Brigantica

Brigantica, officially the Continental Republic of Brigantica, (Gaelic: Poblacht Comhdhálas Bríugantín; : République continentale Brigantique; Prittanic: Republika continentalá Brigantiká) is a constitutional, presidential federal republic, composed of a total of ten states with a higher than average degree of domestic autonomy, on the Avalonian continent in Anterra as well as one chain of volcanic islands in the mid-ocean west of Avalonia. Geologically, Brigantica is a subcontinent due to its history as a former separate continental plate which merged with the main Avalonian continent, forming a subduction zone on the Cordillera along the southern border. Brigantica is home to some 93.2 million people and its federal capital is at Béaldánu (Béldain) located in the Anderin State. Its largest cities, according to state censuses, are believed to be Ville-Marie in Laurentia State and West Kerry in its own city-state, though disagreement exists as to the larger city due to differing census standards in their respective states.

The first peoples in the territory comprising today's Continental Republic were what would become the Algonquin and Iroquois peoples of the who, as with most of the North Avalonian indigenous peoples, are believed to have migrated to the northern part of the continent via an ancient land bridge connecting Kesh to Avalonia through a much larger Hyberia circa 10,000 B.C. during the height of glacial activity in Hyberia and the southern continents.

The indigenous population later had its first contact with the early settlements of the Gaels, a seafaring Celtic peoples existing in pre-English Tiperyn. Having been displaced from their homeland by the invasion and domination of the Anglan-Tiplansk lords and threatened with cultural assimilation, a migration of Gaels occurred during the 11th century CE to settle lands on the northern subcontinent of Brigantica, attached as a peninsula to the larger continent of Avalonia. The Gaels largely developed scattered petty kingdoms throughout the eastern coast of Brigantica and warred with each other while also trading with and sometimes intermarrying or allying with the local indigenous populations. Metalworking and other techniques of the La Téne culture were introduced to the Iroquois and Algonquin peoples as a result.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Brigantica was discovered by Artemians at large, initially with Ovancian voyages claiming the land for the crown of Ovancia though their settlements in the far-north and Laurentia were soon eclipsed by large swaths of Tiperyni imperialism along the eastern coast which quickly overran Ovancian colonies there during periods of colonial warfare. The maritime mercantilism of Tiperyn was a factor as was the use of mercenaries and pathfinders from the persecuted Athaelg which had some language and cultural similarity with the Brigantic Gaels. The Athealg were also used for settlement by the Tiperyni in their colonies, particularly the West Kerry, Hibernia Plantations and Maryland colonies. Agranic seafarers were also adept in establishing trade with the New World and, to bypass the Anglan-Tiplan maritime dominance on the East Coast, established trade ports further south which would later morph into a mission system in the colony of Anacostia as the Church took a more direct role in the governing of the colony.

As unrest and conflict became a regular fixture in Artemian nations, Brigantica was often used as a "dumping ground" for exiles and rebels. The learning and flourishing of intellect in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment as well allowed many to question the dogma and traditional norms of Artemian society, with intellectual societies of Deists and Freethinkers in colonial Brigantica positing newer and better ways of life and concepts of the common good and freedom of all people, regardless of class or background. While under pursuit, secrecy and investigation in Artemia, idealists found like-minds among the Gaelic and Native woodsmen and colonial pioneers, Ovancian, Anacostian and Gaelic alike, far from the control and attention of the Artemian establishment.

Devastating colonial wars and increased martial law and direct control of colonies helped provide the right time for colonial independence societies to strike. As dissatisfaction grew with the forced quartering of troops from the empires, restrictions on trade and the end of free assembly and devolved government, the movements for a free and united Brigantica became cemented between the various colonies. Intially beginning principally as a revolt against heavy-handed methods of suppression by Tiperyni authorities in the Anderin colony in 1675, a war for an independent "continental republic" grew with uprisings and intellectual dissent against the imposition of state religion in Tiperyni colonies. An alliance pact formed between the former Tiperyni colonies and soon included the Agranian colonies which had entered a rebellion against the United Kingdom of Agrana y Griegro. Facing the imperial forces of two colonial powers, the rebel army of Brigantica turned to the Ovancian King for financial support and formed a desperate alliance with some, though not all, of the Algonquin and Iroquois tribes of the interior, guaranteeing their own states and rights of self-government in the future Continental Union. Eventually, a campaign with modernized troops and decisive use of terrain succeeded against the armies of the Anglo and Agranian nations and independence was achieved in 1701 with the Articles of Union.

While diplomatically unrecognized by many Artemian states, Brigantica slowly began to assert itself as a maritime republic with some trade and naval ambitions and a burgeoning center for science, letters and humanism in the world.

When the Patriotes rebelled in Laurentia and other Ovancian colonies, there was some clandestine support from the Brigantic Republic though officially the Laurentian Rebellion received no support given Brigantica's continuing debts to the Ovancian crown. However, with the momentum of the colonial rebellion and rebellion in Artemian Ovancia, the Continental Republic soon formally declared itself in support of the self-determination of the former Ovancian colonies in Avalonia, incorporating Laurentia, Arcadia and Cherogado. With its military resources stretched thin and fearing maritime piracy from the Brigantic Navy, Ovancia eventually acquiesced to the Patriote demands for colonial independence in return for full repayment of debts by the Brigantic Republic to the cash-strapped Ovancian Crown. Laurentia, Arcadia and the Cherokee Nation voted for statehood in 1767.

History
The first peoples in the territory comprising today's Congressional Republic were what would become the Algonquin and Iroquois peoples of the who, as with most of the North Avalonian indigenous peoples, are believed to have migrated to the northern part of the continent via an ancient land bridge connecting Kesh to Avalonia through a much larger Hyberia circa 10,000 B.C. during the height of glacial activity in Hyberia and the southern continents.

As a cohesive culture developed and prospered in the woodlands of Brigantica, a confederacy of tribes formed among the more warlike Iroquoian peoples against the Algonquin which drove them to the north and the coasts.

Circa 900-1,000 AD, a monk of the pre-Anglo-Tiplansk indigenous Celtic people of the island of Tiperyn (sometimes described as a druid, depending on the source) by the name of Pádraig sailed west aboard a traditional, documenting his journey following the rumors of Celtic fishermen who claimed to spot a massive island in the sea along a shallows with plentiful stocks of codfish. In the Brigantic Chronicle, it is believed and recorded that the revered saint discovered a land of many streams flowing to the sea, with plentiful forests, great mountains and many campfires in the distance on the Feast Day of St. Brighid (or the Goddess Brigantia, according to Págánacht sources). Voyages down to warmer waters recorded a Paradise of Birds. Upon his return, St. Pádraig spread word of the land in his scholarly role as an advisor to some of the western side of the isle's High Kings and Queens. Whether St. Pádraig was a real historical figure himself or the amalgamation of many of the maritime explorations of the age, as the only sagas which chronicle his journey were placed to paper by Brigantican monks two centuries later, is a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, the Saga of High Queen Nemhain records that she began to dispatch settlers and warriors to establish permanent hill-forts along some of the coast of what would eventually become Anderin State. The practice continued later with the High Queen Maeve, who is reputed to have displaced most of her kingdom to the new world as a reaction to the invasion and subjugation of Tiperyn by the Anglo-Tiplansk people, along with extensive building materials aboard vast longship fleets, which would later harry and raid the coasts and rivers of the New World from Maeve's new kingdom.

While initially

Religion
Some of the Celtic Christian petty kings of the Early Gaelic Period managed to convert some indigenous tribes to Celtic Christianity, preserving both Celtic traditions of Christianity which are peculiar to the later Catholic arrivals and some syncretization from native beliefs. The Brigantic Gaelic peoples variously became loyal citizens seeking to reconnect with their long-lost cousins, or as with the Native Briganticans, wary allies of commerce and convenience or staunch adversaries retreating to the forests which they were more accustomed to than their occupiers. While the Celtic Christian tribes initially welcomed the Catholic and Protestant Churches, they were skeptical of some of the changes which occurred since their departure from Artemia. Once enough colonial power had been asserted, the difference between Celtic Christianity and the new churches, with the reverence of the humble, scholarly and solitary monk class which had become central to the Christian Celts, clashed with the new bureaucratic Christianity focused on administration, Episcopal structure and state religion, some converted while others maintained secret societies, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

A sizeable proportion of Gaels managed to maintain Celtic polytheism as their majority religion over successive generations, though the numbers of Celtic polytheists were in steady decline due to much of the forced proselytism and conversions from the colonial period and imperialism from Artemian powers. Indigenous beliefs were the hardest hit by colonialism though somewhat salvaged since independence in 1701, with the number increasing among Indigenous Briganticans and some Métis but consistently lower as a percentage of the population due to heavy immigration in Brigantica since independence. The majority of Métis adhere to Catholicism due to many being from mixed Ovancian-Native backgrounds.

The religious characteristics of immigrants to Brigantica have always been diverse and varied depending on the source of successive waves of immigration. While early immigration to Brigantica arrived primarily from the colonial powers of Artemia, mostly with a focus on Catholicism, post-independence immigrants hailed from throughout Artemia as unrestricted immigration became the Brigantic norm, serving as a place of refuge or exile for many religious and ethnic minorities fleeing persecution in the Old World. While from varying Christian, deist and even pagan backgrounds at first, modern immigrants also come from Kesh, with typically persecuted Muslim and Buddhist sects commonplace in some immigrant Keshite communities.