Ardesch

**Ardesch** is a large nation at western Randros.

It is bordered by Rexoria, Pelarin, and Krinaretz to the west; Verucci to the south; Hothro and Archonia to the southeast; a vast plain to the east; and Harolan to the northeast.

## Flag

The national flag of Ardesch consists of a green banner with a chariot and its warrior and steed in yellow outlines. The green background symbolises happiness, and the rider and his chariot symbolise progress: the rider depicted is most likely one of Ardesch's solar gods, possibly Azejon, and his steeds are "sun-horses" having burning manes that supposedly raced across the sky. Alternatively, the rider is interpreted as King Herimann, founder of the well-known incarnation of the Ardeschen civilisation.

## Geography

* Melbjokar, Melbjorek (capital)
	+ Near the sacred hill of the Herucxa, the royal dynasty of King Herimann.
* Herimann Denskeal
	+ A rebuilt ancestral hof-temple of marble to King Herimann, unifier and founder of the Ardeschen civilisation.
* Ersatsch
	+ A southeasterly province. Homeland of the Ersatschen, a fierce shepherd dog with a wolfish appearance.
* Skealor
	+ A large city in the southeast. Known for its splendid horse-racing stadiums. One of two hubs for international racing championships.
* Valtend
	+ A mountainous city at the southeastern border. Known for being the birthplace of many famous composers and violists.
* Nyril
* Esk-embor
	+ A town in the south. Known for its Kadwanta portion and their love of chariot races. The other hub for international racing championships, boasting twenty-eight hippodromes.
* Ruxaar
* Blackened Woods
	+ A forest of darkened leaves seen as the domain of mysterious gods.
	+ During the Sixteenth Age, it was named after the fiery destruction caused by the Tuksharan flying fortresses, and the Ardeschens' cannons that shot down said castles into the strange mountains that jutted against a new sea of leaves.

## History

Ardesch was one of the oldest civilisations on Jerde.

In the Fifteenth Age, it was home to several tribal kingdoms that united into a elective league of monarchies.

### Sixteenth Age

See also: Ardeschen Empire, Directorist Ardesch, Red Ardesch, Black Ardesch, Green Ardesch

During the Sixteenth Age, Ardesch was reunified into an empire under King Herimann, who repelled Romulian attempts to conquer his realm. Herimann later ruled with his sons as the Herucxan Dynasty.

Ardesch expanded into an empire, seeking to challenge Tukshara's flying cities. The Battle of the Blackened Woods, named for a great forest levelled by a cannon fight, was the greatest of Tukshara's battles against Herimann's fledgling civilisation, ending with a pyrrhic victory that left behind many fallen castle-peaks covered with new forests. When that empire collapsed, it was replaced by several successive dictatorships: three fascist tyrannies, and four socialist tyrannies that managed to surpass the predecessors in size and might. Among these empires' opponents were hundreds of Ardeschens who operated at Kikori far in the south, who returned to their homeland to help local rebels establish the republic of Green Ardesch.

Ardesch became a very tragic victim of two later disasters - during World War III, several warlords summoned the dreaded Terrans, who slaughtered many Ardeschen people in the warlords' attempts to "purge" the nation of corruption and their own unworthy people. Later, after being healed by the World Alliance, it was the first nation to be infected by the Pandemic of 3900, and in spite of its efforts to stop the pandemic from totally exterminating humanity, Ardesch was blamed and hated, accused of spreading the plague to build its own empire. Its people were tortured and murdered by the hundreds by angry mobs and furious armies, and the country was isolated after the last patient was murdered.

Some Ardeschens joined the Kleshan Empire in their attempt to take brutal revenge against a world that hated them for what their ancestors did. These fools were killed off by the ghosts of Red Ardesch, who fought against the living Kleshans. After that, the Ardeschens wanted more peaceful ways to convince Jerde to forgive them.

The Ardeschens became a very miserable people after that, as they felt that the great death unleashed on their homeland was a punishment from the gods for their cruel empires' sins. These were why they conduct rites against the spirits of the empires' hordes, sealing them into cursed pits so they will never again be unleashed to build an infernal empire on earth.

After the end of the Reorganisation War, it was Ardesch's survivors who began cloning the dead, bringing millions of people back to life as ever-youthful immortals. Tragically for those restored ones, they were much younger than the people whom they remembered and loved. Saddened by watching their loved ones die, many of those immortals swore to Herimann to serve and guide the Ardeschen people as fellows, not rulers, until they would finally be freed by their deaths. They, and those in the future, believed that for their righteousness, Herimann brought them to his paradise among the stars.

### Later history

The space colonies of Ardesch's former space empire broke away, forming several independent human states.

During the Sarmelonid Empire, its rulers waged war on Vozolaz and killed the first emperor, Sarmelon I, in battle. They lost, and the Vozonid Empire remained independent.

During the reign of Ratirminoz, at the end of the Sarmelonid Empire's time, Ardesch was under the rule of the Imaus Corporation.

Vovtarla, an alien nation, adopted Ardeschen art and military rites from several human colonies.

When Thralond conquered and enslaved Ardesch, its people were able to fight back as they were given divine strength - their god, Herimann, still loved them and never forgot about them. Through their rage, the Thralondian enslavers were forced to make Ardesch autonomous, allowing their homeland more freedom to help their neighbours break away after the Wraithstorm. The Ardeschen space colonies also aided their earthly kin's war of independence and aided the reconstruction of the region.

One company, Telbaren, handled payments in the late 19th century AT. But it was also notorious for its poor customer service and tendency to send agents to punish people who fail to pay debts caused by irritated customers, the "wolf agents", who robbed the failed clients until they reached bankruptcy. One of their banned customers was a young man, a victim of a scam, who became the first King of Bujan. When several Telbaren agents wished to operate in Bujan, he immediately ordered them to leave, and banned their company from the entire kingdom. Later, Bujan's neighbours also prohibited Telbaren from operating there, accusing Telbaren of hosting Wannaenid and Tornarin elites, from their enemies and oppressors. That, along with newer payment programmes, led to the decline and dissolution of the company in 1911 AT. After its leader was arrested for fraud, he had to pay a huge sum as a fine. His remaining funds for his now-defunct company were seized, and returned to Bujan's and Irajon's denizens. Meanwhile, the scammer who robbed Bujan's first king met his end at a pirate base, where he was beaten by gangsters to a pulp.

## Demographics

"Diversity has a limit. If there is too much diversity, Ardesch is no more, but it will become a different nation utterly alien to us. We would rather live in free Ardesch than to live as foreigners or thralls. On the other hand, we must not make ourselves too powerful or mistreat our brethren of other blood, lest we become like our demonic ancestors."

Most of Ardesch's peoples belonged to thirty-six native Ardeschen "tribes", nineteen local "tribes" of other related peoples, and thirteen "foreign" tribes. The largest of these "tribes" (or ethnicities) is the Doridran tribe, which consists of 68% of Ardesch's population. Significant local minorities include the Doertaren of the southwest, the Haarlanders of the northwest, and the Aipalyndrien of the east.

The nineteen tribes are mostly of Goidelic, Norse, or Heronoi (Epadwaranai) descent. Eight are Goidelic, two are Scenarian, five are Norse, and four are Heronoi. A "twentieth" tribe exists for anyone who is born from mixed families between the nineteen tribes and/or the native tribes, and in the 1900s the local all-blonde Arnadjanai (and anyone of Arnadjanai blood) were classified as a twenty-first tribe due to their presence in the country.

The "foreign" tribes of Ardesch are tolerated by most natives as "fellow-compatriots", even though their neighbours strongly disapprove. Nonetheless, they only resulted in six or seven "mixed" tribes, while the rest of Ardesch remained "pure of blood". They mostly consisted of descendants of prisoners of war or immigrants during the Sixteenth Age or later. Five of these "foreign" tribes are of Rifandian origin, two are Zarijanian, and the other six are of mixed ancestries. The most significant tribes are the Kenzwedi, the Kadwanta (Kikorin), and the Daerasei (Zarijanian).

In spite of this separate classification of ancestries, people from different tribes freely interact with each other. Some foreigners denounce this as blasphemous against the ancestors, while others laud it as an example of harmony.

It also managed to be actually "harmonious", as its own people tend to take punitive actions against any criminal of any race, making it more difficult from criminal gangs to infiltrate the country. Another reason for its "harmony" could be due to the influence of Ardeschen culture towards the foreigners, making them less violent and more cooperative. This, however, did not stop gang wars from breaking out in some of the larger cities: whether from poorer natives or from jealous foreigners.

In spite of their tolerance (or even love) of foreigners, and even though they consider some non-Ardeschens to be "brothers", Ardeschen society is nationalistic. While many Ardeschens do not mind mixed marriages, they consider any proposal to replace the Ardeschen majority with another ethnicity or race as a serious offense, as "treason" against their country. That also includes "mass immigration", unless if said immigrants are of Ardeschen origin, even though they resettled non-Ardeschen migrant waves in the past which led to the thirteen "foreign" tribes of their country.

## Culture

See also: Imperial Ardeschen glossary, Ardeschi glossary, Ardarisch glossary, Modern Ardeschen glossary, Ardeschi folklore

Ardesch is the birthplace of jousting.

### Classical Ardeschen culture

"Classical Ardeschen music" is played with a piano, a violin, a cello, a harpsichord, and some trumpets.

"Classical Ardeschen fashion" involves dresses and suits, with top hats for men and bonnets for women.

### Regional Ardeschen cultures

Doertaren - forest folklore

Ersatschen - dogs and wolves

Haarlander - sea and rivers

Helterglin - chariot races for the sun gods, horses

Aipalyndren - castles, violins, and beer

Kadwanta - chariot races, zebras

Daerasei - veneration of the angel Anahita, river processions

## Religion

See also: Ardeschi folklore, Ardeschen religion

Ardesch's national religion worships various solar gods, and the most popular of these deities was Azejon.

Minorities exist in

## Trivia

* Ardesch was inspired by Germany (which it is supposed to represent) and its Bronze Age cultures. Its religions and gods were based on the Trundholm sun chariot.
	+ The Ardeschen Empire was based on the Belgian and British Empires; Directorist Ardesch on Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain; and Red Ardesch on the Soviet Union mixed with American leftism and the United States of America.
	+ Doertar - Baden-Wuttemberg
	+ Ersatsch - Saarland
	+ Haarland - Lower Saxony
	+ Helterglin - Hanover
	+ Aipalyndren - Bavaria
* Ardeschen "classical music" resembles the classic music genre from Europe, such as the music of Beethoven and Bach. The "formal Ardeschen culture" resembles that of Victorian England and the German Empire up the end of World War I.
* In the Sixteenth Age, many spirits of many evil and cursed people were doomed to become tormented, hateful ghosts and demons.
	+ The souls of the Green Ardeschen were believed to have ascended into stars that protected their modern descendants, while the ghosts of Red Ardesch and its armies of clones were doomed to haunt the earth for their many attempts to enslave or destroy humanity.
	+ In addition, the souls of the Terrans who tortured and slaughtered them were dragged to Hell, where many of them were tortured into becoming demons.
	+ The many spirits of people accused of spreading the 3900 Pandemic were doomed into being spirits of disease, forever cursed to be tortured by the same disease they unknowingly killed others with by how many people who died because of their actions.
* Rifandian Ardeschens are *not* "Black Ardeschens", unless they are citizens of Black Ardesch (who can be of any race). In the case of Rifandians who reside in Black Ardesch, they are correctly known as "Rifandian Black Ardeschens".
	+ On the other end, Kikorin has five large cities inhabited mostly by Ardeschens descended from traders, horse racers and farmers, intellectuals, artists, and composers who were invited during the Sixteenth Age. These Ardeschens provided resistance movements in their ancestral homeland, whether against the Ardeschen Empire or the Directors and Red Ardesch; who regarded them as traitors.
* The sad state of Ardesch during the latter Sixteenth Age, such as the many deaths that its people suffered under, may had been inspired by xenophobia against Asian people during the Covid-19 pandemic and the book "Germany Must Perish" by Theodore N. Kaufman. The author himself is Asian, and he felt pity when the hatred of Ardeschen people reminded him of that book.