Oimia

Commonwealth of Oimia Oimkædj
Flag
Motto: “United we flourish”
Anthem: "Midnight Sun God, bless our land"
Capital		Yø
Largest City		Áuvi
Official languages		Oimic, Vodholk
Ethnic groups		Vodholks, North Mahavics and Maakpaueans
Demonym		Oimic or Oimian
Government		Federal direct democracy under a tribal assembly directorial republic
-	Chief
-	Vice-Chief
Legislature		Oimic Assembly
-	Upper house	Tribal Assembly
-	Lower house	Popular Assembly
Establishment
-	Establishment of the Oimia Commonwealth	1960
Population
-	2019 census	340,145
Time zone		SCT+4, SCT+5, SCT +6
Drives on the		right
Patron saint		Midnight Sun God
Internet TLD		.oi

Oimia (Oimic: Oimkædj [oimkɛd͡ʑ]), officially the Commonwealth of Oimia, is a country located in Northern Miraria.

Etymology

The term Oimia comes from the Oima river that flows right in the middle of the country.

History

Prehistorical times

Although much is not known about this historical age, what little is known comes from Vodholk mythology and archaeological evidence that suggests that vodholk population started migrating to modern day Oimia within the last twenty to forty thousand years, which coincides with the arrival of the first humans to the area. The first human inhabitants were presumably Maakpaueans, that would remain settled until this day on east Oimia.

The life of these first inhabitants was a nomadic lifestyle (which remains until this day), as a series of numerous spear heads found near Palgö and Yö, dating back to forty thousand years, suggest.

Evidence shows that Northern Mahavics arrived to southern Oimia during a series of migrations in the first millennium CE, pushing vodholk populations northwards.

Pre-modern times

The arrival of various people groups and a limited amount of natural resources lead inevitably to a series of wars between them.

The War for the Resources (16??-1878) was a series of wars and battles fought mainly between Mahavic and Vodholk populations to assert dominance over southern and central Oimia.

The first recorded war was in 1789 near the village of Omo, south of Yö, as vodholks were fighting over the control of the Oima river. The battle resulted on a Vodholk victory over an allied Mahavic-Maakpauean army.

Modern times

The modern Oimian history can be set to have begun after the last Vodholk-Human war in 1878, in which, both sides agreed on sharing the land and all resources that it had, whichever they were, by that stablishing an informal commonwealth, since it was not agreed to unify into a single country; each people group would remain as independent, they just agreed that the land that those same people groups controlled were eligible for them to use, exploit, live, among many other activities stablished into the People’s Land Agreement of 1878. In this same legal document, it is stipulated that those who were to use lands that were not theirs but belonged to one of the tribes affiliated to this agreement, must pay or retribute proportionately the respective tribe the damaged caused; failure to comply with this agreement could have serious consequences, ranging from banning a tribe from entering a certain territory to, more often than might have expected, all-out war. Those tribes that were under this agreement were collectively known as The Affiliated Territories.

Before 1900, some minor wars between two or as much as three tribes were registered, but on the year 1915 there was a mayor war between almost all tribes over an old ongoing dispute between two vodholk groups about the control of the Oima River that gradually expanded all over the Affiliated Territories. This war ended in 1920 and led to the foundation of the Commonwealth of Oimia, as a compromise between the Affiliated Territories to put an end to endless and highly expensive wars, both in terms of people and resources. The main difference between the Commonwealth of Oimia and the Affiliated Terriotries is that the territories subscribed to the Commonwealth will now be administrated by a centralized authority rather than having separate administrations by every single territory as it was the case with the later one.

At the beginning, not all of the Affiliated Territories welcomed this new way of administrating their own ancestral lands and did not join and they joined as later as the year 2023, some joined immediately, and some have never joined the Commonwealth.

The capital of this new nation was decided to be a middle ground between the two tribes that triggered the civil war, and thus, the neutral village of Komi was chosen to serve as the administrative, economic, and cultural centre of this new, diverse, and peace and prosperity yearning nation.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

The Oimic ethnic group theatre is wide and varied, combining both human, votef and vodholk ethnicities.

The first thing to bear in mind is that the vodholk population does not belong to one single ethnicity nor they stick in villages or towns, since there are a variety of ethnicities and ways of living, it is has been estimated that there are up to 20 ethnic vodholk groups, due to most of the vodholk population still adhere to a nomadic lifestyle, which makes censing and studying vodholk groups a bit more challenging. From the big 20, the major ethnic group is the “Umi”, located on the central plains of the country, followed by the “Pak O”, predominant on the north-west regions, and the “Awi” near the southern border.

Regarding human groups, mostly sedentary inhabitants, there are the mahavians, located all along the southern border and regions, and then the maakpaueans, found on the eastern parts of the country. Finally, the votef, the result of the intermixing of vodholks and humans, these are rarely found but mostly concentrated to the most urban areas of the country, since they are discriminated by both human and vodholk populations on the countryside. Despite this, the government has launched a myriad of public campaigns against racist attitudes towards the various people’s groups that make up Oimia, which have proved to be successful in the most urbanised areas.

Religion

Oimian Shamanism is the main religious believe practiced nation-wide, that worships a series of deities related to different natural phenomena and elements.The main deities are the celestial couple the Sun and Moon Gods, they are seen as the creators of the universe, the stars and the four realms; the twin gods, the midnight sun and polar night gods, sons of celestial couple, they are responsible for the creation of the earth and the terrestrial gods like the four wind gods, the fire god, the snow god and so on, they are also responsible for the creation of the vodholks.

Gods are usually worshiped in temples and home-made shrines, although there are several locations throughout Oimia that are considered as sacred, for example, the city of Yö is one of the holiest sites for oimians because, according to traditional beliefs, this was the place from where the twin gods were born; therefore, pilgrimage is one of the main pillars of Oimic Shamanism. Another keystone in Oimic Shamanism is the rite of passage at the age of 16, where the youngsters get their first tattoos at the Köuféj ceremony, as well as passing the “surviving on their own for a week” test, made to resemble the Twin Gods story, where they were left on their own and they were able to create the earth and all things that inhabit it. Once passed this test, a ceremony will be held, marking the end of the rite.