Graad

**Graad** is an isola in the world of *Disco Elysium*. It shares its name with the largest nation on its territory.

## History

Graad was one of the many isolas that established contact with Mundi following the discovery of the Insulinde. It is located northeast of the central landmass.

In '02, Graad was the birthplace of the Antecentennial Revolution. The uprising was inspired by the Graadian authorities' inabilities to contain a pandemic of tzaraath, a deadly prion disease. Kras Mazov, economic theoretician and leader of the Communist Party of Shest and Graad, overthrew the government, establishing the Graadian socialist state.

The Mazovian government lasted 6 years, collapsing after a counter-revolutionary movement in '08. As the State Day Palace in Mirova was surrounded, Mazov is said to have committed suicide. However, this claim is disputed.

After the fall of the Revolution in Graad, it was quickly restored back into the moralist world order, becoming a member of the Coalition of Nations and participating in the invasion of Revachol. The Suzerain of Revachol, an exile, managed to live the rest of his life as a venture capitalist in Graad.

In the '20s, a brief period of economic liberalization in Yugo-Graad took place, being known as the Yugo-Graad Spring. The project backfired, resulting in widespread poverty. This poverty, coupled with ethnic unrest and the state's repressive tactics, led to a civil uprising known as the Yugo-Graad Riots, which took place from '27 to '29. The event is often memorized in Graadian art and literature.

Graad is engaged in the South Safre conflict, a proxy war with Safre. It has been hot for 12 years, with atrocities piling up daily. Mostly committed by Graad. Co Hoi is a village that was the site of infamous war crimes. Its name entered common speech as a term for atrocities.

### Notable people

* Ramout Karzai was an ancient hero of Graad, who wore war-paint on his face. He is said to look like Titus Hardie.
* Zygismunt the Great was an ancient ruler of Zsiemsk. His banners were coloured zaffer and white. The image of Zygismunt is often used by Zsiemsk nationalists.
* Julia Dobreva, the Revacholian revolutionary, was born in Graad.

## Ecology

In Yugo-Graad, a cave salamander became one of the cryptids categorized as 'confirmed discoveries' by the Cryptozoological Society of Chemnie.

## Culture

Graad citizens customarily use patronyms: Krasovich, Larsovich, etc. The revolutionaries of the Antecentennial Revolution saw this as a chauvinist atavism, so they used matronyms, derived from the mother's name, instead. The custom was overturned after the Revolution collapsed, but not before making it to Revachol.

Funk is an aggressive resurgence of The New aesthetic of the Revacholian Thirties, but this time originating in Graad. It's brought there by the Iilmaraan diaspora. Funk is more dangerous and guitar-oriented than disco.

Paradox B is a fringe science magazine published in Graad. Its mission is to explain outlandish theories like telekinesis and intraisolary pale, without resorting to conspiracy.

The Graad-Katla Magistral is a Pale transport route that connects Graad to Katla. It is noted for being dangerous and hard to travel. The U41-A connects Graad to Saramiriza.

Well-renowned vodka is produced in Yugo-Graad.

Graadian realism is the isola's national literature. It is known for being extremely depressing and tiresome to read.

People from Graad can be victims of prejudice, and *Kojko* is a common slur used by racists, though many Graadians don't consider it offensive.Other pejoratives for Graadians are *Graadnik* and *Graadvolk*. Emigrant communities in Revachol are also commonly called *Zemlyaki*.

## Technology

The telephone was invented in Graad. Due to this, 001 is the isolar code for Graad (005 is the analogue for Revachol ZoC). 41 is the area code for the city of Mirova.

Orbis is a programming language popular in Graad,used in Occidental countries. It is named after its inventor, the cybernetician Viktor Orbis. Automated games are produced in Graadian factories and studios, alongside Messina and Königstein.

The International Language, or IL, is a language developed by Graadian scientists in the '20s. It connects every letter of the alphabet to an abstraction.

Lickra(TM) was a synthetic fabric developed by Graadian manufacturers in the middle '40s, notable mainly for the swishy sound it makes as the wearer passes by. It's also known to become extremely itchy if not properly cared for and highly carcinogenic.

The Stas-Rajko KK-2 is a legendary Zsiemsk motor carriage. The Ister 50 is a Zsiemsk-made handgun with extreme firepower.

Together with Occident and Revachol, Graad composes a group known as the ORG Nations, which has been attempting to photograph Elysium using low-orbit weather balloons since the '30s.

The modern iteration of Pale studies, known as Entroponetics, originates in Graad.

## Geography

Mirova, Zsiemsk, Yugo-Graad, Shest, and Igaunija are all regions in Graad.

Mirova is the capital city of Graad, as well as the informal capital of the world, replacing Revachol after its destruction. 22 million people live there.

The region of Shest may have Shestaprel as its capital. It also may or may not still have a queen.

Igaunija is a small, independent territory in Graad, which has experienced bouts of microfascism.

The taiga is an iconic Graadian biome.

Yekokataa is an abbreviation from the Graadian term "Zone of Ecological Catastrophe". The area, located in far southeast Graad, was created as a result of a failed agricultural megaproject, involving experimental methods of irrigation and fertilizing. The area supports virtually no plant or animal life, and was used as the site of labour camps during the Revolution.

### Shest

**Shest** is a country on the Graadian isola. During the Dolorian era, the queen of Shest was advised by Dolores Dei.

The capital city of Shest is Shestaprel.

## References

1. ↑ MAP WALL - The ocean breaks apart into a tangle of cosines and azimuths, all pointing into pale nothingness. \*Mundi\* is the north azimuth; \*Graad\* is the northeast azimuth; \*Samara\* is the east azimuth; \*Seol\* is the west azimuth. \*Isolas\*, they're called.
2. ↑ The Suicide of Kras Mazov
3. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "The Coalition of Nations. Graad, Mesque, Vesper, Messina, Oranje and Sur-La-Clef -- the armed centre of the world. They landed here and ended the Revolution. It was the \*moralist\* thing to do."
4. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "The real king abdicated and lived out a long and productive life as a venture capitalist in Graad."
5. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - The Yugo-Graad Riots took place from '27 to '29, fuelled by ethnic unrest and the state's repressive tactics. These events are often seen as marking the end of a brief period of liberalization known as the Yugo-Graad Spring. Like all such periods, it is frequently memorialised in art and literature.
6. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Co Hoi, a village that was the site of infamous war crimes in the South Safre conflict, the ongoing proxy war between Graad and Safre. It has been hot for 12 years, with atrocities piling up daily. Mostly committed by Graad.
7. ↑ Encyclopedia
8. ↑ INLAND EMPIRE - You feel the spirit of Ramout Karzai, ancient hero of Graad, pulsing through you. All that's left is to cover your face in war-paint.
9. ↑ PAIN THRESHOLD - A flash of pain, like slamming your fist against iron. He is stronger than he looks -- and he looks like Ramout Karzai.
10. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - No. Only that the motor carriage is typically baby-blue, the colours of Zygismunt the Great, an ancient Zsiemsk ruler. His banners were famously zaffer and white: the colours of the Stas-Rajko.
11. ↑ STEBAN, THE STUDENT COMMUNIST - "Julia Dobreva came from Graad. Jean Abadanaiz was born in Revachol. She was brilliant, charismatic, a revolutionary comet. He was her partner and stabiliser, the planet who kept her in orbit."
12. ↑ MORELL, THE CRYPTOZOOLOGIST - "Yes -- the Shautauquan forest pygmy who turned out to be an extinct species of primate; and a cave salamander from Yugo-Graad, who is... honestly quite unremarkable. It's in a zoo somewhere..."
13. ↑ TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "The custom started in Graad, where they have patronyms: Krasovich, Larsovich, etc. The revolutionaries saw this as a chauvinist atavism so they used matronyms, derived from the mother's name, instead."
TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "This man's mother was Lilian. He's Lilian's son -- Lilianovich. The custom was overturned after the Revolution failed, but not before it made it to Revachol."
14. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Funk is an aggressive resurgence of \*The New\* aesthetic of the Revacholian Thirties, but this time originating in Graad. It's brought there by the Iilmaraan diaspora. Funk is more masculine and guitar-oriented than disco. Even more \*dangerous\*.
15. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Paradox B is a fringe science magazine published in Graad. Its mission is to explain theories like telekinesis and intraisolary pale, before they get out of hand.
16. ↑ PALEDRIVER - "Thought insertion? \*Dithering\*? The Graad-Katla Magistral?" She savours the lungful. "There's a kind of wonder there -- a \*sad\* wonder. But... at first I had to make a living. Now..."
17. ↑ PALEDRIVER - "Just this month I made half a dozen trips from Saramiriza to Graad, on the U41-A. What do you think they take from Saramiriza to Graad, lawman?"
18. ↑ RACIST LORRY DRIVER - "I don't go for that foreign piss. Proper booze is made in Mundi, or sometimes I like a dram of that Yugo-Graad vodka. Kojko's ain't worth much, but they do know booze."
19. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - He's from Graad. People from Graad don't mind if they're called by their national derogatives. It's okay to call him a \*Kojko\*.
20. ↑ RACIST LORRY DRIVER - "You know: Graadniks. Graadvolk. The degenerates from Graad."
21. ↑ REACTION SPEED - It's what the "Zemlyaki" -- the Graadian community in Revachol -- call a person who never breaks under interrogation. It's an organized crime term.
22. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - 005 is Revachol ZoC -- 001 is Graad, on the Graadian isola, where the telephone was invented. The next two digits you dial are the area code for Mirova...
23. ↑ PAYPHONE - You dial the number again -- as you've done many times. You remember it well now: 001 -- 41 -- 44 -- 47 -- 11 -- 17 -- 361 -- 451 -- 67 -- 451 -- 451.
24. ↑ TRANT HEIDELSTAM - "Mikael's a little tired today. We spent all night trying to run Orbis on his radiocomputer. Have you heard of it? It's a programming language used in Graad. Quite tricky, but he wanted to play this Graad-made adventure programme. We've been getting \*really\* into würms lately..."
25. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Wow, get a load of this guy. He \*really\* enjoys his trivia. The Orbis programming language was named after its inventor, Viktor Orbis, a cybernetician from Graad. They run Vox in the Occidental countries...
26. ↑ KIM KITSURAGI - "Not to my knowledge. They make automated games in Graad, Messina, Königstein... You know, places with industry."
27. ↑ CONCEPTUALIZATION - In what is called the IL -- the International Language, developed by scientists from Graad in the Twenties! Sinus means 'Sign', for example.
28. ↑ YOU - "That's in contrast with the International Language, which connects each letter to an abstraction."
29. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - By 'primo' he means 'possibly carcinogenic'. Lickra(TM) was a synthetic fabric developed by manufacturers in the middle '40s, notable mainly for the swishy sound it makes as the wearer passes by...
ENCYCLOPEDIA - It's also known to become extremely itchy if not properly cared for.
30. ↑ HAND/EYE COORDINATION - That's an Ister 50. A Zsiemsk-made monstrosity. It'll blow your head clean off.
31. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "That's looking less and less likely, detective. You wouldn't know it from the tabloids, but the ORG nations have been launching weather balloons into the lower ionosphere since the Thirties."
32. ↑ JOYCE MESSIER - "\*Entroponetics\*," she corrects, "is the scientific study of the pale. Or a recent iteration of it, by way of Graad. The study of the pale reaches back 6,000 years -- the Perikarnassians called it the Western Plain."
33. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Twenty-two million people live in Mirova, the capital city of Graad. It is the capital of the world after Revachol was destroyed.
34. ↑ RADIO - "Shestaprel, -9° centigrade, overcast."
35. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Off to advise the queen of Shest, most likely. This is the holy suzerain of Mundi and Insulinde -- \*definitely\* not your wife -- you need to talk to her! Think of the historical knowledge you could glean!
36. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Igaunija -- a god-forsaken (and tiny) territory in Graad that has not once, but twice wasted its independence on microfascism. The less said about Igaunija the better. Matter of fact, let's stop saying things about it right now and continue what we were doing.
37. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - It's a Graad name -- Zsiemsk or Yugo-Graad in origin -- not Occidental at all. Smells of motor oil, taiga, economic desolation, and rock music infused alcoholism.
38. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA - "Yekokataa" is an abbreviation from the Graadian term "Zone of Ecological Catastrophe," an agricultural megaproject in the extreme south east of the Graadian isola. It involved cutting-edge approaches to irrigation and a completely new type of fertilizer.
39. ↑ THE DESERTER - "Art is a bourgeois establishment. It's an affront to humanity. Every gallery should be bulldozed and the artists should all be given 30 years of hard labour in Yekokataa."
40. ↑ VISUAL CALCULUS: The Kojkos of Graad (Yugo, Zsiemsk, Shest, et al) are what you would call, white, officer -- in a suspect description.
41. ↑ ENCYCLOPEDIA: Off to advise the queen of Shest, most likely. This is the holy suzerain of Mundi and Insulinde -- \*definitely\* not your wife -- you need to talk to her! Think of the historical knowledge you could glean!
RADIO – "Shestaprel, -9° centigrade, overcast."