Talas

Talashi People's Union — — Atiri Talashi Ke'egatu
Flag Emblem
Motto:  — — Em-Ka'al-Ke'egatu Honour, Peace, Union
Anthem:  — Adimri Seda (Red March)
Location of Talas (red) in Tersa
Capital and largest city	Livaret
Official languages	Talashi
Recognised regional languages	Ilikeri, Benadaighn
Ethnic groups (5990 Ʋ)	92.7% Talashi 4.3% Ilikeri 2.2% Benadaighn 0.8% Other
Demonym(s)	Talashi
Government	Unitary one-party atirist state
• First Secretary	Elam Dagus
• First Councillor	Ava Naatam
Legislature	People's Council
Establishment
• Talashi Revolution	5856 Ʋ
• Great Tersan War	5868 Ʋ
• Peace of Bardesh	5884 Ʋ
Area
•	1,252,691.157 km2 (483,666.760 sq mi)
Population
• 5995 Ʋ estimate	126,731,200
• 5990 Ʋ census	126,012,852
• Density	101.167/km2 (262.0/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)	5995 Ʋ estimate
• Total	$1.157 trillion
• Per capita	$9,129
Gini (5992 Ʋ)	29.3 low
HDI	0.66932 medium
Currency	Negen () (TAL)
Time zone	UTC-1 to +2 (various)
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy (ʋ)
Driving side	right
Calling code	+51
Internet TLD	.tl

The Talashi People's Union (Standard Talashi: — — , Atiri Talashi Ke'egatu, ATK, or more commonly , Tala'as; Talas) is a sovereign state composed of 24 atiri esarani and three special administrative areas, one of which includes the capital and largest city of Livaret. Talas is the largest nation in Tersa, with an estimated population of 126.73 million people as of 5996 Ʋ and a total land area of 1,252,691.157 square kilometres.

The area which composes contemporary Talas has a history of human habitation documented to stretch as early as 11,000 years before the present. The modern political entity of Talas has its origins in the ancient Livaretic Empire that later became the First Talashi Empire. The Talashi Interregnum began in 4586 Ʋ with the collapse of the First Empire, and it would not be until 5019 Ʋ with the outbreak of the First Kaloshi-Talashi War that the Second Talashi Empire would take its place. The Second Empire was highly decentralised and composed of many competing feudal fiefs; it ultimately collapsed in 5345 Ʋ under pressure from both internal and external sources of conflict. The legendary Gean the Warlock successfully established the Third Talashi Empire in 5386 Ʋ and lead the most successful incarnation of the Imperial state, lasting as a single political unit until the outbreak of the Talashi Revolution in 5856 Ʋ.

The modern government of the Talas under the Talashi Atirist Party resulted from the victory of the Talashi People's Front in the Revolution. The Atirist Party initially established the Greater Tersan People's Union, which then set out to extend the revolutionary Atirist movement to the rest of Tersa through direct intervention in neighbouring states. In 5868 Ʋ, elements of the reorganized People's Front entered Kares and triggered the outbreak of the Great Tersan War, which was concluded in 5884 Ʋ with the Peace of Bardesh. The GTPU was thoroughly defeated in the conflict and was significantly reduced in size through the partitioning of Aradet and Muruz. The Talashi People's Union was formally established in the stead of the GTPU, amd the Talashi Civil War followed shortly after in 5886 Ʋ. Atirist forces retained control over Talas at the war's end in 5893 Ʋ, and since then, Talas has regained its standing as a preeminent regional power in Tersa and a middle power in the world at large.

The Talashi economy uses a centrally administered planned economic system, in which the Commissariat for Economy plays a massively central role through the individual industrial bureaus. There is little to no economic freedom in Talas, and international trade is limited to goods deemed of utmost necessity but which cannot be found in Talas to a significant degree. Many international economic organisations consider the Talashi economy as technologically backwards to more competitive market economies found across Sabel, but the Central Committee points to significant economic equality and general public happiness as a measure of its success in economic planning.

For a large part of the period following the end of the Great Tersan War, Talas was regarded as a regional pariah state with no positive foreign relations. It was not until the incumbent administration of Elam Dagus that some level of normalised foreign interaction was pursued, and even then relations between Talas and many other states continue to remain tense at best. Talas is not a member of any international organisations due to a longstanding policy of successive Central Committees which regard all existent intergovernmental organisations in Sabel as seeking to continue the cycle of economic exploitation of the lower classes by wealthy elites.

Etymology

The word Talas comes from the Talashi word Tala'as ( ) which is itself derived from the Old Talashi word Tala'aza. This word is a cognate of the Proto-Endori-Chovi words Ta'al ( ), meaning hill or mound, and Az ( ), meaning land or country. Due to its size, it is not clear that Tala'aza would have originally applied to the same geographic area that it encompasses today, and so it is believed that the word originally referred to one specific area and was later applied to the country of the modern day. Another theory is that the word was applied as an exonym by some other group which identified the early fortified hill citadels, called te'el ( ), which served as the palace-fortresses of the ma'aki of ancient times.

The full name of Talas, the Talashi People's Union, is a direct translation of the Talashi Atiri Talashi Ke'egatu ( — — ). The name references the state ideology of Atirism in its native form, but the word Atiri does also make up the possessive form of the word Ati, meaning people. Ke'egatu can be translated more literally as Union State, though the suffixal -atu is generally applied to all government-type identifying words in Talashi.

History

The area which makes up contemporary Talas has a long history of human habitation. The Endori-Chovi migrations which brought the Old Talashi to modern Talas occurred as early as 11,000 YBP, though evidence of pre-Endori-Chovi culture groups is prevalent. The first proper urban settlements arose around 1980 Ʋ as Old Talashi clans concentrated in the far west, avoiding the First Vespian Invasion. These large concentrations of village-like clusters were ruled by general-kings known as ma'aks and were highly military-oriented due to a sustained Vespian threat for nearly an entire millennium. Less than a decade after the Vespian withdrawal, in 2988 Ʋ, the Maklatu of Aret established a hegemony in Old Talas. The Maklatu consolidated its power through the resettlement of previously abandoned eastern territories and would maintain its hegemony for nearly seven centuries. In 3595 Ʋ, Varakan the Conqueror's Conquests led him to invade Lacramsa, and his success in taking a significant portion of the Maklatu's traditional power base saw its demise only days after the First Peace of Livaret in 3601 Ʋ. The death of Varakan resulted in the de facto independence of Lacramsa as the Shelit of Livaret, and its military leadership thereafter engaged in a series of campaigns known as the Livaretic Expansion. In 3883 Ʋ, The Livaretic general Rumam Varakanit led a coup which resulted in the establishment of the Livaretic Empire with himself as Emperor, an event which has traditionally marked the beginning of the Imperial period of Talashi history.

The Livaretic Empire continued the territorial expansion which had begun three centuries before its foundation, and at its peak in 4192 Ʋ it encompassed all of contemporary Talas and a large possessions in the Samat and Southern Tersa. The Esoric Crisis of 4266 Ʋ saw the transition into the First Talashi Empire, a polity which found itself in a continual decline after its creation. The decentralisation reforms of the First Empire resulted in a stagnation and eventual decline in relative regional power. Feudal states in the Samat and the rising Seneveri Confederation fiercely opposed invasion attempts by regional Talashi nasiri while Imperial authority developed a decadent streak and complacency of status. The Talashi Interregnum was a chaotic period triggered by the assassination of the child Emperor Varasam XVIII in 4586 Ʋ, and this long, conflict-prone period ended with the creation of the feudal Second Talashi Empire in 5019 Ʋ as a response to the rise of the Kaloshi Dyunshilate and the more immediate outbreak of the First Kaloshi-Talashi War. The Second Empire negotiated the Peace of Edan with the Dyunshilate after more than a century of conflict in 5132 Ʋ, though this peace was tentative and eventually gave way to the Second Kaloshi-Talashi War by 5164 Ʋ. Another nearly two centuries of intermittent conflict resulted in the collapse of the Second Empire in 5345 Ʋ, and in its victory the Dyunshilate subjugated a great deal of the regional feudal leaders by eradicating their dynastic houses and instituting rule by priesthood throughout Lacramsa.

While the Dyunshilate focused its power on maintaining a hegemony over the populous Lacramsa, the feudal lords of Western Talas managed to remain in a state of independence. The Nasiri League was formed as an alliance of independent lords and waged a prolonged campaign of resistance against Kaloshi incursions. The legendary Nasir Gean the Warlock led a successful push against Kaloshi rule in Lacramsa in the Third Kaloshi-Talashi War of 5381 Ʋ, and later, his campaign to centralise military, political, and religious authority saw the establishment of the Third Talashi Empire in 5386 Ʋ. The Geanic dynasty adopted the religious institutionalism of the Dyunshilate while combining it with a professional military force in a move which saw the most rapid expansion of Talashi rule over Tersa in history. Most of the Samat and Southern Tersa would be included in the Third Empire for varying periods of time, and the relative internal stability of Talas proper gave way to the Talashi Golden Age from 5469 Ʋ to 5657 Ʋ. The Second Vespian Invasion of Tersa began in 5657 Ʋ at the end of this Golden Age, and though it caused considerable amounts of devastation in the Imperial heartlands, a prolonged conflict with the Vespians was fended off by the victory of the Imperial Army. However, the weakened Third Empire began to unravel as its conquered extremities used the opportunity to push for independence. By the end of the 57th century, though it had diminished greatly in territorial possessions, the Third Empire was able to achieve internal stability and revitalised economic growth.

The Talashi Industrial Revolution began as early as 5804 Ʋ and saw dramatic demographic and economic shifts within the Third Empire. Sweeping urbanisation and rapid industrial expansion under monopolistic Imperial companies gave way to extreme tensions between workers and aristocratic elites. General discontent realised as a political movement for change with the emergence of Atirists around 5832 Ʋ. The Atirists organised under the auspices of the Talashi People's Front, which evolved from a trade unionist movement into a militant rebel syndicate after repeated attempts by Imperial authorities to suppress it. The Etasana Massacres of 5855 Ʋ saw a dramatic rise in support for the People's Front and the outbreak of the Talashi Revolution the following year. The decade long civil conflict eventually saw the total victory of the Atirists despite widespread foreign support for the Imperial government. As a result of the success of the vehemently militant People's Front forming the Greater Tersan People's Union, nearly every other nation in Tersa combined to form the Tersan Cooperation and Defense Organisation. The GTPU launched an invasion of Kares in 5868 Ʋ which resulted in the outbreak of the Great Tersan War. Despite initial success, the GTPU was unable to defeat the international coalition and the Peace of Bardesh in 5884 Ʋ resulted in the forced partition of the non-Talashi segments of the GTPU. As a result, the nation was reorganised as the Talashi People's Union and came to encompass the same borders as maintained in the modern day.

During the Great Tersan War, the councilism advocated by the Talashi People's Front became untenable in the face of centrally organised military opponents. As a result, a planned economy was deemed necessary to coordinate the creation of a national military-industrial complex. After the end of the War, the devastation wrought upon the Lacramsa offered an opportunity to restructure the Talashi economic system once more. Under the leadership of First Secretary Gedan Eletum, the economy was rebuilt through the process of collectivisation, in which rural populations were typically brought to cohabit spaces allowing for more centralised distribution of goods, while urban populations saw cities rebuilt as clusters of industrial areas surrounded by residential and service zones. Though Eletum aimed to eventually shift away from the planned economy model, the system ultimately remained due to the lack of feasible alternatives which would maintain centralised political power.

Politics

Talas is a single-party state ruled by the Talashi Atirist Party. The First Secretary serves as the head of government and the de facto head of state. According to the People's Charter of Talas, the People's Council is the official supreme legislature of the country, and the First Councillor leads the People's Council in determining its agenda and procedures. In reality, the People's Council serves a role of a rubber stamp, as all political decisions are ultimately made by the Central Committee of the Talashi Atirist Party. The Central Committee is made up of the various ministerial Commissars and is led by the First Secretary, and all of its decisions are made unanimously in accordance with the will of the First Secretary. Because of this style of governance, Talas has often been described as variously as an authoritarian and totalitarian autocracy.

Government

The Palace of the People in Livaret is the seat of the People's Council and the Central Committee of the Talashi Atirist Party.

The People's Charter is the official constitution of Talas and outlines the structure and protocols of governance in the Union. The Charter outlines the nature of the People's Council as the supreme legislature, in that all laws and amendments to the laws should originate within the People's Council and be approved by the body before taking affect. The Charter makes the First Councillor the leader of the agenda of the People's Council and the determining agent in matters of Council procedure. However, in 5886 Ʋ, the People's Council made the existence of and public participation within oppositionary political parties illegal, effecting turning Talas into a one-party state under the Atirist Party. Within the Atirist Party, political decisions are made on a top-down basis, in which the Central Committee serves as the principal organ of policy-making. The policies which are approved by the Central Committee are then introduced into and passed by the People's Council to officially become law, and votes on Central Committee policies are typically unanimously decided. In this way, the People's Council acts as a rubber stamp, with no legislative authority of its own.

The Central Committee is made up of the various Commissars which lead the ministerial departments of the Talashi government. Commissars are appointed by the Central Committee, typically at the choice of the First Secretary, and often come from officials of rank and notability within the Commissariats they are appointed to. The First Secretary serves as the leader of the Central Committee, and thus the leader of the Atirist Party and the whole of the Talashi government. The First Secretary is serves a lifetime appointment and is elected from within the Central Committee. The Central Committee has the power to expel any of its members if they are suspected of corruption or any other criminal activity, including the First Secretary, though such an expulsion has never occurred in the history of the People's Union. The highly linear structure of authority in the Talashi government has had many foreign observers question the meritocracy which the Atirist Party officially claims it is governed by. The children and personal associates of members of the Central Committee are explicitly barred from serving in the respective Commissariats of their relatives, and the educational and skills assessments of these individuals are often highly scrutinised to prevent nepotism and cronyism.

Justice

A satellite image of Ki'irevan avodana, allegedly the site where the worst offenders in Talas are sent.

The Talashi legal system operates on a mix of statute and judicial precedent. While certain criminal activities have mandatory minimums for sentencing, others do not and are decided on a case by case basis. Most court proceedings in Talas are public and are eligible for the use of a jury. Secret trials are not uncommon in the prosecution of political dissidents and infamous criminals, as policy dictates that any prospective defendant who might gain some degree of fascination within the public be shielded from gaining the notoriety they might seek. Two principle governmental bureaus are invested with national jurisdiction over judicial matters: the Internal Security Bureau and the State Detective Bureau. There are also municipal police forces spread across Talas. Courts are organised municipally, though prosecution may be carried out in any municipality regardless of where any criminal activity took place. Correctional facilities in Talas are managed by the State Correctional Bureau and vary widely depending on the nature of inmates housed. Petty criminals are often held in standardised prisons, while repeat offenders, criminals of significant offences, and major political dissidents are often imprisoned in avodani, hard labour camps which have gained international condemnation for their squalid conditions, harsh forced work, and allegations of inmate torture. The avodani have been publicly acknowledged by the Talashi Central Committee since 5979 Ʋ, although it calls such allegations of abusive conditions "hypocritical posturing by foreign propagandists."

Military

The Talashi People's Liberation Forces are the combined armed forces of the People's Union. The TPLF is divided into four service branches: the TPL Army, the TPL Navy, the TPL Air Force, and the TPL Guards. In total, the TPLF is made up of about 758,400 active personnel as of 5996 Ʋ, and total reserve forces stand at around 2.4 million. Military training is mandated for all citizens of the People's Union above the age of 20 as a result of the historical hostility between Talas and neighbours in the Tersa region. In recent years, since the administration of Nitu Avdaan, and especially so under current First Secretary Elam Dagus, Talas has been undergoing a process of decreasing its military's brute size and focusing more on technological advancement for military applications. This is a result of a recent shift in foreign diplomacy towards a more cooperation-based attitude with neighbouring states. Talas is a non-designated nuclear state, in that it is suspected the People's Union possesses a nuclear arsenal in secrecy against international nuclear non-proliferation agreements, as Talas openly admits to the utilisation of nuclear power plants as a major source of its national electric generation.

Economy

Administrative offices of the Commissariat for Economy, Livaret, as seen from across the Lacram river.

The economy of Talas is considered a state administrative command economy in which the central government plays a central role, particularly through the Commissariat for Economy with general direction from the Central Committee. Talas ranks at a mid-level in terms of general economic development when compared with other countries in Tersa and the world at large. Talas ranks highly in terms of economic equality, however, and broad measures are in place to insure the mass availability of many common goods. As of 5996 Ʋ, Talas had a GDP per capita at PPP estimated at $9,129 for a total GDP at PPP of $1.157 trillion, making it the second largest economy in Tersa after Esmat.

Primary economic activity is mixed in Talas, with strong industries in agriculture, mining, and fishing. Farms, mines, and fisheries in Talas are managed by Bureaus related to those specific industries, and production quotas for individual sites are usually determined by the Commissariat for Economy in order to meet the specific demands of industrial facilities for those goods. Secondary economic activity makes up the largest part of the Talashi economy, with a little more than half of the population involved in industrial production. Civilian goods, such as processed foods, clothes, televisions, and other small appliances, make up the bulk of industrial output in Talas, followed closely by industrial machinery, such as tractors, forklifts, and machine parts, and then processed resource materials, such as concrete, steel, and glass. Due to the collectivised, centrally administered economic style employed in Talas, tertiary economic activity is limited to more basic services, such as restaurants, distribution centres, and schools, and the sector makes up a smaller part of the Talashi economy as a percentage than any other country in Talas.

Talas is generally considered to lack any economic freedom, as all economic activity in the country is centrally administered. The lack of oversight for the Commissariat for Economy has seen historical periods of intense corruption among state officials, though these periods are usually followed by intense purges led by the Central Committee and widely publicised by state press to foster public support for continued central economic leadership. Another problem faced by the Talashi economy is inefficiency of resource management, particularly in regards to both the of coordination of primary resource quotas to secondary industrial input levels and the distribution of goods to the public. Advancements in communications equipment and digital systems have partially alleviated coordination problems, but as a result different problems of fulfilling determined quotas have arisen and persist.

Infrastructure

East Aret Nuclear Power Station is the largest in Talas.

Electricity is widely available in Talas, with some 89% of the population having access to electricity in their homes. Nuclear power makes up the vast majority of Talashi electric generation, composing a total of 61% of all electric generation in the country. Nuclear power plants have been common across Talas since as early as 5944 Ʋ, when the first was constructed in the vicinity of Arus. Fossil fuels make up the second largest source of electric generation in Talas, at approximately 34% of total power output. The most used fossil fuel source in Talas is coal. Under the administration of Elam Dagus, the Commissariat for Infrastructure has publicly announced its dedication to transitioning solely to nuclear and renewable sources of energy by 6007 Ʋ. citing concerns over global climate change. Renewables make up the smallest portion of electric generation in Talas, at only around 5%, with most of this being solely attributed to limited development in wind power technologies.

Inter-city transportation in Talas is available to the public with proper governmental authorization, and most commonly, people in Talas tend to travel for vacations and family visits. National transportation needs are mostly met through Talas' extensive railway network, operated as Atirisehla ( , lit People's Rail). Atirisehla has services to all major population centers in Talas, and in recent years, especially under the current Dagus administration, has been greatly expanding service to more rural parts of the country. Inside of cities, the most commonly utilized forms of transport include subways, busses, and bicycles. Railway transportation also serves as the primary method of freight transport in Talas. Automobile ownership is extremely limited in Talas due to the large number of resources required in making such vehicles available to every adult member of the public. Paved road networks are common in and between larger population centers, though the primary vehicles using those roads are freight trucks and public buses. The vast majority of roads in rural areas are unpaved. Air travel is extremely limited inside Talas, and it primarily serves as a method for international travel in the country, which itself is extremely limited in its availability to the public. Only two major international airports exist in Talas in Liverat and Arus.

Science and technology

Despite the general public unavailability of many centrally-organized technological developments, Talas is still a world leader in fields of space exploration, astrophysics, particle physics, and environmental sciences. The Commissariat for Science has received significant increases in resource allocation under the current Dagus administration, and furthermore, individual field research initiatives led by specialists in a variety of different sciences have received broad support for individual research, a sharp change from previous governmental approaches of determining a goal for Commissariat scientists in a top-down oriented fashion. Some of the most notable parts of the Commissariat for Science are OSERB (the Talashi space agency), SEERB (concerned with environmental science), and PAPRB (concerned with particle physics and atomic, molecular, and optical physics).

Culture

Mainstream Talashi society draws many of its customs through the syncretization of different factors over thousands of years of historical development. Talashi culture in its modern form has evolved from five prominent sources which vary in time period of actual influence: the ancient influence of the Old Tziyahani traders and explorers among the endemic Endori peoples of the Lacramsa river, the Livaretic traditions which date before the founding of the First Talashi Empire, the subsequent Imperial cultural developments which constitute the largest part of recorded Talashi history, the more historically recent religious and cultural pressure of the Kaloshi Dyunshilate, and the most recent Atirist policies under the present political system aimed at modifying and regulating Talashi society in its contemporary form.

Contemporary Talashi culture and society places a high degree of value on the Four Virtues of Kaalamism, which traditionally are humility, kindness, pacifism, and charity. The Talashi Atirist Party uses a modified form called the Four Tenets of a Good Life, which replaces "pacifism" specifically with "respect for the peace of others." This minor modification is due to the nature of the Talashi Revolution and its cultural significance in modern Talas, in that the violence of the conflict was necessary to create conditions of flourishing for all peoples within Talas. Humility, kindness, and charity continue to play major roles in Talashi society as well, and the relative "contentedness" of modern Talas is largely due to the intensive education given to Talashi schoolchildren on the benefits of living in their homeland with regards to the Four Tenets and in comparison with life in other countries around the world.