User:Vivaporius/Viva's Nation/XII
- This country is part of the Altverse II universe.
Everlasting Kindred of Iokuzhan          Šo-Vân Okönīn No-Īokoxâno | |
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 Flag
 Emblem
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Motto: TBD | |
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Anthem: TBD | |
.svg) Location of Iokuma within Africa | |
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Map of Iokuma with its divisional boundaries Map of Iokuma with its divisional boundaries | |
| Capital and largest city | Zhazhakara |
| Official languages | Iokumese |
| Demonym(s) | Iokumese |
| Government |
Patrimonial autocracy (officially) Matriarchal kleptocracy (suspected) |
| TBD | |
• Takiyan | TBD |
• Akitan | TBD |
• Hazazhan | TBD |
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TBD TBD | |
| Legislature | Ta'Hazakiyon |
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Sankazok ∟Taza'Zhazhanin ∟Hakidukor | |
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Zhahokun ∟Sanka No-Mahuzokin ∟Sanka No-Sankuvanin | |
| Formation | |
• Settlement | c. 1200 CE |
| 29 July 1258 | |
| 17 October 1418 | |
• TBD | TBD |
| Area | |
• Total | 7,009,113 km2 (2,706,234 sq mi) (Nth) |
• Water (%) | 5 |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 1,064,291,688 (Nth) |
• Density | 152/km2 (393.7/sq mi) (Nth) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $22.622 trillion (Nth) |
• Per capita | $21,256 (Nth) |
| GDP (nominal) | 2020 estimate |
• Total | $19.386 trillion (Nth) |
• Per capita | $18,215 (Nth) |
| Gini (2020) |
 0.0low |
| HDI (2020) |
 0.000low · Nth |
| Currency | Iokumese akzun (₳) (IKA) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 to +3 (Iokuma Standard Time) |
| Date format | dd-mm-yyyy AD |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +2 |
| ISO 3166 code | IK |
| Internet TLD | .ik |
Iokuma (Iokumese: 
, Īokömâr), officially known as the Everlasting Kindred of Iokuzhan (Iokumese: , Šo-Vân Okönīn No-Īoköxâno)...
Etymology
- Either for the eponymous founder, Iokuzhan, or for "abode of the beloved" (īono kuma)
History
Early history
Migration period
According to the traditions of the Iokumese people, their ancestors arrived in the Congo Basin region more than two thousand years ago. Most archeological and anthropological research into the origins of the Iokumese indicate that they were not related to either the Bantu of West Africa, or the Nilotic peoples of Sudan and the Sahel. The original theory that had been suggested by researchers and historians until the mid-20th century, was that the Iokumese were a "Capoid" offshoot of the earlier Khoisan population that predated the arrival of the Bantu peoples sometime around 1500 BCE. However, this claim had little archaeological support, and linguistical differences between the Iokumese language and Khoisan languages were considered far too great to be credible. Indeed, the Iokumese language had no similarities to any of those possessed by either the Khoisan, Bantu, or Nilotic inhabitants of the region, giving rise to several theories that the Iokumese had once been an isolated population group that formed separately in the same vein as the other pre-Bantu populations in Africa, only coming to the light when the Bantu peoples began to forcefully claim the land they resided in for themselves. Under the revised archeological and genealogical data in review, the most likely origin of the Iokumese people cited to be in the Lake Tanganyika area.
However, due to the prehistorical presence of the the pygmy and Khoisan hunter-gatherers in that region, combined with the isolate nature of the Iokumese language, the true origin of the Iokumese people remains as of yet unknown. What has been agreed upon is that the Iokumese were not native to their current area of residence in along the western coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, are were indeed migrants from some area of Africa in the east. Their possession of horses, iron tools, advanced animal husbandry, knowledge of agriculture and crop rotation, and limited understanding of shipbuilding undoubtedly point to their eastern origins, and the possibility that they had extended contact with the Swahili inhabitants of the region before migrating westward. Evidence of such a migration had been uncovered in various locations throughout the Congo, with arrowheads, iron blades, and skeletons with traumatic injuries pointing to the violent nature of the Iokumese migration through pygmy lands. The period of migration is believed to have come to an end once the Iokumese people arrived at the edge of the Lualaba River, where they established themselves and began to form their existing social units sometime around 1200.
From here, definitive evidence of Iokumese civilization can be found in verifiable quantities, with the formation of settlements, fields for agriculture and pasture, and rudimentary metal-working sites located up and down the banks of the Lualaba River. The earliest of the Iokumese settlements such as Zokinkara, Ravaza, and Rujorak were established during this time, with successive waves of Iokumese migrants moving into the region and settling down within the fertile plains of the southern Congo Basin. Extensive excavation of the lands where the nucleus of early Iokumese civilization was located, show that new and distinct forms of pottery showing traces of Iokumese-style crafting give hints that the population settling in the area began to form a culture completely divorced from that of the Swahili they had interacted with for so many years. Advances in agriculture built on the backs of the knowledge attained in the east gave rise to a surplus of food and fodder for the inhabitants, which necessitated the construction of storage sites that exist to this day in underground cave networks located near to the rugged areas near Lake Tanganyika. The plentiful rains and rich soils of the land served as the bedrock for the cultivation of red sorghum, millet, yams, bananas, beans, sugar-cane, and groundnuts, all of which bolstered the population growth of the Iokumese, and attracted many to settle near to where the original wave of settlers had gone.
This period of migration from east to west and into the Congo Basin's most fertile zones of cultivation would last from 1200 till about 1350, when the wars with the competing kingdoms of Luba and Lunda would mark the end of the peaceful rise of the early Iokumese civilization. Trade prior to this period of conflict with the Luba-Lunda complex of states was found to be stable and mutually-beneficial for all parties involved however. Indeed, the trade with the Swahili city-states to the far east is also known to have endured in spite of the Iokumese migration into the interior, giving doubt to the possibility of a conflict in the region being the catalyst for the original migration away from the Indian Ocean coastline. Evidence also suggests that the Iokumese had a significant fleet of lake-going trade vessels that moved across Lake Tanganyika with all manner of goods produced within the Iokumese nucleus state. Nubian bows, Zimbabwean gold, and salt believed to have been produced in the Arabian Peninsula, all point to a prosperous period of trade that kept the Iokumese proto-state linked to the rest of the world in the east. As the wealth of the state continued to grow, it naturally attracted the attention of several opposing states in the region, leading to the early conflicts in the region that would later give rise to the early dynastic period of a fully-centralized state in Iokuma.
Early dynastic rule
Iokuma would enter into a period of prolonged war and expansion during its early history, a direct consequence of the desire of the Iokumese rulers to dominate as much of the surrounding lands for themselves to prevent the smaller Iokumese state from being overrun by the migratory waves of the Bantu from the west. By the mid-13th century, Iokuma's various city-states along the length of the Lualaba River and its minor offshoot, the Lukuga River, had been unified under the rule of Zhautakin, the first Tazen of the Aynad period in 1258. Zhautakin had established himself in the old city of Zokinkara, where he proclaimed that the competing Bantu tribes in the surrounding lowlands were to be expelled from the immediate region for the benefit of the Iokumese people. Noted as being cruel yet reasonable, Zhautakin would engage himself and his kingdom in what would be known as the First Iokumese Reclamation, a brutal campaign of expansion and expulsion that would result in the defeat of the Luba clans that had been residing in close proximity to the Iokumese for more than a century at this point. The Luba not been long-established in the area, having only recently arrived as part of a migratory wave from the region of Cameroon, bearing many weapons and technologies that familiar yet inferior to those possessed by Iokuma. There had been many attempts by the Luba to negotiate with the Iokumese for access to their pastoral lands and the right to intermarry with their families, with the hope that the two would eventually merge into a single unit.
These requests were denied, and the Luba expelled from the territories owned by the Iokumese, who began expanding into the territories held by the Luba. Simultaneously, there was a similar campaign of conquest waged against the Taabwa in the eastward approach to Lake Tanganyika, leading to many victories for Zhautakin and his successors. To mark the victory of his people over the Taabwa, Zhautakin founded the city of Urokon at the mouth of the Lukuga River. The foundation for the city's walls would be partially-built using the bones of the defeated Taabwa warriors and their families, as well as of any livestock that had been taken during the conquests. Iokumese culture would blossom during the Reclamation period of the early dynastic era in Iokumese history. Trade with the Swahili and the Arabs in the far east had been well underway ever since the Iokumese arrived in the region during the 13th century, but had entered a period of extended growth with the opening of Urokon and its growth into a major inland port settlement. Scholarly texts and philosophies from the Middle East would pour into Iokuma, influencing the scientific and administrative circles within the nation. During the reign of Kata'Var in 1283, Islamic scholars would be invited into Iokuma to teach Kata'Var's scribes astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry, though the pervading influences of Islam would be curtailed as a priority of the Tazen.
The intellectual enlightenment would provide little respite for the African tribes that residing within the interior of the Congo Basin, as the Iokumese made every effort to track down and eliminate any threat to their society, securing the majority of the coastline along Lake Tanganyika by the end of the 13th century. Several new settlements would be established within the interior zones of Iokuma's new territorial possessions, as many of the Luba, Taabwa, Hemba, Lega, and Songye retreated from the region as constant Iokumese raids resulted in the deaths of several thousand Bantu lives. These victories would not go unanswered, however, as the reclamation campaigns of the Iokumese rallied many of their enemies together against them. This would result in the formation of a new coalition known as the Ingabo ya Karindwi, or "Army of the Seven", was formed in opposition to the rapidly expanding Iokumese nation. This alliance was formed under the purview of the Tetela, who had been well-established in the region northwest of Iokuma and the Luba, and had long known of the violent conquests of the Iokumese. The Tonga, along with the with five dispossessed African tribes and the Mongo to their north, waged a brutal counteroffensive against the Iokumese, who lost tens of thousands of warriors in the field of battle, and were nearly wiped out on several occasions. It would be during this time that the most recognizable aspects of Iokumese civilization would be established.
At the height of the failing Third Iokumese Reclamation in 1307, Tazen Zhoyon would be captured and killed by the Tetela-led alliance, and his family buried alive by the victorious Bantu coalition. The city of TBD, later renamed "Udinotiyak" in light of its fate and rebuilding, would be razed to the ground and its people massacred in revenge for the atrocities enacted upon the Bantu in the previous wars. In the wake of these disasters and setbacks, Zhoyon's heir would ascend to the throne to save their people, his young but ruthless daughter, Memideka, the first female ruler of Iokuma. Having witnessed firsthand the willingness of her enemies and the killers of her father to wipe out the Iokumese wherever they were discovered, Memideka would embark upon a campaign of escalating retribution against the Bantu. Whereas in prior campaigns the Iokumese would similar aim to expel the Bantu from their lands and allow them to remain with their families and livestock, Memideka would adopt a new policy, one where all captured warriors and adult male noncombatants in the enemy tribes would be executed, while their sons would be castrated; the young women would enslaved to be given to the Iokumese men as brides, and all the captured livestock taken as restitution. As further insult, all male children born from these forced marriages would be killed, so as to prevent the tribe's line and legacy from living on among the Iokumese; only the males of the Iokumese women would be permitted to live.
Soon enough, the genocidal policies of Tazen Memideka would swing the tide of war in her favor. By the end of her twenty-four year reign in 1331, Memideka had expanded Iokuma's borders considerably, more than doubling her kingdom's size and aggressively pacifying her enemies. Such would be the ferocity of her campaigns, that the Hemba, Lega, Luba, Songe, and Taabwa people would be wiped out in all but name, solidifying Iokumese domination throughout the full extent of the Congo Basin's southeastern zone. The genocidal policies of Memideka would live on in the future campaigns of Iokuma, being deemed too effective by her successors to be discarded. Memideka's immediate successor and grandson, Eman-Yon, would be deemed an ineffectual ruler in Iokumese history, largely due to issues beyond his control. An empowered military elite within the social strata of Iokuma had declared themselves sacrosanct, and had begun making demands upon Eman-Yon and his governors for lands of their own in the newly-conquered territories. These demands were partially brought on by the greatly-expanded families of the warriors who had fought for Eman'Yon's grandmother, and were now struggling to support their families with their meager wages due to the reproductive policies she left in place. With a female population now twice the size of the male population, the warriors were struggling to support their families, and wanted more land to sustain them. Eman-Yon would feebly attempt to resolve these issues by issuing large sums of money to his soldiers and their families, but these policies infuriated the merchants who complained of the increasing devaluation of their wealth.
He would attempt to curtail some of the more extreme policies instituted by his grandmother, but faced resistance from the ionakin priesthood that had grown quite powerful during his youth, and had come to depend upon the new social order indirectly established by Memideka. Providing all of the midwives and wet-nurses that serviced the families of Iokuma, the ionakin had no desire to lose the wealth and influence among the faithful the late Memideka had unexpectedly empowered. Thus, Eman-Yon was forced to rely increasingly upon military campaigning as a means of sustaining the domestic situation back home, bringing the gold and ivory of the defeated African tribes back to Iokuma to hand out as plunder to his men. Ultimately, Eman-Yon would perish in battle during these campaigns, passing the role of Tazen on to his son, Tayon, would would introduce several policies that would be deemed as popular with his men. Every warrior would be assigned a plot of land in the newly-conquered lands with the task of developing them and providing food and wealth to his family. As the size of their families grew, the nature of the urban settlements they established would change with them. Extended families would be placed into their own districts, and all of their lands located next to one another maintain a level of uniformity, and these minor reforms would resolve at least some of the pressing concerns facing Iokuma for the time being.
Adin'Taza
As the decades dragged on for the Iokumese and their civilization, the domestic policies enacted by Memideka and Eman-Yon would go on to influence the religious life of the nation for centuries of come. Though always at war at one point or another with its neighbors, internally, Iokuma was prospering and its citizens were content. Political struggles while inescapable in any land, were increasingly mediated by the growing caste of eunuchs and female courtesans who growing in number as the consequences of Iokuma's conquests began to materialize. It became more and more apparent that as the old policies of prohibiting non-Iokumese males from being born continued, the number of men in the population began to shrink artificially. The priests of Iokuma kept detailed records of the linage of the commoners, and those found to be of partial Iokumese descent were prohibited from siring male offspring, not for their mixed heritage, but for a supposed lack of "spiritual purity" that came as a consequence of not belonging to the original population of Iokumese who had entered into the land. Those of "pure" or akiokin descent, were deemed worthy continuing the legacy of their ancestors, were known to proudly boast of the foreign origins of their forefathers. Likewise, the effectiveness of subduing an enemy population by denying it the men necessary to wage their wars and rebellions against the Iokumese state was deemed a form of proof that the blood of foreign men was "tainted" with thoughts of betrayal and spite.
There was significant political pressure from the elite within Iokuma to terminate this policy and return the demographics of the state to normal levels, as the continued campaigns of Iokuma were rapidly deleting the nation of its able-bodied men. However, Tayon would not be found of answering the call to resolve the issue in the manner presented to him. Deeply spiritual and differential to the demands of the priesthood, Tayon would instead look to acquiesce to the teachings of the ionakin, and further promote their ideology and policies throughout the entirety of Iokuma. A particular branch of the early Iokumese faith would gain traction within the court of the Tazen, that of the shakin school. Those who followed this school of religious thought within Iokuma believed that the policies of Memideka had been divinely-inspired, an answer from the gods that the violent nature of man had pushed a woman to enact a just punishment upon them and smite them and their unborn sons to bring peace to the land. This peace would likewise not just need to be extended throughout all of Africa, but within the ranks of the Iokumese people themselves. The rationale of this radical branch of the faith would find fertile ground within the heart of the Tazen and some members of his court, though it would face a stiff uphill battle from those who found the school's teachings unreasonable and psychotic.
Totally convinced of these teachings, Tayon would adopt their preferred policies for Iokuma, infuriating members of his court and leading to several assassination attempts against him, as Tayon ordered midwives throughout Iokuma to enforce the new policies. These reforms would be known as the Adin'Taza, or the "New Order", a series of policies to ensure that Iokuma would blossom into the land prophesied to Tayon by his priestesses. To protect himself and enforce the new traditions of Iokuma, Tayon would establish the all-female bodyguard unit known as the izhokin, which would serve him and his family for life. These women would be drawn from those young women found to be barren around the age of thirteen, and trained from that point onward to serve as warriors. To further secure the new order of the land, Tayon established a cabal of spies and assassins known as the ovahonin to enforce his will from the shadows. They would disperse itself throughout the ranks of the midwives, maids, mistresses, and spinsters of the land, those women deemed harmless yet necessary within the homes of the upper-classes, allowing them to get close to those in power and report on their activities to the Tazen. Women under Tayon's reign would be given an increasing role in his government, while their male counterparts would be compensated for their cooperation, largely successful as the latter could not determine if the women preparing their food or caring for their children were spies or not.
Tayon's more than three decades of rule would usher in an enormous number of changes that Iokuma had not expected to be so invasive and life-changing. with the price being the life of their male offspring. Tayon would institute a policy of male infanticide to sustain the system Memideka had established and that he wished to maintain. Going forward, ten out of every hundred male infants would be spared and allowed to grow and learn and become members of the nation. However, upon reaching the age of thirteen, those boys deemed lacking in beauty, physical strength, and mental acuity, would be castrated and inducted into the caste of eunuchs that would serve as scribes, governors, and administrators. No more than two boys would be allowed to proceed into adulthood as full men, and only one would be permitted to enter into the newly-established patrician class; the other was to be castrated if his entry into manhood was deemed unsatisfactory. The ionakin would enforce these policies with all births, while those who resisted would be met with the sword of Tayon's freshly-minted warrior maids. Tayon's reforms would irrevocably change Iokuma, completely altering the foundation upon which it was built. Iokuma's elite, having gone along with the policies of Memideka during a time of crisis, had failed to rescind her policies and were now powerless to change the course Tayon had placed them on. The system he built would remain firmly-established well into the present era, and defining Iokuma's culture and society forever.
Late dynastic rule
The major reforms of Tayon would continue throughout the rest of his 51-year long reign over Iokuma, during which time he completely reorganized the system of administrative within his realm, establishing units known as hakiyonin, which would be comprised of loyal patricians who would serve as the governors of the new lands. Each hakiyon would be governed by an individual known as a zharuk, a nobleman who would have the honor of forming a ruling dynasty within the expanded territories conquered by Iokuma. Each of these men would be a member of the recently-established body known as the Taza'Zhazhanin, a court of patricians who would promote and expand the patrimonial institutions of Tayon, and serve as a pool of loyalists who could be counted on to provide able-bodied administrators for the good governance of Iokuma. Beneath them would be a vast bureaucracy formed from the mind of Tayon and built on the back of the ideology he would enforce throughout his realm, a new bureaucracy known as the Dukorin, which would be comprised of women and eunuchs who would be educated extensively in the fields they would soon come to direct. Drawn from throughout Iokuma's vast territories, the dukorin would effect policy on a local level and ensure that the wishes of the Tazen were enforced to a tee.
By the time of Tayon's death in 1391, Iokuma was a transformed nation, one where the male population had been obliterated to less than a tenth of its original size thanks to war and demographic interference, and where a pseudo-caste system was emerging into reality. Tayon's youngest son, Udok-Zhato, one of the few surviving sons of the Tazen capable of bearing offspring thanks to his policies, would go on to become one of the most influential men in Iokumese history, second only to his father. Born in 1364, Udok-Zhato had been groomed for the role of Tazen by Tayon from the start, and with a clear goal of ensuring that the legacy of his reforms would remain intact for generations to come. A true believer in the ideals of the Adin'Taza, Udok-Zhato would see to it that Iokuma's transformation into the patrimonial entity prophesied to his father would be completed, and that it would be accomplished with the support of the priesthood. Over a period of some two decades, Udok-Zhato would introduce his own reforms and edicts that would further clamp down upon and enforce the Adin'Taza, as well as further expand the size of the realm in central Africa. Key to these plans was the expansion of the izhokin into a true fighting force rather than a token royal bodyguard.
In 1398, Udok-Zhato established the Iokuzakar, or the "Citadel of Iokuzhan", as the unified military force of Iokuma, taking the training regime of the izhokin and the knowledge of warfare shared with his people by the Arabs to shape this new army into one that would conquer all of central Africa. He passed the Edict of the Barrens, a law that proscribed that every barren women within Iokuma from the moment of her youth be taken into the care of the Iokuzakar, and trained in the ways of war. Having no role in the expansion of the population as mothers, they would find purpose by serving as warrior maids for the Tazen and the state. In 1402, Udok-Zhato would issue the Edict of Lands and Wells, which established a unified system of weights and measurements, created the system of the vauks, and organized the administrative units of Iokuma into hakiyonin, marin, and okunin. The following year, Udok-Zhato would personally organize the method of governance that would be utilized at each level of administration within his realm, and ensure that these policies were enacted in person, traveling frequently to assist and enforce the implementation of the edicts. Land grants to the large familial blocks known as uvokin made the Tazen immensely popular with the commoners, the security afforded within the core regions of the realm gave rise to a major boom in population growth as food security was ensured.
Sometime around 1413, Udok-Zhato would embark upon a series of major military campaigns directed into the interior of the Congo Basin, as well as into the southeast to secure the southern trade routes passing below Lake Tanganyika. Using the knowledge of military tactics obtained through their Arab contacts, the Iokuzakar would aggressively drill its female warriors into superb fighters, ensuring that they would not be found lacking in the field of battle. Indeed, many of the Tazen's own daughters were handed over to the Iokuzakar to serve after they were found to be infertile, and would find for themselves a new life on the battlefield. By the time the Fourth Iokumese Reclamation was declared in 1413, some 120,000 warrior maids filled the ranks of Iokuma's armies. This time the Lungu, Fipa, Winamwanga, and the remnants of the Songo tribe to the northwest would be culled and absorbed into the insatiable entity of Iokuma. Additional cities would be founded as these conquests progressed, and the lands parceled out and developed by new patrician families migrating further and further away from Iokuma's densely-populated core. By this point, direct access to the Swahili Coast via the Rufiji River and its tributaries was secured, and contact with the rest of the world permanently established, with caravans moving from east to west, carrying all manner of goods from Iokuma to the Indian Ocean.
Ultimately secure in his rule and the prosperity of his realm, Udok-Zhato would spend the apex of his realm preparing for the final revision of Iokuma into the realm desired by his late father. In 1416, Udok-Zhato would unify the theological elements of Iokuma's priesthood into a single faith known as Zheaniism. It would adhere to a single theology, a single holy text, and would be independent of the Islamic teachings that were being propagated throughout East Africa and the Indian Ocean region. At the head of this institution would be Udok-Zhato's mother, Edakzuna, who would be appointed as the new Takiyan or "holy mother" of the faith. Edakzuna would immediately move to found countless temples, monasteries, and shrines throughout all of Iokuma, making known the new and centralized state of the Iokumese faith. With the priesthood firmly under his control, and the political established cowed to his will, Udok-Zhato would finalize the last step of his grand vision. In 1418, Udok-Zhato declared that the old system of Iokuma would be abolished, and a new society headed by a new and distinct dynasty would be brought to life under the direction of what history now calls the Tirad period. The tazen would discard his own dynastic name, and rename himself Takinayn, meaning "the holy one"; and he would likewise adopt the new title of Ta'Zhazhan, meaning "great father". This ruling dynasty would be unique, and would solidify the century-long rebranding of Iokuma from a monarchy into a patriarchal family-based society.
Patrimonial Iokuma
Akzun period
Under the direction of the newly-enthroned Ta'Zhazhan of Iokuma, the realm gradually entered into a golden age that would become known as the Akzun period. This age of peace and prosperity would last for nearly a century and a half, during which time Iokuma would face no serious external threats, and would experience a period of unbroken domestic and political stability. Trade with the Arabs, Swahili, and by extension through them, the Indians and the distant lands of the Chinese, would see a cultural and intellectual renaissance abound across the full breath and width of Iokuma. The trade city of Ekivahun would blossom along the east-west trading routes going to and from Iokuma and the Swahili Coast, establishing the city as a major center of influence and wealth for any who controlled it. To the south of the great city of Zokinkara was the city of Hukama, a copper-mining settlement that would enrich the region and add to the coffers of Iokuma's government, as well as serving as a nexus for the growing number of Iokumese settlers in the south. The Bemba people who had once teemed in the region were expelled over a period of some twenty years of northern incursions by the Iokumese, who rode into their lands and wiped out several towns and villages, and bringing to them what historians now call the Pax Iokumana. The story of conquest and expansion and colonization of the lands surrounding Iokuma would remain the norm for the rest of the period, with no Bantu tribe possessing the capacity to withstand the larger and more advanced armies of Iokuma.
The arts and sciences would flourish within the urban centers of the nation, with a distinct intellectual class arising from this era of peace. Several academies for the sciences known as ukajonakin would be founded by thinkers and philosophers based out of the cities of Zokinkara and Urokon, though the most prestigious of these would be built in the city of Erumara, deep within the interior of Africa. The intellectual elite of Iokuma would flock to Erumara, where they sought to build a culture based on Zheaniic ideology of the so-called "Great Cycle", the concept of cyclical rebirth and destruction that motivated everything that the Iokumese did in their lives. The desire to delve into the greater meaning of this philosophy would result in Erumara becoming the center of academia within Iokuma as a whole, and becoming synonymous with intellectual class of the nation. By the end of the reign of Ta'Zhazhan Kovintakon in 1505, Iokuma's population would itself grow to better represent the size of the nation itself as it developed into Africa's most paramount state, with approximately six million inhabitants spread around the sprawling empire. Though it was not of comparable size to the truly massive populations of India or China, Iokuma's population was the largest in the region of Central Africa, and without rival until one reached the greater empires of the Sahel. Regardless, Iokuma had become a fixture on the African continent, and references to its existence were beginning to appear in Islamic texts and Indian scrolls, all of which referred to both Iokuma's peculiar social structure, as well as the great wealth and power of its rulers.
Iokumese culture would spread into some regions of central and southern Africa, with several tribes adopting some aspects of the customs and language used by the Iokumese, though many of these were attempts simply to avoid being absorbed into the empire itself. Though many failed to ingratiate themselves to the Iokumese, many did find themselves more acceptable to the sensibilities of Iokuma's ruling elite, and were welcomed into the empire as peers and citizens. The Kanyok are best known within Iokuma for having been the only Bantu tribe to be willingly adopted into Iokuma and granted many rights and privileges not afforded to their neighbors. The tribe's proximity to Erumara had given them much cause for fear as the next target for conquest and extermination, leading to the tribe's leaders to fully adopt each and every aspect of Iokumese faith, tradition, and grooming to better preserve their society and avoid the faith of the once dominant Luba people. Upon finding them, the Iokumese were astonished by the extent to which the Kanyok went to adopt Iokumese culture as their own. Though they did not speak the same language, the Kanyok had succeeded in impressing the Iokumese, who welcomed them into their realm and allowed them to maintain their identity, which they still hold onto down to the present day though they have since integrated more fully into wider Iokumese society.
Many cultural developments that helped to better define Iokuma as a distinct entity in the annuals of history would be established during this period. For instance, the tradition of the izhovaka tattooing practice would be introduced by the warriors of the Iokuzakar, originally as a means of identifying the bodies of their slain warrior sisters, and ensuring they next of kin were notified. This practice would later adopted by the civilian population as it expanded, mainly to help keep track of the parentage of the individuals and ensure their status was properly assigned. Another tradition of the Iokumese from the Akzun period would be their practice of ear pointing, an painful process that had been introduced by Jeyihunotakin I. The Ta'Zhazhan sought to distinguish all "trueborn" Iokumese from their Bantu counterparts, and decreed that each and every man and women born to Iokumese parts have their ears pointed to help visually identify those members of the population who belonged to Iokuma. This practice would be refined in the following decades, and would become one of the most readily-identifiable aspects of Iokumese culture. Other aspects of Iokuma's cultural practices and visual arts would likewise be founded at this time, with the clothing and cuisine of Iokumese society maturing into a distinct class of its own, standing apart from that held by the neighboring Bantu and Swahili cultures of Africa.
Ultimately, the Akzun period would not last forever, as political intrigue would give way to instability and later a full-blown civil war. Kovintakon's successor, Izhomaro, would prove to be the catalyst for this fall from prosperity that Iokuma had enjoyed for some 140 years, largely due to the scheming of his daughter, Jedivara. The child of one of Izhomaro's younger concubines, Jedivara had longed to have her sons reign over Iokuma, though the status of her birth to a lower-ranked wife had excluded her children from this privilege. Dissatisfied with this fact and the status that is placed her son in, Jedivara would poison the elderly Izhomaro, his eldest sons and their mothers during a feast in 1539. Though not all of the members would succumb to the mass poisoning of the feast, as the mother of the only surviving sons capable of siring offspring, Jedivara would be catapulted into power at the head of a regency for her two-year old son, Vihozhak I. Jedivara would dominate Iokumese politics for the next sixteen years, ruling as a tyrant and oppressing and killing all those who defied her rule. These excesses would not last forever, as in both Jedivara and Vihozhak I would be assassinated during the latter's enthronement ceremony in 1553 by Zhanomahuk with the backing of the Iokuzakar, who would claim the throne for himself. Zhanomahuk who not be recognized as Ta'Zhazhan by the patricians of the Taza'Zhazhanin, its members instead seeking to govern their lands with the hope of dominating Iokuma for themselves, leading to the start of the Great Refinement period.
Great Refinement
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Geography and climate
Geography
Climate
Biodiversity and environment
Politics
Government
Administrative divisions
Law and justice
Foreign relations
Military
| ZHAUTAKAR | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expenditures | ||||
| Budget | $816.761 billion (₳69.726 trillion) (FY 2020) | |||
| Percent of GDP | 4.21% (FY 2020) | |||
| Personnel | ||||
| Active personnel | 4,497,498 | |||
| Reserve personnel | 2,028,446 | |||
| Deployed personnel | 312,184 | |||
| Branches | ||||
| Branch | Active | Deployable | Reserves | Active Reserve |
| Marovak | 1,429,842 | 476,614 | 1,001,915 | 333,971 |
| Shonavak | 677,009 | 225,669 | 207,536 | 69,178 |
| Iyavak | 839,490 | 279,830 | 307,127 | 102,375 |
| Izhonovak | 164,835 | 54,945 | 59,579 | 19,859 |
| Vajavak | 1,264,047 | 421,349 | 421,334 | 140,444 |
| Izhokin | 122,275 | 40,758 | 30,955 | 10,318 |
| TOTAL | 4,497,498 | 1,499,165 | 2,028,446 | 676,145 |
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Current version: Beta Mode 2.0.0 Overview Timeline | |||||||||||||
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