Foreign relations of Rukania

The entire continent of Darros is often known as the "**Far East**" in the civilisations of Palkyras, especially the Gauvajuts and the Vozonids. Rukania was the first country to come into mind for being the most convenient and well-known station for travellers taking the distant trade route across the world.

Across the ocean east of Darros is the continent of Esami, known conversely as the "Far *West*", as they would appear at the opposite ends of world maps centred on Vozolaz. Therefore, a jade fan of Daizhou and a spinel peacock from Pju are considered "Far West"; while a wooden ship from Sevraeja and a rare sunflower perfume from Rukania are considered "Far East".

Conversely, Rukanians refer the entire continent of Palkyras as the "Far West", both for its location in a map and in mockery of the Gauvajut and Vozonid views of their continent's distant, exotic location.

As part of their chivalry, Rukanians are also taught to be more considerate about other people, as long as they do not attack Rukania or its people. If any fool does wage war, the Rukanians will be merciless, as other Jerdiskar nations always are.

For example, in light of other nations restricting the sale of Rukanian food to non-native crops, the Rukanian government offered farmers elsewhere to buy farm manors, open offices, and sell their crops in Rukania. The hundreds of farmers who accepted and went to Rukanian embassies ended up becoming wealthy, due to the resulting boom in foreign restaurants and its sales. They served under their nations' diplomatic staff for several months, and afterwards they were ordered by their own rulers to return home with any profits they earned from working in Rukania. These formerly-poor farmers became among the richest people back home, while a portion of them chose to naturalise themselves as Rukanian citizens to keep their new homes.

## Bujan

See also: Foreign relations of Bujan

In ancient times, merchants from as far as Resovjant traded in Rukanian markets.

### The Great Teacher

Rukania is one of Bujan's best allies. In fact, ever since its founding and war against Darros, the Bujanids looked to the Rukanians as their role models, in forging their path to integration with the global community against "brotherhood" with Darros. Their main reason, broadcast to the world, was to denounce Darros for forcing its sons to die in imperial wars. As surprised as they were by the Bujanids going to war against their former kin to protect the other Slavs, the Rukanians allowed the Bujanids to study their ways, helping the latter become a fairer nation.

The Zolluchije Campaign, an attempt to digitalise various public services using its vast electrical stores, may have influenced Zvesta (Bujan's predecessor) to focus on technology, resulting in the Standardisation. This could be why Bujanski like Rukanians a lot, as people who also inspired some of their nationwide projects and cultural norms to a higher standard. Another could be attempts by the Bujanski to distance themselves from the Darroskei after the latter attacked Bujan, becoming closer and more supportive of Rukania and the Pact of Independence to mock their defeated foes. Some of those mocking acts supporting Rukania included kneeling and kissing the magenta banners of its kings, or singing the Rukanian royal anthem in the Zvestarid language.

During the Kingdom of Zvesta, Rukania was its biggest trading partner. It also aided Rukania and its allies to form the Wall of Dazhbog, a defensive alliance against the ruin of the Great Game.

The earliest dictionary in modern Eosome and Rukanian was composed in 1002 BT.

### Maty Rukanija (Mother Rukania)

When Bujan fell to Wannaenid rule twice in its history, Rukania always housed the Bujanski in its vast plains, supplying the reinforcements as they aided King Dostagir's liberation of their homeland. Many accounts were recorded during those centuries where Bujanski and Wonaos fondly remembered their training as knights, awaiting the day they will be sent forth to liberate their homeland. Before their departure to save their homeland, the Bujanski volunteers prayed at temples all over the country, especially to Perun, Mokosh, Dazhbog, and Svetovid. They were joined by Ontemazei warriors and knights, who sought to free their fellow people from Wannaenid slavery.

Nearly every Bujanski who lived in Rukania were brought up in their birthplace's chivalry, which compelled them to protect any Terran who defected or surrendered to them, and had proven their innocence. The knights even gave some dead Terrans a proper cremation since those were also considered as innocents. This angered some of the local Bujanski, who tried to kill them and the Terran defectors.

The King of Rukania was also a guest in Dostagir's coronation and consecration to the gods of Bujan.

### Paying Homage

While Bujanski refuse to use "fatherland" or "motherland" for even their own country, due to the association of these terms with Terran invaders, they sometimes treat Rukania like a kind, adoptive mother who raised their ancestors like sons. However, there are two important reasons why Bujanski want to keep Rukanian culture separate, which the Rukanians were happy to know how respectful they are:

* to avoid Darros using any merging of the two kingdoms as an excuse to seize power,
* and to condemn one past tyrannical king who sought to turn both countries into his own empire. That king was overthrown by the Valjads, tied on a ship, and sent south to be sunk by the stormy seas.

There were many humorous accounts of marriages between both countries' nobility, and mocking Bujan's obsession with high culture and technology with Rukania's preference with being the more "normal" (as in "typical" or "pleibian") of the two. Yet it might have been possible that modern Bujan's formalism was influenced by the Rukanian adoption of Ardeschen classical culture, but Rukanians think that the Bujanski form of properness is an exaggerated, obsessive distortion of properness.

## Sevraeja

While the Rukanians dislike it if anyone were to call them a "brother" due to its usage by invaders, the Sevraejans are among the few people on Jerde who are more often referred to as "brothers" due to the long history of friendship between the two nations.

Together with Bujan, the three Slavic nations have blue on their flags. They are also avid fans of jousting.

November, the holy month, is a profitable month for Sevraejan merchants and farmers, because they will enjoy a windfall of profit from Rukanian customers buying their spare sarasa clothing.

## Marnos

"What the hell is this vulgar mob?! *Gods darnit,* are they uncultured, drunk, or what?"

Although both countries are good allies, they have a nasty and hilarious rivalry in jousting championships. Marnosyn fans are mocked by their Rukanian counterparts for being more vulgar and boorish, getting drunk and brawling on the seats (especially if nearly everyone on the Marnosyn side are men).

## Siangwaan

Both nations *love* jousting with a passion, but the Rukanians proudly see themselves as the more refined of the two. At least the Siangwaanians are a middle ground between the vulgar hell known as Marnos, and the technological, formalistic insanity known as Bujan.

Many Siangwaanians are not even knights, but "tin can knights" who just wear armour to pick fights, rather than live like proper "paladins". But as one of several jousting hubs on Jerde, Rukanian jousting academies are the prestigious destination of many affluent families to send their sons to master the sport as champions.

Even the Siangwaanians consider the north-south rivalry of jousting fans to be a hilarious tradition. Northerners are seen as snobbish, and attending a Rukanian academy will lead to mockery from southern fans. Southerners are stereotyped as vulgar losers who cheer and brawl all day.

## Darros

"Country 845" (a nation that should not even exist), notorious for learning from Rukanian classics and then attempting to forcibly vassalise the Hundred Realms. Although there are Darroskei in the northeast, the country of Darros is seen as a cold warmonger, while the Darroskei look down on the Rukanians as arrogant snobs.

Darroskei wrongly assume that Rukanians were effeminate or matriarchal, mainly because women there have similar rights with those of men; while in reality, men are more often seen in higher positions of authority due to Rukanian traditions.

## Baniorel

Another good friend of Rukania.

Both nations are well-known for their castles and knights, but Rukania is seen as the more modern one because of peasants getting more rights than the knighthoods, its emulation of Ardeschen classics, and its widespread use of digital technology.

Both countries paid each other's reparations, yet occasionally brawls take place between mobs of extreme sports fans.

## Plaeskovia

Rukanians find this ancient republic to be rather interesting, because its people are rather creative and eccentric.

They also value the Plaeskovians as handlers of the dangerous force known as "magic". Plaeskovians are trained to handle magic carefully to study Celestial artifacts, allowing them to become safe to use for its people, Rukania, and all of its other allies.

## Vozolaz

### Rukania in Gauvajut folklore

In ancient Vozonid and Gauvajut world maps, the continent of Darros was sometimes known as "Rōriz", after the ancient thalassocracy at its southern coast. Shell and herbal dyes from the seaports were among the most expensive wares sold in bazaars, brought from Rorizian merchants. But the most prized of all wares in Rukania to many Vozonids are the spinel gems, which do not grow when exposed to mushrooms, adding to their religious significance.

### Digging a hole to Hell and the Far East

During the Ninth Age, calculations from globes and satellite data revealed that the Gauvajut lands were right across a location between the jungles of Rukania and Olossa. This led to a satirical tale where several diggers made a straight hole across the world's fiery core. They were disappointed that Hell was not there, so they kept digging. They were pushed up by a current of magma until they were pushed out of a hole, right in the middle of a *sich*, or castle. The knights there were having a lunch, sipping on a soup known as *borsch* (buruzin) and drinking *horilika* (hurilke) in silver chalices.

The startled knights drew their swords and tridents at the diggers, mistaking them for demons because they emerged from the ground with soot on their robes and singed beards. The diggers answered that they were not demons, but men who happened to dig from a far away land, and they were so shocked that they were unable to explain. The knights put away their weapons and splashed their chalices of wine on the men's burning hairs.

"Why wouldst thou not get thyself washed, thou knave?", one of the knights sneered. "I shalt bring thee to the bathhouse, and thou wilst be sent back to wherever thou camest from."

Rorizians were also interested at how Gauvajuts allowed women to be engineers and governors for being smart or diligent, like how men were able to do so. They sometimes compared the Gauvajut realm to a parallel version of themselves, leading to more frequent trade and visits between the two ancient civilisations.

### Land of Spinels

One poetic term used by the Vozonids after the creation of the First Vozonid Empire was "Karkilaz of the East", referring to ancient pilgrimages where their ancestors and the Gauvajuts used to sail east and back to buy holy spinel gems. After purchase, visitors who return from their pilgrimages would be celebrated, and their spinels placed in shrines or carved into idols.

Some seaports in the west and south have Gauvajut and Vozonid enclaves for pilgrims.

## Tirkiatlor

   Tirkiatlor, known in ancient times as Tirri, was the oldest ally of Rukania. In fact, both civilisations influenced each other's culture, from folklore to raptor-riding and chocolate.

Both nations use raptors in their military, from the knights of the east to the reavers of Tirkiatlor's jungles. Rukania learned raptor-riding and chocolate from the ancient Tirrians, that the easterners use an archaic form of classical Tirrian as their ceremonial language.

Rukanian styles can also be seen in Tirrian armour, architecture, stage performances and musical intonations, and mathematics, construction machinery, and astronomy. Tirrians sometimes go north to Rukania to learn to build construction machines so they were able to build their cities as quickly as their northern allies. When sons return from their education north in Rukania, they must complete a ritual test where they build or fix construction equipment. After they pass, a party is thrown in their honour, with plenty of boiled chocolate, juice, and venison for their graduation feast.

On the other hand, Rukanians also send their sons to Tirkiatlor to learn local architecture and sculpting, along with cooking, raptor-riding, and astronomy. Similar feasts are thrown to celebrate students who returned after their graduation.

## Umbirab

Rukanians and Sevraejans are among the many students across the world who study in Umbirab's science and engineering academies.

Umbirab, along with Porashon, are seen by Rukanians as "fellow defenders of civilisation", as both nations preserved advanced technologies from before the disasterous Green Years. They later welcomed Paramosir for utilising alien technology to repel the Exiles from conquering their homeland, and teaching its allies to use the same machinery and resist invasion.

## Pact of Independence

Rukania is one of four members of the Pact of Independence, the others being its neighbours Sevraeja, Baniorel, and Olossa.

Under the terms of the Pact, no member can annex another member, and they cannot merge into a single super-state to prevent any tyrant from destroying their peoples. However, all four members' citizens can freely enter or do business in each other's nations.

Yet some Rukanians proposed Bujan to become the fifth member of the Pact due to the close relations between both kingdoms. However, the Bujanski themselves refused, because they preferred Rukania to remain more independent.

## Pinoguni

While Rukania hosts and competes in jousting tournaments across the world, Rukanians and Pinogunians like to admire each other's knightly cultures.

Both countries also developed joint technological and scientific projects together. They were encouraged by other people seeing both Rukania and Pinoguni as "futuristic knighthoods".

## Paramosir

Rukanians are the biggest minority of the Eastern Drift, one of three archipelagoes north of the Paramosirian mainland. In the island of Etoworu, the cliffs are dotted with castles.

It was they who fuelled various technological projects across the region, including the Standardisation.

## Porashon

Because the Rukanians are more kinder to the Ontemazei, allowing them to be integrated with the same rights as citizens and even to serve in the knighthoods, the Porasonids respect and honour Rukania as one of the best of all human nations. They may have also provided Rukania with the advanced technology to build its famous hydroelectric dams, leading to its vast riches, digitalisation, and eventually the Standardisation!

Even during the collapse of the world, the Porasonids quickly joined the Zvestarids in aiding the construction of the Wall of Dazhbog, protecting the continent of Darros from the Thralondian fleets. Both nations and their allies are members of the Zvestarid Coalition, so they sent soldiers to liberate Bujan and its allies.

## Heronoja

In the olden days, Heronoja was a good friend of this ancient kingdom. It is admired among the Heronoi as a land of chivalry, as the opposite of their obsessive behaviours and a role model.

The realm of Heraunwoja was considered a curiosity to the Rukanians long ago, and was supported against the Terran invaders. In Rukanian folklore, they sometimes called Heronoja, "Padajuch Zirchyna", the Land of the Falling Star. In turn Heronoi remember Rukania as the Land of the Morning, using imagery of flocks of storks over vast fields and castles lit by a sunrise.

### The Silent Years

When Heronoja resorted to becoming an ethnostate and murdering Waxeroi in 1803, Rukania closed its own embassy in Heronoja and evacuated many Waxeroi to its vast homeland, where they lived among the local Heronoi. Until King Atozájoro apologised and reconciled with the Waxeroi, no diplomatic relations were permitted with Heronoja.

For nearly a century, the absence of any relations with Rukania were known in the most of Heronoja as "the silent years" or "when the sun was hidden by clouds". The "sun" was Rukania and its guidance, so it was compared to a very long night caused by the clouds of murder. So one pro-Waxeroi activist group, supported by Rukanians who aided Waxeroi, named themselves as "Cloudburst", believing that Heronoja making peace with the Waxeroi will allow the Rukanians to return.

### The Sunlit

However, in practice, Rukania relocated all of its facilities to the eastern provinces for refusing to exterminate Waxeroi, but instead protecting them. Likewise, other nations continued any relations with Heronoja at the eastern provinces, which because autonomous since 1806 after defeating anti-Waxeroi mobs.

Charities, knighthoods, certain government agencies, and local Lampguard chapters aided groups who protected the Waxeroi, allowing them to rebuild more quickly after the massacres. The grateful Waxeroi honoured their Rukanian friends as the "morning elves", supposedly appearing out of nowhere to provide them supplies from across the oceans. Many easterners foldly remember when men with topknots and armour taught them chivalry and martial arts, or sang the tales of beautiful gods and glorious heroes. They also remembered that their regions at the eastern end of Heronoja were the only parts where relations with Rukania resumed as normal, mostly to cater to the Waxeroi and defend them. The government of Heronoja would not dare forcibly drive out the Rukanians, or it would have risked international censure and abandonment to the Baesorthar's cruelty.

Another exception was during the 1813 Baesorthar invasion of Heronoja, when some Rukanian knights in their starships volunteered to supply the Norse coalition. They helped the Norse and Heronoi defeat the fascist invaders, saving the country from extermination.

Though Atozájoro was hated by his own countrymen, his kindness was lauded in Rukania as someone who still abided by chivalry. When he was overthrown and exiled to Siangwaan, the former king was offered honorary citizenship into Rukania.

The Heronoi government had no choice but to allow Waxeroi to become full citizens, due to international outrage over plans to repeal it. With Waxeroi citizenship sealed into the constitution, the old Rukanian embassy in Wanaxawoiko (used as a library) was rebuilt, and official relations resumed between the two kingdoms.

### Rukanification and (Re-)Heronoification

The longer the Rukanian knighthoods remained in eastern Heronoja, the more their Waxeroi students became influenced by them. The Waxeroi emulated the knights, seeking to become less stereotypical and more "noble". Eventually, the eastern provinces became the only part in Heronoja - if not the entire continent of Palkyras - where the Rukanian language is an official language.

Although the knighthoods were *not* the rulers of the autonomous eastern provinces, they knew that they were quite influential and popular. They still refused any calls by the inhabitants to annex their lands into the Rukanian crown, dismissing them as jokes. To remind the easterners that they are still Heronoi, they also established academies to promote "traditional" Heronoi culture. The knighthoods were also disappointed that their students abandoned their native Heronoi culture, and so did the rest of Heronoja when it obsessively adopted Ardeschen traditions.

It was a more sanitised version of pre-Thralondian Heronoi society, but many Heronoi see this as a healthier alternative to compulsory "Ardeschenisation". In fact, another king of Heronoja had to create another agreement that led to open borders between eastern Heronoja and the rest of the kingdom, and a network of high speed railways across the kingdom.

## Ontemazei

   During the Green Years, the Rukanians already built Burrow-Cities to protect their people from the Ontemazei bombardment of the world. The Ontemazei warlords thought that they had successfully killed off all the humans there, but the defenders emerged from hiding to quickly ambush their forces.

However, later groups of Ontemazei were welcomed. Not only this was due to their pink hair, but it was also because the Ontemazei refugees had mostly passed various tests, proving themselves to be loyal to their new home instead of their bygone empire. In a world that hated them as children of genocidal monsters, Rukania was one of a few nations where countless Ontemazei throughout the ages migrated to as refuges, to redeem themselves without having to die.

During the slave migrations of the Thralondian Empire, many of the Ontemazei slaves went to Rukania, because it was the nearest nation that allowed them to live as equals. The Ontemazei of Rukania joined its knighthoods, seeking vengeance against the Thralondian armies by serving in the Kings' legions.

### Land of the Gods

In folklore throughout the Ontemazei of Jerde, Rukania is sometimes known as the "Land of the Sun", "Land of Ten Thousand Flowers", "Porashon of the East", or the "Holy East". This refers to its easterly location, its protection of Ontemazei refugees and better treatment, and its cultural love of flowers.

Some Ontemazei also call Rukania "the Gate *to* the Gods", either for its beautiful temples and benevolent gods; its usage of tridents in its religion reminding them of one of their Gods, Lord Mahadeva; or its closeness to Mount Kailasa, a location of the Gods of Dharma. Others simply call it "Paradise", for all of those reasons above that make Rukania look like a heavenly realm, when compared with how most of the world treats them.

It is also because of Rukania being an antipode of Vozolaz on the other side of the world, that is why Ontemazei also call this vast nation as "the Land of Life", as opposed to Vozolaz being "the Land of Death" for murdering and torturing Ontemazei who were there.

## Lausorijo

Many Lausorijo were trained in Rukanian academies, and fought in wars to defend the kingdom from invasion. They were attracted by the intricate metalworking in its traditional culture.

Because Rukania allowed both Ontemazei and Lausorijo to live as freemen and commoners, they and the Porasonids taught the human Rukanians many skills related to engineering, smithing, smelting, and construction. These eventually led to the hydroelectric dams and other machines that made the Standardisation closer to reality.

## See also

* Rukanian language
* Rukanian mythology