flung across such a large area with highlands and valleys hundreds of kilometres from near equatorial northern and sub-antarctic southern shores, is quite varied. There are tropical and sub-tropical regions in the eastern lands such as those of the Selgovae, sub-antarctic Pitovirii lands towards the southwest, and temperate, continental, and semi-arid lands between, often influenced by highland configuration and particularly the mountains of Sygenii and Silures regions.

Terrain

Hills dominate much of the continent, along with several large mountain regions containing many fertile valleys. There are some desert areas such as in the southeastern lands of the Parisii tribe, and a large part of the Pitovirii's territory is tundra.

Natural Resources

Copper (some of the world's largest reserves in the Sygenii mountains), iron ore, tin, tungsten, titanium, bauxite, some uranium, lead, gold, silver, precious stones, coal, oil, natural gas, various workable rock types, timber, arable land, wildlife, fish, hydropower potential.

Natural Hazards

Hazards vary greatly with region, but include tsunamis, droughts, earthquakes, some flooding, landslides, and fairly severe storms.

Many problems were exacerbated by the influence of the Kingdom and the spread of free market policies, and revolutionary movements draw much momentum from the drive to reform against these problems. Victories for low-bidders in housing and infrastructure, over-exploitation of forests for timber, over-development of vulnerable coastal resorts and seafront properties, vast regional inequality, and the desire to maintain pools of cheap labour have caused deaths almost certainly in the millions during earthquakes and tsunamis, causing landslides, and worsening isolation and ill-health in drought-vulnerable areas.

Proposals from the main revolutionary movements would see a return to communal living where it has been replaced by foreign-style housing, popular defence of forest resources and defences against both landslide and tsunami, and social equality drives with public works to properly distribute water resources, which are in fact quite ample on the continent as a whole.

Politics

The Indian Soviet Commonwealth is, for the most part, directly democratic. Individual states administer themselves differently, but, generally, local communities -villages, communes, pantisocratic phalansteries- contain Local Senates where all citizens may meet to discuss issues of the day.

These deal with local administration, but also meet to vote on national matters and elect a Local Consul to carry the minutes and the result of the vote to a Regional Senate, where secondary votes and elections lead Regional Consuls to the State Senate and, there after, State Consuls to the Commonwealth Final Senate in Portmeirion, fallen capital of the old Kingdom.

Referenda may be called locally, regionally, at state level, and nationally on issues of law and policy, and public servants are accountable to popular recall.

The military -a vast popular militia- organises itself through similiarly democratic Soviets.

Most important laws in the Commonwealth deal with economic relations and equality and operate under the maxim liberty, equality, comradery.

Country name: long form: The Indian Soviet Commonwealth of Beth Gellert; short form: Beth Gellert, Indian Soviet Commonwealth; abbreviation: BG, ISC, ISCBG

Government type: Confederation of communal democracies

Capital: The village of Portmeirion upon an island in an artificial lake in the land of the Durcodi contains the Commonwealth Final Senate, and as such may loosely be refered to as the Soviet captial

Head Of State: None.

Suffrage: Any Commonwealth citizen may attend and speak at his or her Local Senate. The only limitation for this is placed upon certain residents at Commonwealth Re-education Facilities judged incapable or guilty of counter-revolutionary crimes.

While those of any age may attend and speak at Local Senates or even be nominated to represent on an issue at Regional, State, and Final Senates, 16 years is the minimum age for voting in Commonwealth-wide referenda. An exception has been made for capable emancipated minors subject to People's Court ruling.

Judicial branch: Commonwealth National People’s Court (judges elected by the people and usually chosen from the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service); People’s Local Courts (judges elected by Local Senates).

Political parties and leaders: None.

Note: Local Senates based in communes are attended by any or all citizens. Regional, State, and Final Senates exist to address matters beyond the concern of but one local community, and are attended by delegates elected by concerned communities to represent on an issue-by-issue basis, and by Soviet and Union Consuls elected by military units and university/city industrial unions.

The Commonwealth Professional Civil Service deals with most administrative affairs and is always subject to Senate review, with Civil Servants subject to popular recall at various levels.

Communities are able to opt out of national programmes and international efforts, and are essentially independent, associated within the Commonwealth due to their often choosing to work together on grand projects and for common defence, and to enable communication between people and travel between places.

The Commonwealth Guard

‘The whole race... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle... and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage’
-Strabo

STRUCTURE- DEMOCRACY IN DEFENCE

The Commonwealth Guard is a vast popular organisation including the Commonwealth Militia; Commonwealth Air Guard; and the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard, itself including the Commonwealth Marine Division.

The Soviet Commune is comprised of elected Guardsmen and women voted for by their comrades in arms and subject to referenda-enabled recall at any time. These act as the Guard's headquarters' staff and direct such matters as military procurement and strategy. The term [Soviet Commune] is loosely applied to the whole military, as all servicemen and women are members of Soviets and expect to have their will represented by their elected members within the Commune-proper. The Soviet Commune has liason officers connected to the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service, and sends elected delegates to the Commonwealth Final Senate in order that military funding and operations be directly tied to the will of the masses.

COMPOSITION- ROOTS

With unification came the disbanding of the Army. At this time, all able comrades were enrolled in the Commonwealth Guard, making this amongst the biggest defence forces in human history: there are more than twice as many Guards men and women in Beth Gellert than people in China.

The Oceanic Guard and even more importantly the Air Guard of course require intensive and specialised training that makes them less universal than the Militia, since any one of sound mind and body can be easily taught to fire a rifle or throw a petrol bomb, while the operation of a fighter jet requires professional dedication. With this in mind, the AG and OG enroll part-time servicemen and women in great numbers, and these comrades continue to work reduced hours at their home Phalansteries, retaining direct involvement in civilian life and continuing to contribute to the economy while supporting the full-time military core and providing a large pool of semi-trained military recruits that can be brought quickly up to professional standard in the event of a crisis. The Soviet Commune incorporates also the less expert part-time fliers and such, who out-weigh militant special interest groups in the full-time formations, and as such can vote-down unrepresentative hawks in the Soviet Commune.

Throughout the Commonwealth Guard it is and has been standard practice for Sovietists to elect their officers. All Experts receive extensive general and some specialist training in the universities, and their records are made available within the Soviet Commune so that their comrades can take it into consideration when nominating tactical leadership. Once elected to the officer corps, Guards usually receive modified on-going training geared towards their new role specifically, while previous training will have prepared them to some basic degree.

Each of the three main Guard branches has a core of professionals as mentioned above, and these are called Expert Corps, while the mass bodies are Auxiliaries.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA (CM)

The Militia is gigantic. No less than the people of the Commonwealth, resolute in its defence.

The CM was established in the mainland Commonwealth after the disbanding of the armies. It is supposed to destroy the divide between soldiery and society and make sure that the military can never be used against the population.

Being as hundreds of millions of comrades are enrolled in the Militia, it is not surprising to learn that this is primarily a straight-leg force meant for defence on local and regional fronts and throughout the Commonwealth rather than as an army with strategic mobility.

Tactical flexibility is maintained. Each state bases significant mechanised forces, with modern cores crewed by Commonwealth Militia Experts.

A massive quantity of Militia equipment is only semi-active, used for part-time training and kept in serviceable condition often by local communities.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA EXPERT CORPS (CMEC)

This is the more conventional core of the wider Militia, being essentially a full-time army. It retains all the democratic structure described in other sections, and indeed shares much of it with the auxiliaries, meaning that professional soldiers can directly interact with the population, can advise on military affairs, but can not out-vote and force the hand of the people at large.

The Militia Expert Corps is maintained at 0.075% of the population. CMEC soldiers receive good year-round training, and are well supplied with modern equipment including good seasonal/environmental uniforms, body armour, and so on. Large-scale exercises are carried out every year, and some elements involve other branches of the Commonwealth Guard.

The CMEC would be the main body deployed offensively in an armed conflict except in a situation abroad in which the Marine Division were deemed sufficient.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA AUXILIARY (CMA)

The Militia Auxiliary officially enroles all citizens of able mind and body who are not members of the CMEC, CAG, or COG, though in fact the CMA's service expectations are much relaxed for those involved in primary military production. This generally means that something like forty percent of the Commonwealth's population has official access to military-grade equipment and training facilities. Personal weapons are usually looked-after in peacetime by elected quartermasters and men-at-arms living in each community, and Phalanstery garages are likely to contain some light military transport that in many cases is used for civilian purposes. Heavier vehicles and equipment more often are concentrated in university cities around which communes are dispersed, and these hubs contain regional Soviets and some of the advanced training facilities available.

CMA troops are supposed to have ex-service arms and old uniforms including those taken from the disbanded national armies. In practice, keeping such a massive force fully supplied is not fully realistic when it is usually close to inactive in a large part, so some uniforms are less than, well, uniform, and a major component of its weaponry -such as factory-standard Molotov Cocktails and low-tech explosives and mortars- is manufactured by widespread cottage industry. This is not the most efficient form of production, but it is on such a large scale that this matters little, and an enemy hoping to disable it faces an unimaginable task.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD (CAG)

The CAG is a very large organisation that includes pilots and support crews, operators of air-defence equipment on the ground, and soldiers dedicated to the defence of Air Guard facilities. The Commonwealth Guard over-all aims to field almost one aircraft for every twenty-five thousand head of the Commonwealth's population. Most of the total is accounted for by the ranks of the Air Guard Auxiliaries and consists partly of older aircraft meant only to support the Expert Corps and sustain high standards of training and coverage, while the remainder is made up of the front-line CAGEC aircraft and those flown by the Oceanic Guard and the Militia. The figures include combat and none combat, fixed and rotary wing, manned and unmanned aircraft.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD EXPERT CORPS (CAGEC)

The CAGEC is a highly modern force with good technological support and integration, and high flying hours kept under the belts of its aircrews.

The CAGEC is formidable even without the support of the larger Auxiliary force.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD AUXILIARY (CAGE)

The CAGE provides infantry to defend CAG facilities, air defence gun and missile crews in and around such facilities, ground crews on rotational duty supplementing CAGEC crews, part-time administrative staff, and trains aircrews part time in dedicated trainer aircraft for wartime deployment in dedicated low-cost aircraft and withdrawn previous-generation machines formerly used by the old air forces.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD (COG)

The COG operates naval combat, deployment, and support vessels along with shore-based anti ship and submarine warfare and search-and-rescue aircraft, and anti-ship gun and missile batteries, and supplies some of its own naval infantry for base defence.

The Beddgelens have never been a great maritime power, but a view of the Indian Ocean as a Geletian domain gave the first taste of what would become a fairly large and modern -though relatively inexperienced- naval force.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD EXPERT CORPS (COGEC)

The COG is probably the service in which Expert and Auxiliaries are closest, or at least certainly the relationship is closer than in the CAG. Oceanic Guards Auxiliaries are needed to fill-out many relatively minor duties in what is normally considered the Expert Corps, and do so on rotational basis, gaining much experience as a result. Without these Auxiliaries, the ratio of tonnes to personnel would be fairly high for a modern navy.

Auxiliary augmentation is a must in high intensity warfare, especially as the Commonwealth enters into a new ship-building phase.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD AUXILIARY (COGA)

Many of the duties undertaken by the COGA are described in the COGEC section, but it is left to add that Auxiliaries would also serve in wartime on front-line vessels in order to boost crews to achieve extra redundancy and reduce fatigue where there is design space enough to accommodate these extra hands.

[A bump for some slightly untidy updates.]