Nexum Republic

Flag of the Nexum Republic

Map of the Nexum Republic

*This article is still under construction.*

The **Nexum Republic** is a sovereign island city-state in the Nexum Sea. Its capital city is Nexum City, and it has an area of 1203 km2, which has increased by 25% since the country's creation as a result of extensive land reclamation projects. It is both the most densely populated country and island in the world, and one of the most densely populated cities as well. The country has over 16.3 million residents, 55% (8.9 million) of whom are Nexumese citizens. There are seven official languages of Nexum: English, Spanish, Dutch, Malay, Portuguese, German and French, with English being the lingua franca that all of the population speak. Multiracialism and multiculturalism are enshrined in the constitution, and continue to shape national policies in education, housing and politics.

The history of the Nexum Republic is short but eventful. The island it's located on, the Nexum Island, emerged between 1984 and 1985 after a big underwater volcano eruption in the Nexum Sea, which lasted more than 8 months. In the first moments of the eruption there were two big explosions that created a big part of the island, and they generated strong earthquakes and a big tsunami, which traveled more than 500km but didn't arrive to the continents. The explosion was so loud that its shockwave traveled the entire planet twice, it could be heard from the nearest continents.

As soon as the eruption stopped for good in 1985 and the island was finished, some countries claimed the island as their own. Some others, even though they didn't claim the island, opposed to other nations' claims to prevent them from having such a strategical location. This generated a conflict between those nations and their allies, so an international conflict began. The island turned into a battlefield for a short period of time, until the UN decided to take action: if the conflict evolved into something bigger, like a World War, some countries could use their newly developed nuclear weapons, the effects of which could be devastating for the planet and all civilization. The involved nations realized this as well, they all would be better off if this didn't escalate, so in December 1985 they all agreed on a truce and began negotiating.

All the involved nations, as well as the rest of UN members, signed a treaty in 1986 to prohibite the use of any type of nuclear weapon. The negotiations to reach a common agreement on what to do with the new Nexum Island didn't go as planned though, and tensions arose. Some countries threatened to break the truce if an agreement wasn't made soon, and others threatened to attack them if that happened.

A full scale World War was at the verge of happening after no consensus had been reached arriving to 1987, but against all predictions, on February 1st 1987 an agreement was made between all involved nations: no existing country would claim the Nexum Island; it would be its own independent sovereign nation called the Nexum Republic.

All involved nations would have strong ties with Nexum, helping it grow and mature economically and supporting emmigration to the new country so it could have a solid population. Being in such location, Nexum would be a potentially strong producer of fish and geothermal energy, which would be exchanged to all the involved nations as a trade-off for helping them grow, in addition to any other product they generated in the future.

Most countries recognized Nexum's sovereignity from the beginning, becoming a UN member. But some, like Nova Britannia, despite officially signing the agreement, kept their claim of the island (only diplomatically, without any military involvement) until 1993, when they finally recognized the Nexum Republic.

## Name and Etimology

The Nexum Republic was named after the Nexum Sea the island is located in.

Nexum is the latin word for "connection", an appropiate name given to the body of water by the early civilizations considering that for millenia, it was the main trading route between Linarus and Pholoris.

This name was also chosen because the Nexum Republic is also a country of connections: it's the world's largest transport hub, connecting not only both western continents, but Sainara and Haumea too. Millions of people travel through Nexum every year, and many cargo ships and planes stop in the country to distribute the goods to their respective destinations.

There's another symbolic meaning. During the Nexum War many neighbouring countries damaged their international relations with each other, to the point of almost arriving at the creation of new World War, if the URTDC hadn't taken action. Instead, with the formation of Nexum, every country agreed to use it to connect every nation more, not only literally by transport hubs but also with better international relations, more commerce between countries and better acceptance of other cultures.

### Flag

The **national flag** of the Nexum Republic was adopted in 1987, when the country was created. The design is a horizontal bicolour of white and jade green, overlaid in the canton (upper-left quadrant) by an orange X-shaped cross.

The white represents peace, unity and harmony, and the jade green symbolizes modernity, hope and the diverse nature of the country. The cross represents technology and future, while the orange colour is a symbol for courage.

Another interpretation of the design of this flag is that it represents an view of the ocean: the jade colour being the water (which has a distinctive green-ish colour in this part of the ocean), the white being the bright sky and the orange cross being the sun.

## History

### Pre-eruption history

The Nexum Sea has always been one of the busiest bodies of water in the world, having been used to trade between both western continents for thousands of years. While still being almost 2000km apart, Linarus and Pholoris were once connected by land in the last ice age, about 50,000 years ago, thanks to the lowered sea levels and a big volcanic eruption. This eruption, which lasted about 800 years, exposed a large portion of land overwater (later submerged underwater again with the rising sea levels though) and was the foundation of the events that happened in 1988.

Scientists had known for centuries that the middle of the Nexum Sea was an active volcanic zone,being the boundary between two tectonic plates and with small underwater eruptions happening almost every year, but without being noticeable on the surface. But when studying more in-depth about the topic in the 1970s, they found out that there was an unexpectedly big magma chamber that was full right under the volcano bed that united both continents millenias ago, the largest magma chamber they had ever found. They expected that it could erupt any time, causing a really big explosion and probably formating a new volcanic island, but they had no idea when that could be.

A volcanic explosion of this size was unprecedented in modern history, so scientists didn’t really know for sure the effects that it could have, but even their best estimates predicted hundreds of casualties if no action was done to reduce the maritime traffic in the Nexum Sea. Both scientists and environmentalists united to alert governments of the imminent danger of an explosion, but since it affected one of their biggest sources of imports and exports and there was no specific time frame for it to happen, only “sometime in the future”, no government took any action.

And their decision made sense, in a way. Sure, there was an option that it would happen in the nearby future, but it could also happen in 100,000 years, if at all. There was no way of knowing. So why lose a valiable amount of resources over something that most likely won’t affect them? But it did happen, and it did affect them.

### 1984-85 eruption

November 16th 1984 at 18:31, a big explosion was reported in the middle of the Nexum Sea: the volcano finally erupted. Despite being 211m underwater, the sheer force of the explosion created a mushroom cloud of 20km in height, 60m tall waves at the epicenter, an earthquake and a big shockwave that travelled the entire world at the speed of sound, twice.

The reason for all of this is that there wasn’t only one explosion, but two, and perfectly timed: the first one happened minutes before, at 18:07. It was mainly underwater but it allowed all the magma to ascend upwards and arrive at the sea’s surface. This was a relatively small eruption, which only used a small part of the magma below the volcano, but it paved the way for the second explosion, and the biggest one. At 18:31 the rest of the magma in the magma chamber erupted upwards, creating the aforementioned explosion since its eruption point wasn’t surrounded by water anymore.

The effects of this explosion were huge. It generated an earthquake of magnitude 9.1 in the Richter scale in its epicenter, being one of the biggest ever recorded. This earthquake shifted the Linarus continent 1.3m to the north and Pholoris/Iapetus 1.1m to the south, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25 cm, and increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day. But since it happened in the bottom of the sea it wasn't really noticeable in the surface, but its consequences were.

The earthquake generated a big tsunami, with waves over 60m tall that tipped over ships in a 500km radius. Thankfully it happened in the middle of the Nexum Sea where the closest land is over 900km away so the tsunami didn't hit land, but increased wave activity was detected all over the surrounding coasts, causing minor incidents.

The explosion caused a big mushroom cloud that reached heights of over 20km and that could be seen from the nearest countries. It also generated a powerful shockwave, so big that it traveled the entire earth twice. Just the shockwave killed everyone within a 5km radius, and shattered the eardrums of all the sailors within a 200km radius. It could be heard from as far as Sainara, like a distant cannonball.

The next day another big explosion happened, this time from a volcano right next to the other. It wasn't as big, but the effects were very similar: it caused a 8km tall mushroom cloud and another huge shockwave, an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 and a tsunami that didn't reach the coast either, although this time there were no boats and planes around.

For the following week, the skies all over the world turned red as a cause of the eruption, in which it's known as the Red Week. During this week it was learned that over 400 people were killed in the sea as a cause of either shipwrecks or the strong first shockwave, and over 2000 more were hurt. A plane that carried 73 people was caught in the middle of the first explosion and its engines were destroyed by the shockwave, crashing into the sea and killing everyone. Even though it could have been much, much worse if it had happened closer to the continents, it was still a tragic event that will forever be remembered.

The ongoing volcanic eruption caused a modification of maritime routes connecting Linarus and Pholaris, making ships travel a larger distance to avoid any potential issues. It also completely stopped every international air traffic between both continents for a couple of days due to the ennormous and never-ending smoke column, with new, modified routes being slowly added once their safety was assured.

After the initial explosions, the magma kept erupting for months, this time quietly and without exploding, slowly and steadily formating a larger volcanic island in the middle of the Nexum Sea. No one knew when the eruption would stop, but every surrounding country kept a very close eye at the events. New, unclaimed land in a geographical position like that would mean a huge economical, strategic and tactical advantage, so it was in every nearby nation's interest to claim it before others did.

There were short periods of time where the magma stopped for a couple of days, and then continuing to erupt again without notice. This caused the death of 50 Britannian soldiers in December 1984, when they stepped on the new island to claim it, but were surprised by another eruption and its consequential lava river. This event made all the countries learn the lesson of making sure that the volcanic activity had completely stopped before stepping on it.

Finally, on April 27th 1985 the eruption ended. Scientists believed that there wouldn't be any more activity in the forseeable future, so the new island in the Nexum Sea was finally finished. The appropiately named Nexum Island had an area of 1100 km2 and a highest point of 245m over sea level. It was now free land to claim, so an international conflict began.

## Government and Politics

Nexum is considered to be one of the most developed democracies and states of justice in the world, and since 2016, it has been classified as the world's most democratic country by the Democracy Index.

### Military

The Nexum military, arguably one of the most technologically advanced in the world, consists of the army, navy and the air force. It is seen as the guarantor of the country's independence, translating into Nexum culture.

## Geography

### Physical geography

The Nexum Republic is located right in the middle of the Nexum Sea between both western continents. The territory's 1203 km2 area consists of 8 islands, including the main island which makes up 95% of the territory, Nexum Island. The other are 3 small uninhabited islands and 4 larger man-made islands right off the coast of the bigger island. The highest natural point is 927 m above sea level, located in the island's mountain range: it's the Creation Peak, the tallest volcano on the volcanic field that created the island, and the one that caused the first big explosion in 1984. Urban development is concentrated to the east of the mountain range, and extends through 86% of the territory. Much of it is built on reclaimed land, 139 km2 (eleven percent of the total land or 13 percent of developed space in the territory) is reclaimed from the sea. Undeveloped terrain is mostly mountainous, and consists mostly of woodland, grassland, shrubland and farmland. 85 percent of it are country parks and protected nature reserves.

### Nature

Nexum is a recently formed volcanic island, so originally it had no naturally ocurring fauna or flora. In the late 1980s the first settlers began planting forests all around the territory, and with time, grass also started to grow naturally over the previously sterile land, and fauna began to appear. By the year 2000, most of the lower mountain range was covered by a thick woodland, with the upper parts being fully covered in grass. The island now has a diverse ecosystem, with hundreds of different species of plants, insects, birds and fish.

Over the years, the developed space has grown (both inlands and with reclaimed land on the sea) to cover 86% of the territory, covering everything but the mountains. To combat the decline in natural space, many parks and gardens were built inside the city, which now make up about 10% of the urban terrain. The most famous one is Russell Park, located right in the heart of the city and surrounded by skyscrapers, it has a size of 850 acres (or 3.4 km2).

### Climate

Nexum has a humid suptropical climate. Summer is hot and humid, with occasional showers and thunderstorms and warm air from the southeast. Hurricanes occur most often then, sometimes resulting in floods and landslides. Winters are mild and usually sunny at the beginning, becoming cloudy towards February; an occasional cold front brings strong, cooling winds from the north. Autumn is the sunniest season, whilst spring is generally cloudy. When there is snowfall, which is extremely rare, it is usually at high elevations. Nexum averages 1,913 hours of sunshine per year; the highest and lowest recorded temperatures at the Nexum National Observatory are 37.2 °C on 19 August 2018 and 0.0 °C on 9 January 1993.

## Economy

Nexum has a highly developed market economy based on extended entrepôt trade. Its economy is regarded as open, free, innovative, dynamic and business-friendly. It attracts a large amount of foreign investment as a result of its unique location, skilled workforce, low tax-rates, advanced infrastructure and zero-tolerance against corruption. It has one of the largest concentration of high-tech companies in the world.

The currency of Nexum is the Credit (Cr.), a universal international currency that is one of the most traded in the world by value, as well as one of the strongest valued currencies.

The country has been identified as an increasingly popular tax haven for the wealthy due to the low tax rate on personal income and tax exemptions on foreign-based income and capital gains. It has one of the world's highest percentage of millionaires, with one out of every nine households having at least one million Credits in disposable wealth.

Nexum has been rated the world's most expensive city to live in since 2015, although acute poverty is rare due to the government's assistance programmes to the homeless and needy.

### Employment

Nexum has a low unemployment rate for a developed country, with a 4% rate. The country does not have a minimum wage, believing that it would lower its competitiveness. It also has one of the highest income inequalities among developed countries. Foreign workers are a very big part of the economy, making up 80% of the construction industry and 50% of the service industry.

### Tourism

Tourism is a major industry and contributor to the Nexumese economy, attracting 25 million international tourists in 2020, more than its population, making it one of the most visited cities in the world. This sector contributes, directly and indirectly, to around 8% of Nexum's GDP.

Nexum has one of the world's lowest crima rates, and its official languages (the predominant one being English, and the secondary languages being spoken in many surrounding countries) make it easier for tourists to understand when speaking to the local population. Free public transportation exhaustively covers all of the island, which increases convenience for tourists.

Nexum promotes itself as a medical tourism hub, with about 500,000 foreigners seeking medical care there each year. The country's business environment, international openness, travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions are some of the best in the world. However, due to its very short history, its natural and cultural resources are not as well regarded, although they're consistently improving with time as the island gets older and the culture matures.

## Infrastructure

### Transport

Nexum has a highly developed and sophisticated transport network, including road, rail, air and water transport facilities and services. Highways connect all major areas of Nexum, but due to Nexum's isolated nature and relatively small size, cars and other private road vehicles aren't widely used by the majority of the population: only about 7% of daily trips are made this way. Instead, an extensive network of public transport systems makes it possible for everyone to move from any point of the island to another in a short period of time. This includes bicycles, bus, taxis, metro, trains, ferries and, since 2016, Superloop. On 2002 this system became free for everyone, being completely funded through tax revenue: it became the first country in the world to have a nation-wide zero-fare public transport system.

Connecting 475 stations throughout the island, the metro system has a dialy ridership of over 10 million and an on-time rate of 99.99%. The metro stations are fully integrated with the mid-distance rail system that connects longer distances across Nexum and has the same on-time rate, as well as the newly-built Superloop lines that connect the city center with the main airport and the biggest port, with more lines to come in the future. More than 18,000 taxi cabs are licensed to carry riders in the island, and there are more than 900 bus routes across the territory. There's also a public ferry that connects both sides of the island, and intends to connect with the purpose-built islands that will be constructed in the future. All public transportation systems are 100% emission free.

The Nexum Republic is a major international transport hub, serving some of the busiest sea and air trade routes. The main civilian airport, one of the busiest in the world, is a stopover on the route between continents. It hosts a network of over 120 airlines connecting Nexum to some 350 cities in about 50 countries and territories worldwide. It has been rated one of the best international airports by international travel magazines. The national airlines are Oceanic and NexumAir.

The Port of Nexum is the world's busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage handled, containerised traffic and cargo tonnage. In addition, the port is the world's busiest for transshipment traffic and the world's biggest ship refuelling centre.

Superloop, an ultra-high speed vacuum tube transportation system for passengers and freight, was first introduced in 2016 through the island after more than a decade of development. It can transport both passengers and containers at a speed of 1,200 km/h. In 2019 the first inter-continental Superloop system was completed, connecting Nexum with Iapetus/Pholoris and being able to travel the 1,500 km distance in less than 90 minutes; significantly less than via airplane. In late 2020, the route that connects Nexum with Linarus was completed as well, with a similar distance and travel time.

### Fresh water

Nexum considers water a national security issue and the government has sought to emphasise conservation. Water access is universal and of high quality, though the country has always faced some level of water-stress due to the isolated and river-less nature of the island. It has four methods of accessing fresh water: importing it from neighbouring countries (first via ships and planes, then via underwater pipes), catching rainwater with urban infrastructure, reusing wastewater and through seawater desalination.

Nexum's approach does not rely only on physical infrastructure, but it also emphasises proper legislation and enforcement, water pricing, public education as well as research and development. The country has spent a significant amount of money researching new and cost-effective desalinating processes, to the point where the desalination plants now supply 70% of the water demand and use a very small fraction of energy, compared to previous technologies. They've exported this technology to many other places that are in a similar situation.

Nexum has declared that it will be water self-sufficient by 2030, when they've perfected the water desalination, rainwater catching and wastewater reusing techniques to the point where they don't need to import water from other countries, even with the increasingly growing demand.

### Architecture

Nexum has the world's largest numbers of skyscrapers, with 453 buildings over 150 meters. The lack of available space forced urban expansion to go upwards instead of outwards, and restricted development to high-density residential tenements and commercial complexes packed closely together on buildable land. Single-family detached homes are extremely rare and generally only found in outlying areas. Demand for new construction has contributed to frequent demolition of older buildings, freeing space for modern high-rises.

Torre de Fénix is the tallest building in Nexum, with a height of 645 m, and it's also the third tallest building in the world. That will change in 2022, when the new 955 m tall Xpand Tower is completed, becoming the tallest building on earth, and also the highest point in all of Nexum, surpassing the 927 m tall Creation Peak in the mountain range.

Expansion isn't only done upwards, but also downwards: Nexum has one of the world's most developed underground areas, with many factories, storage facilities, power plants, desalinating plants and transport systems being located below the surface, and an extensive network that connects all of them.

## Demographics

As of 2021, the population of Nexum is 16,315,662 people, 10,637,811 (65.2%) of whom are citizens, while the remaining 5,677,851 (34.8%) are permanent residents (1,703,355) or international students/foreign workers/dependants (3,974,496). According to the country's most recent census, nearly 67% of Nexumese citizens are foreign born.

The median age of Nexumese residents is 40.2, and the total fertility rate is estimated to be 0.85 children per woman, the lowest in the world and well below the 2.1 needed to replace the population, although the government's efforts to encourage foreigners to immigrate to Nexum are making the population quickly rise.

### Languages

Nexum has 7 official languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Malay, Portuguese, German and French.

English is the lingua franca, and the main language used in business, government, law and education. The Constitution of Nexum and all government legislations are written in English, and interpreters are required if a language other than English is used in the Nexumese courts.

Nexumese are mostly bilingual, typically with English as their common language and their mother-tongue as a second language taught in schools, in order to preserve each individual's ethnic identity and values. English is the most spoken language at home at 56.9% of the population, just ahead of Spanish.

## Education

Public education for all levels is free, regardless of nationality. English is the language of instruction in all public schools, and all subjects are taught and examined in English except for at least two other language subjects, which are chosen by the student and can be: Spanish, Malay, Dutch, French, Portuguese or German.

Nexum has ten public universities, all of which are among the top universities in the world. The ones especializing in the science and technology have ranked as the best in the world for more than a decade. The country is an educational hub, with more than 120,000 international students, most of them being university students.

## Healthcare

The healthcare system of Nexum is considered to be one of the best in the world. It's public, universal and completely free for any legal citizen of Nexum. The system is highly efficient and has some of the best facilities in the world.

Nexumese people have the longest life expectancy of any country at 85.2 years, with an average of 88.4 years for females.