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[[Image:Imperial_Frontier.png|thumb|The flag of the Empire's frontier regions. Its colors symbolically represent Houses Caladius, Zhao, and Strelitz in addition to the Empire itself.]]
[[Image:Earth.jpg|thumb|400px|Earth, as seen from orbit.]]
Located within the Alatyr System, the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran stands as a testament to the colonial legacy of the modern [[Empire of Dominia]]. A cold, icy, and predominantly rural world which was originally colonized by the Solarian Alliance during its golden age, Novi Jadran is one of the Empire’s oldest non-Morozian colonies and straddles the border between the Imperial Core and Imperial Frontier. Famed for its loyalty to the Empire, Novi Jadran is known as the “Model Colony” and provides many of the Imperial Army’s troops. It is dominated by a powerful local nobility, many of whom neglect their charges — the villages and rural citizenry under their control — in exchange for personal enrichment. In recent years, as the current Emperor has grown more ill, many of its citizens have begun to call for the Empire to reign these nobles in and establish an administration which holds the good of the Mandate above their own interests. Only time will tell if Crown Princess Priscilla Keeser will honor these demands when she ascends to the throne, or squash the dissent.
The cradle of the human race and to some the most important planet in the Orion Spur, Earth is the center of humanity even in the 25th century. Though it was ravaged by ecological devastation caused during humanity’s ascension to the stars to such an extent that most of its non-human life died off, the blue planet was revitalized over the course of the 23rd and 24th centuries by the Solarian Alliance and many previously-extinct species and devastated ecosystems have been restored through the efforts of [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]. The Earth of the 25th century today stands as the most populated planet in the entire Orion Spur, with 19 billion residents on its surface -- many of which have come to live in massive urban settlements commonly referred to as conurbations -- and another billion in orbit. Earth maintains a close relationship -- sometimes simply referred to as the “special relationship” -- with other colonized worlds in the Sol System though no “planet” is closer to it than its sole natural satellite, [[Luna]]. The capital of the Alliance, Unity Station, is positioned in the orbit of Earth.
 
==History==
 
===The Solarian Republic of Novi Jadran (2184 - 2302)===
 
<center><i>“It’s a harsh planet, yes, but rich in mineral resources. I don’t doubt it’ll be productive, Prime Minister,”</i> - Martin Clemson (2119 - 2230), [[Sol Alliance#Departments|Solarian Secretary of Colonization]], 2178.</center>
 
Despite the loss of a colonial expedition in the Baltian Frontier Sector — now the Sparring Sea — in the early 22nd century, the Solarian Alliance was interested in continued exploration, colonization, and exploitation of the southern Orion Spur throughout the 22nd century, ultimately dispatching many colonial expeditions to a region outside of the control of any major interstellar power. One of these was the Adriatic Expedition — a colonial venture founded by multiple nations on the Adriatic Sea for the purpose of establishing a colony in the broader Alliance. In the late 22nd century the Adriatic Expedition was officially launched with the Alliance’s support in the hope that the sole inhabitable world in the Alatyr System — Novi Jadran — would become a jumping-off point for further exploration of the region, and an industrial base to support the nearby colony of Sun Reach — then in the planning stage.
 
The first colonists of Novi Jadran arrived in 2184, discovering a planet which was — ironically — not dissimilar to the nearby Moroz. These early colonists, who were mostly from Yugoslavia and the Veneto region of Italy, were more prepared for the environment they faced than the settlers of Moroz and quickly set about establishing the planetary capital: Nova Rijeka. Expansion on the planet was far slower than the Alliance had originally planned due to a combination of the harsh environment and Novi Jadran’s distance from the Solarian Core. The planet’s second major city, Belluno, was founded in 2215, but a railroad — the main form of inter-city transportation in the harsh tundra environment of the planet — from it to Nova Rijeka took until 2219 to be fully operational. A third major settlement, Durres, was established in 2237 and connected to the growing rail infrastructure by 2239.
 
Despite being envisioned as an industrial colony much of the planet’s industry was concentrated in its four major cities, and settlements outside of these were not nearly as developed. Much of the planet’s infrastructure was dependent on advanced equipment its industrial base did not have the capacity to manufacture, and the entire world relied on high-end imports from the broader Alliance to remain functional. In the countryside Solarian bureaucrats began to gain more and more power through their ability to issue advanced technological equipment to less developed communities, and this power only increased over time. At the start of the Second Great Depression Novi Jadran was regarded as an underperforming Solarian world highly dependent on the broader Alliance for economic support, and was viewed by many colonial administrators as less successful than the nearby Solarian colony of Sun Reach.
 
As the Interstellar War raged, Novi Jadran’s economic support fell to the wayside as the Alliance shifted resources from the frontier regions to the War itself. Economic support ground to a halt and complex infrastructure began to break down, first in more remote regions and eventually in major cities. Bureaucrats and other important officials began to hoard functional technology, some to sell it and others to see if it could somehow be produced locally. By 2302 the Solarian Republic of Novi Jadran was dominated by these officials and their families, particularly in the countryside, and remained an underdeveloped and underperforming planet. When the Elyran Revolution occurred, the planet was simply written off by the Alliance and abandoned to its fate without any effort to evacuate it.
 
===Independent Novi Jadran (2302 - 2389)===
 
<center><i>“The true end of the Solarian hegemonic era came not with the Treaty of Xanan, but with the Elyran Revolution and the collapse of the Southern Frontier. The abandonment of dozens of colonies to their fates is a stain upon our nation which haunts us to this day,”</i> - Excerpt from Ingrid von Varnhagen und Langenburg’s doctoral thesis, The Collapse of Hegemony and Rise of Elyra and Dominia.</center>
 
Known by modern Jadraners as the “'''Decades of Deprivation''',” the near-century Novi Jadran spent between Solarian and Dominian rule is regarded by most contemporary residents of the planet as a time of darkness and suffering, where advanced equipment failed and less effective solutions were developed to replace them and prevent worse failures. While the planet’s four major cities maintained some of their equipment, smaller settlements often had all of their infrastructure fail over the decades. Some of these villages and small towns were reduced to pre-space era standards of living, and the relative prosperity of the Solarian hegemonic era became a distant memory for the planet. Fusion reactors were replaced by coal plants and rail lines became the primary source of transportation and commerce for much of the world. Those who had control over the limited advanced equipment in rural areas of the planet quickly established themselves as the rulers of their areas and would, by 2389, become the noble families which now rule over much of the planet. In the urban areas where advanced technology was more easily available, patrician families with control over significant amounts of this equipment began to emerge. While no noble or patrician families ever declared outright war on one another, competition for limited technological resources led to shadow conflicts between them and rivalries which — in some cases — have lasted into the 25th century.
 
As the 24th century began to draw to a close, Novi Jadran continued to limp along. In 2380 a new threat emerged from the nearby world of Sun Reach: raids on Jadranic vessels — limited in number as they were — and some of its settlements by the Pirate Lords of Sun Reach for the purpose of gathering loot. Most engagements were won by the Reachers, who had an orbital industrial base to support their pirate fleet — even if their planet’s surface population was even more neglected than Novi Jadran’s — and the experience needed to outmaneuver their Jadranic counterparts. Eventually, this escalated into extortion and tithes paid by the Jadranic nobility to Sun Reach’s piratical rulers, and this would continue until 2389. A catastrophic crop failure left Novi Jadran unable to pay its tithe and the Pirate Lords threatened a punitive invasion which would have assuredly resulted in mass starvation for the planet’s population.
 
To save their world, the Jadranic nobility and its wealthy urban patricians looked to a nearby rising power to aid them: the young Empire of Dominia, then in the early period of its expansion. The Empire and Novi Jadran had been in contact with one another prior to this point and [[Moroz Holy Tribunal|Tribunalism]] had started to establish itself as a major planetary faith by the late 2300s, with many Jadraners finding common ground in the Morozian’s struggle to overcome the challenges of their cold world. Desperate to save their lives and fortunes, the nobles and patricians of the planet allowed themselves to be willingly annexed by the young Empire on 18 June, 2389. The era of Novi Jadran’s independence — the Decades of Deprivation — had ended, and the era of the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran had begun.
 
===The Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran (2389 - Present)===
 
<center><i>“Jadraners have, time and time again, proved their loyalty to the Empire for little in return. They are a truly remarkable people, and a fine population to pull colonial bureaucrats from in the near future as their society embraces our values,”</i> - Gerhard-Manfred Strelitz, then-High Lord General of His Majesty's Imperial Army, in a missive to then-Emperor Godwin Keeser (2405).</center>
 
For many rural Jadraners, life barely changed during the first years of the Imperial Mandate. In the cities, changes were more immediately apparent. Morozian engineers, nobles, clergy, and specialists of all kinds began to appear in Jadranic urban centers. Technology which dated back to the Solarian era began to come back online, or be recreated, as Houses Zhao and Caladius poured Imperial Pounds into Jadranic cities in an effort to create prosperous urban industrial centers — though often these facilities were far, far less safe than their Morozian counterparts. Jadraners were after all, regardless of their loyalty, not Morozian. In the countryside these changes were less apparent as many noble families — now officially part of the Dominian system of peerage — opted to enrich themselves at the expense of their populations. Those who did hope to acquire these rebuilt wonders or the goods of the broader Empire would first have to prove themselves loyal to their local noble, rather than to the broader Empire. This is viewed by some as the origin of the Jadranic veneration of Imperial nobility.
 
After slightly over a decade of Imperial rule, Novi Jadran appeared to be on the mend. Industry — even if it was less safe than Moroz’s — was on the rise in its urban centers, and its cities had become more wealthy — and another, the coastal settlement of Nuova Vicenza, was founded in cooperation between House Zhao, House Caladius, and local patricians. Outside of the cities, however, many rural communities were deprived of access to this development by powerful noble families who wished to keep it for themselves and the communities loyal to them, favoring the wealth of themselves over the whole world. These rural populations were loyal, but had little concept of the broader Empire they were now a part of. To change this, many [[Dominian Imperial Military#The Imperial Army|Imperial Army]] recruiters visited these communities as part of recruitment drives and propaganda efforts. Many rural families were larger than their urban counterparts, and House Strelitz-aligned recruiting groups promised material and fiscal benefits far beyond what these rural Jadraners would receive from a decade of work on a farm. Dozens of regiments were raised from Novi Jadran and many were stationed on the planet itself, with Moroz — and Fisanduh — viewed as too secure to justify sending large numbers Ma’zal troops there.
 
In 2402 the Empire’s illusion of Morozian security was shattered by the unprecedented Navy Day Uprising of the [[Fisanduh|Fisanduh Freedom Front]]. With only limited forces present on [[Moroz]] and almost all of them engaged in fighting against the 3F, Imperial Army High Command made the decision to call upon its Jadranic troops to push the insurgents back and reclaim strategically vital areas of Fisansuh. Jadraners did much of the fighting and dying on the Imperial side during the Uprising and, through their dogged fighting, both defeated the insurgents in the open field and pushed them out of important positions throughout Fisanduh. Novi Jadran, through its actions, had cemented itself as the model colony willing to defend Moroz from its greatest threat in decades. Jadraners themselves had been cemented through spilled blood as the elite of the Ma’zals, and the commoner Jadraner as nearly equal to their Morozian counterparts.
 
In the following decades Novi Jadran has continued to serve as the model colony, frequently entertaining noble guests and colonial bureaucrats from across the Empire. It remains an important world for the Imperial Army, with many of its enlisted personnel and some of its officers coming from it, but much of its rural population remains neglected and impoverished compared to the broader Empire and the Mandate’s urban centers. As the Mandate approaches eighty years of Dominian rule, and the prospect of new absolute leadership appears to be more likely with each passing year, many in the Mandate have continued their calls for a new administration which will benefit the entire world rather than simply the nobles and their loyalists. Despite its status as the model colony, Novi Jadran may be the first challenge a successor to Emperor Keeser faces — it is a planet simply too important to lose, but what awaits the person who challenges noble authority?


==Environment==
==Environment==
[[File:Novi Jadran Map.png|thumb|A map of the Imperial Mandate showing its major cities and the rail system which links them together. Unlabeled dots represent outlying rural communities disconnected from the rail network.]]
<center><i>“If the Goddess wanted you to wake up after sunrise, she’d have made you a Primary girlie! Keep your whining mouth shut and help me untie the boat — fish wait for no vessel,”</i> - A Jadranic fisherman to his daughter in mid-summer. Recorded by the Imperial News Network in 2455.</center>
Novi Jadran is a tundra world similar to Moroz in terms of its climate. Summers, and the growing season, are short and relatively warm while winters are long and harsh. The planet’s spring and early summer is a time of flooding in many rural areas as snowmelt and spring rains combine to create muddy, treacherous conditions which render travel on the unpaved roads which are common throughout rural areas difficult and potentially hazardous. This condition is repeated in the early autumn, which is a season of intense rains as the growing season draws to a close. During winter most regions of the planet have several months of consecutive below freezing average temperatures, and much of Novi Jadran’s surface outside of its equatorial region is covered in permafrost. During the peak of winter, some blizzards can last for over a week and deposit meters of snow on the ground.
The planet's surface is mostly water, with a large ocean, known as Pontean Ocean, surrounding its only continent: Patria, which is covered in multiple lakes and crisscrossed by several major rivers. One of these, the Iri River, is home to the four major cities of Novi Jadran and stretches from the equatorial west to the equatorial east of Patria. The Iri River is deep and wide, supporting much of the piscine diet which dominates the planet and serving as an important economic vein for the planet. In recent years it has become increasingly polluted by industrial runoff, hfueling more dissent against Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan due to her refusal to halt industrial development or confront the great houses for their impact on Jadranic fishing. Smaller rivers, such as the Iri’s tributaries, suffer from pollution to a lesser extent. The majority of Patria is dominated by thick forests and tundras, with every region of the supercontinent seeing snow during the winter.
The Pontean Ocean, which covers the majority of Novi Jadran’s surface, is a freshwater ocean home to large icebergs which threaten shipping and have kept explorations — and exploitations — of it limited. Coastal Jadranic communities acquire much of their foot from its icy waters and the ocean produces devastating storms during winter which can wreck even steel-hulled vessels — often designed to endure conditions of the wide Iri River, inland lakes, or the coastal ocean — if they are caught far from land. On the coast, Pontean “Sea-Storms” are frequent events during winter which can leave communities trapped in meters of snow and wash away poorly-prepared residences and piers, taking them out into its waters — never to be seen again. Oceanographers hired by House Caladius and brought to the Empire from planets as distant as Silversun and Europa claim the Pontean Ocean’s deeper regions are home to extensive natural gas reserves, but exploitation of these deposits has been limited due to the ocean’s harsh conditions and the unwillingness of many Jadranic sailors to venture beyond the sight of land.
==Culture==
<center><i>“When commanding troops of the Imperial Mandate one must recall a main value of its people: loyalty. Much like a dog, a Jadraner will obey their masters — we Morozians — without question if they are shown respect and given sensible orders, particularly by fellow Jadraners under your command. Treat them well and you will have a loyal unit ready to die for the Empire. Mistreat them, and you will find they hold more influence over our House than the typical Ma’zal,”</i> - Excerpt from A Guide to Jadranic Command for Strelitz Officers (3rd Edition).</center>
Jadranic culture has been heavily influenced by Imperial rule of the planet, particularly in its urban areas, but differences are present between the culture of urban Jadraners and their rural counterparts. Historical cleavages in development, with the four major cities of Novi Jadran receiving far more investment than the countryside, have exacerbated these differences and created two cultural subgroups with similar, though slightly different, cultural beliefs and views of the broader Empire and Novi Jadran’s role in it. There are even physical differences between the two groups, with rural Jadraners typically being shorter and thinner than their urban counterparts due to their weaker diets and higher levels of malnutrition. Amongst both groups, however, loyalty to the Empire and their local nobility is viewed as socially desirable, though for divergent reasons.
In both Jadranic populations the ideal of '''loyalty''' is a key element of society believed to be rooted in the struggle to survive and establish themselves on the planet’s harsh, unforgiving surface where failed or faltering harvests could be lethal for entire communities. In the pre-Imperial and post-Solarian Decades of Deprivation loyalty became more prized as survival became harder. Rural communities pledged themselves to regional leaders who would later go on to become the Jadranic noble families in the anticipation these nobles would assist them when they went hungry, while urban Jadraners placed their faith in patrician families who advocated for their interests to local nobles. In the Imperial era this dedication to loyalty had been used, and exploited, by the Imperial government to endear itself to the Jadranic population. In rural and urban environments it takes on the role of a benevolent savior and overlord, and rewards the loyal Jadranic population — particularly its nobles and urban communities — with rewards unlike any given to other Ma’zal communities.
===Rural Jadraners===
The majority of Novi Jadran’s population lives in small, rural communities which are often underdeveloped due to corruption and graft from their noble overlords. Rural Jadraners are, on average, shorter and thinner than their urban counterparts due to poorer diets and a greater level of early childhood malnutrition. Rural communities are often impoverished and lack modern technology, with many villages having poor or nonexistent infrastructure such as electrical grids and modern roads. The Jadranic office of the Department of Colonial Affairs turns a blind eye to corruption of local nobles in exchange for their patronage and the lavish hospitality they provide visiting Primaries, including the [[Empire of Dominia#Imperial_Cabinet|Chief Commissioner for Colonial Affairs]]. These visits, and their associated celebrations, are major events for the rural Jadraner’s of a noble’s domain, and those who are able to make an offering to catch a visiting Primary’s eye will do so. Catching the attention of a Primary is a quick way to receive boons ranging from small gifts to the taking-on of the Jadraner’s family as wards to enrolling the Jadraner’s family in advanced schooling such as the Royal Engineering Institute or Valentina Caladius School for Gifted Ma’zals. Those who do not acquire this patronage may simply try again next time, never try again, or try their luck in the industrial, urban centers of the planet.
Rural Jadranic life can be quite harsh, particularly during the long winter months of the planet. Fishing is a vital skill for many communities as crops are often impractical to grow without greenhouses, and rural communities along the Iri River and equatorial Pontean Ocean  have historically been the most prosperous of the planet’s non-urban settlements. With the growing industrialization of Novi Jadran since 2389 and the increasing level of pollution in the Iri River, many of these once-prosperous riverine communities have emptied out as fishing has become non-viable due to the hazardous nature of the Iri’s waters. Coastal communities have fared better, and many send much of their catch to urban markets where they make large profits, and are home to some of the most developed infrastructure outside of the urban settlements. Life in these settlements, however, is harsh: the Pontean ocean is wracked by violent storms throughout the winter and fishing on the open Ocean  requires long, demanding hours on all days of the week. Not every boat which goes out will make it back, particularly during the winter. Coastal rural communities are regarded as more superstitious and Goddess-fearing than their inland counterparts, and many feature shrines to the Goddess where She is clad in the traditional yellow rain slicker and hat of Jadranic fishers.
In every rural community there is a cadre of individuals who have been deemed loyal by the region’s noble overlord. Typically, these notables serve as the leaders of a community and receive advanced equipment and training in exchange for continued loyalty to the noble family which rules over them. They often distribute this equipment to individuals loyal to them, thus ensuring a system of patronage which allows them to maintain their power over a community. While they are not nobles, these notables have a degree of political influence which allows them to ask favors of their overlords and are often the people who determine where the extensive rail lines of Novi Jadran will expand to next.
====Rural Jadraners and the Imperial Army====
<center><i>“Generally enlisted personnel, rural Jadraners will be the bulk of your command. Do not be fooled by their slighter frames and smaller builds compared to Morozians: they are as reliable and loyal as any Secondary,”</i>  - Excerpt from A Guide to Jadranic Command for Strelitz Officers (3rd Edition).</center>
[[File:House_Strelitz.png|thumb|right|The dark red standard of House Strelitz, the great house which dominates the Imperial Army.]]
With limited economic opportunities, harsh living conditions, and the Jadranic tradition of loyalty, the rural areas of Novi Jadran are a frequent target for Imperial Army recruitment drives. These recruiters, who are often Morozians or urban Jadraners who have expressed a high level of patriotism for the Empire, arrive by train at the end of the summer harvest — when many families wonder if they’ll have enough food to last through the winter — and present the benefits of enlistment: higher wages compared to farm or fishery work, training in valuable skills, a chance to lift the entire family’s Mo’ri’zal, and other benefits. Many recruiters will offer cash bounties for enlistment, or provide advanced equipment such as an electrical grid to villages able to consistently provide recruits. Parents eager to see their sons and daughters succeed in life, or worried they will not last through the winter, or simply motivated by greed, push their children to volunteer and serve both Goddess and Jadran in the Imperial military. Most willingly enlist, while some are forced or coerced by their parents or guardians.
Rural Jadraners who enlist into the Imperial Army — or more rarely the Imperial Fleet, which does much of its recruitment in urban areas — must often be sent through an adjustment period at their billet as many experience profound culture shock upon arriving in the major cities of the planet. They have exchanged a life of manual labor for one of military training, and traded the muddy, unpaved streets of their rural villages for the paved roads of the four major cities and the insulated, heated barracks of the many Imperial Army bases on the planet. Over a period of weeks they are molded into “modern” Integrated Ma’zals suitable for Army service and able to interact with even Morozian officers. These Jadranic soldiers often send much of their salary back to their villages, but rarely move back into them for extended periods after their service ends. Life in the Imperial Army is often difficult, and one can always die in service, but many rural Jadraners view it as the best way to achieve a better life. However, rural Jadraners form a smaller portion of the Imperial Army’s officer corps when compared to their urban, or Morozian, counterparts. Primarily they serve as enlisted troops, sometimes rising to junior officer ranks. There has never been a rural-originating Jadranic general officer.
In the villages where troops are recruited from, the departure of their sons and daughters to the Imperial Army is viewed with a mixture of pride, sorrow, jealousy, and worry. Those who remain view the departing as representing their village, and their parents are regarded as good people and model Imperial citizens for committing their children to the military — sacrificing a spare hand on the farm in the process. Some who remain, such as the siblings of recruits, view them with a degree of envy and jealousy as the recruits are free from the burdens of rural manual labor, the cold winters of the Jadranic countryside, and the simple boredom of rural life. Many who feel this way are destined to become Army recruits themselves, particularly once the soldier begins sending money back to their village. Due to the expense associated with portraits and the rarity of professional photographers in the countryside, rural households will often have a sketch of their relative in uniform in their house rather than a painting or professional portrait. Due to the poor conditions of rural infrastructure the parents of soldiers often have difficulty communicating with their children, with their telephones — which not all villages possess — or computers being unable to reach beyond Novi Jadran, and instead having to rely upon the Imperial Dominian Mail Service to communicate via letters. Sometimes, of course, despite the prayers of their family and a village’s clergy, the letters stop coming.
To receive official confirmation of an immediate relative’s death in the line of duty a resident of the Jadranic countryside must undertake the Journey of Sorrow, the colloquial name for the trip one must take from their village to one of the four major cities to confirm the death with the Imperial Army’s records department. The journey starts when one is advised, generally by letter, of a relative’s death and summoned to the nearest major city to receive the body, official death certificate, and associated [[Empire of Dominia#The_Mo’ri’zal|Mo’ri’zal]] adjustments that come from a death in service of the Imperial military. For a rural Jadraner this is an expensive, time-consuming process which will take them away from their village and job for weeks on end, if not months, as they journey to the city and acquire their relative’s body, then travel back to make funeral arrangements. Often only two to three members of a family will go, and their missing spots in the family’s jobs will be covered by younger relatives or trusted neighbors. The sight of weeping peasants with black armbands — commonly worn by Tribunalists in mourning — is common enough in major urban centers to be a point of discussion in urban Jadranic circles.
====Rural to Urban Migration====
Rural Jadraners do, like many people across the Orion Spur, move to urban centers in search of greater employment opportunities for their families. On Novi Jadran itself these migrants are often found in the poorer sections of urban areas and in lower-paying industrial or service sector jobs — such as armaments workers or household servant work — as they lack the technical skills and generational wealth of the urbanite counterparts. Over time these rural Jadraners typically adapt to their environment and many do establish themselves in more profitable, and prestigious, careers such as white collar work and blue collar management, but this often takes years if not entire generations. As they speak a slightly different dialect of Vulgar Morozi when compared to their urban counterparts, many will attempt to suppress their accent in an effort to appear more urbanized, and thus more skilled and desirable for promotions. As migrants often live in urban communities with other rural Jadraners referred to as “''Vilagjet''” — a combination of the Jadranic words for “village” and “neighborhood” — by urban Jadraners, immersion into urban culture can be difficult for new arrivals.


Earth’s contemporary environment is similar to the contemporary Earth of the early 21st century thanks to extensive environmental reclamation projects undertaken by the Solarian Alliance over the course of nearly a century. Most of the flora and fauna that can be found on the continents and in the oceans modern Earth are cloned species reintroduced during the course of the Alliance’s reclamation projects, though some species -- often locally referred to as “vintages” on Earth -- survived the pre-reclamation period of ecological collapse and were able to persist into the current day.
===Urban Jadraners===


More information about Earth’s ecological crisis and the efforts undertaken to restore the cradle of humanity to its former glory can be found in the [[Timeline of Humanity]].
A minority of Novi Jadran’s population lives in its four major cities — Nova Rijeka, Belluno, and Durres — and their outlying neighborhoods where the majority of Imperial development has been concentrated. Urbanite Jadraners are the wealthiest non-Morozian group in the Empire of Dominia and are generally taller and often bulkier than their rural counterparts due to a better diet. This wealth, which has been quickly amassed since 2389, has transformed many urban Jadranic families from impoverished working-class families into middle or upper middle class bureaucrats and Integrated Ma’zals with money to spend on luxury goods, education, and the latest Morozian cultural imports. Cities which once were covered in decaying, half-abandoned Solarian-era industrial parks have been transformed into lavish industrial centers of the Empire where imported Morozian luxury cars carrying visiting Morozian tourists travel next to the ubiquitous urban rail lines of the four cities.


==Regions==
But beneath the surface of newfound wealth and prosperity lies an inconvenient truth: the money which has created the urban Jadranic renaissance comes from the colonial empire of Moroz. Despite being Ma’zals — though valuable, trusted Ma’zals — the urban Jadraners have readily, even gleefully, embraced their role in the colonial system as its bureaucrats, mid-ranking military officers, and technical professionals. While there is no widespread effort to move away from this system which has brought them such wealth, some younger urbanites have begun to question the Department of Colonial Affairs’ role in continuous rural poverty. Many of these young Jadranic urbanites have taken to joining counterculture movements which call for a new approach to government in the style of famed pro-Imperial reformist Edvard Posavec — a close ally of Crown Princess Priscilla, the heir apparent, who has called for an adjustment of the system of rural governance. Some go even beyond this, calling for the rural nobles to be entirely disenfranchised and removed from power — but this is a radical opinion rarely heard in the coffee shops which dissident youths and intellectuals favor.


Though Earth is now under the unquestioned control of the Solarian Alliance it has, despite ecological disasters and the steady passage of time, managed to retain a planet defined by distinctive regional identities and governments. These regional governments are subservient to the greater Solarian Alliance, but hold a degree of autonomy not typically seen in other Solarian member states thanks to the special status of Earth. There is no such thing as a truly unified “Earther culture” on Earth thanks to this regionalism, and many from the cradle of humanity pride themselves on their distinctive regional identities, even if they are from what is functionally a single Sovereign Solarian Nation. Despite this pride many Earthers hold it is often seen as foolish to describe oneself as coming from anything other than Earth when abroad, and Earthers that instead identify themselves as belonging to a region first and Earth second are typically looked down upon by other Earthers as strange or dangerously identitarian.
Urban Jadranic life is less impacted by the changing seasons as the typical urban resident works in either an industrial area, white-collar office, or service industry and acquired their foot from a local store rather than catching it or growing it themselves. Novi Jadran’s four major cities are known throughout the Empire as productive industrial centers which produce many of the perishable foodstuffs and equipment consumed throughout the Imperial Frontier, and Imperial Army equipment commonly bears the Jadranic industrial seal of quality somewhere in its steel. Jadranic heavy industry, however, is poorly regulated compared to elsewhere in the Spur: workers are expected to put in long hours at their jobs with few breaks, factories are far more dirty than elsewhere in the Spur (though Svarog, in the Federal Technocracy of Galatea, still outpaces the planet), and industrial accidents and deaths are frightening common. Attempts to regulate Jadranic factories have been prevented by the government, fueling further anti-Glavan and pro-Posavec dissent.


The Planetary Government of Earth is centred in Paris, France, and consists of a 1,000-representative large Planetary Parliament, with representatives from every region of Earth aside from those directly governed by the planetary government attending. The number of representatives per region is determined by population. Every 4 years the assembly elects the Planetary Governor of Earth, and along with the Governor, is the highest authority on the planet. The primary function of the Planetary Government is to mediate disputes between the various regions of Earth and ensure cooperation between them, even if such has to be forced from time to time. The regions of Earth maintain autonomy in many ways, but are in no way fully independent. All are beholden to the laws and decisions of the Planetary Assembly and its Governor.
When urban Jadraners join the military, which they often do, they typically serve as officers or specialized personnel such as engineers and medical professionals due to their higher levels of education than rural Jadraners. Urban Jadraners serve in all three branches of the Imperial military and have risen highest in the Imperial Army, where several have become members of Imperial Army High Command (HCAI), the central decision-making body overseen by the High Lord General. In the more Morozian-centered Fleet and Flying Corps, Jadraners have found less success. Jadraners in the Fleet often do not rise beyond junior flag officer ranks and few Flying Corps fighter pilots are Secondaries, let alone Jadraners. Having at least one child in the Imperial military — generally the Army — is seen as a desirable trait for urban families, with many viewing it as their way of showing continued loyalty to the Empire. Photos or paintings of current or historical relatives in uniform feature prominently in many urban residences, and these officers are easily able to remain in touch with their families due to the greater level of technology in cities.


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====Urban Counterculture====
===Asia===
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The '''Federal Republic of China''' is the undisputed largest regional power in Asia and where humanity’s oldest megacorporation, [[Einstein Engines]], originated. While founded in the aftermath of the bloody Sino-Soviet War and Second Chinese Civil War, the Federal Republic has left its bloody history behind itself to become one of the most important nations on Earth. The Federal Republic is additionally the birthplace of [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], a biomedical giant that is regarded by many on Earth as having saved the planet itself due to the keiretsu’s massive investment and involvement in Earth’s reclamation projects. Earthers from China are a significant portion of Einstein Engines’ staff and can be found at all levels of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, with the megacorporation’s headquarters in Shanghai employing hundreds of thousands of workers in its massive arcology. The economic influence of China during the early space age can still be felt throughout human space, particularly on [[Luna]], and Standard Chinese formed the linguistic basis for modern Solarian Common. In the modern day, the Federal Republic of China is still arguably the global centre for business and culture for the planet Earth, housing dozens of its most populated cities and largest commercial centres such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.  
<center><i>“That we even have these ‘movements’ is an insult to everything our government stands for, and a slap to the face of our Empire!”</i> - [[Council of Imperial Governors#Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran|Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan]] in a meeting with the constabulary in Nova Rijeka, 2465.</center>


Across the East China Sea from the Federal Republic of China lies the island nation of '''Japan''', another major regional power in Asia. Several parts of Zeng-Hu Pharmaceutical’s keiretsu, such as Yomi Genetics, originated here along with many other smaller medical companies that would eventually form other smaller parts of the Zeng-Hu machine. The country has long been a center for technological development, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. Japanese engineers working for [[Einstein Engines]] helped pioneer early forms of robotic laborers and assistants, though their products would ultimately be supplanted by IPCs originating on [[Konyang]]. Like many island nations, Japan covered its coastlines in a network of extensive seawalls primarily produced by [[Hephaestus Industries]] in order to withstand climate change, though recently, some of these walls are beginning to come down in an initiative by the Japanese regional government to restore the natural beauty of their island.
The counterculture, or dissident, movement of Novi Jadran’s four major cities is concentrated amongst the young and educated urban population of the cities, and has its origins in the classrooms of the Royal Engineering Institute of Nova Rijeka. There, in the early 2300s, the educated Jadranic classes began to emerge and were tasked with improving their Mandate for the broader Empire’s glory and continued prosperity. But as Novi Jadran has changed, so too has its counterculture movements, which have become three distinct groups: the established, urban Jadranists, the youth-centered Mjenjači, and the more radical Posavacists.


Between Japan and China lies the '''Republic of Korea''', another important economic player in Asia. Following a successful reunification in the late 20th century thanks to the support of the Federal Republic of China, Korea established itself as a major regional power that was able to gain the attention of the early Solarian Alliance during the first colonization efforts through the orienteering of many of its heavy industries and technology companies to the colonisation programme. Eventually this would result in the colonization of the frontier world of [[Konyang]], which would later become the center for robotics in the Alliance. Korea, as a result, has recently seen a return to form as one of the top centers of positronic research and development in the Alliance alongside [[Callisto]] following Konyang’s secession in late 2462.
'''Jadranists (Jadranism)'''


'''Southeast Asia''' can be divided into two distinct parts: the mainland and oceanic regions. The mainland of Southeast Asia is, as it has been throughout its history, divided between a variety of states such as Vietnam, Siam, and Thailand. The countries of the region have had close economic ties with one another for centuries now, and worked together alongside one another to colonize [[New Hai Phong]], Despite this, the region’s trade is dominated by the Federal Republic of China and its associated megacorporations, and the entire area has seen heavy investment by Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals from its regional hub in Singapore. Oceanic Southeast Asia is dominated by the economies of Malaysia and the Indonesian Federation along with the recently resurgent Philippines, which is widely touted as a a herculean feat of Earth’s ecological reclamation project due to the amount of time and work needed to restore the archipelago’s devastated ecosphere. Large-scale construction projects of bridges linking the various islands of Indonesia with each other and to the mainland have recently begun with the sponsorship of the Solarian Government, and many in the islands are hopeful for what new possibilities these might bring.  
The central pillar of the Jadranist movement is the neglect of the countryside by the nobles who are, according to the Mandate’s government and the broader Empire, meant to develop it and bring prosperity to all of Novi Jadran. But they have not, and many rural nobles have opted to enrich themselves with funds meant for rural development. Furthermore, they have interfered and meddled with efforts by urban professionals to create projects in the countryside such as railroads, mines, and electrical grids, forcing development to cater to their systems of patronage rather than the empirical studies of the Royal Institute. Frustrated and unable to formally act against the rural nobles due to their status as “just”  commoner Ma’zals, these professionals began to debate what could be done about the sorry state of rural life on Novi Jadran in classrooms, middle-class living rooms, coffee shops, and other places the Jadranic intelligentsia frequented. By the 2410s this movement, still concentrated in the university-educated classes of urban Novi Jadran, was known as Jadranism.


Further to the south '''Oceania''' is home to Australia, New Zealand, and the Federation of Oceania -- an alliance of those islands in the Pacific lucky enough to survive the ecological disasters that impacted Earth before ecological projects were undertaken to restore the planet to its former glory. The region is most well-known for the Restored Great Barrier Reef, which was regrown by Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals following its complete destruction in the late 21st century. Many in the keiretsu hold the Restored Great Barrier Reef as the crowning achievement of Zeng-Hu alongside cloning. Australia and New Zealand are also founding Commonwealth Members and participated in the colonisation efforts with the rest of their Commonwealth partners. The Federation of Oceania, like its counterparts in the region, was severely impacted by the ecological disasters that befell Earth during its climate crisis. As a result many surviving islands in the Federation were reinforced with seawalls constructed by [[Hephaestus Industries]] to prevent flooding, though the usefulness of these structures has faded with the success of Earth’s climate restoration measures. Many of these colossal constructions now stand as relics of a much darker period in Earth’s long history, though there have been recent proposals from various officials and even citizens in the Oceanian government to either scrap the sea walls for materials, preserve them as outdoor museums, or even convert them into giant, free standing art exhibits.  
Jadranists advocate for a lessening of rural noble privileges and more oversight of rural development, with many calling for the Empire to replace the current governor and begin anti-corruption investigations into the colonial administration of the planet. They hold a patronizing attitude towards rural Jadraners and view themselves — the educated, urban elite — as more able to make decisions than their uneducated, rural counterparts. This stance — and the poor working conditions of many rural industrial facilities — has won them few friends amongst rural community leaders, but their connections to urban patricians have ensured their continued relevance. The Jadranist faction is closely aligned to Edvard Posavac’s movement, but is viewed poorly by youth dissident groups. It is a common joke amongst the Mjenjači the quickest way to ensure change is to have a Jadranist speak to a rural noble — they’ll quickly die from boredom.


The '''Indian subcontinent''' is the most populous region on earth and one of its powerful  economically, competing with other regions like China, the United States, the European Union, and the Soviet Union. Even so, it has long been seen as less prestigious as no megacorporations originated in the subcontinent and lacking a certain pedigree. Despite this though, India remains a mighty economic powerhouse felt across the globe that was able to carry out a colonization effort alongside its neighbors that resulted in the settlement of numerous colonies on the Human Frontier prior to the Interstellar War, most notably [[Gadpathur]]. While this colony has long slipped from Solarian rule, India also found success in its efforts to colonise [[Callisto]] alongside the other members of the Commonwealth of Nations. While China’s influence is felt most strongly in the Alliance economically, India’s influence -- particularly in the linguistic sphere -- can still be felt in the [[Coalition of Colonies]] and the broader human frontier today, as Freespeak, the most spoken language in the Orion Spur, has its roots in the various languages of the Indian subcontinent.
'''Mjenjači'''
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Literally translating from Jadranic Morozi as “Gearboxes,” the Mjenjači (also rendered Mjenjachi) are a counterculture — arguably, a dissident — group primarily made up of the descendants of rural Jadranic immigrants to urban centers during the early Imperial period. A cross-class movement which includes everyone from the children of factory workers to those of white collar professionals, many Mjenjači are university or primary school students and their political influence is the smallest of the three major counterculture groups. The Mjenjači first emerged in the 2430s and their name is a reference to the common employment of first-generation rural immigrants: factory work.
===Europe===
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Europe in the 25th century remains an important and relevant center of the planet despite its former division between the European Union and Warsaw Pact. The one nation that does not follow this trend is the neutral state of '''Switzerland'''. While on paper Switzerland is unique on Earth in that it is technically not a Sovereign Solarian Nation or regional province of Earth and is instead an independent nation, it is de jure a member of the Alliance and all Swiss citizens automatically hold dual citizenship in the Alliance. It, along with Luna, has long been diplomatic neutral ground for humanity and a variety of treaties -- such as those ending the Interstellar War and recognising the independence of breakaway states such as the [[Republic of Biesel]] -- have been signed here.
Unlike the Jadranists and Posavacists, which are political in nature, the Mjenjači are a cultural movement which has grown out of the experience of rural life and urban migration, and the resulting discontent with the colonial administration. Mjenjači clubs are frequent sights in university districts and in Vilagjet communities, and their fashion trends — which favor dark, earthen tones reminiscent of the clothes worn by poor urban Jadraners but influenced by Jintarian “punk” trends — have become popular amongst young urbanites in the 2460s. While their political pull is limited, the Mjenjači broadly support more autonomy for rural communities and more resources for their development. As a youth movement, they are often found on campuses and many recent graduates still subscribe to some of its cultural practices, such as its mode of dress.


The '''European Union''' is the unquestioned economic power of the European continent and home to many of the companies that would eventually form the foundations of humanity’s megacorporations. The modern EU consists of a multitude of smaller semi-independent nations from Scandinavia, the British Isles, Western Europe, Iberia, and the Balkans. The most important of these member states is generally considered to be France, which is home to the EU’s largest city and the seat of Earth’s planetary government, Paris. The city is not just notable for these traits however, but also for its long history of being a city on the cutting edge of the sciences, particularly those relating to Aerospace and Nuclear Science. It is also where practical fusion power was invented in 2027, a year which many historians consider to be the start of a new Human Era. West Germany is also a strong force in the economy of the European Union, and is considered the spiritual home of Hephaestus Industries by virtue of it where some of their first engineering facilities and factories on Earth were built. Also of importance is Italy, which is more closely aligned with the Mediterranean nations such as the United Arab Federation through the Mediterranean Economic Pact, commonly called the Med-7 agreement. The Vatican City, located in Italy, is both the smallest member state of the Alliance and also one of its most-visited tourist locations, with millions performing pilgrimages to it every year. Other locations in the European Union, such as Yugoslavia, Portugal, Ireland, and Spain, are also commonly visited for their natural and cultural beauty by Humans from all over the Orion Spur. The EU is where Terraneus Diagnostics -- a subsidiary of [[Einstein Engines]] that would later go on to invent the first practical [[IPC]] frames. The Romance languages found throughout Western Europe formed the basis of modern Tradeband.
While it lacks true political influence the Mjenjači movement is viewed with suspicion by the Royal Jadranic Constabulary for its skepticism of the government and distaste for military service, which many Mjenjači view as exploiting the rural population. It is not uncommon for constables to break up Mjenjači gatherings at the orders of bureaucrats and local notables, and the movement has a reputation for petty hooliganism throughout much of urban Novi Jadran as a result — a reputation the Mjenjači view as undeserved.


The '''United Kingdom''' never formally joined the European Union and instead reinvested itself into its former colonies through the establishment of the international organisation known as the '''Commonwealth of Nations''' that focused on being an economic and cultural partnership between all of its member states. As colonisation became more prominent as well, the Commonwealth, headed by the United Kingdom, took to the stars and established numerous colonies throughout human space, the most notable and successful being the colony on the Jovian moon of [[Callisto.]] In the present day, the Commonwealth is still a strong economic partnership, though it has declined in notoriety since it stopped colonising worlds across the spur. It maintains a positive relationship with nearly all of its former colonies, however, aside from those no longer in Solarian space, and often coordinates trade between its member states and these colonial worlds.
'''Posavacists'''


The European Union’s opposite in Europe is the '''Warsaw Pact''', formerly a military alliance of socialist nations long in the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence that transformed into an economic and colonial cooperative pact after the establishment of the Solarian Alliance in the early 2130’s . The countries of the Pact lagged behind their Western counterparts as megacorporations gained more and more power until what would eventually become [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]] was founded as an effort to unify the heavy industry of the Pact into a cohesive industrial force. In the years since the Pact has caught up to, though not surpassed, its western counterpart. The strongest economies in the Warsaw Pact are East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, with each having a respective focus in arms development, ship building, and robotics. The Warsaw Pact’s economic woes in the Second Great Depression caused it to experience a period of social and political instability during the Earth’s climate crisis, which would result in the Pact -- working alongside Soviet authorities -- deporting a great number of political dissidents to the colony of [[Visegrad]]. Most Earthers from the Pact that go abroad find themselves working for Zavodskoi Interstellar.
Formed by Imperial diplomat [[Council of Imperial Governors#Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran|Edvard Posavec]] in the latter years of the 2440s, the Posavacists are a young and shockingly influential counterculture movement which calls for the establishment of an oversight system for the rural nobility to prevent their excesses. Some radicals, whom the movement seems to publicize more than their mainstream peers, call for a total replacement of the traditional nobles with, “more qualified Morozians,” instead. Like Posavec himself much of his movement is made up of educated urban commoners, particularly those in the Imperial bureaucracy, and it has limited support outside of this group — though its deep pockets allow for many to be hired on as demonstrators.


To the east of the Warsaw Pact lies its historical overlord, the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics'''. The USSR is an intimidating economic strongman on Earth that has a unique, and often strained, relationship with the greater Solarian Alliance and the corporations that have come to dominate its economy. The Soviet Union maintains a strict policy of disallowing the operations of any corporation aside from the state-sponsored Zavodskoi Interstellar inside its borders and sphere of influence, which has won the Union very few friends abroad. Regardless of this cold attitude though, the old Union maintains a significant amount of clout in Earth’s politics and economy due to its size and dominant heavy industry, much of which was critical to Earth’s climate restoration project. The Soviet Union has also been the most supportive of any region on Earth of the recent establishment of the Solarian Corporate Authority and the expulsion of NanoTrasen from Solarian space following the collapse of Solarian authorities in its outer colonies in 2462. Soviet citizens that travel abroad are almost always employed by Zavodskoi Interstellar, thanks to the state’s sponsorship of the megacorporation. The USSR’s most well-known colonial ventures are the establishment of the Zvezda moonbase in the 1980’s on [[Luna]], the first permanent human extraterrestrial settlement, and the settlement of [[Pluto]] and the moons surrounding it, which now serve as the Alliance’s primary source of the valuable gas Helium-3.
The Posavecists are viewed as a dangerous group by the current Governor due to their deep connections in the bureaucracy and Posavec’s most important ally: the crown princess, [[Keeser Royal Family#Crown Princess Priscilla Keeser|Priscilla Keeser]] herself. Her influence shield the movement from much of the harassment others face and she is rumored to be a major funder of its goals due to the long-rumored distaste Priscilla and Governor-Marchioness Glavan hold for one another. As long as her influence holds, they will remain untouched — and perhaps even be swept into power after Empress Priscillla is crowned.


While the Pact and EU are still often at one another’s throats politically and economically in the eternal game of vying for resources and influence over the global affairs of Earth’s Government, the '''Mediterranean Economic Pact''', sometimes referred to as the Mediterranean Seven, Med-7, or Med-Sev, represents an alleged third option, though its influence has waned since its golden age in the 22nd century. The MEP is an unusual economic cooperation agreement between countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea originally designed to both counterbalance the economic power of Asia and North America and allow its constituent nations, some of which were already members of the EU or the United Arab Federation, to afford then costly colonization projects. While its economic cooperation terms remain in effect, it is now primarily a ceremonial organization that shows the historical friendship of the Mediterranean nations. The most notable achievement of the MEP was the colonization of [[Assunzione]], which still remains one of the farthest planets from Earth that has been successfully colonized. There are movements within the Med-Sev nations to try and establish cultural exchanges or trade agreements with their far-flung former-colony in the name of extending the friendship now so emphasised by the organisation, though these efforts have met staunch resistance in the new political climate of a post-collapse Solarian Alliance.
==Government==
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<center><i>“The existence of Novi Jadran — a colonized society used to colonize others — is proof of the Empire’s depravity, and how far they have strayed from the Goddess’ light,”</i> - Anonymous Xanan of Fisanduhian descent interviewed by the Xanu News Network’s Liao Qi in early 2465.</center>
===The Middle East and North Africa===
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Northern Africa and the Middle East are both dominated by the '''United Arab Federation''', an alliance of states stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean formed in the early 21st century during a tide of Pan-Arabism in order to combat growing Soviet and American influence in the region. The Federation gradually strengthened as the 21st century rolled along and was eventually able to pursue its own major colonial endeavors funded by the large scores of wealth accrued from the petroleum and hydrocarbon industries of these countries, the most notable of which was  colonization of [[Persepolis]] and other planets in the early 2200s that would later become the Elyran Coalition, and finally the independent [[Republic of Elyra]]. Despite the Republic’s separation from the Alliance, it and the Federation maintain diplomatic ties, and many muslim Elyrans still travel to Mecca to perform their Hajj. The United Arab Federation is also home to the Suez Commerce Zone, once only a canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, it is now the largest commercial spaceport and seaport in the Middle East & North Africa and one of the largest on Earth. Since fossil fuels became unprofitable, many countries in the United Arab Federation have instead made great investments into other energy sources such as solar, wind, and fusion power, and export much of this energy to other regions on Earth.
The Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran is a subject of the Empire of Dominia which is ruled by Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan, a Jadranic noblewoman from Nova Rijeka and retired Imperial Army officer who has held the position since 2455 and is widely unpopular amongst the common Jadranic population for her unwillingness — or perhaps her inability — to contest the opinions of nobles and fight for the rights many Jadraners believe they have earned by their blood spilled in the Empire’s service. Compounding her issues, Glavan must answer to the whims of Novi Jadran’s nobility. Though not Morozian Primaries, these nobles dominate much of the Jadranic countryside and hold significant political influence in its cities and government. Without their cooperation, life in the planet’s urban centers would grind to a halt as food and raw materials stopped arriving at the necessary rates.


To the east of the United Arab Federation lies its colonial partner in the initial rush to Persepolis, the '''Free Republic of Iran'''. Historically a flashpoint between the Soviet Union and the United States, Iran opted to align itself with the Federation following the overthrow of its Soviet-dominated client state government in the Iranian Revolution of 2023. The country, thanks to its large supply of oil reserves that had -- up to its revolution -- been reserved for use by the USSR and prevented from flowing into the open market, provided a significant amount of funding for the Federation’s colonization efforts. Its government was allowed to name the first planet of the colonization project, and eventually settled upon [[Persepolis]]. In the modern day, the Free Republic of Iran often works closely still with the United Arab Federation in matters both economic and political, but is also seen as a bridge of sorts between the Asian economies of China and Southeast Asia and the EU and the various states of the West African Union. For this reason, The Republic of Iran has seen heavy investment from Idris Incorporated throughout its history and is commonly host to some of the largest conventions and meetings of business officials on Earth.  
The colonial bureaucracy of Novi Jadran is de jure entirely under the control of the Department of Colonial Affairs, as it is an Imperial Mandate of the broader Empire. De facto, the Department has a hands-off approach where Novi Jadran is left to manage its own internal affairs due to its proven loyalty, and Morozian Primary bureaucrats — with their Secondary colleagues — are treated lavishly on the planet when they arrive. The Imperial Mandate’s bureaucracy is itself divided between the rural and urban zones, with the rural areas dominated by the Jadranic nobility and the urban areas dominated by the more meritocratic bureaucracy of the urban patrician classes, who must ensure profits continue to flow into their urban holdings. In the countryside, graft and corruption by rural nobles — with Morozian Primaries of the Department of Colonial Affairs often receiving kickbacks — ensures the administration is inefficient and benefits nobles first, with commoners second.


The third player in the Middle East is the '''Republic of Turkey''', a historical ally to the United States during the Cold War and founding member of the Mediterranean Economic Pact. The country was one of those consistently on the front lines of the Cold War, and as a result saw a large investment from the United States and Hephaestus Industries during the days when the corporation specialised in being a defense contractor. After the end of the Cold War because of this investment, Turkey became an industrial and financial centre for the Middle East, a status which it holds to this day. This industry was most famously put to use in an agreement with the United Arab Federation and Free Republic of Iran, in which the three nations agreed to cooperate in colonisation effort to settle what would become the [[Republic of Elyra]], with Turkish industry building many of the space vessels and terraforming equipment needed for the process. The country also was one of the primary industrial forces behind the mission to colonise [[Assunzione]]. To this day, Turkey maintains a position as one of Earth’s most robust industrial powers, however due to recent tension between the Solarian Alliance and Hephaestus Industries, Einstein Engines and Zavodskoi Interstellar have been allowed to make their way into the Turkish heavy industry sector in small capacities.
Non-Tribunalist criminal enforcement on Novi Jadran is handled by the local branch of His Imperial Majesty’s Constabulary Service: the Imperial Jadranic Colonial Constabulary (IJCC), which is further divided into rural and urban sections. The IJCC has a reputation for excellence in the broader Empire and across Novi Jadran, with low rates of corruption and high rates of solving cases — particularly in urban areas. Urban constables are common sights in most city districts, with their peaked caps and uniform intentionally designed to evoke the appearance of an Imperial Army officer. Rural constables are less frequent, with many villages only having a single constable for their region. Despite their low numbers, rural constables have a reputation for doggedly tracking fugitives for dozens — sometimes — hundreds of kilometers, often with the assistance of Imperial Lyodii seconded to the IJCX from the Lyodic Rifles, until they bring their suspect to justice.
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===Major Rural Noble Families===
===Africa===
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Modern Africa is a location of immense commerce on Earth, and the continent is home to the majority of the planet’s space elevators, vital structures that allow for cheap and efficient transport of goods to and from Earth. The continent has historically been divided by the Sahara Desert, which grew even larger during Earth’s climate crisis. The process of shrinking the Sahara would eventually become one of the longest and most difficult projects of the climate restoration project, officially ending in the early 2400s.
While not Morozian Primaries, the rural nobility of Novi Jadran are still viewed as the social elite of the planet and are de facto equal to their Morozian counterparts, though de jure they are subordinated to Moroz’s will. Noble houses on the model colony are much smaller than their Morozian great house counterparts, often only a few dozen relatives and their retainers, and hold sway over the vast majority of the planet’s countryside. Many rural Jadraners are more loyal to their local noble family than the central government of the planet, which these nobles use as leverage against the cities and their patricians.


West Africa below the Sahara is dominated by the '''West African Union''' (UAO), an evolution of the late 20th-century West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The economies of the UEMOA nations boomed in the early to mid 21st century thanks to their smart balancing of the interests of Soviet, American, and European investors to create a loosely-regulated but dominant regional economy by the 2050s. The UEMOA officially formed the UAO in the 2060s in order to secure its regional economic dominance, and entered the colonial race in the same decade. While it would initially only perform minor ventures, the UAO secured the foundation of the [[Eridani Federation]] in 2095 when it secured the sole rights to colonize the Epsilon Eridani system. Most Eridanian Suits are descended from the West African settlers of the UAO’s colonial program, and the Federation maintains warm relations with the UAO to this very day. Modern Eridanian Tradeband is descended from French and some indigenous languages found in West Africa. The UAO has longstanding ties with Hephaestus Industries, which contributed greatly to its colonization effort of [[Oran]] -- the first planet in Epsilon Eridani. Presently, the UAO maintains a very close economic relationship with the Eridani Corporate Federation, though politically they have drifted apart over cultural differences, with many citizens in the UAO decrying the ECF’s treatment of the Dreg Underclass and the eradication of any West African culture that may have once existed in the ECF.
'''Duke Dragan Glavan''', father to the current Governor-Marchioness, is a towering figure in the political environment of the Imperial Mandate due to the Glavan family’s dominance of the fertile countryside near Lake Glavan and Nova Rijeka, which remains outside of the Duke’s control — much to his continued frustration. Duke Glavan is a military-minded man who ensures the rural population under his control provides more recruits to the Imperial Army than any other noble-controlled region, and he is famous for his valor during the Dominian conquest of Sun Reach — where he served as an officer. Dragan typically invites members of House Strelitz to his domain and organizes elaborate hunting parties and celebrations for him, maintaining large, private hunting forests where trespassing commoners are given the choice of execution or service in the Imperial Army if caught. A harsh, militant individual, Dragan is disliked by many in Nova Rijeka for his domineering attitude towards the city and constant meddling with its railroad networks. He is a frequent object of satire in the Novi Rijeka Gazette, the Mandate’s most widely-read newspaper. The Duke has attempted many times to shut the Gazette down, only to be frustrated by the mysterious — and unknown — Morozian noble who bankrolls it. Rumor has it the crown princess herself is the Gazette’s patron, and it is funded to frustrate the Galvans.


Nearby the UAO lies the '''Federal Republic of Nigeria''', West Africa’s second-largest economy and a longstanding rival of the UAO in both economics and colonization. The rivalry would peak in the late 21st when UAO beat out Nigeria’s bid to colonize the Epsilon Eridani system, which led to the nation more closely aligning itself with the Commonwealth’s ongoing efforts to colonize the Jovian moon of [[Callisto]]. The country is also home to the Lagos Interstellar Space Elevator, the largest of its kind on Earth’s surface. Nigeria, along with its numerous elevators, has also developed an incredibly robust aerospace industry, with many firms having manufacturing and assembly plants for spacecraft in the region.
'''Duchess Filomena di Falerio''', second of her name, controls large, mostly barren swathes of land in northern Patria near the Godwin Sea, having inherited it from her father upon his passing in 2431. Over the intervening thirty years Filomena, an engineer by training, has opened up the di Falerio holdings to investment by the great houses, megacorporations, and urban Jadranic businesses after a village discovered large mineral veins in the foothills where they tended their groves. The rural villagers were shortly forced off their land by Eridani mercenaries hired by Filomena and mineral rights were sold off to the highest bidders, even if they were offworld, with the expectation the family would receive a cut of the profits. Filomena frequently invites engineers from House Zhao to her domain, and frequently entertains Admiral-Governor Lanying Zhao of Zhurong. The wealthiest of all rural nobles, Filomena is regarded as by far the most cruel. Her gaunt, commanding visage is frequently seen in anti-noble literature distributed by the Posavecists’ radical faction, and some whisper that she is only kept in power through her use of mercenaries, the amount of kickbacks she provides to the government, and the sheer volume of raw materials she provides to the urban factories of the planet. Even if the methods to gather them are cruel, some say, does it truly matter when we do not see them?


East Africa is home to the '''East African Federation''', a union of states that was inspired by its West African counterpart, the UAO, that formed in the late 21st century. While the UAO found success by carefully balancing -- some might say “juggling” -- the interests of investors from both the capitalist and communist worlds, the EAF’s initial economic boom came primarily from investments by the UAO into its growing market. As a result the EAF and UAO have always had close ties, and the EAF later joined its West African counterpart in the colonization of the Epsilon Eridani system. Many of the Federation’s Suits outside of Oran are descended from these later East African colonists. As a result of this Eridani’s planets (locally referred to as “Sectors”) after Oran tend to be dominated by megacorporations more readily found in East Africa, such as Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals and Einstein Engines. The EAF also sports one of the most robust biotech industries in Africa and on Earth at large, with some of the premier prosthetics and augments in the Spur seeing some research and development in this region of Earth.
'''Duke Ludovico di Brignole''' controls a stretch of fertile coastal land south of Durres along the Pontean coast. Not as wealthy as the di Falerios nor as militant as House Glavan Ludovico is, in many ways, the archetypal rural noble. His holdings are poor, yes, but they are local and faithful to the Empire and the Goddess alike. Money which should go to them instead goes to excessive celebrations for Morozian Primaries which benefit House di Brignole, yes, but he provides the rural citizenry with enough to make a living — even if barely any villages have electricity and some must walk for days to reach the nearest rail line. The Duke himself is a pious, somewhat dull man who seeks the patronage of any Morozian who visits his holdings. The territory he controls is regarded by many Jadraners as a breadbasket for its bountiful fishing grounds, and more temperate weather due to the Pontean Ocean ’s currents. The warm temperatures have, in recent decades, made the coastal villages popular vacation spots for urban Jadraners — a process which has, ironically, seen these villages quickly transformed into wonders of rural infrastructure. Many Jadraners — both rural residents of the duchy and urban visitors — have noted the only reason for this modernization was the promise of Imperial Pounds, shedding much light on Ludovico’s true character.


'''Central Africa''', unlike its Eastern and Western counterparts, was never able to federalize or unionize to the extent of its neighbors. The region was first a hotspot for proxy wars between the United States of America and Soviet Union, along with heavy involvement from the Union of South Africa on whatever side most benefited it, before eventually finding itself the main region of investment by both the UAO and East African Federation in the 2100s. With the colonization effort in Epsilon Eridani well under way in the 2100s a source of labor was needed for the fledgling colonies, and the Francophone Republic of the Congo was -- to investors from the UAO -- the ideal place to find cheap labor. While some of these colonial laborers found success in Eridani, many found themselves performing unpleasant, time-consuming work in hazardous conditions for another nation’s colony. Dissatisfied with their positions in the colony but unable to easily return home, many of these laborers would become the first “dregs” of Eridani when they were unceremoniously fired by their colonial supervisors during a strike in 2148. Central Africa is today overseen directly by the Planetary Government of Earth and is home to some of the largest mineral extraction operations in the world. Its seen by Earthers as a somewhat dangerous place, but also one where anyone could go to with hopes of making it big in the ever growing mining industry of the region, and as such, has become one of the most multicultural places on Earth, with people from China to the EU to South America, to recent Martian refugees trying to make a living there. There have been pushes to federalise the region into something more coherent and self-governing and these have been gaining steam despite the disapproval of megacorporations involved in the mining operations there.
==Economics==


The '''Union of South Africa''' is the absolute hegemon of southern Africa despite a history of internal unrest and external controversies. The Union was a major player in the African theater of the Cold War, at times working with the United States and at times working against it with the Soviet Union, but ultimately only working for itself and the security of its business interests. South Africa would eventually make its “deal with the devil" in the mid 21st century and opt to closely align its arms industry with the Soviet Union’s Zavodskoi Industries thanks to an ongoing arms embargo by the United States in an effort to end its ongoing involvement in Central Africa, which would not be truly end until the late 2100s. Thanks to its pariah status until the 2100s South Africa is one of the few Commonwealth nations not to have had a hand in the colonization of [[Callisto]], and is typically looked upon negatively by the East African Federation and UAO alike. However, its close association with Zavodskoi Interstellar has allowed its arms industry to remain relevant even in the 2400s. While unable to participate in the colonisation efforts of Callisto, many South Africans instead looked to the frontier as a land of opportunity and came to inhabit many worlds in the current Coalition of Colonies along with being sizable minorities in more global colonization efforts, most notably those on [[Silversun]] and [[Xanu Prime]].
<center><i>“From Moroz to Sun Reach we provide what you need, when you need it, however you need it,”</i> - Motto of Jadranic firm Belluno Interstellar Logistics (BLI).</center>
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Novi Jadran’s urban settlements, despite the poverty of much of its countryside, are productive industrial areas which provide much of the weaponry and equipment used by the Imperial military — though Zhurong still outpaces it — and produce consumer goods used throughout the Empire such as foodstuffs, with Jadranic canneries producing much of the food commonly available on the Imperial Frontier. While many of these factories are owned by the great houses, particularly Zhao and Caladius, a slim majority are owned by native Jadranic firms run by urban patricians. Safety standards in Jadranic factories are lower than in the Imperial Core and injuries occur at a higher rate as a result. Jadranic workers — and some factory owners — have protested for higher standards, but the government — at the behest of the great houses — has always denied these motions. In recent years, with Emperor Boleslaw growing older, this has become a greater and greater point of discontent with Governor-Marchioness Glavan’s regime, and many factory workers eagerly await the day she is sacked by the crown princess. In contrast to the factories, Jadranic clockmakers are widely seen as some of the best in the Spur and have retained their traditional style of production in small workshops. With their craft dating back to the pre-Imperial era, some clockmaking workshops have centuries of experience and their products are highly valued throughout the Spur — some have been purchased by customers as far away as Earth.
===North America===
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Even in the 25th century North America remains a center of industry and culture on Earth, though it has long been eclipsed by the interstellar scale of the Solarian Alliance as a whole.
The four cities of Novi Jadran are connected by large, well-developed freight and commercial rail networks which many urban Jadraners view as the pride of the Imperial Mandate. Jadraners are some of the most adept rail engineers in the modern Orion Spur, and the planet is now crisscrossed by thousands of kilometers of rail lines which move everything from food to tourists to the raw materials which its factories will turn into the lifeblood of the Imperial Frontier. Due to the harsh winters Jadranic trains are often larger than their foreign counterparts and feature large snowplows to toss aside even post-blizzard snowfalls. Visiting Morozian Primaries often travel across the planet by rail in luxury cars, favoring it over often poorly-maintained rural roads.


The '''United States of America''' once stood as, arguably, the most important nation in human history prior to the dawn of the Solarian Alliance following the Crisis of 2127. A dominant regional power and the only single nation able to oppose the Soviet Union, the USA found a Cold War with its counterpart that continuously escalated -- eventually going interplanetary -- until the early 22nd century, when the Earth’s ecological and economical problems came to a head and caused a collapse of the old order. The United States in particular was badly damaged by Earth’s climate crisis, with many of its cities ruined by rising sea levels. The United States’ overfunded military industry would eventually go on to form the foundation of [[Hephaestus Industries]] alongside several European defense and heavy industry companies. Its largest city, Los Angeles, still has a massive Hephaestus-manufactured sea wall dating back to the climate crisis that is the only reason the city itself was not abandoned during the 2100s. The United States still is a powerful economy with a huge hold over Earth’s markets and many in the country have found great success in working with megacorporations across the spur. Because of its great involvement with colonisation from its early years, humans with American heritage can be found all over Human-Inhabited space in the Orion Spur.
The rural Jadranic economy is smaller and less profitable than its urban counterpart due to neglect and the simple fact that foodstuffs are much cheaper when compared to the finished goods produced in urban environments. Primarily revolving around fishing and farming, the rural economy demands long hours for little pay and few opportunities. Some instead work in mining industries under the employ of rural nobles, Morozians, or urban Jadraners. Here the pay is much higher, but harsh working conditions and poor safety standards take a physical toll on the workers. Many Jadranic miners will ultimately suffer from chronic health conditions or be left unable to work due to workplace injuries, leaving their surviving family members to pick up their medical expenses and provide for the family itself. With such prospects it is easy to see why many rural Jadraners instead migrate to the cities or choose a life of military service.


To the south of the USA the '''United Mexican States''' houses the single largest city in North America, Mexico City. Mexico has long had a close relationship with its northern neighbor and was a major partner of the United States in early colonial ventures to colonize the Solar System, where it helped to found some of the original American domes on Earth’s moon. Its close relationship with the United States made it an ideal market for Hephaestus Industries, which controlled much of Mexico’s heavy industry sector before the megacorporation’s investments were bought out by a resurgent Einstein Engines in the 2450s. Mexico continues to see a strong presence of the megacorp and is where its Earth operations are headquartered. Along with the domes of Luna, Mexicans also participated greatly in the establishment of the South American colony of [[Mictlan]] after it encountered some difficulties.
==Major Cities==


In the north '''Canada''' endured the climate crisis of the 2100s better than its southern neighbor, and grew significantly thanks to climate refugees settling inside its borders as they fled northwards to escape rising temperatures and sea levels. Toronto, as a result, remains the second-largest city in North America after Mexico City. Canada itself still straddles a line between the Commonwealth and the United States and ultimately involved itself in the colonial efforts of both, with Canadian colonists forming a significant part of the early population of [[Callisto]]. As with the rest of North America much of Canada’s industry has been historically dominated by Hephaestus Industries, though whether the Solarian government will allow this state of affairs to continue remains to be seen as corporate restrictions against the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate continue to advance in Sol
<center><i>“Second only to Moroz,”</i> - Unofficial motto of the Imperial Mandate.</center>


While it was devastated during Earth’s climate crisis the Caribbean managed to endure, though many of its islands disappeared beneath the tide of rising sea levels. When islands started to slowly reappear during Earth’s climate restoration projects they were often purchased wholesale by Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, the heroic savior of Earth’s ragged environment. While some islands, such as Cuba and Hispaniola, make up the '''Caribbean Federation''' -- a desperate union of states created to manage the refugees caused by the climate crisis -- many are simply Zeng-Hu special administrative zones leased to the megacorporation by the Solarian Alliance where a variety of experiments, some legal and some less so, are performed. With the recent anti-megacorporation initiative of the Solarian government, it remains to be seen what will become of Zeng-Hu’s island paradises in the Caribbean. Due to these questionable activities, many citizens of the Caribbean Federation have a mixed opinion of Zeng-Hu, with some seeing the company as the only reason they can live where they are, and others seeing the corporation as a sinister entity that plays with the lives of others.
Even decades after its entry into the Empire of Dominia, Novi Jadran remains a primarily rural world with few major settlements beyond its four major cities: Nova Rijeka, Durres, Belluno, and Nuova Vicenza. The four major cities of Novi Jadran are dominated by different political forces and their residents have lives totally unlike their rural counterparts, both of which are discussed in the culture section above.
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'''Nova Rijeka:''' The first settlement on Novi Jadran, Nova Rijeka is the largest and most important city in the Imperial Mandate. It is the center of the Empire’s administration on the planet and an important center for the colonial administration of the wider Imperial Frontier. Located on the western shores of the Glavan Sea, one of Patria’s largest bodies of water, the capital city of the Imperial Mandate is a testament to the prosperity Dominian colonialism has brought the model colony. Following a major fire in the late 2380s the historical center of the city was rebuilt in a modernist, Morozian style favoring wide boulevards and frequent green spaces to attract tourists and please its residents. As one leaves the government center and moves into the middle and working-class neighborhoods the level of opulence decreases, but the city remains pleasant to inhabit. Its municipal tram system is held by Rijekans as the most efficient in the entire Empire, and they are known to frequently brag about this even when abroad.
===South America===
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While its historical legacy on Earth remains its period as the main theater of the 21st-century Cold War between the USSR and USA, South America has forged its own unique identity in the decades that followed this period of strife. Unfortunately the period of recovery that followed the end of the Cold War with the Crisis of 2127 means that the nations of South America were late to the colonial rush that would define much of humanity’s history up to the present day, with [[Mictlan]] standing as the only major successful colonial venture launched by South American nations.
Due to its position on the Glavan Sea, Nova Rijeka has a significant maritime industry centered around shipping and fishing. The coastal regions of the city, where these industries are found, are home to the majority of the capital’s rural immigrant population. As the Iri River has grown more polluted from industrial runoff from its factory districts, Rijekan trawlers have begun to fish further away from the city — bringing them into conflict with coastal villages and Duke Glavan. The city, always influential, seems set to win any political conflict. Originally settled by Croatian colonists, Nova Rijeka has since heavily diversified and is home to the majority of the planet’s “off-world” Dominian population – immigrants such as Morozian Secondaries, Imperial Frontiersmen, and Lyodii who have come to the planet to make a living in its growing industries.


The largest economy in South America is the '''Federative Republic of Brazil''', despite the devastation it suffered during Earth’s ecological crisis. Brazil possesses longstanding ties with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals due to the corporation’s major role in the restoration of the Amazon Rainforest during Earth’s climate restoration initiatives. The economic prominence of Brazil allowed it to overcome linguistic barriers and assume leadership over the “Mictlan Project” of the 2150s, which would eventually result in the planet’s colonization in the 2180s. Brazil did not escape the Cold War unscathed though, and closely aligned to the United States throughout it. Many critics of the Mictlan Project argued that the Brazilian championing of it was not due to a sense of charity, but instead out of a desire to get anti-business environmentalists out of the picture by encouraging them to travel to Mictlan, rather than continue to fight against business in the Amazon. Brazil enjoys a status as one of Earth’s premier agricultural powers currently as well, with Zeng-Hu’s continued involvement in creating and testing prototype superfoods in the region.
'''Durres:''' On the shores of western Patria near the mouth of the Iri river lies the industrial city of Durres. The beating heart of Novi Jadran’s industry, it is an incredibly dirty city where factories belch acrid smoke in its industrial districts and the Iri River is so filled with pollutants almost no fish can be found within it. Runoff from its industrial districts has turned areas of the Pontean Ocean  around an unusual copper-brown tone, and the city is covered in industrial smog on days when winds from the ocean  do not blow it inland. If Nova Rijeka is a testament to the wealth Dominia has brought the Imperial Mandate, Durres is a monument to how the Empire has changed its client state: initially a middling industrial town in the 2380s, it has become – alongside Jinxiang on Moroz and Hongse Chengbao on Zhurong – one of the most productive cities in the Empire. Products made here are used across the Empire and its Imperial Frontier, furthering the conquest of the free frontier worlds surrounding it.


The main continental rival of Brazil during the Cold War era was the '''Democratic Republic of Chile''', which aligned itself with the Soviet Union first out of pragmatism and then after dogmatism following an unsuccessful American-backed coup of its government. Unlike the Zeng-Hu affiliated Brazil, Chile has long had a positive relationship with Zavodskoi Interstellar dating back to Soviet industrial aid during the 20th and 21st centuries. Its burgeoning industrial sector fueled by its massive mining industry allowed it to include itself in the Mictlan Project despite Brazilian protests, and Chile provided much of the work on the Project’s colonization vessels. Chile’s status as a producer of spacefaring vessels continues to today, with several of the Alliance’s active-duty warships originating in the network of shipyards that orbit above it. Many claim that the political divide between the Zavodskoi-backed Chile and the Zeng-Hu-affiliated Brazil is the source of the longstanding competitive rivalry between the companies, though this is often seen as more legend than fact by historians.
Durres is home to the largest population of rural immigrants – and their descendants – on Novi Jadran and is the birthplace of the Mjenjači movement. The poor living conditions in the city and in the surrounding countryside have freed Durres from the attention of the rural nobility, who want nothing to do with the ash-covered and polluted areas tainted by industrial runoff which surround much of the city, particularly the former mining areas on the Iri’s southern bank. This, ironically, has made Durres the de facto largest city on Novi Jadran by land mass – though much of it is technically still owned by rural nobles, prospectors and surveyors from Durres operate freely within these polluted lands, searching for the materials which allow the city to continue producing its industrial wealth.


Caught between Brazil and Chile is the '''Republic of Peru''', a nation that tried to balance the competing interests of the United States and the Soviet Union during the second phase of the Cold War. Peru opened itself up to investments from both sides in an attempt to get ahead of its neighbors, but would ultimately find itself indebted to both sides and unable to please either. As a result, the Republic nearly buckled and collapsed under the weight of civil unrest towards the end of the Cold War, but would ironically recover its footing during the Crisis of 2127 before opting to involve itself yet again in international affairs through the Mictlan Project. Contemporary Peru is known for having a significant presence of nearly every megacorporation (aside from NanoTrasen) in its investor-friendly economy, though its reputation as the gateway between the USA and USSR faded into history with the advent of interstellar politics. Many Peruvians can be seen in corporate relations or PR positions because of their familiarity with multiple megacorporations.
'''Belluno:''' Nestled between the administrative center of Nova Rijeka and the industrial hub of Durres, Belluno serves as the main transit hub of Novi Jadran for on-world and offworld travel. A moderately important rail hub before the founding of the Imperial Mandate, the city has grown massively over the past decades and is now home to the largest single rail hub – the Belluno Central Rail Yard – in the Empire outside of Moroz. Outside of the city, shuttles and freighters from across the Empire and beyond land in massive dockyards designed by House Zhao engineers and built by Jadranic hands. Less modernized than Nova Rijeka but cleaner than Durres, Belluno serves as the best example of pre-Imperial Jadranic architecture on the planet and is home to many buildings dating back to the Solarian colonial era.


To the south of Peru, the '''Republic of Argentina''' attempted a similar strategy with more success. Unlike its northern counterpart Argentina simply balanced the interests of Chile and Brazil in order to create a prosperous local situation, ultimately emerging from the Crisis of 2127 in a far more intact state than either of the neighbors it had invited into its economy thanks to its reliance on regional economics rather than international economics. Argentina was the first nation to propose the Mictlan Project, and intended for it to be a way for the nations of South and Central America to move past their Cold War-era past and into a new future in the stars. Argentina is also the technology centre of South America, being home to numerous AI and robotics research labs that allow it to continue to be relevant economically today.  
Residents of Belluno are often stereotyped on Novi Jadran as numbers-focused technocrats due to the city’s massive transit industry. Outside of the Empire it is known as the birthplace of the witchfinder stories genre, with famed author Andrija Jurina living in an apartment in downtown Belluno she has refused to move out of despite her newfound wealth. Belluno was originally settled by Italian colonists primarily from Veneto and has retained cultural and culinary influence from this era – many Dominian tour books advise that while Nova Rijeka may be the most important city in the Imperial Mandate, Belluno is the one with the best food and wine.


In the north of the continent Columbia, Ecuador, and Venezuela all suffered roughly the same fate during the Cold War. Thanks to their close proximity to the United States, the Soviet Union saw them as ideal “springboards” that could be used to undermine the Americans in the same manner that China undermined their own influence in Asia. As a result, they were ravaged by coups and counter-coups throughout the 21st century and barely managed to emerge intact enough to give paltry contributions to the Mictlan Project, though many fled to the colony to escape their living situations on Earth. While they are now as prosperous as other regions on Earth, the legacy of the 21st century looms large in the minds of those that live in this region: many simply do not trust their neighbors -- let alone non-human residents of the Alliance.
'''Nuova Vicenza:''' Located on the eastern coast of Patria, near the Godwin Sea, is the only major city established after the Imperial Mandate was founded. Nuova Vicenza prior to the Empire’s arrival was a series of small, mostly unincorporated fishing villages nestled along the coast which made their livings from the fresh catch of the Pontean Ocean. House Zhao prospectors found massive fuel deposits off of the coast near these villages and quickly convinced the local noble — an impoverished man who has since faded into history — to sell them the land, which they then sold off to patrician families from the planet’s three cities. An oil boom followed and the city was transformed into a major urban center by the end of the 2300s, though one much more hastily constructed than the other three cities.
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Decades later the city remains a major center of fuel production for Novi Jadran, and its fuel tankers are a frequent sight on the Iri River and the rail lines of the planet. The city itself has seen oil production fall since the 2440s as older wells closer to the shore have dried up and drilling further into the ocean has proven to be difficult and unprofitable. This has caused the city’s population to decrease over the past quarter-century and many of its patricians worry its relevance will fade away as fusion power — already widely used in the Imperial Core — spreads to the Imperial Mandate, eliminating the need for the natural gas and coal that fuel much of the planet’s industrial production and power its cities.
===Antarctica===
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Far to the south of Earth lies the continent of '''Antarctica''', long unpopulated by humans. The Antarctic ice of the continent was ravaged by climate change and the continent itself came to feature more and more human settlements as the climate crisis worsened, with settlers primarily consisting of the most desperate refugees. Very few of these settlements were successful, and few of those have persisted until the present day. Due to the pressures of climate change impacting Antarctica so severely it was chosen by the Alliance to serve as the base of operations for the climate restoration initiative, and much of its former splendor -- and ice -- has been restored. What settlements remain on Antarctica are dedicated either to supporting the climate restoration project or repurposed themselves as scientific research centers as the temperature dropped. Due to this, there are very few settlements on the continent dedicated to anything aside from scientific research, and many of the Alliance’s best and brightest natural scientists train in facilities located on the continent.
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  • The flag of the Empire's frontier regions. Its colors symbolically represent Houses Caladius, Zhao, and Strelitz in addition to the Empire itself.

    Located within the Alatyr System, the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran stands as a testament to the colonial legacy of the modern Empire of Dominia. A cold, icy, and predominantly rural world which was originally colonized by the Solarian Alliance during its golden age, Novi Jadran is one of the Empire’s oldest non-Morozian colonies and straddles the border between the Imperial Core and Imperial Frontier. Famed for its loyalty to the Empire, Novi Jadran is known as the “Model Colony” and provides many of the Imperial Army’s troops. It is dominated by a powerful local nobility, many of whom neglect their charges — the villages and rural citizenry under their control — in exchange for personal enrichment. In recent years, as the current Emperor has grown more ill, many of its citizens have begun to call for the Empire to reign these nobles in and establish an administration which holds the good of the Mandate above their own interests. Only time will tell if Crown Princess Priscilla Keeser will honor these demands when she ascends to the throne, or squash the dissent.

    History

    The Solarian Republic of Novi Jadran (2184 - 2302)

    “It’s a harsh planet, yes, but rich in mineral resources. I don’t doubt it’ll be productive, Prime Minister,” - Martin Clemson (2119 - 2230), Solarian Secretary of Colonization, 2178.

    Despite the loss of a colonial expedition in the Baltian Frontier Sector — now the Sparring Sea — in the early 22nd century, the Solarian Alliance was interested in continued exploration, colonization, and exploitation of the southern Orion Spur throughout the 22nd century, ultimately dispatching many colonial expeditions to a region outside of the control of any major interstellar power. One of these was the Adriatic Expedition — a colonial venture founded by multiple nations on the Adriatic Sea for the purpose of establishing a colony in the broader Alliance. In the late 22nd century the Adriatic Expedition was officially launched with the Alliance’s support in the hope that the sole inhabitable world in the Alatyr System — Novi Jadran — would become a jumping-off point for further exploration of the region, and an industrial base to support the nearby colony of Sun Reach — then in the planning stage.

    The first colonists of Novi Jadran arrived in 2184, discovering a planet which was — ironically — not dissimilar to the nearby Moroz. These early colonists, who were mostly from Yugoslavia and the Veneto region of Italy, were more prepared for the environment they faced than the settlers of Moroz and quickly set about establishing the planetary capital: Nova Rijeka. Expansion on the planet was far slower than the Alliance had originally planned due to a combination of the harsh environment and Novi Jadran’s distance from the Solarian Core. The planet’s second major city, Belluno, was founded in 2215, but a railroad — the main form of inter-city transportation in the harsh tundra environment of the planet — from it to Nova Rijeka took until 2219 to be fully operational. A third major settlement, Durres, was established in 2237 and connected to the growing rail infrastructure by 2239.

    Despite being envisioned as an industrial colony much of the planet’s industry was concentrated in its four major cities, and settlements outside of these were not nearly as developed. Much of the planet’s infrastructure was dependent on advanced equipment its industrial base did not have the capacity to manufacture, and the entire world relied on high-end imports from the broader Alliance to remain functional. In the countryside Solarian bureaucrats began to gain more and more power through their ability to issue advanced technological equipment to less developed communities, and this power only increased over time. At the start of the Second Great Depression Novi Jadran was regarded as an underperforming Solarian world highly dependent on the broader Alliance for economic support, and was viewed by many colonial administrators as less successful than the nearby Solarian colony of Sun Reach.

    As the Interstellar War raged, Novi Jadran’s economic support fell to the wayside as the Alliance shifted resources from the frontier regions to the War itself. Economic support ground to a halt and complex infrastructure began to break down, first in more remote regions and eventually in major cities. Bureaucrats and other important officials began to hoard functional technology, some to sell it and others to see if it could somehow be produced locally. By 2302 the Solarian Republic of Novi Jadran was dominated by these officials and their families, particularly in the countryside, and remained an underdeveloped and underperforming planet. When the Elyran Revolution occurred, the planet was simply written off by the Alliance and abandoned to its fate without any effort to evacuate it.

    Independent Novi Jadran (2302 - 2389)

    “The true end of the Solarian hegemonic era came not with the Treaty of Xanan, but with the Elyran Revolution and the collapse of the Southern Frontier. The abandonment of dozens of colonies to their fates is a stain upon our nation which haunts us to this day,” - Excerpt from Ingrid von Varnhagen und Langenburg’s doctoral thesis, The Collapse of Hegemony and Rise of Elyra and Dominia.

    Known by modern Jadraners as the “Decades of Deprivation,” the near-century Novi Jadran spent between Solarian and Dominian rule is regarded by most contemporary residents of the planet as a time of darkness and suffering, where advanced equipment failed and less effective solutions were developed to replace them and prevent worse failures. While the planet’s four major cities maintained some of their equipment, smaller settlements often had all of their infrastructure fail over the decades. Some of these villages and small towns were reduced to pre-space era standards of living, and the relative prosperity of the Solarian hegemonic era became a distant memory for the planet. Fusion reactors were replaced by coal plants and rail lines became the primary source of transportation and commerce for much of the world. Those who had control over the limited advanced equipment in rural areas of the planet quickly established themselves as the rulers of their areas and would, by 2389, become the noble families which now rule over much of the planet. In the urban areas where advanced technology was more easily available, patrician families with control over significant amounts of this equipment began to emerge. While no noble or patrician families ever declared outright war on one another, competition for limited technological resources led to shadow conflicts between them and rivalries which — in some cases — have lasted into the 25th century.

    As the 24th century began to draw to a close, Novi Jadran continued to limp along. In 2380 a new threat emerged from the nearby world of Sun Reach: raids on Jadranic vessels — limited in number as they were — and some of its settlements by the Pirate Lords of Sun Reach for the purpose of gathering loot. Most engagements were won by the Reachers, who had an orbital industrial base to support their pirate fleet — even if their planet’s surface population was even more neglected than Novi Jadran’s — and the experience needed to outmaneuver their Jadranic counterparts. Eventually, this escalated into extortion and tithes paid by the Jadranic nobility to Sun Reach’s piratical rulers, and this would continue until 2389. A catastrophic crop failure left Novi Jadran unable to pay its tithe and the Pirate Lords threatened a punitive invasion which would have assuredly resulted in mass starvation for the planet’s population.

    To save their world, the Jadranic nobility and its wealthy urban patricians looked to a nearby rising power to aid them: the young Empire of Dominia, then in the early period of its expansion. The Empire and Novi Jadran had been in contact with one another prior to this point and Tribunalism had started to establish itself as a major planetary faith by the late 2300s, with many Jadraners finding common ground in the Morozian’s struggle to overcome the challenges of their cold world. Desperate to save their lives and fortunes, the nobles and patricians of the planet allowed themselves to be willingly annexed by the young Empire on 18 June, 2389. The era of Novi Jadran’s independence — the Decades of Deprivation — had ended, and the era of the Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran had begun.

    The Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran (2389 - Present)

    “Jadraners have, time and time again, proved their loyalty to the Empire for little in return. They are a truly remarkable people, and a fine population to pull colonial bureaucrats from in the near future as their society embraces our values,” - Gerhard-Manfred Strelitz, then-High Lord General of His Majesty's Imperial Army, in a missive to then-Emperor Godwin Keeser (2405).

    For many rural Jadraners, life barely changed during the first years of the Imperial Mandate. In the cities, changes were more immediately apparent. Morozian engineers, nobles, clergy, and specialists of all kinds began to appear in Jadranic urban centers. Technology which dated back to the Solarian era began to come back online, or be recreated, as Houses Zhao and Caladius poured Imperial Pounds into Jadranic cities in an effort to create prosperous urban industrial centers — though often these facilities were far, far less safe than their Morozian counterparts. Jadraners were after all, regardless of their loyalty, not Morozian. In the countryside these changes were less apparent as many noble families — now officially part of the Dominian system of peerage — opted to enrich themselves at the expense of their populations. Those who did hope to acquire these rebuilt wonders or the goods of the broader Empire would first have to prove themselves loyal to their local noble, rather than to the broader Empire. This is viewed by some as the origin of the Jadranic veneration of Imperial nobility.

    After slightly over a decade of Imperial rule, Novi Jadran appeared to be on the mend. Industry — even if it was less safe than Moroz’s — was on the rise in its urban centers, and its cities had become more wealthy — and another, the coastal settlement of Nuova Vicenza, was founded in cooperation between House Zhao, House Caladius, and local patricians. Outside of the cities, however, many rural communities were deprived of access to this development by powerful noble families who wished to keep it for themselves and the communities loyal to them, favoring the wealth of themselves over the whole world. These rural populations were loyal, but had little concept of the broader Empire they were now a part of. To change this, many Imperial Army recruiters visited these communities as part of recruitment drives and propaganda efforts. Many rural families were larger than their urban counterparts, and House Strelitz-aligned recruiting groups promised material and fiscal benefits far beyond what these rural Jadraners would receive from a decade of work on a farm. Dozens of regiments were raised from Novi Jadran and many were stationed on the planet itself, with Moroz — and Fisanduh — viewed as too secure to justify sending large numbers Ma’zal troops there.

    In 2402 the Empire’s illusion of Morozian security was shattered by the unprecedented Navy Day Uprising of the Fisanduh Freedom Front. With only limited forces present on Moroz and almost all of them engaged in fighting against the 3F, Imperial Army High Command made the decision to call upon its Jadranic troops to push the insurgents back and reclaim strategically vital areas of Fisansuh. Jadraners did much of the fighting and dying on the Imperial side during the Uprising and, through their dogged fighting, both defeated the insurgents in the open field and pushed them out of important positions throughout Fisanduh. Novi Jadran, through its actions, had cemented itself as the model colony willing to defend Moroz from its greatest threat in decades. Jadraners themselves had been cemented through spilled blood as the elite of the Ma’zals, and the commoner Jadraner as nearly equal to their Morozian counterparts.

    In the following decades Novi Jadran has continued to serve as the model colony, frequently entertaining noble guests and colonial bureaucrats from across the Empire. It remains an important world for the Imperial Army, with many of its enlisted personnel and some of its officers coming from it, but much of its rural population remains neglected and impoverished compared to the broader Empire and the Mandate’s urban centers. As the Mandate approaches eighty years of Dominian rule, and the prospect of new absolute leadership appears to be more likely with each passing year, many in the Mandate have continued their calls for a new administration which will benefit the entire world rather than simply the nobles and their loyalists. Despite its status as the model colony, Novi Jadran may be the first challenge a successor to Emperor Keeser faces — it is a planet simply too important to lose, but what awaits the person who challenges noble authority?

    Environment

    A map of the Imperial Mandate showing its major cities and the rail system which links them together. Unlabeled dots represent outlying rural communities disconnected from the rail network.
    “If the Goddess wanted you to wake up after sunrise, she’d have made you a Primary girlie! Keep your whining mouth shut and help me untie the boat — fish wait for no vessel,” - A Jadranic fisherman to his daughter in mid-summer. Recorded by the Imperial News Network in 2455.

    Novi Jadran is a tundra world similar to Moroz in terms of its climate. Summers, and the growing season, are short and relatively warm while winters are long and harsh. The planet’s spring and early summer is a time of flooding in many rural areas as snowmelt and spring rains combine to create muddy, treacherous conditions which render travel on the unpaved roads which are common throughout rural areas difficult and potentially hazardous. This condition is repeated in the early autumn, which is a season of intense rains as the growing season draws to a close. During winter most regions of the planet have several months of consecutive below freezing average temperatures, and much of Novi Jadran’s surface outside of its equatorial region is covered in permafrost. During the peak of winter, some blizzards can last for over a week and deposit meters of snow on the ground.

    The planet's surface is mostly water, with a large ocean, known as Pontean Ocean, surrounding its only continent: Patria, which is covered in multiple lakes and crisscrossed by several major rivers. One of these, the Iri River, is home to the four major cities of Novi Jadran and stretches from the equatorial west to the equatorial east of Patria. The Iri River is deep and wide, supporting much of the piscine diet which dominates the planet and serving as an important economic vein for the planet. In recent years it has become increasingly polluted by industrial runoff, hfueling more dissent against Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan due to her refusal to halt industrial development or confront the great houses for their impact on Jadranic fishing. Smaller rivers, such as the Iri’s tributaries, suffer from pollution to a lesser extent. The majority of Patria is dominated by thick forests and tundras, with every region of the supercontinent seeing snow during the winter.

    The Pontean Ocean, which covers the majority of Novi Jadran’s surface, is a freshwater ocean home to large icebergs which threaten shipping and have kept explorations — and exploitations — of it limited. Coastal Jadranic communities acquire much of their foot from its icy waters and the ocean produces devastating storms during winter which can wreck even steel-hulled vessels — often designed to endure conditions of the wide Iri River, inland lakes, or the coastal ocean — if they are caught far from land. On the coast, Pontean “Sea-Storms” are frequent events during winter which can leave communities trapped in meters of snow and wash away poorly-prepared residences and piers, taking them out into its waters — never to be seen again. Oceanographers hired by House Caladius and brought to the Empire from planets as distant as Silversun and Europa claim the Pontean Ocean’s deeper regions are home to extensive natural gas reserves, but exploitation of these deposits has been limited due to the ocean’s harsh conditions and the unwillingness of many Jadranic sailors to venture beyond the sight of land.

    Culture

    “When commanding troops of the Imperial Mandate one must recall a main value of its people: loyalty. Much like a dog, a Jadraner will obey their masters — we Morozians — without question if they are shown respect and given sensible orders, particularly by fellow Jadraners under your command. Treat them well and you will have a loyal unit ready to die for the Empire. Mistreat them, and you will find they hold more influence over our House than the typical Ma’zal,” - Excerpt from A Guide to Jadranic Command for Strelitz Officers (3rd Edition).

    Jadranic culture has been heavily influenced by Imperial rule of the planet, particularly in its urban areas, but differences are present between the culture of urban Jadraners and their rural counterparts. Historical cleavages in development, with the four major cities of Novi Jadran receiving far more investment than the countryside, have exacerbated these differences and created two cultural subgroups with similar, though slightly different, cultural beliefs and views of the broader Empire and Novi Jadran’s role in it. There are even physical differences between the two groups, with rural Jadraners typically being shorter and thinner than their urban counterparts due to their weaker diets and higher levels of malnutrition. Amongst both groups, however, loyalty to the Empire and their local nobility is viewed as socially desirable, though for divergent reasons.

    In both Jadranic populations the ideal of loyalty is a key element of society believed to be rooted in the struggle to survive and establish themselves on the planet’s harsh, unforgiving surface where failed or faltering harvests could be lethal for entire communities. In the pre-Imperial and post-Solarian Decades of Deprivation loyalty became more prized as survival became harder. Rural communities pledged themselves to regional leaders who would later go on to become the Jadranic noble families in the anticipation these nobles would assist them when they went hungry, while urban Jadraners placed their faith in patrician families who advocated for their interests to local nobles. In the Imperial era this dedication to loyalty had been used, and exploited, by the Imperial government to endear itself to the Jadranic population. In rural and urban environments it takes on the role of a benevolent savior and overlord, and rewards the loyal Jadranic population — particularly its nobles and urban communities — with rewards unlike any given to other Ma’zal communities.

    Rural Jadraners

    The majority of Novi Jadran’s population lives in small, rural communities which are often underdeveloped due to corruption and graft from their noble overlords. Rural Jadraners are, on average, shorter and thinner than their urban counterparts due to poorer diets and a greater level of early childhood malnutrition. Rural communities are often impoverished and lack modern technology, with many villages having poor or nonexistent infrastructure such as electrical grids and modern roads. The Jadranic office of the Department of Colonial Affairs turns a blind eye to corruption of local nobles in exchange for their patronage and the lavish hospitality they provide visiting Primaries, including the Chief Commissioner for Colonial Affairs. These visits, and their associated celebrations, are major events for the rural Jadraner’s of a noble’s domain, and those who are able to make an offering to catch a visiting Primary’s eye will do so. Catching the attention of a Primary is a quick way to receive boons ranging from small gifts to the taking-on of the Jadraner’s family as wards to enrolling the Jadraner’s family in advanced schooling such as the Royal Engineering Institute or Valentina Caladius School for Gifted Ma’zals. Those who do not acquire this patronage may simply try again next time, never try again, or try their luck in the industrial, urban centers of the planet.

    Rural Jadranic life can be quite harsh, particularly during the long winter months of the planet. Fishing is a vital skill for many communities as crops are often impractical to grow without greenhouses, and rural communities along the Iri River and equatorial Pontean Ocean have historically been the most prosperous of the planet’s non-urban settlements. With the growing industrialization of Novi Jadran since 2389 and the increasing level of pollution in the Iri River, many of these once-prosperous riverine communities have emptied out as fishing has become non-viable due to the hazardous nature of the Iri’s waters. Coastal communities have fared better, and many send much of their catch to urban markets where they make large profits, and are home to some of the most developed infrastructure outside of the urban settlements. Life in these settlements, however, is harsh: the Pontean ocean is wracked by violent storms throughout the winter and fishing on the open Ocean requires long, demanding hours on all days of the week. Not every boat which goes out will make it back, particularly during the winter. Coastal rural communities are regarded as more superstitious and Goddess-fearing than their inland counterparts, and many feature shrines to the Goddess where She is clad in the traditional yellow rain slicker and hat of Jadranic fishers.

    In every rural community there is a cadre of individuals who have been deemed loyal by the region’s noble overlord. Typically, these notables serve as the leaders of a community and receive advanced equipment and training in exchange for continued loyalty to the noble family which rules over them. They often distribute this equipment to individuals loyal to them, thus ensuring a system of patronage which allows them to maintain their power over a community. While they are not nobles, these notables have a degree of political influence which allows them to ask favors of their overlords and are often the people who determine where the extensive rail lines of Novi Jadran will expand to next.

    Rural Jadraners and the Imperial Army

    “Generally enlisted personnel, rural Jadraners will be the bulk of your command. Do not be fooled by their slighter frames and smaller builds compared to Morozians: they are as reliable and loyal as any Secondary,” - Excerpt from A Guide to Jadranic Command for Strelitz Officers (3rd Edition).
    The dark red standard of House Strelitz, the great house which dominates the Imperial Army.

    With limited economic opportunities, harsh living conditions, and the Jadranic tradition of loyalty, the rural areas of Novi Jadran are a frequent target for Imperial Army recruitment drives. These recruiters, who are often Morozians or urban Jadraners who have expressed a high level of patriotism for the Empire, arrive by train at the end of the summer harvest — when many families wonder if they’ll have enough food to last through the winter — and present the benefits of enlistment: higher wages compared to farm or fishery work, training in valuable skills, a chance to lift the entire family’s Mo’ri’zal, and other benefits. Many recruiters will offer cash bounties for enlistment, or provide advanced equipment such as an electrical grid to villages able to consistently provide recruits. Parents eager to see their sons and daughters succeed in life, or worried they will not last through the winter, or simply motivated by greed, push their children to volunteer and serve both Goddess and Jadran in the Imperial military. Most willingly enlist, while some are forced or coerced by their parents or guardians.

    Rural Jadraners who enlist into the Imperial Army — or more rarely the Imperial Fleet, which does much of its recruitment in urban areas — must often be sent through an adjustment period at their billet as many experience profound culture shock upon arriving in the major cities of the planet. They have exchanged a life of manual labor for one of military training, and traded the muddy, unpaved streets of their rural villages for the paved roads of the four major cities and the insulated, heated barracks of the many Imperial Army bases on the planet. Over a period of weeks they are molded into “modern” Integrated Ma’zals suitable for Army service and able to interact with even Morozian officers. These Jadranic soldiers often send much of their salary back to their villages, but rarely move back into them for extended periods after their service ends. Life in the Imperial Army is often difficult, and one can always die in service, but many rural Jadraners view it as the best way to achieve a better life. However, rural Jadraners form a smaller portion of the Imperial Army’s officer corps when compared to their urban, or Morozian, counterparts. Primarily they serve as enlisted troops, sometimes rising to junior officer ranks. There has never been a rural-originating Jadranic general officer.

    In the villages where troops are recruited from, the departure of their sons and daughters to the Imperial Army is viewed with a mixture of pride, sorrow, jealousy, and worry. Those who remain view the departing as representing their village, and their parents are regarded as good people and model Imperial citizens for committing their children to the military — sacrificing a spare hand on the farm in the process. Some who remain, such as the siblings of recruits, view them with a degree of envy and jealousy as the recruits are free from the burdens of rural manual labor, the cold winters of the Jadranic countryside, and the simple boredom of rural life. Many who feel this way are destined to become Army recruits themselves, particularly once the soldier begins sending money back to their village. Due to the expense associated with portraits and the rarity of professional photographers in the countryside, rural households will often have a sketch of their relative in uniform in their house rather than a painting or professional portrait. Due to the poor conditions of rural infrastructure the parents of soldiers often have difficulty communicating with their children, with their telephones — which not all villages possess — or computers being unable to reach beyond Novi Jadran, and instead having to rely upon the Imperial Dominian Mail Service to communicate via letters. Sometimes, of course, despite the prayers of their family and a village’s clergy, the letters stop coming.

    To receive official confirmation of an immediate relative’s death in the line of duty a resident of the Jadranic countryside must undertake the Journey of Sorrow, the colloquial name for the trip one must take from their village to one of the four major cities to confirm the death with the Imperial Army’s records department. The journey starts when one is advised, generally by letter, of a relative’s death and summoned to the nearest major city to receive the body, official death certificate, and associated Mo’ri’zal adjustments that come from a death in service of the Imperial military. For a rural Jadraner this is an expensive, time-consuming process which will take them away from their village and job for weeks on end, if not months, as they journey to the city and acquire their relative’s body, then travel back to make funeral arrangements. Often only two to three members of a family will go, and their missing spots in the family’s jobs will be covered by younger relatives or trusted neighbors. The sight of weeping peasants with black armbands — commonly worn by Tribunalists in mourning — is common enough in major urban centers to be a point of discussion in urban Jadranic circles.

    Rural to Urban Migration

    Rural Jadraners do, like many people across the Orion Spur, move to urban centers in search of greater employment opportunities for their families. On Novi Jadran itself these migrants are often found in the poorer sections of urban areas and in lower-paying industrial or service sector jobs — such as armaments workers or household servant work — as they lack the technical skills and generational wealth of the urbanite counterparts. Over time these rural Jadraners typically adapt to their environment and many do establish themselves in more profitable, and prestigious, careers such as white collar work and blue collar management, but this often takes years if not entire generations. As they speak a slightly different dialect of Vulgar Morozi when compared to their urban counterparts, many will attempt to suppress their accent in an effort to appear more urbanized, and thus more skilled and desirable for promotions. As migrants often live in urban communities with other rural Jadraners referred to as “Vilagjet” — a combination of the Jadranic words for “village” and “neighborhood” — by urban Jadraners, immersion into urban culture can be difficult for new arrivals.

    Urban Jadraners

    A minority of Novi Jadran’s population lives in its four major cities — Nova Rijeka, Belluno, and Durres — and their outlying neighborhoods where the majority of Imperial development has been concentrated. Urbanite Jadraners are the wealthiest non-Morozian group in the Empire of Dominia and are generally taller and often bulkier than their rural counterparts due to a better diet. This wealth, which has been quickly amassed since 2389, has transformed many urban Jadranic families from impoverished working-class families into middle or upper middle class bureaucrats and Integrated Ma’zals with money to spend on luxury goods, education, and the latest Morozian cultural imports. Cities which once were covered in decaying, half-abandoned Solarian-era industrial parks have been transformed into lavish industrial centers of the Empire where imported Morozian luxury cars carrying visiting Morozian tourists travel next to the ubiquitous urban rail lines of the four cities.

    But beneath the surface of newfound wealth and prosperity lies an inconvenient truth: the money which has created the urban Jadranic renaissance comes from the colonial empire of Moroz. Despite being Ma’zals — though valuable, trusted Ma’zals — the urban Jadraners have readily, even gleefully, embraced their role in the colonial system as its bureaucrats, mid-ranking military officers, and technical professionals. While there is no widespread effort to move away from this system which has brought them such wealth, some younger urbanites have begun to question the Department of Colonial Affairs’ role in continuous rural poverty. Many of these young Jadranic urbanites have taken to joining counterculture movements which call for a new approach to government in the style of famed pro-Imperial reformist Edvard Posavec — a close ally of Crown Princess Priscilla, the heir apparent, who has called for an adjustment of the system of rural governance. Some go even beyond this, calling for the rural nobles to be entirely disenfranchised and removed from power — but this is a radical opinion rarely heard in the coffee shops which dissident youths and intellectuals favor.

    Urban Jadranic life is less impacted by the changing seasons as the typical urban resident works in either an industrial area, white-collar office, or service industry and acquired their foot from a local store rather than catching it or growing it themselves. Novi Jadran’s four major cities are known throughout the Empire as productive industrial centers which produce many of the perishable foodstuffs and equipment consumed throughout the Imperial Frontier, and Imperial Army equipment commonly bears the Jadranic industrial seal of quality somewhere in its steel. Jadranic heavy industry, however, is poorly regulated compared to elsewhere in the Spur: workers are expected to put in long hours at their jobs with few breaks, factories are far more dirty than elsewhere in the Spur (though Svarog, in the Federal Technocracy of Galatea, still outpaces the planet), and industrial accidents and deaths are frightening common. Attempts to regulate Jadranic factories have been prevented by the government, fueling further anti-Glavan and pro-Posavec dissent.

    When urban Jadraners join the military, which they often do, they typically serve as officers or specialized personnel such as engineers and medical professionals due to their higher levels of education than rural Jadraners. Urban Jadraners serve in all three branches of the Imperial military and have risen highest in the Imperial Army, where several have become members of Imperial Army High Command (HCAI), the central decision-making body overseen by the High Lord General. In the more Morozian-centered Fleet and Flying Corps, Jadraners have found less success. Jadraners in the Fleet often do not rise beyond junior flag officer ranks and few Flying Corps fighter pilots are Secondaries, let alone Jadraners. Having at least one child in the Imperial military — generally the Army — is seen as a desirable trait for urban families, with many viewing it as their way of showing continued loyalty to the Empire. Photos or paintings of current or historical relatives in uniform feature prominently in many urban residences, and these officers are easily able to remain in touch with their families due to the greater level of technology in cities.

    Urban Counterculture

    “That we even have these ‘movements’ is an insult to everything our government stands for, and a slap to the face of our Empire!” - Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan in a meeting with the constabulary in Nova Rijeka, 2465.

    The counterculture, or dissident, movement of Novi Jadran’s four major cities is concentrated amongst the young and educated urban population of the cities, and has its origins in the classrooms of the Royal Engineering Institute of Nova Rijeka. There, in the early 2300s, the educated Jadranic classes began to emerge and were tasked with improving their Mandate for the broader Empire’s glory and continued prosperity. But as Novi Jadran has changed, so too has its counterculture movements, which have become three distinct groups: the established, urban Jadranists, the youth-centered Mjenjači, and the more radical Posavacists.

    Jadranists (Jadranism)

    The central pillar of the Jadranist movement is the neglect of the countryside by the nobles who are, according to the Mandate’s government and the broader Empire, meant to develop it and bring prosperity to all of Novi Jadran. But they have not, and many rural nobles have opted to enrich themselves with funds meant for rural development. Furthermore, they have interfered and meddled with efforts by urban professionals to create projects in the countryside such as railroads, mines, and electrical grids, forcing development to cater to their systems of patronage rather than the empirical studies of the Royal Institute. Frustrated and unable to formally act against the rural nobles due to their status as “just” commoner Ma’zals, these professionals began to debate what could be done about the sorry state of rural life on Novi Jadran in classrooms, middle-class living rooms, coffee shops, and other places the Jadranic intelligentsia frequented. By the 2410s this movement, still concentrated in the university-educated classes of urban Novi Jadran, was known as Jadranism.

    Jadranists advocate for a lessening of rural noble privileges and more oversight of rural development, with many calling for the Empire to replace the current governor and begin anti-corruption investigations into the colonial administration of the planet. They hold a patronizing attitude towards rural Jadraners and view themselves — the educated, urban elite — as more able to make decisions than their uneducated, rural counterparts. This stance — and the poor working conditions of many rural industrial facilities — has won them few friends amongst rural community leaders, but their connections to urban patricians have ensured their continued relevance. The Jadranist faction is closely aligned to Edvard Posavac’s movement, but is viewed poorly by youth dissident groups. It is a common joke amongst the Mjenjači the quickest way to ensure change is to have a Jadranist speak to a rural noble — they’ll quickly die from boredom.

    Mjenjači

    Literally translating from Jadranic Morozi as “Gearboxes,” the Mjenjači (also rendered Mjenjachi) are a counterculture — arguably, a dissident — group primarily made up of the descendants of rural Jadranic immigrants to urban centers during the early Imperial period. A cross-class movement which includes everyone from the children of factory workers to those of white collar professionals, many Mjenjači are university or primary school students and their political influence is the smallest of the three major counterculture groups. The Mjenjači first emerged in the 2430s and their name is a reference to the common employment of first-generation rural immigrants: factory work.

    Unlike the Jadranists and Posavacists, which are political in nature, the Mjenjači are a cultural movement which has grown out of the experience of rural life and urban migration, and the resulting discontent with the colonial administration. Mjenjači clubs are frequent sights in university districts and in Vilagjet communities, and their fashion trends — which favor dark, earthen tones reminiscent of the clothes worn by poor urban Jadraners but influenced by Jintarian “punk” trends — have become popular amongst young urbanites in the 2460s. While their political pull is limited, the Mjenjači broadly support more autonomy for rural communities and more resources for their development. As a youth movement, they are often found on campuses and many recent graduates still subscribe to some of its cultural practices, such as its mode of dress.

    While it lacks true political influence the Mjenjači movement is viewed with suspicion by the Royal Jadranic Constabulary for its skepticism of the government and distaste for military service, which many Mjenjači view as exploiting the rural population. It is not uncommon for constables to break up Mjenjači gatherings at the orders of bureaucrats and local notables, and the movement has a reputation for petty hooliganism throughout much of urban Novi Jadran as a result — a reputation the Mjenjači view as undeserved.

    Posavacists

    Formed by Imperial diplomat Edvard Posavec in the latter years of the 2440s, the Posavacists are a young and shockingly influential counterculture movement which calls for the establishment of an oversight system for the rural nobility to prevent their excesses. Some radicals, whom the movement seems to publicize more than their mainstream peers, call for a total replacement of the traditional nobles with, “more qualified Morozians,” instead. Like Posavec himself much of his movement is made up of educated urban commoners, particularly those in the Imperial bureaucracy, and it has limited support outside of this group — though its deep pockets allow for many to be hired on as demonstrators.

    The Posavecists are viewed as a dangerous group by the current Governor due to their deep connections in the bureaucracy and Posavec’s most important ally: the crown princess, Priscilla Keeser herself. Her influence shield the movement from much of the harassment others face and she is rumored to be a major funder of its goals due to the long-rumored distaste Priscilla and Governor-Marchioness Glavan hold for one another. As long as her influence holds, they will remain untouched — and perhaps even be swept into power after Empress Priscillla is crowned.

    Government

    “The existence of Novi Jadran — a colonized society used to colonize others — is proof of the Empire’s depravity, and how far they have strayed from the Goddess’ light,” - Anonymous Xanan of Fisanduhian descent interviewed by the Xanu News Network’s Liao Qi in early 2465.

    The Imperial Mandate of Novi Jadran is a subject of the Empire of Dominia which is ruled by Governor-Marchioness Anastazija Glavan, a Jadranic noblewoman from Nova Rijeka and retired Imperial Army officer who has held the position since 2455 and is widely unpopular amongst the common Jadranic population for her unwillingness — or perhaps her inability — to contest the opinions of nobles and fight for the rights many Jadraners believe they have earned by their blood spilled in the Empire’s service. Compounding her issues, Glavan must answer to the whims of Novi Jadran’s nobility. Though not Morozian Primaries, these nobles dominate much of the Jadranic countryside and hold significant political influence in its cities and government. Without their cooperation, life in the planet’s urban centers would grind to a halt as food and raw materials stopped arriving at the necessary rates.

    The colonial bureaucracy of Novi Jadran is de jure entirely under the control of the Department of Colonial Affairs, as it is an Imperial Mandate of the broader Empire. De facto, the Department has a hands-off approach where Novi Jadran is left to manage its own internal affairs due to its proven loyalty, and Morozian Primary bureaucrats — with their Secondary colleagues — are treated lavishly on the planet when they arrive. The Imperial Mandate’s bureaucracy is itself divided between the rural and urban zones, with the rural areas dominated by the Jadranic nobility and the urban areas dominated by the more meritocratic bureaucracy of the urban patrician classes, who must ensure profits continue to flow into their urban holdings. In the countryside, graft and corruption by rural nobles — with Morozian Primaries of the Department of Colonial Affairs often receiving kickbacks — ensures the administration is inefficient and benefits nobles first, with commoners second.

    Non-Tribunalist criminal enforcement on Novi Jadran is handled by the local branch of His Imperial Majesty’s Constabulary Service: the Imperial Jadranic Colonial Constabulary (IJCC), which is further divided into rural and urban sections. The IJCC has a reputation for excellence in the broader Empire and across Novi Jadran, with low rates of corruption and high rates of solving cases — particularly in urban areas. Urban constables are common sights in most city districts, with their peaked caps and uniform intentionally designed to evoke the appearance of an Imperial Army officer. Rural constables are less frequent, with many villages only having a single constable for their region. Despite their low numbers, rural constables have a reputation for doggedly tracking fugitives for dozens — sometimes — hundreds of kilometers, often with the assistance of Imperial Lyodii seconded to the IJCX from the Lyodic Rifles, until they bring their suspect to justice.

    Major Rural Noble Families

    While not Morozian Primaries, the rural nobility of Novi Jadran are still viewed as the social elite of the planet and are de facto equal to their Morozian counterparts, though de jure they are subordinated to Moroz’s will. Noble houses on the model colony are much smaller than their Morozian great house counterparts, often only a few dozen relatives and their retainers, and hold sway over the vast majority of the planet’s countryside. Many rural Jadraners are more loyal to their local noble family than the central government of the planet, which these nobles use as leverage against the cities and their patricians.

    Duke Dragan Glavan, father to the current Governor-Marchioness, is a towering figure in the political environment of the Imperial Mandate due to the Glavan family’s dominance of the fertile countryside near Lake Glavan and Nova Rijeka, which remains outside of the Duke’s control — much to his continued frustration. Duke Glavan is a military-minded man who ensures the rural population under his control provides more recruits to the Imperial Army than any other noble-controlled region, and he is famous for his valor during the Dominian conquest of Sun Reach — where he served as an officer. Dragan typically invites members of House Strelitz to his domain and organizes elaborate hunting parties and celebrations for him, maintaining large, private hunting forests where trespassing commoners are given the choice of execution or service in the Imperial Army if caught. A harsh, militant individual, Dragan is disliked by many in Nova Rijeka for his domineering attitude towards the city and constant meddling with its railroad networks. He is a frequent object of satire in the Novi Rijeka Gazette, the Mandate’s most widely-read newspaper. The Duke has attempted many times to shut the Gazette down, only to be frustrated by the mysterious — and unknown — Morozian noble who bankrolls it. Rumor has it the crown princess herself is the Gazette’s patron, and it is funded to frustrate the Galvans.

    Duchess Filomena di Falerio, second of her name, controls large, mostly barren swathes of land in northern Patria near the Godwin Sea, having inherited it from her father upon his passing in 2431. Over the intervening thirty years Filomena, an engineer by training, has opened up the di Falerio holdings to investment by the great houses, megacorporations, and urban Jadranic businesses after a village discovered large mineral veins in the foothills where they tended their groves. The rural villagers were shortly forced off their land by Eridani mercenaries hired by Filomena and mineral rights were sold off to the highest bidders, even if they were offworld, with the expectation the family would receive a cut of the profits. Filomena frequently invites engineers from House Zhao to her domain, and frequently entertains Admiral-Governor Lanying Zhao of Zhurong. The wealthiest of all rural nobles, Filomena is regarded as by far the most cruel. Her gaunt, commanding visage is frequently seen in anti-noble literature distributed by the Posavecists’ radical faction, and some whisper that she is only kept in power through her use of mercenaries, the amount of kickbacks she provides to the government, and the sheer volume of raw materials she provides to the urban factories of the planet. Even if the methods to gather them are cruel, some say, does it truly matter when we do not see them?

    Duke Ludovico di Brignole controls a stretch of fertile coastal land south of Durres along the Pontean coast. Not as wealthy as the di Falerios nor as militant as House Glavan Ludovico is, in many ways, the archetypal rural noble. His holdings are poor, yes, but they are local and faithful to the Empire and the Goddess alike. Money which should go to them instead goes to excessive celebrations for Morozian Primaries which benefit House di Brignole, yes, but he provides the rural citizenry with enough to make a living — even if barely any villages have electricity and some must walk for days to reach the nearest rail line. The Duke himself is a pious, somewhat dull man who seeks the patronage of any Morozian who visits his holdings. The territory he controls is regarded by many Jadraners as a breadbasket for its bountiful fishing grounds, and more temperate weather due to the Pontean Ocean ’s currents. The warm temperatures have, in recent decades, made the coastal villages popular vacation spots for urban Jadraners — a process which has, ironically, seen these villages quickly transformed into wonders of rural infrastructure. Many Jadraners — both rural residents of the duchy and urban visitors — have noted the only reason for this modernization was the promise of Imperial Pounds, shedding much light on Ludovico’s true character.

    Economics

    “From Moroz to Sun Reach we provide what you need, when you need it, however you need it,” - Motto of Jadranic firm Belluno Interstellar Logistics (BLI).

    Novi Jadran’s urban settlements, despite the poverty of much of its countryside, are productive industrial areas which provide much of the weaponry and equipment used by the Imperial military — though Zhurong still outpaces it — and produce consumer goods used throughout the Empire such as foodstuffs, with Jadranic canneries producing much of the food commonly available on the Imperial Frontier. While many of these factories are owned by the great houses, particularly Zhao and Caladius, a slim majority are owned by native Jadranic firms run by urban patricians. Safety standards in Jadranic factories are lower than in the Imperial Core and injuries occur at a higher rate as a result. Jadranic workers — and some factory owners — have protested for higher standards, but the government — at the behest of the great houses — has always denied these motions. In recent years, with Emperor Boleslaw growing older, this has become a greater and greater point of discontent with Governor-Marchioness Glavan’s regime, and many factory workers eagerly await the day she is sacked by the crown princess. In contrast to the factories, Jadranic clockmakers are widely seen as some of the best in the Spur and have retained their traditional style of production in small workshops. With their craft dating back to the pre-Imperial era, some clockmaking workshops have centuries of experience and their products are highly valued throughout the Spur — some have been purchased by customers as far away as Earth.

    The four cities of Novi Jadran are connected by large, well-developed freight and commercial rail networks which many urban Jadraners view as the pride of the Imperial Mandate. Jadraners are some of the most adept rail engineers in the modern Orion Spur, and the planet is now crisscrossed by thousands of kilometers of rail lines which move everything from food to tourists to the raw materials which its factories will turn into the lifeblood of the Imperial Frontier. Due to the harsh winters Jadranic trains are often larger than their foreign counterparts and feature large snowplows to toss aside even post-blizzard snowfalls. Visiting Morozian Primaries often travel across the planet by rail in luxury cars, favoring it over often poorly-maintained rural roads.

    The rural Jadranic economy is smaller and less profitable than its urban counterpart due to neglect and the simple fact that foodstuffs are much cheaper when compared to the finished goods produced in urban environments. Primarily revolving around fishing and farming, the rural economy demands long hours for little pay and few opportunities. Some instead work in mining industries under the employ of rural nobles, Morozians, or urban Jadraners. Here the pay is much higher, but harsh working conditions and poor safety standards take a physical toll on the workers. Many Jadranic miners will ultimately suffer from chronic health conditions or be left unable to work due to workplace injuries, leaving their surviving family members to pick up their medical expenses and provide for the family itself. With such prospects it is easy to see why many rural Jadraners instead migrate to the cities or choose a life of military service.

    Major Cities

    “Second only to Moroz,” - Unofficial motto of the Imperial Mandate.

    Even decades after its entry into the Empire of Dominia, Novi Jadran remains a primarily rural world with few major settlements beyond its four major cities: Nova Rijeka, Durres, Belluno, and Nuova Vicenza. The four major cities of Novi Jadran are dominated by different political forces and their residents have lives totally unlike their rural counterparts, both of which are discussed in the culture section above.

    Nova Rijeka: The first settlement on Novi Jadran, Nova Rijeka is the largest and most important city in the Imperial Mandate. It is the center of the Empire’s administration on the planet and an important center for the colonial administration of the wider Imperial Frontier. Located on the western shores of the Glavan Sea, one of Patria’s largest bodies of water, the capital city of the Imperial Mandate is a testament to the prosperity Dominian colonialism has brought the model colony. Following a major fire in the late 2380s the historical center of the city was rebuilt in a modernist, Morozian style favoring wide boulevards and frequent green spaces to attract tourists and please its residents. As one leaves the government center and moves into the middle and working-class neighborhoods the level of opulence decreases, but the city remains pleasant to inhabit. Its municipal tram system is held by Rijekans as the most efficient in the entire Empire, and they are known to frequently brag about this even when abroad.

    Due to its position on the Glavan Sea, Nova Rijeka has a significant maritime industry centered around shipping and fishing. The coastal regions of the city, where these industries are found, are home to the majority of the capital’s rural immigrant population. As the Iri River has grown more polluted from industrial runoff from its factory districts, Rijekan trawlers have begun to fish further away from the city — bringing them into conflict with coastal villages and Duke Glavan. The city, always influential, seems set to win any political conflict. Originally settled by Croatian colonists, Nova Rijeka has since heavily diversified and is home to the majority of the planet’s “off-world” Dominian population – immigrants such as Morozian Secondaries, Imperial Frontiersmen, and Lyodii who have come to the planet to make a living in its growing industries.

    Durres: On the shores of western Patria near the mouth of the Iri river lies the industrial city of Durres. The beating heart of Novi Jadran’s industry, it is an incredibly dirty city where factories belch acrid smoke in its industrial districts and the Iri River is so filled with pollutants almost no fish can be found within it. Runoff from its industrial districts has turned areas of the Pontean Ocean around an unusual copper-brown tone, and the city is covered in industrial smog on days when winds from the ocean do not blow it inland. If Nova Rijeka is a testament to the wealth Dominia has brought the Imperial Mandate, Durres is a monument to how the Empire has changed its client state: initially a middling industrial town in the 2380s, it has become – alongside Jinxiang on Moroz and Hongse Chengbao on Zhurong – one of the most productive cities in the Empire. Products made here are used across the Empire and its Imperial Frontier, furthering the conquest of the free frontier worlds surrounding it.

    Durres is home to the largest population of rural immigrants – and their descendants – on Novi Jadran and is the birthplace of the Mjenjači movement. The poor living conditions in the city and in the surrounding countryside have freed Durres from the attention of the rural nobility, who want nothing to do with the ash-covered and polluted areas tainted by industrial runoff which surround much of the city, particularly the former mining areas on the Iri’s southern bank. This, ironically, has made Durres the de facto largest city on Novi Jadran by land mass – though much of it is technically still owned by rural nobles, prospectors and surveyors from Durres operate freely within these polluted lands, searching for the materials which allow the city to continue producing its industrial wealth.

    Belluno: Nestled between the administrative center of Nova Rijeka and the industrial hub of Durres, Belluno serves as the main transit hub of Novi Jadran for on-world and offworld travel. A moderately important rail hub before the founding of the Imperial Mandate, the city has grown massively over the past decades and is now home to the largest single rail hub – the Belluno Central Rail Yard – in the Empire outside of Moroz. Outside of the city, shuttles and freighters from across the Empire and beyond land in massive dockyards designed by House Zhao engineers and built by Jadranic hands. Less modernized than Nova Rijeka but cleaner than Durres, Belluno serves as the best example of pre-Imperial Jadranic architecture on the planet and is home to many buildings dating back to the Solarian colonial era.

    Residents of Belluno are often stereotyped on Novi Jadran as numbers-focused technocrats due to the city’s massive transit industry. Outside of the Empire it is known as the birthplace of the witchfinder stories genre, with famed author Andrija Jurina living in an apartment in downtown Belluno she has refused to move out of despite her newfound wealth. Belluno was originally settled by Italian colonists primarily from Veneto and has retained cultural and culinary influence from this era – many Dominian tour books advise that while Nova Rijeka may be the most important city in the Imperial Mandate, Belluno is the one with the best food and wine.

    Nuova Vicenza: Located on the eastern coast of Patria, near the Godwin Sea, is the only major city established after the Imperial Mandate was founded. Nuova Vicenza prior to the Empire’s arrival was a series of small, mostly unincorporated fishing villages nestled along the coast which made their livings from the fresh catch of the Pontean Ocean. House Zhao prospectors found massive fuel deposits off of the coast near these villages and quickly convinced the local noble — an impoverished man who has since faded into history — to sell them the land, which they then sold off to patrician families from the planet’s three cities. An oil boom followed and the city was transformed into a major urban center by the end of the 2300s, though one much more hastily constructed than the other three cities.

    Decades later the city remains a major center of fuel production for Novi Jadran, and its fuel tankers are a frequent sight on the Iri River and the rail lines of the planet. The city itself has seen oil production fall since the 2440s as older wells closer to the shore have dried up and drilling further into the ocean has proven to be difficult and unprofitable. This has caused the city’s population to decrease over the past quarter-century and many of its patricians worry its relevance will fade away as fusion power — already widely used in the Imperial Core — spreads to the Imperial Mandate, eliminating the need for the natural gas and coal that fuel much of the planet’s industrial production and power its cities.


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