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 of sovereign principalities and republics
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 Confederation of the Saukanians or the Saukanian Confederation, is a landlocked country in northwestern Thrismari. Saukania is bordered by 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, with a population of 27.2 million people. Kula is the largest city and member of the Confederation, serving additionally as its capital. The country is extremely arid, consisting mostly of desert and semi-desert regions, with areas of montane, riparian, and temperate ecoregions in which the vast majority of the population resides. The Laxad river and its tributaries are the heartland of Saukanian civilization.

Human habitation in Saukania began in the Palaeolithic. Saukania has been home to a number of peoples, the earliest recorded of which settled in the fertile regions of Daskhia, Kugeria, Parharia, and Turoka. It has been a historical battleground between its own native inhabitants, as well as neighbouring Shiruans, Saroccans, Kakish crusaders, and Riamese colonial interests. Modern Saukania traces its history and identity back to the numerous oasis city-kingdoms and republics in fertile river valleys within the Ghuran Mountains or the immense Laxad river area, controlling overland trade routes through the desert and growing wealthy on commerce and agriculture. These urban centres have dominated Saukanian history and culture since the arrival of the Proto-Saukanian invaders. Nevertheless, the influence on Saukanian culture by desert nomads, mountain tribes, and foreign invaders has been significant.

The modern Confederation established itself in the 18th and 19th centuries in response to significant foreign pressure and the risk of subjugation, due to the competing colonial interests of Nyalan and Riamo. It is a largely decentralised body, with its constituent states governing themselves according to their own laws. The Confederation Council serves as the executive of the Confederation, including leaders and representatives of the members.

Saukania is a heavily agrarian country with a large rural population, with its urban centres the core 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 culture, expressed through its cuisine, art, music, and entertainment.

Name

Main article: Names of the Saukanians

'Saukania' is a formation from the noun 'Sakhana', an old ethnonym attested possibly as far back as the 13th century BC. 'Saukanian', in turn, is formed out of 'Saukania', and is essentially interchangeable with 'Sakhana' or 'Saukana' as an ethnonym. In some sources and records, 'Saukana' is used for the name of the land as well as the people.

Due to the historically disunited nature of the Saukanians, they have often preferred to identify more with the locality to which they feel allegiance, rather than to a concept of a whole Saukania.

History

Main article: History of Saukania

Prehistory and protohistory

Further information: Prehistory of Saukania and Archaeological sites in Saukania

The earliest confirmed presence of ancient humans in modern Saukania has been dated back to c. 31,500 BC, in the Upper Palaeolithic, with the discovery of human teeth and bone fragments near the village of Tuga in Dashkia. Permanent inhabitation of sites in Saukania commenced c. 9200 BC with the advent of farming in the region, likely brought to the area by a migratory population, as well as marking the beginning of the Saukanian Neolithic. A number of major sites developed in this multi-millennium period of history, predominantly centred along the major desert river systems, including at or near modern Acha, Dathan, Khodan, and Kula. A number of contemporary and successive unique material cultures developed in the Saukanian valleys and oases.

The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in Saukania saw the emergence of a number of advanced metallurgical Pre-Saukanian cultures. Among these are the East Laxad River Culture (ELR), the Kazekhal culture, the Black Line Pottery culture (BLP), and the Orun culture. From 2500 BC, settlements of the ELR culture see a marked uptick in fortification and weapons production, with an increased volume of spearheads, crude axes, and arrowheads. Grave sites among the ELR and other contemporary Pre-Saukanian cultures see greater volumes of young males with unhealed injuries, strongly suggesting a profound increase in violence, likely as a result of environmental pressures. The onset of the 4.2-kiloyear event initiated a general collapse of the advanced Pre-Saukanian cultures, the already arid region drying out further and the flow of the Laxad and Rhona rivers substantially decreasing. Urban settlements declined with remarkable speed in population and maintained size as the indigenous population relocated to more spread out rural villages and in other cases returned to pastoral life.

It is thought to be this drying event that motivated the migration of the Proto-Saukanian tribes from the now inhospitable northern desert region into the southwest Laxad area, seeking new pasture for their herds. Highly mobile thanks to their war chariots and wagons, and conditioned by a harsh life of survival in the desert, the Proto-Saukanian tribal invaders appear to have rather swiftly overrun the entire Laxad region. A cultural hybridizing event followed, as the Proto-Saukanians assimilated the indigenous people into their social groups via their patron-client networks and intermarriage was conducted between local and invader elite.

Between 2000-900 BC, Proto-Saukanians further spread across modern Saukania, bringing their culture and language to the west and the south, and coming into contact with neighbouring populations. A largely nomadic and pastoral existence was maintained, though in the later 2nd millennium BC, resettlement of abandoned urban cites commenced, and the transition from a tribal to a state society began to take place.

Ancient Saukania

Main article: Ancient Saukania

Written Saukanian history begins with sporadic sources in the 9th century BC. Iron-wielding city-kingdoms were established in what has become known as the Proto-Epic Period, showing a largely contiguous cultural horizon across the entire inhabited area, reflecting the level of interdependence, trade, and contact between Saukanian polities. Evidence of a strongly hierarchical social system becomes abundant under this culture, with variety in house sizes suggesting prominent status for the occupants of the larger halls (sometimes termed palaces), as well as diversity in the type and volume of grave goods. Most graves belong to high status individuals, and of these, most (64%) are male, suggesting a greater preference for elaborate burials among members of the male social elite. The abundance of weaponry grave goods and injuries on the unearthed remains demonstrate violence remaining a core feature of life in this period. Like today, the ancient Saukanians were patrilineal and patriarchal in social, political, military, and religious domains.

Warfare in the Proto-Epic Period was dominated by the militaristic warrior elite, who rode into combat on chariots suited to the flat plains between rival cities. This vehicle would feature in Saukanian warfare for many centuries, and has a place of pride and status in Saukanian mythology and native epics, associated with kings and lords and the gods. Saukanian epics suggest an idealism for champion combat between heroic representatives of two opposing forces, elite charioteers dismounting to do single combat. Cattle, horses, land, metal items, and women are the cited spoils of war.

Later Iron Age Saukania with its literacy and surviving archaeological evidence has the clearest of all the early pictures of the area and its people. The militarism and social hierarchy of the previous age continued largely uninterrupted. Ancient Saukanian city-states were governed primarily by kings or 'city-lords', with religious, judicial, and military authority. A social elite focused on war predominated at the head of internal politics and religion, supported by a middle class of artisans, merchants, and levy soldiers. A labourer class filled out the bottom of the free population, beneath which were the slaves, taken in war, and raids, or acquired through trade. Though the fortified town was the centre of the city-state, the majority of their populations lived in the rural countryside. The territory of city-states were divided into districts with regional capitals, and these districts subdivided into groups of villages and smaller towns, for the sake of raising taxies and men for war.

The power of the city-states over and against the tent-dwelling nomads living in and around the Saukanian deserts and steppe varied, and proved highly contingent on environmental factors. Prolonged droughts caused by aridification events were a recurring obstacle for the settled states, though none proved as severe as the one at the end of the third millennium BC. Nevertheless, when these droughts lasted for years or decades, the population of the cities departed to live in rural areas. Their population power-base effectively culled, cities in these periods often became tributary and vassal states to powerful nomadic tribes or confederations, which raided and plundered the hinterland and countryside with relative impunity. After the droughts subside, the cities quickly grew again in population and power, and the ability of the nomads to force them into dependency became highly limited.

Geography and climate

Main article: Geography of Saukania

At 1,116,863 square kilometers, Saukania is one of the largest countries in Thrismari by total land area. It is however extremely arid, and supports a relatively small population. Most of Saukania lies within the Western Thrismari Desert, the largest of the continent's four desert climates. The Hendelar Desert is the largest desert ecoregion in the country. The south and west of the country are less arid, though still dominated by semi-desert areas, interspersed with montane grassland, riparian woodland, and temperate forest. The Ghuran Mountains form a major natural boundary to the southwest, covering the border with neighbouring Bezuria and much of the border with Shirua. The foothills and valleys of these mountains are well populated, irrigated by innumerable streams and rivers descending from the snowmelt in summer.

A photo of the Hendelar Desert at sunrise

Arcing through the desert in an easterly and then southerly course is the Laxad river. This extremely important waterway feeds a number of major oases located in otherwise largely inhospitable desert conditions, supporting stretches of woodland and providing irrigation for many hectares of farmland and grasses for pasture. At its mouth it empties into the Argan Sea, an inland body of water that is the centre of Saukania's endorheic basin, located at the extreme southeast of the country. The Laxad's source in the northern Ghuran is formed from the two major tributaries of the Sagarne and the Kulegan. It is joined midway through its arc by Saukania's second most vital river, the Rhona river, providing a smaller yet still invaluable region of farmland and pasture. These rivers are invaluable for Saukania's primarily agricultural economy, with droughts and climate stress placing many rural communities under extreme pressure.

Saukania's populated urban centres also lie on these river routes, which have been the foundation of all Saukanian civilization. Partially navigable along certain stretches, the Laxad has been key to trade and power throughout the Saukanian region. Kula, the largest city and the Confederation's capital, is located on the left bank of the Laxad as it empties into the Argan. Khodan, the second largest city, is located in the foothills of the mountains near to the confluence of the Kulegan and the Sagarne. Founded many thousands of years ago as defensible locations in fertile, irrigated oases and valleys, these cities have grown considerably in modern times as urbanization rates climb, though much of the country remains rural.

Rainfall is extremely limited, occurring mostly in the high Ghuran mountains, where summer heat releases it into the Laxad and Rhona.

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 Saukanians are a segmentary society. A village against village, valley against valley, tribe against tribe, state against state, and nation against nation. Saukanians have a hierarchy of overlapping identities whose importance varies per social situation. Saukanians only generally consider themselves such in situations where they are confronted with foreign, non-Saukanian elements or representatives. At other times, they identify more strongly with the state and tribe to which they belong. The four regions of Daskhia, Kugeria, Parharia, and Turoka factor into this identity too, grouping tribes and states at a level that is beneath Saukanian.

Language

Main article: Saukanian language

Modern Saukanian is the most widely spoken language in the Confederation. It is not to be confused with the Saukanian languages, the family to which it belongs. Modern Saukanian, usually shortened to just Saukanian, descends from the Parharian language, one of the early branches of the original Saukanian language. Parharian came to replace the other varieties of Saukanian starting from the 16th century, owing to the renewed prestige and power of Kula, the dominant kingdom of Parharia particularly and Saukania generally. Its eventual place as capital of the Confederation increased the prestige of the Kulean dialect of Parharian, leading to it becoming nearly ubiquitous. This new Modern Saukanian subsequently differentiated into two dialects, Kulean and Khodanian, or East and West respectively.

The village of Isuk in the Sakbia valley.

Other Saukanian languages continue to be spoken by various communities, holdovers from the more diverse linguistic period of Saukanian history. This is more common in the highland regions of Ghuran, among the nomadic communities of the desert pastures, and variously isolated rural communities. In most cases, these people speak both Modern Saukanian and the local surviving ancestral dialect. In areas where these have disappeared, elements of them survive through loanwords and various grammatical contributions to Modern Saukanian. Kulean and Khodanian have many sub-dialects in their area of influence, as well as dialects that do not often neatly fit into either category.

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

The native religion of the Saukans has not only endured but thrived as the majority religion despite, or perhaps in response to, various foreign invasions by representatives of Christianity and Islam, such as the Shiruan Kakish crusaders. Nevertheless, Islam and Christianity have acquired followings among some native Saukans. The majority of each has its primary follower base in the urban centres of Saukan civilization, though other demographics have greater or lesser representation of these religious minorities.

Religion in Saukania (2020 est.)

  Saukanian paganism (79.4%)

  Christianity (10.2%)

  Islam (6.6%)

  Other (3.8%)

The internal divisions of each religion also feature in Saukania. While most Saukan Christians are Catholic, some are Protestant, while others still follow a form of syncretic Saukan Christianity that shares theological features with Arianism. Among Saukan Muslims, Sunni is the leading denomination, with Shia Islam having a follower count in the low hundreds. Sufi schools are something of a commonality in Saukan Islam, representing a radical break from the worldliness that permeates Saukan religiosity and the syncretic developments within Saukan Christianity and Islam.

Saukan religion itself is classified as a type of paganism. An animistic polytheism, it lacks any concrete name since its form is that of an ethnic religion. Most Saukans worship a shared collection of deities and concepts of natural forces, though emphasis on particular deities or ideas notably varies from locale to locale. Sacrifice and ritual are essential to the Saukan religion. Priests are drawn from certain elites families in the Saukanian cities and tribes, who claim a genealogical and mythical right and responsibility to maintain the customs set down in the mythical age (the nebulous time period in which the events of Saukan mythology are said to have taken place). At the bedrock of the Saukan religion is the domestic cult. Ancestor worship is the first religion of the Saukans, and their ritual practises for worshipping higher deities are understood to be modified rites for the honouring of the dead. The male head of the family serves as its priest in these affairs, with ritual knowledge and practised passed down paternally. These affairs are private, untouchable by any authority, attesting to their antiquity and their preceding of the more organised, state-sponsored cults.

Among the deities of the Saukan religion are Tanmes; the most revered god and lord of the sky, Zadohr; a warrior-herder deity and patron of oaths and contracts, Gedona; an earth fertility goddess, Sohthar; lord of the underworld, and Itix; goddess of beauty and pleasure. Many other deities major and minor populate the Saukan pantheon. Some are regionally bound, having no cult or worship outside of a particular city-state, rural district, or even village, while others are considered "Pansaukanian", and honoured by most or all Saukans. Saukans believe the world was fashioned out of a primordial material, but not "created" ex nihilo, and that the world will eventually return to this homogeneous and indistinct state before being refashioned again in an infinite cycle.

A major religious concept for Saukans is fate, seen to be above even the gods, who have the power to delay what is fated but never to prevent it. An appropriately fatalistic demeanour is common of the Saukan character. This idea of fate is often connected to specific events rather than every event in isolation, however. The Saukan mythical figure Sanagos, for example, received a prophecy of his death in the land of Kazen. In attempting to flee this fate, Sanagos journeyed to many lands and had numerous adventures and performed great feats of strength and heroism, eventually culminating in his unwitting arrival in the land of Kazen and his subsequent death. Saukans consider his attempted defiance of fate as the spring of his accomplishments, rather than a purely futile attempt to delay the inevitable. In other words, Sanagos was only fated to die in Kazen, not to be the great hero he became. His heroism came from himself, and his death alone from fate.

The Saukanians are superstitious, believing in magic as a means to harm and to defend from harm. Amulets and charms are a common sight with a purpose for warding off evil, as are signs and local sayings. A spatial division between the sacred and profane is central to ritual in their religion. Bloodshed inside areas with a sacred boundary is considered polluting and a grave crime, requiring ritual purification or else risking divine wrath.

A history of religious tension has defined much of Saukan history. Violence between Saukans and the Abrahamic monotheists, or rival monotheistic sects and groups, has been a frequent occurrence in the cities and towns of Saukania. At different times and places and under different rulers, organised persecutions have taken place, as many Saukan leaders regarded the anti-establishment Christians and Muslims as a major threat to social order and their own power. Fear of cultural erasure and loss of identity motivates much of the Saukan pagan animosity towards the foreign faiths, while belief in the truth of their own creed and the threat posed to the true religion by heretics and heathens has been the driving force of proselytising activity by Christians and Muslims. The Kula riots of 2012 were the deadliest outbreaks of religious violence in Saukania in the 21st century, resulting in 36 deaths and hundreds more injured, with religious buildings damaged.

Major cities

Main article: List of major cities in Saukania

Government and politics

Main article: Government of Saukania

Saukania is a confederation of twelve independent polities: Acha, Arakhan, Dathan, Godar, Khodan, Kula, Krolonar, Sardasar, Sokotis, Ragera, Tabana, and Turshor. The Confederation is weighted heavily in favour of Acha, Khodan, Kula, and Sardasar, the four largest states by population. The Treaty of Confederation was signed in the late 19th century after many decades of increasingly closer ties, encouraged by foreign pressure and the risk of invasion or occupation. Acha, Khodan, Kula, and Sardasar were the first and primary signatories, forming their alliance which the other eight joined subsequently. Many of these states existed as all but formal vassals of the original four, though the Treaty of Confederation lessened this dependency by laying out the rights of all members states to autonomy and self-rule.

Kula was selected as capital of the Confederation due to its size and prestige.

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Saukania

Military

Main article: The Saukanian Army

Culture

Main article: Culture of Saukania

The culture of Saukania has persisted for millennia, since the arrival of the early Saukana to the region around 3,700 years ago. Though subsequent foreign invasions have added to the cultural mix, modern Saukanian culture is considered the continuity of the ancient.

As a tribal, segmented society, there is a large amount of regional and local variations of Saukanian culture, qualifying as subcultures. Daskhia, Kugeria, Parharia, and Turoka have long been culturally distinct from one another in their expressions of Saukanian culture more generally, though still highly interrelated and connected due to their long history of alliances, wars, and migrations. Parharian culture is perhaps the most internationally perceived of the four, due to the prominence of the Parharian kingdom of Kula. A distinction between urban and rural Saukanians must also be emphasised, with the urban populations long since accustomed to a more state-organised society bound by allegiances to offices and rank, while the rural populations remain more firmly tribal and aligned by kinship and blood. The hill people of the Ghuran are the most independent of Saukania's rural populations, with a history of resisting occupation and defying urban authority. Saukania's population of over 2 million nomads boast a more distinct culture still, shaped by their lifestyle of movement and the distrust that exists between them and the sedentary peoples. Nevertheless, a shared Saukanian cultural identity is observable between them all. They consume much of the same food, wear the same types of clothing, follow the same religion and observe the same shared festivals and ceremonies, speak the same language, and hold many of the same values and ethical ideas.

Conservatism is another shared feature of the Saukanians. Highly suspicious of outsiders and foreign ideas, they are motivated substantially by tradition and the ancestral customs, valuing systems which have proven their worth over many centuries. Family is core to their society, as well as honour, both of the group and the individual. Saukanian honour is androcentric, relating to the males of the family, clan, and society generally. The Saukanian code of conduct, sharaven, is a male-oriented body of customary laws that emphasises hospitality, courage, self-sufficiency, independence, family loyalty, honour, and vengeance for slights or attacks. The protection of females and children is vital for the honour of men under sharaven, and they lose face for failing to guard or avenge dishonour of a female. Saukanian culture is patriarchal, with women expected to obey fathers and husbands, and hold to an ideal of modesty and seclusion called karsavis. Injuries of honour can result in a feud called a korvena, considered a social obligation to take recompense for an injury or insult by blood. Acts that can initiate a korvena include slander, theft, assault, murder, and the sexual assault or rape of a woman or child. Korvenas remain common in the rural lands of Saukania, where urban authority is weak and order maintained through violent and restorative justice, and among the nomadic tribes, where the lack of any prison infrastructure and the mobility of property make brutal retaliation a favoured method of conflict resolution. For tribal Saukanians, a korvena is simply a small war, and a war a large korvena. As a result, these conflicts can escalate depending on the allegiance of those involved, ranging from two feuding families to entire villages or valleys, causing dozens or hundreds of deaths. In the history of the urban oasis states, the korvena transformed more into an aristocratic duel, and came to emphasise more personal and immediate familial honour than the broader honour of a clan. Certainly, urban Saukanians are not less conscious of their reputation and standing to forgo the demand for compensation if it is challenged.

Saukanology, or Saukanistics, is the study of Saukania and its cultures. In modern times, many native Saukanians have contributed to greater international understanding of their culture, though much of this effort and impact has been achieved by non-Saukanian explorers, authors, and anthropologists, particularly those who came to the area during the formation of the Confederation in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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: Sharaven 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