Zaizung

Republic of Zaizung
Population
-	estimate	24,742,129

Zaizung (Language: Country [IPA]), officially the Republic of Zaizung, is a country located south of Qonklaks and east of Quaxin Xun. Together with Xynderland, it forms the straits separating the Amiyant Sea from the Gulf of Sharkunen, leading to its strategic trade and naval importance. It has a multiethnic population, and from various foreign occupations, has large influences from all over Sahar.

History

The area that makes up modern Zaizung, because of its strategic location on the Amiyant Sea, spent a lot of its history under foreign occupation or as a puppet to a foreign power. The most frequent occupier is Qonklaks, which frequently sees Zaizung as part of the Qonk heartland, especially because of its large Qonk minority.

Prehistory

Mañi-speaking peoples moved into what is now Zaizung by 300 BCE, when archaeology finds Mañi pottery styles along the coast and on the islands around Zaizung.

PLACEHOLDER Uprising

The first major event cementing a specific Zaizung identity, as opposed to a pan-Mañi identity or individual settlements, was the Uprising (which is not the Trung sisters of Vietnam, which doesn't exist in Sahar) against the Qonk PLACEHOLDER Dynasty in PLACEHOLDER YEARS.

Middle Ages

Various of the islands in the archipelago were owned by various powers.

Fordas

As the Qonk Hàin Dynasty fell in the 1660s, leading to the Fourth Warring States period, the Forian Kingdom started conquering most of the islands and large portions of southern Zaizung, and by the turn of the 18th C, all the way to the traditional northern capital. Part of Forian rule was to subvert the hold Kwang had over the political and cultural sphere, leading to them promoting the official use of the mesolect between Southern Zaizung Mañi and Zaizung Kwang that would become Standard Zaizung, as well as commissioning new plays containing the use of Standard Kwang. Unlike earlier rule, which either saw the Zaizung Kwang as the true heirs of the country or foreign invaders, it invited them in to a united identity with the Zaizung Mañi.

18th through 20th C

1772 - seeing their chance to protect Qonks, Olboros/Bãw Qonklaks starts a war and annexes it

1903 - with the Qonk republic declared, Zaizung declares independence

1917 - republican qonk tries to invade zaizung and fail and then sign an armistice in 1918

Modern Zaizung

After the GEW, Zaizung became a puppet state of the Helsonian Union. Part of this was playing off of Zaizung distrust after fascist Qonlaks. Helsonia negotiated the return of almost all islands, except the few held by their GEW ally of Lugida. Helsonia changed the capital from historic Northern Capital to a new Southern Capital (before one of the larger ports in the south), to lower Qonk influence.

Zaizung started to enter the orbit of new Fordas in the 1970s (not unlike Yugoslavia in this world slowly embracing the west?), leading to less chaos that in other Kúúlist states, when the Helsonian Union fell apart. To support an official start of a new era, Lugida returned its Zaizung islands to the country, unifying it once and for all.

Geography

Spine of mountains parallel to northern shore, making it distinct from the southern shore.

Politics

Government

Like the government, it is split into 5 Mes. In addition, the state church is nominally under the ... Me

Economy

Historically, the economy of Zaizung was based off of trade along the coasts, cash crops in the highlands (think of what they are, tea is one of them, maybe a narcotic is another), lots of agriculture in the fertile coastal plain, and tourism on the islands.

Transport

The coast of Zaizung is important for its role in the harbor, and contains many important centers of trade. The intercity train system in most of the east coast goes into the Northern Capital, and then into Qonlaks, and some trains from the highlands went directly to Qonlaks, but were remade to snake into the Northern Capital during Helsonian times. Before the GEW, most intercity train systems were just leading to the nearest port city, and southern cities were not connected until Helsonian times.

Urban transport includes metro lines, light rail, funiculars, and aerial tramways, depending on the varied needs of the various geographies of the cities.

Fascist Qonklaks laid a few highways to make for easier troop transport and tanks, include some that razed parts of the Northern Capital. Post-war of the Coastal Highway did not go through any cities (but, if Helsonia wanted to show might, they would make wide boulevards).

Traditionally, there were a number of different Template:Types of Sailboat in Zaizung, for different uses. Even though they have been replaced by different types of powered boats, they still are in many ways used as a national symbol.

Tourism

Due to its mediterranean climate and close historical ties to Qonklaks, Zaizung, especially the islands, has a bunch of very fancy resorts. Some play up historical Zaizung forms of showing wealth, like the Table dance.

Demographics

Due to its strategic location, Zaizung is a very multi-ethnic state, held together by an Iovist State Church

Ethnic groups

The two largest ethnic groups are the Zaizung Mañi and "Pure Zaizung" at each about 40% of the population. "Pure Zaizung" refers to people who claim both Mañi and Qonk heritige, with the pure being based on a nationalistic response to how they were mixed.

The next largest population at around 15% of the population are the Zaizung Qonks, a distinct subethnic group of Qonks. While many Zaizung might try to tell you about a distinction between "Zaizung Qonks" and "Norhtern Qonks," with the latter speaking Standard Kwang and having family that came during fascist times, there is plenty of fluidity, basing more on how much a family is seen as part of or foreign to the Zaizung state, including how most Zaizung see the very old <not Quizling?> family as "northern Qonks" even though their anscestors came over in the 13th C. On the north part of the East Coast, Kwang people can make almost 40% of the population in some districts.

Ethnicity is not directly tied to ancestry, with it more being "which groups of your ancestors can you claim to your identity, social and political ties, cultural expression, etc. For example, the "Pure Zaizung" Prime Minister <NAME>'s sister <NAME> went by her Kwang name when writing plays, and their cousin <NAME> claimed to be Mañi when he <think of something that fits>.

Various Rietic peoples live in the cities, and are usually lumped as "Lugidan" (maybe choose a different ethnicity as the main group.

Names

Zaizung tend to have a lot of thigns going into names. Many have the traditional Mañic system of using the month and date you were born, but instead of the Mañi calendar, it uses dates from the Kwang Calendar.

Many Zaizung in addition will have a "Kwang name," either in Zaizung Kwang or Standard Kwang.

Urbanisation

Historically, the north was more industrialized and had a higher population, while the south had a few major ports but farmland in between. During the Helsonian period, this changed a bit.

Language

Most Zaizung are multilingual in a variety of languages. The National Language of Standard Zaizung is a creole formed out of a mesolect of Southern Zaizung Mañi and Zaizung Kwang, with significant influence from the Northern Zaizung Mañi that was spoken in the historical capital and most populous area.

Zaizung Kwang diverged from Middle Kwang around the 9th C.

There are three main Zaizung Mañi dialects, with Northern and Southern along the coast, and River being spoken in the highlands.

Some scholars claim that Zaizachi (not its real name) was real, based on a few plays with use of it, but because it seems to me a mesolect with Kwang as the basolect and Mañi as the acrolect, instead of the Standard Zaizung which is the opposite, most scholars think that it was more a trope in literature and collective language game than a real langauge of a real group of people.

Religion

Part of the national Zaizung Identity is that since it is so ethnically divided, the national state Iovist church fill part of that role as a unifier.

Culture

The most prestigious art has historically been produced by the Kwang minority, or with heavy influences from them. though in more modern times, some more Mañic art styles have been hailed as High Art. A lot of national symbols are Mañic in origin.

Music

The most prestigious music uses Kwang instrumentation and scales, but sometimes has influence from more Mañic beats (is this Jazz?)

In more recent years, Mañic Zaizung music has been gaining in national prominence, due to a new pan-Zaizung identity. The scale usually used for Mañic Zaizung music consists of two parts - one fixed five note scale to produce drones, usually stopping at the 5th, and a pentatonic scale relative to the current drone, played on a specific type of instrument which is not unlike a hurdy gurdy. There are multiple fixed scales and pentatonics that you can choose, but a common one is a fixed similar to the first half of the Phrygian dominant mode and the major pentatonic. In more modern art, it is seen as cool to use this and other traditional Mañic instrumentation fit into a more Kwang orchestra.

The more traditional Mañic tempo resembles the 7/8 Yàłurał, in beats of 2+2=3, but after the GEW, Zaizung music with an innovative 2+3+2 beat got popular, especially with the flowering of Social Dances in post-war Zaizung.

Theatre

Some of the most iconic pieces of Zaizung's art are the long theatrical tradition. The earliest ones we have evidence of in the 14th C (maybe?) are purely in Kwang, but pretty soon, it became common to have characters speak in a Mañi langauge as well. They tend to use Mañi for characters who are poorer, more rural, more emotional, or evil.

In the 17th and 18th C, we start seeing Standard Zaizung added to the mix, as well as Zaizachi. Standard Zaizung then got associated with main characters, Kwang with noble or poëtic characters, Mañi with simpler characters or those with wisdom, and Zaizachi with dreams and prophecy.

Because of nautical influence, a lot of the pulley systems for backdrops look like those used for sailboats, and a lot of words for talking about stories are derived from sailing words.