## Overview --- ![[flag_AF 1.png]] The ***Ankylosanten Federation***, also known as the Ankylan Federation or Ankylosante (pronounced /*an-ky-lo-zawnt*/) is the largest country on [[Kedavaara]], encompassing the entire western region of the continent. It shares its entire eastern border with [[Ciselmany|Ciselmany]] and [[Transelmany|Transelmany]]. It is notable for its hugely diverse range of biomes and natural resources, and the longest coastline on the continent. Once home to several warring kingdoms, they peacefully entered into a political union borne of economic convenience that resulted in the first example of federalism on the continent. | Common Name | Ankylosante | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- | | Capital | Mescratenso | | Largest city | York | | Official languages | Mescrati, Elman, Rodvish, Falki, Ludvan, several others | | Demonym | Ankylan | | Government | Federal parliamentary republic | | Foundation | 21 Tarusi 575 AL | | Area | 346,000 sq km | | Population | 16,000,000 (1st) | | Currency | Ankylan Dollar *(AKD)*, several others | ## History --- ### Early History (pre-366 AL) Historically a group of disparate tribes and fiefdoms, the western expanse of Kedavaara was plunged into war around the same time as the northern regions of Elmany were, and for mostly the same reasons: the advent of agriculture, and the need for arable land and the revenue that came with it. By the fourth century AL these disputes eventually settled into a relatively peaceful status quo of seven kingdoms: - the Ankylan Kingdom in the southwest peninsula. - the Cascadian Kingdom in the central highlands. - the Rödavian Kingdom in the southeastern riverlands. - the Utrescan Kingdom in the central lowlands. - the Falken Kingdom in the northeastern plains. - the Lestvalian Kingdom in the western plains. - the Östman Kingdom in the eastern riverlands. - the Vale Kingdom in the north and far north. These seven kingdoms still skirmished from time to time, but having all been born from the earlier union of several composite kingdoms their territorial claims were more stable than before. ### Ankylan Aggression (366—401 AL) the Ankylan Kingdom began a series of aggressive territorial expansions eastwards from its coastal capital of Mescratenso. Between 366 AL and 401 AL, the Ankylan King Rudolf was able to lay claim to all Kedavaaran land west of the Styx and Farøn rivers. He was also able to avoid war with the Kingdom of Elmany by signing a treaty at Øfa in 402 to assure the Elman forces amassed at the river crossing that Ankylosante would not launch an invasion. ### Advent of the Merchant Guilds (401—575 AL) Over the next century, the kingdom underwent relatively peaceful development; but its large size and highly diverse biomes meant that its population was not evenly distributed. As a result, it became increasingly difficult to exert political control over the remote areas of the kingdom. This undermined confidence in the monarchy, and gave rise to a powerful class of merchants in the urban areas who felt that paying taxes and tributes to the king was not a useful way to spend money that could simply enrich themselves and fund private alternatives to royal administrative functions like security and banking. The end result was the fracturing of the Ankylan Kingdom into several regions led by oligarchic city-states that reorganized their territory into functional quasi-republics dominated by various merchant guilds that retained varying degrees of feudalism outside of their urban centers, but replaced the tributary nature of food production with a market system that created vertical economic relations between the powerful cities and rural farmlands. This dynamic occurred throughout the Ankylan Kingdom, with the exception of the Evermarsh, a sparsely populated region largely made up of swamps and bogs that cannot be meaningfully developed into arable land. As a result, the nomadic and tribal peoples who live on this land were able to maintain a high level of autonomy while still benefiting from the material support of both the former Ankylan kingdom and the current merchant republics. This was because their large reserves of both rare herbs & spices and timber made economic relations between them and the other regions a necessity. ### Merchant Federation (575—648 AL) In 575 AL, the six merchant republics of Ankyla, Håland, Löland, Östland, Vostok, the Riverlands, and the Evermarsh agreed to formally reincorporate as the new Ankylosanten Federation: a federal republic that would create a new capital region in Mescratenso and restructure the other regions as telayas (states) that are answerable to a new federal board seated in the capital city. However, the telayas would retain full regional autonomy over their economic & political activity so long as their responsibilities for protecting territorial integrity and fulfilling financial obligations to the federation (profit sharing on pre-established terms) were met. Notably absent from this arrangement was any democratic organs of power. This was because both regional and federal authority figures were appointed by the leaders of the various merchant guilds that governed the region capitals in practice. While life had relatively more economic freedom and stability under the new federation than previously seen in the Ankylan Kingdom, the peasantry of Ankylosante still lived very hard lives and rarely had the same opportunities for housing, education or employment that were available to wealthy merchant families or the former nobility that still had good relations with them. ### Modern Era (648 AL — present) As decades passed, Ankylan society would experience similar levels of degeneration as could be observed in Elmany by [[Hagioism|Hagioist]] thinkers like Hagios of the Soumi Valley, Theodore of Øfa and Yemisi Fayowa. In 648, Fayowa published her book Deadline and formally established a theoretical framework for the construction of a hagioist society as an alternative to monarchy. These ideas would spread east and west from Elmany, and eventually trigger violent revolutions in the Velsh Kingdom, and South Elmany. But Ankylosante’s decentralized nature ended up being a remarkably effective bulwark against the spread of [[Hagioism|hagioism]], because the political realities of each telaya were too distinct, and the local peasantry did not understand well enough their shared political interests to allow for a national mass line against the merchant guilds and federal authority as Fayowa envisioned. This was both due to poor levels of literacy among the peasants and a lack of organizational structures as a consequence of uneven development historically in Ankylosante, unlike in unitary kingdoms such as Elmany or the Velsh. A pattern that continues unabated to this day. ## Administrative Divisions ![[Ankylosante.jpg]] *Map of Ankylosante showing its federal subjects.* The seven telayas in Ankylosante are all autonomous to a very high degree, meaning very little administration actually takes place. This makes the country unique on [[Kedavaara]] for how little it interferes in the internal politics of its subregions. This hands-off approach only extends as far as its existential security is not threatened, however, which has been far from a rare occurrence. ### Pro-Government Regions #### Capital Region (Ankyla) ![[flag_AF 1.png]] The peninsula that extends into the Kylan Ocean from the southwest corner of Kedavaara traditonally made up the extent of the former Ankylan Kingdom's territory, and the same holds true for the Ankylan Republic that functions as the federal capital region of Ankylosante. Having united the Seven Western Kingdoms, they became the seat of power in Ankylosante, and their principalities would become the composite telayas of the Ankylan Federation today. Surrounded on all sides by friendly territory and the open ocean, theirs is the most secure seat of power on the continent. #### Håland ![[flag_haeland.png]] The northwestern regions of Ankylosante make up the Republic of Håland telaya, formerly home to the oldest kingdom in the West, Cascadia. Their age has allowed for a high level of industrial capacity to take shape there, and their cities contain the oldest architecture in the country. Their friendly relations with the Capital Region and large coastline has allowed them to generate a large amount of wealth through foreign trade, and as a result they also have the wealthiest population in the country. #### Löland ![[flag_loeland.png]] The central plains of the Republic of Löland are the agricultural heart of Ankylosante, responsible for the majority of its crop output. Its strategic location between the capital and major naval port mean that it has less practical chances for genuine autonomy. As a result, its population is a lot more assimilated into the Ankylosanten national identity than other regions that have developed more distinct expressions of autonomy. ### Docile Anti-Government Regions #### Evermarsh A large expanse of swamp and bog that dominates the northern reaches of Ankylosante, this region is politically controlled by the [[Uplifting Cause|Uplift]] movement that seeks greater autonomy for the resource-rich Evermarsh's nomadic population. Thanks to their unyielding terrain, they have undergone the least development. #### Östland A grassland region in the northeast that abolished its mercantilism and returned to purely feudal practices in 641 AL, triggering the Pnemic Wars. Their population is made up almsot entirely of farmers, and they violently deposed their governing merchant guild and resumed full ownership of the grain revenues they produced. These wars ended with a treaty in 645 AL that recognized the restoration of feudalism in the Republic of Östland. #### Riverlands ![[flag_riverlands.png]] Traditionally the wealthiest merchant republic, the city of Lakeview in its role as the capital of the Riverlands Republic has continually sought to undermine the presence of hagioism on its borders. It is also home to Joseph Cross, one of Transelmany’s oldest enemies. An Anyklan farmer who joined their federal army during the Pnemic Wars fought in the country from 645–648, he became a staunch anti-hagioist after reading Deadline. When Transelmany and the Velsh Republic established hagioist states on Kedavaara in the decade that followed he decided to make uneasy bedfellows with South Elman émigrés to quell those revolutions. When that failed, he started supporting counterinsurgents in both countries. Most recently, this has been done through the use of the the Crown Restoration Movement, or CRM; a militia native to the Riverlands, formed in the aftermath of the Transelman civil war and formally incorporated in 668 in the aftermath of the Transelman Civil War after the expulsion of royal sympathizers from the country a year before. They are still active today along the eastern sliver of the Riverlands that borders the Styx, and boast a large network of militants who seek to destabilize Transelmany. As time passed, Cross grew disillusioned with Ankylosante’s inefficient federal government and its inability to act outside the whims of its wealthy patrons. He was dismissed from the federal army and became a full-time counterinsurgent against hagioism on Kedavaara. Today, despite his persona non grata status in Ankylosante after being imprisoned for subversion & escaping numerous times, his residence in Occupied Elman Riverlands prevents his country from taking decisive action against him, thanks to the lack of federal jurisdiction in those regions. The rest of the Riverlands is fairly similar to other telayas, mostly indifferent to foreign politics, and lacking any strong personalities outside of the mercantilist orthodoxy. ### Hostile Regions #### Vostok *see also: [[Vostok]]* ![[flag_vostok.png]] Hagioists in the Vostok region were a notable outlier compared to the rest of Ankylosante: their large Lumenian population and proximity to South Elmany allowed Hagioism to spread unabated, and they were able to create an effective fighting force under the leadership of Alain Toufant. He led several border crossings into South Elmany to secretly assist [[Voromiraka]] efforts to undermine the Elman Kingdom. Once Voromiraka control over the mountain regions (and an informal alliance with [[The Green|the Green]]) had been established, Toufant returned to Vostok with a force of over 1,000 apostles and established the [[Ankylan Hagioist Party]] in the forests of the southern border region. They began their revolutionary work in the countryside following similar tactics to Fayowa’s apostles, slowly spreading the hagioist message in the rural settlements that made up the majority of Vostok, until they had surrounded its three major cities. By 665, Vostok was under AHP control, and the war had become too expensive for the other merchant guilds to continue. They sued for peace and formally recognized the new hagioist government of Vostok in place of the deposed merchant guild, and accepted their delegates to the federal board. Despite this, Vostok did not initially abandon armed struggle and continued trying to spread hagioism in other telayas. While they made a sizable westward push into sparsely populated Evermarsh territory, their efforts upon reaching more developed areas met much stronger resistance than it had in Vostok, because peasantry of other regions still had too little trust in outsiders on top of the other limiting factors. As such, these incursions did not receive as much attention from the federal government. They also did not declare independence from Ankylosante because Fayowa made it clear to Toufant that any potential annexation of foreign territory that would amount to another war was out of the question for Transelmany. Today, the Ankylan Hagioist Party continues to maintain a belligerent rhetorical stance against the Ankylosanten Federal Authority, but one that in practice manifests as mostly a frozen conflict, with the region of the Evermarsh that they managed to carve out existing as a buffer zone between the rest of the country and the hagioist stronghold of Vostok, which is now officially known as the [[Vostok|Vostok Basilica Republic]]. This is because the people of Vostok are mostly content with being a federal subject of Ankylosante and view their unique circumstances as a blessing, not wishing to jeopardize it with more war. Vostok continues to lead Ankylosante in several important metrics such as literacy rate, homeownership rate and employment, but because of its relative lack of natural resources and landlocked nature it does not come close to the levels of prosperity seen in Transelmany and the Velsh Republic. It relies heavily on trade from the two hagioist countries, with its biggest export being the minerals and precious stones that can be found all over the region. ## Geography ![[Ankylosante_climate.jpg]] *Map of Ankylosante showing its various climates.* #### Area The largest country in Kedavaara, Ankylosante covers the entire western portion of the continent, measuring over 346,000 sq km. This is largely because it is composed of several formerly sovereign political entities that willingly entered into a federal union. #### Population Ankylosante has an estimated 16,000,000 people, concentrated in the southern coastal regions and away from the harsh climate of the Evermarsh. Its most populous city is York, with 1,800,000 residents-- closely followed by Mescratenso with 1,700,000. #### Climate The south coast is mostly temperate grassland, with mild rainfall, The eastern regions that share a border with Transelmany quickly transition into rainforest along the Voromir River. The central regions are arable marshy plains that transition into tundra in the far north, where the Reach is located. Travel there is restricted due to the extreme danger.