United Kuzikstan (Nation)
Zovist Empire of Shanting
"Devote your hearts"
General Information
| Economic Capital | Kuzikstania (Economic) |
|---|---|
| Administrative Capital | New Manchester |
| Cultural Capital | Saz |
| Industrial Capital | Kjarlemad City |
| ---- | ---- |
| Official Language | English |
- National Languages: Quziqian, Huronan, Sazejan, Aernaebi, Poqranian, Kuzian, Kjarlemadi, Quinerian, Qyzlirian, Jazkovnian, Trinian
| Demonym | Shantian; Kuzian |
Government
| Classification | Zovist State |
|---|
- State Government:
- The Zov: Silfestér
- Legislature:
- The Council of Houses
Formation
| Establishment | 2024 AD |
|---|
Other Information
- GDP(nominal): 53,175 trillion / GDP (per Capita): 35,450 TUs
- Currency: Tumi
- Timezone: Shantiwasarian time
- Calling code: +066
- Internet TLD: .st
Shanting
Shanting, officially the Zovist Empire of Shanting is a Zovist state that spans over all of the continent of Shanting, hence the name. Shanting has no land borders with anyone, but the closest independent states to Shanting are Estland in Southern Wasari, Frontera in Wasaru, and the island nation of Iarthar. Shanting is a unified empire formed of 3 self-governing Pillars and 1 special administrative State. The Pillars are Hurona, Sazistan, and Kuzikstan, while Quziq forms it's own administrative state. All of these regions are constitutionally part of the empire, but they all have their own government under oversight of the Zov. Quziq, with a special state, is also allowed to have their own constitution, laws, system of governance and ability to represent themselves in international scale. The capital of Shanting is officially Kuzikstania, although New Manchester - the home of Alisa Silfestér, is also considered a secondary Capital. Quziq also has it's own capital city, Quziq City.
Kuzikstan as a self-governing state first emerged as early as 200 BC. Even before that there was the Golden Empire, that was established in 1500 BC and collapsed on 200 BC, which was a highly advanced civilization and gave a significant cultural and religious values to rest of the continent. After the great collapse of Golden Empire, Kuzia took the role as the center of Shanting. The Kuzian civilization was very imperialistic and warmongering, taking out many competing regions and people under it's rule. In 1085, the religious fanatics that ruled over Kuzia were overthrown and Kuzia became a Despotic state of Kuzia, and started one of the most historically impactful wars in Kuzian history against their biggest rival, Jazkovn, which was ruled by a House of Gunmas, an influental family that would become one of the main enemies of Bjuzka fmaily. After unifying all of the Kuzikstan island, Kuzia turned into an empire and continued to have total hegemony over Shanting until 1902, when Jazkovnian-led rebellion caused the total collapse of one of the largest empires of it's time.
The continent was then ruled by Jazkovn for a short period of time before Quziq and later Hurona became independent states. Jazkovnian tyrannic rule and neglectful killing of ethnic Kuzians caused Kuzians to rise against Jazkovnians. Kuzian rebels won the bloody war with cost of millions of lives in 1945, and from that point onwards Kuzikstan was formed, which was almost solely controlled by Kuzians. After multiple civil conflicts and the Shanting Crisis in 2022-2023, the Bjuzkas - a family that has been controlling the nation for centuries - led by Liqner Bjuzka, wanted to erase the idea of individual pride, and emphasize the idea of being a proud of one thing, which in this case was the pride of being the citizen of Shanting. And that's the way the Unified Empire of Shanting has been formed.
However, the Bjuzkas plans went too far with their aims to medically brainwash the population into becoming more obedient. This led to a civil war by Republican rebels, which lasted for half a month. The war ended when Liqner Bjuzka was banished by the Zov Liqner himself proclaimed to become the leader of the continent. Alisa Silfestér managed to unite the nation together and reform it to a Zovist Empire, with high hopes of new era of stability and strenght that has not been seen in the continent since the collapse of Kuzian Empire.
Etymology
The term "Kuzikstan" means the "Land of Kuz", and the Kuz relates to Kuzl, a demi-god in Kuzian-Sazejan mythology that is said to be the guardian who ensured the stability of the world did not tip over. It's said that Kuzl lived and ascended to outer world in the Mount Kuz, which is a dormant volcano in the Kuzian Mountain range that cuts the continent in half, separating Aernaeb state from the rest of the island. Thus, it was evident that people named the land where Kuzl lived as his land, thus "Kuzikstan".
History
The arrival of humans & dawn of civilization : 7000 BC - 3000 BC
The first humans to settle their foot on Shanting arrived from Wasari most likely in 7000-6500 BC. Back then, due to an unknown cause, a massive amount of people made their way to Shanting by a landbridge. Some documents say that maybe even 20% of all people living in Wasari moved to this uninhabited area. There are a couple of reasons why this immigration wave happened. One of the biggest reasons was that the bad conditions in Wasari made animals to migrate more southward which was followed by the hunter-gatherers. There also weren't any people, so it was easier to settle in anywhere you wanted and live in peace. The incident that happened in Wasari (most likely a great natural disaster in southern Wasari), was the biggest factor on why so many people moved to Shanting in only a few hundred years.
It's believed that people found agriculture in Hurona, Sazistan, and Kuzia region in 4500 BC. These early forms of agriculture were found in the regions with most people, as people had to live in tighter spaces. As farming crops gave people another big source of food in Kuzikstan, people stood more firmly on fishing in Sazistan. Due to easily arable land in the Strachan area, people gave up almost completely on hunting way easier, and the first known civilization was known to be formed. It's nowadays called "Strachan farming culture". The center of this culture was most likely Suntor ridge located about 200kms of Trovia in the suburbs of a little village of Suntorien. This civilization was not yet that advanced, as they did not have proper legislation, army, or government. However, the Strachan farming culture was known as the trade hub of the Hurona, as people went and met up in this particular place and traded food for ritual items such as crystal stones that were sometimes found from the beaches, and for tools & clothes.
In the first 500 years, people lived pretty peacefully, but as more and more people arrived, and the hunter groups have already found their territory, the groups began to grow anger with each other as they began having disputed on who had the right to own and eat a dead deer found on other's territory. People became more territorial, which caused them to strictly guard their territory, which pretty much ended the hunter-gatherer culture as people stood on their spot.
As time went by, very known traders decided to stay in this growing town with lots of farms already and spent their life trading their self-made stuff. As the trading became even more common, the traders often forgot what they had traded for let's say squirrel skin. One trader decided to carve his trades on a stone plate with pieces of chalk, and began remembering the "prices" he has traded his stuff for. In only a few years, many fellow traders like him noticed how useful this technique was, and began writing down their trades and began forming prices. The skill of writing was known to originate in this civilization in 4100 BC. As the prices of stuff began more common in the following centuries, people began using similar stuff in trading, of which one included these crystal stones. These colorful stones began a common tool in trading and were the earliest form of currency in Shanting. The handicrafters crafted vases and sell them for farmers to store their wheat. The writing knowledge and currency started spreading even further south as some traders made long-lasting travels across Hurona. The landbridge between the 3 islands was already gone, so the technology did not reach Sazistan, Quziq, and Kuzikstan as fast as it spread in Hurona.
Fish became very expensive, as it was so hard to get from the beach. Many traders were desperate in becoming more "wealthy" and tried to make innovations in getting more fish. The small pieces of wood tied together soon transformed into canoes and fishing boats, which made fishing way easier. These vessels were made in the Sotra civilization on the southern coast of Strachan. The best fishers became soon the wealthiest people in these fishing towns and noticed how much they can manipulate other people according to their will. Many people wanted to be friends with them, as they could therefore get an easy source of food and tools. Those who didn't obey the fishers were at the first cut out of the trading and soon banished from the villages. There were 7-12 fishing villages forming this civilization, but it was very unstable. The greatest fishers who became the leaders of their towns began competing against each other in an attempt to get most people in their village and therefore become a bigger trading center. At first, it was mostly getting on others', more fishy waters without permission, but soon someone decided to take their arms and friends and march to the neighboring village with a goal to make an end to stealing fish from their waters. Rumors began quickly spreading that one of the towns was burnt to ashes, and all the other leaders prepared themselves and began forming an early military. Struvan-town was easily the most prosperous with the most people and had the biggest army. They had no difficulties in destroying several villages, tribes, and towns that did not obey them, and soon the rest of the settlements living nearby them had no choice but to either join them or flee.
Struvan-civilization grew way faster than the Strachan farming culture from which the civilization originated. However, many of the dearest friends of the leader of Struvan-civilization became jealous and attempted a rebellion, which destroyed almost everything that was accomplished in the civilization: The whole town with almost 3,000 people was burnt to ashes. Many of the people escaped the brutal combat, took all the boats, and began sailing overseas towards the southeast. Some of these escapists ended up in Sazistan and found terrified hunter-gatherers on the shores of the undiscovered island. These people decided to settle upon the island and teach the inhabitants fishing and farming culture, which was once again brought back to life. However, it took thousands of years for another greater civilization to form on this island.
Pre-Golden Empire era : 3000 BC - 1500 BC
The Strovein civilization was a kind of continuation of Struvan-civilization. The leadership was formed alongside small armed forces. It wasn't really an army, it was just trustworthy friends of the leader with weapons. They really had no armor yet, as all that was lost in the collapse of Struvan-civilization. The low number of crystal stones in Sazistan made trading quite problematic which greatly slowed the process of technology for centuries. The Strovein civilization was the first civilization in Shanting to start a significant mining industry. The mines were mostly inland, and lots of bronze, gold, and iron was excavated and crafted into tools.
The Golden Empire era : 1500 BC - 200 BC
Aquna was born in 1629 BC in a small tribal village near the central town of Strovein. At a very young age, Aquna was very talented in socializing and fighting, which quickly gave him more and more power, eventually making him fight for the leadership of Strovein. Thanks to Aquna's charisma he managed to get lots of followers, but lost the battle against Strovein's leadership and decided to flee to the south of the Sazistan island with his followers. They built another civilization, which immediately began thriving and growing even faster than weakened Strovein. Aquna soon formed an army of 200 armed followers and marched back to the north to finish Strovein. Many of the inhabitants of Strovein already had left and fled back to Hurona, but the leader and his small army were still around, which was utterly destroyed by Aquna. Aquna's forces found a mountain with a massive amount of gold on their way home, and with that gold, the faith of gold was formed from the stories and happenings that are told to have happened for Aquna. He together with his people built massive golden temples for the god of the gold and built a large, walled empty town full of empty homes made of gold. The temples were 3-tier-pyramids made of gold, with a temple on top of the pyramid. The top-tier also had two 10-meters tall quartz towers. In total, the pyramid alongside the quartz towers and the temple on top, these structures were almost 40 meters tall. The empty golden buildings surrounding these structures were called "cities of gold". They were reserved for the souls of the dead people, where they could live in eternal peace until the god of gold would descend back to the Northern Utopia.
The golden city with the temple was the absolute center of the Sattan Kuten, the biggest city in the Golden Empire, where the leadership of the nation lived. Most of the buildings were built of clay which was an easy material to build and was found from the shorelines. The port of Sattan Kuten was believed to be made of both marble and quartz, and the port worked as the main trading center of the city, as well as the whole golden Empire. The Golden Empire was the first advanced civilization in All of Shanting, and was the first one to have its own, organized army, economy & legislation. They were led by the Aquna and his descendants, who all seemed to share very similar skills together.
In 1222 BC, Aquna II's two sons, Ekene and Azon, had to take their father's place as a ruler of the Golden Empire. However, the brothers did not want to give up on their spot on the throne, and their fight ended up in Azon leaving the Golden Empire and fleeing to the Strovein-civilization, which was now located in the south part of Hurona, on the shores of the strait of Hurona. The people of Strovein accepted Azon and his fellow soldiers with a warm welcome, and the leader of Strovein himself crowned Azon as the new leader. As his first command, he ordered every managed 16-30 to either join the army or produce weapons and armor for the soldier. Azon was sure that if they won't attack first with a big army, the Golden Empire with Ekene as their leader would sooner or later come and utterly destroy everything that's left of Strovein. Azon with his 500-man army began ravaging the nearby, smaller civilizations and taking half of every town's population with him. All the women were forced to give birth to strong soldiers, that would defend their ruler. Every captured man became a slave and was forced to build the Azon wall, the 12 meters tall and 2 meters thick defensive wall made of Lapis lazuli, which primary meaning was to defend the inner city of Srutia, the capital city of Strovein. As the building of the wall was finished in 1198 BC, Azon ordered half of the slaves to carve his biography to the shining blue walls in form of pictures. When the carvings were done a year later, half of the slaves were offered to either join their army or continue as a slave. The remaining slaves, which amount was still nearly 5 thousand, were ordered to build barracks, training fields, massive palaces, et cetera.
Despite in only a few years gaining an army of almost 1,000 men, he was aware that his soldiers would still be no match against Ekene's. He traveled all across Hurona to Strachan and burnt the whole civilization to the ground, taking over 1,000 more captives and training half of them into soldiers. He continued building his kingdom until his death in 1172 BC at the age of 71. Her wife Selviana gave birth to his only son, Izon, in 1195 BC. Azon taught Izon to purely hate the Golden Empire since he was born, which made Izon continue building the Stroveinian army. Ekene was still alive, even though he was way older than people would normally live in this era. However, he was still completely fit for leading his empire and ordered his people to build as many boats as humanly possible. He mobilized almost 20,000 soldiers, trained and armed them, and as the boats were ready in 1170 BC He led his troops to cross the Strait of Hurona and started the greatest war in Shanting. Ekene sent one of his commanders to the capital city of Strovein, but he was instantly executed by the Izon's order. After 10 hours of waiting, Ekene was sure that his friend won't come back and initiated the attack on Strovein. Izon's 5,000 well-trained soldiers had no chances against Ekene's Golden army, and in a single day, the whole city was in total chaos. The Azon wall fell in a few hours, and the only things that were left standing in the city were 2 blue observing towers, that were standing on the wall. Everything else was utterly destroyed. Ekene took captive almost 10,000 Stroveinians that lived in the city but executed every single member of the army, including Izon himself.
Ekene died seven months after the military expedition. It's told that he spent his last months in the Golden pyramid of Sattan Kuten, carving his biography on the golden pillars of the temple. Ekene's last order to his commanders was to build a new city to the old Strovein area for him. He wanted the name of this new city to be Dakén. The city of Dakén was finally built in 980 BC, and the first settlers were the slaves that were once taken from the Srutia. The two blue towers were still standing, and the center of the city was formed around them. Ekene III, the grandson of Ekene, visited the city in 971 BC and granted Dakén the "Secondary-capital" status, meaning that if Sattan Kuten would ever fall, Dakén would be the next capital city. Therefore, a new golden pyramid was built near the center of the city. Dakén became an important trade hub and center of culture in all of Hurona. Before them, the last impactful trade hub was in Strachan, which was destroyed by the Stroveinians. People all around Hurona traveled very long distances just to see this magnificent city.
In 580 BC, the Golden Empire landed first time on the shores of Kuzikstan. They landed in the small bay southwest of the modern-day Aernaeb. They made a couple of settlements where they could trade and share the technology with the natives, but it never grew into a bigger thing. Kuzikstan island was only a minor trading zone for the Golden Empire, as they weren't as interested in the area yet. However, all the technology they shared with the natives gave a massive technological boost for the Aernaebi people, who continued spreading the innovations southward. The Aernaebi people brought Tulnma to Sazistan in 480 BC. Tulnma was an early version of modern Aernaebi whiskey, which was made of rye. The popularity of Tulnma began spreading rapidly all across the Golden Empire and the lands of Hurona. It was mostly used as a religious drink, consumed every time a person had entered the City of Gold. It was also used as a medicine in small amounts.
As technology was advancing at a rapid speed, some people began researching science way more in-depth. In 520 BC, the first known formal school was opened in Dakén by Asun, one of the most known astronomists, physicists, and mathematics known in the Golden Empire. He was the first one to notice that Northern Utopia is a planet orbiting around the sun, and named a lot of planets that before were unknown. In less than a decade, Dakén became the capital of sciences and research, as more and more philosophists began appearing from the Asun's school. As the philosophists continued their research, they soon began noticing quite a lot of false things taught in the Faith of Gold, that was simply not possible according to science. This large group of people was called "The group of enlightened". One of the leaders of the enlightened was Okunt, one of the star students in Asun's school. In 513 BC, Okunt walked to the Golden temple of Dakén in order to state the people about the false statements and fictionality of the faith they have been believing for thousands of years.
Many citizens of Dakén took Okunt surprisingly seriously and believed him, as there were many other people who had been to Asun's lessons. The word about the happenings in Dakén spread quickly to Sattan Kuten, where the leader Ozuna I got informed about the situation by the commanders of the Golden Army. Ozuna was absolutely enraged about the situation, as thousands of people are questioning the reality of the founder of the Golden Empire and his stories. Because the blood of Aquna's family was flowing in Ozuna, he saw no other way but to declare the dissidents as revolters, and therefore he banned science. The people of Dakén did not give up and began to arm themselves in the name of science. Okunt became aware of the current situation and stated that the Golden Empire simply can't work if it's split in half. Therefore Okunt alongside almost all of Dakén decided to stand up and break away from the Golden Empire, declaring themselves as "the Huron Kingdom", the word Huron came from the name of the Okunt's father, who made him go to the Asun's school and study sciences.
In 505 BC, Ozuna declared the Great Golden Horde to begin. The Great Gorden Horde was a definition for a holy army, which the main goal was to return the world in chaos back to the hands of the God of Gold. Ozuna formed a massive army of almost 50,000 Golden soldiers, who were ordered to cross the Strait of Hurona. Even with the massive ship capacity Golden Empire had, it took years before the last soldiers of the Golden Horde arrived in Hurona. The Huron Kingdom had absolutely no chances against the greatest army ever seen in ancient Shanting. In less than a year, Dakén was brutally taken under control of the Golden Empire again. About 55% of the people of Huron fled up north, but they were being followed by the Golden Horde, which attempted to take over all of the worlds - literally.
"The Golden Horde was sent by the God of Gold and his herald Aquna, alongside with his eternal bloodline, with an absolute order to take the control of the world back from the unholy chaos that has been wandering around after the last descent of the God of Gold." This was the final order from Ozuna to the Golden Horde before the attack.
As the Golden Empire began expanding extraordinary fast, and the innovations made thanks to science, were abolished, lots of instability began growing everywhere inside the borders of the great empire. For example, the sewer systems and new farming tools were banned, as they were seen to be born as the result of science, and therefore were unholy. 5-10 years later, Ozuna ordered every single female to have at least 5 children before the age of 40, which according to him was an absolute order from the God of Gold. This caused a massive famine all over the Golden Empire in 470 BC, as agriculture wasn't so efficient and couldn't produce enough food for people anymore. In 444 BC, an earthquake followed by mega-tsunami seems to have struck in the western shores of Sazistan island, where most of the agriculture in Sazistanwas based in. Many historians believe that almost 25% of the people died in the tsunami alone, and millions of others died in the following year after the massive famine became stronger due to all the farmlands that were lost. At this point, the Golden Horde had made it to the northern parts of the Dark Heart but was finally ordered to stop their movement, which was done mostly because of the lack of supplies. The Golden Horde still had over 30,000 soldiers, but they were seriously struggling with food supplies.
As the famine did not seem to end any time soon, the citizens became tired of Ozuna's false promises, and he was murdered in the Golden Temple of Sattan Kuten in 465 BC. Ozuna's 20-year-old son, Veqel, became the ruler as he was the only son of Ozuna. After the murder of his father, Veqel ordered the most trustworthy Golden soldiers to protect the Golden City of all time, and bringing any weapons inside the Golden City were banned. However, Veqel seemed to be way more liberal than his father. He dismissed the Golden Horde after noticing the cons being way greater than pros in such a thing. Dakén was rebuilt quickly, and Veqel ordered the dismissed troops to work in the farms. Science was once again legalized.
"The Golden Empire is the Apex Predator of the world. There are no enemies. There is no one to threaten us. If there is no threat to us, there is no need for a big army. The situation will be changed when our apex predator status is in danger.", Veqel stated to his soldier questioning Veqel's surprising actions. His full speech was written on a quartz plate that was buried with him in a Golden Tomb, that was found in 2002. Every leader's whole life was written on the sides of their golden coffin, which is a reason some of these leaders are known very well.
Veqel was the first leader of the Golden Empire since Ekene's times to ever leave the Sazistan island, as he gathered an exploration army to look for the southern island (Kuzikstan) in 440 BC. Veqel was estimated to land on the shores of Aernaeb and ordered his exploration army to instantly build a trade hub in order to maintain better trading relations with locals. Veqel spent 2 years in Aernaeb, studying the terrain and the culture. After noticing the extremely arable land of Aernaeb, he gave the new settlers freedom to claim as much land as they wanted for farming purposes. After arriving back to Sattan Kuten and telling the news, thousands of people decided to move to the southern island with the hope to become wealthy by starting their own farming industry. These people were called "Airnabs", meaning the "New Farmer". Upon arriving on the southern island and claiming their land, the Airnabs offered the locals to work in their lands, offering food and maybe even money in exchange. The locals living in Aernaeb weren't hunter-gatherers anymore when Veqel arrived there. They were aware of the wonders of the Golden Empire, meaning that it was way easier than expected to cooperate with them.
The wheat was produced in the Aernaeb area so much, that there was more than enough to feed everyone living there. Almost 60% of the wheat produced there was eventually sold back to Golden Empire, and the Airnabs became wealthy. Some of the wealthier Airnabs offered higher amounts of money and food for the workers and gained more interest from locals to work for them rather than other Airnabs. In the ancient Aernaebi language, these people were called Ärnäbe, later on, transformed into Aernaeb, from which the name of the modern state of Aernaeb comes from.
The amount of wheat transported from the colonies in Aernaeb helped greatly in ending the great famine in Golden Empire. The early form of advertising and sponsoring also became a thing: As most of the land in the colonies were already claimed, some people who wanted to become Airnab decided to make an agreement with an Airnab, in which they get a small amount of money if they advertise & praise the Airnab's products. This was on a very small scale, though, and never became a big thing.
The strait of Veqel is the small naval area between the Kuzikstan island and Sazistan. This place had a very busy naval traffic back then, as the so-called "wheat ships" (ships mainly meant for transferring wheat) were moving in both directions. Back in 405 BC, when the Airnab's wealthiness was booming, there could have been even 1,000 wheat ships alone in the Strait of Veqel at the same time. The North Aernaeb Island, a 50 square kilometers big island lying between the 2 islands, became a significant trading hub with massive docks comparable to the ones in Sattan Kuten and Dakén.
This period, which started from the death of Ozuna, is often called the Second Great era, or the Last Great era. During this period, the Golden Empire was in the best shape since the Ekene era. The trading network was bigger than ever, with furthest travelers & traders coming all the way from Kuzia and Jazkovn. The Ancient Kuzian civilization became drastically growing around these times, and their leader Svezen had a destination to create a kingdom far greater than the Golden Empire. However, they became a greater power way later, hundreds of years after the Golden Empire collapsed. They had their own, centralized leadership, legislation, economy, and armed forces, but they didn't have great enough access to the technology of the Golden Empire. Veqel and his son Ivazi (the next leader of Golden Empire after the death of Veqel in 398 BC) did note the fast growth of these kingdoms on the island, but they were confident that they would never become any larger threat than other civilizations.
Ivazi, just like his father, was a reformist and wanted to make the Golden Empire into a functional utopia. He gave even more freedoms to slaves, granting citizenship for the workers of the airnabs. Ivazi was not really interested in economics or the army. He was focusing more on the citizens and their welfare and health. The medication saw a huge technological boost during Ivazi's era, and the average lifespan grew by 20% just during Ivazi's era. Everything went okay in Golden Empire until Ivazi's death in 270 BC. Ivazi's last wishes were to transfer the rule to his 5 sons who would rule the Golden Empire together. These men were Vorel, Aqein, Vizun, Ozan, and Lazat. The system was very confusing, as nothing like this was ever seen before in Shanting. People began doubting the effectiveness of the system.
Post-Golden Empire era / Early Sazian times : 200 BC - 42 BC
This new system had many other frauds, that caused the system to be very inefficient. Despite being the sons of Ivazi, the leaders had little knowledge of how to rule A large empire. The brothers also had lots of arguments with each other, which in extreme cases turned to straight-out brawls. around 212-209 BC, these leaders were eventually dethroned by their sons, and things went out of hand really quickly. In order to make sure no one fights against each other, everyone was given an area from the Golden Empire for them to lead independently. This which caused the Golden Empire to break up into several pieces. In 204 BC, Foziva, the leader of the Colonies in Kuzikstan island, decided to break up from the Golden Empire due to instability within the quickly crumbling empire. Other leaders didn't even seem to notice this, as they were busy fighting each other on the Sazistan island. Foziva began building the kingdom of Ärnäbisvanimi, trying to bring back the kingdom similar to Veqel's Golden Empir.
After losing it's important trade destination, Ärnäbisvanimi had to look down south for trade partners. The Kuzian civilization, Qyzlirian tribes and the nomadic Jazenojans became the main trade partners for Ärnäbisvanimi, who shared their technology across the island. Kuzian civilization saw a huge boost in their technology after the Yurqusaqur-route was established between the two kingdoms. While Kuzians concentrated on defending their lands and improving agriculture, Jazenojans were fully focused on the armanent of their soldiers. Most of the Jazenojans got Ärnäbisvanimi technology by ravaging the tribes deep in the Quinerian lands. They were aware of Kuzia, and left them alone for now, because they knew Kuzia was yet far more powerful. It did not take long time until Kuzians began building their own inventions based on Ärnäbisvanimi tools. Quinerian tribes were yet not united under one, strong leadership, and they did not have their own army. However, the local tribes did have quite well equipped soldiers, and many tribes were at constant war between each other. The Quinerian settlements were only a mile or two away from each other, and they had quite low population compared to the cities of the biggest civilizations. The biggest settlements were surrounded by a wooden wall and had few thousand people while smallest ones had only couple dozen people.
After Ärnäbisvanimi left the Golden Empire, It was finally decided by Lesvita I, the leader of the capital area, and Sattan Kuten, that the Golden Empire will be cut into several "sazamas", translating into "Districts" in order for every leader to mind their own business. It was quite clear that the Golden Empire pretty much ceased to exist after the districts were put in place. However, the leaders were harshly thinking that they were leading the real Golden Empire. The districts were the Dakén District in Hurona, Hyrdy District, Lesthyrdy District, and Golden District, which covered the oldest parts of the Golden Empire, including Sattan Kuten. Despite being the most organized of all districts, the Golden District had a relatively small army, meanwhile, Dakén District was a technological & military powerhouse.
The Golden Empire saw its final days in 198 BC when Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy Districts attempted to take over all of the Golden Empire once again and attacked together Sattan Kuten. The body and brutal war lasted for 2 years, and approximately 8 million people lost their lives. Neither side wanted to give up, and the commanders from both sides threw up everything they had to the war, including civilians. The so-called "Last War" ended in 196 BC after the very last armed personnel of Golden District were destroyed in the ruined Sattan Kuten. 98% of the infrastructure in Sattan Kuten and nearby cities was destroyed apart from some temples and the Golden City surrounding the Sattan Kuten temple.
The Golden Empire was no more. The remaining survivors in Golden District attempted to regroup again and managed to rebuild a settlement down south. The settlement was called "Sazeja", translated into "New(eja) Hope(Saz)". The sheer willpower of the survivors helped in rebuilding a new kingdom before Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy could revive their army, come back and take over the Sazistan island. Both Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy began hating each other, as they both had exactly the same goals, and both of them thought they were more important. Huriva's Empire, formerly the Dakén District, began spreading north with their large military power in order to reform the lands that were handed over to them. There was no bigger, organized civilization on their way, which made conquering the southern half of Hurona very easy. However, getting through the forests of Dark Heart took dozens of years from Huriva's Empire to pass through.
Black Scorpion-soldier, 160 BC
In 170 BC, Lesthyrdy and Hyrdy went to war against each other and had to leave the rapidly growing power of Sazeja alone. Each kingdom used very similar equipment until 160 BC, which made the identifying enemy very hard, and friendly kill was very common. Sazeja was the first one along with Hyrdy to change the colors of their soldier differently from the golden and red colors. Sazejans adapted green and gold-colored cloths, while Hyrdyans decided to paint their cloth and armor in pure black color, with meaning to cause further panic in the opposing side: It was believed in Saqunism that color black brings nothing but death around , which caused many armies to flee due to fear of certain death. This did not apply to Kutenist Sazejans. Hyrdyan soldiers had a big advantage on night fights, though. It was very hard to identify the true amount of the soldiers or the spies under the night sky. That's why they were called "Soqe Skorpio" by the enemies, meaning "Black Scorpion". Scorpions attacks are very sudden, and they can hide very well, which perfectly fitted the description of the Hyrdyan soldier. Many Hyrdyan soldiers also kept the Scorpion symbol, which was widely used by the Golden Army back in the Golden Empire times.
In 157 BC, Hurivans began building a new, massive city to the east. They named it "Vilia", later on, transformed into Wyla. The current capital city Dakén was originally located in a strategically very disadvantageous place, and it was quite hard to defend. Therefore the current leader of Huriva's Empire, Huriva II, decided to build a new city from scratch to the east, where the capital could be easier to defend. The area in which the new city was built was surrounded by 2 large rivers, which made defending it way easier than Dakén. The very first building that was built there was the "Home of the Dynasty", or "Vilia Dynasty Temple". The Vilia Dynasty temple, built by tens of thousands of local slaves, soon became one of the most magnificent ancient buildings ever built in Shanting.
artist's view of Ancient Vilia, 110 BC
The Dynasty temples were built in every major city in the Huriva's Kingdom. They were the symbol of the absolute power of the reigning dynasty. The Vilia Dynasty temple worked as a home for all of the Huriva family, but it also worked as the military headquarters. In other major cities, the Dynasty temples were much smaller in scale, and they often were occupied by the local generals leading their army groups from there. Each Dynasty temple had living quarters for the dynasty members to live in, in case of the members visit other cities. In 108 BC, Vilia became the largest city in all of Shanting with almost 2 million inhabitants, surpassing Dakén with only 200,000 in the end of the century. Most of the citizens of Dakén moved from the city to Vilia. Only half a million of the inhabitants of Vilia were citizens: Almost 1,5 million people were slaves, who continued building massive palaces and spas for the upper-class citizens to enjoy their life in.
There were 5 social classes in Huriva: The top class was the "Huriva-zas", or Huriva Class, in which only the reigning dynasty members were able to get in. They had all the absolute power of the kingdom, and everyone else had to obey them. The 2nd Highest class was "Veli-zas", or the "Highest Class". They mostly consisted of military generals, diplomats, and the wealthiest citizens. They had regional power, meaning that they had lots of freedom to do anything in their home region/city, but their power did not extend past the borders, and they had to obey the Royal class. The 3rd highest class was called as "Zeveta-zas", Merchant Class. They consisted of wealthy merchants, who owned at least a single medium-sized business. They were the lowest class that could own a palace. The 4th highest, or 2nd lowest class was "Toti-zas", the Worker Class. This consisted of every citizen that was not owning a big business. Many of them did own small businesses or were well-paid workers of the merchants. They often lived in the basic clay houses on the edges of the cities. The lowest class was "Fovoto-zas", the Slave class. These people were either working for very low wages, or didn't get money at all from their job, or they were prisoners of war working for the kingdom. Selling Fovoto-zas people was legal, and many merchants did huge business selling them. About 55% of the population of Huriva were slaves. Everyone who moved in Huriva from other kingdoms had to start as a slave, except if the person moving was from a very high-class family.
In Hyrdy and Sazeja, the slaves were given an offer to join the army and serve for the kingdom. Hyrdyans gave their rookie soldiers harsh and vigorous training for 2 years before they could serve as full-time soldiers. This was done in order to make sure the soldiers will become disciplined and won't cause any problems in wars. In Sazeja, the slaves either straight up joined the army or worked for 2 years in slavery and then were forced to join the army. In order to keep the army as mobile as possible, over 40-year-old soldiers were put in "Siniti", the early form of reserve forces, who would return to normal civil life unless the kingdom is under a great threat. Both Hyrdyan and Sazejan soldiers used fancy plumes in their helmets, like many other kingdoms in order to identify the enemies and friendlies, and also to identify the higher-ranks. Sazejans used a green plume and Hyrdy used a red plume system. Plain color with no stripes was a basic footsoldier. A soldier with several different-colored stripes was a Soqura(Hyrdy) or Viqele(Sazeja), the leader of a group of 5 soldiers. A soldier with half of the plume covered in another color was a higher officer. Cape has been always a sign of power and bravery in Shanting, and Hyrdyan & Sazejan soldiers weren't the only ones. Hyrdyans used the cape mostly for just symbolic purposes, while Sazejans also used their green capes as a type of camouflage.
In 49 BC, Hyrdy successfully conquered Lesthyrdy and integrated all the lands that once were part of the former kingdom. About 4 million Lesthyrdyans were turned into either slaves or thrown in the boot camps for several years. Many of them, however, escaped the kingdom and hopped on Sazeja's side. There were clear signs that both Hyrdy and Sazeja were planning a war against each other. Both had the same goals to unite the island under a single ruler and build a new empire on the ruins of the Golden Empire. Both kingdoms went to war against each other in 45 BC. The army strength of Hyrdy was estimated at around 20,000 and 50,000, while Sazeja probably had somewhere between 30,000-45,000 men. The war continued for numerous years until in 43 BC, Sazeja won the decisive fight in Sacrez, 75kms from Hyrdy to the southeast. About 5,000 Sazejan men managed to encircle almost 10,000 Hyrdyan soldiers in Sacrez Valley. The battle lasted for almost 10 days, resulting in the remaining Hyrdyan soldiers surrendering. About 4,000 Hyrdyans and 700+ Sazejans died in this battle alone, and it was a huge step back for the morale of Hyrdyan soldiers. The war lasted for another year and resulted in Sazejan victory after the death of Hyrdyan king Relzen.
Sazenojan/Early Kuzian era : 42 BC - 100 AD
Sazeja united the island of Sazistan once again under one ruler, and the kingdom was renamed Sazenoja. The leader of Sazenoja, Sveqial claimed to be the sole owner of Ärnäbisvanimi lands, because he himself was coming from a wealthy Ärnäb family before moving to Sazenoja. He sent the claim order for the leader of Ärnäbisvanimi, who then again sent a letter back to Sazenoja. Ärnäbisvanimi was ready to give the original lands to Sazenoja, as long as they are allowed to keep the rest of Ärnäbisvanimi. Ärnäbisvanimi did not have a large army unlike Sazenoja, and therefore it would have been waste of time to fight for it. Sveqial accepted the request, and the original colony lands of the Golden Empire were united with Sazenoja in 29 BC.
Despite Sveqial claims, Ärnäbisvanimi and Sazeja had very close relations after the ceding of former Golden Empire territory, mostly due to improved trade. Both kingdoms began sharing their technology deeper than anyone else, but the inventions slowly began spreading all across Kuzikstan island. Sveqial was aware of Kuzia and Jazkovn, and how big of a threat they could be in the future. Therefore he began focusing more on the military. The Golden Empire-era armory proved to still work with a little tuning.
The unit armory was greatly increased: shoulders were covered with extended steel plates with a golden covering in order for the armor set to match with the cuirass. The extended forearm guards gave more cover for the soldiers in close combat. Ekene-helmet style, used in both Golden Empire and Hyrdy, once again became widespread equipment when the more modern versions came out with more soft padding inside the helmet and more protection to the face. The commanders began wearing their plumes in different ways in order to look more dominant, fancier, and recognizable alongside the soldiers. Most of the time fashion was put before the compatibility, which greatly affected the Sazejan helmet version: It looked very fancy, but especially commanders became easy targets and the soldiers had difficulties seeing their surroundings. This caused many of the soldiers to put their helmets on right before getting into contact with an enemy, so they could observe as much as they can before the fight. Luckily the helmet was way easier to wear than the Hyrdyan & Golden Empire version. Another downside of the new equipment was that it was heavier, but it wasn't a big deal: The soldiers were trained to get stronger and able to wear the armor with only a few mobility problems.
In 48 BC, Sazenoja made an agreement with the Hurivan kingdom that the once so great city of Dakén and it's surroundings would be ceded to Sazenoja. The only thing Hurivans wanted was that the area would be completely demilitaried: No soldiers are allowed to land their foot in Dakén area.
Sazenoja had good trade relations with Huriva & Ärnäbisvanimi, but due to the fear of accidental technology sharing, they cut the trade relations completely with Kuzia but instead kept trade going for Jazenojans, considering them as a smaller threat. There were 2 types of Jazenojans. the traders were those who traveled far distances to trade goods and share information alongside people. Then here were the nomads. They mostly ravaged every single village on their sight and reinhabited them with Jazenojans with the purpose of reproducing more nomads to continue the brutal, nomadic lifestyle. The only villages & settlements Jazenojans did not ravage were the Sazenojan villages and later on Kuzian villages. Quinerian tribes were under the biggest danger, as they were yet so small and had little to no warriors to defend them. Some Quinerian tribes began building their villages on the slopes of steep bedrock hills. These villages became far easier to defend, and sooner or later the Jazenojans began ignoring these types of towns and left them alone.
The historians are still not sure how Kuzians managed to proceed so fast in technology. Even though the leaders of ancient Kuzia fully focused on getting at least the same level of tech as Sazenoja had, They still managed to almost surpass the technology of Sazenoja in 50 AD. Ancient Kuzia also had an interesting faith, in which the reigning dynasty members were praised as upper gods. When a male dynasty member reached the age of 15, they were to either continue their life as a god or return to humanity and become a normal civilian. Many of the dynasty members chose the path of god, and they had to hide their faces from anyone but their families for the rest of their life. Only in the worst execute scenario, the royal member was to show their face to the criminal sentenced to death. Qrevanian Dog was an ancient dog breed found on the eastern shores of Kuzikstan island. In the ancient Kuzian faith, it was believed that their dogs were the souls of the dead leaders, who spent 10 years of their afterlife inspecting the behavior of the people. Therefore every dynasty member had to wear a heavy, well-covered mask resembling the face of Qrevanian dog. During a war or in ceremonies, the leader had to paint their whole body black with charcoal in order to strengthen their godlikeness & power. The names of the leaders were never, ever announced in public, and they all were just called "The upper gods"
Kuzia especially in the Sazenojan era was constantly sending spies and copying the equipment and architecture of Sazeja & Ärnäbisvanimi. They wanted to get the newest inventions and tune them just better. They copied & tuned the armory of Sazenoja & the agricultural inventions of Ärnäbisvanimi in order to produce them locally. This was quite easy for Kuzians, as they sent hundreds of spies at once who dressed as civilians and therefore didn't raise much suspicion. Kuzia was more aware of what was going on in Sazenoja than Sazenoja knew what was going on in Kuzia. Kuzians attempted to spot the faults in Sazenojan way of doing their things and tried to do the same but erase all these problems. They noticed the lack of border patrol & almost no cavalry in Sazenoja. Therefore the leader of Kuzia in 78 AD decided to form a cavalry regiment & a patrol regiment to their army. Kuzians knew the ability of well-trained horses in the battle better than many other civilizations. They were once the targets of Jazenojans, who mostly traveled and attacked using horses. The horses were extremely fast compared to humans and charging with hundreds of them while riders wielding a spear or shield would be devastating to an army that has never even used cavalry. Horses were used, but not in the military (everywhere else but Jazenoja). At first, chariots were used, but they were nowhere near as effective as the cavalry itself. Therefore chariots were soon thrown out of the military use with a single exception: The leader of Kuzia always traveled to the battlegrounds with a chariot.
Kuzians began building singular watchtowers everywhere in their region in order to prevent some Jazenojan nomads from ravaging singular settlements. They were built close enough that a massive bonfire could be seen from other nearby towers. The bonfire was built on top of the watchtower and was always lit when a threat had been spotted. When a nearby tower saw the bonfire, the guards in the tower had to lit another bonfire, and so on until the message reaches the closest barracks. Each tower had its own simple name, which made it easier for the army to locate the whereabouts of danger. This type of messaging proved to work efficiently, as it only took less than a day (in some cases even less than an hour) for an army to respond to danger. The towers nearby cities were built of stone, while the towers further away near borders were often wooden towers with a stone roof to prevent the whole tower from getting set on fire. If a barrack was under attack, or a larger mass of enemies was rolling over, the guards made green fire by using borax in making the fire. This flame color signaled the neighboring towers of an instant and big danger, in which multiple Kozlatas were needed. In the worst attacks, the main army had to be called.
Borax was a rare salt that was mostly found from the Jazenojan traders, who excavated this salt from dry lakes back in the Jazkovnian deserts. Therefore many towers only had little borax, and it was definitely not thrown when it really wasn't necessary. Any guard that would have falsely alarmed others by throwing borax was often executed by the leader of Kuzia for wasting rare materials.
In order for the army to respond better to enemies, hundreds of independent units (Kozlata) were formed, that all took care of their own region. Every Kozlata's main base was the barracks, which were at first built of wood but when getting closer to 100 AD, these barracks were built of stone and began to look like a real fortress. The barracks itself was built around the main headquarters of the Kozlata. The leader of a Kozlat was called Kozlatire, and they were wearing some kind of plume type as the Sazenojan commanders. A single Kozlata was consisting of Kozlata and his advisers, and 100-300 soldiers. Many Kozlatas also began having their own cavalry units, which were about the size of 50-100 cavalrymen.
In 55 AD, a Nearby civilization called Poqrania saw its own technological revolution. They already had a stable agriculture industry & organized leadership. Unlike Kuzians who copied Sazenojan technologies, Poqranians built their own equipment based on both Kuzian & Sazenojan inventions. Poqrania was owning the largest iron mines in Shanting. They began producing steel in masses for armory and weapons, and their production grew twice as fast as Kuzia & Sazenoja together. Poqranians were familiar with stone, and their capital city, Poq, was mostly built of stone. Alongside Kuzian, Hurivan & Sazenojan capital cities, Poq was one of the biggest cities in Shanting, with an estimated population of 250,000, and one of the few cities that was never attacked by the Jazenojans. The city was a crucial port & trade hub that controlled the trade of south Kuzikstan. The greatest sights in Poq were the "Poqmas Reqpal", Poq's Royal Palace. This massive domed building was surrounded by its own wall and had 3 extraordinary long watchtowers.
This palace complex owned solely by the reigning Poqranisan family was one of the "Great wonders of Shanting". Other 5 Great wonders were the Royal palace of Kuzia, Vilia Dynasty temple, Mausoleum of Ekene, Azon-wall Watchtower, and the city of Dáken. Monumental buildings were seen as the sign of power, and many civilizations, including Huriva, Ärnäbisvanimi, Kuzia, Sazenoja & Poqranistan, spent lots of resources on building these signs of power. Kuzian Royal palace was most likely the biggest of them all, with a size comparable to the Vilia Dynasty temple. The biggest building in the complex was the main palace itself, which was very similar to an actual castle. Since its construction in 30-100 AD, all the leaders of Kuzia have been residing there for the rest of their lives all the way until 1853 AD. These buildings made people across Shanting interested in traveling, and early forms of traveling for leisure were slowly forming. Traveling across the Shanting was very risky, as Jazenojan nomads could attack at any time. Therefore travelers either moved in massive, protected convoys or hired either Poqranian or Trinian mercenaries.
Trinian civilization was dependent on the slave trade from which they got 90% of their wealth. Originally the founders of the Trinian civilization weren't the Trinians, but Jazenojan traders who decided to stay in the tropical wonderland down south. These trade lords subdued the native Trinians under their rule and began trading them as mercenaries and workers across the Shanting. This slave trade made the Jolzen, the most important slave city of Trinia, into a massive trade hub and opened the trade routes across the South of Kuzikstan. The trade routes were connected with Sazenojan, Hurivan, Kuzian, Ärnäbi, and Poqranian cities. Without the slave trade, Trinia would have been absolutely nothing but hundreds of small tribes destined to get eventually be ravaged by Jazenojans.
The architecture across Shanting varied a lot. While Poqranian architecture (stone as the main part) became widespread in the following centuries. Many civilizations had their own style of architecture. Kuzians used concrete as the main tool to build their constructions. Sazejans still used limestone & unbaked bricks as the main material for construction. Usage of marble was widespread in Huriva, and it was in use in the greatest constructions in both Kuzia and Sazenoja. the most important building material in Ärnäbisvanimi was wood. 90% of all buildings were made of mostly wood, as it was ver easy to access and cheap compared to other materials. Jazenojans had only a few permanent cities, most of them consisting of hundreds of clay huts. Temporary villages often lasted only a month or two, mostly used as the main base for the Jazenojan nomads to rest before ravaging another nearby village. Most of the buildings were just tents made of cattle skin. Jazenojans were the biggest threat to the villages in Quiners plateau & in Kjarlemad, while Jazenojans themselves didn't have any real threat: They were the apex predator of the civilizations surrounding them. Because they had no other direct threat, they did not have any defense systems around, which later on turned out to be the main reason why they eventually collapsed.
Hurivans, Sazenojans, and eventually Kuzians & Poqranians paved their roads with cobblestone in order to make the roads more pleasant for both animals & humans to move on. The largest cobblestone road systems were found in Huriva, Sazenoja & Kuzia. Hurivan Empire grew into a massive empire after their full successful conquest of all of Hurona. Hurivans wanted to connect all the major cities together and built the "Huron-Trade-route". Sazejans used the same cobblestone roads that were still remaining from the Golden Empire times. Kuzians built their cobblestone road network in order for their armies to travel faster & more direct way to their destinations than before. Poqranians didn't bother to build large road networks but rather concentrated on building excellent roads in the biggest cities. In Ärnäbisvanimi, the corduroy road network was in widespread use.
Kuzians initiated a large-scale conquering program in 80 AD, taking over dozens of villages & tribes from the northern shoreline, and made border contact with the Poqrania down south. Many of the tribes did not want to put up a fight against the overwhelming Kuzian Kozlatae. Doing so could result in either half of the villagers being turned into slaves or forcefully turned into soldiers or executed. However, there were 7 tribes, who from the sky formed a V-shape, who decided to stand against the conquerors. They were called the "V-talat", or "V-alliance" in English. These tribes were of Yurqumanian origin, which was a belligerent, large ethnic group on the eastern coastline north of modern-day Kuzia. They pillaged and ravaged the nearby tribes, which also boosted the other tribesmen's will to join Kuzia in seek of safety.
Kuzians used a "Viz el Teleai", or "Join or die"-mechanism. The Kozlatire of a Kuzian Kozlata called the leader of the target village outside the gates of their home while the rest of the Kozlata prepare to encircle the whole tribe. If the tribe leader isn't willing to join despite Kozlatire's attempts to negotiate, he will order the Kozlata to attack from all directions at once and destroy any kind of resistance. The V-talat villages noticed this tactic and unlike other villages hiding their soldiers inside their walls, the V-talat villages ordered their armies outside in order for them to attack the encircling forces from behind.
The Kozlata LXXXIX (89th) was the first Kozlata to make a contact with a V-talat town in 82 AD. The town name was unknown, but the first attack made by the Kozlata faced a failure as the Yurqumanian forces attacked from behind, which caused chaos at first in the Kozlata. Before losing even more soldiers, the Kozlatire ordered a temporary retreat in order to regroup. A cavalry regiment was called upon and made the Yurqumanian soldiers flee inside their home walls. On the following day, the Kozlatire sent dozens of spies to investigate the terrain & location of enemy soldiers. As the spies noticed that a surprise attack was nowhere to be seen, they hurried back to the barracks and gave all the information they had. As the sun went back down, the Kozlata was given an order to attack the town without any warning in order to make sure that the enemies wouldn't have time to plan another surprise attack. At first, ballistae were used to shoot massive arrows covered in tar that was set in flames. The ballistae arrows hit the wooden walls and in a matter of minutes, the town was in flames, and the people who fled the town were met by Kuzian iron blades. Almost all of the town burnt in ashes and every villager living there was either killed or enslaved.
The V-talat had a decent army and used guerilla tactics, but their soldiers were still nothing compared to thousands of well-trained, disciplined elite soldiers of Kuzian Kozlatae. The last V-talat settlement was destroyed in 88 AD, which marked the total Kuzian hegemony in the area. Kuzia began immediately reconstructing the new villages in order to make life better for the people. Many small towns did lose their marketplaces, however, as the Kuzians wanted that the trade had to be concentrated in big cities, and small towns are working as a home for the workers that work in nearby forestry, mines, or farms for instance. In order to make it easier for people to move around, newly paved paths were built to connect the villages with the cities. an early form of mass-transport became a thing, as some people decided to make a business out of carrying people from town to town for money. Carriages became bigger as the transporters wanted more people to fit in their carriages at once and therefore gain even more money.
Kuzians took note of the effectiveness of the ballistae in encircling especially the wooden fortresses, and it became an important weapon in penetrating through the walls and lighting everything on fire when covered in tar. However, they definitely weren't the easiest to carry around, so they were mostly used by the biggest Kozlatae against the biggest fortresses & towns. Trebuchets were also invented with the hope to launch bigger rocks at the enemy forces. New professions began forming in the Kozlatae as these new weapons of war required lots of soldiers for proper usage: The largest trebuchets needed nearly 200 men in order for them to work properly. The most massive ones were called "Latza-Qol te", "Destroyer of everything". These counterweight trebuchets could launch even a 100kg stone nearly 200 meters away, causing lots of destruction to anything the stone would face. However, Latza-Qol te was rarely seen, and even back then it was an urban legend. The only record of usage of such a big trebuchet was from the Poqranian battle reports from 199 AD, describing a 'Tall, the frightening structure of wood throwing massive "structures" of stone smashing everything, even a human into pieces upon impact, from so far away even the arrows shot by human force can't reach it.' It's likely that the Latza-Qol te was mostly used as a way to scare the enemies under attack to surrender before their towns would be destroyed by such a beast. Ballistae shooting arrows & smaller trebuchets were in wide use, however, as they were way easier to carry around and it was easier to carry ammunition for them.
JAZENOJAN ERA : 100 AD - 1000 AD
In 111 AD, Jazenoja was united by Jumiza Gunma. For the first time in history, the nomadic Jazenojans had a single leader that had to be obeyed by everyone. However, there were hundreds of rogue Jazenojan tribes, who weren't interested in being ruled by a single leader they didn't even know, and therefore fled north. Jazenoja under Jumiza grew drastically after dozens of successful raids & conquest campaigns led by him. During the raids, many locals were straight-up executed, and females were enslaved & forced to marry the conquerors. Jumiza was a physically strong and brave king, who often was the first one to make a contact with the enemy. Many rumors were spread across Shanting about a strong nomad king who could kill hundreds of enemies without getting a single wound. The weapon of choice of the king wasn't fully known. It's been speculated that the king would use a poleaxe of some sort for ceremonial purposes, but switched to a Kreze, a scimitar-lookalike sword during the battle. Some legends say that the king tucked his battleaxe on the ground and switched to Kreze before charging towards the enemy followed by his soldiers. To show even further his strength, Jumiza's poleaxe blades were told to be made of gold, making it so heavy even many of his soldiers couldn't carry it around. The Jumiza's poleaxe was found from his grave in 1989, and it most likely was covered in gold, as there was found the little source of gold in the blades. However, the rest of the blades were just normal iron, meaning that Juzima most likely used the poleaxe just to show him being stronger than he actually was.
Juzima's own soldiers used regular lances, while commanders used are just like the king. The soldiers used hardened leather in their armor, while the commanders & the king also had some iron armor under the leather. Jazenojans never really wrote anything up, which has made researching their history accurately very hard, and most of the information regarding them is coming mostly from legends and stories that have survived from that age. For example, it's told that the Jazenojan soldiers use face masks in order to frighten the enemy forces before making a contact with them. However, the truth behind this isn't known, as there ain't enough war masks found from battlefields of that age that would possibly signify a wide usage of them in battlefields. It's also not known how many casualties, if any, were taken by Jazenojans.
Before the unification of Jazenojans, the raids made by the nomads were often smaller in scale and some bigger tribes & kingdoms actually managed to defend themselves from them. However, the Jazenojan united army was many times larger than the rogue nomads and the soldiers' skill drastically increased due to the appearance of the systematic training system. Bigger kingdoms like Trinia down south became the first targets and had a rough time holding the Jazenojans out of their borders. Trinian forces barely managed to keep the raider groups of Jazenoja out of their border, but unfortunately for them, it was all just the beginning.
Jumiza died in a duel against another strong Jazenojan warrior, who challenged the king to a duel in 134 AD. The warrior's name was Tezin, who after defeating Jumiza in the duel, became the king. Tezin was annoyed by Jumiza's style to attack a single enemy with one massive overwhelming army. Therefore he formed multiple units led by the most trustworthy & skilled warriors he had met during the battles. He formed 12 large units that were sent across Shanting to ravage & conquer.
One of these units was led by Kozuin, the little brother of Tezin. His unit traveled mostly by sailing the seas, ravaging the towns & villages on the shoreline across Shanting & North Meridian sea. Tezin's exploration missions eventually led him to land on the shores of Quziq, more specifically on the Grigotza. At first, they traded with the locals, but after noticing their primal lifestyle, Tezin's forces ravaged many of the tribes located in Grigotza, capturing almost 50% of all men and bringing them back to Jazenoja as slaves or soldiers. Tezin's unit also made the first attack on a great civilization in Ärnäbisvanimi after ravaging the city of Kenim (Qualres).
Tezin wasn't as gruesome to the enemies as Jumiza, and he & his unit leaders often offered a duel between the commander of the unit & the enemy leader. If the duel was accepted, the two leaders fought against each other without any assistance until either one gave up or died. If the enemy won the duel, their settlement was left alone for a long while. If the Jazenojan commander won the battle, the enemies had to peacefully surrender & fall under Jazenojan command. If the enemies declined the offer for a duel, the enemy forces were destroyed & the settlements pillaged. The Jazenojan style of dueling began spreading across Shanting after wandering ravelers began telling rumors of magnificent duels by Jazenojans. Dueling became an essential part of warfare in many tribes & kingdoms, and it slowly began turning barbaric & brutal warfare into art. In 300 AD, the warfare was not seen as a horrific bloodbath, but a great, wanted, & exalted way of showing the person's skills in disagreements.
The year 322 AD is often called the "Great Kuzian revolution in Art of Warfare". Kuzians was excited about the art of dueling and took it to next level: While showing great skills in dueling, Kuzians wanted it to really resemble art. Unique & magnificent-looking weapons were crafted for the best duelists, and the style of armor went almost absurdly out of the practicality. People wanted to look magnificent to the crowd in order to gain fame. The first celebrities were born, as the words of several great duelists began appearing across Shanting. Dueling in the areas north of Kjarlemad became leisure for the civilian population and a good hobby for the army commanders. When the word of 2 great duelists facing each other somewhere began spreading, maybe even thousands of people across the continent came to see the duels, which lasted from half an hour to just a few seconds. The early form of sponsoring appeared for the first time, when some rich burghers began supporting their favorite duelists, who in exchange praised the burgher and his products. The most professional & hardcore duelists had 2 duels in a single week, while most "amateur" duelists (regular soldiers) had maybe a single duel in a month.
The first known celebrity duelist that gained widespread fame was Levu (221 AD - 249 AD), a retired Aernaebi commander, who was a farmer-hunter before his dueling career. Levu was known for being the first duelist to effectively use a bow during the duels, which gave him a great advantage when the opponent was further away. If the opponent managed to dodge his shots, Levu had several knives to protect himself. On rare occasions, Levu might have even used his sword, but most likely he used it for artistic purposes only. According to the very few dueling results & duelist information and paintings that has survived until this age, Levu used a black mask to hide his identity & a hood and cape, both being dark green. He might have used a golden-governed chest plate & knee and forearm guards, but otherwise, he was most likely lightly armored. Levu was one of the first duelists to become self-dependent on dueling, as he won most of the duels he had in his life with just one exception which led to his death in 249 AD.
Dueling was an important part of the royal & noble life. The art of dueling was soon romanticized in Trinia, Kjarlemad & jazenojan regions too, where it originated as a basic act of diplomacy & war. The greatest duelists were often hired as the commanders of the armies and gained the name "Kevela", an Aernaebi name meaning "Godlike". They often were given free land, a fortress, and their own army & town to be ruled over. The Kevala-system was practiced in Poqranistan, Kuzia, Saz & Ärnäbisvanimi.
In 183 AD, a large tribe in Quiners province called Zamese grew so powerful that they made an attempt to take over all the towns around them and make them under their control. The operation was successful, and in 189 AD, the Qynere was officially marked as one of the great kingdoms of Shanting, as their trade hub Zameszky, meaning "The river of Zamese". Zameszky has always been quite a big town, but when nearing 200 AD, it saw rapid growth and the infrastructure became comparable to other great kingdoms. The name Zamese was shortened to Zames in order to make it easier & faster to pronounce for other inhabitants. Eventually, the Zameszky fortress became so strong that it withstood almost all the nomad attacks.
Around the same time in 192 AD, the green bonfires were spreading across the hundreds of watchtowers down south near the Poqranistan-Kuzian border region. The Kozlatae CXLI, CXLV, LIII & LXIX were the first ones to respond to the danger, while LXVIII was hurrying to the capital city to inform the leader. The Kozlatae sent to inspect the danger got into full contact with the Poqranian army, which marked the start of the Poqranian War. Before the war started, the original royal family of Kuzia had died, which marked the end of the tradition of the royal members hiding behind the masks. The new royal family, which was most likely had ties to the modern Bjuzka-family, was way more secular and wasn't believing in the same religion as the former royal family. Poqranians were thinking that this shocking event would cause the Kuzia to go under a civil war, and would be a great opportunity for Poqranistan to take over their rivals. However, the civil war never happened and the new leader announced to his people that they may believe whatever they want, as long as they don't turn against him.
Map of Shanting, 200 AD
The war escalated quickly across the Western shores of Kuzikstan, and many tribes started seeking safety, either by uniting with either Poqranistan or Kuzia or forming their own coalitions. The war lasted for almost 30 years until in 222 AD, the two kingdoms signed a truce. The truce was signed after the battle of Vezl Plains in Poqranistan, which was the bloodiest battle of the war, having nearly 20,000 casualties in a matter of a day. In general, the war was chaotic and barbaric, which, made the two leaders call out for other kingdoms to sign a treaty of ending the barbaric style of warfare. The leaders of Saz, Ärnäbisvanimi, Zames, Trinia, Kuzia, Poqranistan and even Jazenoja in the end arrived to Kuzia to discuss about the treaty. This was the first official meeting where multiple leaders discuss together about topics in history of Shanting.
One of the biggest changes in this treaty was the "Civilized War" pact, which marked the beginning of a phenomena that can't be found anywhere else in Northern Utopia: Show battles, nowadays known as Staged Warfare. Unlike in normal way, each side must inform the enemy about their main position before the battle begins.
Both sides had one "Sodaliqipu"-barrier. Sodaliqipu, or the war flags were large, often 10 meters wide flags. There was 3 colors of Sodaliqipu, which are Red, White and Black. All the flags were put on 20-50 meters tall flagpoles, that were often tucked on the ground before the battle starts. It was considered very rude and immoral to not raise a Sodaliqipu before the battle starts, and the losing side was always the first one to lower the flag. The battle lasted so long until one side lowered the flag. Blank red Sodaliqipu was the most common sight in the battlefields. It meant that the battle is fought in a basic matter, and any unarmed soldier is to be let alive. Any prisoners of war were spared in the battles with red Sodaliqipu. White Sodaliqipu often was a bit more uncommon, but still quite a normal sight. The side which is already winning the war was often using this flag. The blank white sodaliqipu was basically an offer for the other side to surrender before any lives are lost. If the other side accepted and decide to surrender, they will lower their Sodaliqipu to half-mast. If they decline the offer, they had to replace their flag with a blank white one, meaning that the battle will be fought anyway. Black Sodaliqipu was quite a rare sight, and something no one never wanted to see. Jazenojan armies were known of large usage of blank black Sodaliqipu, but no one else really used it. The black Sodaliqipu was a sign of "No Mercy given". Basically the user of black Sodaliqipu announces that they will not hesitate to kill unarmed soldiers and prisoners of war in the battle. The other side often reacted by replacing their current flag with a black one, promising the exact same thing. Another, way riskier way was to lower the current sodaliqipu to half-mast which meant surrendering. This was very risky, because the wavers of black Sodaliqipu could possibly attack anyway. This kind of act was very rare if excluded the reign of Jazenojan Fezeil-Dynasty that showed their merciless way of leading from 288 to 400.
The staged wars were fought on a site the defending side have decided to fight at. Going past the borders of the said battleground was strictly prohibited and immoral, as there was a danger of civilians getting killed. Thousands upon thousands of civilians arrived to watch these shows every time they were held. If some kingdom wanted to expand their borders to another kingdom, they the provoker had right to challenge the defender, who then again has right to to bring as many soldiers and choose any battleground they want to fight at. Because all the destruction happened in strictly planned way, the war wasn't seen as a barbaric nor violent anymore, but an entertaining, daily show for the civilians.
Hurivan Empire saw Rapid expansion after large slave trade were committed with Trinia. The leader of the Empire at the time, Boloden ordered the slave population to build a new "Crystal City" called Bleinen, where the rich People could live in complete Freedom from taxation and enjoy the spas made of pure Crystal. The slaves thought that the city was for them, but found out later the truth, which led to widespread peotests that engulfed into a full blown rebellion in the city under construction. In This "Bleinen Slave Rebellion", over 200,000 slaves were killed or executed by Vilian army which also suffered significant casualties. The Bleinen Slave Rebellion is the largest slave rebellion in the history of Shanting.
In 688 AD, the "Krels Aqryzte" was formed which was the first-ever academy with multiple schools across Kuzia. The Krels Aqryzte main school located in modern-day Kuzisktania was the largest of them all, and it became the home of innovation and culture. When Krolqa-Dynasty that led Kuzia since 200 AD died out in 833, the new Uqsroz Dynasty took over and made an attempt to further expand the education to lower classes. While under Krolqa rule, only high-class inviduals were allowed to the Krels Aqryzte, Uqsroz IV opened even more sub-schools across Kuzia and allowed the middle-class to get educated in 912. Education became so important that it was a requirement for every high-class person over 18 years to join Krels Aqryzte.
EARLY KUZIAN ERA : 1000 AD - 1292 AD
In 1000 AD, Jazenoja Kuzia grew into a significant Kingdom that started posing a significant challenge the warlords of Jazenoja. The Jazenojan horde couldn't make it past the Kuzian outpost anymore, which made the leaders Worried of their capabilities. However, the Kuzian leader, Tiset I and his son Tiset II were humble leaders with diplomatic approach to everything. Tiset II was the one to proclaim himself as the first Zov of Kuzians, rather than being called as the "King". Zov, meaning "Ruler" in Kuzian, was the head of the country, but was technically on the same level as everyone else. The Zovs followed Tiset's idea that the leader had to live among the People. This either meant working in ordinary job or serving in the army alongside the People. Tiset II was the only one to choose a civilian route, as almost every other Zov that followed after him became the supreme ruler of the army.
Tiset III took the rule of Kuzia after his father died of old age in 1107. Tiset III was quite the opposite of his family. He knew warfare better than farming, and used his tactical skill to rule over Kuzia. He managed to establish a slave trade with Trinian warlords under Jazenojan influence, which were befriended by Tiset II. Loads of slaves were delivered to Kuzia where they worked for various Mega projects that occurred. Poqranistan began increasing diplomatic affairs with Jazenojans, which raised suspicions among Tiset's elite about plans to invade Kuzia. Tiset III decided to put an end to the suspicions by sending his army to take over Poq in 1132. Over 30,000 men encircled Poq, and as expected, Jazenojans immediately came to help their ally. However, the allied reinforcements couldnt cross the border before Poqranistan's capital city was capitulated and leadership was executed by Kuzians. As an answer, Jazenojans united under supreme warlords Kezivel's command and attacked Trinians that were seen as betrayers. Tiset III was reluctant to help the slave deal partners, which caused loads of outraged among the elite, ultimately resulting in the House of Bjuzkas assassinating the Zov in 1159.
Bjuzkas were built on the pure hatred against Jazenojans, so much in fact that the color red, which was associated with Jazenojans, was partially banned, and the red-white banners of Kuzia had to be changed into blue and gold, which represented the growth and strenght of Kuzia. Qesvel Bjuzka, one of the masterminds behind Tiset assassination was elected to the position of Zov by his family members. This one-sided decision was strongly opposed by the elite at first, but Qesvel's determination to take down Jazenojans and decision to create the anti-Jazenpja alliance with Sazistan and Trinian made People to forgive and forget his action. After the Trio-alliance was formed in 1160, Jazenojans were fought out of Trinia, which initiate the centuries long arms race between Kuzia and Jazenoja. Kuzia found the gunpowder in 1168, and Jazenojans quickly adopted it in 1170. That very same year, explosives made with gunpowder were tested for the first time by Kuzian-Sazejan coalition army against Ärnäbs that ruled over the northern Aernaeb region. Ärnäbisvanimi was forced to surrender after just 2 years of fighting and Aernaeb was taken over by Saz. In 1168 Qesvel managed to annex the inland parts of Quiners with a promise that Quinerian houses would be able to live in Kuzikstania.
Qesvel continued his militaristic rule and kept the tensions between Kuzia and Jazenoja high for the whole duration of his 20 years of reign, until he died of rabies. Lozel became the new Zov and continued the arms race, but did not necessarily seek for war. Instead, he focused on improving the capital city of Kuzikstania. In initiated the building 1283, Lozel started the building of Kuzikstanian Eye, an enormous palace that would house all of the elite in Kuzia and would be home for the luxury life, politics and culture. The palace was finished 20 years later, but Lozel wanted to make it even more prestigeous in order to show the might of Kuzia to Jazenoja. Tens of thousands of slaves were put to work on building a whole palace complex around the main palace. The Kuzikstanian Eye was very much under construction when Lozel died in 1238 and was replaced by Trozal Seqiol, the founder of Quinerian House Seqiol that would emerge as one of the dominant elite families in Kuzia. Trozal wanted Kuzia to take the dominance from Jazenoja and initiated the Invasion of Kjarlemad, a region that was known for its massive resource deposit. Trozal managed to take most of the eastern shore and formed a land connection with Trinia. However, Trozal died fighting in the battle of Yurizambe and was replaced by his son, Traqons in 1243.
Traqons Seqiol managed to bring Jazenoja to the peace talks in 1245, but could only get a ceasefire out of it. Jazenojans were extremely reluctant of giving up Kjarlemad, and dozens of clashes appeared across the frontline as soon as the ceasefire ended. The wars continued for very brief amount of time, as new ceasefire was soon Signed every time the old treaty went old. In 1289, Traqons invaded the vast, fertile lands of inner Aernaeb and split the northern Part of Kuzikstan island with Sazeja.
KUZIAN WAR ERA : 1292 AD - 1501 AD
Traqons died of complications related to his old age after ruling Kuzia for 49 years in 1292. Qesova Bjuzka was put in power after his death, which meant certain war with Jazenoja. Qesova put enormous amount of resources to military and research, which resulted in the invention of matchlock rifles in 1303. A year later after the start of the mass production of these rifles and creation of New divisions, Qesova declared a war with an intention to wipe Jazenoja out of this existence. First divisions armed with rifles arrived to the battlegrounds in 1308 and turned the battle fully on Kuzian favor. However, Qesova died on the battlefields in 1312. His son, Bezil I Bjuzka immediately took the title of Zov and continued the war on where it was left. Bezil lacked actual combat skills, but was a tactical mastermind. This made him to withdraw from battles and dedicated all his time to executing orders.
Geography
Shanting consists of 4 islands: Hurona, Sazistan, Quziq, and Kuzikstan. Kuzikstan Island is by far the most populous island, with nearly 884,2 million inhabitants. Hurona is the second most populated with 239 million inhabitants, followed by Sazistan with 179 million and Quziq with 39 million people.
Hurona is split to 8 provinces, the Cápidolium district excluded. The two northernmost provinces are Góran and Strachan, both known as the "breadbaskets of Hurona". These regions are very lush and receive a lot of rainfall all year round. Both provinces are covered by wetlands near northern shores, temperate forests inland, and tropical dry- and rainforests down south, that alongside many rivers that flow through there form a fertile land that covers all of northern Hurona. Biggest cities are Trovia in Strachan and Toisman in Góran. Toisman is an important transport hub thas sees international sea traffic coming across Kontinentalinn ocean.
Bargón province is in situated in the middle of northern Hurona and is mostly covered by the "Kobél-Steppe", translated as the "Copper Steppe". This region is on average 1500m above the sea level, with highest point, Mt. Késted reaching 2704 meters. The Kóbel-steppe is a temperate climate, but the northwestern parts are covered in wetlands that actually cover almost entirety of the northern shores of Hurona. On the eastern shores, there's a mix of temperate and tropical rainforests. The region was historically known for it's abundance of copper, but nowadays there's also huge industries around gold and other raw earth minerals. Major cities include "Gold City" Ratani and "Copper City" Kobélden, of which the latter is the highest city in Hurona, 2116 meters above sea level. Although Kobélden is the capital of the province, Ratani is nowadays slightly bigger in terms of population, with 9,6 million inhabitants. Kobélden on the other hand has 9,4 million citizens. Other noticeable cities are Lyten and Deadhol. Lyten is a mining city with 100k inhabitants, known for a booming gold mining industry and is home to some of the largest gold refineries in Shanting. Deadhol is a minor city with 66 thousand citizens, and is an important supply hub linking together the cities of Ratani and Kobélden to Nuomanstér (New Manchester).
Sléndevel is relatively flat, fertile terrain close to the sea level. The region is culturally significant and is known for it's massive honey & winemaking industry. Nabúl, a local type of wine made out of honey, fruits and mineral water, is produced exclusively in this region. The large guava farms alongside the wineries are a very common sight in the countryside of Sléndevel. Sléndevel is cut in two "Nabúl-zones", which make different type of Nabúl. There is "Rykebúl" coming from the Kobél-steppe highlands that surround the city of Rykeno near the northeastern border of the province. Rykebúl is more berry-focused with blackberries and blueberries made in progress rather than fruits. It's often around 8-10% in alcohol, and has deeper flavor profile combining acidity, earthiness and aromatic complexity coming from herbs and stone fruits. Esmérbúl comes from the lowlands and coastal regions of the province, where fruits like guava, passion fruit and mangos are used instead of berries. The fermentation time is faster due to warmer nights, and the drink is generally more refreshing and sitting around 6-8% ABV. Generally, Esmérbúl is much more mass-produced, widely available worldwide and cheaper, because it takes much less time to produce. Rykebúl is much rarer sight outside Shanting, but very much available in Rykeno and it's surroundings. The biggest cities in the region are forementioned "wine city" Rykeno and Esmérlden. Esmérlden is often seen just as extension of New Manchester and Capidólium region, and is one of the largest cities in Shanting with 43,5 million inhabitants. Nuomanstér, internationally called as New Manchester, is the capital city of Hurona and forms up entirety of Capidólium which is surrounded by the province of Sléndevel. It's almost entirely urbanized and built-up. It has the population of 61 million inhabitants. The combined population of the Nuomanstér metropolitan area is almost 105 million people.
The difference in temperatures and climate between Kobél-steppe and rest of Northern Hurona is particularly notable: In New Manchester, the average yearly temperature is 19 degrees celsius, and in Kobélden, the annual temperature average barely reaches 6 degrees celsius. The change from tropical rainforests to nearly boreal taiga in the highest parts of Kobél-steppe comes very quickly.
Hordont province, also known as the "Dark Heart" is the cultural and geographic splitting point of Hurona. It's widely known for the Hordont'Tról, the "Dark Heart Forest". The forest is extremely lush and outgrown, making it extremely hard to pass through. Parts of the Dark Heart Forest is fenced up to protect the native Sazi Bear territory. Other than Sazi Bears and the indigenous Eni-Dava people that hunt them, the Dark Heart is mainly known for timber and paper industry because of the forest, and it was historically the heart of shipbuilding and tar production. The capital city of Hordont is Karagon, which has a population of 1,4 million. About 23% of the people in the province live in Karagon. Another noticeable city in Hordont is Krunas. With a population of just 34 thousand, it's definitely on the smaller scale, but it's particularly important as an exporter of paper and nowadays also has a substancial biofuel industry.
Rósbendal is another Huronan province particularly known for it's beverages. About 60% of the province is made of temperate forests that historically were part of the Hordont'Tról. Now this northern region is known for production of Vélend, a herbal fruit spirit made of fermented rye, honey and Rós (Huronan rowan fruit). It's mostly drank in colder months in winter and celebrations rather than being an everyday drink. The other 40% of the province is made of grasslands and is less dense in population. The capital of the region is located on the northwest, the city of Vietenia. Vietenia is a major timber and heavy manufacturing hub, and has a population of 2,5 million inhabitants. Another major city is located on the grassland region, the city of Nozeve with 579 thousand people. The surroundings of Nozeve benefit economically from the booming cattle and poultry industry.
Sinvenden province forms the "back of Southern Hurona", it's coast facing towards the continent of Wasari. This region sees a lot of rainfall each year and most of the province is covered in wetlands and temperate rainforests. Sinvenden is home to "Múrbod", a type of semi-aquatic root vegetable that thrives in such conditions. It's an excellent nutritional bomb and works as a food for both people and livestock. Other than Múrbods, Sinvenden is an industrial powerhouse. Jefbón, the capital city of Sinvenden with 13,7 million inhabitants, is notably known as the main port for ships that arrive from the Czech Strait. The city also has dozens of large car manufacturers. Other major cities include Trivali, Velerona and Antai. Trivali, with population of 555 thousand is the second largest city, and is known for it's questionably intense peat industry, which threatens the entire ecosystem of Trivali wetland section. Velerona is located on the more arid parts of Sinvenden down south, which is mainly grasslands. However, just south of Velerona begins the Vilian Mountain range, which extends further down the province of Syksál. This region has regionally significant winemaking culture and is generally more agriculturally heavy than industrial. Antai, with the population of 163 thousand inhabitants, is less so economically important, but culturally significant. It's the biggest "Ezev"-settlement, Ezevs being an indigenous group of people that have lived in these regions for thousands of years, descending from Enitruks (nowadays known as Enis and Davas). Livestock is crucial industry in Antai and it's regions, but due to it's unique culture, it also enjoys from tourism.
The Syksál province is the second most populated province in Hurona after Cápidolium-Sléndevel. With over 56,8 million inhabitants, it beats the independent province of Sléndevel, but doesn't reach the sheer number of people that live in the capital region. Over 76% of the people however live in the city-state of Wyla, which resides south of lake Taestai. Wyla is the second biggest city in Hurona right after Nuomanstér. It was the former capital of Hurivan Empire, that preceded modern Hurona and Kuzian Empire. Wyla is economically driven by a variety of sectors, like information, healthcare and life sciences, hospitality and tourism, and technology.
Aernaeb and rest of the Kuzikstan island are mostly separated by the Kuzian Mountain Range that spans from south of Yurqumandesaqur all the way to Zarusk. This region has a mix of semi-boreal and mountanous climate, with spruce and pine trees covering majority of the landscape. Half of the mountains are closed from public and are labelled as "Sazi Bear Territory" with approximately one thousand sazi bears roaming the fenced territory. The rest of the Kuzian mountains are sparsely populated with biggest settlement being Kuzzern with a population of 78 thousand citizens. Located on the northern border of New Kuzikstania city state, Kuzzern and it's surrounding regions are known for their beautiful ancient cities built on slopes and massive fortresses.
The mountains turn into a highly variable highland terrain down south. This region, known as "Qyzliria Steppe", is known for it's huge vertical rock formations. On both sides of Qyzliria steppe there's large arable plains which are nowadays heavily urbanized. This has caused a huge concentration of people to live in these regions which are known as Kuzia Proper on the east and Quiners on the west. Both receive many rivers that flow from Kuzian mountain range and Qyzliria steppe. Further down south, there is the large steppes of Kjarlemad. The region is home to a huge variety of minerals, most notably uranium, cobolt, diamond, gold, and iron. These have made the region a breeding ground for the industry, and this area produces 80% of the minerals and refined metals in Shanting.
West of Kjarlemad lies the Jazenojan plains, which are known to be very arid and receive far less rainfall. This has caused the inlands to turn into almost a half-desert, although there are plans to artificially bring back the greenery. Southeast of the island directly under Kjarlemad lies more humid region of Trinia. The world-famous coastlines of Trinia are fillled with a mix of mangrove swamps and pearl-white sandy beaches. The inlands consist of humid swamps that slowly transform into mangrove forests as you head towards the coast.
Demographics
Shanting is ethnically, linguistically and culturally a very diverse nation. The people of Shanting are often divided to following groups based on their ethnicity: Huronans, Southern Huronans, Sazejans, Aernaebs, Kuzians, Qyzlirians, Quinerians, Kjarlemadians, Poqranians, Jazenojans, Trinians, and Quziqians. However, even this classification is often deemed very broad, as many people belonging to same group may belong to another sub-group.
For example, Huronans are often divided in 4 groups: Huronans, Hurivans, Davas and Enis. Huronans and Hurivans together form about 97% of all of the Huronan people, while the Enis and Davas form a great minority. Huronans are the people living north of the island of Hurona, and are generally seen as more "refined" and still practice a strong culture of chivalry. Hurivans on the other hand tend to accompany themselves more with the Faith of Gold and in general see religion as more important than chivalry. Davas and Enis are among the oldest ethnic groups still alive, who have been known for thousands of years as the original "Sazi Bear hunters". They make a living by hunting and fishing.
Aernaebi people also identify themselves as either Bunqan, Ärnäb, Aernaebi, or Yurqunian. Bunqans are the descendants of Jazenojans who settled in the Bunqasde region at the far west of Aernaeb region. Their language is more similar to Jazenojan and Quinerian than Aernaebi, but they are culturally closer to Aernaebi. Ärnäbs on the other hand are more of a mix of ancient northern Huronan and Quziqian settlers, and their language has borrowed the letter "Ä" from the Quziqian languages. Aernaebi people are the original inhabitants of Aernaeb and inhabit the northern coasts and inlands of Aernaeb. Yurqunians are almost exclusively found in their very original homeland, Yurumandesaqur, and due to long historical autonomy, their culture and language has remained intact.
Quziqians, who lived in the island of Quziq, are by far the most isolated group of everyone else, even though they have loads of linguistic resembleance to Kuzian due to the historical ties dating back to the old Kuzian Empire. They also are divided to four main groups: The Quziqians, Västis, Laganians, and Grigotian. Quziqians are make the great majority of the population with Västis following as a significant minority group. Quziqians have been known for long to be the "big brother" of Quziqians and have led the country for ages. Västis have kept their culture intact thanks to their tight, localized community-run settlements and mainly practice agrarian lifestyle even today. Laganians have been known for their boatbuilding, which Quziqians famously stole from them. Grigotians on the other hand are known as the "Salt farmers", farming precious salt from the seas and caves.
Religion
Faith of Gold is by far the largest religion in Shanting, with approximately 803 million people, 53% of the population, identifying as following one of the several branches of this religion. 37% of the people identify as atheist/non-religious, 6% as christian, and the rest have some other religion. The 5 official branches of Faith of Gold are Kutenism, Saqunism, Aqunaism, Azulism, and Kuzlism.
Kutenism is the the largest and most influential branch with 348 million followers. Majority of these people live in Sazistan and Southern half of Hurona, with other big hotspots being Northern strip of Aernaeb and the city of Karagon on Northern Hurona. The Kutenists follow strictly the learnings of Golden Testimony and believe the 7 Aqryils are supreme gods who control the universe. Their main motto, "Protect the Gold", explains their mindset very well. The "Gold" refers to the souls of loved ones according to Kutenists, meaning that it's everyone's responsibility to take up arms if their culture, way of living or honor is under danger.
With 103 million followers, Saqunists are the 3rd largest branch and is considered a milder alternative to Kutenism. They believe the 7 Aqryils are not separate gods, but form a single deity who control the universe. According to Saqunists, the Aqryils created Elemental Masters (Saqus) to take control of Earth. To them, the "Gold" still refers to the souls of loved ones, but it's believed each family is protected by their own Saqu. Thus, many families build their own temples for their elemental master.
Aqunaism is the smallest branch of them all with 39 million followers, but it's also one of the oldest ones, dating all the way back to the creation of Faith of Gold. The Aqunists are loyalists of Aquna, the creator of the Faith of Gold, who believe that Aquna himself was an Aqryil in form of a human. They still practice the old way of walling off parts of their settlement, reserving it to the the souls of the loved ones, with protection of the Gold in mind.
Azulism is the second smallest branch with 48 million followers that are mostly stationed in central Aernaeb and Yurqunian lands. According to their belief, it was not Aquna who is the Aqryil, but his father, Azul. They make an argument that Azul was the original human who created Aquna to spread awareness of the world stability. To Azulists, the Gold does signify loved ones, but to them protecting the Gold is not about protecting the loved ones: To them, protecting the gold is tied to world stability, which is the causation of leaving the gold neglected. They believe that Aqryils have sent 4 "Pillar Men" across the world to observe the stability of the world and inform the Aqryils to destroy the world if it becomes too unstable.
Kuzlism is the 2nd largest branch with 265 million followers, who mostly reside in Kuzia, Quiners and Qyzliria regions, where it originated from. To them, Uzeél (one of the 7 Aqryils) is considered to be the only legitimate Aqryil who controls the world with his sons Kuzl and Zyqrel. To them, the Gold directly refers to the stability of the world. Uzeél is currently dormant, and he will be waked up by Kuzl through erupting the Mount Kuz supervoclano if the world is tipping over due to instability. In the city of Kuzikstania, the old city hall has the statue of Kuzl: A canine-headed man holding a golden weighing scale on one hand and a group of hounds on his other, waiting for them to be released to erupt the volcano if the scale tips over. The scale often moves on itself, signifying how stable/unstable the world is at the moment. It's been working for nearly 2 thousand years thanks to constant renovations.
Government
The Government of Shanting is formed of the Grand Council and Council of Houses. The Zov is the supreme leader of Shanting with all power to do anything that aligns with Zovist goals. The Grand Council is made of the Zov herself, 3 "hands of Zov" and 11 Viziers of pillars, which are handpicked by the Zov in order to maximize the efficiency. The Pillars in this case refers to different departments that handle different issues. The Pillar of Culture oversees the linguistic & cultural policy, cultural events, and cultural preservation, with purpose to preserve Zovist identity, promote cultural heritage, and foster social cohesion. The Pillar of Harmony upholds the law and it's transparency, maintaining the constitution and operating regional courts. The Pillar of Wealth ensures economic prosperity and sustainability. They are responsible for taxation and releasing the annual budget and oversees the public spending. The Pillar of Enlightenment is responsible for education of Shanting. They oversee universal education, libraries and research institutions, promote scientific advancement and ensure access to lifelong, worthy learning for all citizens. Pillar of Vitality is responsible for physical and mental wellbeing of citizens by having an oversight on the universal healthcare and wellness system and health programs. Pillar of Plenty oversees agriculture, forestry, natural resources and land management, ensuring food and water security. The Pillar of Shelter is responsible for infrastructure of the nation and manages urban and rural planning, architecture, housing, and transportation. The Pillar of Peace and Shield is responsible for providing military capabilities for Shanting for both defense and diplomacy purposes. They are in control of the military, intelligence and diplomacy departments, with aim to foster both internal and external peace. The Pillar of Voice is responsible for public media and freedom of speech, acting as the main gateway between the thoughts of people and the Zov. Pillar of Labor & Skill is made to support workers and empower productivity and safe work environments. They mediate between workers, unions and employers of the empire and act as the spearhead of industrial advancement. The Pillar of Stars is responsible for technological advancement, space exploration and future planning, with long-term visions and plans to ensure the survival of the empire and world.
The Zov is the supreme leader whose word matters more than everything. A Zov rules for so long as they are alive or until they give up their throne either willingly or by force. The Zov is chosen by the Council of Houses, which consists of all the family heads of the Empire. Basically every family in Shanting can choose one family head to represent themselves in the Council of Houses. The Zov candidates first participate in Glory Games, in which the most capable individuals pass through and enter the election process. The Glory Games are made to find the most intelligent, powerful, sane and generally the most ideal candidates whose ideals align with Zovism. After the surviving candidates from Glory Games are revealed, the Council of Houses will elect the next Zov in 3-round elections. At the first election, the better half of the candidates make it to the next round. On the second round, only two candidates with most votes make it to third round, and out of those two, one will be ultimately elected as the Zov, who will continue to rule the empire until his death or willing/forced dethroning.
A Zov can be dethroned if majority of the Council of Houses agree that the current leader does not stand along the Zovist ideals. In such case, the current Zov must step down. If they refuse, the Council of Houses will flag the current Zov as "faulty" and declare him as a criminal that can be arrested or killed by anyone on sight. During this process, the Council of Houses will begin the procedures for picking a new Zov.
The Zov can call the Grand Council whenever she wants to with 3-day warning. The Grand Council should hold a meeting at least every 2 months in order to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding everything. The Council of Houses gather around twice every year, although an emergency meeting can be called upon if at least 30% agree on it. These gatherings can be attended either in the 120,000-seated Kuzikstanian Eye-
stadium in Kuzikstania, or via online. Every head of family is allowed to attend these gatherings, as long as their status is known by Pillar of Voice.
The family heads of the empire, while part of Council of Houses, are also part of smaller councils of the local city-state. These "House Circles" gather much more frequently, about once or twice a month, to discuss local issues. At the start of each year, one to three delegates is chosen democratically to represent the collective voice of the city-state in Council of Houses. This way, the local issues get heard far more easily in the national gatherings, where each of these delegates are allowed to speak out. There are also unofficial Local Councils, which are not mandatory but often active in many cities and towns within the city-states. While these Local council gatherings rarely lead to huge changes, they help in building a general consensus and sense of unity among people.
Politics
Shanting is made of two different ideological entities: The Zovists and Republicans - both living in the same world, same continent, same empire. Due to the results in the civil war, the Republicans were toppled from the ruling, but in order to avoid any further conflicts, a safe haven for Republicans was established in Quziq. In the pillar of Quziq, the Republican-minded people can freely practice democracy, hold elections and live their life without adhering to Zovist ideals. While officially there is no political parties in the Zovist Shanting, it would make little sense for such a multifaceted and complex thing like Zovism to not raise differing opinions. The Council of Houses is the grand stage for all these differing opinions to merge and clash together. Over 250 million family heads have formed 8 general "sects":
The Individualists are strong believes that the idea of glory - one of the cores of Zovism - is tied to the individual himself. They strongly support self-sufficience and survival on your own. They heavily dislike the modern taxing and wage system, which is very much family-tied, the family gets everything and shares everything.
The Familiarists are the opposite sect of Individuals. They see a family as one, big living organism. They're strongly for the idea that everyone in the same family works for the same cause. Everyone provides and receives from the family, not from the Zov - this is the family's matter as whole.
The Singularists believe in centralized power over having multiple semi-independent states with their own laws. They see the Zov as the one and only, and there should be no one else that should come even close to them. They want to abolish the current pillars and make the Zov truly a supreme.
The Pillarists are less fundamental on the core idea of Zov being above everyone, at least when compared to their opposites. They believe that the empire is more sufficient in long-term with the existence of Pillars, which act as somewhat independent states with their own rulers that bow down to Zov.
The Progressives believe that spreading the empire through warfare and diplomacy is not a way to go. Instead, they believe that education, innovation and constant adaptation are necessary for the Empire to continue existing. They're strong supporters of the current education system and providing an opportunity for everyone to succeed.
The Traditionalists on the other hand fear that progression could lead to inevitable negative impacts that could destroy the empire. Instead, they often cite the Iqlyzzi's "Infinite Empire" preachings of how a constant expansion and strong cultural foundation are key to long-term success of the empire. The traditionalists are big fans of showing the military might to rest of the world.
The Rationalists are keen on efficiency and results over the non-material costs. They believe that the results justifies the means, and see rational thinking as much more important than emotions. There are many rationalists who do resonate with some "emotionalist" arguments and ideas, as in some cases, these plans may actually be effective even from logical point of view.
The Emotionalists put the morals over the means, and rather try to find an alternative that brings similar results but at lower cost of moral or ethical loss.
Assets & Military
The military of Shanting is overseen by the Pillar of Peace & Shield, with the supreme commander being the Zov herself. Known as "Imperial Armed Forces of Shanting" (IAFS), the military has 4 main goals:
- Prevent and defend the empire from foreign invasion,
- Intervene in foreign actions that pose significant threat to the empire,
- maintain the regional stability, and
- provide support to internal assets like police and other emergency departments.
The IAFS is divided to two main halves: The Intervention Forces and Defense Forces, both being closely linked to each other. The Intervention forces fulfill the Main Goal number 2 independently, and with co-operation of Defense Forces fulfill the Goals 1 and 3. The Defense Forces fully commit to Goal number 4, while also having heavy emphasis on the first goal. In nutshell, the Defense Forces focus solely on internal matters and defense, while Intervention Forces operate in much larger, international scale.
The Imperial Armed Forces of Shanting consists of purely professional staff that work for the government either in full-time or half-time contract. Every member of the military has graduated from one of the 11 Imperial Military Academies with minimum of 5 years of training time. The NCOs and others with leadership training have additional 2-3 years of training experience, depending on what they specialize at: The Special Operation Forces, Intelligence/Cyber forces and Space Corps all have at least 8 years of training experience. Those seeking to become a senior officer are required to continue from the Military academy to National Defense University located in the capital, Kuzikstania, where they study for the Custodian degree in Defense, which is equivalent to Master's degree. The generals and Marshals are required to get an Eminent Sovereign degree, equivalent to Doctorate degree in rest of the world. Everyone who graduates from the National Defense Academy has received the Acolyte Degree in Defense, equivalent to a Candidate degree.
The Defense Forces consist of mostly reservists, who work on part-time. This means that they are to respond to any operation they are called on and receive their predetermined operational wage only when they are called in. These operations can include homeland defense, providing armed assist for the law enforcement, search & rescue, and providing support during and after large-scale disasters. The Intervention Forces on the other hand are stationed full-time, either in operation zone or in their barracks, where they are in constant 24-hour readiness, ready to respond in incidents like foreign intervention mission, assisting allies, peacekeeping, et cetera.
The Imperial Armed Forces of Shanting has 5 main branches: Imperial Army, Air Force, Navy, Imperial Intelligence Agency, and Space Corps. Every Branch works in close cooperation with each other, and every branch has a presence both in the Intervention Forces and Defense Forces.
The Imperial Army is responsible for all operations conducted on land. They have large variety of specialized divisions ranging from armored, mechanized and artillery divisions to reconnaissance, logistics and infantry divisions. The Defense Forces have approximately 780,000 personnel, while the Intervention Forces hold an army of 78,800 personnel. The Imperial Military Academies produce approximately 143,5 thousand personnel to the Imperial Army, of which 10% are assigned to Intervention Forces during peacetime.
The Air Force is responsible for air warfare, air superiority and anti-air defense. These include specialized air squadrons, airborne regiments, and anti-air groups. The Defense Forces have approximately 110,000 personnel, while the Intervention Forces have 25 thousand men. The Imperial Military Academies produce approximately 15 thousand new personnel every year for Air Force, of which approximately half are airborne troops and anti-air personnel, and the other half focus on aircrafts.
The Navy is responsible for naval warfare and operations at sea. They're in constant cooperation with Air Force due to the 6 carrier Fleets the navy holds. The Navy has approximately 182 thousand personnel in Defense Forces and 308,000 in Intervention Forces. Out of the 6 carrier fleets, 4 are under the command of Intervention Forces. The annual number of new graduates joining the Navy is 38,4 thousand.
The Imperial Intelligence Agency (IIA) is responsible for intelligence gathering, surveillance and cyber warfare. The IIA has two sub-branches, one designated for cyber warfare and other for intelligence. Nevertheless, IIA has approximately 7,000 personnel in both Defense and Intervention Forces in total. The real number of the personnel in IIA is not public information, and so is the number of graduates from Imperial Military Academy.
The Space Corps focuses on space technology, space operations and extraterrestrial Defense. They are in close cooperation with the international space league, Helios Coalition. The Space Corps has 22,000 personnel in Defense Forces, and 19,000 in Intervention Forces. They receive approximately 4,500 new personnel each year from the Imperial Military Academy.
In total, the Defense Forces of Shanting have 1,098 million personnel, and the Intervention Forces have 498 thousand personnel. In total, the Imperial Armed Forces has 1,596 million highly professionally trained, combat-ready personnel under their command. The Imperial Armed Forces has a humongous nuclear arsenal of 7,800 warheads, which are to be used only if Shanting is facing an existential threat.
Law Enforcement
Shanting has a tiered law enforcement system, consisting of 3 separate forces that maintain the law in the Empire. The lowest tier is the "Administrator Agency" (AA), whose operators are referred as Administrators or Admins as short. They are lightly equipped, fast-response units whose main mission is to be the first ones on the scene and de-escalate the situation to their best abilities. Admins are easily spotted in towns and cities by their black & red cars and uniforms sharing the same colour. They're actively patrolling the streets and thus the first people to arrive on any scene, let it be criminal, medical or environmental emergency. Admins are given extensive training in first-aid and de-escalating strategies in their 3-year-long Admin course. Their means of achieving a peaceful end-goal has given them the nickname of "Field Therapist". While they are allowed to use a firearm, they are advised to keep such weapons in lockers inside their cars unless the scene they arrive in has a dangerous individual capable of harming others.
Admins are not meant to take anyone in the jail, but they can offer financial punishments and warnings. If there's a case where the individual has to be taken to custody, the 2nd tier police forces are called in. These are the actual Police Forces of Shanting, which operate within each City-State. They are well equipped with proper semi-automatic rifles, bulletproof vests and tear gas if needed. Their vehicles are White in colour with navy blue and golden decorative lines, and uniforms are white/blue uniform in black trousers. The vehicles are much bigger and bulkier, but have ability to reach top speeds of 230km/h and have offroad possibility, making them ideal for high-speed chases. They also have room for several criminals.
The Defense Forces are considered to be the 3rd and final tier of the law enforcement in Shanting. They're called in the most serious scenes that can range from armed robberies to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. They are fully equipped with military-grade gear with helicopters, fighter jets, armored vehicles, AT-launchers, machineguns, assault rifles, et cetera. Due to their equipment, they are often called in to search for criminals who were lost in process of high-speed chases. While the Defense Forces work part-time and have similar alert system to volunteer fire corps, they also hold an elite unit in each city-state which has instant operation capability 24/7. However, they are mostly only called in highly dangerous scenarios.
Economy
Shanting is a state-guided mixed economy with Zovist-style technocratic central planning. The long-term economic plans spanning across following decades are drafted by the Pillar of Wealth in consultation with Pillars of Stars, Plenty, and Labor & Skill, with long-term sustainability and continuous advancement first in mind. The economy itself could be even classified as a market-socialist: The biggest industries like infrastructure, defense, education, healthcare, and space are state-owned. However, there is also a huge private sector, which is mainly driven by local family-run businesses. The Pillar of Wealth provides tax benefits for family-run businesses and makes tax "penalties" for large monopolies and other major private corporations.
Taxation
Shanting operates a classical Zovist Taxation system, which consists of 5 core taxes: Zoned Land Value Tax, Income Tax, Progressive Corporate Tax, Luxury Tax, and Wealth Tax.
The Land Value Tax is a tax on the owned property, which is calculated by square meter. Areas with good living conditions and cities naturally have higher land value, while the vice versa applies in rural and remote regions. Shanting will be divided to 4 Land Value Zones:
- Zone A is for the prime cities, with tax being 5% of the land value per year.
- Zone B is for city outskirts and business districts, tax being 3% of the land value per year.
- Zone C is for towns and rural regions, tax being 1% of the land value per year.
- Zone E, which is for special areas, like government-owned places, military bases, national parks, etc. 0% tax.
The Income Tax applies for middle-class and wealthy families of Shanting. A flat tax of 10% is applied for middle-class and wealthy individuals. The same tax is used for families. Individuals and families earning less than 50,000 TUs annually are freed from the income tax. This tax is supposed to encourage the citizens to maintain large families by removing individual taxation from those living in the same household.
Progressive Corporate Taxes based on the annual profits the company makes, varying between 5% all the way to 20%. There is also a separate Family Business Tax meant for family-run businesses and co-operatives, which varies from 3,5% to 15%.
Luxury Taxation is applied on non-essential goods hierarchically:
- Luxury products, such as jewelry, expensive cars, yachts, etc. 30% tax.
- Entertainment, such as gambling, exclusive clubs, cruises, etc. 20% tax.
- Additionally there will be a Foreign Luxury Goods Tariff on luxury products, which is additional 2-5% addition to the tax.
Wealth Tax is applied to individual people whose net worth is more than 20 million TUs treshold, of which 2% will be taxed out annually. Wealth Tax also has Inheritance Tax applied for inheritances larger than 10 million TUs. The inheritance tax is 10-30%, depending on how much the 10 million TU treshold is exceeded.
Industries & exports
Shanting is an industrial giant. Thanks to the "hotspots of Kjarlemad" empire is among the largest exporters of uranium, steel, aluminum, and copper. Kjarlemad is also home to majority of heavy industry which imports mainly industrial robotics and heavy machinery. The Zovist empire is also one of the world leaders in global fertilizer markets, and also produces large quantities of plastics. Hurona and Trinia are worldwide known for their wine exports, and Aernaeb produces large quantities of grains and has a booming fishing industry, although majority of these end up in domestic markets.
On the other hand, Shanting's main imports are mainly food products in general, timber, electronics and petroleum. Petroleum and other refined oil products, natural gas, hydrogen and timber are mainly imported from Askelewi. With Tipiskawin Treaty, Askelewi trades these important materials for Shanting for extremely low prices in exhange for military protection and humanitarian aid.
Welfare
Citizens in Shanting are legally part of a family, which must contribute to the individual's way of living. Education is completely free for everyone up to 20 years of age, after which the upper education may have minimal tuition fees. Basic healthcare and psychological care are all free to the citizens, but more complicated operations or private healthcare for example often come up with a cost. The government does provide subsidies to the most low-income families in essentials that are needed for living. However, this is rare, as great majority of the families surpass the poverty limits. Even if an individual lives on it's own and doesn't have enough money to live, the first-responder to provide economic support for the individual is his family.
There are several economic benefits aimed for those who can not afford basic living. Bread Card is a monthly rechargeable card provided for those who can not afford food. The maximum amount of money depends on the number of heads in the family, and it is typically 280 Tumis per family member. This money is enough to provide very basic food supply required for family to live without starvation. The Housing Benefit is provided to an individual living outside their family community, whose family can not afford paying for their rent. The maximum amount of rent that the Housing benefit pays is 200 TUs in countryside and 500 TUs in urban areas, both allowing the student to live in approximately 30-square meter studio apartment. If the individual lives in bigger and costlier apartment, they either have to move to smaller and cheaper apartment or pay whatever the Housing benefit doesn't cover by themselves. The Eltái-Loan is a low-interest loan provided to a family whose member must receive life-saving operation but do not have enough money to pay for it. The loan covers fully the operation costs and has to be paid back in 20-30 years, depending on the size of the loan with 0,7% annual interest. The government also hands over Glory Stipends, a large sum of money in form of a check for youth who have performed exceptionally well in their fields of study in order to encourage the youth to focus better on their studies and be rewarded for their efforts.
Employment
Family-run businesses hold up approximately 68% of the entire workforce of Shanting, while government-run services like healthcare, military, education and other government-run businesses make the rest. Due to the culture of duty-based work, family-run businesses and government-mandated employment programs, the unemployment of Shanting is extremely low, at 1,4%. Absolute majority of the long-time unemployed are made of immigrants and others who are not eligible to work. The citizens themselves who are able to work rarely spend more than a month unemployed. The Zovist government runs an unemployment program called "Klysal's Choice", in which every citizen that registers as unemployed is provided a variety of jobs from government, which are based on the candidate's interests. The registered candidates are required to choose a job provided in the program within one month, or else their citizenship is put on a revoking process. Only ones dismissed from this program are those who can prove they are not eligible for any kind of work due to their mental/physical health problems. This has resulted in almost non-existant long-term unemployment among citizens of Shanting. The official currency of Shanting is Tumi. The nominal GDP of Shanting is 53,175 trillion TUs, and the GDP per capita is 35,450 TUs.
Currency
Tumi is the official currency of Shanting It is equivalent to an USD, and worth approximately 160 Rias. The official currency code of Tumi is TU. Tumi is also the official currency in Askelewi and in all pillars of Shanting, including Quziq. Tumi has been the mainstream currency in the continent since 1666, when the Zov of Kuzian Empire, Bezil IV Bjuzka, introduced it as an alternative, more stable way of trading instead of gold and silver. Ever since it's introduction, Tumi has been the official currency. Before 2015, Tumi used to have 0.10, 0.50 and 1 TU-coins, but after the General Currency Update, only the 4 bills are used nowadays due to widespread popularity of credit cards and other alternative electronic payment methods. The 4 official bills are:
- 1 Tumi: A white-black in color, showcasing the founder of Tumi, the Zov Bezil IV Bjuzka.
- 10 Tumis: A white-green in color, showcasing the Zov Kumini, who was the first Kjarlemadian Zov in history and famous for his rapid "expansion through diplomacy"-tactics, doubling the size of the empire in 1700s.
- 100 Tumis: A white-blue in color, showcasing the Zov Belian, the first and only female Zov of Kuzian Empire, known for her seafaring and being the first Zov to attempt expansion across the oceans in mid-1600s.
- 1000 Tumis: A white-red in color, showcasing the Zov Iqlyzzi, the unifier of Shanting, philosopher, and creator of the "Infinite Empire"-model and Zovist
Religion & Culture
While Shanting is culturally very diverse, the continent as whole stands out from rest of the world with it's culture, philosophy and norms. Zovism and proto-Zovist thinking has extremely deep roots in Shanting that shape everything, including the way people generally think. Majority of the cultures in Shanting are heavily family-centered: The family takes care of everything, and everyone provides for the family. This has led to - for example - a whole welfare system in which the family is first expected to provide for all of their family members financially. Great majority of the businesses are family-run, and individuals rarely have their own personal wealth and instead rely on the family's savings as whole. The idea of democracy and people's choice, although less frowned upon today, is still seen as a foreign and weird idea in the society that is deeply used to having one ruler above everyone else, known as the Zov. In short, the mainstream cultures in Shanting can be put into two words: Family & Zov.
Literature & philosophy
The written language in Shanting dates back thousands of years all the way to earliest civilizations in Northern Hurona and Yurqunia. The oldest texts survived to this day have been retrieved from the ancient library of Dáken, many of these pieces of literature being mythological tales of ordinary and less-ordinary people. These were originally used as ways to educate people of everyday life and gave important hindsight of what happens if rules are not followed. These ancient texts are relevant even today, many of which have been romanticized into proper poems and novels. The Golden Testimony, the 3,000-page "holy book" of Faith of Gold that has all the mythological stories from Golden Empire and beyond, is considered to be the most important historical, cultural and religious piece of literature to ever exist in Shanting. This book involves several events, like creation of the world twice, the humanity falling in greed in the first world, tales of Aquna and his descendants, Kuzlist theories of the world stability and potential end of the world if the stability tips over, et cetera.
The modern literature somewhat follows the core teachings of Zovism with few deviations. Another major piece of literature is the "Infinite Empire written by the Zov Iqlyzzi in 1573. This 430-page book was meant to be a guideline by Iqlyzzi for future rulers to follow in order to prevent Shanting from collapsing - an event Iqlyzzi himself feared the most in his life and even fell to depression in desperate seek to prevent this from ever happening. Philosophical guidelines on how to lead and live life were extremely popular at the time, and majority of them followed the Zovist ideas.
The literature itself - these philosophical texts on what is right and wrong - are often seen the reason Zovism also branched into multiple types, some favored one leader while others favored by someone else. In 1708, the Zov of Kuzian Empire, Maqdamoz saw Iqlyzzi's teachings as far too over-fetched and claimed many of the holes in his ideas to be unfixable on their own. Maqdamoz himself was a firm believer of Kuzlism, which believed in peaceful balance between chaos and peace - and the Pillaristic Zovism, which was provided as a foolproof way to continue the infinite expansion as Iqlyzzi wanted - could topple this delicate balance. He wrote a book called "Flaws of expansionists", in which he heavily criticized the Iqlyzzist expansionism, constant warfare, and instead believed the empire should focus more on developing themselves and asserting the empire as global superpower rather than conquer everything. This would allow rest of the world do whatever they want in their chaotic world of ideologies, while Kuzian Empire would have stayed as a stable hegemony - a "perfect balance of peace and chaos" as Maqdamoz called it.
The first Anti-Zovist texts appeared in 1890s, as increasing number of people realized that Zovism has it's own flaws - which was evident after the devastating loss against Kkhano which led to majority of pillars in Wasari being taken away from the empire, shrinking Kuzia by half. The Anti-Zovists fell in 3 camps: The Republicans, Socialists, and Authoritarians. Republicans were by far the largest and most important of the anti-Zovist camps, with large support coming from northern pillars of Quziq, Hurona and Aernaeb. The socialists were visible mainly in industry-heavy Kjarlemad, where the Kjarlemadi and Poqranian workers were particularly vocal about their rights. Authoritarians gained some following in Trinia, Quineria and Jazkovn, although they were often overshadowed by Republicans.
In 1893, an Anti-zovist novelist, newspaperman and member of the New Manchester Republican Sect, Ráfen Dalsbónel, published a book called "The wall between freedom". In his book he dwelved deeply in the reasons why Kuzian Empire is falling and brought up several taboos never spoken before, like the increased corruption among the latest Zovs who have ruled the empire. The book was quick to be banned by the Zov Slabardá Feleix, which however only raised more suspicions among the general population who already managed to get their hands in the book. Ráfen Dalsbónel was later assassinated presumably by the Zov himself, which is often seen as the catalyst to killing of Slabardá Feleix, an action that started the collapse of Kuzian Empire. The Wall Between Freedom was the frist-ever published book that openly critiqued Zovism as whole.
Zovism
Zovism is the main driving force in Shanting. Within locals it is not referred as ideology, but just a way of living, how people are like in Shanting. It's origins are not completely known, although the tales of Aquna - the creator of Golden Empire and Faith of Gold is seen as a prime example of a Zov, the leader of Shanting. The core of Zovism is the idea of strenght through modesty. The greatest power a human according to Zovism is the ability to resist the urges and falling in entrapment of wealth and greed. Aquna, being the prime example of Zovism, was a physically strong leader. He took down a Sazi Bear with his bare hands, something no one else has ever done in history. Aquna was led to a mountain by Élils Kuten, one of 7 Aqryils known as "God of Gold". Élils Kuten gifted him eternal gold, yet he resisted the urge of taking it all to himself. Instead, he cut all the riches in half and gifted one half to himself to build the Golden Empire, and another half to his loved ones. Aquna lived among his people and fought in wars with his fellow soldiers, leading the way all the way to his death. This style of ruling - the idea that Zov leads by example and doesn't retreat behind his wealth - was a crucial reason Zovism is seen as the way to live instead of falling to flaws of ideologies.
The Zov is the most powerful entity on the society, exceeding basic human mind. Thus, it is believed that the Zov's power must be absolute. Of course, the common people, who often choose the Zov, often lack the awareness of who has the true capability of becoming a Zov. If such a failure occurs, the Zov is often deemed faulty and can be rightfully removed by the people. The signs of a faulty Zov are severe physical weakness, inability to follow Zovist ideals (hiding behind their wealth), and using faulty means of gaining power.
To make sure such failures of humanity are kept to minimum, the Glory Games are introduced. This is a public competition in which anyone thinking they have Zov's capabilites is able to participate in. The Glory Games include both physical and mental tests, although mental exams have far more emphasis.
Zovism isn't just about the ruler. In Zovism, there is two kinds of people: There is the Zov themselves, and the people. When it comes to family matters, there are two different main sects: The Familiar and Individual Zovism. Familiar Zovism emphasizes the importance of family. It's believed that one united family is stronger than multiple individuals. Children should from the young age provide for their family and stay within their community. At their late teens, the children are only then given an opportunity to leave and find a partner of their life before returning back. They could also stay and continue providing and defending the family. The Individual Zovism gives more freedom to individuals. It actually breaks up to two sub-groups: Alliancic Zovism and Solo-Zovism. Alliancic Zovism emphasizes leaving the family as early as possible and create a new family, or ally with other influential families and provide for them. They believe that family is in fact not just biological family, but it consists of other individuals and families that provide for the same cause. Solo-Zovism on the other hand wants to abandon the idea of a large family life completely. Instead they focus on self-improvement, independence and at maximum finding a partner of their life.
Architecture
As mentioned before, Shanting is a very diverse nation, and this also applies to it's architecture. The difference in urban and rural architecture is also significant. While majority of cities are built in a modern fashion that suits for individual workers and students, the countryside is largely dominated by large family-run estates. It could be said that the urban regions emphasize efficiency, while rural lands stand with the traditions, creating a beautiful balance of rich history and technological advancement.
Hurona itself is cut in 3 main "architectural regions" between the Northern Hurona, Dark Heart and Southern Hurona. In Northern Hurona, the so-called "Dártord'Seld" (translated as "Square Stone House") dominates the rural landscapes. These large manors are houses of Huronan middle-to-high-class entrepeneurs and their allies. The idea behind Dártord'Seld is that everything that a man needs can be found inside one building. These behemoths of buildings are often built in a square shape with 4 small towers with historical meaning to defend the home from invaders. They hold dozens of rooms meant for living and loads of space for business, whether it be large machinery room or storage room for self-produced wine. Dártord'Seld makes many foreigners oblivious of culture in Shanting think these buildings are some royal castles or old fortresses. However, over 90% of these buildings are owned by regular families who have been living in the region for hundreds of years, practicing their traditional lifestyle and owning their own family business. Former royal families' estates are often far more glamorous with several layers of walls defending them, and are often surrounded by whole towns which were built by the allies of the wealthy. The main building material in Northern Hurona is red brick, which becomes apparent in these rural houses, but also in the old, well-preserved city centres of New Manchester, Copper City and Strachan. Due to being the northernmost region in Shanting and protective forest shield of Dark Heart, Northern Hurona is by far the best preserved region with multitude of medieval, even ancient buildings still intact and in active use.
Dark Heart province in Hurona is mostly inhabited by Eni and Dava tribes, who actively hunt Sazi Bears. Their architecture is very visible, as they explicitly use the material most abundant in the region: timber. Many Enis and Davas do not live among their families, but instead the whole clan lives within the same estate. Davas and Enis style of building differs slightly. Both tribes build large wooden walls to protect their clan from Sazi Bears and form their own, independent towns inside the walls. However, Dava-houses tend to have more pointy roofs for religious purposes, while Enis have significantly lower roofing. Other than that, both Dava and Eni settlements highly resemble each other, both architectural styles staying pretty much the same for thousands of years.
The Southern Huronan architecture is dominated by the use of white limestone. The rural southern Hurona is known by it's picturesque red-roofed towns made of bright limestone that deflects sunlight out. Many families in Southern Hurona live in similar way as the Davas and Enis - living in micro-settlements surrounded by a short cobblestone wall. Often the fields belonging to the family were also inside the walls to prevent others claiming the land. Thus, the perception of a "walled community" often becomes obsolete, as the walled region spans multiple hectares.
The modern Sazejan architecture can be seen as a nostalgic comeback for the Golden Empire era. The buildings are generally built in a very symmetrical fashion with classical decorated pillar support. This is very noticeable even in modern skyscrapers: They often have grand entrances with entrance giving an ancient temple vibes with their marble pillar supports and domes on top of the building. Although ancient temples and structures still exist especially on the countryside, there are hundreds if not thousands of replications of old temples across the island - many of which are still used for their original purpose. For example, many households believing in Saqunism often have a temple for their personal elemental master to pray for. Similar, although far more colorful architectural style is also seen in many coastal cities of the southern shores of Southern Hurona like in Wyla, but also in the city of Aernaeb in Kuzikstan Island south of Sazistan, mainly due to their proximity to Sazistan island and the shared history. The Sazejan temple-style architecture is very much present in various government
buildings across Shanting, with the idea that the empire - even though it has changed at times - still moves on.
Aernaebi architecture is a blend of modern buildings with sleek, clean shapes and older, simplistic neoclassical buildings of various pastel colours. The older aernaebi buildings are known for their fake pillars and arched windows. Just like everywhere else, the people generally live in tight family communities in the countryside, practicing their livelihood, which in Aernaeb most of the time had something to do with agriculture. The newer buildings tend to be even more simple, with large wall-sized windows, lack of proper roof which has often been replaced with a top-floor terrace, and large green blocks of gardens surrounding the building.
Sports
Volleyball is the most popular sport in Shanting with a huge margin. Shanting is home to Kyrzis Onin, a "ladder union" which consists of 11 fully professional leagues, in which the teams attempt to climb from one league to another, as if they're climbing a ladder. The highest league, known as "Kyrzis Onin Elite", is the most followed sports league in the entire world - mainly because 98% of the 1,5 billion people in Shanting watch these games. It's the most elite and most commercialized sport in the country with unimaginable amount of money moving left and right. To provide an example of the colossal sums that go to volleyball, The greatest volleyball player in the world, Niqel Sizler who played in one of the biggest clubs "Kryznas Kuzikstania", had an annual salary of 1,8 billion Tumis. The volleyball as professional sport started in 1898. Even before this, there were amateur volleyball clubs, with most noticeable being TT-Tanqer (Est. 1891), Lesthyrdy Colts (est. 1896), Zarusk Musketeers (est. 1894), and Whiskey Bread VBC (est. 1896). The Kyrzis Onin Elite has been going around since 1955 and was greatly revamped into modern Ladder Union in 1969.
In total, 10 teams have won the Kyrzis Onin Championships since 1969. Kuzikstania Tigers has been the most successful team in Kyrzis Onin history, as they have been crowned Kyrzis onin Champions 21 times and been runner-ups 11 times. The second-best team is Krysznas Kuzikstania with 7 championships and 13 runner-ups. The 3rd best team is Aernaeb Wild who has same amount of championships as Krysznas, but 8 runner-ups. Hyrdy Blitz has 4 championships and runner-ups, Jhoelcen Pelicans 3 and 5, Saz Sazmonsters 3 and 1, Zijaqle Thunder 2 and 6, Madia Orangers 2 and 3 and Zjaelmar Speeders has a single Championships. Lesthyrdy colts used to be a champion team in the early 70s, winning 2 championships and being 2 times a runner-up, but their long dynasty in the early volleyball times is long gone.
While volleyball is beyond popular in Shanting, there are many other large sports in Shanting. Basketball, badminton, and baseball are all widely popular and have professional leagues. Air racing is considered to be a pastime sport with huge betting business going around it. Billiards is also extremely popular especially among wealthy. There are numerous prestigeous "poolhouses" around Shanting where you can wager bets on whether you win or not.
Glory Games
The Glory Games are often considered a "sport" by many individuals, although it officially has always been seen as just a way to find the Zov-candidates with actual capabilities to lead the nation. As mentioned before, Glory Games are held when a new Zov must be chosen, and it's meant to get rid of those who prove to not have the real capability to perform as a leader, and give better picture to the citizens of Shanting about the candidates that survive. This tradition dates back to 1672, when this meritocratic competition was invented by the Zov Bezil IV. While the original version mostly consisted of game events testing the strenght and military leadership capabilities of the candidates, nowadays it focuses more on intellectual strenght over everything else. The physical events still do play a role, although a minor one, and are the most viewed events of the Glory Games. The Zov candidates have to perform in following events:
- Glory March: The classic, oldest event of them all, which examines the candidates' physical condition and perserevance. The candidates march 180-300 kilometers in varying terrain with no outside help. They may carry anything that fits in a medium backpack and have to pass varying events mid-march, like avoiding "enemies", sharpshooter tests and a large variety of physical activity (running to certain goal, push ups, etc.). Failing the events leads to loss of points. The earlier you arrive to the final destination, the more points you earn. The most points that can be gathered from Glory March is 100 points.
- Mental & Leadership Exam: An exam that evaluates the mental condition and preparedness for potentially becoming a Zov. The questions vary from problem-solving tasks to ethically/morally difficult questions. There is 500 questions testing the cognitive capabilities and problem solving of the individual, and each correct question provides one point. Ethical/moral questions are not given any points, but they are published to the public to see, in order to give the citizens a view of what the candidates are truly like from inside. However, if there are clear signs that the candidate is lying or there's too many contradicting answers to moral questions, the candidate will automatically lose 50% of their total points and this decision is also published. In total, the mental & leadership exam provides at maximum 500 points.
- Chess Tourney: The candidate play 4-player-chess in a bracket-style tournament. The winner of each match continue upwards and get 30 points per win. Those who came second earn 15 points, while the rest leave without points. Typically the amount of points for the final winner has been around 240.
- Chivalry Exam: Introduced in mid-1700s by Huronan Zovs, the Chivalry exam tests the chivalrous capabilities of the candidates. They go through series of tests where their mannerisms are evaluated and historical and zovist knowledge tested. They also fight duels, play chess, and compete in jousting. How many wins the candidates get is not a priority, but their behavior toward their fellow competitors. The Zovist & history exams provide 100 points and competitions bring extra 50 points at maximum.
- General Awareness Exam: The candidates perform another exam, this time focused on important topics that come across for a Zov in present day. The exam consists of assignments regarding topics such as Economy, Culture, Welfare, Foreign Affairs, Mathematics, Military Knowledge, Geography, and Politics/Governance. The maximum amount of points provided from this event is 640 points.
- Language Exam: The candidates have to complete 4 exams of different languages. The first exam is their native language. For 2nd and 3rd exam, the candidates can choose any of the other official languages spoken in Shanting. The 4th exam is for any international language of their choice. Each exam provides 100 points at maximum, giving the candidate at most 400 points from this event.
In total, an individual candidate can earn up to 2030 points. The amount of points required for passing the Glory Games and continuing to the public election where the Zov is finally decided is 1100 points. Everyone who gets less than 1100 points are deemed not eligible for the position of Zov, thus can not step up in the public elections. While Glory March, Chess tourney and Chivalry exam are widely public and televised, other exams are done in private in order to provide optimal focus for the candidates. However, these results are published and widely available to be inspected by the public after the exams are over. Anyone who is a citizen of Shanting is eligible for participating in the Glory Games.
Art
The three most distinct forms of art that define cultures in Shanting the most are mosaics, sculptures, weapon arts & armory.
Mosaic paintings have been a norm in many parts of Shanting for thousands of years. The first mosaic paintings come from the Golden Empire from 1500 BC. The mosaics often depict mythological events or creatures, often found in various Saqunist and Kutenist temples. There is 2 main schools of thought: The Kutenist mosaic and Yurqunian mosaic. The Kutenist mosaic is made of thousands of ball-shaped pieces that make up the bigger picture, often colored in light tones and portray the image in clear fashion. Yurqunian mosaic instead uses more varying shapes with sharper edges. These images the mosaic present have often very dark color tones and have more "worn-out" effect coming out from them. Both are equally popular forms of mosaic
Sculptures and statues are another big form of art in Shanting, also dating back thousands of years to the ancient city-state of Strovein. Sculptures are especially popular among Classical Zovists and Saqunists. The Saqunists are known for building statues of their elemental masters to their home temples. These sculptures are often extremely precise, trying to portray their elemental masters as much as possible. Kutenists and other Faith of Gold believers in general build a lot of sculptures of the gods they pray on, but Saqunists are specifically known for their stunningly beautiful, colorful statues. Across the continent you also find humongous statues of former Zovs of the Kuzian Empire, often built to their home city/town. These statues often stand from 5 to 30 meters tall, the biggest of them being the Statue of Belian in Zameszky - standing at 32 meters tall. It's the 2nd biggest statue in Shanting after the Statue of Élils Kuten in Saz, which is almost 70 meters tall.
Many families in Shanting are known to hold the "Glory Swords" - Extremely well decorated swords, pikes, staffs or knives which can date back to ancient times and have transfered from one descendant to another. These melee weapons were originally the status symbols of the families and used in defense in case of potential invasion, but nowadays are purely decorative and hold huge sentimental value to the family. They're often decorated in various rare gems, with most popular material being diamonds, gold, silver, lapis lazuli and emerald. The blade often has beautiful ornaments carved in them. The Glory Swords of extinct families are held in "Ratani Sword Gallery", which holds the world's largest collection of ancient decorative weapons. Similar to Glory Swords, the family heads often had very distinctive armory, which often were as decorated - if not even more - than the weapons. The old cuirasses are often extremely heavy due to special materials with sharp edges on shoulders, and helmets are almost unusable, with their only function to be as fashionable as possible. Just like Glory Swords, the armory of extinct families are stored to their own museum, which is located in Ratani on the opposite side of the Sword Gallery. The most valuable Glory Sword found in the gallery is the Glory Sword belonging to House of Gunma. It's actually a maroon-colored longbow with spider silk acting as the string, with golden ornaments covering the body of the bow. Gunma's harness is also stored in Ratani, which is equally as valuable, both valued as high as 10 billion Tumis. The harness itself is mostly made of red ruby with lush ornaments made of gold - making this definitely a statement of ancient Jazenojan armory craftsmanship.
The Zoveqaler is one of the most famous art galleries in Shanting. Located in New Kuzikstania, this art gallery was built in 1720 to gather all the most important pieces of paintings and mozaics in Shanting. The gallery now is home to original ancient mozaics depicting the likes of Elils Kuten and Aquna. The gallery also has a separate zone located underground, known as the "Tomb of Zovs". Although it doesn't contain any actual final resting places of the former Zovs, it does contain the original oil painting portraits of all of the Zovs from Tiset II, the first official Zov of Kuzian Empire. All the paintings are inside one room that is built out of gold. The paintings are placed in chronological order, with each painting having a golden frame with couple exceptions. The paintings are all protected by reinforced glass. However, the portraits of so-called "Faulty Zovs" (which are known to be Qrum, Kasvlen, Darzel, Martél and Slabarda). These paintings have dark wooden frame instead of a shiny golden one, and the reinforced protective glass in front of them has a manufactured crack, signifying the wrongdoings these Zovs have done and how they deserve to be shamed for eternity. The newest portrait in this room is the portrait of current standing Zov, Alisa Silfestér.
Infrastructure
The infrastructure of Shanting is overseen by the Pillar of Shelter, which is responsible for maintaining all sections of infrastructure, updating and renovating them whenever needed. The Pillar of Shelter has 5 main sub-organizations dedicated for each sect of the infrastructure. These are the ministries of Transportation, Energy, Water, Telecommunication, Resilience, and Urban Planning. The ministry of Transportation is responsible for the national road, rail, air and water transport. This includes public, intercity and international transport, and wreight transport. Ministry of Energy is responsible for power generation, electrical grids and fuel supply network. Ministry of water takes care of the empire's water supply systems, wastewater treatment, and irrigation networks. The Ministry of telecommunication oversees the network coverage, cooperates with telecom operators, and maintains the fiber optics. Ministry of Resilience is responsible for disaster preparedness and maintaining civilian wartime preparedness. The Ministry of Urban Planning oversees the urban and industrial development, public infrastructure and zoning.
Transportation
Kuzian road network is extremely vast and well-developed, multi-tier system. Each major city is directly linked to each other across the borders by Imperial Highway. These high-speed roads often come with 2-5 lanes and an extra emergency lane dedicated for emergency stops and emergency vehicles. All forms of vehicles going less than 50km/h are banned from these roads, and the maximum speed limit is typically 120km/h, lowering down to 100km/h in urban regions and near major intersections. Natural passageways are common for wildlife to cross over safely. Imperial Highways are very durable and require minimal attention. Even with this fact, these roads are to be thoroughly inspected every 5 years and repaved every 30 years or less if needed. The National Highway is the 2nd biggest highway, meant for intercity transport within each pillar. These roads work as alternate routes to each city, and shortcuts to smaller cities which have no connection to Imperial highway. These roads typically have 2 or 3 lanes, although when going through cities, the number of lanes could jump up to 5. The maximum speed limit is 100km/h, but can fall down to 80 near urban regions or down to 60 in city centres. The State Roads are meant to connect the population centres within the city-states together. They come with 1-2 lanes with a speed limit of 80km/h. The regional roads connect smaller settlements around the cities together, and typically have 1 lane outside the settlements. They follow the same speed limit as State Roads. Local Roads, or City Roads make up the road network within the city, village or settlement. The amount of lanes varies a lot, depending on the size of the city. The maximum speed limit is 50km/h, but can go down to 30km/h in certain parts of the cities like in residential areas. The rural roads are the of the lowest hierarchy, and the only road type that can remain unpaved. These are typically found in countryside, connecting areas of interest and distant family estates together. They follow the same rules as State roads, with maximum speed limit being 80km/h but dropping down to 50km/h if near settlements or intersections. There are also numerous unverified roads, mostly found in very remote regions which are privately maintained and not shown in the Ministry of Transportation database.
The rail network in Shanting is 2-tiered. There is the Imperial Railroad and National Railroad networks, both of wich differ highly from each other. The most notable difference is their width: The Imperial Railroads are nearly 4000mm wide, while the national railroads are 1580mm, often built inside the Imperial Railroads if they're connected to same stations or tracks. The Imperial Railroads allow for massive nuclear-powered passenger & wreight trains to carry humongous loads through the continent. The trains that operate on Imperial Railroads are known as "Behemoths", and are very impressive on their size. Typical Passenger-behemoth can carry up to 1100 passengers at time, and are often treated as "cruise ships on land" due to their sheer size: They often have multiple restaurants, shops and other amenities for the customers on 3-5 floors. The National Railroads are very similar to trains found everywhere else in the world, and they operate more regionally with smaller loads.
Each city-state in Shanting owns an international airport. However, the biggest of these are Tidiquar Intl. Airport in Kuzikstania, New Manchester Intl, Wyla Intl, Jhoelcen Intl, and Zjaelmar Intl. The biggest airport designated for wreight transport is found in Kjarlemad City. Tidiquar Intl. is the busiest Airport in Shanting, with nearly 87 million passengers in 2023 traveling both locally and internationally. Several strategic military airbases are scattered across Shanting, with the biggest being Kuzian Airbase which is integrated to Tidiquar Intl, Eqyn Airbase, Madia Airbase, Port Jeff Airbase, and Ratani Airbase.
Maritime transport is essential between the 4 main islands of Shanting. Arguably the busiest port is found in Quziq City, followed by other international terminals in Kuzikstania, Bunqasde, Aernaeb, Saz, Wyla, and New Manchester. Kjarlemad, Quziq City, Port Jeff, Saz and Kuzikstania hold off the largest maritime wreight transport hubs in Shanting, with 64% of all the wreight transported by seas coming to these 5 ports.
The city-states of Shanting are all well-developed in terms of public transport. Each city has an extensive metro-trambus-TEB-system. The metro systems work efficiently underground to ease the traffic on top. Trambuses, which consist of 2-4 carriages operate similar to normal buses but have much better flexibility helping in tight turns and reducing the space they need. Transit-elevated buses are mainly found in Kuzikstania, Jhoelcen and New Kuzikstania, but are becoming more popular concept across the continent. The TEBs navigate among the traffic without taking away any space from the traffic due to their elevated nature that allows all kinds of cars and even trucks to pass under it.
Energy
While coal is still widely used across Shanting, several other forms of energy have taken over. Shanting is made of 4 independent electrical grids: Kuzian grid, Southern Huronan grid (which includes Sazistan), Northern Huronan grid, and Quziqian grid. Almost all of the grids apart from Quziqian grid are powered almost completely by nuclear fission power and coal. The Quziqian electricity grid on the other hand is almost entirely powered by hydropower. The biggest nuclear power plants in Shanting are Bejezma Power Plant near Eqyn (24,800MW), Yndéls Power Plant near Wyla (20,000MW), Strachan Power Plant (12,800MW), and Trestnov Power Plant in Jhoelcen (12,800MW). The largest hydroelectric power station is the Quziq City power plant (8,800MW).
Water
Shanting has a modern water infrastructure spanning across Shanting. Freshwater is drinkable from tap in every region with an exception of Kjarlemad, where the groundwater is still under extensive purification process after decades of pollution. Shanting gets most of it's water from groundwater sources. Surface water is also used, mainly from the Zames-river in Zameszky-New Kuzikstania area and from Lake Taestai, which hydrates half of the Southern Hurona, including the cities of Wyla and Port Jeff. The highly efficient wastewater management spanning across the continent recycles 70% of the wastewater back to same quality as freshwater.
Foreign Affairs
The foreign affairs of Shanting are handled by the Zov and Pillar of Shield & Peace. The Zov is responsible for providing a general framework for foreign policy, while the "Left Hand of the Zov", Dolban Grovler leads the Pillar of Shield and Peace, which prepares and implements the foreign policy. The Zov is the main presenter of of Shanting in foreign affairs and the Left Hand works as an assistant and secondary face, who will represent Shanting if the Zov is not able to for one reason or another.
Shanting is a former member of World Union and an active member of Helios Coalition. Shanting is also a partner of Silk Road, although isn't a full member. The current policy of the Zovist Empire is to restore their relations with many nations of the world, especially with the members of World Union and former INCOM-member states. Still, Shanting does not seek for joining back in the World Union as of now.
Relations: Allied, Trusted, Friendly, Neutral, Chilly, Cold, Rival, Enemy, Questionable
| Nations | Relations | Impression |
| Novoroyska (Nation) | Trusted | An important economic partner with deep history in military cooperation. |
| Askelewi | Allied | With positive historical ties to the Zovist Empire, Askelewi and Shanting are closely allied to this day, Shanting known as the frontline of protectors of Creeyoan identity, known to help this country in times of serious crises. |
| Estland-Iskalot (Nation) | Cold | Their direct participation in the latest civil war in Shanting proved that the Estian government has deep hatred of Zovist ideals. Potential intervention target in future |
| United Kingdom States (Nation) | Neutral | Shanting has deep respect for the policies of UKS, although is understanding of their waryness towards Shanting due to actions made by the former government in Shanting. |
| Altikar (Nation) | Friendly | A trade partner with great history in political cooperation |
| Feng Dynasty (Nation) | Friendly | Important trade partner, whose ideals and culture is deeply respected by Shanting |
| The Soviet state of Svalbard (Nation) | Neutral | Shanting highly admires the history and culture of Svalbard, although stongly condemns their actions in Magyar territories in Kkhano and Hungary. |
| Kkhano (Nation) | Questionable | Although Integralism (Ideology) has few similarities to Zovism, the history between the clash of the two thoughts has made Shanting become extremely wary of this ideology that once caused the collapse of Kuzian Empire. However, Shanting still refuses to pick a side in the current conflict between them and Svalbard due to the nature of the war, often seen as "needless" and waste of time. |
Provided by bo6696(User)