Kirvina

Exarchate of Kirvina Exárcheia tis Kirvínastíria
Flag
Status	Independent State
Capital	Achilleia
Largest city	Taurapetra
Official languages	Illiaei
Ethnic groups	94% Kirvinan 3% Dolchlander ~3% other
Religion	Ílios Aníketās
Demonym(s)	Kirvinan
Government	Decentralized Elective Monarchy
• Grand Exarch	Liuvros Damoras
• Upper house	Asteí Vouliás
• Lower house	Asteí Pathás
Establishment
• Aroman Colonization	290 AD
• Senators' Coup	1298 AD
• Damoran Restoration	1634 AD
• Eustacian Wars	1807 AD
• Thallassan War	1941 AD
• Aurelian League	1983 AD
Area
• Total	561,043 km2 (216,620 sq mi)
Population
• 2021 census	34.39 million
• Density	62/km2 (160.6/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$812,000,000,000
• Per capita	$23,600
Gini (2020)	23.4 low
HDI (2020)	.858 very high
Currency	Kirvinan Drachma (KDR)
Time zone	UTC-5
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy
Driving side	right
Calling code	+966
Internet TLD	.krv

Kirvina, an exarchate straddling the southwest of the continent of Aurelia, is a decentralized elective monarchy that claims political hegemony over the the Várcheia peninsula, and cultural hegemony over all land west of the Sagraphas (Anglish: Sarthus). Surrounded on all sides by the Aurelian Steppe, its nearest neighbors are Shffahkia to the north, Anatea to the east, and Rhodellia to the south-east, bounded on its west side by the Gulf of Auralos (Anglish: Auriel). Kirvina is 561,043 square kilometers in size, and possesses a population of approximately 34 million. It is divided into 39 provinces, 13 of which comprise the historical Dekatrapoleis (Anglish: 13 Cities) or historical urban centers, 6 of which comprise the Stratikai or border-garrison provinces, and the rest of which are administered without special status. Its capital is the city of Achilleia, nestled in the Bay of Lernaea to the nation's eastern half, while its largest city is Taurapetra, commanding a dominant position to the western jut of the peninsula. The official language is Illiaei, sometimes referred to as Kirvinsét or Kirvinsét Laimiaic, as it is a relative of that language which has diverged over many centuries of colonial separation. The primary religion is the Following of the Unconquered Sun, or Ílios Aníketās, also called the Aroman Old Faith by the Anglish.

The history of Kirvina begins not in Aurelia, as one would expect, but in Europa. During the later periods of the Aroman Empire, the propagation of Christianity wiped out most native religion and became the dominant faith, but it did not run rampant over a sea of divided cults. Before Christianity assumed the leading position, the decentralized Aroman pantheons had mostly coalesced around the Imperial-sponsored sun cult, traditions melting together into a henotheistic unified rite which did not offend existing institutions but directed worship towards a single icon. However, as the Imperial throne shifted to a Christian stance, the young religion was stranded, and was soon ostracized, oppressed, and outnumbered by the rapidly multiplying Christians. A number of non-Christian noble families, increasingly disenfranchised, fell under the leadership of Lysandros Tagaris, the contemporary magister navis or commander of the navies, and plotted to seize the Imperial Fleet. They schemed to take as many colonists and supplies as they could and acquire territory in Marenesia (already an Aroman possession under Proculmea, later Salvia), as a base from which the old way could be preserved and the Empire could later be reclaimed. Bar the acquisition of resources and manpower, absolutely none of this operation went as planned. The Lysandrian Coup (undertaken in the year 288 AD, cited by some as a leading cause of the Aroman Civil war) was a disaster: its disjointed pieces often failed to link up, and were destroyed by government elements before they could join the main body. Without enough siege equipment to storm Proculmea, and without time to prepare more, Lysandros authorized a journey west, chasing rumors of islands that could be settled there.

Once again, Lysandros failed, not making the necessary calculation adjustments to convert his informants' distance units to his own, and drastically overshooting the islands they were referring to. However, fate would intercede and save Lysandros, turning him from a laughingstock into the founding father of a nation. Favorable currents and good wind brought the Lysandrian Fleet in sight of Aurelia within weeks, sweeping it around the Cape before winter set in and landing it near the modern city of Coeaneia. What followed was the mass disembarking and colonization of the region, spanning the period from the 4th to 7th centuries. Cultural exchange between Aroman and native cultures occurred heavily in this period, transforming the language, cuisine, and architecture of the colonists from an ailing shadow of old glory to something new and entirely distinct. It is debatable whether or not this colonization was beneficial to Aurelia's people: while the proliferation of Europan disease destroyed the cultures and peoples in the regions they directly colonized, their imports of cattle, pigs, horses, metalworking, mathematics, and architecture drastically reshaped the Aurelian continent, and the immunity the Kirvinans conferred would severely blunt later Europan colonial efforts and ensure some degree of native sovereignty survived. The 8th through 13th centuries saw the slow decline of the authority of the Tagaris dynasty and the transfer of power to semi-democratic institutions, namely the Senate, also called the House of Peers. Politics of this period revolved around monopoly on colonial charters and agriculture, as the culture and political purview of Kirvina swept across the plains, and the first outposts on the Sagraphas River were erected. The collapse of monarchical leadership culminated in the Senators' Coup of 1298, which saw the Tagarian Exarch killed and the nation rapidly dissolve into a patchwork of city-states, all of which laid claim to the rightful re-establishment of Kirvinsétaria, the irredentist term for the nation of all Kirvinans. It would take until the 17th century for Kirvina to reunite under its second and current dynasty, the house of Damoras. This period of disunity is to blame for the modern Kirvinan border not encompassing the culture's full linguistic boundaries, and regional politics still revolve around the strides being taken to statedly reclaim old land. The arrival of Europans all across Aurelia was the jolt needed to re-centralize the state, and under the first Damoras Exarchs, Kirvina's authority as a so-called 'fellow Europan power' was asserted, diplomacy playing heavily on its Aroman roots. The mere existence of Kirvina came as a surprise to many Europan powers, who while having engaged in second-party trade with it for centuries through middlemen, had taken the story of 'Lysandros' Empire' as a fanciful Yellow Empire invention to drive up trade prices.

Most of Kirvina's modern political situation revolves around its mutual history with Shffahkia, a Lysian colony to the east of Aurelia's middle section. The largest and healthiest sphere of Europan influence, it quickly sprawled down to the northern edges of the Sagraphas and began to vie with Kirvina for hegemony. Escapades were modest while it remained a mere settlement of a far-away monarchy- however, following Shffahkia's independence and declaration of Empire under Eustace I Talante in 1807, peace became untenable. His ambition to unify Aurelia brought about the Eustacian Wars, a thirty-year period of all-out conflict between the Aurelian powers, which brought about the violent wrenching of the continent from the medieval age, the construction of modern infrastructure such as railroads (which still dominate Aurelia today), and the forced modernization of its ancient, byzantine political structures. Eustace's eventual defeat saw Kirvina become poised to dominate Aurelia, but spent of its resources and politically unstable. Rather than make his own bid for hegemony, the Exarch of the time, Constantine, retreated inwards, he and his son diplomatically guiding Aurelia through the mid to late 19th century, and early 20th century. Kirvina was a participant in the Thallassan War, on the side of the Mat Troi Lan, collaborating and providing naval support to the expansionist power in exchange for avoiding invasion and the grisly fate of those who had resisted it. This naval strength, and Kirvina's defection to Iverica in the latter half of the war, secured its independence, but somewhat damaged its regional reputation. This enabled the socialist Shffahkia to resurge and seriously challenge it for regional hegemony, but after the tense politics of the 60s and 70s, a marked détente occurred, which ended in the formation of the modern Aurelian League in 1983 by the two old powers.

Kirvina is considered an Aroman nation in its own right and a center of music, calligraphy, architecture, and tourism, being the safest place to visit in Aurelia. Its relatively decentralized population enjoys high individual land ownership and well-developed rural infrastructure, benefitting from an economic system that prioritizes the prosperity and modernization of the farmer rather than incentivizing immigration to urban centers, while its industrial sector is highly automated. Considered a regional power due to its wealth, power projection over the Aurelian Steppe, and robust navy, it is an observer in the EOS and founding member of the Aurelian League, which has long sought to bring the nations of the continent together in the hopes that one day they will march on the ground rather than merely on paper.