Belny
| Belny Bèlgni (Roménian) | |
|---|---|
 One of the many canals that criss-cross central Belny | |
| Country |  Savam |
| State |  Dordanie |
| Population (2012) | |
| • Metro | 2,877,398 |
Belny (Roménien Bélgni) is a city in north-eastern Savam, located on the river Védomagne just at the southern border of its delta; it is the capital of the traditional province of Jalmédie and the greater geographic region of Lower Védomagne. Belny is the third-largest city in Dordanie and seventh-largest in Savam, with a metropolitan population of 2.9 million. It is an important industrial, trading, and cultural centre in north-eastern Messenia.
Belny has a long and rich history, having originally been founded during the Second Sabāmani Empire. The city’s historical core was built on what was then a multitude of islands in extensive marshlands; it retains today a network of canals and waterways which connect to the extensive canal network of Dordanie. However, the heart of the modern city shows little evidence of this antiquity, with Belny as it then was being largely destroyed by the Nihilist host under the command of Kazivit in 1143. As it rebuilt, it was populated mainly by Old Roménian speakers, who formed the western limit of the Sabamo-Aquilonial languages before they were pushed away by the advance of Savamese dialects. Sizeable groups of Verborian and other dialect-speakers remain present in the city, even after centuries of assimilation to standard Savamese.
The city grew in importance due to its pivotal location at an intersection between Messenian and Inner Joriscian trade lanes; routes crossing the Sabamic Gate reach Belny via Porians along the Védomagne, and the city has been the traditional western terminus of the Grand North Way since that route was established in the 16th century. For most of its history it has been a major inland entrepot and transhipment hub for traders exchanging with Transvechia and Boréa, and, later, further afield to Outer Joriscia. With the later rise of Lèz-les-Sablons as one of Savam’s major ports for blue-water trading, and the opening of a Zamorskian factory there, Belny enjoyed a privileged position as a distribution centre for Seranian and Ascesian goods into eastern Savam, Cis- and Translacunia, with the Petit Ru branch of the Védomagne being partially canalised to facilitate river traffic.
The city was for many years a major political centre in the realms. The rising house of Flessandre, as rulers in the Sablons, relocated its capital to Belny in 1349; it would remain there through numerous political changes before being taken to Quesailles when Maxime de Flessandre united his family’s realms as the Kingdom of Dordanie in 1461; the city still hosts a royal residence used by the Dordanian sovereigns. During the Dordanian Succession War (1597–1607), Belny was the power centre of the cadet Flessandre-Antal branch.
Belny has been a centre of learning since the Secote fall, with one of the first universities in the Sabamic region being founded there; during the early stages of the Cairan Reformation it was a hotbed of theological exchange as the tenets of the Reformation were established. Today it still has seven functioning universities, offering a wide range of study options and attracting a considerable student population, making Belny a leading location for youth culture in the country, competing with Poignes and Bar.
Connections to the universities have made the city a key location for business enterprises spinning out of scientific development and translationism. The SoNEN conglomerate maintains a facility within the city, where the country’s first RSFM reactor was developed and tested; and the Soleil company, Savam’s largest electronics and telecommunications manufacturer, has its central factory complex here.
With the rise of the automobile industry, Belny became a prominent centre; today it is home to the Cavalcanti company, builders of one of Messenia’s leading performance car marques and founded by Piero Cavalcanti, originally of a farming family from the city’s southern outskirts, in 1938. In the modern era Belny has also become a focal point for Savam’s agricultural industry, with large areas of former marshland in the Lower Védomagne having been drained and converted into productive farmland. The University of Belny today has one of the best regarded land-management and agronomy courses anywhere in Messenia.