Sæmunsvar

Sæmunsvar is an overseas territory of Siurskeyti – officially termed an “assisted territory” or aðstoðarsvæði – located on the north-eastern coast of the Serrinean peninsula in south-eastern Ascesia; for administrative purposes it is regarded as part of the commonhold of Skjóll. It has a short border along the river Azarhan in the far north-west with Nation 127, and also borders Nation 101 in the west and Nation 122 to the south-east. Its capital and chief centre of population is Surkebrá (formerly known as Cham Sureh), at the mouth of the river of the same name on the territory’s southern coast close to the Nation 122 border.

Etymology

The derivation of the name Sæmunsvar is unclear; documents from the twelfth century CE refer to the area around present-day Surkebrá as zeman zaba, but while the latter word approximates to “gold” in the modern Homâyuni language, which is the most widely-spoken locally, zeman is not elsewhere attested. A possible meaning “land of gold” has been suggested, but there is little evidence to support the assertion (there is no indication of gold ever being mined in the region).

History

Origins

Although the Siursk presence in the region dates back as far as the late 16th century, it was not until 1745 that a surrender of territory in what became Sæmunsvar took place. This came about as a result of the Chafnak Incident in the princely state of Dirman in the summer of that year, in which a Siursk merchant was killed by a local military commander who considered that the foreigner had impugned his honour. Quite apart from the pain caused to the merchant’s family, such action clearly breached the treaty agreed between the salar of Dirman and the Siursk government as recently as 1739.

Punitive action by Ostari when the Dirmani would not meet Siursk demands for compensation and apology saw Surkebrá take severe damage from Siursk naval bombardment over the period 15–17 Empery (27–29 Mandæsur) – a period referred to by locals as the “Siur War” (Čang e-Isurhá); fearing even worse punishment to come, the salar declared his willingness to yield. In lieu of monetary reparations, he ceded Surkebrá and a substantial stretch of coast in the south of present-day Sæmunsvar to Siurskeyti in perpetuity, as well as agreeing to pay 200,000 reylar to the family of the Siursk merchant; in exchange, the Siursk government pledged that they would not force the salar from his throne – although this proved to be something of a hollow promise, given the extent to which Siur advisors would circumscribe the actions of the salar and his successors in later years. As a result of the actions of later salars, the territory not owned outright by the Siursk became a leasehold in 1801, and was taken over permanently (in settlement of debts owed by the royal household) in 1879. The whole question would finally become a dead issue after the extinction of the princely line in 1903.

While neighbouring Ascesian principalities had been mostly prepared to acquiesce against the Siur presence in Sæmunsvar – largely following the principles of chandane common in the region – a formal cession of territory, and a resultant permanent foothold, was something that almost all found unacceptable. Those states immediately bordering Sæmunsvar were frequently at odds with the Messenians, although they seldom posed a serious military threat for Siursk troops stationed in the territory, and were more likely to be actively in arms against each other or even among themselves. In these cases it was just as likely that a particular prince might actively seek Siursk aid in dealing with his neighbours or even his own people. A case in point is the short Cham Kabud War of 1894-95, in which a Siursk force which had aided the prince of Sonqor (today in Nation 127) against a rebellious district governor later annexed that district when the Sonqori sought to force their withdrawal.

The 20th century

The issue of independence for Sæmunsvar emerged with force in the middle to late 1910s and was fostered to some degree by Shevani Zenderoudi, the Siursk-educated daughter of the last ruler of Dirman; it was largely with support from the pro-independence wing of the Lokha, the territorial government chamber, that she assumed its leadership in 1915. However, the push was negated by the discovery by Siursk intelligence services in late 1922 that Sæmunsvarskur separatists were receiving covert financial and logistic support from the government of Yfirland. This apparently counter-intuitive action from a country which has seldom shown any love for Ascesian indigenes was, it has been claimed, being undertaken in the belief that a newly-independent Sæmunsvar would be open to economic control by Yfirlander business interests. Despite vigorous denials from Stjörnuvík, the public backlash saw the ouster of Zenderoudi’s government, and in the aftermath she was one of several Sæmunsvarskur politicians who were effectively driven out of public life.

The role traditionally taken by Siurskeyti in much of Serrinea of intermediary and arbiter assumed a greater prominence during the 1930s and 1940s; although the country remained largely detached from intra-Messenian disputes within the continent, the squabbles and occasional outbreaks of inter-state warfare in Serrinea mandated an active and alert presence by Siursk military to maintain something which could realistically be called a state of peace. While some of this was steered through Tire, where the Siursk presence had been strong for over fifty years, and the Siursk naval base on Misstey, Sæmunsvar allowed Ostari a much freer hand. As well as purely local disputes, the Siursk maintained a wary eye over the efforts by other Messenian states to gain influence in the region; Savam, through Dodaristan and some of its neighbours, was a particular concern, and the Siursk had some reason to be concerned that Quesailles’ continuing cold war with Odann could heat to boiling point with little warning, and consequent threat to Siursk shipping in a Medius Sea which generations of Siursk had come to see as almost a private preserve. The heightened state of tensions with Zeppengeran during the Straits Game period (1925–55) also made Sæmunsvar an outpost against interference by Henver and its local ally Busar in the region.

The privations of the immediate post-war period, and the role played by Sæmunsvar and the wider Samstarfslönd region in alleviating them, forced a significant reappraisal of the territory within Siurskeyti proper. Conscious efforts have been made by both state and private agents since the middle 1980s to invest in Sæmunsvar, with Ostari providing some significant tax incentives to encourage the involvement of private enterprise, and while the territory still lages behind the metropole in some key economic metrics, its general standard of living is by most measures the highest within the Samstarfslönd. A particular coup in this respect was the decision by the Vonskil-based motor vehicle manufacturer Æblett in 2001 to build a new plant at Ramsari, a town on the southern coast about thirty minutes’ drive from central Surkebrá, for construction of trucks and off-road vehicles.

Administration

The acquisition of Sæmunsvar initially created a kind of administrative suspended status, as it was not brought into the Siursk union as part of any one commonhold, but rather by the actions of the state as a whole. The original cession, as well as later acquisitions and expansions, was governed directly from Ostari through the Siursk navy office from 1745 to 1780, in which year the Lokha was established as an indigenous chamber of government, functionally equivalent to a Siursk talráð and similarly organised. Formal oversight was placed in the remit of the newly established Landsumboð Vesturfjörunnar, as part of its wider role across the Samstarfslönd, Siurskeyti’s sphere of influence in eastern Ascesia (although the LV did not move its offices to Surkebrá until 1841).

Furore at home surrounding the claimed secession plot forced changes in 1923, with the Lokha being suspended and responsibility for local government being transferred to Skjóll. In practice, Skjóll took over part of the LV as a local civil service, with the department being disestablished in the following year. While Sæmunsvar is still technically Skjólskur in terms of oversight, improvements in local relations – and a certain sense of gratitude for Sæmunsvar’s aid to Siurskeyti’s food shortage problems in the late 1950s – produced a change of heart, with the Lokha being revived in Nollonger 1960.

Sæmunsvar’s administrative structure bears some differences from the traditional Siur approach, given a perceived need to accommodate the culture of its native population. The territory is divided roughly from north-west to south-east into four ostannar or provinces (Homâyuni ostānha); these are, somewhat prosaically, named North (Norður), Central (Mið), South (Suður) and Capital (Höfuðborg). The ostannar are further broken down into thirty-seven sjarstannar (shahrestan); the latter typically represent one large town or group of smaller towns and their respective hinterlands.

Transport

The Siursk state has invested substantial sums in improving road and rail infrastructure in Sæmunsvar, both of which were limited and of poor quality outside Surkebrá until well into the 1980s; however, even today most of this effort has been concentrated in an area probably no more than two hours’ drive from the coast, and links into the interior remain sketchy by Messenian standards. A twice-weekly ferry service runs in each direction between Surkebrá and Ostari, operated by Lína Veströrvar; the trip takes approximately 54 hours. An airport is located at Zenj, south of the city proper, from which operate services to Ostari and Reylatur (four times a week) and to Mirrey and Skógarey (weekly, but rising to twice weekly in summer). The airport also services some other destinations within eastern Ascesia.

Religion

Sæmunsvar is the only territory within Siurskeyti proper which does not have a majority Arlaturi population; while Arlatur was brought to the territory with the earliest Siursk settlers, it has not made significant inroads with the predominantly Bhramavadist native population. While there have been sporadic periods of discontent between the two communities, these have tended to be cultural and political in nature, rather than grounded in religion, given some broad similarities of outlook in important areas between Bhramavada and Arlatur.

For administrative purposes Sæmunsvar forms part of the Arlaturi mæskyn of Miðssjór, along with Mirrey and Skógarey.

The status debate

While Sæmunsvar has possessed substantial autonomy within the Siursk union almost from the beginning, the question of whether it should be granted status within Siurskeyti as a commonhold in its own right has been a continuing issue within the territory for more than a century, and has become a publicly-debated issue on several occasions in that period. The matter last received serious airing in 2008, although no consensus was reached as to how to proceed in the absence of precedent on the subdivision of a commonhold, which such an action would technically be; and Siursk touchiness on the issue is still significant enough that a comment by the Helmin politician Maðlinna Myllari, during a visit in 2011, that suggested that Sæmunsvar’s people were being patronised by Ostari caused a minor diplomatic spat. Perhaps surprisingly, despite past history and the actions of some local ginger groups on the subject, there is little clear sentiment at the present time within the territory for independence from Siurskeyti, although this may be due in part to the disordered state of some of the surrounding native governments – as well as a recognition that Siurskeyti would continue to exert strong influence over Sæmunsvar regardless of its political status. It has additionally been noted that, as Siursk citizens (more precisely, Skjólskur), people from Sæmunsvar have no restrictions on their rights to travel to and from, and to settle in, Siurskeyti proper – a position which could change if the territory were to achieve independence.

Beyond this issue, questions have been raised over the status of the native community in Sæmunsvar – even today, almost exclusively Bhramavada by religious beliefs – and their attitudes towards their Siur Arlaturi rulers. The question of an independent Sæmunsvar has fostered some marked unrest within the territory on numerous occasions in the last century, with the Zenderoudi campaign being the most thoroughgoing; and in this respect the native Sæmunsvarskur have frequently supported, and had support from, their counterparts in Skógarey, where similar conditions exist. The issue is largely dormant at the present time, although some activity continues on the fringes of territorial politics.