Aldaar
Aldaar (Asahri: الدار), officially The Divine Republic of Aldaar (جمهورية الدار الالهية [jum-HUUR-yat al-DAAR a-laa-la-HII-ya]) is a theocratic republic located in the Anabat Desert of Alaria, a subcontinent of Gondwana. It borders Askaraban to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Aldaari city of Hasa is the birthplace of the national Dawra religion, and Aldaar's capital and most populous city is the coastal city of Mukarras.
The Divine Republic of Aldaar جمهورية الدار الالهية | |
|---|---|
 Official Flag of Aldaar | |
Motto: Mercy above all, at any cost. | |
Anthem: "Aldaarnu" | |
 Map of Aldaar | |
| Capital | Mukarras |
| Official languages | Asahri
Atasiyaqidu Haqen |
| Ethnic groups | |
| Religion | Dawra |
| Demonym(s) | Aldaari |
| Government | Theocratic Republic |
• Mutadiit | Yufraan Abd'ildarra |
| Legislature | Kaastas |
| Establishment | 1610 |
• | 2022 |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 6,400,000 |
| GDP (PPP) | 2023 estimate |
• Total | 25.70 Billion KRB |
• Per capita | 4,015.84 KRB |
| Gini |  39.2medium |
| SDI |  0.743high |
| Currency | Aldaari Muhaara (AMH) |
| Time zone | UTC-10 |
| Date format | DD/MM/YYY (Aldaari Calendar) DD/MM/YYYY (International Calendar) |
| Driving side | left |
| Calling code | +786 |
| ISO 3166 code | ALD |
| Internet TLD | .ald |
It is unknown exactly how or when people first arrived in Aldaar, but the prevailing belief is that the deserts of Aldaar were originally settled 200,000 years ago by Orcs migrating southwards as a result of desertification who managed to make their home in the vast desert; however, a less-supported theory holds that the desert is actually the homeland of the entire Orcish species long lost to the same desertification process, and the people living there were staying behind and gradually learned to adapt over generations. Eventually, Humans would migrate to the Anabat and, due to having generally longer life expectancies and requiring less caloric intake, would become the dominant species in the area around 50,000 years ago. Meanwhile, the first evidence of Aldaari Vulpines comes about 36,000 years ago. Due to the harsh desert conditions in the area, as well as a broad mountain range to the south, contact between the Aldaari peoples and external governments was virtually non-existent for most of history, with only sparse trade between the southernmost tribes and the Emirate of Sayyed. As these tribes often funneled goods throughout the entire desert, this led to the entire Aldaari language of Asahri having close ties to the Sayqidi languages of Atasiyaqidu and Haqen. However, the Aldaari tribes otherwise developed a unique cultural identity tied strongly to desert life.
Around the beginning of the Middle Ages, the Aldaari tribes began to see a massive influx of new population as several countries began sending their criminals and exiles to the Anabat Desert. The majority of these exiles were taken in and reintegrated into desert society by the Aldaari tribes, which each became extremely diverse, and led to technological advancements which would cause some tribes to become at least partially settled starting in the 12th century. In the early 17th century, the Dawran prophet Suleiman Abd'ildarra would unite the Aldaari tribes into a single nation, which would last until 1844 when disputes over succession caused the country to split into seven separate republics. In the 1920s, foreign multinational corporations would discover vast oil reserves in the desert and begin to supersede local authority, in some cases setting up banana republics and in other cases outright corporatocracies. These were plagued by cultural suppression and popular resistance, and in 2022 a new Dawra prophet Yufraan Abd'ildarra would lead a popular revolution in the Republic of Mukarras, and reform the Divine Republic of Aldaar with the intention of once more uniting the desert.
The Divine Republic of Aldaar is a theocratic republic with seven branches of government and three separate unicameral legislatures. Its current Head of State is Yufraan Abd'ildarra, who also serves as the religious head of Dawra. Aldaar is a relatively lower-income country with a high HDI of 0.743; in addition, it holds a large quantity of the world's oil reserves which are under the control of foreign MNCs. It is a leading exporter of many unrefined goods, including spices, livestock, fruit, uncommon stones such as obsidian, and handcrafted consumer goods such as textiles. In addition, Aldaar frequently sees massive upticks in tourism during the spring, during the desert bloom which locals call Rajwanii Avaznir (رجوني أفزنر), or Purple Sands. This coincides with the Aldaari New Year which takes place during the vernal equinox and is a time of colorful cultural celebration, which is also a draw for tourists; as a result the Aldaari government sees a massive influx of income around March, which dies down going into the summer. This has also led to a system of pop-up hotels, which operate as office buildings most of the year and shift towards hotels in the spring.
While the culture and beliefs of Aldaar are similar to other historically tribal nations, they developed completely independently from almost any other civilization. Aldaari culture focuses around the Three Tenets, a set of guidelines that most Aldaaris try to live by, including helping those in need, practicing forgiveness, and attempting to cultivate a deeper understanding of the nature of change. Aldaari culture also revolves significantly around spirituality and the most common religion, Dawra, which was founded near the Aldaari city of Hasa. Dawra is a polytheistic religion in which many individual spirits are viewed as part of a larger whole, called Ildarra (إلضرة), who embodies the concept of change and forward movement. In addition, Dawra recognizes two other similar deities, Arzaal (أرزال), embodying remaining at a standstill, and Salahayr (سلحاير), or "The Ancestor Spirit," the embodiment of the past and moving backwards. However, these deities are not worshiped, and in many Dawran myths are portrayed as foolish or in some cases outright villainous. The Aldaari recognize the Mutadiit, Aldaar's head of state, as the voice of Ildarra here on Urth, and as such the Mutadiit is usually considered to be the wisest and most knowledgeable of all Aldaari. The most important Aldaari holiday Alnahda, or the Aldaari New Year, stems from Dawran beliefs, but has always been widely practiced as a secular holiday.
Etymology
The modern name Aldaar was first used to describe the area and corresponding country in the 17th century when Suleiman Abd'ildarra founded the nation. He based the name off of the colloquial term for the area used by its residents, Aldaarnu (الدارن), which in Asahri simply means "Our Home." Suleiman removed the suffix -nu, meaning "our," because he wanted to establish his nation as a safe haven for all people; not just those who already lived in the desert; "Aldaar" simply meaning "Home." Since then, Aldaar has always been used as the name for the area, even for the approximately two centuries that the nation of Aldaar had ceased to exist. When Yufraan Abd'ildarra refounded the country, they chose to keep the name the same, wanting to reemphasize it as their people's home and a home to anyone who wished to be there, as well as establish a connection between their regime and the historical state.
History
Prehistory in Aldaar
It's widely accepted that the very first sapient species to settle the Anabat desert were Orcs, with the first definitive evidence coming from about 200,000 BCE. However, some believe that fossils found near the Anabat which date back over 400,000 years prove that Orcs have inhabited Aldaar for almost their entire evolutionary history. Knowledge of migration patterns, the desertification process, and the lack of many archeological investigations within Aldaar have caused two main competing theories to emerge. The first theory states that Orcs migrated to the Anabat due to a mixture of social exile and natural movement patterns, given that the desert boasts a large variety of flora and fauna that could have supported small hunter-gatherer societies that were constantly on the move and looking to avoid overusing land during a minor population boom. However, a less substantiated theory more supported by the general public aims to prove that the Anabat was the original location of Orcish evolution, and that instead of Orcs migrating inwards to Aldaar despite desertification, Orcs migrated outwards from Aldaar because of desertification. Interestingly, this view is supported by large numbers of the Aldaari Orcish population, who claim it as a source of pride.
The first evidence of Human settlement in Aldaar comes from about 60,000 BCE, in the form of cave paintings found in the southern mountain ranges. Utilizing bows while much of the previous populace was still using much less resource-intensive slings, new Human bands were able to hunt much more efficiently leading to a greater food surplus. This, combined with the fact that Humans required far less calories to survive than Orcs did, would make Humans the dominant species in Aldaar about 10,000 years after they first arrived. Despite this demographic shift, Orcs and Humans were extremely cooperative and frequently worked together, with there being evidence to support the idea that they even formed tribes together. Contrary to many societies, division of labor tended to be split along species, with the more resilient orcs gathering and fishing and the quicker, smaller humans being the hunters; there is no evidence to suggest that gender or sex played any specific societal role in the majority of Aldaari tribes.
Aldaari Vulpines (also called Fennec Vulpines) were first living in the desert in about 34,000 BCE, at which point they entered the larger societal structure and began to largely take the hunting roles from Humans, due to Fennec Vulpines' natural camouflage, smaller stature, enhanced senses, and increased heat tolerance. It is currently unknown exactly how Fennec Vulpines evolved, but as with many archeological and anthropological debates around Aldaar, there are two main competing schools of thought. The first is that groups of Vulpines split off from Yasterian Vulpines and followed waves of humans migrating to Gondwana. From there, Vulpines traced through the exact same evolutionary adaptations as non-sapient fennec foxes, making them distinct from both Northern and Southern Vulpines. This theory is regularly criticized for the sheer distance between Gondwana and Yasteria, however, proponents suggest that Vulpines followed Humans migrating through Novaris. The other theory is that Aldaari Vulpines evolved completely separately from Yasterian Vulpines and share traits mostly due to the fact that they both developed from foxes. Critics of the theory point out the extremely short evolutionary timeline, which is countered by claims that Fennec Vulpines evolved prior to the first evidence of them, and the extreme coincidence of two separate sapient species developing that similarly to one another, which is generally countered by the fact that the sheer number of sapient species on Urth already seems to be a scientific anomaly, so by raw percentages it isn't actually that unrealistic compared to what's already been proven.
One of the most important developments during the prehistoric period of Aldaari history was the advent of trading societies, with some entire tribes dedicated solely to trade. These tribes would take raw materials such as fabric, clay, and beads, and would craft them into goods such as rugs, jewelry, pottery, clothing, and even high-end weaponry. These finished products would then be traded for basic resources, such as food, as well as more raw materials. Trade was largely within Aldaari tribes, but some southern tribes would also trade with those across the southern mountain range, who tended to have more centralized groups. Eventually, the weight of goods combined with the harsh reality of desert travel would lead to the development of one of Urth's first currencies, as Aldaari tribes rapidly adopted the use of shells as placeholders for physical goods around 20,000 BCE. This also led to a strong culture of Aldaari craftsmanship which has carried on into the 21st century.