Kvask

The Commune of Kivasek Kivasya
Flag Seal
Capital	Liberigo
Largest	Agnila
Official languages	Kivasyan
Recognised national languages	Kivasyan, Yopasyan, English
Recognised regional languages	Vokasyan
Ethnic groups	Kivas, Yopas, Vokas
Demonym(s)	Kivasekian
Government	Devolved democratic communist collectives
Legislature	The Social Contract of 1921
Establishment
• Proust Hegeomy conqeurs Yopas and Kivas regions	342 BCE
• Kroust Empire conquers Kivas region	525 CE
• Feher Feifdom dominates Kivasek	757
• Sieghard Empire forms	856
• Kivasek gains independence as Free Territories of the Middle Continent	857
• The House of Kočí forms as Kivasek's monarchy after the War of the Pines	November 14th, 902
• Beginning of Kivasekian Wars of Self-Determination	March 25th, 1790
• The Social Contract of 1921 is ratified	February 14th, 1921
Area
• Total	997,986 km2 (385,325 sq mi)
• Water (%)	4.3
Population
• 2020 estimate	29,025,300
• 2015 census	27,344,829
• Density	27.4/km2 (71.0/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)	2017 estimate
• Total	1.36 trillion (USD)
• Per capita	49,850 (USD)
Gini (2017)	0 low
HDI (2017)	.922 very high
Currency	Hour of Work (HOW)
Time zone	UTC+2 (LST (Liberigo Standard Time))
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy, Common Era (CE)
Driving side	left
Calling code	+205
Internet TLD	.kv

Kivasek, officially the Commune of Kivasek, is a anarchist multi-collective in the Middle Continent bordered by Pine Bay to the northwest, opening up to the larger Alyeskan Sea. Kivasek is of average size, comparable to the Federation of Lauchenoiria. There are four major rivers within Kivasek: the Pine River, the Mud River, the Wolfound River, and the Bear River, the last of which connects Kivasek and Bears Armed via waterway. Along the Southern border of Kivasek, the Yopas Hills roughly run from the mouth of the Mud River, following the southern border closely before curving northward and stopping halfway along the western border. According to the Kivaskian Office for Population, there are currently 27,344,829 people living within the collectives.

Declaring full independence from the Sieghard Empire in 857, Kivasek was under a domestic monarchy continuously until 1790. What follwed was nearly 130 years of civil and social strife before the Social Contract of 1921 (also called the Judge Contract) was written and ratified by an 87% vote in favour. Essentially an in-name only union of seven collectives, Kivasek is heavily decentralized with most power given to individual towns and cities. The collective has no form of substantive government, opting instead to have city councils that are elected trimonthly meet in the historical capital of Liberigo. While all collectives are, in theory, equal to one another, the collective with the highest populations, Kivas and Yopas, exert economic dominance over the other five: Vokas, Kazorek, Chemorek, Ultza, and Baszha.

Despite being a society heavily influenced by libertarian thought, there is also a culture of cooperation and societal advancement that make the collectives work together to make one another stronger. Following the most radical forms of leftist libertarian thought, Kivasek has abolished currency and operates on the motto "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need". As a result, Kivasek is known to have the most advanced public transportation system in the world with electric trains, buses, and river ferries being common means of transportation through the collectives with bicycles being free to borrow at stations. Public healthcare is also known to be among the world's most accessible, with people often getting immediate care for their ailments and injuries, though the waiting times in larger cities can go on for hours, despite the best efforts of the hospital staff.

Seeing themselves as the prime example of communism thriving in the modern era and believing others can follow their example, Kivasek is known to print out leaflets by the thousands and send them out to nearby countries, much to the annoyance of their respective leaders. As well as advocating for leftist thinking, Kivasek often gives material and personnel support to left-leaning secessionist movements with the hope that the ensuing freedom will encourage the population to embrace anarchist communism or, at the very least, left libertarianism. Although fueled by a great amount of political fervor, Kivasek's arms and volunteer army are often thought of as outdated and unfit for modern warfare in an open battlefield, often opting for guerilla operations.

Etymology

The name Kivasya is derived from the two words in the Kivasyan language Kivas and Ya meaning "pine" and "small", respecitively, thus making the literal name of Kivasya "Pines that are small". The people living in the central parts of Kivasya, the self-named Kivas, believed that people were a descendent of the pine trees that dominate the pine marshes of eastern Kivasya. This name was left the same until the Proust Hegemony took over Kivasya and it's surrounding areas, introducing their own language to the tribes, morphing Kivasya into Kivasek though generations of cultural melting. The original name of Kivasya was used only by the northeastern communities until the 1790s when there was a movement to return to the roots of the region. However, with being known as Kivasek for centuries, many natives accepted it as the second name to their homeland.

History

Pre-Proust Hegemony

Much of what is known about Kivasek before the time of the Proust Hegemony is directly from court scribes translating older texts in Proto-Kivasyan to Erodanian before being subsequently destroyed by their lords. It seems that the earliest story from the area is a Yopas legend detailing a man named Rodak leading a force of 2000 tribesman against a bloodthirsty tribe of 10000 to the south of the hills. Only through using the hills to their advantage and superior tactics do they defeat them. Rodak, becoming the great leader of the Yopas, leads the tribe to greatness, making them the uncontested rulers of the area, presumably being defeated by the Proust Hegemony later on.

A few years after, a story from the Kivas tribe appears, chronicling the life of a woman named Rake. Having lost her own tribe, the Ultza, to famine and war, Rake finds herself becoming a part of the Kivas after being cared for by healers of the tribe. Finding acceptance through suffering a similar loss to the Kivas themselves, she becomes the leader of the tribe through her wisdom and sharp tongue. With her nature of a caring but stern tribe mother, the Kivas become disciplined and find the strength to exact revenge on the tribe that had destroyed Rake's life.

By comparing similarities and contrasts between the different stories from different tribes, a few facts can be extrapolated. For example, there are three tribes that seemed to be the major powers in the region; the Yopas, the Kivas, and the Vokas. All of the tribes seem to have roots connected to the fork of the rivers Bear and Pine with multiple stories detailing great pilgrimages to the area. What the connection is, anthropologists do not know for sure, but it has been theorized that the fork was the site of a landing party that were the first Kivasekians coming northward, down the Bear river.

Proust Hegemony

The Proust Hegemony was a large, proto-feudal society ruled by the Proust family, a dynasty known to be ruthless, cold, and cunning. By the time the Proust Hegemony absorbed Kivasek into its territory, only the Yopas and Kivas remained as the dominating tribes with the Vokas supporting the Kivas. The Yopas, occupying the southern hills rich with iron, were favoured by the Prousts for their resources. The Kivas with their thick pine forests could not offer much to the new rulers, and the Vokas occupied the easternmost of the hills; although bare of iron, the hills held large quantities of silver, leading to the establishment of the Proust city of Varholm (Now Agnila)

With the Hegemony came the rise of infrastructure; roads were built to connect the cities with their large factories to the smaller villages with sawmills of great productivity, mines bursting with iron, and farms of bountiful harvest. Tribalism was essentially dead within Kivasek as the Proust Hegemony converted Kivasek into one of many states contributing to the Proust war effort. Lords ruled over other vassals that directed the peasantry. The gap between the upper and lower class was immense, with peasants unable to speak Proust often being barred entrance to the cities.

During this time, the Yopas were often placed into governing positions over the Kivas, making tensions between the two tribes heighten. It wasn't uncommon for Yopas mercenaries employed by the Prousts to collect taxes from the much poorer and much hungrier Kivas in the northern areas of Kivasek. There was no end to the Kivas-Yopas violence during the reign of the Hegemony, with the government oftering going in favour of the richer and more powerful Yopas.

However, in the early years of the 6th century , the Proust Hegemony began to falter as generations of incest began to make the rulers live weaker and die younger, making factions within the upper echelons of society stronger and confident.