Lower Tar-dinuu

Lower Tar-dinuu, also termed the Confederacy of Lower Tar-dinuu is a tropical nation located in northern Tiridinia. It borders Higher Tar-dinuu to the north,!Neighbors to the south and east, and the Locufaric Ocean to its west. The nation has a land area of 642,892.81 square kilometers and a population of 9,665,512. This population resides in 10 constituent kingdoms and one city-state, which is a neutral area termed Kendin that houses national institutions.

The confederacy traces its history to a distinct subculture of Dinuuens in the ancient Tar-dinuu following the assimilation of the pre-Dinuuen ethnic group of the region. They were considered an agricultural center of the empire, with the fertile valley around the Aragin fueling the development of massive farmlands and complicated irrigation systems that fed the wealthy cities on the northern coast. After the Edrit deposed the Flir in 15 CE, these Dinuuens began revolting, eventually seceding alongside the !NeighborEthnicGroups in 40 CE.

The Lower Tar-dinuuen states formed several separate nations, which quickly began combatting each other over control over the Aragin. This period of conflict extended until around 110 CE, when the Aragin Agreements were devised. This was an agreement between the kingdoms around the river that stated no nation could control or manipulate the flow of the river. Instead, it must be entirely neutral territory. This was the first instance in a legacy of cooperation that defined the region in the future. Another example of this cooperation was the creation of an expanded network of neutral trading outposts across the Tiridinian coast that facilitated trade with Osamia and other Tiridinian nations.

These advances collapsed in the period following 365 CE when the Nurvidin plague spread into the region of Lower Tar-dinuu and decimated the kingdoms. For the next several centuries, Lower Tar-dinuu would be conquered by a variety of empires, though it was difficult to maintain control over.

In 1321, an !Empire rose to the south of Tar-dinuu and began expanding to conquer much of the region. This spurred the kingdoms of Lower Tar-dinuu to join the Confederacy of Tar-dinuu, which would provide them with a defensive alliance against the steadily encroaching !Empire. However, this union was unable to prevent the Lower Tar-dinuuen nations from being conquered, though !Empire fell due to internal strife in 1328.

After the rise and fall of !Empire, many of the nations in the former Confederacy of Tar-dinuu sought a way to avoid conquest from foreign powers in the future. Therefore, they agreed to unify to create a single Kingdom of Higher Tar-dinuu overseen by an edmuralit. The nations in the region of Lower Tar-dinuu refused to take part in the unification, seeing it as a blatant attempt by the nations on the northeastern coast to grow their own power. Instead, they formed the Confederacy of Lower Tar-dinuu, intended to be a continuation of the Confederacy of Tar-dinuu. This period of independence would ultimately end with conquest by their northern neighbor. Edmuralit Ridar the Unifier of Higher Tar-dinuu intended to unite all Dinuuen lands under one banner and homogenize the Dinuuen people, as a method to reduce internal dissent against the edmuralit’s rule. He began several wars with Higher Tar-dinuu’s neighbors, including with Lower Tar-dinuu. This led to the annexation of the region in 1399.

Lower Tar-dinuu would exist as a somewhat rebellious and undeveloped collection of states in the peripheral regions of Higher Tar-dinuu for the next several centuries, until 1956. Over the course of the previous decades, Higher Tar-dinuu had enacted several unpopular policies that marginalized non-Higher-Dinuuen ethnic groups, enraging the people of the states that would become Lower Tar-dinuu. However, the nation of Salia had been supplying the Tar-dinuuen Heritage Party with enough weaponry to easily crush any resistance in the region. This ended in 1956 when the Democratic Coalition ousted the Tar-dinuuen Heritage Party from the government and began working to expel the Salian forces in the country. In order to better combat this, Salia aligned itself with the Lower Tar-dinuuen separatists and began arming them. This resulted in an extended and violent civil war that extended beyond the official withdrawal of Salian troops at the end of World War Three. In this war, the separatists were ultimately victorious. By 1964, the last city in the region that would be Lower Tar-dinuu was captured by the separatists, and Higher Tar-dinuu slowed support for the war. By 1966, the last Higher Tar-dinuuen soldier had departed from the area.

However, Higher Tar-dinuu continued to work to undermine the confederation, as it was considered by the kingdom to be a Alutran puppet meant to sabotage it. It declared the nation an illegally occupied breakaway state controlled by a foreign-funded terrorist organization. It also enacted an expansive series of economic sanctions that forbid any corporation that did business in Lower Tar-dinuu from doing so in Higher Tar-dinuu. It also encouraged its allies to do the same, cutting the nation off from many avenues of support. Though Salian aid allowed it to survive, the assassination of Lower Tar-dinuu’s ruler, Ja-edmuralit Karil, in 1991 damaged its fragile situation even more.

In the modern-day, Lower Tar-dinuu is a small power with an uncertain future. It ranks low on the Human Development Index, its political system is considered incredibly corrupt, and most of its citizens live in poverty. Government institutions function as a battleground for personal squabbles between different noble families is common, resulting in an ineffective political system. Several insurgent groups have risen in the region as a result of this unsatisfying condition, some of which are believed to be funded by Higher Tar-dinuu.

Lower Tar-dinuu is currently recognized by !! nations out of the 39 nations currently in the World Forum, and many more have unofficial diplomatic relationships with the country. Some multinational corporations have also taken an interest in the precious metals present in Lower Tar-dinuu, though economic development has been slowed by the fact that committing to projects in Lower Tar-dinuu would mean being barred from working with its much wealthier and more populous neighbor.