Siqála

Siqála, officially the Republic of Siqála (Aswáqsta: Siqála Kaweqstálat), is a country in northern Vatupaya, in the continent of Vidina. It is surrounded by the Northern Ocean to the north, the Aila'ak Bay to the east, and the Gulf of Jetérja to the west. Insular Siqála comprises the Skóuks Archipelago, surrounded by the Siqálan Sea, and several outlier offshore islands. The country is divided into 15 states, with nearly 85% of the population being concentrated in southeastern region. As of 2023, Siqála has a population of 1,501,838 people, with nearly a third living in the capital city of Annué or its surrounding metropolitan area.

The Siqálan peninsula was first inhabited around 8,000 years ago by communities migrating from southern Vatupaya. Originally divided into two cultures, the Qalesé and the Aila'ak, the people inhabiting the region merged into a singular ethnolinguistic group around the 7th century BCE, the Aswáq. The Aswáq continued to expand across the peninsula, discovering and settling new territory, and living as a people group until the 2nd century CE. In the year c. 240, the First Aswáq Chiefdom is believed to have formed as an early form of  comprising the different tribes, led by Añuniaq. This chiefdom would collapse sometime around the early 5th century, after the death of chief Nóakstat. After the collapse, the Aswáq continued to develop and expanding for the following centuries, adopting a, early , more extensive , and basic , with the turn of the 11th century. By the 13th century, the Aswáq people were split between four major tribes: the Iqápe, the Ajék'ku, the Nauk'kon, and the K'qitsauak, with smaller communities, or outliers, living in present-day central Siqála, not belonging to any formal tribe. During the early 1300s, through a series of arranged marriages and political unions, the Ajék'ku, Nauk'kon, and K'qitsauak tribes joined under a single larger tribe, the Aysiwála.

Heavy exposure to foreign communities during the following centuries, led to the formation of the Kingdom of Iqápe in 1422, whose values were more aligned with that of southern Vatupic cultures than fellow Aswáq communities. As countermeasure, the Aysiwála formally established the Chiefdom of Aysiwála in 1437, challenging the dominance of Iqápe in the region. Seeking out to further their influence and power, Iqápe started the Northern Incursion in 1463, a plan consisting in the invasion of the outlier Aswáq communities of central Siqála. Aysiwála and Iqápe went to war over the territory until 1476. The Incursion created a hard territorial boundary between both countries, and resulted in a century of increasing tension, as the Kingdom of Iqápe continued to adopt harsher internal and external policies. This culminated in the Aswáq War, fought between 1537 and 1547, before coming to an end with the signing of the Pact of Atwaistáq.

The territory reorganized for a final time into a singular state, ruled as a, known as the Dominion of Siqála in 1694. The Aswáq people entered their first golden age, characterized by rapid economic, technological and political advancements, that lasted until 1813, before reaching a breaking point with the death of chief Kajésqa'awál VII in 1808. This launched the country into two decades of civil and political unrest before reaching the White Revolution of 1824. Though unsuccessful, the revolution became the catalyst for the 1865 Siqálan coup d'état, led by military commander Ak'jáwe Laáksaihjól. Under military rule, Siqála was turned into an under an, lasting for nearly half a century before the Siqálan Civil War in 1923. The military government was overthrown by the end of the civil war in 1927 and replaced by the newly established First Siqálan Republic.

Siqála became a dominion of Riyata during World War II following the country's second military coup in 1940 after president C'áwes Kjujárakaihjól's effort to support Ta'arohan dictator Amapytu Ubirata. The country regained independence following a in 1946, with presidential elections taking place the following year, electing Kjesás Eitákstasatáp as president. Eitákstasatáp's presidency brought about the constitutional reform of 1948 and the creation of the Second Siqálan Republic.

Today, Siqála is a with a  with higher  than the regional average. The country has one of the highest memberships in the world, and has maintained a  system since the early 2000s, providing  and  for its citizens. Siqála is one of the highest ranking countries in democracy, income and gender equality, and is the nation with the highest Human Development Index (HDI) in the world. Siqála has been a member of the Vatupic Treaty Community since 1947.

Etymology
The name "Siqála" derives from the Aswáqsta term meaning "land of the Aswáq". It was first employed on 15 March 1694 with the creation of the Dominion of Siqála, however, it did not enter common circulation until the start of the 18th century.

Prehistory
The Siqálan peninsula was first inhabited approximately 8,000 years ago by arriving from Vidina, and traveling across Vatupaya, before settling further north in the area surrounding the mouth of the Akjéfkjar river and the shores of the Aila'ak Bay sometime around the year 6,000 BCE. This initial population would group into small communities, adopting a  diet due to the scarcity vegetable life in the region. For the following millennia, many practices became of great importance for the lifestyle of these ancient communities, with becoming one of the primary means through which humans could obtain food in the region. Sometime around the start of the 3nd millennium BCE, a small migration northward took place along the shores of the Aila'ak peninsula, which resulted in the divergence between the Qalesé culture to the south and the Aila'ak culture to the north.

The southern Qalése people quickly adapted to the region's environment, over time developing tools and adopting sometime around the year 1,300 BCE. With the turn of the millennium, more permanent settlements would began to appear alongside the Akjéfkjar river and the flat, fertile regions of its basin. Because of the region's climate, agriculture did not grow to prominence beyond the reach the Qalése's reach until much later on, and even then, they continued to rely on a semi-nomadic and hunting lifestyle, particularly during the beginning of summer when food rations would be scarcest. Over time, these southern early communities took on a more way of life, and did not continue to expand for centuries. Simultaneous to the rapid development of the southern Qalése, the northern communities that had previously diverged and had been living further into the peninsula, the Aila'ak culture, saw much lower advancement while continuously maintaining their hunting nomadic lifestyle. Agriculture didn't appear among the Aila'ak until their integration with the Qalése sometime during the 7th century BCE.

During the mid to late 8th century BCE, the Qalése are believed to have increased in population, a characteristic that was not shared with the Aila'ak, whose population numbers remained much steadier in comparison. This sudden increase in population resulted in a territorial expansion in search for more arable land, most of which took place along the shores of the Aila'ak Bay. As the Qalése expanded north, the Aila'ak became integrated into their communities and began assimilating with their way of life, primarily in areas such as the adoption of agriculture, sedentarism, and the transition into an diet. By the start of the 5th century BCE, both cultures became almost entirely indistinguishable from one another, resulting in the Aswáq ethnolinguistic group.

Early Aswáq people
The Aswáq quickly displaced the Qalése and Aila'ak communities that stayed out of the assimilation process by the end of the 5th century BCE, and became the predominant people group in the region. For the following century, the Aswáq continued to expand into undiscovered territory, reaching the northeastern shores of Lake Ogyke sometime around 570 BCE, as well as developed technologically and culturally. Wood became one of the more widespread forms of early art in the region, along with stone paintings, with animal figurines being found spread across southeastern present-day Siqála.

Many of the settlements on newly discovered ground remained primarily temporary as the harsh environmental conditions and primitive technology did not allow for more advanced means of construction. Transportation became an integral part of Aswáq society as smaller insular communities began emerging along the northern shores of Vatupaya, eastward, many of which continued to rely on the main settlement for food, tools, or clothes. This region of small Aswáq communities interconnected with one another is referred to as the Aswáq Corridor, which stretched from the eastern side of Lake Ogyke to the northern shores of present-day [!Eastern Neighbor]. It was around this time period, that the Aswáq first came in contact with other communities of northern Vatupaya, in particular the northern Taxic communities, who, similarly to the small Aswáq people along the corridor, were part of a much larger Taxic group that inhabited most of what is present-day Riyata.

By the mid to late 4th century BCE, the Aswáq were able to successfully venture westward into the Siqálan peninsula, eventually circumnavigating the Aila'ak peninsula and reaching the southern islands and islets of the Skóuks archipelago c. 320 BCE. The seafaring nature of this process of discovery and settlement of coastal regions resulted in the formation of a small maritime trade and transportation network along the northern shores of the subcontinent, which, over time, became an extension of the already existing maritime route of the Taxic people. However, despite coming into contact early on, the two groups never formally established relations with one another besides trading, which even then was not entirely developed as both communities never expanded far beyond their immediate spheres of control. Left looking westward to expand, the shores of the Siqálan peninsula quickly became populated by the Aswáq, with smaller settlements growing in size and population, expanding the previously set up maritime network to be a lot more robust. By the late 1st century BCE, numerous villages had been constructed as far west as the shores of the Gulf of Jéterja.

Geography
The Siqálan territory lies in its entirety within the Vatupic in Vidina, and it extends over a continental land area of 415,598.79 sq km (160,463.58 sq mi), while the offshore islands make up a total of 5,300.53 sq km (2,046.54 sq mi), for a total of 445,167.74 sq km (171,880.23 sq mi), 5.77% of which is water, making it the 30th-largest country in the world. The country is divided by three climate zones, the largest of which is (Dfb), encompassing the entire west and center of the territory, as well as most of the eastern coast and its offshore islands. A handful of terrain to the south, and the very southeast falls under the climate type (Dfc), while the very far north of the peninsula is  (ET).

Excluding the very far west and east, Siqála is surrounded on all sides by. Running along the southwestern border are the !Vatupic Mountains, dividing the subcontinent into a northern and southern half. The country is surrounded by water in all other directions, with the Gulf of Jetérja to the west, the Siqálan Sea to the north and northeast, and the Aila'ak Bay to the east and southeast. At a little over 100 lakes, varying in size, Siqála is the country with the most lakes in continental Vatupaya. Most of these lakes are concentrated on the country's western side, with the 16 largest of them comprising the Qekjóka Lakes region, which includes all of the land surrounding the bodies of water. The largest lake in the country is Lake Ogyke, in the Siqálan south, where the national government has joint jurisdiction with the government of Ta'aroha.

Most of Siqála's major offshore islands are within the Siqálan Sea and integrate the Skóuks archipelago, which comprises 11 major islands and up to 50 smaller isles and. The three largest islands not part of the Skóuks archipelago are Skói island, off the coast of the Aila'ak peninsula, and Kajésqa island in the Siqálan sea, and Kjépi'eks island in the Aila'ak Bay. All islands are mostly flat in elevations, with the tallest of them reaching only 150 meters above sea level. The mainland territories varies in elevation southwestward, transitioning from flat coastal regions to forested highlands toward the !Vatupic Mountains, with the tallest point in the country being Mount Arkajéta at nearly 5,650 meters above sea level.

Climate and wildlife
In general, the climate of Siqála is cold and humid. The country's climate is largely determined by its latitude, maritime and elevation influences. According to the, Siqála has three main climate regions. Southern and eastern Siqála, including most of the major population centers and areas south of the 55°N, have a (Dfb), with four distinct seasons, and heavier rainfall than the rest of the country, but less than the global average. The region experiences very cold and snowy winters and mild summers, with the highest mean average temperature never reaching above 22°C. central, western, and most of northern Siqála, as well as most of its eastern offshore islands, have a (Dfc), which encompasses the largest portion of the territory. Temperature in these regions stays well below 10°C year round, only surpassing them between the months of June and August. Winters are long, snowy, and among the coldest in northern Vatupaya, while summers are shorter due to the higher latitude and the greater influence of Vorghyic air masses. Precipitation in this area is considerably less on average than farther south, except at some higher elevations along the !Vatupic Mountains to the west. The very northernmost tip of the Siqálan peninsula as well as its offshore islands, experience a (ET), with very cold and long winters, and short, much cooler summers. The primary influences in this region are the Northern Ocean currents, and continental air masses from the Vorghys. Within this region, a very small portion of the country, at its northernmost point, lies within the Vorghic Circle, marked at around the 66°N parallel.

The Siqálan territory is, in its entirety, within the Auroral Oval zone, where the natural phenomenon of can be spotted almost year round, with the exception of certain months when this occurrence is more rare in the south.

The country is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. The birdlife is diverse including the, the , and the. Among the birds commonly seen in the southern inhabited part of Siqála, there are the, the , the , the , the , the , and the. Avian fauna includes birds of prey like the or the. Sea and semi-aquatic birds seen in Siqála are primarily the, the , the , and the.

The large land wildlife is mainly composed of, , (reindeer), the , and the. Land wildlife average or medium in size include the, the , and the. While small animals seen most commonly in the country are the, the , and the. Biodiversity within the Gulf of Jetérja, the Siqálan Sea, and the Aila'ak Bay consists of an aquatic mammal wildlife, such as the, the , the , the , the , the , and the. The latter of which primarily inhabits the Siqálan Sea and the area surrounding the Skóuks archipelago. Inland waters are populated by small to large fresh water fish, such as the, the , the , or the.

Green policies
Since the 1960s, the Siqálan government has implemented multiple ways in which the national flora and fauna can be preserved and protected. In 1965, the country adopted its first by increasing taxes and fees charged on national oil companies, as extraction increased drastically with the demand of oil globally. The so-called, green tax, has continued to increase annually into the present day, and since the early 1970s has been expanded to also include and  companies. International vessels have been banned from fishing within the Siqálan Exclusive Economic Zone since 1974, and in 1976 the government banned national companies from hunting whales, seals, narwhals, and other large aquatic mammals. National Refuges were implemented in 1979, and include all national parks, most inland lakes, and around 95% of all offshore islands. They receive special protection from the government, and the disruption of their landscape or ecosystem has been inducted into the National Criminal Code as a felony, with a punishment up to 6 months in prison, in 1982.

During the 1990s, the country shifted its focus of obtention of energy from oil and natural gases, to, mainly fueled by , and. In 1994, the government invested nearly Ꝟ1 billion for the development of renewable energy equipment and infrastructure, and the halt in without tampering with the national economy. As of 2022, Siqála is one of the lead producers of renewable energy, exporting materials such as and.

Politics and government
The Republic of Siqála is a  and, under a , , and , established with the 1948 constitutional reform. The Siqálan constitution divides the government in three branches:, , and.

The is vested in the presidents as joint. Presidents are not elected as one, but instead run as two separate candidates, and they are the first and second most voted. Both presidents cannot belong to the same, this is done as to prevent ideological uniformity in government and encourage active cooperation between members of different political parties. The President of Cabinet is the one responsible for appointing all the Secretaries to form the Cabinet and run the known as Departments, while the President of Congress is appointed Chairman at the Civil Congress, and has the power to  or pass all laws previously approved by the legislature.

Presidents have a 6-year term, during which they can be removed through by the Congress following a, but only as a coalition, this means, both presidents must be impeached in tandem for the removal to take effect. Because no president can hold the position at government for less than six years per constitutional law, in the event one president outlives the other one, the living party is automatically removed from their position, and the Congress then calls for emergency elections.

The comprises the  Civil Congress of Siqála (Aswáqsta: Jetakwáloqála), formed by 72 congresspersons or representatives. General elections for congresspersons are every 2 years during which the chamber's composition is renewed in thirds, making for a total term of any given member of congress that of six years. Congresspersons are elected by their electoral district by all citizens over the age of 16 registered to vote, and can only be elected two consecutive times for a total for three total terms maximum. Collectively, the Congress is in charge of passing or vetoing all proposed bills, and has the power to, dissolve government with the approval of two thirds of the Siqálan supreme court, and impeach the presidents. Regionally, each state is home to a State Assembly, which are proportional in its composition based around the number of electoral districts in each state. State Assemblies reserve the power to issue regional laws and regulations, so long as they don't interfere with those promulgated by the Congress or the constitution. All proposed regional bills are first submitted at the State Assembly, after which, if approved, are presented through a public for all citizens, registered to vote within the state, to vote on. Regional bills will only take effect once they've been approved by all voting state citizens.

The Siqálan comprises all courts in the country, grouped into two types:, or courts of first instance, which have original jurisdiction over all cases, with exceptions, and , where rulings made by any trial court can be contested. Unlike trial courts, which are formed by several chambers of one judge each, chambers at any court of appeal are formed by three judges. Despite Siqála's unitary form of government, the judiciary upholds a system resembling that of, where tribunals are divided into district courts, state courts and national courts. The national supreme court is the Sovereign Tribunal of Siqála, also known as court of last resort, formed by seven judges whose main responsibility is to act the national constitution's supreme interpreter, primarily by conducting. The supreme court's judges are appointed by the presidents, with three being appointed by the president of congress and three by the president of cabinet; the last judge is selected at random from a pool of candidates put together by Congress. Judges of the Sovereign Tribunal have, unless removed from their position by unanimous decision at the legislature.

Siqála has, and elections are non-compulsory for all citizens over the age of 16. To vote, citizens must be registered into the electoral census. Voting without being registered in Siqála is considered and can be punished with up to a year in prison.

Foreign relations
Siqála is a member of the World Forum and the Vatupic Treaty Community and maintains diplomatic and commercial relations with most nations, but its ties with Vatupic and broader Vidinan countries are particularly close.

Military
The Siqálan Armed Forces is the responsible for the defence of Siqála. It consists of four branches, the Army, the Air Corps, the Navy, and the Siqálan Crisis Response Unit. The latter conducts peacekeeping missions and performs functions.

The supreme commander of the Armed Forces is the Secretary of Defence as the head of the Department of Defence, who is advised by the Military Assembly of Siqála. Though considerably small, the Siqálan Armed Forces are well equipped, with nearly 15,000 full-time military personnel and over 5,000 in reserve, with an annual budget of Ꝟ590 million, or around 0.80% of the total GDP. Daily deployments of the Armed Forces cover operations, protection and patrol of Siqálan territorial waters and  by the Coast Guard, and WF peacekeeping missions. Since 1980, over 30,000 Siqálan service personnel has served in international WF peacekeeping missions.

Since 1950, the Siqálan government has maintained a policy of in armed conflicts, following the effects left by World War II. The policy includes the instances of declared neutrality during World War III, and the abolition of the compulsory in 1960.

Administrative divisions
The Siqálan territory is under a form of government, divided into 15 states. The current model was established 1927 with the formation of the First Siqálan Republic. Between 1927 and 1940, the country was subdivided into five states, and four territories with special governing status. This system continued until the integration of Siqála as a dominion of Riyata, at the start of World War II, when all states and territories were reestablished as just nine territories, as to not be confused with the existing states of Riyata. It wasn't until the constitutional reform of 1948 that the government would readopt the 'state' nomenclature, this time across all first-level subdivisions in the country.

Since 1948, there have been four changes to the original 9 states that resulted in current 15: the Annué partition in 1951, that resulted in the split of the state of Annué and the formation of the states of Q'ára and Qalwá; the split of the former state of Eik'óse into the current states of K'saná and Jekstáste in 1957; the Treaty of Ogyke in 1958, which split the former state of Ank'aqé into K'sé, Sqá'ana, and K'eplás; and the Nowák Convention in 1967, creating the state of Kólak as separate from Akcólai. Since 1990, there have been government discussions to possibly conduct a fifth change to the territory's subdivisions by splitting the state of Nesnérwa in two. This, however, has been denied by all government administrations due to the large-scale effects such change would implicate on the electoral districts and the composition of Congress.

Demographics
As of the 2020 census, Siqála had a population of 1,439,921, with an estimate as of January of 2023 of 1,501,838. At 2.47 per sq km (6.4 per sq mi) Siqála is the second least densely populated country in the world. Around 80% of the total population lives within 100 km from a body of water, primarily the North Ocean, with the largest concentration of people being in the southeast of the country.

Population
The Siqálan territory has been one of the least densely populated places on earth since it was first inhabited during the 7th millennium BCE. Though steadily increasing, the country has experienced an annual rate of only 0.35% between 1960 and 2020, with an average annual increase in population of 7,000 people. Today Siqála has a total population estimate for 2023 of 1,501,838, around 590,000 of which live in five out of the fifteen national states, in the southeastern region surrounding the Aila'ak Bay, making up for almost 40% of the country's total population. The capital city of Annué is by far the largest city in the country, with a total of 322,976 residents as of 2023, or 21.5% of the national population. Other large cities include Skwós, Akjepéna, and Nowák, whose residents comprise 15.2%, 11.3% and 6.8% of the total population, respectively. These four largest cities have a total population of 825,212 people, making up more than half of the country's total population at 55%. The western, central and northern regions of the country are the most scarcely populated, with the states in these regions oftentimes reaching more than 90% of its territory registered as uninhabited.

Ethnic groups
The largest in the country are the native Aswáq people, who today make up 92.8% of the population, or 1.3 million people. The origins of the Aswáq ethnolinguistic group can be traced back to the 7th century BCE with the merge of the primitive Qalesé and Aila'ak cultures of southeastern Siqála. Following the merge of the two cultures, the Aswáq people have been the dominant people group in the area well into the present-day, only dividing themselves into tribes and eventually civilizations in the form of, , and eventually a united.

During their early development as a people group, the Aswáq's primary focus was and, later on,. Because of the Siqálan peninsula's harsh physical environment and climate, many of the earliest Aswáq settlements were scattered along the shores of northern Vatupaya, more specifically the Aila'ak peninsula and bay area. Many of the country's offshore islands, including the Skóuks archipelago were settled decades, sometimes centuries, prior to certain regions in the interior of the country.