Xyon
Mikaean Directorate of Xyon Mikaean Directorate of Xyon | |
|---|---|
|
Flag
Coat of arms
| |
|
Motto: Peace, Justice, Security | |
| Location of Xyon | |
| Capital | Blackstone |
| Largest city | Oxida Nova |
| Official languages | English |
| Religion | Mikaean Alithian Church |
| Demonym(s) | Mikaean |
| Government |
Dirigist single-party state Totalitarian democracy |
| Mikael O'Neill | |
| Omata Morgana | |
| Lisa Krane | |
| Legislature | Supreme Federal Congress |
| Formation | |
| 11 May 1653 | |
• Monarchy | 18 July 1671 |
| 12 November 1874 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 221,742 km2 (85,615 sq mi) (85th) |
• Water (%) | 0.76% |
| Population | |
• 2017 estimate | 172,118,088 (8th) |
• 2010 census | 168,710,150 |
• Density | 776.21/km2 (2,010.4/sq mi) (15th) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2015 estimate |
• Total | $7.558 trillion (3rd) |
• Per capita | $52,282 (11th) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2015 estimate |
• Total | $7.291 trillion (3rd) |
• Per capita | $50,438 (12th) |
| Gini (2015) |
25.8 low · 2nd |
| HDI (2015) |
 0.982very high · 1st |
| Currency | Mikaean dollar (∇) (MKD) |
| Time zone | UTC+11 (Pacific Time Zone) |
• Summer (DST) | Not observed |
| Date format | dd-mm-yyyy AD |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +1 |
| ISO 3166 code | XYN |
| Internet TLD | .xy |
.svg){kind=link}
Xyon, officially the Mikaean Directorate of Xyon, is a sovereign island nation located in East Asia. Located within the northern Pacific Ocean, Xyon lies to the far east of Japan and southeast of Russia. Xyon is an dirigist single-party state with its seat of power located in the capital city of Blackstone. The government exercises its authority over ten sectors, one federal sector, and one federal district, which is under the direct control of the Mikaean federal government. The U.S. state of Alaska is located to the far northeast of the nation, making Xyon the most isolated industrialized nation in the world. The nation has a total land area of 221,742 square kilometers (85,615 square miles), making it the 85th largest sovereign state and the ninth-largest island nation in the world. Xyon had an estimated population of 172.1 million people as of 2017, making it the 8th most populous state in the world.
Historically, Xyon was the last major island in the world to be permanently settled by humans, having gone unnoticed by the human population during the mid-17th century. Up until that time, no knowledge of the island existed, either in nearby Imperial China and Medieval Japan, or to the Polynesian explorers in the Pacific. The island was finally colonized on 11 May 1653 by Mikael O'Neill, an trader and explorer from Great Britain, who had been seeking his fortune in the region. He was the first of the near-human species named after him, the Mikaeans, all of whom are his offspring. O'Neill claimed the island for himself, and covertly built up the population and infrastructure for the island until his declare a monarchy in 1671. From 1653 up until 1874, Xyon remained largely isolated from the rest of the international community. The growth of Xyon was meticulously planned out and executed under the strict ideology O'Neill established known as dirigism, and ultimately this culminated in the nation's transition from a monarchy to a dirigist state in 1874, with O'Neill as its new supreme director rather than monarch.
Numerous attempts to open Xyon up to foreign trade by force in the years prior to 1874 had failed, though Xyon agreed to begin trading with the Western powers when fair terms of trade had been established between the United States and the Russian Empire. Several conflicts were waged by the European colonial powers and Xyon for control of the wealthy island nation, such as the First Anglo-Mikaean War, Second Anglo-Mikaean War, and the Blackstone War, all of which Xyon won, securing its status as a sovereign nation. However, attaining equal status of nationhood enjoyed by European states remained an elusive goal for decades after the Blackstone War. Despite this, Xyon's sovereign was never challenged, and the island left to its own devices. Xyon engaged in a regional power struggle with the Empire of Japan for decades, with numerous attempts by the Mikaeans to weaken Japanese influence in China and Korea, and undermine Japanese prestige through the use of inciting unrest and rebellion in the Japanese imperial colonies and puppet states.
Xyon remained neutral during the First World War, focusing on taking advantage of the global conflicts to advance its regional influence and power at the expense of Imperial Japan. However, attempts by the Japanese to invade the nation in 1944, resulted in Xyon joining the Allies in World War II. Exploiting the power dynamics of the war, the Mikaeans assisted the Americans throughout the entire period of the Pacific War, and reveling in the victory brought about by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Xyon assisted in the occupation of Japan, leaving behind a history of rape and abuse on the island nation, as well as a large population of Mikaeans who chose to remain behind after the occupation had come to a close in 1952, establishing the seventh-largest Mikaean diaspora population in the world. With that spread of the Mikaean population came too the spread of Mikaean culture and influence, and the rise of many major companies that rose as a direct result of Mikaean post-war prosperity.
Since the end of the Second World War, Xyon has grown to possess one of the most, if not most, advanced economy and industry in the world, with some of its technological advancements many decades ahead of the rest of the world's most advanced nations. A major economic and political juggernaut, Xyon is a highly-developed country which wields the world's third-largest economy by power-purchasing parity and the world's third-largest economy by nominal GDP. The nation continues to wield power highly disproportionate to its size, and is an active supporter of foreign interventionism. Xyon is a recognized nuclear weapons state, and possesses the world's second-largest military budget. A founding member of the United Nations, and Xyon remains a member of the international organization, but calls within Mikaean population to withdraw from the U.N. may potentially change that. Xyon maintains the world's highest standard of living and boasts the highest life expectancy and lowest infant mortality rate in the world, and has been considered a potential superpower by many analysts, if not an active superpower already.
Etymology
The name Xyon is a corruption of the Hebrew word Zion by the original Mikaean colonists; a major hill outside of the city of Jerusalem and mentioned in the Bible. The name had been selected by Mikael O'Neill in light of the island's mountainous nature and its pristine environment, almost regarding the land as holy and God-given in his eyes. Prior to that point, the island had no name nor a native population, and was unknown to either the Chinese, Japanese, and Polynesians, who resided in the regions located not far from Xyon's shores. While "Y" was a common letter in the English alphabet at the time of the island's colonization in 1653, "X" was not, and Xyon's name was originally spelt as Zyon as late as the 19th century. For centuries, many variations of the name existed, including Zyon, Zion, Sion, and Tzion. However, the name was officially changed to its current state in 1845, when the government was reorganized into the Mikaean Directorate of Xyon, using new naming conventions. The current spelling of the name has remained unchanged ever since.
History
Discovery
Little is known of Xyon's pre-colonial history, as no archaeological remains or evidence of human habitation prior to 1653. The island's very location had gone unnoticed until 1641, when the island was discovered by Mikael O'Neill....
Colonization
Monarchy
Industrial era
Geography
The nation of Xyon consists of nine islands, with the largest of the same name spanning most of the 221,742 square kilometers (85,615 sq mi), making Xyon the eighth-largest island in the world by size just after the nearby island of Honshu. Xyon lies between latitudes 30° and 44°N, and just west of the 180° longitude, where the International Date Line stands. Xyon is divided into four regions; the Frederick Mountains to the north, Black Mountains in the south, with the central Blackstone Valley surrounded by both mountain ranges, and the Auroran Plateau to the direct east of the valley. The majority of the population in Xyon live in the Blackstone Valley and Auroran Plateau, as well as along the southeastern coastline. Xyon's mountainous and rugged nature has meant that the nation's more than 144.5 million inhabitants are highly packed together within the flatland regions of the country, resulting in Xyon possessing a population density of 651.9/km2 (1,688.6/sq mi). Most of the population is located within the Blackstone Valley, and stretching horizontally across the island nation.
Xyon is a predominately mountainous country, with more than 60% of the country's total area dominated by mountains and hills. Because of Xyon's size and geography, the island possesses few major rivers outside of its limited flatland regions. The Crimson River in the Auroran Plateau is the longest river in Xyon, followed by the Sable River in the southwest. Xyon is home to more than 400 freshwater lakes, the largest of which are include Lake Obsidian, Lake Morgan, and Lake Hyperion. Lake Obsidian is the largest lake in Xyon. As a nation, Xyon is home to one of the largest hydro-graphic networks in the world, with a high humidity level arising from the extensive groundwater supplies in the country. Only a few of Xyon's major rivers flow out into the Pacific, historically resulting in heavily flooding within the inland river basins. Recent canal projects have since alleviated this problem somewhat as of the recent past.
Many of Xyon mountains are more than 4,000-5,000 meters in height, with the tallest and most famous mountain in the country being Mount Onyx in the Black Mountains at 5,618 meters (18,431 ft). Most of Xyon is forested and unsuitable to agriculture, but useful in trapping good topsoil and groundwater throughout the island. This means that while it is difficult or outright impossible to cultivate the land in much of Xyon, the soil remains rich in nutrients and fertility. Earthquakes are generally common in Xyon, but not to the extent as that of Japan, Chile, or California, which are located directly on top of the faultlines of the Ring of Fire. Xyon itself is located just beyond the main zone of effect within the ring. Recent developments in earthquake shock technology have made it possible for the regions of Xyon once heavily effected by the threat of tremors and mudslides, are more insulated against their effects.
The bulk of Xyon's population is situated along the coastlines of the nation, while in the interior of the island, almost all major cities are located within the Mikaean Basin. The basin is moderately hilly and rugged, but generally open and partially forested. However, the basin is broken into three pockets of open land, where much of Xyon's population within the inner regions of the island reside. It is within the basin the basin the largest lakes of Xyon are found, along with some of the country's most productive farmland.
Climate
Xyon can best be described as having an oceanic climate, with generally balanced summers and winters. The nation's size is such that the entire island shares the same climates. Winters in the country are very humid, and summers wet and cool, with heavy thundershowers and snowstorms throughout much of the year. During the winters, the temperature averages about 3.7°C (38.7°F) while the summer temperature is about 20.1°C (68.3°F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Xyon was 38.7°C (101.7°F) on 8 July 1988, while the lowest temperature on record was -4.9°C (-23.1°F) on 20 December 1950. The unique state of Xyon's climate is such that the autumn and winter months usually run together, while the spring is regarded as the rainy season on the island nation, with summer considered a relatively dry season for the rare pause in rain and snowfall. Though summer is considerably shorter than the two other seasons, and still very wet when compared to the summers of other neighboring countries such as Japan and China.
The humidity on the island is almost always above 90%, though this wouldn't be much of an issue for the country were it not for the higher than average air pressure on the island. Barometers in Xyon typically record air pressure between 711.2 mm (28 in) and 812.8 mm (32 in) on a typical day, leading to widespread fog throughout the country. Low visibility is a chronic issue in Xyon as a result, and traffic accidents are more commonplace in the country than would be typical for most other developed nations. Flooding throughout the low-lying regions of Xyon from the high humidity and resulting rainfall have plagued Xyon for centuries, forcing the country to adopt new city-planning concepts and architectural concepts to counteract the effects. However, the bonus of such high humidity levels have been the incredibly large groundwater reserves on the island, watering the fertile lands of Xyon, allowing it to easily and sustainably support water-hungry crops such as rice, almonds, and olives.
Typhoons are a common occurrence, though Xyon as a location has never been adversely effected by one, with most causing minor damage and no casualties. Despite the mountainous nature of the island, Xyon does not have any rainshadow areas, preventing some parts of the island from not getting rainwater. The dry parts of the year typically range from May to mid-August, with infrequent raining in-between. Generally, the skies above Xyon are usually grey and cloudy, with little sunlight during much of the year. The high humidity levels throughout the island, combined with the urban heat island effect coming from the densely-populated cities in Xyon, result in unusually high amounts of cloud creation. The end result of this are heavy rain clouds which typically lumber about above Xyon, and during cool days release large amounts of rain, giving Xyon its infamous torrential rains and snowstorms. As aforementioned, this leads to heavy flooding in many parts of the nation, but serves as a boon to the country's hydroelectric production capacity.
Environment
Xyon is heavily forested, with more than 70% of the land covered in forests. The forests of Xyon are classified as temperate rainforests, such as those found in the Pacific Northwest, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula. These forests trap excessive amounts of rainwater, leading to a high level of diversity in animal and plant-life which thrive in the forests of Xyon. The Mikaean government has been careful to protect the environment of its nation whilst protecting the interests of its industries such as lumber, coal mining, agriculture, and urban development. Because of the vital role nature has played in Mikaean culture and society, the government has long made it is responsibility to ensure that Mikaean growth and development do not impede upon the growth of the island nation's natural beauty and resources, with environment sustainability a high priority. Clean and renewable energy, controlled expansion, conservation of resources, and limited game hunting, have all played a major role in the protection of Xyon's environment and wildlife.
Flora and fauna
Politics
Government
The government of Xyon is a unitary single-party state, governed by the doctrines of dirigism, which has its origins in the country. The Mikaean constitution defines the government of Xyon as a "single-party state united under the banner of dirigism", and leaves no room for political change. The government is dominated by the ruling Mikaean Brotherhood, the sole legal political party in the country, and the only political party to have existed within the borders of Xyon. The head of the Mikaean Brotherhood and by extension the government of Xyon, is the Supreme Director, who serves as the highest-ranking political authority in the country. The Supreme Director wields all major executive powers, and works in conjunction with the Advisory Council of Xyon, the nation's federal cabinet. The Supreme Director is elected to the post for a term of five years by the Supreme Federal Congress.
The Supreme Federal Congress is the nation's unicameral legislative body, and is made up of representatives elected from throughout Xyon from the districts of the country. The Congress consists of 184 members, each representing one of the 184 districts of Xyon, including the national capital of Blackstone, and the four special districts that make up the Xyon's largest city of Oxida Nova. In theory, the Supreme Federal Congress is suppose to create, ratify, and vote on laws for the nation, as well as counter the power of the Supreme Director. However, in practice, the Congress serves more as a rubber-stamp committee, simply passing any laws the Supreme Director proposes. Instead, the Supreme Director uses the Congress to gauge the needs of the people by taking part in the meetings of the legislature to moderate the debates of the Congress every five years.
During the meetings of the Supreme Federal Congress, the needs of the state are evaluated, and goals selected to be accomplished within the next five years, which each politician is expected to met or exceed. All politicians in Xyon follow a strict "up or out" policy, in which each politician must meet or exceed the goals for their office within their five year term, and must climb the political ladder of their government, or they are booted from their office to make way for a younger, better-equipped citizen to take over. All of the members of the Supreme Federal Congress are directly elected by the citizens of Xyon to five year terms, from a state roster drawn up from the best performing politicians in each district. The same is true of the Supreme Director, who is elected from three of the top performing members of the Congress. Because of this dirigist system of governance, Xyon is never in short supply of competent leaders and politicians.
Despite these facts and the absence of corruption in the government, Xyon is routinely ranked as "unfree" and "non-democratic", given the lack of political opposition parties in the government, as well as the lack of political mobility for the majority of Mikaean citizens. However, because of the strict meritocracy dominating the direction of Xyon's government, has prevented corruption and incompetence throughout the nation, as well as providing Xyon with a long history of political stability unrivaled by few other nations in the world. It is for these reasons that the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index has consistently ranked Xyon as one of the top countries with regards to "order and security" and "absence of corruption", thanks to its effective, if heavy-handed, mode of governance. Transparency International has ranked Xyon as the least corrupt nation in the world as of 2014, and the nation has been lauded as an example to others in effective tackling of corrupt politicians.
Administrative divisions
- Blackstone -- 2,635,416 (2.37%) (Capital city)
- Oxida Nova -- 12,715,792 (11.27%) (Sector-level city)
- Kordan -- 26,583,675 (23.58%)
- Illaban -- 11,093,363 (9.84%)
- Aurora -- 14,385,296 (12.76%)
- Hyperion -- 6,149,591 (5.45%)
- Sichel -- 11,409,028 (10.12%)
- Kerella -- 3,660,207 (3.24%)
- Metia -- 9,715,434 (8.61%)
- Azara -- 4,049,204 (3.59%)
- Zveria -- 3,158,053 (2.80%)
- Iconia -- 7,182,369 (6.37%)
Law and justice
Foreign relations
Military
The Xyon's primary armed security forces are known as the Obsidian Guard, under the administration the Directorate of War. This force is comprised of 501,984 active personnel, with another 348,741 reserve personnel spread across four services as of 2015. The force is divided into the Obsidian Army (OA), the Obsidian Navy (ON), the Obsidian Air Force (OAF), and the N/A (N/A). This force in total represents 8.93% of the Mikaean population under arms, and is tasked with the responsibility of projecting Mikaean power abroad as well as waging war in the name of the Mikaeans dirigist ideals. Under the current administration, the Obsidian Guard has a budget of $508.030 billion, which is used for the procurement of weapons, training, and personnel, as well as the research and development of new equipment and vehicles. The Obsidian Guard consists entirely of trained volunteers and professional contract soldiers.
The Mikaean Home Guard (MHG) is the second armed force of the Mikaean military, constituting the equipping and organization of a state-funded militia with paramilitary capabilities. Given the ideals of dirigism, pertaining to the establishment of a caste system, in particular a military class, Xyon possesses a large number of reserve military personnel within the soldiery caste. The Home Guard fills the gap for a low-cost combat force, which remains well-trained and equipped while in reserve, while also stepping in for the standard military services, and provide security in regions the military deems too important to lose, yet not important enough to spare crucial manpower and firepower required to defend them. This force consists of 0 personnel, staffed by members of the soldiery caste who serve a standard six-month tour of duty in active service, and another two years in "active reserve" before being recycled into another six months of active service again.
The counter-intelligence apparatus of the military is centered within the auspices of enigmatic Mikaean Electronic Army (MEA), which was established in 1983 to serve as a trained and professional military hacking and counter-cyberterrorism organization. The primary responsibility of the MEA is to target enemy military computers and databases and disrupt their command-and-control capabilities, all with the goal of preventing the endangering the ability of the Mikaean military forces in the field by allowing the enemy to fully utilize their electronic warfare resources. The total size of the force is unknown as it is a classified military organization, but estimates have placed the total MEA personnel between 0 to 0. The organization is also tasked with coordinating military drone operations, though the true scope and depth of the MEA's capabilities remains to be seen.
The Mikaean military is known to be one of the few nations capable of projecting hard power well beyond its shores, and is one of only a handful of nations capable of waging a total war against the United States with its existing military and natural resources. There exist multiple rapid reaction force units within the organization of the military, capable of being deployed at a moment's notice to regions of critical importance to the Mikaean government's foreign policy. These units are built around several squadrons of amphibious assault ships, which allow Xyon to maintain a presence in nearly every corner of the globe. Xyon maintains an series of active military forces throughout the globe based within nations it is allied too, allowing Xyon to maintain a global presence that allows swift response to threats beyond the reach of the main military force back home.
Military service in compulsory for all Mikaeans, male and female, between the ages of 18 and 25, with law stating that all Mikaeans within that specified age group are required to serve three years but not more than five within the Mikaean Home Guard as active reserve personnel. This allows the military to call upon them to fight if the need arises, but allows them to maintain their civilian life until said time. There exist few legal cases for exemption from armed military service, though according to Mikaean law, this does not exempt them from the military but instead sees them transitioned into unarmed duties that support the military's ability to operation effectively. Only those Mikaeans who have critical medical conditions, have served the nation in the past valiantly, or perform a vital public service for the nation, are truly exempt from having to serve in the military. Until they can serve in the military, all Mikaeans are trained throughout their childhood how to clean, handle, and use weapons, as per the nation's self-defense programs.
Economy
Energy
Transport
Science and technology
Infrastructure
Demographics
Urbanization
Largest cities or towns in Xyon
Bureau of Statistics (2015) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Sectors of Xyon | Pop. | Rank | Sectors of Xyon | Pop. | ||||
| Oxida Nova Oxida Nova Blackstone Blackstone |
1 | Oxida Nova | Oxida Nova | 12,715,792 | 11 | Chernaya | Zveria | 1,011,475 | Karus Karus Armitage Armitage |
| 2 | Blackstone | Blackstone | 3,011,904 | 12 | Ocracoke | Kordan | 1,004,515 | ||
| 3 | Karus | Sichel | 2,635,416 | 13 | Bastion | Hyperion | 981,088 | ||
| 4 | Armitage | Kordan | 2,262,731 | 14 | Halcyon | Kordan | 962,454 | ||
| 5 | Defiance | Kordan | 1,764,882 | 15 | Ursa | Aurora | 915,612 | ||
| 6 | Galvan | Iconia | 1,714,049 | 16 | Junction | Azara | 835,067 | ||
| 7 | Epistylia | Illaban | 1,581,832 | 17 | Princeton | Illaban | 829,155 | ||
| 8 | Aura | Aurora | 1,331,018 | 18 | Sheridan | Kerella | 810,934 | ||
| 9 | Absalom | Metia | 1,210,416 | 19 | Drexel | Kordan | 791,354 | ||
| 10 | Aspera | Hyperion | 1,074,194 | 20 | Duran | Sichel | 724,765 | ||
Languages
Religion
Education
The Mikaean education system is markedly different from that of the rest of the world. All education within Xyon is freely provided by the government, and regulated by the Directorate of Education. Education is compulsory from the ages of four to ten as part of their elementary school education, and this is where the similarities end. A Mikaean student receives their political education during this point in time as part of their journey toward legal citizenship that all children of the Mikaean state are expected to undertake. On the last year of their elementary education, all students must undergo a battery of stringent achievement and aptitude tests. The success rate for those undergoing the last year exams is about 63%, an intentional creation by the state to filter out underachievers. These individuals are directed by the Bureau of Skill Development to the appropriate technical schools within the nation as part of their secondary education. Those who fail the exams are filtered out into the schools pertaining to the servitor caste, where they will serve as second-class citizens until they can successfully gain citizenship in the future.
During the secondary education, which lasts for about five years, Mikaean students are placed with "learning cadres" which are made up of about fifteen to twenty students each. Each learning cadre is directed by a instructor by whom all the students are taught the skill relevant to the caste they wish to join. Instructors are flexible individuals capable of growing with their students' needs and handicaps. All instructors are members of the intelligentsia, and are responsible for ensuring that the political indoctrination of their students sticks. All students are held responsible for their own success or failure on an individual basis, but the instructor is held responsible for the actions and performance of his or her learning cadre as a whole. Instructors whose classes fail repeatedly, or having multiple low-performing classes face government discipline or termination from their posting or membership in the intelligentsia caste as a whole. The loss of a child within the education system because of poor teaching skills is deemed unacceptable by Mikaean society.
Students during their secondary education years must wear uniforms, and are subject to semi-military discipline, all while being exposed to the harsh indoctrination of Mikaean and dirigist ideology. Students are expected to work hard during their ten month long school years, and have little time for leisurely activities. They are encouraged to time of military training in the free time they do possess, as a form of relaxation. This has helped to increase discipline within the youth of Xyon while having a direct impact upon the lowering crime rate within the juvenile population. It should be noted that the families of students who have failed their elementary school courses are perfectly content with their children's future, believing the state-sanctioned belief that a higher education belongs to those best equipped to utilize it, while not spoiling potentially useful "servants of the state" by making him or her discontented with their new fate.