Tamerion

Tamerion or The Royal Grand Duchy of Tamerion is a nation in the the Junior General Realm (referred to simply as "The Realm" by the Tamerionians). It resides on a large island in the south-eastern part of the Realm and borders to the nation of Nordenburg. Tamerion is separated from a larger island by the Straits of Elric or, as it is collectively known as in Tamerion, the Channel.

Tamerion is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy (the Grand Duke is the ruling monarch) and a parliamentary democracy with its seat of government in the capital city of Aurelia Magna. Tamerion is a developed country and has a relatively high GDP Per Capita and is a major nation in the international trade, where refined materials, agricultural and weapon systems play an important role along with the large book publishing industry in the country. Tamerion is classified as a democratic socialistic nation with universal health care, heavily subsidized higher education, and an advanced social welfare system.

Tamerion is a member of the United Nation States Organization and also the Alliance of Socialist Nations. It has close ties to its ASN partner the Kingdom of Tidas Luna and its neighbour, the People's Republic of Nordenburg though the ties to the latter is somewhat cooling after a series of serious political disagreements.

History
Tamerion as a nation did not exist until around 1250 A.D when the three kingdoms of Laemon, Fremantle and Crean decided to create a national union and form a single country. This was known as the Kingdom of Rohelia before the name was changed to Tamer after the succsessful invasion and capture of the Highland fiefdoms. The kingdom enjoyed peace for several decades before a series of border clashes with the expanding Empire of Norheim in the south sparked another war which ended in a stalemate after nearly a decade of fighting. The king of Tamer quickly welcomed the recently captured southern parts and renamed the country Tamerion in 1609 in a tip of the hat to Melion, the largest county Tamer had conquered in the recent war. However shortly after the name change the king died, leaving no heirs and it soon became clear that if an heir could not be found, a war of succession or a civil war would most likely break out. Duke Remy of Blackhill sought to change the situation by gathering a collection of nables and commons and suggested the kingdom be changed to a grand duchy to avoid any wars of royal succession, if a Grand Duke died with no heir, then a new duke from another familiy would take his place. The vote passed with a large majority and the Kingdom of Tamerion became the Grand Duchy of Tamerion with Grand Duke Remy (Ramilles I) as the first Grand Duke.

Tamerion now enjoyed an almost unbroken period of peace from 1620 to 1740 when the Great War of The South (1741-1758) broke out, laying waste to the entire south-eastern main continent. Tamerion participated actively in this war, winning many great victories, especially at sea and managed, along with several other countries, to restore much of the pre-war political situation and helped redraw the maps of the continent after the peace talks.

Military
Tamerion has one of the best trained and best equipped armed forces in the Realm, though not the largest. The Tamerion Armed Forces is divided into the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Aerospace Navy (to be renamed the Royal Air Force) with altogether about 880.000 personel. 420.000 of those serve in the Army, about 200.000 in the Royal Aerospace Navy and 260.000 in the Royal Navy. There is also a number of personel in the Royal Tamerion Special Operations/Special Forces which answers only to military High Command and the Prime Minister and the Grand Duke himself.

Unlike many other nations like Emmousia, the Tamerion Armed Forces do not concentrate the majority of neither their equipment, manpower nor research in a single branch of defence (Emmousia for example has an enormous air force and good orbital weapons programmes). Tamerion, unlike many other nations, have passionately refused to purchase and the production of nuclear and chemical weapons, refusing to be a potential agitator and participant in a nuclear arms race.