Attera
 | |
| Official language | English (administrative), Amharic (official) |
|---|---|
| Capital | Q'Attera, Kreutzberg (also Argaath Perez) |
| Largest cities | Markelia, Jihan i Noor, Illumina, Da'artamuun |
| Website | Solomonic Imperial News Agency |
| Date founded |
July 31st 1999 (as an internet micronation) circa 1980 (as a seccessionist micronation) |
| Government | Constitutional Monarchy (Republic on various occasions) |
| Current leader | HRH Sovereign Mik'el Tzion I Makonnen |
 | |
| Map versions | 3.5.0 - 7.0.5 and 13.8.5b |
Attera, known under different names in its various incarnations, was one of the oldest micronations on Micras, its foundation as an internet micronation only two years from the foundation of the Micran Sector and its original conception much, much older. It was an Ethiopian-themed monarchy and during its heyday commanded much political power on Micras. Many of the most important figures in the history of the Micran sector were at one point Atteran citizens. Various governmental types for Attera were experimented with which can lead to confusion in understanding Atteran history- for convenince's sake they will collectively be referred to as 'Attera'.
There was a brief attempt to restart Attera in mid-2009 which was not met with much success. Attera as an influential Micran power had ceased to exist by early 2006 with the depature of its founder, Diga Makonnen, from micronationalism. Attera also held a record for remaining on Micras the longest, after Shireroth and Babkha.
Introduction
Copied from ShireWiki
By Scott Alexander, originally posted 9/22/02
Unlike the last class, my personal experience of this subject is limited. I was around for much of this, and a part of some of it, but not an integral part of very much of it. Thus, most of my information comes from the Rasinate’s history page, Diga’s biographies of Atteran citizens, and a very short interview with Diga himself. I make no claims to this being original other than that the words are my own. The info mostly comes from elsewhere.
The Beginnings
The Federation of Imperial Atteran States has its beginnings back almost twenty-five years ago. That’s before most of us were even BORN. Back then, Ras Diga was just a young child (yes, I know this seems hard to believe, but history requires a suspension of disbelief sometimes) and was living, with his sisters and friends, in a NATO base in Belgium. There his friend, Jacques Gage, created a very very early micronation – a micronation which became known as the Socialist Republic of the Ogaden (also sometimes spelled Ogden)
Ogaden
It was a much more active than ours – not active in the participatory sense but in the fact that wars involved actual battles of people ganging up and going and taking “forts” – perhaps good practice for what was to come. From the information I’ve gathered, it seems like a whole history could be written on the Ogaden, but I’ll just give a brief summary. There were a whole lot of coups, some of which failed, and many of which Diga helped to put down, so that he reached a very high position.
The fall of Ogaden and rise of Attera
When Ogaden began to falter, it was annexed (in a manner reminiscent of what recently took place between Yardistan and Shireroth) by its largest state, Attera. Attera was alternately ruled by Ras Diga or his two sisters until about the 1980s, at which point Ras Diga journeyed to his family’s ancestral home in Ethopia (I believe for his grandfather’s funeral) There Diga became a Ras, a pretty high title of Ethopian nobility (I am not certain to what degree this title was official), gained a greater appreciation for his native culture and when he came back, was willing to infuse Attera with some Ethopian ideas. But (and this is just the impression I get) Attera didn’t do so well afterwards. Despite being reincorporated with a few smaller countries as Q’Attera-Macusiaa, it sort of floundered on and off in this period.
Real Life Connections
Cut forward ten or fifteen years. Ras Diga is now a part of the United States military. In Colorado, he meets his future wife, Rasana Marie, who is studying political science. She needs some kind of project to do a thesis on. From what I hear, this was love at first sight, and a bit after they met, they were married (and a bit after that had a daughter, Jihan I, who is now in line to become Attera’s leader when she comes of age).
Later, Ras Diga was called off to Kosovo as part of America’s peacekeeping mission there. He then had a great idea – revive Attera under the name “Rasinate of Q’attera Macusia’a” (note the “Attera” hidden in there!) for his wife’s political thesis project. Now, and this is just my personal opinion, is that romantic or what? Anyway, he and some of his military companions met in a place in Kosovo called Stryker Hall, and, on July 31 1999 (note the timeline here – the Rasinate and the Apollo Sector were founded within a less than a week of one another!) they approved the idea by signing the Crimson Constitution, which although altered and replaced a few times has been the cornerstone of Rasinate government ever since.
Crimson Constitution
Basically this says there are some Imperial Rases who are like monarchs, although technically they’re just standing in for the Le’ult, the real monarch, who happens to be Diga’s daughter Jihan. There’s also a Yezawd Derg, the hilariously named Parliament or Legislature, and a nobility system called Shum-Shir (literally give-take…the government can give you a noble title if they like you and take it away if they don’t) in which some lower positions are called Qenyazmatch and Dejazmatch and the highest normally achievable position is a Ras.
Crimson Order
Now, I’m not sure how many people exactly this project entailed here, but it was certainly quite a bit more than made a habit of posting on the Rasinate’s Internet site. Every so often, when Diga needs something done, he calls some of his “offline friends” (of whom Ras Markle was one before he came online with interesting results) who are able to get stuff done for him. We saw it with Marinidad, and we saw it again just a few days ago with Cranda. These offline friends are sometimes called the Crimson Order to distinguish themselves from the Rasinate proper, although I may have gotten that distinction hopelessly messed up.
Foreign Policy
But a few of them did indeed join online, and one of them, Ras Rodriguez, became the first Prime Minister. The Rasinate started entering into relations with other micronations, many of which are places I’ve never heard of except in passing and which are probably not still around. I’ll throw out Zarahemla, Gruver, Cyberia, Patria, and Scotia as names here for the few of you who will recognize them. These are, however, some of the more important of members of the group that likes to call themselves “serious micronations”, and the Rasinate served as an important bridge between the two before geopolitical changes made that role pretty much impossible.
The Rasinate also recognized Audentior and the Great Automatic Peoples’ Republic.
Diplomacy
Between January and June 2000 a few things happened. First, the Rasinate grew very close diplomatically to the country of Tulsa, founded by a certain Charles Beard (it was hard not to grow close to Tulsa, and the country was a common inspiration for Audentior and Attera, as well as, oddly enough, the first micronation Thomas Hubert ever joined).
Second, the Rasinate joined the League of Secessionist States (the League of Micronations didn’t exist at the time).
Internal Strife
Third, there was a coup against Diga. I’m not exactly sure how this occurred – the impression I get was a few soldiers went around telling some people to let them be leader instead of Diga, but Diga convinced everyone he should be leader instead of the soldiers. I don’t know, it sounded a lot better when the Red Shield said it.
The Red Shield
Speaking of which, the Red Shield was Q’attera’s newspaper and a closet inspiration for the Apollo Fireball that they will never acknowledge in a million years.
Foreign Relations
Oh, and I think Ras Markle became the second Prime Minister around this time.
Anyhow, it’s in the latter half of 2000 that the Rasinate built a bit of an unfortunate reputation for themselves. They will say it’s through no fault of their own, and the evidence is as follows.
(See! Deciding stuff like this is why history’s important!) Anyhow, a tiny new nation no one had ever heard of called Marinidad emailed the Rasinate to say that they were declaring war on them because “they didn’t like their name”. They then made a halfhearted attempt to flood their mailbox.
Unfortunately, the Marinidadians picked the wrong nation to bother. Two members of the Rasinate’s offline presence, Lord NEO and Lord APOLYON, attacked Marinidad, flooded its guestbook, and possibly hacked part of the site. No one ever heard from Marinidad again, and I don’t see it as a major loss.
Anyhow, after learning that the Rasinate had used war as a means of policy, the Corvinians and TorHavners, two micronations very much on the serious side who they were in the middle of pursuing a relationship with, said that they were not worthy of their attention and cut off diplomacy (as well as refused to let them into an intermicronational organization they were starting called the Comity of Peoples). The issue became such a big deal that Diga resigned, although he came back a few days later after he figured out that everyone else supported him. The Rasinate responded by saying nasty things about Corvinia and TorHavn (as is their wont). Everyone left really mad.
Bold New Era
But the Rasinate had a plan. Specifically, a Bold New Era Plan. They were going to break down the artificial division between the “serious” micronations and the “bug” micronations so that everyone could live in peace and achieve their full potential. Or such was the plan. I don’t remember all the specifics, but basically it was that instead of using their superior resources to mock and insult smaller countries, the bigger countries should try and take them under their wing and help them step up to “big country” level.
Ras Diga proposed this plan in front of a number of international organizations and was pretty confident. After all, who would oppose cooperation and friendship?
More people than you’d think. The Rasinate had made a lot of enemies, and most of the things people say about it now are the kind of things people said about it then (it’s imperialistic, it’s manipulative and Machiavellian, it’s hopelessly opposed to the “big countries”, Diga’s on a power trip to take over the world [this one is true, by the way]) were said about it then.
It was easy to interpret the “big states should try to help along little states and take them under their wing” as “big states should imperialistically create blocs of little states”, an interpretation which the existence of the Atteran Commonwealth did little to discredit, and similarly possible to interpret “Big nations should be nice to little nations” as an attempt for the Rasinate, which had never really gotten the “big nation” status it craved earlier, to overturn the existing order.
The Rasinate, and its numerous allies, made impassioned and eloquent pleas for the BNE plan wherever it was presented, but in place after place it was shot down or ignored. Perhaps the only good that really came of it was that there was a tiny little clause saying it would be nice for the Apollo Sector to become unified, and the Apollo Sector listened and did (in the UAS).
It’d be nice to see something like the BNE these days, but I don’t think it’d get much better reception. This was around October.
Arch Enemies
Around this time, another one of the new micronations that were constantly popping up and just as constantly falling back down into oblivion posted to say hi in the premier micronational forum of the time. (micro-nations.org had not yet been invented. Does anyone remember the name of Leys’ ugly light blue forum that never got anywhere?) Anyway, this nation had a fictional history and map.
For His Glorious Corvine Highness Prince Peter Ravn Rasmussen I of Corvinia And Outlying Territories (and yes, he was highly fussy about titles) this was AT LEAST equivalent to the Nazi genocide. He insulted them mercilessly until Ras Diga came in and told them to shut up. His Glorious Corvine Highness Prince Peter Ravn Rasmussen I of Corvinia And Outlying Territories said (in highly diplomatic and flowery language referring at least once to every major work of English literature since 1500) something along the lines of “No, you shut up”.
Then they got into a huge argument and name-calling match. Finally, Ras Markle came into it, and, let’s face it, arguments against Ras Markle tend to get interesting very quickly. The way the Rasinate tells it, His Glorious Corvine Highness Prince Peter Ravn Rasmussen I of Corvinia And Outlying Territories ran home with his metaphorical tail between his legs. The way opposing factions tell it, he finally got so sick of the Rasinate’s nastiness and pointless garbage that he refused to participate anymore in such a degenerate discussion (why, I’ll bet those Rasinate people don’t even know the history of French flower arranging!!)
In any case, before he left he did manage to bring up the theory that Ras Markle was a double login of Ras Diga’s that he used when he felt like being especially nasty without having to take responsibility, an accusation which has continued to this day.
This is where the incident would end if it were not for a very curious fact. The name of the new micronation with the fictional map that the Rasinate had defended was “The Kingdom of Babkha”, and its founder was a certain “Shah Babak XXVI” After the whole incident, Babkha told Corvinia that they regretted their differences and wanted to pursue greater friendship.
This REALLY angered the Rasinate. Why the PRH would they do something stupid like that when the Rasinate had just wasted loads of its time defending them against Corvinia. A polite discussion between officials of the two countries began on the issue, and as tends to happen surprisingly often with the Rasinate, snowballed into both countries pretty much vowing to hate each other forever.
Domestic
But let’s go to domestic stuff.
First, we have the extremely odd and somewhat scary on the face of it fact that Eoin Dornan was once the Prime Minister of the Rasinate. Can you believe THAT one? Yeah. It was kind of my fault – I led his campaign, but it’s still rather hilarious. This age of close Treesia-Attera friendship is responsible for the Rasinate still holding a bit of the Treesian island, the territory of Ecosse, today. Eoin has politely offered to take if off their hands, but the Rasinate declined.
Another thing that happened was the fall of Tulsa. It just got inactive and collapsed. So much for the only nation ever to call its legislature the Igloo of Iguanas. But Tulsa’s loss was the RoQM’s gain, because King Charles (who the Rasinate termed King Charles the Great) joined up with them, becoming a Ras Bitwoded (meaning Beloved Ras, basically a noble who’s also a very trusted advisor).
Ras Charles has been Rasinate PM for more time than anyone else (I believe) and has done the job extremely capably. And has been well rewarded – he is now an Imperial Ras, the highest government position Attera can offer.
Finally, in counterbalance to a number of Apollonians joining the Rasinate (Ryan, Eoin, and John were all Rases at one time…can you believe John actually being referred to by a dignified title of Ethopian nobility? It boggles the very mind) the Rasinate contributed to the Union of Apollo States by founding the state of Lesser Attera, which actually did very well. I’m curious if any of the Atterans remember the website for that, because I don’t, and I’d like to see and archive it.
Middle History
Anyway, this brings us about to early middle 2001. There’s a lot of conflict with Babkha now, although mainly below the surface. There’s also a lot of hostility toward the PRNSE, a topic which I will cover more completely in the Communist lecture, although I just realized I can’t for the life of me remember what caused it and will have to ask Diga or Zhukov or someone.
Anyway, in the middle of it, the Rasinate decides to actually do something with the Atteran Commonwealth. Up until this time, despite a number of RoQM claims to the contrary, the AC was mainly a collection of dead/dying nations founded by Atterans. But in this period, it picked up a few real prizes, including the newly independent Free Republic, which I will again have to cross-reference in the Communist lecture.
From this they got Zhukov, who, though he didn’t work well in the beginning (I believe he was convicted of a minor treason charge) later became a full Ras and finally Prime Minister, which he is now. This period was marked by a very very subtle cold war with Babkha in which each of them tried to prevent the other from making any new friends, an attitude which was to continue into an era when it would prove disasterous.
Time in Tymaria
Of course, when the Free Republic wanted to merge into Tymaria, that presented the Rasinate with a difficulty. They didn’t want to lose the gem of the Commonwealth, but they really couldn’t legally restrain them. Their solution was so contrary to everything they had ever done before this point that my jaw literally dropped open when I saw it. The Rasinate wanted to merge.
Of course, originally things were a little different. It’s not exactly common knowledge that the first draft of the Tymarian constitution included a “Diga would be king” clause, but it did. Really. He would actually co-rule with some Pacifican guy I’d never heard of. Luckily that draft got thrown out pretty quickly.
In any case, when Tymaria formed, the Rasinate became the state of Attera, and Diga, who everyone acknowledged as the paragon of militaristicness, became the minister of defense. He trained the Tymarians into what I imagine was a good imitation of the original Rasinate army, and they were indeed good. He unfortunately however continued to work under Rasinate assumptions.
Like that he was working with actual military caliber people who had military style ethical codes. Although I have to admit, even that doesn’t excuse him letting Bill into his army. I mean, come on! Bill!? Conway I could understand, but Bill’s never stuck to something without going all wacko on everyone for more than a couple of days! But I digress.
There’s no need to dwell on what happened here. A group of Tymarians revealed that Diga was spying on and destabilizing Morovia. Diga at first denied it and then when the evidence became incontrovertible said it was only in response to Babkhan threats. Which, to be fair, it probably was if the issue was looked at from a non-black-and-white perspective, but, viewed in black and white, the Tymarian Security Operations Group (or, more infamously, TYSOG) was guilty as sin.
Diga was faced with an impeachment attempt (although I believe it failed), impeachments in both Leagues (both of which he held high positions in – I believe those both succeeded). He grew very angry with Tymaria – he viewed it (since it was siding against him) as being hopelessly corrupted by Babkha. The only people still free were his Atterans, and he’d be darned if he was just going to let them sit there. So he seceded.
Tymaria wasn’t happy, but you don’t declare war on Attera when you don’t have to, especially if you’re on the brink of civil war yourself, so they didn’t do anything about it, and Attera got another shot, this time back under its original name.
Post Tymaria Time
The first thing they did was change their government. Originally, the two Imperial Rases (well, more a Ras and Rasana) were Diga and Marie. Now there were three: Diga, his new friend Dabe, and Charles. The old Yezawd Derg was replaced with a Grand Executive Council. A number of cool cultural thingies like bars were added only to be deleted once again when Diga decided they took up too much forum space.
That was February 2002. Since then, a few things have happened. Obviously, there’s been the war with Cranda, but I’m going to skirt over that for a second. Second, they’ve gotten lots of great new people like Siri, Scooter, and, to everyone’s surprise and suspicion, Jason-Harvey. Hahahaha! Harvey! What a stupid name! Anyway, yeah. And they tried me and Philip for slander, found us guilty, and then let me back in a few days ago, so thanks. And Scooter gave them a new forum. And that, I believe, is that for current Atteran history.
Looking Foward
What of the future? When those who would later be Atterans met at Stryker Hall they agreed to a five-year “trial period”. If Attera really worked out, after five years they’d make it into a real country, or at least try their best. If it didn’t, they’d disband it. Diga left in 2006 and there was an attempt to resurrect Attera in 2009 to no avail. Attera left its mark on Micras, as one of the longest established nations in the sector.
