Red Ardesch

The **Socialist Republic of Ardesch** (Ardeschi: **Randigach Sollostaren Addreskuen**), or the **First Republic of Ardesch**, also known popularly by its opponents as "**Red Ardesch**", was a powerful empire on western Randros during the Sixteenth Age.

Its capital was the city of Teranchir, where mountains of brick and concrete gave way to towers of glass and steel.

## Factfile

* Official name: Socialist Republic of Ardesch
* Anthem: Hymn to the Blood Rainbow/Rainbow of Blood (Red Tide); Libertines of the World, Unite (Cyber Youth); One World, One Order; The World Will Bow To Me (Anti-theists onward)
* Official motto: Return Hate With Death; Burn With Me! (Red Tide); Paradise of Justice (Cyber Youth); Eternal War, Ardesch Forever (Anti-theists onward); Reign of Blood
* Capital city: Teranchir
* Official languages: Ardeschi, Vanuri (later)
	+ Vanuri is a mixed jargon language formed from different Rifandian groups as a lingua franca and an act of resistance against the Red Tide authorities.
* State religion: none, secular
	+ Local religions include animist cults, esoteric beliefs, Rifandian religions, Buddhism, and Trismegism
* Government: Single-party dictatorship
* Climate: temperate in the middle, boreal in the north, grassland in the east, desert in the southeast.
* Currency: credit/plenche (100 ursee/"bears")
* National Day: June 13 (Revolution Day, Day of the Flags)

## Flag

### National Flag

Its flag was a statement of its founders' ideology:

* Red for war, the blood of its revolutionaries that overthrew the Third Director and established its government, and the working class;
* The yellow or gold border for zeal and fervour in spreading its aggressive ideology against the sin of bigotry (actually opposition to its global utopia) in its existence;
* The ring symbolises reputation, the rays for progress, and together they resemble the shape of a lunar satellite, representing its expertise in science;
* The hexagon represents its national values, which emphasise equality, inclusion, and justice (usually by retribution).

### War Flag

Since its wars against the "buriers of the north", the Kingdom of Maardau, the Socialist Republic of Ardesch designed another flag as its war banner. It was based on the flag of an all-male community of heretics, out of sympathy for their fellow deviants who were executed and sacrificed in peat bogs to the Maardau gods.

The black background symbolizes mourning; the red fork for vengeance and blood, yellow for revolutionary zeal, green for hope and justice, and blue for “the restlessness of the souls of the sacrificed dead”. The fork-like shapes of the bars represent dragons, who in turn symbolize Ardesch’s subversion of “heretics” into its avenging heroes.

As west is considered as the direction of death in Ardeschen culture, its direction as the forks’ orientation represents their ruthless willingness to protect the “deviants” of the world from persecution and murder. That meaning is later interpreted as hatred of the Gauvajut Empire for its “bigotry”, and then as physical war to rule over all of humanity.

This flag became the basis for the flag of the Eastern Enclaves, one of its supporters.

## History

### Early years

During the latter years of the Sixteenth Age, Ardesch was transformed from an arrogant empire wallowing in its advancements to a battlefield between dozens of city-states that emerged from a government crisis. That civil war that took the lives of 70 percent of Ardesch's population led to the rise of a charismatic leader, who styled himself as "The Grand Director". Taking advantage of the fear that their southern Scenarian neighbours would invade them, he unified the broken factions to resist the Scenarians, before embarking on a campaign of sabotage and conquest against the countries of the north to build an empire to challenge the repeated assaults from Scenarium and the global superpower of Tukshara. To enforce obedience throughout his empire, the Grand Director sentenced all of his opponents to hard labour, mostly in dire, slave-like conditions to humiliate them like his rivals did.

After Marnoxai and Rannar aided their ally of Prydain, their defeat of Scenarium's empire caused Ardesch to wage war against its rival Zarijana, until the Grand Director died of a heart attack. His successor directed his wars southwards to rebuild his empire's economy and join a space race, but one of his officers executed him and liberalised the country to develop it further. When an economic crash turned the disgruntled Ardeschen against the Third Director, a militant group used this to overthrow and execute him before taking over the government.

Those militants, known as the Red Tide, initially sought to alleviate their people's alleviating poverty by granting independence to about a dozen nations that Ardesch conquered. But as soon as they were free, some of those nations in the north decided to execute hundreds of suspected "deviants" and "heretics" -- and the most infuriating incidents that sparked more waves of Ardeschii military strikes involved ritually burying suspected athiests and homosexuals alive in peat bogs by the militants of Maardau.

The rulers of Red Ardesch then sought the support of two rising communistic empires in the far west over the northern ice wastes, Red Darros and East Tukshara, so for a while they emulated the two regimes. When the Chairperson of Red Darros noticed that Red Ardesch's policies were not in line with hers (such as the tolerance of recent private businesses and the promotion of homosexuals), she broke off relations with Red Ardesch, and East Tukshara's continued support for the latter split it from her regime.

### Secessions

Irritated by their government’s ever-increasing restrictions, dozens of eastern provinces rebel to create the Republic of Pure Lotharesch, where they execute hundreds of "race traitors" and "deviants". In another fit of rage, the Ardeschi rulers waged war against the breakaway realm, trying but failing to kill its reform-minded dictator for his ties with the previous regime. As they noticed the rebel leader being supported by his allies in Zarijana and the countries of Darros, they turned their forces eastward to bombard and raid their cities in a roaring rampage of vengeance. The bereaved inhabitants of those ruined settlements along the Darroskei coast turned to the protection of another empire — the Slavonian Brotherhood — and with it they fought back against the Ardeschi attackers and their Reddist allies in the northeast.

Lotharesch was not the only realm that tried to secede from Red Ardesch. Other than the southern and eastern provinces, parts of the western coasts revolted to create their own nations: the Republic of West Ardesch and the Liberos Coast, known respectively as "Green Ardesch" and "Black Ardesch" after the colours of their flags. West Ardesch was established by dissidents who sought social justice under a true democracy, while Liberos was founded by absolute-free-speech advocates and anarchists who emulated the pirate-ruled Libran Isles off the eastern Gauvajut coast. Both of them fought bloody wars for their independence, and support for those two realms wrenched the western provinces out of the Ardeschi government's control. With them went Palguenia (Pelarin) and adjacent realms, who also threw out their Ardeschi rulers in swift and unpredictable revolts.

To add salt to Ardesch's wounds, an educational film about a society that oppresses heterosexuals triggers international outrage against Ardesch, fearing that Ardesch might impose the same conditions towards them. Also, a certain Ardeschi scientist flees arrest to the Gauvajut Empire, where his Rho-Pill (a modification of a recreational drug) was spread and used throughout the world by governments to "cure" non-heterosexuals, out of fear that Ardesch will invade and conquer them. In response, the government of Red Ardesch created the Loi-Pill, which was used not only as a recreational drug, but also to punish anticitizens by mutating their minds, tormenting them.

### Decline

In 1999 16A, two-thirds of Ardesch's population is of foreign origins, having absorbed or abducted almost all of the world's refugees. This led to hundreds of resistance movements against the government's strict laws, who used the artificial language of Vanuri as their lingua franca.

After fuelling its furious campaigns, the economy of Ardesch broke down, plunging its millions of irritable inhabitants once more into poverty. Although this allowed its enemies to quickly seize its outlying territories, they were stopped once the Cyber Youth took power. Under the Cyber Youth, the economy slowly recovered, and with the newer technologies grudgingly accepted as gifts from Zarijana and the SB, it advanced into another space race. It, in turn, was overthrown by the Anti-theists, who outlawed religion due to the Utopianist cults sabotaging their society from the restive southeast, triggering waves of religious refugees who fled to the dissident republics of the west.

With the Anti-Theist regime in power, the Ardeschi government became more hostile against the outside world, seeking to avenge various atrocities throughout history by imposing its own world order. It waged wars against several dictatorships elsewhere to forcibly end whatever offensive policies, whether by sending soldiers to install puppet regimes by force or bombing nations accused of "bigotry". In many of their new colonies, the Ardeschis improved infrastructure, healthcare, and education, but they were very harsh against the locals, forcing them to obey the Ardeschi way. These attacks escalated into another world war, when the Ardeschi rulers declared that they must rule the world to punish humanity for their sins. Their goal was to establish a world-spanning empire, where humanity is brought to a rigid, harmonious Ardeschi society under harsh, cruel laws: either to scare its denizens into obeying their vengeful rulers, or to kill as many opponents as possible.

Through a naval invasion of a duchy at the Paharal Jungles to answer Liberosian pirate raids, Ardesch also gained a new enemy over the ocean to the west: the Gauvajut Empire, whose prime minister Pahhurkas was embittered by an incident when a drunk Ardeschi activist threw bottles at him. This ancient civilisation was outraged by Ardesch’s retributive laws, its deviant society, and its belligerent campaigns, that its people revile it as “a land of dragons and demons” and mistreat Ardeschen dissidents as though all of them were as heretical as the government that they opposed.

Seeking to seize control of the Eastern Enclaves and subjugate the Gauvajut Empire, the Anti-theist rulers of Ardesch sent armies of neon-haired clones to attack the Gauvajut nation and conquer it. Some of its commanders hired sorcerers from Black Ardesch, to use their spells to destroy the Gauvajut civilisation: however, some of their spells backfired and destroyed them instead.

While wars raged in nearby lands, Ardesch opened its borders to more waves of refugees and migrants from war-torn and impoverised nations from across the world, but most of them refused to assimilate and cooperate with the rest of its people's society. It was taken over by the Technocrats, who ordered the implementation of a micro-chip system to deter crime with just a simple electrocution. The chip system infuriated the Utopianists so greatly, that they launched more attacks against Ardesch and its now-diverse citizenry. Copies of the micro-chip were spread throughout the land with nanites in the rainwater, and they quickly resolved their crime problem within three nights by making their subjects more docile. Some even had cybernetic parts growing within their bodies, as they sought to “perfect” themselves using more and more of their government’s implants, and it caused yet another civil war that hastened Ardesch’s downfall. Others modified their bodies to make them more androgynous to celebrate their "rejection of gender", to the outrage of several foreign countries.

Eventually with the help of its hacker teams, the Utopianist cultists took over its capital and waged a war of extermination against its half-mechanised people. This triggered westward waves of Ardeschi refugees fleeing from the Utopianists’ genocide and the rogue automatons that emerged from their killers’ chaos. Some of those nations refused them, a few shot them on sight, and most (like their Gauvajut enemies, after Pahhurkas’ convincing) grudgingly accepted them: either way, many of those realms hated them more for their leaders’ policies.

However, resistance movements broke out within occupied Ardesch itself, pushing back the outnumbered mobs of Utopianist militants to the east, until the last Utopianists perished at Zarijana. They and the surviving Green Ardeschens created a new republic of Ardesch, which emulated its western neighbours. The Second Republic of Ardesch, along with the Keystone Islands and Verucci, became the only nations on Randros with a significant Rifandian population: eventually, these ended up with six mixed ethnicities.

### Legacy

Although the First Republic of Ardesch had good intentions — to ensure justice for the oppressed and the downtrodden, or to eliminate crime and enforce harmony — how its successive governments interpreted those intentions stained their legacy in the records of the present. While the restored Ardesch is currently a decent realm, its name was invoked as a warning among the nations of Jerde and a spectre to be avoided, lest they become fanatical in an obsessive quest for justice. Its supporters -- associated with its worst deeds and their desire to dominate the world -- were mocked to this day in folk myths and festivals as caricatured goblins and ghosts, joining forces with other legendary monsters in parades to attack the living and plunge society into chaos.

It became a thousands-years-old ghost that plagues the modern Ardeschen nation's reputation to this day: many dislike it for its unacceptable policies (to their beliefs) and fear that it might one day try to rule the world with an iron fist, while those outcasts that it would have protected celebrate it in a smaller scale to avoid attacks. Its birthday -- an anniversary of a revolt against an earlier conformist society and once a celebration of relentless progress -- is now Jerde's equivalent of Walpurgis Night and Halloween, "honoured" instead by mocking songs, burning effigies symbolising its past misdeeds, and prayers to ensure that its ghosts will never rise from the dead to conquer the earth.

Some paranoid societies even went as far as view the words "politeness" or "being a nice person" (especially when applied to those protected by Red Ardesch) as euphemisms for "submit to Ardeschi rule", and therefore banned these words and the concept itself from their societies. In their leaders' rage, they have instead advocated rudeness, more cruelty, and total war as their form of resistance to anything perceived to be "Ardeschi": examples included the Jauparturnid Dynasty and their successors, the Wannaenid Empire. Sometimes, they even tried to become "beyond human" out of their hatred of Red Ardesch's concept of "humanity", that they ironically tried to replace their own human bodies with cybernetic implants.

As some of its warlords used sorcery to attack the Gauvajut Empire, they and their soldiers were infused with magic, and they reemerged from death as powerful wraiths. These malevolent spirits were believed to be the instruments of the gods to punish the Gauvajut Empire for attempting to impose a hive mind upon all of humanity. However, as undead ghosts, their hatred of the Gauvajut Empire (that has fuelled their miserable souls) has become corrupted into a hatred against all humans, to punish and kill all life on Jerde for their sins. Some spirits of Ardeschi warriors even became demons, using their newfound powers to destroy the world: whether to continue their campaign of dominance, or unknowingly used by more powerful demons to corrupt sites of magical power and establish an infernal regime on Jerde.

## Successors

### The Terran Tyrants

Some of the Terran warlords who were summoned two thousand years later became the indirect successors of Red Ardesch and its infernal predecessor, whether by location or brutality. These included the Red Collective, a communist empire; the Pure Sons, a brutal racialist autocracy; the Ironlords of Grossweissreich, which nearly slaughtered everyone on Western Randros as "weak"; and the Liberators, who used their own torment as their motivation for defiant brutality. The surviving Ardeschens opposed all of those, mourning and dreading the Terrans as their own imperial sins given form and license to slaughter them and the whole world.

Eventually, many of the Terrans were weakened by the catastrophic global war that followed. The surviving Terrans were forcibly expelled from Randros, as their lesser losses made them seem as if they might risk slaughtering the frightened locals. They joined the enemies of the Denlotia in burning hatred and defiant zeal, while their slain joined the infernal armies of the undead.

### The Denlotia

In an ironic twist, the civilisation of the World Alliance, later known as the Denlotia, also became one of Red Ardesch's many dreadful successors. Like Red Ardesch, it is more focused on enforcing order, although it was more oriented on eliminating poverty, hedonism, wastefulness, mischief, and brutality.

As much as the Denlotia fiercely opposed Red Ardesch and its methods, the Denlotia had became no different than the tyranny that it fought against. Eventually, the Denlotia collapsed after a viral infection killed much of its people, whose mutations weakened their immune systems.

### Klesha

After the collapse of the Denlotia, another empire emerged in the southern hemisphere. The island of Klesha (Kitasa) was unified under a regime known as the Worker State, basing its doctrines on Red Darros and the teachings of Tolsyn, Armaud, and Lostoi. The Worker State claimed to be the only legitimate government for the whole planet, waging wars to conquer all of humanity under a world government. Opponents called it the Kleshan Empire.

In the conquered lands, the Kleshan rulers improved infrastructure, education, and healthcare, and they reduced poverty by forcing the poor to work under decent conditions. Enemies of the state, from dissidents to richer people, were sent to labour camps where they built engines under crude conditions. The Kleshan rulers restricted many freedoms to force their subjects to adopt the Kleshan mindset, by continuously working and praising the State. Although the World Government provided entertainment for its citizens, luxury was viewed as an abomination.

It was supported by activists and politicians who believed that the Kleshan regime would improve their living standards when their existing societies failed, even if it meant that their freedoms will be lost. The Kleshan Campaign lasted for 181 years until the defeat of the World Government on Klesha.

The Kleshan World Government disliked Red Ardesch, condemning it as a "petty tyranny of brats" because it waged wars for the sake of revenge instead of uniting humanity under a single regime. Its warriors also fought against the undead spirits of Ardeschen warriors, who condemned the Kleshans as "soulless" for enforcing a form of conformity. It also cursed the Denlotia, its direct predecessor, for its supposed backwardsness instead of waging war to establish a global communist state.

## Government

Throughout its existence, Ardesch's government was a single-party state, ruled by a Chairman or a President selected among several other candidates within the Grand Party. The Chairman or President ruled for one term of only five years, although a few exceptions ruled for decades as military commanders. Until the coming of the Cyber-Youth, all other political parties were banned, but when they were permitted they were required to be obedient to the Great Party to "prevent reactionary, capitalist, and oppressive actions".

In spite of this, four successive factions ruled Ardeschi society: the Red Tide, the Cyber-Youth, the Anti-theists, and the Technocrats.

* The Red Tide emphasised more on diversity and inclusion, and bringing justice to the oppressed by any means necessary;
* the Cyber-Youth was more focused on technological innovation and reform;
* the Anti-theists sought to destroy all religion, spirituality, and bigotry as "poisons to humanity", and to impose a brutal world regime to force humanity into a utopia to avenge various atrocities throughout history;
* and the Technocrats used the high rates of crime in their time to justify forcibly and instantly "advancing" humanity into a race of cyborgs, without any form of distinction to divide them.

## Military

Throughout its history, Red Ardesch's armed forces consisted mostly of soldiers produced from cloning farms, as its rulers feared the possibly of a robot rebellion and takeover.

Four notable unique units in Ardesch's military include:

* Dorikral - Youngsters who formed bands to raid and loot the colonists in the eastern provinces using motorcycles, fast tanks, scimitars, machine guns, repeater rifles, and rocket launchers. Many of the dorikralee had neon-dyed hair, and they lived in warbands or olbi communes.
* Kregaldo - The dorikral's western counterpart. They also consisted of youngsters, but also of various male, female, and nonbinary clones created to fight and punish hostile countries. Like their dorikral counterparts, they dyed their hair in bright colours, but being clones, they only thought of sports, killing, marching, and labour; unlike the citizens who led, commanded, and fought alongside them.
* Raautesdor - The "liberators", heavy soldiers of Red Ardesch with shields and lance-guns. Citizens who chose to be trained professional fighters, shock troopers to support the kregaldoee in their attacks by bursting into the enemy ranks. By law, they replaced their dolourful hair with grey dye (their officers used red dye) to represent their obedience to the Ardeschi state.
* Tolsynpel Templars - Fanatical warriors who swore by the philosopher Tolsyn to establish a world regime to punish all forms of injustice with corresponding brutality.

## Economy

In its earlier years, Ardesch's government tried to enact a centrally-planned socialist economy, emulating Red Darros' pattern for a while until it rescinded as they noticed on how their role model treated its minorities and its allies. From that time on, it tolerated cooperatives and smaller private businesses, which were taken over by the government when they grew too large.

Ardesch's economy transitioned from agricultural and industrial to a technologically-based society: while Red Darros collapsed because of its slow innovation, Ardesch was able to catch up with East Tukshara as it embraced technological advancement, until it was almost about to outpace Rannar and the Tuksharan Empire as the third most powerful on Jerde.

Major economic decisions in Red Ardesch were determined within five-year cycles that continued until the country's destruction.

During the Red Tide's rule, heterosexual Ardeschis of native descent were required to pay an extra tax that was paid to assist minority citizens, or that was donated to former Ardeschen colonies to help their economies rebuild.

## Society

See also: Ardeschi language, Ardeschi glossary

Ardeschi society was meant to be revolutionary *and* inclusive, and most importantly to exact justice for the oppressed. It ran in six principles:

* equality (baselle),
* accountability (axtaschtae),
* everlasting inclusivity (ellevnae voronns),
* equity (vecchirle),
* retribution (vassavar),
* and (social) justice (vas'chigrenda (sollons)).

In later times, the fifth value is replaced by innovation (further research on technology or re-applying rediscovered archaeotech), or permanent revolution in the sole case of the Anti-theists (militarising their society to "liberate"/wage war against backwardsness and religion across the world). In practice, the founders of Red Ardesch intended their society to be an inversion of the previous regime's privileges, mostly to punish the former rulers and elites.

The harsh form of socialism used in Ardesch was influenced by three philosophers: Tolsyn, a Darroskei writer; Armaud, a Palguernian general; and Lostoi, the second Chairman of Red Darros. Although they were not worshipped in Red Ardesch, they are honoured with golden statues and marble busts of them set up all over the country.

Anything perceived to be "supportive of tradition" was considered as "oppressive" in Red Ardesch, such as traditions based on the male-female division (such as knights fighting dragons to save princesses, or depictions of males as warriors and females as servants), ancient literature, and hymns to ancient gods. During the time of the Red Tide, suspected "supporters of tradition" were banished to secluded towns, jailed, fined, or put to labour camps, but since the Cyber Youth took power, many of those harsh punishments were abolished as some "traditions" were tolerated.

### Treatment of non-heterosexuals

One of the few good things Red Ardesch ever did was its better treatment and protection of non-heterosexuals, more so than in most of the world. Yet even as this was boasted and bragged by its army and supporters, militarism and fanaticism took over the communist state, that even the very people it claimed to protect were mobilised, indoctrinated, and even punished for various mistakes and failures.

Greater information about Red Ardesch led to more people turning away from the empire: not as liberators, but as abusers who cared more about power, killing, and rage. Unfortunately, initial support for Red Ardesch among some demographics, especially young adults, led to a number of behaviours and forms of entertainment being banned and prohibited as "Red Ardeschen".

The fear of Red Ardesch also led to the spread of the Rho-Pill, as many governments wrongly assumed that any non-heterosexual would inevitably turn to Red Ardesch. This, along with the Red Ardeschi mistreatment and conscription of Eastern Enclaves denizens, caused the peoples of the Eastern Enclaves to *oppose* Red Ardeschi tyranny and make their country a refuge for all non-heterosexuals across the world.

### Cloning in Red Ardesch

Red Ardesch used cloning to create its citizens and soldiers, quickly replacing and multiplying those that were lost in wars with more members to build and fight for its mission. Due to this, its people were more sexually-open, as they did not need sex or pregnancies to produce more members. Another reason for the high amount of sexuality in Ardeschi culture was it being a rebellion against the Directorist regime.

### Social groups

According to Ardeschi law, the basic unit in society was the citizen as an individual. They can inhabit either one of three social groups, which functioned as bigger units:

* workhouse - a single building or a compound consisting of its residents, mostly single people or youths who refuse to start a family of their own.
	+ This group was more common in the cities, where many young adults preferred other pursuits (such as cooking, crafting, or sex) instead of starting their own families.
* family - a household of three adults of any gender with intimate relations between all three of its members.
	+ Existing communities were allowed to keep their families, while individuals who wanted to start their own new families were required to find two people to marry with.
* commune/olbi - a group of any number of adults with multiple close relationships towards each other, usually as a group. Every member of a commune is married to all the other members.
	+ This group was more common in the eastern provinces, where young people formed groups to fulfill their fantasies and attack the locals as a sport. These raiders were former guerillas and allies that were sent east to raid the locals as a reward for cooperating with the authorities. They were later joined by excess clones that were not used in active military duty.

### Public holidays

Public holidays in Red Ardesch included:

* New Year's Day (January 1, extended to three days on every five years),
* Memorial of Directorist Atrocities (January 30, Red Tide rule),
	+ That day was celebrated during Directorist rule as an anniversary of their usurpation.
* Technology Day/National Day (February 27, Cyber Youth and Technocrat rule),
	+ That day was the birthday of a scientist who improved faster-than-light travel. Abolished during the Anti-theists' rule, but reinstated as Red Ardesch's national day when the Technocrats too power.
* Women's Day (March 8),
	+ That day was celebrated by giving gifts to women and romantic trips, replacing the fertility festival of Stavurcha (June 12).
* Spring Equinox (March 21),
* ~~Day of Renunciation/War against Religion (April 14, Anti-theist rule),~~
	+ Commemorates the Utopianist terrorist attacks. Mass burnings of religious scriptures and idols were done on that day.
* Workers' Day (May 1),
	+ That day was celebrated by putting red banners around trees.
* Memorial of Persecutions (May 18),
	+ That day, when a mass execution took place under the First Director, was selected as a memorial to all dissidents who were persecuted during the Directorist regimes.
* Red Book Day (June 2),
	+ That was the day the Darroskei philosopher Tolsyn published his book, "The Worker's Utopia". To celebrate that day, Ardeschis march on the streets, showering statues of Tolsyn with petals and confetti.
* Summer Solstice (June 21),
* Day of Reorganisation (July 12, Anti-theist rule)
	+ The Ardeschis burn the flags of enemy nations. They declare to the rising sun that their nation will rule the world, and that humanity will repent and pay an agonising price for its sins.
* ~~Day of Renunciation/War against Religion (July 13, Anti-theist rule),~~
	+ Religious icons and objects were burned on that day, commemorates the invasion of Zarijana. Abolished during the rule of the Technocrats.
* Day of the Flags/National Day/Revolution Day (June 13, Red Tide rule),
	+ Colourful and red flags were waved to honour Ardeschis of different identities, the working class, and the Grand Party, respectively. That day was when the Red Tide overthrew and executed the Third Director, beginning Red Ardesch's existence.
	+ Opponents of Red Ardesch's warmongering celebrate a different day to honour people of different identities, July 8, as the Day of Resistance. That was the day when a commune fought back against an Ardeschi commander, liberating their own country.
* Autumn Solstice-Purple Day (September 21-23),
	+ Formerly a festival held to celebrate birds. Purple flags were flown on that day.
* Openness Day (October 11),
	+ That festival was held to celebrate Ardeschis who "have renounced gender for freedom". Abolished during the Anti-theists' rule, used again during the Technocrats' rule.
* All Souls' Day (October 20),
	+ Formerly a traditional festival held for the protection of the whole nation, under Red Ardesch it became a festival dedicated to people of different identities. Abolished during the Anti-theists' rule.
* Winter Solstice (December 21)

On Memorial Days, Ardeschis were required to wear black, and no entertainment was to be held on those days. Festivals that had been abolished by the time of the Utopianist conquest are crossed out.

### Miscellaneous

The Red Tide government also instituted various laws that were considered "odd" or "extreme" by most other nations in its time, even its own allies:

* Suspected "anticitizens" were barred from most legal jobs (except menial ones), and were banished to communities where they were isolated from the rest of society until they "repented" of their beliefs: some were also sent to the eastern provinces, where raiders pillaged and harassed them for sport. People were also labelled as "anticitizens" for supporting Ardeschen traditions.
* Freely welcoming former colonial subjects and immigrants from its allies to take up its then-growing amount of jobs to compensate for the slavery of the Ardeschen Empire and build its economy, while convincing native Ardeschis to become a minority in their own country as "justice". Red Ardesch was among the few nations on its time to do so, aside from (ironically to a lesser extent!) the Gauvajut Empire.
* Many ancient and traditional Ardeschen arts were prohibited as "abusive against minorities/women/the disabled", unless they could be subverted. Consequently, only two forms of art were allowed during the rule of the Red Tide: a stern style like that of Red Darroskei propaganda posters; and a curvy-lined, milky style for younger viewers.
* Quotas were mandatory in various works of art and all businesses, so to ensure that women and minorities would at least have a job.
* All families were required to have three adult partners of any gender in an open relationship. Single people lived in workhouses, with fees and amenities provided by the government.
* While the native Ardeschen religion was suppressed for being used by the Directorist regimes and the earlier emperors for keeping minorities disenfranchised, minority religions (like animist cults, esoteric beliefs, Rifandian religions, Buddhism, and Trismegism) were legal.
* Many words in the Ardeschen language were replaced to make them more "gender-neutral" and "inclusive". At first, there were severe penalties for using "oldspeech", but they were abolished due to the Red Tide's war against secessionists and Zarijana.
* Ardesch should have "Ardesch*i*" instead of "Ardesch*en*" as its new, gender-neutral adjective.

Many of those laws were abolished when the Cyber Youth took power, as the Cyber Youth sought better relations with other countries and to rebuild their country's war-exhausted economy.

Even though Tolsyn, Armaud, and Lostoi did not intend to be worshipped as gods, many people in Red Ardesch pray to them and invoke them for victory against their enemies. The government of Red Ardesch tolerated that custom as a sort of battlecry to make them hate their enemies more, although anyone caught actually worshipping them and offering to idols of them were arrested.

## Trivia

* This nation was inspired by:
	+ the Soviet Union (if it were partially-run by leftist Americans from the 2010s rather than Stalinists),
	+ East Germany (if it replaced the Soviet Union and became its own empire),
	+ the United States' attempts to stop communism or install puppet regimes by military invasion,
	+ the Soviets' war in Afghanistan and support for various communist guerrillas and regimes worldwide,
	+ American leftist movements on Twitter and other websites,
	+ the New Atheist movement and its members who pick fights with fundamentalists,
	+ pop culture/Internet caricatures of communism, "social justice warriors", and "political correctness/the regressive left" by American conservatives; what would had happened if they were more focused on taking revenge and becoming more powerful; and how conservative societies reacted to such attempted changes,
	+ the Malayan Communist Party, and the author's fear that if it won it would had imposed a Khmer Rogue-style genocide and made Malaysia very poor,
	+ American society in the 2010's.
* The Worker State, also known as the Kleshan Empire, was based on the Soviet Union and Marxists on Twitter.
* When he first thought of Red Ardesch in 2019, the author believed that those latter movements and their activists were trying to rule countries by altering society.
	+ Ultimately, this idea was derived from a story that the author planned to write in which a protester from Ardesch ("The Slug") attacked a Gauvajut diplomat. When the diplomat became Prime Minister, he tried to contact the protester, but the protester answered only with rude remarks glorying his country and cursing at the Gauvajut Empire. After being rejected by his fellows for his poor behaviour, the protester was killed while fighting a Utopianist invasion of his country.
	+ That, in turn, was inspired by the author's experiences in Yahoo Answers in 2016-2017, in which he got into fights with a white nationalist troll at the Other Cultures and Groups section who mostly answered with crude insults.
* The war flag of Ardesch was partly inspired by the rainbow flag.
* Once Red Ardesch's government was established, copyright was abolished as a "capitalist" waste. Technically, all Ardeschi artistic works then belonged to the government, and therefore its people, allowing *anyone* form anywhere to use (or steal) them freely (so long as they did not offend the fickle authorities). That was one of the few "benefits" of Red Ardesch to foreigners, if there were any.
* The workhouse, a Red Ardeschen practice, was not only brought back during Denlotian times, but survives to this day because it effectively reduced poverty by giving the young and homeless a comfortable place to live as they find work.

## See also

* Ardesch, for its modern descendant
* Denlotia, its more-powerful and ominous successor
* Ioratin and Ajoltar, two modern nations with not-so-similar beliefs
* Earth Union, its Rinnarverse counterpart