Saukania

Confederation of the Saukanians Kuchaxa ka Sakhandelen
Seal of the Confederation
Location of Saukania in Thrismari
Capital and largest city	Kula
Official languages	Eastern Saukanian (Kulean) Western Saukanian (Khodanian)
Ethnic groups (2020)	93.6% Saukanian 6.4% Other
Religion (2020)	79.4% Saukanian paganism 10.2% Christianity 6.6% Islam 3.8% Other
Demonym(s)	Saukanian Saukan
Government	Confederation
Legislature	Confederation Council
Area
• Total	1,116,863 km2 (431,223 sq mi)
Population
• 2020 estimate	27,214,000
• Density	24.3/km2 (62.9/sq mi)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Internet TLD	.sg

Saukania, formally the Saukanian Confederation, is a country in northern and western Thrismari. A landlocked country, most of Saukania lies within the Western Thrismari Desert, with additional steppe, montane, and riparian ecoregions. Saukania shares borders with Bezuria and Shirua to its south and south-west, and Sarocca to the north. At 1,116,863 million square kilometers, Saukania is one of the largest countries in Thrismari, though very sparsely populated. Its population of 27.2 million people live primarily in the fertile river valleys of the south-western mountains and in the river-fed oases throughout the arid landscape, forming a ring of habitation known as the Saukanian Belt. The seat of the confederation is Kula, its largest city and state, situated in the south of the country.

Human habitation in Saukania began in the Palaeolithic. In ancient times, Saukania became home to a culture of agro-pastoral city-states situated in the foothills and river valleys of the southwestern mountains and the riparian banks and fertile oases of the Laxad river, forming crucial trade routes through the desert that enriched and enlarged the oasis powers. Acha, Dathan, Khodan, Kula, Sardasar, Turshor, and others became famous and wealthy states commanding powerful domains around the desert. Khodan and Kula, largest by population, have often disproportionately dominated the Saukanian Belt, controlling trade and fielding armies larger than their rivals. Saukania has traditionally been divided into four regions: Daskhla, Kagara, Parhara, and Turoka.

The late 1st and early 2nd millennium saw periodic unification of the Saukanian states by foreign conquerors from the eastern mountains of the Western Thrismari Desert, assimilating and adding their culture to the area, such as the Kergost, the Nerthites, and the Kalgan. The powerful Sildan Empire (1204-1332) was the last of these, its disintegration giving rise to the principalities and oasis republics that would enter the modern age.

The modern confederation established itself in the 18th and 19th centuries in response to significant foreign pressure and the risk of influence, due to the competing colonial interests of Nyalan and Riamo. Attempts by outsiders to conquer or establish authority over the Saukanians were met with a fierce resistance that has become the reputation and national character of the people. The government of the confederation is comprised of a council of leaders of the oasis states, and is relatively decentralised, with the constituent polities possessing their own governments, laws, and militaries.

Saukania is a heavily agrarian country with a largely rural population. Organised at the basic level into city-states, its urban centres are the location of industry. Exports of fruits, vegetables, and other cash crops are a major source of revenue, as is the export of finished material goods such as textiles, with Saukanian carpets being famed throughout much of the world. Tourism to Saukania is common for its historic archaeological sites and unique, traditional culture, expressed through its cuisine, art, music, and entertainment.

Name

Main article: Names of the Saukanians

Saukania takes its name from the Saukan or Saukani, an ancient Oskuri people who established their control over the region in the 7th and 8th centuries. The demonym 'Saukanian' in turn comes from Saukania. Proposed etymologies for Saukan itself are found in ancient legend and myth, though several accounts exist. Among the most widely accepted by the Saukanians themselves is a patronymic founding ancestor by the name of Saukan, son of the Oskuri war god.

A common pre-Saukan Oskuri ethnonym for the territory of modern Saukania is Laxadia, coming from the Laxad River which flows from the mountains.

Due to the historically disunited nature of the Saukanians, the names of constituent tribes of their nation have often been applied by foreigners to the entire group. Prior to Saukan rule over the rest of the Oskuri, these exonyms were far more varied, as different Oskuri tribes and peoples interacted with neighbouring communities. The Saukan are recorded in one Shiruan source prior to the 7th century, proving their existence at least as early as the 2nd century AD, and describing them as a warlike mountain people who regularly made war on their neighbours.

Geography and climate

Main article: Geography of Saukania

The village of Isuk in the uplands of Sakbia.

At just over 1.1 million square kilometers, Saukania is one of the largest countries in Thrismari by total land area. It is however sparsely populated. Landlocked, and comprised entirely of desert and xeric shrubland, it is a very arid region of Thrismari, with most of its territory located in the vast West Thrismari Desert, locally called the Shana Amaxina.

The bulk of Saukania's population of [NUMBER] lives in the oasis-rich regions of the south and along the fertile springs of the banks of the Laxad and Jagartes rivers. The desert grows more inhospitable trending from south to north, with a belt of rock and gravel desert giving way to open sand dunes. Though many settlements are found in this northern expanse, few are populated by more than a few thousand people at a time, with a significant proportion of these being semi-nomadic peoples moving from oasis to oasis.

The southwest region of Ghuran or Ghoran is quite fertile, comprised of a number of large river valleys nestled near the base of the Kedash, a mountain range forming a curved shield along the southwest border with Shirua and Bezuria. The four largest of these valleys — Ghar, Karshan, Sakbia, and Takhren — boast some of the largest populations in Saukania. This region forms the highest elevation in Saukania, inhabited by a small population of higher altitude mountain-dwelling pastoralists and a greater number of rural and urban peoples further down. The rest of Saukania trends to flatland, though with lower elevation to the southeast, towards which the rivers of Saukania flow.

A photo of the Western Thrismari Desert at sunrise

The semi-arid belt of shrubland in the south, where the capital of Kula resides, is also more fertile, receiving greater amounts of rain than the desert, and is capable of supporting a larger number of people. Irrigation here has been far more extensive than anywhere else, save for the Ghuranian valleys, and the two regions combined are near enough the totality of all crop-producing land in Saukania. The aridity of the rest of the country leaves it suitable only for pasture of herd animals.

The Laxad and Jagartes, commonly nicknamed the Saukanian Arteries, empty into Arugal, the Saukanian name for the Khizuz Sea, the inland body of water shared with neighbouring Encessia. They are fed by mountains meltwater (the Laxad from the Kedash, and the Jagartes from Sarocca), flowing more in the summer and reducing in winter. Many fertile oases are found along their banks, and this region has had as much claim as the south to significance, with the ancient and powerful principality of Sardasar being located on the west bank of the Jagartes in the region of Vakhat. Of the two rivers, the Laxad is the largest, fed not only from its direct source in the northern Kedash but being joined (at least in summer) by the rivers of the Ghuranian valleys.

History

Main article: History of Saukania

Prehistory (Palaeolithic - c. 4th century BC)

Main article: Prehistory of Saukania

Anatomically modern Homo sapiens are known to have arrived in what is now Saukania as recently as 32,000 years ago, with inconclusive evidence of earlier H. sapien and other Homo genus habitation stretching back many more thousands of years. Most of this evidence comes from southern Saukania, as the sand dunes of the northern desert leave little trace. Agriculture is thought to have begun at a limited level around 8,000 years ago, giving rise to sedentary communities who eventually developed metallurgy, producing copper and later bronze artefacts, known as the Geometric Band Culture (GBC).

Genealogical evidence suggests that the bearers of the Oskuri material culture and language were an immigrant population who arrived in the area c. 2500 BC and established themselves as the dominant group over the existing GBC population. This influx of people may have involved a significant degree of violence, as indigenous Y-DNA almost completely disappears in the subsequent centuries, replaced by the male lineage of the Oskuri. The mt-DNA of both ancient and modern Saukanians is highly varied, including markers that immigrated to the region around the same time as the corresponding male lineages, indicating interbreeding between Oskuri males and both Oskuri and indigenous GBC females. An alternative theory argues against a violent takeover, interpreting the genetic evidence as the result of a largely peaceful integration of an Oskuri immigrant population which for unclear reasons maintained an advantage in subsequent intermarriage events. It is likely that the polygynous tradition of the Saukanian male elite was already present in Oskuri culture at this time, with a small number of high status males monopolising access to females, at a ratio potentially as high as 10:1.

Sedentary life continued as previously established under the Oskuri, with particular population centres growing to significant sizes on the back of both crop farming and herd pastoralism. It is likely that many of the Oskuri arrivals practised nomadic pastoralism around this time, albeit impossible to prove with any certainty, due to the limitation of their oral histories and the lack of material evidence.

Though the exact founding date of what would become the Oskuri city-states is largely unclear, it is known that sites that would become Kula, Khodan, Sardasar, and many others were inhabited at this time.

Ancient history (4th century BC - 7th century AD)

Main article: Ancient history of Saukania

Among the most culturally influential and historically well known pre-Saukanian Oskuri tribes are the Abranes, Dentari, Hirdanes, Marasi, Rasanites, and the Voskani. Both ancient Oskuri inscriptions and neighbouring Shiruan and Bezurian sources are central to the archaeohistorical understanding of this ancient period of Saukanian history.

Feudal Saukania (7th - 15th centuries)

Main article: Saukanian Medieval Age

Early modern history (15th - 18th centuries)

Main article: Early modern period of Saukania

Modern history (18th century - present day)

Main article: Contemporary Saukania

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Saukania

Ethnicity

Main articles: Ethnic groups in Saukania, Saukanians, and Nomads in Saukania

Ethnic Saukanians are the largest group in Saukania, representing over 93% of its total population. Minority groups include Shiruans, Saroccans, and Bezurians. Ethnic Saukanians identify themselves and one another by use of the Saukanian language, through common bloodline and heritage, and, to a lesser extent, participation in their polytheistic and animistic religion.

Saukanian identity is divided, however, as members of its four constituent polities identify more strongly with their regional identity. There are cultural and linguistic differences between the Arimazi, Kanthali, Lukarani, and Tukari, though they are conscious of and accept a shared Saukanian heritage. Nevertheless, some observers have considered the four groups to be ethnic groups in their own right.

Language

Main article: Saukanian language

Saukanian is an Oskuri language that takes its name from the Saukan tribes. The only surviving member of the Oskuri language family, Saukanian itself has branched out considerably over the centuries it has enjoyed dominance as the primary language of the four federations. It is itself increasingly considered to qualify as a group or small family of languages, as Saukanian dialects between and within the federations are increasingly varied enough as to make various tongues largely unintelligible to one another.

Use of the Saukanian language is considered an essential but not alone qualifying demonstration of Saukanian ethnic identity. While foreigners who know the language are not accepted on that basis alone as a Saukanian, there is a commonly held feeling that a blood Saukanian who does not know the language is not really a Saukanian. As use of the language is a sign of ethnic identity and pride, Saukanians are somewhat reputed for their reluctance to speak to foreigners in any language except Saukanian. Rudimentary knowledge of Common is fairly widespread in Saukania, though fluency is much less prevalent, and concentrated primarily among the social elite.

The Saukanians regard other languages as lesser to their own, and a common insult for "barbarians" or those who do not speak Saukanian translates roughly as "dirty-tongued"

Religion

Main article: Religion in Saukania

Religion in Saukania (2020 est.)

  Saukanian paganism (79.4%)

  Christianity (10.2%)

  Islam (6.6%)

  Other (3.8%)

Major cities

Main article: List of major cities in Saukania

Government and politics

Main article: Government of Saukania

The Saukanian Confederation is an alliance of four sovereign federations; the Arimazi, Kanthali, Lukarani, and Tukari. Each federation is independent, passing its own laws, possessing its own military, electing its own leaders, etc. The core of the modern alliance is the Treaty of Confederation, an agreement signed by the leaders of the four federations in the 19th century to come to the defence of any signatory if attacked.

The four federations have a relatively uniform political system, derived from their common heritage. Essentially aristocratic republics, the Saukanians hold elections to determine their leaders, though these elections are not what international norms would classify as "free and fair". Each of the four federations is led by a magistrate called an uhtris.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Saukania

Military

Main article: The Saukanian Army

Culture

Main article: Culture of Saukania

Saukanian society is highly conservative, as Saukanians are suspicious of foreigners and foreign ideas. Tradition is central to their religion and way of life. The traditional code of conduct, larni mefinaeun, is fundamental to Saukanian society. Its basic tenets include hospitality for guests, bravery for men, modesty for women, and the necessity of vengeance. Family is a pillar of their society, and Saukanians have a great concern for personal and familial honour. They are strictly patriarchal, and women adhere to an ideal of seclusion called karsavis.

Rural and urban Saukania differ in their particular customs, as rural Saukanians live a harder life in the desert, steppe, and mountains closer to their traditional roots. Customs also vary between regions of Saukania. Sedentary Saukanians again differ from nomads, whose pastoralist lifestyle herding sheep, goats, and camels from oasis to oasis has resulted in a unique expression of Saukanian identity.

Social structure

Main article: Social structure and class in Saukania

Further information: Women in Saukania

Saukanian social status and class is a multipolar hierarchy involving multiple and overlapping statuses, resulting in a complex development of self and group identity. In the four federations, where the class systems are more or less uniform, there are five primary categories by which an individual's status is determined: ancestry, age, gender, citizenship grade, and wealth census rank.

The origin of these distinctions arises out of the agricultural tribal city-state traditions of ancient Saukania, which, owing to modern Saukania's largely agrarian economy, has not substantially changed in that time.

Honour

Main articles: Larni mefinaeun and Karsavis

Clothing

Main article: Clothing in Saukania

Architecture and art

Main articles: Architecture of Saukania and Art in Saukania

Music

Main article: Music of Saukania

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Saukania

Sport

Main article: Sport in Saukania