Free Territories of the Shattered Chains

Flag of the FTSC

### National Language(s)

Lang Breaka (Chainbreaker Pidgin), English, Hindi, Arabic, Mandarin, Māori, many others

### Religions

Buddhism, Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, & Orthodox), Hinduism, Sunni Islam, many others

### GDP

$17B

The **Free Territories of the Shattered Chains (FTSC)**, commonly referred to as the **Free Territories** or the **Shattered Chains**, is an internationally-recognized sovereign entity located primarily in the Umai Archipelago. It consists of fourteen territories, divided into hundreds of cantons. It shares land borders with Exodia encompassing the Free Cantons of Hesperides; with Ikaroa to the south of Mareeba, and maritime borders with Ikaroa to the west, Exodia to the east, and the Proletarian Republics to the north of the Shattered Chains. The Free Territories are notable for having no official capital, though functions of national governance most often take place in SoLibertalia, its first city, or Vandar, its most populous.

Libertalia, also known as Port Solidarity, was founded by 900 migrants from Africa, the CIS, Ikaroa, Ulaanüür, and Dajiao on land leased from the Exodus Exploration Corps in TNY-12 as the first recognized polity in the world to adhere to principles of anarcho-communism and democratic confederalism. What was then called the **Free Territory** and organized as a single commune faced the challenge of remaining neutral during the First Hesperides War, fought between the Proletarian Republic of Ulaanüür and much of the rest of the world. It took a population influx from the Tashkent colony ship *Eden's Fall,* and later expanded with new settlements in the southern Umai, eventually reorganizing into multiple territories spread across the isles in TNY-51. Later in the same year, the Free Territories would become involved in the GAU War, when spaceships of the Greater American Union, outfitted for war, arrived in orbit of Terra Nova and began landing troops in Ulaanüür and Castra. During this conflict and the Ulaanüür government's collaboration with the GAU, the Free Territories reached an agreement with the recently-seceded Proletarian Republic of the Umai to hold much of the northern Umai in trust; these isles have since been organized into their own territory and become a de facto part of the FTSC's sovereign land.

In the years following the GAU War, the Free Territories acquitted themselves as a prominent diplomatic power, playing a key role in settling the New Hawai'i Crisis in TNY-50 and the Nueva España Crisis in TNY-60. The Free Territories' reputation as an international peace broker was shattered with the onset of the Umai War in TNY-71, sometimes known within the FTSC as the War of Shattered Chains. Border tensions and ideological differences, ignited by a terror attack on the National University of Inari, prompted four territories and dozens of associated cantons and militia movements to declare war against the Ikaroan Serene Federation with the goal of dissolving the Federation's hold on its territories in Yukinohara and Haumako. This quickly precipitated a civil war between the Umai Liberation Front and the United Peacekeeping Militias, the latter formed to stop the violation of Ikaroa's sovereignty and end the conflict. The Union of Proletarian Republics mediated a treaty to end the civil war in TNY-74; the Liberation Front eventually reached a ceasefire with Ikaroa, but no permanent peace has been achieved to this day.

The Free Territories are a decentralized democratic confederation, with much of its power devolved to the territories and their constituent cantons. It has a socialist economic system, with resources shared and managed by its various communes. It ranks highly in international measures of quality of life, human rights, rights of synthetic beings, political freedom, innovation, and education. With its diverse origins and its permanent open borders policy, the FTSC is regarded as a salad bowl of cultures and origins.

The Free Territories is a founding member of the Free Seas Fellowship, the Second Interstellar, and the Accord of Autonomous Societies, the latter of which has lapsed into a defunct organization in the years following the Metztli Civil War.

## Administrative Divisions and the Canton System

### Establishment of the Canton System

The FTSC’s system of cantons and territories is loosely based on the system of cantons used by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria(AANES), also known as Rojava, and other anarchist societies, adapted for Terra Nova’s unique conditions. The official status of the cantons was not defined until the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in [DATE], and the official status of the territories and their relationship with the cantons was not defined until the readoption of the revised Articles of Confederation in [DATE], following the Umai War and the establishment of the FSF.

### Non-Novan Territories

The status of orbital habitats and intrasolar colonies as cantons and territories belong to the FTSC, as opposed to being members of FSF directly, or of some other pan-galactic Fellowship organization is currently disputed.

### Novan Territories

Following is a list of member territories of the FTSC located wholly or mostly on or under the surface of Terra Nova.