Yucatec

Yucatec is a technology-oriented direct democracy with near-total equality of opportunity but a stressful, success-oriented environment. A small nation, it relies on superior military technology and asymmetric warfare tactics to discourage foreign influence.

Colonialism Era
Yucatec is located on the east of the continent of Avalonia, and has been inhabited by its indigenous peoples for thousands of years. When colonization efforts came in from Artemia and the Tiperyn Isles, the Yucatec were one of the few peoples not conquered and subjugated. This was partially by luck, and partially due to the negotiating skill of the tribe's leadership. The nation's geography is mostly open savannah, making practical defense difficult. A lack of natural resources, especially metals, made it hard for the Yucatec to protect against foreign aggression, as shown in conquests xxx and xxx. While the pen is not always mightier in the sword, it sometimes is, and the Yucatec honed their diplomatic skills to a razor edge. When colonial powers significantly more advanced than the Yucatec entered the regional geopolitics, the tribe's leadership wielded their unique mastery of bandit-ridden jungle isles as a bargaining chip to ensure relative independence and safety.

Development and Modernization
They soon discovered that their honey tongues could sway the currents of trade as well, and information, refined goods, and new ways of thinking kicked of a mini-Renaissance in Yucatec culture. The biggest innovations were the introduction of effective, large-scale irrigation and fertilizer. A united government and people toiled for 22 years of hard labor to construct massive aqueducts and re-routed rivers from the great southern mountains' glacial rivers to turn the mostly unproductive savannah regions into one of Anterra's greatest breadbaskets. This sudden food surplus caused a population explosion, and attracted fortune-seekers from all corners of the globe to Yucatec in search of a better life.

An Era of Change
The mass migration and chaotic culture mishmash had three important effects.


 * 1) First, the influx created the need for large new housing communities to take in the newcomers and newborn generation.  This directly led to construction of new, huge cities all around the savannah.  These [metropolis-ish name] were designed from the ground-up, and as such looked very different from hundred-year-old, organically grown settlements.
 * 2) Second, the chaotic mishmash of culture led to the need of a set of core tenants that would define Yucatec's future.
 * 3) Last but not least, the large-scale expansion combined with very limited resources made efficiency and ingenuity a must to make the best use of what was available.  This is the source of many unique quirks in Yucatec architecture, born out of necessity, not found anywhere else on Anterra.

A New Order
It was in this time of great change that the informal tribal government that had ruled over the area of Yucatec for thousands of years realized that they were no longer adequate to serve the needs of their people, and so spent many years with the nation to decide on a new form of government that would thrive in this new age. After much deliberation, the formation of a new state, Yucatec, from the phrase "striving for success," was announced. It would reside on four core pillars: efficiency, ingenuity, diplomacy, and perseverance. Faced by a world with a larger population and more raw resources, Yucatec would have to survive by working smarter with what they had; countering numerical inferiority with smooth diplomacy backed by technological dominance. Yucatec military forces are small in number but are undoubtedly some of the best trained and equipped in the world, living on the bleeding edge of scientific progress.

Present Day
Yucatec's unique history and reverence for their core pillars lead to an exceptionally well educated and efficient culture, but also one left overworked and often emotionally empty. The nation's children are taught from a young age that with sufficient work, everyone is capable of success; therefore, everyone should succeed. The nation's largest remaining hurdle to overcome is changing its style of military to successfully counter emerging threats and to decrease reliance on imports for resources like metals and fossil fuels.

First Posts
The Yucatec primarily function as a direct democracy, but it is too inefficient to vote on every small detail in the nation. As such, it has a semi-feudal system based strongly on a meritocracy model, with individual cities and regions each having a wide range of autonomy to operate as efficiently as possible and solve day-to-day issues. The order is generally district -> city -> region -> national. Each level elects the leader for the next level up, ensuring familiarity with the candidates. There are no political parties in Yucatec, and all leader's lifestyles are conducted with complete transparency to stave off outside political pressures. Accepting a top post corresponds with an almost total lack of privacy, a responsibility accepted as for the greater good.

At the peak of the political hierarchy are the three "First Posts" representing the essential positions in Yucatec society. The First Scientist, Engineer and Diplomat are charged with keeping their corresponding fields supported and successful. They are accompanied by a cabinet of an ever-changing group of leaders in their domains. The First Diplomat functions as the figurehead of the nation in international affairs.

Direct Democracy
The nation is heavily industrialized, and connected by an extensive, hardened fiber-optic domestic intranet system. One of the primary functions of this system is the enablement of a direct democracy for major policy decisions. At 8:00 PM local time, every eligible citizen casts votes for, against, or abstains on the national vote system. This system is protected by redundancy, several layers of SHA-256 end-to-end encryption, physical backups, and transparent data verification. The possibility of foreign influence in the system is treated as a constant threat, and many of Yucatec's top cybersecurity minds devote their lives to keeping the system safe. It is and has been official policy that discovery of attempted foreign influence in the system is an automatic act of war.

Administrative Divisions
Yucatec lands are broken down into several layers of government. Due to the rapid industrialization that took place during the Era of Change and New Order periods of history, the nation is almost completely urban (>95% live in cities). New cities were planned from the ground up with this in mind, and were separated into several self-contained Akte, or districts, with a mix of housing and essential services. These districts form the first layer of administration, between 1,000 - 10,000 people each. A collection of districts forms the Uxmal, or city level. Government at this level consists of managing essential industries as well as ensuring that the Akte have the needed resources to function smoothly. A group of cities nearby one another forms the Yaxha, somewhat analogous to a province. These serve to ease the burden on the highest level of government, the national government, by creating an administrative buffer. These are also often grouped by nations with similar production roles.

ECOMsAD
Yucatec joined ECOMsAD as an observer state in 1994, and as a full member in 2007. They assisted in managing the civil war in SiWallqanqa, sending special forces troops and aerial surveillance. They maintain a close relationship with SiWi, especially in drone technology development.

Development of the Internet
Almost from the beginning of the development of a telegraph system, Yucatec has poured immense resources into creating a national, high-speed, reliable communications platform. The pinnacle of this platform is the hardened fiber-optic direct democracy system that spans the nation. Soon, citizens began to realize that the lines could be used for much more than voting alone, and more and more functions began to pry in, from scientific information to weather forecasts, until the whole system was exchanging almost any form of data imaginable. Other nations began requesting access and growth took off exponentially, growing into a truly species-spanning network stretching from the remote jungles of SiWallaqna to the barren deserts of Kesh.

Tilili
Tilili is an extension of one of the first extensions of the voting network. Initially a pet project by a group of students at the Paza Institute of Technology, the simple message board expanded to encompass a full, personalized frontpage and social media site (think iGoogle/Twitter/Reddit in one). With the advent of neural network research, the system is becoming ever more personalized. When the project was just beginning to pick up steam, the Institute transferred rights to the government in exchange for continued funding. The head of the original team, Itzli Tototl, is a national celebrity and held the post of First Scientist for several years.

Sonart
Sonart began as a proof-of-concept project of the neural network team at Defuse Labs. It manages user video, music, and art choices, applies deep learning techniques to discover patterns, and gives recommendations based on those patterns. The program became very popular, and with artists free to add their own content, the collection has exploded in size and created a new generation of Yucatec culture.



Defuse Labs
Defuse Labs is the oldest government-operated research organization in Yucatec. Initially developed in the early 60s with the development of computers, it played a key role in developing Yucatec's world class communication network. While constantly maintaining and upgrade that system, Defuse Labs has additionally made pushes into data analytics, advanced hardware, AI research, deep learning, and many more fields. They have a close relationship with Tilili in processing user data and developing new uses of technology to feature in the site.

Graphics Cards
Aurora Visuals, the graphics-card arm of Defuse Labs, is a world leader in new technology. Their Kronos-series of cards set the bar for cores and multi-threading, but are prohibitively expensive for use in the majority of consumer electronics. Low profits and meager sales, combined with a high R&D cost, led to the program's near death on several occasions. Only the new applications for GPUs found in AI research turned the program around, and it now is a major component of Defuse Labs.

Processors
Despite a strong domestic GPU market, in processors Yucatec lags behind and requires significant imports. Reliance on foreign CPUs is a weakness that the government and Defuse Labs have attempted to resolve, but with resources funneled into Aurora Visuals and other projects, it does not seem likely to improve any time soon.

Supercomputers
Yucatec has had joint projects with Brigantica under the CASA to develop supercomputers for design of space travel, with power licensed to less advanced nations when not otherwise in use.

The first of these programs, Project Pinnacle, was the goal of completing the world's first teraflop computer. Unfortunately, during testing, a water coolant pump broke down and the overheated cores burst into flame, destroying the facility and costing the lives of eight researchers and maintenance personnel. After this disaster the project was abandoned, and all that remains at the site is a memorial to the lives lost.

A full 16 years later, Project Pinnacle was reborn with the goal of the first petaflop supercomputer. New safety measures were put into place, redundant systems developed, and all staff evacuated for the inital test. The project was a resounding success, and has been constantly updated since then, most recently with the addition of massive numbers of custom Aroura GPUs to allow for joint AI and conventional computations side-by-side. The current location of the facility that houses Pinnacle is classified, but is suspected to be buried in a cavern deep below ground.

Quantum Computing
In the constant race to keep Yucatec's technological edge, and to attempt to find a way around the lack of traditional CPUs, Defuse Labs has expanded its quantum computing operation, a.k.a. "Apothecary." However, the field is still extraordinarily new and development of a truly functional quantum chip will likely take decades. Nevertheless, strides are being made, aided by theoretical physics experiments in the Paza Institute of Technology and others.

Youth
Youth in Yucatec are treated from birth as adults. Expectations are not the same as adults, of course, but studies have demonstrated that taking on full responsibility for actions as early as possible sets up youth for a future of intellectual success and morality. Some time is spent building essential social skills and creative, exploration play, but education in STEM fields is fast and challenging. This is combined with physical fitness and training in both firearms and hand-to-hand martial arts. Finally, the core values of Yucatec society are instilled in youth from birth and are reinforced to adulthood.

Education and Kezeik Exam
At the conclusion of each year of schooling, the entire youth body of Yucatec takes a series of standardized exams known as the Kezeik. Results from this exam determine what academic tracks students will continue in. All Yucatec must receive a certain score on the exam to obtain citizenship, but this score is low enough that nearly everyone can make it with sufficient effort.

Once baseline minimum scores in reading, writing, math, science, and problem solving are met, students are put onto one of several tracks based on a combination of aptitude and personal choice. They will likely stay on this track for most of their lives, but there is ample opportunity to round one's education out with other disciplines. All students train physically frequently, in large public gymnasiums at schools or in towns and cities. Those with disabilities are of course given special considerations.

Extracurriculars
Outside of school and sports, minimal homework is given. Instead, students are expected to fill time after school developing interests on their own or working with others on long-term projects and clubs. These can range from entries in the prestigious National Science Competition (led by Defuse Labs) to online Hacker CTFs to community service organizations. The only thing society sees as wasteful in this time is being sedentary.

Historical
Early in the history of the Yucatec, limited technology and frequent pillaging left little opportunity for large structures. Mysterious dirt and stone pyramids have been found in the remote Xx Jungle, but most other construction was temporary and their wooden foundations rotted away millenia ago. The only other significant remaining structure is the ancient city of Port Tikal, located on the coast of the Iapetus Ocean. The historic heart of Yucatec power and the seat of tribal leadership, rings of architecture stand out like rings of a tree in this organically-grown city, with the seat of government in a modern building on the same ancient hill tribal elders met and formed an alliance on thousands of years ago.

New Order Era


With new, advanced tools and techniques, the Yucatec chose to design their new cities from the ground up to be as efficient and defensible as possible. They quickly discovered that the thick layer of limestone in most of the nation provided easy-to-acquire brick, but also that excavating those bricks could be turned to useful space as well. Consequentially, a style of bunker-like white limestone towers with thick walls and an extensive underground network of tunnels and caverns emerged. It is common to have over half of a structure located underground, taking advantage of subterranean cooling as a respite from the heat above, and improving defensibility in the event of an attack.

Cities and settlements from the New Order Era are characterized by large expanses of carefully shaped collections of squat white towers, with no windows and crenellations at the top to aid in defense. Each dwelling is like a miniature castle. Most have a winding staircase from the top level to the lowest basement, allowing access to the entire structure. The above-ground level(s) served as storage, with minimum time spent in the unpleasant heat. The top level usually consisted of a small garden and covered patio to allow for quality time spent outside and cooking, with the garden proving herbs and some vegetables. The basement levels were naturally cooler and served as the primary living quarters, with layers for living and sleeping, respectively. Underground, an elaborate network of tunnels mirroring the city streets above connected every building, with frequent gates that could be shut in the event of an invasion. Each Akte (district) also contained underground bunkers that contained enough stored food and weapons to survive a lengthy siege.

Borders
Yucatec's borders are secured by an element of the Homeland Defense Forces. The defense is concerned with keeping out terrorists, criminals, and other negative influences from Yucatec. However, with no immigration quotas and a very open policy (as long as immigrants can handle the rigor of Yucatec life), the incentive for illegal immigration is far lower than that of other nations. Additionally, with the tight-knit, hyper-connected fabric of Yucatec life, it is unlikely a foreign intruder could remain hidden for long.

Most of the border to the north, west, and southwest is comprised of rugged, mountainous terrain. Thousands of remote cameras are scattered throughout the border and in key areas, but the primary reconnaissance is covered by surveillance drones. The drones have the additional benefit of easy transition into a military role during wartime.

There are eleven main passages through the mountains, five of those tunnels for high-speed rail. Full biometric registry and a short interview are required for all travelers, and all vehicles are subject to a mandatory trunk x-ray and undercarriage scan. A focus is put on both technical security and the "human factor" to weed out potential aggressors. The process is very similar to the protocol used in airport security. It is noted that members of nations within ECOMsAD have an expedited, smoother experience due to trust and treaties between member nations.

Border Defense
Much of Yucatec's borders consist of rough, mountainous terrain that blocks heavy military advance from an invading force. Only eleven entry points, five rail tunnels and six passes, allow for passage into the Yucatec heartland through the mountains. All rail tunnels are primed for demolition in the event of an emergency, and the mountain passes are secured by a complex of bunkers, pre-positioned artillery, and other measures to make an invasion through that path a living hell. That leaves three options for attack left: through the dense jungles to the southeast and north, through the narrow grassland gap in the northeastern coast, or from the sea. Attacking from the jungles would play directly into the hands of guerrilla Yucatec forces. The narrow grassland gap in the north seems promising, but as an obvious route has been fortified with anti-tank barriers, bunkers, mines, and other fortifications. That leaves the sea, and with it, Yucatec's biggest weakness. Yucatec lacks a large navy, and besides a few patrol ships and corvettes, relies on other ECOMsAD powers for naval defense. In the event of a full amphibious assault on Yucatec, policy is to evacuate the eastern portion of the nation and retreat into the eastern savannah and plateaus to wage a guerrilla war, destroying all useful infrastructure along the way in a scorched-earth policy.

Military
Main Article

Combined Arms
Yucatec's military is small and professional, with an emphasis on quality and technological superiority over overwhelming numbers. The full-time professional military makes a life-long commitment, spending almost all free time training and studying the art of war. Each element of the military hierarchy has a specific role to fill, all complementing one another under Strategic Command (S-COM), with logistics handled by Integration Command (I-COM). No unit acts alone, as the high investment in every soldier necessitates minimizing casualties as much as possible.

Yuka


The Yuka [flowing water] doctrine combined diplomatic and military aims of flexibility and fluidity in conflict. This involves a sort of asymmetric warfare, replacing conventional tactics of direct confrontation with destabilization of supply lines, rapid hit-and-runs, deploying behind enemy lines, and use of cyber and psychological warfare to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy. The primary focus of S-COM is to pick the enemy force apart into small, isolated units where numbers are comparatively equal to Yucatec forces, and superior training and equipment can hopefully turn the tide in Yucatec's favor.

Realistically, against a major power, Yucatec's best hope is a prolonged insurgency. The underground tunnels that form the core of Yucatec cities would make clearing them a living hell, and the lack of significant natural resources in the area would nearly ensure that any invasion would be a negative investment of time, resources, and lives. It is public policy that in the event of an attack, all technology and data is to be destroyed before the enemy can take it. Technology is Yucatec's most valuable asset, and controlling access to it makes the nation more valuable as an ally than a conquered zone. Yucatec doesn't need to be unattackable to remain free, it just needs to be not worth it.

Diplomacy
Realistically, against a major power in open war, Yucatec's best hope is a prolonged insurgency. As such, their foreign policy has been one of non-intervention and de-escalation. The three core tenants of Yucatec's foreign policy are as follows:


 * 1) Do not unnecessarily interfere in foreign conflict
 * 2) Attempt to resolve differences and issues diplomatically and without conflict, if possible
 * 3) In the event of conflict, use scorched-earth and other strategies to erode enemy will to fight

Space Exploration
The principal space research organization in Yucatec is the Continental Aeronautics and Space Agency, as a joint project with Brigantica. However, there are additional semi-private corporations that offer limited launch services of their own. (WIP)