Esmir

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Esmiran Federation
Flag of Esmir Emblem of the Legacy Party
Motto: "Therebeing, Faith, Labor"
Anthem: Protect the Motherland, O' Patriarchs!
Internationally recognized territory of the Esmiran Federation
Capital	Zey
Largest city	Alo Yopa
Official languages	Esmiri Hamayan
Recognised regional languages	Durubi Oyani Irageshi Taswaba
Ethnic groups (2020 Estimate)	100% Human
Demonym(s)	Esmiran
Government	Federal Dahorianist one-party totalitarian dictatorship
• Supreme Leader	Aboa Habshi
• Presidial Chief	Tauga Utso
• Director of Internal Affairs	Jituj Tkaya
Legislature	Supreme Council
History
Population
• 2024 estimate	47,438,939
• Census	Undisclosed
Currency	Esmiran dlas
Date format	yyyy/dd/mm
Driving side	right side

Esmir, officially the Esmiran Federation, is a country in Gondawa that spans across both sides of the Esmiri Strait. Throughout history, modern-day Esmir was occupied by a range of empires with a occasional periods of unification under imperial dynasties. In 1910, the Sara Dynasty united much of modern Esmir’s borders under its control by annexing two of its vassal states.

Since the 1990s, the Esmiran Federation’s unique insights regarding geopolitics have placed it in an interesting position. For the most part, it remains rigidly isolationist and militaristic while placing an emphasis on its Dahorianist anthropology, which remains the core of Esmiran political life. The country is exceedingly critical of the “seafaring empires” of the world, which it sees as individual projects of an antagonistic “thalassocratic object”. Esmir considers itself a “land empire”, to say that its territory being the subject of Esmiran reality reinforces its closed, associative quality, while the “seafaring empires” maintain the sea as the territory of the cosmopolitan reality, which reinforces the open and dissociative quality. The supreme leader of Esmir is Aboa Habshi.

Esmir is a regional power due to its geostrategic location and expansive military capabilities, as well as its leading role in the Orthodox Katharian faith. It is the leading member of the Rehmed Cooperation Association and a founding member of the International Human Organization.

History

Main article: History of Esmir

Pre-Kathar Esmir

Old Documents

According to traditional Esmiri historiography, the Estam ("enlightened kingdom") was established sometime in the late fourth millennium BC, being the setting for what is now known as the Old Documents in Orthodox Katharianism or the Chalash in Neo-Estamism. While much of these documents remain classified and kept in the North Castle Library, there are a few documents that are released to the public. The seven public books of the Old Documents describe a prehistoric betrayal of God by man and an army of fallen angels equipping the Irapkas (priest-kings) with forbidden knowledge. The majority of this forbidden knowledge is said to lie in the classified books. The Irapkas struggled against one another until there were nine left, whose tribes united to form the Estam. In the later Old Estam Period, God was revealed to Irapka Sesom I of Zayem, who was given a series of commandments as well as the power to appoint a new "King Layem" who would be the new emperor of the land under the Estam. The identity of King Layem is not known.

Scholarly perspective

The years at which the events took place in the Old Estam are not clear, leading many aspects of its existence to be contested by secular historians, who hold the events in the Old Documents to scrutiny. Meanwhile, religious scholars argue for its legitimacy. Certain non-Estamite spiritual movements in the region hold the Old Documents in high regard.

Rise of Katharianism

Early Raku Dynasty

The Raku Dynasty is the first Esmiri dynasty which is widely agreed to have existed among religious and secular scholars alike. It was founded around 2500 BC. The earlier emperors are not known, however, the first recorded one was Emperor Tadumo who claimed direct lineage from King Layem as appointed by the Irapka Sesom I of Zayem on behalf of God from over a millennia earlier.

Kathar Documents

The final years of the Raku Dynasty around 1700 BC again are not quite clear. Prophecy in the Old Documents foretold of a completion to God's law in the form of a prophet, which according to the Katharians was complete in the ascension of Emperor Kathar to the throne. According to the Kathar Documents, Kathar claimed to be the enlightened prophet of God, performing miracles and healing wounded homeless people. Despite being Emperor, he slept on the streets and tended to the sick, which was unheard of and entirely inappropriate for an emperor. The entirety of the Old Estam, with the exception of one Irapka Zemo II of Temra, motioned to have Kathar stoned. Kathar was instead crucified by a band of religious zealots and Zemo II was then sentenced by his fellow Irapkas to be hung, until Kathar descended from heaven. Under pure shock, the Old Estam accepted Kathar as the prophet. Finally, God's face is said to have appeared to the Old Estam and hundreds of others from the sky, in front of whom he declared Kathar as Himself revealed in the flesh in a fully divine-human nature. A key to heaven was given to Zemo II who with the rest of the Irapkas founded the Orthodox Katharian Church as the successor to the Old Estam on behalf of God.

Scholarly perspective

Once again, beyond the events laid out in the Kathar Documents, what happened isn't quite clear. With Kathar having supposedly "ascended to heaven" according to the documents, secular historians interpret the implication of a final emperor as true. No one is sure precisely what happened from 1700 BC to 1500 BC aside from the continued spread of the Katharian faith. The Old Estamites seem to have disappeared in this time period. It is theorized that they fled Esmir and their ancestors founded Neo-Estamism in 1400 BC. Others theorize that they entirely converted to Katharianism or were persecuted.

What is most peculiar is that prior to Kathar, there was no "th" sound in the Hamayan language. A new letter was created specifically for Kathar's name.

Post-Kathar Esmir

Lashma Dynasty

By around 1500 BC, Katharian civilization began to be referred to as Esmir ("blessed kingdom"). The Katharian Church by this point was made up of five synods: the Kordeshi Synod, the Urashi Synod, the Zayemi Synod, the Temran Synod, and the Oyani Synod. The period from 1300 BC to 900 BC is marked by increased human-orc interaction according to historical records. Orcs were never incorporated into Katharian civilization and instead were seen as "other" beings, even when they were tolerated. A bishop was excommunicated in the Lashma Dynasty for ordaining an orc in the Council of Ranon which stapled Orthodox Katharianism as an exclusively human religion. The Council of Ranon, having excommunicated several bishops, led to these bishops claiming to each be continuations of the church in their own right, which served as the beginnings of the self-titled non-Ranonian churches, or the heterodox Katharians according to Orthodox Katharianism

Sometime around 900 BC to 800 BC, the "five kingdom alliance of orcs" declared war on Kingdom of Daswe, which was at the time a vassal of the Lashma Dynasty. The Urashi and Zayemi Synods had properties vandalized by orc residents within the Kingdom of Daswe and thus orcs were expelled from all of Esmir. With Lashmite support, the Kingdom of Daswe managed to defeat the orc invasion.

Following the rise and domination of the Tzruids from the south, Lashmite vassals were absorbed into the Tzruid Dynasty around 600 BC as the Lashma Dynasty disintegrated into several smaller kingdoms.

Tzruid era

The Tzruid Era was marked by Tzruid domination of Esmiri civilization from the south while the northern kingdoms remained fractured, leaving them too busy to compete with one another to compete with the Tzruids. The Tzruid Dynasty was Neo-Estamite and thus drove parts of the church into hiding. The bishops associated with the Urashi Synod who were under Tzruid domination were granted synodality by the Orthodox Church as the Daswei Synod. The Council of Rahit in 523 BC led to the decision that all synods were equal under the communion and that Tahiro 4:6 ("And those with closed hearts reign terror on my body, questioning my prophethood") referred specifically to the Neo-Estamites. While the latter decision was not controversial, the decision in respect to equality of synods was. Head Bishop Yebli of the Zayemi Synod argued that the Council of Rahit was a split from the church and that the Head Bishop of the Zayemi Synod was always the patriarch of the entire church, while the Council of Rahit explicitly stated that the Zayemi Synod played an advisory role as opposed to a necessarily dominant one. With him, he brought a little under half of the Zayemi Synod to declare himself as the remnant of the church, stylized as the Patriarchal Orthodox Church. King Muake IV of Zayem declared himself Patriarchal Orthodox in 514 BC leaving Zayem concretely under the political influence of the Patriarchal Orthodox. Certain priests across Esmir also declared themselves Patriarchal Orthodox within their own synods, although it didn't happen often enough to be much of a problem for the synods themselves.

In 381 BC, the Tzruids attempted to vassalize the Kingdoms of Bhurato, Shdek, Esala, and Yomuka and failed. This led these four kingdoms to form a coalition along with several other kingdoms over the next few years. The Anti-Heterodox Coalition, as it was called, called on the Orthodox Church to reassert itself in Esmiri politics. In 356 BC, thirty-two kingdoms formed the Holy Confederation in the north as the culmination of the Anti-Hederodox Coalition. The Holy Confederation invaded neighboring non-Rahitian kingdoms and forcing dynasties to accept the Council of Rahit over the next few decades before the First Holy Incursion was launched against the Tzruids 249 BC. The Tzruids were not prepared for the attacks and with Daswei forces attacking from the west coming down from mountains to meet the northern forces, the Tzruids were forced to retreat immediately. The retreat failed and the bulk of their forces were flanked causing the capitulation of the Tzruids in 245 BC.

Holy Empire

The collapse of the Tzruids saw the growth of the Holy Confederation which was renamed the Holy Empire in 227 BC. While the Holy Empire covered a good portion of modern Esmir, it was plagued by corruption and it was little more than a loose association of competing kingdoms that the church barely managed to control. Heterodoxy, Neo-Estamism, and a new heretical religion called "spiritualism" still continued to exist and even slowly gain ground in the Holy Empire throughout the years. Some scholars argue that the Holy Empire fizzled out of existence, and other scholars argue it never really existed as an entity in the first place. By 100 BC, all of the kingdoms of the Holy Empire were under the influence of the Cheshmej Dynasty, which continued to refer to itself as the "holy empire" even as the term was no longer used by the general populace. This would become a common theme among all dynasties to come.

Cheshmej Dynasty

While the Cheshmej Dynasty promoted Orthodox Katharianism as the one true faith, it maintained a policy of religious tolerance throughout its existence. Ironically, this period saw a halt in the growth in heterodox and Neo-Estamite faiths. Orcs were even tolerated by the dynasty, although they face discrimination from locals. Many kingdoms throughout the Cheshmej sphere of influence experimented with peasant-oriented economic systems, which would go on to be a source of inspiration for the Dahorianists over two millennia later. However, as time went on from the 100s, the Cheshmej Dynasty began to centralize Esmir. The Cheshmej Dynasty would hold onto power until the First Peasant Uprising in 617.

Medieval Esmir

The Peasant Uprising in 617 led to the founding of the Alo Yopa Republic. Land was redistributed to those that partook in the uprising. While the Orthodox Church supported the uprising, it did not support the republic that came after. Southern regions of Esmir did not recognize the republic nor the redistribution program and gave rise to five different kingdoms, each claiming to be the successor of the Cheshmej Dynasty thus calling themselves the Holy Empire. From 625 to 670, the Alo Yopa Republic became more defunct as warlords became impossible for the government to control. Durubi warlord Nyeshm I declared himself emperor after annexing two other states thus giving rise to the Dorhanic Empire in the east. It conquered southward while warlord states in the west were consolidated under the Irangan warlord Regra I. Both claimed to be the holy empire and while the Dorhanic Empire used it as a secondary title, Regra's empire used it as its first title. The west and east from this point onward remained divided. The west and east went through several successive competing dynasties all the way until 955, when the Muzkis Dynasty of the west united Esmir once again. It was officially called Imperial Esmir.

Imperial Esmir, like the dynasties that came before it, continued to centralize the civilization under the state apparatus, introducing the civil service exam and finally standardizing a new alphabet for Esmiri, which up until then used Hamayan letters. Unlike the Cheshmej Dynasty, Imperial Esmir was extremely intolerant of outsiders. All residents that could not feasibly claim heritage from the ancient Irapkas were expelled, and while many humans could simply lie about their heritage, it wasn't as easy for non-human intelligent species, which were probably expelled in the tens of thousands. They were pushed to "trade zones" of cities and were only allowed to be merchants on top of having to pay an extra tax to the government. Imperial Esmir first adopted the well-known triangular flag in 1227 which would be in off-and-on use throughout its history.

Esmir's fertile highlands and comprehensive trade routes throughout the medieval period kept it from being easily sabotaged by barbarians and allowed for it to easily dominate almost any invading power. Imperial Esmir was known as the "mountain hermit" to the outside world.

Early modern era

Expanding commerce in Imperial Esmir gave rise to new Esmiri commercial and political elite throughout the country.

Politics

Anthropology

Main article: Dahorianism

Administrative divisions

States of Esmir

The Esmiran Federation is composed of 12 states, 5 municipalities, and 14 autonomous people's councils. All 31 of these entities are under the supervision of the supreme leadership and have their own branch of the Legacy Party as parties in of themselves and form the federal council.

States are led by presidents but are not defined as republics. Instead, presidents act as autocrats and are held directly accountable to their people through their state's branch of the Legacy Party. While certain states have certain specifications, they are generally responsible for appointing a state minister, which acts under the president's permission to appoint ministers throughout the government. All of the presidents make up the presidium, which is headed by a presidial chief. The presidial chief is appointed by the supreme leader with the permission of the presidium itself (via an election) and helps guide the presidium to coordinate cooperation between the states in political, economic, and cultural domains. The presidium makes itself accountable to the federal council as opposed to each state doing so in name. Individual states may be called to represent themselves if requested by the supreme leader.

Municipalities are cities with their own government directly accountable to the supreme leadership instead of going through a state. This status is reserved for cities of strategic importance, such as the capital.

Autonomous people's council is a status reserved for groups without permanent territory (generally nomadic tribes) that are granted representation by the supreme leadership.

Military

Main article: Esmiran Task Force

Religion

Main article: Katharianism