Dunica

The Broken Union of Dunica (Anglyngo: Fractuuruni Dúnica [frak'tyrunɪ ˌdʊnɪkə]), commonly known as Dunica (Silvonian: la Dunique; Aventian: Dunika) is a country located in Northwestern Balteca with overseas territories spreading across the eastern Dunic Ocean. It consists of seven states known as domaines, and the Dunic Island Territories of Yawbosch, San Jaco, Terbini, Île-de-Dune, and Kami.

Dunica borders Hyokoku and Nauros to the North, Almeria to the East, [?] to the South, and the Dunic Ocean to the West.

Etymology and terminology
Dunica is named after the Dunic Ocean, which in turn was named by Lyngaric explorer Diego [?].

History
Main Article: History of Dunica

Pre-Artopan Period
Main Article: Atolac Civilization

Long prior to Artopan colonization, mainland Dunica housed the epicentre of the expansive Atto civilization. The Atto are known for their polytheistic faith, pyramids, seafaring, and sophisticated methods of social governance and hydroengineering.

Early Artopan Settlement
Main Articles: Artopan Exploration of Balteca, History of Carissia-Dunica Relations

Lyngaric Settlement
Dunica was discovered by explorers of the [LYNGAR COMPANY] around 1595, who quickly discovered that the region was rich in valuable metals. They established a first colony named Cordona, centered on the small mission town of Bulrey, and laid claim to a large unmapped portion of Balteca that would later become mainland Dunica. After a series of violent interactions with native Baltecans, various indigenous communities banded together to form the Nannasowa Confederacy and better defend against Artopan powers.

Through contact with Nannasowans, the Lyngaric explorers heard of an island kingdom far to the west. They sailed across the Dunic, settling the island of San Jaco before making their way to the Drakewai Islands. The Lyngars founded the settlement of Portpalma in a quiet bay. They make violent contact with the natives of Tui, map the coasts and claim the entire Drakewai Islands as a new colony, Palmeda. By order of the Lyngaric crown, the colonies are soon integrated as subdivisions of a greater, ocean-spanning colony named Dunica [after a Nicatorrian goddess?].

Sakaian Settlement
Sakaians officially settled Dunica in 1611, establishing a trading post in the Drakewai Islands by the name of Tuito to trade textiles, art, and exotic nuts, spices and sugar with the local Tuii Kingdom. Though Tuito was the first formal Sakaian settlement on the Drakewaii, Sakaians and Tuians share ethnographic roots tracing back millennia, to the early migrations of people across the Dunic Ocean. In contrast to Lyngaric colonialism, the Sakaians were overwhelmingly peaceful with the Tuii and did not typically interfere with Tuian governance.

The establishment of Tuito led to the Sakaians' discovery of Balteca soon after, though it took until 1636 for Sakaian settlers to establish Bansumi as their first trade post on mainland Dunica. Bansumi acted as a key location in the formation of Hyokoku by persecuted Theodaric Sakaians in 1645, though by that time, Bansumi was no longer a Sakaian colony, but a possession of the United Companies.

As Lyngars and Sakaian governments realized the strategic importance of the Drakewai Islands in the trans-Dunic trade, naval conflicts between the two powers began to erupt. As the Lyngars built citadels and the Sakaians contracted the Tuian army for help, the Drakewaii slowly militarized. This quickly gave rise to privateers during the early 17th Century, leading to a brief golden age of piracy in the Dunic as Sakaians and Lyngars tussled over monopolies and trade routes.

After the United Companies gained control over the [LYNGARIC COMPANY] holdings in the Dunic, the tide slowly shifted. For nearly two decades, the United Companies put increasing military pressure on Sakaro and its allies in the Tuii Kingdom. In 1646, the United Companies launched a series of successful attacks on Sakaian colonies, resulting in the killings of thousands of Sakaian settlers and indigenous Tuii, as well as the forceful annexation of Sakaro's Dunic colonies (Bansumi and greater Tuito) and the defeated kingdom of Mota'Tui into the Dunican Dominion.

Glasean Settlement
[GLASEAN COMPANY] established the colony of New Bamberg in 1627, operating out of the colonial jewel of Rikbaai (literally translated from "Rich Bay" by feldic Glaseans).

Vestan Settlement

Kirschlanders reached Dunica in the 1640s, following a devastating famine that drove many families to flee their homes. Drawn by the presence of Glasean colonists, the Kirschlanders established their own corporation and settled towns and trading posts to compete with the Glaseans. The first town, Lanijs, was settled by families in the northern Dunican heartland, near the Sakaian colony of Bansumi. This allowed the Kirschlanders to trade more easily with East Artopa, and gave them access to the fertile valleys that could sustain a growing population of Kirschlander refugees.

The Kirschlanders, motivated to outpace the Glaseans, sent a series of excursions into the interior of Balteca over the course of the 17th century. In a first for West Artopans, they established friendly trade ties with the Nannasowa Confederacy, allowing them to shore up logging and fur trade in northern Dunica. The subsequent boom for Kirschlander communities led to the establishment of the independent colony of Marbuijsch,

The Dunic Dominion
Main Articles: the United Companies, History of Dunican Corporatism

The Dunic Dominion was founded in 1628 following the arrival of a new wave of Glasean settlers. [GLASEAN COMPANY], a Glasean royal colonial company, approached the [LYNGAR COMPANY] to propose an end to conflict between their colonies. The negotiations took place in a context of declining Lyngaric colonial power and a major boom in Glasea's colony of New Bamberg. The [GLASEAN COMPANY] leveraged these realities to persuade the Lyngars to adopt a system of cooperative governance, co-founding the United Dunic Companies (colloquially: United Companies).

The UDC held a more modern Glasean capitalist ideology and departed significantly from the traditional structure of previous royal companies. It relied on a network of shareholders, each of which owned a "share" of the UDC and could theoretically influence its governance. These shares were traded in the Glasean stock exchange, and became a highly sought-after commodity during the 17th Century as the UDC expanded operations. The profits from the stock trade allowed the UDC to construct more mines, draw more workers, and generate even more wealth for shareholders.

The UDC infamously relied on a mercenary army to enforce its rule over the Dunican Dominion, as West Artopan political realities prevented Glasean and Lyngaric soldiers from effectively cooperating. On one hand, this granted the UDC ample freedom to execute its authority without consideration of consequences. In one instance, the UDC's forces were able to forcefully incorporate the Sakaian colony of Bansumi (now Marbouse) into the Dominion by pillaging towns and killing Sakaian settlers [TO DETERMINE: DID THIS CAUSE WAR BETWEEN CARRISSIA AND SAKARO IN THE DRAKEWAI?]. The UDC thus allowed Glasean, Lyngaric and Sylvian governments to cooperate despite any on their home continent

This enabled an environment for loose ethics and widespread corruption, leading to atrocities ranging from the employment of thousands of indebted workers to multiple genocides against indigenous peoples.

Almerian Independence & Nannasowan War
Main Articles: History of Almeria-Dunica Relations, Nannasowa Confederacy

The Sylvian Purchase
Main Articles: Sylvian Empire, History of Dunican Federalism

Raghead Rebellion & Creation of the Broken Union
Main Articles: Declaration of Dunica, History of Dunican Labor Movements

First Corporate Era
Main Article: History of Dunican Corporatism

The Compromise
Main Articles: Banquetville Disaster, Office of Corporate Malfeasance

The Banquetville Disaster was a catastrophic event that led to the deaths of an estimated 60'000 people in and around the Dunican domaine of Marbouse. At the time, Banquetville was the primary site of the Wishwell Corporation's production of processed foodstuffs, responsible for feeding much of the Dunican populace. Following a toxic chemical explosion that killed hundreds and rendered many of the city's factories inoperable, the Wishwell Corporation leveraged the subsequent food scarcity to heavily gouge prices in various towns across Marbouse. At some point, prices became so high that famines started to develop in otherwise fertile areas, a fact obscured by corporate executives through the help of the Roux Group and the Wish Party, a Wishwell-funded political party that commandeered a majority of seats in the Marbouse domaine legislature.

Soon after the facts, Wishwell employees who had lost relatives to the famine began to stage protests and riots that escalated to a rare concession by corporate society. The Fifty-Eight Amendment to the Declaration of Dunica, which would later become known simply as the Compromise, instituted strict limitations on corporate influence in domaine-level legislature and created the Office of Corporate Malfeasance (OCM). Ultimately, the reforms failed to have a lasting effect, as the OCM was slowly weakened over the course of years by corporate lobbying efforts.

Second Corporate Era
Main Articles: History of Dunican Corporatism, List of Dunican Corporations

Geography
Main Article: Geography of Dunica

Mainland Dunica
The geography of mainland Dunica is heavily dictated by the Attaloccan Mountains, a mountain range which runs through the domaines of New Bamberg, Marbouse, South Cordona, and Nansota. The Attaloccas allow for a wide array of climates and environments to be present across these domaines, ranging from red rocky deserts in South Cordona, to ancient pine forests in Nansota, to fertile green valleys in Marbouse, to jagged cliffs in New Bamberg.

Drakewai Islands
The Drakewai Islands are highly volcanic, formed around volcanoes like Jaspersen Rock and Gran Tui. These volcanoes are largely responsible for the fertile fields rainforests that cover the islands, as well as the many cliffs, coves, mountains and beaches.

Government and Politics
Dunican governance is heavily devoluted to the nation's seven Domaines. The following matrix presents an overview of the distribution of governance across Dunica's seven domaines and three branches of government.

Federal Government
Per Article 1 of the Declaration of Dunica, the nation-state is to be permanently divided into seven semi-autonomous states known as Domaines. While the office of the Federal is responsible for levying federal taxes and maintaining matters of national security, immigration, fiscal policy, standardization, movement of people and goods, and human rights protection, domaines enjoy a large degree of discretion in shaping legislation at the domaine level (e.g. infrastructure, labor, criminal justice, etc). The Federal is distributed across an executive, legislative and judicial branch.

Executive power is vested in the Director, appointed by the legislature's largest party, who in turn exercises this power through an array of federal Bureaus:

The highest federal court in Dunica is the Grand Justice Committee.
 * State Bureau
 * Office of Corporate Malfeasance (OCM)

Critiques

It is widely acknowledged that the federal system as outlined in the 1738 Declaration of Dunica has resulted in the nation becoming one of the most legally opaque in Mytas, where corporate lobbying, unfair taxes, and jurisprudential conflicts between local, domaine and federal justices routinely lead to legal inconsistencies and corruption. On multiple occasions, legal clashes between domaines have resulted in constitutional crises, most of which remain unresolved due to the Grand Justice Committee's inability .to keep up with the pace of new legal conflicts. This has been widely decreed as one of the greatest failures of the Dunican system.

Hyperliberalism
Hyperliberalism is a political ideology that dominates Dunican law and discourse. In hyperliberalism, the government is seen as a tool to uphold the free market, weaving capitalist systems into nearly every aspect of public life. In this system, the primary functions of the government are to maintain a largely libertarian society, using taxes to subsidize private industry and entrusting corporations with most aspects of governance. The social aspects of hyperliberalism are most evident through its focus on individual freedoms, aversion to conservative norms, and secularism.

One clear example of Dunican hyperliberalism is the Bamberg Model, taught to economics students across Mytas. The Bamberg Model is a template for municipal governance that, while not originally outlined in the 1738 Declaration, has slowly become a cornerstone of the national legal framework. The Bamberg Model grew out of the 17th-century Glasean colony of New Bamberg, and simply holds that municipal governance is more effective when its institutions are structured and incentivized as corporations. Proponents of the model argue that corporate hierarchies and a profit-maximization model based on supply and demand is far more effective at sustaining a healthy municipal budget, which can be converted into public spending (virtually always in the form subsidies) and thus social good. While this is arguably the case in cities like Bulrey, where public spending per capita is some of the highest on Mytas, critics have pointed to the Bamberg Model as a key catalyst of systemic corruption and inequality in municipalities across the Union.

The broader practice of applying corporate legal structures to govern existing institutions is referred to as topical corporatism. Topical corporatism has become a key practice in Dunican public life, and is actively encouraged internationally as part of the Federal Bureau of the State.

Compromise Amendment
The Fifty-Eight Amendment, better known as the Compromise, was an attempt to reign in corporate power and limit human rights abuses following the Banquetville Disaster. The Amendment achieved a range of goals — such as eliminating the Federal Bureau of Corporate Affaris and instituing the Office of Corporate Malfeasance (OCM) — but failed short of effectively placing limits on corporatism in politics.

New Bamberg
New Bamberg was founded by Feldic Glaseans of the [CENTRUMARIUM COMPANY] in 1627. It is a highly urban state, with the vast majority of the Domaine's population residing in its capital, Bulrey.

North Cordona
North Cordona is a mountainous Domaine known for its natural beauty, ancient Atolac ruins, and for being the epicenter of the Dunican mining and steel industry.

South Cordona
South Cordona is historically the nation's poorest Domaine, the majority of its land covered by the barren Nuego Doja desert.

South Cordona saw a revival during the middle of the 20th Century as Dunican entertainment companies agglomerated, gambling tourism grew in popularity, and the Castran neighborhood of Duneville became the center for a booming film industry. Today, the economy of South Cordona is supported to a large degree by entertainment corporations like Ducico and Sunny Charters.

Marbouse
Marbouse is often considered Dunica's heartland, providing the vast majority of domestic vegetal food and livestock. Over 74% of farmland in Marbouse is owned and operated by the Wishwell Corporation, who is the single largest net contributor to the Domaine's economy by far.

Marbouse was founded as the Vestan (Kirsch) colony of Marbuijs, until the Sylvian Purchase turned it into the seat of Sylvian colonial power in Dunica.

Nansota
Nansota is a vestige of indigenous Baltecan power, with roots traced back to the powerful Nannasowa Confederacy. Today, its lakes and pine forests give way to camgrounds, reservations, and the nation's largest oil fields.

Mota'Tui
Mota'Tui is a tropical Domaine located in the northern Drakewai Islands. Originally the native Kingdom of Mota'Tui, remnants of this native identity are still widely present. The Domaine's economy is largely dependent on fishing, mining, farming, and tourism, and has struggled with corruption and instability for centuries.

Palmeda
Palmeda is a bastion of Lyngaric colonial influence, now governed directly by the Dunic Navy. It is significantly less powerful than other Domaines, with governance tied to federal institutions, but supports its own economy of arms manufacturing and tourism.

Dunic Island Territories
Dunic Island Territories are directly governed by the Dunican Federal through the Dunic Island Development Agency (DIDA). While a direct arm of the Dunican Federal, DIDA has extremely limited funding due to decades of cutbacks, leading to corruption and disparities in the de facto governance structure of the five Territories.

The Island Territories have been contested throughout history, though have seen little conflict since the wartime establishment of the Dunic Ocean Treaty Organization (DOTO).

Yawbosch
Yawbosch is an atoll settled by Glaseans right after the establishment of Kapfahren. Despite its limited land area (likely the reason why it was never settled by Lyngaric explorers), Yawbosch served as a critical trade post for Glasean colonies in West Balteca.

Today, Yawbosch is known chiefly as an exclusive vacation destination for the ultra-rich. The atoll boasts some of the world's most lavish vacation homes, many of which were forced to expand over the water due to space limitations. One 1953 study by the Roux Group found that, of the 100 wealthiest Dunicans, 96 own at least one property on Yawbosch.

San Jaco
San Jaco was founded by Lyngaric exporer Dynes Baltio on his way to make first contact with the Drakewai Islands.

Today, San Jaco is known for its tourist resorts, white beaches, nightlife, and old Lyngaric naval forts.

Île-de-Dune
Founded by Glasean settlers, Île-de-Dune is a small island in the northern Dunic. It has one of the lowest population densities in the nation, beaten only by the Nuego Doja Desert.

Despite its population being only in the thousands, Île-de-Dune is known around the globe for being a tax haven. A majority of Dunican corporations are legally registered in Île-de-Dune, as well as a long list of companies from foreign nations.

Executive
The federal executive is vested in the Federal Government, usually shortened to the Federal. The Federal is responsible for executing a wide array of tasks that supersede the jurisdictions of individual domaines, deciding on matters ranging from foreign policy to workers' rights.

What follows is a list of Federal executive bureaus:


 * Dunic Island Development Bureau (DID-B): Directly governs Dunic Island Territories.
 * Intellectual Property Bureau (IP-B)

Foreign relations
Dunica is heavily involved in international politics, being a member of the Concord of Nations since its founding, as well as a core member of the Dunic Ocean Treaty Organization. Many foreign nations have ties to Dunica through corporations partially or wholly owned by the state, and through Dunica's open immigration policies.

Within Balteca, the Federal often defers to Almerian leadership and rarely breaks with their decisions.

While the Federal limits its involvement in foreign affairs due to domestic political constraints, Dunican corporate society is highly active in Kanta. The Wishwell Corporation, Standard Goods Company and a few others boast a well-funded "Kanta Division" to influence Kantan economic development for long-term gain, particularly affecting Kuputula and Kangal.

Languages
The country’s official language is Anglyngo, though most Dunicans speak more than one language, with large minorities speaking Silvonian, Carrisian, Nannawat, and Sakaian.

Religion
Dunica has a long tradition of religious tolerance dating back to the establishment of the Dunic Dominion.

Bouse Country
Bouse country is a genre of music that originated in rural Dunica in the early 20th century. Though its exact origins are unknown, the term "Bouse Country" was first coined in 1926 by an employee writing for Varenbaum Electracom to describe a new trend of music heard across ranches and frontier towns in Marbouse. What separates Bouse country from other country music is the distinct musical influences from Marbouse's significant Sakaian population. Bouse country artists often rely on Sakaian string instruments (and, more rarely, flutes) to produce a lighter, more lingering melody. Lyrics typically match different aspects of the Marbouse rancher lifestyle, with most songs sung in Silvonian or Sakaian.

Today, Bouse country is widely regarded as the most popular genre of music in white and east artopan rural communities across Dunica.

Berry-Pop
Berry-Pop is a style of music that was popular across Dunica during the 1950s. Berry-Pop was popularized as a genre by the Solar Syrups Corporation as part of their marketing campaigns for Berry Sherry, a berry-flavoured wine marketed to teenagers and young adults. Use of the term "Berry-Pop" is argued to be somewhat arbitrary, with the term simply referring to most Dunican music of the time.

Berry-Pop is often accompanied by a dance — the Berry Hop — that featured heavily in Solar Syrups commercials when Berry Sherry first appeared in stores.

Bulrey Jazz
As the name implies, Bulrey jazz originated in the Dunican capital. It's typically characterized by its big brass instruments, though the term is used to describe a wide range of sounds including koku swing.