Lathadu

Lathadu, officially the Republic of Lathadu, is a country on the eastern coast of Alutra. Situated on the western shore of the Sedea Sea, Lathadu is bordered by Ordrey to the north, and Salia to the east across the water. Lathadu has an estimated population of just below 10 million people. Its capital is Calleebane, and its largest city is Ushteyghoo. Lathaduns are largely Gundioc, but the country is also home to a large Ordrish population. The official language, Lathadun, is part of the Cedic family of languages.

For centuries, the riverlands, marshes, and shores of the region were inhabited by various tribes. The region was a fairly isolated part of the Sedic Confederation prior to its collapse, later becoming home to Ordrish refugees from the Salian invasions in what is remembered as The Long Walk. Shortly after, the region was conquered by Salia, before the Lathadun Peasant’s Revolt led by the mythic warrior-matron Barriaght kicked them from the country. Lathadu spent the next few centuries within Ordrey’s sphere of influence, before the region’s clans seized on the chaos of the Ordrish War of Succession and seceded from the Ordrey, forming the Lathadun Federation. Following industrialization of the country in the early modern era, the Anti-Aristocracy movement was created by alliances of urban and rural workers to oppose the stranglehold on political power held by the region’s big clans, leading to a peaceful transition into the Republic of Lathadu as it is known today.

Lathadu is classified politically as a unitary dominant-party parliamentary republic with an executive presidency, known for its long-standing and stable dedication to democracy. It rates highly in metrics of civil liberties, freedom of press, internet freedom, democratic governance, and peacefulness. It enjoys a partially-planned economy, with many of the nation’s natural resources having been nationalized in decades past. Lathadu has a moderate level of human development, ranking highly in other metrics of national performance for a country of its size and wealth. The country spends roughly 7% of its budget on education, compared to a global average of just over 4. Its economy once depended heavily on agriculture, but has since diversified to manufacturing goods such as textiles, foodstuffs, furniture, lighting, signs, and prefabricated buildings. Lathadu is a member of the Northeast Compact, Alutran Commercial Community, the International Union for Labor and Liberty, and the World Forum.

Etymology
The first known record of the name Lathadu is from an Ordrish chronicle dating back to 1398. The chronicle recorded the name of the furthest south of Ordrey’s holdings: a hot, humid, marshy land of rivers and lakes called Lathadu, meaning “blackest marsh” in that tongue.

History
The oldest traces of human life in Lathadu date back from approximately 1.6 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, humans there were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial epochs.

Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. At the end of the last glacial period in 10,000 BC, the climate became milder. From approximately 7,000 BC onward, Eastern Alutra entered the Neolithic era and its inhabitants became sedentary.

After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium, initially working gold, copper, bronze, and later, iron. Lathadu has numerous mound sites from this era that once served as burial sites, places of worship, and community centers, notably the internationally-recognized Serpent Mound Site (approximately 3,300 BC).

Antiquity
Although local peoples had maintained contact with the outside world for centuries, they became more integrated around the mid-2nd century BC. It was around this time that the region entered the sphere of influence of the Sedic Confederation; it would remain on the frontier of the confederation until its dissolution in 85 BC. The native tribes did not maintain close political contacts with the confederation, but they did maintain trade contacts and borrowed heavily from their language.

The Lathadun language is considered to be very conservative from this period forward, for its close connection to its Sedic roots. It is believed to have differentiated from the Ordrish language, the most closely related existing language, by the 9th century. Traditional Lathadun customs and mythology, with many archaic elements, were long preserved. Rulers’ bodies were buried in mounds up until the conversion to Ayekism; descriptions of the burial ceremonies of various high chieftains have survived into the modern day.