Kleolaion

Kleolaion, officially known as the United Kingdoms of Kleolaion or I.V.K for short, is a landlocked country in western Alutra. Kleolaion shares land borders with Esharat and Ventora to the southwest, Renesia to the east, and Velorenkya to the north. Kleolaion also shares the Kanakan steppes with Ventora and TBD. Kleolaion has an estimated population of 51 million, with an estimated 20 million being ethnic Kleolaikos and around 10 million ethnic Kanakans. The largest city in Kleolaion is Cheiriminípoli, it's capital.

Kleolaion pioneered horse riding in Alutra since ancient times, with archaeological evidence going back before 1000 BCE. Kleolaion also acted as a land link between Harad and Alutra as an alternative route from Ventora.

Many in Kleolaion are part of the h'Ejrad faith, with the majority following the Haksarad branch, although there is still a significant portion of people that follows Velorenkya's branch. The spread of h'Ejrad came after Haksarad managed to establish a from one of the triarchs from the Kleolaikos Union in the late 1400s, even after Kleolaion were reunited h'Ejrad was still the dominant faith and was considered as the official faith. Manuak became a common language in Kleolaion because of h'Ejrad, but it is still not officially recognized or endorsed by the government, and there have been attempts to translate h'Ejrad to Iglóssa since 1938.

Kleolaion is a    and an oil-rich nation. Kleolaion is part of many organizations, including the World Forum, Grand Martial Championship Association, Alutran Cultural Community, Council for Abayadi Prosperity, Compact for Abayadi Security and a founding member of Lávar Authority.

Etymology
Kleolaikos, and by extension Kleolaion, comes from the Sorti Kleio and an Iglóssan word which means "the great people", as early people in the region only recognized and worshipped Kleio before the introduction of h'Ejrad and the centralization of the Sortist faith. Kleolaikos was first used in references to people who live in Kleiopoli before seeing wider use.

Ancient and archaic period
Before 1000 BCE, the region was known for its horsemanship techniques and pieces of equipment, and most believe that the Proto-Kleolaikos/Kanakan were the first to invent the saddle among other equestrian-related equipment and helped spread it to other nearby areas. The Proto-Kleolaikos and Kanakan split into two main groups, the settled tribes and the nomadic tribe. One of the largest nomadic tribes was known as the Kanakoi, faced an internal tribal strife which caused the tribe to fracture and split up, and many of their inheritor tribes added the Kanakoi alongside their new tribe name to reiterate that they were the true heirs of Kanakoi and to differentiate themselves from other Kanakoi related tribes. This caused many neighbours, including the Proto-Kleolaikos, to call them the Kanakan from the confusion. Around the same time, there were also the Nótīnos, who are related to the Tilargis but moved away from the Tilarg mountains and settled in the east of modern-day Kleolaion.

The region was also known for its extensive copper mines, giving western Alutra easy access. also gave the region an edge in warfare over the rest of Alutra until the discovery of. Copper and advanced equestrian techniques and equipment forced the region to become much more focused on aggression and conquest.

Kyriarchía period
The Kyriarchía period is a period that lasted from 923 BCE with the establishment of Actomenus Kyriarchía until 961 CE with the formation of the Kleolaikos union. The Kyriarchía system caused the region not to be unified under a single state for an extended period of time.

Early
After the rise of the first Kyriarchía - the Kyriarchía Actomenus - various other Kyriarchía were also established and fought and raided among each other for control over land and resources; it also threatened weaker tribes and nations as the Kyriarchía could field sizeable and fast army never seen before in the region, this encouraged other tribes and nation into either joining other states (such as the League of Ilona) or form a. In comparison, the Kanakan were able to establish their own loose alliance (based on blood relations) to counter any Kyriarchía invasions and raid other nations. There was an early form of Ekviastikía bands which was based around the nobility.

With time the raids from the Kyriarchías became much bolder and went further. In 900 BCE, the raiders managed to almost reach Ventoran coastline. Around 850 BCE Prokopios Stefanidis with a large host of 30,000 men, descended near the Ventoran Coastline, looting and pillaging various city-states; however, Plen Rusor managed to defeat the raiders decisively in three major battles. The first major battle was an ambush, as Plen Rusor only had 2,500 men but still managed to defeat Prokopios Stefanidis; this battle convinced other city-states to help and provide support to Plen Rusor, increasing his army size up to 28,000 men, which he used to defeat Prokopios Stefanidis decisively and forced him to surrender.

Around 300 BCE with the rise of Sortism, Sortist missionaries arrived and converted many of the Kyriarchías. Sortism quickly replaced many folk religions and even passively spread east of modern-day Kleolaion through trade.

Late
Around 200 CE, Ventoran expansion northward weakened the loose Kanakan alliances and helped some of the Kyriarchías to exert dominion over them. Although the Kanakan were never 'under' Ventorans or the Kyriarchías in the traditional sense since they were primarily nomadic and the borders were vague, if the Kanakan did not like Ventoran rule, they quickly moved to one of the Kyriarchía and vice-versa which caused tension between the Ventoran duchies and the Kyriarchías. Kanakan even used these technics to raid more efficiently and ran away. The vague borders caused some of the Kyriarchía to attempt to invade Montañan Confederation and conquer it, or at the very least establish proper boundaries over the Kanakan steppes but all attempts failed to produce any results as the Kanakan themselves moved too often, causing even further issues. The Kyriarchías also invaded the Velorenkya to some extent. Still, they could not maintain proper control over the conquered area and faced a heavy counter-attack forcing them to abandon it. The Kyriarchías also hosted raiding parties called Ekviastikía bands which went far to loot, furthest reaching Galvia in the east and Haksarad to the west, but these extremes were rare occurrences. Some Kyriarchías focused on trading instead of raiding, especially the ones near the Onse bay. The Kyriarchías switched focus between raiding and trading frequently, and as such, caravans changed their trade routes on average every 50 years or so to adjust for political climates.

Around 400 CE a correction movement started initiated by the presbyter of Escariche targeting the various Kyriarchías and sent avocatos to help correct the faith in modern-day Kleolaion as they began to exclusively worship Kleio. The people initially resisted the correction avocatos and some started calling themselves Kleiolaikos. However, with the help of local presbyters the people were convinced, although the name "Kleolaikos" stuck with a different meaning.

Raid frequency has dropped after 500 CE, although the Kyriarchía Iasassa still maintained Ekviastikía bands and raided the northern Ventoran duchies and Montañan Confederation; although Iasassa were more often beaten, they still managed to strain Montañan Confederation's resources. During the East Tagaraš War, the Iasassa Kyriarchía raided Montañan Confederation's minor settlements as they were busy with the war and could not spare men for defence; however, this changed after the formation of the Kingdom of Ventora, which allowed Ventorans to deflect any raids by the Ekviastikía bands entirely and still maintain a winning position against the Tagars. With the formation of the Kingdom of Ventora the Ekviastikía bands began to completely fall out of favour as more and more nations became united or centralized and halted any raiders in their tracks.

Kleolaikos union
In response to growing threats, such as the establishment of the Kingdom of Ventora in 959 CE, a triarchy of the few remaining Kyriarchías (Iasassa, Magra and Aytussae Kyriarchías) was formed and called themselves "Énosi Kléoulaíon" or Kleolaikos union in 971 CE. The union also attempted to invade Ventora and Esharat regions for control; conflicts sometimes escalated to the imperial level, where Haksarad had to send an army or a regiment to stabilize the situation; these wars never amounted to anything or any massive territorial change since most of the fighting was for the Kanakan steppes.

The were four major wars between the Kingdom of Ventora and Kleolaikos Union, the 1214 war (Kleolaikos Union victory), the 1223 war (Kingdom of Ventora victory), the 1254 war (Kleolaikos Union victory), the 1296 war (Kingdom of Ventora victory).

During the 1296 war, Haksarad invaded the Union to stop them from destabilising the region further and, with the help of Ventora pushed the Union back and broke them apart; Haksarad established a tributary from one of the triarchs and Ventora started to have better control of its portion of the Kanakan steppes, which were better controlled with the introduction of farming in the 1500s. Cultivation spread wildly in the Kanakan steppes, which helped the region become easily controlled as the Kanakan were encouraged to settle instead of being nomadic. The newly established tributary, Iasassa (also called [Manuak name]), had H'Ejrad missionaries sent to and saw mass converts to it. Magra and Aytussae fell apart and fought among themselves; other nations and separatists took this opportunity to attack them and take their lands or secede.

Kingdom of Kleolaion
After the fall of Magra and Aytussae, the new Kingdom of Kleolaion was established in what used to be southern Magra. With the help of the Nótīnos people, they managed to reconquer Magra and Aytussae. In the 1600s, as the Haksarad imperial rule waned and lost its grip on its tributaries, Iasassa was vulnerable and weak on its own, and the Kingdom of Kleolaion invaded to retake their lands back; there was little resistance, while Haksarad sent an army they could not invest too much in the war and left Iasassa on their own.

Coffee wars
The Kingdom of Kleolaion supported Haksarad during the coffee wars in an attempt to gain favour with them. This leads them to lose Sátha Ústi city and become its own independent nation.

United Kingdoms of Kleolaion
The 1800s saw the spread of Industrialization globally; the eastern half of Kleolaion was more developed compared to the western side, which lacked investment and attention. This caused the western side to become very dissatisfied, which led revolts to spring up, which was called the Fthinóporo uprising; although it was crushed, it left Kleolaion weak. Kleolaion formed the Lávar Authority alongside Esharat and Ventora in 1843 after stabilising the internal situation. The news of the Queluz Revolution in 1863 being won reignited the people to revolt and abolish the monarchy or demand more representation and rights, the King attempted to crush it early by treating revolters and suspects harshly, but this fanned the flames even further, even some officers and generals joined the rebellion, the civil war (called the Diakóptes-Ypostiriktés Rebellion today) lasted almost 7 years and temporarily made Kleolaion leave the Lávar authority. There were two main rebel factions toward the end of the uprising; the "Diakóptes" (or the Breakers) factions wanted to abolish the monarchy while the "Ypostiriktés" (or the Upholders) factions wanted more representation instead, this gave the king the opportunity to side with the Ypostiriktés against the Diakóptes in return for accepting their demands by creating the constitution and parliament. With the help of Ypostiriktés, the central government managed to defeat Diakóptes, and what was left of Diakóptes joined the Ypostiriktés. The Ypostiriktés, still being a significant threat, managed to force the King into keeping his promise, and the constitution was written by Ypostiriktés leaders, Ex-Diakóptes leaders that joined Ypostiriktés and the King. After 3 years, ethnic tensions flared up, as some minorities felt unrepresented and accused the system of corruption and Gerrymandering, as the country was about to fall into another civil war while it barely recovered from the last; the King decided to act quickly and solve it by dividing the kingdom into four other kingdoms, each with its own parliament and having one national parliament, each kingdom focuses on a minority, as such United Kingdoms of Kleolaion was officially born in Feburay 22nd 1872. The division is as follows: • The Kingdom of Iasassa for the Kanakans

• The Kingdom of Magra for the Nótīnos

• The Kingdom of Aytussae for the TBD

• The Kingdom of Kleolaion for Kleolaikos

Restoration War
With the rise of Husrak h’Assar Ha-Qayyet and crowning himself as the Dayashafir, the United Kingdoms of Kleolaion bids it time and reluctantly joined the Jarader alliance being afraid of an invasion from Husrak h’Assar Ha-Qayyet.

World wars
During the First World War, Kleolaion joined Haksarad's side and lost territory to Velorenkya, which established the defence line between them.

During the Velorenkan Revolution, Kleolaion supported various separatist movements by giving them supplies, weapons, and training and sending expeditionary forces; the separatist near the borders received more support. Towards the end of the civil war, a united Velorenkya managed to stamp out all the separatists forcing Kleolaion to pull out. With strained relationships, neither nations had an embassy with the other, and Kleolaion not recognizing the new government and Velorenkya for Kleoslaion's intervention.

The Second World War saw Kleolaion support the Allies; its primary opponents were Velorenkya and TBD.

During Sátha Ústi intervention, Kleolaion attempted to support Sátha Ústi but ultimately failed to stop Renesian occupation.

While the Third World War saw Kleolaion join the Concerts and fight against TBD, mismanagement of logistics lead to heavy losses.

During the War of the Three Capitals, Kleolaion supported the Kanakan alliance, which strained their relationship, but it was eventually restored. Although after the war of the three capitals, Kanakans living in Kleolaion had a nationalistic zeal and wanted to form an independent Kanakan, similar to the Kanakan alliance, they were shut down multiple times, and this issue exists to this day.

Kleolaion couldn't keep up with the demands of oil in 1977 initially; it has since expanded its capabilities with oil extraction.

Geography
Alutran Steppes, Lávar river and the [name] river that goes through Sátha Ústi.

Military
Kleolaion spends 3.8% of its GDP on defence. The Kleolaikos Armed Forces consist of 4 main branches; the National Guard (εθνοφρουρά), the Royal Army (Βασιλικός Στρατός), the Royal Airforce (βασιλική αεροπορία), and the Combined Rescue Force (Συνδυασμένη Δύναμη Διάσωσης) or S.D.D for short. Kleolaikos armed forces's small arms and equipment are imported from neighbouring nations and only produced 25% locally; however military vehicles are mainly produced domestically for maintenance purposes. Military rations are also produced domestically and supplemented with Ventoran, Esharat and Velorenkya's ration to provide variety for the soldiers. National service in Kleolaion is only for 3 months; however, every two years, citizens must do another 2 months of national service until the age of 28. Serving in another nation's military automatically bars a person from serving in Kleolaikos Armed Forces with few exceptions.

Foreign relations
Kleolaion enjoys friendly relationships with most of its neighbours, including Esharat, Velorenkya, and Ventora. Because of its friendliness, Kleolaion is part of many international organizations and signed many bilateral agreements, such as the Kanakan Economic Zone Agreement (also known as KEZA) with Ventora.

Kleolaion still has a cold relationship with Renesia since the Sátha Ústi intervention.

Ventora
The official relationship between Kleolaion and Ventora started in the early 1600s as Kleolaion reconquered the Kleolaikos union's old territories and bordered Ventora as it was necessary to cement the Kanakan borders between each other and manage trade through the shared rivers between them. Since the 1700s Kleolaion has diplomatically supported Haksarad, which put them in a similar position as Ventora as both sided with Haksarad during the coffee wars, the first world war and the second world war.

Today Kleolaion and Ventora are members of many organizations together and signed many bilateral agreements, including Lávar Authority, ACC, WF, Resource Management and Energy Security Agreement and KEZA. Citizens from both countries are able to move freely using their national ID in lieu of their passports. Borders between the two nations remain lax, with checkpoints doing few random searches on suspected vehicles.

Economy
Kleolaion economy is reliant on the oil and gas industries, which make up 41% of its GDP. Kleolaion has made an effort to further diversify its economy from oil to tourism and electronics industries and attempts to attract foreign investors with its low tax rates. Since 2016, Kleolaion has seen stable but slow growth in its GDP, between 0.9% to 2.1%.

There is no imposed in Kleolaion individual citizens; however, there is  on all products, with each category of goods having a different VAT value, with luxury goods being the highest at 25%.

Banks manage the pension funds, with each having a different pension plan; the only requirement for banks is to ensure it meets the Easily Transferable Pension Plan Standard (also known as ETPPS). The Kleolaion is set to 25%, with plans to reduce it to 20% in 2027.

Energy
Kleolaion and Ventora have connected their electricity grids since [YEAR] and have exchanged electricity between them ever since whenever one side falls short. Kleolaikos citizens do not have to pay for electricity; however, they are still required to pay for water usage.

Oil and gas
Kleolaion has a national oil and gas company called [NAME] which handles all extraction and distribution of oil and gas in the country. Several foreign companies are able to extract an oil and gas field on behalf of [NAME] for a share of the profits.

Kleolaion has also established oil and gas to its neighbours to sell it more effectively. There is the Dytikós Agogós, which is between Esharat and Ventora and splits into two; Dytikós Agogós E for Esharat and Dytikós Agogós V for Ventora. There is also the Anatolikós Agogós, which connects TBD.

Kleolaion prohibits any selling of oil and gas to Renesia.

Transportation
The railway system in Kleolaion uses 1,500 mm gauge, similar to surrounding nations which helps it easily integrate its railway network with its neighbours such as Ventora. The Train and Trams are handled by the Archí Trénon, also known as the Train Authority, while the Subway system is dealt with by the Archí Metaforón, also known as Transportation Authority. Rail lines are managed and maintained by the government, while the trains and stations are all managed by privately owned companies through charters and coordination with Archí Trénon on a national level. Archí Metaforón also handles roadworks, river transportation and licenses. The Archí Metaforón recognizes driver licenses from Esharat, Velorenkya, Ventora, and TBD. All highways and roads that are beyond the city's borders are maintained by private companies paid for by the Archí Metaforón. The city itself maintains roads within a city's boundary. Highways use an Alpha-numerical system to identify itself with a format of AAA-nnn:TAA-nnn means that the highway only connects to local roads or settlements within Kleolaion.

DAA-nnn signifies that the highway connects to an international road or settlements outside of Kleolaion; this helps indicate shared road maintenance in some instances.

AKA-nnn indicates the highway going north and south.

AOA-nnn indicates the highway going east and west.

AAA-nnn shows under which kingdom the highway belongs to. 1 is Kleolaion, 2 is Magra, 3 is Aytussae, 4 and Iasassa. 0 is reserved for highways that end and start in two different kingdoms.

AAX-n11 is the highway's unique alphabetic number combination that the Archí Metaforón decides upon based on context. An example would be DKV-405 which is a highway that connects Kleolaion with Ventora's A1, the DOE-405 is a highway that connects Kleolaion with Esharat, and it is somewhat perpendicular to the DKV-405; meanwhile, both are connected to the TOC-405. The identification can be shortened to things similar to V-05, E-05, or C-05 and the shortened form are used more commonly than the long form.

For river management, Especially for Lávar river, the Archí Metaforón coordinate with Lávar Authority. Even though Kleolaion has a caveat on rivers flowing eastwards toward the Onse bay, the Archí Metaforón still uses Lávar Authority's rules as a guideline.

The Archí Aeroporías handle planes and other aerial forms of transportation.

Religion
The H'Ejrad faith is the dominant and official faith in Kleolaion and is estimated to make up 62% of the population, mainly concentrated around central Kleolaion. The Sortist faith is the second largest faith in Kleolaion, with 25% of the population following the faith and mostly concentrated in western Kleolaion; however, there is a Congretatory in ever major city in Kleolaion.