Nova Scotia: Difference between revisions

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|national_motto = <br>"''"''</br>
|national_motto = <br>"''"''</br>
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|official_languages = [[Common language|English]]
|official_languages = [[Stired (Nova Scotian)]]
|demonym = Nova Scotian
|demonym = Nova Scotian
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|capital = [[]]
|capital = [[]]
|largest_city = [[]]
|largest_city = [[]]
|government_type = [[]]
|government_type = [[Theocracy]]
|leader_title1 = [[]]
|leader_title1 = [[]]
|leader_name1 = [[]]
|leader_name1 = [[]]
|leader_title2 = [[]]
|leader_title2 = [[]]
|leader_name2 = [[]]
|leader_name2 = [[]]
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|legislature = [[Holyrood]]
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== History ==
== History ==
The Nova Scotians have a long and complex history which has now passed into myth for the people themselves. Their only knowledge of their ancient history comes from the 'Cult of Mouth-Smile', whose esoteric translations mystify Nova Scotian scholars. What actually happened is that some time in late twenty-first century Earth, Scotland became independent from the United Kingdom, and amidst political and economic instability, increasingly became influenced by China. To Nova Scotians, Scotland and China now seem to have always been the same thing -- a great polity they call Old Glasgow. Their flag, adapted from the logo of the Glasgow Subway, is believed to be the imperial standard of the Wallace Dynasty, whose great leader, Wallace William, united heaven and earth in Old Glasgow.


After many years of cultural integration between China and Scotland, a group of Scots on a trading mission through the Northwest Passage found themselves lost in a storm and then suddenly transported to another world. Plummeting to the snowy peaks of the Air Nation, they discovered that in this world they could control the air, and so they flew to safety. Soon, these early Nova Scotians came to love their airbending abilities and enthusiastically took up the local Empyrean religion. However, they would take the religion in strange directions, probably influenced by Old Glaswegian philosophy. The dichotomy between Open Sky and Substance was very important for the Nova Scotians, who connected it with heaven and earth and the authority of the monarch. The monarch's legitimacy came from their role as Child of Heaven and ability to unite Open Sky and Substance, but increasingly Open Sky was seen as mysterious and complex. This led to a class of priests called Kenners who claimed to be able to interpret the Open Sky, particularly as it manifested itself in the monarch's unconciousness. The early practice of confession, inherited from some Old Glaswegian cults, became the principal way of interpreting the will of the monarch, rather than the monarch's explicit statements. Soon the Kenners became the most powerful members of society, amassing personal wealth through their abillity to manipulate the monarch, whose role was pushed into a ceremonial one. Whilst only a few Kenners were able to influence the monarch, their brand of Empyreanism influenced the whole local clergy. Confession spread to the whole of society, particularly nobles and landowners, and this highly divergent strand of Empyreanism was dubbed Kennism. The influence of Kennism continued to grow, and a complex religious bureaucracy began to control more of Nova Scotians.
=== Origins ===


After a few generations like this, the ambitions of the Kenners exceeded the tolerance of the Air Nation, whilst all acknowledged the great divergence between Empyreanism and Kennism. It was therefore lucky that their differences could be resolved amicably, as the Nova Scotians went into voluntary exile to the far west of the world. The monarchy was set up on the towering islands west of Ratzores, whilst the most powerful Kenners, calling themselves First Ministers after an Old Glaswegian custom, carved out the rest of the lands into personal fiefdoms. The First Ministers also created a parliament on the the other mountainous island where they would hear the monarch's confessions and then decide policy amongst themselves. Despite the great ambition of the First Ministers, strict taboos on grabbing power exist amongst them, which, along with a rigid bureaucracy, keep Nova Scotia in a comparatively stable domestic situation.
It is unknown how the Nova Scotians first came to this world. It is also unknown what their own world was like, though the people brought with them a long memory of ancient states wrapped in myth known as Scotland and Old Glasgow.
However they got here, these people landed in a secluded area of highlands within the Air Nation. Although they mostly lived separately from the natives, many began to follow the teachings of Empyreanism. At some point, a push towards syncretism was orchestrated by a class of people known as Kenners. They claimed to understand the complex interplay between Empyrean and Old Glaswegian thought. At the heart of their philosophy was a distinction between Heaven and Earth, which had been in balance during Glasgow's past but was now awry.
 
Early Kennism was based on the charisma of an individual Kenner. They provided guidance across a few villages, exerting great influence on their communities, but always maintaining that their work was spiritual not temporal. After a while, some Kenners started to declare that they had found the heirs of Old Glasgow. Then, all over their little pocket of the Air Nation, warbands started to show up. They each had dual leadership between the Kenner and the claimed heir, known as a Ghost (from the Taoist concept of a xian). Together, they embodied the Sky/Substance dichotomy, with the Ghost handling temporal affairs, usually war, and the Kenner offering spiritual guidance and interpretation of the Ghost’s thoughts, in a practice known as confession. Scotian society in this time was highly warlike, and dominated by men.
 
As these warbands conquered more territory, a primitive civil service / clergy emerged, composed of underlings of the Kenners. As these underlings were not full Kenners they were permitted to deal in temporal affairs, which usually amounted to taxation. Whilst early administration could be characterised as nothing more than a protection racket, some Kenners eventually oversaw a complex system of extraction, which they usually reinvested in to the military. The power of the Kenners came to eclipse that of their partner Ghosts.
 
The expansionism of the Kenners brought them into frequent conflict with one another, with increasingly brutal fighting. When this inevitably spilled over into the rest of the Air Nation, the Scotians were put down quickly by their hosts. The Kenners started to agree with each other that they could not continue within the Nation. Thus, they came up with a plan to pool their resources, unite for the first time, and carve out a chunk of the Air Nation for themselves.
 
For a year, the Kenners travelled round their land, amassing an army. However, that Autumn a deadly blight struck the crops. The Ghosts urged the Kenners to allow the soldiers to come home and harvest what they could; the Ghosts were denied and locked in a stone chamber. As preparations went ahead, disquiet and desertion spread among the common people. They were spurred on by a group known as the Eleven Princes, children of the Ghosts, who argued that the Kenners had lost the Mandate of Heaven.  
 
When the army was fully amassed, in the market town of Stirling, starving people came out onto the streets, demanding bread. A mass of emaciated bodies surged towards the Kenners on their stage in the centre of the market place. The army was ordered to stop the crowd, but the army turned their heads. In later stories of this event, it’s said that the Kenners were ripped apart at the limbs and eaten by the starving people. Whatever happened to them, the Kenners and their underlings lost all of their power that day, and the void was filled by the Elven Princes. The young rulers announced that the war was to be called off. In light of what had happened, they proclaimed that balance between Heaven and Earth could not be found in this land. Instead, they led a mass migration over the sea and to the west.


== Geography ==
== Geography ==

Latest revision as of 02:48, 6 October 2023

Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Flag of Nova Scotia
Flag
Motto: 
""
Capital
and largest city
[[]]
Official languagesStired (Nova Scotian)
Ethnic groups
Demonym(s)Nova Scotian
GovernmentTheocracy
• [[]]
[[]]
• [[]]
[[]]
LegislatureHolyrood
Formation
• Founding of Nova Scotia
17 May 2022
Currency[[]]
Driving sideleft

Nova Scotia is a country.

History

Origins

It is unknown how the Nova Scotians first came to this world. It is also unknown what their own world was like, though the people brought with them a long memory of ancient states wrapped in myth known as Scotland and Old Glasgow. However they got here, these people landed in a secluded area of highlands within the Air Nation. Although they mostly lived separately from the natives, many began to follow the teachings of Empyreanism. At some point, a push towards syncretism was orchestrated by a class of people known as Kenners. They claimed to understand the complex interplay between Empyrean and Old Glaswegian thought. At the heart of their philosophy was a distinction between Heaven and Earth, which had been in balance during Glasgow's past but was now awry.

Early Kennism was based on the charisma of an individual Kenner. They provided guidance across a few villages, exerting great influence on their communities, but always maintaining that their work was spiritual not temporal. After a while, some Kenners started to declare that they had found the heirs of Old Glasgow. Then, all over their little pocket of the Air Nation, warbands started to show up. They each had dual leadership between the Kenner and the claimed heir, known as a Ghost (from the Taoist concept of a xian). Together, they embodied the Sky/Substance dichotomy, with the Ghost handling temporal affairs, usually war, and the Kenner offering spiritual guidance and interpretation of the Ghost’s thoughts, in a practice known as confession. Scotian society in this time was highly warlike, and dominated by men.

As these warbands conquered more territory, a primitive civil service / clergy emerged, composed of underlings of the Kenners. As these underlings were not full Kenners they were permitted to deal in temporal affairs, which usually amounted to taxation. Whilst early administration could be characterised as nothing more than a protection racket, some Kenners eventually oversaw a complex system of extraction, which they usually reinvested in to the military. The power of the Kenners came to eclipse that of their partner Ghosts.

The expansionism of the Kenners brought them into frequent conflict with one another, with increasingly brutal fighting. When this inevitably spilled over into the rest of the Air Nation, the Scotians were put down quickly by their hosts. The Kenners started to agree with each other that they could not continue within the Nation. Thus, they came up with a plan to pool their resources, unite for the first time, and carve out a chunk of the Air Nation for themselves.

For a year, the Kenners travelled round their land, amassing an army. However, that Autumn a deadly blight struck the crops. The Ghosts urged the Kenners to allow the soldiers to come home and harvest what they could; the Ghosts were denied and locked in a stone chamber. As preparations went ahead, disquiet and desertion spread among the common people. They were spurred on by a group known as the Eleven Princes, children of the Ghosts, who argued that the Kenners had lost the Mandate of Heaven.

When the army was fully amassed, in the market town of Stirling, starving people came out onto the streets, demanding bread. A mass of emaciated bodies surged towards the Kenners on their stage in the centre of the market place. The army was ordered to stop the crowd, but the army turned their heads. In later stories of this event, it’s said that the Kenners were ripped apart at the limbs and eaten by the starving people. Whatever happened to them, the Kenners and their underlings lost all of their power that day, and the void was filled by the Elven Princes. The young rulers announced that the war was to be called off. In light of what had happened, they proclaimed that balance between Heaven and Earth could not be found in this land. Instead, they led a mass migration over the sea and to the west.

Geography

TODO

Government and politics

TODO

Economy

TODO

Demographics

TODO

Culture

TODO

See also