Thýstara

Thýstara is an island colony of the Kiravian Federacy located in extreme northwestern Punth.

Society & Culture
Thýstara is a comprising people, cultural elements, and social institutions transplanted from other parts of the Kiravian Federacy. It's history and geography have given the colonists' culture a strong frontier ethos that values hard work and self-reliance.

Thýstara's first civilian colonists were Meridians from their home island's far northern end who established the settlements of Tagakūla and Inovintergen (English: "New Wintergen") on the southeastern shore. Subsequently, the Kiravian government encouraged the emigration of new settlers from Coscivian ethnic groups whose traditional lifestyles were compatible with the subarctic marine climate of Thýstara, such as the various North Coscivian and Sēoran Coscivian peoples, Arnóriem, Lúnstem, Kroysanyem, Túkluskan Coscivians, Psikorviem, and Ice Coscivians, as well as non-Coscivian Rhūniks and Finnic-speaking groups from Meridia and the Northern Isles. Most of these settlers came from the states of Intravia, Vôtaska, Lataskia, and [Northwestern coastal state], and as such, the culture of Thýstara is strikingly similar to that of the North Coast. In the 21200s, renewed economic interest in Punth and the expansion of the mining industry encouraged Sakhalin Islanders to relocate to Thýstara, from the Antarctic Circle to the Arctic.

Low population densities and good policy decisions by the colonial administration have engendered good relations between Thýstaran colonists and the indigenous Qalík. The Federacy has honoured agreements guaranteeing the Qalík local autonomy and equitable access to resources such as land and fisheries. There has been a significant amount of intermarriage between the settler and Qalík communities over time, resulting in at least 8% of the population having mixed Qalík and Coscivian (and/or Rhūnik or Finnic) ancestry. These mestiços (Coscivian: mestiśuvya) are typically bilingual and live in Kiravian settlements, though some live among the Qalík or have formed their own villages.

Governance
As a territory, Thýstara is governed within the republican framework laid out in its territorial charter. The Governor of Thýstara is appointed by the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy. In theory, this appointment is unilateral and the Governor can serve indefinitely at the Prime Executive's pleasure. However, all appointments since the end of Kirosocialism in 21166 have been made in consultation with the Legislative Conference and been subject to review every five years. Like other territorial governors, the Governor of Thýstara wields broad powers including command of the territorial militia and police, control over executive agencies, veto power over laws passed by the territorial legislature (which can be overridden by a supermajority vote), participation in the government's budgetary process, and the power to issue legally-binding decrees related to security, public order and safety, and preservation of the territory's constitutional machinery. The Governor also has sole authority over the use of certain Federal grants and subsidies as designated by the Federal Stanora.

The Legislative Conference is Thýstara's unicameral legislature. It is elected triennially by, with one member elected from each countyship by , and an additional members elected at large by. The number of at-large seats prescribed in the Territorial Charter as one-half the number of seats allocated to countyships, in order to allow for flexibility as the colony becomes more populated and new countyships are created. The Legislative Conference is responsible for enacting the territory's laws, levying taxes and mineral concession rents, and negotiating the territorial budget with the Governor.

Thýstara has a very centralised judiciary compared to other Kiravian states and territories. As in all Kiravian federal subjects, each Thýstaran countyship has its own court and courthouse with 1-4 judges. While a narrow majority of cases are resolved at the countyship level, a very large proportion are passed on to the central, that is to say, territorial courts, whether by, the judge's own referral (Coscivian: abridávitor), or a request for a. In criminal cases, grand juries decide, with guidance from the local magistrate, whether the case should be tried locally or referred to the central courts in Iśanvamur. Abridávitor occurs frequently in Thýstara, mostly because countyship judges determine that they lack the necessary expertise to properly ajudicate a case or because all of the judges in that countyship must recuse themselves due to relationships with one or more of the parties, which is fairly common in Thýstara's small settlements. The central court system includes a General Reception Court, which takes on most cases transferred from the county courts, as well as some cases where the territorial courts have ; a Court of Property Rights, which hears cases related to mineral rights, public lands, colonial land grants, and private of considerable size; the Territorial Appellate Court, which hears appeals from the aforementioned courts; and the Territorial Charter Court, which hears appeals from the Territorial Appellate Court and has the power of.

Currently, due to the scarcity of trained legal personnel in Thýstara, the territory's judges are appointed by the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy and confirmed by the Legislative conference. At present, only two Thýstaran judges were born in the territory (though a few others resided in Thýstara for some time prior to their appointment), with most of the rest hailing from Porfíria, Avenica, the Green River Colony, and Niyaska.

Economy
The Thýstaran economic base is, with fishing, mining, and lumbering as the core industries that account for most of the colony's exports and support its transport, service, and construction sectors. Major fishing products include crustaceans (particularly, king crab, and ), cod, and halibut. Many of the Kiravian pelagic trawlers operating in the far northern Levantine Ocean have Thýstaran towns as their home ports.

Deposits of were mined intermittently between 21128 and 21144, when the Kirosocialist government consolidated the various mines under a 50%  and resolved labour disputes with the local miners' unions. The mines were privatised in 21169, becoming a key asset of Cascada-based Kûperspar Rare Earths SAK. A cobalt mine on the southern end of the island entered production in 211201, and initial drilling at a minor nickel deposit near Mount MacMillan began in 21206.

Historically, the island's remote location, as well as its inhospitable weather and the fact that much of its northern and western shores are icebound during the winter, have hindered Thýstara's commodity export-based economy by disrupting transportation and incurring high costs for heating energy and equipment maintenance. However, the colony's fortunes have improved significantly since the late 21140s due to improvements in technology, federal investment and infrastructure projects under Kirosocialism, improved access to global commodities markets since liberalisation, and renewed growth in the nearby colonies of Porfíria and Avenica.

Thýstara has very low rates of taxation, made possible by low public expenditure and the territorial government's ability to finance itself mainly through federal subsidies and rents on mineral concessions.

Notable Thýstarans

 * Ranya Viulastran - Lieutenant Executive for Polar Affairs under Andrus Candrin
 * Yermathur Isahór - Famed Kiravian Army sniper