*The content of this entry remains largely unaltered from the previous version; although some minor changes have been made.*
Geography:
Existing as the world's largest island and the world's largest island-nation, Monassa boasts unique geography consisting of a low-lying coastline around its edges and a large plateau, accompanied by mountain ranges, in its interior. In the Southern region of the interior plateau lies a desert lacking of plants but crawling with a variety of native snakes, serpents, and scorpions. The Northern region is slightly more temperate, with an alternating wet and dry season. Here exist sparse trees and grasslands as well unique animal species like Monassan Antelopes, Monassan Falcons, and Monassan Paragriffins. The Eastern region consists of the Trasterran Mountains, where the climate differs with its higher elevation yielding colder and rainier weather. The landscape here is dominated by evergreens, and consists of towering mountains. The Trasterran peaks are home to the same animal species as the North region, except that there are also brown bears. East of the Trasterran Mountains lies the Highlands, where even higher, snowy mountains are inhabited by eagles, bears, wolves, and the world's most dangerous wild animal species: warghols.
Every region in Monassa is home to its own native species of wysps, which are semi-spirit-like creatures with mysterious properties and behaviors. Serpentyne wysps evoke fear in first-time witnesses, but are harmless. Point-wysps, however, look like innocent stars but can be aggressive to humans.
Early Settlement, Culture, and Politics:
Remains of essential yew tree fields and lothar domestication farms indicate that the island of Monassa was, at one point, settled by the Great Ancondrian Empire. Also present are the ruins of ancient villages and cities, and most notably, the Great Beacon, which was a mystery to scholars until the discovery of Ancondria in 1268, when it was determined that the Beacon was pointing with great precision toward the ruins of the Ancondrian city of Edom.
It is believed that by 17000 BCE, following the end of the Great Ancondrian Empire, the population had broken down into individual factions, with some forming alliances and others becoming rivals. Over the passing millennia, diplomacy between these factions was very dynamic and fluid. Farms emerged in the Northern regions and Trasterran Mountains, while traveling nomadic tribes crossed the desert in the South to deliver goods between the villages of the North and coastal ports trading with the Magnumarian sea guilds. Meanwhile, in the Highlands, monks learned how to communicate and make peace with the dangerous warghols and wild animals, while warlords began constructing fortresses atop various mountain peaks. The monks, meanwhile built temples and shrines on other mountaintops. Early on, an unnamed religion dominated the culture of the Monassan people and the monks with a culture of mutual trust in differing beliefs. Despite the varying individual faiths, they shared the common belief that the wysps were spirits of the dead, and that spiritual intuition was gained by communicating with them.
Early Monassan society had no prisons to punish criminals. However, those found guilty of high offenses were given a choice: permanent exile off of the Island or a pilgrimage to one of the monks in the Highlands to request redemption. The latter choice was the most common one made but carried high risks, including encounters with warghols.
Between the 700s and 500s BCE, a political movement took place within each of the existing factions for unity and the establishment of democratic city-states. The first two city-states, Sancto Rosco and Atolleruc, were established in the 790s BCE. Hellece would emerge much later in the 510s BCE. Between the 400s and 300s BCE, Hellece, Atolleruc, and Sancto Rosco expanded their territories and evolved into territorial republics. Diplomatic disputes between the republics resulted in a series of armed conflicts before the signing of a peace treaty in 380 BCE.
Political balances in power within the structure of each republic and between republics, along with steady flow of trade and commerce, led the three republics to enter into a period of prosperity. However, that ended abruptly in 64 CE, when a major earthquake struck the Island. The catastrophe left thousands dead, cities destroyed, and trade routes disrupted. Economic hardship ensued over the two decades that followed. And this made worse the consequences of political corruption, which had been growing steadily over the previous several centuries. In 85 CE, the people of Sancto Rosco elected Porpytus, a political figure who unapologetically voiced authoritarian philosophies, to one of two Offices of Consul. Porpytus held the Office longer than permitted under the Sancto Rosco constitutional statute (which dictated a one-year term limit), by having himself re-elected in 86 CE. In 87 CE, Porpytus created the Office of Head Consul, to which he appointed himself. And in 88 CE, he abolished the other two Consul offices before launching a war on the Republic of Atolleruc in the South and the Republic of Hellece in the North. With such a maneuver being a surprise attack, Porpytus won and successfully absorbed both territories under his sovereignty.
The following year, Porpytus attempted a military offense on the Highlands, but this proved a dismal failure, owing to the warghols and the harsh environment. Instead of continuing the hopeless agenda, Porpytus signed the Highlands Peace Treaty of 89 CE with the monks and warlords. Under the agreement, the monks and warlords were, in civil terms, under Porpytus' sovereignty, although two existing checks on such a dominion were for Porpytus to never impose taxes or actually enforce laws upon them. Furthermore, Porpytus obliged to protect them from the coast with naval forces. This Peace Treaty, though now heavily amended, still exists to this day as one of the oldest peace treaties in history.
Afterward, Porpytus renamed himself General Consul, a position he would hold until his death in 99 CE. He would be followed by his appointed successor, Armon, who would continue an unbroken line of General Consuls. In 112 CE, Armon attacked and defeated the Five Kingdoms, which covered the present-day Mid-Westerlies Islands to the West. Armon placed each of the Five Islands under a Regional Consul, establishing a hold that Monassa would have over the Islands until the 800s.
Great Northern Claims and the 1245-49 Transition of Power:
Under the succession of General Consuls, Monassa would follow centuries of peace and prosperity. Between the 600s and 700s CE, the strengthening nation began establishing settlements in Northwestern Remikra. After a series of conflicts with the local Remikran forces, Monassa would eventually gain official sovereignty over a small piece of the territory, naming it Asoratans. Peak Monassan prosperity arguably came to an end in 810 CE when the people of the Mid-Westerlies rebelled and successfully overthrew Monassan rule, establishing the Five Islands as a single Republic. In 826 CE, after a year-long civil war, this Republic broke into the Five Republics. Over the same time period, Monassa entered a steady decline in economic and political power. In the late 940s and early 950s, political boundaries in Northwest Remikra dissolved, leading to the establishment of the Linbraean Kingdom, which would be ruled by families of both Monassan and North Remikran descent. In 954, the Linbraean Kingdom attacked and defeated the sovereign territory of Monassa, itself, making it a Linbraean territory, while the Linbraeans attacked, defeated, and colonized the Five Republics in a similar fashion. In 998, the Linbraean Kingdom merged with the Edoran Kingdom to become the Kingdom of the Great North, of which Monassa and the Mid-Westerlies Islands became territories.
Monassa, at this point, existed as a Duchy of the Linbraean Regiondom as its land was divided into a territorial hierarchy similar to that of the Great North: counties consisting of boroughs, which consisted of estates. With Dukes and Duchesses serving as figures of royalty, the regional government was headed by a succession line of Governor-Generals issuing commands from Sancto Rosco. State-funded Alconist Churches were established, although freedom of religion was respected. The greatest change, however, occurred in its economy, which saw the development of industrial infrastructure such as railroads, factories, classical airships, industrial cash crops (especially vineyards) in the North and Trasterran regions, mineral extraction sites in the desert South, tourism and trade along the Coast, and hiking and wildlife observation tours in the Highlands. Also in the Highlands, later on, would emerge rock-climbing and snow-sporting tourism. As technology advanced in Remikra throughout the 1000s, 1100s, and 1200s, such advancements would be introduced in Monassa.
And such would remain the status quo until the year 1245, when the last remaining eligible ruling figure of the Linbraean-Monassan Duchy passed on with no descendants. Such an occurrence, in accordance with Great Northern statute, warranted for the territory of Monassa to be handed to an independent party and exist as an independent nation. The Great Northern Crown smoothed over such a transition of power, as they mobilized to help Monassa set up a government similar to that of the former nation of the Chartered State of Combria: an incumbent-appointed presidential council (or an IAPC).
In March 1249, political unrest ensued in the Mid-Westerlies, when a terrorist group known as the Golden Alliance backed a successful coup against the regional Great Northern government over the Mid-Westerlies and instilled an authoritarian regime in its place. The Great North responded with a military strike but struggled against the insurgency. The Federal Estates of Retun, however, came to the aid of the Great North and had the regime defeated in a short time. As an exchange of peace and diplomacy, the Great North sold the Mid-Westerlies to the Federal Estates.
That May, news of the events cast influence on the population of Monassa, where the Golden Alliance was organizing a similar coup. Anticipating this, the Monassan, Retunian, and Great Northern governments joined efforts and kept the Golden Alliance in check, albeit with a great deal of struggle. However, the Federal Estates organized and supported a counter-movement and, once again, overcame the Golden Alliance. Afterward, the Federal Estates and Great North helped to establish a democratically-elected legislative branch to keep a check on the IAPC administration, a promising compromise for the Monassan people. Furthermore, the Federal Estates motioned for the Monassan government to have only a limited amount of intervention in the Monassan economy to allow for the growth of a free market. And in November 1249, a special conjoined Council met between the three nations, which agreed to recognize the newly-formed legislative branch, the IAPC administration as the executive branch, and representatives sent by the monks and spiritual interpreters from the Highlands to serve as the judicial branch of the new Monassan government. And thus, Monassa was established as a partially-democratic IAPC with its government seat remaining in Sancto Rosco.
Present-Day:
The partially-democratic IAPC government structure is still in place for Monassa, which enjoys the prospects of the free market. However, pressing issues include that of growing economic disparity between the rich and poor, and the growing intensity of seasonal wildfires.