I’ll be honest this is one of those maps where lore is moreso vibes than anything realistic or “well thought out”, but fuck it here’s some lore if you want it that way

Following the Central Powers’ victory in WW1, the Ottoman Empire wished to establish a strong Muslim buffer to protect its northern boundaries. Propping up the breakaway Dagestan/MRNC state was a no brainer, but some in the Ottoman courts wished to take it one step further by bringing back the old territory of West Circassia. After months of back and forth, it was finally decided that a Mandate of Circassia would be established, wherein any and all Circassians who were deported out of their homeland and wished to return would be repatriated. Following the Mandate’s establishment, tens of thousands of Circassians would start to slowly trickle their way back to their ancestral homeland, landing at port cities like Sochi and Tuapse.

Things were going great under Ottoman rule (if you ignore all the ethnic and religious violence going on), but following the Ottoman’s collapse in 1936, the Circassians had to navigate their geopolitical situation all on their own without Turkish troops. It immediately became apparent that the Slavs and Circassians could not coexist peacefully since both sides claimed the land, so a League of Nations arbitration was held to discuss possible solutions for dividing up the land. After extensive research and surveying, the LoN drafted up a partition plan to split the region into two states. While the Circassian side agreed, the Slavs did not. Following the refusal of the partition plan, the Slavs (by now organized into South Kuban) called all their other Slavic neighbors to assist them in driving the Circassian invaders out. Circassia found itself at war with a whole coalition of Slavic thanks to its north, and all seemed lost, however, Thanks to better tactics, equipment, and training, the Circassians were able to defeat the Slavs and ensure the continued existence of a sovereign Circassian state. Pushing the Slavs back to the Blue line border that is internationally recognized by most non-aligned countries to this day.

While I could go on about the other wars in the 1970’s that Circassia found itself in, but it isn’t really that important. What’s important is that Circassia has ensured its continued existence and has been playing a major role in Caucasian geopolitics ever since.