Introduction
The Mertagnian Insulation was a period of political instability in the territories of modern day Mertagne between its first and second republics. The instability, lasting for just over four decades, was the result of a series of issues surrounding economic and political institutions that the nation had constructed in the wake of the Corvidae War and the Mertagnian Expansion. Many operations were revealed to be wholly propped up by foreign investments, and a series of events resulted in a failure for Mertagne to pay its national debts and the decline of democracy and local governance in the nation.

The end of the Insulation was brought about by the Dannin Summit, in which several de facto local leaders across the nation came together to formally establish the Second Mertagnian Republic.

The effects of the Insulation are still felt today, with many rural areas in the nation lacking access to key infrastructure, and increased income and educational inequality between areas that were particularly affected.

Timeline
The events showcased here take place across many years. To keep a fixed timeline, the 'Years AWS' system (Years After the Week of the Small Ships) will be used.

National Founding
In the year 0 AWS, the Week of the Small Ships occurred in August - a large civilian operation at the height of the Corvidae War which saw thousands of small vessels embark from Krytenia, carrying tens of thousands of Mertagnian refugees fleeing to the abandoned city-state of Neorudo. Defended by Euran air support, Runtenbacher anti-air platforms, and the threat of Starblaydi action against Corvidae if things got too heated in their back pond, the opposing Corvidae Forces were unable to sink the fledgling flotilla as they moved to their new home. Neorudo proved to be a safe harbour for the Mertagnians to rebuild their lives, and the First Republic of Mertagne was officially declared.

At the end of the Corvidae War towards the end of 1 AWS, Mertagne entered a political union with The Inevitable Syndicate, whose people had surrendered after an attack on the Syndicatian capital of Fligsive which killed Corvidae leader Lex Crowley. This political union, "The Calanian Union", politically centred itself around Neorudo, and was heavily influenced by the interests of allied parties that had helped Mertagne in the war, such as Eura, Runtenbach, and Kita-hinode. Other governments were keen to get involved in the rebuilding of the Inevitable Syndicate, and also in the expansion of Mertagne. Regional defence bodies earmarked land that Mertagne could rightfully claim as theirs, which positioned them firmly between Starbladyia and Krytenia. Political scholars claim that this was done to enable Mertagne to act as a 'buffer state' and rebutt Starblaydi and Krytenian interests from becoming too all-encompassing on the Bekk - something that was welcomed by nations across the Calanian continent that were looking to claw power of their own, such as Bostopia and Legalese, who were also encouraged to invest into infrastructure and work programs.

The Calanian Union's early rise was rocked with the Fligsive Disaster in 7 AWS, which saw 60% of the Syndicatian Capital reduced to rubble and an ensuing flood, after a Corvidae remnant detonated a powerful explosive device. Loss of life was shocking yet minimal, as Corvidae issued a 72 hour ultimatum which saw millions flee the city. Tens of thousands of people died in the disaster, and the Fligsive that stands today is but a shadow of its former self.

The Fligsive Incident quickly soured the Calanian Union's attitude to its land holdings to the south, and many Syndicatians felt that they were being exploited in order to construct a new country across the Bekk. This slight, and encroaching desertification of the Syndicate's south-western areas, caused the Calanian Union to disband in 8 AWS with the sale of The Inevitable Syndicate to Eura, with the latter incorporating the territory as the Euran Oceania Territories. The sale of the nation provided a much needed source of capital for the Mertagnian government to fund Mertagne's expansion westward, including the construction of the Mertagnian leg of the Trans-Calanian Railway. Mertagne was now an independent nation, economically free of its ties to its primogen in the south.

Investment and Rise
By the year 10 AWS, rapid expansion efforts had occurred to the north and west of Mertagne's capital, Neorudo. The Neorudo - Papillio corridor was becoming densely settled, and the settlement of New Fligsive was formed to accommodate refugees from the Fligsive disaster. 'Operation Exodus', a well known migration wave from the Inevitable Syndicate, saw a swell in the Mertagnian population and the construction of towns and villages along key routes. The Mertagnian government of the time adopted an aggressive immigration policy, fast-tracking the process for skilled workers from other nations to arrive into Mertagne and aid in providing services to the population such as construction, health, agriculture, and manufacturing industries. During this time, many new companies were formed by immigrants, and the government developed lucrative contacts with large multinational corporations to facilitate the funding and development of industry, signing over the rights to resource extraction as well as providing tax incentives to these companies. In 14 AWS, Dannin was settled as a small trading outpost on the outskirts of the Calanian Marsh, in order for Mertagne to develop trade with Rushmori nations and beyond across the Blood Sea, found to the north-west. The settlement experienced little growth in its first years but would become a key settlement during the later years of the First Republic.

Construction and foreign investment into the project that Mertagne had become continued, as in 16 AWS billions of Mertagnian Ducats were poured into the construction of a fully fledged city to rival the heyday of the old Syndicatian Capital. New Fligsive was to become Mertagne's 'Second City', a title that Kurtz had assumed de facto but was now being challenged by this new cultural hub. New businesses flocked to take advantage of the opportunities that this rampant construction and infill of new settlement provided, and profiteers continued to make a lot of money as the art-deco skyscrapers of the Plitterland city continued to rise. New Fligsive was rapidly gaining cultural and physical capital, becoming a hotbed for new schools of thought, cutting edge technology and culture, and serving as a fresh start for many victims of the Fligsive disaster in the decade prior.

In 20 AWS, a deal was negotiated between the government and private enterprise which saw the birth of the Mertagnian Outpost Initiative, in which private industry would be tasked with the development of new towns and settlements on the western side of the nation. With that development, the Mertagnian government signed away land rights in what was assumed to be simple uninhabited forest and mountain valleys. Within five years, many of these land parcels turned out to be paydirt, with rich minerals and ores found in the western mountains past the plains. Several large multinationals turned their attention westward to extract their new found riches, and much of Mertagnian life at this time continued to be dominated by the presence of multinationals, with many believing that free enterprise was the solution (and opposite) to the terror of fascism that had gripped the Inevitable Syndicate during the Corvidae War.

In the second decade after the Week of the Small Ships, attention turned to Dannin, as its sheltered location proved to be a useful one in the facilitation of Calanian trade with SARIMEA nations to the north. The thin yet navigable Dannmarsh Sound was used as a key shipping route, and with the Trans-Calanian Railway running just south of Dannin, goods were transported across the continent with ease in a new era for containerisation. Dannin became incredibly economically important to the Mertagnian government, and in 24AWS it was designated the new capital, to bridge the ever-growing gap between an urbanised collective east Mertagne and a rural corporate west Mertagne.

In the year 26 AWS, Mertagne's burgeoning infrastructure played host to a small group of international football fans as the nation hosted a single group in World Cup 75. The nation had at this point shied away from international football, but continued to be a heavyweight on the domestic football scene by aggressively importing players to corporate owned clubs that made their owners lots of money, and experienced worldwide fan bases off of the creation of sporting brands such as Lehen Neorudo, Blades de Bretsaar, and Fligsive FC.

Government Collapse
The elections of 26 AWS were important to the history of the Insulation, as during this time a government was voted in that began to truly prioritise expansion to the west, an area known as the 'brave frontier'. A new generation of naturally born Mertagnians had begun to come of age (aided in part by the population boom around the time of Operation Exodus), and many politicians at the time drove the message that it was the 'the birth right of the new generation of Mertagnians' to work the land and create new settlements out of nothing. Thousands migrated to the west in the coming years, many out of an overpopulated Neorudo urban area, to make a name for themselves on the frontier.

During this time, it was revealed that the government's grip on its territory and mandate to govern was increasingly fragile and affected by the lobbying power of large multinational corporations, many of them sponsoring key political figures in the nation's legislature. Economic development was prioritised at the time to plug a growing hole in the national debt, as many nations that loaned money to Mertagne and the Calanian Union were looking to collect. Mertagne's government looked increasingly inward to drive this economic growth at the expense of maintaining good diplomatic relations with the rest of Anaia. Embassies were run by skeleton crews of diplomats, and an underfunded civic service was prone to fold to private pressure.

Also during this time, around 28 AWS, a new wave of anti-capitalist sentiment in the form of Tukarism arrived from Osarius and Cobrio, ushering in a radical school of thought among left-wing academics that had not been seen in the nation before in such a capacity. This anti-capitalist sentiment would be side-lined to the academic elite for some time, but in time tenets from this ideology would prove to be a key school of thought along ideological battle lines drawn in the Insulation.

By 30 AWS, several years of development from the multinationals has resulted in corporations wielding excessive influence in the Mertagne of the time, often resulting in direct executive power. The nation's legislature quickly lost the ability to effectively rule across corporate owned land, and the disparate connectedness of towns in the west meant that many areas were wholly beholden to the private security of companies, or volunteer law enforcement representing the government. This period, often called Mertagne's 'Wild West', also saw public services across the nation as a whole diminished in the name of 'austerity' to protect the national budget. The Mertagnian economy slumped during this year and the next, as profit and capital were excised from the nation to further the interests of the foreign nations and companies that aided in Mertagne's construction. Among them were established nations such as Eura, Nephara, Starblaydia, and Audioslavia.

31 AWS proved to be a pivotal year for the precarious ideological situation of the country, as anti-capitalist sentiment gained rapid traction after a private security detail which had replaced a police precinct in New Fligsive gunned down a young girl in cold blood because it was rumoured she had stolen company property. Protestors stormed the streets in response, and the government attempted to quell the protestors using the army, which failed to do so prompting the arrival of more private security contractors and a plummeting respect for government office. The ensuing lack of support, plus a continually mounting national debt, led to a further decline in civic services and strike action from workers. The government responded with a "hands off" approach, and lobbying continued to serve corporate interests at the expense of the people. The consistent pressure of migration westward, often with private monetary incentive, led to more insular communities and a fractured Mertagnian identity.

The issues continued into the next year, and in the spring of 32 AWS, the president of Mertagne - Vincent Dris, who also served on the board for controversial multinational HULD - died suddenly in office. The cause of death is officially stated to be a heart attack, but a publicly accepted conspiracy theory is that he was poisoned. Many groups were blamed, from anti-capitalists to multinational CEOs to a litany of foreign governments. Dris had few allies during his final months in power, and his own party fractured greatly after his death. As per Mertagne's legislative constitution, fresh elections were called for the Head of State, but a contentious election between several candidates left a tie and thus a struggle for power. The interim President led with little majority from the legislature, and fresh legislature elections were called in an attempt to consolidate power. This backfired miserably for the government, and led to a hung parliament that refused to agree on any kind of power sharing agreement and therefore did not convene after the elections. An official recess was called in the autumn of 32 AWS, with the intention to return when an agreement was made.

The winter of 32 AWS was particularly harsh, and strike action continued in the wake of unfunded budgets for public services, and the country appeared on the brink of an economic crisis. Powerful corporations began to pull out of supporting the government and quickly moved to protect their own interests. Competition and alternatives to public services sprung up nearly overnight, and the recessed government began to fade into obscurity as power was carved out in the nation’s cities and townships, many of the latter of which were already seemingly cut-off from the bureaucracy of Dannin due to exclusivity agreements with nearby large companies. Fresh elections were called in the spring of 33 AWS but failed to be completed across the country due to lack of popular support. It is here that historically the Insulation is said to officially begin, as it was at this time that the government was officially disbanded.

Rise of New Powers
The nation began to fragment in the wake of the Insulation, as many powers moved into the vacuum created by the lack of a functioning government. Other nations also began to take notice of the Mertagnian situation, with SARIMEA defence organisations intervening with humanitarian aid for struggling Mertagnians, many of which had regressed to subsistence farming to support themselves, if they hadn't been conscripted to work in communities supported by multinational corporations. A group known as the Mertagnian Army Remnant controlled key military installations at this time, such as airports and a significant portion of the cargo railway, and many young Mertagnians moved to serve, believing the Army Remnant to be the closest thing the nation had to a government. This army remnant experienced combat during this time, as a Starblaydi peacekeeping mission into the Mertagnian borderlands was heavily rebutted by a force from the remnant. This conflict was driven and aided by private military contractors, believed to be funded by large corporations, which ran an insurgency along the border that quickly halted the peacekeeping efforts of the Starblaydi. A particularly cold winter in 36 spelled a death knell for the Starblaydi forces, spurning their interest in any future colonisation of the area.

By the mid 40s AWS, the mechanics of the Insulation had settled across the lands of former Mertagne. Several types of organisational structure began to emerge, ranging wildly in ideology depending on location. Of these, the key players included an agricultural cooperative surrounding the town of Brandistock the Brandistock Agrarian Society (BAS), the infrastructure of which was built by a subsidiary of Mytanar corporation Agrokomerc. It is rumoured that the COO of the subsidiary was thrown into a threshing machine by their workers on the eve of the foundation of the co-operative, but this remains an urban legend to this day.
Other groups include the Three Links Militia, which was coordinated by Brencian businessman Nick Church and armed the people of the city of Webster with Nepharan weapons. This group was known to terrorise many communities, often raiding smaller settlements for food and medicine to support the militia's growing ranks.
The Mertagnian Army remnant persisted, but was concentrated around Dannin and to the south and west.

The Power Struggle
The first large scale conflict of the Insulation began in 42 AWS with the formation of the Bretsaar Democratic Assembly (BDA), which was formed when anti-capitalists stormed the local city hall in Bretsaar and claimed to be a continuation of local government, usurping power from the conglomerate HULD. HULD retaliated after three months when the BDA gained control of a power station outside the city, and after several days of intense fighting, the city returned to the control of HULD, where it would remain for much of the Insulation. Also in 42 AWS, the Brandistock Agrarian Society's Corn Exchange was bombed from above by the Mertagnian Army Remnant, after a trade embargo was called into force against the Remnant by the Society. Several of the BAS's leaders were killed and the Society was forced to capitulate to the needs of the Remnant, providing food exclusively to it and greatly increasing the reach of the Army Remnant.

Three years later, and power struggles continued in the north, as prominent head of a wealthy family with land in Ostosaide, Esther Brennet, declared herself the "Queen of Mertagne". This caused friction with the Army Remnant to the south, and a force was sent to dispatch the Brennet family. Ultimately, this failed, as insurgents had set up improvised explosive devices on the few roads into Ostosaide, and the territory, a mix of marshland and chalk hills, proved difficult for the Army Remnant to traverse.

In Neorudo, a deadly disease broke out causing the deaths of thousands. Many of the native Rudo population retreated to their ancestral cave systems in Mount Leorudo, which proved to be a safe haven for many. The aftermath of the outbreak, which lasted for four years and saw Neorudo unofficially declared under quarantine to the international community, caused a schism among Neorudo's survivors, with an increasing number of Neorudans attempting to become self-sufficient and adopt the ideology of the 'steader'.

Towards the end of the decade, the largest scale munitions of the Insulation were fired, as an abandoned missile silo in Hebra province was captured by anarchist radicals and a missile was launched, targeting Dannin. It fell short of its intended target and exploded in the wetlands to the west of the city. One school of conspiracy theories suggest that the ‘weird chemicals’ used in the fuel and payload of this missile created the Mertagnian cryptid ‘Big Queen Clara’.

Conflict and turbulence continued into the 50s AWS, with the Mertagnian Army Remnant expanding much of their directly controlled territory across Central Mertagne, moving as far south as the Forkelands. The MAR were never able to successfully hold New Fligsive during this time, however, as the conflict between New Fligsive’s crime families, known collectively as the gaiziki, and the Noonan & Co. Security Agency was ongoing and the MAR found no allies in the Plitterland city. One MAR battalion attempted to storm a New Fligsive broadcasting centre in 56 AWS, but were nationally embarrassed as their military action and subsequent defeat to gangsters on the city streets was broadcast live for many in the nation to watch with their mouths agape. The mettle of the MAR was tested in the summer of 61 AWS, when their encampment at the incompletely constructed Lake Shoda Dam was invaded by the Three Links Militia, who successfully managed to hold onto the abandoned megaproject.

By this time, much of the south-west of the nation was in the hands of corporatocratics or steaders, each community carving out their own territory and protecting it - with deadly force if possible. HULD concentrated power around Bretsaar, providing a decent quality of life for its inhabitants - if you worked in a HULD-aligned job and had the money to pay for it. Neorudo, still reeling from its disease outbreak, lost much of its former influence over Touchpoint and southern areas of the Forkelands, with many retreating to the other urban areas in the province, many of which were also under corporate control. The Three Links Militia continued to remain an aggressor in the Forkelands, spouting an authoritarian doctrine concerning survival of the fittest which many interpreted as fascist in nature. Much of the Three Links conflict was undertaken outside of their heartlands, with structures in and around Webster remaining largely unaffected by combat. The Road of Remembrance in the upper Veritas Valley in the Forkelands was, surprisingly, actively avoided by combatants, with many believing superstitions that Corvidae War ghosts could rise from the stones and attack with deadly supernatural force.

This period of conflict would also see the rise of groups drawn along ethnic lines, many of which were influenced by the aims of foreign governments looking to destabilise the region for their own benefit. One particularly militant group of leftist Licentians, who had also lost their own homeland during this time, would attempt to establish a new Licentia in a district of Keers. “St. Bart’s Boys”, as they were known, are known to still be active today, but have mainly turned to organised crime.

Unionisation
With much of the balance of power locked in by the early 60s AWS, it was not armed combat that would slowly see the Insulation come to an end, but instead the organisation and withdrawal of support for the corporatocratic systems. This was not an action without violence; mercenaries were brought in to disrupt unionist activity in many forms, which often resulted in the deaths of protestors and workers.

The first tip in the balance of power occurred shortly after the Mertagnian Army Remnant’s defeat at Lake Shoda Dam, where the Brandistock Agrarian Society was reformed during the Army’s long and overstretched push into the Forkelands. Crippling the army’s food supply and restoring cooperativism across Wesaxe, the BAS supplied food to communities that had previously been relying on subsistence farming, causing thousands to gather for their cause. Unions were also formed and seized control of weakened Neorudo businesses, forming a Neorudo Business Council in 65 AWS that agreed to share resources and support worker-run businesses across the city. Petitions were started to introduce a common legal code to be enforced across the city, uniting ‘steaders’ and workers alike under the same community banner and looking to repair the damage that had fractured the Mertagnian social landscape.

As a part of drafting the legal code, Mertagnian born Krytenian judge Joseio Roper travelled back to Mertagne and began serving as a judge in Frali Courthouse in 65 AWS. Outside of presiding over city cases, he and a dedicated group drafted a legal code based for the city to treat its citizens fairly, based on legal principles he had picked up in Krytenia. Roper and his compatriots worked tirelessly for two years, while also communicating with workers sympathetic to his anti-corporatocratic cause, which was being championed loudly from Neorudo and its council of worker owned businesses. In 67 AWS, Roper assembled a dedicated group of people and sought to travel across the nation to bring his message to the masses. He titled the journey “The People’s Pilgrimage”.

The People's Pilgrimage
The People’s Pilgrimage took Roper across towns and cities in provinces all across Mertagne, meeting with local community leaders, galvanising the populace to unionise and reform local government decided by free and fair elections, and rallying against corporatocratic violence and hostile systems. His journey was not without conflict, however, and it is well known that Roper was heavily involved in an insurgency against the Three Links Militia to oust their leaders from Webster and The Forkelands. By the year 69 AWS, much of southern Mertagne was cleared of corporatocratic foreign-backed influence, with robust workers unions in place to limit the exploitation of labour, and renewed provisional councils with budgets generated from taxes that could wield those budgets for public works.

Roper continued broadcasting his message in person across the nation, often holding rallies in parks and stadiums to ever-growing crowds. In the year 72 AWS, an attempted assassination was performed on Roper during a meeting with anti-corporatist community leaders in Bretsaar. Roper was shot, but the assassin missed his vital organs and Roper recovered in a private hospital. The assassin was later captured attempting to leave the province, and was revealed to have been hired by HULD to stop Roper eroding support for HULD interests within the city.

The Dannin Summit
In the spring of the year 74 AWS, Roper’s work during the People’s Pilgrimage came to a head, as he had amassed a variety of new government leaders and had successfully gathered enough popular support to bring people to the table to discuss restoring the Mertagnian Republic in an official capacity. The Dannin Summit rewrote the Mertagnian Charter in a process that took four months, and after significant compromise a radio broadcasting house in Dannin made the declaration public over the airwaves. A sun-stained flag from a now allied Mertagnian Army Remnant base was displayed above the re-entered National Forum building to signify the event. Much work was done by the MAR to create the environment required for free and fair elections in Dannmarsh province, an area they already had considerable control over, and the centrist party the Unified Mertagne Party was the first political block to gain control of the National Forum in the first elections with universal suffrage in over 40 years.

Over the coming years, more provinces held open elections, and this delay in national-scale elections introduced Das Karussell, the unique rotating period of Mertagnian elections that persists to this day. Labour Unionists would see popular support in provinces such as Touchpoint, eroding the base of the centrist party and pushing the Mertagnian public towards a regrowing left wing.

In the year 76 AWS, Mertagne was recognised by the nations of Anaia and invited to sign the Foxchester Declaration, marking the first piece of international outreach by the Mertagnian government since the Insulation began. The signing of the Foxchester Declaration formally marks the end of the Insulation in the history books.

Legacy
It is estimated that the near half-century ‘lost’ from the positive influences of the international community have cost Mertagne dearly. 7,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives during the Insulation through direct conflict, with thousands more losing their lives due to food insecurity, and millions being displaced from their homes and their communities. Mertagne has had difficulty recording accurate censuses in the time since the Insulation, with many believing the government’s current population estimate to be grossly overestimating the number of people living in the nation’s cities.

The economy has sharply declined over the years, with Mertagne now consistently ranking below average in GDP per capita metrics and standards of living. While much work has been done to ensure access to clean drinking water and electricity, the amount of people living in poverty in Mertagne are widely understood to be greater than official government reports.

Aggressive corporatisation that has since dwindled has left many companies reluctant to work in Mertagne, and many highly skilled workers have left for other nations where pay is more competitive. This ‘brain drain’, coupled with a national schooling system that is in its own infancy, has left Mertagne with poor educational standards that successive governments have aimed to tackle.

As Mertagne is barely two decades removed from this time of crisis, its full effects have yet to be felt. However, the Insulation was decisive and certain in its fundamental change in the politics and quality of life in Mertagne. Many were displaced, and had no choice but to live lives in the pocket of multinational conglomerates. Others slipped through the cracks, eking out their own existence in the country’s sprawling cities, left alone if they had enough money and largely ignored by the factions in power. Others imposed a radical dogma on their corner of the multiverse. Although the Dannin Summit brought an end to the violence, many of the underlying troubles that contributed to the rise of the conflict have yet to be solved by the new Mertagnian Government. The legacy of the Insulation continues to shape Mertagne today, and the stability and continuation of a democratic government remains an ongoing effort.