Great Reynard Nation

Tuicha Reynard Tetã

Structure

The Great Reynard Nation, often also called the Confederated Cantons or Mbyjajere (by romantics), is not a nation in the traditional sense, though it shares many similarities with a proper country. The Great Reynard "Nation" is in fact a confederation of twelve smaller, independent nations: Atychado, Bedente, Edehay, Euja, Hohelena, Limtora, Mbocamena, Natayaybi, Rannes, Yataigo, Ypalomas, and Yure. Each has its own government, its own currency, its own military, its own judiciary, and whatever else a country needs to survive.
So what, then, ties the Confederated Cantons into their confederation? It depends on the time period largely, as there have been many iterations of the Great Reynard Nation throughout history, all of varying size and unity. The first was founded after the Trinitization of the Orienal Range and grew as the Cult's influence did until every Reynard lived under the loose union, but it would not be for long. As hereditary Morubixaba, in contrast to the traditionally elected ones, began to assert their power and implement a semi-feudal system, the First Confederation would dissolve as these same hereditary magnates left it in a bid to assert their own independence. It would take another religious shift for the Reynards to unite again, for as Commonalism entered their lands, the feuding Reynard cantons once again met and declared the Great Reynard Nation, but this time it was in order to defend the rapidly converting population against fears of Trinitist reprisal. Though the Second Confederation would also encompass all of the Reynard lands, it did not last anywhere near as long as the First: as soon as it became clear the Trinitists were unwilling to waste their efforts on reconquering firmly Commonalist populations, the Morubixaba resumed their warring and feuding with one another, dissolving the Nation before it had any impact at all on Reynard history. Many years later began the Great Canton War, otherwise known as the War of the Diarchy. Concerned by the rise of more centralized power structures across the Range, many Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora (juntas of hereditary nobles) would once again declare the Great Reynard Nation and immediately get to invading the centers of these centralizing movements: Atychado, Hohelena, and the other population centers of the race. To fight against them, the centralized Dinastía would declare their own Great Reynard Nation. Neither was able to declare total victory over the other, but after the war's end, both versions of the Third Confederation fell apart. This tension would make it so that another attempt at unity would not happen until the end of the so-called "Little War" (known to the Reynards as the Syl Lake War), when for the first time in a long time the Reynards had to worry about foreigners entering the Range. To this end, the core of the Reynard lands would begrudgingly declare a fourth attempt at the Great Reynard Nation, though the political situation within the Fourth Confederation is very tenuous due to differing opinions on the modernization question and lingering tensions between representatives of various political systems.
The individual cantons that make up the Confederated Cantons are, via their unity under the Iron Shield of the Great Reynard Nation, legally prohibited from making war upon one another. Furthermore, the member-states of the Great Reynard Nation are obliged to assist one another during times of war. At any time, any member state of the Great Reynard Nation can call an "Assembly of the Cantons". Hosted in the capital city of whichever polity called the Assembly to muster, an Assembly of the Cantons is as it sounds: it is a gathering of representatives from each of the twelve cantons within the Confederation in order to make a judgment that will affect the entire Nation. It should be noted that this is not a true legislature, as its powers are much more narrow. The Assembly of the Cantons is able to declare war (cantons that are Confederated are prohibited from declaring war without first getting the approval of the entire Confederation) and make peace through the signing of treaties with other nations, but its main function is that of mediating and settling disputes between polities under the Iron Shield, such as border disputes, disputes over trade, and other such things. No matter what decision is being made, it must be made with at least a three-fourths majority (9 votes at current), which means that very little is done at all without absurd compromises being made. It should be noted that any canton can leave the Great Reynard Nation at their leisure, and it is against Confederal law to make war on any canon that has left the Confederation for that reason alone.
Most cantons within the Great Reynard Nation are known as Band Confederacies, meaning that they are sub-confederations of Reynard kinship groups under the greater Confederated Cantons. Most of the Band Confederacies follow the system of Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora (Crown Council). In this system, the canton is led by a council of Morubixaba who are not unlike the landed nobles of Sylvania and Sahul. Their titles and their position on the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora are hereditary, meaning that the governing powers of their Band Confederacy are locked within a small group (usually no more than 100) of petty nobles. These alliances of nobles are usually a mirror of the Great Reynard Nation, though much more stable: the various noble families more or less do as they wish unless there is an immediate threat to be dealt with or there is a dispute to arbitrate. Individual Morubixaba on a Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora must collect their own taxes and maintain their own tiny realms, meaning that they must oversee their locality's treasury, courts, police system, infrastructure, etc, etc. However, these Band Confederacies will have a united treasury that mints a united currency for the canton, ensuring some modicum of economic stability. The cantons within the Great Reynard Nation that function on the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora system are Mbocamena, Edehay, Natayaybi, Bedente, Euja, and Ypalomas.
Though the system of the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora is the most common within the Fourth Confederation, it is not the oldest by any measure. The oldest system would be that of the Ñembyaty (Fraternities). On a surface level, they function no different from the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora. The canton's government is made up of a council of Morubixaba that each rule a Band, but that is where the similarities between the two end. Unlike the Bands who are confederated under a Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora, those confederated under a Ñembyaty are not confined to a stretch of land ruled by their Morubixaba, nor is their Morubixaba from a line of hereditary nobility. No, the Morubixaba who are united under a Ñembyaty are regularly elected from the ranks of a Band by every adult member of that Band to represent the group's interests within the Band Confederacy. Because these Band Confederacies do not function on a feudalistic system where a Band is all located within one area, the ruling council is much more powerful: the only military is that belonging to the Canton, the only treasury is that belonging to the Canton, and the ruling council will often decide upon edicts which will affect the entire Canton, all in all functioning much more like a legislature than a Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora. This is the ancient system that the Reynards functioned on, only changing into one of hereditary titles during the Years of Divinity, but due to the simplicity of the system and its lack of ministerial governance in favor of the constantly shifting council, this system only lives on within the unpopulated and ultra-traditionalist North of the country: within cantons such as Yure, Limtora, and Rannes.
Finally, there are the cantons that function under the Dinastía system. This system originates within the ancient cities and river regions of the Orienal Range, but it is very newly developed. In these regions of great population size and great economic power, the local Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora were eventually overthrown by especially powerful Morubixaba within their ranks who would go on to establish a sort of kingship system over the canon, their own Band and Bands that supported their ascension given great privilege as part of a new ruling class while other Bands would be barred from government entirely. Indeed, every single member of these canton's governments and elite class in general is either a member of the Dinasta-Kuéra's (Dynast) own Band or a Band that proved one of the key allies of his ascension to autocrat, resulting in state power that is not of the Dinasta-Kuéra and economic power that is not of the Dinasta-Kuéra resting in the hands of oligarchs closely related to him either through blood or through having proved their loyalty. The Dinasta-Kuéra of these systems rules an absolute monarch, though within a ministerial government inspired by those found elsewhere in Ecumene, resulting in these systems being the most advanced in the Great Reynard Nation despite the vestiges of tribalism being very clear and still very important to the functioning of the state. The cantons that follow this system are Atychado, Hohelena, and Yataigo.
Within the Assembly of the Cantons and within the Fourth Confederation as a whole, there is a very clean line drawn between the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora and the Dinastía. The former are staunchly in favor of keeping the Great Reynard Nation as decentralized as possible and believe that the keeping of "traditions" (in reality, the rule of their families) is far more important than the modernization of the country, which should be done gradually if at all. Perhaps the most powerful of these cantons is Mbocamena. It lies almost entirely within a very temperate and fertile region of the Orienal Range, and though it is smaller than many other cantons, it has one of the highest agricultural outputs and one of the highest populations out of all of them. Because of this, it, alongside Natayaybi which has a similar level of fertility, is considered to be the leader of the Decentralist Cantons. The other group are firm believers in the unity of the Reynard race and the establishment of a truly united Reynard nation-state (though under who is still being debated) that is both modern and an active presence on the world stage. Despite this rhetoric, however, there is a large amount of evidence to suggest that, in some part, the centralists have been paid off to unite the country and modernize it not for the benefit of the Reynard race but in order to line the pockets of foreign business interests. This is seen best with Atychado, which quite blatantly flaunts its alliance with the Sylvan Empire, despite the fact that almost every other Canton either hates the Sylvans or would not be caught dead associating with them. It is for that reason, and because the three Dinastía are of relatively equal strength, that the Centralists have no guiding state amongst them. Caught in the middle are the small and isolated Ñembyaty, which seek only to survive the coming storm, but now that the steppe has been found to be resource-rich, it is unlikely that the highlands the Ñembyaty have their lands in are not even more rich in mineral wealth, and even more unlikely that they will not soon fall prey to the greed of their brothers, the greed of the Sylvans, or both.

Territories

The core of Reynard territory is grouped together into the Great Reynard Nation, with only the irrelevant frontiers unbothered by the prospect of Sylvan invasion and therefore unwilling to confederate. Most of this land is cold steppe, with the most agriculturally productive regions being of temperate climate or located around fertility-bringing rivers such as the Caabar, the Marcora, and the Subtamay or the Syl Lake itself. In fact, the loss of the most agriculturally productive Reynard regions to the Sylvan Empire was a massive blow to the race, and with Sylvan settlement in full swing, it is not likely they will ever get most of it, if any of it, back.
The aforementioned temperate, forested regions of the Orienal Range fall within the territory of the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora (almost entirely within the powerful Band Confederacies of Mbocamena and Natayaybi). Here, the traditional Reynard staple crops of wheat and corn grow the best, but regardless of where exactly they are, the Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora are entirely agricultural societies with almost no industrial output. These Band Confederacies function on a semi-feudal system in which all Bands have been grouped into a stretch of land that is overseen by their Morubixaba. In return for paying taxes and accepting that their Morubixaba can draft them into labor groups or an army at their leisure, the families within this Band are permitted to hold land within their Band's territory. They are allowed to leave, but this is foolish. The peasantry is not able to buy or sell land and their Morubixaba is able to give land grants to others whenever they please, meaning that if a family decides to leave for somewhere else, they will not have anything to fall back on once they realize there are no opportunities beyond that little stretch of land their Band has been afforded.
The traditional Reynard population centers have always been around the rivers, indeed, it has been this way since the dawn of Reynard civilization. Though still small compared to those found in other nations on Ecumene, the only real Reynard urban centers are found here, coincidentally also being the seats of the great and powerful Dinasta-Kuéra. Using the power their hold over the ancient cities of the Reynard race afforded them, these one-time Morubixaba became the closest things to Reynard Kings that have ever existed, but they made many enemies doing so. To that end, both to completely destroy the power of their rivals and to appease the antsy peasants, the Dinasta-Kuéra redistributed the land within their canton into the hands of the common folk, re-establishing Reynard yeomanry. Due to their willingness to modernize, the handful of factories found within the Great Reynard Nation are all found within the lands that practice the Dinastía system. Most of them either refine the resources found within the steppe, serve as industrial bakeries, or serve as the three or four native armories.
Indeed, small-holding farmers have been the norm in Reynard civilization since its birth, and it is for that reason that every single Reynard living under the system of Ñembyaty is a yeoman farmer. Within these lands, families farm the very same, poor soil they have farmed for centuries, scratching out a living in the cold Northern highlands of the Fourth Confederation through the raising of corn, paying the minimal amount of taxes to the Confederacy government and mostly keeping to themselves or assisting their neighbors with any work they may need help with, as is the way up there.
Though Reynard civilization remains almost entirely agricultural, change is coming. At a quickening rate, precious minerals are being found beneath the steppe: gold, copper, cobalt, chromium, and potentially more platinum and diamonds than have been found anywhere else in the world. These discoveries have made the Dinastía very eager to tap into this wealth (with foreign assistance) in order to use it to fund their modernization and then use that modernization to centralize the Great Reynard Nation into a true nation-state. The Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora remain uncaring towards the mineral wealth they sit upon, knowing that its exploitation will uproot their power structures, as to do the Ñembyaty, despite the fact that these egalitarian, highland Band Confederacies rest upon a potential motherload. These discoveries have also sparked foreign interest in the Great Reynard Nation that did not exist prior, with foreign money slowly trickling into the Orienal Range, though the long-term consequences of this growth of foreign influence are yet to be seen.

Military

The Great Reynard Nation lacks a unified military. The various Morubixaba who hold council on a Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora each have their own military forces, though the cantons that follow the other two systems have unified canton militaries. Most Reynard soldiers with imported rifles of varying degrees of outdatedness. Because of their foreign ties, the Centralist militaries often have better gear and sometimes even the benefit of foreign advisors, which will no doubt prove to be a major factor in race's coming reckoning.

Technological Level

The Great Reynard Nation is, on the whole, a non-advanced realm. Most Reynards farm with hand tools alone and heat their homes through the use of a fireplace. The only places that are even close to modern are the (ironically) ancient cities of Atychado, Hohelena, and Yataigo which have been able to welcome an industrial base and tiny electrical grids, but even then, the prosperity these improvements bring are for the elites alone. A few railroads run through the Great Reynard Nation, as the traditionalists did not have too much issue with their construction, but rail connection is still very scarce. Telegraph connection is in a similar state.

Religion

The Reynard race is a Commonalist one, primarily divided between two Temple-Creeds: the Temple of the Absolute and the Temple of Vivification. The Temple of Vivification is the largest Temple by far, with the Temple of the Absolute still only holding sway in the Band Confederacies under the Ñembyaty system. Rather uniquely among Commonalists, there is quite a bit of inter-sectional tension, largely due to the Temple of Vivification's intolerance towards other Temple-Creeds.

Foreign Relations

Individual cantons within the Great Reynard Nation have total control over their own foreign policies. This is best seen with Atychado's close relations with the Sylvan Empire, while most other cantons absolutely hate and despise the Kaiserreich due to the Syl Lake War. Of course, as already mentioned, there are also webs of alliances even within the Confederation based around power structures. The Ñemoñe'ẽ Akãngora stick together, the Ñembyaty stick together, and the Dinastía stick together. Though the Dinastía tend to be more willing to cooperate with foreign countries on the whole, trading their resources for industrial expertise, even still the individual cantons have very little influence on the world at large.

¡Ñande Ñopytyvõ Ha'e Hierro!

Alternative Names

The Confederated Cantons, Mbyjajere, The Fourth Confederation

Demonym

Reynard, Confederal

Government System

Oligarchy

Power Structure

Transnational government

Currency

Various local currencies

Current Head of State
None
Capital City
None
Other Major Cities
Atychado, Hohelena, Yataigo
Racial Groups
Reynards
Total Land Area
1,310,000 square miles
Total Population
22 million
National Anthem
None