Zetrosia

The **Zetrosian Empire** was one of several empires in the world of Earth-96. Its official name was "Velkij Russki Mir Novaja" (VRMN), the "new, great Russian world".

## History

### Soviet survival

In Earth 96's timeline, the Soviet Union lasted longer, although an economic crisis in the year 1996 led to its reorganisation under an Orthodox theocracy.

Likewise, in the 2000's, the Second Civil War broke out in America, causing its division into several authoritarian states. One of them in the east became the theocratic Church of Q. This was also when the Baltics, the Caucasian republics, and Ukraine broke away from Soviet rule, leading to bitterness and hatred of those countries.

Ilgeria and Rooistan are among the countries that broke away from the Soviet yoke, protected by Polish and Ukrainian rebels during the Uprisings of 2000. The death of Supreme Leader Vasily and sudden missile strikes against Soviet formations led to the victory of the independence movements.

World War III broke out decades later, ruining the planet into a hellscape, and causing the backwards survivors to create their own desperate mythologies out of spite towards the perpetrators of the great war.

### Birth of Zetrosia

It was founded from the ruins of its predecessor, also known as "Russia", by the scientist Zetros, who created an elixir that cured many diseases and made his own people immortal. In honour of the Wonderful Man, the survivors started worshipping Zetros as a god. They built a metropolis southeast of the ruins of Moscow, also named Zetros, with a great golden pyramid as his palace-temple.

At the start of Emperor Zetros' reign, the region of Tyrska was bombed by the neighbouring states of Rooistan and Ilgeria. Tyrska once waged a war against the two nations as they were accused of attempting to destroy imperial culture, so the Zetrosians bombed the two countries. Upon seeing the two countries in ruins, the Zetrosians and Tyrskans rejoiced, and people threw parties and danced on the streets. The sudden ruin of the two states drew the attention of the American Empire in the west, leading to a battle between the fanatics in the ashlands of Prague.

### Invasions of Bujan

The Zetrosian Empire collapsed and was overthrown by the Rusinoi, their descendants. Already the Zetrosians were attacked by the Tyrskan Republic, who sought to overpower it as its imperial successor. The Tyrskans were also very angry that the Zetrosians demanded them to adopt their imperial, classical culture, so both empires fought over whose culture to impose on each other.

The Zetrosians' remaining supporters considered the Tyrskans of Bujan as their greatest mistake, a fanatical death cult only to be enslaved by more warmongers.

### Rule over Darros

In 650 BT, Darros was taken over by a Terran majority, who made Darros into the Empire of Greater Rus. The Zetrosians were summoned by an army in Darros, and that treasonous army welcomed the Zetrosian conquerors as bringers of advanced technology. In their arrogance, the Zetrosians sought to expand their empire on Jerde, so they aided their fans at Zvesta (Bujan) further east. They were also defeated in Bujan, but they ruled Darros for several centuries.

The Empire of Greater Rus thrived for only 400 years, where the Zetrosian elites were known as Rusinoi. In its early years, the Rusinoi Terrans established a puppet regime in honour of the Emperor of Zetrosia, until the defeat of the Rusinoi fleets and their Zavtranian puppets led to a coup. What vast wealth and advanced technology the Rusinoi brought to Jerde were undone by the ensuing succession crisis: it was the very reason why the Zavtranians wanted to dominate Zvesta, but the war against the Terrans closed every chance of the Zvestarids willingly allowing any other power to rule them.

In 608-603 BT, Darros was torn between nativists in the southeast, pro-Zetrosian loyalists to their Emperor in the west, and the new emperor of his Zlotosian Revolution in the east. The nativists were very angry that they were now displaced by the Rusinoi Terrans, who took advantage of their kindness to overwhelm their people until the Rusinoi were too many to be expelled. The Emperor renamed his subjects as Zlotosii.

The Emperor of Zlotos prevailed, so any loyalist who did not flee to the portals or other lands were killed on sight. The surviving nativists who were captured were given their own territories, but had less rights than the new Terran majority. They were able to quickly rebuild their renowned, ruined infrastructure, but very slowly due to the loss of so much resources.

Within six decades since the establishment of the Rusinoi Empire, the colonies successfully revolted and took away forty percent of its wealth. The Rusinoi Empire became strong enough to cross the portals back to Zetrosia to take over the imperial government, resulting in what appeared to be a dual interdimensional monarchy. With the end of the dual monarchy in 473 BT, much of the Zlotosians left the country as they followed their new emperors, allowing the now-plentiful Darroskei to take back the east and south.

At around 450 BT, a nativist revolution ended the Terran monarchy. Although the native Darroskei were treated rather fairly, they hated being forced to Terranise their own culture and being subjected to mockery and bullying over the Zlotosii's arrogant attitude. Knowing that the Zlotosii and other empires in their world were notorious for their whataboutism and complaints, and being fed up of such an annoying attitude, the native Darroskei treated the Zlotosii more fairly in later times, hoping to prevent the Terrans from sparking another outrage mob and yet another invasion. Many Zlotosii were given a referendum whether to stay or return to their now-pacified homeworld to rebuild it. Only forty-percent of the Zlotosii remained while the rest just left.

Some Zlotosii tried to expand their empire westward to Sevraeja, but when their empire abandoned them to return to its homeworld, they were defeated and annexed into Sevraeja, where the other Russians there disliked them for their warmongering.

### Ashes to Ashes

While the neighbouring empire of Tyrska fought a wave of Qyuvian crusaders who slaughtered their way into Europe, Zetrosia became poorer as more megaprojects ate up its older wealth. It later lost much of its territory to Tyrskan invasions, while the eastern states of Russia formed a fledgling league. Zetros itself fell to a mob of poor people, who took over and formed the Republic of Pepelia, after a Zetrosian slur that called them "children of ash".

The eastern Russians also built great cities below the ground and in the mountains, which helped them survive the Wannaenid bombardment and slaughter of the world. Meanwhile, the remnants of Zetrosia were on the verge of another revolt, before the Wannaenids destroyed nearly everything in the capital. To avoid the massacres, the survivors moved east and sought the protection of the Yakutian Federation.

The Zetrosian Empire ended in the same way it was born: from ashes, to ashes.

## Geography

Zetrosia consists of much of the Central District of Russia, all the way to the Urals. To the south is Tyrska, and along the border, great walls and fortresses were built to stop Tyrskan "special military operations" and crusades into Zetrosia.

## Government

Zetrosia was a monarchy, with the House of Zetros venerated as living gods.

## Society

Zetrosians emulated Tsarist Russia and sought to modernise its arts to their times.

Non-Zetrosians were subjected to discrimination, from poorer jobs to being nicknamed with slurs.

### The Lands of Ashes

Even other Russians were also viewed as "lower" than them, especially if they did not drink an elixir Zetrosians used to make themselves immortal. The most common term used for non-Zetrosian Russians was "Pepelok", the "Little Ashes", mocking them for their refusal to join Zetros and the ruined state of non-Zetrosian lands in the east.

With the other options being the arms of their historical enemies, or the fanatical brutality of Tyrska, the other impoverished parts of Russia had no choice but to form loose alliances, or wither like the rest.

## Religion

The Zetrosians followed a distorted version of Christianity. In Zetrosian religion, Emperor Zetros was worshipped as a god, more akin to an incarnate deity. The Emperor's comparisons to Jesus Christ angered the American Empire, who branded Zetros as the "Abomination" for behaving like a god and declared war on him.

The kolovrat in Earth 96 was invented by local neopagan nationalists, who used it as a symbol of their movement. Unlike its counterpart in Bujan, Zetrosian kolovrats were more haphazard, plastered on military equipment and smeared as graffiti as an imperial symbol. This could be why the Jerdiskar Slavs disliked the Zetrosians, seeing the improper use of the kolovrat as desecrating their own Gods.

The last real Christians in Russia remained in the far east, at Vladivostok and Kamchatka, as they revived proper Orthodox rites while the rest of Russia was forced into a pseudo-Orthodox theocracy. For this, the Zetrosians denounced the "Second Russian Empire" (the Soviet Union) as a heretical society, leading to greater hostility towards the Tyrskans who worshipped the Soviets. In turn, the "Yakutians", or Russians in the east, denounced Zetros and Tyrska's faith as the true form of an age-old heresy that infected and ruined their homeland.

## Zetrosian gods

The Zetrosian religion, and the Tyrskan church that evolved from it, were used to replace another theocracy that syncretised Soviet communism with Orthodox Christianity. The Soviet cultists became Tyrskans, their other enemy.

* Father Zetros
	+ The supreme god of the Zetrosian and Tyrskan pantheons.
* Grandmother Rusachka, Mother Rus
* Grandfather Slavos
* Old Rurik
* Saint Ivan Tretion
	+ Ivan III
* Saint Ivan Chetovasil
	+ Ivan the Terrible
* Vasily the Redeemer
	+ Reorganised the Soviet Union due to a quasi-Orthodox revival and uprising that purged the whole government.

## War against Tyrska

Both Tyrska and Zetrosia were descendants of Russian survivors of a world war. The Tyrskans seceded as their own state as they wanted to use Soviet symbols, as opposed to the Zetrosians' strict Tsarist revival.

One of the reasons why Zetrosia was still at war with Tyrska was the cruelty of the latter. The Tyrskans simply murdered anyone who was a descendant of the enemies of Russia, and dedicated their nation to the destruction of their countries as they attempted to expand into Europe. The Zetrosians were somewhat more sensible: they took in hundreds of ethnic members from those former enemies, including traitors who were exiled from Ukraine, while subjecting them to becoming more Zetrosianised. They regarded the Tyrskans as savages who lost the glory of Rus for reckless anger.

## Trivia

* Zetrosia was inspired by the Russian invasion of Ukraine: particularly the usage of Z as a war symbol, the attitude of Russian nationalists and pro-war netizens, and the nationalist answer "Where have you been in the past eight years?!"
	+ Later Zetrosia on Jerde was partially based on colonial European empires, such as the Portuguese Empire. It is located at the northern part of western Russia, while Zetros is south along the Volga River.
	+ In July 2023, the author expanded the history of Zetrosia as an alternate timeline in which not only the USSR survived, but it was reorganised by an Orthodox rebellion. Later, another crisis led to the division of that world's America into several dictatorships, one of which became the Church of Q.
* The difference between Zetrosia and Tyrska is that Zetrosia is more scientific and classical, adopting the mannerisms of mediaeval tsars and churches; while the Tyrskans are more militarised and warlike, although more Soviet and modern in aesthetic.
	+ Therefore, Tyrska is a revival of the Soviet Union, and Zetrosia is a revived Russian Empire; and both were also theocracies.
	+ They were a continuation of the Russian Civil War in the sense that both empires fought over what was left of Russia: the Zetrosians were the White Army, and the Tyrskans were the Red Army.
	+ The Roman and Spanish Empires were also influences in both cultures.
* Zetrosian Russian sounds more harmonious and sonorant, influenced by the structure of archaic church scriptures, while Tyrskan Russian sounds more crumpled and harsher.