Legend now included! I'm actually sort of running out of things to add - all that seems to be left is a compass and scale bar, as well as the national and provincial capitals. I also did tweak some of the voting numbers just a liiiiitle bit from my previous plans (you'll notice the Free Workers party has 16 Assembly seats rather than 15 as I said previously) to match for internal consistency. The font for the province names also grew on me fair bit, as you can see - so I just tweaked the placement of some of the more awkward ones instead of changing them all up.
Also, any advice on antialiasing? My coastline in particular seems to be in a sweet spot where GIMP's antialiasing filter doesn't seem to accomplish anything at all on it, and trying to make something manually with blurring effects tends towards being 'blurry' rather than 'smooth', even if I try to be very light-handed with it. Is there likely to be a decent solution other than redrawing it by hand (if there were a time to regret switching from the hand-drawn line to a stroke along the same edge for consistency...)?
### Latest WIP ###
BitterWinter3.jpg
Finally, lore: An overview of the regions of Calanthavia:
Northwestern (Mulengerry, Brellony, Lettenvals, Landow): A region that was newly integrated into Calanthavia shortly prior to the overthrow of the monarchy, the northwestern region sharing a border with Allatia has fewer ties to the longer-established old-guard factions of Calanthavian government. Combined with the fact that the region is further along in urbanization and industrialization than most of the rest of the country, it is little surprise that the Trade & Goods Party enjoys its strongest support in this region. In what is possibly more of a surprise, its (relative) lack of ties to preexisting Calanthavian institutions and popular interest in republican government, along with some of the tension and demographic disagreements coming from being a region close to a border with a nation it was once a part of has almost paradoxically made it also a bit receptive to the Union Party’s particular brand of nationalism - some people in the region seem more willing to wave a patriotic banner behind a new, completely reinvented Calanthavia that might include them by design, rather than as additions to an existing structure. With burgeoning industry and a number of large and well-established port cities, the northwestern region is a very important one for Calanthavia. Both the industry and democratic spirit are a bit less pronounced in Lettenvals as compared to the other three provinces in this region - the more inland parts of the rugged foothills here have made it more of a mining-centric region, where former Allatian noble families still hold a lot of influence in the wake of concessions originally granted to them by the pre-Revolution crown during the integration of the region. That said, Lettenvals is still rather urban and progressive-leaning compared to many provinces in other parts of Calanthavia.
Southwestern (Arstrow, Ediznow, Tarvila, Melthors, Milban): The central core of Calanthavia, the southwestern region contains the capital of Elenzmar, located in the province of Ediznow (coincidentally also the single most populous province in the country). The region as a whole is the most populated, having a long history of being a population nexus as a fertile region with more warmth than the northern coast yet still flush with water from Lake Gendoris and the rivers that run through here where the mountain foothills merge into the lowlands. In more modern times it has had the benefits towards the centralization of cities granted by being nearer the nation’s halls of power. Though industrialization and the revolutionary spirit from the First Civil War have injected quite a bit of pro-republic support in the region (to say nothing of a large proportion of the nobles ousted in the Revolution being from this area as well), as the traditional capital the historical nobility and established institutions still have a lot of influence here. In the wake of the party’s split from the Estates Party the Conservatives gained significantly in this region as a result of being a middle ground between the ‘revolutionary spirit’ and the historical establishment. Milban is something of an interesting note here - lying between the northwestern and southwestern regions it has often been the place where much of the conservative and aristocratic interest in industrialization has been concentrated, making it something of an unusual melting pot of political views even before taking into account it being where Darios Myrland gathered much of the Union Party’s initial support (fitting given his military history as Milban, being one of the places where the ‘old money’ gets most involved in industry, is the center of Calanthavia’s military industry and arms manufacturing).
Coastal (Sprithgyr, Brecovia, Elstard, Taldan): The other part of Calanthavia to have seen the largest moves towards industrialization and consequently urbanization as a result of their historical involvement in maritime shipping and trade. The relative success of Trade & Goods in this region is reflective of this, although the further east you go the more influence the aristocratic families retain. The continuing urbanization has led to increases in the local populations in many of the coastal areas throughout the last few decades. As a fair chunk of this population has been drawn from regions south of the coast this has led to some resentment in those regions resulting from envy of the more-quickly-improving fortunes in the coastal regions. However, further east, at least, any of this is generally overshadowed by the specter of tensions with Volgarlind, most especially in Taldan on the actual border (and along a particular stretch that has been the site of numerous historical disputes with the neighboring country).
Central (Lextanyr, Barratess, Sparadrow, Velmora): More agrarian and traditionalist than most of the rest of the regions covered so far, the ‘Central’ region can largely be considered transitional: seeing the benefits of Calanthavia’s industrialization more slowly than areas further west or nearer the coast, but more quickly than areas further east and further inland; the historical aristocracy still more powerful and wealthy in aggregate than further west but not so much so as further east; and so on. Much like the east of Calanthavia, their less-industrialized and inland position makes issues more specific to urbanization and industrialization or to the seafolk or maritime trade less relevant locally and largely ignored entirely in regional politics. The border with Lakenstria is a calm one, that country being a historical ally and trading partner to Calanthavia, so international issues are also of less immediate relevance to the region; compared to the national scale politics in the central region can seem almost simplified. However, it is also a place where ‘on the ground’ one feels the push and pull to and away from the traditional aristocracy most strongly, as the strength of new and old ways of thinking here see more of a parity among the general populace. Around the time of the Bitter Winter there was a substantial amount of politically-motivated unrest and even rioting in the central region, with traditionalist and revolutionary groups making frequent posturing moves against their local opposition.
Eastern (Entora, Tristard, Belvia, Maltenvia, Herratas, Lusinow, Galtaran, Torimont, Myrania): A geographically large, but more agrarian, less urbanized, and increasingly-sparesly-polulated (by comparison) region of Calanthavia, the eastern region remains the bulwark of the old aristocratic families. Even where the majority of the locals supported the overthrow of the monarchy in the Revolution, many remain more comfortable with familiar regional dynasties retaining de facto local control, especially as the face of more westerly Calanthavia rapidly becomes more and more unfamiliar to many of the eastern regions’ inhabitants. Galtaran and Belvia are the population centers of the region, largely by dint of history rather than present patterns; the original regions for the prominence of those regions are becoming less and less relevant but that history and the population present have given them something of an inertia of their own, and the two provinces are generally considered the most important parts of the eastern region of Calanthavia. Among other reasons, Galtaran contains the easiest route through the Sethtalginds to Lakenstria along the Galten Pass, while Belvia is the effective headquarters of Calanthavia’s eastern military presence (important due to the rocky history and presently still somewhat tense relations with Volgarlind across the eastern border, which Belvia has much of). Much of what industrialization has reached the eastern region is heavily concentrated in those two provinces, while in contrast regions such as Torimont and Myrania are almost technologically backward, what relevance they do have stemming almost entirely from mining and agriculture.
The Isles (Aringstavis, Shoravis): Home to an originally culturally quite distinct group, but integrated into Calanthavia long ago, the two provinces known colloquially as ‘the Isles’ still have somewhat unique patterns in their local politics. With relatively low populations (partly due to lack of land area and partly due to being comparatively rural) but close proximity to regions undergoing the most rapid change, the state of the Isles in the Bitter Winter is no exception to this. As the region is neither particularly progressive nor tied to old mainland factions, the changes in the Conservative party garnered it a lot of support in the Isles in the election of 1579; in Shoravis the Conservatives won an outright majority of the party vote, something they managed in no other provinces in the Bitter Winter. The Isles also see a proportionally large amount of support (for land provinces) for the Maritime Party; this is partly due to more interaction and higher visibility for seafolk giving rise to more sympathetic views from local land-dwellers and partly due to seafolk residents of the provinces themselves (seafolk residents of land provinces being possible due to a somewhat complex and specific legal definition involving land reachability of domiciles and seafolk residing in intertidal zones), which are a more significant demographic group here than in any other land provinces.
Aquatic Zones (Gendoris, Ilanta, Imgefroth, Selbask, Melsk, Orantalis, Solvosk): The aquatic administrative zones are the apportionments of Calanthavia’s significant national waters, analogous to land provinces and populated almost solely by seafolk (that is to say, entirely, barring a handful of really bizarre exceptions). Obviously, issues of seafolk integration (or Ilåveth separatism) are the dominant political issues on a national scale (though there is a a more general mixture of political issues on local scales). In times long past the seafolk of the Calanthavian coast were an independent polity in the form of the undersea state of Ilåveta; they were integrated into Calanthavia years ago in a mostly peaceable manner in the aftermath of an Ilåveth succession crisis (‘mostly’ because while the dominant seafolk political faction at the time was supportive of the integration there were several less-central groups in significant opposition to the move). Lake Gendoris became notable in terms of seafolk population and political relevance only in the many years following this integration; while not a strictly saltwater species it is preferable to residing in freshwater and the latter can lead to some (as yet, known but somewhat poorly-studied) health issues for seafolk in the long term. This biological limitation has not proven quite severe enough to curtail the draw of close proximity to the capital of Calanthavia as a whole, though it is still a factor. The most populous aquatic administrative zone remains Ilanta, the site of the capital and general center of state of old Ilåveta; where is next-most-populous is not as clear as it may seem. The National Census of Calanthavia has poor accuracy in the aquatic zones, due partially to the current lack of a solution (partly due to lack of trying, partly because any solution would be at least somewhat nontrivial) to the issue of easily-produced large-scale permanent record keeping for aquatic use to match the paper records used on land in distribution and scope. Requiring seafolk to come to shore to be counted ends up leaving a great many out, especially in regions with less bordering coast (particularly Orantalis, where there is literally a single site for census registration and voting). Most politically-notable figures among seafolk are female, harkening to the traditionally-matriarchal history of Ilåveta.
