Confederated States

The **Confederated States of Aurelia**, also known by its initials (**CSA**) and by other names such as **Aurelia**, **Tioderon**, and the **Confederated States**, is a country primarily located in Aurelia and consisting of twenty-four states alongside thirty-five Native Aurelian reservations. It is the world's largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Vinland to the north and the Zapatian Confederation to the south. With a population of just over two-hundred million, it is the second populous country in Aurelia and the sixth-most populous in the world. The national capital of Aurelia is Achterveld, which is also its most populous city and principal financial center.

Native Aurelians have inhabited the territory now part of the CSA since prehistoric times, with the most recent estimates suggesting their arrival from East Turan as far back as twenty-thousand years ago. Beginning in 1546, Amilorean colonization of Aurelia and Ameridia led to the establishment of the Eight Provinces of New Hochlande in what is now the Eastern Confederated States. These provinces eventually came into conflict with the Imperial Hochlande authority in the early eighteenth century, due to issues of perceived excessive taxation, controversies surrounding the hostility between the Faith of the Bell and Hochlande's ruling dynasty, and a growing anti-Imperial sentiment in general. This conflict was temporarily resolved when Arne I, Imperial Duke of Aurelia, was granted self-rule by his father Christoph IV, Emperor of Hochlande, in hopes of subduing a potential violent revolution. Imperial self-rule in Aurelia lasted only until 1738, however, during which Arne I was deposed by a collection of government and military leaders known as the Coalitie. These leaders wrote and ratified the Statue of Achterveld in November of the same year, and elected Jochum I Van Houten as the first Paramount of Aurelia, comparable to the title of King in other nations.

Following the establishment of the new system of electoral constitutional monarchy, the country began expanding across the continent of Aurelia, seizing territory previously belonging to Native Aurelian tribes. Conflicts over territory also emerged between the CSA and colonial nations such as Ursia.

## Etymology

The first documentary evidence of the phrase "Confederated States of Aurelia" dates back to a series of correspondences between the Coalitie members Nicolaas Gosselink and Sijbrand Eskes sent throughout 1737. Gosselink expressed his early concept for the "supreme legislative and decision-making body for the Confederated States of Aurelia" and questioned Eskes as to whether or not the Faith Orthodoxy should be given two seats in the Staatsraad as states would have. The first known publication of the phrase meanwhile came in the November 1737 edition of the *Colonial Messenger* newspaper in Achterveld. The name was made official by the signing of the Statute of Achterveld in late 1738, which codified the Articles of Union as the supreme law of the nation.

Though the CSA is named for the continent on which it resides, Aurelia itself is named after the fifteenth-century explorer Aurelius Strader who chartered the eastern coastline of the continent from 1478 to 1491. Strader himself, then, is named for Aurel; an important figure in Amilorean mythology - including that of the Faith of the Bell - who is said to have been one of many prehistoric sanctified heroes, alongside figures like Amilora and Sjor.

## Geography

The Confederated States is the world's largest nation by land and total area. The twenty-three continental states occupy a combined area of 6,904,837 Square Miles, with the island state of Kamerink accounting for another 164,696 Square Miles. As for the nation’s terrain, it can be divided into five sections - the western seaboard, the Iron Mountains, the central plain, the Koningbereik, and the eastern seaboard. The western and eastern seaboards are self-explanatory. They are the lower altitude regions at either coast, separated from the central plain via either mountain range. The Iron Mountains are the larger of the two ranges, and rise high along the nation’s west. The Koningberiek, meanwhile, is smaller in scale and stature, and straddles the eastern coast. Between these ranges lies the central plain, a massive region of varying altitudes dominated by deserts, shrublands, flat grasslands, and deciduous forests.

### Climate

Aurelian climate, given the country’s immense size, varies greatly. In the middle of the nation, most citizens live in arid environments, either in deserts or hot shrublands. Farther to the west past the Iron Mountains, the predominant biomes include wet subtropical forests and arid deserts once more, excluding the large expanse of dry summer patterns in northern Westenland. Along the eastern seaboard, however, Tsarkans live in a variety of more comfortable zones, including the tropical state of Maasingen dominated by wet forests and swamps and the pleasant the humid subtropical expanse from Hallare to Hartheim. Further inland, climate becomes more continental, with colder and snowier winters. States such as Bellensteig, Immenfurt, and Diessennier showcase this corner of Aurelia.

## Government and Politics

*Further information: Elections in the Confederated States and Political ideologies in the Confederated States*

The Confederated States are a federal electoral constitutional monarchy composed of twenty-four states and thirty-five Native Aurelian reservations. It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and is ruled under an authoritarian Paramount, who under strict regulations imposed by the Articles of Union, is molded to act as a benevolent dictator. These Articles of Union act as the nation's supreme legal document, establishing the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. The Articles have been amended fourteen times.

The federal government comprises three branches, which are headquartered primarily in Rheinsteig, a suburb of the nation's capital Achterveld. These branches are regulated via a system of checks and balances established by the Articles.

* The Staatsraad van de Hertog, known informally as simply the Staatsraad, is the nation's primary legislative body, charged with the duties of declaring war, signing treaties, coordinating the federal budget, and calling emergency elections if removing the Paramount from power is considered by at least one elector from all twenty-four states. The Staatsraad also has the power to regulate their own membership, and may remove an elector from their position through a two-thirds majority vote. The Staatsraad has forty-eight total members, comprised of two electors from each state. These electors are appointed by the State Governors at the beginning of their four-year terms, and have no limit to the amount of times they can be appointed.
* The Paramount of the Confederated States is the Supreme State Defense Commander of the CSA's armed forces, has the sole power to introduce legislation to the Staatsraad, and appoints all officers of the federal government. The Paramount's power to circumvent Staatsraad approval has increased in the past several decades as well, with more and more executive decrees being handed down directly to the growing bureaucracy without deliberation.
* The State Inquisition consists primarily of the Princeps Inquisitorialis, the Minorum Inquisitorialis, and the Terrae Indagatores. The Princeps interprets laws and overturns those it finds that act against the Articles of Union, and it is led by the Grand Inquisitor. It consists of a college of thirteen High Inquisitors, who are nominated for the position by the Paramount and then confirmed by the Staatsraad. Lesser Inquisitors and Court Investigators who operate in the Minorum and Terrae courts are put through the same process of nomination and confirmation to serve until they resign, retire, die, or are removed by the Staatsraad.

### Political Subdivisions

*Further information: Political Divisions in the Confederated States, State Government in the Confederated States, Local Government in the Confederated States, List of States of the Confederated States, Native Aurelian Reservations, and Territorial Evolution of the Confederated States*

In the Aurelian federal system, sovereignty is shared between two levels of government: federal and state. Each of the twenty-four states has territory where it shares sovereignty with the federal government. People in the states are also represented by local elected governments, which are administrative divisions of the states. States are subdivided into baronies and further divided into counties.