The Ruai Referendum

[Gotneska]

Chapter 1: Who are the Ruaí?

Good morning class. I’m Mrs. Níc Braonainmeaning, the Geltic history professor at Saint Áine’s Catholic University. For today's lecture, we will be discussing the general history of the Ruaí people, from ancient history to pre-civil war period. The story of the Ruaí people, like most ethnic groups, is full of wonderful history. Of course, as with any complex culture, there is also some unwanted "baggage" included along the way. Let’s get to know who these people are from every side.

To introduce this topic, I'd like to begin by share a quote from the classical historian, Saint Palmer:

The Ruaí are a strong and brave people.
They love their family, their faith, new or old.
But what is most sacred, to each and every Ruaí,
is their link to the land and each other.

Now, I know many of you may be thinking: who are the Ruaí people? That's a great question. To answer it, we must go way back in time. This story beings approximately 4500 years ago, when the ancestors of what would later become the Ruaí first appeared on the eastern half of the Yeetland peninsula. Over the span of several centuries, they moved westward to what today is modern Gotneska. Around 550 BCE, we see the development of a new culture that's distinct from what came before. This culture is what we call the Cordic or Córda culture. They form a small subgroup of the wider Geltic culture in Yeetland. Except for some very scarce archeological discoveries here and there, not much is really known about these early Cordic peoples. As these people would have used spoken language, as written language was still unknown to them. 

As you'll remember from my quote, the first evidence of the Ruaí people is recorded by Saint Palmer, sometime around 490 CE. Palmer describes these people as being quite tall compared to their neighbors, with a muscular build, fair skin, red head, and blue or green eyes. He also reports how they are very brave during battle. Palmer (442-514) would spend a great amount of time Christianizing the Ruaí people and other mostly Cordic tribes in the region.

Sometime during the 6th century CE, the Ruaí, with their new-found faith, would go on to create the Kingdom of Rídearg. Depending on whom you ask, this kingdom spanned from the River Sökkvabekkr or River Danú all the way to the Sæchainn Peninsula. Early estimates based on terrain and agricultural remains lead us to believe that there lived about 200 to 400 thousand people in this kingdom.

Rídearg would remain independent until 1389, when it was conquered by and became part of the Kingdom of Gotneska-Maelláig (KGM). These two kingdoms would fight each other, until eventually Rídearg lost and was forced to join the winning nation. During this period, most Ruaí people had a somewhat unclear social status. These "new people", as most of their countryman living on the eastern coast called them, were not very different, besides having their own kingdom which unlike KGM was a pure Christian nation.

This map shows the Rídearg historical borders and what it is today. The brighter color is est. around 1290 CE, and the darker one being the present borders of the ethnic Ruaí.

Rídearg beaome an important center of religious importance to the Christian Gotnaelláig people. The region was home to about 1/3rd of all Christian religious sites in what would later become Gotneska. The region was also blessed with some of the best farmland in the country.

But like most Medieval state, the KGM would not last past the 16th century. The Kingdom fell into a bloody civil war. And when it came out the other end, it was in the form of a dictatorial republic. Unfortunately, peace didn't last very long, and the young republic went to war with its neighbor @Aurivizh-Izel.

Since you're all here attending this university class, everyone will know how this war ended: Gotneska-Maelláig lost to Aurivizh-Izel. As a result of this defeat, most of the eastern portions of Maelláig and most of Rídearg became a part of Aurivizh-Izel. Right now we won't discuss the Aurivizh period, but during next week's class we will zoom in on the history in Aurivizh-Izel Rídearg. Now, where was I..?

Maelláig and Rídearg became a part of Aurivizh-Izel. This foreign rule lasted for nearly 200 years. In the 1590s, another bloody war erupted with neighboring Gotneska. This time, Gotneska won, and the Maelláig-Rídearg regions rejoined with the Kingdom of Gotneska.

At this point, by the 1600s the people living in Rídearg had some of the highest standards of living in all of Yeetland. Some historians believe this was an important factor in why the Ruaí quickly became increasingly disliked by most other Goutians. So for my international students that may not now what the work Goutians stands for here is a short description; The Goutians is a historical name that was used to describe what nation someone was from. You may ask why is it a Nordic name and not a combination of the two languages. Will that’s because with the Aurivizht annex of the eastern parts of KGM the Geltic languages where almost totally removed so a new name describing the nation had to be created. This is a little off topic but I think it will suit your question.
 

Back to the topic at hand. Another factor for this resentment was that most people in the reconquered region were given special tax exemptions. Rídearg received these tax exemptions because the region was of such importance to the survival of the monarchy and the future of the kingdom.

Unfortunately for the Ruaí in Rídearg, this resentment continued to grown. During the early 19th century, with the added internal political pressure to reform the nation into a Constitutional-Parliamentary Monarchy, life in Rídearg was about to become much harder. On the 10 July 1845, then Queen Peatáin IV signed into law the transition to creating a Constitution for the kingdom. This constitution also included the creation of a national Parliament. The first elections were held on 13 May 1846. The first Ruaí representative was Sir. Aidan ó Flannagáin. ó Flannagáin lived from (1802-1878), his work would greatly help shape the nations untold future. ó Flannagáin had a vision to where both Nordic & Geltic people would be able to live in peace with one another something to this point would only last 50 yrs if most. Mr. ó Flannagáin will be the topic we discus as his point in view is very important to the upstanding of why the Ruaí become target #1 for the Parlarmantions.

Thats all we have for toady, this lesson is a strong reminder to never take for granted what life gives you because as fast as you are on top someone is always there waiting to bring you down. 
 

(June 9th statement: The history that I have stated here probably will change as time goes on so please don’t take everything here as fact, as when I wrote this some of the historical events stated in later posts had not been created yet.)

Edited June 9, 2022 by Gotneska
spelling (see edit history)

[Gotneska]

Chapter 2: Autobiography of Sir. Aidan ó Flannagáin.

Welcome back class, today's lessons we are going to go over Sir. Aidan ó Flannagáin life. You may once again be asking yourself why is this man important to the history of the Ruaí people or in general to Gotneska? Once again, a wonderful question.

As with the last lesson, here is a quote to start us off, it's from Sir ó Flannagáin.

"I someday hope that my people (Ruaí) can feel the love of a nation as we once did, when our ancestors once lived on this great planet, In my deepest hopes Nordic and Córda people can live in peace not for a short time but forever. In the name of God in heaven and eurth."

Now we will start getting to know Sir ó Flannagáin, from the earliest period of time. His childhood. Sir ó Flannagáin doesn't include much about his early years as a kid, but documents from the day like to state that his family was of average income. Probably making around $1.50 a day in fishing markets of Saint Áine. 
 

Reportedly he started working for the  Royal Gardener Center. They are in charge of keeping the Royal ground’s  look beautiful. He said it helped him pay for his College tuition. Sir ó Flannagáin studied Political Science as he helped to one day run for the newly created Riksdag. 

 

Still WIP

Edited April 4, 2022 by Gotneska (see edit history)

[Gotneska]

(OOC: sorry that I haven’t finished the previous post, just like to start this one in hopes of making it more clear to why I’ve decided to even do something like this.)

Chapter Three: The Story of the Riksdag

Welcome back, I hope you all have enjoyed you time away from class, but today we have another important topic to discuss. And yes to answer your questions everything I will be teaching you has something to deal with the Ruaí Referendum, but as the title of chapter states this is about the Riksdag.

Can anyone tell me what the Riksdag role is in Gotneska government? Go ahead Miss Lækfjall.

Miss Lækfjall “The Riksdag is the nations legislative council, Jarls meet to discuss passing laws and just for the everyday citizen.”

Yes, that is correct the riksdag are people elected on behalf of the people to create and or pass laws. Some laws don’t last very long either because they failed to realize what could go wrong. And this is where we our problem comes from and why this nation ended up with  a bloody 15 yr civil war.

Now to start from the beginning, the riksdag was created in the fall of 1844, the first elections where held the following summer. At this time everyone was happy that there Queen had granted everyone the available to vote on important matters of life. But unfortunately this would not stay true for everyone, one thing people don’t understand is how exactly the Riksdag origins and the Ruaí people are connected.

At first the riksdag, was successful in granting every citizen (at this time a citizen was generally men, women could be citizens but it was a super long process). A citizen in the year 1844, had to own land, marriage wasn’t required, and be able to provide place of birth, meaning you were born with the Goutian Empire. Fast forward 40 yrs and know the riksdag has included all people of the empire, but around this time the Córda  peoples start to loss there seats in the riksdag. No one knows exactly why this happened, at the time the riksdag was still working for all the people regardless of ethnicity. By 1910 things have started to change to where policy’s are know mainly to help the Nordic population of Gotneska. And less for the Córda peoples of the kingdom.

(WIP)

(Anyone that would like to ask a question please don’t shy away the more y’all ask the better I can make this referendum end up being)

Edited June 9, 2022 by Gotneska (see edit history)