Zaire

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**Zaire**, officially the **Kingdom of Zaire** (French: *Royaume du Zaïre*, Kisanganian: *Zaire dya Ntotila*) is a constitutional monarchy located in the southern half of Africa. It is currently led by the king Angabuta VIII and its Prime Minister Luyinda Kasongo.

## Etymology

The country's name in French, *Zaïre*, was derived from the name of the Congo River, which was derived from the Kisanganian word nzere or nzadi ('river that swallows all rivers'). It was then translated to the English "Zaire", which was also translated to *Zaire* in Kisangani.

## History

*The history of Zaire is mainly centered around Kisangani. BZF means “Before Kingdom Foundation”, AZF means “After Kingdom Foundation”*

### Migratory Period (~40000-3200 BKF)

Over the years, humanity migrated to different places, starting from Ethiopia. However, it took them many years to reach the Congolese rainforests because of the unusual environment. They reached the rainforests in 40000 BKF. Tribes started to form around 8000 BKF in the north of the Congolese lowland forests, with earliest evidence of migratory movements between the E'kai and the E'man. Kisangani was founded around 4000 BKF by the E'kai.

### Early Tribal Period (~3200-2600 BKF)

The earliest tribes known in Zaire are the E’kai, a group of tribes that shared a language family known as E’kaian. These tribes shared similar cultures, but it is unknown what relations they shared with each other. This period lasted for around 600~ years, when the Kianda Empire conquered the area. This was the first advanced civilization to populate the area.

### Kiandan Period (~2600-2450 BKF)

Although the Kianda Empire was referred to as advanced, it barely had any advancement compared to the tribes. They discovered iron tools and agricultural machinery. A big competitor to the Kianda Empire was the Um’kami Azanate, which grew to a large size, hidden in the Congolese rainforest. These two nations eventually went to war for unknown reasons, but the Kianda-Um’kami Wars lasted well over 60 years. The oldest battle was recorded in this war in Old Kisangani (the settlement’s real name is unknown, but it was in the now Kisangani). The Um’kami lost the war, but this also made Kianda highly unstable, which caused it to collapse afterwards.

### Warring Period (~2450-2200 BKF)

After the collapse of the Kianda Empire, many tribes emerged from the leftovers of the empire. Many wars also happened because of the now even higher instability in the region. A popular example of this is the Mauria-K’qman Wars, which were also the longest wars in this period, lasting over 100 years. A museum was dedicated to the study of this period, since it is theorized many of the current day culture emerges from this war, which brought many advancements and technological achievements to the region, but this was still not the biggest boom in technology. One important detail that this period had, as mentioned before, is the cultural advancement that influenced massively in the current Kimbanguism. This Warring Period ended when the Kagakq tribe conquered half of the region and the other half was conquered by the Kinsanganian Kingdom, the dominant tribe.

### Kisanganian Period (2200-1000 BKF)

     This period was the longest in the history of the region. The period starts with the rise of Kiamuba I, who led an army of Kisanganians to invade neighboring regions. For the first 50 years, Kisangani had claims over an area twice as big as current-day Zaire, spanning a territory from the Congolese rainforest to the Zambian plains. Later on, the country experienced a rise in population, up to around 300k thousand people. This supposedly also caused high instability in the country, so the child king Oroka I decided to implement the first ever democracy in the history of Zaire. This sub-period was also known as the “Democratic Ages”. There was a representative of the State whose decisions were chosen by the people, but this system turned out to be a flawed democracy where the king often intervened. Meanwhile, outside tribes put pressure to the oversized Kisanganian nation with skirmishes around the border. To keep defending the country, Oroka I started to recruit in masses, which resulted in a further instability of the country. When Oroka was around 60 years old, he was killed by unknown swordsmen, who were rumored as the 3 Legendary Qmaii (Kisanganian: “Swordsmen”), but they never revealed themselves. His son Oroka II ascended to the throne and reverted many of his father’s wrongdoings, starting by removing the mass recruitment decree.

However, the flawed democracy was still put in place, which caused some rebellions to take place, alongside the other tribe rebellions south of the country. This sub-period, named “Kisanganian Rebellions” had two important groups in place: The Ha’ngyaq (Kisanganian: “Saviors”) and the Yaban tribes (Kisanganian: “Outsider”). The Ha’ngyaq in the north had very low support from the people, which caused them to be overwhelmed by the royal forces, and were pushed back to a fort deep in the Congolese rainforest. Meanwhile, the Yaban (outsider tribes inside Kisangani) had an advantage in the south since the troops were focusing north, plus only 20% of the population there were Kisanganian natives. Nonetheless, they were still pushed back by a portion of the royal forces. Oroka II, who was nicknamed “The Pacifist”, decided to deal with the rebels by giving them more autonomy, officially founding the “Yaban Autonomous Region”. Meanwhile, the rebels in the north surrended to the royal forces, but some of these rebels hid in the rainforest to ambush royal forces and resist constantly against them. Shortly afterwards, Oroka II created the “Yaban Council”, where the non-Kisanganian tribes gathered to discuss the decrees as an autonomous region. The flawed democracy was also disbanded but it was never replaced with an alternative system. Nonetheless, the king’s approval boomed.

A few years later, Oroka II died for unknown reasons and his child Angabuta took the place. Angabuta I conquered the tribes surrounding current Lake Victoria, and was nicknamed “The Conqueror”. Like Oroka I, he was abusive towards the Yaban tribes, and even removed their autonomy. The economy also crippled due to the massive terrain Kisangani now had. He was eventually killed by his own people, and Nibui II took his place. This begins the sub-period named “Ancient Dynastic Crises”, which consisted in the constant coronation of new kings as they kept either giving up the throne or being killed by a rebel. Over 23 monarchs were killed in the course of this period, which caused the Kisangani Dynasty to almost be killed, but 3 of the children survived. The Kisangani Dynasty was forced to go into exile because of the turbulence in the country. They were replaced with the Ho’fu Dynasty, which was a friendly family to the previous dynasty. The first to be crowned in the Ho’fu was Umat I, a rich child who was nicknamed “The Child” because of his childish behavior when he became an adult afterwards. However, he had a dark side many were aware of but few spoke of, and he was a religious zealot that sacrificed his own people just to satisfy his religious prayings. This lasted for 15 years until a rebellion killed him when he was on his way to another city to sacrifice more people. Stability kept trembling because of the differing monarchs until many years later, when the king Kok’mi IV seeked to conquer more lands, but he was eventually killed by a Yaban rebel, who was executed shortly afterwards. This caused the Yaban to be persecuted by his brother Zaida II who was crowned later on. Instability dropped and the Yaban decided to rebel for their independence. Zaida II offered gold and treasures to some of the tribes there, but only a few tribes accepted the bribe and betrayed their brothers. Nonetheless, the Yaban managed to defeat Zaida II and obtain their independence, which spanned a territory that was over half of Kisangani’s. This was a lethal hit to the country’s stability which was already on its downfall. Zaida II, who fell into a depression, gave the throne to his newborn child Kakai.

Kisangani then enters its last sub-period, which is named “Great Crisis”, which, as its name suggests, enters another crisis. Although it starts right after the crowning of Kakai, the crisis actually begins a few decades later, when an old Kakai died from a heart attack and his child Rouk I succeeded him. With most of Kisangani’s territory lost to outside tribes, a crippled economy and fragile stability threatening the existence of the country itself, Rouk decides to make a tough decision by securing the country’s borders and increment the production of raw materials and sell them to friendly tribes which now evolved to advanced civilizations like kingdoms. While this contributed to the economy, it didn’t contribute to the stability, and one last rebellion arose, which started the Kisanganian Civil War, an important event that decided the fate of one of the strongest ancient Zairean empires. The civil war was short but influential in the country’s history, where the rebels won and the once feared Kisangani Kingdom was finally over.

### Tribal Unification Period (1000-150 BKF)

This period was vague when it came to politics, but the region was culturally flourishing with new traditions and religions. Philosophy became the main topic for a while when people theorized about the existence of God and the origin of the world. At some point, the last tribes remaining in the region were conquered by the United Kingdom of Saru’ka-Bata, with origins in the coast. They came from the Gulf of Guinea, with completely different cultures to the Kisangani. They were also one of the main influences to Zaire’s today culture, and brought fishing knowledge to the natives. This country was later succeeded by Saru’ka, which split from Bata.

### Kingdom Transition Period (150 BKF - 1 AKF)

This was the last period before the Kingdom of Zaire was formed. In this period, art and culture developed further and Kimbanguism was founded on 79 BKF. Kimbanguism promoted the existance of God and philosophers deepened into the religious world and merged their ideas with Kimbanguism’s. Meanwhile Saru’ka’s economy was constantly having ups and downs, and democracy was finally implemented a second time, converting the kingdom into a constitutional monarchy. The Saru’kan Council was founded and presided over country decisions such as infrastructure, laws, trading, among many other things. By 10 BKF, the country’s economy crippled like it never did, and riots became uncontrollable. 10 years later, a man by the nickname of Amauq (who’s real name was never revealed) declared a coup d’état to stop the country’s state from worsening. The Kingdom of Zaire was then founded.

### Present (1 AKF - ongoing)

Amauq dissolved the Saru’kan Council temporarily to ensure control was in place. He also demobilized the military and fixed the economy over time. Shortly afterwards, the Kisangani Dynasty returned to power, but still weak in legitimacy. Around 15 years later, democracy came back and the Zairean Council was founded. Two new political parties arose: The Democratic Party and the Fatherland Party. Shortly afterwards, it peacefully annexed the Republic of Bata in the coast and the Principality of Baliko'mara in the Congolese rainforest. In the year 2 AKF, King Frar'kan III and gave the throne to his brother Angabuta, the eighth Angabuta. In the year 3 AKF, the Fatherland Party was reformed to the Zairean Labour Party. The Democratic Party disbanded a year later, leaving the Labour Party was the only party in the country. Elections came eventually that same year and the Labour Party won every possible vote. Under the leadership of the Prime Minister Zadio N'kunga, Zaire acquired the Gulf of Guinea islands.

## Geography

It is located in the Congolese rainforests, in the southern half of Africa. Due to its complex geography, it is also hard to travel through the country, and there's only one road that connects from one side (Kisangani) to the other (Bata). It also has a few volcanic islands off it's coast that belong to the Cameroon line.

## Culture

It is a diversed country when it comes to culture. According to recent statistics, 65% of the population is from Kisanganian descent, 20% is from Batan descent, 10% is from Balimaran (Baliko'mara) descent and 5% is mixed of European, American and other Congolese tribe descents.

### Kisanganian culture

The traditions of the Kisangani exist from many centuries back. Current Kimbanguism is a descendant of Christianity but also a mix of local traditions that transcended from the ages of the Kisanganian Kingdom and the Warring Period, especially from the K'qman tribe, which is arguably the closest relative to current-day Kisanganian culture. One of the most popular festivals is the *Dieu-loue* (French: Praise God) which is done every December 28th, only 4 days after Christmas. According to the local tradition, this is not related to Christmas and it's simply a close coincidence, even though they share similarities.

### Batan culture

This culture is distant from Kisangani's, but it is also largely similar when it comes to beliefs. For example, they both share Kimbanguism. Batan traditions are based on the acceptance of death and the joy of living, which has also contributed to Kisanganian philosophy back in the Kingdom Transition Period. Batans are also experts in fishing, and even incorporated this practice into their culture. An ancient local goddess named 'Kamana' is the Goddess of Fishing and she's said to bless whoever prays to her with luck and feed her people with fish.

### Language

There are two official languages: Kisanganian and French. French is rather used as a communication medium between the dozens of tribes in the country. Batan and Balimaran also have independent languages but they're both largely similar to Kisanganian and they are a small minority despite its culture making up 30% of the population.

The use of French in Zaire began in 250 BKF, when the French landed in Bata to trade with the natives. Rumours spread about this language around the region and the king Zadio I of Saru'ka-Bata promoted the use of French in literature and decrees. In 233 BKF, a new decree named "Decree of the French Language" promoted the teaching of the French language in Zairean schools, with the support of French linguists.

### Calendar

BZF means “Before Kingdom Foundation”, AZF means “After Kingdom Foundation”. This means that year 0 was in the foundation of the Kingdom of Zaire. Out of character, the calendar starts the reset starts. Every week equals to a year, which means there's elections every ~4 weeks or 4 years in-game. However, every year before 1 AKF is considered lore of the nation, and it never really happened.

## Settlements

* **Kisangani** (French and Kisanganian: *Kisangani*) is the capital and largest settlement in Kisangani. It is located east of the country and is one of the ancient marbles of Zaire. It was founded with an unknown name in ~2600 BKF, and has been expanding ever since. It has 1,754,300 people in the 4 AKF census.
* **Tree** (French: *Arbre*, Kisanganian and Balimaran: *Íntimbaza* lit. Tree City) is a tree city in construction in the depths of the Congolese rainforest. The project started around 20 BKF and became a controversy because of the ecological problems that come from it. However, when the Kingdom of Zaire was founded, the king approved this project and paid money for the construction of this city. There are still come movements that protest against the deforestation of the rainforest in favor to this city.

* **Bata** (French, Batan and Kisanganian: *Bata*) is a village in Zaire's coastline, and is also the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Bata, which was absorbed by the Kingdom of Zaire. It features different types of modern buildings, although they all mostly use either jungle logs from the jungle or oak from other countries.
* **Amauq** is a hamlet to the west of the country and named after the founder of the Kingdom of Zaire.
* **Bitam** is a hamlet to the west of the country.

## Trivia

* The Kisanganian Language is inspired by the Kikongo language, spoken in the coast of DR Congo and Republic of Congo. Most of the names of monarchs were invented, though some of them come from other language
* The events prior to 1 AKF (28 December 2022) were invented and are part of Zaire's lore. The events from 1 AKF are from ingame events but fictional names are used to keep consistency in lore.