Mid-Atrassic States

Commonwealth of Mid-Atrassic States Lódrisavravuntin Iviatrassix Ārkîya
Flag Government emblem
Capital	Anaqua
Largest	East Rigo
Official languages	Kiravic Coscivian
Recognised regional languages	Chapatec, Demotic Varshani Čikibriki, Patapzcotl Copacaban, Čapticolani, Qoptanquatl
Ethnic groups	Native (majority) Settler (minority)
Religion	Čulčeo, Christianity Hail Gods Faith, Solar Arzalism
Demonym(s)	Mediatrassic
Government	Benefactor confederacy
• Sovereign	Marble Emperor
• Governor-General	Ivoŕ Arolian
Legislature	Legislative Conference
Dependencies within the Kiravian Collectivity
• Atrassic Crona Governance Act	2034
Currency	Cronan lira
Driving side	left
Internet TLD	.ms

The Mid-Atrassic States is a federation of Kiravian overseas dependencies in east-central Crona, under the auspices of the Kiravian Collectivity. It was established in 2034 AD by the amalgamation of two preceding entities: Mid-Atrassic Crona (Kiravian-held lands in the former Nanzitolclatl) and Upper Atrassic Crona (lands permanently separated from Varshan under the Treaty of Electorsbourg). A product of the Deluge, the Mid-Atrassic States form one of the larger contiguous colonial territories in modern Crona and are of enormous economic, strategic, and geopolitical-ideological importance to the Kiravian Federacy.

History

Most of what is currently known about the premodern history of the lands that would become the Mid-Atrassic States concerns the impact of Varshani imperialism in the area. The southern parts of the Mid-Atrassic States fell victim to Varshani conquests and suffered long periods of direct rule, while more northerly areas, though spared this fate, were nonetheless targeted for large-scale slave raids as part of the Hunts, as well as other forms and modes of indirect domination and malign influence by the continental hegemon.

[Mississippian stuff? Adapted Precolumbian Mesoamrican social organisation?]

[Early Kiravian contact - Goa-Mangaloreanisation of Chappaqua and {insert other region here?}]

Large-scale Coscivian settlement was attempted on tracts of pericoastal land purchased for such purposes from Chapatec tribes, but was thwarted by high mortality rates due to a poorly-understood waterborne disease known as Atrassic diarrhœa flagrans, which is of unknown etiology but suspected to be caused by endoparasitic protozoa.

Deluge

Nanzitolclatl War

The central government led by Mirek Alaganek found itself fighting a two-front war against Daxia and Kiravia.

During the process of formalising the boundaries between Daxia and Kiravia concluded the Touxian Agreement to delineate the boundary between the enlarged Xisheng and Mid-Atrassic Crona, which would bisect the former capital of Rigo. Given Rigo's large population and its central position with regard to the surviving infrastructural networks of former Nanzitolclatl, it was decided that the city and its environs would be administered as a condominium, the Rigo Joint Security Area.

Nanzitolclatl having been thoroughly debellated, the Kiravian occupiers set out to restructure their half of the former country's territory along ethnic lines. This was accomplished through a process of internal resettlement to clarify the fuzzy boundaries of ethnic settlement into discrete, homogeneous ethnostates. Within these ethnostates, the occupying authorities instituted governments reasonably modern and Occidental in form but dominated by tribal chiefs and elders and with constitutions based largely on existing customary law. This was done in the hope that traditional leaders and customs would help to cement these regimes as legitimate in the eyes of their populations, and that their hierarchical, communitarian structures in which direct popular participation was present yet heavily circumscribed would help constrain political movements of a popular revolutionary bent, limiting the threat they might pose to Kiravian paramountcy. Writing for Ğábravik, Malcolm Gall-Ghàidhealaibh described the Candrin administration's vision as "a constellation of structurally conservative semi- and pseudo-democracies ruled by unaccountable elites who will look to Kartika as the guarantor of their continued privilege and inhabited by serfs too impoverished and benighted to demand anything more as their peace dividend than the thin veneer of national self-determination." Defenders of the administration counter that the slakonisation of eastern Nanzitolclatl along tribal lines had already begun in the wake of the Alaganek régime's rapidly compounding military collapse, and that there is ample documentation of interethnic violence breaking out spontaneously at the ragged interface of intermingling tribal settlements.

Final War

The course of the Eastern Front of the Final War of the Deluge ran through the future Mid-Atrassic States and would ultimately lead to their expansion and consolidation as a single entity after the war.

As war with Varshan loomed ever closer on the horizon, Kiravian Army regulars carried out mandatory evacuations of i̳ndigenous civilians from the Southern Military District abutting the Varshan border. The evacuees were not permitted to return after the conclusion of hostilities, and most remain in resettlement blocks today.

Kiravian and Chapatec forces spent much of the war mired in a gruelling standstill against Varshan's Xiquipilli of Sacred Peaks in the vicinity of the Yaviža Gap. Months of heavy casualties without battlefield gains to show for them, the singular brutality of Varshani warriors, and the constant feat of torture and ritual sacrifice if captured combined to drag morale to abysmal lows. The struggle for the Yaviža Gap exposed the unpreparedness of the Kiravian Army for a direct state-on-state land war of this magnitude, not only at the organisational level but also at that of the individual warfighter. Though they enjoyed significant technological advantages over their Varshani adversaries and could call upon superior firepower, the Kiravian infantry proved markedly inferior to their Varshani counterparts, a disparity that was magnified when fighting in close quarters. These grim lessons hardened Kiravian High Command's fixation on the Yaviža Gap: As it became clear that the Kiravian infantry were hopelessly outclassed, it became crucial that the Kiravians break through the Gap to allow heavy armour to penetrate Varshan over its more passable terrain and deliver a critical breakthrough. At one point, i̳ndigenous auxiliaries recruited from the Čapticolani, Patapzcotl, and other peoples of Mid-Atrassic Crona were employed as light infantry in the hope that their lighter, more manœurveable formations would be able to penetrate the Varshani lines more effectively than Kiravian vanguard units, but this tactic was abandoned after appallingly high casualty rates began to invite accusations that the auxiliaries were being used as cannon fodder, which Kiravian leaders feared would stir discontent among their home tribes and threaten the stability of the General Government.

The failure of these efforts and others forced the Kiravian general staff to give greater consideration to alternatives, of which there were few. The most obvious, though perhaps least appealing, was to wage a campaign in the Mountains of Terror that constituted Varshan's eastern frontier and had historically functioned as a formidable natural fortification. It was hoped that, at the very least, such an offensive would force Varshan to divert some troops from the Yaviža front. Kiravian generals were confident in their raw high-altitude warfare capabilities, but the plan was beset with logistical complications. Many believed that an invasion of Titechaxha - deemed militarily achievable but resource-intensive and diplomatically fraught - would be required for such a campaign. One solution to this quandry, proposed by Army Intelligence chief Gen. L. Pilatus Morvan was to enlist the aid of the montagnard tribal communities dwelling in the Mountains of Terror. Then-Chief Defence Executive Ivoŕ Arolian, who had extensive experience in the use of locally-recruited irregulars in past conflicts, endorced Morvan's proposal, eventually prevailing on General Stólevrin to pass the plan up to the Prime Executive for approval.

Postwar Devastation

The brutality of combat on the Eastern Front took a heavy toll on the region, leaving most antebellum infrastructure destroyed and hundreds of thousands of civilian survivors homeless. Resorting to desperate measures to break the stalemate in the Yaviža Gap, both belligerents engaged in increasingly unrestrained and indiscriminate deployment of conventional and perhaps less-than-conventional munitions, with long-term consequences for the habitability and economic utility of the affected areas. Extensive use of defoliant agents by both sides destroyed thousands of acres of deciduous forest and rendered similar quantities of agricultural land unusable, to say nothing of the health implications for combatants and any remaining civilians. Costly remediation efforts, such as a 2030 AD joint de-mining operation with assistance from the Arcer Armed Forces, would continue for long after the war's conclusion.

As the war had neared its end, the peripheral far eastern region's economy had already imploded ahead of the Kiravian advance as the wider national economy of Varshan buckled under the overwhelming pressure of a total war all but lost. Nationwide networks of exchange and distribution broke down as what remained of the Worshipful Realm's material resources were appropriated for the war effort in an ad hoc manner. Supplies of food and other necessities to the civilian population of the Far East, slave and free alike, were a low priority and soon ceased entirely. Even the region's valuable mines were shuttered as Urcean and Alstinian gains in the west forced the Varshani leadership to subordinate the logistics of their industrial war machine to concentrate entirely on countering immediate threats to the survival of the state.

Post-Electorsbourg

Treaty of Electorsbourg (2024)

The Kiravian Federacy was represented at the Electorsbourg Conference by Chief State Executive Serapion Larimar. The facts on the ground at the time of the Conference were such that roughly the quarter westernmost quarter of ye former Varshan was under Kiravian military occupation, from the mountains north of the Yaviža Gap south to the Nechaxa basin, and from the Mountains of Terror to Lake Jeb!ultepec. Kartika had a strong interest in securing a permanent presence for itself in the northeastern highlands within the previously-described zone, both as a buffer zone to shield Mid-Atrassic Crona from future Varshani aggression, and as a debt of honour to the indispensible Montagnards. Writing to Larimar in July 2024, quoth Arolian: "In our dealings with the Hail Tribes we gave assurances that with us, victory meant freedom, and when they fought alongside our men, they were fighting for nothing less than that. Any settlement that would have the Sacred Peaks revert to Varshan, even a Varshan thoroughly exorcised, would be a historic betrayal, and a crime on us should we permit as much."

Making reference to the popular speculative fiction novel, 19th-20th Century Earth, Larimar used the fictitious nation of Canada to illustrate the form of self-government that Kiravia intended for the montagnard peoples of the Mountains of Terror under Kiravian protection.

It was recognised that the Mountains of Terror and their foothills were too economically and socially underdeveloped for immediate independence, and that geographic and historical barriers would ensure that the political development of these lands would be a very long-term project. responsible government. Delimited by the treaty and formally separated from Varshan as Upper Atrassic Crona.

Economic and living conditions in Mid-Atrassic Crona improved after the war. The rising importance of logsitical chains running through the territory to support the Kiravian occupation of eastern Varshan brought increased employment opportunities for the population.

Consolidation

The Mid-Atrassic States were established in 2034 pursuant to the Atrassic Crona Governance Act, which effected a merger of Mid-Atrassic Crona and Upper Atrassic Crona. The consolidation of Kiravia’s new dependencies under a single overarching territorial formation was first suggested in a report from the Bureau of Governance Analysis, which found that combining the two existing administrations would eliminate redundancies and considerably reduce costs, as well as facilitate the integration of both territories into the Kiravian overseas network and hasten development. Further impetus toward consolidation came in the wake of the 2033 federal election in which the Labour Front of Kirav greatly increased its strength in the Stanora, riding a tide of insularist and Cronasceptic sentiment in the electorate and vowing to cut spending on Cronan affairs. The ACGA also provided for other reforms meant to make the colonial administration more fiscally freestanding and legislatively empowered, in order to insulate the Kiravian presence in the concerned territories from divestment under a potential future Labour majority or administration.

Governance

Government flag and ensign of the Mid-Atrassic States

[Constitutional status and sovereignty situation]

The paramount officer of the Mediatrassic government is the Governor-General of the Mid-Atrassic States (Ēvsivektur Iviatrassix Ārkáya), who is appointed by the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy subject to confirmation by the Kiravian Federal Council for a three-year term of service, which may be renewed. The Federal Stanora may recall a Governor-General by binding resolution. Constitutionally, the Governor-General governs on behalf of the ultimate sovereign, the Marble Emperor, and serves as the custodian of Imperial prerogatives in the country. The Governor-General chairs a General Executive Council, which acts as both a cabinet and a legislative body, having the power to enact primary legislation for the country through decrees known as 'conciliar ordinances' (kovarigisvamdin).

A Legislative Conference (Áldatherix Roatnūra) is empowered to legislate on matters of interstate domestic policy and taxation, as well as to legislate directly for the non-self-governing territories, with the exception of military districts. The Legislative Conference as it presently exists is not intended as a democratic representative body, but rather as an "deliberative conference of experts and dignitaries" charged with professionally drafting legislation for the country and balancing the concerns of various social stakeholder groups. The Legislative Conference includes several ex officio members of the executive agencies, traditional and customary leaders of i̳ndigenous communities, federal appointees, delegates from the self-governing provinces, and a "Special Rapporteur for Refugee Affairs" (Elurix Linaren Daśbarmagrikamsô, intended as a de facto representative of ethnic Varshani interests).

Civil service positions are staffed by officers of the Cronan Administrative Service, an agency of the Overseas Governance Executive.

For various administrative and statistical purposes, the Mid-Atrassic States observes the division of its territory into three parts: the Northern Division (former Mid-Atrassic Crona), the Southern Division (former Upper Atrassic Crona), and the Chapatec Free State. The Northern and Southern Divisions each have a Secretary of State serving as the chief administrative official; their counterpart in the Chapatec Free State is the Free State’s Prime Executive.

The Mid-Atrassic Postal Service (MAPS) took over responsibility for mail delivery in the Northern and Southern Divisions in 2035, though its organisation, procedures, and systems are identical to those of the Kiravian Post that served its predecessor territories. The Chapatec Free State continues to be served by the Kiravian Post pending revision of its treaties with the Kiravian Federacy, which may result in a switchover either to MAPS or an independent domestic postal service.

Other Commonwealth agencies include the following:

• Commonwealth Land Bureau - Responsible for surveying (both geodetic and boundary surveys), and for the registration of deeds, land grants, and public leases, and the collection of land taxes and fees in the non-self-governing states.
• Cronite Health Service - Provides medical care to i̳ndigenous communities through a network of regional clinics. As of 2035 the CHS is transitioning to focus on the provision of secondary, specialist, and surgical care as NGOs enter the primary care space at the local level.
• General Food Administration - Responsible for maintaining a steady food supply and distributing food rations to displaced and deprived populations.
• Passport Bureau - Responsible for population registration, issuance of internal passports (the primary identity document for Mediatrassicans), and the collection of vital statistics.

Federal subjects

Federal subjects of the Mid-Atrassic states may be classified as either self-governing (suluāritax) or non-self-governing (dhisuluāritax). Chartered states and Self-Administered Zones (SAZs) are considered self-governing, as is the Chapatec Free State. Other federal subjects are considered non-self-governing.

List

Flag	Province	Class	Division	Capital	Titular nationality
	Anaqua	Charter State	Northern	Anaqua City	none
	Chapatec Free State	Free State	sui iuris	Port Hyannis	Chapatec
	Copacaban Republic	Self-Administered Zone	Northern	Waxbal	Copacaban
	Čaptico	Self-Administered Zone	Northern	Pit-beeferonia	Čapticolani
	Qoptanq	Self-Administered Zone	Northern	Quéasco	Qoptanquatl
	Yordest Bay	Charter State	Northern	Thortimur	none
	Montitoba	Charter State	Northern	Sedra	none
	Perth Amboy	Charter State	Northern	North Amboy	none
	South Amboy	Charter State	Northern	Keladon	none
	New Humanitaria	Civil Administration	Northern	Horizon City	none
	Gatún Lake Territory	Charter State	Northern	Malakas	Piss
	Ruto Nation	[something canadian]	Southern	Witch Mountain	Ruto
	Paco Nation	[something canadian]	Southern	Bitch Valley	Paco
	South Sugond	Self-Administered Zone	Northern	Ligmabaltimore	Sugondese

Citizenship

[General principles]
[Internal passport system]
In 2033, before consolidation, Governor-General Arolian abolished internal passport-based travel restrictions in Mid-Atrassic Crona by conciliar order. After consolidation, passport-based residency restrictions were scrapped in favour of increased freedom of movement, though new legal mechanisms were created to allow chartered concessions and i̳ndigenous SAZs to erect migration controls on a local basis.

Some native Cronans hold Kiravian nationality and/or citizenship. Many such people were naturalised in gratitude for their services to the Kiravian military or the civil administration. The Hailstorm Warrior auxiliaries who fought alongside Kiravian forces during the Mountain March are a notable example; having been extended Kiravian nationality by [legislation] and personally sworn in as Kiravian citizens by PE Andrus Candrin in [YEAR].

Kiravian citizens residing or domiciled in the Mid-Atrassic States can vote to elect the Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy. The overseas country is currently allotted one electoral vote, and its electors are counted with the Overseas Regions for thematic purposes. All voting is by post.

Law

Human sacrifice was banned by military order in 2023 AD and subsequently reinforced by statutes. However, it is believed that the practice continues illegally on a small scale, mostly in the Southern Division. On the other hand, the General Executive Council has issued guidelines to law enforcement personnel clarifying that animal sacrifice is permitted in the country and should not be interfered with out of respect for i̳ndigenous traditions.

Forced marriage was banned by the Cronan Marriages Order, but this has proven very difficult to enforce. Not only does forced marriage remain widespread among the native population, but there have been reported incidents of marriage by abduction carried out by male settlers against native women.

Capital punishment is dispensed by the MAS government and those of its provinces and traditional jurisdictions. Most executions are public, and all are by firing squad. The Kiravian authorities take care to publicise executions of Kiravian immigrant convicts in order to promote the sense of equal justice in the country.

For the time being, the Mid-Atrassic judiciary is staffed, financed, and provisioned through the Overseas Justice Administration, an agency under the Kiravian Overseas Governance Executive. Its judges are drawn from the Kiravian federal bench and are paid directly by the KF government, but serve in the Mid-Atrassic courts as a separate and distinct jurisdiction, applying the separate body of MAS law. The Atrassic Crona Governance Act stipulates a five-year process of patriation, after which the MAS will be responsible for maintaining its own court system. The Mid-Atrassic judiciary is currently unitary in structure, though it is expected that it will be decentralised and federalised in the future as the self-governing states attain the capacity to operate trial courts of their own. There is only one level of appellate jurisdiction, the Mid-Atrassic Court of Revision, which has benches in both Divisions and the Chapatec Free State. The Federal Consistory (KF) may hear appeals from the Court of Revision at its discretion.

Based though it is on the Coscivian legal tradition and the protocols and procedures of the Kiravian federal courts, the Mid-Atrassic legal system, by design, incorporates in several manners and contexts the customary law of i̳ndigenous societies on its territory. In the Self-Administered Zones, customary law and the jurisdiction of customary courts and arbitators applies in internal affairs except as concerns the supremacy of the certain "paramount ordinances" of the central government, the Mid-Atrassic Charter, and the Sovereign. Native law continues to govern matters of personal and ritual status, marriage and familial affairs, inheritance, land tenure, resource rights, usufruct, and most aspects of the largely non-monetary economic life of the SAZs. Beyond the SAZs, preëxisting Cronan laws and usages have influenced formal legislation of general applicability - an approach described by Chief Overseas Governance Executive W.V. Kirkūvaltan as "maximising governability by maximising continuity" (tatriktor āritamdikorsk tatriktorsvo xarbonará). Cronite approaches crime and punishment are also present in the area of criminal justice: Since the recission of martial law after the war with Varshan, the Mediatrassic government has worked to integrate tradition- and community-based restorative justice practices into the resolution of criminal cases involving native Cronans as either victims or perpetrators.

Public Order, Security, and Defence

The Mid-Atrassic States does not maintain its own armed forces. However, unlike its continental neighbour Kelekona, this does not mean that it is defenceless against foreign aggression, as the country's defence is the responsibility of the Kiravian Federacy.

Troops of the First Cronan Corps of the Kiravian Army are permanently stationed in Mid-Atrassic States in order to ensure the country's defence against external threats. Additionally, they deter and combat internal security threats such as insurgents of Čikibriki suprematist or Arzalist persuasions, deliver general law enforcement services across most of the country, and provide support to local authorities in the event of civil unrest or public emergency.

Military police units of the KF Territorial Defence Forces rated as 'deployment-ready' are rotated through the Mid-Atrassic States to assist the Kiravian Army in its public order, law enforcement, and internal security roles. These rotations are intended to provide experiential learning and organisational learning to the TDF units involved and increase their readiness for wartime deployment to Crona should such a situation arise in the future.

The Chapatec Free State retains its own defence force, the Chapatec People's Liberation Army, a right which it reserved under the terms of its incorporation into the Mid-Atrassic States. By agreement with the MAS and KF governments, the CPLA's marine unit, the Chapatec People's Liberation Army Navy, serves as a coast guard for the Mid-Atrassic States as a whole, and receives Kiravian government subsidies, surplus matériel, and other aid to assist it in this mission and progressively increase interoperability with the Kiravian Maritime Cutter Service.

Self-Administered Zones and Chartered Territories are permitted to raise and command organised militia subject to regulation by the General Executive Council. Most such jurisdictions also hire their own local police and/or gendarmes. Local 'private' militia unregulated by the state are commonplace in both native and transplant communities due to the recent experience of war and the limitations of the Kiravian Army's ability to provide a rapid response to stochastic threats. The Mid-Atrassic States are a major market for private security contractors, mostly hired by overseas corporations to protect their assets, personnel, and operations in the country.

Corruption

According to a 2030 AD report delivered by the Overseas Public Accounting Bureau, corruption on the level of individual government officials and functionaries is currently quite low in the Mid-Atrassic States, "if for no other reason than that the impoverished population has nothing of value to offer a CAS cadre on rotation". However, the Bureau projects that corruption will increase in the coming years as the economy becomes more monetised and Mediatrassic government grows it bureaucratic apparatus and takes on more responsibility locally. In the absence of meaningful electoral accountability during this transitional phase in the political and social evolution of the MAS, the report recommends closer oversight from the Audit Court and Federal Stanora in order to combat the anticipated rise in corruption.

At higher levels, it is widely believed - though so far without damning evidence - that there exists a significant amount of fraud, graft, and unfair practices with regards to MAS government contracting and the granting of state benefits such as licences, long-term leases, and concessions to large enterprises seeking to do business in the country.

Processes of Colonisation

[Human Capital Transfer]
The Mid-Atrassic States, with the general exception of the Self-Administered Zones, are the primary beneficiaries of the Human Capital Transfer Programme (Ruvastra Hanplátidherá) operated under the auspices of the Overseas Development Executive.

[Colonisation via land reform]

[Internal resettlement] In the immediate aftermath of the Nanzitolclatl War, Kiravian authorities directed the relocation and resettlement of numerous communities on the territory of the former country under their control. The Overseas Governance Executive officially refers to this policy as "Internal Resettlement" (Yētrix Ōrkurva Trébikorsk) and describes it as "a proactive intervention to permanently resettle and socially reïntegrate internally displaced persons and to defuse ethnic-tribal tensions via the physical clarification of ethnic boundaries." Critics allege that so-called Internal Resettlement was in fact a programme of ethnic cleansing under a thin humanitarian guise, and that its true motive was to consolidate the former Nanzitolclatl civilian population into manageable, homogenous ethnic homelands and depopulate strategically and economically valuable pockets of territory for military use and settler colonisation.

The policy of internal resettlement was ended in 2032.

[Social dumping and its consequences]
Critics, e.g. Ğábravik, allege that before the consolidation of the Mid-Atrassic States, the Kiravian administration applied transmigration policies targeting Mid-Atrassic Crona that could be described as "social dumping". These policies are alleged to have involved the recruitment of immigrants to Mid-Atrassic Crona from among the Kiravian working poor and underclass through the use of inexpensive incentives and possibly unethical practices on the part of contracting "emigration agencies". Those pushing the "social dumping" narrative claim that the policy was motivated by territorial avarice, and that its goal was to maximise the Kiravian minority population in Mid-Atrassic Crona as quickly and inexpensively as possible in order to legitimise Kiravian military and political control of the country and justify future interventions. Ğábravik also claims (without evidence) that Kiravian municipal governments such as those of Valēka and Escarda were complicit in implementation of this policy, hoping to offload members of their unhoused community.

[Future: Atrassic Union or piecemeal federalisation?]
The long-term future of the Mid-Atrassic states remains an open question and hotly debated. The future relationship of the Mid-Atrassic States or any successor entity thereto with the Kiravian Federacy will likely be contingent on domestic political developments in Kiravia; however, at the present time full Kiravian withdrawal and unqualified independence are generally considered to not be in the proverbial cards. The two most likely scenarios touted by pundits are "Atrassic Union" - whereunder the Mid-Atrassic States continue to develop as a unified and separate country that will gradually engage in ever-closer economic integration with Kiravia - and "Piecemeal federalisation" - whereunder the Mid-Atrassic States is ultimately a transitional entity from which the better-developed states will be detached over time to become federal subjects of the Kiravian Federacy or take on some other bilateral constitutional status within the Collectivity short of incorporation.

Society and Culture

Ethnic Demography

[Native tribes]

Native peoples of the Northern Division and Free State

Nanzitolclatl was a multiëthnic country, and the Mid-Atrassic states have inherited its ethnic diversity. The largest ethnic groups whose homelands would become fully or partially incorporated into the Mid-Atrassic states after the dissolution of Nanzitolclatl are the Chapatec, the historically privileged Čikibriki, and the Copacaban people. Other native peoples inhabiting the territory in appreciable numbers include the Čapticolani, Čezequaki, Qoptanquatl, Symantek, and Sugondese people. Clear-cut boundaries between ethnic zones were generally absent in Nanzitolclatl, but have hardened since the Deluge as a result of war and instability conducing the territorialisation of ethnic communities, as well as Kiravian policies such as internal resettlement and the designation of self-administered zones to function as ethnostates within the Mid-Atrassic commonwealth. Čikibriki people, previously found all across the country as a dominant minority, are now concentrated mainly near the Northern Division's western border in the Frontier Military District, Rigo Joint Security Area, and Nanzi-Čikibrik SAZ. On the other hand, Chapatec people - whose traditional range corresponds roughly to the boundaries of the Chapatec Free State - expanded their geographic footprint during the Deluge and are now found living in many different provinces.

Native peoples of the Southern Division

The i̳ndigenous peoples of the Southern Division - defined to the exclusion of ethnic Varshanis - belong mainly to the Naruto-Plazmatek family.

The larger prewar population centres of the Southern Division are also home to many former slaves of varying (and often mixed and/or unknown) Cronan ethnic backgrounds who use Demotic Varshani as their common language. The freedman population of the Southern Division has declined since the war. This is mainly due to emigration, as most have either sought repatriation to their ethnic homelands or relocation to Nechaxa or the Human Development District in search of better economic opportunities.

Immigrant and minority communities

A small but rapidly growing minority of the population are of Kiravian origin. Setting aside a miniscule number of Kiravian families that had put down roots in Chapatpetl and Copacaban before the Deluge, the Kiravian population are recent arrivals to the Mid-Atrassic States, having come to the country after its predecessor entities came under Kiravian rule in the 2020s and 2030s. Kiravians permanently resident in the Mid-Atrassic states are officially termed 'transplants', and are distinguished from the large number of Kiravian military, administrative, and humanitarian personnel serving in the country, though coördinated KF-MAS policy provides various inducements to encourage such personnel to take up residency in the Mid-Atrassic States after completing their service. [ Settlement Movement ]

Varshani people are an important ethnic minority in the Mid-Atrassic States. Although the ethnic Varshani population of Upper Atrassic Crona saw massive decline after the war, mostly through emigration to League-occupied Varshan, they retain a significant presence in the Southern Division’s larger population centres in the piedmont and wider mountain vales. A smaller population of Varshanis exists in the Northern Division; it is mostly comprised of resettled collaborators and defectors, specially-selected refugees and IDPs, and some former POWs who refused repatriation after the war. Most live in resettlement camps.

Religion

Petroglyphic iconography of local paganism

The religious landscape of the Mid-Atrassic States, historically dominated by long-established native belief systems such as Čulčeo and orthodox Arzalism, is presently in flux due to migration, post-Deluge disruptions and developments in Arzalism, and the growing influence of Christianity.

The worship of Xzibit is widespread in the Mid-Atrassic States, extending across multiple religious systems from Culceo to Arzalism. His cult is centred in the town of Ix’xzotil. Another important traditional deity is the Great Lobster, associated with fate, who is revered mainly in coastal communities.

The highland tribes of Upper Atrassic Crona mainly revere weather-related deities, especially the Hail Gods. Worship of these figures was officially prohibited under Varshani rule, but due to the remoteness of mountain tribal communities the prohibition was only rarely enforced. The Hail God Faith has been practiced more openly since liberation and has just begun to be studied by Kiro-Occidental scholars.

The government has sanctioned and facilitated the reformation of Arzalist religious practices on its territory, in conjunction with the parallel efforts underway in League-occupied Varshan to decouple popular Arzalism from the deposed Zurgite political order and ritual violence.

Christianity has a long history on the territory of the Mid-Atrassic States, having established a small beachhead in what is now the Chapatec Free State during the 1600s AD. Its subsequent diffusion outside of this area was visible but limited, though it accelerated during the 20th century AD with foreign support and independent missionary activity. The Deluge allowed for a dramatic increase in Christian evangelism, led mostly by Kiravian and international church-affiliated aid organisations carrying out humanitarian and educational work in the country. The Roman Catholic and Insular Apostolic churches are the most active in this regard, with the latter making particularly notable inroads in the less accessible regions of the Southern Division. The Coscivian Orthodox Church and Protestant groups have a smaller missionary presence.

It is believed that between four-hundred and one-thousand Christian Abrigalasts live in the Mid-Atrassic States, with a few Abrigalast families having settled there even before the Deluge.

There are two known mosques in the Mid-Atrassic States, in Anaqua and Amboy City. The Qustanti Sovereign Wealth fund has made some investments in the country.

Education

[Surviving pre-deluge higher ed?] [Canopy schools - mostly in refugee camps and resettlement blocks] [Colonial institutes of higher ed]

As might be expected of an impoverished country with ill-functioning institutions, public education in Nanzitolclatl was known to the League of Nations and the wider international development community to be of poor quality, inconsistent geographic coverage, and underutilised by its target populations. For montagnards and enslaved persons in the former Varshan, formal education was nonexistant. Efforts to construct a modern educational system in the predecessor entities to the Mid-Atrassic States began with "as blank a slate as can still be found in the year of Our Lord two-thousand and thirty-one; a greenfield project if their ever were one."

Literacy rates among the non-Varshani i̳ndigenous population of the Mid-Atrassic States are very low, and boosting native-tongue literacy rates has been a high priority on the development agenda since the beginning of Kiravian trusteeship. While Demotic Varshani, Chapatec, and the larger ethnic vernaculars of the Northern Division have existing (if limited) literature, many smaller Northern languages and most languages of the Southern Division have hitherto been purely oral. For these languages, devising suitable orthographies has been a prerequisite for successful native-tongue literacy efforts. Civic education is also particularly emphasised in the Southern Division in order to prepare the citizenry there to take on responsible government in the future.

The regional normal school in what is now the Chapatec Free State remained in operation during and after the Chapatec War of Independence. New normal schools to train local pedagogues for service in the Northern and Southern Divisions are expected to admit their first students by 2035.

Cuisine

Succotash with okra in as prepared by the Čezequaki people in Piscataqua, Perth Amboy

Sagamite is a classic dish served and conserved by most i̳ndigenous peoples of the Mid-Atrassic. The Cronan Health Service has cautioned against the traditional use of animal brains as an ingredient in sagamite, citing concerns over transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, particularly the chronic wasting disease prion circulating in Cronan ungulate populations. Such faucistic missives are universally ignored by native peoples and epicurious Kiravian immigrants alike.

A unique Mediatrassic culinary scene known as "camp cooking" (lérakśor in Coscivian, oztok in Warśani) has emerged among native and displaced populations in places such as refugee camps, resettlement blocks, and development blocks, utilising ingredients drawn from Kiravian food aid combined and prepared in ways that maximise appeal to the i̳ndigenous palate, comport with traditional methods of cooking, and provide a complete nutritional profile. Mediatrassic camp cooking has been compared to ration-based cuisine in the Kiravian Union.

The hardy and hearty potato has been cultivated on the territory of the present-day Mid-Atrassic States since time immemorial, and indeed, it is one of the few crops that can grow reliably in the more marginal mountain areas of the Southern Division. In the Northern Division the potato was mainly a secondary crop until the early modern period but nonetheless familiar to the i̳ndigenous people, who developed at least twenty distinct cultivars that are widely grown today, with potentially scores more under localised cultivation or even yet to be discovered by Occidental science. Since the Deluge, the potato has become much more prominent in the Mediatrassic diet thanks to Kiravian food aid and federally-subsidised imports from Canespa.

Seafood, particularly the lobster, crab, oysters, "lake" "trout" and other littoral fish abundant in Yordest Bay, is important in the cuisine of the Chapatec and Copacaban peoples. Elsewhere in the country, freshwater fish such as lake trout, char, inconnu, whitefish, pike, and burbot are enjoyed.

There is considerable overlap between i̳ndigenous Mediatrassic and traditional Coscivian-Kiravian cuisine in terms of ingredients, flavour patterns, and cooking methods. Indeed, this has allowed a post-Deluge industry of family-run Cronite restaurants catering to a Kiravian immigrant customer base in the new settlements to become successful, which is held up by the Mediatrassic government as a promising example of i̳ndigenous entrepreneurship and fruitful (and vegetable-ful) cultural exchange. Key differences between the two include the cereal base (dominated by maize and wild rice in Cronite cuisine whereas Kiravians utilise dralm, cuckwheat, and oats), protein sources (The pork relied upon by Coscivians is absent while fish, fowl, and game are more important), the stronger influence of Levantine food on Kiravian cuisine, and the complete absence of dairy from Cronite cuisine. Furthermore, Cronan bread is unleavened and Coscivians made relatively little use of the beans so central to Cronan cooking. Nonetheless, both culinary traditions employ boiling and frying as the main cooking methods, avail themselves heavily of forest products such as tree nuts and edible fungi. Both share very similar inventories of fruits, though modern Kiravian cuisine now makes far less use of woodland berries than does Mediatrassic cuisine.

Economy

The Mid-Atrassic States have a developing economy. Northeast Crona is the poorest geoschematic region of the world, a legacy of geographic and ecological endowments, Varshani oppression, modern anocracy and extractivism, and the effects of Deluge conflicts. Geographically isolated and politically subjugated for centuries, the mountainous regions constituting the former Upper Atrassic Crona are particularly deprived and face persistent barriers to growth, with their inhabitants living a largely premodern subsistence lifestyle. The current development agenda guiding colonial administration and Kiravian interventions is to accelerate the country’s transition from what is effectively a least developed country to a frontier market capable of attracting at least a modest degree of unfacilitated private investment.

Currently, the vast majority of economic activity in which the i̳ndigenous labour force participates is situated in the informal sector. The Mediatrassic officialdom prefer to distinguish between a "traditional sector" (intæriamer) encompassing rural subsistence activities and customary non-monetary exchanges on one hand and a "properly informal sector" of urban/periurban monetised service and cottage-industry work on the other. However, the fact remains that most of the country's economic activity is not structured in a fashion that is legible to bureaucrats for regulation, precise measurement, and taxation.

[Canal project]

The currency of the Mid-Atrassic States is the Cronan lira, which is issued by the Atrassic Monetary Commission and pegged to the Kiravian saar, both to ensure the stability of the country's fledgling and still heavily aid-dependent economy, and to simplify accounting for the many government agencies and Kiravian businesses operating in the Mid-Atrassic, who generally perform their bookkeeping in saars but opt to make local purchases and payroll in lire. As the real economy of the Mid-Atrassic States becomes more and more modernised with the march of modern development, the ODE and the Mediatrassic government are preparing to launch a postal savings bank operated by the Mid-Atrassic Post to promote equitable financial inclusion of the native majority population.

Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries

Before the Deluge, agriculture and other primary production activities employed the majority of workers in eastern Nanzitolclatl and supported a clear majority of households. Due to the disruptions and displacements of the Deluge, this is no longer true in the Northern Division, though food production still employs the largest share of the regular workforce and likely accounts for a significant share of irregular labour activities. In the Southern Division, the opposite is the case, as the destruction of industrial-commercial enterprises by the war and the cessation of mining and the consequent emigration of formerly enslaved labourers left a remnant population predominantly occupied with traditional subsistence.

Companion planting near Tamaqua in the Southern Division

The main staple crops grown in the Mid-Atrassic states are maize (Zea mays), various species and cultivars of beans (Fabacea benis), and squashes (Curcubita). These three staples are traditionally grown together in the same plots in a milennia-old technique of companion planting: Maize is the first to be planted, followed after two or three weeks by beans. The beans enrich the nitrogen content of the surrounding soil, and the corn stalks in turn serve as scaffolds supporting the growth of the bean plants. Between cornrows, i̳ndigenous farmers cultivate low-growing squash or pumpkins, the leaves of which shade the ground, preserving moisture and inhibiting ye growth of weeds.

Maple sap harvesting in Montitoba

The foundations for a globally significant acericultural sector to harvest and process maple sugar and maple syrup for export are currently being laid in the Montitoba Territory, as well as in adjacent provinces to a more limited extent. Projections from the Multilateral Coöperation Council Agrifood Development Office suggest that the "syrup belt" of northeast Crona stretching across the northern latitudes of the Mid-Atrassic States and Xisheng could dominate world sugar maple production by the 2050s.

Hemp is known to be cultivated in the Mid-Atrassic States. Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) is also cultivated, ostensibly for i̳ndigenous medicinal and religious purposes.

Wild turkeys are naturally native to the Mid-Atrassic States and are widely raised - mostly on a household subsistence level - for their abundant and succulent meat. It is possible that with the introduction of Kiravian poultry technology and techniques to the country, the Mid-Atrassic States may emerge as a globally significant producer and exporter.

There are fairly abundant forest resources in the Mid-Atrassic States, including large reserves of deciduous hardwood timber. After the fishery (see below) Lumbering was the first export-oriented business to resume production after the Nanzitolclatl War, and has proven useful for human development purposes for its capacity to absorb relatively unskilled labour. Mediatrassic timber is suitable for domestic use in supplying materials for the postwar construction boom, as well as for sale on the international markets.

The fisheries industry has been the sector of the economy least affected by the wars of the 21st century, remaining a reliable source of employment for coastal communities that has experienced robust growth due to increased domestic demand for seafood from the growing immigrant population. Mediatrassic fisheries have been able to grow their catch to keep up with demand with the help of technology transfer from the advanced Kiravian trawling industry. Marine crustaceans are a particularine important export.

Mining and Energy

The mountainous Southern Division is rich in minerals, including coal, bauxite, vauxhallite, and electrolytes.

The mineral wealth of the Northern Division is more limited, but there are ample sources of nonmetallic geologic materials such as sands, shale, clay, limestone, and others that have industrial applications or are of value to the country's growing construction sector as building materials. Inexpensive labour offers the Mid-Atrassic states a comparative advantage as an exporter of such materials to the global market, but quarries will require improved infrastructure and better investment conditions to be profitable.

Exploration for undersea hydrocarbon deposits in Yordest Bay is underway. A generous share of the aforementioned bay falls within the territorial waters or exclusive economic zone of the Mid-Atrassic States.

Manufacturing

According to a 2034 AD memorandum produced by the Overseas Development Executive, promotion of manufacturing in the Mid-Atrassic States is a crucial priority for any successful development strategy:

There is no widely replicable strategy for successful developmental transformation of a country known from historical experience nor anticipated by theoretical modelling that does not require intensive industrialisation. Only manufacturing exhibits increasing returns on each marginal unit of labour and offers a possibility for “unconditional” convergence in labour productivity with already-developed nations, and only manufacturing is able to absorb large amounts of labour, including relatively unskilled labour, into high-productivity work. Whereas the expansion of services is in an unindustrialised market is self-limiting and œcological factors impose natural restraints on the expansion of primary commodities, the tradability of manufactured goods means that there are no such automatic limits to manufacturing growth.

— Kiravian Agency for International Development, Development Roadmap for a Consolidated Mid-Atrassic Federation (2034)

Most preëxisting physical capital for industrial undertakings on the territory of the Mid-Atrassic States was destroyed in the wars of the Deluge, though a small number of factories (mostly producing basic materials) in the Chapatec Free State and East Rigo have proven salvageable and resumed operations. However, the majority of industrial horsepower currently installed or under installation in the MAS is the result of new investment, and located almost exclusively in charter cities and special economic zones in the self-governing provinces. Textile mills have been identified as an efficient application of the country's inexpensive, largely unskilled labour force that may help lay the groundwork for further industrialisation.

However, Kiravian sponsorship of Mediatrassic manufacturing is politically contentious in the Federacy, particularly in regions that have suffered from de-industrialisation since the end of Kirosocialism, and in the Moonlight Cays where there are credible fears of losing jobs or entire industrial subsectors to lower-wage Mediatrassic competition. Thus, ODE planners and potential investors have so far proceeded cautiously with regard to their choices of projects in the Mid-Atrassic, for fear that metropolitan political backlash in the near future could result in the rollback of investment incentives and the erection of stronger trade barriers.

Tax Shelter

In many respects, current policy in the Mid-Atrassic States places a very light regulatory and tax burden on business enterprises, in order to encourage entrepreneurship and economic growth. This has led some savvy members of the international business class to consider the Mid-Atrassic States as a possible rising corporate haven. Indeed, the Archipelago Group, a well-known Pribraltar-based registered agency and provider of corporate services, has opened offices in Anaqua City and Port Amboy to serve clients seeking to avail themselves of such advantages. According to the South Crona Morning Post, the Mid-Atrassic States' advantages as a corporate haven are compromised by a largely untested court system for chancery matters, slower administration than established corporate havens, and uncertainty regarding the MAS' precise international legal status and relationship to Kiravia in the eyes of onshore regulatory agencies.

There are abundant anecdotal reports, sometimes substantiated with photographs, circulated on the Internet by residents of Perth Amboy and South Amboy that the outskirts of those territories' larger settlements are home to many vacant or visibly under-occupied buildings or barely-begun construction sites that have lain idle for years on end and bear signage identifying them with fairly well-known Kiravian and foreign corporations. This has engendered suspicion that large companies overseas may be "reinvesting" some of their global profits into spurious untaxed "projects" in the Mid-Atrassic States to shelter them from taxation.

See also

• Postal history of the Mid-Atrassic States
• South-Atlantic States
• South-Atlantic France