Takatta Loa

Takatta Loa, officially known as the Republic of Takatta Loa, is a nation approximately 254,350 miles in area and located on the subcontinent Vallos, which is located on Sarpedon. Takatta Loa is predominantly wet, tropical rainforest, with a seasonal monsoon. The environment makes for an exceptionally biodiverse region, with many of the indigenous plants and animals being found only elsewhere on Vallos and nowhere else in the world. It shares a border with its northern neighbor of Almadaria.

Modern day Takatta Loa is a constitutional theocracy, with the Order of Natano being the official rulers of the republic, but holding mostly ceremonial powers and very limited legislative powers. The four legislative Houses, divided broadly into Open (elected officials) and Closed (hereditary or very limited electorate), hold the powers of government. In particular, the Open Houses are the primary legislative, administrative and security focused bodies while the Closed Houses form the national budget and oversee healthcare and education. All four of the legislative houses are involved in the legislative voting process, however.

The Empire of Takatta Loa was a rump state of the Kiravian proxy-colony of the same name, and was the direct predecessor of modern day Takatta Loa. Founded in 1699 and collapsing in 1875, the Empire at one point held all of southern Vallos before much of the colonial territory broke free following the death of Empress Tia'atiauela II, the second empress. Throughout the late 1700s and 1800s, the Empire underwent an intense process of "Loafication" wherein the mainland populations were forced to adopt Loa writing, language and culture. However, this period also resulted in significant religious development of the indigenous Kapuhenasa, which led to the development of organized and advanced entomantic orders. Modern Takatta Loa was officially founded in 1897 by Incarnate Toato Ani of the Order of Natano following the collapse of the Empire and the resulting Takatta Civil War. At the time, it was functionally an absolute theocracy with the Order regulating all aspects of life to conform to its political theology, and it also resulted in the freedom of Takatta Loa from Kiravian influence. Bolstered by sudden economic freedom, the Order sought to advance the economy beyond the previous plantations that served to enrich Kiravia. Although economic diversification was successful, significant political oppression resulted in the October Rebellion of 1952 which nearly overthrew the Order. After the death of Incarnate Ngatono in 1967, his successor Incarnate Sunwata began to negotiate with significant revolutionaries, royalty and the other influential entomantic orders. In 1970, the state was offically converted into the modern Republic of Takatta Loa and the Order of Natano relegated to largely ceremonial functions.

Takatta Loa boasts a diverse and still developing economic market. One of the largest industries in the nation is shipping, with Takatta Loa having some of the most robust shipping yards in the world. Further, agriculture still forms a significant portion of income, although it has been largely modernized. In particular, Takatta Loa is the largest producer of ginger and coconut in the world, bringing in around 1.5 and 26 billion dollars respectively, and is a very significant producer of the cola used in Imperial Cola, as well as having the oldest bottling plant located outside of Paulastra. Currently, there is much development going into the production and research of pharmaceuticals, with Rahangi Pharmaceuticals being founded and based in Takatta Loa. However, not all economic advancement has been distributed evenly, with the region of Akanatoa receiving significantly less attention than others. This has resulted in a large drug and arms trade occurring out of Akanatoa. The Hoa'akalra Cartel in particular has demonstrated separatist tendencies, resulting in the Akanatoa War.

Polynesian Settlement
The earliest definitive evidence of Polynesian habitation in Vallos dates back to around 1500 BCE, with remnants of distinctly Polynesian house posts being found on the island of Kakurana. The obscure indigenous people of Vallos left little evidence of their housing structures, leaving behind only pottery and arrowheads and axheads, so the emergence of Polynesian post holes in the archeological record is often used to track the advancement of Polynesian culture. As the ancient Polynesians advanced across southern Vallos, native Vallosi arrowheads and axe heads disappeared while Vallosi pottery styles remain and in some cases persist to this day, indicating that the cultural knowledge of indigenous Vallosi women survived in contrast to that of men. Although much of southern Vallos, especially along the rivers, practiced settled agriculture, examinations of middens show a significant amount of foraged game in the diet, suggesting a division of labor along gender lines with women farming and men hunting.

These historical developments align well with the "Vallosi Saga" theory, which states that the Polynesians were met with violence and repelled from Vallos, with later "invasions" of Polynesians supplanting the indigenous Vallosi. Both genetic testing and archeological evidence show that Vallosi women were often integrated and assimilated, with up to 60% of Loa having a significant Vallosi contribution to their mitochondrial DNA, in contrast to Vallosi men who left a very small genetic footprint. An exception is that of the Loa Islands, with many individuals having no Vallosi contribution. Archeological evidence suggests Kakurana and its neighboring islands were uninhabited, and that perhaps the voyages of the Saga theory took place between what would become the Loa Islands and the Vallosi mainland.

The above-mentioned "Vallosi Saga" project collected oral traditions from across Takatta Loa and southern Vallos and examined for examples of cultural continuity indicating potential historical value. The project led to the aforementioned conclusions of invasion, repellation and later return and supplantation. However, multiple differences were noted between the arrival stories of the Loa and Loa influenced cultures vs the non Loa stories, cementing some of the earliest examples of distinction between the Loa and other Polynesian groups. The typical arrival story tends to have a chieftain or chieftains who sets off on a voyage, often meeting mythological sea creatures along the way, until he arrives in Vallos. There, he encounters settled agriculture and in many stories integrates into a village typically through some great feat of heroism. However, eventually the chieftain and his crew are driven back into the sea where many of them die on the voyage back to the home islands. The chieftain swears vengeance and returns with an army to conquer the Vallosi. This aligns with the Saga theory and although names and details differ across traditions and cultures, this broad archetype remains the same. However, the Loa arrival story differs dramatically in that the Loa apparently are a later Polynesian arrival to Vallos. As such, they arrive on the island of Kakurana and encounter fellow Polynesians. Most notably, the Loa arrived under the guidance of a queen. Whether or not this is the origin of Loa pseudo-matriarchal society or whether Loa society later informed their own origin story is still the cause of much historical debate. Regardless, the Loa story concludes with the queen killing the native king after pretending to become his consort and supplanting his village. All Loa influenced cultures also tend to modify their own arrival stories, with the chieftain dying just after making it home and his queen setting off to avenge him. Experts tend to dismiss these stories as being directly influenced by the Loa and by 19th century attempts to enforce 'Loafication' on the mainland cultures, to evident success.

Polynesian Establishment
The period of Polynesian settlement lasted from 1500 to 500 BCE and generally ends with the last significant emergence of Polynesian archeological records in a region, which usually also entailed Polynesian supplantation of the native population. By the 5rd century BCE, wet rice agriculture had become standard across all riverine cultures, resulting in significant increase of Polynesian populations. Although there is no mention or evidence of cultivation of crops besides coconut, ginger and taro in the Polynesian records, the very quick adoption of wet rice agriculture indicates that the new invaders were familiar enough with agriculture to understand the value of rice, as well as the survival of Vallosi women's culture and work.

Polynesian began to diverge at this time into two very broad cultural distinctions, that of settled riverine agriculturalists and nomadic highland groups of either shifting agriculturalists or hunter gatherers. Both oral records and archeological evidence suggests that Polynesians waged significant warfare as their population moved into the highlands, likely from the last remnants of the southern Vallosi. One battle site yielded a total of 3,500 abandoned arrowheads, almost certainly from the same conflict, as well as large amounts of ash concentrated in one area, presumed to be a large Vallosi village. By 200 BCE, the last of the Vallosi are thought to have been supplanted, although small groups are known to have survived until the 1200s, though there remains no evidence of indigenous Vallosi survival. This also marks the beginning of the Polynesian Iron Age, thought to have originated via trade with the Occident.

The presumed reasons for this expansion into areas previously undesired by the new settlers are unclear though Loa scholars have reconstructed a theory of "Highland Transition"' based on riverine archeological sites in mainland Takatta Loa and examination of oral traditions. Evidence suggests that after settling into the lowlands and establishing wet rice agriculture, the Polynesians experienced an unprecedented population boom. The Transition theory suggests that these later Polynesians preserved a cultural response derived from island habitation of voyaging away to settle new lands. However, with Vallos being far larger than any island and with many of these populations being landlocked, the so called "voyagers" led expeditions to lands unsettled by the Polynesians, the highlands. However, the theory also suggests that these voyages were far less successful at establishing larger settlements and so many voyagers attempted to return home. Previous systems of agricultural management were unprepared to accommodate the large population, and so a widespread collapse of populations forced many to flee into the highlands due to famine or war. This incidentally resulted in a fulfilling of the settlement archetype laid out in oral traditions of centuries past, and potentially cementing the story tradition as a fundamental aspect of Polynesian culture even among landlocked groups that had never seen the sea.