Velaheria

Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Velaheria united at last (Velaherian)
Anthem: Workers of the Velaheria unite (Velaherian)
Location of Velaheria
Capital	Bastaria
Largest city	Vertia
Official languages	Velaherian
Recognised national languages	Velaherian Dolchic
Ethnic groups	Velhars 92.45% Dolchs 2.55% Stedorians 2.05% Others 2.95%
Demonym(s)	Velhar(s)
Government	Unitary one-party socialist republic
• Supreme Leader	Ander Starinburg
• General Secretary	Fredrick Staffenburg
Legislature	Supreme People's Assembly
Establishment
• Foundation of the Dolch Colonial Administration of Velaheria	1927
• Establishment of the Democratic people's republic of Velaheria	1941
Area
• Total	320,600 km2 (123,800 sq mi)
Population
• 2024 estimate	31,000,000
• 2023 census	33,159,746
GDP (PPP)	2021 estimate
• Total	$82,000,000,000
• Per capita	$2,831
GDP (nominal)	2021 estimate
• Total	$61,900,000,000
• Per capita	$2,137
Gini (2022)	0.30 low
HDI (2022)	0.735 high
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 33.1 million as of 2022.

Bastaria is the capital and the largest city of the country. Velaheria comprises of forty eight provinces, 6 cities of importance and the Special city of Vertia, which was made into a EEZ in 2009 to encourage foreign investments and joint ventures made to ensure the growth and improvement of the velaherian state's economic conditions.

Etymology

Velaheria, originates from the name Vel-haria. This name has been mainly used by the Dolchic colonisers when referring to the region where the Velhars lived. Traditionally, it has been used to refer to the regions where the main ethnic group lived. However, as time went on, this name was used to also refer to the Kingdom of Velhar which existed in the early ages.

The etymology is sometimes also used to refer to the lands which the hunter-gatherers once lived in. Though, it's rarely used for that purpose, and generally used to either refer to the lands where the kingdom of Velaheria once existed in or where the Velhars live.

The term Vel-haria was gradually replaced with Velaheria as a result of divergence of Velaherian from traditional Dolchic and as a result of the regime's attempts of separating Velaheria from the Dolchic culture which persists there now.

Geography

Physical geography

Bend in the River $Name near $City.

The entirety of Velaheria lies in the east Argic Plain. The flat terrain is crossed by southern-flowing watercourses such as the Sanguine Creek and the Wilshaw Creek. They are the main rivers of the region. This landmass is generally regarded as fertile, though certain natural disasters and general lack of infrastructure has caused in underutilisation of the land. Velaheria is equally booned in its natural beauty. The area has quite a lot of forests and mountains to visit, though few applicants ever get a chance to visit them. The nation practises a set of strict rules which allow only people regarded as ‘safe for the regime’ to enter the country. And even then they are always monitored by mentors who keep a close watch on them. Some famous people who have visited Velaheria in the past, including some singers and 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. Some levels of land reclamation have made it suitable for collective farming, though even that faces some difficulties at times.

The lakes in the northwest were formed by flooding of the lands. This occurred in the 16th century. The lakes are collectively known as the Twilthon Expanse. They are regarded as the birthplace of the leader, Arin Starinburg. This is why they treated as important landmarks of the people's revolution. The lakes have entire villages made besides them. These villages are for show only. They only serve the purpose of teaching the middle class and the tourists about the beginning of the revolution, which overthrew the Dolchic colonisers and the Velaherian monarchy and established the People's Government in 1941. This revolution began in the early 1930s with several people demanding an end to the constant plunder of the Velaherian agricultural produces by the Dolchic government.

A female northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in Gotain.

Northern Velaheria is known as the ‘Barrenlands’. It features rough and somewhat patternless hilly and mountainous desert areas. Some of it was formed by ancient volcanic activity. These areas aren't at all fertile in any way. But they still provide energy to the northern provinces of Velaheria by utilising the geothermal vents formed by 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. Since the medieval era, these have been urbanised and made suitable for living. There are some areas that are notorious for their animal presence. This may cause a 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, including large areas of grasslands and pasture lands, run by the government. This also helps in constituting the large grazing areas and helps 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 Goťain.

As time progressed, more and more small baronies and duchies came to existence in the forests and swamp lands located close to the rivers, potentially as a result of the increasing amounts of trade and commerce in those areas, and the general desire of the people there to further explore and gain riches and fame from those explorations, with most of the settlers of these baronies being either bards or some other landless peasents, who seeked to gain land and grow their own produce in it, rather than working for others, which meant an seemingly large number of landless labourers migrated from the city states towards the new baronies, which is also one of the main reasons for their collapse.

By the end of the 1st century bce, there were several new baronies across the southern regions of velaheria ruled by different houses, most sharing no common roots of ancestery, due to the fact that most of them had risen to power from the common grounds, which was also maybe responsible for the relatively lax taxation on the peasantry and the working class during this era.

City states such as streosburg, expanded its boundaries and settled new villages of its own, it rebranded itself as an republic, perhaps the oldest one to ever form, whose government replicated all forms of electory processes including the establishment of two bodies of government and an judiciary, while their citizens enjoyed basic rights and freedom, with having their own lands and property, streosburg was the first city state to expand enough to transform into an state with enough resources to sustain itself, with its ports being major trading hubs, and villages prospering, which lead to several key road infrastructure projects, which connected streorsburg to its settlements, and all this was acheived by the 3rd century, when the other baronies and kingdoms had just started to come into existence.

The first such kingdoms and baronies were mainly ruled by former working class citizens of the city states and thus were more understanding and lenient towards their people, this led to the increase in the agricultural harvests and prosperity all across the region, people were elevated to the status of nobles or aristrocracy based on their talents and traits and not by some ancestral means, which meant that good governing systems existed in all of these kingdoms and baronies around velaheria.

Though as time went, corruption and nepotism began to rise in these kingdoms and baronies while migration to these kingdoms remained, mostly as a result of the decline of the city states due to the lack of workers and political squabbling, which resulted in the fall of almost all of the city states by the 6th century AD, all while the kingdoms prospered.

The City states became completely deserted by the 7th century CE due to increasing issues with over-urbanization and lack of resources, along with corruption and mismanagement of the revenues generated by the cities, and later on, those structures that once lighted the entirity of the eastern velaherian coast, were left completely abandoned and left to decay away with time itself.

Though when the city states collapsed, the baronies and other kingdoms prospered, and reached prosperity, as their agricultural produces expanded and the people's living standards greatly increased. One of the most prominent kingdoms of that era was the Kingdom of Cornua, settled around the areas where streorsburg's ruins once lay. By the 8th century CE, the Cornuan kingdom expanded to cover most of the southern velaherian region, while several other kingdoms held several other smaller territories, while the north was heavily dominated by tribal-eshe people, who werent deeply connected with the south, the relative peace that followed, after the rise of these kingdoms, continued till the 12th century when, the dolch finally invaded velaherian lands.

Early Modern Era

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

Modern Era

Arin von Starinburg.

Velaheria, being liberated in the 1940s from the Dolch Landlords and administrators, was in a dire shape, as most of its infrastructural areas were damaged due to the decade's long struggle for 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 pre-war production levels in the 1950s, 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 surprisingly worked, leaving no opposition left in Velaheria by 1956.

By the 1960s, Velaheria was effectively ruled by the Starinburg dynasty and its inner allies, which collectively came to be known as the "Big Four" due to their immense powers over the day-to-day lives of the Velaherian citizens, and basically controlling each and every aspect of Velaherian society. While the political situation very much deteriorated in the favour of a totalitarian family dictatorship, the economic situation did not, as the investments done to the Velaherian industrial sectors after the end of the war, came to bear fruit, as many of the post-war production levels had far surpassed the colonial era's production quotas, though all this was achieved due to the over-investment in the industrial sector, and thus agricultural outputs suffered. This became a hard hit problem during the late 1960s and early 1970s when, the industrial growth of Velaheria stagnated due to reduced state budget, which in turn came due to the failure of overly ambitious Five year plans. By the late 1960s, Velaheria had established itself as a highly industrialised state, with it being capable in terms of meeting its industrial requirements.

Though Velaheria had enjoyed a huge industrial boost during the 1950s and 1960s, it had all been done through concentrating state budget at one specific sector, and thus its agricultural needs were barely fulfilled. Thus, Velaheria had come through hard times, especially since the late 1970s when the entire system began to fall behind that of other socialist states, mostly due to the bureaucracy. People became more aware of the outside world, as Velaheria increased its imports of necessary items which it couldn't provide, such as meat and seafood the latter 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 people 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 succeeded, 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 lifetime in prison.

File:Politechnika.warszawska.may.1988.png

1980s protests in Velaheria.

For the next 4 years, stability seemed to had returned to Velaheria with the suppression of the 1984 protests. Although subversive opposition remained as a cause of extensive surveillance and jailing of political dissidents, along with reductions in the growth of the economy and the rampant corruption observed in the officials of the government, which slowly began to take hold of the people who became more conscious of the day-to-day happenings outside their nation due to illegal exports of "foreign materials" through the Stedorian borders. By 1988, the situation had come to a standstill and a group of students, protested against the rampant corruption and nepotist nature of the Velaherian state, these protests spread to other nations aligned with Velaheria as well, and soon it became a series of silent revolutions, raging all throughout the communist bloc in Argis. These popular protests in Velaheria were eventually crushed, mostly through the use of brute force and summary executions of protestors, along with the jailing and wide scale torture of political dissidents. This led to the fragmentation of the protestor's groups, and virtually any large scale opposition to the regime vaporised by the early months of 1990.

Though as the internal protests ended, so did the chances of any real political reforms, as the Velaherian regime understood that, in order to keep stability across the nation, the government must exert brutal military force and crackdowns on the civil populace, however some in the government could see that how stagnant Velaherian economy had become, with its GDP had been growing modestly, even its former communist allies had surpassed it after their revolutions, which made some desperate people to emigrate to those nations, some being, Dazhdinia and Stedoria, though the former one was a kingdom, it was still in a worse situation than that of Velaheria in the 1960s to 1980s. Now that's what happened to the economy however, in terms of social changes, there were some massive policy changes, as video gaming began to become more and more popular in Velaheria along with foreign music, which arrived in the nation through the black market, by means of smuggling and border crossings.

By the late 1990's, Velaheria had already starting to see its black market, getting set up at several large cities, due to the lack of basic resources and the beaurecratic mess, one had to cross to get their hands on those day to day materials, situation had actually worsened since the silent revolutions, as all of velaheria's allies had practically collapsed or were in the process of collapsing. This black market mainly consisted of small scale markets which sold food and other essentials for other goods which they would then smuggle out of velaheria, to neighbouring nations like Delameria and Stedoria, and in turn earn a large profit by doing so.

This continued till the early 2000's, when the regime announced its plans and later implemented it as an law, which emphasised the legalization of small private buisnesses in the early years of the 21st century, this simply changed everything, as several of those small scale markets, slowly got into legal accounts, and got subsidies from the velaherian state, which in turn allowed more of them to slowly start being around, and eventually by the mid-early 2000's the problems plaguing velaheria regarding lack of availibility of consumer goods for the populace, was simply gone.

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 the creation of the Velaherian State in 1941.

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 consists 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

The legislative branch of the Velaherian Government is the Supreme 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.

Military

Main article: Velaherian People's Army

The Velaherian People's Army (VPA) is the armed forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria. At the same time, it serves as the armed wing of the Velaherian People's Party (VPP), which is the DPRV's founding and ruling political party. The VPA has three major service branches: the Ground Force (VPGF), Navy (VPN), Air Force (VPAAF). Besides this, there is also the Velaherian Military Commission (VMC) and several minor units directly under it.

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 due to climatic disturbances. By 2005, 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 2011 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

Roads form an important part of transportation in the Democratic people's republic of velaheria, as most of the economic and daily transportation occurs through the roadways, with most of velaheria being well interconnected by the national and provincial highways along with the minor roads in between various villages and suburban areas. Most of the roads however only go upto the border of Nordom, and from there only the N-4 and N-5 National highways traverse the lands, which are the most important roads in velaheria, due to their usage as high speed highways for economic exchanges.

Most of the roads that traverse through the velaherian topography, in present date, have been constructed during the dolchic and later, during the 1st to 3rd Five years plan of the Velaherian regime, which led to the repairment and extension of almost the entirity of velaherian roadways, along with increasing inter-provincial connectivity and promoting economic growth in the upcoming decades,

The Roads connect almost all places which have a population of more than 100 people, with several of them traversing through one another, thus making the road infrastructure quite well, though this is only the case for the southern provinces, as, the northern provinces dont have much roads going through them due to the rugged topography of the northern provinces, thus making it quite difficult to travel through those areas.

The development and the maintainence of these roads are divided according to their importance, for example, the national highways are maintained and extended by the People's Infrastructural and Construction Beaureu, while the provincial highways are maintained by the provincial governments of those provinces.

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

Main article: Demographics of Velaheria

The Demographics of Velaheria are known through national censuses and international estimates. The socialist bureau 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 (1.84% 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.

Education

Kindergarten in Velaheria.

Education in the Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria (Velaheria) is a high priority for the communist government, and is compulsory for 13-12 years from age three-four onwards.

There are state run kindergartens, polytechnic schools, extended secondary schools, vocational training and universities. Education-related issues are handled by the (Gŕensde Board) which overseas education policies and activities for the students and the teaching authorities of the particular board.

The Velaherian government spends around 3.4% of its GDP on all levels of education, 85.1 percent of Velaherians aged 25 to 60 attained some form of post-secondary education. 82.6% of Velaherian people aged 25 to 60 attained a bachelor's degree or higher. 78% of Velaherian people aged 25 to 30 attained some form of tertiary education.

There are three levels of education, i.e. the Primary education, the middle education and the higher/upper education, Full-time education begins from the age of 3-4 years till 16 years of age, although This full-time education does not need to be at a school and some parents choose to home educate. Before they reach compulsory school age, children can be educated at nursery if parents wish, though there is only limited government funding for such places. Middle school education isn't compulsory as it only includes higher skilled activities and non-essentials such as (HOTS,TTP) etc.

The Primary Curriculum of the Velaherian Gŕensde includes, General Science, Life science, Social studies, Extracurricular (optional), History, Velaherian, Dolch, Mathematics, native language(only applicable in certain cases) and life skills, with these subjects being mandatory to attend and learn till the 8th grade. The Curriculum changes somewhat and offers some choices to students who want to study a particular subject after their 8th's Exams, These include, Pure Science (includes, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Velaherian, Dolch and Physical Education), Computer science (Includes, Information Technology, Physics, mathematics, Velaherian, Dolch and Home science) also additional choices are offered in the Arts and Commerce and Financial parts.

The Marking system in the Primary Education is based upon the grading system, as students are considered to be learning things at that period of their education, and are tried to be kept relatively out of pressure, with there being six grades that one can get by attending an exam, those are A+(90%+) A(80-90%) B(80-70) C(70-50) D(50-40) E(40-30) and F(30-lower) with F being the remark given to papers which fail to pass the examination. As for the Upper Education, Marks are given on numerical basis and thus are calculated in that way, with the passing aggregate required to be 35% of the total marks the exam is being held on, which is mostly 100 or 50, based on the exams conducted.

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.

Films and theatre

The Upper eschalanse of the Velaherian state held that film would be the most ideal  propaganda tool  for velaheria because of its widespread popularity and easy to understand among the established citizenry of the region, as films could be understood even by the uneducated class, which made it easier for them to understand the propaganda, with even some party officials going so far as to state that films could be the new tools for the revolutionary teachings of the students and children in velaheria, instead of the traditional way of learning.

Arin Von Starinburg  Considered film as the most important medium for educating the masses in the ways, means and successes of  the virtues and merits of velaherian socialism.  As a result Arin issued the "Directive of Worker's Recreation" during the later months of 1946, which instructed the  Ministry of Education  to systemise the filmographic buisnesses, while also recording and noting down all films shown in the Democratic People's Republic of Velaheria, while also extracting rent from all privately owned cinemas and ensure them to partial censorship based on the content that they promoted.  

Andrei Litvonov, the First General Secretary of the Supreme People's assembly also later also regarded cinema as of the prime importance.

Though since the implication of movies in velaherian culture by the people's assembly, for quite some time, the government was principally able to fund only short, educational films, the most famous of which were, "The Dolchic past" – Educational films were made which were intended to agitate, or energize and enthuse, the citizens to participate fully in day to day activities, while also effectively manage those who remained in opposition to the socialist regime.

These short films were often simple visual aids and accompaniments to live lectures and speeches, and were carried from city to city, town to town, village to village (along with the lecturers) to educate the entire countryside, even reaching areas where film had not been previously seen.

Documentaries, were the other major form of earliest Velaherian cinema. Howard Anstren's Documentary series, "Words of the past", the best known of these, lasted from 1949 to 1953 and had a propagandistic bent towards the utilisation of pre-dolchic era's languages which was seen as the key step towards the creation of the modern day's velaherian language and the reestablishment of dolchic from an official language to that of an recognized language in 1982; Anstren's series quickly gained popularity which was further used to promote  pre dolchic era's culture that velaheria always had, while also to experiment with the effects of cinema on the larger masses. These experiments were highly succesful as more and more people started growing more interests towards watching films and acts which were broadcasted or shown from place to place by the central government.

Still, by 1956, there werent any functioning cinemal halls in bastaria until later in the year.  The rapid success and popularity of the growing filmography industry by utilizing Traditional dolchic arts and theories, gave a boost to the industry's growth significantly, especially going so far that the government heavily started regulating what was shown to the public and gave guidelines that the film producers had to fulfil before launching a film, though this did reduce the morale for some time, Though gradually by 1964 there were about 212 cinemas that had been opened all across the major cities of velaheria.  Despite high taxation of ticket sales and film censors, there was an incentive for individuals to begin making film products – there were places to show the films – while they had to their subject matter to the velaherian views of socialist realism, Class Unity and Worker's paradise. This provided a chance by which the directors and writers who were in support of the objectives of Velaherian Socialism assumed quick dominance in the film industry, as they were the ones who could most reliably and convincingly turn out films that would satisfy government censors and would be allowed to be broadcasted to the public.

Gaming and video games

An arcade in eastern Velaheria in 2017.

Gaming, as the outside world knows it as, hasn't been popular in Velaheria, until the late 2000s, which is often attributed to the growth of the technology and digital economy of Velaheria from the early 2000s to present day, which represented a decent chunk of its gross domestic product in 2019.

The evolution of the growth of video gaming in Velaheria is related to the simultaneous rise of online culture and esports, along with the growth in the popularity of the gaming genre, in the western Argic states, which led to the rise of illegal imports of gaming and other banned items inside Velaherian borders, in the 1990s. Popularity for these foreign consoles and games grew over the passing years, as the Velaherian regime thought to remedy this by launching their own consoles that would decrease these illegal smuggling of goods across the Stedorian Velaherian Borders.

As such the Velaherian government; provided subsidies to both small scale private producers and state owned institutions to produce consoles, arcades and such, which led to record production and internal sales of those, and led to the growth in popularity of the gaming industry and video gaming in general across Velaheria. Though due to the cultural impacts, that the VPP has had in the years following the liberation of Velaheria, gaming was considered to be a social evil, among the older and generally conservative people, with some considering as to be similar to the intake of drugs and recreational steroids, and hampered children's education, and made them focus much of their time towards gaming rather than doing academic activities. To remedy this, the Velaherian Government introduced laws to ban some sections of the gaming industry's production to regulate the activities of the children, which made the infringement of the gaming market of Velaheria by other companies, a lot harder than before, as the bans came into effect, in the 2010s.

Although while it affected some sectors of the gaming industry namely arcades, there were no such bans implied onto the other forms of gaming, such as pc's and tablets, which grew in popularity as teenagers flocked onto the state operated gaming centres in Bastaria and other large cities, with the number of state operated gaming centres growing from 1,100 at the start of 2000s to nearly 12,000 by the end of 2018.

The ban on arcade machines was dropped in 2013, but while arcade were permitted to operate, they had to take several safeguards to prevent excessive use by youth. However, since such arcades offered a low-cost way to play games without a PC, they still became a thriving industry comparable to PC gaming at internet cafés. As a result, Velaherian gamers frequently visit the arcades to play action games, particularly fighting games, and occasionally unlicensed arcade ports of popular PC or mobile games.