Hubdova

The Republic of Hubdova Husmdovnä Tasavalta
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: “Astumme universumiin nöyrästi ja toivoen.”    "We step into the universe with humility and hope."
Anthem:   To Victory With Honour
Orthographic map of the location of Hubdova
Location	Located on a northwestern peninsula of North Laurentia.
Capital and largest city	Arcadia
Official languages	Hubdovan English
Recognised regional languages	Karaami
Ethnic groups (2025)	74% Hubdovan 19% Toclariän 4% Other North Laurentian 3% Other
Religion	No Official Religion
Demonym(s)	Hubdovan
Government	Indirect Democracy
• Prime Minister	Kristofer Heikkinen
• President	Hanna Järvi
• Head Chairmen	Bjorn Kinnunen
• Grand Magistrate	Täävi Niemi
Legislature	Parliamentary Assembly
• Upper house	Parliament
Establishment
• First Settling	900 CE
• Unification	1616 CE
Area
• Total	377,272.67 km2 (145,665.79 sq mi)
Population
• January 2026 estimate	52,557,092 (19th)
• 2025 census	52,032,671
• Density	57.3/km2 (148.4/sq mi) (16th)
GDP (PPP)	2025 estimate
• Total	2.672 trillion Hunovas
• Per capita	68,875 Hunovas
GDP (nominal)	2025 estimate
• Total	3.4 trillion Hunovas
• Per capita	69,312 Hunovas
Gini (2025)	31 medium
HDI (2025)	.9287 very high
Currency	Hunova (⳩) (HUN)
Time zone	UTC: -10, -11
Date format	DD-MM-YYYY
Driving side	right
Calling code	+29
Internet TLD	.hd

Hubdova (Hubdovan: Husmdovnä Tasavalta), officially the Republic of Hubdova, is a nation situated on the Hubdovan peninsula on the continent of North Laurentia. Hubdova is bordered to the north by Kurama Republic and has a sea boundary with Socialist Platypus in the western islands, around the island of Lesay. Hubdova covers a land area of 377,272.67 km² (145,665.79 mi²) with a population of approximately 52,557,092 people (est. Jan. 2026). This population is spread across 9 national districts and 47 subdistricts. The capital and largest city is Arcadia with 9.06 million inhabitants and is the major economical and political centre. Other notable major urban areas include La Ardu, Ipoiphis, Vilburg, Nesmour, and Eqrihstead. Hubdova is considered an indirect democracy and has a Parliamentary Assembly with only one house. The national anthem is ''To Victory With Honour'' - written by Armas Maijala.

Etymology

The term "Hubdova" is the anglicised form of the native "Husmdovnä" from the Hubdovan native tongue. This name came out of a combination of two words, "husumme" and "dovnä". These two words came of the legend of the first words said during the settlement of Hubdova, that being "Tässä me husmme, tämä on dovnä" which roughly translates to "Here we live, this is home". This was changed into a simpler, English version that we know today as Hubdova. Other common ways of referring to Hubdova include "The Republic", and "'Dova" (informal). The demonym that is used to refer to items, events, places, or people originating in Hubdova is "Hubdovan".

History

Prehistoric Proto-Hubdovan History

Evidence from archaeological sites in and around Oxdurn Lake, the southern Hubdovan coast, and in the forests of Omattäs suggest that humans first settled on the Hubdovan Peninsula around 11,000 BCE, with the earliest found just north the present day city of Eqrihstead.

Agriculture first developed later around 500 BCE in the fertile fields around the Pilware River, downstream from the present-day city of Vilburg in the national districts of Telaxöron and Nicoshire. Evidence of the first crops grown in the areas is foggy at best, but historians have estimated that, most likely, the first crops were a sort of winter-wheat that could be grown during both the summer and winter growing seasons because of its environmental resilience. The development of agriculture in these areas led to the settling of increasingly larger settlements as time progressed. People could settle down and grow their food around the river, drinking the pristine waters from the glacial runoff from the Nicoshire Mountains upstream.

Not much more is known about this time, because approximately near year 30 BCE, a miniature ice age plagued these settlements, resulting in famine, disease, and mass death. The Pilware River froze over for 5 years straight, causing the residents of the agricultural settlements to die due to insufficient water resources for drinking and for irrigation for their crops. Everyone in the north mass migrated down south, following the animals as they did the same. They eventually resettled with their counterparts in Toclariä where the chill was less severe. The now-vacant Hubdovan Peninsula would not be inhabited for another 900 years and shaped the culture of Toclariäns in legends of ice that can still be seen to this day.

Early Hubdovan History

Approximately around 910 CE, a tribe of Toclariäns broke out of the civilisation and migrated north in search of new land to found a new civilisation in an event called The Exodus. This new group and the Toclariäns would not be united for over a thousand years. The group followed the coast to the ----------- where the party's leader would found four villages: Joensuu, Mustikkamaa, and Kallio all centred around the largest of the four: Arcadia. This is the point that modern historians deem the official beginning of the founding of Hubdova by modern Hubdovans. Arcadia would be the start of the largest and, eventually, the capital of Hubdova. Over time, the residents of these small villages would explore the forests around them, searching for natural resources or anything of use. They primarily stayed as fishermen and farmers at the delta of the Pilware River, customs and traditions they brought with them from The Exodus. The political situation with the smaller villages surrounding and, ultimately, being controlled, by the central, larger settlement of Arcadia stayed the same for approximately 182 years.

After that time, however, the western villages, most notably Joensuu, Mustikkamaa, and Kallio, started distancing themselves from Arcadia due to public discontent of the subjugation. The Arcadians weren't so fond of this, and tensions built up for the first time between the villages. This distancing kept going for nearly 350 years, with the western villages and cities blocking the enforcement of laws put down by Arcadia's leaders, and implementing their own, which the Arcadians tried to shut down. The two sides did not have much of a military, with Arcadia having only 75 unarmoured men with spears, and the Western Coalition having 45 unarmoured men with spears loyal to their cause. At one point, in 1098, the Arcadian "military" stationed half of its men at key points in the Western Coalition, most notably where the coalition's leadership and government was rumoured to be conducted at. This made the public and the coalition's government furious and proclaimed that this was illegal subjugation. They moved 40 of their 45 men, alongside angry mobs of civilians, to confront the Arcadian soldiers. A fight of words consumed the area and, somehow, one of the westernmen was stabbed by the spear of an Arcadian. This, in a domino effect, led to the western soldiers (and some of the armed civilians) began fighting the Arcadians, which were not prepared for such an event and were forced to retreat. As soon as the last Arcadian soldier crossed back into Arcadia, the Western Coalition government proclaimed sovereignty and barred travel from the east to the west, and vice versa. They combined all the western villages into one nation, calling themselves the Kingdom of Gäslö.

Expansion and the War of Retribution

A truce was signed in 1099, ending the short conflict between the two sides since they were not in a good place militarily. Both sides agreed on a border separating the nations and instituted a policy forbidding the construction of military facilities within 30 kilometres of it. What this treaty did not prevent is the massive inflation of both of their militaries to try to intimidate the other from attacking in the future. With this newfound power, and with both sides' population becoming too much of a burden for their land and their resources, they decided to expand outward for the next 264 years, filling in the uninhabited territory that makes up present day Hubdova. Both Gäslö and Arcadia moved north, creating a border that runs north to south, nearly splitting the Hubdovan Peninsula in half. Arcadia moved across the plains of the west and expanded to the southwestern slopes of the Nicoshire Mountains. Gäslö, on the other hand, expanded further west through the boreal forests of Rizidian and along the southwestern coast. During this time, Arcadia implemented a Duke, and declared themselves as the Duchy of Arcadia. The Duke they implemented was a man by the name of Aatami Virtanen, a member of the prominent Virtanen family and was one of the founding members of the council that ruled Arcadia up to this point. Virtanen was a militaristic, but diplomatic man. He increased the physical size of Arcadia's army while increasing the speed of the technological advancement of not just the military, but other parts of Arcadian every day society. From iron tipped spears to steel alloy broadswords and arrows, the militaristic capabilities of Arcadia jumped dramatically during this time, going from 75 lightly armed and armoured men to nearly 1500 heavily armed and armoured men. The Kingdom of Gäslö saw this and made their own militaristic improvements. They kept on with iron spear weaponry, but they mass produced them and gave them to an army of 2200 men, far surpassing the Arcadian military in regards to servicemen. Due to this, however, the Gäslöän personnel were virtually unarmoured.

In 1364, however, a discovery that would change Hubdova forever was made. A Gäslöän scout expedition encountered a village in the present day northwestern Rizidian. This village was part of a larger body that called itself The High Kingdom of Aväthäe. The High Kingdom of Aväthäe was a kingdom settled 130 years before by people that once lived in the land in the far northern regions of North Laurentia, across the -------. These people were masters of the rough sea, were avid fishermen, and had a formidable navy compared to Gäslö and Arcadia. They were very peaceful apart from the navy, whose primary function was to defend their civilisation from sea monsters that Aväthäen legends proved real and dangerous. When Gäslö came into contact, however, the leader of the scout expedition was bitter to the Aväthäens as he saw rich resources ripe for the conquering. He did not make this clear from the beginning but he returned to the Gäslöän capitol with this news and reported to King Niilo Sälminen (the current Gäslöän king at that time). King Niilo was in agreement with the leader of the expedition, but warned to not make haste and to be respectful as of then. The news of the discovered kingdom rapidly spread to Arcadia, which Aatami Virtanen, being the diplomatic man he was, planned a visit to the Aväthäen capitol, Ipoiphis, to warm relations. His meeting went extremely well with the Aväthäen King that an alliance was proposed. Virtanen returned to Arcadia to consider the alliance and to debate it with some of his advisors. The next year, he sent a messenger to tell them that Arcadia accepts, but to keep the alliance a secret. This was because Virtanen was hoping to get Gäslö back into Arcadia. Virtanen did not want to invade Gäslö himself, instead he wanted to influence Gäslö to declare an offensive war against either Arcadia or Aväthäe. Fortunately, this was exactly what Gäslö was planning.

3 years later, on the 4 April 1367, the Gäslöän king readied his troops along the Gäslöän-Aväthäen border and declared war. The alliance was unknown to him which was just what the Arcadians wanted. The Aväthäens sent out a plea of help to Arcadia in which the Arcadians responded by amassing their troops on the Arcadian-Gäslöän border and declared war themselves. This surprised Gäslö's king and he immediately became nervous of the safety of his kingdom and, most importantly, the capitol. Fortunately for the Gäslöäns, not all of their military was in the north invading Aväthäe. Only half were in the north while the other half was stationed in the capital city or along the long Arcadian border. Despite this, Arcadian troops had little trouble pushing into the sparsely populated regions in the north of the kingdom. Troubles were found, however, in the south around the capital region. Arcadia was able to push in only a few kilometers into the region in the first week as more Gäslöän troops were being pulled from the northern invasion front to protect the capital. However, Gäslö would not be able to sustain the capitol region front for very long because of the unpreparedness and lack of armour that the Gäslöäns had. It had turned into a bloodbath from the start with the superior Arcadian technology proving very useful and formidable against the primitive Gäslöän technology. After a month of fighting, the casualty count is estimated at 1800 soldiers just on the Gäslöän side. On 22 May 1367, Arcadian forces took control of the capital region and forced the king and his associates to flee into the countryside, being pursued by Arcadian forces. The king was captured on 29 July 1367 and issued the order to surrender. The fighting officially stopped on 7 August 1367. The peace deal, named the Treaty of Ipoiphis, completely carved up the former Kingdom of Gäslö, giving a large chunk of the northern forests of present-day Rizidian to Aväthäe while Arcadia annexed the rest.

The Arcadians, to much dismay of the former Gäslöäns, were overjoyed to be reunited with their old brothers. To celebrate this, a national holiday, called Reunification Day, was instituted for the 7 August 1367. In addition to this, Duke Virtanen decided to refine the official name of Arcadia, creating the name Grand Duchy of Hubdova, the first time the name "Hubdova" is recorded to be used. The alliance between Hubdova and Aväthäe lasted for a further five hundred and sixty three years in a relatively peaceful state. Their two civilisations progressed over time, advancing their technology with the times. They discovered gunpowder in 1542 and created the first guns a few years later. The two nations industrialised simultaneously in the early 1700s. Steam power was created in 1787 and exploded in popularity, especially in the naval and rail industries. Rail lines were built connecting Arcadia to Ipoiphis and to the other major cities that have popped up over time. The first primitive ice breakers were developed to break the ice on the north coast of Aväthäe in the winter, making trade easier during the time. The population grew steadily during this time as well. The population in 1368 was 770,000 people in the recently unified Hubdova. This, combined with the Aväthäen population, adds up to just over a million people. In 1931, the population had inflated to over 43 million people. The territories of Hubdova and Aväthäe expanded into the surrounding lands. Aväthäe continued to expand along the northern coast all the way up until it met the Nicoshire Mountain Range. Hubdova first expanded west into the Esterland Peninsula and claimed the islands in the archipelago. They also expanded east into the Great Hubdovan Plain and south into the forests of present day Omattäs. By 1931, Hubdova had filled out the majority of its modern-day borders (without Toclariä) In 1916, a unification vote was held in Aväthäe in which 76% of Aväthäens were in favour of uniting with Hubdova, citing economic, social, and defense reasons. The unification of Hubdova and Aväthäe is the point that many historians believe is the beginning of modern Hubdova.

Dictatorial Hubdova

Fifteen years after the unification of Aväthäe and Hubdova, in October 1931, a man named Aaro Savolainen, a general in the Royal Hubdovan Armed Forces, planned and led a successful coup d'etat against then-duke Janne Selänne. Aaro was a well known critic of the Grand Duchy's government and believed that they were too pacifist and weak and that Hubdovans were meant to be an aggressive ethnicity. He believed that those who fight their way to power are most suitable to be in said power. He installed a military-led dictatorship and put himself in power as the Supreme General. The general public's reaction was rageful, having many of their rights taken away and a mass protest was held in Arcadia outside of the former Duke's palace, now the Supreme General's mansion. The response from the new government was unnecessarily severe as the protesters were relatively peaceful. The police loyal to the government fired upon the protesters, killing 17 and injuring many more, over 150 were arrested for Conspiracy Against the Government and were sentenced to life, a testament of the new authoritarian laws now in place. The public saw these atrocities and decided against protesting in the future. There were a few bold ones that tried to speak out, but they tended to never be heard from or seen again.

General Savolainen posing for a photoshoot a week after seizing power in October 1931

General Savolainen's regime followed a type of capitalistic communism. In this system, all businesses and industries were owned by the government, so all products were for the government to use as they see fit. Workers worked for the government-owned industries and were paid a small wage by the government dependent on your productivity level. They were able to buy food and supplies using their wage at high prices, and were typically unaffordable to most. Military service was compensatory for all for at least five years between the ages of 17 and 30. Those who serve virtuously during their time in the military are placed into the military police force who help suppress the populace and "keep order". These military policemen were known for their brutality. They followed the policy of "shoot first, ask questions later" and thought if you were doing something to get the police's attention, you were an enemy of the public. They were paid very well for their work, at least compared to general workers. After Savolainen's regime was toppled in 1977, the majority of the former military policemen are sent to therapy for PTSD from their work in the past.

This system of suppression and punishment lasted for over forty years. Starting in 1971, an organisation called The Underground Element of the Liberation of Hubdova, or UELH for short, started meeting secretly in a warehouse in Vilburg, Telaxöron. Under the curtain of night, members of the UELH, led by a man named Vilho Kursula, discussed what the future plans of the organisation would be. They decided that, to take any action against the government, they needed to recruit many more members. So they began to spread the word discreetly, but efficiently. Workers would tell each other about the movement, they would tell their families and they would tell their friends and coworkers. Eventually, the organisation had nearly 700,000 official members, but the masses that supported them numbered in the millions. Soon, word reached the military, which consisted of conscripts that saw the corruption that the government contained firsthand, so instead of leaking and disrailing of the entire movement, they fed information on troop movements to UELH command. They also formed their own subgroup under the UELH primarily for disgruntled military personnel called Militiamen Against Authoritarian Rule (MAAR) and led by Michael Mattila. By 1976, nearly 70% of all military personnel were part of, or supportive of the MAAR and/or the UELH.

With the intel and planning expertise of the MAAR, and the numbers of the UELH, a plan was formulated to cripple Imperial Hubdovan Military Forces, "invade" Arcadia, capture and arrest General Savolainen, and install a new, democratic government. Many in the organisations saw this plan as a fool's plan and was extremely skeptical of it. Fortunately for the organisation, Aaro Savolainen was killed by undiagnosed liver cancer in 1977, sending Imperial High Command into a frenzy trying to find a replacement leader, with fights occuring in government buildings and threatening to tear the institution apart. This gave the UELH and the MAAR an opportunity.