Arcadia

Arcadia is an eastern province of Aristasia. The tutelary spirit of Arcadia is the brunette angel Sai Rhavë (pronounced Rah-vay). Its Queen is Viktorya (not to be confused with Queen Viktorya of Novaria).

Both Arcadia and Amazonia are unlike the other five nations in that each of them is larger than all five combined, and while they are theoretically part of the Westrenne Empire, only the Westerly parts of those nations are actually in contact with the Empress of the West.

Eastward, in the North, the distinction between Arcadia and "Amazonia" becomes less clear. The true Arcadia is a land of reduced technics by Westrenne standards but is a Northern technical enclave in the East. Trains run regularly, the streets of the towns are gas-lit and the postal service (not strictly technical, but always remarked upon as part of the Arcadian passion for organisation) is legendary. In most of the great cities, one can post a letter the in morning, inviting someone to tea that same day, and receive a reply by lunch time.

Because of the non-forceful and somewhat "ritual" nature of Aristasian government, the Eastern boundaries of Arcadia have never been entirely clear, with certain Eastern princesses declaring themselves under the protection of Her Majesty Arkadyana for some purposes and not for others. But a thousand miles after the railway has been replaced by the stage-coach, where the stage itself has become intermittent and the mails are irregular, Arcadia may be said to have more-or-less ended and the government of the local royalty is far more important than any contact with the distant Arkadyani throne. Even here, though, you will find the odd enclave of West Arcadians running schools or trading companies or simply living there from choice, still living in West Arcadian style and dressing for dinner in the formal clothes of High Arcadia.

In the south-west of Arcadia is the Jenilow "peninsula" (actually a triangular section over a thousand miles long that runs down between Novaria and "Amazonia") most of which is occupied by the Archduchy of Jenilow. Here are found technics of a much higher order than in the rest of Arcadia, though with a distinctly Arcadian flavour. The culture here is an unique mixture of High Arcadian Westrenne with an Estrenne influence that is more "Easterly" even than that of Novaria. The capital city of the Archduchy is Jenilow, the most southerly great city of Arcadia, which lies on the banks of the River Thamë.



Loveton: the capital, in north-west Arcadia

Wildercombe

Queenstown-on-Rill

Jenilow: a town in south-west Arcadia



Metal: Lead

Tellurian Analogies: Victorian/Edwardian Eras and earlier ; Saturn



The flag of Arcadia has a dark blue field with a dark red orthogonal cross composed of wide bands and surrounded with a thinner outline in gold.

While, strictly speaking, Azure is Azure and Gules is Gules in a heraldic description, traditionally the red and blue of the Arcadian flag are often of a deeper shade than on the other flags, as depicted here. This goes with the "weight" and solidity associated with Sai Rhavë, as does the orthogonal cross of a decidedly heavy and solid design.

In terrestrial terms, Sai Rhavë governs solidity, foundation, construction as well as discipline and even severity (in which respect she can be paired with Sai Sushuri as the pillars of mercy and severity with Sai Thamë as the balance between them). The vertical beam represents the World-Axis — the Divine Principle which descends from the highest Heaven to the lowest level of being — while the horizontal bar represents the outward development of a particular world, created, as all worlds must be, by the Celestial influence represented by the vertical ray.

Viewed "horizontally", the cross represents the outward development of a world-system in all four cardinal directions of space. In this case it is the Centre of the cross that represents the point of the descent of the World-Axis from which all being within a particular universe proceeds.

The flags of Arcadia and "Amazonia", which are used by different nations and even Empires much further east, represent Universality rather than the particularity of the five Westrenne flags, since for many hundreds of thousands of people (Aristasia has not the vast population of Telluria) they represent the Empire.

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