Yanuban

Great Southern Republic الجمهورية الجنوبية الكبرى
Flag
Capital and largest city	Muqadas
Official languages	Arabic, Burgoignesc
Demonym(s)	Yanubi
Government	Republic
• President for Life	Simone al Zayd
Establishment
• Independence	1836
Area
• Total	84,861 km2 (32,765 sq mi)
Population
• 2025 estimate	359,955,560
• Density	4,241.7/km2 (10,986.0/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	estimate
• Total	$540,653,251,120
• Per capita	$1,502
Currency	Yanubi Dinar
Driving side	right side

Yanuban is currently, as of June 2032, undergoing a coup lead by an anti-Burgoignesc, nationalist junta, with representation from all branches of the Yanubi military, the National Gendarmerie of Yanuban, many hardline Muslim clerics, and nationalist politicians. President for Life, Simone al Zayd, his cabinet, and loyalists have fled to Bulkh. As of July 1, the entire country has come under the control of the Junta, but militias loyal to al Zayd have formed and are skirmishing with the Junta's forces.

Yanuban is a rapidly modernizing nation in southwestern Daria region of Audonia bordered Pursat in the west, Umardwal in the north, Pukhtunistan in the east, and the coastal confluence of the Bay of Oduniyye and the Pukhtun Sea to the south. It was massively urbanized in the 1980s and 90s and has a very high population for its landmass. Its executive is a president for life, but it does hold democratic elections for its legislative branch and local offices.

Yanuban is a member of many international organizations like the League of Nations, the ISO, Red Crescent International, etc. and many other regulatory and economic bodies.

It is a market economy focused on exports, under the watchful eye of Burgundie, whose companies have a massive stake in the country's economic activity. It specializes in the assembly of microprocessors and cellphones, as well as the cultivation of tropical hard woods, fishing, and rubber, which also constitutes its major exports.

The people of Yanuban are predominantly culturally Arab, speak Arabic, and most practice Sunni Islam.

Etymology

Yanuban means place of the south in Arabic and is named such because during the Oduniyyad Caliphate it was determined that the Tropic of Capricorn bisects the land. In Arabic the Tropic of Capricorn in the "Southern Orbit", as such Yanuban is transliterated as "the place crossed by the Southern Orbit".

History

Golden Age

Main article: Oduniyyad Caliphate

Denoted as starting with the Muhammadian conquest of Muqadas and Al-Aqdis in 624 and ending at the fall of the Oduniyyad Caliphate in 1517, the Golden Age of Audonia had a sweeping effect on the area of modern Yanuban. When it was conquered by the Oduniyyad Caliphate in the 800s the area was generally unorganized, pagan, and had very little industry. It became the province of al-Janub, meaning the south in Arabic, because of its location in relation to the rest of the empire. It was famed for its ancient trees which were used to make boats, most notably for the invasion of Alshar and Sarpedon. Its inhabitants were also skilled horsemen how performed bravely in the Alsharite steppe against the Mongolic Khatiri and Kharani horsemen. The area was host to a holy site at the Musrumi Mosque, built on a well said to be connected to Muqadas and an academy. The locals adopted Islam as their religion, Arabic as their language, and became loyal citizens of the Oduniyyad Caliphate.

Bergendii contact

Main article: Bergendii Corsairs

Near the end of the Second Wave of Bladerunners several ships arrived on the eastern shore of al-Janub in 1351. These Bergendii seafarers were unlike anything most of the Janubi had seen before. They established three small kingdoms: Sante Micel, Madone, and Bethel. These Christian fiefdoms swore fealty to the ]Oduniyyad Caliphate and are notable for doing so during the times of the Crusades. Despite their good relations the kingdoms were dissolved in 1362 as local support for the Bergendii waned in light of news of Christian atrocities being committed by crusaders in northern and western Audonia. Some Bladerunners remained as advisors and treated a small but thriving community in the religiously tolerant Caliphate, but most moved on to Alshar or returned to Levantia.

Early modern era

Starting with the fall of the Oduniyyad Caliphate in 1517 and lasting until the expulsion of the Marialanii Ularien Trading Company in 1836, the early modern era in Yanuban was characterized by low-scale tribal warfare as various sheikhs jockeyed for power followed by massive levels of colonization. After the collapse, the Oduniyyad magistrate continued to rule as a local king until 1553. Following his death the sheikhs and emirs of the area fell upon each other each claiming the thrown. Their form of tribal warfare was more ceremonial than fatal but still kept the peoples from uniting when faced with western colonial efforts.

Colonization

The Ularien Trading Company first arrived in the area in 1635 and established a series of timber factories along the coast. In 1653 the Colony of Majanub was formed and the Ghafiri Protectorate was established with the al-Ghafir family. By 1657 the Ularien Trading Company had supplanted all of the other nation’s colonies in the area and helped the Ghafiris to conquer much of the southern part of the modern country. Through the Doctrine of Lapse the Marialanii Ularien Trading Company assumed direct control over the Ghafiri Protectorate in 1763 and as part of the Presidency Act of 1771 made the whole of its claims in the area into the Majanub Presidency.

Company rule

Main article: Marialanii Ularien Trading Company

Divided into 17 tribal states primarily under the Majanub Presidency, the modern area of Yanuban was a minor possession of the Marialanii Ularien Trading Company. This means that it was not subjected to the same level of cultural colonization and proselytizing as other parts of the Marialanii Ularien Trading Empire. The small administrative class of Levantine Protestants where happy to focus their rule in the few moderately sized cities that they built for themselves. This laissez-faire approach maintained much of the traditional values and practices of the area with the colonial administrators only getting involved in tax collection disputes.

Many Yanubanis barely knew they were even under colonial rule as the tax collecting was subcontracted out to tribal leaders so as to diminish the need for a large costly colonial government. Due to its resource potential being mostly timber-based with some fishing, and rubber cultivation, Majanub was primarily focused on supplying the hotter less densely wooded colonies in the north. The few international exports it did have were routed through the Legatation of Ankivara before being either sold in Sarpedon or forwarded to Crona and Levantia.

Late modern era

The late modern era in Yanuban officially started with the end of company rule in 1836 and lasted until the outbreak of the Second Great War in 1934. It was a generally peaceful time in which the various tribes minded their own business and the as-Samadh family emerged as the strongest political entity eventually uniting the tribes under their monarchy. The as-Samadh family ruled from 1884 until 1977.

During the late modern period the area was not engaged in international politicking as its location was not relevant and its resources were not in demand. Aside from some tribal conflicts and a war with Battganuur over fishing rights, the nation had no significant issues during this time.

Contemporary era

Like the rest of the world the contemporary era in Yanuban spanned from the outbreak of the Second Great War in 1934 through the present day. It was a time of unprecedented unrest in the country and forced modernization. It spelled the end of the traditional lifestyles of the Yanuban farmer and nomadic herder, the creation of a deep divide in the nation that spans socioeconomic class, geographical distribution, and cultural outlook.

Samadhi Civil War

To many in Audonia and Alshar, the Second Great War demonstrated the fallibility of democratized capitalism of the Occidental world. While the political climate in Audonia was more democratic than Alshar, the mainstay of most political systems was the monarchy and this was no different in the Samadh Sultanate. In the century since its independence from the Marialanii Ularien Trading Empire, now the Burgoignesc Kandahar-Kandara Trading Company, the Yanubani had turned to strong leaders and found solace in the paternalism of the state. In the 1930s and 40s a series of education reforms were undertaken and peasant farmers and nomadic herders were required to attend school at least through the 8th grade. This decidedly bourgeois policy was resented by the farmers, many of whom could only cultivate enough food to sustain themselves. It was doubly offensive to the nomads as it formed them into permanent camps for the school year, many of which became permanent as the government tried to end nomadism all together.

These peoples were happy to hear out communist and socialist thinkers who traveled with impunity from village to encampment fomenting ill will. In the 1949 election to the representative council 4 communists were voted in. The votes were suppressed and the sheikhs who had held the mostly ceremonial position were welcomed back into the council. When the results were discovered in 1953 resentment turned to violence. Farmers and herders in a number of provinces attacked their magistrates and the offices of the sheikhs. This led to a revolt in the navy, were sailors who long resented their appointed officers, captured two of the country’s 8 naval bases. The army was used to suppress these actions and ill-will towards the army and the monarchy became widespread. In this environment the Yanuban National Liberation Army-Navy (YNLAN) was formed of anti-monarchist groups.

In 1955, the Samadh Sultanate fractured into a civil war. Suspected communists, anarchists, syndicalists, and anti-monarchists were rounded up and killed. The government began a Strategic Hamlet Program forcing farmers and nomadic herders into areas they could control. The theory was that the government would be able to control the Yanuban National Liberation Army-Navy (YNLAN) by denying them access to manpower. The resulting difficulties with getting farmers to and from their disparate fields resulted in the hamlets adopting communal practices completely back firing on the programs objectives. By 1958 the hamlet program had completely failed and had become the backbone of the communist movement and YNLAN recruitment. In 1961 the Samadhi monarchy asked Burgundie for help. The Burgoignesc Department of War was happy to offload their equipment that had been made obsolete by the Second Great War and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of materiel, tanks, ships, and planes to the Samadhi government. Foreign aid only further divided the nation between the monarchy, the middle and upper classes, and the army versus the working people with a sizable contingent of the navy. The war was characterized by intense guerrilla warfare taking place entirely in the countryside leaving cities untouched. Because of the hilly and densely forested terrain in much of the country the Samadhi government used napalm and defoliants consistently. This deprived farmers of their livelihood and herders of their ranges leading to a critical food shortage and one of the worst man-made famines of the 20th century. The urban areas began importing their food from other nations and inflation skyrocketed. By 1965 the urban areas had stabilized with a steady supply of food and goods being brought in on O’Shea Container Shipping ships, but it changed the diets of the urban population drastically. In order to cut costs the Samadhi government bought grain which instead of rice, they replaced lamb with beef, and generally made publicly available food more densely caloric. Meanwhile, the cities also invested in fishing to supplement the foreign exports and a thriving industry developed. Urban industrialized fishing fleets were given dispensation to carry weapons and chase suspected communist (rural) fishermen from the country’s national waters. The monarchy’s loyal navy used the opportunity to “protect” the fishing fleets and shell insurgent positions. A method was developed by the fishermen where they would station themselves about three nautical miles further out from the naval flotillas and let the sounds of the bombardments drive the fish into their nets. The method was wildly successful but lead to extensive over-fishing of the areas in which it was practiced.

In 1967 the YNLAN was formally disbanded as their adherents were starving to death. Support collapsed and the farmers begged the government to end the war and stop the deforestation. The YNLAN sued for peace and agreed to disband and hand in their arms. Their leaders were summarily executed and the country tried to find a sense of normalcy. However, having lost 2.3 million of its countrymen and having created a deeply divided nation, normalcy in the Samadh Sultanate was not without tension.

Operation Kipling

Main article: Operation Kipling

Just as the Samadhi Civil War was ending, communist uprisings across Audonia and Alshar erupted. By the mid 1960s a third of those countries were embroiled in anti-communist operations. Following their successful model in the Samadh Sultanate, Burgundie offered to sell its old military equipment to the embattled nations and facilitate any logistical support. In 1966, it was deemed not enough and Army of Burgundie troops started pouring into both continents. The Samadh Sultanate, still strapped for cash from its own civil war agreed to allow Burgundie to build bases, airfields, and ports to support their war effort. In the early 1970s, Burgoignesc wartime logistics constituted 15% of the Sultanate’s economy. The money was largely put back into the revitalization of the countryside with massive public works projects the also rendered unemployment almost null. This led to a resentment among urban populations who wanted to invest in their own improvements. In 1977, they abolished the monarchy and established a constitutional republic with strict voting laws that intentionally excluded the rural citizens. As part of the coup they redistributed the foreign monies coming in and set about urbanizing the nation on a grand scale. Known in the countryside as the second Strategic Hamlet Program, the urbanization was nominally more successful than its predecessor. It led to new urban centers being built, a network of transportation infrastructure, and a collectivization of farming in order to avoid the issues of the first hamlet program. It also included all of the social services that the urban populations deemed necessary and lead to an improvement in the lives of those who lived there, at least on paper.

As Operation Kipling intervention dragged on, the rural populations feared losing their identity to foreign influence and a thriving nativist cultural movement came into being. Nomadic Games were hosted to oppose the westernized Olympics, increasingly extreme interpretations of Islam were adopted, and raising children became as much about maintaining tradition as it did about preparing them for adulthood.

Zege regime

Main article: Zege

Following the conclusion of Operation Kipling and the advent of mass containerization by the Burgoignesc war effort, Audonia became a center of outsourcing. Far more developed than Alshar with much of its own infrastructure and a mature raw mineral extraction industry, Yanuban and the other Audonian nations were spared the spate of recolonization that has become common in the late 20th and early 21st century in Crona. The seaports, airports, roads, and railroads that dot and cross Audonia in general, and Yanuban in particular, were rebuilt by Burgoignesc companies in the 1980s and 90s. As part of the various peace treaties O’Shea Heavy Industries and Lansing Lines were contracted by the government of Burgundie to update and rebuild a vast network of communication and transportation infrastructure that, in Yanuban, were spearheaded by local engineers and workers. The experience was vital to a resurgence in the local economy as they switched from agricultural to heavy manufacturing. By the early 2000s they had become a massive exporter in the microprocessor business as well as in cellphone manufacturing. The GDPPC of the nation climbed from $493 to $1,502 between 1998 and 2026 and bore witness to a small but vocal middle class.

2032 Coup

Further information: 2023 Yanuban Coup

Summary to follow.

Burgundie stands alone

In the town of Tajebet, reports surfaced of widespread civilian massacres and heinous acts of violence carried out by the pro-al Zaydi forces. Eyewitnesses detailed accounts of the systematic targeting of unarmed civilians, including women and children, and the abduction of numerous women and girls for nefarious purposes. Faced with this egregious violation of human rights and a blatant disregard for the rules of engagement, a platoon of the Umardi Askaris, tasked with securing the area and protecting the civilian population, confronted a group of pro-al Zaydi fighters in the act of committing further atrocities. Despite attempts at de-escalation and warnings to cease their actions, the pro-al Zaydi forces persisted in their brutal assault on the defenseless civilians. Under intense pressure and with a heavy heart, the Askaris were left with no choice but to open fire on the perpetrators, seeking to put an end to the senseless violence and protect the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. The firefight that ensued resulted in casualties on both sides, 2 Askaris and 36 Yanubis, further exacerbating the already tense and volatile situation in the region. The decisive action taken by the Askaris to protect the civilian population of Tajebet, created an irreparable rift between Burgundie and the al Zaydi faction. Condemning the atrocities and the flagrant disregard for human life, the Burgoignesc government publicly denounced the al Zaydi leadership and announced the immediate suspension of all military cooperation and support.

With Burgundie effectively severing ties with the pro-al Zaydi faction, the civil strife in Yanuban escalated to a new level of complexity, with the pro-al Zaydi, pro-Junta, and Burgoignesc forces engaging in direct confrontations and intense battles throughout the country. The conflict, now involving three belligerents, plunged Yanuban into further chaos and bloodshed, deepening the suffering of the civilian population and exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis.

Government

Yanuban is an authoritarian non-presidential republic. It is led by a President for Life, but it does hold democratic elections for its legislative branch and local offices. The judiciary is co-appointed by the President for Life and the Presidium of Muslim Clerics, a non-governmental lobbying body which provides guidance to both the President for Life and the legislature on Islamic issues and concerns with current or proposed policy. The legislature is called the People's Assembly and is a unicameral body with proportional representation from each region. The Assembly is a parliamentary system led by a Conductor-in-Chief who is elected from among their peers. The Assembly has no related restrictions, but female members are rare. An element of sheikism still remains in local politics where the richest families have outsized influence. They often provide services and decide matters of social significance outside of the government systems. In turn they are elected to local office to ensure these services continue and the weight of the law supports them.

Culture

The culture of Yanuban is mainly the interplay of a long and deep-seated Islamification starting around 624 when its major settlements were conquered by Muslim armies. The people of modern Yanuban remained under the almost exclusive influence of the Oduniyyad Caliphate until its fall in 1517. In 1635, the Ularien Trading Company first arrived in the area and the lasting impact of Burgoignesc culture on the culture of Yanuban. Art, literature, and architecture in Yanuban are broadly within the schools and traditions of Muslim Audonia, but like many nations of the Middle seas region it is still vaguely a part of the Burgoignesc thalattocracy, as least in the cultural sense, so it draws inspiration from Occidental in general, and Burgoignesc in particular, trends and traditions. However, the influence of Burgundie on Yanubi culture was abruptly halted in 1836 and not meaningfully reintroduced until the 1960s, so Academic Art, Realism, Naturalism, Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Modern art, Modernism, and Late modernism never took hold in the Yanubi art scene. A unique Post-Romanticism style emerged in the late 1800s that highlighted Islamic ideals and uniquely Audonian landscapes and motifs. This artstyle is something the Yanubi are particularly proud of and under the Zege Regime it enjoyed a renaissance often called Yanubi Neo-Post Romanticism. Likewise, the literary trends of the late 19th and early 20th century never made its way into the oeuvre of Yanubi literary practice. So, the Islamic moralist poetry remained a primary literary high point for Yanuban. In architecture, there were some minor Burgoignesc influences left over from their colonial period however, the invention of climate control and air-conditioning have had the greatest impact on traditional Yanubi architecture. While religious and government buildings still follow the precepts of Islamic architecture, most new buildings are made in a more Occidental post-industrial style. This is no doubt a result of the outsized influence Burgoignesc firms have in Yanuban.

The Yanubi are fairly traditional in their attire. Yanubis who work in offices run by foreign companies, they will wear western-styles of dress, but most Yanubis wear traditional Islamic clothing and they are rarely seen without some form of head covering. Perspectives on this are changing slowly with the advent of globalization and especially the internet, but it is still a cultural expectation that the vast majority of Yanubis are dressed more traditionally and conservatively.

Cuisine

Mutton and couscous feature heavily in the Yanubi diet. Grain and rice are also common cereals. Almost all meals are a meat and vegetable as the main dish and a side of either a baguette or couscous/rice. Breakfast is light and often eaten on the go, a fairly new phenomenon, stemming from Burgoignesc influence since Operation Kipling. Lunch is taken around 11:00am, eaten slowly, and is dense and large. It is almost always eaten in a communal setting and followed by an hour rest period, where tea is consumed and men may smoke communally from a hookah/shisha. Nothing of import is discussed during this time, it is supposed to be idle banter to calm the digestion process and to not excite the body during the hottest part of the day. Dinner is eaten as a family and food is served a la table around 8:00pm.

There is a strong tea drinking culture in Yanuban. Many people will stop on their way to work to drab a quick drink, will take tea breaks throughout the day, will have tea as a digestif after lunch, and will grab a tea on the way home from work. There are tea sellers, stalls, stands, and shops everywhere, even in more rural areas. It is almost an impulse of Yanubis to stop and drink tea whenever they see it.

Coffee is becoming more popular with young Yanubis, mostly because of Burgoignesc influence. It is not widely liked by most Yanubis who find it bitter and displeasing to their stomachs, which is why they drink tea.

Alcohol is fairly common in Yanuban, but it is not imbibed in any great volume. Young men will drink a beer in the evening and young urban people will all have a drink if they go out clubbing, but more than one is considered poor taste. Drinks are often weak and sweet.

Demographics

Linguistic Demographics

All Yanubis speak Arabic and those in cities and the tourist/international business sectors speak fluent Burgoignesc, around 30%. The Yanubi dialect of Arabic is mutually intelligible to most other Arabic speakers in the Middle seas region.

Religious Demographics

Yanuban is 80% Muslim, 60% of whom follow Sunni Islam, 25% are Shiite, and 15% are Sufis. Of the remaining 20%, around 9% are Jewish, 6% are Mercantile Reform Protestant, 4% are Catholic, 1% are other (Old Gods, agnostic, or irreligious).

Military

The military of Yanuban has three branches, the Army, the Aeronauticale, and the National Gendarmerie. The Army is 150,000 soldiers divided into 8 Divisions. It has a moderate armored force, comprised mostly of Kipling-era tanks, APCs, and self-propelled artillery, sold to the country by Burgundie during successive rounds of modernization. The primary firearm is the FN-FAL, also supplied by Burgundie.

The Aeronauticale is both the air force and the navy of Yanuban. It consists of 13 air wings, of which 5 are fighter/interceptors, 4 are fighter bombers, 2 are strategic airlift/logistics, and 2 are training. The naval contingent is built around 9 frigate squadrons, 5 patrol/coast guard squadrons, and a single Second Great War-era battleship, which is too expensive to put to sea, but nominally serves as the flagship and its own fleet-in-being. The Aeronauticale also serves the air-defense role and has 32 radar installations and countless anti-air batteries dotted all along its border.

The National Gendarmerie of Yanuban is the national police force of the country. It has approximately 285,400 members and is equipped and trained in the same way as the infantry in the army. Gendarmes are specially trained in riot suppression and as such also carry long batons or truncheons in addition to their FN FALS. The Gendarmerie is organized into 12 geographical police districts, whose size and staffing depends on the number of residents; as well as a Mobile Gendarmerie who have APCs and riot suppression vehicles.

See also

• Burgoignesc thalattocracy