ATLÉS
A publication on the geography, climate and demographics of Sutherland
Unthank - Sutherland's Wintriest City
The burgh of Unthank, the provincial capital of Aikshaw, in winter (left) and summer (right)
With 57% of Sutherans claiming that they have visited the Winter City and a tourist population upwards of 2.5 million (this is equivalent to over half of the entire population of Aikshaw province, for reference) each year, Unthank has a certain pull that few Sutheran cities have managed to pull off quite so spectacularly. As the capital of the expansive southernmost province of Aikshaw, known for its distinctive, warm dialect and distinctive, not very warm climate that brushes the landscape white for four months of the year, it has forged its own identity.
Unthank is situated within Auk's Bay, three-quarters of the way down the eastern coastline of Aikshaw, which itself is by quite some way Sutherland's largest province by area. Its skyline is known for its distinctive steeples - which many speculate is the origin of Unthank having a sister city in Vigan (the "City of a Thousand Steeples", fittingly), the second-largest city of Andrenne - and equally distinctive clock tower, as well as the Crown Mile of thoroughfare through the heart of Unthank.
(left)
A part of the Crown Mile, with a line of local co-operatives, hotels and retail outlets
The city itself punches above its weight in a number of ways. It ranks consistently as one of the world's most liveable cities, including placing as the (admittedly Sutheran-based) newspaper The Eamont Times' number 1 choice place to live for five years running from 2020 to 2024, thanks to its stellar public transport, relative affordability, friendly populace and good quality education and public services. Unthank is also home to the Loreshall of Unthank, a world-class loreshall which consistently ranks in the top-5 Sutherland-wide, despite Unthank itself only having around 430,000 inhabitants. In particular, the Loreshall of Unthank excels in medicine, law and administration, and philosophy, as well as engineering; and it's one of four loreshalls in total!
Continuing the trend of punching above its weight, Unthank has possibly one of the largest civic investment sectors in Sutherland independent of the Sound - the bustling metropolitan area around the bay of the same name with the capital of Eamont and around forty million people - as well as by far the largest financial sector of any city even roughly close to its own size, being home to one of the Oak 10 (O10) pension funds (Aikshaw Land Upshotstock / ALUS) and a number of banking institutions that seek to be based outside of the metropolis. Thanks to the varied and well-focussed jobs across the Burgh heavily outpace every city in the South Viesses.
Speaking of the South Viesses, Unthank is known for its close proximity to the skiing resorts and alpine towns of the Viesses. Aikshaw is famous for its prowess in Viessan skiing, a type of skiing featuring fixed-heel bindings instead of free-heel bindings as in much of the world, and Unthankshire's wide variance of routes (and reliably cold, snowy weather!) gives it a natural advantage. A number of world-class athletes are known to be born in, or have since moved to, Unthank and the surrounding Auk's Bay region for its unparalleled access to quality skiing routes - though, a common stereotype amongst middle-class Sutherlanders remains that they have "gone to Unthank" every winter to go skiing, somewhat stigmatising it outside Aikshaw. It is also very clear that there is a relatively sheer divide between Unthank and the remainder of Aikshaw; while Aikshaw is growing faster than the nation on average and is far from the least well-off province, the effects of declining shipbuilding and coal mining have had deep effects on the province's fortunes in a way that Unthank's diversity and fortune have allowed it to avoid.
(right) Unthankshaven, the port and town it encompasses close to Aikshaw's provincial capital, has a long history of pioneering in technology, and is still a key destination for cruise ships and shipbuilding, as well as the nation's Leodsfleet
Finally, Aikshaw's maritime history is embedded deep into the city's culture. Home to Unthankshaven, one of the country's largest ports thanks to its connections to the Leodsfleet (and nuclear deterrent, to a more limited degree) as well as one of the most popular destinations for cruise ships in Eutavia, Unthank's connections to the Sutheran Ocean are absolute. The defence industry and sector in Sutherland has a serious foothold in Unthankshaven, employing tens of thousands of people. These histories gave it a pivotal role during the upheaval of the 1920s - alongside most of Aikshaw, Unthank provided a sanctuary away from the heart of the Richeist regime, and was one of the first places to seize back democraic control, as well as being home to a number of major trades unions and opposition groups, and even a President (Everett John Steel / EJS, Labour, 1941-1949). Unthank and its downstream counterpart Unthankshaven boast a major fishing industry, as well as proximity to a major share of Sutherland's oil and natural gas drills, though these of course have proven controversial in recent times with the environmental cost of their extraction and use - though it resoundingly is not Sutherland's "oil capital," a crown claimed by the Eskland city of Brunstock to the direct north-west of Aikshaw.
To conclude, Unthank is a city of wonders that not only provides a microcosm of the Commonwealth of Great Sutherland and Province of Aikshaw at large, but also has quite decisively cemented itself as having an independent identity in its own right, with world-class education, its position as one of the world's most liveable cities and its maritime connections to the rest of the world as well as to the continental security of Eutavia itself. Its residents may be proud - but they have a lot to be proud of.
