The Laskan Republic
-System of Government: Feudalism
-Head of State: Governor, the eldest male next-of-kin from the ruling Holt family
-Population: 100,000 swearing some degree of fealty, only 30,000 directly controlled by Ankrage
-Religion: Laskan Orthodoxy
-Totemic Symbol: Kodiak Bear
There was a time when Ankrage got the short end of the stick in Alaskan politics. Denied capital status despite being by far the largest and most metropolitan of the Alaskan cities, Ankrage was denied the influence over state affairs that were its god-given right. But the fall of civilization would grant it its place in the sun.
An excellent port, not divided into hundreds of tiny islands that would prove impossible to be managed, and with access to Laska's greatest farmland, it quickly established itself as a true power when nearly every other city in Laska was either starving to death or devolved to the status of minor city-state.
When the Great Coldspell of the Year 300 struck, it was Laskan warriors that took initiative- one warrior in particular, a half-Eskimo named Alan Holt. Converting their fishing fleets for the purposes of war, the sailed from village to village, compelling people to either join the great War-Fleet, or be looted themselves. The Lasan Raiders nearly exterminated the people of coastal British Columbia, and sailed into the Puget Sound, putting the coastal cities to the torch. The ships made it as far south as San Francisco, where they siezed all the gold in the Federal Reserve Bank. Planting the Alaskan flag, their ships loaded with food, booty and thralls, they returned home.
While it looked as if Laska was sure to dominated the entire region at that point, it was not to be. Laska is too large and disjointed to be centrally administered. Most local towns and communities declared independence when old Alan Holt died, including Joono which proclaimed the "State of Alaska", with the blessing of the Orthodox church. Most of the Alzandar Archipelago came under their grasp, making them a strong bulwark against Ankrage.
Ankrage declared the Republic of Laska, focusing more heavily on colonization than control of pre-existing communities. It was Ankragemen that settled the coasts of British Columbia and Graham Island, that settled Kodiak and the Alaskan Peninsula, even establishing a few outpost on Kamatchka.
With the rise of the Buddhist merchants in the Alzandar Arhcipelago, the fates of Joono have turned significantly south, with Ankrage swooping in to pick up the slack, getting many communities under its wing.