Nation Name
The Autonomous Union of Northern States (Nicknamed 'The Red Corridor')
Government
Members of the Noritburo shortly after session.
The Autonomous Union of Northern States proclaims itself as a 'Revolutionary Worker's Republic' based on the doctrine of Communalism. The Central Committee and the Noritburo are the highest offices of power within the Union and hold absolute power over the economy and military.
The Union also follows the doctrines of 'Tao Thought' which was founded by famous, and deceased, Southern Revolutionary 'Tao-Lin-Zong'. Tao Thought describes both the revolutionary state and the revolutionary army being one in the same on all accounts, meaning that with each shot fired at the enemy, the state of the revolution grows stronger. This, of course, means that a large portion of both the Central Committee and the Noritburo being made of military figures and former 'red-guards', which has led to anti-communalists decrying the state as 'A Military Dictatorship'. To counter-act these claims, the formation of 12 'People's States' were founded across the Union, each state having a People's Committee of it's own with one or two members being within the Noritburo. The issue remains, however, that the People's Committees lack almost any power in changing laws or regulations within their own states, making them nearly void to the power of the Central Committee.
In matters of Law, the Union formed The Revolutionary People's Red Guard, or simply the Red Guard, shortly after it's foundation to ensure that reactionaries and all others who supported a reformation of the Northern monarchy would be dispatched or sent to justice within the People's Committees. It is merely rumor by counter-revolutionaries that these trials in the Committee are 'show-trials' and that more often than not enemies of the state are executed or sent to 'Northern Prison Camps'.
Economy
The North-Eastern lands have been plagued with arctic temperatures and blizzard, the more spiritual say that there is even a snow deity that rules the land and brings down his wrath upon it. Regardless of these claims, the North is far from an economically stable region, with famine being a constant fear in the hearts of all. This has led to the previous North-Eastern Kings taking a strong laissez-faire approach to economics and especially trade. For ages western and southern fat-cats became rich by selling the North food in return for their precious and valuable wood supply. Labourers and Millers would spend all their lives working for men who never knew their names and lived far south or far west in a cozy manor while the Northerners worked through the cold to feed their families.
The Revolutionary Party of the North saw an end to all of it. No longer would a fisher fish for anyone in the South, or a Miller chop wood for anyone but his comrades. In a swift move shortly after taking power, the Northern land-owners and fat-cats were taken into custody, their 'southern-inspired' manors razed and given back to the small farmers, fishers, and millers. Collective Farms and Fisheries became mandatory and all industries in the North were swiftly nationalized and centralized into the Revolutionary Union of the North, a state created union made specifically for the northern labourer.
A Northern Lumber-Mill shortly after the collectivization of Northern industries.
Of course, with these swift actions in ending the cursed 'invisible hand', a great amount of luxury goods were lost and many traders were forced from their ports with all of their goods quickly taken by the state. Investors in Northern 'modernization' lost hundreds upon thousands of coin in the brutal actions of the new revolutionary nation... But life went on nonetheless. The North-East was no longer safe for trade, and protectionism became the norm. The vast arctic fisheries known as 'The Iron Stream' became a solitary entity for the revolutionary state, and now supplies much of the 'metropolitan' Northern cities with fish for the people. The southern mills, famous for their cold and hardened northern wood, now create only for the people.
Leader(s)
The Revolutionary Party of the North
Important People: Premier Jorval Starling: Leader of the Party and Central Committee and controversial Leader of the AUNS.
Hans Larson: Current Leader of the Liberation Army and fanatical Starlingist.
Important Locations
Artist's Depiction of Koscol. The use of Elan however is largely banned outside of military usage.
Koscol: In the metropolitan South-East lies directly on a strait known as 'The Northern Steps'. A series of small islands that look like stepping stones that could connect the western half of the state with the eastern half. Koscol is the political capitol of The AUNS and serves as home to the Revolutionary Party, the Central Committee, and of course Premier Starling himself. The City's greatest defense against foreign invaders remains to be the fact that, besides for the eastern front, it is entirely surrounded by the eastern inner-sea.
A Northern Fisherman resting on a dock in Southern Vorstan.
Vorstan: Perched on the tip of the South-Eastern Peninsula, Vortan is the economic capitol of The AUNS. It's southern shore-line and it's small islands hold countless small fisheries which make the region known as 'Fisherman's Bay' by many. The northern Vorstani area holds vast Northern Mills that produce twelve percent of the national wood used in building fishing boats, weapons, and common furnishes.
'Worker's Square' in Central Torlargrad.
Torlargrad: On the great North-Western river known as 'The Skold', Torlargrad is the pride of the Union, being named after famed revolutionary Artold Torlar, it formerly was simply known as 'Czaringrad' for it's tradition of being the throne of the monarchy. Now the city has become a symbol of the success of industrial Communalism and Miltarism. Due to the almost fortress like nature of the city and it's strong military presence, it has been nicknamed 'Starling's Fortress'.
Technology Overview
While the South can preach of the greatness of their technology, the North men rely on their sheer strength and will. While The AUNS is far from a uncivilized state, it does not rely on luxuries held by the capitalist southerners and westerners. The average Northern family holds a very common and simple lifestyle, filled with wooden and steel work-tools and manually operated labour. However, due to the difficult nature of ice-fishing, the creation of steam-drills is a national beauty of Communalist technological growth.
Military Overview
Liberation Army forces in War-Games in the Torlargrad region.
The Liberation Army of The AUNS relies entirely on the doctrine of People's War as described by Southern revolutionary Tao-Lin-Zong. Instead of using the steel war-machines that became common-place with the development of steam technology, the Liberation Army relies on the vast northern population to create a mighty army of peasants and farmers. A revolutionary state requires a revolutionary people's army, and the NLA is that army. In terms of weaponry, the NLA is known for it's mass-built 'Rogin M51' bolt action rifle as the main weapon of the armed forces, with officers receiving a 'Sagant 85' revolver and a steel officer's saber for close-combat.
A Northern woman holding a Rogin M51 equipped with a glass-lensed scope for reconnaissance purposes. Women only recently have become more commonplace in the Liberation Army, as laws were passed allowing their service.
While the north frowns on the steam operated war-machines of the South, calling them 'cowards cover', these machines still find their place within the Liberation Army, especially within the 'Northern Bird Brigade'. The Bird Brigade is a prestigious branch of the Northern Liberation Army and serves as an early form of an aerial combat force. Hulking warships based largely on models of their water-based counterparts travel the Northern skies in War-games on a regular basis. One can only imagine the feeling of lying in ones trench, only to see the great sky-bombards of the Union coming down upon their reactionary foes.
A Romanticized Propaganda Image drawn by Anton Sigioniv depicting life aboard a Sky-Hulk.
Member
Mysteries you say?... I'll give it a shot!