*waves* Hey hey. Is there any room for an old-timer to slip back in? It's been about seven years (that makes me feel old). I've had a chat with BG and Chrin on IRC about a possible return but the potential claim needs some further input so I'm throwing it open for you guys to pick apart before I actually put it forward. It's a little basic at the moment but I can flesh it out considerably once it's been talked over.
So my idea is for a more 'Western' reboot of the original Marimaia, which some of you may remember. Basically put, it would be a totalitarian-ish monarchical state with fairly liberal social policies, very much in the vein of 'benevolent dictatorship' although it's really just to keep the citizenry from getting any silly democratic notions ("you don't need to elect a leader, your monarch gives you all the rights you could want"). The Suun dynasty in the original was more Kim-style so this time around I was thinking of a proper monarchy which behaves rather like the House of Saud, in that the monarch is the big power while their brothers/sisters/cousins/favourites fill out governmental positions. In terms of the economy, 'industries of strategic significance' will be firm monopolies controlled by the more business-minded members of the extended royal family but overall it will operate as a capitalist system. Freedom of religion officially exists although active religions must abide by the slew of 'guidelines' issued by the government, things like "no political commentary", etc. The prevailing attitude will be very much a case of the monarchy stamping their will on the nation because it's "theirs", a slightly justified attitude for historical reasons which shall be further explored below.
My initial idea for the history is that Marimaia started off as a colonial possession of another nation, although the colony either ran into difficulty (due to rampant nearby piracy, horrible mismanagement, belligerent 'natives', disease outbreaks, something like that) or the colonial master lost interest/ran out of funds. The colony was then sold to/thrown at a noble family which expressed an interest in taking it over, and the noble family managed to turn the newly independent nation around and expand by using 'any means necessary'. Among other things, this would have involved the use of slave labour by simply 'conscripting' indigenous peoples and working them until they couldn't work any longer. Although slavery no longer exists in Marimaia, the damage to the indigenous population has been done in that there are very few proper indigenous communities left (fresh diseases brought in didn't help with that); the modern population is comprised primarily of the descendents of the colonists/later immigrants and the mixed-race descendents which resulted from the indigenous population being 'incorporated' into the nation. So ideally I'd love to have one nation as the original colonising power and a different nation as the origin of the now-royal family, who may have left their home nation for any number of reasons (got on the wrong side of a power struggle or a civil war, for example). However, I'd have no problem with the original coloniser and the origin of the family being the same nation, either way it would work out. I'd be looking for Marimaia to have been independent and festering on their own for at least a hundred years, obviously the longer they've been independent the more the nation will have assumed its own unique identity. Marimaian culture would be primarily influenced by the now-royal family's origin with a mish-mash of aspects from immigrant influx and some desirable elements from 'quaint native practise'.
As for location of this potential claim, I'm looking more towards Asia than anywhere else (partly because Marimaia was an Asian nation, but also because the monarchy can play the Red Scare card due to the proximity of Dra-pol and Soviet India). I was thinking maybe the Philippines, however Marimaia could equally exist as a fiefdom carved out of Chinese territory or even potentially as a major departure for Japan (which would not be the high-tech wonderland of RL as Marimaia). The historical background is up for debate as well, it could easily be a case of a politically exiled population landing in uncolonised territory and going to town with their new virgin homeland under the guidance of the family who now rule as royalty.
So what do peeps think?
I can't help it that we're the lucky country. Also, Spratly Islands are, to the best of my knowledge, completely open for the taking in AMW. IRL, that's a contentious issue.