Asteria

Asteria, officially the Republic of Asteria, is a country in Crona. It is neighbored by Alstin and Tierrador. The borders of Asteria have traditionally been the Northern Plateau to the north and east, Saint Thomas River to the west, called the Gamboa River in Alstin, and the Rees Hills and Blue River to the east. With the Sea of Orixtal to the south, trade flows into the extensive Western Sound.

The Atemeraw peoples had inhabited Asteria for nearly a thousand years prior to the settlement of Milsboro. According to Atemeraw tradition, they had originally resided in a northern climate, but were pushed south by a violent tribal society that swept into their original homeland. Varshanologists now believe that it was Varshan who forced the exile of the Atemeraw. Largely settling along the Yare River and the Western Sound, the Atemeraw subsisted on basic agricultural products as well as fishing. In 1389, Paul Aster made contact with the Cuyahoga, a coastal peoples who were Atemeraw. Altough contact was peaceful, Arketa, Sachem of the Cuyahuga, believed that the Levantine would return with ships and soldiers. Over the next fifty years, Arketa conquered the disparate Atemeraw peoples, and in 1447 created the Atemeraw Confederacy with a central government and written constitution.

Following the Nordmontaine War and the Great Confessional War from 1543 to 1575, the Levantine Protesant movement was nearly eradicated. In massive numbers, Ænglish refugees marched north. One of the leaders was John Harrison, a petty noble who survived the destruction of the Anglasworc and historian, who read of John Aster's expedition to Crona. Fleeing to Faneria, Harrison founded the Midlands Company, the goal being to resettle in Crona with faithful Protestants, especially those supporting the Ænglish Church. However, he disagreed with Alstanus Ryefield on multiple theological issues, including the idea of monarchy. After decades of building support, the Midlands Company on April 12, 1627, founded the Milsboro Colony. Over the following three years, Harrison brought nearly a thousand new settlers to the colony before passing away within sight of his new country.

Over the next five decades, the Midlands Company launched new expeditions across what they called West Asteria, a name that would remain a constant through most of Asteria's early history. Protesants in Faneria were told tales of New Jerusalem, a Harrisonian doctrine of building a society to be as close to the afterlife as possible. New settlements were built along the coast, relations wth the Atemeraw peoples being warm. The Midlands Company signed the First Milsboro Accord in 1633, granting the company all coastal lands not in use by the Atemeraw. Yarmouth was founded at the end of the Western Sound, while company navigators explored much of the interior with Atemeraw guides. Yarmouth Colony was officially founded in 1655 by Thomas Rees and Kathryn Wright, who founded a monastic community on the mouth of the Yare River. Within a decade, Yarmouth surpassed Milsboro in population. Due to Rees' belief in creating a New Jerusalem in Crona, he launched expeditions along the river into Atemeraw lands. When one missionary was executed in 1672, the Yare War was launched. Colonial militias marched into Atemeraw lands, burning villages and farmlands and selling what was left over to new settlers.

The Yare War saw a new era of settlement. With relations between the Ænglish settlers and the Atemeraw broken, the Midlands Company sent out the Proclamation of 1677, the fiftieth anniversary of Milsboro. Expansion was now law, and local militias began to push into the interior. The Atemeraw pulled back as the colonists advanced north over the following decades. Finally, after decades of growth, the Atemeraw, ever patient, finally resisted. The Kidnapping of Seoirse Kelly on December 5, 1763, saw Kele, Sachem of the Atemeraw, invade Yarmouth with a small war party. Seizing the daughter of John Kelly, Governor of Yarmouth, Kele married her in an impromptu ceremony, and converted her to the Ænglish Rite, the name of the informal church most colonists worshipped. John Kelly was nominated by Faneria as governor, a prelude to that nation purchasing the Midlands Company. A member of the Catholic Church, Kelly wrote to Faneria and demanded assistance. Kelly's War lasted twelve years, and saw the shocking victory of the Atemeraw, allied by anti-Catholic Ænglish settlers. Although the Atemeraw won, Faneria on July 2, 1775, seized the offices of the Midlands Company and annexed their colonies. Milsboro, Yarmouth, and other settlements were merged into the Colony of West Asteria.

Although the consolidation of West Asteria was immensely popular, it set the stage for eventual independence. For the remaining decades of the eighteenth century, a common Asterian identity developed. Unique styles of music were established in the Northern Plateau. Yarmouth became the capital of West Asteria in 1789 after it had been in Milsboro. The other former colonies, fearing Yarmouth would dominate them, petitioned their colonial masters to create a new city on the interior. The Royal Charter of 1797 formally created Concordia, which was located on the interior along the Yare River. The population of West Asteria grew rapidly during this time from a little under a million in 1775 to three million by 1805. Ethnic and religious tensions continued, however, with multiple raids and pogroms between the Ænglish, Atemeraw, and Gaelic citizens of the colony. When Gaelic representatives in 1820 petitioned the King of Faneria on their special status, the ruler responded with the West Asteria Proviso, which declared all citizens of West Asteria as equal. The Gaels were angered by this, and they joined the West Asteria Congress in 1823. The Gaelic, Ænglish, and Atemeraw were now united behind the cause of independence.

The Asteria Revolution began on May 5, 1826, when the Colony of West Asteria was reorganized into the Dominion of West Asteria, centered in Yarmouth. Pro-independence leaders John O'Brien, Michael Ashton , and Shiye Makaya organized self-governing Frontier Republics in the Northern Plateau to preserve the movement as more moderate leaders like Llewellyn Penrose worked to negotiate a settlement with the King. All out war began on December 12, 1829, during the Milsboro Massacre. The Colonial Army was created, and in a series of campaigns against the Royalist League in 1830, 1831, and 1832, the Asterians slowly beat back their colonial masters. At the Battle of Stonebridge on June 17, 1833, much of the Asterian Royal Army was destroyed, its remnants retreating to Yarmouth. Weeks later, on August 15, 1833, the Fiery Night saw the final defeat of the royalists when Shiye Makaya led two thousand Atemeraw warriors into Yarmouth Harbor and burned over a hundred Fanerian ships. A ceasefire was declared, and three years later, the Treaty of Oirthidún was signed on September 6, 1836. A little under two months later, the last Fanerian forces left Yarmouth, and on October 25, 1836, the Asteria Declaration of Independence was formally signed. The Republic of Asteria was formally established on that date.

Asteria is a member of the League of Nations.

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