Caergwynn

Caergwynn is a country in northern Levantia, along the coast of the Sea of Nordska. Possessing a unique language and culture only distantly related to the surrounding Gaelic populations, Caergwynn has a long history and a complex form of government, in which democratic and aristocratic features interact within a de facto republican framework. Although for much of its history Caergwynn has been a fairly marginal factor in Levantine affairs, it has always had a strong maritime tradition, and with industrialization in the late 19th century, the nation became a major trading power with its strategic location controlling the southern Nordskan straits. Caergwynn is now among Levantia's most advanced economies, but Caeric international relations are marred by a bitter, centuries-long feud with its neighbor Faneria, and milder tensions with most of its other neighbors. It is a member of the League of Nations and the Kilikas-Boreal Cooperative Zone, as well as being an observer state of the Council of Gaelic Peoples.

Etymology
The name "Caergwynn" has a straightforward etymology, deriving from the Caeric words "caer" (fort) and "gwynn" (white, or shining)-creating the compound "Caergwynn", meaning "shining fort" (which in modern Caeric orthography would instead be Caergwen). Though the precise origin of this designation for the land of Caergwynn is impossible to verify, the traditional consensus has been that it refers to the snowbound and fortress-like peaks of the coastal ranges. This is dramatized in the Caeric national epic, Tywysog o Llongau, "The Prince of Ships", in the story of Madoc I spying a "shining fortress" as the first glimpse he saw of Caergwynn from shipboard.

The capital, Dol Awraidd, has a similarly descriptive origin, as it refers to the Caeric "dol" (valley), and "awraidd" (golden), for a combined meaning of "Golden Valley." In contemporary Caeric, "Awraidd" would be rendered as "Euraidd" (an Ænglish version of "Dol Awraidd" with a similar level of archaism would perhaps be "Goldenvale"). Though this name too has a supposed epic origin (attributed to one of the followers of Madoc), the city is situated in a warm and fertile valley in the coastal mountains, and the label of "golden valley" could have arisen quite naturally.

Early History
The origins of Caergwynn and of the Caeric people are shrouded in dispute. For centuries, two notions have been prominent, although most Caeric people tacitly accept both on some level. One is that the Caeric and their distinct non-Gaelic language are in some way autochthonous to the territory of Caergwynn, with the region perhaps being a remnant of a formerly much more extensive pre-Gaelic culture that once peopled the entire north of Levantia, and from which the modern Caeric state emerged. The other, embodied in the epic tale of the Tywysog o Llongau, is the idea that Caeric leaders and their followers, with Madoc "The Farsighted" first among them, fled other lands in response to war and tyranny, carrying an existing culture with them when they landed their great ships on what is now the Caeric coast on a February morning in 937. There is evidence to support versions of both stories. A local origin for Caergwynn is plausible in light of the para-Caeric groups near the borders of modern Caergwynn such as the Gvergoles of southern Vithinja, who are not included in any colonization narratives, but have nearly-intelligible languages, and are regarded (and regard themselves) as peoples closely connected to Caerics proper. On the other hand, the settlement theory is supported by the very existence and huge importance attached to the Tywysog o Llongau and related tales, as well as archaeological evidence of a sudden rise in material sophistication in the early 10th century, and the (sketchy) documentation of a Caeric maritime presence in contemporary records. These dueling conceptions have inevitably become politicized over the centuries, with the Caeric government increasingly emphasizing Caergwynn's "indigenous" nature and close kinship with Para-Caeric peoples in Faneria and Vithinja, while rival nations impugn Caergwynn as a "migrant nation" that displaced existing Gaels and Goths (casting Gvergoles, etc, as recent Caeric migrants or Caericized indigenes).

Though these are not wholly compatible, valiant (if not ham-fisted) efforts have historically been made to reconcile these two myths, and in recent years, the scholarly consensus is growing for a more nuanced combination. This centers around the idea of an existing proto-Caeric population and society transformed by the seaborne arrival of small groups of military adventurers, (perhaps of a different culture that was later assimilated). In this view, these warriors and their ships came to dominate trade and political networks, incorporating local leaders into their service, and turning the area's polities into congealing states, until finally Madoc was able to assert his authority above the rest (probably through more maritime connections), and become Prince of the wider region. Helpfully, the beginnings of this transition (and thus, the Caeric migration to Caergwynn from cis-Vandarch lands) has been dated to somewhere between 850 and 900, leaving roughly enough time for consolidation under Madoc to happen "on schedule" in 937.