Venua'tino
Venua'tino or Mandatory Venua'tino is a region in northern Crona adjacent to the Arctic. It is a League of Nations mandate under the supervision of Urcea, established in 1967 sitting on the northernmost shore of the Nysdra Sea. The Mandate, as originally constituted, was one of the largest territories in Crona, spanning from Shenendehowa Bay in the west to the East Arctic Mandate in the east. The Mandate originally included five major and dozens of regional cultural groups and interests. Venua'tino is one of the least developed areas in the world in terms of both economy and demography.
League of Nations Mandate for Venua'tino'pouri'tino'nui | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
 | |
| Capital | Shenendehowa Bay |
| Religion | Venua Faith M'acunism Arzalism Catholicism |
| Government | League of Nations mandate under Urcean supervision |
• Commissioner | Phillip Danicetus |
| Establishment | |
• Mandate established | 1967 |
Beginning from a disunited prehistory, Venua'tino was subject to Quetzen and then Varshani domination beginning in the medieval period and lasting until the 1960s, after which time the League of Nations established the mandate for the territory. An attempt to create a single independent Venua state, known as the Coastal Coalition, was tried and failed during the 1970s, after which time Urcea turned its attention to maintaining peace and providing minor internal improvements. The Deluge led to a renewed interest in the territory by Occidental policymakers and investors, leading to the adoption of a policy to partition the Mandate into nation-states by means of foreign investment and deliberate nation building.
Etymology
Venua'tino is the shortened, Occidental version of "Venua'tino'pouri'tino'nui", a term which broadly translates into "land of the long night". "Venua", in particular, means both "night" as well the concept of "light", but not the characteristic necessarily of having light. Both branched meanings of the word are considered to be a form of wordplay by native speakers, ultimately referring to the long polar nights experienced in the territory followed by the prevalence of the midnight sun.
History
Prehistory and antiquity
Very little is known about the earliest human settlement in Venua'tino. The only facts established definitively are the presence of humans in the territory around the same time as the first arrival of humans throughout the rest of Crona. Limited evidence of early cave dwellings exist, with small and erratic cave paintings and limited material remains found inside. Most scholars agree that Venua'tino was, with the exception of a few places, not inhabitable during the last great ice age, accounting for the very limited archaeological evidence. As the ice receded, an increase in coastal material cultures is observable, but very few artifacts remain. It is likely Venua'tino was first permanently settled, like other places in the Nysdra, by transient fishermen. The Nysdran Collapse created conditions of rapidly rising sea levels and salinization, destroying most of the early human settlement in the territory from both a demographic and material point of view. Until around 300 BC, the Nysdra had almost no saltwater fish, eliminating the viability of many coastal settlements. Regardless, migratory hunters continued to live in the territory before, during, and after the collapse, and these seasonal hunters form the ancestors of many of the tribal peoples living in Venua'tino's interior.
The advent of agriculture came to the Venua'tino region in approximately 500 BC definitively, though some scholars believe the city of Shenendehowa Bay was established with agricultural technology at an earlier point. Agriculture was used, at first, as an alternative to fishing as saltwater fish had not yet populated the Nysdra, but by 300 BC agriculture and fishing became a viable tandem for the growth of urban settlements in Venua'tino. Several major coastal settlements were established by 300 BC, and by 250 BC a political entity which loosely covered the entire coastal region of Venua'tino was established. This polity, which goes by the historiographical term "Venua Empire", had no official name but was colloquially referred to as the "Confederation of the World" by its inhabitants. The Venua Empire continued to establish new settlements and colonies along the coast and by 150 BC had made significant inroads into the Venua'tino interior. Without political rival, the Empire - whose rule had consolidated in Shenendehowa Bay by 100 AD - continued to spread until the 400s AD and had many interior tribal clients. The historical record is silent on why the Empire went into rapid decline, but climatological evidence suggests that a millennia and a half of warmer temperatures in the area came to a swift end. Historians believe former client tribes came south to the coast and sacked major cities while cities of the Empire fought over existing resources. Some historians even believe that major tribes of the area today are descendants of the residents of some cities who were displaced by the environmental changes and became migratory. The Empire ceased to exist by 500 AD. While it was never especially centralized, it was the last time the entire region would be under the dominance of a single polity until the establishment of the League of Nations mandate over the region nearly a millennia and a half later.
After the fall of the Empire, several surviving cities continued to fight amongst themselves in order to establish hegemony and supremacy. By the 600s, most major cities of the Venua Empire had collapsed and migratory tribal life became the staple throughout the entire Venua'tino region. Shenendehowa Bay became the remaining major population center of Venua'tino. By 800 AD, some sense of "normalcy" had returned to the area as both cities established relatively stable and expansive Kingdoms which were able to keep the tribes from raiding their lands. This "two Kingdoms period" continued through the medieval period and provide the first major source of written material and history of the region, and scholars of the two Kingdoms period had great interest in the ancient Venua Empire.
Quetzen hegemony
The two Kingdoms period began to come to an end towards the end of the 13th century and the dawn of the Little Ice Age. The severe climatological effects are thought to have lead to the major wave of crop failures affecting both Kingdoms, which lead to the weakening of both. In 1324, the first Quetzen sailors began to arrive on the north shore of the Nysdra. Though disunified, the major maritime city states of Quetzenkel were far more prosperous and powerful than the Venua'tino on account of Quetzenkel's fertile farmland and strategic trading location. Through economic means, the two major cities and other coastal settlements of Venua'tino soon became dependencies on the Quetzen maritime powers as crop imports gave the Quetzen significant power over Venua'tino. Beginning in the 1440s, the city states began campaigns of military subjugation, establishing the first trans-Nysdra colonial system. Shenendehowa Bay became subordinate to Quetzen city states during this period, a status that would continue for the next three centuries. The rise of Archchief Quetzen I lead to the destruction or subjugation of many of the Quetzen maritime powers. Local notables in the Venua'tino coastal settlements reestablished native rule over the course of the 1640s and began a series of violent internecine wars that devastated the region.
Polar Captaincy
The anarchy which followed the collapse of the Quetzen thalassocracy was ended with the arrival of conquerors from Varshan in 1652. Due to the weakened state of the region, the relative low population density, and the lack of organized resistance, the Varshani force was small - most historians believe it was small as 2,000. Due to its proximity to Varshan across the Nysdra Sea and decentralized nature, as well as the lack of a systematic campaign of conquest by the relatively small force, the Venua'tino area was not directly incorporated into the Varshani state but instead organized into an entity known today as the "Polar Captaincy". The Polar Captaincy was organized around a few key coastal cities - including Shenendehowa Bay - which were designed as centers of control and locations to export both goods and slaves to the Varshani mainland. The Captaincy was essentially an organized tributary entity, wherein the cities and tribes of the territory would bring tribute to the cities to be exported to Varshan. Most slaves would come from privateers capturing mariners from Nysdra Sea traffic rather than the native population, although during its centuries-long history some campaigns into Venua'tino's interior were waged with limited success. Warring tribes and cities would also occasionally submit their captured enemies into slavery with the Varshani authorities. During this time, Varshan invested relatively heavily into the region's coastal infrastructure, giving it well-built cities and roadways connecting the handful of coastal outposts. The Captaincy also generally regulated inter-tribal or inter-city disputes among the native population. As conquests and raids - and consequently sources of new slaves - slowed elsewhere, Varshan increased the frequency of raids into the Venua'tino interior beginning in the early 20th century. This not only led to discontent but significant economic disruption, greatly exacerbating conflict between the native tributaries.
Mandatory period
| Mandate for Venua'tino | |
|---|---|
| Created | 1967 |
| Ratified | 1967 |
| Location | Palace of Nations, Alba Concordia |
| Signatories | League of Nations Security Council |
| Purpose |
|
As Varshan fell into significant internal disarray with the end of the Yun-harle dynasty, the Polar Captaincy collapsed as Varshani forces withdrew in 1964. Most major world powers expressed concern regarding the lack of central authority and social organization in Venua'tino following the withdraw. In 1967, the entire region was made into a mandate by the League of Nations with the express purpose of ensuring political stability, organizing distinct and self-sufficient states, developing infrastructure, and providing for humanitarian concerns in the region. The League-established Commission for Venua'tino'pouri'tino'nui was set up in Shenendehowa Bay to administer the territory. Although never considered part of Venua'tino proper due to its distance from the Nysdra, the remaining "stateless northern territories" which were sometimes included with Venua'tino were split off into the East Arctic Mandate under Kiravian supervision. Control over the mandate initially rotated between several designees before this system was revised in 1974. Under the influence of Urcea, the Mandate was permanently assigned to Urcean supervision under the justification that its presence in nearby New Harren made it the closest permanent member of the League of Nations Security Council. Urcea would begin an intermittent forty decade process of economic development and attempted state creation.
Coastal Coalition
Following Urcea's assumption of control over the Mandate in 1974, a team of Urcean diplomats and world renowned experts on Cronan culture from 18 countries traveled to the Mandate's administrative headquarters in Shenendehowa Bay. Over the next year, the Government of Urcea used its team on the ground to forge an entity known as the Coastal Coalition. The Coalition was an ad hoc alliance and non-aggression treaty signed between all of the major coastal cities and polities that was agreed to and entered force in late 1975. The Coalition was intended by Urcean diplomats to be a first step towards the establishment of an independent state in the region. In early 1976, the Urceans convinced the Coalition to ratify a trade agreement between its members, establishing a common customs area that would enter force on 1 January 1980.
The Coalition began to show signs of strain almost immediately, due to tensions between its members and due to their disagreements with Urcea. The historic rivalries, both political and cultural, between the cities was not restrained for long, and a series of perceived diplomatic insults led to light skirmishing as early as June 1976. Although the skirmishes were resolved using forces from other Coalition cities to keep the peace, the good will of the project had been irrevocably tarnished. In addition, following the collapse of the Varshani administration, the coastal cities began to exert new political and economic dominance over the inland tribes and villages; the balance provided by the Polar Captaincy prevented these incursions before the establishment of the Mandate. In 1977, Urcea asked the Coalition to ratify an agreement to not exert their influence or send settlers beyond a specific northern line in order to respect the historic lands of the inland tribes; the Coalition unanimously voted to refuse this agreement in 18 October 1977. The "northern line incident" deeply wounded relations between Coalition leaders and Urcea, with the Coalition becoming gradually more uncooperative over the course of 1978. During that time, new skirmishes broke out that led to most of the major cities walking out of the Coalition's temporary governing council on 14 August 1978. The Coalition continued on in a mostly de jure basis but was dissolved on order of the Urcean government on 1 March 1979; by that point it had comprised just a tenth of its initial members.
Following the collapse of the Coalition project, which had been an embarrassment for Urcea in the contentious period of the Occidental Cold War, Urcea resumed a strategy of multilateral engagement with every local polity on an individual basis. The Urceo-Venua enmity that had been caused by the northern line incident had largely been soothed by 1985 through this strategy. Urcea would continue to administer the area on this multilateral, hands-off basis for the next three decades, although it continued to invest economic development funding in the area while trying to build stronger relations with all local parties.
Deluge
The beginning of The Deluge led to a renewed focus within Urcean foreign policy on the affairs of Crona. This renewed attention led not only to increased budget investments in diplomats and economic development funding for the Venua'tino area, but also a new mandate from the public to bring the forty year old League Mandate project to a close with the creation of freestanding national states in Venua'tino or to otherwise divest itself of the territory. The Government of Urcea, reflecting on the failure of the Coastal Coalition project, decided that Venua'tino should be partitioned rather than attempted to be made into a full nation.
In 2017, Quicksilver Industries arranged a international charter city treaty with Shenendehowa Bay, removing it from the territory. This city was later transferred to the oversight of Caphiria.
In 2018, the region was bisected by the creation of the International Nature Preserve in the sparsely populated central region of Venua'tino. The bisection divided the territory into Western Venua'tino and Eastern Venua'tino, which both remained under the purview of the League Commission but under now seperate departments. The creation of the Preserve also precipitated the compensated relocation of the few tribes and peoples living within its boundaries, leading to the growth of small settlements in the remaining Mandate territory into moderate sized cities in the Mandate interior. These cities, an unprecedented development in the history of Venua'tino, created an opportunity for cultural exchange as well as cultural tensions. These new cities also required major investment into infrastructure by Urcea, which began in earnest with the construction of highway networks throughout both Eastern and Western Venua'tino.
In 2015, Urcea began efforts to organize eastern Venua'tino into a state due to its comparatively high urbanization and relative cohesion. These proceedings were halted by the Final War of the Deluge and several skirmishes between rival parties took place during the conflict, slowing progress. An agreement was finally reached with the Treaty of Halfway in 2024. On 1 January 2025, the Republic of Copake was officially formed. The Republic is currently in the process of creating an initial constitution, currently being governed on a provisional basis under the terms of the Treaty.
Post-Deluge era
On January 1st, 2025, Eastern Venua'tino officially became the Republic of Copake, reducing Mandatory Venua'tino to its western portion.
Beginning in late 2026, Urcea began the voluntary resettlement and relocation of some families from Varshan and the Seneca Islands to sparsely settled coastal regions of Venua'tino. The resettled families are former low caste or slave in origin. These groups established the so-called "Captaincy Colonies". Many of these individuals purportedly claim Captaincy-era heritage from Venua'tino prior to their enslavement and deportation to Varshan. Urcean administrators have stated the preference for "repatriation" rather than "colonization", but a 2029 League of Nations report indicated that many settlers had completely unsubstantiated claims of ancestry and that the resettlement program "were largely accepting any applicants." As of 2031, approximately 2,000 Varshanis had been resettled or had completed their application for resettlement. In 2032, Urcea concluded a treaty with the Owasco people to purchase the settled regions in a transaction known as the Otisco Purchase. The purchase, which followed a tense year of possible legal disputes, included an agreement by Urcea to shift its nationbuilding efforts to the Owasco peoples.
Urcea's continued control over the region has led to numerous critics - both within Urcea and abroad - making a negative comparison between the Urcean-controlled Mandate and the Varshani-controlled Captaincy.
Administration
Mandatory Venua'tino is administered by the Commission for Venua'tino'pouri'tino'nui based in Shenendehowa Bay. The Commissioner, appointed by the Urcean Ministry of State, is responsible for the execution of international law within the Mandate as well as the organization of League efforts in the Mandate. The Commission originally had ten subordinate agencies, being the Agencies of Tribal Diplomacy, Infrastructure, Healthcare, Commercial Organization, Law and Justice, Education, Cultural Affairs and Preservation, Economic Development, and Environment. In 2018, with the reorganization of the Commission came just two subordinate units within the Commission, the Eastern Department and the Western Department. Each Department, lead by a Department Supervisor, had their own ten subordinate agencies modeled after the original Commission. The Eastern Department was abolished with its transformation into Copake in 2025.
Culture
Mandatory Venua'tino at its establishment was a large territory that, prior to the establishment of Copake and the separation of Otisco and Shenendehowa Bay, encompassed approximately five distinct cultural groupings and more than a dozen smaller regional cultures. Venua'tino is not, by most metrics, considered to be a nation in the cultural sense, but the peoples living in this region do share a common history and some shared origins. The five major indigenous groups of Venua'tino are the Owasco, the Copaish, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the people living in and around Shenedehowa Bay, who do not have a well-attested denonym.
The most prominent shared attribute between the peoples of Venua'tino is the Venua Faith. The religion, of which the vast majority of present and former Venua'tino peoples are adherents of, originated in the territory most likely during the period of Varshani domination. It is a derivation of M'acunism with some aspects introduced from Arzalism according to some scholars. Though it is not a traditionally organized religion with a hierarchy or priesthood, it nonetheless plays a major role in the everyday culture, economy, and politics of the region. Many of the Venua peoples understand the purpose of public life as oriented towards bringing about population and economic growth within Venua'tino and abroad in order to hasten the eschaton. In addition to their shared worldview, the worship practices of the Venua faith - particularly the offering of burnt offerings - is commonly practiced from Shenendehowa Bay to Copake and everywhere in between. Burnt offerings are made in many different social contexts, including dedicated worship ceremonies, celebrations of major events like weddings, and solemnization of major social and political events, such as the official celebration of Copake's independence.
Beyond religion, the major cultural groups of Venua'tino have a few other shared practices; many of these were likely introduced during the Varshani period. One such similarity is that most Venua'tino recount the history of their families and ancestors in such a way that shows influence of Varshani historiography, dealing with time as a non-linear and non-rational concept. This conceptualization leads to many Venua aphorisms and sayings that are functionally nonsense to outside observers, and there have been noted problems with communication between local and global business interests since the establishment of the Mandate.
Economy
The economy of the entire Venua'tino region - including former territories - is considered to be a developing economy. Much of the territory is engaged in subsistence farming or live in migratory or semi-migratory groups for herding or hunting. Fishing is a major economic activity in Venua'tino, engaged in by small groups and large corporate interests alike. Industrial manufacturing is virtually unknown within the territory, with only small consumer-product oriented plants being built in the area during Varshani control and since abandoned. The increase in Occidental interest and investment in the territory, which began at the dawn of the 21st century, has introduced small scale but notable changes in some areas. Shenendehowa Bay in particular features a relatively advanced urban economy based on imports and the finance sector, and has a considerable consumer-based service sector in support of those areas. The construction sector is the fastest growing economic area in the territory as the governments of Shenendehowa Bay, Otisco, and Copake work to build highways and railways to connect major areas. The tourist sector is also growing with the operation of the International Nature Preserve, which not only brings outside visitors to the Venua'tino area but also necessitates constant construction of new hotels, restaurants, and other related amenities in Aurora City.
Venua'tino has limited natural resource wealth and few exports. Fish oil is a primary export of the area due to the proliferation of subsistence and for-profit fishing in the territory. Deposits of manganese and nickel are known to exist in Venua'tino but are subject to only limited exploitation, with a handful of nickel mines dating back to the Varshani occupation still in operation. Venua'tino nickel was primarily used for small-unit coinage in Varshan.
Partitioned elements
Over the course of its existence, the League Mandate for Venua'tino has been partitioned at various times to facilitate the creation of new territories and states. Beginning in the 2010s, partition was decided upon as a policy choice to begin the transition of the region to statehood or other productive uses and to provide for the eventual final end of the Mandate.
East Arctic Mandate (6 May 1974)
Shenendehowa Bay (15 May 2017)
International Nature Preserve (1 January 2018)
Copake (1 January 2025)
Otisco (17 January 2032)