Jezerni

From Scandia

Republic of Jezerni

Flags of Scandia
Parent	Haromszek ( CHzS )
Founding Date	9 June, 1287
Government  • Type  • Prime Minister	Representative Republic Dr. Georg T. Nafus
Adjective	Jezernii
Capital	Somoszenes
Administrative Divisions	counties (21), districts (6)
Largest City	Jazarkany (1,341,000)
Area  • Total  • % water	km² ( sq mi) 12%
Population  • Total  • Growth Rate  • Density  • Rank in CHzS	6,997,200 0.21/1000 /km² (/sq mi) 5 / 25
GDP  • Total  • GDP/capita  • Growth Rate  • Rank in CHzS	HzSk HzSk + .09% / 25
Time Zones	WNT (SMT -9)
Technology Codes  • scandianet TLD  • Trigraph  • Calling Code	.jz; .hz JZE +32

Jezerni is one of the twenty-five constituent territorial republics of the Confederation of Haromszeki States.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Territory 3 Government 4 Economy 5 Geography 6 Military and Police

Origins

Jezerni set aside rule by aristocracy before almost any other Haromszeki republic, thanks to the strong rule of the Garantiz family in the 1200's. A succession of Garantiz dukes not only repressed the populace but also antagonized neighboring nations. When in 1288 the Jezernii Republican Front staged an uprising, none within or without the Duchy was willing to help embattled Duke Caroly II. Outside of his palace guard less than one army unit in ten responded. None of the Garantiz dukes had been beloved, but Caroly II was also inept, corrupt, and indecisive. Duke Lefevre of neighboring Sechovce (the Cerbesti part of today's River District ) in a public speech mentioned he would prefer a "republican rabble" running Jezerni as such un-noble nobility as the Garantiz line. That Lefevre had a member of Duke Caroly II's family in prison in Kacnic, convicted of public debauchery, was one of many nails in the lid of the dynastic coffin. Today it is hard to find anyone willing to admit to having Garantiz blood.

Ferenc Lubez was the JR Front leader with the most political initiative - many more popular figures were academics, doctors, or entertainers. Today that would hardly stop a candidate for office - Prime Minister Dr. Georg T. Nafus being the obvious example. But in 1288, the Duke's government had left such a bad taste that prominent Republicans wanted nothing to do with governance, once the immediate issue of Garantiz' removal was gone. Lubez handily won a seat in the new legislature, which body promptly elevated him as Prime Minister. With two gaps in service when other parties held power, Lubez' stint as PM lasted thirty-two years, a record unmatched in two and a half centuries.

Territory

Jezerny appears on maps as far back as the 1100's, first as a duchy, always with the cities of Somoszenes and Jazarkany. Usually the city of Jaszbegyarmat has been part of Jezerny also, though before a hundred fifty years ago it was more of a town than a city. Jezerny gained the Grezenfiel Counties at the head of Lake Bajostat in the dissolution of Santov Jespec in the mid-1460's. At almost the same time it gave up its northern counties to Lucco Hovy (now Tarej) and grew toward the west, adding formerly Sechovcean land. Indeed several counties on that Sechovcean border have been traded back and forth between the two Bajostat-shore nations for hundreds of years, both peaceably and by armed force.

Government

• Prime Minister Dr. Georg T. Nafus
  

  Dr. Georg Nafus, Prime Minister since 1533
• Presidost Jean-Louis Abbertenziej
• Supreme Justice Dr. Philipe-Tomas Vinn
• Intrarepublic Coordination Minister (Hz-internal foreign affairs) Vantessa Sontaille

The arrangement of the Jezerni national legislature has changed several times across the near-250-year life of the Republic. Currently it is a single body of 170 legislators, proportionately representing the twenty-one counties and six districts of Jezerni. The only modifier to strict proportionality is that each district has at least three representatives - some are so small that they would deserve only one or two. The Prime Minister selected by the legislature acts as the head of state, while a directly elected Presidost heads the executive branch of the government. The head of state vs. head of government arrangement is opposite that typical to many parliamentary republics, and has swapped back and forth three times. An independent judiciary of three levels (High, County, and Local Courts) rounds out the branches of national governance. While local courts operate over quite small areas, they are nevertheless national officers. Legislatural and executive governance have two and three levels, respectively, each selected across differing territories. All this is the territorial Jezerny Republic - there are of course ethnic and language republics coexisting in the usual Haromszeki overlapping manner. Jezerny was an early adopter of the layered sovereignty concept, with elements of it in place as early as 1400. Prior to that, the usual frictions between people groups enlivened the republic's politics, though never to the point of armed strife as in some corners of Haromszek.

Jezerni can be obnoxious among other Haromszekis over their "oldest republic" status. If questioned about the "oldest" bit, they are quick to note that Obilnice after all reverted to autocratic rule for a time after its 1272-1295 republican regime.

Economy

Jazarkany's Rippon Steel is Haromszek's only true steel mill. Even then, it only remelts from scrap -- no Haromzeki republic has iron ore. Copper is further refined from rough-smelted ingots from Vysocina, across Lake Bajostat. Once the Jazarkany area competed with Aubordulac across he lake as a major chemical producer, but most of those plants have shut down. Coal-fired power plants still belch smoke, but the north shore of the lake is not the smoggy disaster it was fifty years ago. Today, Jazarkany hosts a huge number of financial services firms and the headquarters of a bewildering array of multinational businesses. Agriculture includes corn, cattle, tree-fruits, and Bajostat fisheries. Jezerni is a net importer of foodstuffs, only because it brings in twice its considerable export volume. The Tenget Flats area provides much of the dairy products needed by the republic's cities. Oxbow-farmed catfish are a local staple, those waters being much cleaner than river or Bajostat proper.

Trade and commerce hinge upon lake shipping and river traffic. The portion of the Jakobrieka within Jezerni brings in a lot of revenue. Major shipyards - both repair and construction - line the shore at Jazarkany. Smaller builders and outfitters line the Jakobrieka below Somoszenes. Jezerni's islands in Bajostat generate massive amounts of tourist revenue, both local and from Csorgyos -- Namtally is but three kilometers from the Csorgyos shore. Private water taxis, yachts, and speedboats throng the waters north of the largest Bajostat island, Onvukegly Bar. The severe winters necessitate dry-warehousing many of these, three or four months of the year.

River and lake hem in rail transport, but the few bridges and numerous lake ferries stay full. Local rail links with the River District and Tarej keep the many intermediate steps of Jezerni manufacturing going. The northern quarter of the republic does have strong rail and highway links bringing the produce of Hrebenisc to the Jakobrieka and supplying the world's riverborne imports to that neighbor republic. Not much Tarej traffic comes to the river by land - most of their shippers use ports further upriver.

Geography

Jezerni's Lake Bajostat shore, where once the water level was many meters higher, is a flat strip several dozen kilometers wide. The republic's rivers emptying into Bajostat other than the Jakobrieka are minor waterways. Only the Djunea at Ondu is navigable. There, during periods of strife with Sechovce, an awkward narrow canal operated, to bleed downriver traffic away from the rival state. Another flat area of river bottomlands lines the Jakobrieka's Jezerni length. The mighty river's course there is winding and prone to occasional flooding. No dams hinder the Jakobrieka within Jezerni. A few experimental free-turbine generators make use of the huge flow, but hydroelectric power is not a major contributor to the republic's energy needs. Hundreds of bayous and oxbow lakes provide recreational water space as well as opportunity for freshwater fish farms. The riverbottom has been intensively managed for centuries, but its worst floodprone parts are left as marsh.

The rest of the republic is uniformly hilly, save for a stretch of plains south of Jaszbegyarmat.

Winter average temperatures fluctuate widely, but in colder winters there can be a ferocious lake-effect snow belt covering the entire Kingdom. Some years total snowfall in Jazarkany is over eight meters. Warmer weather runs in cycles, melting much of it, but that's a mixed blessing. Incomplete thaws with renewed cold can leave sheets of ice centemeters thick. Neither Bajostat nor the Jakobrieka freezes over. Backwaters do.

Military and Police

Military forces are strongly oriented toward defense. A modest but well-honed army trains with like forces of some adjacent republics. Air and waterborne forces on the other hand operate solely on their own. Neither has much of a dire need among Haromszeki neighbors whose last armed conflict was over a century back. Instead they provide a strong patrol and police presence. There's zero piracy or smuggling in Jezerni waters. Precious little occurs across the rest of Bajostat - the excellent Jezernii naval patrol force operates under contract to Csorgyos and Jeanissin. The lake is of course too small to require carriers, but the islands perform that function.

Civil law enforcement is not a national matter but one for counties and towns. Efficient and only modestly corrupt police and border guardians are widespread but the atmosphere is not one of a police state. Rather, patrolmen are typically older men and women, cultivating a "genial senior relative" air. They really are respected, but are far from harmless. Jezerni has only a moderate crime rate - citizens and visitors are safer, for example, than in the more densely populated megalopolis of the River District.