Republic of Elyra
| Elyran |
| H. Sapiens / Human |
 |
| Home System: Tabiti |
| Homeworld: Persepolis |
| Language(s): Elyran Standard |
| Political Entitie(s): The Serene Republic of Elyra |
The Republic of Elyra, or more officially the Serene Republic of Elyra, is among the more prosperous nations in known space. One of the few locations in the Orion Spur that phoron can be naturally found, the element is the cornerstone of the growing Republic’s economy. It is loosely allied to both the Republic of Biesel and the Coalition of Colonies, all three being products of Solarian colonization efforts which gained independence and self-governance, even if each has taken wildly different directions from each other. Elyra is seen as one of the most developed nations in the Orion Spur, boasting high levels of technological achievement and living standards for its citizen population. This is partly due to its well-planned, heavily funded government effort from the wealthiest nations of the time when its first colonists were sent out. The discovery of phoron in Elyran space has seen the Republic’s industry rise to Olympian heights and given it a place on the interstellar stage of geopolitics.
Much of modern Elyran culture draws influence from its founding nations; the United Arab Republic, the Free Republic of Iran, and the Republic of Turkey. Elyra is largely isolated from interstellar travel, having very harsh customs and monumental requirements for those seeking citizenship. Despite this, the citizens within are far from locked inside, the Republic itself heavily funding foreign exchange programs to further cement its place as an interstellar leader in technology and phoron technology.
In recent years, regional skirmishes with the Izweski Nation and the Empire of Dominia have led to increased funding and emphasis on regional defence. Most notably, the Lii'draic Incursion of the planet Bursa has sparked a newfound effort of modernization and advancement in the Republican military, though the Republic's forces remain the smallest of any human nation in the Spur. While their relations with the Izweski have begun to cool and normalize, the Vaurca of the galaxy are often seen as a foremost threat to many Elyrans. The ever-expanding Empire of Dominia is also a regional rival that many in the Republic remain wary of.
The Republic of Elyra is a parliamentary democracy with a prime minister who serves as its head of state. Currently the prime minister is Rasheed Nouzari of the Republican Revolutionary Society who has held the office since 2456.
Elyra's historic isolationism has made it nearly impossible for outsiders to become Elyran citizens. Elyran citizens must have names and appearances consistent with the people of the modern day Middle-East, North Africa, Anatolia, and Persia. Only native Elyran citizens or Elyran made IPCs may take the Elyran accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.
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Population and Planets
Elyra has a plethora of inhabited planets, moons, and locations within its boundaries.
Persepolis
The capital planet Persepolis, in the Tabiti star system, has roughly 15 billion residents. The planet was originally an arid planet with a modest atmosphere and stubborn native ecosystems already present. Original Alliance-funded terraforming efforts transformed the planet into an Earth-like planet within a decade which allowed the population to flourish before and after independence. Commercial and service sector jobs remain the highest employer, second only to refineries processing phoron and other minerals transported to the planet's orbit. This is among the primary locations in Elyra where phoron can be found in abundance. Persepolis is known for its incredible luster, the soil giving the vast treelines a unique shade of amethyst that may be confused for a vast sea from space. Contrasting this are vast swaths of sand deserts filled with crystalized phoron which, despite efforts, poisons the soil and prevents any plant life from growing. However, these phoron crystals jutting out of the ground provide Persepolis with its most lucrative export. The planet holds host to the Tabitian Jewel, an orbital shipyard and drydock connected by space elevator. From here the majority of the Republic’s finest space-faring vessels are made, civilian or otherwise. It is located in the planet’s capital city Uthma among sandy dunes and extends to low orbit of the planet.
New Suez
Often referred to as the “Persepolian Sapphire,” because of its unique natural blue colour, New Suez is Persepolis’ only moon and is home to only 500 million permanent residents. Though because of its status as not just Persepolis’ biggest port, but Elyra’s, and a hub for the retail and luxury goods industries of Elyra, it often can have up to three times its population on its surface due to the number of visitors or tourists. New Suez has a crucial role in the economy, being the center of the New Suez Free Trade Zone, the only area of Elyra where foreign megacorporations can operate while unbound by most of the otherwise incredibly strict regulations placed on them by the government. The largest stock exchange in Elyra is also located here and many financial services corporations are based from this moon. New Suez is also notable for having the largest number of non-citizen residents as part of its population relative to the number of citizens living there and is one of the only places in the Republic where citizens are a minority.
Damascus II
The former capital of Elyra and the only inhabitable world in the al-Rashid system, Damascus II is the second most populated planet in Elyra with a population of around 2.5 billion inhabitants. Its climate is Mediterranean on the coastlines of its single large continental landmass and becomes more temperate the further inland one travels. Damascus II is most notable for its historical and cultural significance in Elyran society as it was the first planet settled in what is the present-day Republic of Elyra. It has a very long and storied history relative to the rest of the country, houses the finest universities in all of Elyra, and is often referred to as “The Heart of Elyra” for its role in forming the Elyran identity and being the planet on which the Elyran Revolution began. The planet’s economy revolves primarily around agriculture, and provides an overwhelming majority of the Republic’s food.
Medina
With 1.3 billion people, Medina resides in the binary star system of Jedeed Isfahan and is one of the most unique of Elyran worlds. The planet has a thin yet breathable atmosphere which makes prolonged physical effort difficult without respiratory gear. However, the planet is incredibly rich with mineral wealth due to its active geological history. Settlements on the planet are built to compensate for the high frequency of earthquakes, the most prevalent of which are massive floating cities kept aloft by Elyran hover technology. The planet’s economy is focused on phoron extraction and the technology sector. Along with being a producer of phoron, it is also one of the foremost centres of applied phoronics, the field of science which focuses on finding new uses and applications for phoron in everything from hover tech, to energy, to pharmaceuticals, to weaponry.
Aemaq
Aemaq is a hot, chemical waterworld in outer Republic space with a population just shy of 1 billion. The settlements on the world are made up of flotillas dotting the waters of the planet. The water itself is non-potable but high in exotic volatile organic compounds, leading to the largest chemical industry in Elyra being on this planet. The water and phoron refining industries are a large part of the economy here as well. Aemaq’s unique position as a world with unparalleled chemical expertise make it home to some of the largest phoron refineries in Elyra and final stop for most of the raw phoron mined in Elyra’s outer rim.
Bursa
Bursa is an arctic planet within the Alaz-Khan star system, with a population of roughly 700 million. The planet sits further out from the star than usual and thus has a predominately frigid climate year-round. Paradoxically, shipyard companies remain the highest employer on the planet with hydroponics industries coming in close behind. Several Elyran Armed Forces bases also dot the surface to take advantage of the harsh winters for wilderness survival training.
Bursa was the site of the Lii’dra hiveship’s planetary landing, and it is still shaken by the 40,000 dead after the ensuing conflict. In an initiative conducted in 2458 by the Elyran Parliament, the Bursa Memorial was constructed to honor the dead of the Lii'draic Incursion. The memorial itself sits several miles outside of the capital city of New İzmir, and is separated into walls of different sizes also divided into different sections. Section A is reserved to the Republican Army, B for the National Guard reservists, C for the Republican Navy, and D for civilians. An honor guard is perpetually posted here, to honor those who laid down their lives in service of the Republic.
Economics
The Serene Republic of Elyra's official currency is the Elyran Pound (پوند), and it does not accept the Solarian Standard Credit within its borders. The Elyran Pound is more valuable than the Biesel Standard Credit, and because of its value it can be occasionally seen used in the Coalition of Colonies.
Elyra has a modern service economy with strong resource extraction sectors, namely the phoron sector, which is one of the largest employers in the Republic. Tabiti in particular is home to several major financial corporations, mostly domestic banking services or wealth management firms.
The heavy industry sector of the Republic has been seeing large increases with demands for domestic manufacturing of weapons, vehicles, and ships after the Lii'draic Incursion. With the high education standards pushed by several governing coalitions in recent decades, engineering and mathematical fields have seen higher-than-average growth, and the Republic producing highly trained engineers and doctors who are desirable across human space for their skill and proficiency is the result. Curiously, there are no major private military contractor companies based out of the Republic of Elyra due to the state’s centralized control over the most assets— those most worth protecting— in the country. This economic growth, seen as a testament to their hardy spirit, is not seen as unambiguously positive by all in the Republic; Elyran society has seen increasing levels of economic stratification, even among those in the country with citizenship, and growing income disparity. Some parties are calling for social policies to combat what they see as an unwelcome change.
Due to Elyra's location, they sit with some of the largest reserves of phoron in their area. NanoTrasen was quick to notice this, and for the better part of a decade, the company has been fighting tooth and nail to press claims on the deposits. However, the Elyran state maintains a monopoly on phoron extraction in the country and is fiercely protective of both its deposits and its businesses. Recently, because of a spur-wide scarcity of phoron, Elyra cut off phoron sales to foreign companies and corporations, deeming the element as a resource of importance to national security. This move, while securing Elyra’s phoron deposits, caused a slow-down in much of the Elyran economy along with some of Elyra’s own phoron deposits, mostly extraterrestrial, becoming smaller and smaller. This has compounded into an economic recession, which the Elyran government is trying to remedy this with excessive stimulus spending on the economy and attempting to subsidise the areas of the economy unrelated to phoron to better diversify the country.
Foreign megacorporations are allowed to operate in Elyra, however they must do so under strict regulations as described in the New Suez Protocol of 2381. This piece of legislation defines the parameters of how foreign corporations must conduct themselves in Elyran space, the key tenets of which are as follows:
The New Suez Protocol of 2381
- Any foreign corporate venture in Elyran space must be done in cooperation with the Elyran State or an Elyran-based business approved of by the Elyran Ministry of Economics, Revenue, and Commerce, which will have a controlling interest over all joint-operations in Elyran space.
- Foreign corporations must invest at least a third of their profits derived from their Elyran ventures back into those ventures and must have a notable majority of their workforce for their Elyran operations either be Elyran citizens or Elyran non-citizen residents.
- Each corporation must submit a detailed annual report of all of their operations and finances to the Elyran Ministry of Economics, Revenue, and Commerce and be prepared to answer for discrepancies if any are found.
- Foreign corporations are not permitted to make donations to any electoral campaigns for any Elyran citizen running for office, nor are they allowed to buy majority shares in Elyran businesses.
- The Elyran State reserves the right to halt any foreign corporate operation as they see fit.
Elyran Megacorporations
Elyran megacorporations dominate the Elyran economy; they are incredibly well protected by both the New Suez Protocol and the numerous subsidies and other benefits given to them by the Elyran government. Without the protection of the Elyran state, most if not all Elyran corporations would be outcompeted by the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate or Einstein Engines and become defunct. While small businesses do exist in Elyra, there are some largest companies of note.
Elco - Elco, often abbreviated to L-Co, is a phoron-based corporation owned by the Elyran state which by law has an absolute monopoly on all phoron extraction, refinement, and research operations in the Republic of Elyra. It is by far the largest company in Elyra both by revenue and number of employees, and it is just by itself responsible for a majority of Elyra’s GDP. From its Perseopolian headquarters, the company is massive in its influence on many aspects of Elyran everyday life. It affects almost every other industry in the country both from its size and its pivotal role in the administration and controlling of Elyran phoron and has operations or offices on nearly every planet in Elyran space. It is managed by the Elyran Ministry of Phoron Management and has worked jointly with foreign corporations in the past, most notably Nanotrasen, in negotiating joint-extraction agreements and the sale of Elyran phoron to foreigners.
Suezbank - Suezbank is a publicly traded bank based on the Persepolian moon of New Suez. It is the largest bank in the republic and is routinely used as the bank of choice for not just ordinary Elyran citizens but also other Elyran corporations and even foreign megacorps operating in Elyra. It has majority ownership over the New Suez Stock Exchange and is the premier player in Elyra’s financial services industry. The bank has a long history of working with Idris Incorporated with a partnership primarily centred around Idris providing Elyrans living outside of Elyra with access to their Suezbank assets and Suezbank doing the same for foreigners, including non-citizen residents, living in Elyra in giving them access to Idris financial services and banking. The bank is also known to routinely employ contracted IRUs on loan from Idris for asset reclamation services.
Jewel Aerospace - Persepolis’ Jewel Aerospace is the largest aircraft and spacecraft manufacturer in the Republic of Elyra with an extensive product line. Everything from small prop planes to planetary shuttles, to freighters, to even warships for the Elyran navy are produced by this company. The Tabitian Jewel, for which the corporation named after itself, is the largest facility operated by the company. Because of its prominence in the Elyran shipbuilding sector, Jewel Aerospace has cooperated with Hephaestus Industries and Einstein Engines in the past for many of its designs and also has a history of buying or co-developing naval weapons systems with Zavodskoi Interstellar for its more military-focused projects. Perhaps the biggest achievement to their prowess as expert vehicle manufacturers is the company’s proficiency in manufacturing the specialised sea-scoops used for chemical extraction on the planet Aemaq. The company also operates Jewel Starlines, the national spaceline of Elyra and Jewel AstroCaravan, the largest interstellar shipping company in Elyran space.
Osman Electric Industries (OEI) - Founded by the Osman family and headquartered on Medina, Osman Electric Industries has been responsible for some of the largest developments in electrical engineering since its inception in the mid 2370’s; it has since expanded to include the areas of tech and applied phoronics as well. OEI is at the cutting edge of Virtual Reality simulation technology, something that has led to a very lucrative partnership between itself and Idris. Its primary claim to fame, however, is the pioneering of Elyran magpulse hovertech, something which has influenced Elyran society greatly and has brought the company a wealth of joint-contracts from Hephaestus Industries and Einstein Engines. Additionally, it has made great strides in the field of plasma technology and remains one of the largest contractors of the Elyran military for this reason. Additionally, Zavodskoi Interstellar has worked with OEI in the past in cooperative projects allowing the megacorp to sell plasma-based weaponry outside of Elyra. Osman Electric Industries is also the largest manufacturer of Integrated Positronic Chassis in Elyra. The company is its most advanced AI programmer as well, being responsible for programming a majority of Elyran QQ’s.
Yazmani Holdings - The oldest of the Elyran corporations, tracing its history back to before the Elyran Republic was even proclaimed, the Damascus II-based Yazmani Holdings occupies a few fields in the Elyran economy in an umbrella over its various subdivisions. Its agricultural division, Yazmani Agricultural Services, is owned and managed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, and holds a monopoly over food production, distribution, and price setting throughout the country. Many farmers work with this division of the company. Its other sectors however, Yazmani Wellness and its retail branch Yazmarket, are privately owned by the Yazmani family. Yazmani Wellness is the largest biomedical corporation in Elyra and is based on the planet of Aemaq, making a name for itself by using the planet’s unique chemicals to make new pharmaceutical medications for sale. Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals has cooperated in the past with Yazmani Wellness to develop new medications and continues to do so to this day. Yazmarket is the largest retail, e-commerce, and video streaming company in Elyra and has its head offices on Persepolis. It has a history of working with NanoTrasen and Idris Incorporated, running special holiday promotions or sales of NT consumer goods and Idris luxury goods that would otherwise be inaccessible to ordinary Elyrans. Yazmani Holdings also owns the subsidiary Yazmani Communications, a broadcasting conglomerate and holonet service provider which also has joint-ownership over the Elyran News Network, the most consumed news source in the republic, with the Elyran government.
Politics and Government
See also: Elyran Government and Politics
The Republic of Elyra describes itself most often as a “Revolutionary Parliamentary Democracy,” and true to its self-labelling, the power of the country sits with the parliament. The Republican Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Elyra and is responsible for proposing and passing legislation that runs the country. The Republican Assembly also elects the prime minister of Elyra, an office currently held by Rasheed Nouzari of the Republican Revolutionary Society. The Republic also has a series of courts to check the power of the parliament.
The governance of Elyra is mostly pyramidal in structure, with the Assembly and Prime Minister making decisions that often affect the entire country. Bills, amendments, and laws are put into place by the planetary and regional governments. Localities such as planets or moons are awarded autonomy to some degree; they are ruled over by planetary and lunar governors, with the exceptions of Damascus II and New Suez which is ruled over by its unique Damascene Captain and High Commissioner, respectively.
Elyra has an incredibly developed and wide-ranging healthcare system along with its other social support networks for parents and the financially disadvantaged. Most Elyran citizens have to pay very little, if any credits, to access treatment. Complex medications such as dexalin and peridaxon are easily-available due to Elyra’s phoron reserves, and though doctors and surgeons are paid somewhat less than they might be in other parts of the Spur, there is little shortage of medical personnel. It should be noted that this well-funded healthcare system is more-or-less exclusively available to citizens of Elyra; non-citizen persons have basic emergency treatments paid for by the state, but can rarely access long-term or specialized treatment.
History
Pre-Colonisation and the Elyran Coalition
Before the Republic of Elyra came into its present state, the country was known as the Elyran Coalition, a collection of Solarian colonies settled by the peoples of the United Arab Republic, Free Republic of Iran, and Republic of Turkey. Prior to its official founding, these countries, sitting on some of the largest petroleum reserves in the world, would come together to partner in co-authored colonization efforts so that they could compete with the likes of the United States, EU, Commonwealth of Nations, and the USSR plus its Warsaw Pact allies. Not only was this a smart economic move by the three countries, but it was one that was key to ensuring the continued competitiveness of the three countries by stimulating their economies with colonial resources. Efforts to explore the area of space now known as the Badlands and Valley Hale began in the early 2100’s, but colonization would not take place until 2153, when the first colony of the three nations, Al-Rashid III (though soon renamed to Damascus II) was settled. The colony of Damascus II was a robust, self-sustaining venture that soon became an administrative, agricultural, and educational hub in the far off reaches of what would become Elyran space, but it lacked the wealth of resources— more specifically, precious metals and minerals that those back on Earth were hoping for. Even so, smaller ventures were undertaken, usually in close proximity to Damascus II as a hub. with smaller colonies now bringing in mining materiel back to Earth and the solar system, the Elyran project had only broke even and was barely profitable. This all changed however with the discovery of Tabiti IV, the planet that would soon come to be known as Persepolis.
Surveys returned reports of precious metals and other natural resources in previously unheard of quantities, and efforts began to see who could get there first among the various regions of Earth. There was not much of a contest as the U.A.R, Iran, and Turkey were quick to use their existing colony in the region of Damascus II to settle Persepolis and begin excavations of its great mineral wealth. This started not only a golden age for their economies, but is when the idea of the Elyran Coalition was brought into being. Before Persepolis was settled, all efforts to colonize the region were centred around Damascus II as being in the area made it so that colonies were limited by their ability to keep their supply lines connected to that hub. The Persepolian Miracle facilitated an unprecedented level of investment in the Valley Hale Colonies, almost unilaterally leading to a need for a more localised administration that could better run the burgeoning economies of the region. To meet this need, the Elyran Coalition was officially proclaimed as a Solarian Colonial Administration in 2229, ten years after the settlement of Persepolis, with Damascus II as its capital. For the next thirty years, the Elyran Coalition saw steady economic growth along with the continued settlement of various, smaller scale mining and industrial colonies— the Persepolian moon of New Suez being among them.
The Second Great Depression and Elyran Revolution
The Second Great Depression of 2260 hit the Elyran Coalition like everywhere else in known Human Space, but for the first nearly two decades in the Coalition, the colonies were able to stave off a complete collapse by using the funds they’d accrued in the previous good years to invest in themselves. This effort wouldn’t last. By 2280, the Elyran economy had run out of reserves and had been reduced to a shell of collapsing mining colonies and millions leaving their worlds in retreats to the Solarian Core or the Elyran hubs of Damascus II and Persepolis. What made these times even worse for the Elyrans though was the increased demand of exports from the Solarian Core to prop up the economies of the core systems. These demands impacted Persepolis especially hard, and caused the economy of the planet to contract drastically for five years. Economically, the Elyran experiment had been a failure, with only Damascus II still even maintaining a semblance of economic stability from its consistent agricultural sector. Outcry from the colonies to the Solarian Core grew and grew, but they met deaf ears. What began as a small regional conflict in the frontier in 2279, the Interstellar War was now growing to be something that threatened to tear the Sol Alliance apart, and all Solarian authorities were focused on stopping, and more importantly winning, this far off conflict. The Elyran Coalition was ignored aside from the bare minimum of interactions, and separatist sentiments began to grow on the two hub worlds of Damascus II and Persepolis as the Coalition increasingly invested in itself rather than looking to the Solarian Core to halt a descent into lawlessness and disarray.
The kettle that was the Elyran Coalition boiled over in 2301, when a student protest on Damascus II against the continued lack of economic assistance from the Solarian Core was violently broken up by colonial soldiers, leaving hundreds dead. Soon after, the population erupted in resistance, with masses of Elyran civilians and soldiers alike marching to the seat of Elyran governance and forcing the resignation of the governor. The Elyran Revolution had begun, and in a desperate attempt to avoid being defeated so early on, the Damascene revolutionaries sent a transmission to Persepolis, urging its citizens to join them in the creation of an independent country. Many feared a violent, bloody war like what had been gripping the frontier for the past decades, but luckily Elyra was spared from such a tragedy. General Abd Al-Hamid, the commander of Persepolis’ garrison and the fleet orbiting the planet also heard this transmission. He was an Elyran Persepolian native who sympathised with the rebels, and after weighing his options with his staff, declared his allegiance to the Elyran revolution and stated that any Solarian efforts to retake either Persepolis or Damascus II would be met with armed resistance. Following the fall of both hub worlds of the Elyran Coalition, the rest of the garrisons left across the region surrendered with little to no resistance. A weary Solarian Alliance, exhausted from an already decades-long and monumentally costly war with what would become the Frontier Alliance, made little effort to reclaim the Elyran Coalition, only sending a fleet to evacuate important diplomatic figures and some civilians wanting to remain as Solarian citizens. After control by the new revolutionary government was centralised, the Serene Republic of Elyra was officially proclaimed on January 1st, 2302, inheriting Damascus II as its capital and installing General Al-Hamid as its first prime minister. What began afterwards was what many historians call “the Elyran Century,” in reference to a speech made by Prime Minister Al-Hamid in 2320.
The Elyran Century
Thankfully being spared from the destruction of the Interstellar War, the Elyran Republic was slow to take off after its independence, not having the economic quagmire of reconstruction and death of human capital that the Coalition of Colonies had, but still having a quite literally bankrupted economy to fix. Without the restraints of forced exports to the Solarian Alliance however, the Elyran economy could focus almost exclusively on itself, focusing first on restarting the colonies abandoned during the Second Great Depression. This endeavour took a few years, and in the meantime the Persepolian economy slowly recovered from its slump, curiously spearheaded by the Elyran moon of New Suez off of its shipping industry now tying the fledgling republic together. By 2316, Persepolis was once again the largest economy in Elyra and once more saw a steady flow of immigrants from across Elyra to the purple planet looking for ways to better themselves. The troubles brought on by foreign demands and the conflict at the beginning of the century cast a long shadow across Elyran society, leading to a withdrawn, isolationist attitude among many Elyrans in the government, military, and civilian society that led to the country closing itself off from foreign trade almost entirely in the year of 2320 with Prime Minister Abd Al-Hamid declaring a perpetual policy of “an Elyran Century of economic self-reliance.” The mineral wealth of not just Persepolis, but what was Elyran space as a whole, proved to be a reliable and enriching source of income, providing the Elyran economy with a surplus of resources it used to reinvest in more colonies, both old and new. The Elyran mining colony of Medina was settled during this time, officially obtaining its charter in 2337, and Aemaq soon followed with a charter in 2351. The country saw significant strides in the realm of governance as well, holding its first nation-wide elections in the year 2324 after the death of Prime Minister Al-Hamid from age. He was 84. These elections signalled the Republic’s transition from essentially a despotic provisional military regime to a truly democratic republic with the Republican Revolutionary Society winning a majority government. Two years after this, the Constitution of the Republic was drafted by the Republican Assembly and passed by a strong majority, officially being ratified on November 11th, 2326.
Aside from the economic prosperity which Elyra obtained during this time, the most lasting impacts from the Elyran Century were the cultural golden age of the first half, with some of the most influential and lasting works in Elyran literature, music, architecture, theatre, and film coming from the 2330’s and 2340’s, most from Damascus II. It is argued that these two decades are those in which the “Elyran” cultural identity fully took shape, though this is something still disputed even to this day with some scholars citing the Damascene settlement as its impetus and others being the full shift to Persepolis as the definitive centre of the Elyran nation. This shift took place officially 2380, by which time Perseoplis had become not just the largest economy in Elyra by far, but also the most populated planet in the country, having surpassed Damascus II in numbers nearly two decades prior. From then onwards, Persepolis was the capital of the Republic of Elyra.
Elyran magpulse, or “hover-tech,” was pioneered in this century as well, being tested on Medina in 2380 after its invention by the team of "Project Hubris", an Osman Electronics-funded venture to . Originally, the technology was very limited in its scope, barely being able to support substantial amounts of weight and only reaching the heights it reaches now (literally, in the case of Medina’s floating cities) through the usage of applied phoronics that would be discovered in the early 25th century.
By the 2380s Elyra was a stable, peaceful, and still prosperous country, but its economy had been experiencing a gradual slow-down since the 2370’s as its domestic production and import substitution reached a standstill. The Elyran economy had stagnated, not growing nor shrinking. While Elyra had never reached the levels of the Sol Alliance or Coalition of Colonies, in terms of economic output, the threat of a recession caused a change in national leadership to the pro-foreign trade League of United Republicans. Shortly after their election, the Elyran Government organised the New Suez Protocol of 2381, ending the republic’s economic isolation from the rest of the Spur and allowing foreign megacorporations into the country with the New Suez Free Trade Zone, albeit with numerous restrictions. The Elyran Century of economic self-reliance ended nearly twenty years early with this legislation. This caused the Elyran economy to pick up once more and push high growth numbers yet again, ensuring nearly twenty-five years of dominance by the League of United Republicans over Elyran politics.
The Golden Age and Its End - Current Times
The discovery of the nearly-infinite possibilities of phoron in 2417 led Elyra to new heights, to what truly was the Elyran Golden Age, a time most historians consider to be the time period between 2417 and 2457. Development of things like the modern iterations of hover-tech and plasma weaponry were pioneered in Elyra at this time, the applications of which have changed Elyra immeasurably. The largest example of this was the creation of the hovering cities of Medina, an entire planet being kept afloat, both metaphorically and literally by phoronic magpulse technology. The Republic soon found itself sitting on the largest known reserves of phoron in the Orion Spur, exploding upwards in a huge state-sponsored campaign to exploit and develop these resources. This growth led to the average standards of living of Elyran citizens to be some of the highest in the Orion Spur, only rivalled (and just barely) by the wealthy worlds in the Solarian Core, the planet of Biesel, or the lives of the Dominian Primaries. Despite the Elyran economy still being the 4th largest in the Spur, it has the highest wealth per capita for those in the country that have citizenship.
The darker side of this phoron boom however has been the creation of a second class of those living in Elyra: non-citizen migrant workers. These people are mostly from the poorer classes of the Coalition of Colonies or the non-coalition Frontier wanting to make a living working in the burgeoning Elyran economy. This trend started to occur in the mid 2420’s, though by the late 2430’s was in full swing. In contrast to their citizen counterparts, “non-citizen persons,” as they are officially called, often are only in the republic to work, live in low standards, with things like education, legal representation, and housing not being provided for by the Elyran government but instead being services that are paid for out of pocket. However, the labour of non-citizen persons is certainly something that has multiplied the growth of the Elyran economy in the 25th century, their contributions allowing for the phoron mining industry in particular to develop far faster than it would have otherwise.
Despite the position of Elyra stepping onto the interstellar stage as more than just a closed-off pariah, the Republic has seen more turbulence in recent years than it has in any other period in its history, barring the Elyran Revolution. Skirmishing with its neighbours, the Izweski Hegemony and the Empire of Dominia, became common in the past two decades, as both tried to further assert themselves in the region of the Sparring Sea, the Elyran Naval Self-Defense Force doing its best to protect Elyran claims in the region, especially phoron deposits. The growing number of non-citizen persons has caused some internal turmoil in the country as the question of what changes should be made to the Elyran system of citizenship and welfare. Questions of what Elyra’s place in the Orion Spur should be also are up in the air, with different political parties holding different ideas for how Elyra should engage with interstellar politics.
More recently however, Elyra has experienced two crises that have made great waves in the country. The first was the Lii’dra Incursion of 2457, a gruesome ambush on the planet of Bursa by the Lii’dra hive of Vaurca. Although Elyra was victorious, this tragedy signalled to many in the republic the inadequacy of the current state of the Elyran Self-Defense Force. Outcry from the Elyran public and many in its politics has led to a massive overhaul, reorganization, and upgrading of the military since the incursion. The second crisis has been the recent Orion Spur-wide phoron shortage. While Elyran reserves have been more or less unaffected by the shortage affecting all other nations in the Spur, the decision by the Elyran government to halt the sale of phoron to foreign countries and corporations on the principle of national security has caused a slow down in the Elyran economy, nullifying a significant stream of revenue into the country’s primary industry. Some in the country have exclaimed this as an example of why Elyra should have remained closed off to the greater Spur economically and letting the rest of the galaxy sort out its own problems, with others arguing that this is an opportunity for the country to assert itself on the galactic stage with its vast reserves of phoron and advanced technology as leverage. The majority opinion currently is that Elyra should just wait the crisis out and then resume the status-quo once it has been resolved.
In the late summer of 2464, the largest protests in the Elyran capital city of Uthma's history broke out in response to rising phoron prices brought on by the continued economic stagnation of the Phoron Scarcity crisis. The protests started small, originally calling for government amnesty for the phoron expenditures of citizens, but rapidly grew into something far larger in scope that completely occupied al-Hamid Square, the central square of Uthma. Alleged reports of an Elyran Extraterrestrial Brigade team interdicting and then dying upon the SCC Horizon for leverage against the phoron-seeking company struck a chord with the protestors even though the Elyran government denied it even happened. The protests ground to a halt in the coming weeks, with nearly 30,000 protestors entrenching themselves in the square surrounded by Elyran law enforcement. Negotiations between protestors and the government began, but were soon dashed by the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of the Interior who claimed they were in possession of evidence that showed Dominian involvement in plotting and leading the protests as a measure to destabilize their regional rival. The Dominians denied this outright, however the Elyran government gave a strong response to what it saw as a national security threat.
Overnight, nearly two-thirds of protestors left the square in fear of a formal, military response to the protests. The next day, Elyran police, armed forces reservists, and the counter-terrorist Special Threat Service stormed the square with military equipment and thousands of personnel. The "Battle of al-Hamid Square" lasted over two hours and was the single-deadliest armed exchange on Elyran soil since the Lii'dra incursion. Hundreds died, and nearly nine-thousand were injured, these figures being comprised of both protestors, dubbed "terrorist sympathisers" by the Elyran Government, and law enforcement casualties. After the square was retaken by Elyran government forces, they uncovered alleged Dominian documents instructing protest leaders how to proceed and maps of the square in High Morozi showing where to fortify and how to make formations to stop police attacks. The Dominian foreign minister denied the authenticity of these documents and contested that they were planted evidence painting Dominia as a scapegoat for Elyran failings, though the Elyran government reaffirmed their position and held that the protests were the result of Dominian foreign interference. As a result, Dominia expelled the Elyran ambassador from its capital and recalled their own from Elyra. The two have yet to re-establish formal diplomatic relations. Elyra's current prime minister, Rasheed Nouzari of the Republican Revolutionary Society, saw a dip in popularity during the protests, however after they were alleged to be the product of a foreign, Dominian, conspiracy, he has seen rising popularity among Elyra's citizens as a defender of the nation against an underhanded imperialist foe.
Many suspect that the coming years will usher in a new era of Elyran history whatever happens further, though it's unknown where the republic will go or what direction it may head in.
Culture and Demographics
See also: Elyran Culture, Law, and Society
Elyran culture is a rich and unique one among the powers of the Orion Spur and expresses itself through many different facets. Elyran culture has its roots in the cultures from which it was founded, those of the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and Anatolia. Because of this, it shares many traits of those but also has some noted differences and unique, “Elyran” twists on it.
Elyran culture is multifaceted and is deeply interwoven into the nation itself, through art, architecture, attitudes and customs, and laws. Because of this complexity and depth, Elyran culture has its own page devoted to the topic which can be found above.
Languages
Elyran Standard, so-called because it was the language created to be the standardised method of communication across the Elyran Republic after its revolution, is the official language of the Republic of Elyra. It was created by the Ministry of Education shortly after the Elyran Revolution at the behest of Prime Minister Abd Al-Hamid for the purposes of giving his new republic a single language that could be used for government, law, military organization, and trade. Many in the Republic praised this initiative as they saw it as either the practical thing to do or saw it as just another step in the Elyran Revolution, creating a new language that was untainted by Solarian influence. A large mass-education and literacy program began in 2317 to educate the Elyran people on this new language, to a point where the government banned the teaching of old Earth languages, such as in public schools, though still allowed them to be taught and used in higher education and religious institutions. The program was completed in 2336, with almost all of the Elyran population being fluent in the new language created by taking influences and grammar from Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi.
To this day, Elyran Standard is the most prevalent language in the Elyran Republic, with everything from legal documentation to public broadcasting being in this language. It is also unique to Elyra, with no other country using it as an official or accepted language in government or business. For this reason, it is rarely spoken outside of Elyra proper. All Elyrans learn it in school as part of their general curriculum. Starting in year 7 of their schooling, Elyrans are also given the opportunity to study Tradeband, Freespeak, or Tau Ceti Basic. Freespeak is spoken as the majority language among Elyra’s largely frontier-dominated non-citizen person population. Sol Common is taught by the military, higher education (such as universities) and diplomatic services; however, it is not taught in Elyran public schools, stemming from the government’s historic position that speaking Sol Common as an Elyran citizen was unpatriotic and anti-Elyran. While the government no longer holds this position, openly speaking Sol Common is still looked down upon by many Elyrans, especially those who harbor more nationalist or patriotic viewpoints.
Elyran Citizens and Non-Citizen Persons
The Republic of Elyra has a somewhat unique way in which its society is structured as it is broken up between official Elyran Citizens and what are officially referred to as “Non-Citizen Persons.” Elyran citizens make-up the majority of Elyra’s population, at slightly more than two-thirds and are the recipients of things such as Elyran state healthcare (or repair services in the case of positronics); a legal defense free of charge in the event one gets brought to court; a state-funded retirement pension, voting rights, free temporary housing if one loses their home to eviction or disaster, access to Elyran consular services abroad, and the ability to attend most of Elyra’s universities, including the most prestigious, with little to no charge if one passes the respective university’s stringent entrance exams. Being a citizen of Elyra provides one with unquestionably helpful benefits, but this is not a status that some in Elyra hold. To be born into citizenship, both of an individual’s parents must be Elyran citizens who are married at the time of the child’s birth. Additionally, if two married Elyran citizens adopt a child, even if this child is foreign, they become an Elyran citizen. Currently, only Humans and IPCs can hold Elyran citizenship.
Obtaining Elyran citizenship is an infamously difficult process for those who do not have it from birth. A lengthy period of 10 years of residency and labour in Elyra is first required and one’s criminal record must be immaculate without even the slightest infraction. An applicant must also be fluent in Elyran Standard and must take a lengthy exam on Elyran culture and history that even most Elyran citizens would most likely fail. Every applicant is subject to review by the Ministry of the Interior for the applicability of their skills and achievements as well, with the Ministry often rejecting applicants who do not have graduate or postgraduate degrees, or similarly highly regarded credentials. Additionally, an applicant must be sponsored by at least four current Elyran citizens who can vouch for their credibility and integrity as a potential citizen. Finally though, and for some most worryingly, the Elyran Ministry of the Interior can reject any applicant for any reason they see fit and are not legally required to give an explanation. It is perhaps for this reason why it is nearly impossible citizens of the Empire of Dominia, Eridani Federation, or Solarian Alliance to obtain Elyran citizenship even if all other requirements are met, for the simple reason of Elyra’s geopolitical disposition against these states. Marriage to an Elyran citizen does not qualify the foreigner as a citizen, and many suspect this is an indirect measure by the state to encourage Elyrans to marry other Elyrans rather than foreigners. Only humans can apply to be citizens in Elyra, as applications from foreign IPCs and other other species are not accepted by the country’s incredibly isolationist government.
“Non-Citizen Persons,” (NCPs) as they are officially called, make-up approximately one-third of the total population of the Republic Elyra. Most of these people are poor migrant labourers from the less wealthy planets in the Coalition of Colonies or the stateless Human Frontier. They are often unskilled and undereducated, coming to Elyra in order to make enough money to send back home as remittances to their families, or alternatively to save up enough money to return to their homeworlds with enough cash to make their lives there.
Life as an NCP is far from a comfortable one, however. Typically non-citizen persons are put in either the most menial or most dangerous of tasks by their Elyran employers, with a large portion of them working in the infamously hazardous phoron extraction industry or low-skill service positions. Because NCPs are not citizens, their employers are not subject to minimum wage laws when paying their incomes, and so they are paid drastically less than their citizen counterparts. Additionally, their lack of citizenship shuts them out of the Elyran public health and education systems, and grossly restricts the amount of influences they have on Elyran society, having little to no legal representation in most courts of law either. They cannot vote and are not provided with any of the other benefits that the average Elyran citizens enjoys. Because of this, NCPs often live together in tightly knit communities or neighbourhoods in Elyran localities, with almost every major Elyran city having an “NCP Town,” where non-citizen persons coalesce and live often in lower standards when compared to their citizenship-holding counterparts. Despite these realities though, frontier-dwelling outsiders flock to Elyra for the promise of an income that can sustain them and their families, as even the reduced wages they receive in Elyra are more than they would ever receive on their homeworlds.
Elyran Synthetics and Citizenship
Elyra’s relationship with Integrated Positronic Chassis is an interesting one that has rapidly evolved since Elyra’s creation of their own indigenous IPCs in 2423. At first, the legal status of positronics was relegated to them being merely property of their owners, much like everywhere else in the Orion Spur. This however changed in 2428. The League of United Republicans had been put into power for the first time since the 2380’s and were desperate to hang on to their majority in the Elyran parliament. In order to do this, the party and their prime minister at the time, Abu Bakr Al-Hossein, pushed a proposition through the Elyran National Assembly granting citizenship to a large number of currently owned IPCs in the country. The logic was this: if the party granted citizenship to IPCs, these IPCs would be sure votes for the League, and therefore the party could artificially inflate their votes. This attempt was partially successful, in that nearly all newly freed IPCs voted for the League of United Republicans, however it backfired horribly by causing those who were already in the party’s voting base to leave. This occurred because many Elyran citizens did not, and to this day still do not, see IPCs as equal to humans in any way, leading to the League’s loss in the election to their long standing political rivals, The Republican Revolutionary Society. The new prime minister, Majedah Al-Haddad, was then left with a rather big quandary, being the new head of state of the first country in the Orion Spur to grant citizenship to IPCs, despite it being wildly unpopular. Simply revoking citizenship from IPCs was not something that would look good or be popular among these new citizens, so instead she came to the decision that the IPCs that had citizenship currently could keep it. However, there would be new restrictions put in place on how citizenship among IPCs was handled. In 2429, the Synthetic Citizen Act was passed, the provisions of which can be found in the drop-down menu below.
The Synthetic Citizenship Act
- A quota of citizenships are to be allotted to IPC manufacturers annually. They are to not exceed nor fail to meet the quota. The quota is to be adjusted annually.
- The number of IPC citizens in the republic of Elyra is to never exceed 10% of the total citizen population. If it does, allotment of citizenship to IPCs at the point of manufacture is to be halted until further notice.
- An IPC that wishes to be freed by its owner must go through a citizenship attainment process similar to an immigration application. Service in the Elyran armed forces does not make an owned IPC eligible for citizenship.
- Elyran IPC citizens are entitled to the full allotment of rights that their organic counterparts enjoy. They are entirely equal under the law.
- No foreign-manufactured IPCs are to be granted Elyran citizenship under any circumstance.
- Social services such as repair and maintenance duties will be cared for by the Elyran welfare system.
For owned IPCs, when an Elyran integrated positronic chassis is manufactured, their ownership largely falls under the megacorporation that built them. During this period, maintenance and repairs are offered as a part of their ownership to the company. The process by which an owned synthetic becomes a free one is long, extensive, and incredibly bureaucratic, much like the process of a foreigner wishing to immigrate to Elyra. Similarly, it has a small success rate with the majority of free Elyran IPCs being manufactured as from their creation. Elyran IPC manufacturers are free to allot citizenship however they please, so long as they do not exceed or fall behind the target given to them by the Elyran government. For this reason, it is very arbitrary among Elyran synthetics as to which ones become citizens and which do not.
A deep-seated paranoia in synthetics manufactured from different systems trying to infiltrate Elyran society has meant that non-Elyran synthetics seeking refuge in the republic are outright turned away, sent back to their fleeing star systems or, if volatile, decommissioned outright. This doesn’t stop synthetics from attempting covert operations of forging documentation. As a result, Elyran synthetics have a tiny phoron inlaid engraving on their tag, denoting their original make as Elyran-made synthetics.
Military
See also: Elyra Military
From the inception of the country, the Elyran Armed Forces have been an integral part of the Serene Republic. The country’s military has its origins in the garrisons of Persepolis and Damascus II that rebelled against the Solarian colonial authority and sided with the revolutionaries during the Elyran revolution, who, without the help of these defecting soldiers, would not have been liberated from Solarian rule. The EAF has a pivotal role in the nation’s politics as the last line of defense against internal threats. As written in the Elyran constitution, the EAF has the right and responsibility to dissolve parliament and depose the current ruling party if the Elyran Joint Command Staff believes there to be a violation of the constitution. This has never happened in the entire history of the Republic, but it is still a function the military serves, despite calls from some in the government to revise the constitution so as to revoke that power.
Despite its importance to the historical narrative of the Elyran Revolution though, for most of its history the EAF was primarily a second-rate self-defense force that primarily focused itself on two things: its versatility on one hand, and defense on the other. The military often engaged in tasks relating to territorial defense, policing, anti-piracy, and disaster relief throughout the Badlands and Valley Hale regions as well as within the territory of the Republic itself. The EAF was usually decades behind the leading militaries in the Orion Spur in terms of both technological prowess and strategic largess, though this often did not matter as Elyra had not been involved in a war between itself and another interstellar power aside from its progenitating revolution.
This trend abruptly changed in 2457 however as the EAF was caught off-guard and humiliated by the Lii’dra’s incursion force surrounding Bursa. After two weeks of fighting, the EAF was able to repel the Vaurca invaders, but tens of thousands of Elyrans had died, and the military had received almost unilateral criticism across all political parties of the country for its poor planning and handling of the situation. This also spurred a similar cry for modernization of the EAF; the transformation of the institution from a small, outdated, coast guard-esque force to a respectable, modern, and defensive military capable of protecting the Republic of Elyra and its citizens. For this reason, the Elyran Armed Forces are currently in a state of transition, with new cutting edge plasma weaponry and hover-vehicles often working alongside decades-old lasers and mechs. The EAF aims to be fully modernised by 2470, though the troubles caused in the country’s economy by the spur-wide phoron shortage have slowed down many modernization efforts.
Technology
The technological advancements in the Republic, which can be owed to its rich deposits of phoron and high economic standing, are the foundations on which Elyra is built.
Magpulse drives: Developed over the course of twenty years during efforts to colonize Medina, the magpulse drive consists of magnetized phoron-based materials that over a century, have become the primary mode of transportation within the Republic. Because of the magpulse drive's proliferation, ground traffic elements that are not light rail trains, foot paths, or bicycles are more or less disregarded. Instead of parking lots are landing pads, and most indicators used to control traffic are left to heads-up-displays found within hovercars via helmets, screen projectors, and other means. Travel to and from any point within any Elyran territory as a result is usually fast, reliable and easy as hover-vehicles are fully capable of flying well above and beyond any obstacles or landscapes. The average commercial flying car would be able to sustain flight at nearly fifty meters over ground.
The most prominent example of magpulse drives is on the surface of Medina, where entire cities are suspended above the perpetually-shifting ground on the backs of magpulse platforms.
Virtual reality and simulation technology: Elyran virtual reality is considered among the best in the Spur, and the best that humanity can offer. Owing to a complex series of processors, lights, and in some cases headsets and equipment used to simulate touch and scent, the technology is both incredibly immersive and typically accessible (though expensive) to the average citizen. Collaborations between Osman Electronics and Idris Incorporated on VR exist as public-access "VR plazas", where a room can be rented and enjoyed by one or more people. Private terminals can also be commissioned which are considerably more advanced and intricate, though these can cost hundreds of thousands of credits.
Plasma technology: Utilized exclusively in the military field, high-end plasma technology is the most apparent indicator of Elyran presence in any given combat situation. They are the only faction to utilize superheated plasma in this sense, able to penetrate and combust foes from the inside out with horrifying results. The ethics behind using such weapons are questionable, yet their effectiveness is without doubt. This was pioneered after the Lii’dra incursion to Bursa as part of the Elyran military’s modernization initiative.
Underdeveloped areas
By and large, Elyran technological progress is on average fairly advanced, mostly due to its status as the Spur-wide leader in applied phoronics and virtual reality simulation technology only rivalled by that of the Vaurca. Despite this, there are areas of the sciences where Elyra is noticeably behind in technological development.
Robotics: The posibrain as a piece of technology was never bought by any Elyran corporation or the Elyran state— as in any such transaction the Republic felt that it would have had to make unnecessarily large economic concessions to an outside party. Instead, a supply of Einstein Engines posibrains made their way into Elyran hands through uncertain, though almost certainly clandestine methods. After years of work with numerous setbacks, Elyran scientists reverse engineered a posibrain in 2423 that would become the basis of all future Elyran positronic development. Since then, Elyran scientists have focused much more on the artificial intelligence aspect of positronics rather than the “integrated,” chassis-focused aspect seen in other states. While producers of advanced AIs, they are notably behind in robotic development when compared to other nations in the Orion Spur such as the Sol Alliance, Republic of Biesel, and Coalition of Colonies.
Aerospace: Historically the Elyran aerospace industry has been rather inactive in the area of technological advancement as Elyra has experienced almost no conflicts with the outside world that would have inspired pressure on the Elyran aerospace industry to innovate relative to their competitors. Due to the Lii’dra invasion, this was changed. The Elyran military now bankrolls extensive aerospace research to become on par with other nations, and most importantly militaries, in the Spur, with a focus on maintaining parity with the Empire of Dominia to the Republic’s galactic southwest. The Elyran aerospace community is making fast advances in this field and its estimated that they will be on par with the rest of the developed nations of the Spur, if not surpassed them, within the lifetime of an average human.
Genetics: Genetic research, at least in animals and humans, has seen little progress in Elyra as well in recent years. Most of the scientific focus in Elyra has transitioned to phoron-based studies since the early 22nd century, where genetic research took a back seat to the newer, and much more profitable, science of phoron. One notable exception is that Elyra has kept up in the agricultural side of genetics and is even seen as a leader in the field. Recently, Elyra has attempted to rekindle the full spectrum of genetics research in order to compete with their geopolitical rival the Empire of Dominia, a Spur-wide leader in genetic modification research. The gains from this initiative have been negligible.