Velaheria

Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Velaheria united at last (Velaherian)
Anthem: Workers of the Velaheria unite (Velaherian)
Capital	Bastaria
Largest city	Vertia
Official languages	Velaherian
Recognised national languages	Velaherian
Ethnic groups	Velhars 95.40% Others 5.60%
Demonym(s)	Velher(s)
Government	Unitary one-party socialist republic
• Supreme Leader	Ander Starinburg
• General Secretary	Fredrick Staffenburg
Legislature	People's Assembly
• Upper house	Assembly of the People's party
• Lower house	Supreme People's Assembly of Velaheria
Establishment
• Foundation of the Empire of Velhars	1927
• Establishment of the Democratic people's republic of Velaheria	1941
Area
• Total	320,600 km2 (123,800 sq mi)
Population
• 2022 estimate	31,000,000
• 2020 census	28,956,762
GDP (PPP)	2017 estimate
• Total	$80,000,000,000
• Per capita	$2,760
GDP (nominal)	2018 estimate
• Total	$61,900,000,000
• Per capita	$2,135
Gini (2018)	0.30 low
HDI (2015)	0.676 medium
Currency	Velher Wran (W)
Time zone	UTC-2
• Summer (DST)	UTC-2 (not observed)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+91
ISO 3166 code	VFH
Internet TLD	.sta

Velaheria, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria, is a Country located in the region of Eastern Argis inside the continent of Argis on Eurth. It is geographically located in the Eastern Argic plains, and borders Stedoria to its north and Dolchland to its south. Velaheria has a population of 28.9 million peoples as of 2020.

Bastaria is the capital and the largest city of the country. Velaheria comprises of 6 provinces, 3 cities of importance and the Special city of Vertia, which was made into a EEZ in 2017 to encourage foreign investments.

Etymology

(WIP. Where does your nation's name come from? Most RL national names come from a small variety of choice. Some examples:

• land of a tribe (ex. France, Persia, Mongolia, Russia),
• characteristic geography (ex. Netherlands, India, Morocco),
• an old ruler or religious figure (ex. Philippines, San Marino, Europa, Saudi Arabia),
• the Latin description of a place (ex. Australia, Argentina, Liberia).

How is the name pronounced? How is it translated into other languages?)

Geography

Physical geography

The entirity of Velaheria lies in the east Argic Plain, with flat terrain crossed by southern-flowing watercourses such as the Sanguine Creek and the Wilshaw Creek which are the main rivers of the region, these landmass is generally regarded as fertile though certain natural disasters and general lack of infrastructure has caused in underutilisation of the land.

Bend in the River $Name near $City.

Though velaheria is equally booned in its natural beauty, it has quite a lot of forests and moutains to visit, though few applicants ever get a chance to visit them, as the nation practises a set of strict rules which allow only people regarded as safe for the regime to enter the nation, and even then they are always monitored by their mentors, who keep a close watch on them, some famous people who have visited velaheria in the past include, some singers and some actors from the socialist states, in general about 10,000-100,000 people are able to visit velaheria in an annual basis.

Wetlands and marshy conditions are found close to the coastal areas and along the Velaherian coast, these are non arable and are generally wastelands, though some levels of land reclamation has made it suitable for collective farming, though even that faces some difficulties at times.

The lakes in the northwest has been formed due to flooding of the lands which occured in the 16th century, which are collectively known as the Twilthon Expanse, these are generally regarded as the birthplace of the leader, Arin Starinburg, and are thus treated as the most important sites of the revolution, these lakes have entire villages made besides them.

These villages are for show only, though they serve the purpose of teaching the population i.e the middle class and the outside world about the begining of the revolution, which overthrew the dolchic colonisers and the velaherian monarchy and established the People's Government in 1941. This revolution began in early 1930's with several people demanding an end to the constant plunder of the Velaherian agricultural produces by the dolchic government.

Moving north, northern Velaheria also known as the Barrenlands, features rough and somewhat patternless hilly and mountainous desert areas, some of it formed by ancient volcanic activity, though these areas arent at all fertile in any way, they still provide energy to the northern provinces of velaheria by utilising the geothermal vents formed due to the eruptions

The central plains continue east and north as far as the coast and merge with the northern Mountains, also known as the Sterkan Mountain ranges on the border with Stedoria

Southern Velaheria's landforms are defined by various plains and swamp like areas which occupy a large part of the nation, though these have been urbanised and have been made suitable for living

There are some areas that are notorious for their animal presence which may cause serious hamper in the transfer of supplies from one province to the other due to occasional animal attacks

The southern regions also have some really precious natural areas which include large areas of grasslands and pasture lands which are run by the government, also help in constituting the large grazing areas and help maintain the animal industries of Velaheria.

Climate

Velaheria's climate is temperate and marine, with cold, cloudy winters in the eastern parts of the nation and warm summers and in the south, occasional warm winds also are a common display in the southern coastal areas. The greater part of Velaheria lies in the temperate climatic zone in which humid winds predominate. In the northwest and the north, the climate is dry and arid with minimal rainfall along the entire year. Winters there are relatively harsh and summers are extremely hot. In the east, the climate shows clear continental features; winters can be mild for short periods, and summers can become mostly warm. Dry periods are sometimes recorded. In the center and the south, there is a transitional climate which may be predominantly coastal or continental, according to the general weather situation.

Winters are cool and summers warm, though maximum temperatures can exceed 30°C for several days in a row during heat waves. The warmest regions of velaheria can be found in the north. Here summers can be hot with many days exceeding 40°C. Sometimes, minimum temperatures do not drop below -5°C in the northern areas, which is relatively rare in other regions. Though the Velaherian climate is occasionally extreme, it is so in the north, as there are occasional spikes of cold or heat. Winter temperatures can sometimes drop to one-digit negative temperatures for a few days in a row. Conversely, summer can see periods of very high temperatures for a long time in the north.

History

Prehistoric Era

Modern day Velhars arrived in the area of northern Argis in the 6,000-4,000 BCE period, while this is not clear how they survived in such an environmemt, some documents and remains show that the Early Velhars were mostly hunter gatherers and gathered fruits, nuts and berries from the trees and bushes that they found around them, and hunted small herbivores by using stone tools and bone blades, the later being a speciality of the Velhars. As time moved on the Velhars started to settle down into small communities based inside caves or in the hollow trunks of huge trees, with an average community comprising of about 7-14 members, some communities even united to form larger communities which went as far to comprise of about an estimated one hundred people. The Velhars remained mostly as hunter gatherers from the early 6,000 BCE to about 4,000 BCE, after which they slowly started to advance towards the Age of farming and domestification.

As time advanced the Velhars slowly began to develop their own set of small farms where they started to farm their first set of vegetables which typically included wheat grains, wild potatoes, etc, in the north thuadian regions, though due to the highly desertificated structure of that area the Velhars couldnt modernize their farming tactics, though they did manage to domesticate their first range of animal life in the early 2000's-1500 BCE. The animals generally included cattles for example, the East argasian bison and the Velaherian red cow. The animals were used for mainly plowing and scathing the fields of the Velaherian Tribal land holdings, as well as to develop more advanced methods of seperating the waste products of the wheat from the actual crops. The farming tactics of prehistoric Velhars generally included usage of less water consuming seeds of mostly wheats and wild potatoes, and to use a fairly irrigated field for their cultivation (for example the current river in northern velaheria in the 1000- 600BCE ).

The Velhars used mostly stone -tools like stone hoe and stone scathe's for sowing and harvesting the crops, after their maturation period. Though the harvests were usually low, the velhars managed to supplement them with the livestocks they had, for example they used the "beef and milk" harvested and collected from the individual cows, as their main secondary food source during the pre historic times.

City-states

The City state of Streórsburg.

As the 5th and 4th century BCE came the Velhars of coastal velaheria started using carts and bullock driven tongas as their primary means to transport necessary goods and materials, for example stone tools, bricks, hay stacks, etc. While also building temporary villages and semi towns for their survival, primarily constructed of burnt mud and bricks.

The real changes in the velhars living in coastal areas of velaheria livestyles came during the great architectural achievements in the 4th century CE, which changed the lives of the Velhar tribes in the coastal areas, forever, when, they created their first city in the coastal parts of modern day velaheria, named Streörsburg, which could be said was the first modern city inside the entire area populated by the velaherians at that time. Streörsburg was finely surveyed and it was found out that the city consisted of well constructed drainage systems and pre-planned housing which was in the 4th century BCE a marvel, for the Velhars, the city also reportedly had some large granaries which were used to stock food materials and harvested crops, and had huge areas for cultivating crops such as wheat and barley in surplus amounts, which led to the further economic growth of Streörsburg, and later its development as the first trade city of Velaheria. Streörsburg, produced a surplus of agricultural materials which it exported to other kingdoms and tribal associations for imports of bronze ore, the smelted bronze helped the city's residents create several ornaments and daily commoditites and utensils made out of bronze. These bronze artifacts would then be exported to neighbouring tribes for high prices which eventually made the city-states extremely rich and powerful in determining the trade routes of coastal velaheria.

More city-states too came into existence as time went by, by the 2nd century bce there were about thirteen city-states all across the areas covering today's Velaheria, among which great amounts of trade took place, the states had their own national cultures and traditions, they also had their own forms of government and ruling styles. While city-states such as Streörsburg and Göťain were direct democracies with their first forms of ballot being held in their capital for every major decision and every men and women had their own speech in there, others like mulsburg and Krysanthia were absolute monarchies where the leaders made all choices and desicions.

The city-states advanced rapidly in terms of monetary wealth and infrastructural capabilities, most of the cities had proper sanitary measures and huge drainage ducts installed in their city maps, the cities had planned housing and efficient use of food and water was taught to most of the citizens present there, the total population of all these city-states by the end of the 1st century bce is estimated to be around 400,000- 650,000 people.

Medieval Era

View on the medieval castle of $city.

(WIP. What happens after the city-states period? What happened to Streörsburg? Name a few notable rules and describe their actions.)

Early Modern Era

(WIP. How did Dolchland come to occupy Velaheria?)

Modern Era

Arin von Starinburg.

Velaheria, being liberated in the 1940's from the Dolch Landlords and administrators, was in a dire shape, as most of its infrastructural areas were damaged due to the decade long war of liberation, that resulted in the total destruction of Bastaria and Vertia, and also led to the desolation of several acres of lands, and industrial areas. As a result, the VPP and Arin Starinburg, after much consultation with the leading economists of velaheria, found a policy of rapid rebuilding, where Velaheria focused on heavy industries and agricultural growth, which would be centrally planned and allocated as per the needs of the areas by the 5 year plans, this worked well and velaheria recovered from its desolate war situation within a few years, and exceeded its prewar production levels in the 1950's, velaherian economy started to boom and the people started to enjoy greater standards of living, which led to the VPP and Arin Starinburg to be regarded as gods and protectors of the Velhars, who would protect them in the face of any misery. This propaganda helped the VPP to set up its second plan, which was to remove all of its political opponents through a system of silent coups and popular resignation demands, and it suprisingly worked, leaving no opposition left in Velaheria by 1956.

Velaheria has been through hard times, especially since the late 1970's when the entire system began to fall behind that of other socialist states, people became more aware of the outside world, (as seen by Robert's teacher) as velaheria increased its imports of necessary items which it couldnt provide, such as meat and seafood the later of which was the result of the lack of imported petrol to supply the fishing boats, which lead to the lack of a fishing industry for a few years, people began to fall victims to malnutrition, the elites were subjected to occasional cases of insubordination, which lead to the regime fear its collapse, the Starinburg's began to capture any suspected protestor, and would send him and his family to the re-education camps but that lead to even bigger riots, as seen in the 1979 Vertia riots, where about 2,200 peoole protested against the government policies of 2 generation punishments, the Velaherian military tried to end this protest by bringing in tanks and artillery, and eventually succeded, but the silent opposition remained, finally in 1982, the systematic inefficiencies were somewhat rectified as the state decentralized some of its powers to the communes, and withdrew its 2-generation law in 1984, though the government still kept tight control on its people, the newer generation began to feel more aware about the things happening in the outside world, but felt too afraid to defect to other neighbouring states, for the fear of being deported and being executed or sentenced to life time prison.

Politics

Main article: Politics in Velaheria

Supreme leader Ander Starinburg of Velaheria.

Velaheria is a unitary one-party socialist republic. Its political system is built upon the principle of centralization and Socialist Unity.

While the Velaherian constitution formally guarantees protection of human rights, in practice there are severe limits on freedom of expression,and the government closely supervises the lives of the Velaherian citizens.

Government

The constitution defines Velaheria as "a dictatorship of people's democracy" under the leadership of the Velaherian People's Party (VPP), which is given legal supremacy over other political parties. VPP General Secretary is typically the Chairman, who controls the VPP Meeting hall, the VPP Politburo, the VPP Secretariat and the VPP Central Military Commission, making the officeholder a powerful person in Velaheria. The VPP is the ruling party of Velaheria. It has been in power since its creation in 1940.

Political parties

Two minor political parties also exist, but are legally bound to accept the ruling role of the VPP. They, with the VPP, comprise a popular front, known as the People's Front (PF). Elections occur only in single-candidate races where the candidate is effectively selected beforehand by the VPP, where every citizen is required to vote, though there is the freedom to not vote for the Candidate and abstain, but that has rarely ever happened. The People's Front Comprises of the Velaherian People's Party (VPP), the Unionist Party (UP) and the Socialist Party of Velaheria (SPV). The later two parties also get to say about their opinions in certain decisions taken by the government, but in reality these parties have little to no political freedom to criticise any decision taken by the Velaheria People's Party.

Legislative

Main article: Legislature in Velaheria

The legislative branch of the Velaherian Government is the People's Assembly, where day to day decisions are taken, the legislative building is located in the Central Venue, Bastaria. Every proposal that's announced is first read out by the speaker of the assembly, after that a brief discussion is taken place discussing the issue, after that the general secretary of the Velaherian People's party addresses the issue to the Chairman of the party or the president, who then either approves or declines the proposal, following that the legislature votes about the issue where it is either passed or abstained or declined. It is seen that virtually every proposal taken by the government has passed with a 100% approval making the party nothing more than a rubber stamp done to justify every decision of the party and the executive.

Foreign relations

(Neighbours. Trade partners. Allies. Membership of local organisations. Membership of global organisations. Ongoing disputes.)

Military

Main article: Velaherian People's Army

Economy

Main article: Economy of Velaheria

Velaheria has maintained one of the most closed and centralized economies in the wurld since the 1940s. For several decades, it followed the Central pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Extensive communist support allowed Velaheria to rapidly register very high growth rates.

Systematic inefficiency began to arise around 1960, when the economy shifted from the extensive to the intensive development stage, The shortage of skilled labor, energy and transportation significantly impeded long-term growth and resulted in consistent failure to meet planning objectives in the 1970's the situation got even worse, when the food production absolutely plummeted, this resulted in several small riots across velaheria, but ultimately the government decided to rectify the beuracratic, centralized mess by giving more power and autonomy to the communes which resulted in the increase of food production again in the 1980's and 1990's, but plummeted again in the 2000's due to the climatic disturbances experienced by velaheria which weren't seen in the last couple of decades.

Crops growing in Velaheria.

Velaheria declared the last four-year plan unsuccessful in December 2001 and thereafter stopped announcing plans, a series of natural disasters throughout the 2000s caused severe hardships, including widespread famine due to climatic disturbances. By 2011, the situation improved owing to a return to agricultural outputs and modern farming tactics, but the economy continues to suffer from mild food shortages and damaged infrastructure. In an attempt to recover from the collapse, the government began structural reforms in 2003 that formally legalized private ownership of assets and decentralized control over small goods production. A second round of reforms in 2014 led to an expansion of market activities, partial monetization, flexible prices and salaries, and the introduction of incentives and accountability techniques, Despite these changes, Velaheria remains a command economy where the state owns almost all means of production and development priorities are defined by the government.

Infrastructure

Road networks

The road network was estimated to be around 43,200 kilometres in 2009, up from between 42,300 kilometres and 41,700 kilometres in 1990, of which 6,717 kilometres, 15.5%, are paved. However, The Wurld Factbook lists 42,554 kilometres of roads with only 6,726 kilometres paved as of 2016. The Roads connect the Cities of Bastaria, Vertia, Gotäin and Köinsburg and Muslburg together and extend upto 42,250 kilometres of Roadways. And 6,726 kilometres of that roads are paved as of 2016.

Railway networks

A diesel train at Bastaria Station.

The 9,910 kms long railroads connects the main cities of Bastaria, Vertia and Götain and and its surrounding villages and smaller cities and has train stations and signal posts to run the trains.

• 1,772 km (2002),
• 1,138 km (1995); narrow gauge:
• 4,321 km 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge (858 km electrified)(2002)
• 1,987 km 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge (858 km electrified)(1996)
• 1,250 km 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) gauge; (2002) ev. transformed to 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge in 1980
• 1,026 km 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge (2002)

Demographics

The Demographics of Velaheria are known through national censuses and international estimates. The socialist beareau Statistics of velaheria conducted the most recent census in 2020, where the population reached 29 million inhabitants. The population density is 90 inhabitants per square kilometre, and the 2016 estimated life expectancy is 74.81 years. In 1990, the population rose at a near consistent, but low, rate (0.96% from the two censuses). Since 1979, velaheria birth rate has exceeded its death rate; the natural growth is positive. In terms of age structure, the population is dominated by the 15–64-year-old segment (80.09%). The median age of the population is 27.9 years, and the gender ratio is 0.97 males to 1.00 female. Since the early 1980s, the birth rate has been fairly stable, with an average of 2 children per woman, down from an average of 3 in the early 1960s.

Language

Velaherian language is arguably the closest language to the Common language, having virtually the same grammar and really close phonology. Vocabulary wise and world-formation wise, Velaherian is almost exclusively Allemanic, with little to no Romance influence, unlike Common. Velaherian alphabet has managed to preserve multiple letters, which has been dropped from the Common language in the past:

A a /ɑ ~ ə/	Æ æ /æ/	B b /b/	C c /k ~ s/	D d /d/	Ð ð /ð/	E e /e ~ ɛ ~ ə/	F f /f/	G g /g ~ ʤ/
Ȝ ȝ /g ~ x/	H h /h ~ ɒ/	I i /i ~ ɪ ~ aɪ/	J j /ʤ/	K k /k/	L l /l/	M m /m/	N n /n/	Ŋ ŋ /ŋ ~ ŋ̊/
O o /ɔ ~ u ~ ɒ/	P p /p/	Q q /q/	R r /ɹ ~ r/	S s ſ /s ~ ʒ/	T t /t/	Þ þ /θ/	U u /ʌ/	V v /v/
Ƿ ƿ /w/	X x /ks/	Y y /j/	Z z /z/

The Velaherian language also has a set of diphthongs.

Ch ch /ʧ/

Ck ck /k/

Ea ea /iː/

Ee ee /iː/

Sh sh ſh /ʃ/

Ur ur /ɜ:ʳ/

Oo oo /ʊː/

Oul oul /ʊ/

Our our /ʊəʳ/

As the consequence of this nearness, Velaherian language has almost identical phonology to Common.

Culture

Arts

A fine example of socialist realism.

All of the officially approved art is required to follow the doctrine of Socialist Realism, which focuses on the utopian lifestyle of the people living in velaheria, while potraying the Starinburg's as the "savior's" of the Revolution and the population, As it helps tremendously to enforce the ideology of Socialism, inside Velaheria.

The Velaherian People's Party decreed that all existing literary and artistic groups and organizations should be disbanded and replaced with unified associations of creative professions. Accordingly, the Bastaria and Vertia Union of Artists was established in August 1953, which brought the history of post-revolutionary art to a close. The era of Velaherian art began.

The Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in $CityName.

In October, 1956, the All-Velaherian Central People's Assembly adopted a resolution on the creation of an House of Arts. The Vertian Institute of Proletarian Fine Art was transformed into the Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. This drew a line under a 15-year period of constant change at the country's largest institution for art education. In total, over the period 1943-2012, the Institute graduated more than 4,500 artists and art historians. Among them were such major artists and sculptors of the Democratic people's Republic of Velaheria were, Rensarin Frugard, Rudolph Crondarin and others. The Party later alleged that some higher members of the people's assembly spend more time posing in the Art studios than they did attending their duties in the administrative sectors.

The Velaherian paintings in short shows a mastery of classical representational techniques, as well as depicting an utopian vision and version of the socialist system. Art inspectors of other nations and those who defected to other countries from (1943–) approve the claims that artistic life of the people in Velaheria is suppressed by the ideology and artists submitted entirely to what the party wanted them to depict and draw. A great number of landscapes, portraits, and studies exhibited are also mostly seen glorifying the socialist system and the people's lives under socialism with the capitalists and Dolchic people being their ultimate enemies, with sometimes depicting seylosians as their enemies too prior the 50's and 60's. That approach is also pursued ever more consistently in the genre paintings as well, although young artists at time still lack the experience and professional mastery to produce works of high art level devoted to the Velaherian Socialist Reality.

Literature

The notable poet Ioseb Jughashvil reciting one of his poems, c. 1930s.

The Velaherian writers developed socialist realism in their own way. Their creative method features a combination of publicistic passion, a critical view of capitalist society, and a steadfast striving to bring reality into accord with socialist ideals. All sorts of books or literary documents must go through a routine check by the Censorship Commitee, and must express a sign of admiration for the policies of the Velaherian People's Party. In addition, many writers have also developed a mentality of given censorship to hide the ill-doings of the government or the military, in their literary texts and potraying the enemies as the worst commitors of crime.

However, writers are given access to otherwise prohibited "Corruptable" materials they can look and co-opt themselves with, in order to better propagate the myths and stories that glorify the Party, the Starinburg's and the elite as the liberators of the nation, with odd amounts of historical details that is often not expected to be seen in those texts. It is normal for Velaherian writers to see foreign Internet materials that ordinary Velaherians do not even have access to. The writings range from anything that denouces capitalism to detailed stories of the Velaherian Liberation war, while also writings about the Individual heroes i.e military heroes who died for the nation, there are animated series available too which usually use animals to display as charecters rather than humans in order to entrench love and affection from the children.

The Modern style of Velaherian literature developed after the 1940-50's, while the nation was reparing from its war, the style of the current writing system were made popular by a party member who was also a writer, namely Alfred Heimer, He stated that in order for the Party to gain more respect in the eyes of the people, the party had to potray itself as the savior of the nation, by any means possible, which led to the establishment of the Velaherian Writers association in 1953, after which, lots of literary texts were released which became popular among the people, while being isolated from texts which were outright hostile towards the party's ideals. Though these texts were generally popular, a large number of lower class people couldnt enjoy them due to their lack of education, which led to the education drive, by the party in the 1960's and 70's, which sought to gain 100% literacy rate, but could achieve only 93% literacy rate by 1996, after which the drive was cancelled due to lack of state funds, though the main aim of the Party was achieved, it proved to be a great leap for the nation, as they had, one of the most literate populaces in the entire wurld.

The Middle class, too enjoyed the writings of the writers association and generally waited for the unveiling of the next text series, that the writer's released, these included comic series, historical novels, Charecter-Detailed texts, literature, etc.