Ferona

Ferona
Primary Canon Feronite Demonym Dominant Race(s) Lycan, Felidi, Human Major Deities see Feronite Pantheon Official Languages ​English, Asunese, Swedish, Finnish, Latin. (also see Regional Languages of Ferona)
Radius Gravity Orbital Period Rotation Period

Ferona, officially the United Republic of Ferona, is a densely-populated planet and larger union of smaller Federal Regional Republics established shortly after the initial dismantling of ARKNET. It is well-known for being one of, if not the most linguistically-diverse planets in the Manaverse. Ferona is a well-developed, technologically-advanced world, complete with robust, failsafe infrastructure supporting the power grid, the communications grid, and the road and rail systems. A significant chunk of Feronites are able to channel Mana in the form of derived abilities, partly due to the origins of the dominant races. Many humans--apart from those living in New Kuthica--are, in fact, clones.

Geography

Ferona is a largely mountainous planet on land, with many of its settlements built partly into the sides of mountains. Many rivers snake through the mountains, and consequently flow past most settlements, large or small. It is through these rivers that quite a few of the smaller cities on Ferona, though many of the larger centres have their water processed at the seaside, then piped underground to them. The mountains provide most all of the planet's mineral and metal needs, and extraction of the highly sought-after Adamantium, an extremely resilient and shock-absorbing metal used in manufacturing of everything from earthquake-proof building materials to weapons, has been a booming business for years.

Continents

While not officially known as continents, Ferona has many independent Republics that make up the greater United Republic, the largest by population of which is the Republic of St. Paul, with a total population of just over 180-million inhabitants, and the largest by area being the Republic of the Numidium, a largely frozen region that covers about 25,128,190 square miles and has a total population of just under 60-million. There are also foreign enclaves on Ferona, the best example of which being the Republic of New Kuthica, an enclave-turned-Republic majority populated by citizens of the Rosean Empire.

Republic of St. Paul

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The Republic of St. Paul is one of Ferona's many independent Federal Regional Republics, and the largest by overall population, with a population of 182,298,410 as of the Republic's last census. Its capital, as well as the United Republic's capital, is St. Paul City. St. Paul, as well as its namesake city, is the industrial and economic center of Ferona and the home of many of its heroes of legend, such as Dark. It is also where many of its communications firms are headquartered.

The geography of St. Paul is largely low-lying oceanic basins, the largest of which houses the capital and its surrounding metropolitan area, surrounded by rolling hills. In outlying areas around major urban centers, many smaller settlements and farms have sprung up, most of which use so-called "green" technology extensively and minimize waste. In addition, much of St. Paul--even many rural areas--are wired up with a minimum of what Earthlings would call gigabit Internet service, which is connected to the rest of the planet's communications grid.

It is also Ferona's transportation hub, with many rail links to other Republics as well as the starting points of many A-Series routes.

Republic of Asuna

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The Republic of Asuna is a small Republic, and one of the many Federal Regional Republics with the ability to vote in ballots for and decide the policies of the greater United Republic. It is a largely Japanese-speaking republic, and current home of Jack Evans. It is one of the culinary centers of Ferona, and where Jack initially picked up the art of making sushi. Its population is 94,568,820.

Asuna is a largely mountainous Republic, with its capital, Satayama, being located on a mountain plateau.

Republic of Janus

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The Republic of Janus is, by population, the smallest Republic in Ferona, with a total population of 48,980,220. It is sandwiched between the Republic of the Numidium and the Republic of St. Paul, with the Republic of Asuna being directly west of it. Its capital city is Erinno.

The Republic of Janus is where much of Ferona's adamantium is sourced from, what with it essentially being a giant mineral mine. Much of the adamantium extraction business is located in its capital city, but there are some large players located in the smaller cities, with one notable example, ADAM Mining Co., Ltd., being located in the smaller city of Jackson.

Republic of the Numidium

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The Republic of the Numidium is a largely frozen Republic that covers about 25,128,190 square miles, making it easily Ferona's largest Republic by total land area, with a population of 57,199,120. Its capital is Jericho.

The Numidium functions largely as Ferona's center of religion and spirituality, as many of the major Feronite deities are said to have come into being here. Its capital, Jericho, is home to the largest temple in the land, the Altar of the Twelve, which is a large basilica devoted to the twelve major deities.

It is also the center of Ferona's music and entertainment business, with studios in Jericho and its surrounding area releasing dozens, if not hundreds of albums, EPs and movies a year. One of Ferona's most respected musicians, Judas Numidius, the god of water, started his own label here and self-publishes all of his albums.

Republic of New Kuthica

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Major Landmarks

Main Articles: Landmarks of Ferona, , Unity Place, St. Paul City, New Kuthica Bridge.

There are many landmarks dotting the landscape of Ferona, but none have gained as widespread recognition as Unity Place. Unity Place is an office complex and courtyard located in central St. Paul City, which serves the purpose of being both the headquarters of the Union and Republican governments. The main tower is a 78-story complex built in the style of a sort of building with a main collection of floors on the bottom with a sort of "handle" on top. Elevators make their way up the sides of the building in clearly visible glass tubes.

Second in recognition to Unity Place is the New Kuthica Bridge, a six-mile-long suspension bridge that makes its way along the Strait of Rosea to the island republic of New Kuthica. It carries the A5, as well as most of the mainland's rail connections to New Kuthica.

Finally, there's the Ferona Stock Exchange towers. While appearing nondescript, the thing that sets these apart as landmarks is that they're built on top of floating platforms with the only accesses being either elevators on the undersides of the platforms or cable cars.

Ecology

Main section coming soon.

Races

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Ferona is home to many races, the most dominant being Lycans, the Felidi and humans.

Lycans

The Lycans are a sapient canid race known for standing fully upright. They can be of any color and generally range in height from five to eight feet tall. Lycans are known for their battle skills, as well as for their intelligence and ability to strategize effectively.

Felidi

The Felidi are a sapient feline race, similar to the Lycans. As with the Lycans, they can be of any color or fur pattern, but generally are shorter than their Lycan neighbors, standing around five to seven and a half feet in height. They are known for their cunning and creativity.

Humans

Although many are clones, Ferona still has a sizable Human population as diverse as its Lycan and Felidi populations. Humans are well known on Ferona for being short, which led to the common joke among Lycans of them being midgets. Despite this, Humans remain by far the most diverse of the major races from a cultural standpoint, ranging from the Japanese-speaking Asunese to the Rosean immigrants of New Kuthica.

Native Species

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Coming soon.

Culture

Being relatively open to peaceful immigration from other planets, the culture of Ferona can only be truly described as extremely diverse. It is also unique among the rest of the Manaverse as it is the only planet that functions as a nation made up of other nations. It is a largely scientific and industrial society, and the local religion has a patron deity of scientific pursuits.

Government and Politics

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The government of Ferona is a parliamentary republic formed by the smaller republic governments, which are themselves parliamentary republics. Voting is handled as a massive public ballot, after which the results are tabulated and the most popular options are considered for future policies. The United Republic has strict rules about government transparency that ensure corruption can be exposed and punished effectively. In addition, the UR and well as the smaller Regional Republics have targets set out for business to ensure corporate transparency and accountability. These rules are enforced by an independent government agency whose existence is protected by the Feronite Constitution, which cannot be modified without oversight from the public as well as the agency itself.

The Regional Republics elect representatives in a similar style to the policy ballots of the overall United Republic, with public ballots being held and tabulated and the most popular candidate being selected as the Prime Minister.

Language

Ferona is multilingual, and many residents speak at least two languages, the most common being English and Asunese, though Latin and Rosean languages rank high on the list. Commerce and trading is done in many languages as all languages have equal official footing. Of the total population, more than 300-million speak English as their mother language, followed closely by Asunese at 280-million and Latin at 240-million.

Music and Entertainment

Ferona is noted as the only known planet to have a well-developed entertainment industry, which is largely centered around the city of Jericho. Many things are produced in Jericho and sold planetwide, with some even being exported to other planets. Examples include orchestral scores produced by Hydroelectric Records, the record label owned and operated by none other than Judas Numidius, which also has a record deal with Dark and his band for the production and release of power metal. However, the music industry functions quite differently compared to that of Earth. Given the prevalence and near-universal availability of ultra high speed Internet service, most music produced domestically is sold exclusively through online retailers in album and individual song forms, and citizens are legally allowed to share purchased music with friends online and in real life. There is no such thing as music piracy, and because of this, there's no need for strict laws regarding it or industry associations to enforce penalties.

Technology

Ferona is a very technologically-advanced planet, having been the only known world to establish universal electrical and communications grids.

It is noted as the only planet to have established a ubiquitous network of interconnected personal computers and other devices, commonly called the Internet, with minimum connection speeds of one gigabit throughout the planet. This network is based on cable technology invented by none other than Jack Evans, which allows for near infinite throughput on a single strand of adamantium wire. The Internet on Ferona has given birth to many popular collections of pages, known as "sites," with a few notable examples being Move, a social video sharing platform, and rchan, New Kuthica's premier imageboard. The Feronite Internet also plays host to shrtpst, a social microblogging platform not unlike Twitter.

Defense technology is also suitably advanced, with the planet being surrounded with remote-operates laser satellites, but with one exception: Ferona has no intelligence agencies. The main reason for this is that it's largely unneeded; the United Republic itself has no need to spy on other planets. Instead, many spies and hackers are in fact independent cells of people not unlike Anonymous--with one notable example being the collective that sprung up on rchan. Jack himself is technically one, however this is more due to him being a leftover from an older society.

Ferona's road and rail infrastructure is very robust, with the A-routes being the backbones of both. Each Republic has at least 25 seperate rail lines and 10 seperate A-series freeways, and an innumerable amount of minor highways, roads and rail lines.

Theology

Main Articles: Feronite Pantheon.

Inhabitants

Notable Characters

• Dark
• Jack Evans
• Judas Numidius
• Dennis Matthews

History

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Independence Era

The Independence Era was a period after the 12-year Great Split War in which many of the Republics were independent of one another. It was a time of relative turmoil within Republics, as at the time St. Paul was eying Asuna's (which then also included the less-populated Republic of Janus) mineral resources, and at the same time, the region which would have become Janus in the United Republic era was in the middle of a battle with the rest of the region to become indepedent of them. Opponents of the wars, such as Jack and later even Dennis, were staging public protests in the capitals to demand their governments put a stop to the violence and attempted colonisation. Some, like Jude, even wrote songs protesting the conflict.

During this period, the violence was so extreme and the Republics so eager to undermine one another for independence that there was a comparatively brief return to the things that most of the residents' ancestors had moved to Ferona to escape from in the first place--espionage and mysterious assassinations. Jack, knowing what could happen next, was forced into hiding, but continued to stage protests online, taking down military and government websites through hacking and placing anti-war messages on any he successfully took over.

Eventually, the protest movement reached critical mass and the governments were forced to take heed of what the majority at the time wanted. They wanted the end of the the war, they wanted an autonomous Janus region, and they wanted some form of unity. They wanted leading figures to be able to come out into the open without fear of being assassinated. And they got their demands. Over the next few years, sweeping reforms were put into force that united the new independent Republics under a central direct democracy system.

Creation of the United Republic

The United Republic was formed as a direct result of an initiative by the then-independent nations of St. Paul and Janus to unite the planet and achieve a greater ability to trade with other worlds as well as make it easier to move among the nations that would make up the new entity. Under the new system, all member nations would reorganize their governmental structures to reflect that of a parliamentary republican system, as well as opt in to an international pseudo-governmental body which would become the current United Republic of Ferona. There was a notable opposition to the idea at the time, with many former ARKNET operatives and their relatives believing it could have become what they had left behind after ARKNET was dismantled. The frontrunner of this opposition was Jack Evans, who, having been wronged by such a centralized system in the past, didn't want it to happen again.

However, it turned out that the new united government would be taking input directly from its citizens on public policy, and this put the mind of the main opposition at ease quite a bit. Soon after that was announced, there was already a grassroots movement among the former opposition to institute stringent and far-reaching checks against corruption in government, which contributed in large part to how the United Republic currently functions as well as its near-notorious relaxed attitude towards the everyday activities of its citizens.

After extensive immigration and colonization of an island off the shore of the Republic of St. Paul, a new member joined the United Republic--New Kuthica. New Kuthica's people are majority Syelsumoian and other peoples from the Rosean empire, and as such New Kuthica became the largest Croitian-speaking jurisdiction that was never a part of the Empire. Despite this, Feronites were as accepting of outsiders as they usually had been, and welcomed the Roseans to their society with open arms. Since then, there have been no major changes to Feronite society.

Trivia

• Despite being listed as from Ferona, Jack Evans is actually from another planet originally; he was one of the original migrants, and being a robot, survived long enough to see it reach its current point.