User:Occred/Sandbox4

Eschaton of Okredesia Okredesia
Flag Seal
Motto: "Beneath the pavement, the beach."
Anthem: Aaa
Map of Okredesia's metropolitanates Map of Okredesia's metropolitanates
Capital and	Ys
Other languages	Eresic, Okredesian
Religion	Ysology (official)
Demonym(s)	Okredesian
Government	Anarcho-totalitarian socialist theocracy
• Archon	Aaa
• Archprovost	Aaa
• Archstrategos	Aaa
Legislature	Archsynod
Formation
• Dagerby culture	c. 30,000 BCE
Area
•	211,920 km2 (81,820 sq mi)
Population
• 2023 estimate	157,836,567
• Density	745/km2 (1,929.5/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	2023 estimate
• Total	$7,974,376,874,541
• Per capita	50,523
Gini	23.3 low
HDI	0.855 very high
Currency	Sol (ᛋ) (OKS)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+23
ISO 3166 code	OK
Internet TLD	.ok

Rhowyden (/roʊwɪdɛn/ ROH-wih-den), officially the Union of Rhowyden, is a sovereign country encompassing the continent of Rhowyden, the island of Sharlow, the smaller surrounding islands, and dozens of overseas autonomous territories. Most of its land area of 32,356,439 km² (12,493,000 mi²) is characterized by cold, wet, mixed forests, although the southern coast is warm year-round. It is surrounded by oceans on all sides. The de facto administrative capital of Rhowyden is Gydenborg, while its largest city is Mikelby. Other major urban centers include Lisitas, Bramwin, Leraster, and Leander.

Humans first arrived in Rhowyden around 30,000 CE during the last ice age Beginning in the 15th century, large numbers of Proto-Valsian peoples of undocumented origins began arriving by sea on the west side of the continent, conquering and assimilating much of the indigenous population by the beginning of the 17th century, leaving a plethora of large, independent warlord states in the wake of the campaign. In the 1640s, the Archimandry of Holburn was the first recorded great power on the continent, briefly conquering most of the continent’s eastern half, before collapsing during the Malachite Wars from 1719-1742. Industrialization of the continent began amid these conflicts, with the first commercial steam engines entering use in Leraster in 1732. The ensuing economic and technological boom led to dramatic urbanization and socioeconomic upheaval, until much of the continent began transitioning into a deindustrialized service-based economy in the mid-20th century. Rising discontentment due to precarious economic conditions, environmental degradation, and rising authoritarianism led to the Vital Revolution beginning in 1979, which eventually unified the continent into the modern polity of Rhowyden.

Today, Rhowyden is a libertarian socialist council federation where the predominant political current is vitalism. It is divided into 6 regions, 42 zones, and 9,735 autonomies. The federal government is based upon the Community for Equity, Research, Ecology, and Security (CERES), and a system of advanced e-democracy is implemented at all levels. Rhowyden utilizes a decentralized planned economy in which basic needs have been decommodified and all firms are either employee-owned or community-owned, with production coordinated through an advanced decision support system named DAGDA. Major industries and exports include foodstuffs, forest products, commercial vehicles, industrial machinery, telecommunications, and tourism. Rhowyden ranks highly in international measurements of political freedoms, government transparency, education, and quality of life.

Etymology

The name Rhowyden is derived from the Middle Rhowysh word ‘’prowetinne’’ (“prophetess”). It first entered common usage in the mid-1700s as a derivation of Prowetinnesrewlm, referring to the Archimandry of Holburn and the wide-reaching influence of Archabbess Alinora the Most Holy. Though the “Prophetess’s Realm” dissolved in 1739, the name remained in use for at least a generation and began being used as a common name for the continent by the turn of the 19th century. Among speakers of Burnish and Merelandic, the word soon mutated into Rhowetinn, and eventually Rhowyden, following the establishment of standardized spelling by the now defunct Academy for the Rhowysh Language.

History

Reconstruction of a Bronze Age Dagerby culture settlement.

Rhowyden has been continuously inhabited by modern humans since at least 30,000 BCE, when it is hypothesized that paleolithic fishermen reached the continent by sea while following seal populations. The oldest known evidence of human habitation is found in Haser on the northern coast of Sharlow, where a stone carving depicting a fish dating back to approximately 30,000 BCE was found in 1962. These indigenous inhabitants, who are called the Dagerby culture by modern historians, proceeded to spread out across Sharlow and then mainland Rhowyden. Humans are believed to have reached the southern coast by 15,000 BCE.  

Around 2,000 BCE, the first evidence of metallurgy appears in the archaeological record. The Sovereign Copper Culture, centered around Lake Sovereign (for which the historical group is named), began producing copper jewelry and later tools, eventually moving into bronzeworking by the 5th century BCE. Tools from this period are found throughout the Thousand Lakes basin and as far south as modern Lisitas. The Sovereign Copper Culture is believed to be the first major regional polity in Rhowyden.

By the 6th century CE, knowledge of advanced metalworking had disseminated far from Lake Sovereign and other groups began competing with the Sovereign Copper Culture for resources. The most successful of these rivals was the Aughton Confederation, named for the town of Aughton where ruins of their capital (whose name remains unknown) were discovered. This confederation spanned much of the southern Great Bay region in the early first millennium CE. In the 12th century, the eruption of the volcano Mt. Bedes in northern Sharlow caused a volcanic winter in much of Rhowyden, caused a tsunami which temporarily submerged the Dagerby peninsula, and cast a toxic cloud over much of the continent's eastern half that killed an estimated 20 million people.