Kelekona
Crowned Republic of Kelekona Kelekona Lliawt'u Ripuwlikay (Kelekonese) | |
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 Flag
 Coat of arms
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Motto: Ama suwa, ama lliullia, ama qillia ("Never lie, never idle, never steal") | |
 Location of Kelekona (green) in eastern Crona (gray). | |
| Capital and largest city | Maktalin |
| Official languages |
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| National language | T'inkirunasimi |
| Regional languages |
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| Ethnic groups (2030) |
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| Religion (2030) | |
| Demonym(s) | Kelekoni, Kelekonese |
| Government | Federal parliamentary tetrarchic semi-constitutional co-qhapaqate |
| Antuniy Willika | |
| Qispi Waman | |
| Legislature | Suyupusuntur |
| Roq'akaysuntur | |
| Sapsisuntur | |
| Established | |
| 1592 | |
| 29 March 1698 | |
| 2 October 1975 | |
| 7 April 1977 | |
| 10 December 1988 | |
| 18 August 2002 | |
| 9 September 2009 | |
| 4 May 2025 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 742,704.99 km2 (286,760.00 sq mi) |
• Water (%) | 3.0 |
| Population | |
• 2034 estimate | 97,324,981 |
• Density | 131.04/km2 (339.4/sq mi) |
| GDP (nominal) | estimate |
• Total | $476 billion |
• Per capita | $4,912 |
| HDI (2034) |  0.521low |
| Currency | Sunya (KES) |
| Mains electricity | 120 V–60 Hz |
| Driving side | right |
| Internet TLD | .ke |
Kelekona, officially the Crowned Republic of Kelekona (Kelekonese: Kelekona Lliawt'u Ripuwlikay), is a country on the northern coast of the Songun in central Crona. It is bordered to the north by Varshan, to the east by Titechaxha and Arcerion, and to the west by Ehemo, Riena Levsa, Kartejya, and Porlos. It covers over 742 thousand km2 and has a population of over 97 million people. The capital and largest city is Maktalin, which is located on the western fork of the Innis River.
Kelekona has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, and was the core region of the North Songun civilization. It was home to many different polities over the course of that civilization's existence, which all met their end by 1500. During most of the 16th century, the territory was functionally a warzone due to rival claims to its territory, neo-Songunite uprisings, alternating periods of conquest and raiding by peoples of the Earplanne, and the ever-present condition of the Hunts. The chaos eventually stymied Varshani exploitation in the area and presented instability on its borders, leading to Varshan invading the territory in 1592. It reorganized the various borderlands into a single tributary. Its governance more or less remained tied to Anzo for the next four centuries until its independence in 1975.
In that same year, the country was plunged into a devastating civil war between the ruling United Front for the Independence of Kelekona, supported by Urcea, Burgundie, and many other Occidental powers, the socialist insurgent People's Front of Kelekona, and the social nationalist insurgent Kelekonese People's Front. The victory of the People's Front in 1977 led to the establishment of an authoritarian socialist republic that lasted for eleven years until it was overthrown by right-wing military elements in 1988. The country remained under the rule of a totalitarian military junta until it was overthrown by the Yellow Revolution in 2002; the revolution was partially triggered by the junta's heavy oppression of the minority Jawaruna peoples and its tight grip on the economy. The fall of the junta led to the rise of the short-lived Free Republic of Kelekona, an experiment in minarchism and objectivism. The minarchist republic's loss to Arcerion in the third Telekonese Conflict in 2007 led to a second coup in 2009, bringing forth a democratic republic guided by the military. A migrant crisis that occurred during the Final War of the Deluge would lead to the collapse of the Kelekonan economy and the stratocratic democracy which was soon overthrown in 2025 by qhapaqists.
The Crowned Republic of Kelekona is a federal tetrarchic co-qhapaqate containing elements of a parliamentary democracy, an elective monarchy, and directorial republicanism. Kelekona's collective head of state and head of government is the Qhapaqs' Council, a collegial body of four members, each serving as the head of Kelekona's four surviving Songunite royal families, and headed by the Umalliq ("President") who serves as first among equals with the Umakamayuq ("Prime Minister") being second among equals. The general staff of the Qhapaqs' Council is the Iskaykaqakamayuq ("Second Minister"), who serves as the chair of the Council of Nobles, and is assisted by the Kimsakaqukamayuq ("Third Minister"), who serves as the chair of the Council of the Commons. It is a member of the League of Nations.
Kelekona is rich in natural resources, although its economy has remained stagnant due to recent political instability, a lack of infrastructure, and societal tensions discouraging wide-scale development. Much of Kelekona's development had mainly occurred during the years prior to the collapse of the minarchist government in 2009, although this growth was extremely uneven and was largely undone due to Arcer attacks during the Third Telekonese Conflict in 2007; what little development that had occurred during the years of the 2009 junta have been undone thanks to the Second Kelekonese Civil War in the 2020s.
Standards of living remain low for most Kelekonans - even more so as the country handles a migrant crisis on the scale of millions, itself triggered by the Final War of the Deluge. This has effectively made Kelekona one of the most decentralized governments in the world as the central government in Maktalin has been largely unable to consolidate its control over the entirety of Kelekona, in turn resulting in the formation of local, de-facto civilian councils to handle local affairs outside of Maktalin and the state of Mayusuyu, the only region in Kelekona that the central government has been able to completely consolidate its control over and thus makes it the only fully-functional part of the country.
Etymology
The name Kelekona has its origins in being an Ænglish bastardization of the Varshani term Kelezuno, itself the name for the tributary state located in modern Kelekona. Not much is known about the origins of the term Kelezuno, though the most common theory behind the term claims that it comes from the Varshani term for "Holy Armament of the Day" or "Armament of the Holy Day", suggesting a possible reference to the Arzalist sun god Aq. This theory holds the most credence because of Kelekona's status as a Varshani tributary state for nearly four hundred years. The earliest usage of "Kelekona" comes in the early 19th Century through documents written by Ardmori settlers in what is now the neighboring nation of Arcerion.
Kelekona has been considered rather controversial amongst the indigenous Kelekonese population due to it not only being an exonym brought upon by a foreign power, but also because it suggests that Kelekona is a nation-state as the main ethnic group of the country is known in Ænglish as the Kelekonese people. As such, there have been numerous proposals to form a committee to change Kelekona's name to an endonym to more properly reflect that it is a multiethnic indigenous Cronan state and to effectively separate the nation from its past as a Varshani tributary state, especially after the occupation of Varshan ever since the end of the Final War of the Deluge. However, due to the fact that the Kelekonese government has been prioritizing the consolidation of its control over the entirety of the nation through a very slow and arduous process of recovery from its current dismal state of abject poverty and devastation, these proposals have never been able to come to fruition.
Geography
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Mount Kinichu, highest point in Kelekona. -
Mount Pachakutiq, second-highest point in Kelekona. -
Kelekonese section of the Innis River. -
One of the many lakes found in southwestern Kelekona.
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Kelekona is approximately 742,704.99 km2 (286,760 sq mi) in area, much of the nation spans across most of the western portion of the Innis River Basin, and a vast majority of its population is largely centered around the Innis river, its forks, the flatlands surrounding the river, and near the coast facing the Malentine Bay, the northern section of the Songun Sea that it shares with its neighbors Arcerion, Istrenya, and Malentina. The southeastern section of Kelekona is home to its internal lakes. The western section of the Innis river, or as it is called in Kelekona, the Pakariy ("Dawn"), serves as the main commercial and agricultural lifeline for Kelekona, and historically the Kelekonese have claimed ownership to the Cochrane river which was once known as the Tutaray ("Dusk") during the years of the North Songun civilization and up until the arrival of Ardmori settlers; every attempt at reclaiming the lost territory has been met with failure.
To its north and west, Kelekona shares parts of a mountain range with its neighbors Titechaxha and Varshan. It is home to Mount Kinichu, the highest point in Kelekona and is the ancestral home to the Kinichuyupi people. The second-largest mountain in Kelekona, located in the western range, is known as Mount Pachakutiq, named after Kelekonese revolutionary and founding father Inti Pachakutiq Taytakawsaylliaqta. Both mountains hold the record for the highest amounts of snowfall in the country as average temperatures tend to be below 20 degrees Celsius, and are generally more sparsely-populated compared to the flatlands and the areas near the Innis river with Machaku being the sole city in the northern mountain range.
The smallest areas of Kelekona are much of the northwestern portion of the Malentine Islands. Known as Rawrayaqukunatarakuna ("Burning Sands Islands"), these islands are vital for the nation's fishing sector of the economy, and its major point of contention since the 1980s with the Telekonese Conflicts. To this day, Kelekona still maintains a claim over Arcerion's Foxhey Islands. The islands, much like the nearby coastal areas, are home to the warmest temperatures in Kelekona due to its proximity to the Malentine Bay.
History
Center of the North Songun
The earliest instances of human habitation in what is now Kelekona dates back to prehistoric times, with some of the earliest urban settlements dating back to 3000 BC with the advent of the agricultural revolution in Crona. These urban settlements in Kelekona, particularly in the east and most especially Maktalin, would become one of the most prosperous areas in central Crona thanks to the area's rich soil and abundance of water for irrigation. This allowed for the emergence of the North Songun civilization around the year 100 AD, with what would become Kelekona becoming the core region of one of the largest of the North Songun polities. It is from the North Songun that the Kelekonese and the Telekonese peoples can trace their heritage from. The North Songun civilization was among the first major powers in Crona, having expanded and flourished from its ancestral homeland, taking complete control of the hugely vital Innis-Cochrane river basins thus allowing it to turn cities further upriver into tributaries to the larger and more powerful near-costal cities downriver, with Maktalin as the main religious and economic hub from which most other North Songun cities were tributes to whether directly or indirectly.
It was during these early centuries that these Cronan civilizations had little awareness of the lands outside their home continent for the most part as most forms of marine transportation at the time were simply unable to realistically make it to far-off lands. However, there were tales of a land that was discovered by people who were exiled by sea during the years prior to the rise of the North Songun civilization. This land was said to have allowed those exiles to live an eternal life in a paradise of plenty and fair weather as a reward for their redemption, but said paradise was considered to be impossible for others to visit due to it being separated by rough open seas and stormy weather. Scholars have confirmed that this tale was based on the pre-North Songun religious practice known as the Heaven Ships and that the exiles mentioned in the tale were the ancestors of the Tainean people who have arrived to Vallos, said to be the paradise mentioned in that tale, before the year 100 BC.
Destruction of the Sister Cities
The North Songun civilization was not without its rivals, however. During the later years of the North Songun, its two main rivals were Varshan and the nomads of the Earplanne; the latter of which would be united by the Matokté Tashnacate, and the former had grown to overtake the North Songun by the time of the late 14th Century. Around this time, the arrival of Paul Aster while on an expedition to find the source of all gold for his patrons at Ardmore introduced the North Songun civilization, and Crona in general, to the Occidental world for the very first time. The arrival of the Ænglish mariner and his crew was met with different reactions from not just the North Songun, but also from Varshan. The North Songun reacted relatively cordially to these outsiders, but Varshan interpreted this as the sign of an impending apocalypse and soon transformed their society into that of a militaristic culture that exalted the ideals of the warrior.
During Varshan's transformation, the twin cities of Tutayopakayu and Churumayka, which were located at the mouth of the Innis river and were two of Maktalin's wealthiest tributes, were destroyed in one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of Crona. The 1391 Sister Cities earthquake had grave religious implications. The destruction of two major tributary cities was interpreted by many of the North Songun as a sign of divine displeasure, and in the ensuing chaos and religious turmoil the nomads of the Tashnacate took advantage of the new instability and conquered the North Songun by the year 1399. The Tashnacate was noted to be rather lenient and allowed the North Songun to retain its culture and its elites, but that did not stop the instability caused by the sudden destruction of the Sister Cities which was soon exacerbated by the rapid decline and eventual collapse of the Tashnacate by the year 1498, leaving the newly-independent North Songun city-states in a state of complete vulnerability.
Tributary state of Kelezuno
The collapse of the Tashnacate gave Varshan, which by then had become the most powerful polity in all of Crona, a tremendous opportunity to expand into the former North Songun heartland and thus continued to conduct a series of annual raids into the area known as "the Hunts", which had helped in hastening the Tashnacate's decline. This practice occurred once every summer and would always result in many people being forcibly taken from their homes to Varshan where they would spend the rest of their days in slavery, although some scholars have argued that the Hunts have also captured people for the intent to use them as offerings in a human sacrifice. The 16th Century was an era of warring and devastation for the North Songun polities as uprisings, raids, and Varshani attacks destroyed the final remnants of North Songun civilization and culture.
By the 1580s, the area was so badly-plagued by unending chaos and instability that it was making the Hunts not only very difficult, but it also made Varshani border security a threat to its national security. To combat this, Varshan conducted the Hunt once again in 1592, but this time it was not to bring home slaves or to conduct raids. Instead, it was to occupy the former North Songun for a period of three years to establish new tributary states so as to facilitate future Hunts was ease. By the end of the 16th Century, Varshan had established a new stable tributary state in Kelekona and imported Varshani families into the area to serve as the new leaders of the tributary state. With Kelekona or, as the Varshani called it, Kelezuno stabilized and firmly under Varshani control, the Hunts became less and less destructive before soon being an event that only nobles and private parties would instigate before ceasing it altogether in the 18th Century.
Failed qhapaqist revolt of 1698
Just over a century into Kelezuno's time as a Varshani tributary state, a group of Kelekonese elites rose up in revolt against their Varshani overlord. These elites were among the descendants of the former noble and royal houses of the North Songun civilization, and were aiming to overthrow the tributary state and re-establish the qhapaqate system. The plotters had assumed that as soon as the Kelekonese people hear of a Songunite revolt that they would join up and revolt against Varshan as well. Instead, the popular reaction was one of disdain and hostility from people who had grown weary of the chaos and instability that had plagued the lands of Kelezuno and were more than welcoming towards the relative peace and stability under the protection of Varshan. Indeed, a counter-revolt was launched against the qhapaqists and had emerged victorious in 1701. The leaders of the revolt were soon captured shortly after the last of the qhapaqist forces had surrendered and were subsequently sent to Varshan to serve as human sacrifices as punishment for their insolence. News of the defeat of the qhapaqist revolt at the hands of the Kelekonese people was received positively by Varshan, seeing it as a sign of loyalty and favor and thus rewarded Kelezuno with their own Varshani-origin royal family, who would answer directly to the Zurg of Varshan.
Road to independence
Bush Wars
The Arcer Bush Wars were a series of four conflicts spanning from 1794 until 1975. These conflicts have emerged as a result of the arrival of Ardmori settlers and the expansion of these settlements by their Arco descendants in Arcerion. While these conflicts served as definitive moments in the history and growth of Arcerion, to Kelezuno these conflicts were seen as definitive moments in the overall unreliability of Varshan in the realization that Kelezuno was nothing more than a means to efficiently and effectively extract tribute from. The first three of these bush wars had little involvement from Kelezuno; the Ardmori and their descendants were far away from tributary state, and the most that has happened as a result of each of these wars ending in an Arcer victory was an influx of indigenous refugees from both the Bush Wars and the subsequent indigenous displacement policies of Arcerion. This influx proved to be overwhelming for the Varshani dependency as there was simply no way that they could give these refugees homes and employment, especially with Varshan having an apathetic attitude towards their dependencies until it was time to pay the tribute.
Kelezuno would not get directly involved in any of the Bush Wars until 1964 when the Kelezunese economy collapsed due to the importation of higher-quality foodstuffs from Arcerion. Seeking revenge against this perceived slight towards them, and fearing that inaction may incur the wrath of Varshan, Kelezuno began to send aid to the Free Telekoni People's Movement, a Telekonese left-wing nationalist movement operating in the Innis River basin. As the Arcer economy expanded even further with the opening of a major shipping port in the Arcer city of Oakham, so too did Kelezuno's support and funding for the Telekonese insurgents as they attacking Arcer farmers and rail lines. Neighboring Tietechaxha soon joined in on the opportunity to cripple and damage the Arcer economy, leading to a sharp rise in not just attacks against farms and rail infrastructure, but also government buildings and key civil infrastructure. Soon, Kelezuno began to prop up a second insurgent group, the Kelezuni Militia for the Liberation of Indigenous Peoples, and had began to send aid and funding to indigenous movements in Arcerion such as the Free Indigenous Army, the Movement for the Liberation of Aboriginals, and the Riverland Workers' Party. Initially, these insurgencies had scored multiple victories thanks to the Arcer military undergoing austerity measures in the mid-1960s, but the tide had eventually turned and by late September of 1975, Kelezuno had ceased all aid and funding to these insurgent groups and had dissolved the KMLIP. Just four days later, Kelezuno had passed the Act of Abjuration on 2 October, formally declaring independence and ending nearly four centuries of servitude under Varshan and abolishing the Varshani-originated monarchy in the newly-independent state.
First civil war
Almost as soon as the Act of Abjuration came into effect, the newly-independent Kelezuno, which had been renamed to Kelekona to distance itself from their former Varshani overlords, had established a provisional government to facilitate its transformation towards sovereign statehood. The new government was led by the United Front for the Independence of Kelekona, a big tent party that was established during the later years of the Fourth Arcer Bush War and led by revolutionary statesman Inti Pachakutiq Taytakawsaylliaqta, that had hoped to establish a secular and progressive Kelekonese state where all citizens would be recognized as Kelekonese regardless of their ethnic origin. However, there emerged two rival factions that opposed Pachakutiq's government, those being the hardline socialist People's Front of Kelekona and the social nationalist Kelekonese People's Front, that soon declared open hostilities against the provisional republic, thus beginning the First Kelekonese Civil War. The war would last for two years, with Occidental powers such as Urcea and Burgundie supporting Pachakutiq, the Kiravian Union supporting the People's Front of Kelekona, and the Delepasian Estado Social supporting the Kelekonese People's Front.
Socialist republic
The Socialist Republic of Kelekona under the People's Front of Kelekona had emerged victorious in the civil war, with Pachakutiq fleeing to Urcea, never to return until the fall of the second junta in 2025. The new regime had immediately began to implement sweeping reforms onto Kelekona, most especially reforms designed to secularize the Kelekonese state and to formally declare state atheism as the country's religious policy; many temples were forcibly deconsecrated with some being converted into museums dedicated to Kelekonese history and others becoming planetariums designed to educate older citizens. Other major reforms included the introduction of universal education and equal rights for women, the latter having allowed women to enter into the workforce for the first time in many industrial sectors of the economy. Although these reforms were immensely popular with the people of Kelekona, this early height in popularity began to dwindle as many of the promises that the regime had made were not met at all. With that came protests calling for new leadership, with some wanting to establish a more democratic form of government; leading to the government brutally repressing these protests which did nothing more than to lead to additional protests and further reprisals in an endless cycle of violence and civil disobedience.
First Telekonese conflict
In an effort to bolster its dwindling legitimacy, to mobilize strong patriotic feelings of the glory days of the North Songun era, and to distract the people from the woes of economic stagnation and multiple failed promises after the initial reforms, the socialist regime began to mobilize the Kelekonese People's Army and the Kelekonese People's Navy for an eventual attack on Arcerion in hopes of reclaiming some islands that were historically a part of the Telekonese homeland, feeling confident that the war-weary Arcers would not come to the defense of these islands or seek to retake them which may in turn allow for the Kelekonese government to press their claim in the League of Nations. At four hours after midnight on 12 August 1986, just before daybreak, Kelekonese naval vessels were spotted off the coast of the Foxhey Islands, and soon the islands of Sharnwick, Larton, Gramsby, and Swindon were seized by the Kelekonese forces, with Farnsworth and Port Gibson coming under attack not long afterwards. Despite the Kelekonese hopes for a swift takeover of the islands, they were instead met with a warning to withdraw any and all forces within ninety-six hours or otherwise face a counterattack from Arcer forces. During the brief occupation, the Kelekonese forces faced attacks and violent protests from the Arcer inhabitants of the island, with some twenty-four Arcer citizens being killed as a result.
The Arcer counterattack came and through the course of three months was able to slowly liberate the islands as the Kelekonese forces faced starvation and attrition under poor weather conditions and Arcer naval blockades preventing the shipment of supplies. As the Kelekonese forces were increasingly losing their grip on the islands, the war was becoming more and more unpopular on the Kelekonese home front. In an attempt to turn the tide in their favour, the Kelekonese forces began to attack mainland Arcerion to seize the key port city of Dunborough, which was quickly repelled by Arcer forces which were pre-positioned along the Innis River basin; the Arcer forces even managed to attack mainland Kelekona, with them pushing into the suburbs of Pakariylliaqta. The failure of the Foxhey invasion and the repelled attack on Dunborough led to Kelekona requesting that the League of Nations negotiate an armistice. Mediated by Alstin, Kelekona and Arcerion have agreed to a ceasefire in early December with both sides halting offensive actions and withdrawing shortly afterward. The end of the war resulted in no border changes, economic turmoil for Kelekona, and an increase of mass protests against the socialist regime due to their failure in reclaiming the Foxhey Islands.
Junta of 1988
The loss of the first Telekonese Conflict was not without consequence nor retaliation from Arcerion. The socialist government had attempted to stabilize the country by hastening some key economic reforms, such as Qallarnyawpariynin Antanyiqiqumusiku which was an attempt at emulating the economic practices of the North Songun civilization via a cybernetic form of a socialist economy, but every single one of these reforms was too little, too late. Throughout much of 1988, the regime was plagued with a series of popular protests, marches, and riots, but it was not until 14 June when the protests have reached their peak with a student protest in the nation's capital of Maktalin which soon spread across the country as the students were soon joined by children, housewives, priests, and many others who have grown increasingly tired of the increasingly totalitarian form of socialism that had ruled Kelekona for the past eleven years. The protests were soon able to overthrow the socialist republic and soon established the People's Republic of Kelekona (Kelekona Runallaqta Ripuwlika ), which introduced sweeping democratic reforms while still committing to a more libertarian form of socialism.
The People's Republic did not last long, however, and on 10 December 1988, just over two years after the first Telekonese Conflict entered into a ceasefire, right-wing elements of the Kelekonese armed forces, with the aid and funding of the Office of Public Safety and National Security in Arcerion, retook the country in a bloody coup and declared martial law before violently breaking up any and all protests against the nascent junta. State-run radio stations would claim that the military had assumed power in the name of the Kelekonese people, ignoring the fact that the people had supported the libertarian socialist government and not the military. Regardless, the military had the power and the funding it needed to consolidate control over Kelekona, which it did swiftly and effectively within two weeks. Once the junta was secure, the new regime began to work on an extensive propaganda campaign to depict themselves as having "saved" Kelekona from imminent collapse and anarchy, claiming that the People's Republic was a repressive autocracy, but no one within and without Kelekona believed the junta's version of the events.
Second Telekonese conflict
Troubled by the continuously increasing public outcry against its methods of brutality and repression that was seen by international observers as being even worse than the methods perpetrated by the socialist regime, the junta was largely diplomatically isolated as the League of Nations issued a formal condemnation of the countless human rights violations and brutal crackdowns against the opposition. The only country that maintained a consular staff in Kelekona was Arcerion, which it maintained to negotiate certain economic and diplomatic initiatives. A vast majority of Kelekona's energy was supplied by Arcerion's power grid, and a huge portion of access and control over fresh water resources were in the hands of Arcer companies and water treatment facilities which would supply Kelekona with potable and drinkable water, but at an added premium. There was also a significant brain drain as the Kelekonese intelligentsia fled the country to escape the junta.
Inri Kuymi, chairman of the military junta, began to draft out and formulate plans which called for the seizure of the upper portions of the Innis River in hopes of forcing the Arcer government to negotiate with the regime which would hopefully lead to more favourable energy and economic deals. Kelekona also needed to seize the Dunborough Nuclear Power Plant and the coal-powered Oakham Power Plant to offset its energy deficit. These plans required a quick offensive in which the two power plants would be seized alongside the junction of the North Innis and Innis rivers to leverage the lowland terrain. During the planning stages, the junta would reach out to the Titechaxhan government for help in this endeavor, asking them to diplomatically engage with the Arcer government by claiming that the soon-to-be-seized lands were in fact rightfully a part of Kelekona. However, the OPSNS had discovered what Kelekona was setting out to do and immediately warned the Arcer parliament about the planned Kelekonese seizure, giving Arcer forces ample time to prepare for a defense before the planned invasion could be carried out.
The junta was soon informed by the Arcer government that their plans have been discovered and that the military has made preparations for the oncoming invasion should they go through with it. With the element of surprise lost, Kelekona rushed through the final stages of preparation for the invasion and began to attack Arcer positions on 29 August 1991. Because the Arcer forces were well-prepared, these attacks would wind up proving to be ineffective, only causing at most minor civilian casualties. Throughout the next three months, the vastly under-prepared Kelekonese forces were repelled at every theater of war, and by 5 November the two sides had begun to negotiate an armistice under Alstinian mediation. A demilitarized zone would be established along the Kelekonese side of the border with Arcerion, and the military junta was required to pay reparations for not only the need repairs to Arcer infrastructure that were damaged due to the conflict, but also for the families of civilians who were killed or injured in the fighting. The failure of the junta to achieve its goals and its repeated violations of international law led to further public outcry and protests against the regime.
Yellow revolution and minarchist rule
Asides from the brutal methods of repressing protests against the regime, the military junta was also noted for being highly ethnocentric in nature, believing that only people of North Songun ancestry were "true Kelekonese" and that the nation's Jawaruna minority, people of Varshani ancestry who have lived in Kelekona and the preceding Kelezuno tributary state since the late 16th Century, were at fault for the centuries of decline that the North Songun civilization had suffered under. With that, the junta began to heavily persecute the Jawaruna through forced displacements and internment camps while confiscating their possessions to distribute them to loyal supporters of the regime. The actions against the Jawaruna garnered even more international condemnation, with many calling it an ethnic cleansing given the nature of the persecutions. It was also during this time that a group of internationally-educated students formed an opposition group known as the Pakariyninqispikaykawpayphatma (PQK), a political party heavily influenced by right-libertarian ideologies from the Occident such as minarchy and paqtachismu ("objectivism"), the latter of which was developed by Kelekonese philosopher Ninasisa Pariwana during the socialist era.
The PQK's support during its early years were largely grassroots, many people joining the group as the ideas of a free economy out of the tight grip of a brutal and repressive authority sounded very attractive. From the group's founding in 1994 to the year 2000, party membership had grown from just under 5,000 to over 15,000,000 as people from all across Kelekona had grown increasingly agitated towards the junta and highly statist forms of government as well thanks to memories of repression and economic ruin remaining fresh in their minds. As membership exponentially increased, the OPSNS had maintained a watchful eye on the movement, sending in operatives to radicalize the movement and convince members that only a revolution will give them their desired society as well as covertly funding and sending in aid for the increasingly inevitable revolution. As OPSNS involvement got bigger, so too did violent clashes between PQK supports and the junta. In 2001 alone, there were thirty anti-junta revolts within a span of three months, and in the first half of 2002 there were fifty anti-junta revolts. Although these initial revolts were not exactly successful, they were instrumental in slowly eroding the power and authority of the junta through encouraging desertions and defections.
By mid-2002, the once-solid grip that the junta once held on Kelekona had eroded away to the point that areas outside of the nation's capital of Maktalin could no longer be effectively governed, and on 10 August the PQK began its largest revolt, known today as the Q'illiupachakutiy. Thousands of PQK supporters had stormed many government buildings and offices, holding many junta officials under citizen's arrest, and formally establishing the Free Republic of Kelekona. The new constitution that was drafted for the new republic was among the shortest ever codified, enshrining the principles of Pariwana's objectivism and minarchy. The only laws that the republic would allow are ones that were intended to enforce non-aggression. This meant that the state would still provide for a military, a police force, and a court system while opening up the economic sphere for all.
The republic's first elections were in August 2003, with PQK founder and leader Wayra Atawallipa becoming its first president for a term of two years. During his term, Atawallipa introduced some temporary measures designed to reconstruct Kelekona after the devastation it had faced for the past thirty years due to costly wars, and appointed former junta officer Natanayil Qarawi to serve as head of the armed forces. The reconstruction efforts proved to be a success thanks to the personal popularity of Atawallipa, and many had hoped he would run for re-election in 2005, but Atawallipa, being a firm believer of democracy, insisted many times that he would only run for one term. Thus in the 2005 elections, Ollianta Llipya was elected to become the republic's second president, riding upon the legacy of his predecessor. Unlike Atawallipa however, Llipya was nowhere near as popular as the father of the Yellow Revolution, and his term was plagued with multiple scandals, diplomatic incidents, and national embarrassments. By early 2007, the PQK had refused to re-nominate Llipya for his re-election campaign, forcing him to run as an independent.
Third Telekonese conflict
The multiple incidents and controversies surrounding president Llipya had damaged Kelekona's economic position, causing it to greatly lag behind the rapid expansion of the economies of Alstin, Arcerion, and Paulastra. Seizing an opportunity to fulfill his own political ambitions, Natanayil Qarawi began in 2006 to draft up plans for another attempt at gaining control over the Arcer economic center through Dunborough and the Innis River basin. He knew full-well that such plans would come to the attention of the OPSNS and that the OPSNS had been tracking his faction within the armed forces, which was what he wanted. He had no intention in actually invading Arcerion, but rather to seize control over Kelekona by force. All he needed now was for Arcerion's reaction to give the instability he needed to put an end to the Kelekonese libertarian experiment and to discredit it in the eyes of the people of Kelekona, and the upcoming Arcer pre-emptive strikes would be a key event in his plans. The Arcer General Staff began to draft out plans that would cripple Kelekona's military capabilities and wipe out much of the senior staff of the Kelekonese Armed Forces, the civilian government, and even key strategic sites.
Qarawi soon ordered Kelekonese forces to assemble in eastern Kelekona in December of 2006, the movements of which had already been spotted and tracked by Arcerion, which soon informed its key allies Alstin, Burgundie, and Paulastra of the high probability of international backlash that will incur with these pre-emptive strikes which were designed to forever cripple Kelekona's offensive capabilities. Indeed, the League of Nation would interpret Arcerion's actions as being in gross violation of Kelekonese sovereignty. Nonetheless, Arcerion proceeded to conduct the attacks on 28 May 2007. While the Kelekonese forces were already aware that their plans had already been discovered, the attacks still caught them by surprise. Military installations, radio stations, radar stations, and television studios were quickly destroyed, and by mid-afternoon that same day the main offices and facilities of the Kelekonese Armed Forces were destroyed. During this time, Maktalin was besieged by car bombs, attacks by "lone wolf gunmen", and the forced disappearances of many Kelekonese government officials, many of whom were not even aware of the rogue actions of Qarawi, who had already left the country for a vacation to Vallejar by the time the attacks had begun. President Llipya was visiting Castadilla when he was informed of the Arcer attacks; he reportedly had been rushed back to his hotel after he had embarrassed himself in front of Emperor Maximilian I by the time news of the attacks had reached him.
In June, Kelekonese forces attempted several times to cross the Arcer border in an attempt to seize road junctions or border crossings, but Arcer forces were able to repel them with every attempt. The attacks continued even as international reactions to the attack were generally mixed considering how sudden these attacks were, but the Arcer government would attempt to justify these attacks by claiming that they were necessary so as to prevent Kelekona from instigating another Telekonese conflict ever again. Overall, the two-month conflict resulted in no casualties being inflicted on Arcer forces asides from some injuries, and the crippling of Kelekona's defense capabilities with over 300 casualties and damages to the country that have yet to be repaired as of 2034 with the advent of the collapse and subsequent occupation of Varshan after the Final War of the Deluge.
Junta of 2009
After the Third Telekonese Conflict ended in July 2007, president Llipya immediately returned to Kelekona around the same time as Qarawi, having returned home from his vacation in Vallejar. The Arcer attacks had greatly plummeted Llipya's already abysmal approval rating, and Qarawi immediately announced his intent to run for the presidency in that year's elections. Qarawi's brief campaign ran on the failures and deficiencies that came to be thanks to the minarchy that had been in place since 2002, blaming the concept of objectivism for its inability in ensuring the safety and welfare of the Kelekonese people, calling the philosophy an ideology for a fantasy world. Up against the likes of the much-loathed Llipya and the milquetoast PQK candidate, Qarawi quickly became the most favored candidate in the election campaigns, soon netting a landslide victory in August elections.
During his first term as president of Kelekona, Qarawi passed laws designed to temporarily strengthen the state indefinitely, careful with the wording of the law to make sure that it would not be declared unconstitutional. Qarawi reasoned that a stronger state was needed to protect the young democracy against forces from within and without that he claimed had sought to destabilize Kelekona in perpetuity. Although this law was condemned by the PQK for being a "statist sham designed to subjugate Kelekonese democracy under the bootheels of military despots once more", the vast majority of citizens who were weary of the constant armed conflicts and instability that had plagued their nation supported the new law as a much-needed step in the right direction. In time, support for the PQK had dwindled as other political parties emerged before becoming nothing more than a fringe party during the later years of the republic.
Through limited reconstruction efforts, president Qarawi was able to stave off Kelekona's decline towards becoming a failed state, earning more support from the Kelekonese population. However, Qarawi's ambitions did not end with becoming the President of Kelekona; he wanted to ensure that he would remain in power for as long as he lived without having to deal with running for re-election every two years. During his re-election campaign for the 2009 elections, Qarawi began to attack the very idea of partisan politics and its effect on the nation's executive branch, claiming that the executive branch should be above electoral politics as its job is to lead the nation and not have to worry about re-election, the latter he said should remain within the realm of the legislative branch and nothing more. Qarawi was able to win with an even bigger landslide than he did in the 2007 elections, and was soon sworn in for a second term in office. On 9 September, just under a month after having been sworn in for his second term, Qarawi performed a self-coup and unilaterally dissolved the nation's legislature and judiciary before holding special elections where military officers and military-affiliated civilians won one-hundred percent of the seats in the legislature.
The new composition for the Kelekonese legislature began their session by voting to dissolve the Free Republic of Kelekona, replacing it with the Union of Kelekona and began to draft a new constitution for the new junta. The resulting Kelekonese Constitution of 2010 declared that Kelekona would be a parliamentary democracy under the guidance of the military and a politically-independent executive. The PQK was forcibly dissolved and split into multiple fringe political factions headed by politicians who cared more about their egos than banding together with their fellow libertarian leaders. With the libertarians fighting amongst each other, Qarawi soon focused on dissolving every other political party in Kelekona, replacing them with parties led by his friends and associates that would support the continuation of the military junta and keep democracy from ever again inviting the chaos that had plagued the nation after the 2007 Telekonese conflict.
Learning from the mistakes of the 1988 junta, Qarawi opted to rule as a benevolent dictator, allowing for limited forms of democracy through the use of referendums and even elected representatives; most legislative elections were basically just approval polls from which Qarawi could gauge the popularity of members of the legislature and replace those whom he felt had an unsatisfactory approval rating. Furthermore, he created welfare programs and outlawed any and all forms of racial and religious discrimination, removing any government official who were caught having had expressed opinions deemed in his eyes to be disrespectful to the overall harmony of the nation. The second junta experienced fifteen years of relative stability and comparative prosperity compared to the previous few decades of chaos and uncertainty.
Second civil war
The Final War of the Deluge had resulted in a huge influx of migrants from neighboring Varshan trying to escape the violence and warfare that have risen up since the start of the war in 2020. Many of these migrants have fled to Kelekona, resulting in a refugee crisis as the junta had to work on giving these migrants food and shelter, but because the influx was much larger than their ability to settle the refugee the Kelekonese government and economy quickly became overwhelmed by the sudden increase in population with the latter collapsing in 2021 and the former being plunged into instability and chaos once more. President Qarawi had to establish multiple refugee camps just to house the migrants while he tried to integrate them into the Kelekonese economy, and yet more and more refugees would arrive in Kelekona with each passing day thus leading to a rise in open opposition against the junta for its failure to effectively manage the refugee crisis in a timely manner.
During the refugee crisis, a new opposition group would emerge, a group that would unite not only pro-democracy activists, but also qhapaqists and even socialists under one group dedicated to putting an end to the junta one way or another. This group, known as the Qhapaquhatarichipayrikchʼarimuy (QHR), or the Qhapaqist Movement (Qhapaqismurikchʼarimuy), aimed to restore the qhapaqate which had been defunct for centuries since the fall of the North Songun civilization under a more sincere form of democracy while making sure that the military would never again have the power to overthrow and establish further military juntas. Unlike the PQK, the QHR wished for a return to the ideals of Pachakutiqism as espoused by the United Front fifty years ago, and it did not have the covert funding of the OPSNS; it was an entirely grassroots movement.
Fearing that the QHR would be an existential threat to his regime, Qarawi launched an attack on the main headquarters of the movement which was located in western Kelekona. Although the attack was successful in destroying the QHR headquarters, it would soon instigate the Second Kelekonese Civil War which lasted until 4 May 2025. Junta and rebel forces clashed all across the country, whether it was through guerilla attacks in rural areas or through gunfights in urban areas. Coverage of the civil war has largely been overshadowed by the much larger war in Varshan until the end of the Deluge with the signing of the Treaty of Electorsbourg which at the very least had put an end to the influx of Varshani migrants. The conflict, however, would not cease until the fall of Maktalin in 2025, putting an end to the second military junta and leading to the fall of president Qarawi who was subsequently forced into exile in June 2025 after spending a month in prison for his unlawful seizure of power in 2009.
Crowned republic
The qhapaqate was formally restored on 4 May 2025 with its first post-war elections being held in August that same year to determine the composition of the temporary constitutional assembly set up to draft a new constitution. Among the first articles to have been proposed and unanimously supported by the assembly was an article that abolished the armed forces as a permanent standing organization, citing the juntas of 1988 and 2009 alongside how these juntas have emerged as reasons why the armed forces could never be trusted in preserving the rule of law or ensuring the people's welfare. In its place, the Defense Force would handle Kelekona's defense functions as the nation's gendarmerie. Further articles would establish the qhapaqate as an ethnic federation, dividing the country up into eleven federal regions, that being seven regional states and four multi-ethnic administrations; the idea behind those articles was to put an end to ethnic Kelekonese dominance without resorting to violence or another civil war.
Other major articles would elaborate on the exact structure of the crowned republic, detailing that the new government would be headed by four qhapaqs ("kings"), one for each of the four cardinal directions, who are the heads of the four surviving Songunite royal houses. The qhapaqs would serve as the nation's executive and serve a role in the nations legislature, their council making up the upper house of the new legislature. Below the qhapaqs would be the aristocratic middle house, from which members of the aristocracy for each ethnic group would be represented, and finally the lower house would be for representatives elected directly by the people. The structure of government was designed as such so as to ensure active political participation and involvement from all classes of society, and the new constitution was signed and put into effect in January 2026 after being accepted in a national referendum in December 2025.
Reconstruction efforts have largely been very slow as many countries have focused more on sending foreign aid to Varshan, which by the start of 2026 had already become a mandate of the League of Nations occupied by Alstin, Cartadania, Daxia, Kiravia, and Urcea as part of a reconstruction process aimed at decoupling Varshan from the worst excesses of its culture and religion, most notably its practices of slavery and human sacrifices. As such, much of the devastation that had accumulated in Kelekona thanks to the many wars and civil conflicts that the country had went through, most especially after the 2007 Telekonese conflict, have yet to be repaired or replaced. Thus far, the Kelekonese government's primary objective is to repair the nation's largely destroyed infrastructure so that the transport of goods and what little foreign aid it gets at the present can come through the country unimpeded before focusing on repairing its cities.
Government
The Crowned Republic of Kelekona is a federal state under a tetrarchic semi-consitutional co-qhapaqate with elements of republicanism and parliamentary democracy. The current form of government is the most recent regime that has governed Kelekona since 1975, having been formally established after the overthrow of the Qarawi military junta on 4 May 2025 after a four-year civil war period. It is the first Kelekonese government to be considered a sincere democracy by the international community, but its control over the country has yet to be completely consolidated thanks to a destroyed infrastructure; the only acknowledgment of the current regime's authority in areas outside of the capital of Maktalin is through regularly-held elections and the appointment of aristocrats from every region in the country, but otherwise most parts of the country are reliant on local governments meaning that in practice Kelekona is a highly decentralized state with numerous quasi-autonomous localities. However, for the sake of simplicity, the following section will focus on the structure of government according to the constitution.
Executive
The Qhapaquninkukunasuntur ("Kings' Council"; "Qhapaqs' Council") is the main executive cabinet of the Kelekonese government, serving as its collective head of state and government. It consists of four members, each having been elected for life by their respective panakas ("royal families"). The Umalliq ("president") rotates every five years among the qhapaqs ("kings"), ensuring that each panaka is fairly represented; the Umalliq thus serves as the chair of the Qhapaqs' Council and is often the main representative of Kelekona during their five-year term. However, the role of Umalliq does not confer any additional authority beyond the primarily cosmetic status of primus inter pares. Just below the Umalliq is the Umakamayuq ("prime minister"), also held in rotation among the qhapaqs; usually being conferred onto the next Umalliq for a span of five years. Just like the Umalliq, the role of Umakamayuq is also primarily cosmetic, giving the current holder the status of secondus inter pares. The other two qhapaqs are unofficially referred to as Umalliquranti ("vice president"), but no such role formally exists. As of the promulgation of the 2026 Constitution, the four seats in the Qhapaqs' Council are designated as follows:
- Antiqhapaq - "King of the East"
- Qulliaqhapaq - "King of the South"
- Kuntiqhapaq - "King of the West"
- Chinchayqhapaq - "King of the North"
There can be only one qhapaq for each of the four cardinal directions at any given time. Should one of the qhapaqs pass away, then their panaka is convened to elect a new qhapaq from amongst their lineage; a qhapaq generally reigns for life.
The Qhapaqs' Council is responsible for directing the Mamalliaqtakamachiy ("State Administration"), itself consisting of ministries headed by Kamachiyniyuqs ("ministers"), usually politicians of the main governing party that were appointed by the qhapaqs. The Council also has the final authority to determine the size of each of the ministries, and the right to make executive decisions which have no been delegated to a ministry. The ministries, as per North Songun tradition, generally wield a considerable amount of autonomy in their affairs, with oversight stemming from the qhapaqs.
Legislature
The Suyupusuntur ("National Council") is the legislative branch of Kelekona. According to the Constitution, the National Council is a tricameral legislature with the upper house being the Qhapaqs' Council, the middle house the Council of Nobles, and the lower house the Council of the Commons. The exact structure of the National Council is partly inspired by the structure of government found in the North Songun civilization, where the qhapaq served a role in all three branches of government in a rare historical instance of a full fusion of powers. Thus, the current Qhapaqs' Council serves as the highest legislative house. It is the sole legislative house that can unilaterally propose bills without needing the prior approval of a committee vote, it retains absolute veto rights, and any actions that necessitate the attention of the qhapaqukuna require a 100% quorum and the support of three-quarters of the council; the council is formally suspended whenever a qhapaq passes away and his panaka has yet to elect his successor. It is jointly chaired by the umalliq and the umakamayuq.
The Roq'akaysuntur ("Council of Nobles") is the middle house of the National Council, consisting of 100 members, all of whom are required to be members of the aristocracy. The Council of Nobles is where the multitude of ethnic groups through Kelekona are represented; the formula being used to determine the amount of nobles needed to represent each recognized ethnic group is the base number of one noble, plus one additional noble for every one million of a given group's population; the total membership of the council adds up to 100 nobles, each of whom are appointed by the qhapaqukuna to serve for a six-year term after an approval vote held by their respective regional legislatures. It is chaired by the Iskaykaqukamayuq ("second minister"), who serves as the general staff to the Qhapaqs' Council. The primary purposes of the Council of Nobles is to serve as a national mediator between the various ethnic groups found throughout the country, to advise the qhapaqukuna through the iskaykaqukamayuq, and to serve as a counterweight to the Council of the Commons.
The Sapsisuntur ("Council of the Commons") is the lower house of the National Council, theoretically consisting of 513 members, elected directly by the people under the first-past-the-post voting system and serve for a four-year term. In practice, although elections for the Commons are regularly held throughout the country, only 127 seats have been filled; the devastation that has plagued Kelekona has prevented elected officials from either making it to Maktalin, or from making it to their constituencies thus negatively impacting the government's ability to effectively govern vast swaths of land. This has also hindered the emergence of a multiparty system, effectively making Kelekona a de facto one-party state. The Commons is chaired by the Kimsakaqukamayuq ("third minister") who assists the iskaykaqukamayuq in his duties in the Qhapaqs' Council. Members of the Commons are known as michoqukuna ("assisting officers"), which was a term historically used to refer to leaders of minor North Songun tributary states who were subordinate to a larger tributary state, but now is the Kelekonese equivalent to a member of parliament.
Local governance
Local governance is largely autonomous and in the hands of regional actors due to the central government's inability to effectively govern with the lack of a modern working infrastructure. Although insurgencies have significantly died down after the end of the Second Kelekonese Civil War, there still remains many settlements which have been isolated for many years, with some of the most extreme cases having been isolated since the 1980s. The lack of an effective and legitimate presence of the state in many of these isolated areas have made many international observers declare that Kelekona is in fact a failed state, a declaration that has become much more pertinent ever since the Third Telekonese Conflict in 2007 and the subsequent self-coup committed by then-president Qarawi in 2009 as well as the advent of the Deluge-cause refugee crisis and subsequent second civil war in the mid-2020s.
Administrative divisions
Since 2026, Kelekona has been subdivided into five levels: suyukuna ("regions"), wamanikuna ("provinces"), thistiritukuna ("districts"), ripartamintukuna ("departments"), and aylliukuna ("communities"). This form of decentralization was a commonality during the years of the North Songun civilization when many localities were given a rather high amount of autonomy so long as they paid their tributes on time.
Suyus
Kelekona has 11 suyukuna which are demarcated based on ethnic lines. Seven suyukuna are designated for the representation of a single ethnic group while four suyukuna are given the special designation of achkaaylliumarkayuqusuyu ("multiethnic region"), the most notable of these special regions being the federal district of Maktalin, the nation's capital and largest city. Each of these regions are governed by an apu ("lord"); despite the name and its historical and literal definition, an apu does not necessarily need to be of the aristocracy. Each "homeland suyukuna" corresponds to seven of the nation's nine recognized ethnic groups, with only the Ardmori and Arcos being the sole two recognized ethnic groups not to have a designated "homeland suyu", instead primarily living in three of the four multiethnic regions. The suyukuna are represented in the Council of Nobles to a certain extent, if only because the country's nine recognized ethnic groups are generally located in parts of the country where they're given the most political representation; however, the composition of the Council of Nobles is based on the amount of people in a given ethnic group and not the amount of people in a given suyu, mostly to prevent overrepresentation in the council.
Wamanis
Beneath the 11 suyukuna are the wamanikuna, of which there are roughly 66. However, the exact size of these wamanikuna varies depending on the size of a given suyu, with the largest wamanikuna primarily being in the largest regions of the country and mostly in sparsely-populated areas such as multiple villages and more rural areas while the smallest wamanikuna are most prevalent in the smallest regions of the country in mostly in more populated areas such as towns and large urban areas. Each wamani is governed by a toqrikoq ("local governor") who reports to the apu. During the years of the North Songun civilization, the toqrikoq was traditionally an ethnic Kelekonese, but in the present a toqrikoq is usually of the ethnic group represented in a given suyu. In multiethnic regions other than Maktalin, the wamanikuna are used to represent the recognized ethnic groups that reside in the region.
Thistiritus
The third level in the administrative divisions of Kelekona are known as the thistiritukuna. Each thistiritu equals one seat in the Council of the Commons, meaning that there are 513 thistiritukuna in Kelekona, each theoretically governed by a michoq, but in practice only 127 thistiritukuna have a michoq while the rest are presently ungovernable due to lack of road access and thus presently receive no political representation. Unlike the toqrikoq, the michoq during the years of the North Songun civilization was not a role that was exclusively for ethnic Kelekonese, instead being open for notable local inhabitants of a given area, the idea being that the michoqs would help in integrating their area into the North Songun hegemony.
Ripartamintus
Below the thistiritukuna are the ripartamintukuna, or the fourth level in Kelekona's administrative divisions. A ripartamintu is either a rural collectivity or an urban municipality, with cities consisting of two or more qhipanulliaqtakuna within city limits, and a town needing to have only one ripartamintu within its limits; a ripartamintu consists about 4,000 people, with larger ripartamintukuna located in rural and more sparsely-populated areas. Ripartamintukuna act as the main method of effectively distributing government services to local areas. Each ripartamintu is governed by a council with representatives elected by its residents, with its head being known as the kuraka ("mayor").
Ayllius
The lowest administrative division, which is at the fifth level, are the aylliukuna. These correspond to the main federative units of a ripartamintu, and form the most local instance of democracy in Kelekona. An aylliu consists about 500 people, and the main governing council functions on the basis of direct democracy, encouraging its residents to directly participate in local affairs. As the primary point of contact with the government for most citizens of Kelekona, it is through the aylliukuna that petitions to the government sent to at first before being transferred to higher divisions as needed, even all the way up to the Qhapaqs' Council in some cases.
Demographics
Ethnicity
Self-reported ethnicities in Kelkona (2034)
Kelekona has nine recognized ethnic groups in the country, all of which are represented approximately in proportion to the amount of people they have in the 100-member Council of Nobles, but only seven of them have their own ethnic homelands. The largest of the nine recognized ethnic groups are the Kelekonese, known to themselves as the Mayukimsaruna ("Tri-river people"); so-called due to their traditional homeland being located between the Innis River, the Cochrane River, and one of the branches of the Innis River Basin. The second-largest ethnic groups are the ethnic Varshani peoples, descendants of the former ruling bureaucracy of the tributary state of Kelezuno and, more recently, Deluge refugees; they are known by Kelekona's six indigenous groups as Jawaruna ("Foreigners") or more derogatively as Nunat'irachakakuna ("Soul-pullers") in reference to the long-time Arzalist practice of human sacrifices. The Telekonese, known locally as Uchuytarakunaruna ("Little islands people"), make up the third-largest ethnic group in Kelekona, and primarily reside in the coastal and insular southern regions of Kelekona.
The Kinichuyuruna ("War-blessed") are primarily worshippers of the Nahibist war god Kinichzo and reside on the mountaintops in northern Kelekona, making up the fourth-largest ethnic group. The fifth-largest ethnic group are known as the Kuntichinchaysuyuruna ("Northwesterners"); their homeland is situated between the Varshani homeland and the Kinichuyuruna homeland. To the south of the Kuntichinchaysuyuruna live the Kuntisuyuruna ("Westerners"), who comprise the sixth-largest ethnic group, followed by the Gocahalliparuna ("Lakelanders"), the seventh-largest ethnic group. The two smallest recognized ethnic groups are the Ardmori from Malentina and the Arcos from Arcerion. These last two groups are wealthier on average compared to the rest of the population, and generally reside in separate communities which happen to be one of the most developed parts of the country.
Religious affiliations in Kelekona (2034)
Linguistic demographics
As an ethnic federation, Kelekona gives the suyukuna the right to determine their own linguistic policies, though homeland suyukuna are required to make their official language the primary tongue associated with their home ethnic group. On the federal level, the government recognizes six varieties of the North Songunese family of indigenous languages as official. Although previous scholars have originally classified these varieties as simply dialects of the North Songunese language, more recent studies have suggested that those dialects are not as mutually intelligible as was once thought and thus North Songun has been reclassified as a language family. Kelekona's national language is known as T'inkirunaysimi ("United people's tongue"), an attempt at standardizing the North Songunite languages that is primarily based on the elements found in the nation's capital of Maktalin; although the attempt at standardization was not as big of a success as was hoped, it retains recognition as the country's national language due to its status as an indigenous lingua franca. An eastern vernacular of the Varshani language and Ænglish, while not official at the federal level, are still given official status in their respective suyukuna. Linguistic statistics are primarily congruent with the ethnic make-up of the country.
Religious demographics
The vast majority of Kelekonese citizens are of the Nahibian faith, an indigenous faith that is commonly said to have been single-handedly established by its namesake the Maktalinese priest-king Nahibe, but more recent scholarship have debated this and have since explained that much of the framework behind the Nahibian faith was more likely to have been the work of multiple prophets and priests over the span of several decades. Historically, Nahibianism was the primary religion of the North Songun civilization and of northern Crona during the years of North Songunese hegemony, but when the North Songun civilization collapsed by the 16th Century it was soon overtaken by the Arzalist faith from Varshan, specifically its orthodox sect. It would not be until the 19th Century when Nahibianism would experience a revival, soon growing from a holdout in northern Kelezuno to becoming the largest religion in the country as well as in neighboring Titechaxha.
The next-largest religious group are adherents to the Ænglican faith due to cultural influence from Arcerion. It is the religion that the Arco and Ardmori people in the country adhere to as well as a sizeable amount of indigenous people in the southwest of the nation. The only other denomination of Christianity that has a significant presence in Kelekona are Catholics, who happen to make up the fifth-largest religion in the country and are most prevalent in the southeast, being the majority faith of the Gocahalliparuna, the only indigenous group in Kelekona, other than the majority-Ænglican Telekonese, to be almost entirely Christianized. On average, the Christian minority in Kelekona tend to be wealthier than their counterparts who adhere to more indigenous faiths.
A sizeable minority of Kelekonese identify as irreligious, meaning that they have no religious affiliations whether because they were not raised in a particularly religious household or because they have rejected religion altogether. The rise of irreligiosity began in the 1980s during the socialist era, and the abject devastation and chaos of subsequent eras have led to more people to renounce religion entirely. Following the irreligious are a group of people of varying faiths that do not comprise of a significant amount of people to be given their own separate categories, most often people living in small, Protestant missions.
Arzalism was once the majority religion in Kelezuno throughout much of its existence until the Nahibian revival of the 19th Century. It is speculated that the vast majority of the nation's irreligious might actually be practicing Arzalis as successive Kelekonese governments up until the Qarawi regime and beyond have either been complacent in or even outright encouraged the persecution of Arzalis, thus forcing many to hide their faith by identifying as more palatable affiliations such as irrelgion, Nahibianism, or even a form of Christianity.
Culture
Kelekona's culture is as diverse as its ethnic diversity. Although there exists commonalities amongst the North Songunese-descent cultures such as religion, certain traditions, and heritage, the primary locations of these particular cultures within Kelekona have given them certain variations beyond just the common North Songunese-descent culture. The Kinichuyuruna people, for example, are a primarily mountainous culture and thus much of their unique traditions and practices revolve around the winter and the coming of snow; their homeland also happens to be home to the sole intact North Songun Nahibian temple in all of Kelekona, so they are often considered to be the most traditionalistic and conservative out of all of the extant North Songunese cultures due to them often having the most well-preserved artifacts from era of the North Songun civilization.
On the opposite end, the most divergent of the North Songunese-descent cultures are the Telekonese people, whose homeland is located in the southern islands of Kelekona, and holds a sizeable presence on the southern coast near the islands. They are the least isolated culture thanks in part to them having lived in close proximity to the country's Arco and Ardmori minorities. Because of their close contact with the nation's two recognized Occidental-descent ethnic groups, they have converted to the Arcer Ænglican form of Christianity for the most part, and thus generally observe holidays such as Christmas and Easter that most of the country does not observe. The next-most divergent of the North Songunese-descent cultures are the Gocahalliparuna people, who happen to be the only other North Songunese-descent culture to be almost entirely Christianized; most Gocahalliparuna people are adherents of the Catholic Church.
The most modernized of the North Songunese-descent cultures that have not diverged heavily thanks to extremely close contact with Occidental-descent people are the Kelekonese people. Historically, the Kelekonese people once made up the ruling classes of the North Songun civilization, and it is their variety of the North Songunese languages that has had the great linguistic influence over the other North Songunese languages; the Kelekonese language has served as the basis for the T'inkirunasimi language, a 19th Century attempt at standardizing the North Songunese languages. Because they were often the ruling classes of the North Songun civilization, they were, and still are in many cases, most often the wealthiest and most developed out of all the North Songunese-descent cultures.
The Kuntichinchaysuyuruna people used to be as culturally-divergent as the Telekonese and Gocahalliparuna peoples are now, with much of their culture having once been heavily based upon that of the Varshani people complete with many of them once having adhered to the Arzali faith. With independence, and the advent of the brutal junta of 1988, most Kuntichinchaysuyuruna people have abandoned these Varshani influences and have deconverted from the Arzali faith to avoid persecution from the junta's secret police. Most Kuntichinchaysuyuruna in the present derive much of their cultural influences from the Kuntisuyuruna people, and are mostly split between those who have converted to the Nahibian faith and those who have opted to abandon religion altogether and have proclaimed themselves as irreligious.
Cuisine
Kelekonese cuisine is heavily based upon the cuisine found in the North Songun civilization, and the exact foods eaten in Kelekona depends mostly upon the region and ethnic group. For most North Songunese-descent groups in Kelekona, the cuisine primarily consists of yams, a staple potato-like vegetable found in temperate and tropical areas in Crona, corn, a cereal grain native to Vallos that has some of its largest yields grown in Crona, freshwater fish from the lakes of southeast Kelekona such as bass and trout, and crustaceans found in both the aforementioned lakes and in Malentine Bay such as crab and shrimp. A known popular beverage found amongst the North Songunese ethnic groups are varieties of apanqurahilli ("crab juice"). Despite the name, apanqurahilli is not literally juice made from crabs, but rather a powder made from the essence of crabs that is added into an existing beverage; the crab essence is said to bring a tangy or snappy flavor to the drink.
Education
Education in Kelekona is the responsibility of the regions, which determine the school curriculum for the schools under their jurisdiction. The school system for each state is highly dependent on the majority culture and religion of a given region; this often leads to variation in how long a student must stay in the school system and when the student graduates. For example, in most regions that are of a majority North Songunese-descent culture and the majority of the populace adhere to Nahibianism, everyone is required to be in school at age three and are mandated to stay in the school system for seventeen years until they graduate at age twenty. These indigenous school systems are generally aligned with the Kelekonese concept of kawsayruwanakuna" and each school level is determined by the student's life stage (e.g. secondary schools cover the entirety of the malta stage of a person's life).
However, in regions that do not hold an indigenous majority or even a Nahibian majority, the school systems are more closely aligned with those of Occidental school systems where mandatory schooling starts at the age of five and lasts for roughly twelve-to-thirteen years, with students graduating at the age of eighteen. These Occidental schools are most common in parts of Kelekona that are either of an Arco or Ardmori majority, or the majority of inhabitants adhere to a denomination of Christianity (e.g. the Telekonese people). These are most common in the south as it is where the nation's Christian minority generally reside in, and are often a source of tension between the more traditionally indigenous north and the Occidentalized south.
Kawsayruwanakuna
Based upon milestones that were celebrated in the culture of the North Songun civilization, the Kelekonese kawsayruwanakuna ("life events") have emerged in their modern forms in the 19th Century after having been abandoned in favor of Varshani practices in previous centuries. These events celebrate a significant milestone in a Kelekonese person's life as they progress through childhood and all the way to the end of their life. Much of these events have had origins in a time when the infant mortality rates of the North Songun polities were high and infant deaths were considered the norm, and many of these events still carry traditional expectations of the celebrated individual based on their gender and age. However, the modern concept of these events have included additional events in light of advances in life expectancy and 19th Century romanticism.
The first kawsayruwana is one's birth. In the North Songun civilization, one's birth was considered rather unimportant as it was rather common for a newborn to die before maturing past infancy, but in the modern Kelekonese cultures one's birth is now celebrated with a Hukunyiqinuwatahunt'ay ("first birthday"), wherein the newborn's family would bring gifts for both the new parents and the infant much like the Occidental practice of bridal and baby showers, ensuring that the new family will be more able to raise the newborn. This practice happens again with each subsequent birth. It is during a hukunyiqinuwatahunt'ay that the newborn is given the name Lliulliu ("baby"); the infant is not expected to develop as a person during their first stage in life, and the parents are expected to nurse the infant and provide them with the necessities of life.
The second kawsayruwana is when the infant turns three years old. The celebration of the child's third birthday is accompanied by a ceremony in which the child's family gathers for an elaborate feast and dance. Each member of the family receives a lock of the child's hair, said to bring good luck and to serve as a momentous souvenir of the event, and the child gets shaved bald by their father once all family members have each received a lock. Once the child has been shaved bald, the parents reveal the child's name for the first time before declaring that the child can now be deemed as a q'uqawawa ("ignorant child"), or just a wawa ("child"). The second stage of the child's life is one where the child is expected to make mistakes and learn the roles that are associated with their gender; discipline is often very relaxed during the stage as the child simply does not know better at this point in life. The wawa stage typically lasts about ten years on average.
The third kawsayruwana happens once the child is successfully able to learn the necessary roles associated with their gender and are thus able to be trusted with their own judgement skills and morality. The completion of the wawa stage is marked by a warachikuy for boys and a qikuchikuy for girls, similar to the celebration of the bar mitzvah in Judaism. What happens during this ceremony is ultimately dependent on the gender of the child. A warachikuy involves dances, fasts, feats of strength, and family ceremonies and feasts after a successful fasting period; the boy was to be given new clothes and was expected to learn about what it takes to become an unmarried adult male. A qikuchikuy signifies the start of the girl's period, and it involves the isolation of the girl into a specially-furnished chamber in her family's house where she will remain until once her period ends; once she has finished her first period, she is given adult clothes and some advice pertaining to womanhood. The successful completion of both ceremonies mark the beginning of the malta stage.
The end of the malta stage is signified by marriage, usually by the age of twenty. Marriage is considered to be the final rite of passage towards adulthood; a person is not considered to be a full runayasqa ("adult") until they have married. After marriage, the new couple is expected to have offspring as soon as possible, preferably before the age of thirty which is the traditional endpoint of young adulthood. The runayasqa stage is often the longest stage in a person's life, lasting for fifty years until the person's seventieth birthday. At that point, the person has reached the kuraq ("senior") stage, and thus are no longer expected to be fully independent; their children are thus expected to handle their aging parents' welfare during their senior age. The last significant milestone in a person's life is when they turn one hundred years old, and that point that are dubbed mana atipana ("invincible") as a testament to their long life. Mana atipana are generally immortalized through works of art and poetry.
| Age | Life Stage | Female Name | Male Name |
| <3 | Pallipa | Lliulliu | Lliulliu |
| 3–7 | Q'uaqa | Wawa | Wawa |
| 7–14 | Yachakuq | Sipas | Wayna |
| 14–20 | Malta | Inti | Killia |
| 20-70 | Katmay | Warmi | Qhari |
| 70 | Kuraq | Paya | Machu |
| 90 | Ismu | Aya | Aya |
| 100+ | Quri | Manaatipana | Manaatipana |
Pre-Occidental writing systems
The North Songunese languages did not have a standardized writing system until the introduction of a Latin-based alphabet in the 19th Century as part of a North Songunese cultural revival. Like most indigenous Cronan cultures, the traditional methods of keeping records and writing down stories was through proto-writing methods. The North Songun civilization made use of two proto-writing systems, those being the string-based khipu which was an encoding system used to collect data and maintain records, and the glyph-based t'oqapu which was used for written communication to represent certain concepts and areas as well as for describing visually-recorded narratives on both textiles and paintings. Indeed, most towns and regions even in modern-day Kelekona have an official t'oqapu used to uniquely represent their locality through visual means. Regular usage of the two proto-writing systems remained in regular use in official documents throughout the existence of Kelezuno as a Varshani tributary state up until the 1950s when official documents were legally required by the governing council of Kelezuno to exclusively use the Latin-based alphabet.
Symbol
The main symbol of the indigenous people of North Songun descent is the Inti ("Sun"). It resembles the heraldic sun in splendor with a face, but the symbol pre-dates the heraldic charge by centuries. Ever since Kelekona declared independence in 1975, the inti has been the main symbol on both the Kelekonese flags and national emblems, symbolizing hope for a better future and in reference to an ancient omen about the Sun. Supposedly, when Kelekona became independent with the signing of the Act of Abjuration, the sun broke through the clouds, and thus almost every flag of Kelekona has had the inti on it in one form or another. Contrary to popular belief, however, the Inti was not inspired by the Arzali sun god Aq during the years that Kelekona was a Varshani tributary state, nor was the Inti the main inspiration behind Aq. Both Aq and the Inti came into their respective home cultures' mythos and folklore independently of one another.
The current depiction of the Inti in Kelekonese symbolism came to be sometime in 2028, replacing the previous Inti symbol that was created in the 19th Century due to its association with past authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. The 2028 redesign of the Inti also standardized the color scheme; the previous Inti often differed in color scheme depending on the regime that was in power at the time with the last pre-2028 Inti depicting a yellow main body with white rays, itself replacing the red color that was often found in most pre-2028 Inti depictions due to its association with war and violence which were considered to be the main source of the destruction and ruination of Kelekona through both the military coups and the Telekonese conflicts.
Economy
Kelekona's economy is noted to be among the worst in all of northern Crona in part thanks to the cycle of violence that has perpetuated from the First Telekonese Conflict in the 1980s until the end of the Second Kelekonese Civil War in 2025. Although agriculture and the private ownership of land are somewhat common, the vast majority of the populace are below the poverty line due to the isolated nature of many of Kelekona's communities and the high unemployment rate in most of the cities throughout the country. One of Kelekona's foremost challenges to its economy is the its poor access to viable sources of water for irrigation; the vast majority of Kelekona's lakes are in the southeastern corner of the country, and many of the rivers are either originated in Varshan or in Arcerion with the latter having been a major source of contention between various Kelekonese regimes and Arcerion up until the end of the Third Telekonese Conflict.
Kelekona holds many natural resources within its borders, similar to many other nations around the Malentine Basin. Among its largest troves of minerals include ores of cobalt, lithium, iron, and tungsten. Many of these minerals have a wide range of applications ranging from being among the materials needed for lithium-ion batteries to radiation shielding. The wealth of those four minerals alone has allowed for Kelekona to subsist on resource and mineral extraction as the only fully-functional sector of the Kelekonese economy ever since the late 2000s, but there have been a few breakthroughs in both its technology sector and the field of telecommunications; both sectors are presently reliant on support and funding from Arcerion, but both are poised to become major sectors of the Kelekonese economy in the future as the nation becomes more and more stable.
The relative stability that the nation has found itself in after the end of the Second Civil War in 2025 through not just the efforts of its government but also from peacekeeping forces from The Cape and Arcerion has allowed for the Kelekonese economy to experience a period of economic growth at an average of 13% in GDP growth for the past few years; though GDP growth has happened on average since 2002, with the GDP growing from 116.6 billion that year to over 476 billion in 2032. In 2027, the Royal Bank of Arcerion has approved a loan of £1.6 billion as well as an additional line of credit of an undisclosed amount to be used in Kelekona's efforts in reconstruction and restoring order. Much of the money loan has been put into use for infrastructure upgrades, namely replacing the dirt roads and destroyed paved roads with gravel roads, energy sector improvements, and rail modernization to help in integrating Kelekona the Malentine Basin's growing combined and interconnected economic framework.
Kelekona's biggest trading partner is Varshan, but Arcerion is poised to soon surpassing the former. Varshan has historically been the biggest trading partner not only because of Kelekona's history of having been a Varshani tributary state for centuries, but also because of the two lands having been indigenous-majority countries. However, Arcerion has been becoming Kelekona's first choice in trading ever since the fall of Varshan after the Deluge ended in 2024 through it being where much of Kelekona's exports are sent to and due to its relative stability compared to Varshan; the minerals imported to Arcerion are used in its manufacturing sector for various technological products. It is also through Arcerion that Kelekona imports energy, foodstuffs, machinery used in the agricultural sector, and other goods from. Historically, the amount of imports from Arcerion has fluctuated over the years due to the tense relationship between the two countries, but with the end of formal hostilities since 2007 and the current Kelekonese government's abolition of the military in 2025 trade between the two nations have increased.
Kelekona's biggest trade partner is Varshan, closely followed by Arcerion. Varshan is the primary cultural influence for trade due to common indigenous heritage, however Arcerion imports a large amount of Kelekonan resources for its manufacturing sector, although Arcer energy, foodstuffs (mainly agricultural products), farming and agricultural machinery, and other goods are one of the major import sectors of the Kelekonan economy. Arcer imports year over year from Kelekona have fluctuated due to the conflicts between the two nations, however since the lack of formal hostilities since the 2007 Telekonese Conflict, imports to Arcerion from Kelekona have grown to account for roughly 45% of all Kelekonese exports. Arcer oil and gas remain the two primary sources of crude oil and non-renewable energy in Kelekona.
Energy
Kelekona has no domestic power plants in the country, meaning that the country has to rely on other countries to get its needed energy. As such, the current situation with Kelekona's energy sector is that it is entirely dependent on Arcerion's energy sector, itself consisting of both nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, but the most common resources that Kelekona imports from Arcerion for use in its energy sector are oil and gas due to the relative low cost of the two materials. Up until 2025, energy-related imports were often lacking, resulting in many places in Kelekona falling under blackouts or brownouts, but with the rise of a more friendly form of government in Kelekona, energy-related imports have risen dramatically with areas of Kelekona that are connected to the current power grid having reported less frequent occurrences of blackouts and brownouts. Many isolated communities in Kelekona have resorted to using solar panels to handle their needs in electricity as access to the national power grid is often nonexistent, with larger solar panels often being used for local power grids to handle the needs for multiple households in a given locality.
Commitments to pacifism
After the victory of the qhapaqists in 2025, the new Kelekonese government abolished its military force. The abolition of the military was soon introduced to the current constitution, and was one of the first articles to have been voted on, receiving unanimous support. The turn towards pacifism is the result of weariness towards war as evidenced by the destruction that had occurred during the Third Telekonese Conflict in 2007. Indeed, in the past several decades, Kelekona has had a history of military coups toppling the civilian government, with the first junta which overthrew the emerging socialist democracy in 1988 being particularly notable for its brutal repression and totalitarian policies against the Varshani minority. Even when the first junta was toppled by a popular libertarian revolt in 2002, the military remained as a powerful force in its own right and as soon as the minarchist republic experienced extreme instability as a result of a rogue military officer's ambitions, the military was able to take back control in 2009 and rule the country until it was finally overthrown in 2025.
The history of the military's overbearing influence and power over Kelekona, and the fact that its existence made relationships with neighboring Arcerion, a major trading partner, more difficult thanks to its associated with the Telekonese Conflicts, was more than enough to convince the constitutional assembly of the new crowned republic to abolish the military for good. Since the military's abolition, Kelekona has managed to survive without a major armed uprising or revolt for over a decade despite the lack of central authority in many areas of the country, and trade with Arcerion has been able to grow without interruptions thanks to the Kelekonese government's commitment to pacifism and anti-military policies.
The only exceptions to the rule against having an active military force are either in the name of international peacekeeping or for national defense, but in both cases the temporary military force is strictly under the oversight of the civilian government to prevent ambitious military generals from ever rising up and launching a third military coup. In place of the military, Kelekona has a Defense Force that will handle Kelekona's defense functions, though as the nation's gendarmerie force to work in conjunction with the regular police force. The current role of the Defense Force is to restore order to Kelekona, a task that has proven to be rather difficult due to the lack of infrastructure and supplies needed to rebuild the country after decades of misrule under highly ideological governments and military juntas. As of 2035, the Defense Force has only been able to restore order to Maktalin and the state of Mayukimsasuyu and is currently attempting to restore order to the state of Gocahallipasuyu by 2037. Much of these efforts involve tearing up the remains of roads that were destroyed for years and replacing them with temporary gravel roads pending the eventual return of paved concrete roads.
See also
- Machaku Temple, intact Nahibian temple
- North Songun civilization
- North Songunese languages