Ochsardvia

Ochsardvia (Oxellian: Wuysradzwoszta, Вышраѕвоща; Ardvogal: Wuysraßwosca, Вышражвоща), officially The Republican Union of Ochsardvia (Oxellian: Wuymædiesta Tudiestał Wuysradzwostie, Вымэдѣща Тудѣщалъ Вышраѕвощѣ; Ardvogal: Wuymiadzïsca Tudzïscał Wuysrazuscï, Выміаѕѣща Туѕѣщалъ Вышразущѣ) is a   with an executive presidency in central eastern Alutra. Ochsardvia is doubly landlocked, and is bordered by X other landlocked countries: Galvia to its north, Vojandzeka, also doubly landlocked, to its east and north, and Izlegal to the east by its Seceßko.

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Etymology
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The peopling of Ochsardvia
The modern population of Ochsardvia is the result of a series of migrations over many millennia across the Alutran Steppe and along the river valleys of Central Alutra. The Ochsardvian people, in particular the Oxellians and Ardvogals, are predominantly descended from the merger of two distinct groups: the Letans and the Sedes, predominantly from a Tretuish people known as the Suꜩory (Sottores or Sonthores to the ancient Ventroses). In decreasing order, the Serps, Ventroses, and Blethes were also contributors to the modern ethnic makeup of Ochsardvia. Today, the Jazdruzi or Asdruges are the result of this mixed group, and form the vast majority of Ochsardvians.

It is not known who were original inhabitants of Ochsardvia, all that is known is that almost no traces of their influence seems to have survived past the earliest Letan migrations. The Letans are believed to have originally migrated from the area surrounding Western Varas in modern Galvia, formed from a conglomeration of Letano-Galvic tribes that developed in isolation from the Galvic peoples in Eastern Varas around the 3rd to 2rd millennium BC. A few nomadic Proto-Letanic bands and tribes started migrating south along the Sznuda River into the Bregashian Mountains amongst which Ochsardvia lies in the early 2rd millennium BC. These Southern Proto-Letans would introduce agriculture, pastoralism, and bronze-working to Ochsardvia, and form a cluster of city states along the Sznuda River and in the Great Oxellian Plateau.

Wizkanian rule
By the 5th century BC, most of Ochsardvia came under the domination of the neighboring Wizkanian Empire to its east, the descendants of a mixed population of Gožyar, Letan, and Galvic peoples. Letanic city states were inevitably either subjugated or forced to pay tribute to the empire by the Wizkanian army. Collectively, the area became known as Szarrenka to the Wizkanians, essentially meaning “land of the foreigners”. Under Wizkanian rule, many Letans worked as mercenaries in the Wizkanian army or as traders across the steppes, sometimes as intermediaries between rival groups including Sedes and Blethes.

Due to its location in the western Bregashian mountains, Szarrenka was a key part of the Pan-Alutran Trade Network, linking North and East Alutra to the Abayadi coast and serving as a stop for nomads between the western and eastern halves of the Alutran Steppe. This made Ochsardvia a key location in commerce between Sedes and Blethes on one end, and Ventroses on the other, with the local Letan and Vojanak city states flourishing as a result.

This interchange would be broken by the rise of the Empire of Juras in modern Galvia, the war with Urland, the fall of the Great Sedic Confederation, and finally the decline of the Wizkanian Empire by the 3rd century BC. Szarrenka during this time faced a period of stagnation and would become sitting ducks upon the arrival of the Suꜩory, a tribe of the Tretu.

Tretuish migration
As part of the Great Sedic Confederation, the Tretu had claimed an area west of the rest of the Sedes, centered in modern day Aquizireiki, as their nomadic domain. Tensions with the local Gožyar grew as they expanded deeper into Aquizireiki and the rest of the Serpentines. As the confederation declined in the 1st century AD, Southern Blethes took advantage of their weakness and pushed the Tretu out of Aquizireiki from the west. The bulk of the Tretu went north into Ecoralia, where they would largely remain until their dispersal across East Alutra in the 1400s.

However, some Tretu fled southwards through Izlegal and a few, the Suꜩory included, even eventually out of the Serpentines entirely, into the river valleys of southeastern Alutra. They would find themselves unwelcome among the locals downriver as well, and had developed a culture around roaming the highlands and Alutran steppes at this point, and so traveled upstream into the foothills of the Bregashian mountains, where they came into contact with the Southern Letans.

For most of the early 1st millennium AD, the Suꜩory segregated themselves in the outskirts of Letanic settlements, forming a begrudged cooperation with them as both hunters/rangers as well as border guards against the Vojanaks, Blethes, and Galvians. A series of peasants’ revolutions against ineffectual patrician leaders of the Letanic city states led to Suꜩory warriors and horsemen being brought in as cheap mercenaries to keep order in each region. By the 5th century AD, these međaczi, as the Letans would call them, would beat out many Letanic clans as the dominant military order of Szarrenka, and even parts of modern Vojandzeka and Galvia.

These međaczi clans would climb the social ladder, becoming leaders in their own right. These međaczi leaders held considerable power in the northwest and south of Ochsardvia, due to being part of the flatter and therefore more vulnerable Central Alutran Steppes and Great Oxellian Plateau. As a result of their prestige and power, by the 8th century, some međaczi were successful enough to become landed gentry.

Over the next several centuries, many regional polities centered on different parts of Ochsardvia rose and fell, and their interconnected webs of influence would lead to even more mixing between the Letans, Suꜩory, and Vojanaks, forming the basis of what is now known as the Jazdruzi people. During this time, some major cities that exerted significant influence included Duborowa, Nůtowga, Sznudinszk, Briehała, Kramieszt, Opnoch, and Psłah. Over time, more prominent cities and the area they exerted control over came to be known as draßecieste, or principalities, as their lord mayors were thought to hold power equivalent to that of former drraks, or lords in the Wizkanian Empire.

Snudzinskian rule
One draßeciesta would come to rule over the bulk of Ochsardvia. Sznudinszk (or Snudzinsk in Recene) was named for the Sznuda River on which it lies, and it utilized its key northern location (in modern Ardvogallia) on the Sznuda to link trade between Western Varas in Galvia with the valleys to its south and the steppes to its west. As such, a form of old South Letanic became its lingua franca, and in turn Snudzinsk identified as Letanic.

Becoming the center of a trade league, it would eventually consolidate power and absorb other cities into its league. Eventually it would declare itself the most supreme of all draßecieste, and in 1108, after uniting all of Ochsardvia and Vojandzeka from the remains of the fallen Wizkanian Empire, formed the Grand Principality of Snudzinsk also known as the Snudzinskian Empire or Snudzinskian Union. At its greatest extent, the Snudzinskian Union would expand to not only cover modern Ochsardvia and Vojandzeka, but also parts of Izlegal, Galvia, and [neighboring countries to the west and south probably].

Control over Vojandzeka was not too tumultuous owing to the shared influences to their heritage, albeit in different proportions. Its control over western Galvia too was relatively stable, due to the shared Letanic roots (later becoming the Zemaki people of Galvia) and dependency on the trade routes from the Western Varas. In comparison, the Snudzinskian domination over west Izlegal was relatively weaker, having only become possible following the decline of Aquizireiki’s first kingdom. Its role as suzerain was essentially inherited from the declining Wizkanian Empire’s hold over the land, and it would be overthrown by the Duchy of Izlegal in 1233, reuniting it with eastern Izlegal.

To facilitate control over such a vast territory, the Snudzinskians would establish wuywodieste, or duchies, and hwanoste, counties, headed by loyal and popular military leaders from the region, most of which would become hereditary titles in the coming centuries. Ochsardvia at this time had no name other than the blanket term Szarrenka, whose meaning the Jazdruzi found objectionable. By this time, the Jazdruzi had begun speaking a continuum of Letanicized Tretuish dialects. As they now lived in the highlands, they began to call themselves the “high people” instead of the exonym Jazdruzi. However the term most commonly used for the word “high” began to differ between the north and the south by this point. Arðvŭ was more popular in the northern valleys of the Sznuda river and ūxselŭ more popular in the Oxellian plain. As a result, over time, the north became known as vlodĭ arðva ja gola (“the mighty and high land”), eventually becoming Wlodg ardzwygola and finally Radzuyhłasta, or Ardvogallia. Conversely, the south became known as vlodĭ ūxsela (“the high land”) to Wlodg wuysela, and today Wuysłasta, or Oxellia. These two names came to be used for the largest wuywodiesta in each region.

However, by the 14th century, as regional identities began to form around these wuywodieste and hwanoste, much as they did with the city states in the past, many wuywode (dukes) and hwani (counts) grew tired of Snudzinskian suzerainty. With the support of disgruntled međaczi, who felt overlooked in the court in Snudzinsk, and foreign agents in neighboring powers like Galvia and Ecoralia, they gradually broke away in series of civil wars called Wolduri Sału (“All-Rupture of Halls”), eventually leading to the fall of Snudzinsk and the death of Draßekmar Jydzszieł II in 1345.

New Trans-Bregashian identity
The constituent wuywodieste and hwanoste of former Snudzinsk would remain mostly undisturbed by greater powers for many centuries, although a few states would be absorbed into the larger wuywodieste of Oxellia and Ardvogallia, whether by inheritance or voluntarily swearing fealty. After the fall of Snudzinsk, much of its northern territory had been absorbed into the realm of Galvia during its Sacred Expansion in the 15th century. Galvia took the view that the Letanic people were impure, in part viewing their language and culture as a corruption of Galvic ones, them being distantly related, and began conquering Letanic land to cleanse them of their ways.

To avoid the same fate, Ochsardvians began to embrace the Jazdruzi identity and promoted speaking the Letanicized Tretuish dialects that would become Oxellian and Ardvogal, and claimed a largely Sedic Suꜩory (and partially Wizkania) origin rather than becoming targeted as Letans. This furthered the growing rift between the Vojanaks and the Jazdruzi, as many of the former identified solely with Wizkania and its legacy. Even Vojana itself was affected as the urban, southern half of the Khetsezh region had been settled by both Jazdruzi burghers as well as Blethic traders from Izlegal and Aquizireiki, leading to its secession from Vojana in 1629 as the Principality of Seceßko. To protect itself from being reabsorbed into Vojana as well as the Duchy of Oxellia, Seceßko joined up with other relatively more Vojanak principalities and counties towards the east of Oxellia and south of Vojana proper, informally known as the Vojan League.

After the final consolidation of power of all Galvic lands in Antonija in the unification of the Crown of Galvia in 1731, these various states as well as Vojana grew concerned they would be incorporated into the crown as well. Loose pacts began to form, followed by mutual agreements and alliances. During the late 17th century, a sort of cultural renaissance had already begun in the region, with literature, music, and art highlighting the pastoral beauty of the Bregashian Mountains and an idealized provincialism. In protest of the Galvian policy of assimilation, Pan-Letanic and Pan-Wizkanian ideals began to flourish during the late 18th and early 19th century, uniting Ochsardvia and Vojandzeka by shared struggles and thoughts. In contrast to the militaristic feudalism of the Snudzinskian Empire, these states agreed to instead form a coalition where each component state had a more equal say in matters, with an elected Wuywode Maredzah (august duke), and thus the Transbregashian Confederation was established in 1835.

Under the Transbregashian Confederation, the cultural renaissance continued, with many works of literature and music being developed in the Oxellian, Ardvogal, and Vojanak languages, and the Pan-Letanic and Pan-Wizkanian philosophies continued to develop. Under Pan-Wizkanian thought, the Transbregashian Confederation was seen to be the successor of Wizkania. In contrast, many Pan-Letanic ideologists could not find a model nation in history, viewing the Snudzinskian Empire as a failure, and so wanted to set out to turn Transbregashia into the model of Pan-Letanicism. This disconnect would lead to distrust between the two factions and eventually prove to be irreconcilable.

Dissolution of the Confederation
The Transbregashian Confederation remained a thorn in Galvia’s side into the modern period, and the First World War soon made it apparent that international ties could overcome regional dynamics, Fearing that the Transbregashian Confederation would seek aid among the rest of Alutra as well as the wider world, rather than remain in the shadows of Galvia, the Galvian government had secretly devised a contingency plan. By this time both Pan-Letanicism and Pan-Wizkanianism had reached their peaks, and Galvia decided to use this to their advantage.

While the Transbregashian Confederation stayed neutral during the First World War, it was unable to avoid choosing a side in the Second World War, as the conflict in Ecoraland brought many issues to the national stage. The issue of independence of the Tretu and Fends, who were kin to the Suꜩory; the Letanic Zemaki land still under Galvian control; the fear that Galvians might take advantage of the chaos to invade Transbregashia: all of these led the people to be greatly divided of opinion.

Of growing concern was a group in particular known as the One Transbregashia Society, who aimed to reestablish Transbregashia as a new nation devoid of regional divisions, which they perceived as a threat to its stability against foreign agitators. Harboring deep buffist tendencies, they sought to emulate Wizkanian and Snudzinskian strength by empowering the military and police and extolled the principles of Neo-Letanicism, based on the idea that as only Letanic language and culture permeated all of Transbregashia, with Wizkania only an ephemeral ideal at this point, it was the most worthy candidate for the basis of a national identity. As such they considered all citizens of Transbregashia to be rightful Letans and viewed all other identities as merely subcategories under the Letanic umbrella.

In the build-up to the Second World War, the nascent Concert powers in Eastern Alutra believed that the Transbregashian Confederation might become a significant counterbalance in Central Alutra and aimed to curry its favor. This led to a series of covert discussions between them and Transbregashia which Galvia was able to intercept. Although the government of Transbregashia had not planned to act upon these discussions at this point, Galvian leadership deemed the Confederation to be an untrustworthy threat, conspiring with the One Transbregashia Society to overthrow the government, claiming to put an end to the tyranny of the nobility, and establish a new “republic” as an authoritarian state. With the support of both Galvian forces and rogue police forces and generals, the march on its capital Opnoch began on December 3, 1940, and six days later, the Transbregashian Confederation had been ousted and the Zabregashian Union of Oxellia, Voiana, and Ardvogallia (ZUOVA) had been established in Opnoch Palace.

ZUOVA rule
At the head of the new Union Galvia placed one of the vanguards of the One Transbregashia Society called Właßiediß Rađow, who organized the movement into the new United Zabregashian Freedom Party, with the use of the Letanic form of Transbregashia as the name of the nation now becoming mandatory. Despite Rađow’s desires to eliminate all regional identities, he knew that the people of Zabregashia were “sentimental and weak” and could be prone to revolting if not placated and decided that instead the party could steer their regional pride into the greater Neo-Letanic whole. Redrawing the map into only three republics, all citizens were registered as belonging to one of the three, each an integral part of the greater nation.

[WIP need to paraphrase this:]

''In 1974, The United Zabregashian Freedom Party, the main party which had been running the Union for many decades previous, lost steam after the President Właßiediß Rađow died in office. In December of the same year, Vojanak author Vochta Pokratovek published his book "Hole in the Wall , which sparked an ethno-nationalism renaissance within the Republic of Vojandzeka and also throughout the rest of ZUOVA. As nationalism spread across the rest of the Union, there were fears amongst mostly Letanic nationalist groups that ZUOVA was becoming too culturally decentralized and that a breakup would occur soon. This would spur a Transbregashian crisis and centralization movement. Galvia too, with Vojana under its sphere of influence, became weary of Vojanak nationalism.

''In December of 1975, the first multiparty elections occurred in ZUOVA. With the Vojanak populace now leaning less towards the fascist regime (now out of steam and leading to other crisis in the rest of the union) leading Zabregashia, Vojanak Syndicalist Party leader Odzǐ Vruznivek is elected Vojanak Minister. Relations within ZUOVA became even more tense by the month, and things were devolving quickly. Terrorist attacks occurred against Vojanak parliaments and capital buildings and the slippery slope just became steeper.''

''In 1986, ZUOVA officials, including President Koʒewesz Krieniñ, began secret talks with Galvia to help them infiltrate the pesky Vojana and bring it back from the brink of its independence movement. Galvia agreed to this and sent troops to the Galvic-Vojanak border in an attempt to threaten the country back into compliance.''

''On March 1 1986, Vojandzeka officially declares independence from Zabregashia in the early morning. As soon as word spread back to ZUOVA officials, Zabregashian tanks and armored vehicles begin their invasion of Vojandzeka and start the March towards Trpǐnjǎ. Vojanak resistance is, initially, futile. The same afternoon that Vojandzeka declares independence, Zabregashia reaches the capital of Trpǐnjǎ in a column of tanks, attempting to force capitulation, however they cannot locate Vruznivek or any of his co-ops. Tanks instead camp out throughout the city and quickly dispel any resistance.''

''As time went on though, civilian resistance increased, and roadblocks began to form on city streets. Meanwhile, the Vojanak Military began to pick off solitary ZUOVA tanks with anti-tank weaponry. Vojana began to rear its head. Resistance picked up from this point onwards as civilians and Vojanak Army alike started to attempt to encircle the ZUOVA troops from out of Trpǐnjǎ.''

''Ordrey is the first nation to recognize Vojanak independence, and soon convinces the World Forum to do the same. As the situation in Vojana became more desperate, the WF decided to send peacekeeping troops in an attempt to form a DMZ to stop any further deaths. This fails, and WF soldiers are killed by Zabregashian invaders. Signs of a cultural genocide were also documented within captured areas of Vojana.. Ordrey, as well as a few other countries, supported Vojana militarily and humanitarianly.''

''The war would continue on much longer than originally forecasted. Vojana remained strong and defended its lands all the way until 2003. In the early months of 2003, Zabregashian troops had a breakthrough, and saw the largest territorial gains in the entire war. ZUOVA soon encircled the capital of Trpinjǎ, and Vojanak, Ordrish, and W.F. soldiers made their final stand. The annexation of Trpinjǎ would never occur though, as a turn of events occurred back in ZUOVA's capital (Opnoch). A ZUOVA military commander who had grown disillusioned with the war decided to storm the presidential palace. Him and his men attempt to destroy the leadership through military arrest, but this fails and a stand-off ensues. Several hours into the stand-off, a rogue officer charges the president Koʒewesz Krieniñ and detonates himself, causing a collapse of the palace and the deaths of a majority of the high-ranking officials.''

''This would eventually turn into the collapse of ZUOVA, and military movements in Vojana came to a standstill. ZUOVA collapsed in on itself, and Vojana was finally free from Zabregashian rule. ZUOVA would splinter into present-day Ochsardvia and Vojana, and both were no longer under the rule of fascism.''

After the collapse of ZUOVA, the remains of former Zabregashia were left in disarray. With the cooperation of more moderate local bureaucrats and populist leaders, the World Forum entered the region to restore order, keep the peace with Vojandzeka, and establish a true democracy. Unlike the Vojanaks in the east however, the Oxellians and Ardvogals, nor the denizens of the region of Seceßko, which had retained its metropolitan mix of cultures, for the large part did not seek independence. In a series of referendums conducted by the World Forum, a wide majority in each region preferred to remain united, just no longer as a dictatorship but a free country. Thus on August 23, 2003, a new constitution was signed between independent delegates from all across former ZUOVA, and the Republican Union of Ochsardvia was born. Its democracy and freedom remains under oversight by a select committee within the World Forum as the new Ochsardvia aims to gain trust and build its image on the world stage, and even in recent years tensions are thawing between it and Vojandzeka, with whom they are beginning their chapters along democratic principles as well their long intertwined history.