Aragon (1983: Doomsday)

The Kingdom of Aragon (Castillian: Reino de Aragón, Catalan: Regne d'Aragó, Aragonese: Reino d'Aragón, Occitan: Reialme d'Aragon), or alternatively, Bishopric of Aragon,  (Castillian: Obispado de Aragón, Catalan: Bispat d'Aragó, Aragonese: Bispado d'Aragón, Occitan: Evesquat d'Aragon) is a pseudo-theocratic limited monarchy located in southern Catalonia.

Name
Although the nation is not located in Aragon, it does have a ruler that claims to be the King of Aragon, given the fact that revivalist beliefs are common in the nation and that the nation de facto claims most of the former Kingdom of Aragon. Bishopric and Kingdom can be used alternatively without any major problems.

Doomsday
Barcelona was destroyed in the nuclear war on September of 1983, and, soon enough, the refugees swamped and destroyed Tarragona. To the south, Valencia was also hit, with most of the Valencian Community being destroyed in the ensuing chaos, however no fallout came from both Valencia and Barcelona, with most radiation coming from Zaragoza through the water of the Ebro, on which Zaragoza had been located.

1983 - 1989: The Generalitat de l'Ebre
Soon after Doomsday was over, the Bishop of Tortosa, Ricard Maria Carles i Gordó, established the Junta d'Tortosa and ordained a rationing of food supplies in the city, as well as quickly joining up several loyal men and arming them into a Tortosa Militia. Similar measures were taken by the Jesuits from the Roquetes Observatory and the Gandesa City Hall. Soon enough, this allowed the three small cities to establish varying degrees of power across the south of Catalonia, with Gandesa and Roquetes being able to establish small surpluses of their agricultural produces (wine, olives and almonds for the former and rice, olives and cereals for the latter), while Tortosa, although less productive in agriculture, was able to maintain itself without massive famines.

Tortosa, Gandesa and Roquetes soon banded together in the Generalitat de l'Ebre, establishing a provisional government (led by the Bishop of Tortosa) by 1985. Capital was elected more central Roquetes. In 1987, established more permanent, independentist measures after the feeling that not a Spanish state nor a Catalonian one would arrive to reunite the lands. The Army of the Ebre was established in the same year, as was the establishment of a more tightly-together banding of the three cities.

Meanwhile, Ricard Maria Carles i Gordo, the bishop of Tortosa, was becoming a more promiment person, admiring others with his speeches. He talked about Aragon, a country that could be the only salvation for the people of the Generalitat. Due to increasing wish of the population to have the Bishop of Tortosa King of Aragon, polls were held for the first time since Doomsday. The outcome of the poll was, as expected, that Carles i Gordo should become King of Aragon. On 23rd of April 1989, he was crowned King and Bishop of Aragon and the Generalitat was at last replaced by a permanent Kingdom of Aragon, heavily revivalist and under very conservative influences.

1989 - 1994: Complete Isolation
Occitan and Aragonese were reinstated as official tongues in 1990, following both the revivalism found after Doomsday in hopes of re-instating the Crown of Aragon and the large influx of Aragonese and Aranese refugees into the small nation, and the nation began expanding. Factories began reopening in 1991, now rebuilt to work without electricity, as well as a newspaper called the 'Aragó Setmanal' (Aragon Weekly) being installed, with it's headquarters in Gandesa, a pre-Doomsday major paper producing city. The three cities were entirely connected with one another by 1992, and the nation had reached the coast of the Mediterranean by the end of the year. A small navy of Aragon was formed early in the next month. Problems with pirates began to appear, however and Aragon declared war on the pirate bands, with the nation's goal being the complete eradication of the pirate clans that have attacked the navy.

1994 - 2001: Wars and Discoveries
Then, suddendly, a vessel of the Aragonese navy spotted another vessel with strange flags. The two ships approached each other, and after a few moments of mistrust and not understanding each other, two members of both crews who spoke English began speaking, the one on the foreign vessel told them that they come from the Republic of Sicily.

The ship was brought to L'Ampolla, the biggest port of the region at the time. Soon, this ship was found out to be a merchant ship, searching for trade opportunities in former Spain. The party on the ship was escorted to Tortosa as soon as possible, where they had a meeting with King Ricard. The captain of the ship explained that he wanted to begin business between the two nations, with the condition that Aragon would only trade with Sicily. The Corts held a vote, but it was almost evenly tied, thus King Ricard, after three days, had to step in and made a deal with the Sicilian merchants: They will let the Corts a month to debate about the decision, while the Sicilians would announce the government of the nation.

King Ricard's decision was later proven to be what has saved Aragon from being a Sicilian vassal. Only days after the encounter with the Sicilians, another vessel has shown up in what the Aragonese government considered Aragon's sea territory. Not wanting to be considered pirates, the captain of the Aragonese ship flew the white flag. The other ship, seeing the flag, raised a white flag as well, to show that it came in peace. The strangers told the Aragonese that they came from a state called Genoa. The ship was also taken to L'Ampolla, and from there, to Tortosa. Through these Genovese explorers, the nation learned about the survival and unification of Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, about the survival of Monaco, about Corsica and about Sicily's imperialism. They informed Aragon about the blockade on Genoa's port in 1989 and about it's fascism. The exploration party left two days later, telling King Ricard before they left that Genoa couldn't send aid in such a situation, but as soon as Genoa can send ships for trade and help, they will return.

As expected, the Sicilian shop returned one month later. This time, Aragon expected them with the Army in the immediate surrounding of L'Ampolla. King Ricard made a short greeting, then, when he raised his hand in the air, the Army stormed the port, surrounding the Sicilians. After all sailors had their hands raised, King Ricard explicitly told the captain that they do not want to trade with the nation and if they would appear again, they would be killed. The Sicilians left, but not without pledging that they would destroy the whole nation.

As expected, Sicilian raiders began to attack the nation both from the sea and from the North. However, despite the Army of the Ebre being severely outnumbered and facing heavy losses, it was able to defeat the Sicilian raiders. The mercenaries were withdrawn and the operations were redirected north (where the republican Generalitat de Catalunya was destroyed).

The small nation then started sending its navy to discover the survivor states of Spain; at last, despite huge attacks by pirates, the Aragonese found the Free City of Castellón in 1997 and, from it, Pais del Oro. Soon, Gypsy caravans from Aragon began to travel to Castellón, with the hope of winning money. A land-based expedition in hopes of finding another Aragonese state met nothing, but did find rumours of two strong states to the north; the Iberian Confederacy and the survival of Andorra. However, the Republican nature of the two nations, as well as the high degree of nationalism common in the Kingdom caused it to have no wishes of having any contact with any of the nations in fear that they would try to re-annex it and begin reuniting Spain.

2001 - present: 21st Century
The new century was greeted with hope for better future in Aragon.

The years between 2001 and 2013 are called the Era de Pau i Evolució (Era of Peace and Evolution) during which Aragon began expanding into new territory, life was getting easier, the industry was blooming and generally there was peace. Contact has been established with Corsica and Tuscany and the ship that warned the Aragonese in 1994 came once more in L'Ampolla in 2003, the crew being greeted with applause from the population.

This era was cut short due to the death of King Ricard on the 17th December 2013. The king died peacefully in his sleep in his room in the parish building in Tortosa. A testament was found in his room, where he appointed Rámon Casanova i Casanova, a priest from Vic who became a refugee on Doomsday, but rose in the ranks of the Roman Catholic Diocese. He was crowned King of Aragon in the Tortosa Cathedral on the 25th of December 2013

During his reign, change began to be seen: Instead of isolation, the new king wanted to pursue international recognition. This started with the foundation of a free trade zone in L'Ampolla in March 2014. Better port facilities are currently built with the help of Castellón and, surprisingly, Spain, and are expected to be be finished in August of 2016. The postal service was modernised with the help of Tuscany in June of the same year, introducing postal stamps.

Today Aragon is a strong albeit small monarchy that controls a relatively large amount of territory in the south of Catalonia, and influences most of the remaining southernmost Tarragona province. Expansion is being planned by the Aragonese Corts, with reclaiming to be towards Aragon along the Ebre river. This also means a slight northward expansion along the Ebre, although it is not planned to reclaim Tarragona (yet). Aragon currently seeks friendly relations with Monaco, Genoa, Corsica and Tuscany, and King Ramón wishes for an alliance between Aragon and Spain.

Geography
The Kingdom occupies much of the southern parts of Tarragona province, Catalonia. Almost all of this area is located around the mouth of the Ebre river.

As in terms of topography, the nation is hilly, with mountains and plains here and there. The region around the Ebre east of Tortosa is also marshy.

The nation is politically split into two comarcas (counties), one districte capital (capital district) and one zona de lliure comerç (free trade zone). These are:
 * Comarca Baix Ebre - Capital in Roquetes, consists of the controlled part of the pre-Doomsday Baix Ebre.
 * Comarca Terra Alta - Capital in Gandesa, consists of the controlled parts of the pre-Doomsday Terra Alta.
 * Districte Capital Tortosa - Consisting of Tortosa and its suburbs.
 * Zona de Lliure Comerç L'Ampolla - Consisting of L'Ampolla

Aragonese nationalists claim all of the former states of Catalonia, with the exception of the current control zone of Andorra, Aragon and the northern Valencian Community up to Castellón. Anti-Spanish and Anti-Andorran citizens also claim the rest of the Valencian Community, the Balears, Andorra and Rousillon. The former claim is supported by the King Ramón and the majority of the population, while the latter is only supported by a fringe minority and is most likely never to become true.

Languages
Aragon has four official languages, which are divided in two "priorities", according to their use on everyday life by Aragonese citizens. The two "primary" official languages, Catalan and, to a lesser extent, Spanish (officially Castillian), are the most used in government and are used daily by the majority of the populace. The use of Castillian/Spanish, however, is becoming less and less common, therefore most officials use Catalan for their declarations.

National signs such as those on roads or most buildings are also required to be in Occitan and Aragonese, the other two official "secondary" languages of Aragon.

Catalan Caló is also frequently used by the Gypsy minority of Aragon. Although not an official language, most Gypsies learn Caló at home, due to about 90% of them being home-taught.

Polls show following:


 * Catalan - 81%
 * Catalan Caló - 5%
 * Spanish/Castillian - 2%
 * Aragonese - 2%
 * Occitan - 1.5%
 * Catalan and Castillian - 8.5%

Religion
Religion, unlike in other states, has taken a more prominent role in Aragon, though there is not much diversity in the religion. The religions of Aragon are:


 * Roman Catholicism is currently the prominent religion of Aragon, and currently is the religion with the absolute majority in the nation, though the Vatican states that the Catholicism there is a new branch called Aragonese Catholicism, similar to the Greek Catholic churches in Eastern Europe.
 * Catharism was brought to life once again by the Aranese refugees, as a dualist believer preached to the Aranese that they weakened the Good God/New Testament God with atheism and that the Evil God/Old Testament God brought Doomsday. Almost every Aranese is a Catharist.
 * Judaism, especially of the Sephardic rite, is one of the only other religions in the region. With more than half of the Jewish population being refugees from Valencia and Tarragona, adherents of this religion are generally seen as thieves and beggars.
 * The so called Rromaniada or The Gypsy Way of Life is a more of a lifestyle than a religion, but adherents of this 'religion' consider it so. It is the religion of the Gypsy people of Aragon, and it dictates a nomadic lifestyle and a just, but secluded life. The racism toward gypsies has largely disappeared, as they have set up trade caravans, this hate now mostly going toward the Jews.
 * Atheism has actually decreased since Doomsday, because of the king's speeches that stated following: 'This tragic war was brought by God himself as punishment toward our increasingly atheist world!' This has moved a lot of atheists to become Catholic. People who remained atheists are now seen by the more radical Catholics as sinners who should be exiled to the radiated regions outside of the border.

Religious polls have shown following:


 * Roman (Aragonese) Catholicism - 85.5%
 * Rromaniada - 5%
 * Judaism - 3%
 * Catharism - 1.5%
 * Atheism - 5%

Lifestyle
The lifestyle in Aragon is a mix of the 'live fast die young' attitude with strong religious beliefs.

Religion is a very important part of the state, with most Catholics and Cathars attending mass every Sunday, and Jews every Saturday. In the more rural regions, people who don't attend mass are usually excluded from taverns and many people would not speak to them. Exception to this are expectant mothers, parents of sick children and babies up to nine months and sick people, who are socially allowed to miss the mass sometimes.

The typical Aragonese work day begins at 7:00 AM, followed by the traditional three-hour long Resta (Catalan for rest, equivalent to a Siesta) from noon until 3:00 PM. Work usually ends at 7:00 PM, followed by the Sopar familiar (family dinner), which consists mostly of a vegetable soup and a fish, rice and carob paella. The people of Aragon have to work six days a week, and they can choose which day they take free. The Catholics and Cathar take free on Sunday, while the Jewish community have free on Saturday. The Rromaniada adherents don't have a fixed day of the week where to rest, but the majority usually chooses Wednesday. Atheists, not having a religion, also have their free day on Sunday.

The holidays in Aragon are following:
 * 1st January - New Year's Day
 * Changes from year to year - Easter Holiday (consisting of Black Friday, Easter's Eve, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday)
 * 23rd April - St. George's Day
 * 1st May - Labour Day
 * 3rd week of July - Summer Holiday
 * 26th September - Doomsday Memorial Day
 * 24th to 26th December - Christmas Holiday (consisting of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day)

Racism is, sadly, a part of the life of the people of Aragon. Anti-Semitism is still a big problem in the region, mainly the stereotype being that they are thieves and beggars, much like Gypsies pre-Doomsday, though many people try to help them to get a better life, meaning that the stereotype might disappear in the near future. The radical Catholics in the country also discriminate the atheist and Cathar minority, blaming the former for Doomsday because they didn't believe (and still don't believe) in the Holy Trinity and regarding the latter as Satanists, due to their dualist beliefs.

Life expectancy is from the early-fifties toward the early-sixties, though some exceptions have been noted. Most deaths are caused by malaria, which made a comeback in the years after Doomsday, other death causes are malnourishment, because most people in Aragon are eating one meal (usually dinner) and a snack (at noon) per day, and other diseases, which would have been curable before Doomsday. Three of five children die before the age of five. To say the least, the health situation is grim.

Services
Electricity is not existing in Aragon, though there are plans for a hydroelectric station, to be sponsored by Spain.

Water supplies come mainly from the Ebre, beginning from 1994. Currently, only around 45% of the population have access to water in their own houses. The remaining 55% have their water from wells installed in 1989 or ones which have been built before Doomsday. The water is often needed to be boiled first if it comes from a well, though people with access to water in their homes mostly boil the water before drinking it as well.

Gas, like electricity, is not distributed in Aragon. The alternatives to it are warming with either stoves, which are more common, and fireplaces. Wood is the main 'fuel'.

Capital Punishment
In 1990, the first set of laws was brought to Aragon, which re-implemented the capital punishment for murder, paedophilia, rape, treason, abortion and armed theft, and increased the life sentence to 99 years. Since then the law changed several times, the current situation is following:


 * Murder is punished with either life in prison with hard labour (mostly consisting of road building and demolitions) or execution by long drop hanging, depending on if the victim was over 14 years or not.


 * Paedophilia is punished with five-year reeducation with hard labour.


 * Rape is punished with either life in prison with castration and hard labour or execution by long drop hanging, depending on the age of the victim.


 * Treason is automatically punished with execution by long drop hanging.


 * Abortion is punished with either execution by long drop hanging or castration and 10 years in prison with labour, depending if you are the doctor or the mother.


 * Armed Theft is punished with 10-20 years in prison with hard labour.

Corporal Punishment
The same 1990 laws also punish mugging, theft, burglary, public drunkenness and disorderly behaviour. The current situation is:


 * Theft, burglary and mugging are all punished with one year in prison with hard labour.


 * Public drunkenness and disorderly behaviour are all punished with either 12 to 48 hours of public humiliation in shifts of six hours a day, where the prisoners are cuffed at the feet in a roofed stock, and on the roof there is a banner which tells the name and the crime of the person, or community service, which means recycling at a garbage dump or working on state-owned farmland.

Such stocks exist in Gandesa, Roquetes, Tortosa and L'Ampolla.

Other Laws
Marriage is only allowed from the age of 16, and is only possible between heterosexual couples.

Drinking alcohol is only allowed from the age of 18, though some alcoholic products, such as moonshine, may even have restriction up to the age of 25, due to common intoxication of the younger people.

Driving a cart is only allowed from the age of 14 with supervision and from 16 alone, while sailing a catamaran/fishing boat is only allowed from the age of 16 with supervision and from 18 alone.

Courts and Prisons
The Court of Aragon is currently located in Gandesa, where the first prison, built in 1995, is located. Since then, there are courts in Tortosa, Roquetes and L'Ampolla (built each in 1997, 1998 and 2013, respectively). A second prison has been build near Tortosa in 2001.

Army
The Aragonese army (officially l'Exercit de l'Ebre or The Army of the Ebro) is consisting of roughly 2500 full time military personnel and every able man in Aragon as reserve troops. The huge number of reserves is because by law, every able-bodied man is obliged to get a six-months training at the age of 18 in either the army or the navy, but navy personnel are mostly living in L'Ampolla or by the Ebro and have knowledge using boats due to them mainly being children of either fisher, salors or navy personnel. Any women who want to take part of the Army are welcomed with open arms. After the six months, the reserves serve two weeks per year until the age of 30. Then they serve only one week in the summer. Everyone in the army, except for the high-ranking personnel, needs to retire at the age of 40. The army has a foot infantry and a cannon regiment. The infantry is equipped with a home-made uniform, crossbows imported rifles from Spain and swords smithed directly in the major cities of Aragon. The cannons and mortars of Aragon are produced in Roquetes, the HQ of the army. The army is small but relatively strong, considering their level of technology and need of ammunition and armament from Spain.

Navy
The Aragonese navy, with it's headquartes in L'Ampolla, is consisting in around 600 full time personnel and about 1200 reserves. It has the same training schedule as the army. Personnel is equipped with an uniform, a crossbow and a sword. The navy consists of river catamarans, which are the Ebro Guard, and of reused fishing boats and some repaired captured vessels from Sicily, which are the Coast Guard. The flagship of Aragon is the NSM Rei Ricard (NMS meaning His Majesty's Ship and Rei meaning King), which was captured from the Sicilians in 1995. Surprisingly, it was in a very good state.

Training Grounds
The two military bases of Aragon are in Roquetes and L'Ampolla, the former used by the army and the latter used by the navy. Other training grounds are two Ebro Guard training in Tortosa and Roquetes and two Army of the Ebro training grounds in Tortosa and Gandesa.

Government
The Kingdom of Aragon has a king (also Bishop of Tortosa and Aragon), who controls both the secular and religious needs of the state. Many rights are controlled by the King, due to him being the sole part of the executive law and his having a final say in the judicial one. However, he does have a leverage in the legislative branch, in which an unicameral Congress, called the Corts, has the only say in laws. There are 5parties in the Corts which are:

Governing Coalition

 *  Partit Popular d'Aragó  (PPA, Aragonese People's Party), a centre-right party, which supports liberal conservatism and the monarchy. It is the successor to both the People's Party of Spain and to Convergence and Union.
 *  Ciutadans d'Aragó  (CA, Citizens of Aragon), an anti-racism, post-nationalist party which advocates for trade and communications with Europe, as well as for recognition of every religious and ethnic group.
 *  Iniciativa Verde per Aragó  (IVA, Green Initiative for Aragon), an ecologist party, which also supports the King.

Opposition

 *  Esquerra Unida  (EU, United Left), a republican, socialist party. Is supporting an alignment to any Soviet survivor which remained Communist.
 *  Unió, Progrés i Democrácia  (UPiD, Union, Progress and Democracy) is a centre-left party which advocates for Aragon joining back Spain.

Education
In Aragon, education is mandatory from the age of six or under (children who get later then that school year six are obliged to go from the beginning, even though they're not six) until they finish the eighth grade. An exception to this rule are the children of caravan members, which are home-taught.

From there on, children can choose to either take a trained apprenticeship in fishing, carpeting, metalworking, industrial working or farming, or to continue the education until the tenth grade.

In tenth grade the scholars need to take the Batxillerat Petit (small baccalaureate in Catalan). They can write the exam from a choice of four subjects, which can be following:


 * Castilian and Catalan language and literature
 * Mathematics
 * Occitan and Aragonese language
 * Science (with specialisation choice between biology, chemistry and physics)
 * Theology and ethics
 * Geography
 * World History

Those who managed to get a good mark on their Batxillerat Petit can continue to study two of his/her Batxillerat Petit subjects till the twelfth grade, where they give their Batxillerat Gran (big baccalaureate in Catalan), while the others who didn't fare the Batxillerat Petit so well can go to Roquetes College, a college opened by the Jesuit monks at Roquetes observatory with the help of the government, where they can attend the college for four years.

Those who have mastered the Batxillerat Gran can pursue Tortosa University, where they can study there for five years. The university was established by refugee university teachers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which was located outside of the city, thus some teachers living in the outskirts managed to survive and to get to Tortosa. These have founded with the help of the government the TU.

Economy
The nation's economy is mostly agriculturally-based, with the most common product being rice, followed by olives, barley, oat, wheat, vegetables like carob beans and potatoes, and almonds. Viticulture is also an important part of the economic machine.

On the coast, fishing is very important to the meat production in the region. Pork and poultry, still existing but very rare, is also one of the meat types available in the nation.

The textile industry remains a strong part of the economy, though it is non-electrical, meaning they are not producing nearly as good as pre-Doomsday. The chemical industry, primarily focusing on fertilizer, has been replaced with production of pomace, which can be further produced into fertilizer.

Exports, especially of fertilizer (produced through pomace) and clothing, are small, but growing steadily since the establishment of the new free trade zone near L'Ampolla. General destinations of this exports are Spain and Castellón, but smaller ones are also destined for Corsica, Monaco, Tuscany and, to a even lesser extent, Genoa and Andorra.

Communication and Trade
Newspapers are mostly spread through the Gypsy traders and/or catamaran sailors. The nation has one newspaper, the 'Aragó Setmanal' (Aragon Weekly), which is issued in Tortosa using nonelectric printing machines. It is issued every Saturday and reaches most of the country on Monday. The more important news of the newspaper are also told by the caravan to the village in person. The mail service is delivered either by the Gypsy caravans, by catamaran sailors or by riding messengers, and has been modernised with the help of Tuscany in 2014. Internal trade is mostly is made by the catamaran sailors on the Ebro or goods are delivered through Gypsy caravans. External trade on land is only made towards Castellon, most external trade going now by sea through L'Ampolla. Travel inside the country is made by either hiking, biking or traveling with the caravans or on the catamarans. Some lucky citizens of Aragon have been lucky enough to see Castellon.

International Relations
Aragon was a pretty isolated nation until Spain relinquished its claims on Catalonia and Aragon. Spain and Castellón are on relatively good terms with the Catalan survivor. Andorra is seen as a Catalan survivor, but relations are frosty because of Aragon's claims on the Andorran nation. Iberia is seen as an enemy by the people of Aragon for its republican status and control of former Aragon. Because of Sicily's status as an enemy, threat and pariah in the state, relations with Tuscany, Genoa, Corsica and Monaco are generally positive. Despite all this, Aragon is a very isolated nation, and this is probably not going to change in the near future.