- The Gelseen Hegemony -
- Territory 129/130 -

The Gelseen continent/super-island has seen successive waves of hominid settlers or invaders for the better part of one hundred thousand years, so it should go without saying that each of these early humans left their mark on the continent, both culturally and genetically. But one hundred thousand years is an ocean of time, and this segment is not meant to be a history lesson or sermon, it is meant to be a brief pamphlet on the present political and geographic organization of the Gelseen homeland, something which can be viewed and understood with a cursory glance.

Here it goes . . .

The Gelseen people are born, live, and die governed by a quasi-stratocratic technocracy, this essentially describes a nation state which is commanded by the upper echelons of the technological, scientific, and military elite. This form of government leaves little room for dissent, but democracy is practiced to a limited degree from matter to matter, specifically, in situations where power must be delegated to the provincial or county level for the sake of practicality, or in situations where the forceful projection of centralized power through political, economic, or military means could become detrimental to national cohesion.

Long story short, Rovenoir - (the technocratic central power) lays down the laws, the norms, the quotas . . the directives, so to speak.

But these laws, norms, quotas and directives are more like . . . strongly preferred guidelines.

Guidelines which must be met in an acceptable fashion by all provincial entities regardless of cultural, political, or demographic differences . . .

The provincial authorities are given the central government's directives, and the inhabitants within each province exercise the right to elect officials, and enact provincial initiatives that take into primary consideration the cultural, political, and religious sensitivities within each province in order to help them comply with the directives in a more tailored approach.

Ahem . .

Of course, these types of things are usually a two way street, because the provincial authorities also exercise the right to send delegates to the central authority (Rovenoir) in order to communicate the needs that the provinces expect to have met in exchange for their compliance to the central "technocratic" authority, in other words, "we'll make it work for you if you make it work for us" type of approach, much in the same way that a union of employees parley with a corporation for pay, or working conditions ect ect.

And now I'm going to get off of this subject, because it's taking a very dark turn.

Where were we now?

Ah yes, Rovenoir, aka the "Central District" aka the "Holiest of all Holies", the land of panjira bears (omnivorous monster pandas) and lavender forests, of snowcapped mountain ranges and mines rumored to still hide cavernous veins of gold, the heartland! where so many tens of thousands of years ago, the spear bearing legions of the ancient city state of Rovenoir began marching on the surrounding nations, cities and tribes of the continent.

The descendants of the conquered peoples can still be seen however, they can be seen in every Gelseen alive today, for soon after being conquered, the tribes newly introduced to the marbled halls of Rovenoir would begin sowing their thread into the fabric of Gelseen civilization, culturally, religiously, and of course, genetically.

The geographic regions that used to be said nations are also well known, but they are no longer a shattered maze of territorial feud and chaos, they are in fact the 650 provinces which comprise the entirety of the Gelseen continent, 25 of which are considered the "heartland provinces" for they were the most adjacent to the city state of Rovenoir, and subsequently the first to come under its governance, and 625 which are referred to as the "radial provinces" or simply "the web". One only need take a look at a map of Greater Gelsia to understand how apt this moniker holds.

Officially The Armed Technocracy of the Gelseen Hegemony has around twenty-five thousand towns and cities varying in size from 100,000 inhabitants at the smaller end to tens of millions for major population centers.

Unofficially however. . well, that's unofficial isn't it.

Also officially however, one might notice while looking at a map of Gelsia that certain territories are shaded in red and seem to be empty of towns or cities, these are military or strategic zones, and they are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the central district, evenly dispersed, well connected, and supplied, they serve as a deterrent against secessionist movements within the nation, and foreign threats alike.

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TO BE CONTINUED . . .