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Iutruwita

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Water colour country. Here the hills
rot like rugs beneath enormous skies
and all day long the shadows of the clouds
stain the paddocks with their running dyes.

In the small valleys and along the coast,
the land untamed between the scattered farms,
deconsecrated churches lose their paints
and failing pubs their fading coats of arms.

Beyond the beach the pine trees creak and moan,
in the long valley poplars in a row,
the hills breathing like a horse’s flank
with grasses combed and clean of the last snow.


Tasmania ~ Vivian SMith

Iutruwita is a terrestrial body 90% the size of Earth that revolves around a Class-K orange dwarf star at a rate of 238 days, 36 light years from Sol; jointly known as the Usamljen System. Centrally located in the star's habitable zone Iutruwita required minimal terraforming and was, aside it's minimal landmass and poor support for spatial infrastructure, a prime candidate for colonisation. Among the Intermarium-Chinese surveyors that initially vetted the planet, a lieutenant aired that it was eerily reminiscent of Tasmania, albeit scaled up, where relatives of his had settled. It was wet, often cold and had the peculiar capacity to house snow-capped mountaintops alongside deep and humid rainforests, great golden fields primed for wheat or lavender against a shoreline punctuated with exquisite beaches*.
A result of the Australian Collapse in 2321, the Republic -and later Principality- of Tasmania has long been an independent nation. It retains a plurality of it's Anglo population, but has seen a resurgence in it's Palawa community (Tasmanian Aborigines) and possesses influential minorities of Chinese, Sudanese, Somalian and Yugoslavic descendants (I.e. Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, etc.). It's known for possessing abundant rain forests which grew as the planet warmed, a thriving arts scene and an economy based around tourism, gambling, seafood and hydroelectricity. It is also known as one of the few nations that still practices the peculiar institution of 'democracy' by the 2400s -most states having moved onto more syndicalist-bureaucratic means- which is seen as a quaint oddity and an attraction all it's own. 'Tis also a member of the World Dialogue, Earth's largest politico-economical polity and in-particular possesses excellent relations with China, a component state of the Cinapatta Union.

As a result of Chinese interference, colonisation was initially marketed towards the small island nation's flourishing peoples. They cited a similar climate, tax exemptions and income subsidies to help build upon Iutruwita, an offer some 400'000 out of a population of 11 million took up. The planet, and many of it's features, were named by the Palawa, and so the Iutruwitan community was born. Since that time, a slow but steady stream of migrants mostly from China, Jordan-Hejaz, Lebanon, Bosnia, England and Chile, have filtered in and Iutruwita has a small population of some 12 million involved in a variety of industries from sheep herding to shipping to oceanography and ecology, to services and hospitality to public institutions and the moderation of Iutruwita's budding spatial industry, among other things.
It retains a shared head of state with Tasmania -after the fall of the English monarchy in the 2100s the Windsors spread across the world, one branch found themselves in Sorell and were after a gradual uptick in monarchic support (partially to delineate Tasmania from it's Perthine and Canberran neighbours) were offered the style of Prince- and is effectively a Sino-Tasmanian co-dominion, helped by the fact no other systems or countries seem to care about the place. It is also fairly religious, housing the two major branches of Christianity from their progenitor state -Tasmanian Protestantism and African Catholicism- as well as Sunni Muslims, Buddhists and increasingly the Children of Moinee, the formalised Palawa mythology. They do not tend towards the newer religions of greater Sol or other colonised systems due in large part to the vast majority of their colonisers being from Earth itself.

Due to it's democratic nature, Iutruwita is very politicised and the political process is full of inflammation and punditry, populist appeal and tall poppy syndrome. There are two major coalitions and several minor parties that embody the political reality of Iutruwita:

Government:
Prince's Party
 - Monarchist, but otherwise fairly moderate. They possess the most orthodox and tame views of the ruling government's electorate, believing in Legalism, limited bureaucratic controls, localisation of essential services, industrialisation and digitalisation (which are usually opposed principles), and the rights of synthetic lifeforms though opposed to the same recognition for artificial intelligence, and political and material loyalty to the Sino-Tasmanian co-dominion. They also take a fairly conservative view in regards to immigration, preferring Earthlings and then Jingxese (Venusians) before anyone else. (That's right, xenophobia persists albeit on a planetary basis; only the fringiest fringe of the right wing fringe would care about one's ethnicity) Finally the party trends towards a regulatory body but prefers to subsidise and profit via agglomerate interest groups than truly control various industries. They had a long stint of opposition before making a comeback in the last two elections under new, charismatic management and helped along by a corruption scandal regarding voter fraud in the Syndicalist Party.
Consociationalist Party - Believing quite firmly in the equity between industrialisation and digitalisation, the Consociationalists primary ideology surrounds subsidising bespoke craftsmen and small businesses whilst large businesses increase automation, and keepering the latter out of the former's territory, ensuring a level of employment for all. Otherwise, they tend to align with the Prince's Party though are more conservative regarding the rights of synthetic lifeforms and rather more nationalistic, believing the Tasmanian -and to a lesser extent Earthling- connection to be a treasured birthright and culture that should not be diluted.
Injunctivist Alliance - A fairly controversial party due to being highly militarised, nationalistic and even a little jingoist. Not to mention blatantly racist against non-Earthlings, even Jingxese, and do not believe that synthetic lifeforms deserve recognition and are especially skeptical of artificial intelligence, and thus are very industrialists. They could be described as corporate syndicalists and tend to adhere to a policy of hostile interventionism, whereby they intervene in the economy to suit their interests. Regardless, their votes are important, and the two other governmental parties tend to moderate them out.

Opposition:
Syndicalist Party
 - They represent, despite the name, the other most moderate views of the electorate. They tend towards social populism, a large bureaucracy, state run infrastructure, digitalisation with subsidies to workers, the rights of synthetic lifeforms and artificial intelligence, and are somewhat skeptical as to the Sino-Tasmanian co-dominion, opening their doors to immigrants from a variety of planets and systems though this has since received a backlash. They believe state controls should be extensive and follow the Chinese model of administration, though this has also seen a shakeup. They're having something of an identity crisis between their more progressive policies and their nativist roots; people don't understand why a party would simultaneously seek to represent the every man and then let in a bunch of Shalbatanans (Martians). Time will tell if they split or not.
The AIcrats - For a party known for being... frenetic, it's rather ironic that the AIcrats are the more stable of the Opposition. Known for advocating complete automation and the deliverance of a living wage to compensate, the rights of synthetic lifeforms and artificial intelligence in a less than incremental fashion, though remaining loyal to the co-dominion (A point of departure from the Syndicalists), they are also rather militarised -in a proletariat sort of way- and believe an artificial economy -i.e. administrated via an AI- is the way to go. They've had some success as a part of the former ruling coalition in implementing artificial intelligences in certain state industries and the much hailed Luwana Public Domain, a telepresent AI that assists the populace in day-to-day activity and keeps updated about Solar news in real time.

Crossbench:
Universalist Party
 - Advocate either joining China or the Chinese Universalist Community, a network of 'communities' that all have access to the same government sourced infrastructure whether it be health, banking or educationally based. They're not strictly an ethnic party but do well with Iutruwita's Chinese minority by default; they also draw a lot of support from The AIcrats due to a similar policy trajectory but the vast majority of AIcrat voters can't stomach anymore involvement with China then the battleships already parked outside of Yangina and so they remain fringe.
Palawa Community Party - Unambiguously a party for the very important Palawa community, they tend to have a mix of views that can often make it seem obscure to an outside observer as to their intent but that may be because of the inward nature of the community; their policy is actually predetermined at tribal meetings and so is a political process in and of itself, thus why they can seem all over the place due to shifts in internal power structure. One thing they do possess is a very staunch degree of ecological preservation, and are proponents of and have constructed several arcology complexes in the Lakri Rainforests. They're currently in talks with the Prince's Party as to joining the Coalition, an offer extended by the Prince's Party's new leader, given the current PCP tends to align on most issues. Whether they accept the offer or not is a contentious point across Mungalina and will be discussed as the next tribal meeting.
Transfederalist Party - A bit of a dark horse in the last election, the fact they won any seats at all is remarkable to many. They generally advocate absolute minarchism, with the only regulation being in regards to property laws and dispute resolution. They have a murky view of synthetic life and AIs at best and won out among sheep farmers in the southern central highlands for advocating a complete blackout of taxes upon that industry. They're also technically adherents to the concept of a universal minarchist government, across systems and planets; or basically a universal market with minimal governance. However, this wasn't a focus of their campaign and they may lose their few seats if government subsidies to the currently flagging sheep farming industry bear any fruit.
Maslah's People's Party - In the great tradition of Australian parties being named after people, Anzac Maslah is the Somalian former mayor of Yangina and a bit of a populist. The vibrant, albeit conservative city was long under his reign and he took it at a federal level with the latest election. Very strictly a Yanginan party, the MPP is based on populist appeal and combines the government regulation of the Syndicalists with the staunch nationalism of the Consociationalists. Despite initial inertia, however, the MPP's focus on Yangina has invariably harmed their wider electoral chances though their charismatic leader has delivered on a variety of promises mostly as funding clauses in bills that the coalition needed passed through the Senate, of which the MPP has several key seats.

*If it seems like I'm boasting about Tasmania by proxy, I am. Everyone says it about their country or state but I truly think Tasmania is the most beautiful place on Earth.

EDIT: Added darker coastal waters. 
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© 2017 - 2024 Dain-Siegfried
Comments3
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TerranTechnocrat's avatar
Iutruwita looks far more like space New Zealand to me. XD