Sanddorn's state visits II - Sedunn

[Qwert]

Continuation of the RP on the former forums: [IC] Sanddorn's state visits II - Sedunn

After having finished their snacks in a bit of a hurry, they once again had entered an elevator that took them to the top floor. Lekmienn showed them to best lookout spot facing almost due west.

“I’d say we are both lucky and unlucky with the weather. The winter wind is a bit unpleasant, but at least there’s no clouds.”

“If you look straight to the right, you’ll see the old Headquarters down across the highway. The new purpose built Headquarters is a lot nicer than the Mall across the road isn’t it?”

“If you now look to the left, you will see sky scrapers such as the Goru’skolyt, which is the tallest, black one. City planners want to preserve the old atmosphere of central Grovne, so most high-rise buildings are only allowed to be built in this area.”

“A little bit further left, you will notice a ‘hump’ in the middle of all buildings. It’s simply called Grovne Mountain. It has an old fortress on top, as well as restaurants and parks for walking. Taking the cable car up there is a must for tourists.”

“Further past the mountain and along the shoreline there’s another, smaller mountain. It too has a simple name: Essela Mountain. Behind it the town Essela hides. It is sometimes called the military capital of Sedunn.”

“If you then follow the shoreline, closer back to the river, you will see the new port and ferry terminals. Nowadays it is mostly cruise ships and ferries. Container ships and tankers often go to the city of Ullenst instead.”

“At the mouth of the river we can see the old harbour and the oldest parts of the city. We can’t see it from here, but the first seat of the earliest versions of the Sedunnic parliament was in the Old Forum right over there. Further down the coast you’ll see more harbours and then the long beach. It’s very crowded during the summer as you probably can imagine.”

“If we then follow the river upstream, you will see the Peoples’ Plaza with the parliament building as well as the palaces, which are the seats of the government. Next to them on the otherside of the river lies the main central station. As we follow the river upstream, notice how the buildings successively turn more modern. You will find the main embassy district here”

“The big blue bubbly thing back on the other side of the river is the big Pacific Marine Life Aquarium, well worth a visit with kids.”

“That my friends was Grovne at a glance. There’s so much more to see perhaps not from here. At least my eyes are not what they used to be.”

Lekmienn smiled.

“I have had my monologue. Any questions?”

[LordGianni]

“I can’t lie, I am impressed what a good view over the Sedunnic capital you have from here”, the chancellor told Lekmienn. This is objectively true, after all the WF headquarters are just around 51 m in height, so a little less than some of the skyscrapers they have seen further back.

“And indeed you’ve already enumerated many things to theoretically visit. As you might guess, one isn’t too free to wander around everywhere in the world as a de-facto head of government” - she didn’t call herself it yet, due to the referenda not having taken place yet - “but I hope to get a closer and longer look at some of the mentioned places a few years later in my life. I’m sure, the area will have developed even more then.”

“Tell me, Grovne or Sedunn as a whole are a very ancient place, so to say. You have one of the earliest installments of democracy in Pacifica, one of the longest lasting governments and set borders. From your perspective, how did Sedunn do that and how does the Sedunnic mindset help in ever modernising this country while still sticking to your core ideals?”

[Qwert]

It was obvious that Lekmienn was comfortable in his role as guide and that he enjoyed it quite much.

“School teaches us that three main things contributed to our long history of stability and democracy. First we have the jedromm. You may have heard of this word before. It could be translated to something like ‘self-respect’, but it really is a set of values or a way of dealing with the world around you. It means, among other things, that it is poor jedromm to do things at the expense of others, like conquering land, enslavement or interfere in people’s personal affairs. Peer pressure would make you not do that.”

“In a way it works similar to honour or prestige in other cultures. It can be said to originate from the old Limevv religion practised in Sedunn. It was a positive drive for stability.”

“The other main factor is that Sedunn has always had a rather flat societal hierarchy. For example we have never had a true nobility or serfdom, which probably is thanks to the early enfranchisement of city dwellers and farming homeowners. While other nations had nobles or unelected leaders that sometimes were unfit for their positions, Sedunn often could get the best people from all ‘strata’, reducing the risk for power struggle or utterly selfish decisions, like invading a neighbour only to increase the wealth of a king for instance. Our ancient religion was highly decentralised in nature, which also meant that there were no powerful religious leaders either that would demand submission.”

“The third main factor is literacy. The Limevv religion encouraged the pursuit and spread of knowledge, which meant that Sedunn had unusually high numbers of common people who could read much earlier than many other nations, which was good for common people to organise themselves and for industry and trade.”

“In short, people feeling empowered and part of something bigger than themselves, while having the means and freedom to shape their own lives. Personally though, I like to think that a not so insignificant portion of luck come into it as well.”

Lekmienn smiled.