User:Kir/Sandbox3
Knassania (Coscivian: Knassan) is a Kiravian state located in deep inland Great Kirav. Occupying a large drainage basin near the convergence of several major watercourses, Knassania has a landscape dominated by forested swampland and bogs. Due to its inaccessible terrain and the presence of endemic malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, Knassania has long been a backwater and frontier region at the fringes of various historic polities, and has been used as a place of refuge for peoples displaced from more hospitable regions of the island continent, contributing to its present ethnic and cultural diversity.
Knassania remains an underdeveloped state firmly within the scope of Third Kirav, with slow economic growth and low standards of living even in comparison to other inland provinces. Nonetheless, it is known for its rich culture and for the traditional lifestyles still practised by most of its residents today.
| State of Knassania ꆆꆡꇂꈂ ꈝ ꈵꉑꉣꉴꊃꊗ Ārka Knassan | |
 Flag | |
| Country | Kiravian Federacy |
| Capital | Kursakanta |
| Population | 2,956,870 |
| Governor | D. Imus Śrekśavn |
| Legislature | State Assembly |
| Stanora seats | 3 |
| Official languages | Fever Swamp Coscivian Pine Swamp Coscivian Riśdan Coscivian |
| Postal Abbreviation | PKJ |
| Time Zone | Valēka Standard Time |
Politics and Governance
In the context of Kiravian federalism, Knassania holds the status of an ‘inner state’ (Kiravic: yréaırka). It was conferred statehood in 20772 and is included in the Federacy and the Federation.
The Fundamental Statute of Knassania is the state’s written constitution. The present Fundamental Statute was framed in 21187, replacing (de jure) the original Fundamental Statute framed in 20772 and (de facto) the Kirosocialist Basic Law of Knassania Region. The Fundamental Statute establishes a crowned republic under the Marble Emperor, with a plural executive, unicameral legislature, regulative branch, and independent judiciary.
The Executive College is the state’s highest executive body. It comprises three independent executive officers - the Governor (chosen by qualified direct election), the Chief Executive, and the Chancellor (chosen by direct election) - as well as cabinet secretaries appointed by the Chief Executive.
The Ārkaxēmbra or “State Assembly” is the state’s legislature.
Society and Culture
Knassania is culturally diverse, reflecting its history at the fringe of various states and empires and as a haven for refugees and expellees from other regions. Some such peoples are Urom tribes, who together form the state’s largest non-Coscivian minority. The established peoples of Knassania, both Coscivians and Urom alike, have developed traditional lifestyles adapted to the often inhospitable conditions in the region, which remain well-preserved due to their isolation from wider economic and social networks.
Ethnicity
The largest Coscivian ethnic group in the state are the Iforian Coscivians, who belong to the Heronic cohort. The Iforians traditionally inhabit many of the better-drained parts of Knassania, where they practiced silviculture and mixed farming. Like many other Coscivian peoples, the Iforians have a caste system stratified into noble clans, common clans, and undercastes, with persons marrying outside of their clan but within their caste stratum and ethnicity.
The Fever Swamp Coscivians (or Ŧiliƻomiƙıƙoƽ, their preferred term that literally no one uses) are a group of sixteen clans traditionally inhabiting the southern and central Knassanian wetlands, though their population is now more widespread. The Fever Swamp Coscivians speak a Kapushitic language related (however remotely) to South Coscivian and Serradan. Their oral tradition claims that they are descendants of the live Emperor Réluūs (and through him, the first Emperor, Ĥ of the Five Testicles) who fled to the swamps of Knassania 11,000 years ago to escape persecution by the Fourth Dynasty. The Fever Swamp Coscivians appear to have some degree of innate resistance to malaria, likely linked to delta-thalassemia. Considered one of the most exotic Coscivian peoples, even by other Coscivians, the Fever Swamp Coscivians have a bizarre and insular culture, as well as a reputation for pronounced mistrust of outsiders, generalised paranoia, and a penchant for organised violence. They have a history of poor relations with neighbouring groups such as the Iforians, the Pine Swamp Coscivians, and especially the wetland Urom populations, with whom they refuse all contact. Local folklore relates the behaviour of the Fever Swamp Coscivians to their tolerance for common swamp diseases: Among the Iforians it is often said that the Fever Swamp folk are "born with fever in the brain and it just simmers there without boiling over."
The Pine Swamp Coscivians are a group of twenty-two clans (ten of which are native to Knassania) traditionally inhabiting the more marginal (but less malarial) forested fenlands. Their language belongs to the Heronic branch of Trans-Kiravian.
Kir people make up around 12% of the population and are mainly urban.
Knassania has a considerable Urom population, coming in at over 12% of the total, reflecting the inaccessible, state-repelling terrain that historically made Knassania a place of refuge for displaced peoples. The largest Urom group are the relatively well-developed Khentōkawesi, also found in neighbouring states. In Imperial times, the Khentōkawesi, Myromowas, and Jenańo developed symbiotic relationships with neighbouring Coscivian communities (though not the Fever Swamp Coscivians), exchanging fish, game, bog iron, reeds, and other swamp resources for agricultural produce. Numerous smaller groups live in more isolated conditions deep in the wetlands.
The non-Coscivian, non-Urom population of Knassania is small, largely Celtic, and concentrated mainly in the major cities. Due to the state's poverty, remoteness, and cultural barriers, the population of immigrant origin is vanishingly small. The only known cohesive community of immigrants is a small one-block Corummtown in Kursakanta.
Religion
Religious expression in Knassania has always had strong folk and ethnocentric elements. Before Christianisation, the most widespread organised Coscivian religions in what is now Knassania were Komarism and Sarostivism, overlaid on a familiar Kiravian substratum including Selenolatry and ancestor worship. Komarism retains a strong presence in the state even today, where it is the second most common affiliation after Coscivian Orthodoxy. The Coscivian Orthodox Church is the most important societal institution in Knassania, providing spiritual care, education, and social services beyond the capacity of the state government.
The Fever Swamp Coscivians formally adhere to Komarism for the most part, but also have a unique and extraordinarily vivid cosmology overlapping partially with orthodox Komarism and the Coscivian Book of the Dead, Sarostivism, esoteric Imperial revitalism, cosmism and tidal-magnetic mysticism, and scorigami.
Catholicism is concentrated in the larger cities and towns and practiced mainly among ethnic Kir and Iforians.
Education
Knassania State University is one of the worst-ranked public flagship universities in the country in terms of academic performance and research output, but one of the top-ranked in several sports, including sampakuv and wife-carrying.
Sports
Knassania is the only mainland Kiravian province where soccer has a significant grassroots following, albeit in the form of swamp soccer. After most of the Kiravian national soccer team was killed in the 2024 Béyasar explosion, the Pan-Kiravian Soccer Promotion Association scouted several top players from Knassania's semi-pro swamp soccer leagues and eventually signed Sebat Kebena, a Pine Swamp Coscivian hand-fisherman. Kebena had difficulty adjusting to dry-land soccer and resigned from the team after a locker room fight with veteran right-back Téodar Konsaháken.
Fever Swamp Coscivians regard any sports or games that allow scoring in increments of 1 as taboo, and as such reject swamp soccer in favour of fen football.