Free Rasalhague Republic

Free Rasalhague Republic/Rasalhague Dominion
Capital	Rasalhague
Official Languages	Swedish, Japanese, a hybrid called "Swedenese" is the most widespread
Size	80 worlds at peak
Head of State	Elected Prince, later Khan and Prince would rule simultaneously
Governmental Structure	Elective Monarchy
State Religion/Ideology	Lutheran Protestantism
Military Force	KungsArme Ghost Bear Touman

The Free Rasalhague Republic (now the Rasalhague Dominion) is an interstellar empire in BattleTech located within the Inner Sphere, which came about from the end of the Fourth Succession War. While originally a unique little slice of the Inner Sphere, they got absolutely asswrecked by the Clan Invasion, only saved by the fact that much of Clan Ghost Bear were already distant relatives of the people here, and inevitably went native.

History

Originally a Scandinavian themed region named the Principality of Rasalhague before being annexed via marriage, the space that would become the Free Rasalhague Republic was previously a Province controlled by the Draconis Combine, and it had always been an especially strained relationship since their "joining" of the Combine. The people of Rasalhague as well as it's surrounding stars absolutely refused to assimilate to the Combine's weeb ways, and uprisings in this province were both common and often quite violent to the point that it ended up the most unstable border in the Combine. In the Fourth Succession War, the Lyran Commonwealth plunged into the Combine's territory with help from the now hundreds of years-old separatist movements within the Province, and ComStar's Primus at the time convinced the Draconis Coordinator that it would be better to just let the Rasalhagues have their freedom as both a way to get rid of their most annoying/violent citizens as well as make sure there was a wall the Lyran Commonwealth had to go through in order to get to them. Seeing how the Lyran Commonwealth was about to merge with the Federated Suns, it would halven their borders with hostile enemy states. Rasalhague's declaration of Independance was signed officially in 3034, with ComStar and the Combine quickly endorsing it, and the Lyrans shrugging and handing whatever worlds they'd grabbed in the Province's space back since they really didn't actually need them for much. To keep both sides happy, one of the first things the new Republic did was begin an equal trade agreement between Lyran and Combine. Everything seemed to be going pretty well for them...

SUDDENLY CLANNERS

Right up until The Clans happened! Oops!

While the Inner Sphere in general did not take the initial Clan invasion well, no individual state got their shit wrecked as hard nor as fast as the FRR got it. The Clan Invasion was only about four years long, but Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Wolf ran completely roughshod over the entirely unprepared nation. By the end of it, the state that had once held 80 worlds between two enormously powerful nations now only kept seven, and were only allowed to survive through ComStar's intervention. After the Battle of Tukayyid however, the major shift in Clan Ghost Bear's ideology meant that the already pretty conservative, familial, and careful clan was considering just putting down roots (not that it was hard, the vast majority of Clan Ghost Bear named characters imply they were descendants of Rasalhague space to begin with) and striking a deal with the Rasalhague people (who were already starting rebellions, because they already had hundreds of years of practice at it) to assimilate to them rather than the other way around. By the end of the Jihad, most of the Clanner bullshit was more or less relegated to the armed forces, and the Khan and Prince ruled together, forming the Rasalhague Dominion.

Dominion Civil War, wat?

Unfortunately, the Ralhague Dominion as a faction has gone from awesome and noblebright to outright skub with the release of the Dominions Divided sourcebook. As it also makes the Rasalhague Dominion and Clan Ghost Bear go a massive civil war on joining the IlClan’s Star League that’s unbecoming of a faction that values family ties and independence so strongly.

Society

The Republic/Dominion has been defined by their strong cultural identity as BattleTech's Space Vikings, with a little IRA flavor mixed in for good measure.

Much of the Rasalhague national "character" has been otherwise dominated by the fact they've been under oppression for centuries by the Combine and openly refused to change anything about themselves, and that has mutated into a subtle cultural bias against anything Japanese thanks to their good neighbors to their "right" on the Inner Sphere map. While it's no longer outright racism, it's still baked in deep. Of course, they didn't get rid of the Weeb influences entirely, and so the average Rasalhaguer is a weird mashup of Swedish and Japanese in all facets of life, including the widespread language of choice, which is a next-to-impossible to understand mashup called "Swedenese", which was the inevitable result of both cultures long-term relationship with one another.

Their politics are actually quite an interesting testbed for the Inner Sphere; while still holding the semi-feudal titles of nobility, every single one of them is elected by the people and expected to work for the people. All of them. And they can get voted out at any time, with expressly written term limits. This level of unprecedented democracy has otherwise instilled most Rasalhague nobles with the impression that they must tread lightly, and most are smart enough to not compromise their positions and have post-nobility plans ready. The closest to a dynasty that came up from this was the Magnusson family, and even then that's only been three dudes, so far. And when Clan Ghost Bear came through, they more or less just separated the Clan society into the military; now run by the Khan, and all civilian society into the regular running of a country; by the Prince. Meanwhile, a legislative council made of equal portions of Trueborn Warriors, Freeborn Warriors, and Civilians ensued both the the Clan and Rasalhague citizenry had equal say in government.

Military

Thanks to the inherent facts of it's existence, battles against the FRR's Kungsarme were wild mashups of Mechs left over from the Combine and the Commonwealth, leading to bizarre Lances such as Dragons fighting alongside Commandos, and Jenners alongside Awesomes. Their unique mech technology tends to bias Missile boats or the TAG system, meaning that any fight with the Rasalhagues is one where smouldering craters where Mechs and Tanks used to be become an important part of the terrain. Part of this is the mutual defense pacts that were signed between the Lyrans, the Combine, and Rasalhague to train each other, and a series of guerilla wars early in the Kungsarme's life forged them into a dangerous and competent force, only broken down by the Clans due to sheer numbers and technological superiority.

Post-integration with Clan Ghost Bear, the military has been otherwise turned over to Ghost Bear's Touman, with some recruiting coming from the Dominion itself. They're not all using OmniMechs however, as years of ComStar help has put an influx of unique designs that are definitely not named entirely on the nose into their factories.

Notable Mechs

• Beowulf - A Star League-era design that was cooked up by ComStar after they lost the plans to the Mongoose mech, and ended up with a BattleMech almost twice the size and firepower. It's pretty damn fast, and designed to get up close and personal with a pair of medium lasers and one very accurate large pulse laser. It's also got a TAG system so it can call down artillery strikes.
• Viking - Another ComStar product, this time with direct input from the Rasalhagues themselves. The Viking is an Assault-sized long-range missile fire support system that carries two LRM-15s and two LRM-20 systems hooked up to an Artemis IV system to blanket any battlefield it ends up on.