Tukshara

**Tukshara** is a nation located at the northwestern part of the continent of Laron.

It is located to the west of Afangurun and Tamatura; northwest of Daizhou; north of Eibeq; and northeast of Darros across the ocean.

## Flags

### Tuksharan Empire

The flag of the Tuksharan Empire is a purple and gold rectangular banner. While those of the modern age admire it as a beautiful standard, it was feared in the olden days as a banner of tyranny and exploitation.

The purple background symbolises the Tuksharan Empire's quest for power; the orange and blue bars represent persistence and determination against the ever-changing times; and the star (for the Emperors) and eight lines between the bars represent its Buddhist religion, especially the Noble Eightfold Path that its later rulers had neglected.

### Republic of Tukshara

The flag of the desert Republic of Tukshara is a rectangular banner with several stripes: red for courage, green for harmony, and white for freedom and progress. The yellow bar to the left symbolises wisdom and Tukshara's own variant of the Buddhist religion.

## History

The Tuksharans were a branch of the same people who crossed the northern polar continent, with the other main branch becoming the Slavic peoples. An ancient language used by their ancestors was a liturgical language in both continents.

In the Seventh Age, the Tuksharans independently discovered gunpowder some time after the Daizhouvians to the east.

In the Eighth Age, the two-headed Aspuruk aliens invaded Jerde and set up despotic regimes to mine its resources, but were soundly defeated and repelled. As the decimated Aspuruk hastily retreated to their homeworld, they left behind a lot of their technology. Most of Jerde's peoples destroyed those alien machines as they tried to avoid being contaminated by their source, *rytoryntar* or *fireglass*; but five civilisations in the Far West refined that mineral into a safer form. It allowed them to safely use and replicate the invaders' machines and fuel, making them more advanced than the rest of the world -- Daizhou, Darros, Tukshara, Kikori, and Dashadesha.

All of them, except Dashadesha, proceeded to build their own empires using their plentiful resources, and hundreds of mountains were levelled down to build flying cities and starships to build their own domains in space. Though they would had considered taking over the rest of Jerde, they were prevented from doing so by a series of inauspicious omens supposedly from their gods.

It was only during the Fifteenth Age when the Three High Realms -- Daizhou, Darros, and Tukshara -- sought to gain more territory on Jerde, but of these the Tuksharan Empire was the most successful. They were about to dominate the continents of Freyrgard, Palkyras, and Randros, when the locals instead built their own machinery to defeat them and drive them back to the Far West. The same fate befell upon its Daizhouvian rival to the east, whose emperors were displaced by another dynasty for their military failures. Influenced by and attracted by communists from nearby Darros, the eastern half of Tukshara split off to form a communist state.

Modern Tukshara is a united republic.

Some of the flying cities had crashed or settled at various islands around the world, and they splintered into their own nations. Said countries became the stuff of legend, being the setting of exotic placeholder nations in fictional works.

## Geography

Tukshara's land mostly consists of desert, with cool forests in the north and northeast, and temperate mountain forests in the southwest.

The Yo River forms Tukshara's southeastern boundary with Daizhou.

### List of locations

* Torpän
* Kroräna - capital
* Cirwän
* Näcce
* Certwa
* Wrasen

## Demographics

See also: Tuksharan calendar, Tuksharan language, Tuksharan glossary

The Tuksharan people are peach-skinned and having fair-coloured hair and eyes.

## Religion

See also: Tuksharan mythology

Most Tuksharans are Buddhist, although they also venerate native deities like the sun goddess Svoncha and the earth goddess Kaume.

## Trivia

* Tukshara was inspired by the Tocharians of northwestern China. The author also added Indian elements to represent Hindu influence in Tuksharan culture, somewhat like Roman-influenced cultures in Europe celebrated Roman mythology.