Quardex

Quardex is a country located in southern Zapita. It was founded in 2028 after the fall of Dingland, inhabiting the territory of the failed state. It's known for its beaches, pragmatic government, and neutrality in foreign affairs

## Government

Currently, Quardex is set up as a representative republic. It has a general legislative body of 100 members called the Heads of State, serving terms of 5 years on a rotating schedule in which 20 seats are up for election at the end of each year. The 101st member, the Head Consulate, acts as a figurehead and leader for the Heads of State. They vote on tiebreakers and are voted generally in a nationwide election every 6 years. The inaugural and current HC is Thomas Nookington, serving on his second term.

## Geography

Quardex is located in Southern Zapita, a geopolitical region including Inkland, Uskistan, Marxonia, and Zenitharia. Quardex is disputably the 2nd or 3rd most powerful nation in the region. However, Southern Zapita is known for its relative stability compared to the rest of the continent.

Quardex is categorized by three major regions. The first, the Coastal Region, is the most populous. It contains the capital city, Altima, and a majority of tourist destinations and major cities. The area is also a hub for trade, as the port cities bring in goods shipped from around Ulina. The second is the Desert Region, which is home to the city of Mutar. The area has a highly religious culture and is a stark contrast from the developed and modern Coastal Region. The last, the Frontier Region, makes up the other 50% of the nation. It contains all land gained after the founding of Quardex. It has some larger cities rebuilt from ruins of Cortsania, but is mostly a large and uninhabited desert.

Quardex is an equatorial nation that gets extremely hot during the year and very mild during the winter, making it a popular tourist destination. The area is also off a large bay.

## History

### Founding

Quardex was founded on January 14th, 2028 after the fall of Dingland. The now unified nation, unwilling to risk any further divides or civil war that may damage the fledgling nation, agreed to make Thomas Nookington the inaugural Head Consulate due to his moderate political views and pragmatism. Liberal and conservative sects saw this as a compromise until their parties could gain power. What they did not forsee was the Centrist Party rallying around HC Nookington and becoming a third major party quickly into Quardex's existence.

Merely days into its existence, Quardex signed a psuedo-alliance with the then-nation of Cortsania. This move was taken to keep Quardex close with its neighbors despite Cortsania's questionable reputation on a global scale. Not long thereafter, Quardex also signed a free trade clause with the communist nation of Larinde to promote free trade and help kickstart Quardex's economy.

Early Quardex struggled with sustaining its population. Food was scarce and water was extremely rare and expensive inland. With an abundance of seafood quickly taken advantage of by coastal citizens, a divide began to grow between eastern Quardex and western Quardex. Similarly, a rivalry between the eastern capital of Altima and the most major western city of Mutar began to grow. It wasn't until months after the founding of Quardex that a national plan was put into place for irrigating the western part of the country, and by this time, many lives had already been lost.

To later improve economic and cultural stability, Quardex partnered with Sans Marino to bring in SANS Air to Quardex, improving shipping times of products and exports of Quardex goods. Quardex also allowed the Quardex School of Magic to be built in Altima, courtesy of Notogi. However, many of its teachings were brought to Mutar and retaught for occult practices.

### Pollution and Uncertainty

During the Pollution outbreak, Quardex initially planned for refugees to come to Quardex. The initiative was passed in a 81-19 vote in the Heads of State, yet never truly came to fruition. With Pollution's quick spread, Quardex was impacted first with its fishing industry. Seafood eaten was seen transmitting Pollution, and widespread panic lead to anarchy. HC Nookington was taken to a secure location during this time as the population of Quardex began fleeing west, causing more unrest in Mutar, who again felt they were not getting the same treatment. The lack of general stability also lead to an outbreak in herpes for the domesticated camel population, dragging down this domestic industry and crashing Quardex's economy.

By the time the Pollution Crisis was solved, Quardex began to vote for liberal candidates into office. In the first general election, the Centrist Party gained many new seats. This was also seen poorly by people in western Quardex since the area is generally more conservative. However, with popular vote, they felt taken advantage of. A Kaiju museum sponsored by Kaijukahn built in Calchester was used to try and raise public moral.

As tensions boiled, new and more liberal initiatives were passed by the Heads of State. The crowning jewel was the new lottery initiative. This new law allowed government-approved stores to issue receipts that give lottery numbers for a monthly government-sponsored lottery. Proponents of this bill said it lessened black market trading while its adversaries said the government was expressing too much power.

Another movement starting to break out in Quardex was environmentalism. Rapid industrialization had seen many native flora and fauna pushed to endangerment or near-extinction. For 2030, more environmentalist candidates were elected than ever before.

In March and April of 2030, large-scale protests broke out in Mutar. Various marches and strikes brought national and global attention to the issue of wealth disparity between east and west. As a result, more funding programs were instituted to try and equal the playing field around the nation.

### Militarism and Expansion

During the Larinde-Iron Coast Conflict of 2030 that forced to the ending of the Larinde free-trade agreement, and prompted by growing imperialism of great powers, Quardex began to militarize in the name of defense. The rationale was if Quardex is strong, it will not be seen as a country to be taken lightly nor invaded. A 1% overall tax was implemented on all taxes, and government spending was rapidly cut in funding to pay for a growing military. This again angered people in Mutar.

Later the same year, Quardex created a formal Air Force, including several purchases for known-aircraft specialist Feumina. This, along with a growing military and navy, allowed Quardex to quickly grow at the expense of infrastructure and cultural initiatives. As a result, a new National Zoo was built to raise morale and appease people of the growing environmentalist movement as a way to educate the populace of the importance of ecology.

In 2031, following the fall of Cortsania, Quardex claimed new western lands. This again helped solidify Quardex as a legitimate nation to the global theatre. These new lands included the rare Blue Cactus, a previously-thought extinct flora species that was harvested for its hallucinogenic properties. The government quickly began a protection program for wildlife in the new lands, using this cactus as a "poster-child" for this new movement.

### Globalism Era and UNDO

While mainly being an isolationist nation early on in its life, Quardex began to branch out after its militarism. Quardex began trade deals with the new nation of Caprica for its medicines, which helped to stabilize illness in the poorer areas of the nation.

Even more notable, Quardex began establishing major foreign embassies, including the nations of Mikini, Vodovia, Notogi, and New Mytra, the latter coming with a trade deal to bring in more naval vessels. This allowed Quardex to branch into the international community and lead to more prosperous relationships era. The global view of Quardex during this time also started to become more positive and HC Nookington began to be seen as a good leader. Domestically, this lead to the repel of the previously-established two-term limit for Head Consulates, allowing HC Nookington to run as many times as he wants.

Arguably the most important move for Quardex was joining UNDO, the Unaligned Nations Defense Organization, in hopes of opposing newly formed confederations. Specifically, Quardex was concerned with Overwatch, a new federation spearheaded by Caprica, and its rapid militarization. This lead to Quardex increasing its own military and entertaining the idea of a space force. However, UNDO was the major geopolitical move, as Quardex joined other nations afraid by a rapidly declining world. This also helped to improve Quardex's relationship with Mikini and Vodovia even more and helped reassure Quardex in a stable southern border with Inkland.

### One Week War of 2032

In 2032, prompted by a Bongo and Rodania invasion of Renova and intervention by Quardex allies affiliated with UNDO (Notogi, Vodovia, Mikini), Quardex declared war of Rodania and Renova. This move was head-scratching on a global scale and lead to some confusion in Quardex, as many people couldn't even point to any of these countries on a map if ask. However, HC Nookington supported the move as a way to reassure our close relationship with our allies.

With such swift intervention and more threats of ramifications for all nations involved, specifically from Great Hegi, the war ended less than a month after it started. This lead the conflict to be mockingly named the One Week War and prompted Quardex to be more patient before declaring war in the future. The war officially ended after Quardex signed the Treaty of Pikoto, allowing no war between the parties involved for five years.

### First Election

Post-war, Quardex continued to expand their military. Part of this was a new military canal and base to be sponsored by new-ally New Mytra. On New Mytra, Quardex had yet to have a bad interaction with the nation and felt securing the support of a popular power was important. Quardex also traded with Sturmwalle for some anti-aircraft guns for defense and signed an embassy with the nation and Exshire for cyborg camels.

Quardex also had major liberal breakthroughs, the first being the legalization of recreational marijuana. The vote for legalization was controversial (55-45) and allowed for both medicinal and recreational marijuana use and selling with an additional excise tax added on all marijuana-based products. Quardex also created the Federal Environmental Sustainability Program (FESP) as a plan to move to totally renewable energy and promote recycling. The program lead to almost immediate effects and a quick turnaround to make Quardex an extremely green nation.

During this time, there were also several international conflicts. First, the DTT began its short-lived Chunglish genocide, which Quardex quickly and harshly condemned, leading to permanent distrust of the nation. Quardex also made a statement on the Ninoto War, colloquially named The Great Zapita Shitshow. The war between Catsborg and Kiberia also began during this time, which Quardex remained firmly neutral in. Despite this extreme neutrality, Quardex remained strong militarily and also tried for new diplomatic relations in Zapita. An embassy was established in Pinyin and Quardex also was the first nation to sponser DSAU, the no-kill animal shelter program sponsored by Shiberia.

During this time, the race in Quardex's first Head Consulate election was on. Incumbent Thomas Nookington ran under the Centrist Party for the first formal time and opened to high polling. Carrie Filbert, young political guru of the Liberal Party, also ran, polling fairly high and was predicted to put up a fight against the popular incumbent. The conservative wing supported Right Party leader Bartholomew Crumpleton, an old and seasoned politician. However, his somewhat traditional social policies were unpopular in Quardex due to the social reform experienced in the past few years. Crumpleton polled low throughout the whole election cycle.

The 2034 Election (which actually took place in 2033, but is called such since the inauguration of the Head Consulate is on the first day of the new year) was not very close. Incumbent Thomas Nookington, touting social reform and an improving economy, won with 53% of the vote. Carrie Fisher took in a respectable 34%, and Bartholomew Crumpleton won a measly 13%.

### QEI (Modern Day)

In 2034, Quardex officially announed the Quardex Extraterrestrial Initiative, which is the nation's new space program. This project was implemented to expand Quardex's influence in a new area in which the country had yet to be. The QEI's first goal, to get a man into space, was accomplished in October of 2034. The Tellus 1 sent a person into space for a full revolution around Ulina before coming back down. This has allowed Quardex to experiment with fully-manned missions to the moons and the construction of space stations.

Environmentalism was still a major theme in Quardex. FESP reported massive improvements in air and water quality. Renewable energy, mainly wind and solar farms, saw an 150% increase in power production nationwide with natural gas seeing a 50% overall decrease in energy production. This stauch environmentalism has become a sense of pride for Quardex, who had been searching for an identity for nearly a decade. Public opinion of environmentalism (and the currrent governmental makeup) rose even more after Quardex signed NSCOT Treaty 3: The Vow of Climate Integrity. Quardex had officially become a leader in global environmentalism.

Despite Quardex's security in this time, the rest of the world was still embroiled in the Kibera-Catsborg conflict, which had grown to include the rest of the Red Dawn Alliance (including Larinde) and NSCOT Treaty 2 members, including Great Hegi and Vodovia, as well as Quardex ally New Mytra. Despite this, Quardex remained a firmly neutral stance while opposing the world war and the Red Dawn involvement. The Heads of State passed the Red Front Embargo 83-17 in mid-2034, banning Quardex trade with all Red Dawn members until the aforementioned alliance refuses to support Kiberia. The border with Marxonia was also tightened and left strict even after Ivan retook power.