Sugondis

The **Federation of Sugondis** is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordering China, India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Its capital is the city of Kandis, housing only 30,000 citizens. Less than 1,800 km^2 in area, Sugondis is a small country, isolated but stern, known primarily for their export of Sugondese nuts.

## **Etymology**

The origins of the name ‘Sugondis’ have been lost to history. Some suspect the legendary first king of Sugondis, Sakhon, may have acted as the namesake in some long forgotten dialect. Others argue the king’s name was a later advent, or that the names themselves are unrelated.

## **History (please expand)**

Sugondis has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years, based on archæological findings in the Valley of Sakhon.

Since their emergence in the 1990s, Sugondis has been ravaged on and off by the Taliban. As of December 2021, the Taliban has largely ceased activities in Sugondis and focused its efforts on Afghanistan.

In 2007, an outbreak of HIV emerged in Sugondis, believed to have first emerged from an infected tourist bleeding into the Kandis Public Swimming Pool. All swimming pools, as well as many bodies of water, were closed to the public for weeks in an attempt to mitigate the outbreak. As is typical during plagues, various Sugondese clergy paraded across the country in traditional health and safety swastka formations.

## **Religion**

Sizable numbers of Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus inhabit Sugondis, with sizable Sikh, Jain, Bönpa Christian, and Tengri populations also present. Historically, the Sugondese maintained a policy of state religious patronage inherited from the Mayuras and Mongols, with Sugondese kings coming from varying religious backgrounds. Upon severance from the Raj, Sugondis has maintained freedom of religion as a core tenet.

Sugondese Hinduism is the oldest religion in the nation, with Sugondese copies of the Vedas and retellings of the Ramayana dating to the third century CE. Holi celebrations, imported in the 16th century, typically consist of throwing nuts at passersby and

Buddhism arrived in Sugondis around the 11th century from Tibet. Today, only one lineage retains ties with their Tibetan ancestors, the Nyingma. The other three, Ligma, Sugma, and Dzchö, are native in origin. Dzchö is the most iconoclastic, bearing some resemblance to Sufi Islam with its rejection of idols and minimalist ritualism. Unique to the school is the mantric chant of “Hai Dzcho”, literally “Who is Dzchö?”. The chant is used to promote reverence and concentration on the end goal of Dzchö, or spiritual perfection. Ligma and Sugma derive from different interpretations of the venerable Tsongkhapa’s teachings, making them brothers to the Gelug school of Tibet.

Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Sugondis’ Islamic population, having been introduced in the 12th and 13th centuries from lost silk road traders. Native to Sugondis is the Suq’mandiq Sufi order, operating under a noticeably pluralistic framework that at times partakes in the traditions of other religions. Many Suq’mandis found solace in identifying with later Sikh, Ahmadiyya, and Bahá’í groups during periods of persecution. Many Suq’mandis and Suq’mandi mosques were attacked by Taliban operatives in the early 2000s, as well as other places of worship.