Sarevi

Commonhold of Sarevi Viðaldur Sarevi
Flag
The commonhold of Sarevi (in grey) within Helminthasse
Capital	Lágskáli
Official languages	Hártal (Helmintal)
Demonym	Sarevsk
Government	Respublican monarchy
• Thein	Alvara Hönd af Lágskála
Commonhold
• Establishment of commonhold	late 7th century (as Hábrekka)
• Admission to unified Siurskeyti	1623
• Secession and establishment of Helmin alliance	1812
Area
• Total	82,582 km2 (31,885 sq mi)
Population
• 2015 census	9,816,274
• Density	118.9/km2 (307.9/sq mi)

The commonhold of Sarevi is the largest of the five which make up the nation of Helminthasse, covering an area of 82,582 square kilometres (31,885 square miles), with a recorded population of 9,816,274 at the 2015 census, ranking it second of the five by population. Its administrative capital and largest city is Lágskáli.

The most likely origin of the name Sarevi is the Antissan word saraziya, meaning “superior” or “paramount”, and believed to have been applied to the rulers of the region around Lágskáli from approximately 500 BCE. A theory has been mounted that it is a corruption of Hártal satt réttvísi, meaning roughly “justice is done”; this is considered fanciful today, but was accepted by some authorities as late as 1890.

Geography

Sarevi stretches across most of the north-west of Helminthasse; it shares borders with Vernland, Arakan and Tvåriken in the north, Ærlasse commonhold in the east, Æthelin to the south and Helminthasse commonhold to the west and south-west. It is one of the two commonholds to have open sea access, opening onto the Æthelflόi in the west.

Physically, Sarevi is markedly more open than much of the rest of the country, with the mostly flat valley of the river Ekna giving way to broad plains in the north towards the border with Nation 66. In the south of the commonhold the land is hillier, and forestation becomes denser in the higher country south of Móasteinn. The highest land is in the far south of the commonhold, as the forests begin to yield to the more mountainous country of the Sarlhamar range.

History

The north-western coastal regions of present-day Sarevi were one of the centres of habitation for the Vítrör culture, which was extant between 5000 and 3500 BCE; a number of archaeological digs in the region have unearthed substantial evidence of Vítrör life and culture. The encroachment of peoples of the Lindenstadt culture out of present-day Alcasia and Zeppengeran, from the middle fourth millennium BCE, drove the Vítrör largely eastward towards modern Nation 64 and Odann; the Sarevi region largely falls outside the historical record for much of the intervening period, before the south of the region came under the remit of the expanding Dammurite empire of the later second millennium BCE. While the Dammurites – either originally or in their later guise as the Larhine Empire – were never able to exert dominance in the northern Siur country as they did in the south, they remained a continuing threat to the region until very late in the empire’s existence, probably not fading from view until the upheavals surrounding the collapse of the empire around 800 BCE.

In the period following the repulsion of the invading Secote in the early ninth century, the Sarevi region suffered intermittently from attacks by the substantially secotised territories to the north in what is now Vernland and Arakan. Depredations from the north country finally spilled over into outright invasion early in the eleventh century, as the Secote’s second attempt at conquest of the Siur country met with greater success. The period immediately following the invasion became known as the Years of Bloody Hands, because of the savagery with which the Secote imposed themselves upon Siur society. Sarevi was laid waste by the invasion, with its population slaughtered in wholesale lots; it would take almost a hundred years for the territory to significantly recover.

The recovery was perhaps still in progress even during the early 13th century, when the northern part of the modern commonhold was beset by the Wars of the Marcher Lords, with the Principality of Foss and the city-state of Lágskáli in the forefront of conflict with the fiefdoms beyond the Halðamar. At their most extreme extent, the disputed northern marches reached as far south as the river Snörna, in the north-west of the modern commonhold.

The intermittent feuding between the two chief Sarevskur polities was another problematic issue in the region, even as they succeeded in keeping lesser challengers at bay, as Lágskáli did against the commonhold of Eknará during the War of the Ekna (1380-1383). The question would not be fully resolved until the Battle of Hvítbrú in 1421 finally decided the issue of dominance in favour of Lágskáli. The influence of the port city grew steadily over the next two centuries, and the commonhold of Sarevi – a name formally assumed for their lands by the theins of Lágskáli from 1556 – covered approximately two-thirds of its current expanse by the time that Sterkur Fálk brought about the unification of most of the Siur country in 1623. Over the next century a combination of absorption via marriages and negotiated agreement saw the smaller commonholds in the north and east of modern Sarevi brought into the fold, as it assumed its current configuration.

For large parts of its more recent history, Sarevi has rivalled Helminthasse commonhold as the dominant influence in the nation of Helminthasse, mainly given its larger size (it has usually been the larger of the two in land area) and its outlook on the sea, which allowed it to share in some measure in the greater prosperity of the coastal commonholds during the period of the unified Siurskeyti in the 17th and 18th centuries. The long-standing rivalry between Lágskáli and the national capital Virkið emerges largely from that sentiment.

The move towards a more urbanised culture in the Alliance during the later 19th and early 20th centuries saw Sarevi’s long-standing agricultural bias weaken in favour of a larger industrial element, with resultant expansion of the city of Lágskáli into its more rural hinterland. As the Helmin alliance’s only port of any significant size, Lágskáli has become, more than ever, the pivot of the commonhold – something which has given rise to concerns over an increasing disconnect between the capital and the wider region, reviving in modern guise a problem dating back to before the Summer War. In seeking to address this question, it has become the only commonhold to have significantly decentralised its governmental functions.

Government and authority

As is the case in the other commonholds of Helminthasse, Sarevi remains legally a constitutional monarchy in its own right, under the rulership of its own thein (currently Alvara Hönd af Lágskála), although substantial parts of its autonomy have been sublimated to the Helmin alliance since its establishment in 1812. Much of the thein’s day-to-day authority is now delegated to an advisory þeinsráð, as well as the elective viðaldsdeild. The latter body currently comprises 166 members; four represent each of Sarevi’s electoral districts within the national-level Fólksdeild, and the remaining two are appointed by the Arlaturi ægyr of Sarevi and the University of Lágskáli.

Administration

Political map of the commonhold.

The historic commonhold of Sarevi is divided into 37 húðir, these being the domains of individual thossir at the date of secession; these are Ásmannskot (standard abbreviation AT), Broþskot (BS), Eiksskarð (ES), Foss (FS), Gauksskógur (GK), Gjárbýli (GB), Godasland (GL), Grænndalur (GD), Halshaugur (HL), Hindarrjóður (HJ), Hróksviður (HB), Koþursbýli (KY), Kuldlind (KU), Kvarnhaugur (KV), Lágskáli (LS), Leitisbýli (LB), Lofthús (LH), Mannasakur (MS), Mjórakur (MJ), Móasteinn (MN), Músarskot (MK), Ormrsbýli (OR), Pottshaugur (PH), Rauðurbýli (RB), Reyrsfen (RF), Rýbýli (RY), Skilslundur (SM), Skurðarskot (SS), Svartklettur (SR), Urriðadalur (UR), Vað (VA), Vessýrdalur (VD), Villturmýri (VT), Vittflöt (VF), Þeinsþorp (TT), Þorkellsbýli (TK) and Æskadalur (AS).

For purposes of nomination to the Fόlksdeild, Sarevi is currently permitted representation by 41 districts (kjörshúðir), with a review scheduled for 2017.

Economy

Sarevi’s economy has historically been probably the most diverse of the five Alliance commonholds, although being very firmly founded on the twin pillars of fishing and farming – something which continued until well into the industrial era in the country. It has diversified into manufacturing in the 19th century, as well as developing a significant service industry since the end of the Long War period. Insurance, which developed principally out of the commonhold’s maritime trade, has been particularly important.

Largely as an outgrowth of its long-standing strength in weaponsmithing – covering both muscle-powered and projectile weapons – the commonhold is the main base of the Alliance’s domestic armaments industry, and Sarevskur weapons exports form a sizeable component of Helminthasse’s overseas balance of trade.

Theinar of Sarevi since 1800

Reign	Name	Birth and death	Relationship to predecessor	Served as althein
1782-1806	Uttar (Bani af Lágskála)	1733-1806
1806-22	Armæða (Bani)	1760-1822	daughter of Uttar	1817-12
1822-54	Sálleit II (Bani)	1796-1854	half-sister of Armæða	1837-42
1854-67	Ærutal (Hárfell)	1804-67	son of Sálleit Bani	1858-63
1867-1901	Eiðsvarinn (Hárfell)	1838-1901	son of Ærutal	1878-83 and 1888-93
1901-20	Sálleit III (Hárfell)	1852-1920	daughter of Eiðsvarinn	1903-08
1920-40	Honóra (Hárfell)	1891-1940	daughter of Sálleit III	1925-30
1940-74	Bjorn II (Hönd)	1909-74	nephew of Honóra Hárfell	1944-49
1974-90	Pillan (Hönd)	1942-90	son of Bjorn II	1982-87
1990-2017	Teitur (Hönd)	1947-	brother of Pillan	1996-2001
2017-	Alvara (Hönd)	1986-	daughter of Teitur