Untsangasar
The Great United Benevolent State of All Chuyan Peoples | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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 Untsangasar in Ochran | |
| Capital | Kha'ankhot |
| Official languages | Tovshui |
| Recognised national languages | Bayar, Bayad, Khakhar, Turvan, Yaku, Tat'a, Shuyim, Gokchu, Buminchu, Xigchu, Lo, Zhurjiin, Siba, Ebengi, Nai-Nai, Xet, Hyug, Shukot, Dehtkil, Nibka, Yezo, Ubik |
| Ethnic groups | Ethnic groups of Untsangasar |
| Demonym(s) | Untsangasari, Chuyan |
| Government | Devolved unitary constitutional monarchy |
• Khagan | Timujin II |
| Establishment | |
• Creation of the White Horde | 1126 |
• Founding of the House of Yu | 1697 |
• Proclamation of the Untsangasar Khaganate | 1738 |
• Khuvirgalt | 1836 |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 98,795,487 |
| GDP (PPP) | estimate |
• Per capita | USD$12,106 |
| Currency | Soum (UG$) |
| Time zone | Multiple |
| Driving side | right |
Untsangasar, sometimes also rendered as Untsan Gasar or Unzangazar, officially the Great United Benevolent State of All Chuyan Peoples, and sometimes also referred to as The White Khaganate, Great Chuya, Uluuchuya, or the Chuyan Khaganate is a nation in Northeast Ochran. It is a physically-vast, multiethnic realm, home to extensive natural resources and a significant percentage of the world's surface fresh water. By land area, it is the largest nation in the world. The country is governed by a constitutional monarchy, embodied by the royal clan, the Khagan, and an elected legislature known as the Great Kural.
History
Etymology
Untsangasar or, more properly, "untsan gasar" is one particular transcription of the Bayar phrase "Sleeping Land" referring to the land that makes up the vast majority of the country's vast interior. The country's names that refer to the Chuyan people refers to an ethnolinguistic group that, according to folklore, originated in a region of the same name in Central Ochran, although the exact location of this region is subject to debate, with arguments made that it could be as far west as the northeastern shores of the Chulhan Sea to as far east as Tengrekhot. In practice, the term refers to all people that speak any of a number of related languages throughout Ochran, as well as those believed to be their ancestors, including peoples referred to in the present as Paleo-Untsangasaris.
During the period in which much of modern Untsangasar was ruled by the Jade Road Khaganate, the area was often referred to as Aspanaken, which means "Land of Horses" in one of the local languages, referring to the native population of wild (undomesticated, not feral) horses in the area, as well as the locals' propensity for breeding and using horses. This name is sometimes still used to refer to the modern region, particularly by many in West Ochran or Belisaria.
Prehistory
People have been living here a long time. Unfortunately writing arrived in the region relatively late, meaning that most historic records prior to the 6th century CE are fragmentary and usually written by outsiders from other cultures, notably in Kaojiang, Tsurushima, and Seonko. Notably the area was rife with nomadic peoples, herders of horses, reindeer, and later cattle, with a tendency for climatic events and political instability to cause incursions into the more urbanized cultures further south, either via refugee migratory behavior or in the form of military incursions, either to raid or seize territory.
Bayarid Empire
The area that is now Untsangasar first attained wider relevance during the campaigns of Tukal Khan and the election of his son, Khaadur, to leadership of a collection of herding tribes known as the Bayar Federation in the 9th century. Starting from the heartlands north of Kaojiang, the Bayars conquered their neighboring tribes before expanding south and then west, overrunning the Ochranic mainland quickly and reaching Eastern Belisaria and Eastern Scipia by the end of the century.
The Bayarid conquest would have a profound effect on the political, social, and economic effect of Greater Chuya, solidifying the growth and influence of trade centers in what are now Samakent, Ozhe, Ashana, and Baotu and developing a trade network that introduced points further south to the natural bounty of the Untsangasari heartland, as well as facilitating the exchange of goods and ideas from East Ochran to the Periclean Basin and Belisaria. This route, already in existance prior the conquest but finally much safer to utilize due to the unified political control and security the Bayarids brought, was known as the Jade Road.
In the late 1000's and early 1100's, the Bayarid Empire was experiencing a growing loss of stability as infighting over the Khagan's throne and power struggles between the institutions that ran the empire limited the ability of the Khagan and their subordinates to properly administer the realm. Local warlords increasingly asserted their own control and the once purely-administrative divisions of the Empire (the five Hordes) increasingly began to act as politically-distinct entities, even warring amongst themselves, even as pre-Bayarid polities reasserted themselves for independence. By 1147, the Empire had ceased to be in all but name, existing only in the insistant claims of the rulers of the five hordes to each be the rightful "Khagan of the Bayars".
Most relevant to Untsangasar, one of these Hordes, located in the northeast of Ochran and accordingly named the White Horde, maintained a tenuous grasp on hegemony over the nomads of the Ochranic North and Interior, even as the southern Green Horde, western Red Horde, central Blue Horde, and eastern Golden Horde began to squabble for dominance.
White Horde
For the ensuing three centuries, the White Horde would exist largely separate from the power-struggle unfolding in Central and Southern Ochran, fending off the odd incursion or invasion attempt by the Blue Horde and Golden Horde, although even these ceased within the first century as both found themselves preoccupied elsewhere. As the other states mutated over time into proper successor states, the White Horde remained a relatively loosely-organized confederation of many of the Bayar's Chuyan subject peoples.
In the 1200's they began to lose ground in the west to the Nanjut Federation, reducing the White Horde to a more northeasterly state, increasingly known as Aspanaken (land of horses). As the Nanjuts, Lo state to the south, Ozhkhanate, and Qavar Khanate to the west unified into the Great Road Khaganate (Uluujol). Aspanaken faced immense pressure by the mid-1400's to accept Uluujoli suzerainty, and, with the offer of a marital alliance in 1461, succumed to that pressure, first entering into a personal union with Uluujol before being incorporated as several provinces of the Uluujoljeri.
Uluujol
The area comprising much of modern Untsangasar would be part of the Uluujoli realm for almost the next three centuries. Although the Khagan in Ozhe often claimed to control the lands all the way to the Boreian Sea and the Makrian Coast, in practice the disparate peoples of the Makrian Coast and the Far North largely ignored their new overlord, either complying with the bare minimum tributary requirements to be left alone or, on occasion, defying them entirely, leading to punitive expeditions by Uluujoli forces in 1484-1489, 1513-1515, 1561-1568, 1601-1605, and 1628-1630; after this point, issues elsewhere in the empire demanded more immediate attention and the restive nature of the eastern provinces was more-or-less accepted as the status quo.
Meanwhile, most of the southern lands of modern Untsangasar in fact comprised part of the Uluujoli core realms, and the Jade Road cities of Ozhe, Samakent, Ashana, Baotu grew rich and cosmopolitan. As the wealth gained by the Khaganate accumulated, this also led to more serious attempts to urbanize and administer more disparate peoples; it was in the 1500's that Xem-Peldir was transformed into an administrative capital for the Turvan Banner, and similar efforts prompted the founding of Yakushari in 1632 at the empire's extreme northeastern border.
Still, this prosperity had no sooner begun to spread than the Khaganate's own polyglot nature and vast size began to exact its toll with interest on the state. As the 17th century unfolded, palace coups and squabbling for power in Ozhe saw the Khagans become weaker and consequently saw their power reach less and less far. Tribute slowed and eventually stopped from many of the Yezo, Nibkh, Shutkot, and Dehtkil peoples of the coasts, and when forces loyal to local leaders drove the Khagan's armies out of Xem-Peldir and Yakushari in 1698, there was little recourse. Imperial forces in Tengrekhot were increasingly isolated, and although an expedition from the south briefly reestablished the Khagan's authority in Xem-Peldir in 1702, this only led to the First Kurultai of the Untsan Gasar the following year.
Independence and Consolidation
Considered in many ways to be the beginnings of the Khaganate of Untsan Gasar, the First Kurultai was held on the site of what would become modern Ka'ankhot, a meeting of the leaders of the tribes increasingly united against the Uluujoli Khagan. Representatives came from the principle leading peoples, the Zhurjiins, Yakus, Turvans, Ebengis, Xets, Hyugs, Nai-Nais, Bayars, Yezos, Dehtkils, Ubiks, Shutkots, and even from several Lo and Xigchu communities in the empire's periphery, to organize against the Uluujoli Khagan. At the Kurultai, a nobleman of the Zhurjiin/Turvan Yu clan named Nurhaci arranged to have his son Nikan proclaimed Khagan of the Untsan Gasar.
Early the next year, with a sizable army assembled from the allied peoples of the Untsan Gasar, Nurhaci and Nikan struck west, besieging Tengrekhot. The sacred city, whose garrison was already isolated and weakened by hard campaigns into the countryside and the still reeling from a harsh winter, quickly surrendered. When the news arrived in Ozhe, it threw the imperial court into a panic: the great fear was that the rebel forces would strike south for the rich trade hub of Baotu, especially when a force under Nurhaci left Tengrekhot, heading south, as spring turned to summer. Desperate, Uluujoli Khagan Ozkan VI dispatched a large army to defend the vital waypoint on the Jade Road.
It was a feint. As the garrison in Xem-Peldir was largely stripped out to bolster the force due for Baotu, the city was nearly undefended when Nikan arrived with a force of his own, finding the gates thrown open by a still-restive Turvan populace that had been biding its time. The force relieving Baotu realized it had been deceived, but there was no opportunity to counter-attack, as the Great Road Khaganate's issues mounted and revolts and resistance grew throughout the empire. Seeking to stabilize his western and southern flanks in 1706, Ozkan VI conducted a negotiation with Nikan in which, in exchange for Nikan reducing his title to merely "Khan of the Untsan Gasar" and falling back to Tengrekhot, Ozkan would recognize him as a client ruler, fully legitimized, offering his sister Duygu to Nikan as a bride. With the rebellion having largely achieved its objectives, the offer was accepted. Ozkan was able to, in some places, stop the bleeding late in the 18th century's first decade, but it would be a hollow victory: the Khaganate was in increasingly dire financial straits and the peoples of the periphery were only growing more restive.
With the war concluded with Uluujol, the new Untsangasar Khanate had other matters to see to. Nikan sought to connect the allied peoples of the khanate, ostensibly in the interests of mutual defense but, ultimately in the service of centralization. Nikan and Duygu would prove a well-suited pair of rulers with both a broad vision and, as it turned out, a rather passionate marriage resulting in eleven children and the foundations of a new dynasty. Other key objectives were the foundation of a new port at the largely Lo-inhabited fishing village of Haeshenway, as well as negotiating the use and expansion of the Yezo town of Satporpet, and seizing the town of Urajio, largely occupied by Tsurushiman explorers. They built themselves a capital at the site of the First Kurultai, naming it Kaghankhot, or "City of the Khagan" and set about reaching out to the Tsurushimans and Mutulese traders operating in the Makrian at that point.
By the middle of the century, the increasingly-small rump of the Uluujoli realm was under attack and teetering on the brink of total collapse. With new powers rising in the west eyeing the moribund former empire, Nikan, at Duygu's urging, ordered the invasion and seizure of the Uluujoli heartland. A campaign led by their fierce daughter and future Khatun Aysen seized Ashana, then Ozhe, before racing for Samakent. In the span of only eight months, the former Uluujoli capital had fallen to Untsangasari forces, and the once-mighty Great Road Khaganate was no more by the time the New Year of 1744 came.
Khuvirgalt
Despite the early efforts of Nikan I and Duygu and their immediate successors to the throne, Aysen Khagan and her son Altan Khagan, the world began to change in the late 18th and early 19th century in ways that the new Khaganate, in many ways still a backwater, could not easily adjust to. With a rising Tsurushima to the south, and a reorganizing Kaojiang to contend with as well as more westerly powers on the horizon, there were a myriad of challenges for the young state to face and, as the quality of leadership declined under Altan I's successors, the country was increasingly ill-suited to face them. Besides outside threats, the country also saw restlessness from its own people, including in the southwestern agricultural breadbasket region. The writings of a scholar and historian, one Guli Temir, had gained traction and led to an outpouring of enthusiasm for change to how the country operated. Unfortunately, this was not received well by the Khagan Altan II in 1832. It was only after a handful of minor rebellions had been put down that agitation properly reached Kha'ankhot, and ministers found the Khagan still intractible.
It was, perhaps, less than surprising when Altan II died under suspicious circumstances in 1834, and while rumors of a palace coup circulated, no person was ever accused of causing his death. Still, it was telling that the succession bypassed his own children in favor of his sister Suna's eldest son, Temujin, still young enough that his mother was required to serve as regent. Suna, in many ways reform-minded herself and a reader of Guli Temir's work, guided her son to embark on a series of reforms that would come to be known as the Khuvirgalt. This extensive series of policies, initiated in 1836 and continuing until 1853, well into Timujin's majority, would significantly centralize the governance of Untsangasar, alter the organization of the military, restructure its economy, provide for the education of the populace, and introduce the first elements of democracy into its government.
What followed, under the progression of Suna's regency (1834 - 1849), Timujin I's majority (1849 - 1880), and the reign of his daughter, Oyuun (1880 - 1933), was near century of liberalization, relative democratization, reform, and industrialization in which the Khagans largely governed in cooperation with the Great Khural and taking some effort to follow the pulse of the public. At its peak, during the reign of Timujin and the majority of Oyuun's time on the throne, Untsangasar saw its state apparatus bloom and develop into something recognizable as a modern state, but this also resulted, especially in the twilight decade of Oyuun's reign, in a general loss of prestige and influence for the Khagan, a change that dismayed many in the imperial clan.
Industrialization
Modern Day
Politics
The Monarchy
The head of state in Untsangasar is the Khagan. The Khagan is the head of the Grand Chuyan Army, the armed forces of Untsangasar, and is also required to sign all acts of legistlation passed by the Khural, as well as approving the Prime Minister and their Cabinet.
Imperial Kurultai
The Khagan is semi-elected; while by law they must be a member of the House of Yu, each Khagan is permitted to select their own successor. At the death of a Khagan, an Imperial Kurultai is convened to select the next Khagan. In the event that the deceased or abdicating Khagan has selected their successor, all that is necessary for them to ascend is that their ascension not be blocked by a 2/3 majority of the House of Yu.
If the Khagan did not pick a successor, or if the designated successor is considered sufficiently unsuitable that their ascension is blocked, each member of the outgoing Khagan's immediate family is considered for the office. The order in which each candidate is either approved or denied is in order of absolute primogeniture -- that is, each of the previous Khagan's children, in order of seniority, based on both age and the seniority of their mothers (if the Khagan had children by more than one consort), followed by the Khagan's siblings, nephews and nieces, and cousins, are put to a vote, with the first one to gain a simple majority of the House being acclaimed as Khagan. Prior to the Khuvirgalt Reforms in the 1830's and 1840's, the order of consideration was one of male-preference primogeniture.
Khural
The Untsangasari legislator, known as the Great Khural, or assembly, is a bicameral legislator consisting of an upper house (the Khural of Nations) representing the leadership of the subject peoples of the Khaganate, and a lower house (the Popular Khural) representing the populace directly.
Political Parties
Untsangasari electoral politics, particularly in the Khural, mostly passes through four major political parties. All are typically present in the Khural, although which one is dominant tends to fluctuate; the most stable party is the Syndicate for All-Chuyan Prosperity (SACP), which rarely leaves the majority, typically either carrying an outright majority or being part of a ruling coalition, either as the senior or junior partner.
List of Untsangasari Political Parties
- Syndicate for All-Chuyan Prosperity - A generally kind of liberal-conservative party that wants to economically develop (and exploit) the interior and build the coastal and Jade Road cities (back) into major world hubs of commerce. Their foreign policy is focused specifically on building markets for UG goods and trying to develop the nation economically using the proceeds. At their best, they want Untsangasar to be a shining beacon of natural riches used to build a stronger country. At their worst, they want Untsangasar to end up like South Ottonia did, where the monarchy/aristocracy and private corporations grow together into a country-dominating apparatus. Both impulses are represented in the party.
- Party for Ochranic Unity - The most militaristic and aggressive of the parties, the Party for Unity is of the opinion that Ochran Can Be Great, and specifically it Can Be Great under Chuyan leadership. And by leadership, I mean domination. They are the most-eager to arm up the country and build up its own industrial base using its natural resources. The main fault-line in the party is whether or not the hegemony over Ochran should be achieved by force of arms or more subtle means. At its best, the party wants to see Untsangasar be more self-sufficient and less-exploited, at the head of a diplomatic concert of Ochran. At its worst, its a party with ambitions of imperial conquest and domination.
- Alliance for Tradition & Autonomy - the representatives of the folks in Untsangasar who would really just prefer to be left to their own devices, thank you very much. They harken back to Untsangasar's founding as a realm devoted to not getting conquered by its neighbors through mutual cooperation of the various peoples of NE Ochran. They're the most likely to want protections for traditional ways of life and to want strict limits on development and exploitation of natural resources, and to want to see the devolution of power to local authorities. At their best, they're a populist, environmentalist party that wants to see development carefully managed to protect the environment and peoples of Untsangasar, and at their worst they can be xenophobic, technophobic hicks who want to keep everyone living in the 1800's. Has a fundamentally isolationist (or semi-isolationist) foreign policy.
- Popular Front for a Green Future - A socialistic (or, at least, social democratic) party that wants to drive development in Untsangasar in such a way that the resulting proceeds can be used to create a sustainable prosperity while safeguarding the larger environment in the country. This is the country with arguably the least-ambitious territorial policy in terms of aspirations to Untsangasari leadership and power, and instead imagine the country as a key link between Norumbia and western Ochran, and one day a model for sustainable prosperity. They are also, lowkey, the most republican-sympathetic party, which means they are the recipients of greater scrutiny from security forces. At their best, the PFGF is a utopian, compassionate party that seeks a middle way. At its worst, its a party of naive utopians who are so uncomfortable with the other parties that they're unwilling to compromise.