Eichenhain

United Counties of Eichenhain, Emmel and Fichtel Ϝερεινιγτε Γραφϸαφτεν Ειχεναιν, Εμμελ ϭνδ Φιχτελ Vereinigte Grafschaften Eichenhain, Emmel und Fichtel
Flag
Eichenhain in Messenia
Capital and largest city	Emmel
Official languages	Zepnish
Ethnic groups	Zepnish
Demonym	Eichenhainer
Government	Respublican monarchy
• Prince	Stefan IV
• Chief Counselor	Albrecht Haller
Establishment
• Treaty of Emmel	1736
Area
• Total	4,453.3 km2 (1,719.4 sq mi)
Population
• 2016 census	1,798,914
• Density	404/km2 (1,046.4/sq mi)
Currency	Eichenhain mark (EIM)

Eichenhain, more fully styled the United Counties of Eichenhain, Emmel and Fichtel (Zepnish Vereinigte Grafschaften Eichenhain, Emmel und Fichtel) is a country located in southern Messenia. It shares land borders with only two countries, Zeppengeran to the east and Alcasia to the north; it also has a lengthy maritime boundary with the latter across Skellish Bay north of the island of Fichtel, which comprises almost half of the principality’s land area. Its capital, located in the north of the country’s mainland portion, is Emmel.

Etymology

The name Eichenhain translates from Zepnish as “oak grove”; the name was attached to one of the component territories of the country from the village of the same name, located on the western coast, although it was a larger town at that time and has much diminished in size in the last century.

Geography

The three territories which make up Eichenhain are located in the south-eastern corner of Skellish Bay, with the counties of Eichenhain (to the south) and Emmel (to the north) on the mainland and Fichtel offshore to the north-west. The land in this region is mainly low-lying, with the highest point in the country, a little to the south of the village of Düssel in the south-east of the county of Eichenhain, being only 91 metres (299 feet) above sea level; the two mainland counties are divided roughly by the Hohenaspe hills, which rise just south of Emmel and run roughly north to south. Fichtel’s landscape is similar, with the roughly central Hexenhügel at only 58 metres (191 feet) at its peak.

The local climate is classified as Median according to the D'Hesmel climate classification, more specifically the "Zepnich" warm-summer variety. Precipitations during the winter are very high, thanks to depressions from the Arcedian Sea being able to cross over Messenia and pass east of the Aphrasians without too much interruptions; although the summer is dry the high winter rainfalls allow for diverse and dense Median flora to thrive, and has always been conductive to agricultural developments.

History

Pre-first millennium BCE

Evidence of permanent settlement around the southern Skellish Bay can be dated to the period 2500–2000 BCE, and the first definable polities came into existence in the early second millennium. The area of present-day Eichenhain came into the hands of the expanding Dammurite kingdom from the late 17th century BCE, and its proximity to the imperial capital at Tarhuli kept it largely under the Dammurite and later Larhine aegis until the very end of the empire, with a region around the southern bay being ruled as an imperial province from the town of Kusatas, north of present-day Emmel (the name is Antissan and translates approximately as “dowry”). Kusatas was largely spared the catastrophic damage caused elsewhere by the Hilima incident (with shockwaves being shielded from it by the intervening bulk of Källarey and Mirrey), but the pressures placed on the city and its hinterland by the flow of refugees from elsewhere in the collapsing empire saw it largely destroyed by riots in 840 BCE, and the site was later abandoned.

The rise of Siriash in the sixth and early fifth centuries BCE saw waves of fighting sweep across the region during the period of the Sundering. However, Eichenhain’s proximity to the birthplace of the new faith in Coseptra ultimately made it an early conquest for the Sirians, with it coming firmly into their fold by at least 540 BCE.

The birth of Eichenhain

The territory which today forms Eichenhain originally broke away from the increasingly moribund Palthic Empire in 1701, as part of the then duchy – and later kingdom – of Alcasia; but Klaus von Emmel, then the lord of the putative state’s southernmost counties, had forced concessions from his liege lord Peter von Leiditz – principally based around concessions to the area’s Zepnish-speaking people, a minority in Alcasia as a whole but the overwhelming majority locally – that were increasingly ignored in later years under Peter’s son Stefan.

For Helmut von Emmel, this neglect was increasingly intolerable; and his rising anger finally broke its boundaries in Ediface 1734, when he closed down all Alcasian government offices in his territory and expelled all government employees back to Alcasia proper if they did not live or have family locally. Two days after this action he formally proclaimed the new status of the United Counties as a principality, with himself as prince.

Understandably, Stefan took strong action in response; but Emmel was not without allies. Siurskeyti, which was more than happy to lend its aid in return for free access to port facilities deeper into the Medius Sea, threw its weight behind the Eichenhainers. In the ensuing Drunkards’ War (1734–36), the pocket principality was well able to defend itself and even to take the fight to the Alcasians, with a combined Siursk and Eichenhainer fleet bombarding the port city of Feijerpoort in Nollonger 1735. Stefan, frustrated by his forces’ seeming inability to crack this nut and unwilling to meet the costs of a prolonged war, agreed to Emmel’s terms, signing the Treaty of Emmel in Dominy 1736 and confirming an independent Eichenhain.

20th century

Eichenhain observed events in nearby Sergony during the later 1940s and 1950s with concern, particularly following the failure of the Sergonish White Rose coup. The Zepnish invasion of Sergony in 1951 prompted fears in Eichenhain that they would be next on the agenda, given long-standing sentiment in Zeppengeran that both polities were Zepnish by dint of history and culture.

Present-day

For most practical purposes, there is very little indication beyond border formalities of real distinction between Eichenhain and its much larger neighbour, with the landscape very similar on either side of the border and the Eichenhain dialect of Zepnish varying only in minor details from that prevalent across most of Laugland in western Zeppengeran.

Government

Eichenhain is led by the Prince of Eichenhain, who derives authority from taxal by the Orders of the three constituent urban communes, including both Houses subordinated to a Lamneary, as well as guilds of craftsmen and monks. They are represented by appointing representatives to a Diet, which then appoints a Chief Counselor to assist the Prince in matters of government. Administration is carried out by offices directly supervised by the Prince and the Chief Counselor. The Prince has broad powers in appointing and dismissing officials and magistrates, and in approving of policies and legislation proposed by the Diet, although all are theoretically contestable should the ordinal bodies find princely conduct inappropriate. Relations between the Prince and the wider polity have been harmonious, and the royal household itself is a member of Eichenhainer burgher life.

Economy

While Eichenhain has, for its size, a remarkably robust industrial capacity, the financial sector plays a larger part in the country’s contemporary economy; while not as big a player in the field as its chief competitors Argevau and Västrahamn, Eichenhain has become a significant tax haven and shield for funds which their holders prefer to keep from the public gaze, and is the largest such in the Sirian world at the present time. In particular, Eichenhainer banks pioneered the practice of Kennwortkontos or “password accounts”, which allowed anonymous deposit and withdrawal of funds against the presentation of a passbook for the account and the declaration of a predetermined password; no other proof of identity was requested. Any person who could provide both passbook and password was presumed by the bank to be the legitimate account holder, and under Eichenhainer law the bank held immunity from prosecution if this security was breached. The Kennwortkonto system ended in 1987, as a requirement of Eichenhain’s joining the Zweibeck League, but only for new accounts; accounts in existence before this date can still be (and are) used.

Culture and religion

In common with most of Palthia, Eichenhain’s dominant religious faith is Siriash, represented overwhelmingly through the Coseptran rite. The area around the Skellish Bay was one of the first in which the new faith drove out its progenitor Palthachism, with Ilran of Aradahhun, one of the early followers of Menrot, establishing the Shrine of the Multitude in Emmel as early as 588 BCE.