User:Tordarida

'''The Most Serene Republic of Tordarida is a fledgling, socially progressive nation, renowned for its burgeoning donkey population. Its intelligent population of 6 million enjoy extensive civil rights and enjoy a level of social equality free from the usual accompanying government corruption.

The medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Education, Social Welfare, and Healthcare. The average income tax rate is 23%, but much higher for the wealthy. A small but healthy private sector is led by the Gambling industry, followed by Book Publishing and Soda Sales.

Voting is voluntary. Crime is moderate, and the police force struggles against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Tordarida's national animal is the donkey and its currency is the tordar.

Tordarida is ranked 37,859th in the world for Greatest Rich-Poor Divides.""

Etymology
The name of the country comes from the Tordar dynasty, founded 573 years ago, in year 1 AT, by legendary Count Alexis de Tordar. His family originated from the plains of Heruvia, west of river Dane, having long ruled over a fledging population of little over 10.000 people.

Pre-Tordarian times
Traces of nomadic people from the bronze age have been discovered in the Heruvia region. Some of them settled and gave birth to ancient villages of which some remnants where preserved.They came to master the art of pottery and designed figurative portrayals of their gods. The tribes lived a peaceful life, the lack of war and the steady climate meant they didn't need to build strong, reliable houses, so they mostly lived in frail huts made of tree branches. They didn't develop writing.

1000 years ago northern tribes started to harass the unprotected villages, Some people where killed, but most of them where made slaves. From there resulted a mix of the two people and their language. The first written texts start to appear, using an ideographic script. Alliances between villages started to be traced, giving a idea of what the region will look centuryes later.

The United Plains of Heruvia, Renania and Sutevia (107BT-35BT)
Following threats from neighboring regions and the influences coming from the more developed south, villages started to emancipate and develop their own local culture. None of them big enough to become established as a full-right country, alliances started to be made. In a meeting at the outskirts of Vordova forrest, in 107 BT, five tribes decided to gather their forces under young Buron (?-88BT), son of the oldest and most respectable family in the region. The decision was strengthened by the marriage of Buron with Teara, part of another important family herself. The two where granted the titles of Grand Rulers of the United Plains of Heruvia, Renania and Sutevia.

The union was not one of a kind, the whole region between the Tenson river and Rodon Mountains where prone to such actions. Armed confrontations were ever more common and would usually take the form of guerrilla combats, as none of the small, newly founded states had a regular army. The succession was hereditary in most states, as in The United Plains. After his father died of food poisoning in 88 BT, Ruler in Waiting Grego (105-48 BT) came to the power. The UP witnessed a time of relative peace under his 40 years rule, the territory remaining more or less the same. Among the reforms of Grand Ruler Grego, the most important are the changing of the writing from ideographic to alphabetic and the construction of Ladna, the improvements in cartography ( first comprehensible maps of the region are from his times ), and the founding of a capital, Ladna. After his death, because of not bearing any male heirs, his daughter Ania (70-35 BT) became Grand Ruler. Some territories where lost due to the raids of yet another influx of nomadic tribes from the north. Trying to centralize the state, she only came to plant disbelief in the hearts of the impoverished people. Although she sensed that the time for change had come, she was never quite able to make the good step forward, every improvement proving not only unhelpful, but destructive. On trying to change the system of government and the name of the state in 35 BT, she was killed by rebels that proclaimed that they wanted to redeem the happy times before Buron came to rule.