Greenlands Free State
| Greenlands Free State | |
 Emblem | |
 Location in Kento | |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Capital | Castle Rock de facto |
| Largest settlement | Grasstown |
| Population (est.) | 1,770 (Aj. 3800) |
| Area | 29,896.61 km2 |
| Political | |
| Government | Confederal direct democracy |
| Leader(s) |
Ambiguous (the Militia exerts diplomatic, judicial, and military authority) |
| Foundation | Early 38th century Aj. |
| Economy | |
| System | Townism |
| Currency | Citizen credit (cc.) |
| GNI | cc.96,259,149 (Aj. 3800) |
| GNI per capita | cc.54,384 |
| Food security | 1.33 meal/day (High) |
The Greenlands Free State is a sovereign polity in the Eastern Monsoonlands of Kento. With an estimated population of 1,700 people at the beginning of the 39th century, the Greenlands are the third most populous polity on the continent. The de facto political capital of the Greenlands is Castle Rock, while Grasstown is its largest settlement. The Greenlands share a border with the Green Bight Hive to the west, the Flotsam Ninja State to the north, the United Cities to the east, and the Free Clans to the south.
The Greenlands Free State is a confederation of direct democracies; the most basic level of governmental authority comes from the various Townships, which wield near-absolute authority over every matter of public life. The Compact of the Castle is the primary document outlining the basic principles by which the Free State's constituent Townships must abide, with adherence to the Compact being voluntary and its undertaking putting the Township under the protection of the Greenlands Free State Militia. Whereas Townships are wholly self-governing direct democracies, the Militia is charged with the enforcement of the Townships' rulings and laws in areas outside the purview of those Townships' Watches. Additionally, the Militia is charged with more direct administration of the Free State's three frontier Marches. As the Militia is based at Castle Rock, this makes the settlement the de facto capital of the otherwise highly confederal political entity.
The Greenlands' favorable monsoon climate and Wend River headwaters position has long made the region prime for the development of civilization. Little is known of the area's precise history before the Skeleton War of the 31st century, though it is believed to have been an important agricultural hub during the Second Skeletarchy. Human resettlement began sometime in the 32nd century, with agriculture and fortification becoming common by the beginning of the next century. Under the Elder Synod, what would become the modern Free State was ruled by an increasingly prejudicial and theocratic society. The reemergence of skeletons across Kento in the early 36th century saw the gradual weakening of the Synod's power; emergent sectarian divisions among the region's Yobites only hastened this weakening.
The Grass Ninjas emerged as the most organized of the Synod's local adversaries in the grasslands around the headwaters of the Wend River. After forging an alliance with the Flotsam Ninjas and what would become the founders of the Free Clans, the Ninja War of the early 38th century saw the eventual complete collapse of the Elder Synod's position. The Grass Ninjas took up residence in liberated Castle Rock, where the Compact of the Castle was officiated between the Ninjas and the town's remaining population of mostly freed slaves. The Compact officially established the Free State, and within a month, four more Townships were admitted into the polity. The Marches would be established to secure the Free State's border; the Treaty of Blossom Hill saw the establishment of a defense pact with the Flotsam Ninja State to the north and the commitment of both polities to the mutual maintenance of the Eastern Shield, formerly a major stronghold of the Elder Synod on its inner frontier with the United Cities.
Since the establishment of the Free State, the region under its control has seen significant economic transition and development. While agriculture remains the centerpiece of its economy, the local mining industry has greatly expanded. Blacksmithing, weaving, tailoring, and smelting have become ubiquitous throughout the various Townships of the Greenlands, whereas previously these trades were highly centralized in its largest urban centers. The region remains renowned for its agricultural output, making it one of the most food secure polities of contemporary Kento and a major exporter of plant-derived goods such as grog, dopum, and textiles. More recently, the provision of education has proliferated throughout the Greenlands, making it one of the most literate polities in the contemporary period. These economic conditions, paired with high rates of public happiness, have made the Greenlands the preferred destination of many free slaves from the United Cities, with this migration being its single-largest source of substantial population growth. As is the case with its northern ally, slavery is illegal throughout the whole Free State, one of the few binding laws applied to all Townships under the protection of the Militia.
Etymology
The official name of the polity, the Greenlands Free State is mentioned in its founding document: the Compact of the Castle. In the Compact, the Township of Castle Rock is described as entering into "free statehood" with the Greenlands Militia. The term Free State thereafter became common in the documents of association signed by subsequent Townships upon admittance to the Compact. Previously, the name of the polity controlling the region which now makes up the Greenlands, the Elder Synod, referred to both the Synod itself and the territory it held under its control. In an attempt to distance the new political entity from its history, "statehood," a relatively ancient concept, was applied, signifying the political achievement of the new society in its most limited capacity.
The term Greenlands has long been used to refer to what makes up much of the present day polity; historically, this term has been interchangeable with the term Grasslands. The Greenlands or Grasslands make up one segment of the larger geographical region termed the Monsoonlands, which includes both the Flotsam Ninja State to the north and the arimen hives to the west. The Militia was formed out of the non-itinerant remnants of the Grass Ninjas, whose name referred to their primary area of activity, the Grasslands. Seeking to cement the transition to their more organized, political form, the Militia began to term the region of their control the Greenlands, so as to add nominal distance between their present status and their past incorporation.
Geography
The Greenlands encompass most of what is known as Green Valley, a large basin bounded by the Bask Mountains to the north, the Black Mountain foothills to the east, the Spine Mountains to the southwest, and the Rain Mountains to the northwest. Green Valley can be broadly divided between an upland area and a lowland area almost entirely encompassed by this upland. All of the lowland area of the valley is inside of the Free State's borders, whereas the northern half of the upland area is largely shared with the Flotsam Ninja State.
The Wend River has its headwaters in the Green Valley. These headwaters consist of the large Sweet Lake in the center part of the valley and its tributary rivers and streams running in from the surrounding uplands. The river system's major tributaries are maintained by the springs at Blossom Hill and Ironburgh, with all other tributaries being primarily sourced through the seasonal monsoon rainfall of the region's long wet season. The Wend River flows southwards into the Wend Desert, which largely lies outside of the territory of the Free State. Both the Wend River and the Greenlands' monsoon season make it one of the wettest regions of northern Kento; the Greenlands are considered temperate too, unlike the jungles of the Swamps in the south.
The Greenlands are primarily covered in extensive grassland, with shrubland found primarily on the southern and eastern frontiers. Small forests are interspersed throughout the grasslands of the Green Valley, most heavily concentrated in the northern uplands along the border with the Flotsam Ninja State. Flowering plants are found throughout much of the grasslands and forests, as is the case with much of the Monsoonlands more generally, with the beginning and end of the wet season being particularly lush times for vegetation proliferation.
Centuries of human habitation in the region have had a pronounced impact on its faunal makeup. Grassweevils, Bovids, and Goats are the most notable thriving herbivores of the region, whereas Riveraptor and Kobolds have been on a long decline due to their pest-like status with locals. These herbivores are found throughout the region, feeding on the abundant vegetation. Wildogs and Megalders are the region's most prominent natural predators, though, much like their pest prey, they too have been experiencing strong local population decline.
History
Politics
The Townships are the most basic level of administrative body in the Free State. Through the Compact of the Castle, the Townships are united under the protection of the Greenlands Free State Militia, which exerts diplomatic, judicial, and military authority across the whole of the confederation. The local affairs of the Townships are otherwise left to their own organization; collectively, the Townships can be described as direct democracies, in which political decision-making is facilitated through votes by the whole of the public residing within that jurisdiction.
Unlike the predecessor Elder Synod, no codification exists within the Free State beyond the Compact itself. Larger Townships often elect standing councilors for specified terms to more directly and efficiently administer the locality, whereas smaller Townships will often assemble a public council on an ad hoc basis. Every resident member of a Township is generally eligible to vote in public council, though the specific qualification of "resident" varies slightly throughout the Townships. Any resident of a Township can call a public council, but most typically have a precedent of quorum before the results of the called council are considered binding.
Each of the Townships maintains a Watch that both guards the urban localities from immediate threats and enforces the laws of the Township within those locales. Members of the Watch only hold jurisdiction over the associated governed area of the Township; the Militia is the only body in the Free State with jurisdiction spanning the whole of the polity's territory. Potential disputes between the Watches of two Townships are mediated by the Militia.
There is relatively little in the way of central authority in the Free State aside from the Militia. The powers of the Militia are limited by the Compact; so long as the constituent Townships of the Free State abide by the basic principles of the Compact, the Militia exists to exert their will in a capacity which they might otherwise lack. The Militia is also charged with the defense of the whole Free State from foreign threats and the representation of the Free State to foreign polities. Members of the Militia implicitly serve as representatives of the whole of the Free State; while it is most common for the Militia to operate as companies of individuals, single members of the Militia are sometimes sent out as envoys or representatives to more distant locations.
Foreign relations
The closest and strongest ally of the Greenlands Free State is the Flotsam Ninja State. Both of these nations serve as the primary human descendent states of the Elder Synod, against which the predecessor Grass and Flotsam Ninjas rebelled in the Ninja War. Both the Flotsam Ninjas and the Greenlands share responsibility for the protection of their mutual border area, with the most significant instance of this partnership at the Eastern Shield on the joint Flotsam-Greenlands border with the United Cities.
The Free State also enjoys close relations with the Sunokoku, the Shem Free State, and Shroud. The Greenlands considers all of the listed polities allies, though it possesses a formalized defensive pact only with the Flotsam Ninjas and the Sunomen. The Free State's relationship with the Shem and Shroud is more of an informal alignment and a notable appreciation from those polities for the past actions of the Greenlands' militia against the Elder Synod. Although the arimen hives do not make alliances per se like the settled humans and sunomen, the Greenlands Free State has generally friendly relations with the Green Bight Hive and the Egg Valley Hive.
Through a formal arrangement with the United Cities, the Greenlands Free State does not formally endorse the actions of the Abolitioneers in their anti-slavery campaign. However, on a less formal level, the Abolitioneers receive extensive support from the individual Townships and even the Militia of the Greenlands, and in addition, the Greenlands serve as a primary escape destination for slaves freed by the Abolitioneers. The lip service that the Free State pays towards the United Cities in this regard has not been sufficient to ease bilateral tensions between the two most populous human polities on Kento and war constantly looms between the Flotsam-Greenlands alliance and the Empire.