The Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics (CUDR)

The Confederation of the United Dundulanyä Republics (Dun.: laḫlurī dundulanyä lilēṣkorukṣartē śūsmurdibeṣarān), commonly metonymically referred to as the (Dundulanyä) Confederation (Dun.: śūsmurdibeṣa) or by the acronym Laḫduliśūse, is a federal country on the planet Eventoa. It is composed of 143 federated states across the two continents of Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma and it also controls various dependencies scattered around the planet.
Covering a land area (excluding dependencies) of approximately 16.2 square kilometres (around 8% of Eventoa's total land area) and with a population of 1.904 billion people (about 19% of the total Eventoan population), it is the planet's largest country both by area and population.
The city of Līlah (formally and ceremonially Līlasuṃghāṇa), also a holy city of the Yunyalīlta, is the federal capital and largest city, located by the 9th parallel south at the narrowest point of the isthmus on the east coast of Lusaṃrīte which divides the northern mainland of the continent from the Dendāɂneye peninsula, a long peninsula mostly enclosing the Lusamritene Inland Seas. Cami, Lāltaṣveya, Nyīta and Mūmäfumbe are the centers of the largest metropolitan areas.

The states forming the Confederation are formally independent but, in practice, have a common federal parliament and president elected directly by the citizens. While in principle much of the power is in the hands of the single constituent states with the federal level serving mostly to direct and coordinate a common policy, the constituent states have relinquished many of their powers to the federal level entities and the “consultory” power of the federal parliament and government is, de facto, the supreme ruling power inside the confederacy.

Owing to the huge territory and population, the ethnic demographics of the country are unsurprisingly varied, with over one thousand distinct “ethnic groups” (vājñuntyai) including a few subgroupings of the Dundulanyä, being recognized as native to the Confederation's territories. However, many of these ethnic groups number only in the tens of thousands, and some of them are the descendants of particular castes not otherwise linguistically different from other ethnic groups. As an extreme – but not uncommon – example of the problematicity of defining an ethnic group as mixed as the Dundulanyä, it is usually defined as being the result of mixing of more than three ethnicities.

The present-day United Republics arose from the Fifth Dundulanyä Empire first in the area of Central Lusaṃrīte, later expanding to its current form in the aftermath of the Three Leagues Period, in the year 5100^[I.1]. While Dundulanyä, the classical language of the five empires and of the three leagues, remains the lingua franca throughout the country, the current state form is no longer in any way constitutionally dominated by the Lāḍutäteṣai ethnicities, so that some other countries that historically were not in any of the Dundulanyä empires or in the Three Leagues have since joined the contemporary confederacy.

While the Dundulanyä civilization has had contacts with northern hemisphere societies for most of the last millennium, in contemporary Eventoa it constitutes a civilization still separate from the Northern world, resisting northern hemisphere-driven globalization. Relations between the Dundulanyä world and Northern hemisphere (and particularly Seraltonian) countries are relatively friendly, but limited in scope; the Confederation, however, maintains better and more pervasive relations with the former colonies of major Northern powers around the world.

National symbols

Lilac, the colour of mīlau flowers (a sacred flower in Yunyalailtulu symbology, common along river shores in Lower and Central Taktapṣikha) is the national colour of the United Republics, used in all sporting jerseys (as part of a general taboo against predominantly gold clothes, as it's a colour too sacred, in the Yunyalīlta, for such uses) and for Dundulanyä-entered international automobile racing colours.
While more associated with the Dundulanyä than with the Yunyalīlta, the cultural use of lilac as a symbolic colour has also been adopted by Yunyalailtulu minorities all around Eventoa. In countries with sizable Dundulanyä minorities, most notably Kŭyŭgwažķürd, expressions such as “lilac festivals”, “lilac neighbourhoods”, and “lilac issues” are commonly used for topics specifically referring to the Dundulanyä communities (in these cases, Dundulanyä festivals, Dundulanyä-majority areas, and issues of the ethnic Dundulanyä community).

Demographics

The Dundulanyä themselves, collectively known, natively, as Lāḍutäteṣai (meaning roughly “the shared house”), and sometimes referred to in external sources as “neo-Dundulanyä” to distinguish them from the ancient/classical people, are divided into various regional subgroupings, the most numerous of which are the Chlähānai, natives to most of historical Taktapṣikha (where, however, there are quite a few regional differences), the lands around the Inland Seas, and which are considered the cultural descendants of the ancient-classical Dundulanyä people, with less ethnic creolization than all other Dundulanyä ethnicities^[D.1].

Other notable Lāḍutäteṣai ethnicities are the Kalṭahaussulū and the Northerners (from the Kalṭahussa region and different areas in northern Lusaṃrīte), the broad category of the West Lusamritene Dundulanyä, the Easterners (from the East Lusamritene islands^[D.2]), the Ḫalārmulū (from inland central Lusaṃrīte), the Chlägdari, Ḍuthi, Kumpṣai and Bañjari (from central-southern Lusaṃrīte and southwestern Jūhma), the Būṅkulū (from western Jūhma), Northern Juhmene and Eastern Juhmene Dundulanyä. The Dundulanyä world, however, is quite multicultural due to the internal migrations and, in some areas, due to the results of ethnic deportations during the Fifth Dundulanyä Empire; about 86% of the population of the Confederation belongs to either the Lāḍutäteṣai peoples or to either the Toyubeshians, the Laḫob, Fõläṅth, Bumandê, Chairēnyi, Ḍusībhāni-Tameɂi or the Bunikä^[D.3]. Throughout the last century, however, many people – and particularly those of mixed descent from multiple Lāḍutäteṣai ethnicities – have started defining themselves as ethnic Dundulanyä, although it is a different definition from the ancient one. The Dundulanyä language acts as the lingua franca for all ethnicities of the country.

The distribution of population across the national territory is very unequal: Taktapṣikha and Śubhāla, together with most of the shores of the Lusamritene Inland Seas, roughly between 10° and 30°S, are some of the most densely populated areas on the whole of Eventoa, and similar densities may be found in some coastal provinces in the East Lusamritene Islands – an area including the megalopolis of central Mūṣokahīqa, centered on the city of Cami, which is the planet's largest megalopolis – as well as the eastern coast of the Duluka peninsula in northwestern Jūhma.
On the other hand, there are areas in different biomes – such as dry areas in inland Jūhma, the colder taiga of southern Lusaṃrīte, the Northern rainforests, and most high mountain chains – where the less ideal climate and nature results in population density being sparse. The most striking example is the arid belt of deserts in central Jūhma, where the widespread lack of reliable water sources limits population.

The largest metropolitan area in the United Republics, and on Eventoa, is the one extended in the northern part of the state of Mūṣokahīqa, centered on Cami, with a population at the latest census of 43,841,303 (1.28.23.57B₁₂) people according to the most accepted definition.

Population growth

Compared to other developed nations, the Confederation has a relatively high fertility rate, with a median of 2.4 children per woman; despite infant mortality sharply declining in the last hundred years (to the point that the country has one of the lowest rates on the planet) and better economic conditions, the fertility rate has not declined that much due to a traditional preference for large families and need for workers in the agricultural sector, as well as because of the widespread welfare programs for parents. Because of the high fertility rate, the United Republics also has the youngest population among Eventoan countries with a high or very high human development index.
As this has been cause of growing concern in some areas, especially the already overpopulated parts of the nation where the largest cities lie, the government has introduced a program of colonization, offering economic benefits to those from the main populated areas who, once reached age of majority (at the beginning of one's 18th year of age, that is, at one's 17th birthday in English age count), settle in so-called “development areas”, states with large thinly-populated areas.

Many countries in Lusaṃrīte and Jūhma apart from the Confederation itself, due to former direct Dundulanyä rule, still have large numbers of ethnic Dundulanyä, for example 24% of the population in Hmruik Sweng, 14% in Kŭyŭgwažķürd and 10% in Sūņdžin-gürd. Noyŭlso (Nolsa in Dundulanyä), the second-largest city of Kŭyŭgwažķürd, is notable as the only city outside the United Republics with a population in excess of one million whose majority is ethnic Dundulanyä.

Health

The median life expectancy in the United Republics is the fourth-highest on Eventoa (after Hmruik Sweng, Othykaz and Norpkardor), being ~74.8 years (~62.A₁₂) for females and ~71.3 (~5B.4₁₂) for males^[D.4]; life expectancy has grown noticeably in the last century after the newest progresses in science were able to finally defeat or find easy cures to many common tropical diseases that historically plagued large parts of the territory.

Throughout the Confederation, due to it spanning two continents, more than 840 different languages are spoken. Dundulanyä functions as the vehicular lingua franca due to its traditional role as the Yunyalailtulu liturgical language, as well as the prime political and cultural role of Dundulanyä societies, and is used in most formal occasions, most written material (even if there is a sizable market of books in vernacular languages), and even in colloquial speech where the speakers do not have any other language in common.
Due to the latter reason, it is generally the lone main vernacular only in areas which were settled by people from all around the country (as many settlements in the dry areas of inland Jūhma or the colder Southern Lusamritene taiga) or cities which only came into the Dundulanyä sphere late and have not developed a local vernacular.

The majority of local languages, known together as vernaculars or tūsahufāni, are non-Dundulanyä languages that coexist with daughter languages of, or creoles based on, Dundulanyä ever since the religious expansion of the Yunyalīlta, the spread of Dundulanyä societies, and the formation of a métis ethnicity. In most of Taktapṣikha and around the Inland Seas (with the notable exception of the Dendāɂneye and some areas of Western Taktapṣikha around the Yuṣṇiya River) the formation of this ethnicity happened so far back in time that eventually only the Dundulanyä-derived vernacular remains; in all other parts of the country, the patterns of languages are similar to ethnicity, even if there is a much greater number of non-Dundulanyä-language or creole speakers than of non-Dundulanyä people, as many ethnically hybrid people are counted as Dundulanyä even if they have three or more non-Dundulanyä ethnicities in their family tree. In fact, large urban areas are predominantly Dundulanyä-vernacular speaking, as are the most densely populated areas along rivers and most of the coasts, while the rural hinterlands mostly speak a non-Dundulanyä vernacular.
Mūṣokahīqa in the northern part of the island of Nāfo, the most populated and most densely populated state in the country, is a partial exception as it is the only one outside Taktapṣikha, Śola, Śubhāla and the North Shore (and minor, sparsely populated areas) where speakers of a Dundulanyä vernacular are over 90%.

Note that, while in cities the main vernacular is most often a Dundulanyä one, due to their generally more cosmopolitan nature they see a larger usage of the classical language in daily colloquial interactions. In the largest cities it is not uncommon to find cultural circles speaking immigrant languages, both vernaculars of other parts of the United Republics and languages from elsewhere like most notably Sundzhian, Kuyugwazian, or various Yombu-Raina languages from Témo.

Due to the respective countries' strategic links, Skyrdagor is the most widely known foreign language, with an estimate of 55% to 60% of people in the United Republics able to use it to some degree. Both Cerian and Hmruik are also known to some extent by around 30% of people in the country.

Geography

Urban green areas and cityscapes

Dundulanyä gardens or nīḍe (pl. nīḍi) or, for courtyard gardens, chir̃e , pl. chir̃i, are an essential aspect of Dundulanyä art and architecture, with gardening (nībḍhayanah) being considered one of the Nine Arts of Dundulanyä culture.
Dundulanyä gardens, traditionally crafted as spaces for meditation and contemplation, are small representations of nature, featuring highly symbolic elevation changes, streams, rocks, and ponds, usually in a meadow or forest setting. Such gardens are meant to be walked in using winding paths (līlta, pl. līltai), typically made of sand, with small bridges across streams or ponds (rarely, a few streams have to be crossed without bridges); sometimes, boardwalks are used as paths, especially where the terrain is humid and marshy, as in many gardens in tropical or northern cities such as Līlah, Dändämämine, or Ṭäleneśāma. Except for areas with arid climates or prolonged dry seasons, water is often a significant component of Dundulanyä gardens.

Gardens are a characteristic of most Dundulanyä cities, with older areas of major cities often having hundreds of them, ranging from very small ones in what once were the backyards of the rich, to extensive ones such as the Gardens of Lalādupṣa Palace in central Līlah or the Moon Lake Garden in Lāltaṣveya. Starting from the earliest, shrine-based function, throughout two thousand years of Dundulanyä history the functions of gardens have been varied, including pure contemplation of beauty, observation of natural phenomena, use as a classroom-like learning space for Yunyalailtulu temple schools, scientific study of plants, and growing of fruits and vegetables in temple orchards.
Today, nearly all gardens have public access, and are places of worship and of relaxation at the same time. Pure gardens (that is, those which are not hybridized into parks) are a typical tourist attraction, from famous ones in large cities to smaller, lesser known ones in countryside towns.

The Dundulanyä art of gardening has spread to the Skyrdagor peoples, who elaborated on that and created the rock garden (which then spread back into the Dundulanyä world as tūrṇīḍe “rock garden” or ṣurṭāgī ṇīḍerān “Skyrdagor garden”), as well as among other peoples of southern Lusaṃrīte and the Hmruik and Lẹẹnọ in southern Jūhma.

Administrative subdivisions

Time zones

Culture

Politics

Economy

The economy of the United Republics is a mixed economy with a strong religious approach dictated by the dominant Yunyalailtulu worldview and by the collectivist past of the majority of the territories during the Three Leagues Period. This approach is a key element of Dundulanyä daily life which is likely more of a cultural reflection on economy, placing emphasis on environmentally sustainable policies and collective instead of individual interest. A key difference is that, in Yunyalailtulu economics, there is a particular focus not on gaining (profit), but on minimizing losses (to the environment); this is typically resumed by Dundulanyä philosophers as pursuing spiritual wealth in opposition to material wealth. For this reason, as well as a general socialist libertarian approach to economy, conventional economic indexes don't represent a complete picture of the economy of the United Republics due to it not representing the different approach to production and consumption.
The majoritary Yunyalailtulu countries of Lẹẹnọbatu and Hmruik Sweng mostly follow similar principles.

Science, technology, infrastructure