Xylonia

Xylonia (/zy.loʊ.niː.ʌh/; Xylonian: Ksiloni, pronounced /zkiː.lɔni/), officially the Republic of Xylonia (Xylonian: Ksiloni Cumhuriyeti, pronounced [zkiː.lɔni d͡ʒumhurijeti] , is a federal parliamentary oligarchic republic, run for the large part by the Taşin family, who dominate both of the nation's major political parties.

Xylonia has been inhabited since ancient times by the Andalians, whose stone carvings range all the way back 10,000 years, and they built large cave complexes in the mountains which are still in use to this day. It has been home to several powerful empires, including the ancient Hittars who competed in several independent city-states before being unified by Zapthira in 4212 BE, and the unified state lasted 274 years before falling into independent, competing city states. The Hittars were the predominant culture until a migratory branch of Angirines came to the north around 121 BE, and established the great city of Truva. This branch called themselves the Okrenians, or Οκρίνος. They were the ones who gave Xylonia its name, an etymology which will be discussed later on.

Starting from the middle of the 10th century, the Attans swept in from a mysterious land which some argue is near present day Yaziraijan, and the horse-based culture (Attan is from the Ksiloni word for horse, which is at) took the Okrenian kingdoms and unified them within the Akrevıtan Empire after the defeat of the Nine Armies at the Battle at Kanlıkret in 952 CE. The empire reached the peak of its power under the reign of Sultan Taskir the Glorious. After the death of Sultan Berat III, the empire slid into a long, slow decline. The empire failed to reform itself as the sultans closed themselves off from the West, causing a deep rift between the younger Reformists and the older Imperialists as the 15th century arrived. After the empire faced the Iskal affair which tore a rift between the Royal families and minorities, the country reached a point from which it would never return. When the Emperor was teetering on the brink of death and his twin sons were gearing up for a civil war, Ismal Taşin suddenly attacked with a band of men called the Young Republicans, and for the next seven years, Taşin struggled to keep a hold on his lands. But in the decisive battle of Asçaloglu, the emperor's two sons were arrested in a nighttime raid, and the nation immediately fell into Taşin's hands. He then began the process of secularization, banning men from wearing the long, ornate red robes associated with Attarism. He also created roads and educational facilities in rural areas, but he was also known for his purges. He remains a controversial figure even in the Republic he made.

Etymology

Xylonia (Ksiloni) was derived from the name the Okrenians had for their province in the heart of the Andalan Peninsula, which was known in ancient times for the trees that grew in abundance there. The province was therefore called Xylonia, which is derived from Xylo, meaning forest, and -nia, meaning land. When the Attans moved in, they set up a kingdom in Xylonia, and adopted the name for their overall nation, transliterating it as Ksiloni. Ksiloni became the foremost state in the kingdom, being the site of the imperial capital city of Ksilobili, which is derived from the original name of Xylopoli.

History

Prehistory

The land is home to a vast amount of human history, having being settled for 15,000 years, though the oldest permanent society in the land was not developed until 10,000 years ago. These small settlements were home to the Andalians,known only by the relatively few steles they set up. These steles documented the exploits of a legendary king named Andalana, thus giving the people its name. The Andalans were pushed out by the Hittar Empire, which is presumed to be a subset of the Andalans that developed separately in the northern mountains before expanding.

The Hittars swept into the peninsula, and their advance was helped by their development of iron which made metal production cheap and affordable. The large Hittar hordes settled into the Andalan lands, and imposed their new culture. They were a people only loosely associated by a common culture and a common language, until Zapthira began his campaigns of unification, which ended in 4212 BE when he took the area around the ancient city of Hathpatia. The empire lasted 274 years before falling back into independent city states. The Hittars continued to be the dominant force on the peninsula for four thousand years, until the Okrenians arrived from the north as a distantly related branch of the Angirisian peoples around 121 BE.

Medieval Era

The Okrenians established the city of Truva, which was a great port city on the opposite side of the sea from the Andalan peninsula, and the capital of the Okrenian empire. The empire flourished as a center of arts and trade for several centuries and Truva became the center of this growth. However, most Truvan areas were displaced by the Attan hordes that arrived from the south.

The Attan people were unified by a warlord named Akrevit, who swept through the empire within the span of seven years through the use of swift, brutal attacks against officers, demoralizing and destablizing armies wherever they went. The Basileus of Truva was shocked by these tactics, and sent an army acorss the strait to meet the Attars at Kanlıkret. The Basileus aimed to end the attacks by Akrevit and restore order to the prized possessions in the peninsula. However, Akrevit managed to outmanaveur them for a week through mountains and valleys back to the field at Kanlıkret, where the two armies finally met in battle on 11 Marth, 952. Akrevit wedged into the Basileus' ranks, and managed to capture the Basileus and forced him to surrender his possessions.

Imperial Era

The Akrevitan Empire was born after the Battle of Kanlıkret, and it began to consolidate control over its own ethnically diverse territories by means of repression. A belief tax was imposed on the empire's denizens who did not follow Attarism, and intermarriage was encouraged between Attans and the locals in an attempt to assimilate the diverse cultures into the empire. This was shown in how many Sultans were of various ethnic backgrounds, but despite these attempts the various cultures were rebellious.

Finally, in 1229 CE, Sultan İlahikulu II instilled sweeping reforms that rapidly westernized the nation, putting in ethnic minorities into many administrative positions, passing an act of liberation, and created a system of suzerains. These rapid reforms served to protect from a large degree of dissident, but it led to the Akrevitan Civil War, which pitted the Sultan against the nobles, who felt threatened by his new meritocratic system. The civil war dragged on for eleven years, and when the struggle ended under İlahikulu's son Fahri Muzaffar, he had most of the nobles purged.

Fahri ran the country for 34 years, and was considered by many to be a wise, liberal ruler who summarized all the complex rules of governance into a streamlined legal code, one that encouraged ethnic minorities to create their own republics, so long as they obeyed the central authority and abided by the Sultan's rule. His reign also brought another wave of Westernization, but the Sultan took great pains to censor ideas such as republicanism to prevent an uprising.

After the death of Fahri Sultan, his nephew Hikmet rose to the throne, and slowly but surely erased away Fahri's reforms and closed off the nation from the West. This triggered a long, slow decline of the Akrevitan empire, one that could never be reverted, but only temporarily halted by liberal Sultans. As minorities were taxed to the point of poverty, the emperor was forced to raise taxes on ethnic Attans, a move that was met with protests. The move was repealed, and as a result the royal treasury ran out of money.

Geography

Administrative Divisions

Template:Main Article Xylonia has a grand total of 32 vilâyets, which have a wide range of governmental structures from being directly administered by the central government (Ksiloni vilâyet), to being only very loosely associated with the central authorities (Kardya). They are typically set apart by climate, culture, religion, and such. These vilâyets are the result of Ismal Taşin's reforms to turn the Akrevıtan Empire into a multicultural federation, which was largely successful.