Messembria

Geographical Info:

• Verdana Province

• Rhipaion Province

• Appen Province

• Lixan Province

Messembria is a very organized nation, a parliamentary republic with representative lawmakers elected from the various provinces of the nation, who in turn elect the premier. While it has not succumbed to dictatorship at any point in its history thus far, it does have a bit of an authoritarian streak that comes out at times. Troublemakers were at first encouraged to leave and, after a violent anarchist rebellion in 286 HE, the perpetrators were exiled to Boreas. Messembria itself was founded when dissidents left the original colony of Auxesia, wanting a more traditionally structured government with stronger executive authority, as compared to Auxesia's fairly socialist government.

Messembria has public schooling, with a high rate of graduation and very good higher education. Although much larger than the other nations, Messembria suffered great losses in the Global War; however, significant numbers of artifacts, publications, computers, and archives were preserved due to the actions of the Order of the Eighth Day, an emerging religious order of the time that prized knowledge and sought to defend what they could. The resulting knowledge helped Messembria rebuild itself into a technological superpower, its present-day technologies (in 882 HE) roughly equivalent to early 21^st century or beyond.

Messembria's capital is Crios, located in the Verdana Valley. It is a warm, tropical location surrounded by rain forests and farmlands. As the largest continent, stretching nearly from pole to pole, Messembria is home to a wide variety of climates. Local travel may use electric cars or train systems; traveling across the continent or to other nations usually involves high speed trains, air travel, or vacuum tubes (in order of both speed and expense). Messembria has a standing army, which has begun to form closer ties to private companies and government research organizations following the opening of the Rift and the coming of Erebos. Government control of its citizens and restrictive laws have increased somewhat, in the name of national defense. The Messembrian Network, a type of national internet, is composed of government websites, licensed privately owned sites, and interpersonal communications systems such as digital telephone and text services. Most information on the Network is reviewed and filtered before publication, and one must be licensed in order to post original content, which includes comments and forum posts.

Messembria is divided into four provinces, each of which is further divided into parliamentary districts. The provinces are the Verdana Coast (Verdana Province), the Rhipaion Mountains (Rhipaion Province), the Appen Peninsula (Appen Province), and the Lixan Forests (Lixan Province). The capital city, Crios, is located within the boundaries of the Verdana Province but is considered a separate political entity and a parliamentary district in its own right.