Drawkland, The Interstellar Empire

The Interstellar Empire of Drawkland, commonly called Drawkland, is an Empire of Territories on the planet Sonnel and nearby celestial bodies. It is not bordered by any nations, as it comprises an entire Continent, but it has nearby island neighbors of Starkian Towers and Tabytopia to the North & NorthWest respectively, and Madmania to the SouthWest. In addition, to the South is the continent of Tuncalp. On the East of Drawkland is the Oreme Ocean, and on the West is the Navis Ocean. Drawkland covers over 6,000,000 square miles (not including satellite territories), and has has an estimated population of 5,489,000,000. Mainland Drawkland comprises of 25 Districts divided evenly within 5 Territories, and has 5 Satellite Territories, each with 5 districts.

Drawkland is the main nation of Sonnel, being the undisputed largest superpower of the planet. It is an old and storied country, known especially for its ruler Iarocav, and it is the second-oldest of still-existant nations to officially organize its government in Sonnel, based on antiquity records. It dominates the space program of Sonnel, and has established several colonies on other moons, planets, and star systems.

Etymology

Long before Drawkland was founded, the continent was dominated by numerous tiny kingdoms, which were primarily isolationists. When the country was founded by Iarocav in the Sonnelian Year 0000, it was originally named "Valsumet," which roughly translates to "Land of the Massive Volcano," since in the center of the continent is an enormous volcanic mountain many miles wide. However, several years later, Iarocav renamed it "Drawkland" after a hybrid creature which had recently been spawned and populated the land in droves.

The standard way to refer to a citizen of Drawkland is as a "Drawkian," Plural form being "Drawkians." Something of Drawkland could be described as "Drawkish" or "Drawkian," based on the preference of the speaker/writer.

History

The full history of Drawkland is extremely long, intensive, and detailed, so a full description is quite literally impossible to write by one person now, but the main points are covered here.

During the Predding period (an Earthen equivalent of B.C.), Drawkland was not a country, but instead many individual kingdoms. This is now known by historians as the "Anarchic Organization of Dra" (Dra being the continent Drawkland is located upon). At about -0010, the leaders of the greatest kingdoms all left on a quest, from which they never returned. Each leader of each modern territory, back in that day, were teens, and through varying methods of choosing, became the leaders of these kingdoms. They then conquered the smaller territories, and the leader of the Northernmost territory, Iarocav, explored the rest of Drawkland, discovering other territories. A few Peseden later, they all launched into war for supremacy and power.

After the short war, the leaders of each territory met in the volcano at the center of the continent (which was enchanted) and ended the war diplomatically, by combining the territories into one country (see Etymology). They soon organized into a major power, and became a hallmark of technological and cultural prowess.

In Pesedena 777, the Drawkland government launched an exploration expedition into the Oreme Ocean to the East, to hopefully find new land or peoples. Coincidentally, the nation on the other side of this ocean, Dreaglelun, launched an expedition in the same month. The ships from both nations intersected in the center of the Oreme Ocean, and both created diplomatic ties. Both ships travelled back to Dreaglelun for an introduction, and a year later, a new crew from Dreaglelun and the original Drawkian crew traveled to Drawkland to finish the Original Embassy (which collapsed in 1250 due to political unrest between the two nations).

Over the next 2 millennia, Drawkland populated most of the planet of Sonnel through colonial expansion, even major nations such as Zlevecky or Gofflien were partly populated by Drawkian explorers as well as natives. Due to inter-species breeding, most Drawkian connection is muted or distant in non-Drawkian lands. Most lands which had native populations eventually ended up declaring or fighting for independence, and those which didn't stayed as Non-Domestic territories.

In the 3300s, space travel was achieved by Drawkland. By 3500, all the moons of Sonnel were colonized, and in 3563, a mission to the nearest planet, Xhayparia, occurred. The planet had liveable but freezing conditions, so after a few costly missions were sent, the colonists were mainly left to their own means. After a generation or two, the colony fought for independence and won, creating the nation of Xhayparia.

Geography

Drawkland is a large nation, about the size of North America on Earth. That being said, there are many, many different ecosystems and biomes within the nation. The most notable of its geography is the Volcano in the center of the continent where 4 of the 5 territories meet, called Valsum. Towards the north of the country there are forests, swamps, and tundra, whereas in the Southeast, the whole area is either jungle, forest, or mountain. In the East area there is much karst topography, featuring many caves and sinkholes (although cities of importance were built in stable areas). Meanwhile, in the west, there are many rivers and grasslands. The South has a bit of mountainous areas and cliffs, but is dominated mainly by deserts.

The climate of Drawkland varies, due to the fact of it being a huge nation. It's also in a more northerly position of the planet, so up north the climate is colder, and down south the climate is warmer.
In the north there is generally snow in the winter, dry heat in the summer. The Autumn is windy and Spring is rainy, so it's mostly an average climate. More towards the east and north-east there is less snow in winter and milder summers, with a few storms now and then in Autumn and Spring, just a mild and consistent climate. Now in the south-east the weather is hard to predict, and varies year by year. Storms happen often, but snow is a rarer occurrence. It's usually humid heat in the summer, and in Autumn & Spring, light showers and heavy cloud cover is the most common. The south of Drawkland has a tropical climate, with the westerly areas have more sunlight and the easterly areas have more storms. The west has a rainy and sunny climate year-round, with light snow in the winter. In the center of Drawkland there is hot and dry climates which match the desert geography.

Demographics

Population

The population of Drawkland is filled with evenly mixed races of Neiksien, and minority amounts of other sapient beings. They have a large amount of people, over 5 billion living under Drawkland's flag. There are several places claimed under Drawkland's flag, Mainland Drawkland (see map), some small islands in the Navis Ocean, colonies and large settlements on 4/16 of Sonnel's moons, colonies on 5/8 of the star system's planets (including Sonnel), and a few small colonies on neighboring star systems. They are all fiercely patriotic and love the nation.

Language
The language employed by Drawkland is The Drawkish Language, colloquially dubbed Drawk, or Drawkish. It is a very block-like language, with a very consistent system of prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Unlike English, grammatical and spelling irregularities are scarce.

Religion

Religion is free, so citizens can worship whatever deity they wish, or choose not to. The main religion, and the nationally supported one, is Sonicrism. Sonicrism used to be a polytheistic faith in the ancient times before and in the early day of Drawkland's founding. A great spiritual event occurred in the early history, however, which resulted in the faith rejecting the large pantheon and embracing a single deity instead, a God figure. Nowadays, Sonicrism is a solid monotheistic faith which can be likened to a Sonnelian version of Christianity.

Most cities have at least one housing of most religions. The Drawkian populous is staunchly faithful, with 5% or less identifying as staunchly atheist or antitheist. An additional 8% identified as agnostic of some sort, while the remaining 87% adhered to at least some sort of religion.

Race
Drawkland's population is about 90% Neiksie, where the other 10% are assorted sentient creatures living mainly in the territory of Ellzidan. Since the ratio of Neiksie to Other Being in said territory us about 1:20, the minority species are relatively unoppressed. Neiksies are in a variety of colors, ranging from alabaster white to near literal black, and the majority are a light mix between stone white and caramel color.
Neiksies, usually just dubbed "Drawkians" for convenience and since most Neiksies are Drawkland citizens, are very noticeable in a crowd. The main reason for this being that they are taller than most other creatures. The average Neiksie is about 7'6", and common heights range from 6'10" to 7'11". The average height fluctuates over time but stays usually constant. Their proportions are still normal, just increased for their size. In addition, Neiksies aren't known for large amounts of strength, due to being more wiry than usual. It's posited that this was an evolutionary trait that occurred due to the ancient ancestors growing taller to easier search for threats within a forest or field, and to have longer legs to run faster (swift running and agility is another common trait).

Largest Cities

Government

Drawkland is an empire, however, its government closely matches one of a Constitutional Monarchy. The head of state is known as the Supreme Drawkionel, and this position has been held by the immortal Iarocav since its inception.
Directly under the Supreme Drawkionel is the Drawkionel Council, which consists of the 5 Drawkionels, heads of each territory. They meet once per month to discuss matters of state.
Below each of the 5 Drawkionels is their respective Advisor Council, consisting of 5 handpicked officers who handle lower affairs and bring them to the attention of the Drawkionels.
On the national level, the Advisor Council oversees the Drawkenon Senate, which consists of 150 Senators, 25 from each Mainland Territory and 25 from Outer Territories. It meets for 6 days of each week while school is in session (Mid-Fall to Mid-Summer).
On the territorial level, the Advisor Council oversees their individual Territorial Parliament of each territory. There's 100 members of these individual parliaments, 20 from each District. They meet 6 days a week every week, except for Crisimen.
Each Advisor on the Advisor's Council is the head of state in a District, hence, there are 5 of them for each Territory.
Each member of the Territorial Parliament has "dominion" over counties of each district. The Parliament Member is the head of state in the section of counties. The members all report to their respective advisor.
Each county has their head of state, generally the mayor of the biggest town within them, and and these report to the county council, which is a conglomerate of each city council within the cities of the county.

Despite living for several millennia on account of their immortality, the Drawkionels have adopted a more "hands-off" approach to governing the nation. Most of the government works by itself within the Senate and Advisor's Council. Nowadays the Drawkionels only meddle with governmental affairs when very major issues are at hand, such as major social changes, war or international unrest, or times when certain issues are overwhelmingly prevalent in the political spheres.

While foreign citizens may find the concept of a small set of immortal dignitaries permanently in control of a nation unfair or even despotic, this circumstance has been part of the Drawkian culture nearly since its inception, and thus it's not considered tyrannical. In truth, the Drawkionels are quite benevolent, and without their expertise and wisdom, it's likely Drawkland as a nation could've perished several times throughout its history.

Foreign Relations and Military

Drawkland has a generally aggressive, peacekeeping type role in international diplomacy. Using militaristic power and occasionally intimidation, the Drawkland government generally tries to squash threats to international peace and balance before they become a large problem. In most cases, it tries to act quickly and quietly to bomb or dispatch key points in threatening parties' organization. It avoids brash action at all cost but has been known to resort to city bombings or even assassinations of terroristic, anarchic, or otherwise dangerous leaders.
This type of diplomacy has been dubbed "Big Stick," "Looming Storm," and even "Death Parade." The common tactics were forced to be held down at the advents of the Intra-Sonnelian Embassy and especially the Interplanetary Sonnelian Union, due to these organizations being more left-leaning and adoptive of international peacekeeping. After 4760, Drawkland publicly dropped the aggressive policies, but privately continue them on a smaller and more discreet scale, or when requested for assistance by the international bodies.

Drawkland's military is by far the most powerful and influential in the region, mainly due to its workforce, military numbers, and its overall population. Advancements in technology have generally come from Drawkland before any other Sonnelian or Intra-Sonnelian nations adopt them, hence weapon and logistics breakthroughs have given Drawkland the most benefit.

The military of Drawkland, known as Drawkland Military Fleets (D.M.F.) is divided into 5 branches, the Drawkland Air Fleet, the Drawkland Water Fleet, the Drawkland Land Fleet, the Drawkland Space Fleet, and the Drawkland Overall Fleet (abbr. D.A.F., D.W.F., D.L.F., D.S.F., and D.O.F., respectively). Their roles are explained by their names, obviously. Each Fleet patrols their specified zone in peacetime, and attack from that zone in wartime.
The Overall Fleet is a small fleet of Ovarch-Class Vessels, which hold Grand-Class vehicles of each other Fleet. These ships are airborne and spaceworthy, and can deploy large amounts of troops and vessels in a relatively short time.
There's only 5 of these ships currently deployed by the D.O.F., the D.O.F. Grand Drawk, the D.O.F. Sonnel, the D.O.F. Trallena, the D.O.F. Starlight, and the D.O.F. Iarocav.
At the top of each Fleet's hierarchy is a single Ovarch-Class Ship. These are the D.L.F. Tree Drawk, D.W.F. Sea Drawk, D.A.F. Sky Drawk, and the D.S.F. Star Drawk. These vessels are nearly identical to their D.O.F. counterparts, except they are optimized to carry large amounts of their specified zone's vessels.
The D.O.F. Grand Drawk is the largest vessel ever constructed by Drawkland, or any other Sonnelian nation. As each Ovarch-Class can hold several Grand-Class ships, the Grand Drawk could carry 4 Ovarch-Class vessels. The ship is so large that it is known to cause artificial eclipses when flying over cities, and at one point, disrupted the gravitational trajectory of an asteroid it flew past during a voyage to Xhayparia.

Economy

Drawkland operates under a mostly free-market economy. Besides the occasional environmental or safety mandate, the companies of Drawkland, big and small, are free to trade, buy, and sell as they please.
The GDP is worth almost 4 quadrillion Lolads, the envy of all Sonnelian nations, as Drawkland is the only nation whose GDP exceeds 2 quadrillion. Each worker contributes approximately $330,000 dollars to the economy yearly.
The private sector of Drawkland accommodates for around 75% of the GDP, while the other 25% is contributed to by the government (by either subsidization or directly state-owned corporations), which is very involved in infrastructure, energy, logistic, and defense, as far as contributions go. The black market is unknown, whether this be by lack of existence or lack of conspicuous existence.

The economy of Drawkland is gargantuan. The nation has over 5 billion citizens, over 4 billion of which are employable, therefore the workforce is massive and varied in skills. The main industry of Drawkland is general Manufacturing, followed by Technological jobs and then with Entertainment/Cultural/Tourism/Retail jobs. A large chunk of workers work in research, and new developments, advancements, and technologies are created, designed, and tested every day.

Due to a very advanced education system which has been fine-tuned over hundreds of years, the majority of Drawkians are very technologically apt and capable of understanding complex topics. The literacy rate consistently remains above 99.95%, reported to a degree of accuracy due to the huge population.

Culture

Some nations have been described as "melting pots" in times past. Drawkland, being the principal nation of Sonnel, is less of a "melting pot" and more of a "ladle spoon," doing more distribution of its culture rather than blending of foreign cultures. That being said, the society is not exactly resistant to variety or foreign cultures, they're just less prominent due to the fact that less of it occurs in the society.
The natural Drawkian culture is characterized by a love of physical activities and sports, music, and pride for the nation. Drawkland flags and other imagery can be found gracing most major city streets by some means, whether it's a banner, flag, window sticker, or even wall murals.
Music is likely the most common hobby found in Drawkland. The 5500 Census found that approximately 4.999 Billion Drawkian citizens had some knowledge/involvement in playing an instrument, music theory, or other sorts of composition. It's unlikely one could walk through a main thoroughfare without hearing some sort of live music being played somewhere in the distance. The Great Drawkian Composer, Gradellon, once said, "Every day, every hour, every second in any spot in this nation has a mood. And it is the Drawkian Mission to convey the mood through music." It seems that most citizens are successful in the mission.

Second to Music would be Sporting and other physical/outdoor activities, both recreational and spectator. The "Big 3" Head-to-Head sports of Drawkland would be Gridiron Football, Baseball, and Basketball, in that order. Other sports that draw large crowds are Drum Corps competitions, Tennis Tournaments, and Racing (of many varieties). Also estimated by the 5500 census is that every Drawkian citizen attends at least one Professional League Sport Match per year, and watches at least one per sport per year via television or other media.
Physical Activity, when sports aren't available, are also common. Races on foot, or even triathlons or similar events, are highly commonplace and enjoyed by many. Hiking in the extensive wilderness peppered about the continent is another common one. Many friend groups opt to go hiking for an afternoon rather than going out to eat or staying at home.

Drawkland, being a large country of many domestic cultures, obviously has a huge food palette, but compared to other cultural means, food is not as major as it may be in other nations like the Dubbo Krish. Foreign food is sometimes eaten, but food is more of a cultural afterthought, especially next to sportsing or musicing. The most prevalent foods would be considered "american" or "italian" foods, with emphases on high-carb grain-based foods, savory and salty meats, and cheeses. Due to the high-powered Neiksie metabolism, this is a common diet for most citizens.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure of Drawkland is very intricate. Most cities are linked by many mediums, piping, telephone, internet, and other conveniences run between towns and are linked to a massive national grid (with regional sectors), under the highest protection.

Public transport is also common. In most cities, a basic transport between major locations is maintained, via small train, bus, or taxi. In larger cities, the government is able to maintain train, monorail, small and large bus, taxi, rental car, airship, or, in recent times, covered platforms.
Within cities, private companies also offer bus, train, or taxi service where the government does not provide coverage. The government maintains most roadways, especially the massive superhighways between major cities. Every city is required to be linked to a Primary Highway in some manner to be chartered. Between cities, the government maintains high-speed train service as well, for major cities. Some less important cities are linked via private railways.

Air travel is VERY common in Drawkland, especially due to its storied history in dirigibles. The government has specified the 100 most major cities in Drawkland, which it subsidizes air travel, by passenger & logistical planes, and by passenger airship. Most other cities' air travel, and some sections of the major cities' air travel, are under operation of private companies. International travel, by air or by sea, is only government provided from Territory Capitals to other nation's Capitals or Principal Cities exclusively. A large network of commerical travel also exists, and some nation's main air travel sites are based from a Drawkian company.

Sea travel, while uncommon, is still well-maintained, and is responsible for most foreign shipping jobs. Besides a single travel line from Metropolon to Zlevecky, CN, and Dreaglelun, the government does not subsidize passenger sea travel. Private companies do operate massive shipping and travel operations by sea, regardless.

Energy

Drawkland prides itself in being a self-sufficient nation for the most part. Most energy is produced domestically. In times past, most of the power was generated via coal, oil, or other fossil fuels, but with the advent of cleaner alternative energy, Drawkland was quick to adopt it.
Nuclear energy and similar means are some of the most common forms of energy, with the Southern Deserts of Malicoll hosting hundreds of plants for generation of energy.

Solar Panels are common, and with advancements in solar panel coatings for windows or other surfaces, it has been put to best use.
By far, the most commonly seen energy producer is the wind turbine, especially in the breezy and windy North. In the late 4500's, the government subsidized the creation of huge strings of small wind turbines along major freeways and highways, as to capture wind from fast-moving vehicles. Because there are millions of miles of roads, the project, while expensive, paid nearly for itself by doubling energy output and causing a surplus in energy. The success of this caused many citizens and corporations to install small turbines and such on their property. It's a fairly common sight to see small turbines gracing the yards of buildings, especially in big cities. Of course, wind isn't the most efficient, but the sheer volume of use fills most needs.

Most vehicles are powered by Ion energy created in plants, and by powerful substances hybridized with the "Tarmsac Particle," a miracle object that scientists discovered.

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