Rusana

Rusana, officially the Republic of Rusana is a sovereign state located in southern Alshar. According to the 2027 census it has a population of roughly 54 million people. The population of Rusana is split almost evenly between urban and rural areas, with the capital city of Tabish being the undisputed center of economic activity. Rusana has a land area of 794,582 km2 and is bordered by Corumm to the east, Canpei to the north, Pukhgundi to the west and the Taizi Sea to the south.

Rusana has seen human habitation since at least 4000 BC and has been a battleground for several regional powers including the Oduniyyad Caliphate and various Corummese dynasties. During the 16th and 17th centuries the unified Rusani state was battered by invasions from its more powerful neighbors, which caused it severe territorial losses and heavily curtailed its autonomy. As a crossroads of empires its population is composed of a Rusani majority but also is host to various minorities such as the Tauqi and Kassar people and Corummese muslims known as the Yue. Rusana's economy is small and relatively underdeveloped, relying primmarily on the export of raw materials, agricultural products and fishing.

Early Habitation
The territory of modern Rusana has been continously inhabited since at least the fourth millenium BC when migratory waves of people possibly originating in the plains of north Alshar settled in the area. The civilization centered in the ancient city of Pharod dates at least back to 3890 BC according to radiocarbon dating. For much of antiquity the city of Pharod held a preeminent position and its people spread to other parts of modern day Rusana, founding new cities such as Nasrad, Khaton and Rilban. All of these cities had their own kings but they still deferred and sent tribute to Pharod as the mother city. The kings of Pharod promoted agriculture and new methods of irrigation, created the regions first coinage made from hardened clay, instituted an alphabet and writing in clay tablets and began the first roads of hardened dirt to connect cities. Pharodian civilization established diplomatic and trade relations with Corummese proto states to the east and with the polities of the Pukhgundi peninsula to the west. The Pharodians worshiped a pantheon of pagan gods, chief among them Dagan, a god of the sky, with the king serving as Dagan's head priest. This gave the pharodian line of kings a dual role as both secular ruler and head of the state religion. In time this would lead to attempts to bring Pharod's colonies under more direct control, starting a series of bloody conflicts.

Oduniyyad Caliphate Period
Starting in 665 CE, the expanding Oduniyyad Caliphate began its conquest of the southwestern states of Alshar. The wali of the Bulkawan wilayat, a certain Malik Ibn Harun landed in Pukhgundi with thirty thousand troops and secured the submission and conversion of its rulers to Islam. He reorganized the kingdom into the Alsar Wilayah with himself as governor. Founding the fort of Haras at the eastern edge of Pukhgundi's territory and leaving a small garrison, Malik Ibn Harun continued his eastern march along the coast into the territory of the Kingdom of Lakdu, his army augmented by five thousand levies from Pukhgundi. Ibn Harun then gained the allegiance of the Lakdu vassal king of Sikam, impressing him with the size of his army and the tenets of Islam. Proceeding east and with his army led by Sikam guides, he outmaneuvered the Lakdu army and defeated it at the battles of Lodran and Porus, ending the kingdom's organized resistance. Ibn Harun spent all of 667 conquering the now disunited urban centers of Lakdu. He added the territory into the wilayat of Alsar, tried to supress local paganism and endowed new mosques to help propagate the Islamic faith. Unlike other Audonian nobles, Ibn Harun was an enthusiastic supporter of conversion of local populations despite the diminishment in taxation from dhimmi sources. Ibn Harun next sent spies north and east to ascertain the most advantageous route of expansion for the Caliphate. To the east his spies reported the existence of the kingdom of Nasrad who served as a buffer state for a large empire named Korun, with well guarded border forts and vast armies. To them he sent an embassy promising peaceful intent and offered to continue the peaceful trade relation that had been maintained with Lakdu, an offer that was accepted. To the north his spies reported a peaceful,pastoral society who lived in small cities with palisades or in temples in the mountains, the agents reported the name of the country as Dagnum. Malik Ibn Harun determined to attack the tribes of Dagnum to his north first and dispatched letters back to Bulkawan asking for reinforcements with which to attack Korun after.

On the eve of the start of his invasion in 668, Malik Ibn Harun was recalled to Audonia, probably the victim of intrigues against him due to his martial success and the size of the territory he governed. He considered resisting the summons but relented when his soldiers mutinied and made it clear they would not follow him into rebellion against God's Caliph. In early 676 Ibn Harun's replacement arrived from Audonia, the wali of Umard, Musa Al Ghanim. For his efforts, Malik Ibn Harun was made wali of a smaller province in the Audonian interior and would go on to be arrested and executed in 690 after plotting to kill the Caliph and install Mansur's nephew on the throne.

Wali Musa Al Ghanim took command of all Oduniyyad forces and began the campaign with roughly 36,000 troops although he left behind around five thousand cavalry under Khamis Muminir to suppress a pagan uprising in Lakdu. Marching north he defeated several forces of Dagnumites, amounting to merely a few mid sized warbands. As he marched around the countryside he found no large army to fight but was instead constantly being ambushed and harassed by small groups. Getting word that local monks reported on the movements of his army to his enemies, Al Ghanim directed his force to the White Peak Monastery, which was rumored to house several holy relics revered by the Dagnumites. Al Ghanim approached on the monastery and after finding its gates closed to him, laid siege to it. Al Ghanim ordered the setting of mangonels on a nearby hilltop and commenced a bombardment that lasted for three days. Two direct attacks on the gates were repulsed by the monks. A week into the siege the Muslims were informed by spies they had left behind on their march that a large force of at least forty thousand warriors was quickly moving towards White Peak and would be upon the besiegers within a week. Unwilling to abandon the siege Musa Al Ghanim ordered that the pass leading to the monastery be fortified with a palisade while at the same time sending his swiftest riders to alert Khamis Muminir of his pressing need. On March 30th of 676 the tribal army under Ataliqan arrived at the mountain pass to see his way blocked by the wooden palisade erected by the Muslims. With the tables turned and the besieger now being the besieged, Ataliqan ordered his army to storm the palisade, beginning the Battle of Rauran Pass. Ataliqan's troops tried to bring down the wall with makeshift rams, hacking into it with axes and climbing it by hand or with ladders. Each time they were repulsed by a combination of the efforts of the muslim defenders and the mangonels Al Ghanim had repositioned to overlook the pass. The monastery defenders also began routinely sallying forth to put pressure on the muslim rear. On the second day of the battle the palisade was first breached and then brought down with hooks and ropes. A fierce melee ensued in the confined space of the pass, with Musa Al Ghanim being speared through the neck by one of Ataliqan's bodyguards. Just as the morale of the Muslims was wavering, the cavalry of Khamis Muminir arrived and proceeded to charge straight into the back of Ataliqan's army. The surprise arrival of the cavalry and the repeated charges sent the enemy into a panic as they were squeezed between the two Muslim forces. Ataliqan tried to rally his forces but was cut down in the melee and his army was completely routed. Musa Al Ghanim would not live to see the surrender of the monastery the next day, dying on the field of battle from the wound to his neck. The monastery of the White Peak would later be converted into the Ghazi Al Ghanim Mosque. He was succeded in command by Khamis Muminir, commander of the cavalry. The Muslim victory at Rauran Pass crippled the military power of the Dagnumites, the loss of men too high for any hopes of further resistance. Muminir spent a further three years imposing the Caliph's rule and building fortresses to cement Odduniyad control in the long term. He separated part of the Alsar wilayat and united it with the new territory to create the Rusana wilayat, named after the Caliph's mother. Khamis Muminir was confirmed by the Caliph as governor and also made the post hereditary for three generations after him. Muminirs governorship would continue until his death in battle in 688 against an insurrection in Pukhgundi. His son Walid would inherit his position as governor and initiate a vast program of colonization, bringing in thousands of lower class Audonian families to his territories. He mandated the construction of the city of Tabish at the Baari inlet to serve as a new port and settled it with audonian immigrants. It is also during his reign that a border war would begin against the Oduniyyad's neighbor to the east, the kingdom of Nasrad. The pressing need for more military forces would give rise to the phenomenon of the slave-soldier, as Oduniyyad authorities enslaved many Dagnumites and forced them to serve in the east. While for most of the Oduniyyad period the majority of the forces available to local governors were composed of Audonians and converts, and Dhimmis were barred from military professions, slaves brought from central Audonia, the northern steppes and Nasrad were plentiful and the system of indoctrinated slave warriors would become very important in post Oduniyyad islamic states.

The Nasrad kingdom, being a subject of the Chen Corummese dynasty could expect to be aided in case of conflict. Therefore Governor Walid determined that the invasion had to proceed as swiftly as possible to prevent Corummese reinforcements from arriving in time.

In 725 the Caliph Abdul Hakan declared a jihad upon Corumm who began to be called Kafiristan (land of the unbelievers) for a series of Corummese raids on the border city of Khovedjan. Governor Walid Al Muminir was commanded to throw back the infidels past the Arik Mountain range which marked the traditional boundary between the two realms.

Chen-Rusani Wars
Following the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Horoz plain in 1060, the kingdom of Ghanim fell into the sphere of the Chen dynasty. Emboldened by the victory at Horoz, the Chen dynasty initiated an invasion of Barpubad intending to gain the southern shore of lake Doyeon. As the Chen marched south in the direction of Barpubad's heartland, their enemy divided its forces into three separate armies, refusing to engage general Qu Hou's larger army in the open. After reducing several fortresses in late 861, Qu Hou marched on the Barpubad capital. The main Barpubadid army finally stood in his way to give battle at the village of Pasdar but unbeknownst to Qu Hou his army was being flanked from the east and the west by the other two formations. The initial battle went in favor of the larger Chen army but as it was close to overwhelming the Barpudadid infantry the auxiliary armies initiated their attack from the rear and eastern flank. The morale of the Chen collapsed upon being close to encirclement and a rout soon initiated. Qu Hou broke free of the trap with a few hundred horsemen and fled north while the bulk of the Chen infantry tried to flee west, only to get bogged down and picked off in the marshes. The defeat at the battle of Pasdar ended the Barpubad expedition and dented Chen military prestige altough Ghanim's own weakened position at the time precluded it taking advantage to throw off its vassal status.

Levantine Exploration
1650-1798 Kiravian explorers were the first "occidentals" to make contact with the peoples of modern Rusana however from their introduction in the 1500s to the establishment of the Martillian Protectorate over the Kingdom of Lakadu it was often overlooked compared to the riches of Corumm. The Ularien Trading Company of Martilles first established contact with the Kingdom of Lakadu in 1616. With Kiravias well established trade with Corumm for far eastern goods the Martilliens negotiated a treaty with the Lakadui to secure ports at first for raiding Kiravian shipping as it passed westerward, laden with Corummese goods but eventually the privateers sought more. They obverved the resentments that the Lakadui held for their neighbors in Barpubad and offered to supply them with mercenaries and to instruct their armies in the lessons learned from the Great Confessional War. Throughout the 1620s and 30s the Lakadui and Barpubadi clashed in minor skirmishes in which the Lakadui became increasingly victorious. While the Levantines did not offer a superiour military product their doctrine of war was so foreign to that part of the world that it proved shocking to the Barpubadi. In a series of violent battles the Lakadui made massive gains into the islands south of Barpubad's coast. These islands long contested between Barpubad and Corumm were captured and an emissary was dispatched to the Emperor's court and a back to the King in Lakadu. In a master stroke the Martillien mercenaries sold the inner ring of islands to Corumm and formally opened relations with that nation, and also demonstrated to the King of Lakadu what could be achieved if he remanded more power to the Martilliens. In this masterstroke the Martilliens secured their future in the region and became friendly with the greatest power in Alshar, Corumm. Whereas the Kiravians were merely traders, the Martilliens offered concrete results to the Imperial Corummese Court. In 1650, the Kingdom of Lakadu was formalized as a protectorate of the Duchy of Martilles. This was only possible by brokering a treaty with the Corummese Court that recognized its sovereignty and promised to support Corumm in the event of an invasion from Barpudad, Ghanim, or the as yet unexplored Tanhai. For as long as the southeast coast Levantines maintained colonies in the area they respected this treaty, one of the only in that time.

With the Great Slavery Revolt on the western shores of Alshar the various colonial administrators had to make a choice as the revolt became a full-scale war, one that the Levantine colonists were losing badly. Would they cast their lot in with their fellow colonists, draining the defensive resources from their own colonies, ignore the plight of their brethren, try to balance both, or abandon their colonial ambitions altogether. The viceroy of Pyrithi Colony attempted to find a balance.

Geography and Climate
The climate of Rusana varies from tropical to temperate, with semi-arid conditions in the coastal south. There is a monsoon season with frequent flooding due to heavy rainfall, and a dry season with significantly less rainfall. There are four distinct seasons in Rusana: a cool, dry winter from December through February; a hot, dry spring from March through May; the summer rainy season, or southwest monsoon period, from June through September; and the retreating monsoon period of October and November. Rainfall can vary greatly from year to year, and patterns of alternate flooding and drought are not uncommon. The geography of Rusana is varied but much of it is dominated by the xxx mountain range that begin in the north and cleave through the central area of the nation, with only the coast being relatively flat.

Government
Rusana follows the traditional republican system with three separate branches; an executive led by a Chief of State, an unicameral legislative and the judiciary represented by the Supreme Islamic Court. The Chief of State is elected through nationwide elections, every five years and has wide powers over military, economic affairs and foreign policy. Legislative power rests with the Rusani National Assembly or Rusani Majles, with each of the country's 150 districts having two seats, renewed by election every three years.

Political Parties
Current Rusana politics are divided between two electoral alliances, the conservative Alliance for Prosperity and the relatively moderate Builder's Alliance supported by most ethnic and religious minorities.

Administrative divisions
Provincial map pending

Ethnic Groups

 * Rusani -
 * Corummese -
 * Yue -
 * Tauqi -
 * Dukir
 * Kassar -

Economy
Rusana has a mixed economy that is heavily slanted towards the primary sector and resource extraction. Agriculture, fishing, mining and oil extraction account for over forty percent of the national gross domestic product. The agriculture sector is the single largest employer in the country, accounting for some 25% of jobs. Despite this it suffers from chronic underfunding by government and decaying water infrastructure. Rusana depends on water sources located in Corumm for up to 35% of its needs. The current status and cubic meters of water alloted for Rusana are under constant renegotiation which creates uncertainty for Rusani farmers. Despite all these hurdles, Rusani olives and citruc are prized in the region for their high quality and taste. The mining and oil industries are mostly in the hands of Corummese companies due to the lack of funds and necessary technology by local companies to properly exploit these resources. The Rusani government typically enters in royalty sharing contracts with Corummese transnationals. Light industry and manufacturing that is not capital intensive represents the next largest sector of the economy, with a focus on consumer goods. This allows the Rusanan economy to cover the entire supply chain for many perishable goods that it in turns exports to parts of Alshar. Tourism was a moribund sector due to insecurity until only a few years ago but greater policing of tourist areas is leading to a bit of a small boom in visitors, which gives the local economy a much needed injection of foreign currency.

Supply inefficiencies, widespread corruption and political instability have proven to be persistent obstacles to sustained economig growth, averaging a growth of only 3% annually for the past ten years. The government has planned to adress many of the systemic economic problems with its 'Future Rusana 2050' plan which calls for tax reform, increased road, power and water infrastructure to boost regional connectivity, increased funding for security, the creation of a national anti corruption watchdog among other initiatives. The clear inability of the government to fund even half of these plans has led critics to believe that Corummese funding might eventually be brought in, with attached strings.