Anderin

Anderin, officially known as Anderin State or the Free State of Anderin (: Saorstait Andoireann) is one of the federal constituent states of the Congressional Republic of Brigantica. It is the second largest state in terms of population and territory. Prior to the confederation of Brigantica, its capital was, a major center of continental maritime trade and the initial birthplace of the rebellion which spawned the Brigantic Revolution throughout the northern part of the continent. Following the continental union, the state capital was moved to Áthbreann, Anderin State's second-largest city, to ensure a separation between the interests of the state and the overarching federal government.

Anderin State shares a border with the two other federal states, Laurentia to the west and Dánamara to the south, and is bound by the Great Northern Sea and the Iapetus Ocean.

While historically being a home for Algonquin Indigenous peoples, First Arrival Gaels, later Celtic exiles and refugees as well as convicts from Tiperyn and communities of Ovancian religious minorities, Anderin's role as a maritime hub for the Northern Iapetus Ocean led it to be both a transfer point for furs and natural resources from other colonies and the interior to Europe, as well as a hub of various cultures and ideas along the trade routes between West and East. Anderin State's cities have long been a hub of new ideas and innovation for Brigantica as a result and the rural areas, while remote, maintained a connection with far-off communities along Brigantica's river networks.

History
What is now Anderin was first settled by Algonquin tribes arriving in the area around 10,000 BC, developing a unique woodlands culture isolated from much of the rest of the continent's indigenous people. The first European migrations came with seafaring Gaels who raided, traded and fished the Grand Banks off of the coast of northern Brigantica from what would become Tiperyn prior to the arrival of Anglo-Saxons in their original homelands. Settlements were few and sparse along the fjords and inlets of Anderin's east coast, with the First Gaels preferring to protect their harbors with crude hillforts on the many peninsulas and seaside cliffs along the coast. Migration continued by those fleeing the Anglo-Norman conquest of Tiperyn until the final subjugation of the indigenous kingdoms there brought migration to a halt. The First Gaels of Anderin experienced a cycle of both conflict and coexistence with the Algonquian tribes, as most of the settlements were not largely populated and mostly straddled the coast, with occasional trade expeditions inland introducing metal-working to the Algonquin indigenous peoples who in turn introduced some of the settlements to local fauna and resources.

The original arrival of First Gaels, primarily for fishing stocks, is believed to have been in the Northern Cape which was first mentioned in inscriptions by Gaelic monks as Tír An Doireann. Largely derived from the name of the mythical goddess Doireann, daughter of Fíonn, one of the Tuatha Dé believed to guide men at sea, the name was also a synonym for storms, referring to the tempestuous weather of the cape which bounds the northern edge of the state today. Second European contact occurred in 1541 with the arrival of a Tiperyn trading vessel, the Venture, captained by a Austrasian explorer under Tiperyn marquee. From that point, seeing the resource potential in the land, the first proper colony was founded at what would become the city of Carlustrim, then known as Charlestowne. The colony's location soon brought it into conflict with the Siamute tribe of Algonquin Natives as well as the nearby hill fort across the bay, which was recorded as Bailedánu by the Gaelic conscripts on the Venture Expedition. With Bailedánu and the Shaumutt Bay soon conquered by the Anglo-Saxon Crown, the harsh landscape and presence of some Gaelic-speaking communities led to the Tiperyn government exiling unwanted dissidents, defeated rebels and convicts to the Bay Colony to begin the process of exploration and development. Some three years after, a small colony of Ovancian religious minorities established settlements at the town of Trémont and the town of Branchetreu, some 300-350 kms further north from the Charlestown and Shaumutt Bay Colony. As the respective colonies expanded, they warred with and pushed back the Algonquin natives, primarily through mercenaries as well as woodsmen and conscripts from the exiled population.

The Sléibhte Uaine Range in the interior, now shared with Laurentia where it is known as the Vert-Monts region, was mostly sparsely-settled wilderness before and during the Revolution and acted as a natural barrier between the more developed Laurentian and Ville-Marie colonies of the Ovancia Crown and the Shaumutt Bay colonies of the Anglo-Saxons. The rich and obscure valleys offered something of a refuge for Algonquin Natives, intrepid woodsmen and the First Gaels away from the expansion and supervision of the colonial empires, though territorial conflicts along these boundaries soon escalated into colonial wars, with the Branchetreu and Trémont colonies defecting to Tiperyn forces in return for protection providing something of a tipping point.

The development of the colony as both a source of resources for domineering colonial public companies and a trade nexus helped exacerbate tensions as more of the benign isolation which the various exile communities had been living under was slowly stripped away in favor of the primacy of the Crown and the First Apostolic Church. The learning and flourishing of intellect in the Renaissance as well allowed many to question the dogma and traditional norms of European society, with intellectual societies of Deists and Freethinkers in colonial Brigantica positing newer and better ways of life, to provide for the common good and freedom of all peoples, regardless of class or background. While under pursuit, secrecy and investigation in Europe, idealists found like-minds among the Gaelic and Native woodsmen and colonial pioneers, and the port-cities of Baile Dúin, Áthbreann and Branchetreu in Anderin helped to intercommunicate with similar intellectual groups in other port cities throughout Brigantica, in West Kerry, Ville-Marie, Lasalle, Ballymeinn and Otonabee-Monaghan and even in Agranic colonies which would later be part of Brigantica.

It was no surprise, then, as the most radical of the towns under Tiperyni rule, that the most extreme forms of martial law and response to the new unrest was centered on Bailedánu, followed by Anderin State as a whole. As local assemblies were repealed by the Colonial Governor and unruly protests were dispersed by force, the stage was set for the first Rising in Baile Dúin which, while violently suppressed, would lead the disparate Revolutionary forces to converge and rearm in the towns of Áthbreann, Ceannmhór, and Conwy, barracaded as a defensive bulwark for the new Free Colonial Government as the Crown's reprisal campaign began. The domino effect throughout colonies of other powers in the region bordering Anderin State is the origin of the State's motto First to Fight.

Geography
Anderin State shares a border with Laurentia along the northernmost peninsula of Brigantica, Cába Aon Doireann (La-Fin-du-Monde in Laurentia). Anderin State has a primarily temperate and humid maritime climate throughout most of the state while the northern cape features a boreal climate. Its geography is predominantly rocky hills, rivers and abundant woodlands, with coastal areas noted for both seaside cliffs, fjords and river deltas. The northern region is primarily boreal forest on a Precambrian geological shield plateau, with thin soil and exposed bedrock of igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks which, in contrast to the more verdant south, makes it ideal for mining and resource extraction industries

In the southern region below the boreal line, Anderin State features a concentrated metropolitan region along the east coast which has expanded partly inland along the Carlus and Dánu Rivers. Prior to urbanization, this region had both marshlands and numerous bays, inlets and hilly peninsulas forming natural harbors which were nonetheless difficult to develop as large cities. The large area and low population density means much of the interior is still protected forests or wilderness and a sub-alpine and alpine climate exists among the interior mountain ranges of Anderin State. This proved particularly attractive to settlers from alpine regions of Europe as well as Gaels who found the interior highlands perfect for forestry and shepherding.

Government and politics
Anderin State is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, with a unique "town hall" direct-democracy for communities and districts uncommon in other states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents beyond the age of 17. Local matters are the domain of the local direct-democratic councils and Committees of Correspondence, which relay issues and proposed laws to either appear on referendum ballot with the approval of the executive of the state, or to the legislative branch known as the General Court. The General Court itself convenes in Áthbreann and is composed of the Dáil Andoireann elected by proportional vote and the Séanad nominated at-large by alternative-vote from a pool of candidates of qualified experts in professional fields.

The judiciary is composed of the Revolutionary State Court and a system of other courts pertaining to particular legal domains. Executive authority is vested in an elected State Directorate of which the Taoiseach forms the head as a state governor, acting as a council director.

The current Taoiseach of Anderin is Catríona MacSiúirtáin, formerly of the Federalist Party of Anderin, who renounced her party affiliations to serve as an impartial Taoiseach.

The dominant political parties in the state are the Federalist Party, the Socialist-Farmer-Labor Party and Fia Gael, an affiliate of the Liberal-Republican Party, with the Federalists and SFLP as the two predominant parties.