Mordvania

Official languages		Mordvanian, Bunesgan, Kaljuran, Ashkuban
Ethnic groups		Mordvanian, Bunesgan, Ashkuban, Kaljuran, others
Legislature		Republican Parliament

Mordvania (Mordvanian: Mordvanija), officially the Republic of Mordvania (Republika Mordvanija), is a country in Eastern Brigidna, bordered by Kaljurand to the west. The total area of Mordvania is 397,660 square kilometres, making it the 30th largest country in the world and the 7th largest in Brigidna. With a population of over 64.7 million people, Mordvania is the 30th most populous country in the world and the 7th most poulous country in Brigidna, as well as the 3rd most populous nation with a Vostic ethnic majority. The Republic of Mordvania is an unitary state divided into 33 administrative departments.

History

Pre-modern history

The territory of today Republic of Mordvania was not organized under an unitary state until recent modern times. At the beginning of the 5th century, most of the territory was divided into five states: the Kingdom of Bunesga, the Pendurasian Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Osrednia, and the republics of Severwojek and Visnja, along many tiny principalities and city-states. The Kingdom of Osrednia and the Pendurasian Commonwealth had been the largest states since the 2nd century, but the later entered in a period of decadence that century. After the Western War (621-632), which would involve the Pendurasian Commonwealth against the Kingdom of Bunesga along Gehinic armies, the Commonwealth would lose more than half of its territory. The Treaty of Ukmaunas (632) would also see the creation of the Grand-Duchy of Nordënland. The Grand-Duchy would be ruled by the Greuthen house, a Geinic noble family, and their lands reinforced with Oslanburgian and Alstarian settlers.

During the 7th century, the Kingdom of Bunesgan tried to expand toward the east, being almost constantly at war with the Mordvanian states, while the Grand-Duchy increased their territories along the northern coast. In 828, the coastal city of Fürstenstadt (today Mestarka), would be founded. The next year, the Kingdom of Osrednia would annex the Republic of Visnja. In 851, Grand-Duke Atharik von Greuthen would proclaim the Principality of Fürstenstadt, which became a sovereign state. Prince Atharik would still rely on the military support of the Arch-Kingdom of Oslanburg and other Geinic monarchies.

In 884, the Pendusarian Commonwealth -the only constitutional government in Bunesgan history- ceased to exist, when its territory was partitioned among the Kingdom of Bunesga, the Kingdom of Osrednia, and the Principality of Fürstenstadt. In 898, the Republic of Severowojek would be broken up into many principalities and city-states, following a nine-year war against the Kingdom of Osrednia. On Marth 902, King Bogdan, the ruler of Osrednia, would proclaim himself "King of all Mordvanians", and renaming his kingdom as "Kingdom of Mordvania". King Bogdan continued to expand his lands toward the north until his death, in early 920.

During the 10th century, the Kingdom of Mordvania and the Kingdom of Bunesgan fought in several long wars which would have a deep financial and social cost, as more than 15 million subjects of both kingdoms died. In late 10th century, the Kingdom of Mordvania suffered another conflict against the Kingdom of Biyra and the Principality of Fürstendstadt during the Northern War (1177-1184). Not prepared for naval warfare, the Kingdom of Mordvania lost most of its possessions in the northern coast and the eastern archipelago between Biyra and Mordvania. The war also resulted in an almost monopoly for the Principality of Fürstenstadt of the commerce in the northern post, strengthening its position.

The creation of the Kingdom of Abdania

The Second Bunesgan-Mordvanian War (1222-1240) left the Kingdom of Bunesgan exhausted and bankrupted. Prince Elvald married an Oslanburgan princess, strengthening the alliance between both states. Prince Elvard followed a policy of cultural unity and assimilation, which resulted in the consolidation of Abdanian language. Although Laurentian had been traditionally used in Fürstendstadt's court, Prince Elvard enforced the use of Abdanian language, promoting the language through education campaigns and banning the use of any other language in official communications. Prince Elvard also supported Kaljurand during the Kaljurand-Bunesgan War, which allowed Fürstendsadt to seize and annex the region around Ukmaunas, which was renamed as Ukmerberg. In 1279, Prince Elvard, with the support of many Geinic states, proclaimed the Kingdom of Abdania, with himself as King.

Peace did not last, though, and the Abdanian-Bunesgan war started in 1289. The war, which ended with the Treaty of Katzberg (1314), resulted in the disintegration of the Kingdom of Bunesga, and the Bunesgan royal family fled into exile to Biyra.

Before the 13th century, the Sentric Church was the official religion in the kingdoms and states of the Mordvanian basin, and the Abdanian monarchy had persecuted the Avalsyanist doctrine in its territory. This, however, changed when Prince Elvard married Princess Josephine Hansen, a member of the Oslan royal family, further strenghtening the alliance between Oslanburg and the Abdanian monarchy. As consequence, religious tolerance was allowed, and most of the Abdanian nobility converted to Daienism. In 1316, King Konrad I proclaimed Daienism as the official religion of the state, and enforced conversion was adopted as state policy. The policy of religious tolerance was ended, and Sentric churches were forced to adopt Daienism or be seized by the local authorities. Historians believe that this was likely motivated by the fact hat King Konrad I feared the Sentric Church as a political threat to his power, and he was looking for religious legitimacy in his war campaings against Mordvanians and eastern Vostic states. In 1324, there was a Sentric revolt in southern Abdania, mostly by Ashkuban and Mordvanian peasants, which was defeated only after a bloodthirsty military campaign.

The Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania

In 1328, Mordvanian King Bogdan II died, only a few months after naming his son Rajko as his successor. This decision was contrary to the dominant tradition in the Kingdom of Osrednia (later Mordvania) to have the eldest surviving member of the ruling family succeed the incumbent. By ancestral right, Prince Bronislav, Bogdan's brother, should have claimed the throne, but Bogdan II chose his first-born son to be his successor instead, aiming to establish a dinasty. Bronislav did not relinquish his ancestral rights without fight. After Bogdan's death in Quartyr 1328, Bronislav took up arms, and many subjects in the kingdom joined him. The rebels claimed to represent the old political order, feudal rights, and national independence. The conflict between Bogdan and his uncle erupted in a long civil war.

Most of the Mordvanian nobility had took Bronislav's side, fearing that the newly established dinasty would weaken the influence and power of the nobility and further strengthen royal power. Bogdan was forced to flee Slawowo, the capital city of the Kingdom of Mordvania. Bogdan converted to Daienism and found support in the Kingdom of Abdania, starting the Forty-year War (1328-1365). In 1334, Bogdan married Ealdgyda, the youngest daughter of the Abdanian King. Bronislav died in 1337, and ironically he was succeed by his elder son, Miroslav. Miroslav would died in 1348, succeeded by Bozidar Mastek, a military leader and noblemen, who was the first Mordvanian king outside the Kastenek family. Bozidar, however, would be murdered in 1352, and his nephew Rajko succeeded, who proved to be an incompetent ruler controlled by prominent members of the nobility. After a decisive battle nearby Opoblina in 1361, mostly of the Mordvanian army was destroyed. Bogdan, however, would die two years later. Rajko would be betrayed by a group of Mordvanian nobles who were willing to make peace with the Kingdom of Abdania, and he was deposed and executed in 1564. A few months later, the Mordvanian Army officially surrender and was dissolved under the Treaty of Amberg (1365).

Many members of the Mordvanian nobility were either executed or fled to exile, and their lands were granted to Abdanian nobles, mostly members of the Abdanian Army who had fought in the war. Other members of the Mordvanian nobility were allowed to keep their lands and most of their feudal rights, in exchange for a pledge of loyalty to the Abdanian King Atharik the Wise I. The Treaty of Paviemes (1369) established a dual monarchy, which divided the territory into the Kingdoms of Abdania and Mordvania. The Kingdom of Mordvania was granted a parliament, formed by members of the Mordvanian nobility, and a national government which would have autonomy and the right to approve its own laws. The monarch of both kingdoms would be a member of the Abdanian Greuthen-Hansen dinasty. However, in practice Mordvanian autonomy was harshly limited, as the monarch had veto rights and appointed directly the government, and therefore the eastern Kingdom of Mordvanian remained ruled by officials loyals to the Abdanian monarch, and it lacked armed forces of their own. It had been established the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania, which would last until 1567.

Colonial expansion in Avidna

The first Abdanian colonies were already established in early 14th century, during the reigns of Albrekt I and Elvard II. The Treaty of Trom (1314) granted the Abdanian monarchy a small port in Avidnan territory, and in 1318 and Abdanian settlement known as Südenberg was established (today, Südenberg remains as the second largest town of the sovereign nation of Khibland). In 1328, the Oversea Regional Administration was created, led by a Lieutenant-Governor directly appointed by the Abdanian monarch, in order to control the management of the small Abdanian colony. Five years later, the building of the city of Macharaviaya was started, mostly by slave labour, which would become an important trade town in Southern Avidna. The Treaty of Südenberg (1340) expanded Abdanian territory in southern Avidna several miles, allowing the territory to be more self-suficient and prosperous through its local agriculture. Most of those lands were, however, mostly owned by relatives of the Abdanian royal family.

In 1348, under the reign of Atharik I, a more functional colonial government organizations was established, and it was proclaimed the Principality of Khibland. The Principality of Khibland was ruled by the House of Bruckdorff, and remained loyal to the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania until 1454.

The Kingdom of Abdanian and Mordavnia supported the Arch-kingdom of Oslanburg in Eleven Years War, and the Treaty of Wien (1376), granted the Abdanian kingdom with a large territory in Western Avidna, in what today is the Republic of Volta. Once gaining the colony, the Abdanians immediately replaced top positions that were previously occupied by Gehennans with Abdanians, and began a slow but sure implementation of Abdanianization policies. These policies were not well received by the ethnic Gehennan settlers, and there was widespread discontent against the Abdanians throughout their colonial history. Some of the more vocal Voltan elites fled, while others begrudgingly accepted lower ranking positions in colonial administration. A large number of Abdanian settled in the colony, while slaves were imported from Skathia and other regions of Avidna.

An effective government structure in the vast Avidnan colony was not established until the reign of Konrad II the Great (1388-1401). In summary, the new colony proved very efficient economically, increasing the wealth of the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania, but costly politically, as the Abdanian government was forced to assign more and more budget and personnel to properly defend its colonial territories. However, revolts and political plots against the Abdanian elite remained constant.

In 1422, it sparkled a violent revolt in Volta, starting the Voltan War for Independence (1424-1427). The Voltan revolutionaries, assisted by Lanlania and the Nylander Republic, defeated the Abdanian forces in several provinces of the colony, and the war became a costly and bloodthirsty conflict. In 1427, the Abdanian government was forced to grant Volta full independence, signing the Treaty of Senevald (1428). Ethnic Abdanians in the colony suddenly found themselves subject to discrimination, both legal and illegal. As a result, many Voltan Abdanians chose to leave Volta and move to the other Abdanian colonies, or rather establishing themselves in mainland Abdania. The war and lost of the largest Abdanian colony had very negative consequences for the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania, as the Abdanian government was forced to default three times between 1426 and 1434. In 1434, there was even a political plot to force Atharik II to abdicate, but the conspirators were discovered and executed.

Atharik II died in 1438, and he was succeeded by his son Ekkerhard III. Ekkerhard III's reign was marked by financial problems and political instability, and the Abdanian government was forced to crush a violent peasant revolt in southern Mordvania in 1449-1451. King Ekkerhard III died without descendency in 1453, and he was replaced by his brother Konrad. But the new king was seriously ill and obsessed with religion, and he proved to be an ineffective ruler. Tensions between Fürstenstadt government and the Khiblander local elite had raised in the early 1450s, and there was concern that the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania could lose its main remaining colonial territory. Konrad III's reign was not long, however, as he died in 1457, being replaced by his son.

The new monarch, crowned as Konrad IV, crushed internal dissent and sent the Abdanian navy to the Principality of Khibland. Seven members of the House of Bruckdorff were executed, even if it was not proved that all of them were involved in the political conflict with the Abdanian government. The Principality of Khibland was abolished in 1458, and replaced by the Grand-Duchy of Macharaviaya, now directly administered by members of the Greuthen-Hansen dinasty. Sigivald Greuthen-Hansen became the first Grand-Duke of Macharaviaya, being replaced by the king's son Ekkehard in 1476.

Konrad IV was an ultra-conservative and brutal ruler, but he introduced important administrative reforms which improved the efficiency of the Abdanian administration. At the end of his reign, he was involved in a military conflict against Biyra and Karjelinn on the Viska Bay which ended in a stalemate. He married his son Ekkehard with Jelena Koch, from an influencial family of the Oslanburgan nobility, and therefore further strengthening the diplomatic alliance between the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania and the Arch-Kingdom of Oslanburg. Konrad IV died in 24 Septem 1499.

Reforms and counterrevolution

Ekkehard III was crowned King in 1499. His father, Konrad IV, had ruled the Kingdom of Abdanian and Mordvania for 42 years, the longest Abdanian ruler back then (only exceeded by King Atharik III, who ruled between 1511 and 1563). Ekkehard, who was already 51 years old when he was proclaimed King, did not lack political experience, as he had been Grand-Duke of Macharaviaya for twenty years, personally involved in the daily governance of the colonial Grand-Duchy. The Avidnan colony was back then considered a more liberal environment than the Fürstenstadt court, mostly due to the increasing commerce with the Nylander Republic, and so was Ekkehard III at least compared with his own father. His short reign -the second shortest after the last Abdanian monarch, Kyvenbrecht I- was marked by some administrative and economic reforms, aimed to increase efficiency and commerce. He also granted freedom of religion and abolished slavery in the Avidnan colony in 1502. However, he fell seriously ill in late 1502, dying in 1503.

The royal couple had not had male children, something that some conservatives circles in Fürstenstadt court blamed on the king's wife, Jelena Koch, trying to convince the monarch to divorce her and marry a younger queen, as they were afraid that Oslanburgan government had too much influence in the new king. However, Ekkehard III opposed it, and the King's daughter were considered too young and therefore his wife Jelena Koch became the first and only sovereign queen of the Kingdom of Abdanian and Mordvania, being crowned as Brynja I.

Brynja I was an even more liberal ruler than Ekkehard III, and he continue her husband's administrative reforms, and abolished serfdom in 1508, with a royal decree that shocked most of the conservative Abdanian nobility. The Abdanian Church became an important source of opposition to Brynja's reforms, with some ultra-conservative writers denouncing her as a "foreigner usurper of the Abdanian throne". Some Abdanian reformers as Count Albrekt Mogenberg, an even Mordvanian liberal philosophers like Bozidar Ostanek rallied for the queen's reforms, which they felt a change for further and more ambitious reforms. Some of them, like Count Albrekt Mogenberg, who was appointed Minister of the Treasury in 1509, served in official positions during Brynja I's term.

Brynja I became isolated, and she was therefore posted to go beyond, even forming a royal committee which would be created with the aim of study the project of a constitution for the Kingdom, and establishing local governments which would be elected by the citizens (although with limited suffrage). These last reforms were going too far for the Abdanian nobility and the military leadership, and soon rumours of a conspiration against the queen became a reality. In 1511, Brynja I was deposed in a military coup d'etat. Atharik Greuthen-Hansen, Ekkehard III's nephew, was crowned as Atharik III.

In the view of the most conservative elites, Brynja's reforms had unchained destructive forces that had to be repressed. Many reformers and supporters of Brynja's constitutional reforms, like Count Albrekt Mogenberg or Bozidar Ostanek were executed. The repression even touched members of the ruling dinasty, and Brynja's two daughters were forced to exile in Oslanburg. Brynja was not allowed to leave the country, however, and she was imprisoned in a castle in southeastern Mordvania, where she would died six years later, in 1517. As consequence, relations with Oslanburg would become strained. However, after the wedding of Atharik III with Sophie Hershel, the daughter of the Gehennan monarch, Abdania would find a more stable ally in the Gehennan monarchy.

Most of Brynja's reforms were revoked or abrogated, and the powerful nobility saw their privileges restored. However, not all the reforms were abolished, and the abolition of the serfdom was kept, although the nobility kept many privileges over the poor peasants, which in practice left their proclamation of emancipation an useless piece of paper. As a result, the Abdanian Church increased its influence on government policy, Abdanian absolute monarchy was strengthened. While the repression became less severe in later decades, any kind of dissent was not allowed. Many, like Mordvanian republican philosopher Bostjan Slak, who was forced to exile in the Grand-Duchy of Macharaviaya following the illegal publication of his famous treaty "On Political Freedom" in 1529, were either politically prosecuted or left to more liberal countries.

Atharik III was crowned King of Abdania and Mordvania with only 26 years old, and he would eventually become the longest serving Abdanian monarch. In the 1530s, the country suffered a severe economic depression, and more pragmatic officials were called into government. Although no political reforms were introduced, financial reforms were introduced, allowing a competitive banking system, market reforms, an opening to foreign investment and administrative and labour reforms aimed to modernize the economy. The reforms were succeessful, and Abdania experienced an economic boom already in the early 1540s, although corruption and inequality increased considerably. The size of the state bureucracy and armed forces expanded without control, but inefficiently and mostly dominated by ethnic Abdanians, which increased tensions with the Mordvanian majority.

Atharik III, althoug the absolute ruler of the country, became less personally interested in government as he was aging, and in the practice the government was mostly on the control of senior Abdanian officials such as his younger brother Kyvenbrecht, who became Minister of War and Chief Staff of the Armed Forces for more than twenty years.

Atharik III died in 1563, at the age of 81 years old. Instead than his elder son Konrad Grethen-Hansen, who was considered to ack enough intellectual maturity to be crowned king, the High Council of the Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania appointed Atharik's brother Kyvenbrecht as King, who was 69 at the time, but considered an experienced and strong politician, which was hoped to give the Kingdom of Abdanian and Mordvania the stability and good governance required in such complicated succession. The Kingdom of Abdania and Mordvania, however, would only survive another three years.

3 Geography 3.1 Climate 4 Administrative Divisions 4.1 Regions 5 Governance 5.1 Political System 5.2 Judicial System 5.3 Foreign Relations and the Military 6 Economy 6.1 Energy 6.2 Transport 7 Demographics 7.1 Language 7.2 Religion 7.3 Education 7.4 Health 8 Culture 8.1 Literature 8.2 Visual Arts 8.3 Music 8.4 Cuisine 8.5 Sports