E-Tarin

e-Tarin, officially the People's Administration of e-Tarin, is a country in western Artemia.

The area that is now e-Tarin has been continuously inhabited by the Tari people and their ancestors since the Paleolithic era. The first human settlement has been dated back to the mid-Neolithic, belonging to the Marir, Rana, Yasisna, and Iramnir cultures. The arrival of the Veikan people in the 9th century meant the end of Tari rule in their lands. The Veikans used the area as a base to expand their conquests further westward towards the coasts. With these conquests and in the subsequent centuries, e-Tarin would become little more a border region within the Veikan kingdom, ruled by various Tari and Veikan marcher lords.

The Veikan dominance was not unchallenged. Numerous ethnic revolts and separatist movements occurred but were crushed through brutal repression by the Veikan crown. These revolts would come a head as nationalism increased in prominence among the native Tarini elite who had previously supported Veikan rule. The Tarini Revolution began in 1897 and resulted in Tarini independence with the recognition of the Kingdom of e-Tarin by Veikaia on 4 September 1899. The Kingdom would rule e-Tarin until the 15 March Coup of 1941 saw the fall of the monarchy with the slaughter of the royal family by a cabal of ethnic Veikan military officers who established a junta to rule the nation. The new government renamed the state to the "State of East Veikaia" and received extensive financial, martial, and diplomatic support from the Veikan monarchy.

This minority rule would persist until 1996 when legal changes allowed the first truly multiethnic elections and the rise of the Republic of e-Tarin. The Republican government was no less infamous. Its ruling party, the Ran Party, soon began a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Veikan minority. The one-party Republic is estimated to have killed nearly 800,000 ethnic Veikans with nearly 1.5 million more fleeing the country over the course of its rule. The Republican government, in turn, fell following the devastating multi-sided civil war that ravaged the nation for nearly sixteen years from 1999 to 2016 when the civil war ended and the People's Administration was established.

Etymology
The country's name in Tari, Maqda i e-Ula i e-Tarin, literally translates to "Administration of the People of the Hills". The Veikan language holds co-official status and so another official form of the nation's name is Kejandi Admistraca di ale Keminua.

Prehistory
The area that is now e-Tarin has been continuously inhabited by the Tari people and their ancestors since the Paleolithic era. The first human settlement has been dated back to the mid-Neolithic, belonging to the Marir, Rana, Yasisna, and Iramnir cultures. Neolithic settlements developed into hilltop towns whose rule was largely restricted within the valleys and hilltops in which farmed what they could in the rocky soil and raised sheep and goats. The lack of a written language prior to the Veikan migrations has led to little being known about these ancient civilizations.

Classical antiquity
These hilltop settlements evolved into fortified city-states as the Iron Age entered the region. Wars and alliances between these city-states resulted in constantly changing and developing borders and cultures. It was in the 2nd century BC that the idea of a united Tari people arose. Ancient writers defined this common identity as those who spoke the Tari language, believed in the Tari pantheon, and lived in the Urari Mountains and along the banks of Lake Salzee. The name of this people, Tari, itself means "hill/mountain-people" and represented the Tarin's origins high in the Uraris and the extreme reverence they held for the peaks.

The genesis of this common identity resulted in greatly increased cooperation between these independent city-states to permit more fluid exchange of resources and to defend against encroachment by foreign powers. Curgov and Geudic tribal federations launched repeated raids and incursions into the hills. These raids led to great amounts of tension and conflict between the neighboring peoples for centuries which saw the Tari culture become increasingly militaristic and reliant upon their fortified hill settlements known as tartan (composed of the Tari word "tar" meaning "hill" and the suffix -tan meaning "fortified" or "covered"). Tartanin began to develop beyond the previous simple trade relationships and offensive alliances into more closely bound and mutually dependent confederations of tartanin. A tartan alone might hold within it the lands of dozens of clans while a confederation as a whole might be able to muster the warriors of hundreds.

Medieval period
The beginning of the medieval period in e-Tarin is largely defined by the arrival of the Veikan migrations. The Veikans began leaving their homeland in modern-day Modrovia in the 9th century CE following displacement caused by various invading peoples. They began moving in a northwesterly direction and eventually entered the lands of the Tari confederations. Their reception by the local Tarin was mixed with some tartanin granting them passage or settlement and others actively resisting the newcomers. In the face of these migrants, many even outright swore fealty and submitted themselves to vassalage under new Veikan overlords. Various Veikan chiefdoms and small kingdoms were established by the Veikans.

By the 10th century BCE, the Veikans had come to conquer or otherwise subjugate the entirety of modern e-Tarin. They used the metals of the hills to fashion weapons and used the fierce hillsmen in their armies as warriors to supplement their own pike formations. Namely, the lightly armored axemen made perfect shock troops and light infantry and the renowned Tari slingers permitted them to launch lead pellets with force to pierce through even metal armor or crush skulls. Tari nobles and chiefs even became high ranking officers and merchants within the upper tiers of local Veikan society.

However, e-Tarin were not the end goal of the Veikans. They had their eyes set on reaching the Balearic Coast and e-Tarin simply acted as a springboard from which they could launch their further invasions. Besides the fact of their subjugation, aid towards the Veikan efforts also allowed the Tarin to finally achieve victory over their centuries old enemies, the Geudic peoples. Tari warriors fought for the Veikans as they fought to establish the Kingdom of Vipuski and further through the conquests over the centuries until the establishment of the Kingdom of Veikaia which encompassed the lands of e-Tarin.

The previous system of multiple Veikan-ruled kingdoms within e-Tarin was dissolved and, in its place, these previous rulers were converted into vassals of the Veikan king known as Kunajo di Gorna, or "frontier lord". They each held sway over several tartanin which were in turn ruled by subservient Tari lords. Inter-clan warfare was often encouraged by the Veikans who ruled them as a method of a "divide and rule" policy of governance. The combination of internal division and permission of nominal rule by Tari vassals meant that Tari resistance to Veikan rule was relatively infrequent and small in scale for centuries.

Kingdom of e-Tarin
With the beginning of the Century of Revolution, levels of unrest grew greatly within e-Tarin as it did in the rest of Veikaia. The Tari nationalist movement grew greatly in power and influence as the populace began pushing against their Veikan overlords. Public protests were often forcibly put down, minor rebellions crushed, and the use of the Tari language suppressed. In one incident known as the Tasht Massacre on 14 October 1896, Veikan troops opened fire on a crowd of Tarin throwing debris at them. 11 Tarin were killed and the Tari protestors responded by charging the Veikan soldiers. They responded with bayonets lowered and ready. By the end of the day, 23 Tarin lay dead with another 130 wounded. 1 Veikan soldier died of his wounds caused by a rock thrown at his head. 18 more were recorded as being injured by the protestors.

Unrest and ethnic tensions would lead to the formation of various secret societies and groups dedicated to the cause of Tari independence. The public protests continued and were responded to with increasing levels of violence and the Tari met this repression with violence in turn. This violent rebellion came in the form of open combat. Instead, Tari insurgents generally resorted to arson, sabotage, theft, and assassinations. Generally, these assassinations were conducted as publicly as possible and performed using the traditional Tari battle ax, the ran, or a hunting knife. One prominent example being Duke Gareo Sari, the Veikan minister of the interior at the time. He was killed by a Tari teenager while having lunch who struck him with a ran four times before he was killed by the Duke's guards. The Duke was dead before he fell from his chair.

The repeated acts of rebellion and insurrection eventually boiled over into open war as a network of nationalist secret societies, known simply as the Organization, declared open war upon the Veikan crown on 11 June 1897. Using a highly developed and specialized system of messengers, encrypted telegrams, and a system of heliographs hidden in the hills, the Organization launched a series of coordinated attacks against Veikan facilities and personnel within e-Tarin. Tari civilians who were forbidden from owning any firearms used the element of surprise, clubs, and axes to attack Veikan military armories and seize weaponry and equipment. These attacks were often aided by Tari soldiers within ethnically segregated Royal army units turning on their Veikan officers and joining the rebels.

By 1898, the organization controlled nearly 30% of e-Tarin and claimed to have nearly 200,000 men under arms. The launching of the Southern Offensive in mid-1898 resulted in significant Tari gains over the next 6 months and control over nearly the entirety of the southern half of the territory. The capture of the Veikan regional capital of Mashrir dealt an extremely significant blow the Veikan effort and resulted in the Organization declaring the new Kingdom of e-Tarin as a monarchy under King Vorham I and independent from the Veikan monarchy.

Faced with nearly unbearable levels of domestic unrest and the clear inability to continue the war effort in e-Tarin, the Veikan king sent a delegation to negotiate a peace settlement with the Tarin. In one final humiliation, the treaty which ended the war was signed in the city of Mashrir. Under the terms of the treaty, Veikaia recognized Tari independence and set the boundaries for the new state. In exchange, e-Tarin agreed to pay the Veikan crown a sum of 16 million Veikan Okiov ($1.43 billion USD 2022) as compensation for the Veikan loss of land and private property seized or destroyed by the Tarin. Additionally, Veikans who had remained in e-Tarin throughout the war were given 6 months to leave or remain. Those who remained were to become Tarini citizens with the same rights as the Tarin, at least on paper. Mashrir was declared the capital of the new kingdom.

The new Kingdom of e-Tarin was immediately faced by numerous problems that prevented it from prospering. This kingdom represented the first united Tari monarchy in history and so the numerous Tari clans were unused to the idea of a single Tari king. King Vorham I, also known as Vorham the Lame (so called due to his congenital inability to walk) was from Clan Harir who had their historical powerbase along the shores of Lake Tarimir. He generally faced opposition from the southern clans who had largely formed the powerbase of the revolution and had only supported Vorham for the throne due to his family's wealth and as a compromise with the northern clans. The southern clans wished to weaken the power of the king while Vorham sought to pass reforms to further centralize power.

Another major issue faced by the new king was repairing the damage done by the war. Veikan military strategy had largely held little regard for any distinction between civilian and military infrastructure. Numerous bridges, roads, and dams within the hills had been destroyed. Additionally, certain aspects of the Tari war strategy had centered around scorched earth tactics in order to deprive the Veikans of relief and supplies within the rough terrain. Herds of sheep and goats had been slaughtered, fields burned, and entire towns burned to the ground. This gave a significant advantage to the rebels who had their bases of resistance in the rural highlands rather than within more urban locales. These factors combined had resulted in significant reduction in production by the Tarini economy. Modern historians estimate that the economy of e-Tarin overall suffered a nearly 16% drop in GDP. It is further estimated that nearly 400,000 Tarin lost their lives in the revolution and the famines which followed.

The final major factor considered by historians to have severely hampered the kingdom was the indemnity owed to Veikaia. Even though e-Tarin had won the war, the massive compensation they had agreed to pay represented a significant portion of their economy. The inclusion of the compensation had been central to getting the Veikans to agree to end the massively destructive war. Numerous Tari figures within the king's council called for Vorham to default on the debt but that course of action was similarly argued against by others who believed e-Tarin wouldn't survive another war. So, e-Tarin was forced to take out significant loans from various sources, including from Veikan bankers, in order to pay the sum.

State of East Veikaia
One of the consequences of the Tari internal divisions was a significant distrust by the Tari king of his own people. As such, Veikans were increasingly frequently entrusted to occupy significant positions within the royal government and army. By 1938, ethnic Veikans occupied 41% of all officer's positions within the army and made up 23% of all soldiery, despite only making up 13% of the overall population. Contributing to this massively disproportionate presence in the army was the existence of numerous statutes which discriminated against Veikans by blocking them from occupying certain professional positions like teachers or engineers, blocking them from trading in money, and prohibited them from owning more than 2 acres of land.

In 1941, this situation reached a breaking point. Upset at their second-class status and with significant support from the Veikan monarchy, a group of Veikan military officers within the Royal Guard and the 2nd and 5th Infantry Divisions based near Mashrir launched a coup and seized control of the capital. They were supported by the Veikan monarchy who provided significant aid in the form of mercenaries and arms for the conspirators. King Horow II and his queen consort were subjected to a trial presided over by the three chief conspirators and declared guilty of numerous crimes before being executed by firing squad, all behind closed doors. Additionally, the king's other four wives and all of his children were executed, along with numerous other members of the royal household. All told, 89 members of the royal household were killed, 14 loyalist soldiers died defending the royal family, and 4 conspiracist soldiers died.

The new regime declared the end of the Kingdom of e-Tarin and established itself as the State of East Veikaia. Its foundation and existence relied heavily upon the Kingdom of Veikaia to its west. In order to gain and keep the goodwill of the majority Tarin, Veikaia forgave the remainder of the Tarini debt and began providing immense amounts of aid to the beleaguered state. By 1945, approximately 48% of the foodstuffs consumed in East Veikaia were sourced from Veikaia. This was the first time since the nation's independence where there had been an abundance of food. East Veikaia also relied significantly upon Veikaia for military aid. Veikaia became the primary source of armament for the East Veikan military by far.

Another significant effect of the change in power was in the field of demographics. The removal of previous restrictions on ethnic Veikans and the opportunity to expand into the nation's burgeoning economy resulted in significant amounts of Veikans emigrating from Veikaia to East Veikaia. By 1990, Veikans made up nearly 18% of the population of East Veikaia. Immigrants purchased significant amounts of land and hired the Tarin who had previously owned it to work the land for them or in the factories which they built on it.

East Veikaia did not possess many of the same openly discriminatory practices of the Kingdom of e-Tarin. Instead, it operated under an ideal of "separate but equal". Veikans and Tarin used different bathrooms, attended different schools, ate in different restaurants, and lived in different homes. Nominally, these were all supposed to be equal in quality and treated equally by the government but, in reality, Tari facilities were often of a much more inferior quality. For instance, Veikan schools received nearly 8 times as much funding per student than Tari schools.

Additionally, when democratic elections were implemented in 1948 with the end of military rule, Tarin technically had the same voting rights as Veikans but faced significant obstacles to voting. Poll taxes were implemented which largely prohibited poorer Tarin from voting. Another hurdle implemented were the "political awareness examinations". These examinations, ostensibly designed to ensure a citizen was politically conscious enough to vote, were really designed to prevent the majority of ethnic Tarin from voting as it required literacy in both Veikan and Tari, the two co-official languages of East Veikaia. Tari schools did not teach Veikan while Veikan schools taught both languages. Rich Tarin could afford to hire private tutors to teach their children to speak Veikan and communities often pooled money to hire a private teacher to teach members of their community. Despite this, by the time of the abolition of the political awareness examinations in 1988, only 14% of Tarin could read, write, and speak fluent Veikan. In the 1972 parliamentary elections, 85 out of 101 members elected were Veikan.

Republic of e-Tarin
The beginning of the Veikan Civil War in 1972 represented the beginning of the end for East Veikaia. Without critical support from Veikaia, the East Veikan government could not as firmly maintain their minority rule. Rebellion among the ethnic Tarin began to increase in frequency and was often responded to with police brutality and increased suspension of rights. Pro-Tari political parties were outlawed and gathering of Tarin in groups greater than 4 was banned in 1978. Live ammunition, tear gas, and riot shields were commonly used against Tari protestors.

In 1988, secondary students in Tala took to the streets in the Tala uprising to protest against the political awareness examinations. On 16 June, police opened fire on students protesting peacefully. According to official reports, 43 people were killed, but the number of people who died is usually given as 176, with estimates of up to 700. In the following years several student organizations were formed to protest against segregation, and these organizations were central to urban school boycotts in 1990 and 1992 and rural boycotts in 1989 and 1990.

In parallel with student protests, labor unions started protest action in 1989 and 1991. After 1978, unions and workers are considered to have played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, filling the gap left by the banning of political parties. In 1989, Tari trade unions were legalized and could engage in collective bargaining, although strikes were still illegal. Economists write that basic supply and demand led to violations of segregation "on a massive scale" throughout the nation, simply because there were not enough Veikan business owners to meet the demand for various goods and services. Large portions of the garment industry and construction of new homes, for example, were effectively owned and operated by Tarin, who either worked surreptitiously or who circumvented the law with a Veikan as a nominal, figurehead manager.

These protest actions finally resulted in the government's inability to maintain power and a wish to avoid a disastrous civil war which the Veikans had little hope of winning. All restrictions on the Tari majority were repealed and the 1996 elections resulted in the first majority Tari parliament. 91 out of 106 members of the 1996 Parliament were ethnic Tarin. 84 of these MPs were members of the previously outlawed and militant Tari ultranationalist Ran Party (RP).

One of the first major acts of this new parliament was the suspension of the 1948 Constitution and the calling of a new constitutional convention where Ran representatives made up the vast majority of delegates. The new constitution declared the Ran party as the sole legal party within the new Republic of e-Tarin and the delegates from other parties found themselves compelled to ratify the new constitution at the barrel of a Ran militiaman's gun.

With power now firmly in their hands, events within the Republic progressed at a rate which no contemporary observers had expected. The Veikan minority had agreed to transition to multiracial elections as a method of hopefully assuaging the Tari anger at their previous oppression and to avoid a violent civil conflict. Instead, the Ran Party immediately began what largely amounted to and is internationally considered to be a genocide of the nation's Veikan population. Supported by laws which drove Veikans from virtually every sector of society, ethnic Veikans were at first simply forced into labor camps scattered throughout e-Tarin where they were forced to work the mines which they had previously presided over. Conditions were abysmal and hours long. Many thousands died in these early years from overwork and workplace accidents alone.

It wasn't until late 1998 that the the treatment of Veikans turned into outright genocide. Those who had not yet been forced into the camps began to be slaughtered in their homes as Ran militiamen kicked in doors and declared that the inhabitants of the home had been found guilty of treason by virtue of being Veikan and executed in their homes. Within the camps, Ran overseers began punishing Veikan laborers much more harshly. Failure to meet quotas or collapsing at your workplace began to be responded to with simply a bullet through the offender's skull. Veikans were often denied proper burials and it was not an uncommon sight to instead see bodies pushed into immense holes as mass graves or burned in giant pyres. Sexual violence was rife, with an estimated 300,000 ethnic Veikan women raped during the genocide. Many Veikans additionally fled as refugees to neighboring nations, particular Veikaia. The border was strictly patrolled by Ran militiamen in an attempt to prevent their escape but many still succeeded in fleeing. An estimated 200,000 Veikan refugees are estimated to have fled to Veikaia proper with an unknown number fleeing to other nations. Accurate estimates are difficult to ascertain as the haphazard nature of the killings meant that few records were kept.

People's Administration of e-Tarin
The atrocities and abuse of the Republican forces were first significantly challenged in 1999. Veikan refugees in refugee camps, located all along the nation's border with Veikaia, had been covertly armed and trained by the Veikan military and formed the Tarini Communist Party (TCP). Their goal was the end of the killings and the establishment of a council republic along the lines of that which had been established by the Veikan Communist Party in its own civil war. Spurred by the beginning of open genocide, they launched an invasion of e-Tarin.

The opening shots of the invasion were fired by a group of 30 Veikan refugees who had enlisted in the Workers' Revolutionary Army (WRA). It is debated whether or not they were deserters or had been permitted by WRA leadership to leave their posts for the operation, in conspiracy with TCP leadership. What is known is that this group of 30 refugee soldiers left their posts at the Veikan border in the early hours of 19 June 1999 and crossed into Tarini territory, killing 6 Republican border guards in the process. They were soon followed by a force of nearly 4,000 Veikans, marching on foot and carried in an assortment of "stolen" WRA vehicles and civilian vehicles marked with TCP insignia. They were dressed in the uniforms of the WRA or old East Veikan uniforms and carried Veikan weaponry, including machine guns, autocannons, and mortars. Simultaneous crossings of similar composition but lesser size were undertaken at 3 separate border crossings in the northern section of the border. It is estimated that nearly 12,000 Veikans altogether participated in the initial invasion.

They managed to advance nearly 30 kilometers at their farthest before encountering significant resistance from the Republican army and RP militiamen. The Republic held the great numerical superiority but had the advantage of surprise and the fact that large portions of the Republican army and RP militia were occupied with the mass killings and maintaining order within the nation. Further uprisings by the Veikan population of e-Tarin and the liberation of labor and death camps within the occupied territories gave the TCP further recruits. Uniquely from previous movements, the TCP was also equally open to ethnic Tari who opposed the politics and actions of the Ran Party.

By 2000, the TCP controlled nearly 10% of e-Tarin. Besides the advance by their main body from the north, sympathetic uprisings had erupted across e-Tarin against Ran rule. 2 out of 23 provincial capitals were under TCP control. Additionally, several other groups opposed to Ran Party control had risen in armed rebellion. These included: the Democratic Party of Tari (DPT), who advocated the end of one-party rule and the establishment of a multiethnic and federal parliamentary republic; the People's Liberation Party (PLP), a social democratic faction; the Tari Monarchist Party (TMP), who advocated the restoration of Clan Harir and the crowning of Vorham III as king; and the Tari People's Party (TPP), who promoted a libertarian socialist and communalistic future for e-Tarin. Numerous other smaller factions arose but rarely gained enough traction to capture significant amounts of territory before being crushed or absorbed by one of the larger factions.

Another significant movement which arose in the extremely poor and rural areas of southwestern e-Tarin was that of the Party of Itiao. Ethnic Veikan religious extremists, they saw a return to ancient Akiemist worship as being the path to salvation for the Veikan people. They preached the idea that the tragedies befalling the Veikan people were the consequences of them having abandoned the old gods and focusing too much on the material world (known as "Akiemo"). Led by a leader known only as the Holy One, they waged holy war on Tari and Veikan alike as part of their crusade to cleanse Akiemo in preparation for the Itkriga where the forces of Nitia would finally be defeated and humanity (or just Veikans who followed him, according to the Holy One) would be reunited with Itiao in the metaphysical realm (known as "Tuxami").

On 14 July 2002, representatives from the TCP, PLP, TPP, and several smaller parties met in the tartan of Rasht to negotiate a union of their forces to oppose the Ran Party and Party of Itiao. Here, these democratic and socialist parties pooled their forces into a coalition that would be known as the People's Front for a Free e-Tarin. They committed to defeating their common enemies and then holding a democratic and fair constitutional convention to peacefully determine the post-war system. This new alliance built upon previous informal cooperation against the RP and PI and their combined forces now numbered nearly 400,000 men and women under arms and controlled nearly 40% of the country. The RP controlled a further 45%, the PI controlled about 10%, and various smaller groups controlled the other roughly 5%.

The battle for control of the nation raged between the factions for nearly 10 years with little overall territorial change as land traded hands and entire cities were destroyed. The RP had managed to retain control of most of the nations' military apparatuses while the PFFT received a steady stream of support from Veikaia. The aterritorial nature of the PI permitted it to largely survive the loss of territory as young and disillusioned Veikans liberated or escaped from Tari labor and death camps flocked to its white banner still. Veikaia was loath to directly involve itself in the civil war and potentially became bogged down in that quagmire but it instead contented itself on providing materiel and advisors to the PFFT and even went so far as to provide air support on several occasions. In one notable instance, three Veikan _____ struck a Ran militia convoy and killed an estimated 82 militiamen in a single strike, including the third in command of the Ran military wing.

In 2012, the most major territorial change in nearly a decade took place when the PFFT launched the largest offensive of the war yet. Using newly provided IFVs and T-72s from Veikaia and Goetia and backed by a heavy Veikan air support campaign, the PFFT mobilized nearly 280,000 troops and 500 armored vehicles in a nationwide offensive that began in the early morning of 10 September. PFFT forces swept over remaining PI territory and pushed RP forces into a near total route, driving them deep into the southern provinces. By January 2013, PFFT forces controlled nearly 85% of the nation's territory and 90% of its population. The PI had had its territorial presence completely eradicated for the first time and the RP controlled no provincial capitals.

The TPP represented the faction with the PFFT which gained the most from the offensive. Their fighters had been at the forefront of many of the major offensives and their leaders had become widely celebrated for feats of bravery and strategic acumen. The strategic boost in PR for them led to a significant amount of fighters flocking to their banner. Additionally, tensions regarding the TCP's domination of the coalition had resulted in pushing the other factions closer together. In March 2013, the PLP and several smaller factions were absorbed by the TPP's banner and the TPP became the largest faction within the PFFT. By June 2013, they represented 50% of the PFFT's total fighting strength. The TCP represented 38% and various other groups made up the remaining amount.

Threatened with this potential loss of power and being cut out of the post-war process, no matter the previous agreements, the TCP left the PFFT and declared open hostilities with its former allies. Severely outnumbered, the TCP still remained an extremely powerful contender in the civil war due to the support of Veikan air superiority and the steady stream of materiel aid and recruits from Veikaia. Open warfare between the groups pitted former friends against each other in a brutal new phase of the war where it became a three-sided conflict between the Ran, TCP, and PFFT with the PI being largely reduced to petty banditry and minor acts of terror. By August 2013, the PFFT controlled 46% of the nation's population, the TCP occupied 40%, and the Ran had 14%.

Faced with the TCP to the north and the Ran to the south, the PFFT adopted a strategy to fight its two front war: it adopted a policy of defensive holding in the north where no offensives were launched against the TCP except to regain lost territory while it instead directed almost the entirety of its efforts against the Ran. By February 2014, the last Ran forces had surrendered and the entire south was in PFFT hands. This influx of new arms from the Ran stockpiles and recruits liberated from Ran labor camps and even "rehabilitated" Ran militiamen represented a significant boost to the fighting strength of the PFFT.

With their flank secure and significantly strengthened, the PFFT turned its sights on the TCP. The relative calm in the north had worked to the slight benefit of the TCP, too. It had allowed them to receive significant amounts of arms from Veikaia and its troops had been able to cycle through Veikan-operated training camps. The subsequent offensives by the PFFT were much more of a grinding slog through the hills towards the border than the southern campaign had been. It wasn't until March 2016 that the TCP was finally driven into a negotiated peace with the PFFT and the civil war finally came to an end.

A constitutional convention was held in the city of Tasht where the PFFT had first been formed. Here, representatives from the parties of the PFFT, the TCP, and every tartan met to deliberate and ratify a new constitution. This new system of governance was based on the ideology espoused by the TPP's founder Koran Arani and was known as "communal confederalism" or commonly "Koranism". Certain concessions within this new system were granted to the TCP and certain other major parties. Namely, the central administration retained control of the roads and the responsibility for maintenance of them. Additionally, an upper house was created composed of representatives sent by the province's assemblies which retained the power to override any decisions of the People's Assembly with a supermajority.

The new government, the first truly democratic and pluralistic one in Tarini history, was immediately saddled with the task of rebuilding a nation which had been virtually destroyed by nearly 2 decades of war. Nearly 2 million people had died in the war and the Ran genocides. The genocides had resulted in nearly 400,000 Veikans being killed with hundreds of thousands more having fled. Overall, nearly 5 million citizens had fled the Ran regime and the civil war. In August 2016, the Tarini economy was estimated at just $295 billion. Aided by significant foreign aid and the use of the military as labor, the government began to rebuild. Experts estimate that 60% of all buildings in e-Tarin were destroyed in the war, 40% of roads rendered unusable, and 50% of the nation's electrical production capability destroyed.

Behind reconstruction, the government's second focus was justice for the crimes committed before and during the war. Broadly, members of the TCP and PFFT escaped prosecution for any alleged war crimes. Judiciary efforts were instead focused on punishing the Ran and the Party of Itiao. Many Ran militiamen had been declared "rehabilitated" by the warring factions as they recruited them to their cause and thus escaped prosecution but an estimated 3,000 Ran militiamen and 1,900 PI fighters were put on trial for a variety of crimes including rape, murder, theft, kidnapping, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Among the tried was the former Chairman of the Ran Party, Yaya Molani, and their chief ideologue, Uman Poro. Both were convicted of 385,580 counts of murder (the official government death toll of the Ran genocides at the time) and numerous other crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by firing squad. Similarly, numerous leaders of the PI were convicted and sentenced to death. Notably, the mystical founder of the PI, the Holy One, escaped capture and prosecution and still eludes authorities to this day. All told, 2,468 Ran personnel and 1,893 PI personnel were convicted of various crimes. Sentences ranged from 5 years for those convicted of simple theft to death for crimes like mass murder and crimes against humanity. 1,580 total prisoners were executed by firing squad. The death penalty was abolished immediately after the final execution.

Politics
The Administrative Charter adopted in 2016 is the legal foundation of the e-Tarini confederal government. It outlines rights of individuals and citizen participation in public affairs, divides the powers between the People's Administration and the cantons and defines confederal jurisdiction and authority. Three main bodies govern on the confederal level: the bicameral congress (legislative), the Advisory Council (executive), and the Humanitarian Court (judicial).

Advisory Council
The Advisory Council together acts as the nation's head of government and state. It acts as a council of the representatives of the Tarini government's 7 a|advisory committees. They represent their respective committees in the Council to coordinate the policies and actions of their committees. The decisions themselves are taken by a modified Borda count following a structured proposal and discussion phase. Any decisions, advice, or proposals approved by the Council are then forwarded to the People's Assembly or public for dissemination or approval, depending on their nature.

The Advisors-Designate themselves are merely representatives from the various Advisory Committees and present opinions of the consensus reached by their committees. They are elected by each of their 7-person committees by Borda count to represent them on the council. They are not only elected based on their expertise and preeminence in their field but also their ability to effectively communicate the consensus of their committees in the Council and to the People's Assembly.

As of December 2022, the seven Advisors-Designate are:
 * Advisor-Designate for Foreign Affairs - Mawaid Alahi


 * Advisor-Designate for Defense and Veterans' Affairs - Faraz Yalan


 * Advisor-Designate for Justice and Human Rights - Xara Gibrilo


 * Advisor-Designate for Finance, Trade, and Transportation - Silin Taraz


 * Advisor-Designate for Communications and Digital Agenda - Francisko Andonoto


 * Advisor-Designate for Cantonal and Communal Affairs and the Census - Herdush Qarani


 * Advisor-Designate for Intelligence and Revolutionary Affairs - Masana Tamadhegh

The Advisory Council is chaired by two Co-Chairs, at least one of whom must be Veikan. The Co-Chairs are elected by the Advisors-Designate on separate Borda count ballots with one having all Veikan candidates and the other having all Advisors-Designate. They serve for 4 month terms before another election is held. They may be reelected to unlimited consecutive terms.

The committees are made up of 28 members. Each member is a representative of a canton within the People's Administration and is appointed by their cantonal administrator and serve 2 year terms. They may be reappointed to a max of one additional consecutive term and are subject to recall by their cantonal assembly at any point by a simple majority vote. No official rule requires it but convention has led to every advisor having held a degree of higher education in their related field. For example, Herdush Qarani holds a Dual Master's in Urban Planning and Civil Engineering from Mashrir University and Xara Gibrilo has been a licensed attorney for 31 years and has received her JD and PhD from Najiluva University's School of Law.

People's Congress
The People's Congress consists of two houses: the Tajlis i Marago (Council of Elders) which has 28 representatives who dually serve as their cantonal administrator and are elected by their cantonal assembly, and the Assembly of People's Deputies, which consists of 750 members who are elected under a system of mixed-member proportional representation. Members serve part-time for 4 years (a citizen legislature). Legislation may only be initiated by the Assembly of People's Deputies. The Tajlis i Marago may veto any legislation passed by the Assembly of People's Deputies through a supermajority vote. Through referendums, citizens may challenge any law passed by the Assembly and, through initiatives, introduce amendments to the Administrative Charter, thus making e-Tarin a semi-direct democracy.

Judiciary
e-Tarin has a Confederal People's Court (CPC), with 16 judges elected for six-year terms by the People's Assembly. The CPC acts as the ultimate appellate court for all violations of confederal law. Subordinate to it are the 28 Basic People's Courts who hold original jurisdiction over all violations of confederal law and the Basic Charter. e-Tarin does not have a constitutional court, and the Confederal People's Court cannot comment on law put forward by the People's Assembly. This role is assumed by the people, which acts as a guardian and can repeal any legislation or component of the Basic Charter. The only constitutional jurisdiction of the CPC is in adjudicating disputes between cantons in accordance with confederal law and gives advisory opinions on intercantonal legal issues. Its decisions are final and unappealable.

Parallel to the criminal jurisdiction of the CPC, there also exists the People's Humanitarian Court who holds jurisdiction over any violation of the Declaration of Basic Rights by the confederal government or any of its agents. It also receives appeals for human rights violations by the cantonal and communal governments from the cantonal human rights courts when the offenses additionally violate the confederal Declaration of Basic Rights. It is made up of 16 judges who are elected by the people to staggered 4 year terms. An election is held annually for a group of 4 judges and they are elected by Borda count.

Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a hallmark of the Tarini political system. Tarini citizens are subject to three legal jurisdictions: the communal, cantonal, and confederal levels. The instruments of this system at the confederal level, known as popular power, include the right to submit a confederal initiative and a referendum, both of which may overturn congressional decisions.

By calling a confederal referendum, a group of citizens may challenge a law passed by Congress by gathering 100,000 signatures against the law within 100 days. If so, a national vote is scheduled for no later than one month after acceptance where voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the law. Any six cantons can also call a constitutional referendum on federal law.

Similarly, the confederal constitutional initiative allows citizens to put a constitutional amendment to a national vote, if 200,000 voters sign the proposed amendment within 18 months. The Advisory Council can supplement the proposed amendment with a counterproposal. Then, voters must indicate a preference on the ballot if both or either proposals are accepted. This vote is held via the same modified Borda count method used in elections and the advisory committees.

Administrative divisions
Main page: Administrative divisions of e-Tarin

The People's Administration is centered around a system of decentralized rule which shifts the vast majority of powers and responsibilities which would normally fall upon the national government instead are possessed by the cantons and their respective sub-divisions. The level at which the highest burden of administration takes place is that of the commune, located directly below the cantonal administration. They are of two types: rural or urban and their responsibilities and powers differ depending on their type. There are currently 28 cantons with the smallest being composed of 110 communes with the largest having 958.

Military
The People's Defense Corps (PDC) is the military of the People's Administration. It is made up of the People's Defense Corps Ground Force, the People's Defense Corps Air Force, People's Defense Corps Logistics Service, and People's Defense Corps Medical Service. It is commanded by the People's Defense Corps Command Committee whose members are appointed by the Committee for Defense and Veterans' Affairs. According to the Basic Charter, only the people may declare war via national referendum. Absent a declaration of war, the Committee for Defense and Veterans' Affairs is vested with the power to deploy the PDC on missions of a purely defensive nature, subject to veto by a majority vote of the People's Assembly or people.

Conscription has never been utilized by the PDC and is prohibited by the Basic Charter as a form of involuntary servitude. In 2022, the People's Defense Corps had 130,000 personnel on active duty. In times of war, this number can be augmented by the the Community Defense Forces (CDF) of the cantons. In peacetime, these regional militias act as police and firefighters and are under the command of their cantonal Committee for Defense and Veterans' Affairs but can be activated by the People's Defense Corps Command Committee upon a declaration of war. In such a case, they would come under the command of the People's Defense Corps Ground Force and operationally integrated within its structure.

Law and justice
The legal system is based on the Administrative Charter, promulgated on 14 July 2016, and the fundamental law of e-Tarin. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules. Cantons and communes have their own charters which must not contradict the confederal Administrative Charter. Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary, executive bodies, and the people via referendum and initiatives may enact legal norms. Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities. There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral courts. The highest confederal courts are the Confederal People's Court and the People's Humanitarian Court.

Human rights
Human rights within the People's Administration are guaranteed by the confederal Declaration of Basic Rights and the respective cantonal declarations of rights. The central principle asserted by all levels of the Tarini government is that all people are "born free and equal in dignity and rights" regardless of "nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status".

Demographics
According to the 2020 census, e-Tarin had a population of 46,548,283. It is estimated this has increased to as much as 48,300,000 as of 2023 as part of the post-war baby boom and as refugees return from the camps in Veikaia and Ostboland. e-Tarin has yet to recover to its pre-war Republic population of an estimated 52,485,290 as refugees remain in their place of asylum and due to fatalities sustained in the war and Ran genocide.

Ethnic Groups
e-Tarin's population is made up of two main ethnic groups: the native Tarin and the local Veikans. As of the 2020 census, the Tarin made up 84% of the population while the Veikans make up a further 14%. Numerous other ethnic groups make up the remaining ~2%. Relations between these two main ethnic groups is the main guiding factor in Tarini domestic and foreign policy. A history of strife between the two groups has been partially overshadowed by the positive interactions and cooperation between the Veikan resistance groups and Tari socialist factions in the civil war against the Republican government.

The concept of a united Tari identity has existed for millennia but that has not alleviated the divisions within that identity. Several ethnologists have gone so far as to assert that Tari should be considered a group of ethnicities rather than a single one. The amount and nature of these divisions differs depending on who is asked but one division that is nearly universally accepted is that between Lowland Tari, those who predominantly dwell in the lowlands in the eastern and western portions of the country, and Highland Tari who predominantly dwell in the hills and mountains of the heart of the nation. Historically, the Lowlanders have considered themselves more civilized than their Highlander cousins and still make up the majority of the urban Tari population of e-Tarin.

Tribes of e-Tarin
The Tari people are traditionally grouped into 17 tribes. 6 of these tribes are considered to be Lowlanders and the rest are considered Highlanders. Each tribe is said to be descended from a single common ancestral couple. These 17 original couples are said to have been composed of the male spirits of the 17 sacred peaks of e-Tarin and the female spirits of the 17 sacred springs. Their descendants then spread around ancient e-Tarin and populated the hills and lowlands of their nation.

These tribes are then traditionally divided into a multitude of clans which form smaller kinship groups within these largely nominal tribes. Historically, clans were endogamous to maintain familial identity. This practice has now largely died out in the modern day with clan identities having been suppressed by the East Veikan government as a method of destroying Tari ethnic identity. Nowadays, many Tarin may still claim to belong to a specific clan but this holds less importance than it once did. Tribal affiliation is treated with slightly more reverence with intermarriage and residence outside of your traditional tribal lands still being relatively uncommon.

Languages
The main languages spoken in e-Tarin are Tari and Veikan, followed by Trari and Ontazi. Tari, Trari, and Ontazi all use the Tari script while Tarini Veikan uses the same Veikan script used in Veikaia proper. Prior to the civil war and the overthrow of the Ran Party, Tari was the nation's sole official language. Before that, under the East Veikan regime, Veikan and Tari were both official languages but Tarin were not taught Veikan in school in order to limit their involvement in the public political sphere.

The identity of the Veikan language within e-Tarin has had a tumultuous history. In the Kingdom of e-Tarin, the dialect of Veikan spoken by the local Veikan population was officially known as Gorna, meaning "frontier" in Veikan. This was an attempt by the Tari monarchy to divide the Veikan identity and sever their ties to the Veikan homeland to reduce any Veikan nationalist or separatist ideals and movements. The Tari crown promoted the official line that Gorna was a distinct language from proper Veikan and forbade the use of the Veikan script within their borders, too. Instead, Gorna was written in the Tari script.

Under the People's Administration, the Veikan language is officially known as simply Tarini Veikan but many Tari still call it Gorna out of tradition and custom and its speakers prefer to simply call it "Veikan". Additionally, the use of the Veikan script was reintroduced under the East Veikan regime and has maintained its widespread usage since. There are currently extensive efforts to transliterate old Gorna texts from the Tari script into Veikan.

According to the Administrative Charter (Article):


 * The Tari and Veikan languages are the official languages of the People's Administration.

Religion
The People's Administration is a secular country in which freedom of religion is enshrined in the Declaration of Basic Rights. The predominant religions in e-Tarin are Tarism, Triuvist gnosticism, and Akiemism. Irreligion of various degrees has also begun to gain increased popularity in the last 20 years. According to the 2020 census, 70% of the population follows Tarism, 14% follow Triuvist gnosticism, 7% are irreligious, 6% declared to follow Akiemism, and 3% follow other faiths. The accuracy of these numbers is hard to determine due to the high number of isolated communities within the montane regions of the center of e-Tarin and the difficulties related to administration following the civil war.

Tarism is the ancestral and traditional faith of the Tari people and was the dominant faith within e-Tarin since before the history of the region began to be recorded in writing in the 2nd millennium BCE until the 14th century CE when domination and proselytization by the Veikans ultimately resulted in the Triuvist Church achieving a majority. In 1856, only 24% of ethnic Tarin practiced Tarism. Tarism experienced a significant revival in 1904 with the ascension of Bagran the Zealous to the throne. He was a devout proponent of the ancient Tarist faith and declared it the new state religion. This persisted until the establishment of East Veikaia who declared Triuvist gnosticism to be the state faith again but did not ban Tarism. Tari nationalism and seeing it as defiance to the new regime led to Tarism resurging in popularity to its current dominance.

The Triuvist Church within e-Tarin was governed by the Houbit of the Veikan autocephalous church until Tarini independence upon which Vorham I cooperated with the local Veikan community to establish an independent and local Triuvist church to reflect the independence of the new state and the integration of Veikans under it. The Tarini and Veikan Churches have largely reconciled and are considered to be in mutual communion with each other. The Veikan population of e-Tarin are divided in their loyalty to either church with 71% declaring adherence to the Tarini Houbit and 29% loyal to the Veikan Houbit.

Economy
Main article: Economy of e-Tarin

The economy of e-Tarin is classified as a transitioning economy and has been left severely damaged by the civil war. The nation's GDP has yet to reach its pre-civil war level of $584 billion. As of 2022, the nation's GDP was estimated at $332 billion. Mining is by far the economy's largest sector, accounting for nearly 29% of the national GDP. Mineral refining and automotive manufacturing additionally make up large sectors of the economy. Factories which had been used to produce, repair, and modified armored vehicles during the civil war have been retooled to produce civilian vehicles and machinery today. Additionally, the cottage firearm industry which blossomed during the war has grown into a moderately sized and widespread industry with factories producing firearms, explosives, and crew-served weapons which have begun to see use around the world.

The Tarini economy is based around a worker-managed system which has resulted in average wage being higher than it would be otherwise in the devastated economy. Factories and mines are ran as cooperatives by their workers and communes who distribute profits according to votes held semi-annually among its workers and citizens. Natural resources are mined by corporations owned by the commune which administers that region and treated as being commonly owned by the citizenry of that commune. This follows the ancient Tari custom of villages and towns being based around the mines which dominate the hills and mountains that make up the center of their nation.

Transportation
Main article: Transportation in e-Tarin

Due to e-Tarin's geography and landlocked nature, transportation between various parts of the country and to the rest of the world has historically been difficult. The backbone of e-Tarin's transportation network is the Ring Road which circles the perimeter of the nation and connects the large cities of the western and eastern lowlands. A parallel railroad track was constructed in 1950 to enable easier transport of people and mined ore from the mines and settlements of the western region to the ports on Lake Azra in the east. It wasn't until 1984 that a road cutting directly through the hills of the nation's center was completed. Tunneling through mountains, bridging ravines, and snaking up cliffs, the so-called "Belt Road" cut the trip from Razir in the west to Lake Azra by days.

Air transport is provided by two main airline cooperatives: Tarini Airways (national carrier) and Eternal Flame Air. As of January 2023, these airlines operate flights to at least one location in every country on Artemia and much of the rest of the world. Airlines from a number of other countries operate flights into and out of the country. The country has 12 international airports and at least 73 others capable of accommodating at least regional airliners. Many of these airports also double as military airfields for local PDCGF and PDCAF aircraft.

e-Tarin lacks a coastline and so access to the sea is extremely limited. Passengers and goods exiting or destined for e-Tarin via ship must either travel overland through Marressaly via truck or train to ports there or directly up the Albe River in Ostboland to the ocean beyond. The latter is the much more common choice as it permits greater amounts of goods and passengers to be moved via barge to the river's mouth where it can be transferred onto ocean-faring cargo ships to be exported further beyond.

Healthcare
e-Tarin has universal healthcare. Hospitals and clinics are managed by the cantons and those communes which can afford it. The most common system is for hospitals to be operated by the cantonal government and urban communes and for rural communes to operate outlying clinics which are considered a satellite facility of a larger hospital within that canton. Public healthcare is provided to all Tarini citizens and is mostly free at the point of need, being paid for from communal and cantonal taxation. Privately-owned medical cooperatives also exist for elective procedures and experimental and alternative treatments which might not be covered under the canton's universal healthcare policy but the citizen can afford to purchase privately.

There also exists a system of military hospitals operated by the PDCMS for servicemembers, their family members, and veterans. These hospitals are each located at a military district's headquarters installation and is responsible for the clinical and hospital care of all beneficiaries within its military district. Civilians unrelated to the PDC may also be seen at a PDCMS hospital in the event of local civilian healthcare infrastructure being overwhelmed. They each also possess outlying clinics at many of the various garrisons spread throughout their districts. As of July 2022, there are 85 hospitals (one in each military district and one in Rasht) and 482 outlying clinics operated by the PDCMS. Not all staff at a PDCMS facility are considered uniformed members of the PDC but all physicians, mid-level practitioners, and registered nurses are required to be.