Urdasia

Urdasia (/ɝˈdeɪʒə, ɝˈdæsiə/ Atumay: Urdéša [ʔuɾˈdeʒa] ; Caxalautian: Urudasaya [uɾudasaja]), officially The Allied States of Urdasia (Atumay: ꦈꦫ꧀ꦠꦺꦯꦡꦸꦪ ꦤꦏꦧꦯꦸꦤꦸꦀ Urdéšatuya Nágavašunúm; Urdasian Caxalautian: ꦔꦫꦏꦺꦴꦩꦶ ꦈꦫꦸꦢꦱꦪ Ngarakaumi Urudasaya), is a country located on the west coast of southeastern Fernost bordering the Palena Ocean. It is bordered by the Autonomous Belarusian Republic to the north, Pelbagai to the south, Samudrayanam to the southeast, and has maritime borders with Palena to the west. It has an area of 2,779,020 square kilometers (1,072,990 square miles) and its population is estimated at about 30 million people, making it the 49th most populated nation in Diyar, but also one of the least densely populated. Urban development in Urdasia is concentrated in only 3 areas, around Saragay just north of Pelbagai, around Astí in the central valley, and around Tatahari in the northwestern coast.

Etymology
Urdasia is an anglicization of the Atumay word Urdéša, meaning "listening place", or "place of prophecy". The name is linked to the nation's founding around the Takirua religion in the mid-1800's. Before the modern founding of Urdasia it was known by a myriad of other names, the most common one in Atumay being Kávaša "mountainous place", referring to the rugged and elevated terrain of the Atumay homeland, and the most common one in Caxalautian and other Lautan languages being Padanga "frontier, edge, remote place", due to it being the remotest reach of Lautan civilization and colonization. The name Padanga continues to be used to refer to the coastal region and Kávaša to the inland region. Since the nations unification and consitutional convention in 1848, the official name in English has been the Allied States of Urdasia.

Prehistoric
Human habitation of what is now Urdasia began in around 17,000 BCE with a southward migration into what was then a mountainous grassland. These early inhabitants had developed simply farming techniques by around 5,500 BCE and archaeological evidence points towards a semi-nomadic culture based around subsistence farming for over a thousand years. Climate change caused the gradual desertification of southern Urdasia and led to a dramatic decrease in the population by 1,500 BCE.

Ancient
Starting around 400 BCE, the formerly nomadic populations of southern Urdasia began to coalesce into three major civilizations. The first of these was the Urakutu civilizaiton, which developed several urban and elaborate ceremonial centers in the highlands just north of the Marukya desert. The archaeological record shows the emergence of the other two civilizations around 200 BCE: The Yavi civilization developed in the Marukya desert and whats now Pelbagai, constructing massive irrigation projects and developing the first writing systems found in Fernost. Meanwhile, the Suyutu civilization emerged in the southeastern plateau near Samudra, and Suyutan city states, which constantly made and broke alliances with each other, quickly became the dominant military powers in the region.

Northern Urdasia, including the modern urban core of the Astí valley remained populated by hunter-gatherers, known today only by the exonym Magaychi "wanderer", during this period. Based on archaeological evidence, the Magaychi were quite distinct from both the Atumaya people who could come to populate most of the area, and from the three urban civilizations to the south. They may have had more in common with the Miškuakay civilization to the east, but identifying them linguistically or culturally with other groups has proven elusive due to their distinctive nomadic lifestyle, lack of much lasting architecture, and lack of written language. Coastal Urdasia was home to the Miškuakay culture in the northwest, which emerged around 800 BCE, and developed metallurgy and rudimentary ships. The presence of goods from all over Fernost in Miškuakay archaeological sites indicate that this culture traded widely with other ancient cultures in the region. Farther south along the coast was the Yagašay culture, which was densely populated but never politically united, characterized by tiny city-states in never-ending competition and conflict.

Middle Ages
These broad cultural groups appear to have lasted for centuries, until further desertification and migration caused the destabilization of these civilizations around 1000 CE. The drying of the Magaychi homeland led to them invading and possibly later being absorbed by the Urakutu and Yavi civilizations to the south, which then both collapsed before recoalescing into the a single Siyayu civilization in the south, which constructed ever more elaborate irrigation projects and religious complexes. Starting around 500CE and intensifying by the 800s CE the Suyatu civilization fell victim to a mass migration from what is now northern Samudra. Suyatu city states become much more fortified during this period, and warfare appears to have become more violent.

These migrants were Atumay people, who spread northwest and came to occupy the former homeland of the Magaychi people and displaced the Miškuakay until the latter civilization came to occupy only the most coastal areas. The Atumay expansion over Urdasia is somewhat of an anomaly, as they do not appear to have been particularly more advanced than the peoples they replaced over northern Urdasia, and seem to have kept more or less the same culture as they had had in northern Samudra rather than adapting significantly to the high desert. The Padan Archipelago off of Urdasias coast was settled by Teokori-speaking Palenan peoples as early as 500BCE, but beginning in around 900CE they began to settle the Urdasian coast and quickly became the dominant civilization there. Teokori-speaking peoples traded extensively with both other Palenans and mainland Urdasian civilizations. These Palenan people appear to have spread remarkably peacefully, eventually totally replacing the remnants of the Miškuakay and Yagašay cultures by around 1300CE.

The remaining Suyatu city states collapsed between 1350-1450 for mysterious reasons, with Siyayu cities also being abadoned in favor of smaller settlements around the same time and their writing systems being forgotten. This was possibly due to further climate change, warfare, or a myriad of other reasons which are hotly debated by Urdasian scholars. In any case, the Atumay, Teokori Palenans, and remnants of the Siyayu and Suyutu were the peoples encountered first by Orvosians in 1476, when their explorers first sighted Urdasian shores.