Zaizung

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Republic of Zaizung
Flag
Official languages Standard Zaizung
Demonym Zaizungese
Area
 -  109,319.3 km2
42,208 sq mi
Population
 -  estimate 24,742,129
Calling code +09

Zaizung (Language: Country [IPA], Standard Kwang: Dãi Doun 汏孜 [dɛ᷄ˀ doʊ̃́]), 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.

Etymology

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

Up until the 8th C BCE, what is now Zaizung was probably inhabited by speakers of the Xuni substrate language without any large centralized state, similar to Quaxin Xun. The Qonklese Mor Dynasty captured the northern half of Zaizung in the 8th C BCE, including establishing the traditional (until the GEW) capital.

In the 7th C BCE, during the First Warring States Period, many breakaway Qonklese states were also founded in the south of Zaizung. One of these was the Jã state, which would eventually be the first to unify the area into one state.

The Jã Dynasty invited in Mañi-speaking peoples in during the Xuni Migration Period, to bolster its army, farming capacity, and trade. With this Special Relation (as certain bits of Zaizung nationalism call it) of a Mañi middle-class loyal to a Qonklese ruling class, the Jã were able to unify the area, and even resist the Lya Dynasty.

Eventually, the Gain Dynasty did take over both the Lya and Jã states in the early 5th C BCE.

PLACEHOLDER Uprising

The first major event cementing a specific Zaizung identity, as opposed to being members of a Qonklese state, 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 Gain Dynasty in 42 BCE - 37 BCE (dates could change).

While the Gain were able to take control of the north again, the south would remain as independant Mañic states, some being a bit more Qonkified than others. Two of these would see themselves as successors to the Jã and Thãw dynasties of the first warring states period, and especially with an influx of Qonklese during the second warring states period.

Letsatian Rule

During the chaos of the Second Qonkese Warring States Period, the Letsatian Empire was able to take over the kingdom of Jã consisting of what is now Southern Zaizung in around 50 CE. The rule only lasts about 50 years, and it loses control around 100 CE. In that time, Iovism gets introduced, which would be a common theme throughout Zaizung history.

Middle Ages

After the fall of Letsatia, there are a number of different architypes that various kingdoms in the area try using. Some try to rule as cosmopolitan post-Letsatian city-states, but this gets increasingly uncommon. Others try to see themselves as purely Qonklese states ruling over a marginalized Mañic and proto-Xunic underclass (which starts to get subsumed into Mañic). There are many kingdoms that are mostly Mañic, and frequently refer back to the Uprising, but these too take on various Qoncosphere traditions, and almost always have bits and pieces of Qonklese bureacracy, intellectual and artistic life, etc. There is also a tradition of states trying to invoke the Jã Special Relation of a Qonklese upper class, but a Mañic soldier and middle class, with a hybrid culture. At this time, various of these kingdoms act as vassals or tributaries to various Qonklese Dynasties, but are never conquered.

In the late 9th C, the Qonklese Mheiq Dynasty takes control of the Zaizung mainland again, but not the various islands in the archipelago that were owned by various powers. To solidify their rule, the Mheiq bring in lots of Old Amiyant Kwang-speaking people, who the remaining Qonklese intermarry with.

The Maithic Conquest of Qonklaks in the 13th C left a mini warring states period east of the Phaswa Mountains, where Zaizung again gained independence. Where it slowly got reabsorbed into Qonklaks by Qonklese dynasties after the Mai.

Throughout the first part half of the 17th C, various regions of the Qonklese Hàin Dynasty broke off to various warlords. The southern coast of Zaizung had multiple nominally independent or fully independent kingdoms by the 1630s, and most islands were independent by the 1650s. When the Hàin Dynasty officially fell into the fourth warring states period in 1668, only the Northern Capital was still part of the Dynasty.

These small kingdoms did not really see themselves as part of a unified whole. On the islands, in the highlands, and on parts of the southern coast, you saw many small independent Mañic kingdoms that looked more like those in Quaxin Xun than Qonklese Warring States, but on the Amiyant coast and parts of the southern coast, many were trying to be Qonklese, usually harkening back to the explicit Jã special relation of a Qonklese Elite with a strong Mañic soldier and working class.

Fordas

Many of the states resulting from the fall of the Qonklese Hàin Dynasty became vassals of the Forian Kingdom, to gain protection from other neighboring kingdoms. The Forians directly started conquering most of the islands and large portions of southern Zaizung directly as soon as it was clear the Hàin could not defend them in around the 1640s. In 1674, the warlord of the traditional northern capital needed Fordian soldiers to quash a rebellion, making himself a puppet, and putting now all of the country into either direct or indirect rule.

Part of Forian rule was to subvert the hold Kwang had over the political and cultural sphere, to break the special relation that they were not a part of, or ideas of the Qonklese as foreign invaders. 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. This lead to the Forians 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.

Another thing about this period was an encouragement of people of mixed Qonklese and Mañic heritage was to identify as Zaizungese first, and not a specific of the two cultures, which would lead to a more connected and unified Zaizungese identity even under Olboros Qonklese rule.

Olboros Era

In the chaos following the 1750 dissolution of the Forian Kingdon, Zaizung was part of a successor state. In 1752, seeing their chance to protect Qonks without attacking the entire Forian army at once, Olboros/Bãw Qonklaks starts a war and annexes Zaizung.

In 1773, in conclusion of a war, the Qonklese ceded Myaichoun, Yeinti, and maybe a city in Zaizung proper?, as well as many naval concessions that prevent the Qonklese navy from patrolling the Amiyant Sea well. To get around these barriers, the some merchants in Qonklaks realize they need their own private protection so hire out some mercenaries along the coast, both in what is now Zaizung and Qonklaks. To bolster the now spread out Terminian navy between their new concessions, they also hire out locals to help guide them through the rocky water between Zaizung and Xynderland. The Lugids realize that their channel to the Amiyant is important to more other powers, so also hire local Zaizung privateers to keep tensions high in the strait they don't control.

The buildup of shifting funding sources from multiple regional powers means that everyone is more willing to pay to keep those shipping lanes open, and all the different pirate groups split by shipping lane (attacking other ones) and double deal with everyone (if you are paying the toll, you can get escorted and use our island and cove ports, don't care who you are). This leads to a golden age of Zaizung piracy and a few short lived semi-independent pirate republics on the islands and caves.

In the 1890s, a group of Zaizung Qonklese businessmen decide to dredge a few large cargo port in what is now southern Zaizung, along with a railroad connecting the old northern capital to the southern coast directly through the mountains. This railroad was not fully completed until 1959. The idea was to circumvent the straits, with all their pirates, as well as having more cheaper land to use for the harbor.

In 1897, the Qonklese Olboros dynasty mandates that all international imports and exports must pass through Paseinse, Meinbaipaw, or Jikhein, in response to opium smuggling and to try and assert more imperial power. Especially since the journey to Paseinse would greatly increase the amount of time for any ship going to or from Zaizung, this causes a massive strike of Zaizung dockworkers, which only gets worse as an early frost destroys various crops throughout Soltenna. With imported grain much more expensive, this leads to bread riots, which imperial forces shut down by shooting into a large crowd and killing 10. Similar small scale revolts happen in Qonklaks proper, but are a bit quieter during the good harvest of 1898, unlike the Zaizung protests which just get louder and louder.

The Zaizung Qonklese upper class tries to petition the government to allow the old northern capital, or at least one of the new ports in the south, but to no avail.

In 1899, cities in southern Zaizung and the highlands declared an independent republic in response to another crops failed again. This republic was initially conceived of to be Mañic. This independence was using the organization developed by the now-Zaizung-wide dock worker solidarity movement that was building up since 1897 to delay Qonklese ships from the southern cities. Northern cities were not part of the initial revolt, both because of the larger ethnic Kwang precense making a Mañic republic require a lot more social change, and because it had a larger troop presence from the Olboros Dynasty.

This dynamic changed for a variety of reasons. The Qonklese government descended into Civil War still raged on because of the continued crop failure, as well as the army being distracted in Zaizung, which made independence seem like a possiblity. A few of the southern Zaizung Qonklese businessmen realize how their interests in recovering their investment in ports align with the dockworkers' interest in removing the Olboros restrictions, and start backing independence as well. By 1900, many ethnic Kwangs in northern Zaizung followed the southern Zaizung Kwangs in backing Zaizung, giving it much needed capital and access to much more trained military generals. A historical play became extremely popular in the Northern Capital about a romance between a 14th C Kwang lord and an enterprising Mañic woman who was leading a pirate fleet. This was well absorbed by both the Kwangs, who saw themselves as protectors of the Mañics, and Mañics, who saw "their Kwangs" as different to ones in Qonklaks proper. This alliance also gave Kwangs everywhere outside the Northern Capital a relatively more secure position than other uncertain parts of the Civil War. The Iovic Church of Zaizung was pretty active in forming the common bond, and was seen as a neutral arbiter, so gained a lot of support from revolutionaries that wanted to keep that alliance going, and gave a lot of support to parts of the revolution which included Qonks.

In 1902, with the Qonklese Olboros troops stretched thin, northern Zaizung is also able to formally join the Republic.

1902 Republic

1902 - with all of Zaizung in the revolution, and Qonklaks distracted, the Zaizung Republic is declared

1903 - Thaboun declares Qonklese Republic, and because of the lack of manpower to try to reclaim Zaizung, along with acknowledgement of Zaizung's revolution's help in securing supplies through the Amiyant while blocking Olborosi shipments and troop movements, there is an unspoken agreement that Zaizung is independent, but not Official

Because of the necessity of the Zaizung Kwangs' support in the 1902 revolution, there were certain institutions such as schooling which were left up to various ethnic groups. Most Kwang schools did allow a few Mañic students, especially ones talented in the arts or from a well connected family. These schools tended to have almost all classes taught in Kwang, except for a class in Civic Leadership taught in Standard Zaizung. Instead of making a school system from scratch, the Mañic school system adopted the Iovic institutions, and kept prestigious subjects like literature and math taught in Kwang, but the language of instruction for most other classes was Mañic.

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

After Zaizung's success in the 1917 war, and to bolster the chances of them surviving a remilirized Qonklaks, Zaizung and Quaxin Xun signed a mutual defense pact. Because Imperial Qonklaks feared the same result would happen again, even though it declared war on both nations in 1939, Qonklaks only turned its attention to Zaizung after it conquered enough of Quaxin Xun to invade on a large land front.

The tenant farming practices that were in full force in the Olboros dynasty were continued through the 1902 Republic, with Qonks owning almost 90% of the land, while only making up 30% of the population. However, upgrades in farming technology and a policy of giving former Mañic tenants education to take on more urban jobs in the city meant that the percentage of the population that worked in agriculture fell from 60% to 30% by the Qonklese invasion for the Pangyeoun war.

Qonklese Empire occupation and the Pangyeoun war

After the Qonklese invasion of Zaizung's mutual defense partner Quaxin Xun in 1939, Qonklaks had established a long land border and invaded Zaizung. This strategy was overly cautious about Zaizung's defenses on the Amiyant Sea or the short land border in the north. Dain Pain declared that Zaizung was an integral province of Qonklaks, and formally annexed it.

The rule of the Qonklese Empire was to give benefits to both all Zaizung Qonks and the Zaizung Mañis who were loyal to the state. Some Zaizung Qonks still joined the resistance.

After the war, many Zaizung Qonks and some Zaizung Mañis fearing retaliation both from fellow Zaizungese and the approaching Terminians, fled to Qonklaks proper.

Post-Pangyeoun Reconstitution

After the Pangyeoun War, Zaizung became a puppet state of the Helsonian Union. Some portion of the Qonklese population moved to Qonklaks proper. 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.

Pre-Pangyeoun Zaizung had a large arms industry, but this was mostly converted to other economic production. Helsonian guarantees of defense meant that the government had extra investment into sectors that weren't the military.

Post-Pangyeoun, the new Kúúlist government took control of all land in the area. This was aided by a number of historical factors in the late Pangyeaoun era and resulting Helsonian occupation. Many of the land owning Qonklese fled with the retreating Qonklese army or after the new Zaizung Republic was declared. The Mañic tenant farmers had risen up against the remaining Qonklese land owners, to claim the land that they were working. The Helsonian administration intervened and helped broker a deal that all agricultural land would be given to the state, with Qonklese former landowners having a 120-year (4 generation) lease on the big homes, in exchange for giving many positions in the newly formed Kúúlist government.

In 1953, the government decided to nationalize all remaining land, mostly only urban land. Some critics have argued that this policy of leasing out land looks more like a land tax on private land and not a true Kúúlist collective ownership model.

Technical posts in the Zaizungese goverments of the Qonklese Occupation and earlier 1902 Republic, like judgeships, were mostly held by the Qonklese minority. The the overseeing Helsonian officers and the still forming Zaizungese government did not fully let the Zaizungese government take shape until they had fully reinstated people judges and other bureaucrats one by one. This process took years, and the first full Zaizungese government was not there until 1958, though was staffed enough to do national things starting in 1954.

Helsonia mostly withdrew from Zaizung militarily in the mid-60s, and return of almost all of the islands, except the few held by their GEW ally of Lugida, but still kept a few military and naval bases. Helsonia's interest in Zaizung included keeping control of the sea lanes between Terminia Proper and their holdings in Myaichoun and Yeinti, so it kept a naval presence until the mid 1970s.

Modern Zaizung

After the Qonk-Helsonian split, Zaizung was firmly in the Helsonian side of the divide. This meant that it had a parallel opening up as the one Vexut Reforms in the Helsonian Union starting in 1977. Because of its proximity, neutrality, and use of the Terminian language, Zaizung started a manufacturing sector to sell cheap products, which it quickly also expanded to export to the newly-formed Fordas.

For two brief years, 1978-1980, the unitary state was split to make "the Confederation of Thãw and Jã" with the idea that the north (older center of power) which is more Kwang and the south which is more Mañi (and with newer infrastructure). The idea was to make a region for reforms, in the more uniformly Mañic south where the Kúúlist party was seen as having more influence, and to keep a stronger grip on the more ethnically diverse north, which had ties to older power structures. It fell apart when the northern government cracked down on lending credit to the south and the fear of the recession it could cause.

Because of its is increasing reliance on exporting to Fordas in the 1980s and 1990s, and a Helsonian navy stretched very thin, it didn't close its trade with the east after the coup in the Helsonian Union by Vrije Ghagor in 1999, and didn't experience the same chaos as other Kúúlist states when the Helsonian Union fell apart in 2005. Because of this, its modern government still has some roles put aside for the Kúúlist party.

After the 1999 coup, the Government of Zaizung was already gearing up for the potential it would have to face the world stage as a neutral country. This included a greater investment in a military sector and increasing coöperation with non-Kúúlist countries like Fordas.

To support an official start of a new era post the collapse of the Helsonian Union and th Supreme Commune of Qonklaks, Lugida returned its Zaizung islands to the country, unifying it once and for all, with an agreement signed in 2001 that the islands would be integrated into the country in 2016.

Geography

The roughly four regions of Zaizung

Spine of the Phaswa Mountains parallel to northern shore, making it distinct from the southern shore. Its history was greatly influenced by its having access to one of the few sea lanes between the Gulf of Sharkunen and the Amiyant Sea, especially due to them having different wind patterns.

Geology

Climate

Mediterranean but monsoonal, very mountainous

Biodiversity

Regions

The traditional Capital is the more Qonkified Old Northern Capital. It is a large entrepôt that moved goods from ocean going ships to smaller Amiyant Sea going boats.

The southern regions on the ocean are more culturally similar to oceanic parts of Quaxin Xun, and frequently competed with them for the same oceanic trade routes. Both Xuni and southern Zaizungese polities traded extensively with the Old Northern Capital.

Historically, Qonklaks frequently conquered only the north and not the south, with refugees, both Mañic and existing Qonk communities, from the north entering the south at conquering. This means that there were successive waves of re-uniting a trans-regional identity, which was useful whenever the whole Zaizung region either fully unified or acted as a loose entity of competing peer polities.

Politics

Government

Instead of splitting the govermnet by powers, Zaizung uses the traditional pre-Olboros Qonklese system of splitting by domain. Each ministry has executive and partial legislative powers in their domain, though most legislation needs review by the other ministries before becoming official law.

The Zaizung government is structured into 8 ministries. These are the Ministries of Control, Examination, Justice, War, Finance, Rites, Works, and Personnel.

The Central Committee is made up of the 8 heads of the ministries along with a "first among equals" chancellor elected on a 5? year term. The chancellor is mostly there to break ties and greet foreign dignitaries, but retains few powers outside of presiding over the Central Committee. The ministries of Control and Examination are explicity kúúlist, but the other 6 are all open to every citizen, and the ones that are democratic allow all parties to run candidates. Democratically elected ministries tend to use Terminian federalism to split into smaller bodies.

Zaizung did not adopt the 5 Mè system of modern Qonklaks. The 1902 Zaizung Republic was setting up a government before the 1903 Qonklese Republic, and the post-Pangyeoun War government was set up by the Helsonians, and with memories of fascist Qonk occupation in everyone's minds.

Administrative divisions

Foreign relations

While Zaizung is a Kúúlist country even after the collapse of the Helsonian Union, it is very close with Fordas, which uses it for cheap manufacturing and now also technology, and to hedge against Qonklese control of the Amiyant Sea.

Because of its historic role as a gateway to the Amiyant, proximity to Bosato and Nyatol, and large diaspora population, Zaizung is more involved with foreign affairs than other countries of its size.

With Qonklaks

Historically, Zaizung has been part of Qonklaks's sphere of influence, sometimes as a formal part of a Qonklese dynasty, sometimes as a tributary state. In the late Olboros Qonklaks, a large part of Zaizung thought of themselves as an occupied nation, including Qonklese Zaizungese who were dissatisfied with the dynasty. Distrust grew as Qonklaks invaded unsuccessfully in 1917 and successfully in 1939. After the Pangyeoun War, it became a puppet of the Helsonian Union, which played up the spirit of independence from Qonklaks. After both Helsonia and the Supreme Commune of Qonklaks fell in 2005, it has cautiously embraced Qonklaks, sometimes trying to play up a role in helping Qonklaks to find its footing as a way of undergirding its own independence.

In modern times, it has forged its own identity balancing a Qonklese heritage with an independent streak. In fact, a frequent trope is that Qonklaks proper has turned its back on its own heritage, and in some ways, Zaizung is keeping bits of its tradition alive.

With Fordas

Trade across the Amiyant Sea has always been important, and the Fordians have frequently willing to work with the Zaizungese to control access to it, and make sure they have guides to help enter into the Qonkosphere. Historically, the Forian Kingdom helped to shape a Zaizung identity over a purely ethnic one to help shore up Forian power against the Qonklese. After the Helsonian Vexut reforms in 1977, Zaizung was more than willing to bolster its excess industrial capacity to supply cheap goods to the newly formed Fordas, and later electronics. Despite being a Kúúlist country and an anti-Kúúlist country, the two are more than willing to work with each other.

With Quaxin Xun

The exact borders between a Zaizung and a Xuni identity are blurry, but have solidified around these two based on Zaizung's embrace of Iovism and being part of the Qonkosphere, while Quaxin Xun has for the most part rejected these. Currently, as two formerly Helsonian aligned Kúúlist states, they do share a common connection, even though Zaizung is trending towards an industrial player working with Fordas, and Quaxin Xun is trending towards the Modern Thought dominated Akulanen. These two have worked as allies in a defensive pact between Zaizungese independence in 1902 to both being conquered in 1939. Historically, both coastal Quaxin Xun and southern Zaizung competed for trade with the same oceanic ships, and both tried to get better connections with the entrepôts of northern Zaizung to peddle their wares on the bays and rivers around the Amiyant.

Military

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. Starting in the 1980s, it started exporting cheap goods to Fordas and by the mid-2000s had a growing tech sector.

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 across the Southern Phaswa Railway into Quaxin Xun, but were remade to also connect to the Southern Capital during Helsonian times. Before the Pangyeoun War, most intercity train systems were just leading to the nearest port city or to the northern capital, and southern cities were not connected to each other until Helsonian times.

Historically, the Northern Capital was the natural harbor that saw most of the trade, but large infrastructure projects like dredging an artificual deep water harbor in the Southern Capital under Kúúlist leadership made the Southern Capital a much more active port for long distance deep water boats.

Urban transport includes metro lines, light rail, funiculars, and aerial tramways, depending on the varied needs of the various geographies of the cities. The first actual metro lines were built with a loan from the Helsonian government in the 1950s, so Zaizung's metro includes has a more Helsonian typology, but lines built since the 1980s look more like Fordian ones.

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 sailboat types, 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.

Energy

Science and technology

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

Ethnicity in Zaizung is not tied strictly to ancestry, and is just as much about social standing, historical class, primary language, cultural ties, and other similar markers. The vast majority of people claim at least partial ancestry from Mañic or Kwang peoples. 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>.

A majority of the population is at least conversant in a Kwang language and a Mañic language, even more so due to education policy after the Pangyeoun War, and so which language a family chooses to use at home is about political and social ties.

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.

- some nation building decided to have people marry into different groups to homogenize the population both in the 1902 Zaizung Republic and post Pangyeoun War

The creation of "Pure Zaizung" as a category is specifically from 20th and 21st Century mixed ancestry, because of the social stratification that happened under the Olboros dynasty. In the Middle Ages, the Mañi majority was very good at incorporating various outsiders, with modern DNA testing showing influence from across the Prime Corridor. Some of these groups are still relevant sub-ethnicities that keep small numbers of unique traditions, including some that became ritual specialists and have tribal status.

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 "Northern 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 Amiyanat Coast, Kwang people can make almost 40% of the population in some districts. the Qonk population of Zaizung peaked at 35% in 1947, after Pangyeoun era policies to Qonkify the region but just before a lot of the population was drafted for the Pangyeoun War, and many Qonks fled after the Helsonian Union granted Zaizung independence from Qonklaks (as a client state). Most modern scholars point out that many of the people who put Qonk down in Fascist Qonklaks occupied Zaizung had mixed-Mañic/Qonk ancestry and so would have put "Pure Zaizung" in later censuses.

Because the Kwang ruling class historically had different priveleges and access to jobs and education, academia and the high arts are historically dominated by Zaizung Qonks.


- think of themselves as the "dual indigeneity myth" - that they are 100% of Zaizung but also 100% Qonk - maybe Taiwanese-like or Hong Kong-like

- for various reasons, very actively tried to prove themselves as "loyal to Zaizung"

- maybe a bit paternalistic

- more likely to be urban, middle class, etc.

Various Rietic peoples live in the cities, and are usually lumped as "Lugidan" (maybe choose a different ethnicity as the main group). Some groups that are Rietic in origin also exist in the highlands, seperated from the main bulk of the Rietic people. Because they were concentrated in cities historically, they had an outsize infleunce on culture.

There are also various "tribal" groups, usually similar to groups in Quaxin Xun. They are more likely to be found in the highlands, but the <NAME> are a Qonklese speaking group that lives on riverboats near major ports. In many pre-Republican kingdoms in Zaizung, especially in the highlands, there was a legal category of "tribal" indicating certain autonomous groups that did justice and paid taxes as a single group rather than as individuals, with various ones letting more or fewer groups be "tribal" or regular subjects. The 1902 Zaizung Republic tried to abolish this legal category, to mixed success, but Kúúlism's emphasis on traditional communities brought it back after the Pangyeoun War.

Names

As a multiethnic country, there are multiple naming conventions that are important, mostly Qonklese and Mañic based, but also Rietic and Terminian too.

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.

Because of its role as a trading hub, sometimes, foreign names get Zaizungized and used as well

Urbanisation

Historically, the north was more industrialized and had a higher population, while the south had a few ports but farmland in between. After the Pangyeoun War, Zaizung became a puppet state of the Helsonian Union, and moved its capital from the traditional capital in the north to the south.

Private intereststs started dredging ports in the south starting in the late Olboros period, but the post-Pangyeoun government took this to an extreme, expanding them greatly, and intentionally focusing development on building up new cities in the south.

The Kúúlist government built entire new industries in the south, leading to the southern capital overtaking the northern capital in population in the 1980s, and the second largest southern city overtaking it in 2002, though new development in the north let it retake its space in 2018.

Language

Most Zaizung are multilingual in a variety of languages. The two main groups are Zaizung Mañi and various Kwangic languages, but many people also speak Terminian or a Rietic language.

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 Old Amiyant Kwang around the 9th C. Standard Kwang also has had an influence on the country, as well as an older form of Kwang called Jã Kwang which is not attested after the 8th C, but left many loans and conventions for how to borrow Kwanging words into Zaizung Mañi langauges.

There are three main Zaizung Mañi dialects, with Northern and Southern along the coast, River being spoken in the highlands. Evidence shows that Southern and Northern are fairly closely related, with a northern dialect moving south along the coast.

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.

Education

Healthcare

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.

The National Iovist Church of Zaizung is a part of the government, as one of the 8 ministries. All Zaizung citizens are members of the Church, and can vote on their local clergy. It is not an exclusive religion, as citizens can be a part of a second religion as well.

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.

Heritage

Architecture

Zaizungese architecture has multiple influences in it. Throughout the country, it is very common to see pre-Kúúlist public buildings in a Qonklese style, as well as the houses of the elites, and in the north, also many middle class housing as well. Mañic architecture is also prevalent, especially for mass housing for more lower class families. Especially on the islands, and partially in the north, you also see styles from Rietic peoples.

Because Zaizung is defined by its mountainous terrain, styles have adapted to the split level nature of building on cliff faces. Many buildings are actually compounds connected by staircases going up the sides of the mountain. In additon, in very steep areas, some buildings are made by making holes in the rock, cantilevering wooden beams out of it, and using those to make a platform that a structure gets built on.

Industrialization in the late Qonklese Olboros period and the pre-Pangyeoun War Zaizung Republic lead to a lot of ~6 story apartment buildings with external staircases and a small balcony, especially in the Northern Capital but also in many of the cities in the south. These tended to have large rooms for multiple families on each floor, and movable paper screens and movable furniture like floor cusions for seating became a popular way to subdivide the space and remake it for multiple purposes. As the islands and the mountainous spine did not industrialize in the same way, you do not see these there.

Traditional Kwang buildings tended to have a stone lower floor contaning the kitchen, and the heat from it was brought through flues to heat the floor and walls of the upper floor, as well as a vent to not heat the floors in the summer months. Or, some even had a kitchen not immediately connected to the main building, but using pipes to heat the main building. Eventually, this lead to a lot of industrial era apartment buildngs heating with steam pipes. It became popular to have a cubby in the wall that was exposed to the steam pipes, to heat or stew dishes, and these "upstairs dishes" became popular.

Kúúlist building styles are much more common in the South, in the newer Southern Capital and other less developed southern cities, but did not replace as much of the existing architecture of the old Northern Capital.

Literature

Art

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.

One 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.

Another traditional Mañic tempo is a 13/8 3+3+3+2+2

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 the Zaizung use of the Mañi naming convention with Kwang months only goes up to 5 or 6 in the intercalenary Snake month, it is common to name spirits at 7 Snake - 30 snake, to clue the watchers in.

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.

Film

Cuisine

Zaizung has strong influences from around Sahar, predominantly Qonklaks, other parts of the Ngeruposphere, areas in what is now Fordas particularly Xynderland, and Cerman.

Meals tend to have multiple smaller dishes, in a banchan like style, with some dishes that are best eaten with chopsticks (usually on Soltennan rice), some that are eaten on corn arepas with the hands, and some that are wrapped in partially boiled cabbage leaves. Seafood makes a large part of the protein.

While Zaizung Mañi people have a high lactose intolerance rate, because haute cuisine tends to be Qonklese, dairy is still fairly ubiquitous in certain food items, both from native Water Buffalo and also imported cows.

As part of the Qoncosphere, tea makes a major part of culture, with tea houses seen as pillars of high society.

Sport

Flags

Both the older and newer flags of Zaizung are based on the junk sails of ships. The older flag also included the Wheel of Iovi. Since the old flag was not rectangular, looked dated, and had the battens parallelized even thought many junks in Zaizung had much more diagonal battens on their sails, under Kúúlist leadership adopted a new flag.

The older flag was adopted as a state flag by the old northern capital when Zaizung adopted its modern national flag.

Symbols

See also