The Republic of Artenos (/ripəblɪk ɘv ɒrtɘnos/ (Aeilla: /di:mokratia ton ɒrtɘnos/))
Δημοκρατία τον Αρτενοσ
Artenos, also known as the Island Polis is one of the more prominent of the Successor States, despite its small size. An island chain in the south of the Aeillan Region, as well as the surrounding coastline, the Republic of Artenos has established itself as the hub of commerce for most of Aeilla as well as hosting merchants from far away. In recent years, especially as trade between Felora and Galisea has grown explosively, the Republic of Artenos has become one of the most powerful states in the Aeillan region, with a vast navy, and even a few, limited, holdings overseas.
The Republic of Artenos is ruled by the Artenisian Senate, a body of representatives elected by the citizen population that is primarily drawn from a handful of powerful merchant houses, with smaller merchants, and certain powerful guildmasters also being in the Senate. From their own, they a smaller subset of the Senate to higher prestigious offices, with the most important being the Consul who acts as the speaker for the Senate, and head of the Artenisian Republic. Politics in Artenos are often quite brutal with the merchant houses frequently using mercenaries to covertly raid ships belonging to other families, assassinating rivals, and engage in the occasional riot in Artenos, despite this, there is an informal agreement made to keep violence from being too much a strain on Artenos' viability as a center of commerce. Currently, the Consulship is held by Marcia Julia Agrippina, head of the ancient and highly influential House Agrippa.
Artenos was established shortly after the fall of the Empire, carving out territories from Nikea and Korentis as a series of fishing settlements as well as the highly fortified settlement of Artenos itself. The republic was first briefly established as a military stratocracy during its formative years, with the strong military presence maintained to protect the territory of the new state from any attempt to retake its territory. However, the Republic, the first in the post-imperial period was formed just fifty years into the existence of the new state. Since the formation of the Republic, Artenos has quickly made itself a major, and vitally important trade hub in Aeilla, and its power has grown rapidly as a result. Artenos was the first major state to abolish slavery, and has since become the de facto leader of the anti-slavery movement in the Aeillan region.
Demography and Population
The Republic of Artenos is densely settled with small fishing and farming communities covering virtually the entire landmass of Artenos. According to the Artenisian census, there are currently 803,000 people living in the Republic. Artenos' population is highly concentrated with slightly under half living in the city of Artenos itself, 351,700 residents. Outside of Artenos, there are few major settlements, with most of them dedicated to fishing and farming to grow food for the capitalfortified
Though the most diverse of the Aeillan successor states, the Republic of Artenos is still mostly human with a good mix between Ilosi Aeillan, and Tyroi Aeillan humans being dominant, with the third Aeillan ethnicity, the Sparthanoi Aeillans, being the smaller in population than "foreign" ethnicities. Non-human populations are considerable though still a minority with, Dotharan Elves, as well as the largest population of Half-Elves known in the Aeillan tongue as Gitoxoi, in Aeilla, and Odric dwarves and gnomes making up the bulk of the non-human minority.
Territories
Artenos possesses the smallest territory of any of the successor states with a land area of about 3,663 kilometers, it is strongly oriented on its east-west axis with somebody walking along the coast from one end to another taking about 3 days, but walking from its northern border to the island of Artenos taking less than a day. The Republic of Artenos surrounds the Artenesian Sound which dominates the territory of the Republic, and indeed indirectly gives the Republic its name. About half of the territory of Artenos is composed of an island chain on the southern coast of the Aeillan regionwith the other half being the opposing coastline, with heavily fortified borders with Nikea and Korentis.
Artenos is the only Aeillan state to maintain territories overseas, with small legations in cities in Leandris. Apepsos has a warm, maritime climate with oceanic winds bringing frequent rains to the region. It is, as a result, one of the lushest parts of the Aeillan region. Most of the coastline traditionally consisted of tropical rainforests. The islands themselves are rockier and less forested, but remain quite lush. Due to the dense settlement of the region, however, cultivated cropland takes up an unusually large portion of Artenos' territory, having displaced the natural ecosystems throughout most of the nation's territory.
Military
The Artenisian Senate maintains a comparatively small ground force with no Penandroi in its ranks and a comparatively small force of Akritae. Although still primarily a light border patrol and law enforcement force, the Artenisian Akritae is a fully professional force and are better armed than their continental brethren, often with light Lorikon mail armor, halberds, and some muskets earning the title Penakritae by some on the mainland. Some towns also maintain militias, oftentimes to service small batteries of coastal artillery to do their part to protect the Artenesian sound from pirates and invaders.
The real strength of the Artenisian military, however, is its navy with 115 naval vessels directly under the command of the Senate. It is a very modern fleet with masterfully crafted gun carracks and gun caravels of all sizes, a large body of war galleons, and a small handful of extremely modern galleasses, and tymnandroi (men of war) that are equal or even superior to their Feloran counterparts. These have been supported by a robust transport fleet, and a relatively strong corps of fleet marines who act both as naval marines and in a similar capacity to mainland Aeillan Penandroi.
In addition to the Republic's forces, each of the major merchant houses maintains small bands of armed mercenary retainers though these serve the interests of the merchant houses more than the interests of the republic. A handful of large companies similarly have armed forces of extensive size, often including fairly large fleets that protect their own interests but can be pressed into state service during a crisis. Of note is the Leandris Company which has effectively become a large, subordinate state in its own right with a fleet technically consisting of more ships than the Republic itself (though a much higher proportion of their fleet are lightly armed transports). Noble houses also maintain their own armed bodies, though these are much smaller than those of companies and especially of the state itself.
Technological Level
Artenos is highly advanced for a Galisean state with comparatively huge classes of merchants and tradespeople. As a major trade hub, Artenos benefits from technological advances made by far-flung states, having adopted gunpowder weaponry, internal plumbing, and being home to more mechanical clocks than anywhere else in southern Galisea. Artenos itself is well known for its skilled shipbuilders, whose works are equaled only by the Dotharan Alliance and its allies states in the artistry and quality of the watercraft they produce.
Religion
Artenos maintains that Pandroi is its nominal state religion, in practice, however, Artenos is a secular state more focused on maintaining a peace between the gods. Unofficially, however, the Pandroi religion gets a lot of support from people of influence, and this results in Pandroi being functionally favored by the Republic. dating back to the fall of the Yuan-Ti. Artenos has adopted Rauranos, Master of the Forge as its patron deity. Most of the population, practices the Pandroi faith, though some populations, particularly those of nonhumans practice other faiths.
Foreign Relations
The Artenisian generally attempts to stay out of the affairs on the mainland as much as it can, preferring instead to ensure as many of Aeilla's trade routes as possible pass through Artenos. Recent political events, most notably Apepsos' attempts to monopolize trade with Cyrenica, which has led to hostilities between the two states. The Artenisian people are also deeply committed to the abolition of slavery, which has caused some amount of friction with other, slave-holding successor states. This has even broken out into outright war upon occasion.
Consequently, Artenos has sought out alliances with Nikea, Syros, and Thibaia, the other successor states that have abolished slavery. Indeed building a network of Free Successors has been the primary foreign policy objective of Artenos in Aeilla. It seeks to maintain these positive relations, and alliances as a means of safeguarding their own security and as means of having a willing partner with which to enforce their aims on the mainland indirectly and to limit the times, when it is necessary for them to intervene at all.
Artenos maintains a relatively tight neutral position and an open society attempting to bend as many of the numerous trade routes that pass through southern Galisea towards itself as possible. This has placed Artenos at odds with Qua'adar, which currently is the established predominant hub for trade from Felora, with this conflict occasionally breaking out in naval raiding on Qua'adar's trade fleet. Artenos and the Dotharan Alliance have a competitive, but largely peaceful foreign policy as the two states begin making trade partners and carving territory out of the continent of Leandris, and building the trans-continental commercial web that has seen the explosive growth of the Tealestrian states. However, Sarendians have begun to court Artenos as well, seeking to bypass the Dotharans and create a new line of commerce over the Yulan Ocean.
Agriculture & Industry
Artenos as a small territory with a very large capital city relies heavily on its system of agriculture and its fisheries even as an unusually high percentage of the population works in something other than agriculture. Free farmers represent about half of the population and virtually all of the population outside the city of Artenos itself, with each community distributing land as it sees fit, generally electing either to give land to farmers in private enclosures or to manage it communally. Similar are fisheries which are generally left to local communities to effectively manage. Large companies have started to muscle in on these traditional arrangements however, with some tracts of land being privatized, and the construction and establishment of several large privately owned fishing fleets.
Artenos maintains a very large body of skilled laborers and merchants as well as a handful of major workhouses, as well as headquartering several of the Aeillan Region's several craft guilds. Similarly, many mercenary bands headquarter their operations in Artenos, mainly to serve the merchant houses as armed retainers and for long-range trade missions. Unusually, however, Artenos does have a substantial population of fairly idle poor who are kept alive through a grain dole, and in exchange frequently being conscripted into the larger construction projects as well as filling less-skilled positions in the Ironworks and Shipwrights.
In Artenos itself there are a fairly high number of skilled craftspeople, most notably architects, shipwrights, smiths, tailors, many of whom work in trade guilds. There are two major manufacturing centers in the city of Artenos, the Ironworks, which produces many metal wares, and the Shipwrights and Naval Drydock which have enabled Artenos to construct some of the finest ships in Galisea. Outside of these two facilities, there are a number of smaller workhouses, and of course the personal businesses of skilled craftspeople.
Trade & Transport
Artenos lives and dies through its trade network. Having spent a vast amount of time establishing itself as a major trade hub in Southwest Galisea, being placed as a major stop of the Ilosi River trade route, the Tyros River trade route, the coastal overland trade route, and the transoceanic trade circuits from Leandris and Felora, as well as the southern coastal maritime Guangdao to Erigan trade route. This comes in addition to specialized trade missions carried out by the merchant houses of Artenos which occasionally go further afield, most often to the far north, or to more exotic parts of Felora.
In Artenisian markets, there is a broad range of foreign goods, with spices from Guangdao, and Felora, being particularly favored but with foreign art, craft wares, and exotic foods being highly valued as well. Artenos itself is known primarily for producing relatively (compared to Nikea or Apepsos) few, extremely high-quality goods with its artisans producing fine pottery, art, wine, and with Artenesian architects hiring themselves out to work major construction projects throughout Galisea. Magic items, though rare can be found for sale on Artenesian markets. Unlike other most other major Aeillan states, Artenos strictly forbids the selling of slaves however.
Infrastructure
Artenos itself is highly developed with plumbing, an aqueduct system, streetlights, a massive naval drydock, making it seem fantastical to many visitors from abroad. The outer regions are much more modest, however, with the small villages seeing little in the way of development other than certain sanitary facilities. In the latter days of the Aeillan Empire, there was an effort to construct a road network in the area, and indeed the Peráste Isauaranid, a great bridge that connects Artenos to the mainland, is one of the region's defining features.
Founding Date
EA 371, Independent ER 1
Type
Geopolitical, Republic
Capital
Head of State
Government System
Electocracy
Power Structure
Thalassocracy
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Imperial Denarios, Imperial Oros, Artenisian Talent, Nikean Talent, Polani Talent
Legislative Body
The Artenisian Senate
Official State Religion
Location
Official Languages
Related Ranks & Titles
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Related Ethnicities
