Maloka

The Maloka Council State, colloquially Maloka, is a Fanerian protectorate in northern Crona. It borders Aeonara and the Levantine Ocean by sea, and Ashkenang to the east.

postal code LO-01

Geography
Maloka is largely coastal, being a peninsula with a coast stretching up into and along the mainland to the Boral Zone. Its northern coast is rugged and frozen, and its southern areas are cold and snow well into summer. The peninsula itself is mostly flats or rolling hills; the region is only marginal for farming quality and natural resources are poorly exploited. Its inland stretches are sparsely inhabited tundra. Most of its population lives along the inner coastline of the bay it rests on, the Mera, as storm weather on the coast is infrequent but savage; icebreaking and transport to the southern tip of the peninsula is critical for the country. The Kilmer River forms its primary watershed in the inner Mera Bay, with smaller creeks and rivers draining water along the peninsular region.

Economy
Maloka is a developing nation with a fairly small GDP, and relies heavily on Faneria for funding its military and political process. Fishing and subsistence farming, along with imports, feed the nation, and its few exports largely consist of meagre iron yields and canned goods. Trade is reliant on the city of Mharnsgate, at the southern tip the peninsula, which is currently under a 99-year lease to Faneria. Shipping further into the bay normally requires icebreakers except in summer.

Currencies: Thaler, Malokan Barra (locked in value to Fhainnin Barra)

GDPPC: 14,233 USD

Politics
The three major political parties of Maloka are the Red Suns, White Suns, and Forward Path. The Forward Path is a reactionary party focused on advancing the aims of the disparate northern enclaves, shoreward communities, and tribal factions; the Red Sun is a conservative reformist faction aimed at centralization of the state along Occidental lines; the White Sun is the liberal faction (comparable to Occidental centrists) and focuses on government reform specifically along Cananachan lines as well as social reform reflective of Occidental enlightenment and modernism. The Red Sun and White Sun have consistently formed coalition governments throughout the country's history.

Voting in Maloka is limited to citizens; the Forward Path has been pushing for a switch to landed voting but is unsuccessful. Due to the country's moderate cohesion, its elections tend to be difficult and filled with low turnouts and a relatively small voting pool compared to the total adult population.

Maloka's government is comprised of a unicameral legislature, the People's Council, lead by a Chief Minister. Various ministers oversee the government's business at the pleasure of the Council, with the Head of State, the Director, being a largely ceremonial position with minimal power beyond the veto and military authority. Maloka does not exercise rights as a nation in regards to bilateral relations with other states, but instead operates a diplomatic ministry that works in conjunction with the Fhainnin Foreign Affairs Bureau. In theory, this limits their ability to conduct diplomacy; in practice, it is more a check to ensure Malokan relations do not counteract Fanerian aims.

The primary Ministries of the Malokan government are the Ministries of War, Trade, Security, Records, Development, and Finance.

Demographics
Education is highly stratified, with the Algosh population being 85% literate, the Malki being 64% literate, and the Rianee being 4% literate. The majority of the Rianee population lives in the tundra and northern coastal regions, and are by far the poorest, with some never receiving regular contact with the south and only nominally being under Malokan control. The Algosh population has, since the war of liberation, become a pariah caste, sticking to their own communities to avoid backlash - typically consolidating towards the lease city of Mharnsgate, which is legally a safe haven - a reality usually enforced by Fhainnin troops, though violence does occasionally occur. The Algosh, despite their previous affluence, are politically a non-entity, while the Rianee communities in the southern regions are small enough to be safely ignored and generally are only supported by the White Suns out of deference to their imported ideals.

The largest city in Maloka is Kimiornee, which is home to a population of 1.42 million people. The next largest cities, Losha and Tutelo, hold 1.18 and half a million, respectively, making the Kilmer watershed and its urban zones the core of the country with around two-thirds of the population residing there. These communities are some of the oldest permanent settlements in the country, but remained a smaller proportion of the population until 19___, after the area was annexed by the Algoquonan Heirarchy and a program of forced urbanization was enacted to help modernize the area.

Malki
Malki culture is heavily based in familial and clan ties; most Malki families live in multigenerational compounds that are grouped into blocks rather than Occedental-style housing divisions. Their people are stratified by a somewhat more educated and developed urban class and a much poorer small community class, and many still live in cottage industry towns, forgotten by the urban core around the Kilmer River. Their diets heavily feature shellfish and fish, though potatoes have also become a staple crop. Malki art glorifies triangle patterns, as their ancient cloth weaves used series of colored triangles as a primitive writing system.

Rianee
The Rianee people are largely hunter-gatherers, and have a preindustrial culture with a heavy emphasis on subsistence hunting and fishing. Many of them visit temporary living sites throughout the north and Polar Zone, and furs and handcrafts still feature heavily in their garb. In modern times, they have acquired a small number of firearms and manufactured goods in addition to traditional spears and clubs, and have adapted well to using modern trappings while maintaining distance from urban society. The few static Rianee communities are relatively stable albeit poor, and Rianee are often found in shanty towns throughout north and central Maloka. Historically, the Malki pushed the Rianee north from the peninsula, wiping most of them out. The Northern Confederation, during its tenure, had little concern for their status considering their small population size, while the Heirarchy employed many as pathfinders and enforcers against the Malki majority.

National Liberation Army
Maloka's Army consists of approximately fifty thousand men divided into four Occident-style brigades, several garrison units, and a command staff. the Army's command staff also directs Naval operational goals but not its combat decision-making; in other words, the Army is superior to the Navy but cannot instruct it on in-combat operations, only goals.

Most of the Army's equipment is last-gen or surplus modern-gen, and training is handled by a small core of local officers aided by Fanerian advisors. The focus of military doctrine is purely defensive, and as such relies on simpler, tried-and-true methods rather than complex maneuver. The NLA only possesses a half-dozen tanks, although its primary armored vehicle, the Bataís, is an excellent rough terrain vehicle (for a tracked system) and is decently effective against most of the local Cronan threats the NLA would reasonably be expected to fight.

The NLA was initially a much larger force, but combat losses, mass demobilization, and finally a winnowing of troops by selection reduced the force to a size which could be feasibly supported by Maloka. Most of the initial equipment was mixed, with captured Algosh arms, local small arms, and Fhainnin gifts being seen side by side, but as reorganizations have gone on the Army has gradually approached uniformity, with the oldest armaments being passed down to garrison units and later decommissioned or sold off in batches to Sabnaki or other petty states to help pay for better equipment.

The First Peoples' Brigade is the NLA's most veteran brigade and is on par with an equivalent Occidental force on paper and performed admirably against modernized Algosh troops during the Malokan Month's War, while the others are decidedly second-rate.

National Liberation Navy
The Navy consists of six surface craft (one modern destroyer, two icebreakers, and three frigates/corvettes) and two dozen-odd patrol boats; its destroyer is a mine warfare-oriented design of Fanerian origin and its corvettes are Fanerian surplus. The Navy also operates Maloka's fleet of eighteen aircraft (two trainers, four scout planes, and twelve last-gen fighter craft. Its primary role is coastal and air defense, and it operates the country's major naval base in Kimiornee and uses Mharnsgate as a second port due to the Fanerian base there.