Province: Duchy of Chamaven

The Duchy of Chamaven is a province of Knootoss. It is the traditional home of the House of Chamaven, which was Knootoss' leading noble family for centuries. It is an average-sized province that is home to just over ten percent of the national population.

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Geography

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The Duchy of Chamaven is an inland border province located in the west in-between the Rede and Merwe rivers. It borders Laneria and has a tripoint where Laneria, the Caldan Union and Knootoss meet. In the north, its boglands and the rede river separate it from Cymsrijk. In the east a series of rising hills mark the border with the Hartstad Capital Region. To the south it borders Teistergouw and Latturia in a densely populated river country.

The province has several distinct regions with differing landscapes, modes of production and cultural outlooks:

• Central Chamaven includes the Lordship of Jonkervelde and the Barony of Sweins. It is renowned for its scenic countryside and bocage landscape of mixed woodland and pasture and its heather fields. It is the most quintessentially 'Knootian' part of the country, at least in a national mythology that is monetised through the sale of regional products. Its the border area is swampy and relatively wet, owing to a local depression in the landscape.

• The County of Twinloo is the area of the province north of the river Rede, which was an independent entity until the early modern era. It is more urban than the rest of the province, but ringed on three sides by swamps and fens that are used for roaming and hiking.

• The area around Libeek and Wernhoutsbrug encompasses the metropolitan area of Greater Chamaven. The Grand Ducal Forest or Royal Reserve south and south-east of the provinces' capital city remain as a nature preserve. The area to the north is intensively farmed.

• The province is bisected by the Daalen Canal, which was dug in the 1900s to connect the Rede and Omster rivers. The area east of the canal is mostly farmland, and considered 'flyover country' and 'space for urban development' when compared to the more cultivated landscape further west.

Demographics

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The Duchy of Chamaven is overwhelmingly Knootian, with almost 80% of the total population identifying as such. There are small national minorities of Frankish and Indigenous peoples, most particularly the descendants of Apatan settlers, but expatriate and other immigrant communities are relatively small and non-humans are practically unheard of. Dutch is the mother tongue of 98% of the Chamavic people, and other national or minority languages play no role in public life.

English and to a lesser extent French are taught in school, but these languages tend not to find as much expression in physical spaces, and speakers tend to be more heavily accented. Not speaking Dutch marks one out as an outsider, though one can still get by without it.

Chamaven is the largest remaining stronghold of the former state church, the Reformed Church of the Knootian Covenant, which holds the allegiance of a quarter of the population. Not even the Luwelanden, whose reformed tendencies swing more radical, can boast as many believers. The province remains relatively religiously conservative, even boasting some vibrant Roman Catholic enclaves around Jonkervelde and Zweins. Slightly less than half of the provincial population are non-believers.

Politics

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The Duchy elects 36 members to the national parliament, the Staten-Generaal. Politically the province is solidly right-leaning, with a large conservative and Christian Democratic voter base, particularly in the countryside and cities like Zweins, Daalen, Libeek and the countryside. Rudolfsveste used to be a hot-bed of the liberal noble tradition of the enlightenment, as well as 19th century classical liberalism, but nowadays follows national and regional trends. The expansion of the Hartstad Capital Region into the edge of the province has given rise to more competitive elections for the provincial Staten, as commuters in sleeper communities tend to reflect the more socially progressive trends of the countries' great conurbation. This makes it viable for parties like the greens to compete, though the turnout for provincial and local elections in places like Kerkdorp is usually much lower than in the Chamavic 'heartland'.

Economy and Culture

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As a whole, Chamaven is one of the wealthier provinces of Knootoss, though it is not so prosperous or dynamic as the Hartstad Capital Region. The Central Chamaven and Greater Chamaven regions have some light industry (including furniture manufacturing) and services, but are better known for tourism, regional fairs and regional products. Pictures from the Chamavic landscape can be seen on products ranging from craft and monastic beers to 'Chamaven Pork' ('Chamburgers') and various baked products. Pig farming is intense around Zweins, and the province as a whole has far more pigs than people. The city of Armeloo is generally considered to be the provinces' sole 'failed' city, having been founded as a place to concentrate textile manufacturing during the industrial revolution and then losing most of its employment.

The County of Twinloo is less suited to bocage-style agriculture, relying instead on a more generic mix of retail and service industries, though it also relies on tourists being drawn to visit its castles and urban mansions, as well as swamps and fens that are used for roaming and hiking. The area around Daalen follows this trend, though the landscape there is slowly being swallowed up by suburban and exurban expansion coming in from the Hartstad Capital Region. Kerkdorp and its surroundings have become a populous chain of 'sleeper suburbs' for the capital region. These urban areas are all oriented east, contributing towards the local Ducal economy only in certain taxes and some retail opportunities.