Thýstara

Territory of Thýstara Skírēn Þýstara
Flag
Country	Kiravian Federacy
Theme	Overseas Regions
Capital	Iśanvamur
Population	540,000
Governor	Alpin Erigeron
Chancellor	Erasmus Rārifor
Legislature	Legislative Conference
Stanora seats	1
Official languages	Coscivian
Recognised Languages	Qualkee, Fhasen
Postal Abbreviation	ÞÝS
Time Zone	Érskinsar Time

Thýstara is an island colony and overseas province of the Kiravian Federacy located in extreme northwestern Cusinaut, off the coast of Caracua.

Geography

Thýstara has a boreal oceanic or subpolar oceanic climate. Its prevailing vegetation zones can be described as coniferous boreal forest, boreal tussock grassland, and alpine "wet tundra" and alpine dry tundra at certain higher elevations and orographic positions.

Lutheran churchyard on the Inūlin River

History

Thȳstara was discovered in 1587 AD by Tomas Gwydion Bowen, a Fiannrian Faehne explorer from Sorhaithe who discovered Thýstara. By the 1600s AD, fishing expeditions from Faneria, Kiravia, Fiannria, and Caergwynn had begun visiting the island to exploit the bountiful stocks of cod. The Kiravian fishery grew to include approximately 70 ships by 1607, surging to approximately 150 after the establishment of a permanent Kiravian presence on Rovaīon. The Far Cronan Fisheries Act of established the Admiralty Court's jurisdiction over the activities of Kiravian fishing crews even while ashore on the island, but a formal territorial claim would not be made until after the 1634 Treaty of Marriott, in which other nations with substantial fishing interests in the area recognised Kiravian sovereignty over the island in exchange for protection of their fishing rights and extension of various privileges and immunities to their vessels and crews. Before Marriott, there were occasional clashes between Boreal and Menquoi (mainly Burgundian and Yonderrite) fishing parties and shore encampments. The island's population would steadily grow, enabling Coscivian settlers to raid the mainland. This, combined with the colonization of Porifira, was among the leading causes for Cusinaut's indigenous population to form the Northern Confederation in 1660.

By 1700 AD, the population of Thýstara had risen to nearly 12,000, and the cod fishery remained the main industry. Settlers and visiting fishermen were heavily reliant on the sea and on imported foodstuffs (salted, canned, and otherwise preserved) for their sustenance, but supplemented their diets through a unique local horticultural practice that combined the hardiest Elymus cultivars and Kiroboreal vegetables with local plants and growing techniques learnt from the Qualkee. As the permanent settlements crystallised, the mode of production shifted from the original model of seasonal fishing and curing camps to more-or-less year-round fishing by gangs of settlers in smaller boats, who were able to harvest and process a larger volume of fish locally for sale to ships (often as barter), allowing exporters a much faster turnaround and ensuring the colonists more regular access to imported provisions.

The introduction of distilled spirits is considered to have contributed greatly to the pacification of the Qualkee. Historians observe that most recorded episodes of intercommunal violence occurred in a narrow temporal band between the original Kiravian settlement nuclei reaching sufficient population pressure to spurr on expansion and regular shipments of whiskey and white spirit becoming commercially available, after which the chronicles record only liquor-fuelled "tavern rebellions" that barely made it out of the pub, a familiar and extremely common phenomenon in Kiravian history.

Previously governed nomarchically under a series of Collegiate Ordinances and Organic Acts, Thýstara was granted a chartered government in 1828 AD, featuring an elected legislature.

Penal settlements were established in the island's interior in 1844 to extract coal and other minerals. The Atlindarin Katergon remains in operation today as a joint facility serving as the colony's flagship penal institution and part of the federal correctional system. Penal labour was crucial in making the development of the interior possible, enabling the construction of viable mines, quarries, timber tracts, and associated infrastructure such as sawmills and railroads.

Modern times

Thýstara was so unaffected by the Kiravian Civil War that in 1937 AD, two years after the conclusion of the conflict, sealing captain M.B. Xrytviken recorded calling at the remote Abrigalast hamlet of Vammen and discovering that the inhabitants were theretofore unaware that the Civil War had happened. An extreme example though this is, the remote and unindustrialised colony of independent fishermen, craftsmen, and shopkeepers was nonetheless distant in both time and sentiment from the sociopolitical tumult of the early 20th century Kiravian mainland. Some records indicate that Thýstara elected a delegate sans etiquette to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, but no such delegate is entered in the rolls from its convocation, suggesting that even if he were elected the gentleman never arrived to take his seat.

The island colony spent the Sunderance as part of the Kiravian Remnant. The Remnant government's programme of rapid state-coördinated capitalist industrialisation did further the exploration and exploitation of the island's mineral resources and investment in modernisation of its fishing fleet and seafood processing plants. Thýstara was also of interest to the Federalist military, which set up meteorological and signals intelligence stations there. Red Kiravian and White Kiravian submarines frequently passed through Thýstaran waters on their way to and from reconnaissance missions against their respective opps, but only one direct encounter between Kiravian subs, the 1963 McCabe Seamount Skirmish, is recorded, which resulted in no casualties to either side. It is, however, believed to be the only combat action involving the Kiravian Union's Bradán-class submarine.

Society & Culture

Thýstara is a settler society comprising people, cultural elements, and social institutions transplanted from other parts of the Kiravian Federacy. Its 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 Koskenkorvans 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, Arnórians, Lúnstans, Kroysanyans, Túkluskan Coscivians, Sikorvians, and Ice Coscivians, as well as non-Coscivian Rhūniks and Finnic-speaking groups from Koskenkorva and the Northern Isles. Most of these settlers came from the states of Intravia, Vôtaska, Lataskia, Ixikéa-Qihuxia, and Inokarya, and as such, the culture of Thýstara is strikingly similar to that of the North Coast. In the 21200s, renewed economic interest in Crona and the expansion of the mining industry encouraged Saxalin Islanders to relocate to Thýstara, from the Antarctic Circle to the Arctic.

Relations between the Kiravian settler population and the indigenous Qualkee (or "Island Malki") have been generally peaceful, if one-sided. In the early phases of colonisation, low population densities, limited colonial interest in the interior, and prudent decisions by the colonial administration engendered good relations between the Kiravians and Qualkee. However, tensions inevitably emerged as the settler population grew and expanded at the expense of the Qualkee, who became subject to forcible displacement, disruption of their traditional economies, and cultural degradation. Diseases (both infectious and of environmental etiology), intermarriage, and policy violence all contributed to the absolute decline of the pure-blood Qualkee population from an estimated 64,000 in 1730 to just 22,654 in 2020 AD. In the 21st century AD, the colonial and federal governments have reached agreements guaranteeing the Qualkee more local autonomy and equitable access to land, forest products, and marine resources. It is estimated that between a quarter and a third of the settler population have Qualkee ancestry, though Qualkee leaders and autonomous institutions do not accept mixed-race persons as members of their community unless they were brought up in it from early childhood.

Some insular or nonconformist religious groups have formed communal settlements in Thýstara, including the Abrigalasts. The traditional ethnic religion of the Qualkee people has been described as animistic in nature, with its central rites focusing on arctolatry, the worship of bears and their associated spirits.

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 parallel voting, with one member elected from each countyship by alternative vote, and an additional members elected at large by single transferable vote. 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 appeal, the judge's own referral (Coscivian: abridávitor), or a request for a change of venue. 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 original jurisdiction; a Court of Property Rights, which hears cases related to mineral rights, public lands, colonial land grants, and private real property 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 judicial review.

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, Avenirskara, the Green River Colony, and Niyaska.

Economy

The Thýstaran economic base is extractive, 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 cold-water shrimp, king crab, and snow crab), 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 pitchblende were mined intermittently between 21128 and 21144, when the exiled Federalist government consolidated the various mines under a 50% government-owned corporation and resolved labour disputes with the local miners' unions after an arduous standoff. 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 during the Sunderance, improved access to global commodities markets since liberalisation, and renewed growth in the nearby colonies of Porfíria and Avenirskara.

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