Manguardia

The People's Dominion of Manguardia (usually referred to as Manguardia or occasionally just "The Dominion") was a large authoritarian quasi-socialist military autocracy spanning the breadth of the Keneva peninsula on southeastern rim of the greater Nylobaid continent, as well as several settlements and bases on extraterrestrial planets.

Manguardia was an influential power on the global stage prior to X-Day, and was the most significant geocosmopolitical rival of Ammerinia, with the two nations and their respective blocs of allies being engaged in a decades-long cold war that periodically flared up until finally turning fully hot.

Government
In practice, the Manguardian government was more or less a centrally-planned authoritarian military dictatorship under total control of the Comrade Supreme Leader and his deputies. Nolan Lebedev was the first to hold the position (with Tûrvi-Kasch I being awarded it posthumously), and was succeeded by Tûrvi-Kasch II. Only party members or military officers appointed by the Supreme Leader were allowed to hold office. The Manguardian Socialist Vanguard Party (often referred to in shorthand as the "Manguards") was the only legal political party officially allowed in the Dominion, and it operated as the defacto legislature, albeit even then only in a ceremonial context.

The official party doctrine and state ideology as formulated by Tûrvi-Kasch I and Comrade Lebedev was so-called Mogulbri Thought, a bizarre conjunction of chauvinistic ultranationalist zeal and centrally planned state-socialism that posited the nation-state as "the egregore of the proletariat" and the need for humans to be united under one superior collectivist culture in order to face "malevolent xeno threats", with a single leader chosen by the masses to represent their concerns and bolster their resolve.

Foreign Relations
Manguardia was one of the more prominent actors on the international stage during its existence, maintaining a hefty sphere of influence among its neighboring satellite states and allies that was confederated into the People's Global Liberation Pact, a military alliance intended to challenge the hegemony of the Global Imperium of Nations in the northwestern hemisphere. The Dominion also maintained close alliances with other a number of other nations outside the Pact, such as the Doom Legions, Tyrannim, and Atomic Utopia. As a result of its membership in the multiversal Anti-Democracy League, many such contacts extended off-world.

It was the longstanding hostile rival to Ammerinia (a founding member of the GIN) in both ideology and ambitions, facing off against it and its allies in an enduring cold war spanning from across the world to outer space that occasionally incited brief open conflicts until full-blown war was ignited by The Quky Incident.

Military
The Manguardian People's Liberation Army was the formidable armed wing of the Socialist Vanguard Party and the state's main military body. Although the Supreme Leader held ultimate control, executive management of the MPLA was delegated to the Comrade Supreme Overgeneral. The MPLA itself was divided into the the Ground Force (MPLAGF), Air Force (MPLAAF), Oceanic Navy (MPLAON), Space Navy (MPLASN), People's Protection Force (MPLAPPF) and Special Intelligence (MPLASI), with each branch overseen by a respective Prime Kommissar who in turn reported to the Overgeneral.

At their peak, the Manguardian Armed Forces reportedly numbered around 20 million active personnel and 30 million reservists, with 5-10% of the population employed in combat roles at any given time, although more could be called up in emergency circumstances. While there was no official conscription policy, service was mandatory to attain membership in the party and for many social privileges.

The People's Protection Force were the state enforcement apparatus within Manguardia and its territories, although being a branch of the military, there was no real distinction between the army and the police.

Economy
The Manguardian economy was entirely state-owned, with a GDP estimated to have been around 81 trillion Nieloe at its peak. Its industry was predominantly composed of arms manufacturing, exotic agriculture, electronics, metallurgy, and (mainly off-planet) mining.

Territory
Manguardia was the sole dominant power of the Keneva peninsula, the large southeastern expanse reaching out from the Nylobaid continent (separated by the Caelum Mountains). In addition, the Dominion also controlled the Summerstone Islands just off the eastern coast in the Gulf of Ediavara. The Dominion's immediate territory also extended into space via a series of settlements and bases established throughout the solar system and beyond, although the vast majority of its population still resided on terra firma.

Manguardia also maintained close control over several puppet states (mostly carved out of former Ikanian holdings) buffering its adjacent borders and the hinterlands beyond, the most notable of which being the Poldavian Worker's Republic, Kenor Revolutionary State, New Nunan Socialist Vanguard, and Tetaragua.

Climate & Landscape
In terms of climate and landscape, the Manguardian homeland lied in the warm subtropics and the interior is mostly composed of arid grasslands and steppes interspersed with rocky highlands and plateaus. The coast's climate is largely mediterranean, save for the equatorial tropical conditions in the northeast near Valkrigrad. The southernmost area of the peninsula at the mouth of the of Great Blizna Valley is home to a cold high desert and expansive subalpine forests near the tip of the coast. The Melkri mountain range bisects the slightly wetter eastern coast from the rest of the arid country, and the Qori'ku mountains on the west coast (home to the nation's highest summit on Mt. Q'hu) form the edge of the aforementioned Blizna Valley.

Culture
Culturally, Manguardia was unique in that its fiercely jingoistic and patriotic national identity was one wholly constructed by the state as an amalgamation of the many disparate ethnic groups that inhabited the Keneva peninsula, nomadic steppe tribes and settled coastal peoples alike. The very name for Manguardia itself was a Common-ized form of "Mogord", a word roughly translating to "union" or "brotherhood" found in some variation in nearly every Kenevan language.

As part of the promotion of one unified cultural identity, no ethnic groups beyond simply "Manguardian" were officially recognized by the state and expression of their individual customs and traditions was suppressed. Instead, various aspects were lifted from the different peoples and consolidated into the Manguardian culture, such as the cuisine of spice-laden fish and invertebrates from the coastal Klow people and the lively percussive traditional music of the Tal'lel nomad tribes. This attitude extended to the Dominion's space colonies, where the humanoid populations on colonized worlds were forced to assimilate and non-humanoids were subjected to outright ethnic cleansing or slavery, as was the case with the Watarara and Esartu populations on Oblast-Eridanus-Nimue prior to the Eridanus Uprising.

Art
Manguardian art took significant inspiration from classical realist styles but with some influence from abstract modernism, manifesting as dramatic and heroic scenes that celebrated Manguardian triumph but rendered in expressive and striking compositions that played with shapes and forms to evoke emotion. More modern forms of art also held significant cultural sway, such as video games, animation, and holofilm, with the Ministry of Culture directly sponsoring the production of the most influential media.

Holidays
National holidays recognized by the Manguardian government included Declaration Day (April 2nd, date of the "Declaration of Manguardian Liberation"), Zol Inviktus (September 14th, birthday of Tûrvi-Kasch I supposedly during a simultaneous solar eclipse and planetary alignment), Zidus Inviktus (October 4th, birthday of Tûrvi-Kasch II supposedly during a simultaneous lunar eclipse and comet transit), Worker's Liberation Day (June 8th), and many others.

Demographics
Although not publicly reported by the government, the internal ethnic makeup of all full Manguardian citizens was as follows:

About 15% of Manguardians were classified as foreign-born (which included first-generation citizens) while the remaining 85% were born Manguardian. 16% lived off-world while the remaining 84% lived either in Manguardia itself or one of its terrestrial territories.

Language
Mogoran was the official primary language of the Dominion, with Common being the official secondary language. Almost all Manguardians were bilingual and were taught to speak both fluently in state education. Other languages were not recognized by the state and were strictly forbidden from being taught, although they were still spoken in a handful of remote areas.

Mogoran, as a reflection of the Manguardian national identity as a whole, was constructed as a composite of every Kenevan language by Tûrvi-Kasch I with the help of numerous linguists from across the Dominion, and officially instated by Supreme Leader Nolan Lebedev on the 2nd of April 2000 AWE. It took until the late 2010s for it to finally become the fully dominant language, however.

The Mogoran alphabet was adapted from the logographic writing systems of most Kenevan languages, albeit written left-right horizontally instead of vertically and greatly simplified down to just 40 alphabetic characters for efficiency. It was also often rendered semi-phonetically in Common script for further standardization and expediency.