Verse:Chlouvānem Inquisition
the Chlouvānem Inquisition chlǣvānumi murkadhānāvīyi babhrām | |
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Motto: "Yunya mųu chlamiṣvatręs lañšilīltu paṣṭedimbhē" Yunya leads us together in the form of the Chlamiṣvatrā | |
Anthem: Chlǣvānumi murkadhānāvīyi ṣārivāñcamilijas State Anthem of the Inquisition | |
Capital and largest city | Līlasuṃghāṇa |
Official languages | Chlouvānem |
Recognised regional languages | Many local vernaculars, incl. Brono-Fathanic (North), Skyrdagor (North), Cerian (Northwest), Auralian (Northwest), Nordulaki (Northwest) |
Ethnic groups ((3872 (642210) census)) | 84,3% Chlouvānem (chlǣvānem) 1,3% Bronic (incl. Fathanic) (bronai) 1,1% Qualdomelic (kvaldēmǣldai) 0,9% Soenjŏ (soenyai) 0,7% Skyrdegan (teñjābyai) 0,5% Kŭyŭgwaž (kuyugvajai) 0,3% Džemlešwi (jelešvyai) 0,2% Jalašmak (yalaṣmākhai) 0,1% Leñ (leñeyai) 10,5% other indigenous ethnicities 0,1% others |
Religion | 100% Yunyalīlti |
Demonym | chlǣvānem |
Government | Elective theocracy |
• Great Inquisitor | Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē |
• Baptist | Huliāchlærimāvi Lælakæša Martayinām |
Legislature | Inquisitorial Conclave |
Founding and Consolidation | |
• Founding of the Inquisition | 2564 (425210) |
• Consolidation into a single country | 3783 (629110) |
Population | |
• 3872 (642210) census | 1,904,375,446 (45.19.31.15ᘔ12) |
Gini (3871 (642110)) | 0.197 low · 2nd |
HDI (3872 (642210)) | 0.911 very high · 7th |
Currency | Inquisitorial Yaltan (CHY) |
Time zone | from LIL+5 to LIL−ᘔ (from CER+17:53′40″ to CER+2:53′40″) |
Drives on the | left |
Calling code | +87 |
The Lands of the Chlouvānem Inquisition (Chlouvānem: Chlǣvānumi Murkadhānāvīyi Babhrām [c͡ɕʰɴ̆ɛːʋäːnumi muɐ̯kädʱäːnäːʋiːji bäbʱʀäːm]), ceremonially the Pure Lands under Guidance of the Inquisition of the Descendants of the Chlamiṣvatrā (Chlouvānem: Chlamiṣvatrī Maijunyāvyumi Murkadhānāvīyi Stalyāmite Kailibabhrām [c͡ɕʰɴ̆ämiɕʋätʀiː mäɪ̯ɟ͡ʑunjäːʋjumi muɐ̯kädʱäːnäːʋiːji stäɴ̆jäːmite käɪ̯ɴ̆ibäbʱʀäːm]), commonly metonymically referred to as the (Chlouvānem) Inquisition ((Chlǣvānumi) Murkadhānāvi [c͡ɕʰɴ̆ɛːʋäːnumi muɐ̯kädʱäːnäːʋi]), or, informally, with the acronym Chlǣmuba [c͡ɕʰɴ̆ɛːmubä], is a federal socialist ecclesiocratic state on the planet Calémere (Chl.: Liloejāṃrya), composed of 171 largely autonomous Diœceses (juṃšañāñai) and various dependencies scattered around the planet. It is a non-partisan state where central power is held by the top ranks of the Inquisition, an organized ecclesiastical body that preaches and regulates the canonical accepted beliefs of the Yunyalīlta, a religion founded on the teachings of the philosopher Lelāgṇyāviti, usually referred to with the name of Chlamiṣvatrā ("Golden Master"); decentralized government levels are formed by local assemblies (Synods, in Chl. galtirai), the lowest-level ones being formed in every non-private workplace, sub-parish-level district, factory, or barracks. Its dominant political ideology is Yunyalīlti Communism, a hybrid ideology that integrates communist doctrines into the core Yunyalīlti guidelines of society.
Covering, excluding dependencies, approximately 14.4 million square kilometers (about 8% of the land areas on Calémere) including the entire continent of Jahībušanā, the southern part of Vaikēham, the eastern half of Araugi, a small fringe in far southwesternmost Vīṭadælteh[1], and geologically related islands – with the Kāyīchah Islands being, however, a part of Védren – and with a population of 1.904 billion people[2] (about 19% of the total Calémerian population), it is Calémere's largest country both by land area and population. Līlasuṃghāṇa, holy city of the Yunyalīlta, is the nation's capital and largest city, located inland in the densely populated area of the Jade Coast, on the shores of the tidal Lake Lūlunīkam.
Dependent territories of the Inquisition mostly consist of relatively small islands with military bases or scientific stations, with the most notable exception being the large territory of the Lalla Kehamyuñca (High North), a jointly-governed area together with Askand, Skyrdagor, and Brono, consisting of the whole area of Eastern Márusúturon north of the 68th parallel north, mostly uninhabited tundra.
Extended on such a large area, the territory of the Chlouvānem Inquisition includes all of Calémere's major biomes, with an extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife giving it a unique biological megadiversity, peaking in the southern rainforests. More than 60% of the country's human population lives in its tropical areas, roughly between 5ºN and the Northern Tropic.
While the consolidation of the Inquisition as a single state is fairly recent (133 years ago, in 6291 (378312), the Inquisition as a body was formed in the Great Plains in year 4252 (256412) as a churchlike body run by the Inquisitors (murkadhānai, literally “black hands”, due to many early rituals requiring the use of lunīla berries and their pitch-black unedible juice), the preachers of the Yunyalīlti religion.
The Inquisition is typically referred to as the country of the Chlouvānem people, a métis ethnicity formed by interracial breeding of various prehistoric peoples of the Great Plain, most prominently the Ur-Chlouvānem[3], a Lahob population who had migrated from Northern Evandor across the vast steppes of Márusúturon before reaching the Plains, as well as the Lällshag (Chl.: Lælšanai), founders of the first urban civilization on the continent. However, the actual ethnic makeup of the country is extremely diverse, with 949 native ethnicities, excluding the Chlouvānem, recognized as distinct by the central government. Linguistically, Classical Chlouvānem is used as lingua franca, but nearly every area has its own local vernacular, either a daughter language of Chlouvānem or a creole based on it, or sometimes a completely unrelated language.
The present-day state of the Inquisition is the result of a two-thousand-year-long expansion through religious conversion and physical intermixing carried out by the Chlouvānem people, assimilating local peoples but creating numerous countries that were held together by their common religion and the use of Classical Chlouvānem as a lingua franca among the other vernaculars that developed from it. The last two centuries were marked by the formal unification of all Chlouvānem countries into a single country[4], where religious and civil government coincide.
The Chlouvānem Inquisition is the leading power of Calémere's Yunyalīlti communist Eastern Bloc (formally united as the Kayāgaprika (Kailī Āṇḍhulā nali Galababhrausire Prikaulā, "International Pact for the Defense of Purity")), ideologically confronting the mostly secular and plurireligious Western Bloc, and the planet's only superpower (due to the Western Bloc not having a single hegemon country). It has a highly developed, predominantly planned in various degrees, economy, characterized among other socialist planned economies by the extensive presence of private artisans nearly dominating the basic need (clothing, soaps, to some extent food) sectors. It is an international cultural, artistic, and scientific force, a military superpower, and constantly ranks among the top nations for human development, quality of life, environmental performance, healthcare quality, and life expectancy, and has one the planet's lowest income inequalities. However, there is a huge disparity of rights accorded to Yunyalīlti people and those of other faiths, the latter (called heretics in Chlouvānem contexts) being socially stigmatized, isolated from society, and granted no rights at all: due to the strict monoreligious policy implemented by the Inquisition, heretics are either converted or legally persecuted and killed en masse. Capital punishment is applied, though the most common punishment for criminals is penal labour, which is carried out in various labour camps in conditions so poor that inmates die anyway after just a few months.
Despite both of Calémere's blocs and non-aligned countries striving for and keeping formal peace, relations between the Inquisition and the West have remained tense ever since the end of the last holy war carried out by the Inquisition, the War for Cleanliness (outside the Inquisition known as "East-West Global War" or simply "Global War") of 6323-6326, organized by then-Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām, when the Chlouvānem forces invaded Evandor with the goal of physically cleansing it from heretics, setting up a network of extermination camps throughout the continent; the war, which saw nearly 120 million Evandorians killed, ended in a white peace when a near-implosion of the Inquisition due to a series of revolts in the annexed areas of Greater Skyrdagor forced the Chlouvānem forces to retreat from the economically collapsed and virtually already defeated countries of Evandor.
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Names
The name of the Inquisition in Chlouvānem is Murkadhānāvi, meaning "of the Inquisitors", where "Inquisitor", murkadhāna, translates to "black hand". The Inquisitors originally were the first preachers of the Yunyalīlta after the Chlamiṣvatrā[5] Lelāgṇyāviti, and their hands, during rituals, were black due to the liturgical use of lunīla berries. These berries, commonly growing all throughout the wetter eastern half of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra plain (as a climatic/cultural region, thus including also the Jade Coast and its basins), are not edible but have a dense pitch-black juice that was used in many shamanic rituals - often reinterpreted and passed into early Yunyalīlti ones - and also as a common black dye.
The Inquisition was founded by these preachers as a kind of guild in order to better guard and preserve liturgical texts and set up scientific orders studying the world - in fact, monasteries and temples were the centers of science for two millennia, and even today most of the largest libraries in the whole planet are those of Yunyalīlti temples. The Inquisition then gained political power and became a supranational organization that had influence on every forming Chlouvānem realm - not unlike the Church in European history - until the last century and a half when all Chlouvānem nations were united under a single government - the Inquisition.
In Chlouvānem, there is thus no distinction between the Inquisition as a country and as a political organization, being both called murkadhānāvi. The country is however also often referred to, non-metonymically, as:
- murkadhānāvīyi babhrām “Land of the Inquisition”;
- chlǣvānumi babhrām "Chlouvānem land";
- chlǣvānumi murkadhānāvīyi babhrām - the designation in official documents, "Land of the Chlouvānem Inquisition".
In other Calemerian languages, there often is a distinction between the country (usually called Chlouvānem land) and the Inquisition. For example, in Skyrdagor the Chlouvānem people are called Snevanem and their country is Snevanemfocsiv [ˈʃnɛvɑnɛmˌfɒ͡otʃʊɪ̯], but the Inquisition as a political body is often called Murkadanavi; in Qualdomelic, the people are Țẹnwhanem, the country is Țẹnwhanepsuăc, and the Inquisition is iă Murcadanavi. In Bronic the common terms are Trigevane for the people and vy Faida vy Trigevanaty for the country, while the Inquisition is vy Mokadanavy; the corresponding Fathanic terms are Čiŋevane, i Fayðe i Čiŋevańć, and i Mukhaðanavi.
The root used in most Western languages is derived from or cognate with the terms used in Cerian, where Chlouvānem people are called Imúnigúronen (from the Íscégon phrase in mutenen ingúron "Eastern invaders", a term applied to many other peoples in Western history but revitalized in the Early Modern Age and applied to the Chlouvānem - the easternmost hostile people they knew about) and their country is Imúnigúroná, but the Inquisition is either šo Murocadána or šen sévíson Imúnigúronen (literally Chlouvānem Church). Notably, Cerian dialects spoken in the Inquisition do not make this distinction, using šo Murocadána for both; it is to be noted, however, that all Cerian speakers of the Inquisition are bilingual in Chlouvānem and it's increasingly more common to simply use the Chlouvānem terms.
Nordulaki uses Iminyguron for the people, Iminygurnêny for the country, and Murkadanâf for the Inquisition; the Auralian terms are, respectively, Imnɣur, nImnɣurart, and Murkadnaw; the Kalese terms are Imýňeṙón, Imýňeṙóṉkou, and Murkadánáv. Holenagic is an exception among major Evandorian languages, using the Chlouvānem roots: Singevain, Singevainna, and Murqadanâv.
National symbols
The two most common national symbols in the Inquisition are the flag (murkadhānāvīyi leras) and the Sacred Emblem (brausire camiyalta), both derivatives of the traditional symbol of the Inquisition, namely a black hand over the sun (in a wider Eastern Márusúturonian iconography, common to the Chlouvānem, the Toyubeshians, and the Skyrdagor, a "red star" represents the sun). The flowers, the sword, and the ears of rice were added in the Kaiṣamā era and are all common signs of Calémerian socialist heraldry, as are the two dominant colours of the flag, light blue and gold (the colours of Calémerian communism).
Another widely known and represented symbol is the Pontificial Emblem (chlærdombhīni camiyalta or chlærdombhīni leras), which is the personal coat of arms of the Great Inquisitor. Usually, it is a modified version of the coat of arms that was already adopted as Baptist, Prefect, Bishop, or High Inquisitor (the charges that give the person the right to have an Inquisitorial Emblem, or murkadhāni leras), more rarely an ex novo emblem. Typical elements of every Pontificial Emblem are the colours gold and lilac (respectively the sacred colour of the Yunyalīlta and the national colour of the Inquisition) and the presentation in an oval tall shield flanked by two plantain leaves (commonly there are two further leaves behind the shield), symbolizing fertility, protection, and the location of the Holy See, Līlasuṃghāṇa. It was once common to have three spears (just one for Inquisitorial Emblems) on the left-hand side behind the shield as a symbol of the fight for the Yunyalīlta; all Great Inquisitors after the Nāɂahilūmi era chose not to have them, and it has become a sign of faction: traditionalists do not have the spear(s) in their emblem, while Nāɂahilūmists (i.e. the more religious extremist fringe) do. Incumbent Great Inquisitor Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē is the first post-Nāɂahilūmi Great Inquisitor to have the three spears on her Pontificial Emblem.
The rest of the symbology in Pontificial and Inquisitorial emblems are chosen by the carrier and are typically representative of their home area. For example, Incumbent Great Inquisitor, native Līlasuṃghāṇi, Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē's Pontificial Emblem, shield or, a bend purple, includes a lalāruṇa (domestic giant lizard, traditionally fulfilling the same role as horses) above and behind the shield, and two nāmñē (tropical seals, whose cubs - līlas - give the name to the city Līlasuṃghāṇa) in the chief and base of the shield.
Lilac, the colour of lelāh flowers (a sacred flower in Yunyalīlti symbology, common along river shores in the Jade Coast) is the national colour of the Inquisition, used in all sporting jerseys (as part of a general prohibition against predominantly gold clothes, as it's a colour too sacred for such uses, and also because light blue and gold inserts are already used in many variations by most socialist countries anyway) and for Inquisition-entered international automobile racing colours; when not possible, lilac with white inserts is the dominant colour of Chlouvānem drivers' helmets, as for example does Līṭhaljāyimāvi Laišanąmīs Chaukārī, defending champion of the World Speed Series, the international (the Western bloc's) top open-wheel racing series, driving for a Cerian team.
While more associated with the Chlouvānem than with the Yunyalīlta, the Chlouvānem use of lilac as a symbolic colour has also been adopted by the Yunyalīlti minority of Holenagika. In countries with sizable Chlouvānem minorities, most notably Kŭyŭgwažtow, expressions such as "lilac festivals", "lilac neighbourhoods", and "lilac issues" are commonly used for topics specifically referring to the Chlouvānem communities (in these cases, Chlouvānem festivals, Chlouvānem-majority areas, and issues of the ethnic Chlouvānem community).
Demographics
As the largest and most populated country on Calémere, the Chlouvānem Inquisition has a considerable amount of ethnic and linguistic diversity in it. However, there is a homogenous "supra-culture", provided by the Yunyalīlti religion and by its liturgical language, Chlouvānem, used as a lingua franca, which attenuates - if not, in some cases, nullifies - the practical implications of this enormous diversity.
Chlouvānem is a Lahob language with a long history which originated in its current form in the eastern part of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah Plain and the Jade Coast (roughly between the lower Nīmbaṇḍhāra river to the north and Lake Lūlunīkam to the south). With a written history of more than 2000 years, it is the liturgical language of the Yunyalīlta and, due to this importance, has remained the main language used in administration, inter-cultural trade, and arts, for two millennia, in the ever-expanding Yunyalīlti world. It is a central element of self-definition of Chlouvānem people.
Since the early-mid 5th millennium, the Chlouvānem people have been spreading their religion and influence across most of the continent of Márusúturon, outside the original homeland on the Jade Coast. Patterns of Chlouvānem settlement have varied depending on the area - but the Chlouvānem people's predisposition to exogamy has been an important factor in shaping the history of this part of the world: almost everyone in the Inquisition has at least one mixed-blood ancestor, and - even today - the definition of "ethnic group" as for Western (Calémerian and Earthly) standards is extremely challenged by the situation - and self-definition - among Chlouvānem people.
The Chlouvānem concept of lailyāvikā, roughly translated as "ethnicity", is the only indicator used in the Chlouvānemosphere for ethnicities and nationalities; in many cases, language is not the defining factor. Officially, lailyāvikai are some groups that are defined as such mostly because of historical conditions - they include social groups that were at the edge of society in the pre-modern era; ethnicities that were semi-independent in respect to the centralmost areas; nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples[6]; ethnicities with a distinct, not fully Chlouvānemized culture well into the contemporary era; and foreigners. All other people are simply considered Chlouvānem as far as ethnicity is concerned, more as a catch-all category rather than a distinct ethnicity; the Yunyalīlta as religion and the use of Chlouvānem as a lingua franca is nearly universal among all ethnicities today, and it has been such for more than a century now.
Today, 13 non-Chlouvānem lailyāvikai are titulars of an ethnic diocese, a diocese considered "homeland" of that particular ethnic group and where members of that ethnic group have certain privileges. Except for Bazá people in Tūnambasā diocese, however, all of these ethnicities are rather small minorities in their own ethnic dioceses.
The Chlouvānem Inquisition recognizes 949 ethnicities (excluding Chlouvānem and "foreign" ethnicities[7]) as native inside its borders; despite this large number, they only amount to 10.5% of the Inquisition's total population (about 154.3 million people): their percentage is highest in the dioceses of the Southern rainforest, which are however thinly populated (for example, 95% of the inhabitants of Kīkañjātia are divided into 22 non-Chlouvānem ethnicities, but in actual numbers it's about 72,000 people). These "ethnicities" are also sometimes just descendants of particular castes, not otherwise culturally separated from other Chlouvānem, and many of them just number in the tens of thousands of people or less.
The actual largest non-Chlouvānem ethnicity is Bronic people (bronai in Chl.; they also include people of Fathanic origin), 1.3% of the total population of the Inquisition (about 19.1 million people) - a figure also explained by one of the historically main Bronic lands being a Chlouvānem diocese (Hivamfaida) and by the large internal migration during the Kaiṣamā (Fathan has also been a diocese of the Inquisition for a large part of that period).
In popular usage, Chlouvānem people are those who:
- are followers of the Yunyalīlta;
- are part of a cultural group entirely based on Yunyalīlti practices of Chlouvānem tradition, or has been considerably influenced by it (inherently linked with being Yunyalīlti believers);
- are part of a cultural group linguistically in a state of diglossia with a local, regional “word” (babhrāmaiva[8]) and Classical Chlouvānem, the latter inherently tying said cultural group to all other Yunyalīlti ones with similar characteristics.
Being a follower of the Yunyalīlta is, in most cases, enough to make the other two points true, and inside the borders of the Inquisition that’s almost always the case; in fact all Yunyalīlti who are not originary of either Brono, Fathan, Qualdomailor (countries with overwhelming Yunyalīlti religious majority), of Greater Skyrdagor (where about a quarter of the population is Yunyalīlti, up to 54% in the country of Goryan), or of a few other traditional minorities around the world (most notably Holenagic Yunyalīlti) and live in the Inquisition are Chlouvānem.
In fact, during the reign of Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma, no such distinction was included in censuses, as the only possible distinction to be done among humans was either Yunyalīlti or heretic.
According to this broad popular definition, many actual recognized ethnicities are simply Chlouvānem. Under official statistics (counting the 949+ different ethnicities, though often grouped in larger groups for practical purposes), 84.3% of the population of the Chlouvānem Inquisition is ethnically Chlouvānem; it is to be noted, anyway, that this broad definition allows inside of it extremely large cultural variations, often also shaped by climate and environment and not just because of different cultural substrata: among themselves, Chlouvānem people recognize four or five major cultural areas: the Plain (incl. the South), the Eastern Chlouvānem (former Toyubeshian area and the Northeast), the Hålvareni or Northerners, the Western Chlouvānem, and, sometimes, the Southern Far Easterners (often culturally grouped with the Plain, but with important Eastern Chlouvānem traits).
It is to be noted, however, that regions are often heavily multicultural inside and there's a tendency towards cultural fusion, ignited by the deportations (paṣadimbhanah, pl. -nai) that were particularly common in the first 60 years of the Inquisition, and continued with the later internal migrations; deportations are still sometimes made, however, in order to avoid overpopulating some areas and to settle and cultivate more some remote areas.
The Chlouvānem ethnicity and culture were historically born through interbreeding of various peoples in prehistoric times, to the point that different ethnicities came to identify as one; there are various theories on why among all of those languages Chlouvānem - the last one to come there chronologically - came to be the dominant one, but most probably there was a religious background, namely that it was the first language of the Chlamiṣvatrā, and the language she spoke the most during her predication[9]. Chlouvānem people are quite often defined through the lack of another definition. So, for example, the child of a Skyrdegan mother and a Toyubeshian[10] father would be counted as Skyrdegan-Toyubeshian, but the child of this person and any other person, neither Skyrdegan nor Toyubeshian, will be counted statistically as Chlouvānem for they being the product of the intermixing of three or more ethnicities. No actual "Chlouvānem" person can be considered to have not been born as the result of intermixing, even if this is, for some people, likely to have happened as far as 2500 years ago.
Outside the Inquisition, self-definition and native knowledge of any Chlouvānem language is the main definition of Chlouvānem ethnicity.
Most non-Chlouvānem inhabitants of the Inquisition come from countries of the former Kaiṣamā - the Union of Purified States - (Kŭyŭgwažtov, Soenjŏ-tave…) or are Bronic and Fathanic which not just were part of the Kaiṣamā (Fathan was even a diocese of the Inquisition until 6385 (384112)) but border the Inquisition for most of their frontiers' extension. Other sources of non-Chlouvānems are:
- Titular ethnicities of “ethnic dioceses”, a few dioceses where there often is a local indigenous pre-Chlouvānem language with legal recognition there. These titular ethnicities are rather small because, like all other Chlouvānemized peoples, they have interbred with Chlouvānems and taken cultural influences, as well as converted to the Yunyalīlta, and the “purest” form of their culture mostly survived in remote valleys or plateaus; in fact, in most ethnic dioceses the local titular ethnicity does not count for more than 10% of the population, with the majority of people having origins in both that ethnicity and in not-better-defined Chlouvānem;
- People of Western (Evandorian) origin in the Northwestern coastal dioceses, which were formerly colonies of Evandorian powers (some small lands of Auralia, Ceria, and the late Kingdom of Bankráv). Auralian, Cerian, Majo-Bankravian, and Nordûlaki are all minority official languages in parts of this area. Still, most of them have cut ties with their ancestral homeland and they're becoming part of mainstream Chlouvānem culture, even though with this regional influence.
- Some ethnically and linguistically Bronic or Skyrdegan peoples near the borders with Brono and Greater Skyrdagor. Deportations of native Chlouvānems to these areas and of ethnically Bronics and Skyrdegans to other territories, however, have somewhat weakened the regional identity of these areas.
Languages
In the Chlouvānem Inquisition's territory about 650 different languages are spoken. Chlouvānem functions as the vehicular lingua franca due to its role as liturgical language, and is used in most - if not all - formal occasions, most written material (even if there is a sizable market of books and especially grey-market comics in vernacular languages), and even in colloquial speech where the speakers don't have any other language in common. Due to the latter reason, it is generally the lone main vernacular only in areas which were settled by people from all around the country (as most settlements in the Western deserts) or cities (mainly in the Northwest, but also on Hokujaši and Aratāram islands in the far Northeast) which only came into the Chlouvānem sphere late and have not developed a local vernacular (a daughter language of Chlouvānem or a creole).
The majority of vernaculars are non-Chlouvānem languages that coexist with Chlouvānem languages since the expansion of the Yunyalīlta and the formation of a métis and hybrid Chlouvānem ethnicity; in most of the Plain and the Jade Coast the formation of this ethnicity happened so far back in time that eventually only the Chlouvānem-derived vernacular remains (save for a few areas, notably in the Līrah River Hills in the northeastern Plain and in some areas of the Western Plain); in all other parts of the country, the patterns of languages are similar to ethnicity (even if there is a much greater number of non-Chlouvānem-language/creole speakers than of non-Chlouvānem people, as many ethnically hybrid people are counted as Chlouvānem even if they have three or more non-Chlouvānem ethnicities in their family tree): large urban areas are predominantly Chlouvānem-vernacular speaking, as are the most densely populated areas along rivers and most of the coasts, while the rural hinterlands mostly speak a non-Chlouvānem vernacular. Haikamotē in the Northern Far East, the most populated and most densely populated diocese in the country, is a partial exception as it is the only diocese outside the Plain and Jade Coast (and minor, sparsely populated areas) where speakers of a Chlouvānem vernacular are over 90%. Tūnambasā, Seikamvēyeh, and to a lesser extent most other ethnic dioceses are areas where the non-Chlouvānem vernacular is generally more widespread.
Note that, while in cities the main vernacular is most often a Chlouvānem one, due to their generally more cosmopolitan nature they see a larger usage of the classical language in daily colloquial interactions.
Ethnic enclaves
Ethnic enclaves in the present-day Inquisition are rare, as housing is dependent on state allocations and ethnicity does not play any role. Before Inquisitorial times, however, it was common that major cities had some quarters where particular ethnicities were concentrated (these all had, however, also Chlouvānem residents). While today even in these quarters all houses are state property, they often have traces of the original culture in shops that often have been run by the same family for centuries, as well as in architecture. Particularly famous ones are to be found in port cities, with the Skyrdegan Quarter (teñjābipoga; Sky.: skyrdegan zsezseljen) of Līlta being the largest of its kind.
Distribution
The population of the Inquisition is very unequally distributed throughout the national territory. The eastern part of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain, together with the neighboring Jade Coast and its surroundings, is the most densely populated area on the whole of Calémere, and similar densities may be found in coastal Haikamotē, Hirakaṣṭē, and Kainomatā dioceses in the East. On the other hand, there are many mostly rural areas as well as sparsely populated areas such as the taiga in the far Northeast, the Southern rainforest, and most high mountain chains; the most notable example is perhaps the arid belt of deserts and semi-deserts with little population due to a widespread lack of reliable water sources.
Many of the most important cities of the Inquisition are on or near the shores of the Jahībušanī Sea (jahībušanī ga jaryā[11]) - the huge marginal sea bordered by the Jade Coast, the eastern part of the Plain, the Near East, and parts of the Far East: among the most important ones there are Hūnakṣaila, Līṭhalyinām, Kūmanabūruh, Līlta, Hilyamāmah, Huñeibāma, Līlekhaitē, and Naiṣambella from west to east, plus the capital Līlasuṃghāṇa that lies inland but on the tidal Lake Lulūnīkam (lulūnīkam ga gūltis), and Lāltaṣveya which lies on the Nīmbaṇḍhāra delta.
No. | City[12] | Diocese | Population12 (3872) | Population10 (6422) | Tribunal |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Līlasuṃghāṇa ṭ | Nanašīrama | 9Ɛ.42.535 | 29,698,169 | Jade Coast (Lake Lūlunīkam) |
2 | Ilēnimarta ṭ | Kanyāvālna | 56.2Ɛ.ᘔ69 | 16,484,913 | Jade Coast (mid-inland) |
3 | Līṭhalyinām ṭ | Latayūlima | 44.ᘔ0.Ɛᘔ9 | 13,148,337 | Jade Coast (coastal) |
4 | Līlta ṭ | Mīḍhūpraṇa | 3Ɛ.48.691 | 11,792,845 | Jade Coast (coastal) |
5 | Cami ṭ | Haikamotē | 3ᘔ.03.475 | 11,452,121 | Northern Far East |
6 | Līlikanāna ṭ | Āturiyāmba | 31.09.215 | 9,222,641 | Southern Far East |
7 | Mamaikala | Sūṃrakāñca | 28.0ᘔ.987 | 7,981,303 | Namaikęeh - Northern Plain |
8 | Lāltaṣveya | Aṣasārjātia | 25.Ɛ0.Ɛᘔ4 | 7,445,932 | Eastern Plain |
9 | Līlekhaitē | Hūnakañjaiṭa | 22.73.9ᘔ9 | 6,621,393 | Near East |
10 | Hilyamāmah | Siramajāra | 20.5ᘔ.490 | 6,093,612 | Eastern Plain |
11 | Naiṣambella ṭ | Yayadalga | 1ᘔ.Ɛ9.259 | 5,718,309 | Southern Far East |
12 | Ajāƾilbādhi | Ajāƾiljaiṭa | 19.81.492 | 5,393,774 | Jade Coast (mid-inland) |
13 | Lūkṣṇyaḍāra | Ārvaghoṣa | 17.97.416 | 4,927,122 | Jade Coast (deep inland) |
14 | Lūlunimarta | Ogiñjaiṭa | 17.43.802 | 4,817,090 | South |
15 | Kalikarāsnah | Ħaiṣaulēnia | 16.94.416 | 4,673,106 | Northeast |
16 | Kimbahēši | Ndejukisa | 16.31.6ᘔƐ | 4,543,907 | West |
17 | Yotachuši | Hachitama | 15.52.965 | 4,338,653 | East |
18 | Kūmanabūruh | Takajñanta | 15.17.7Ɛ3 | 4,264,119 | Jade Coast (coastal) |
19 | Hālyanēṃṣah | Tatmājaiṭa | 14.5ᘔ.045 | 4,102,325 | South |
20 | Hūnakṣaila | Jhūtañjaiṭa | 13.9Ɛ.731 | 3,939,157 | Jade Coast (coastal) |
The largest metropolitan area in the Inquisition is the one extending mainly on central-eastern Haikamotē diocese, centered on Cami, with a population of 43,357,289 (1.26.2Ɛ.03512) people according to the most accepted definition.
Population growth
Compared to other developed nations, the Inquisition also has a relatively high fertility rate, with a median of 2.2 children per woman; despite infant mortality sharply declining in the last hundred years (to the point that the Inquisition has one of the lowest rates on the planet) and better economic conditions, the fertility rate has not declined that much due to a traditional preference for large families and need for workers in the agricultural sector.
As this has been cause of growing concern in some areas, especially the already overpopulated parts of the nation where the largest cities lie, the government has introduced a program of colonization, offering economic benefits to those from the main populated areas who, once reached age of majority (at the beginning of one's 18th year of age (at one's 17th birthday in English age count)), settle in “development areas”, dioceses with large thinly-populated areas. In some cases, governments still use deportation programs, even though not to the large extent as 80/90 years ago. The Inquisitorial fertility rate has also been a source of concern in some countries, as some politicians there have spoken of a “Chlouvānem plan” for world colonization: this is particularly prominent in Qualdomailor, as it has seen many Chlouvānem immigrants in the last three decades and now ethnic Chlouvānems have risen from 3% to 17% of its population.
Many other countries of the former Kaiṣamā, apart from Qualdomailor, still have large numbers of ethnic Chlouvānem, for example 33% of the population in Fathan, 24% in Brono, 14% in Kŭyŭgwažtov and 10% in Soenjŏ-tave. Noiyŭlso (Nalsa in Chlouvānem), the second-largest city of Kŭyŭgwažtov, is notable as the only city outside the Inquisition with a population in excess of one million whose majority is ethnic Chlouvānem.
Immigration
Immigration policies to the Inquisition have varied quite a lot in the last fifty years. During the Kaiṣamā era, most immigrants were from the other countries of the former Union (with a particularly large number of them being Kŭyŭgwaž and Soenjŏ), and a very small number of Communist political refugees from some countries (notably Púrítonian and Southern Védrenian ones), who, however, mostly settled in the other countries of the Kaiṣamā. Overall, immigration during that era (which ended in 6378 (383612), 46 years ago) was pretty limited, especially considering that many inter-Union "immigrants" were forcibly relocated (though in the early Kaiṣamā it was much more common than in the later period).
After the Kaiṣamā ended, it was the time of the so-called "new progressivists", somewhat more open than the hard-line Yunyalīlti Communism-influenced High Inquisitors that worked during the Kaiṣamā (Great Inquisitor Mæmihūmiāvi Kañeñǣkah Læhimausa continued to hold power for a further twenty years, until her death in 6398 (385212), though embracing "new progressivism"). During this period, immigrating into the Inquisition became easier, especially for people from poorer Védrenian countries, and peaking after 6387 (384312) with the start of the first of the Dabuke Civil Wars right across the western borders of the Inquisition. Many immigrants from all continents (apart Evandor and, to a lesser extent, Púríton; also immigration from most countries of the former Kaiṣamā greatly decreased) entered the Inquisition during this period, but most of them had difficulties in founding immigrant communities due to immigrants being redistributed and housed in different parts of the country upon arrival. Children of "new progressivism"-era immigrants, for this reason, are all considered Chlouvānem as they readily integrated into mainstream Chlouvānem culture, as did most of their parents anyway.
While "new progressivism" proper is considered to end soon after the election of Great Inquisitor Chilamulkāvi Praṣṭhyæša Naryekayah in 6398 (385212), these immigration policies continued until well into the reign of the following Great Inquisitor Kælidañcāvi Læñchlīñchlē Mæmihūmya (elected in 6408 (386012) after Praṣṭhyæša resigned); late Kañeñǣkah- and early Praṣṭhyæša-era policies aimed at East-West "reconciliation" also had the effect of easing immigration from the West, and in fact there has been a moderately large number of Western middle-class, educated people who came to the Inquisition, mostly working in the education and scientific sectors. However, the bulk of immigrants continued to come from poorer countries of Eastern Védren, parts of the former Kaiṣamā, and Ovítioná; the 6405 (385912) earthquake and tsunami in the Inner Skyrdegan Sea, that hit the well developed Greater Skyrdegan economies very hard, also had the effect of increasing immigration from those areas.
The rise of traditionalism (and Nāɂahilūmism) in the last ten years restored many of the Kaiṣamā-era restrictions to immigration; anyway, the start of the second wave of the Dabuke Civil Wars in northeastern Védren has led to a large influx of immigrants entering the Inquisition from there. Middle-class immigration from the West also has not stopped, but most of those immigrants are now Communist-aligned students or "new age" followers of Yunyalīlti-influenced cults; depending on where they work, such immigrants may have less restrictions in travelling abroad, with restricted movement being mainly from Western part (like in the ongoing controversial case of the Cerian-born woman Tanūrēṣāvi Laitamērališā Lyāni (born Reáni Laitaméra), who married a Chlouvānem man considered a terrorist by international security forces and can't travel outside the Inquisition and a few other Eastern Bloc countries).
Today, immigrants to the Inquisition mostly come from Dabuke lands in northeastern Védren and western Márusúturon (the latter areas bordering with Chlouvānemized Dabuke lands part of the Inquisition); due to the widespread instability, poverty, and often war in these areas of the world (a result of decades of civil war caused by power struggles in the reigning oligarchies), many displaced people flee these lands and because of geographical proximity the closest “safe” areas are the Western dioceses of the Inquisition. Due to most Dabuke people being animists and to Western Chlouvānem culture being born as a hybrid between “mainstream” (or Plains) Chlouvānem and the former Eastern Dabuke cultures, they’re often easily converted and integrated into it: cultural differences between Western Chlouvānem and other Dabuke peoples are far smaller than between Western and, for example, Northeastern Chlouvānem people.
Skin colour statistics
As predictable given the métis origins of the Chlouvānem people and their cultural-based ethnicity, skin colour is fairly unimportant in Chlouvānem society; ID cards record it as a physical trait, but it has almost no implication outside bare statistics. Different skin colours are however interesting in their distribution, and often it is a sign of a certain geographical origin.
Calemerian skin colours, in Chlouvānem usage, are grouped in eight major definitions, none of them coming even close to an absolute majority (unless the lugaṣṭṇīṭah and hailaṣṇīṭah groups are taken as a single one).
Small numbers in brackets after the definitions roughly indicate its range in the Von Luschan chromatic scale. Note that the chlebrāḍhṇīṭah type does not occur on Earth and is therefore not represented there. All names are bahuvrihi compounds with the latter element being ṇīṭah (skin, tree bark).
- the naleimurkaṇīṭah group (36-34) is the darkest skin colour of all, and in the Inquisition it is typical in the Eastern Islands as well as a few areas in the West and along the southernmost coasts. About 7,5% of all Chlouvānem belong to this group.
- the lallamurkaṇīṭah group (33-28) is the typical black skin, and is legally the relative majority among Chlouvānem people[13], with 28% of the population. It is common all throughout the nation, but from the Plain it increases the further West one goes, up to more than 90% in some of the westernmost dioceses.
- the lugaṣṭṇīṭah group (27-23) is the one most people on Calémere frequently associate with Chlouvānem people, as it is the relative majority in nearly all of their heartlands; the mid-high skin colour in this range (24, 25, 26) is probably the most common overall there. It is legally the third-largest, with 24% of all Chlouvānem.
- the hailaṣṇīṭah group (18-20) is another stereotypically Chlouvānem-only skin colour, relative majority in many areas of the Plain, in the southern rainforests, and in the East. It is legally the second-largest, with 26% of all Chlouvānem, but popular usage hardly distinguishes it from the lugaṣṭṇīṭah group.
- the chlebrāḍhṇīṭah group (off-scale, closest to 18 or 20 but much more yellowish and somewhat greenish) is the rarest of all Calemerian colours, and fourth-rarest in the Inquisition with 6,5% of all people (it is to be noted though that Chlouvānem with this skin colour are the majority of all such Calemerian humans), mostly in various remote different areas: the northwestern outback, the Hålvaren plateau, the Yalira basin and parts of Dūlāyirjaiṭa and Saṃhayolah, and the mountain highlands of Mūltarhāva and Bāljaṃhārah - though it is the absolute majority only in a few rural areas (most rural areas in the latter highlands). Hålša, the largest city of the Hålvaren plateau, is the only Chlouvānem city (and the only one on Calémere) with a population greater than 2 million where people with this colour are the relative majority, with 41% of the city's inhabitants.
- the nivudaṇīṭah group (15-17 plus 21 and 22) is the colour of “dark-skinned whites”, not particularly common in the Inquisition as it amounts only to 3% of the population, mainly in the inland West and scattered among major cities in the rest of the nation.
- the julkṇīṭah group (7-9 plus 12-14, though more peachlike) is a light skin colour mostly common in the Northeast and parts of the East, as well as scattered elsewhere; it amounts to 4% of all Chlouvānem.
- the vindṛṇīṭah group (11 and lower) is the colour of “whites”: despite being fairly common on Calémere it is hardly native to the lands of the Inquisition, apart from the taiga in the far Northeast and the islands off the Northeastern coast, as well as descendants of Evandorians in the northwestern dioceses (former colonies of Western powers) and later middle-class Evandorian immigrants. As those were historically sparsely populated areas, ancestral people of those areas are few; and as that kind of immigration is not so relevant in percentage terms, it is the rarest group, amounting to only 1% of all Chlouvānem.
Health
The Inquisition has the fourth-highest median life expectancy on Calémere (after Brono, Karynaktja, and Holenagika), with ~71.3 (5Ɛ.412) years for males and ~74.8 (62.ᘔ12) for females[14]; life expectancy has grown noticeably in the last century after the newest progresses in science were able to finally defeat or find easy cures to many common tropical diseases that historically plagued large parts of the territory.
The main health issue among Chlouvānem people is considered to be the suicide rate. Suicide (demikaudaranah) is the leading cause of death for people under 4012 and has grown to become a serious problem. The rate is very high due to the social pressure inherent in Chlouvānem culture, which has often led people, especially young workers and students, to be easily ashamed for even minor mistakes or failures and Chlouvānem society not being particularly tolerant of this. Due to the Yunyalīlti worldview valuing the community more than the individual, suicide has historically been considered the most honourable way to die, and part of a process of natural selection, as the dead’s place in the community will be taken by someone better suited.
These reasons have also led, especially among young people (particularly the age range from 1212 to 2212) to the popularity of "suicidal games" (demikaudarħildoe, pl. -ħildenī): actual plannings of mass suicides masked as games. This has been a particularly hot topic in the news since in 6418 (386ᘔ12) 43 young people committed suicide on the same day across the diocese of Kainomatā; while many such games have been stopped and the organizers often executed, some of them periodically pop out and it has been estimated that many hundreds of all yearly suicides of young people in that age range is due to these phenomena. Parts of the society, though, haven't condemned these games as much as the government did, with people even referring to them as a kind of "needed help" in order to find a simple and right way to do it.
Nowadays, even some of the most traditionalist people have recognized that suicides in the Inquisition are a serious problem as suicide rates, particularly among people aged 1612 to 2412, have continued to rise yearly for the last 15 years, and many failed attempts have led to people frequently becoming paralyzed or with other serious injuries and thus incapable of leading a normal life. Many suicide hotlines have been set up by local governments in order to give assistance and some dioceses have begun to provide psychological visits for free to “vulnerable subjects”, and there have been cases of employers being convicted and serving 2+6+2 months prison sentences[15] for instigation to suicide (demikaudarīlgis) - there have been however pressures towards Inquisitors in order to give harsher sentences for such crimes, including a full 7+7 sentence[16]; anti-suicide politics have also resulted in more surveillance near bridges at night and especially many lifeguards being employed all night long along beaches after many people committed suicide by drowning themselves into the sea or lakes; anyway, the results are still hard to see as, despite governmental efforts, popular opinion still sees suicide as an honorable act.
Geography
Physical geography
The Great Plain
The heart of Chlouvānem civilization is the huge area usually simply described as the Plain (dhoya in Chlouvānem). There is actually no single accepted name for this huge area, but commonly used ones are "The Great Plain" (camidhoya) or "Great Chlouvānem Plain" (chlǣvānumi camidhoya, but more commonly found in foreign sources). Perhaps the most common native name for it is Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah(-Lirāh) Plain (nīmbaṇḍhāri lāmberi no (lirī no) dhoya), but it only refers to a part of it.
The Great Plain is basically one of the largest plains on Calémere as well as one of its most densely populated areas; most of it is part of the drainage basins of a few large rivers: two of them, the Nīmbaṇḍhāra - Calémere's longest river - and the Lirāh, have a common shared delta in the northeastern part of the plain; the other major ones all have a common estuary in the southeast, formed by the outlet of the tidal Lake Lūlunīkam. All of these basins are only divided by a few minor hills, so that the impression is of being in a single, continuous plain which spans, at its largest extents, twenty degrees of latitude and almost forty-five degrees of longitude. The highest relief inside the plain itself is Kahandrāta hill, on the border between the dioceses of Mūrajātana and Pūracikāna, about 940 meters high. However, near the foothills of the Camipāṇḍa mountains, thousands of kilometers away from the sea, the plain terrain reaches similar (and higher) elevations; these are somewhat noticeable in some areas, such as Cambhaugrāya in the northeastern part, where rivers sometimes form gorges and run tens of metres lower than the surrounding terrain.
The northern border of the plain is made up by the Camipāṇḍa ("great white") mountains, one of the longest mountain chains of Calémere and also the highest. It contains Calémere's highest mountain, mount Laikadhāṣṭra, which is 5.Ɛ77 pā (10,31510 — about 10,717 m = 35,160 ft) high and lies on the border between the dioceses of Ñarigeiras and Dūlāyirjaiṭa (the actual peak is in Ñarigeiras; the border passes through a slightly shorter peak to the northwest).
The southern border between the Great Plain and the equatorial rainforest (which is, topographically, also mostly plain) is marked by a distinct biome that makes this area so special: the huge wetlands created by the many rivers that flow northward from the various hills in the northern part of the rainforest. This area is basically a huge network of swampy forests, and is known in Chlouvānem sources as the halumi paɂītumi no ṣveya - literally "wall of igapós and várzeas", and extends through the dioceses of Dhārvālla, Tamīyahāna, the southern third of Ārvaghoṣa, Talæñoya, and the southern part of Nanašīrama. The dioceses of Vælvmaichlam and Yalyakātāma, and to a lesser extent also Ñaryākātāma all have similar habitats and northward-flowing rivers (Vælvmaichlam's ones are outside the basins of the Great Plain), but are included in the major area of the southern rainforest instead. The Lanamilūki river, which is the one with the largest flow in the area, is particularly significant as it flows through the historical homeland of the Laifutaši culture, which was one of the indigenous cultures that influenced the Chlouvānem the most; the clearwater Lanamilūki, which flows north through eastern Talæñoya, then forms the border between Šraḍhaṃñælihæka and Nanašīrama before reaching Lake Lūlunīkam at Līlasuṃghāṇa, the Inquisition's capital, is also symbolically important and an extremely famous and visited area today due to the relatively unspoiled várzeas around it (and igapós around its right-bank tributaries) and the many holy sites of the Yunyalīlta. The Lanamilūki river itself is mentioned various times in the Yunyalīlti holy books.
This area still has some important cities, most notably Lunahīkam (the capital of Talæñoya), while Līlasuṃghāṇa and Lūkṣṇyaḍāra lie just outside this area.
The Plain is Calémere's most densely settled large area, with settlements especially dense on the main rivers, on coastal areas, and in the areas of freshwater springs. These springs (jašam, pl. jašāk) are, for humans, the most important geographical feature, as their water, channeled in man-made canals called varṣāh (pl. varṣai), provides irrigation to the agricultural activities of the area. Rice is the main cultivation, with wheat becoming increasingly common travelling west, where the climate is more arid. Potatoes, dāhāmai and lambā (all tubers) are also common staple foods extensively grown there, as are soybeans and various other types of legumes, bananas~plantains and coconuts (esp. in the east), and many other types of fruits and vegetables. The transitional, more humid climate in the coastal Jade Coast and around lake Lūlunīkam, transitional between the Plain and the South, hosts an immense variety of orchards as well as about 60% of the whole tea production on Calémere.
The South
The South is the large area occupying most of the southern portion of the main subcontinental body of the Inquisition, excluding the western coast. The vast majority of the area is covered by equatorial rainforests, the largest continuous such tract on Calémere, with the exception of the highest elevations and of Hāyanidēva, which, being located in the rainshadow of the Hanaɂušin mountains, has an arid climate, revealing itself in satellite imagery as a patch of desert in the middle of the rainforest. The northern border of the South is sometimes considered to be the drainage divide between the basins of the Jade Coast and those of the Great Southern Ocean (a divide used administratively), but biogeographically the wall of igapós and várzeas in the southern third of Ārvaghoṣa, Talæñoya, and southern Nanaširama is used as a border.
The South is very sparsely settled: the inland rainforest is inhabited by a plethora of ethnic groups, Chlouvānemized to various degrees, almost all of them numbering in the thousands of people and limited to a few villages; coastal areas are more populated, but still 90% of the South's population are concentrated in the three metropolitan areas of Lūlunimarta (6 million people), Hālyanēṃṣah (5 million), and Kælšamīṇṭa (1.8 million, not on the coast but on the delta of the Yunaikhūla, the South's longest river and also the one with the largest drainage basin). Still, even in the dioceses containing these cities, the territory outside those metropolitan areas is sparsely settled. The diocese of Ājvalēnia, in the northeastern part of the region, bordering the Jade Coast to the north, is the only one with an actual network of settlements, but (unlike the Jade Coast, and more similar to the "villages on rivers" pattern of the South) almost all along its three major rivers. The mountains in northern Ājvalēnia include mount Maichlikaiṭah, an extinct volcano which is, at 6ºN, the only point in the Inquisition's tropics with a permanent snow cover at the top.
Political borders and links
The Chlouvānem Inquisition borders, on land, 19 other countries (plus another one through a maritime border); clockwise from the southeast: Kondutewa - Ikembete - Maji-Ndola - Ênêk-bazá - Répéruton - Aréntía - Maëb - Tārṣaivumi Gulf - Džemleštew - Leñ-ṱef - Little Ivulit[17] - Qualdomailor - Brono - Skyrdagor (maritime border only) - Fathan - Gorjan - Tulfasysz - Ogotethep - Gwęčathíbõth - Arkjatar - Aksalbor - Union of New Égélonía
All neighboring countries on land have road links with the Inquisition and all except for Répéruton and Aréntía also have rail links, even though the single crossing to Aksalbor, in the far northern taiga of the Inquisition, across the Brūmādis river by the 55th parallel north, is very lightly travelled. The only connection with Arkjatar is also sparsely travelled, due to its remote location inside the taiga; despite being just south of the 52nd parallel north, it is part of the northernmost direct coast-to-coast crossing in Eastern Márusúturon (the aforementioned road to Aksalbor ultimately feeds into this road in eastern Kēhamijāṇa diocese). The links with the countries to the west - except for Répéruton, whose border lies in an uninhabited desert area and the only road there is an unpaved desert track - are all in good conditions but the roads on the other side of the border often aren't (except for Maëb, whose roads are all in good conditions), particularly in Ênêk-bazá and Ikembete, two of the poorest countries on Calémere.
Climate
Enormous as it is, the Inquisition proper includes all major climates and biomes of Calémere except for polar tundra and ice caps (high-altitude tundra and ice caps, however, are found). Anyway, a large part of the country is dominated by tropical climates, with consistently high mean temperatures all throughout the year. Virtually all areas south of 10°N have an tropical rainforest climate (except for dry areas in rainshadows), and this climate is also found in sporadic patches north of it - including, notably, the capital city area around Lake Lūlunīkam. A tropical monsoon climate, with more yearly variation in precipitation, is found in most of the Far East, most of the Plain, and parts of the West, shifting to a tropical savanna climate inland. About 60% of the population of the Inquisition lives in areas with a tropical climate.
Overall, the Inquisition is divided in the following broad climate zones:
- the rainforest area, which includes nearly all of the South (except for semi-arid or desertic Hāyanidēva and the Sand Coast, in rainshadows) and all of the Southern islands, and the southern Jade Coast, with either a tropical rainforest climate or a tropical monsoon climate with less pronounced dry seasons. Most of this area is still covered by rainforests, the largest ones of Calémere.
- the monsonic area, including nearly all of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain.
- the wet savanna, i.e. the Far East south of 25ºN, which has a tropical savanna climate with either a "dry" season with a marked amount of rain and a rainier wet season (the Eastern coast of the Far East, and some mainly insular areas on the Western coast) or with a short dry season and a long wet season (the rest of the Far East). The climate is therefore much like the monsonic area, but with less overall precipitation, more evenly distributed throughout the year.
- the dry savanna, i.e. the coastal Sand Coast, most of the Western coast, all of the Far West, and parts of the western Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain where years are divided roughly evenly between a wet and a dry season, the latter being typically during the winter months. Some sporadic parts along the coast actually have a climate more typical of the "wet savanna".
- the Eastern Sea lands, i.e. most of the East and the coastal continental Northeast, which have a humid subtropical climate to the south and an oceanic climate to the north. Hivampaida, on the Skyrdegan Inner Sea, also has a similar humid subtropical climate.
- the (semi-)arid lands, which include both semi-arid climates (most of the inland Northeast; Tālišulkhān (the southwestern corner of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain); the inland Southwest; large parts of the West) and mediterranean climates (the Northwest, including the areas around the Tārṣaivumi Gulf and the Little Ivulit).
- the hot deserts, i.e. most of the West and sporadic parts elsewhere (Hāyanidēva in the South and parts of the inland Northeast).
- the plateau and mountain area, including the climate of the Hålvaren and Eirappåcih plateaus (ranging from hot summer humid continental to cold semi-arid depending on the area) and the high altitude subpolar, tundra or ice cap climates in the Camipāṇḍa range.
- boreal climates, including both the extreme continental subpolar climate of taiga-covered Kēhamijāṇa, and the two islands of Hokujaši (mainly cool summer humid continental) and Aratāram (also cool summer humid continental in the west; the eastern coast has a subpolar oceanic climate). The far northern tip of Aratāram island, due to the effect of the Targhāni Current and of the constant wind, has a tundra climate and Calémere's southernmost sea-level Northern hemisphere tree line, just north of 53ºN.
Flora and fauna
Environment
Urban green areas
Chlouvānem gardens or rālya (pl. rālyai) (or, for courtyard gardens, keika (pl. keikai)) are an essential aspect of Chlouvānem art and architecture, with gardening (rālyabhāyāmita) being considered one of the Nine Arts of Chlouvānem culture. Chlouvānem gardens, traditionally spaces of meditation and contemplations, have been designed as small representations of nature, featuring highly symbolic elevation changes, streams, rocks, and ponds, usually in a meadow or forest setting; they are meant to be walked in using winding paths (līlta, pl. līltai), typically made of sand, with small bridges across streams or ponds (rarely, a few streams have to be crossed without bridges); sometimes, boardwalks are used as paths, especially where the terrain is humid and marshy, as in many gardens in central-southern cities such as Līlasuṃghāṇa, Kūmanabūruh, or Līṭhalyinām. Except for areas with arid climates or prolonged dry seasons, water is often a significant component of Chlouvānem gardens.
Gardens are a characteristic of most Chlouvānem cities, with older areas of major cities often having hundreds of them, ranging from very small ones in what once were the backyards of the rich, to extensive ones such as the Gardens of the Inquisitorial Palace in central Līlasuṃghāṇa or the Moon Lake Garden in Lāltaṣveya. Starting from the earliest, shrine-based function (most gardens have symbolic elements representing particular moments of the life of the Chlamiṣvatrā as depicted in the Holy Books of the Yunyalīlta), throughout two thousand years of Chlouvānem history the functions of gardens have been varied, including pure contemplation of beauty, observation of natural phenomena, use as a classroom-like learning space for temple schools, scientific study of plants, and growing of fruits and vegetables in temple orchards. Today, nearly all gardens have public access, and are places of worship and of relaxation at the same time. Pure gardens (i.e. not park-garden hybrids) are a typical tourist attraction, with a sizable number of Chlouvānem spending their vacations in other areas of the nation just to see various gardens, from famous ones in large cities to smaller, unknown ones in countryside towns.
Historically, the Chlouvānem garden art had spread to the Skyrdagor (who elaborated on that, creating the rock garden (in Chl. tamirlālya "rock garden" or teñjābi rālya "Skyrdegan garden") and spreading it back to the Chlouvānem world) and to the Bronic and Qualdomelic peoples; more recently, modern Chlouvānem "garden culture" has to some extent spread, in Kaiṣamā times, not only in Brono and Qualdomailor but also in all other nations of the former Union (Imuniguro-Xenic terms: rangja (Qua.), ragea (Bro.), raŋya (Fat.), haanya (Soe.), ranya (Enegenic)).
Modern Chlouvānem parks (jarmān) are a different category, but the main distinction between them is that parks are considered "non-artistic" gardens, with less or no religious symbolism and less emphasis on the contemplative side. Anyway, many urban parks have one or more gardens in it, and some very large gardens (as, for example, the Gardens of the Inquisitorial Palace) have a few areas not typical of gardens but associated with parks, such as benches and a few orchards and lawns. The aesthetic design of urban parks and many paths in them, however, is usually inspired on the one of gardens; a notable effect of this is how Chlouvānem urban parks tend to have, on average, more trees and thicker wooded areas than parks in other countries. Pick-your-own orchard areas are commonly found in many parks, though fruit trees are more usually scattered in all green areas of cities.
Especially in the latest 30 years, Chlouvānem cities have grown to be some of the greenest ones on Calémere, aided by environmental-friendly policies based on religious tenets and fueled by public concerns on urban heat island effects. All of the extensive green areas between panel apartment blocks are kept as parkland, often with fruiting trees here and there, and due to the fact most Chlouvānem live in such vertically-extended panel apartment blocks, such areas between them usually constitute the vast majority of the land area in cities and wards built in the last 70 years. Other results of this policies towards "greener cities" are the covering of skyways and overpasses with evergreen vines, as well as construction of green roofs. Such developments, especially in the monsoon-prone areas of the East, are designed to absorb rainwater and reduce the risk of flooding, while xeriscaping is commonly implemented in the arid climates of the Western Chlouvānem Inquisition.
Political geography
![Political map of the Inquisition.](/w/images/thumb/7/78/Inquisition-tribunals-dioceses.png/979px-Inquisition-tribunals-dioceses.png)
(Map not updated)
In the Inquisition there are three major levels of local administration: the diocese, the circuit, and the parish.
The highest level is the diocese (juṃšañāña), comparable to a federate state; their head is a bishop (juṃša). Many dioceses in an area with shared economical and cultural characteristics are grouped in an administrative unit called tribunal (camimaivikā), which intervenes in common regional economic planning and is as well an important statistic unit.
There are in total 171 dioceses in the Inquisition, divided into 18 tribunals (but two dioceses - the Kāmilbausa and the Kāyīchah islands - are not part of any tribunal, both being insular dioceses between the "mainland" of the Inquisition and the continent of Védren[18]): Jade Coast Area (16, lilac in the map above), Eastern Plain (10, dark light blue), Namaikęeh - Northern Plain (7, brown), Central Plain (9, violet), Western Plain (7, golden orange), Inland Southwest (8, earth green), Coastal Southwest (6, deep green), South (14, cyan), Near East (6, orange), Southern Far East (7, red), Far Eastern Islands (6, grayish blue), Northern Far East (9, yellow), East (9, light green), Northeast (12, salmon), North (9, dark light blue), Near West (15, purple), Northwest (7, light blue), and West (10, dark blue). Population of the dioceses ranges from 1.67.ᘔƐ.ᘔ0212 (55,717,346) (Haikamotē in the Northern Far East) to 7.21712 (12,403) (the Nukahucē islands, a remote chain of coral atolls part of the Far Eastern Islands tribunal but somewhat isolated from them). Diocese area ranges from 887,794 km2 (Samvālšaṇṭrē, in the Northwest, almost entirely consisting of a large desertic or semi-arid endorheic basin) to 208 km2 (the Nukahucē islands)[19].
Some dioceses consist of two separate administrative units with a single religious head - these are mostly newer developments, where effectively a new "state" has been created for all matters except the most strictly religious ones. Depending on the diocese, these separate units may bear the name of province (ṣramāṇa) - for larger but less densely populated areas - or eparchy (ṭūmma) - for smaller, mostly urban areas. Eparchies are a special kind of administrative division, as they are only divided in municipalities, but they are normally counted as cities statistically - for example the capital city of the Inquisition, Līlasuṃghāṇa, is listed as the nation's largest city, with 9Ɛ,4 raicē/29.8 million inhabitants - there is however no such entity as the city of Līlasuṃghāṇa, but only its eparchy. There are in total seven eparchies in the Inquisition: Līlasuṃghāṇa (diocese of Nanašīrama), Ilēnimarta (diocese of Kanyāvālna), Līṭhalyinām (Latayūlima), Līlta (Mīdhūpraṇa), Cami (Haikamotē), Līlikanāna (Āturiyāmba), and Naiṣambella (Yayadalga); apart from the latter (counting 16,1 raicē/4.5 million people), the first five have more than 36 raicē (~10.4 million) inhabitants - Līlikanāna falls just short of it - and are the six largest cities of the country.
The next local level is the circuit (lalka), whose denomination changes in some dioceses — hālgāra (district) in parts of the Southern Far East; jāndaca (county) across the Northeast; bamaba (kingdom) in most Western dioceses; būlīṃhaka (flag) in the rural North; tamekih (assembly) in the three rainforest dioceses of Talæñoya, Yalyakātāma, and Vælvmaichlam (in the latter, the city of Pamahīnēna (the largest inland rainforest city of the Inquisition) is coterminous with the assembly), and lanaikiloe (island council) in the Kāyīchah islands — without major differences in competences (though it should be noted that competences of circuits or equivalent administrations are not centralized, but defined by the diocese or province).
The lowest level of local administration is the "municipality" one — whose names are in most dioceses either parish (mānai), city (marta), or sometimes village (poga). The distinction between them is mostly of population, with municipalities above a certain population (in many dioceses 40.00012 (82,944) people) being considered cities. The distinction between villages and parishes is more blurry and varies more between each diocese, with villages usual ly being independent municipalities whose populations are either very small in size compared to nearby ones, or located in sparsely populated areas.
Clusters of nearby mid-small parishes often form an entity called inter-parish territory (maimānāyusire ṣramāṇa), sharing between them some basic services like recycling, local transport, or fire protection.
84 cities across the Inquisition have the status of spṛšamarta (closed city), with various levels of movement restriction for non-inhabitants. They are often situated serving strategically important facilities such as large electric plants, military bases and industries, cosmodromes, or labour camps.
While the lowest independent division is the parish (including cities and villages), a minor area in a parish may be recognized as a hamlet (mūreh) (note that some dioceses use the term for village (poga) instead), which for cities is usually a borough (martausire poga, literally "urban village"); in the eparchies of Līlasuṃghāṇa and Līṭhalyinām only, the core wards of the city are designated as chūltām (sectors).
Note that cities may also have hamlets: boroughs are usually defined as such if many of them form a large contiguous urban area; smaller inhabited places in rural areas administered by a city are still hamlets.
Large uninhabited or extremely sparsely populated areas are often not assigned to any municipality, but are administered by the circuit and defined as an extra-parish territory (šrimāṇāyusire ṣramāṇa).
The following table roughly resumes the hierarchy of subdivisions:
Diocesan level cf. States |
Sub-diocesan level Not in all dioceses |
Circuit-level cf. counties |
Ultra-parish-level Optional cf. Ämter |
Parish-level cf. municipalities |
Sub-parish level cf. wards or frazioni |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Diocese (juṃšañāña) |
Eparchy (ṭūmma) de facto diocesan level for non-liturgical matters |
City-level borough (martęs martausire poga) or Sector (chūltām) |
Borough (if urban) (martausire poga) or Hamlet (if rural) (mūreh) | ||
City (marta) | |||||
Parish (mānai) | Hamlet (mūreh) | ||||
Village (poga) | |||||
Province (ṣramāṇa) |
Circuit (lalka) or District (hālgāra) or County (jāndaca) or Kingdom (bamaba) or Flag (būlīṃhaka) or Assembly (tamekih) or Island Council (lanaikiloe) |
City (marta) | Borough (if urban) (martausire poga) or Hamlet (if rural) (mūreh) | ||
Inter-parish territory (maimānāyusire ṣramāṇa) | Parish (mānai) | Hamlet (mūreh) | |||
Village (poga) | |||||
Extra-parish territory (šrimāṇāyusire ṣramāṇa) May be divided in or include Census Places (sg. lailiniañayutia), which are not administrative divisions. |
Ethnic dioceses
A number of dioceses in the Inquisition are ethnic dioceses (lailyāvikausire juṃšañāña, pl. lailyāvikausirāhe juṃšañāñai), home to native, non-Chlouvānem ethnicities. In these dioceses, the languages of the titular ethnicities are co-official in every aspect of public life and members of these ethnicities usually have "land rights" that other ethnicities do not have (for example there are usually substantially faster waiting times for housing allocation for titular ethnicities when compared to ethnic Chlouvānem).
It should however be noted that in all but one of these dioceses (Tūnambasā), the titular ethnicities are less than half of the population, being as low as 9% for Hūnakañai in Hūnakañjaiṭa (most ethnic Hūnakañai do live there — but the diocese includes the 10th largest city of the Inquisition, Līlekhaitē, which is predominantly Chlouvānem). With the exceptions of the Bazá (Chl. Basā) in Tūnambasā and the Čathísǫ̃́g (Chandisēkai) in Jįveimintītas, all other titular ethnicities are only native to the territories of the Inquisition. The Bazá, which are the largest group in their ethnic diocese (78%), are also numerically the largest of any non-Chlouvānem titular ethnicity in the Inquisition.
Note that, despite the small number of ethnic dioceses, most of the country is actually a patchwork of different ethnicities with multiple spoken languages. However, ethnic dioceses are those where the non-Chlouvānem ethnicity is generally more homogeneous; in some cases, ethnic dioceses are actually less ethnically diverse than many other regular ones; compare many dioceses of the South, where the Chlouvānem element is generally small (smaller than in most ethnic dioceses), but the population is divided into many small ethnicities, up to nearly 30 (often numbering in the few thousands of people, due to the sparse settlement of those rainforest areas) in some cases.
There are 13 ethnic dioceses in the Inquisition:
- 2 in the Near East (Tumidajaiṭa and Kotaijaiṭa), plus Rǣrajāṇai diocese (see below);
- 3 in the Southern Far East (Hūnakañjaiṭa, Tendukijaiṭa, and Niyobajaiṭa);
- 1 in the East (Nalakhoñjaiṭa);
- 4 in the North (Halyanijaiṭa, Kūdavīma, Jįveimintītas, and Dahelijaiṭa);
- 1 in the West (Tūnambasā);
- 1 in the Near West (Kūlyambārih);
- 1 in the Northwest (Srāmiṇajāṇai).
The possibility of making Mevikthænai diocese (in the North) the ethnic diocese of the Ogotet' people has been proposed many times on the grounds of it being part of the historical Ogotet' lands. However, so far this has not been approved due to its long current history outside Ogotet' influence (it was Skyrdagor long before it was Chlouvānem) and the fact that Ogotet' people in Mevikthænai do not reach 10% of the population - in fact, most Ogotet' people in the world live in diaspora communities especially on Márusúturon and even in the Ogotet' nation of Ogotethep their number only reaches 30% of the population (most of it is of Skyrdegan or Čathísǫ̃́g origin).
The diocese of Rǣrajāṇai in the Near East has a somewhat special status, because it has most characteristics of ethnic dioceses but, due to its history, land rights for the native ethnicity do not apply in the whole territory. This is because the diocese was only formed in the Kaiṣamā era as a territory for settling down the Rǣrai (endonym ræ:ærnuk), a population speaking a Fargulyn language, distantly related to Skyrdagor, which had been itinerant in most of the Plain and the Near East for centuries[20]. As the territory they were settled in was already populated, Rǣrai people were mostly assigned to newly built towns, including for example the current episcopal seat of the diocese, Reṣṇagærimarta. Rǣrai people are today the majority in the diocese's territory (71%), but most bordering areas have a majority of non-Rǣrai people, some of them having been settled there for a thousand years, and those areas lack land rights for Rǣrai. Similarly, Rǣrajāṇai diocese does not have separate Synods, unlike all ethnic dioceses (except Hūnakañjaiṭa).
There is, currently, a popular movement asking for the two protectorates of Tsila Island (pop. 184,220) and Lūmenāra Island (pop. 357,910, the most populous of the external territories) near 27ºN in northwestern Queáten to be united and annexed to the Inquisition as a new ethnic diocese. However, the low presence of Chlouvānem culture on the islands and their geographical distance from the Inquisition (the closest land is in the Putaitā Islands, about 1,900 km west) have so far prevented serious consideration of this idea.
Etymologies of local toponyms
Local toponyms, reflecting the invading nature of Chlouvānem conquests, are rarely Chlouvānem in origin, being often adaptation of names in local, mostly lost, languages. The main Chlouvānem parts in these toponyms are qualifiers such as marta or murta (city), jaiṭa (land, region), lanai (island), jāṇa (field, commonly used also for towns), or rarely other ones such as ṣveya (fortress) or yalka (beach).
Fully non-Chlouvānem names are possibly the majority, so for example we find names such as Nanašīrama from Laifutaši nana shie ram, meaning "river of many trees" or Takajñanta still from Laifutaši tokai yanta "head of the sea" (from the main peninsula of the area). In the Far East, many names are from Toyubeshian, the common language of the large empire (known as Toyubeshi; the area itself is thence nowadays known as tayubaṣṭē) that occupied those areas before the Chlouvānem came, so for example there are names such as Paramito from para mitō "river market" or Hairalayūta from hai rara yūta "green hill town".
Hybrid nouns, combining a local element and a Chlouvānem modifier, are also very common, in names such as Yañcajāṇa (yañca ethnonym + jāṇa "field") or Toramimarta (Toyubeshian tora mitō "last market" + marta "city"); more rarely, there have been partial calques, with an extreme example being Lališire Keleitimarta (new *Keleita city), episcopal seat of the Northwestern diocese of Tārṣaivai, founded by the Cerians with the name of Celéutía Opéuso ínema (New Celéutía City), referring to the ancient Íscégon city of Clestéia (today Klastê in western Nordûlik, but known as Celéutía in Cerian), where the "new" and "city" elements were translated but the proper name of the city was simply adapted to Chlouvānem phonology.
Fully Chlouvānem names are usually descriptive, as Ājvalēnia "coast of gold" or Yāmyagērisa "foggy lake", but a few of them are celebrating, as Cami "great" or Āramimarta "city of peace".
When used in compounds, the cardinal points appear as kēham- (north), maichle/a- (south), samvāl- (west), and nalei- (east), as well as often, especially in newer settlements, helaṣ- (northeast), talęe- (southeast), māħim- (southwest), and nēdrā- (northwest), e.g. in names such as Maichlahåryan "Southern Gorjan" or Naleigeiras "Eastern Gate".
Time zones
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The Chlouvānem Inquisition is divided in sixteen time zones, ranging from LIL+5 (five hours ahead of the Chlouvānem prime meridian, passing through Līlasuṃghāṇa) to LIL−ᘔ — though no Chlouvānem land territory lies in the LIL−8 and LIL−9 time zones.
Time zones inside the Inquisition are commonly named after the main city (or one of the main cities) lying in it. From east to west (including time offset to the Western system, used in all other Calémerian countries except for Brono, Fathan and Qualdomailor):
- LIL+5 (CER+17:53′40″) — time of the Putaitā and Leyunakā Islands (putaitā leyunakā no ga lanāyān avyāṣa)
- LIL+4 (CER+16:53′40″) — time of Naiṣambella (naiṣambelli avyāṣa)
- LIL+3 (CER+15:53′40″) — time of Cami (camīyi avyāṣa), sometimes also time of Līlikanāna (līlikanāni avyāṣa)
- LIL+2 (CER+14:53′40″) — time of Haltakimarta (haltakimarti avyāṣa)
- LIL+1 (CER+13:53′40″) — time of Hilyamāmah (hilyamāmi avyāṣa) or, in the South, time of Lūlunimarta (lūlunimarti avyāṣa)
- LIL(±0) (CER+12:53′40″) — time of Līlasuṃghāṇa (līlasuṃghāṇi avyāṣa)
- LIL−1 (CER+11:53′40″) — time of Lūkṣṇyaḍāra (lūkṣṇyaḍāri avyāṣa), in the South also time of Hālyanēṃṣah (hālyanēṃṣi avyāṣa)
- LIL−2 (CER+10:53′40″) — time of Arāmimarta (arāmimarti avyāṣa), sometimes also Brono-Fathanic Time (bronopatalumi avyāṣa)
- LIL−3 (CER+9:53′40″) — time of Nalkahīrṣa (nalkahīrṣi avyāṣa), sometimes also time of Mālim (mālimi avyāṣa) or Qualdomelic Time (kvaldēmǣldumi avyāṣa)
- LIL−4 (CER+8:53′40″) — time of Kalkahūnna (kalkahūnni avyāṣa) or, in the Northwest, time of Lališire Keleitimarta (lališire keleitimarti avyāṣa)
- LIL−5 (CER+7:53′40″) — time of Tairaholka (tairaholki avyāṣa)
- LIL−6 (CER+6:53′40″) — time of Nyamukuma (nyamukumi avyāṣa)
- LIL−7 (CER+5:53′40″) — time of Kimbahēši (kimbahēšeyi avyāṣa)
- LIL−ᘔ (CER+2:53′40″) — time of the Kāyīchah Islands (kāyīchah ga lanāyān avyāṣa)
Note that offsets from Cerian time are given in base 10 notation of Calémerian time: 53′40″10 (45′34″12) in Calémerian time corresponds to ~49′04″ on Earth time. Official use in the Inquisition expresses Western time by their offsets from the time of Līlasuṃghāṇa: for example Cerian time (CER(±0)) is noted as being time zone LIL−10:45′34″12.
There is no daylight saving time in the Inquisition: like in the countries of Greater Skyrdagor and of the former Kaiṣamā, temperate areas use different sets of summer and winter schedules instead. In the Inquisition, all dioceses whose territory and/or population lies mostly north of 30ºN adopt summer and winter schedules.
History
The Nāɂahilūmi Years (6308 - 6326)
[TBW]
Nāɂahilūmi monumental architecture
Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma, during her reign, openly supported Chlouvānem cities to become more glorious and worthy of their role as centers of all civilization by adding in them new monumental buildings. Nāɂahilūmi architecture is less ornate than many previous styles, but is characterized by its strong eye-catching functional forms but still inspired by traditional designs; to Earthly eyes they remind of Fascist architecture, but slightly softer due to its frequent use of multiple thatched roof tiers. Among the many examples of Nāɂahilūmi architecture, some of the most important ones are the Light of Purity Tower (kailāchlærim ga kārmāsa) in Līlta, the huge new Hall of the People (laili nāyāṣamva) stadium and forum in Ajāƾilbādhi, and most notably the many examples in Līlasuṃghāṇa, which was seen as Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma as the most important center of civilization due to its role as holy city of the Yunyalīlta and seat of the Inquisition, and thus of the ultimate guide of what is right to follow. Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma first gave orders to create the new Episcopal Palace ((lališire) juṃšadaṃṣrāṇa), a monumental building in central Kahērimaila ward, with many decorations completed using gold and gems from seized Skyrdegan artistic artifacts, and then the Parade Avenue (lonenūnima) and the People's Exhibition Ground (laili maišildāryai), an enormous exhibition ground along the lakeshore of Lūṣyambādhi, just north of Kahērimaila. Other monuments include the three Nāɂahilūmi-era monumental gates[21] (the Skyrdegan Gate (teñjābausire geiras), the Bronic Gate (bronausire geiras), and the Kuyugvaṣi Gate (kuyugvaṣyausire geiras)), and the Holy People's Gate (brausalaili geiras), a monumental complex (not only a gate) meant to glorify the supremacy of the Chlouvānem people as keepers of the ultimate knowledge (the Yunyalīlta). The most famous Nāɂahilūmi-era building is though the Hall of Purity (kailānāyāṣamva), a temple-like monumental building which was possibly thought by the Great Inquisitor as the ultimate monument to herself, celebrating her politics aiming for complete world purity as the most important person to ever have lived since the Chlamiṣvatrā taught the Yunyalīlta two millennia before; in fact, the centralmost jādamīlakeh[22] - a chlæraprasādham, or statue of the Chlamiṣvatrā -, an oeuvre by Līnænuliāvi Lūlulkaicai Hāliehaika, bears a striking resemblance in her facial traits to Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma. Among the building's ornaments there are also numerous references to the plan for purity by Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma, representing Līlasuṃghāṇa as the central place of the world, ultimate model for purity for the rest of the world, ruled by the Chlouvānem people and living following the Yunyalīlti principles. The building was not completed during Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma's reign, but only twenty years later, even after her death. Today it stands on the opposite side of the Gardens of the Inquisitorial Palace relative to the Inquisitorial Palace (murkadhānāvīyi amaha) and the Blossoming Temple (junyāmiti lārvājuṣa), and it is the largest piece of Yunyalīlti architecture which is not a temple (there are eight lārvājuṣai which are larger, including the Blossoming Temple, as well as the Monastery of Gāṃrādhyah Mountain (gāṃrādhyah ga ñarei ñæltryāmaha) in the diocese of Cambhaugrāya). It is obviously not devoted to the public worship of former Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma and her achievements, but it is thought of instead as a monument to the ultimate purity of nature and to the Chlouvānem people, purest among the human creatures.
War for Cleanliness
The East-West Global War, known in Chlouvānem as the War for Cleanliness (blautamita nali saṃrasta - in common speech simply "the War" (saṃrasta)) officially began with the Chlouvānem Inquisition's invasion of Kalo across the Ynvys Pass on 6323 (37ᘔƐ12), 22 mailaheirah. In a night-time operation, a column of about a hundred tanks had crossed from Listord to Kalo, mainly through Ynvys but also through the neighboring Kedve and Pysmog passes. The small hamlet of Ysotor Nys on the road from Kedve pass was the first place to be conquered by the Chlouvānem forces, and in the early morning troops were parachuted outside the city of Nornog, the main city of Eastern Kalo, located at the foothills of the Ynvys Pass, some 30 km from its tip. Like most of Evandor, Kalo had just finished a few months before a long war (the Second Spocian War on Evandor) and the "safer" Eastern areas were not as protected as the rest of the country, which had anyway lots of internal problems due to the extended wars; even if a Chlouvānem threat had been considered, no action had been taken because it was thought of as a remote possibility. Nornog fell in less than two hours and the ever-increasing invasion forces quickly spread across Kalo, aided by the beginnings of spring. It took fourteen days for the Chlouvānem days to take over all of the country.
During the easy invasion and conquest of Kalo, neighboring countries started looking worried at the Chlouvānem forces, but their much lesser military power ultimately stood no chance when their invasion began; in the meantime, the Chlouvānem got an easy ally in Evandor: in Holenagika, militar and revolutionary leader Uiskehg Ohdsqoaihd ([ˈuʃkeː ˈojsqɔj], also known by its Chlouvānemized name Khadmāñcāvi Otskhåda Uškē) , member of the local Yunyalīlti minority, had taken power three months before, and his regime immediately sided with the Chlouvānem; as the Holenagic people were the only one in Evandor to have a Yunyalīlti part, the government propaganda centered on this to proclaim the superiority of Holenagika on all other neighboring countries; this helped Ohdsqoaihd to gain also the support of the nationalists, as the Yunyalīlti minority was no large than 6% of the population. The Holenagic forces made landfall on the continent, in Bénia, which prompted a declaration of war by Ceria and Nordúlik - despite active protest in both countries, as they were the strongest but also the most hard hit by the (victorious) war against Spocius - against the northern Evandorian country; two days later, on 1Ɛ ñariāyāmyah, in response to their involvement against Holenagika, the Chlouvānem forces invaded eastern Nordúlik.
Nordúlik and Ceria, while historically being enemy countries due to them being the two countries with the largest colonial empires, as allies proved to be a tough nut to crack for the somewhat underprepared Holenagic forces to the west and even for the better prepared Chlouvānem forces to the east. While the Chlouvānem managed in a few years to conquer large tracts of southern and southeastern Evandor (including all of Auralia, but failing to conquer all of Nivaren due to the better knowledge of the locals of the impervious mountainous terrain), and also the far northern country of Gathuráni (with invaluable help of the Holenagic forces, due to their far better preparation in cold climates), it took years for the Chlouvānem to break through the plains of Nordúlic to Ceria, and this phase of the war was marked by the most cruel war acts that ever happened on Calémere. On 6325 (37Ɛ112), 7 kanamiprātas, the Chlouvānem forces tried to break through the hilly and densely populated Foškon valley in southern Nordúlik - one of the country's main industrial districts - and started a series of four chemical attacks that took place during the next five days, by spraying gas on the cities of Lešra, Frekuta, and Josubren, killing about 150,000 people. Less than a month later, on 1 pāṇḍalañši, the city of Hrejd in central Nordúlic, used as a base by the Chlouvānem, was reconquered by the Nordúlik forces after a series of bombings that ultimately went to kill more locals than Chlouvānem people.
Another large-scale chemical attack was carried out on 6325, 6 murkāsena on the city of Popat in northern Móleach, killing about 85 thousand people. During the same year, in the first Chlouvānem offensive against Ceria (while the Holenagics were already at war in the western part of the country), on 10 mailaheirah the northeastern coastal city of Rédósuon was completely destroyed by the first atomic bombardment in Calemerian history - five more atomic bombardments were to follow, against the Cerian cities of Némon Ínéma (6325, 20 camirādhās), Érenon (6326 (37Ɛ212), 3 pāṇḍalañši), and Nírende (6326, 19 kanamimaila), the Nordúlic city of Herfen (6326, 22 kanamimaila) and Oquontuo, main port of the southern Evandorian country of Helinetia (6326, ᘔ būṃṣprātas).
During the later months of 6326 (37Ɛ212), the Cerian forces scored their first major victory of the war by defeating the Holenagic army at Éosin in western Ceria. Despite the Chlouvānem attempts to rescue the western front offensive, the defeat proved to crack down the whole Holenagic army, as the Cerians, together with the insurgent Besagren partisans, were able to defeat more times the Holenagics in western Evandor. The Cerian forces then managed to carry out, during the night of 15 camimæchlyē, a single surprise airstrike on Ṅäeqfab, capital of Holenagika, which had a large impact on Holenagic public opinion. Sixteen days later, Holenagic anarchists tried to kill Ohdsqoaihd but failed; the news of the failed coup, however, ignited a series of popular revolts that broke out into a civil war; with the help of Cerian airstrikes, the partisans were able to resist against the army, but it was a military coup by the army that ultimately deposed Ohdsqoaihd on 6326, 7 māltapārṇāvi. The army, collaborating with the exiled Holenagic government in Ceria, ultimately signed a peace treaty with Ceria and the other Western nations on 1 kanamiprātas.
Meanwhile, the Chlouvānem forces had occupied even more parts of Evandor, but were struggling - unprepared with the bitter cold - to advance north into Gathuráni and south into the mountains of Nivaren. The westward advance, however, was marked by a series not only of atomic bombardments, but also general airstrikes and chemical attacks. The deadliest, and to date last, chemical attack to happen on Calémere, was the one on the city of Úráson, the industrial capital of southern Ceria, where more than 300,000 people died during three days of chemical attacks starting from 6326, 22 pāṇḍalañši. The Chlouvānem advance into Cerian lands slowed a bit during the winter, but by the beginning of spring they had control over more than 70% of Ceria, laying siege to the regions of northwestern Ceria - the economic and cultural center of Evandor.
The blautamita nali lallāmindaroe
Kalo and its neighboring countries of Voguždža, Genestko, and Opyžá were the first countries where the Chlouvānem set up their Plan for Cleanliness (blautamita nali lallāmindaroe), consisting in the plan of ethnic and religious purity that Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām had promoted since before taking power. Inquisitors were sent to the occupied territories with the only order of either converting or killing local people. As the West was seen as the most degenerate part of the world by Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma and her followers, it was decided that extermination was to be preferred to the cultural assimilation policies that had been the driving force of expansion throughout millennia of Chlouvānem history. Local governors acted with an iron fist, ordering the killings of thousands of people in what briefly became a peasant war against the military occupants, with enormous losses on the peasants' side. Villages and cities were sacked and then burnt to the ground with all inhabitants who refused to collaborate; any valuable thing was stolen and sent back to the motherland, peasants' food stocks were confiscated and given to the troops, and the second phase of the strive for cleanliness, started by Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma on 6324 (37Ɛ012), 17 brausāsena with the law popularly called "New Blood Plan" (lališire ūvṛṣami lallāmindaroe), culminated in what Western sources call the "Theft of Children": children up to the age of three (up until being in their fourth year of life according to Chlouvānem age reckoning) were confiscated by local families and sent tens of thousands of kilometers away to grow up as Chlouvānem people in Chlouvānem families; the same thing was also carried out with all orphans. It is estimated that about three million children up to the age of six were given to Chlouvānem families, mainly in the Plains and the South.
In the masterplan, the territories of Evandor were to be completely cleaned from the impure heretic people that dwelled there, either by - in Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma's words - "cleaning their mind" (converting them to follow the Yunyalīlti principles) or by "cleaning the places" (killing the heretics). After the cleansing, "pure" Chlouvānem people were to be installed in those territories for the purpose of safeguarding them from being reclaimed by other "heretic" peoples. While the cleansing was carried out in many areas, few Chlouvānem actually settled in Evandor, and most of those who did got back to safer areas due to the subsequent events at Tol Voszanak and the end of the war. Nevertheless, at its peak in the month of brausāsena in 6326 (37Ɛ212), the city of Kolabah, founded on the grounds of the fully destroyed former city of Kolob in central-southern Kalo was the largest Chlouvānem center population center in Evandor, with about 60,000 people.
The Chlouvānem policies, aimed at removing the "impure" heretics in order to expand the way of life according to the principles of the Yunyalīlta, were carried out with extreme zeal in every new territory that became part of the Inquisition during the war; many millions of people, about 30% of the total population of territories that got under Chlouvānem rule, fled their native grounds in order to escape from the advancing Chlouvānem armies, but a higher percentage was the one of people who were killed; death toll estimates of Western sources state that 100 to 120 million people were killed by the Chlouvānem and Holenagic forces during the four years of the war - the highest estimate amounts to nearly 40% of the pre-war Evandorian population. The number was especially high for ethnicities of Eastern Evandor - some already small ethnicities, like the Uryš people of western Kalo, were effectively exterminated, as only a few tens of people managed to survive.
The Tol Voszanak Uprising
The apparently incoming victory of the Chlouvānem forces in the East-West Global War was almost immediately halted starting from 6326 (37Ɛ212), 13 brausāsena, when Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām signed an act authorizing local commanders in the occupied areas of Greater Skyrdagor to dismantle "heretic" buildings and monuments in order to obtain raw materials to be used for military uses. Five days later, on 18 brausāsena, the commander of the governatorate of Tol Raszkut, in southern Karynaktja, authorized the dismantling of the Iron Temple to Ryz in the city of Tol Voszanak (locally [ˈtilʲ ˈfosɑnɑk], Talvasanaka in Chlouvānem), one of the most notable Keduvian religious temples in Karynaktja. The news of the incoming dismantling spread through the city and as the demolishing troops approached the temple on the following morning, 19 brausāsena, they found street barricades and armed resistance by the Skyrdegan citizens; that day a large uprising began and it rapidly turned into a battle between the Skyrdegan majority and the leading Chlouvānem minority. On 1ᘔ brausāsena, military forces from the neighboring areas came to Tol Voszanak in order to crush the rebellion but, as many militars from that area were Skyrdegans themselves, they mutined and the general of that brigade, Mailhommāvi Mahāmiai Hālyehaika, was executed by her soldiers even before entering the uprising city.
Despite the Chlouvānem authorities' attempts to conceal the news of the attempted demolition and of the following uprising, in the following ten days it quickly spread across many areas of Greater Skyrdagor, where many people joined the partisan resistance movements that had been living apart from society since the Chlouvānem invasion, refusing to be converted to the Yunyalīlta. As information on the happenings in Tol Voszanak reached Līlasuṃghāṇa, the uprising had already spread to most of Greater Skyrdagor, and as the largest parts of the army were fighting in Evandor, Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma was forced to directly send lots of Chlouvānem peasants to Greater Skyrdagor and fight, starting from the closest areas (the Northeast and the East). In a so deeply agricultural society as the Chlouvānem one, this proved to be an extremely impopular decision right before planting time, and with many women refusing to send their younger sons or their husbands to war, ultimately also peasants from the Plain and the Jade Coast were called to arms, generating even more anger towards the central government. As the situation in Greater Skyrdagor kept deteriorating, after a bit more than two months from the Tol Voszanak uprising, on 4 bhaivyāvammi, Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma personally flew to the battlefields of Ceria meeting the de facto president of Ceria, Sédónen Éoben, signing on 6 bhaivyāvammi a truce (the Mérosión Truce) and paving the way for a peace conference with all occupied Evandorian countries. After that, the bulk of the Inquisitorial Army was transferred from Evandor to Greater Skyrdagor.
The situation in Greater Skyrdagor was however almost completely in favour of the rebels; Askand had already declared independence on 26 ñaryāyāmyah, followed by both Aksalbor and Skyrdagor on 5 bhaivyāvammi and then Karynaktja on Ɛ bhaivyāvammi. On that day, the Chlouvānem forces only had control on most of Gorjan (which had been annexed to the Inquisition and had a large number of Yunyalīlti even among native Skyrdegan people) and the southern half of Eszubat, the southernmost island of Skyrdagor. Brono and Fathan, while not Skyrdegan, had also revolted, as had most of the occupied countries between Evandor and the Inquisition. In an attempt to calm down the people in the Chlouvānem lands, on 11 bhaivyāvammi, during the Bhaivyāvāṣara, the most important Chlouvānem festivity, which was held in a relatively low-key manner, Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma declared that the war was over. In fact, the war in Evandor was indeed over, but a large civil war had broken out in Greater Skyrdagor.
Peace of Keštron and the fall of G.I. Nāɂahilūma
On 22 bhaivyāvammi, Baptist Līṭhaljāyimāvi Daulidēmā Kanūmbiboma signed on behalf of Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma the Peace of Keštron, the final peace treaty between the Chlouvānem Inquisition (and Chlouvānem-aligned Holenagika) and the Evandorian countries, represented by delegations from each one of the 14 "unorganized governatorates" occupied by the Inquisition plus the presidents of the still independent (but war-torn) countries, including Sédónen Éoben of Ceria, Bešo Perčukwek of Nordúlik and Peonontuo Auto of Helinetia. The Chlouvānem granted full independence to all invaded countries - as Baptist Daulidēmā would explain twenty years later, the priority was settling peace and avoiding other potential Tol Voszanak-s at all costs - but literally sacked the national treasuries, as well as many art operas, of Evandorian countries. Together with the war, this caused a major economic decadence across Evandor that would take more than two decades to balance, but had the side effect of greatly strengthening friendly relations between Evandorian countries.
The situation in Greater Skyrdagor, however, remained critical and, coupled with the revolts of people in the native Chlouvānem lands, ultimately led to the Inquisitorial Conclave putting into accuse Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma on 2 īlāmyasena, and, contrary to all expectations, Baptist Daulidēmā voted the same two days later. In the early morning hours of 6326 (37Ɛ212), 5 īlāmyasena, Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām was arrested and deposed from her role, effectively putting an end to her reign after 21 years. This was ultimately a landmark decision, as Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma's reign proved to be the last truly despotic one in Chlouvānem history, granting almost no individual freedoms and emphasizing a cult of personality where the Great Inquisitor was hailed as the newest coming of the Chlamiṣvatrā. Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma's abuses of power were also strongly condemned since then, and there has been to date no other so explicit call for holy war.
After the fall of the Great Inquisitor, on 1Ɛ īlāmyasena Amabuyāvi Maɂikembītā Læhimausa was elected as her successor; Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām was later, after the end of all war situations, condemned by a tribunal with new Great Inquisitor Maɂikembītā as the highest judge; to extreme surprise, she was spared of capital punishment and, after two years of prison, ended up living in her native Līlta as a nanny until her death in 6340 (380412). To the surprise of many, she didn't get a state funeral, becoming the first (and so far only) non-executed former Great Inquisitor to be refused one. She is however still held in high esteem by most Chlouvānem and, among many tributes, in 6400 (385412) Great Inquisitor Chilamulkāvi Praṣṭhyæša Naryekayah personally ordered the constuction of a statue in her honour, today standing at the center of the square in front of the central station of Līlasuṃghāṇa.
Union of the Purified States (Kaiṣamā) (6327 - 6378)
The Northern Peace
Just after the election of Great Inquisitor Amabuyāvi Maɂikembītā Læhimausa, her first major concern was signing a peace treaty with the insurgent countries of Greater Skyrdagor, formally recognizing their independence; this was done during a six-day summit in Tol Braszon in western Karynaktja and finally signed on 6326 (37Ɛ212), 8 hælvyāsena. The peace treaty - known as the Peace of Tol Braszon or as the Northern Peace - established that all of historical Greater Skyrdagor, minus Gorjan, would become independent as six different countries: Skyrdagor (including the area that would later become the independent country of Ylvostydh), Askand, Aksalbor, Arkjatar, Karynaktja, and Tulfasysz. The Inquisition also agreed to finance rebuilding of many local government offices in the Skyrdegan countries as recompensation for the damages caused by the Chlouvānem invasion and rule - this proved to be extremely unpopular at home and was to negatively influence public opinion of Great Inquisitor Maʔikembītā for part of her reign, but it was posthumously recognized as a great strategical move in order to secure peace for the Inquisition and not let Skyrdegan countries fall into the Western sphere of influence or build their own one.
The Treaty of Mamaikala
The final settlement to the emergency situation in the other occupied countries was finally found in the new year, during a summit starting on 6327 (37Ɛ312), ᘔ māltapārṇāvi, in the city of Mamaikala in the northern Nīmbaṇḍhāra plain. The treaty signed there on 14 māltapārṇāvi effectively united all of these countries and the Chlouvānem Inquisition in a supranational organization called the Union of the Purified States, more commonly referred to as Kaiṣamā as the acronym of its Chlouvānem name, ekailai ṣarivāṇumi mālyāva. The Kaiṣamā established a vast border-free space of more than half of the whole continent of Greater Evandor, consisting of 19 countries: the Inquisition, Brono, Qualdomailor, Soenjŏ-tave, Leñ-ṱef, Kŭyŭgwažtov, Džemleštew, Jalašmořea, Morufalhay, Ebed-dowa, Šurugu-tae, Derbontoo, Berkutave, Enegen-tövön, Aqalyšary, Taruebus, Haletyğyr, Snatåriiw, and Brydvazon-tavy. Those 19 countries (20 from 6372 (383012) when Gorjan became independent from the Inquisition)[23] also shared, due to the Kaiṣamā, a common military force, currency, and external policy, as well as many aspects of a planned economy.
Western countries, however, have always equalled the Kaiṣamā to the Inquisition, and considered the other de jure independent 16 countries as de facto Chlouvānem puppet states, something also emphasized by the forced population transfers which brought a large number of ethnic Chlouvānem people in the other countries of the Union.
The Inquisition itself, as one of the countries of the Kaiṣamā, had more or less the same territory that it had at the beginning of the Nāɂahilūmi years, before the invasion of the Bronic and Skyrdegan countries, except for Gorjan - divided into Northern Gorjan (since 6372 (383012) independent as Gorjan) and Southern Gorjan (heavily Chlouvānemized and to date still a diocese of the Inquisition) - and the easternmost areas of Brono, which for the first time in history gained their identity as Fathan; the pre-war Bronic province of Moamatempony, minus most of the coastal area except for the city of Moamatempony itself (at the time the largest Bronic-speaking city), was also annexed to the Inquisition as a different diocese, and heavily Chlouvānemized since the very earliest years of the Kaiṣamā (today still a Chlouvānem area with its Chlouvānem name of Måmatempuñih).
Law and politics
The Inquisition’s political and legal systems are both based exclusively on religious law: the laws of the country are based on the interpretations given by the Inquisition to the Holy Books that collect the speeches the Chlamiṣvatrā gave, as well as on a few more later writings. Particularly important in the legal system are the Books of Law, which are the non-dogmatic book periodically revised to collect landmark sentences. The Chlouvānem Inquisition's legal system has, at first glance, many traits of Common law systems, but the reason behind it is that Inquisitors generally have both legislative and judicial power; especially in older times, before the institution of the Inquisitorial Conclave, all legislation was based on the interpretations of the Holy Books given in trials. Trials operate under an Inquisitorial system, with Inquisitors fulfilling the same role as public procurators, that is, investigating and prosecuting a crime. However, no Inquisitor can act as a "Procurator Inquisitor" (šuteranyē murkadhāna) and "Judging Inquisitor" (dvašpegde murkadhāna) for the same case.
The governmental system of the Inquisition has a very weak degree separation of powers, as even the formally separate legislative (the Inquisitorial Conclave) and executive (the Consistory of Offices) branches are ultimately subordinate to the Great Inquisitor; the Inquisitorial Conclave, moreover, also functions as the de facto highest court in the judicial system (the Great Inquisitor, de jure, also has higher judicial powers). The Baptist functions as an audit branch, but exclusively monitoring the Great Inquisitor, meanwhile the Conclave of Bishops is only active in order to elect the Great Inquisitor, and is the only organ completely independent from it.
Charges and bodies of the Inquisition
The Great Inquisitor
The Great Inquisitor (camimurkadhāna) may be roughly described as a kind of elective absolute monarch. Her powers are both political and religious (but note that there’s no difference between them in the Chlouvānem view) and include:
- being the head of state and head of both legislative and executive power: it is the Great Inquisitor that ultimately has the final judgement on all things (with only a few small but important exceptions) that the Inquisitorial Conclave (murkadhānumi lanedāmeh, the “parliament”) and the Consistory of Offices (plušamaili eṇāh, the “government”) do, and she could block everything if she thinks it is necessary. In an extreme case (that, however, still happens sometimes), the Great Inquisitor could write a law and force the Inquisitorial Conclave to approve it without any edit.
- if necessary, she has the power (and obligation) to write Encyclicals (yaivjātietadhulta, pl. -dholtyē) or Thematic Letters (nañjātitadhulta); the former are meant for all Yunyalīlti dioceses on the planet; the latter only for those that are a part of the Inquisition as a country. These are documents where opinions or ethico-social themes are given, often containing indications for local governments on how to deal with them.
- she is the head of a few Offices (sg. plušamila, pl. plušamelyē) with “religious” powers - that means those that affect the whole Yunyalīlti religious community and not just those in the Inquisition as a country.
- personally act as religious leader in the most important Yunyalīlti religious celebrations.
The Great Inquisitor is controlled by the Baptist (brausamailenya) as well as by the Inquisitorial Conclave, and may be forced to resign if four fifths of the Inquisitorial Conclave and the absolute majority of the Prefects (Inquisitors that lead one of the Offices) vote for it. While rare, this has happened for the last time 84 years ago with the ending of the regime of Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām after the failed conquest of the West and near-implosion of the country during the East-West War, that the Great Inquisitor herself’s policies had started.
Any female member of the Conclave of Bishops starting from the age of 2210 (that means, in her 23rd year of age) may become Great Inquisitor; the youngest Great Inquisitor ever was younger than that as this norm didn’t exist back then (Kulyajulāvi Lañekaica, 2110 years and three months old at her election in 5491 (321712)), but the current Great Inquisitor, Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē, was elected four years ago (in 6420 / 387012) at the age of 2210 years and four months, becoming the youngest Great Inquisitor since the 22-years-norm exists.
The Great Inquisitor is elected by the Conclave of Bishops (juṃšumi lanedāmeh) every 1012 years, but there’s no limit to the times a Great Inquisitor may be reëlected and she may resign whenever she wants to; often in the past Great Inquisitors remained in charge for their whole life, but today resigning (often in the form of not accepting the candidature in the next conclave) is becoming increasingly common. The longest serving Great Inquisitor was Mæmihūmyāvi Kañeñǣkah Læhimausa who served for 4ᘔ12 (58) years, from 3804 until her death in 3852 (6340-6398).
As every member of the Conclave of Bishops may be elected as long as they're female, and foreign Bishops take part in the Conclave, the newly elected Great Inquisitor does not even have to be a citizen of the Inquisition, even though citizenship is usually granted upon election. This has never happened since the Consolidation, but there have been a few non-Chlouvānem Great Inquisitors, most recently Qaliqumpăn Usuitturẹn jamhni Țọrengej (Chl.: Coreleyāvi Usuvitturæn Kalikhūmpan) from Qualdomailor, who reigned for seventeen years from 6226 (372ᘔ12) until her death in 6243 (374312).
The Great Inquisitor resides in the Blue Halls (kāmilirāhe kamelšītai) of the Inquisitorial Palace (murkadhānāvīyi amaha) in Līlasuṃghāṇa.
Great Inquisitors since the Consolidation (6291)
Great Inquisitor | Elected on | Left office on | Hometown |
---|---|---|---|
Kūldendēlāvi Lęlemunāri Tālimausa (6242-6294) |
3773, 25 lalyāñaiṭa 6279, 29 lalyāñaiṭa |
3786, 3 kanamimaila 6294, 3 kanamimaila (died in office) |
Līlekhaitē |
Namihūlšāvi Šūlteniyæha Nājaldhīm (6255-6333) |
3786, ᘔ kanamimaila 6294, 10 kanamimaila |
3796, 14 kanamimaila 6306, 16 kanamimaila |
Līlasuṃghāṇa |
Hālyehulcāvi Kīvarṇibayeh Lañikaiṣa (6275-6344) |
3796, 14 kanamimaila 6306, 16 kanamimaila |
3798, 9 lalyāñaiṭa 6308, 9 lalyāñaiṭa (resigned) |
Ilēnimarta |
Kælahīmāvi Nāɂahilūma Martayinām (6269-6340) |
3798, 10 lalyāñaiṭa 6308, 12 lalyāñaiṭa |
37Ɛ2, 5 īlāmyasena 6326, 5 īlāmyasena (deposed) |
Līlta |
Amabuyāvi Maɂikembītā Læhimausa (6286-6367) |
37Ɛ2, 1Ɛ īlāmyasena 6326, 23 īlāmyasena |
37Ɛ4, Ɛ murkāsena 6328, 11 murkāsena (resigned) |
Cami |
Kailemūrṣāvi Julaṃhārka Mæmihomah (6299-6375) |
37Ɛ4, 17 murkāsena 6328, 19 murkāsena |
3804, 1ᘔ murkāsena 6340, 22 murkāsena |
Līlekhaitē |
Mæmihūmyāvi Kañeñǣkah Læhimausa (6317-6398) |
3804, 1ᘔ murkāsena 6340, 22 murkāsena |
3852, 20 bhaivyāvammi 6398, 24 bhaivyāvammi (died in office) |
Jāṇajohika |
Chilamulkāvi Praṣṭhyæša Naryekayah (6361-) |
3852, 25 bhaivyāvammi 6398, 29 bhaivyāvammi |
3860, 4 īlāmyasena 6408, 4 īlāmyasena (resigned) |
Hālyanēṃṣah |
Kælidañcāvi Læñchlīñchlē Mæmihūmya (6369-) |
3860, 9 īlāmyasena 6408, 9 īlāmyasena |
3870, 1ᘔ īlāmyasena 6420, 22 īlāmyasena |
Hilyamāmah |
Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē (6398-) |
3870, 1ᘔ īlāmyasena 6420, 22 īlāmyasena |
incumbent | Līlasuṃghāṇa |
The Baptist
The Baptist (brausamailenya) is the second-highest charge in the Inquisition, and may be described as a kind of vice-president. The Baptist is chosen by the Great Inquisitor before her consacration, and the consacration procedures cannot begin before a Baptist is chosen.
Unlike any other Inquisitorial charge, the Baptist can be elected even among non Inquisitors, as monks and even deacons (but not other laypeople) are eligible; as for all other participants in the Conclave, 2212 is the minimum age and, since 6347 (380Ɛ12), it is not limited to females, even though no non-cis female person has ever been Baptist. The Great Inquisitor, however, may decide do keep the previous Baptist - this happens frequently and, in fact, the current Baptist Hulyāchlærimāvi Lælakæša Martayinām was chosen by the previous Great Inquisitor, Kælidañcāvi Læñchlīñchlē Mæmihūmya.
The Baptist does not have any large powers per se, but has to assist the Great Inquisitor in all of her tasks and may carry out tasks of the Great Inquisitor on her behalf when she can’t do them: by extension, it is the Baptist who acts as ad interim head of state with all of the Great Inquisitor’s powers when there’s a vacant seat. Some interpretations give the Baptist an even greater importance, especially a symbolic one, as for she’s the nearest one to the Great Inquisitor she’s the first to be able to point out abuse of power and stop blasphemous acts by the latter.
The only major limit the Baptist has is that cannot be directly elected as Great Inquisitor: she first has to refuse the charge and wait at least five years before being eligible.
The Baptist resides in the White Halls (pāṇḍirāhe kamelšītai) of the Inquisitorial Palace.
The Inquisitorial Conclave
The Inquisitorial Conclave (murkadhānumi lanedāmeh) is a body similar to a parliament, that has a part of the legislative power. There is a total of 612 High Inquisitors (lallamurkadhāna, pl. -dhānai), elected as follows:
- Each diocese of the Yunyalīlti world elects - usually it’s the Bishop who chooses them - two High Inquisitors;
- Every “independent” diocese - thus those that form the country of the Inquisition - elects one additional High Inquisitor;
- Independent dioceses elect, in addition to the standard three, one additional High Inquisitor at 36 raicē (~10.4 million) inhabitants, plus one more every further 50 raicē (~14.9 million). Thus, the diocese of the Nukahucē islands, the least populated, with only 7.21712 (12,403) inhabitants, elects three High Inquisitors just as the diocese of Marṇadeša with 4Ɛ.28.Ɛ11 (14,737,981) inhabitants. The most populated diocese, Haikamotē, with 167 raicē (~55.7 million) inhabitants, elects seven High Inquisitors.
- The seven eparchies - Līlasuṃghāṇa, Ilēnimarta, Līlta, Līṭhalyinām, Cami, Līlikanāna, and Naiṣambella - each elect an additional High Inquisitor (aside from those already elected by the diocese: as Cami is in Haikamotē diocese, this diocese effectively elects eight High Inquisitors).
- 36 additional High Inquisitors - mostly monks - are elected by the Great Inquisitor herself. They remain in charge even if the Great Inquisitor changes, but the latter may remove them as she wishes. The Great Inquisitor who elects them may only remove them in exceptional circumstances (offences or evident indisposition or inadequacy), otherwise she may only propose their removal, which must be accepted by the majority of the Conclave.
The functions of the Inquisitorial Conclave are similar to those of a parliament. High Inquisitors are grouped based on their specializations and these groups discuss themes and write laws, which must be then approved by the whole Conclave. Themes are usually proposed by the Great Inquisitor or by the Consistory of Offices: High Inquisitors have the task of transform these into laws and integrate them into the Books of Law - even though the final decision is always the one of the Great Inquisitor.
Differently from a pure parliamentary system, the Inquisitorial Conclave is still inferior to the Great Inquisitor, even if it can remove her from charge with the help of the Prefects (four fifths of the Conclave and the absolute majority of the Prefects must vote for it). The Great Inquisitor can interrupt and lead the activities of High Inquisitors. The Inquisitorial Conclave meets in the Lelāh[24] Halls (lelūmi kamelšītai) of the Inquisitorial Palace.
The Consistory of Offices
The Consistory of Offices (plušamaili nalnamāloe) is the closest thing in the Inquisition to a government. It is composed by a High Prefect (lallaplušamelīs) nominated by the Great Inquisitor and a variable number of Prefects (plušamelīs, pl. plušamelais) - some chosen by the Great Inquisitor and some by the High Prefect - who lead the various Offices (plušamila, pl. plušamelyē), bodies acting like ministries.
The Offices administer every branch of the Inquisition, thus including both the public administration of the Chlouvānem Inquisition and the Yunyalīlti clergy in the whole of Calémere. Generally, the Offices with a more religious and international theme, as the Office of Liturgy (brauslaijyī plušamila - which administers the Inquisitorial Tribunals (judicial organs), by collecting and publishing the most important and canonical interpretations of the Sacred Books), or the Office of Clergy (līltanorīnumi plušamila - which trains and offers sustainment to non-monastic clergy members), all have Prefects chosen by the Great Inquisitor, while those that only impact the Inquisition as a country, as the Office of Agriculture (chlæcāmiti plušamila), have Prefects chosen by the High Prefect.
Every Prefect has the right to prepare proposals for laws on a theme administered by the Office she or he runs; these proposals are then often discussed together with the rest of the Consistory and then presented to the Great Inquisitor and the Inquisitorial Conclave.
The Consistory of Offices is the assembly of the High Prefect and all of the Prefects, with often the Great Inquisitor herself present; it meets in the Dragon Hall (kaṃšāvi kamelšītah) of the Inquisitorial Palace. Another name for it is the Table of Offices (plušamaili eṇāh); members still gather around a table, though today it’s actually many single tables around a room. The original table around which the first meeting was held, in the late 5th millennium, is kept in the Museum of Chlouvānem History in the same ward.
The Offices are all separate buildings located in various parts of the city of Līlasuṃghāṇa; most of them are in the central ward, Kahērimaila, but a few of them are located in other wards (in Lūṣyambādhi, Hūneidauṣa, and Haleikēlṭah).
The Conclave of Bishops
The Conclave of Bishops (juṃšumi lanedāmeh) is the organ of the Inquisition which elects (or rëelects) the Great Inquisitor. The Conclave of Bishops is formed by all bishops of Yunyalīlti dioceses - not just those in the Inquisition - thus numbering at least 207 electors (171 bishops in the Inquisition and 36 abroad), plus the Head Monks of fourteen different monasteries, and eventually up to six "Conclave enterers" (lanedāntalonīn) named by the preceding Great Inquisitor. Every elector in the Conclave, as long as they're female and have entered the 2310rd year of age, may be elected as Great Inquisitor; Bishops of the Inquisition's territories are most commonly elected (also because they are the majority), but compromise may result in other candidates get elected: current Great Inquisitor, Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē, was elected in the Conclave of 6420 (387012) which she entered as a lanedāntalonīn[25].
The Conclave of Bishops gathers in the Red Halls (ūnikirāhe kamelšītai) of the Inquisitorial Palace every twelve years at the formal end of the Great Inquisitor's mandate, or prior if she resigns, dies in office, or is deposed. Each member of Conclave (lanedāminyoe) casts a secret vote for a fellow member of Conclave (excluding themselves and non-eligible ones) and, in the first twelve rounds (three days of voting), a two-thirds-majority is required to be elected; from the thirteenth round (the first of the fourth day of Conclave) 50%+1 of votes is enough. If the round of Conclave is successful, a golden yellow flag is raised on top of the Inquisitorial Palace and both towers (the bell and the drum tower) of the nearby Blossoming Temple start playing. If the round is unsuccessful, a black flag is raised on top of the Palace and there is no sound.
Members of Conclave, during its duration, may not go outside a delimited area of the Inquisitorial Gardens and are forbidden to have contacts with the outside world, except for breaking news of major importance from their dioceses. There are four rounds of voting each day: at 3 and 7 in the morning, at 4 in the afternoon, and at 1 in the evening. Each round typically lasts about an hour, with each member having 1612 (1810) minutes for voting.
Monastic Orders and Legions
Monastic Orders (ñæltryucamūh, pl. -camūvai) have a peculiar status in Chlouvānem society as their monasteries have an extremely high degree of autonomy that they're usually said to be "independent" from the Inquisition; as each recognized monastic tradition may have divergent interpretations of the Holy Books, the laws followed in them are sometimes not the same as outside; they rely on the Inquisition for services, foreign representation, and, through various agreements, all of them have come to recognize the Great Inquisitor as a spiritual guide - in fact, Head Monks of a few monasteries do take part in the Conclave of Bishops. Monasteries are especially important as education facilities, offering curricula somewhat different from the standard Inquisitorial ones but completely accepted in the wider society. Monastic Orders, in order to be recognized as such an independent entity, must be accepted as such by the Great Inquisitor. Currently, there are 386 monastic orders in the Chlouvānem Inquisition (on a total of 401 throughout the whole of Calémere), with about 1,100 individual monasteries.
Legions (jānilšeidah, pl. jānilšeidai) are congregations formed exclusively by voluntary laypeople that operate inside society, mostly as localized specific support to the state. Different Legions operate in different fields, but most commonly they do provide extrascholastic education - it should however be noted that, according to recent statistics, about 65% of primary and secondary school teachers in the Inquisition are members of some Legion -, pre-Kindergarten services, recreational and holiday activities (summer sports and gymnastics camps) for school students, operation of EMS, civil security support in case of emergency, general support to poor and ill people, and, especially abroad, services for Chlouvānem people living outside the Inquisition as well as Yunyalīlti proselytism. The latter element is, outside Yunyalīlti-majority countries, very controversial, as many Legions operate in Western countries as terrorist groups and have been responsible for most of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the West since the end of the East-West Global War; the fact that all Legions are recognized and endorsed by the Inquisitorial central power (a Legion only legally exists after having been confirmed by the Inquisitorial Conclave) remains, to date, the most notable issue that keeps relations between the Inquisition and the Western bloc very tense and problematic.
Democracy
Democracy in the Inquisition is present in all levels except for the national one, in a style mostly similar (except for diocesan-level politics) to Soviet democracy. With only a few exceptions (mainly ethnic dioceses), all dioceses operate under the following model, with only minor changes (mostly in the number of elected delegates).
Every (non-private) workplace, sub-parish-level district, factory, or barracks in the Inquisition forms its own Synod (galtirāh) which elects a delegate (pidnalmęlīn), operating under imperative mandate, to the local (parish-level) Synod. Each parish-level Synod then elects its own delegates (from this level upwards operating under free mandate; numbers vary depending on the diocese) to the upper-level Synod. At the diocesan level, there is a distinction to be made in different dioceses: most dioceses have a Diocesan Synod (juṃšañāñi galtirāh) which is formed both by Inquisitors, nominated inside the local branches of the Inquisition, and delegates of lower-level Synods. Dioceses that include an eparchy have a Higher Diocesan Synod (juṃšañāñi lalla galtirāh) whose membership is divided in three parts: one third of diocese-nominated Inquisitors, one third of delegates of the Provincial Synod(s) (which, in these dioceses, include both Inquisitors and laypeople), which must be composed of an equal number of Inquisitor delegates and lay delegates, and the last third of delegates of the Eparchical Synod (which is only composed by laypeople).
Diocese-level democracy is the highest level of democracy in the Inquisition, as diocesan representatives in the central government (all as High Inquisitors) are all nominated by the Bishop; the only exceptions are the single High Inquisitors nominated by each of the seven eparchies, which are nominated by the Eparchical Synod (still, they must be Inquisitors, not laypeople).
All ethnic dioceses except for Hūnakañjātia have, at circuit-level and above, two separate Synods, one only composed by delegates belonging to the titular ethnicity and the other for all other people. The "kings" or "queens" or the sixteen ceremonial kingdoms in the West and in the South are entitled to membership in the local Diocesan Synod - this is, however, the only practical, non-ceremonial, role given by their charge.
Law enforcement
The concept of "police" (dhurvālāṇa) in the Inquisition is different from most other modern nations. The Inquisition itself has the powers of a public order force, which provides basic law enforcement (including religious policing) and crime fighting - theoretically every Inquisitor may carry out these tasks even when not de jure on duty. Most of these tasks, except religious policing, may be also carried out by deacons. Anyone who acts as a part of the police force is called yinām nali murkadhāna (lit. Inquisitor for security) or yinām nali vālireh (Deacon for security). Cars of the Inquisition (black with golden yellow text) are the equivalent of police cars in the Chlouvānem lands.
This basic law enforcement is linked in responsibility to the local branches of the Inquisition; generally, it is organized on diocesan (or eparchical) level, even if the central government still has powers above. Circuits and municipalities (or inter-parish territories) have their own branches, with possibly a few distinct offices in various parts of the territory. Some Legions that are explicitely granted the right to do so may send some of their members to patrol streets and enforce laws, but they all have limited power, with fines given by them being "frozen" until confirmed by an Inquisitor.
There are, however, different departments - whose activities are most often carried out by laypeople, even if controlled by the Inquisition - for more specific tasks. All of them follow the same internal structure as the Inquisition (branches for dioceses or eparchies, circuit-level divisions, and parish-level ones or inter-parish territories). All of their troopers are typically called dhurvān (at the most basic rank):
- ūnimumi dhurvālāṇa — Road Police, typically composed by laypeople only, for traffic regulation and fighting crime on roads. Sometimes they have distinct cars (orange and black), but sometimes they can be found on Inquisition cars. It is regulated by the dårbhi plušamila - the Office of Transport.
- galtarlīltumi dhurvālāṇa — Railway Police, also typically composed by laypeople only, fights crime in railway stations and on trains. Also regulated by the dårbhi plušamila - the Office of Transport.
- nāmilkumi dhurvālāṇa — Prison Police, concerned with the management of all types of prisons.
- cāṃkradhurvālāṇa — Border Police, concerned with the monitoring of border crossings and importation and exportation of goods.
- šuskagli dhurvālāṇa — Censorship Police, concerned with the monitoring of contents in media and publishing. Formerly (and de facto still) a part of the National Security Police, now de jure independent.
- sarivāṇyināmi dhurvālāṇa — National Security Police, concerned with general surveillance as well as of monitoring threats to national security, both inside and outside the Inquisition.
Economy
The economy of the Inquisition is a mixed economy with a strong religious approach dictated by the Yunyalīlti worldview. This is a substantial difference as key aspects of Chlouvānem daily life - mirrored in economy - are the emphasis on environmentally sustainable policies, minimization of non-basic needs, and collective instead of individual interest. A key difference is that, in Yunyalīlti economics, the focus is not on gaining (profit), but on minimizing losses (to the environment); this is typically resumed by Chlouvānem philosophers as pursuing spiritual wealth in opposition to material wealth. For this reason, it is difficult to properly analyze this type of economy by means of indexes such as GNP, as they don't analyze Chlouvānem economy in its entirety.
The Inquisition is the prime example of a Calemerian Yunyalīlti economy; Qualdomailor, Brono, and Fathan mostly follow these principles too.
Structurally, being the Inquisition a theocracy, this means that the state is omnipresent in the economy, having a practical monopoly in almost all sectors, most notably heavy industry, as well as extraction and sale of raw materials. Agriculture is divided between large state farms (yanadhartānai, sg. yanadhartāna) and collective farms (camūdhartānai, sg. camūdhartāna), with a minor role played by private gardens (including those of schools); private enterprise is limited to artisanship (which, however, remains an important part of the economy, especially in sectors such as clothing production), some service agencies, and to some extent in electronic consumer goods - a sector where privates usually design phones, computers, etc. and develop their softwares but the material products are built in state factories. Private light industry (small manufacturing), does exist, albeit in far smaller quantities than in other countries and almost always with some degree of state control, and has been a growing sector ever since the fall of the Kaiṣamā. The state can however control basically everything through the six-year development plans and also through tax incentives or, notably, controls by religious police in order to block "heretic" economic activities; the emerging of rich people through exploitment of the capitalist elements of the private sector is strongly limited by the taxation system, which forbids people from having more than a certain value of personal assets, with everything gained over that amount having to be surrendered to the state.
Retail
Retail shops in the Inquisition are still mostly artisans (āndaralila, pl. āndaralelyē) for non-food products, while food is usually sold at market stalls (ñoɂabemuh, pl. ñoɂabemuvai). "Traditional" supermarkets are not a common sight throughout the country, except for the large state-run department stores, the ṣarivāṃluvai (pl. -luvāye), which almost exclusively sell products from state industries and state farms, and are typically huge, often monumental buildings, at the heart of large cities; the ṣarivāṃluvai in the central square of Līlta is the largest commercial building in the Inquisition. Another type of retail shop that is often found in large cities is the Chlouvānem equivalent of a convenience store, called lalyāluvai (literally "night market") because they are reliably found open during the night (in some areas, it is common for them to be closed during the day). Convenience stores are also usually found at railway stations, bus/ferry terminals, and airports.
Another category of retail shops that may be identified is that of generic shops (still called ñoɂabemuh; market stalls may be disambiguated as laṃghabemuh if needed), most of the time state-run, which can be compared to supermarkets, scaled-down versions of department stores, selling state-produced wares only — they are usually cheaper than artisanal products, but on average of lower quality.
Remote communities where most of the population works in a single activity (e.g. mining towns in the West or some factory towns) usually only have a general store (yaivluvai).
The kuviluvai is a particular type of retail shop where goods can only be purchased with foreign hard currencies (or foreign exchange certificates called kaustānnūlia, pl. -nūliai) and not with the yaltan (which is non-convertible); they are aimed at Inquisitiorial citizens in possess of foreign currency and, most notably, at tourists. They sell mostly goods aimed at export as well as limited Western imported products.
Visiting indoor shops in the Inquisition typically involves paying the same cultural respects as entering houses or offices: shoes have to be removed at the entrance of most shops.
Automotive Industry
Automotive industry in the Chlouvānem Inquisition is dominated by state-owned factories, each one selling a single or a few types of cars under its own brand. Chlouvānem cars are also sold throughout the whole Eastern bloc. The largest factory on Calémere is the halcūmai (haltakimarti cūllumi maimālchas) in Haltakimarta, Kainomatā diocese, in the Northern Far East. The main brands sold in the Inquisition are the Halcūmai, Ṣurcūmai (from Ṣurvāla, Perelkaša diocese), Irucūmai (Iruvāṇi, Jolenītra), Yañcūmai (Yañcajāṇa, Latayūlima), Taicūmai (Tairaholka, Kūlyambārih), Rocūmai (Rotasūn, Tārṣaivai), and Šæcūmai (Šæmānnah, Vuvateñārta). The compact and cheap naidacūlla model 14 (HLT-1114) from the Haltakimarta factory has become an iconic symbol of car transport throughout the Eastern bloc, and its first generation (produced from 6352 (381412) to 6380 (383812)) is probably the best-selling car in Calemerian history, having been sold all throughout the former Kaiṣamā, Greater Skyrdagor, in the poorer economies of non-Eastern bloc countries in Western Márusúturon, Védren, and Ovítioná, and even in some Western countries, due to it being a reliable and comparatively cheap car. Some of them may still be seen in Chlouvānem cities today, 44 years after their production ended.
Currency
The yaltan (officially known as Inquisitorial Yaltan, in Chlouvānem murkadhānāvīyi yaltan; pl. yaltan; abbrev. CHY or y — commonly also Chlouvānem Yaltan (chlǣvānumi yaltan)) is the currency of the Chlouvānem Inquisition, and also legal tender in the Republic of Fathan and in the Republic of Qualdomailor, and de facto currency in Soenjŏ-tave, Leñ-ṱef, and other countries of the former Kaiṣamā. The name ultimately comes from Ancient Kūṣṛmāṭhi yalottan, meaning "seashell".
It is a non-convertible currency.
The yaltan is divided in two units: the first division is called nalaškai (pl. nalaškāye; abbr. n) and the second is called kurunappum (pl. kurunappuvye; abbr. k). As any other Chlouvānem measurement, the yaltan is not decimal but duodecimal: one yaltan equals to 8 nalaškāye, and one nalaškai equals to 20 (2410) kurunappuvye; thus there are 140 (19210) kurunappuvye in one yaltan.
The current yaltan (CHY) was formally introduced in 6378 (383612) replacing the former Yaltan of the Union of the Purified States (YKAi; ekailai ṣarivāṇumi mālyāvi yaltan), which was however already colloquially known as Chlouvānem Yaltan and, as 1 CHY equalled 1 YKAi and the old coins and banknotes kept being legal tender for a few years, this was not perceived as a real change in the Inquisition.
The coins of the yaltan are (all values are base 12; all coins are round unless specified):
- the smallest denomination, the 1k coin; 100% aluminium, unholed, smooth edge;
- three different denominations of copper-plated steel coins, valued 3k (unholed, smooth edge, square); 4k (unholed, reeded edge), and 10k (holed, smooth edge)
- the brass-plated steel coins; 2n (unholed, smooth edge, square), 3n (unholed, reeded edge), and 1y (holed, reeded edge);
- the 2y coin of nickel-plated steel, holed with smooth edge, which is the largest; and the 3y coin, the highest-valued (and heaviest) coin, bi-metallic with a ring of copper-plated steel and a center of brass-plated steel, with reeded edge.
All coins are scaled, each one being slightly larger than the one with the smaller value, except for the 2y coin being larger than the 3y one and for the 4k and 10k ones having identical size.
The banknotes of the yaltan are readily identifiable by their colour:
- the 10y banknote is red;
- the 20y one is green;
- the 40y one is lilac;
- the 60y one is blue;
- the 100y one is orange;
- the 200y one is bluish gray;
- the 400y one is yellow.
Future currency
As part of the economic integration of the Inquisition and the rest of the Eastern Bloc (the Kayāgaprika, including most the former Kaiṣamā (except Taruebus), a few Dabuke and Eastern Védrenian countries, plus Greater Skyrdagor, Gwęčathíbõth, and C′ı̨bedǫ́s), a new unified currency for this supranational organization is being developed, with an additional aim of opening this area to the world market.
First proposed in 4E 6418 (386ᘔ12) by Kŭyŭgwaž Prime Minister Užhüükin Bŭlwayiži and Soenjŏ President Gihŏn Kyrungyzy, and later approved in 6421 (387112) by newly-elected Great Inquisitor Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē, this new currency should be named after a former common word for money in Kenengyry languages - as in Soenjoan hüölyrlah, Kuyugwazian hüülhŭrlag, Lenyan hölŭrağ, Enegenic hölörläh amongst others -, with other participating nations to decide whether to adapt this name or a local name for it; Chlouvānem sources have so far always discussed it as hīlurlah adapting the Soenjoan word.
The hīlurlah is planned to replace the currencies of the present-day Kayāgaprika (except for Greater Skyrdagor, Gwęčathíbõth, and C′ı̨bedǫ́s, which have stated their intention to delay its introduction for a couple more years) in four years' time, and it is planned not to have any subdivision.
Science, technology, infrastructure
Media and communication
Television
Television broadcast in the Inquisition is completely state-owned, with the Central Inquisitorial Television Broadcaster (cami murkadhānāvīyi chlærvāyami galamęlicamūh, commonly camuchlæga) being the only nationwide broadcaster. Diocese-owned regional broadcasters are found in most areas, with more local programmes.
The eleven national channels (called maita(i), "river(s)" in Chlouvānem), plus the international one, are[26]:
- lahīla maita - a generalist channel, with a range of various different programmes.
- hælinaika maita - a religious channel, airing programmes related to Yunyalīlti history, theology, and philosophy.
- pāmvende maita - mainly showing movies.
- nęltende maita - a sports-focussed channel, particularly for "traditional" sports (archery, fighting) and cycling.
- lališire nęltende maita (New Fourth Channel) - a further channel focussed on sports; "Western" sports and motorsports are typically aired here.
- šulkende maita or samimmaita (Children('s) Channel) - a channel with programmes aimed at children.
- tulūɂende maita - a channel airing mostly programmes about the Armed Forces, agricultural news, and some historical documentaries.
- chīcænde maita or, unofficially, dārṇājeldinūmi maita (Arts Channel) - a channel with programmes focussed mainly on arts - but also including documentaries.
- tītyende maita or, unofficially, chlævpraudi maita (TV News Channel) - a channel that airs exclusively news and/or talks on current events.
- mojende maita - a channel airing scientific documentaries as well as general educational programmes.
- tåldende maita - a channel airing exclusively music or music-related programmes.
- Finally, the galababhrausire maita (International Channel) airs mainly outside the Inquisition and presents programmes centered on Chlouvānem culture and that make propaganda for the Yunyalīlti religion, the Chlouvānem worldview, and more broadly forms of Yunyalīlti-influenced communism - an ideology found in fringes of communist parties in the West and widely represented in the former Kaiṣamā. It is aired in 14 languages: Chlouvānem, Bronic, Qualdomelic, Skyrdagor, Cerian, Holenagic, Nordûlaki, Gathura, Auralian, Kalese, Spocian, Central Dabuke koiné, Nâdjawārre, and Shurtūn.
Programmes are sometimes shared between two channels - for example the famous literary debate dholtanah pa nīdhāḍoe (lit. A Talk on Writing) is aired daily on the Seventh Channel but once every lunar phase is contemporaneously aired on the First Channel.
Foreign films (mostly Bronic, Qualdomelic, or Skyrdegan), as well as nearly any instance of a language which is not Chlouvānem, are subtitled, excluding "family films" for children, which are dubbed. Cartoons are often dubbed, and Western ones are in almost every case, but those, mainly Skyrdegan, aimed at teens and especially adults may be subtitled. Films from the West are rarely shown, but the authorities often film Chlouvānem-made "imitations" of Western blockbusters, tweaking them to better suit Chlouvānem tastes and cultural values and, most importantly, the state ideology. Such films, known as rændumenī (sg. rændumoe), are often popular enough not only in the Inquisition but also in other countries of the Eastern bloc, sometimes proving to be more successful than the original Western films.
Printed media
Printed media in the Inquisition is mostly a state-owned enterprise, with the only exception being a notable presence of samizdat literature and comic books, de facto largely tolerated by the central authorities.
The core of printed information in the Inquisition is provided by six major newspapers - four of them daily, the other two only issued on workdays -, each one published by a different organization of national importance:
- brauslaijyāvi (the Liturgical[27]), official newspaper of the Inquisitorial political direction.
- juṃšemāvi (the Episcopal), organ of the Episcopal Conference (juṃšumi galtirāh), a coordinate assembly of all Bishops.
- pūnīn (the Worker), organ of the Coordinatory Committee of Inquisitorial Trade Unions (murkadhānāvye tañcamūmi galtirah, commonly mutagali), only issued on workdays.
- yaivcārṇædǣnah (the Communist), organ of the Official Representative in the Inquisition of the International Communist Union (murkadhānāvye yaivcārṇædanīyi galababhrausire samvītam), only issued on workdays.
- mugišci tatnā (Voice of the Mugišca), official newspaper of the Inquisitorial Youth Union (murkadhānāvīyi giṣṭarumi camūh, commonly mugišca), and as such with a language level, and contents more aimed at adolescents and young adults. It is also widely used as an educational supplement in most schools across the country.
- rašvājas (portmanteau of rašvātri būmājas "Sports' Sheet"), the main sports newspaper of the country, published by the Inquisitorial Office for Sports (rašvātri flušamila).
The magazine sector is composed of publications of various genres that are published either twice per lunar phase (= weekly), once per lunar phase (= usually twice a month), or once a month; some scientific magazines are issued at longer intervals.
Noteworthy publications include tamišūrah (the Observatory), a world-famous news magazine published twice per lunar phase; literary magazines such as naihī ñaiṭa (Literary Star), liloejāṃryų naihā (Global Literature), or jīmai pāṇyai no (Characters and Pages); or the famous musical magazine sumai (Notes).
Internet
Internet service in the Inquisition is vast and covers the whole nation: about 92% of the population uses internet services. The form of Internet used in the Inquisition, however, is not the general international internet (the denómon éréso) used by most Calemerian countries - the Inquisitorial internet, called mulipenai, is a heavily controlled network maintained by the countries of the Kayāgaprika (kailī āṇḍhulā nali galababhrausire prikaulā, International Pact for the Defense of Purity, or the official name of the Eastern Bloc), namely the former Kaiṣamā (except for Taruebus), a bunch of Eastern Védrenian countries, plus Greater Skyrdagor, Gwęčathíbõth, and C′ı̨bedǫ́s.
The mulipenai is characterized by the extensive censorship carried out by its regulating bodies, financed by the various governments; material from the outside internet cannot enter the mulipenai, and user-submitted content is controlled and, if needed, censored by internet police forces.
The mulipenai can only be accessed inside its participating countries and, in the Inquisition, for the general population there is no way to access the general internet, which requires special authorizations: only government offices, a small number of computers in a few universities and companies, and citizens listed in the kaucādaṣavåla (kaucāṃkraye daranēm lā ṣarivāṃlaili vålkurah, List of Citizens with Activities in Foreign Countries) for countries outside the Eastern bloc can access the international internet. Citizens in the latter list and diplomats are also the only ones that can access the mulipenai abroad.
Foreigners in the Inquisition can access the international internet but not the mulipenai; it is to be noted, however, that in the countries of Greater Skyrdagor, as well as in Gwęčathíbõth and C′ı̨bedǫ́s, both the mulipenai and the general internet coexist (even if access to the latter is not as widespread, reaching up to 28% of the population in Tulfasysz and 26% in Karynaktja), and censorship on Skyrdegan sites is generally less strict than the one of Chlouvānem ones; there have been cases of Skyrdegan sites on the mulipenai blocked in the Inquisition.
Phone numbers
Phone numbers are one of the few standards on Calémere that have been adopted planetwide and are not divided in Eastern or Western (unlike e.g. longitude or calendar and time systems). Being a planetwide standard, even in the Inquisition only 10 digits (0-9) are used instead of 12.
The international calling code of the Inquisition is +87 (+864 for the Lalla Kēhamyuñca) — this is the same in all of the country, including the Kāyīchah islands which are geographically in Védren, despite +8x being the prefixes for Márusúturon[28]. Landline numbers typically begin with an area code, which is a zero plus more digits - from one to four. The nine most basic area codes (00 is reserved for a few governmental numbers) are given to nine large metropolitan areas in various parts of the country: 01 is Līlta, 02 is Līlasuṃghāṇa, 03 is Cami, 04 is Ajāƾilbādhi, 05 is Līlikanāna, 06 is Līṭhalyinām, 07 is Ilēnimarta, 08 is Naiṣambella, and 09 is Mālim (the latter is not as populated as the others, but is the largest metro area in the North and West of the Inquisition). As areas grow with lower inhabitants, further digits are added to the area code. For example, the sparsely populated diocese of the Putaitā islands has the area code 03701.
Mobile phone numbers do not have such an area code beginning with 0~, as all mobile phone numbers begin with a "mobile code" of three digits, the first one being 6 (most commonly), 7, or 8.
The rest of the number, whether landline or mobile, is made of a minimum of six digits and up to ten. For example, +87 02: 378 954 3211 is a valid phone number in Līlasuṃghāṇa; +87 661: 337 520 is a valid mobile phone number.
The leading 0 of the area code was formerly a national trunk prefix, but nowadays it must be dialed as it is technically part of the number; the international trunk prefix is 9~9 (i.e. 9 and another 9 after a dial tone); this is sometimes written in full in Inquisition-bound material from other countries, e.g. 9~9840 01: 928 401 (a valid number in Qualdomailor (calling code +840)).
Transport
The three main means of transport throughout the Inquisition are train, plane, and ships; cars, boats, and especially bicycles are however common local means of transport.
Road
Uniquely for such a large and high-income country, car ownership rates throughout the Inquisition are relatively low, with ~129 four-wheeled road motor vehicles every 1000 people[29]. This low rate - the lowest among developed countries on Calémere - is explained by several factors:
- Most major cities have extremely thorough and developed mass transit systems, cycling paths, and pedestrian paths, often including extensive skyway or underground passages to shield pedestrians from the heavy rains. Furthermore, city growth has meant that parking spaces are few and rarer; most of the area between apartment blocks is made up of urban parkland. Most dioceses with major metropolitan areas have thus introduced laws requiring people to prove they have off-street parking for any car being bought;
- Many areas in the Inquisition - including fairly large metropolitan areas like Lūlunimarta or Hālyanēṃṣah - do not have roads linking them to the rest of the nation;
- As a measure to fight pollution, ownership taxes are very high, particularly in the most urbanized dioceses. Fuel - while mostly being ethanol-based as a byproduct of sugarcane lavoration - is also more expensive than in most other countries; it should be noted, however, that about 45% of all private vehicles are electric-powered.
- General speed limits are somewhat lower than in other countries (except in very sparsely populated areas), and (also because of this) most interurban traffic is handled by railways.
This does not mean that large cities in the Inquisition see few cars in their streets - in a city such as Līlasuṃghāṇa, the fact that there is a car every 5.5 inhabitants means that there are still almost 5.4 million cars in the city - not counting those coming from outside and commercial vehicles, and there is a (rather small) minority of people anyway who commutes by car; figures in other large cities are similar (with, usually, a higher number of cars per people).
Road vehicles are thus mostly trams (ūnitā), buses (marcā; and especially electric trolleybuses (bęmarcā) inside cities) and taxis (mąšcūlla if a car; mąškhah if a rickshaw) for local transport; in most cities, bicycles, rickshaws, and cycle-rickshaws are the most common means of private transport — according to a 6420 (387012) survey, there are four times as many bicycles than cars in the eparchy of Līlasuṃghāṇa.
Trams are a common sight in most medium- and large-sized cities, where they often act as the most local form of transport in a network with a backbone formed by subway and suburban railway lines. Many medium-sized cities also have hybrid tram/subway systems, with more central areas having a subway-like service with concurrent lines, while in the suburbs it becomes a large capacity tram service, fed by bus lines or, increasingly often in newer-built areas, cycling paths.
The Chlouvānem Inquisition uses left-hand traffic, except for some minor mountain roads without guard rails. Among the 18 bordering countries, most of them use left-hand traffic too (Greater Skyrdagor and the former Kaiṣamā all switched to LHT after the early Fourth Era Chlouvānem invasion, except for Brono (and Fathan, at the time not independent) which already used LHT), except for New Égéloníya in the east and Ênêk-bazá, Répéruton, Aréntía and Maëb in the west, which use right-hand traffic.
Road Network
Road transport in the Inquisition is carried by a well-developed road network that extends for most of the country. The basic Chlouvānem term for road is ūnima, which is in practical denomination however mostly limited to streets in urban areas (urban streets are usually only named in the oldest parts of mid- and large-sized cities, while most areas simply have block-based addresses). Interurban roads are administratively of five basic (country-wide) types:
- Expressways, or camyūnimai (sg. camyūnima). These are often the most important roads in the country, large controlled-access highways that link the largest urban areas. All expressways are, by definition, toll roads (except for a few short "expressway links" (camyūniṃtandårbhe, sg. -dårbhas that link the main access portals of expressways to other routes or urban roads).
- The dorai (sg. dorah), translatable as "(national) routes" or "national highways", which are roads of national importance that either support expressways or are present in areas where there are no expressways. Unlike expressways, national routes do not have a standard type and a good number of them are built to expressway standards (and are thus controlled-access highways); the main distinction is that these are free; notably, orbital motorways of major cities and urban freeways are all controlled-access roads but free and thus classified as dourai. Only a few dourai are toll roads, and only in a few segments like major bridges or tunnels.
- The juṃšañāñi ūnima(i)/dorah(-ai)/līlta(i) (literally "diocesan road(s)/route(s)/path(s)"), trunk roads of diocese-wide importance. The actual term of the three used depends on the diocese.
- The lalki[30] ūnima(i)/dorah(-ai)/līlta(i) ("circuit road(s)/route(s)/path(s)") are roads of circuitary importance, linking the main urban areas of a circuit. In the Nukahucē islands and in the Kāyīchah islands, where the circuit-level subdivisions are coterminous with a single island, these kind of roads are the most important there and are called lanāyi ūnima(i) (island road(s)).
- The local roads, which are managed by a municipality-level subdivision (cities, parishes, or villages), in some cases by an inter-parish territory, or, for unincorporated territories, by the local circuit. Their names vary a lot, but usually roads inside urban areas are ūnimai, while those outside urban areas are still called dorai. The name līltai is often used for paths inside parks, unpaved roads, and some narrow roads inside city centers.
These five basic types of roads, no matter where and their denomination, are consistently identified by the colours used on their directional signage: camyūnimai have white text on green background; (national) dorai have red text on white background; diocesan roads have black text on yellow background; circuit roads have white text on blue background; and local roads have black text on white background. Temporary deviations have white text on black background; in addition, signals with white text on brown background indicate direction to parks or monuments; black text on pink is used on signals directing to health facilities; black text on light blue is used for directions to railway stations, airports, or ship or bus terminals.
In addition, all dedicated cycling routes have signs with white text on red background.
Indications on road signs are exclusively written in Chlouvānem all throughout the country, but ethnic dioceses may have bilingual direction signs (on diocesan, circuitary, and local roads), and some additional informations may be added in languages of neighboring countries in areas close to the borders; bilingual information signs in Chlouvānem and Skyrdagor are particularly common in the North. Distances are always expressed in traditional units; measures are to be understood in vyaṣojrai in the absence of a unit sign.
Urban roads have various different designations (sometimes local), but the following are common all throughout the country:
- ƾaira for boulevards, or main thoroughfares inside cities;
- jūlla for esplanades, long scenic boulevards, particularly along bodies of water;
- ūbgiras, meaning "approach", for roads leading to some important buildings or areas;
- geironima, meaning "gateway", for roads leading to (historical) gates, or main roads leading outside the town;
- deṣā and nadeṣā for roads following the paths of historical city walls (often even where they've been demolished). deṣā is used on the outer and nadeṣā on the inner side;
- ūnima generally for the vast majority of streets;
- līlta for small alleys and paths inside parks, as well as hiking trails outside cities.
Note that all of these terms are mostly used only for navigating and not for addressing, as streets are usually not named (except for the historical centers of some cities). Still, such indications are commonly found on maps and used as forms of vernacular geography.
Rail
The train network is however the backbone of people- and freight transport in the Inquisition: 49 of the 50 busiest rail stations on Calémere are in the Inquisition, with four out of the top five[31] being in Līlasuṃghāṇa (the other one is in Cami). Major cities all have suburban railways and, often, large subway networks, that efficiently cover large areas of territory and form the main links among communities in that area. Among major cities, Līlasuṃghāṇa is served by 129 rail lines with about 1,200 individual stations (it should be noted, however, that it is a very special case as in this network there is not a clear division between subway lines, rail lines, and trams (many subway lines are actually Stadtbahn-like systems); many subway lines are also not self-enclosed and have through services on other lines), with many more served by some of these lines in neighboring areas in the rest of Nanašīrama or other dioceses (Kāṃradeša, Šraḍhaṃñælihæka, Talæñoya); among systems that do not include tram lines, Greater Ilēnimarta (extending outside its eparchy) is served by 83 lines and about 800 stations[32]; in the metro area of central-eastern Haikamotē (sometimes Greater Cami[33]) the number of lines exceeds 250 with some thousands of stations.
Most subway systems have at least one or more heavy rail lines - Līlasuṃghāṇa and Cami both have eight - and many other light metro lines; in a few cases there are monorail lines (with a particularly famous one being the 12 km long Waterfront Line in Lūlunimarta) and rack railways (like the Jungle Hills Line in the Līlasuṃghāṇa subway network).
People movers are also common, especially in large cities as a minor link between subway lines — a few early ones were extremely light metro lines; newer ones are rubber-tired AGTs but are still popularly treated as parts of the railway network.
![](/w/images/thumb/1/13/Inquisition-high-speed-rail.png/300px-Inquisition-high-speed-rail.png)
The Inquisition has a railway length of about 450,000 km, linking all mainland dioceses, including steppes and rainforests; many island dioceses also have local railway systems. About 95% of the network uses the standard Chlouvānem gauge (1pā 1.2, ~1,472 mm — usually called leileidani ga khlatimas “one-one-two gauge”), but narrower gauges are used for local mountainous lines and, in some cities, for light metro lines, especially in some networks which have very narrow turns (as in the Pamahīnēna Subway). Some local lines in the North still use the Skyrdagor gauge of 1pā 1.1 (~1,385 mm), even though adaptation to the Chlouvānem gauge has often been proposed - also because many countries in Greater Skyrdagor are changing their lines to Chlouvānem gauge too. Fixed block signalling is used in most of the network, but a few suburban lines near Līlasuṃghāṇa and the Cami Coastal Loop use moving block signalling, as do also many subway lines in Līlasuṃghāṇa, Ilēnimarta, Ajāƾilbādhi, Cami, Lūlunimarta, Huñeibāma, and Līlekhaitē.
Railroad ties are commonly made of wood or concrete, but many newer railways, particularly underground metros, have been built with ties made from recycled plastic; on the two newest subway lines of the Līlasuṃghāṇa Subway, they have been made in two different colours, depending on the line's predominant colour on maps and in stations: blue on the Tāraṣīmagi Line and orange on the Vārāṣuti Line.
Railway lines are common even in rural areas, with in fact most settlements being located near railways, and rail lines being the most common means of passenger transport overall. Railway stations are also major meeting points in cities and towns, usually lying in a major square; in small towns they’re often surrounded by the main services like bars, post offices, banks, and a few shops; the most important stations in large cities are true shopping malls or even multifunctional buildings with offices and hotels: the stations of Cami-Tautehana and Līlasuṃghāṇa-Kahērimaila are the 2nd and 3rd largest public buildings[34] in the Inquisition (after the Main Terminal of Mamaikala International Airport).
Most of the network is nationalized, managed by local branches of the Mugada (murkadhānāvīyi galtarlīltumi darañcamūh, "Inquisitorial Railway Group", also called mugacamūh), but there are some local lines, especially when part of subway networks, which are privately managed.
Train services
Train services range from those of suburban importance to high-speed, often overnight, links between cities; a few major cities are linked by high-speed maglev lines that in a few cases may operate at speeds up to 700 km/h; the following types of trains are found on Chlouvānem railways, excluding commuter rail systems:
- Local trains (nīyuñcūkirāhe galtargais), which typically stop at every station between two termini (though some minor stations may only be served in some parts of the day, on some days only, or even seasonally; in rural areas there are a few halts where trains only stop at request). The termini of local trains are usually administrative seats of circuits or episcopal seats. All rural railway lines in the Inquisition have local train services.
- Fast local trains (kimirāhe nīyuñcūkirāhe galtargais), which operate mostly on rural lines but, unlike local trains, usually skip the smallest stations: in most areas, this means that only settlements with more than 6,000 people are served. Anyway, fast local trains are usually limited to the peak hours in the morning and in the evening, with possibly one around lunchtime.
- Interurban trains (galamartausirāhe galtargais), which are inter-city trains which link more cities of regional importance. In most areas of the densely populated Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain, interurban trains typically follow routes parallel to the main high speed lines and are shorter and stop at more stations that interurban trains in other areas of the country, resembling more fast local trains. Local trains in those areas are in fact often shorter shuttle services between a few major towns (which still do often have quite sizable populations compared to other "rural" towns elsewhere) outside the major metro areas.
- Express trains (phūmigaltargais, lit. "shot trains") are a category of fast trains that operate between major cities not served by high-speed railway lines. Some Express trains also run on high-speed lines in some areas. Express trains are sometimes named, as in the iconic Samvāldīlthiphūmas, the express train between Nyamukuma and Lališire Keleitimarta, with its 1500 km long crossing of the deserts in Samvālšaṇṭrē.
- Night express trains (lalei phūmigaltargais) are trains that operate on normal and high-speed lines during the night, providing sleeping accomodation. These trains are still very common in the Inquisition, as many people prefer nighttime trains to daytime air travel, citing time optimization as a factor.
- International trains (galababhrausirāhe galtargais) are express trains that connect cities of the Inquisition with foreign ones. They mainly depart from the cities of Kimbahēši, Mbelušucāri, and Kuratugombē in the West; Tohailena and Mālim in the Northwest, and Måmatempuñih, Kateihaneh, Hålša, and Pethaṣāvīh in the Northeast, reaching most neighboring countries. The most travelled daily international routes are Mālim-Arvallivăt (Qualdomailor) and Måmatempuñih-Foamipaha (Brono), in addition to the Karinaktei phūmas linking every three days the Northern Chlouvānem city of Hålša to Tol Szyptag, the second-largest city of Karynaktja, passing through the whole country of Tulfasysz.
- Nuppagai or, officially, high-speed trains (lalla nuppāmitap galtargais — nuppaga is actually the name of the line, not of the service, even if that's how it is colloquially known as), which link major cities at speeds usually exceeding 320 vyā-g (vyāṣojrai per Chlouvānem hour) (about 325 km/h).
- Maglev trains (lākterṣaikyap galtargais) are the fastest land vehicles on the planet, capable of reaching 700 vyā-g (about 711 km/h) and they are used on a few important routes, stopping in major cities only. Maglev trains are operative on three routes, all in the Jade Coast or the Eastern Plain:
- Ilēnimarta/Ajāƾilbādhi - Līlasuṃghāṇa - (Kūmanabūruh) - Līṭhalyinām
- Lūkṣṇyaḍāra - Ajāƾilbādhi - Ilēnimarta - Jānyaṃlāṭhi - Līlta
- Līlasuṃghāṇa - Taitepamba - Līlta - Lāltaṣveya (an extension to Hilyamāmah has been proposed many times but ultimately scrapped because of the too high costs and environmental concerns about another line crossing the Nīmbaṇḍhāra Delta).
Freight transport is also dominated by railways, giving rise to large freight depots even inside cities, even though they have often been closed, converted to public parks, and rebuilt outside the city as city growth circled them (this has happened most notably in Līlasuṃghāṇa, Ilēnimarta, and Līlikanāna, but not for example in Līlta which still has a mid-sized freight depot close to the city center).
Types of cars
Trains in the Inquisition consist of five different types of passenger cars, each one having its own fare. Three types of cars are general daytime passenger cars:
- Class 2 (dani ga vaita) cars are found on local, fast local, and (in most of the Plain only) interurban trains, as well as in suburban lines around many cities (including actually suburban lines counted as part of the Līlasuṃghāṇa Subway) and are the cheapest everywhere, not requiring any additional fee ticket - they have basic seats, cushioned but stiff; every row has six or four seats depending on train model and newer trains have two power outlets per row. In all trains where they are found, today there is no other class - in the past, however, it was common for interurban trains to have one or two significantly cheaper class 2 coaches and many more class 1 ones - today, all interurban trains outside of the Plain are fully class 1, while in the Plain there are class 1 ones and class 2 ones, but never mixed.
- Class 1 (emibe ga vaita) cars have more comfortable seats than class 2 ones, with more legroom, one table standing in the middle of four seats; on most trains, by each seat is a power outlet (on the side of the table) - however, there are still many older coaches in service, especially in the North, that do not have as much. These trains are currently marketed as class 1-p[35] (leilapapas ga vaita) and are somewhat cheaper than regular class 1 ones. Class 1 (and 1-p) cars are the only class found on most interurban trains and are also found on all express and international trains.
- High class (lalla ga vaita) cars are not much different from class 1 ones but are more reminescent of seating on aircraft (with more leg room): they have more comfortable, to some extent reclining seats with foldable tables ahead, and one power socket per seat. They all have occasionally passing attendants with catering carts, even on trains with pantry cars. High class on newer Kimatāye and maglev trains also has free wi-fi. They are found on express and international trains (together with class 1) and are the only class found on kimatāye and maglev trains.
The other two types are nighttime sleeping couches: Sleeping class 2 (dani ga puglavaita) cars have six-bed sleeping compartments with no doors; beds have a single pillow and often no sheets and there are only curtains (not blinds) on the windows. The uppermost bed is smaller and somewhat difficult to climb to, but is also extremely cheap. Sleeping class 1 (leila ga puglavaita) cars have four-bed sleeping compartments with a lockable door (unlockable, anyway, by the train personnel), beds have two pillows and sheets and there are blinds on the windows; there is also a sink in every compartment.
Fares
Fares are dependent on the type of passenger car one wishes to travel in and on the type of train service; most trains operate on the principle of zones, with zones being defined differently depending on the area (influenced mainly by distance between stations, population density, and terrain traversed). In addition, there are (separate) surcharge tickets for the type of train service - note that for this purpose, local and fast local trains are a single category, as are international and night express trains.
Air and Water
Air transport is often limited to large distances, but many small towns in the rainforest, on islands, or in other sparsely populated areas often have their own airfields, with regular flights to bigger macroregional centers. Seaplane airports are particularly common in the rainforest and by islands, with some major cities having a seaplane airport usually for regional flights and a major (inter-)national airport. Air transport is usually the preferred alternative to high-speed (non-maglev) rail transport for distances over 160 (21610) gar (about 1535 km or 953 mi), and only on even longer distances when compared to night trains. Still, most large cities have an airport, and some air routes are heavily travelled (particularly those linking the area of Cami and the major cities of the Plain and the Jade Coast).
International flights have some "hub cities" which are those where most international flights have their terminus in. Mamaikala, in the central-northern part of the Plain, is the most important as it is the terminus for most flights from the Eastern Bloc, the former Kaiṣamā, Evandor, and long-distance flights from Near Védren. Flights from most of Védren have their terminus in Kimbahēši on the Western border of the Inquisition (still the 14th largest city of the country), as do those from western Ovítioná, Fárásen, and some flights from Céránento which usually have refueling stops in Védren first. In the Eastern part of the country, Naiṣambella is the main hub city due to its proximity to Queáten and Púríton; flights from eastern Ovítioná also come there via Queáten, while some flights from northern Púríton reach Cami directly. A now discontinued flight route from Aétorá, capital of Écóteró in western Ovítioná, to Hālyanēṃṣah in the southern Inquisition held the record for the longest Calémerian non-stop air route almost entirely over open ocean.
The majority of international flights, however, link the Inquisition with the Bronic and Skyrdegan countries, Qualdomailor, and the former Kaiṣamā.
All flights inside the Inquisition are operated by Mavāṇa[36], the branding name for civil flights used by the Air Traffic Department (lairidoldani vādvaḍa) of the Inquisitorial Office for Transports (dårbhi plušamila). Most international flights are also operated by Mavāṇa, except for four routes operated by the Bronic flag carrier Rahao Barôna.
Ships are a major freight transport method and also very frequently used for passenger traffic where there’s the opportunity to drastically cut travel distance - one of the main passenger ship routes being for example Taitepamba-Līlikanāna on the opposite shores of the Jahībušanī Sea. Ships are also obviously the main means of transport in insular areas.
Boats are very commonly used on rivers and are - together with railways, where present - the main method of transport in the southern rainforest and in the far northern taiga. Inside metropolitan areas with many waterways or on lakes - like Lūkṣṇyaḍāra, Pamahīnēna, and to a lesser extent also Līlasuṃghāṇa - there often are boat lines connecting various settlements.
Education
Education, in the Inquisition, may be either lay or religious depending on who teaches (laypeople or monks), but it should be kept in mind that even "lay education" would be considered religious anywhere on Earth. Anyway, apart from curricula and internal organization, most of the system is standardized for every school, be it civil or monastic, across the country.
School years take place entirely inside a single calendar year - the exact start and end dates vary depending on the diocese, but generally school years begin between the 12th and the 24th day of Māltapārṇāvi (the first month of the year, the first of autumn) and end at the beginning of Bhaivyāvammi (eleventh month), a few days before both the summer solstice and the Bhaivyāvāṣara, the most important celebration in the Yunyalīlti/Chlouvānem calendar. Non-higher-education final exams usually take place during the following month, Īlāmyasena, while repair exams take place during Camirādhās, the fourteenth and last month of the year.
Chlouvānem schools, today, are not gender-segregated, but (except for primary schools, and in a few areas also basic schools) this was not the case in the past. Until two centuries ago, seminaries were only open to girls, and in most dioceses this continued to be the case even after (during the Nāɂahilūmi years even some dioceses that had allowed boys into seminaries went back); it is only since the society-wide gender equality laws of 6347 (380Ɛ12) that gender segregation in basic schools was ended and boys were allowed nationwide into seminaries; however, many dioceses kept gender segregation in secondary schools for decades. Tumidajaiṭa, the last diocese to end gender segregation, only did this in 6407 (385Ɛ12), 17 years ago.
Every school in the Inquisition by law requires pupils to wear a school uniform, called (tarlāmahi) emibausya (pl. emibausyai). Obviously, as all clothing, these vary according to the region due to the wildly different climates, but they're usually of modest white- or light blue-dyed, or even undyed fabric everywhere; the typical mark that differentiates different schools is a small piece of cloth called kitalilvan (literally "house belt") that pupils tie to their left forearm; each school has its own motif or simply its name written on it. In most cases (as the majority of the population lives in year-round hot and often wet climate areas), the choices are the glaɂa (a large shirt-like cloth covering the legs, tied at the waist) and dhūbas (neckless shirt, often without sleeves, coming down up to the legs) typically aimed at boys, and the maghātam (a pair of baggy trousers) with pajlāka (a loose long shirt, often simply a large piece of cloth with spaces for the head and arms) typically aimed at girls (the choices are however not gender-dependent (many schools, in fact, give maghātam and pajlāka to everyone, or a pajlāka instead of a dhūbas for boys too), as usually the parents and pupils decide together what to take — the important thing is that no other kind of outer clothing is allowed). As in most buildings, street shoes must be changed at the entrance; everyone is usually required to wear either a pair of junyoe slippers or the more rustic straw rope varṇaigi sandals, even in those areas where going barefoot outside is common. There are less strict rules on hairstyles, and they're allowed as long as they are not of Western Calemerian style. Most pupils, however, sport a traditional pomai chignon.
Monastic schools have different rules, as the clothing is usually the same as monks.
Chlouvānem schools are divided in three stages, two of them mandatory. The first stage, non-mandatory, is the lahīla tarlāmaha (first school), called saminyahikeika (literally "children lecture garden") in some dioceses. Children usually begin going in it in their fourth year of life following Chlouvānem age count (= children at least 3 years old), but a few schools, especially monastic ones, allow even children one year younger. Anyway, in rural areas it is still somewhat common for children not to go to first school, getting the equivalent basic education at home instead. In first school, children start learning how to read and write, and first schools are exclusively in Chlouvānem, bringing full exposure to the lingua franca instead of the local variant. During the second year of first school, children start being read and commented a few important extracts from the holy books of the Yunyalīlta.
First school is not divided in grades, as classes are always mixed-age; one class usually contains from 25 to 40 children. Almost every parish (= municipality) of the Inquisition has at least a first school, often administered by the local temple.
Basic school
The second stage, and the first mandatory one, is the šermālgyumi tarlāmaha (basic school), which is always either government-controlled (šarivāṇi š. t.) or monastic (ñæltryaukire š. t.) — private basic schools are forbidden by law[37]. Like for first schools, almost every parish has at least a basic school; in the smallest parishes that have them, it is usual to have first and basic schools in the same building or plot of land.
Grades of basic schools are age-dependant, though it is not rare to find pupils that skip the second grade due to a particular talent, passing directly from the first to the third grade (such a child is colloquially called maihælinaikīn); much rarer is the case of children that after one or two months of the first grade are directly assigned into a second grade for the rest of the year. Children enter basic school during their sixth year of life; the four grades are called lahīla (heirah) (first (year)), hælinaika (second), pāmvende (third), and nęltende (fourth).
Basic schools, as their name already says, have the purpose of giving children the basic teachings propedeutical for everything else. In practice, this means Chlouvānem grammar (chlǣvānumi dhāḍi našketoe), basic notions of religion and civic education (lileṃlīlta - no distinction between them is made in Chlouvānem society), maths (smoḍatarlā), history (avyāṣmaita), geography (babhrātarlā), sport classes (rašvātra(i): archery (nījogākonanah) and athletics (mædhrarašvātra)) and usually another language: in areas with a second official language (so-called ethnic dioceses) it's usually that one; otherwise it is most commonly Skyrdagor (teñjābyumi dhāḍa), sometimes Qualdomelic (kvaldēmǣldumi dhāḍa), Cerian (jarajræltyumi dhāḍa), or Bronic (bronyumi dhāḍa).
Secondary education
The third stage is the one of high schools, which is actually composed of three different types of schools:
- pūnatarlāmaha (pl. -āmahai) — work school(s);
- pradīma (pl. -ai) — institution(s);
- upānāraḍa (pl. -ai) — seminary/ies.
Unlike for first and basic schools, not all parishes have third-stage schools; today rural areas usually have a few of them serving relatively large-sized areas, but in the past they were, especially seminaries, only found in cities. Many third-stage schools, especially those serving large rural areas, are thus boarding schools, having or using accomodations administered by deacons or Inquisitors, and thus usually with a strong religious imprint. Common to all schools are at least a fundamental base on Chlouvānem literature and Yunyalīlti doctrine, as well as history, geography, and at least one foreign language - Skyrdagor and Cerian are the two most commonly taught ones.
Pūnatarlāmahai are many and all vary according to the chosen specialization, but they are all aimed at forming artesans, workers, farmers, and similar professions. They are seven year long - from the fifth grade (šulkendeh), with children in their eleventh year of life, to the eleventh grade (vældende), with pupils in their seventeenth year of life (one year before age of majority, which is attained in the Chlouvānem Inquisition at one's 17th birthday (in Chlouvānem count, at the beginning of the 18th year)). The eleventh grade in work schools is also called tarlāmahi kahērmaleni (heirah), (class) of the school certification.
Institutions are secondary education schools with technical and scientific specialties; they are classified as either scientific institutions (tarlī pradīmai) or economical institutions (ladragyaltarlī pradīmai). They are aimed at forming pupils for dirigential offices, deacons (laypeople working for the Inquisition), or simply for scientific, economical, or medical Universities. Institutions are two years longer than work schools, ending with the certification grade (the thirteenth in total), called kahērmaleni.
Seminaries are divided in three schooltypes: Arts' Seminaries (dārṇājeldinūmi upānāraḍai), Political Seminaries (kǣvyanædanīyi upānāraḍai), and Linguistic Seminaries (dhāḍatarlī upānāraḍai). In all of them, there is much more focus on religious schooling than in work schools and institutions (which still have a considerable amount of it). However, religious schooling does not only contain Yunyalīlti doctrine, but also Chlouvānem literature and culture (a subject called chlǣvānnædani, literally "Chlouvānemism") and Chlouvānem linguistics, including also fundaments of historical linguistics through reconstructed Proto-Lahob (all in the subject called chlǣvānumi dhāḍa).
In Linguistic Seminaries, at least three other foreign languages are taught - one of the three is almost always either Skyrdagor or Cerian (sometimes both), with Qualdomelic, Nordûlaki, Bronic, Spocian, central Dabuke koiné, Nâdjawārre, Soenjoan, Kuyugwazian, and sometimes Gathura, modern Nivarese, Kalese, and Helinetian being commonly offered (some are more prevalent in certain areas, e.g. Nâdjawārre, Soenjoan, and Kuyugwazian in the Northwest).
In Political Seminaries, the characterizing subjects are judiciary and political subjects (dvašpani kǣvyanædanīyi no tarlā), which includes a broader focus on religious teaching. Political Seminaries are considered the most useful for entering in pahēšhānēyai - the university-like academies that prepare in order to become Inquisitors.
Arts' Seminaries focus more on artistic subjects, particularly the traditional Nine Arts according to the Chlouvānem: poetry (purṣīh), prose (nilikilas), theater (bræšlanah), music (nakṣuma), weaving (mainanah), dance (mūmikā), gardening (rālyabhāyāmita), painting (junya), and sculpture (nevyanah).
All Seminaries have the same duration as Institutions, ending with the certification grade, kahērmaleni (the thirteenth in total).
The three types of secondary schools are mostly similar in the first three years, as they only diverge in propedeutical activities aimed towards the following years' ones.
Higher education
There are two main places of higher education: Ecumenical Schools - yaivānyi tarlāmahai (sg. yaivānyi tarlāmaha, also yaivatarlāmaha(i)) - which are comparable to regular universities, and Liturgical Colleges - pahēšhānēyai (sg. pahēšhānī) - which are academies aimed at forming Inquisitors.
(TBC)
Culture and Lifestyle
Arts
Literature
→ Main article: Chlouvānem literature
Clothing
Clothing styles across the Inquisition are naturally varied because of the vastly different climates found in the country, as every biome apart from polar tundra and polar ice caps is found; most of the Inquisition has a hot climate, often very wet for all or at least half of the year, but on the other end of the scale there are places such as Yænyanalkai, one of the coldest large cities of the planet, where temperatures far below freezing reign for most of the year.
All clothes come in a variety of colors, with lilac and purple being particularly considered luxurious (those dyes were historically rare, and lilac is furthermore the national colour of the Inquisition). Dark clothes are rare, due to the hot climate in most of the nation, and a special mention needs to be done for golden yellow (saffron- or turmeric-like) clothes, which are extremely formal ones and worn for religious festivals only: it is a bad faux pas to wear such a dress outside of these occasions. Golden yellow dresses are however how the Great Inquisitor appears while on duty, and most Inquisitors, when on normal duty, wear an outfit which is predominantly black but with golden yellow details.
The most common traditional Chlouvānem clothing is that one native of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra plain, which the Chlouvānem spread alongside their culture in all of the equatorial and tropical areas of the Inquisition. Probably the most famous clothing pieces are the jånirāh for women and the glaɂa for men. The jånirāh is basically a long strip of cloth, usually about five or six meters long, which is wrapped around the waist and draped over the shoulder; the helajyā is a blouse usually worn together with the jånirāh, underneath it to cover the breasts, but it is sometimes used as a dress on its own.
Men's glaɂa is a large strip of cloth tied around the waist and covering the legs; many workers do not wear any top, but a pajlāka - a large cloth, a loose shirt/mantle, unisex, worn top-down from the head and arms, is often worn together with glaɂai. Barechestedness, however, both for men and women, is not particularly bad manners in Chlouvānem society, especially in the southern regions closer to the Equator.
High monks of a few ascetic monastic orders do not wear clothes at all.
Other typical clothing apparel include the maghātam, an unisex piece of leg clothing closer to (American) pants, but more loose — and the dhūbas, a neckless shirt, often also without sleeves, which is somewhat usual clothing for women but the most usual formal clothing for men. The måših is a skirt similar to the glaɂa, but less loose and often closer to a pencil skirt, and is worn by both women and men; women in the regions with higher humidity often wear it along with a maulinaca - a bandeau bra.
Traditional Chlouvānem footwear is not tied, but is slipped on and off instead, as it helps getting air to the feet in humid climate conditions and also because in Chlouvānem everyday life there are many occasions where it is mandatory to remove shoes. The rauṣa are probably the most common footwear - wooden sandals, often high, with a thong for the foot; the vārṇaigi have a similar concept but they're made of straw only and are tied to the lower part of the leg - they are usually more common among certain types of people such as most Inquisitors, all monks, most strict religious laypeople, and among most professors in schools and universities. Many people, however, go barefoot (tanetane).
Hairstyles
Buns and braids are two of the most characteristic hair styles among most Chlouvānem people — it is however to be noticed that Western Chlouvānem hairstyles are typically different from the rest of the nation and more like traditional Dabuke ones; Western Chlouvānem also have typically shorter but Afro-textured hair and many men carry turbans, thus having an impact on local hairstyle preferences.
Buns are probably the most common overall — the classic chignon, called pomai (literally "egg") has a particular charged traditional meaning, being a symbol of life, and is thus typically worn by both men and women; carrying a pomai on the upper back of the head with hairsticks called pomaidaṇḍa (pl. -ai) is very common, particularly among strongly religious men, and these hairsticks typically have a small piece of coloured cloth at one end with a našlejā (a sort of Yunyalīlti mantra) written on it.
Other styles of chignons are the āmpomai, common among males, which is similar to a regular pomai but worn on the top of the head, and the feminine pomāyon (lit. "two eggs", dual form of pomai), which consists of two smaller buns on the two sides on the upper back of the head. Pomaidaṇḍai are however only worn with regular pomāye.
The bald head style — called uspāras — is rare, and typically only found among certain monastic orders (but many of them prefer the pomai) and in the West. Very short hair, simply called kutīrāhe pārās, are also typically a distinctive sign of male farmers, who carry this hairstyle more because of praticity when wearing hats. Curiously, this type of short hair is commonly found on statues of the Chlamišvatrā in many areas of the Southern Far East.
Braids are symbolically important as they are, since even pre-Yunyalīlti times, the distinctive hairstyle of married women; it comes to no surprise that in the Chlouvānem language every word related to marriage has the root lañši (braid) in it. The modern word for braid as a hairstyle is læñchiša, itself a diminutive of lañši. The usual læñchiša is a French braid, typically long enough to reach down a third of the back; wedding braids are of this type, and typically brides do not cut their hair for a long time before the wedding day in order to carry longer braids for the ceremony. A typical braid of some areas of the central Plain is however the kamilañši ("around-braid"), which consists in a crown-like braid around the head.
Beards are typically not grown among Chlouvānem men, but it should be kept in mind that body hair among Calemerian humans, outside the pubic area, eyelashes and eyebrows, and the top and back of the head, is much less than among humans of Earth. Northwestern Chlouvānem people are a bit of an exception, as they usually carry a (short) beard.
Tattoos and body painting
Tattoos (nītikah, pl. nītikai) are rare in modern Chlouvānem society and are often stigmatized as, in the last two centuries, have grown to be associated to members of the ladolkān, crime syndicates active in most urban areas, controlling most black market activities, and being heavily persecuted by the government. Due to this, today only a minority of people have tattoos, even if there are some hints to a change as the current growth of traditionalism in the Inquisition has seen some people get traditional tattoos that somehow represent their life choices or achievements; many affirmed sportspeople have got tattoos representing the sports they're champions in (especially racing drivers and cycling stars; ironically, less so for the traditional fighting sports or archery), and the same did a few members of jānilšeidai — groups (literally "legions") that strive for Yunyalīlti purity in other countries (almost all considered terrorist groups abroad, but legally recognized philantropical organizations in the Inquisition).
Chlouvānem traditional tattooing art is millennia-old, and even today the few tattoo artists strictly adhere to the traditional way, with non-electrical tools of sharpened wood or steel; in the Far East, there once was a local tradition of cutting the skin and inserting ink or ashes by rubbing the wound, but this has been outlawed because of the greater dangers; similarly, scarification, once common among dark-skinned people in the Western areas of the Inquisition before the Chlouvānem came (it still is common among the genetically and formerly culturally related Dabuke peoples to the West) has been outlawed, though there had been a religious debate for this decision. Tattoo-makers are artists, that train for decades with their masters before being able to practice the activity on their own; they are rare and often do not advertize themselves in any way, so that they are difficult to find and expensive. Coupled with the long time, often of years, that is needed for a tattoo, this further contributes to the low presence of tattoos in society.
Body painting (mædhrañjunya; piltajunya when on the face only), on the other hand, is a major part of Chlouvānem culture. Body paintings are worn in almost every festive occasion and in many religious ceremonies; there are specific designs not only for most ceremonies, but also for days and seasons, that are often worn by practicers of traditional arts, actors and actresses, and sportsmen. Body paintings, once done, last from a day to several weeks.
Even if most people are able to paint at least their face, there are body painting artists that are a highly respected profession in Chlouvānem society; most body paints used today are still natural, being obtained from berries or some powdered rocks; synthetic paints have been created, but some of the most respected body painting artists refuse to use them, sticking to traditional natural paints.
Cuisine
Chlouvānem cuisine is extremely varied and every region has its own signature dishes. What can be generalized is the influence of Yunyalīlti philosophy on Chlouvānem food and eating culture. Emphasizing restraining from unnecessary violence, Chlouvānem food is often vegan; it should however be noticed that Calemerian humans have a different metabolism from Earthly humans and it is impossible for them to completely avoid meat[38] in the long term. Still, Chlouvānem people follow, due to their religious worldview, a diet that usually minimizes the eating of meat: the Inquisition has the lowest rate of meat consumption pro capita on Calémere.
Note that even the English translations of Chlouvānem terms for foods and especially plants are not perfect matches; they are similar-looking, similarly-used, or similar-tasting plants/foods, that may have even very noticeable differences compared to those of Earth. All terms are given in the singular, except when noted.
An usual Chlouvānem meal is eaten communally, with food being served in large bowls and plates placed in the center of a table and then taken by the diners; foods are eaten either by hand or with chopsticks, and soups with spoons; forks and knives are however commonly used in the Northwest due to Western Calemerian influences. Dishes served in a single meal are meant to be eaten together, and are often contrasting - sweet and salty, spicy and mild, hot and cold. The two most typical types of dishes are stews (chlemyoe) and curries (mēlita); they are similar in appearance, but chlemyenī are generally less thick than curries and served in bowls, while mēlitai are thicker and served on plates; also, the omnipresent accompanying rice is typically cooked along with stews, but separately from curries and served on different plates. In countless variations, these dishes are found all across the country.
Among popular dishes that are not stews or curries, rānāmi is a particularly popular one - it is a full plate of spiced rice with a cream of chickpeas and/or beans, optionally flavoured with either jvyarñuɂah (a typical delicacy of the Līlasuṃghāṇa area - a cream made from moldy and aged jvyara berry pulp) or vyāvamǣka (a mustard paste), with usually raṇḍālai (fried vegetable balls) inside them - in some riverine communities, variants with eels may be found instead.
Ingredients
The staple foods of Chlouvānem cuisine common across most areas are rice (lūdya[39]), sticky rice (ñañām), plantains (jaɂukas) soybeans (miltai), purple yam (hunai), lentils (mahīra), chickpeas (gubham), many other types of legumes (collectively bågras), many kinds of nuts (generically dāneh), and, among greens, various kinds of cabbages (hauša, šųlah, and prāšan being three of the most common ones). Rice is the main staple food (starch source) in about half of the country, with saišah - a nshima-like dish made from Calémerian maize flour or læmāh (the flour of the lambā tuber) being predominant in the other half[40]. Spices are extensively used, as are many fruits, both fresh and pickled. With only a few exceptions (most notably tea, cocoa, and cane sugar), Chlouvānem cuisine is also often local well into modern society; buying products and ingredients from elsewhere in the country is not a common practice.
The ingredients used in Chlouvānem cuisine are extremely different from place to place, which reflects the tropical climate of most of the nation and its abundance of fruits and other agricultural products. In most of the country, fresh fruit is commonly eaten throughout the whole day, and in most cities there are trees - especially of coconuts and bananas, that are extensively grown throughout the whole country - that can be harvested freely by citizens.
The Yunyalīlta forbids "unnecessarily privating fellow living beings of freedom" (cited various times in all three books of the Chlamiṣvatrā), so that meat is generally only harvested through hunting and fishing (only a few species of poultry and the ħuɂimah, a goat-like animal, were traditionally kept in farms and eaten), so that in areas that do not have significant fishing opportunities meat is quite rare and expensive. Fish is more common, due to the abundance of rivers and the enormous coastline: 90% of meat eaten in the country is fish. Dairy food is almost nonexistant in most of the country (it should be noted that the most prominent domestic animal in past and present Chlouvānem society, the lalāruṇa, is a reptile - and furthermore it is sacred for Yunyalīlti people, so that neither it nor its eggs are eaten). Entomophagy is very common, particularly in the southern regions, where larvae and worms are used in many meat-based dishes. Traditionally, insect eating has not been as avoided as other types of meat, especially where some insect species may be harmful to the local agricultural production.
Except for some areas where agricultural output is not enough due to climate and/or geographical conditions, namely on some islands, deserts, or areas of high mountains or taiga, meat is a small part of the diet, present in only about two or three meals each lunar phase.
Due to the relative rarity and fluctuating disponibility of meat, most of it is preserved in some way in order to conserve it. Pickled, smoked, jellied, or fermented fish are commonly found in Chlouvānem luvāye.
Pǣcicænai
The term pǣcicænai (singular pǣcicænah - a double diminutive of pǣka "taste") refers to a vast series of Chlouvānem foods which are commonly eaten as entrées or apéritifs, but may also be served together with main meals or as snacks during the day. There are countless variations of foods that may be classified as pǣcicænai, but they all have in common the fact of being mostly cold or usually only cooked for a short time (with some exceptions, such as skaglanåmai), usually vegetable-only, and are served either as small snack-like servings or in buffets. Pǣcicænai are only savoury - similar sweet foods are usually categorized as candies. Foods commonly served as pǣcicænai are:
- skaglanåmā (pl. -nåmai) - small potatoes boiled in salted water and served hot but covered in cold sauces;
- smurṇūlia (pl. -ṇūliai) - small portions of rice, sesame, and cutted vegetables (often tomatoes, carrots, or spinach) wrapped in cabbage leaves;
- Various types of salads such as nānemæchlyē (with mixed vegetables and fried bread) or širṣmæchlyē (with tomatoes, okra, onions, and distinctively spiced with anise).
Drinks
Tea (lunai) is without any doubt the most popular beverage in the Inquisition. Calemerian tea is actually quite different from Earthly tea in habitat - it grows in hilly areas around the wet coast of the Plain, so that most of the Jahībušanī Sea basin is dotted with tea plantations. 93% of tea production on Calémere is in the Inquisition, and about 98% of tea produced in the Inquisition is consumed there - the average Chlouvānem drinks tea about four times a day. Other kinds of infusions - generally called humaimaila ("herb water") - are also extremely popular, and are also served in lunaikeikai - "tea houses", or the most popular kind of drinking establishment in the Inquisition.
Coffee (the beverage is verkmaila, the plant and beans are verka) is also known but it is only grown in some areas of the Western Inquisition and it is nowhere as popular as tea, not even in the West.
The most popular soft drink is kolecañīh, which is a kvas-like drink made from fermented bread; in the Jade Coast, maušijyārai (a bergamot-flavoured soda) is also extremely popular.
Holidays
The number of days of public holidays in the Inquisition varies, because each diocese has its own festivity calendar and, often, many cities and towns have their own semi-festive "city day". There is, however, a number of holidays which are officially recognized by the central government. This means that the following (here in chronological order) 11 holidays (for a total of 14 days) are celebrated in every diocese:
- The ranire nājaṣrān (or Chlouvānem New Year; literally "glowing change") falls on the first day of the year, 1 māltapārṇāvi (the autumn equinox).
- The hīmbajaṃšā (Festival of Harmony and Colors) is the first of the four main Yunyalīlti festivals. It always falls on 4 pāṇḍalañši (third month of the year).
- The camilalyājaṃšā (Festival of the Greater Night), the second of the four main festivals, falls on 13 (1510) kanamimaila (fourth month), the winter solstice. It marks the longest nighttime period of the year and the beginning of longer days. It is observed even by communities in the Southern Hemisphere (as both solstices are holidays anyway), but the local significance varies from place to place.
- The murkadhānāvīyi pārṇam (Day of the Inquisition) on 10 murkāsena (fifth month) is one of only three non-religious public holidays, commemorating the foundation of the Inquisition as a country, on 10 murkāsena 6291 (378312).
- The kaila nali jānilšeidumi pārṇam (Day of the Legions for Purity) on 15 (1710) būṃṣprātas (sixth month) is another public holiday, dedicated to the armed forces of the Inquisition.
- The maivajaṃšā (Festival of the Word) is the third of the four main Yunyalīlti festivals, on 10 lalyāñaiṭa (seventh month). It celebrates the first teaching of the Chlamiṣvatrā.
- The caṃkrajavyājaṃšā (Festival of the Final Fire) falls on 1Ɛ (2310) brausāsena (eighth month), and is a highly symbolic religious festival where unneeded, unusable, and generally bad things (representing burdens or leftovers from the past) are burned; this is considered one of the most pictoresque happenings in the Chlouvānem world, with countless such fires lighting the night sky.
- The bhaivyāvāṣara (Oboe Nights) is the most important festival in the Yunyalīlta and the central holiday in the Chlouvānem Inquisition and in all Yunyalīlti communities on Calémere. It lasts four days, from 13 (1510) to 16 (1810) bhaivyāvammi (eleventh month).
- The kaili jaṃšā (Festival of Purity) on 4 hælvyāsena (thirteenth month) is a fairly recent festival, only introduced by Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma in 6313 (37ᘔ112) to glorify the ultimate purity of the lillamurḍhyā, which every human being must try to reach and preserve.
- The camimurkadhāni gṇyauya is the Birthday of the Great Inquisitor, and as such its date is subject to change. Currently it falls on 24 (2810) hælvyāsena, birthday of Her Respectable Most Excellent Highness Hæliyǣšāvi Dhṛṣṭāvāyah Lairē.
- The lališire hulei pārṇam (New Moon's Day) is a religious festival without a fixed date, as it falls on the first day of the lunar year.
There are, furthermore, a few more holidays which are widely observed in many geographical areas. These are actually major spring festivals and are almost complementary:
- The junyahiyunyi jaṃšā (Festival of Blossoming Nature), where it is observed, is the second most important festival of the year. It is one of the traditional Chlouvānem festivals, celebrating the beginning of the monsoon season; it is a full celebration of nature, which is not worked for three days. Unlike other major festivals, its date varies depending on the area: most of the eastern part of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain celebrates it from 8 to 10 mailaheirah (ninth month), and other parts of the Plain and of the Southern Far East celebrate it at different times (but always falling during the last 3/4 days of brausāsena (8th), mailaheirah (9th), or the first 8/9 days of ñaryāyāmyah (10th); dates are however the same every year in most dioceses). Dioceses outside the reach of monsoons do not celebrate it.
- The takijan is a traditional, pre-Chlouvānem festival in Kaṃsatsāna (most of the East), symbolizing the flowering of takīh (apple-peach) trees. It lasts two days, on 19 and 1ᘔ (2110 and 2210) mailaheirah.
- The taparimba is celebrated in the Northeast and most of the North on the spring equinox, 1 brausāsena. In pre-Chlouvānem local tradition, this was the beginning of the new year, and as such it is also known outside these areas as helaṣyuñci lališire heirah (Northeastern New Year).
- The ndegas is a Dabuke festival, remembering one's own ancestors, (celebrated in all Dabuke and Dabuke-influenced countries in western Márusúturon/eastern Védren) that falls on 3 ñaryāyāmyah and is celebrated in all of the Western Inquisition.
Other holidays and important dates
The following holidays are also recognized and followed in the Inquisition, but are (mostly) not full public holidays, even if many people do not work and it is possible to obtain free non-working days if one, or a close member of one's family, is involved in the celebrations.
The lališirāhe lallaheirdhūmi pārṇam ("Day of New Adults" or "Coming of Age Day") falls on the first day in the year which is also the beginning of a new lunar month. It is a public celebration – typically held in municipal halls – for, depending on the diocese, either all young adults having reached age of majority (the beginning of the 18th year of age, i.e. the 17th birthday in English age count)[41] in the previous year, or all young adults who in the preceding year have had the traditional rite of passage, which is either eleven months of mandatory military service or four lunar months carrying on life as a novice monk in a monastery (a practice called ukṣṇyañæltryāmita); both nowadays happening after reaching age of majority, after finishing school[42]. Parents of the celebrated new adults are granted the right not to work on this day.
The kūlħanarai (grammatically plural), which falls on 29 murkāsena, is a festival originally of Kenengyry peoples (cf. Soenjoan kuvul hynyrŏŋ (likely the origin of the Chl. term), Kŭy. kuy khanŭrokŭ, Eneg. küğew henreg) originally celebrating the winter solstice, hence analogue to the Chlouvānem camilalyājaṃšā, but later shifted to celebrate winter itself, and which has a peculiar history in the Inquisition. It was adopted as a general festival in the Kaiṣamā era in the dioceses of the Northwest (which have not only the strongest Kenengyry presence, but were also former Evandorian colonies) as an attempt to have a Yunyalīlti-friendly version of the religious feast of Rebirth (Cálen Ecozóntan in Cerian) celebrated in the Western world (itself, in its modern form in most of Calémere, a syncretic feast of Íscégon, Nivarese, and ancient Velken origins). The date of kūlħanarai on 29 murkāsena (well in the middle of winter) was chosen in order to have an Eastern bloc replacement for both the Western New Year (1 fásónon, i.e. 21 murkāsena) and Rebirth (1 and 2 áman, i.e. 4 and 5 būṃṣprātas); some of the typical Rebirth traditions in the Evandorian countries which colonized those areas of the Inquisition have been shifted to kūlħanarai; the general imagery found even outside those areas (esp. in all major cities), however, is a mix of Western and Kenengyry themes. In the Inquisition, it is celebrated in the dioceses of Srāmiṇajāṇai, Tārṣaivai, Ūnikadīltha, Yultijaiṭa, and Līnajoṭa[43]; only in Srāmiṇajāṇai, Tārṣaivai, and Yultijaiṭa it is a full holiday.
Local festivals - named saṃsārvānis, pl. saṃsārvānais - are a characteristic of the whole Chlouvānem world. Cities, towns, villages, even only selected hamlets or city wards, often hold special festivals, usually honoring local important kaihai. Often these festivals are not public holidays, but it is quite common for these days to be half rest days in the jurisdiction(s) where they are celebrated, sometimes even in neighboring ones.
Vacation
Holidays in the Inquisition are a fairly recent trend, having become a common feature of most citizens' lives only in the last sixty years. Most people who live in cities have their holidays during the summer (in the last two-and-a-half months of the year), which is also the period when schools are closed.
[TBA]
As most of the Inquisition's coastlines are in the tropics, the Inquisition boasts the longest hot- or warm-weather coastline on Calémere. Beaches are a very common geographical feature, both on seas and on the countless rivers and lakes, especially the largest ones. The history of beach tourism in the Inquisition is about half a century shorter than for other developed countries - beach tourism originated among the noble Evandorian class around ~2150 (Chl. calendar: ~626010), and from there it spread to the colonists' classes Evandorian colonies as well as the rest of the world, including some pre-Consolidation Chlouvānem states, and the Skyrdegan countries. Beach tourism did not, however, become widespread until the Nāɂahilūmi era, when the state built various Prora-like beach resorts across the Inquisition, most of which are still used today, even though with the beach experience being often just an added feature to sport or gymnastic vacation camps. During the Kaiṣamā era, a more casual recreational use of urban and suburban beaches began to grow; these beaches (often on lakeshores or riversides) are very commonly part of parks and are very popular as a bathing and relax place on off days, as well as for people to take a walk there after work. One of the most popular Chlouvānem sports, yalkhaitah ("beach ball"), was invented by coastal communities and is played on beaches only (or at least on sandy terrains).
Geothermal springs and their associated thermal facilities (raisa is the term for such a place in Chlouvānem) are among the most visited places; these are found in many areas of the Inquisition, but are especially common in the hilly or mountainous areas around the Nīmbaṇḍhāra-Lāmberah plain, in the Far East, and in the Hokujaši and Aratāram islands in the far northeast; a few of them are present also near the western coast of the jungle, with raisai around the holy mountain of Maichlikaiṭah in Ājvalēnia diocese being particularly popular due to the scenic location and for them being somewhat closer than other resorts (even if still more than 20 hours away by train) to major areas such as Līlasuṃghāṇa, Ilēnimarta, or Ajāɂilbādhi. For winter tourism, particularly popular destinations are high-altitude springs (often over 2,000m) in the Camipāṇḍa mountains that often experience high snowfall, providing the experience of bathing in hot water in subzero temperatures to tourist from areas that see few or no snow at all.
Just like lālikai (conventional, non-geothermal, bathhouses), Chlouvānem people enjoy spending time in raisai, which are often fully comparable to resort hotels or resort towns as we know them.
Possibly the most common type of tourism is, however, pilgrimage (šahījryoe). Most of the Inquisition is dotted with temples, monasteries, and other holy sites, particularly in parts of the Jade Coast and the Eastern Plain. Pilgrimages are done by people of all ages, and typically the first pilgrimage made without parents or other relatives of older generations is considered a rite of passage for most Chlouvānem people. Many pilgrimages are meant to reach one or few particular temples or monasteries, but there are also a few multi-site pilgrimages, most notably the Far Eastern Mountains Pilgrimage (lallanaleiyuñci ñaryūmi šahījryoe) in 79 temples. Yunyalīlti pilgrimages are also the main reason for most foreigners to visit the Chlouvānem Inquisition.
The most visited pilgrimage site is probably Vādhaṃšvāti Lake Monastery in southern Nanašīrama, the holiest place in the Yunyalīlta as, according to tradition, is where the Chlamiṣvatrā, after having enlightened the world, left her mortal body, which was then burned there and the ashes thrown in the lake. The pilgrimage to Vādhaṃšvāti Lake begins in the small village of Nanaigeiras ("jungle gate"), with a three hour walk inside the forest until the chapel inn of Ājvakaila ("dawn's purity"), where a ritual purificatory bath (gælarīṇa) is taken. The pilgrim group then sleeps there until being woken up during the night in order to walk the remaining part of the route and arrive at the lake at dawn. That night is spent at the monastery and the following morning, just after dawn, the walk back to Nanaigeiras begins. Pilgrims are forbidden to have any contact with the outside world when they enter the back building at Ājvakaila; no later than there, also, they must wear plain and modest clothes (usually a pajlāka (or a maulinaca for women) and a måših) and either no footwear or straw vārṇaigīye.
Pupils and students of any school often go to summer camps (hīliveyadha, pl. -ai) during the holidays; popular places are the southeastern islands, many coastal areas in the southern rainforest, and hills and mountains along the Camipāṇḍa range, the gigantic mountain range north of the Nīmbaṇḍhāra plain. Most accomodation structures for summer camps are of standardized form in the whole country, usually five- or six-storied buildings capable of hosting usually more than 200 people (usually there are three or four groups of pupils at a time) in large rooms with either bunk beds or lots of hammocks, two common bathrooms (usually on the first and fourth or on ground and third floor) and a common canteen at ground floor. Most of such camps focus on sporting or artistic activities, but there are also excursions and activities aimed at survivalism.
As an alternative to summer camps, some students choose to spend their summer holidays in a monastery, often practising martial arts and enhancing their religious knowledge. Others help in farms during the summer.
Some jānilšeidai ("legions"; non-profit private groups of laypeople promoting religious teaching), with the official endorsement of the Inquisitorial Office of International Dialogue (galababhrausire nādældī plušamila), organize special one-month-long summer camps in the Inquisition reserved to foreign students from their 12th to their 17th year of age (11-16), giving them the opportunity to learn Chlouvānem and experience life as Chlouvānem people do - an extremely rare opportunity for Western people, due to the difficulties of legally entering the Inquisition otherwise. This program, presently active in all countries of the Kayāgaprika (Eastern Bloc) plus Taruebus and some Evandorian countries (Ceria, Nivaren, Holenagika, Auralia, Ingvensia, Vétaní, Rašinara, Orov, Antlorija, Majo, and Bankráv), has been warmly praised in some Western countries as a first step towards a normalization of international relationships between the West and the Inquisition — at least those groups can visit the Inquisition with the certainty of being able to get back home.
Housing
The vast majority of houses in the Inquisition are owned by the state, by trade unions, or by collective/state farms. Privately owned houses are extremely rare, especially in cities, and for the most part they are century-old family inheritances. Homes are usually assigned by local branches of the Inquisition, usually at the parish level; obtaining homes from the state is the most common way. Another common method is to get a home assigned by one's own trade corporation or (in rural areas) state or collective farms; many large factories also have dormitories inside or just outside the factory area.
Most homes in the Inquisition have been built in the last 80 years, in order to solve the century-long housing shortage, which due to the better living conditions had become a large problem. This has seen a large growth of cities, mostly with similar developments throughout the whole country: large panel buildings, usually from 3 to 13 stories high (some even reach 20 stories), often more than 100 metres long, placed inside park-like square areas ultimately connected to large, wide roads leading to the city centers. A problem some people have is that flats are easily overcrowded, especially as more often than not Chlouvānem households tend to be of a couple, two to four children, and sometimes the parents of one of the couple members; it is therefore not surprising that bunk beds have become extremely popular, recently overtaking in popularity in many urban areas the traditional hammocks that had been the prototypical Chlouvānem bed for millennia.
Nightlife
Nightlife in the major cities of the Inquisition is characterized by a large number of venues but also by all of them being characteristically Chlouvānem, without major influences of external cultures.
Chlouvānem inns (ladragyalai) are typically open until 1 and half or 2 at night, and are a typical place to spend evenings at - many inns allow customers to order food many times during the evening; the most traditional ones are typically only focussed at talking, while others have one or two acts of live music performing almost every night.
Other places more focussed on drinking than on eating are javihumāyikai and yaridhaus - substantially similar, the former a bit more formal and mainly offering homemade liqueurs, the latter cheaper and mainly offering beer and wines. These "bars" serve mostly beverages that they themselves brew or distill; there is also the option of eating, but choices are usually smaller than in inns. They are often too small to have live music or other kind of entertainment, but they sometimes do.
Some tea houses (lunaikeikai) and fruit bars (hælvekitai) are also open at night.
Game halls (ħildelkeikai) are typical Chlouvānem establishments, somewhat reminescent of western saloons, where people can drink - usually abundant quantities of rice wine or gilvāh, a rhum-like spirit - but most importantly they may play some rather informal games of chance, notably card games but also very spartane versions of bowling or knife throwing. In the past, game halls had a reputation of being violent places, but it is today no longer the case in most places. The terminologically related muliħikeh (pl. muliħikyai; originally muliħildelkeika(i)) are Chlouvānem arcade halls, which are abundantly found in all city centers and - in a smaller scale - chief towns in rural areas usually have at least one. Most of them are open all night long on rest days.
Dance gardens (mūmikkeikai) are the Chlouvānem equivalents of nightclubs, though most usually with Chlouvānem traditional music rather than more modern styles (which, in the Inquisition, still draw heavily from traditional popular music styles such as laneika, a type of qawwali-like music that more often than not tops the charts). Chlouvānem dance gardens are not very different from tea houses or similar establishments; they just have large rooms where people can dance.
Music houses (nakṣulkitai) are conceptually the same as dance gardens, but the music played there is of styles that, according to Chlouvānem tradition, have more to be carefully listened rather than danced to. This includes Chlouvānem classical music - which is not as elitary as one might think. Obviously, better known artists typically perform in city squares, concert halls, theaters or even temples rather than in the quite small music houses.
Music
Classical music
Popular music
Chlouvānem popular music is substantially different from the mostly improvised and stylistically refined classical music (despite classical music itself being fairly popular too). While there is a plethora of musical genres, even with Western influences, laneika, mūṃjas, and kerachomā are undoubtedly the three most popular forms of popular music, and those every other genre somehow has its roots in.
- Laneika (a term with origins in the Northern Plain) is the musical style most influenced by Chlouvānem classical music, even if it is markedly polyphonic; it has, especially in instrumentation and structure, some resemblances to what Qawwali sounds like on Earth. Laneika "songs" are typically long (ten minutes is a common length), and are played by ensembles of four to a dozen of musicians, with usually at least half of them singing; the Chlouvānem harmonium (pamilairāh) and the berimbau-like ḍaltaka are characteristic of laneika, but many other instruments, especially percussions and flutes, are found.
- Mūṃjas, as its name — a portmanteau of mūmikta (dance) and lijas (song) — says, is a very danceable style, with its origins in the Central Plain. Mūṃjas songs are much shorter than laneika ones, and are heavy on percussions and string instruments (picked and percussive ones), particularly the typically Chlouvānem ones with sympathetic strings, that give this musical style its distinctive sound. Unlike other styles, in mūṃjas there is less emphasis on lyrics, and often the voice is used just as an instrument, with recurring rhythmic chants made of meaningless syllables.
- Kerachomā is a very different style and has its origins in older Toyubeshian folk music from the East. As such, its typical instrumentation is different from other styles (even if today there is more experimentation and both traditional Plain Chlouvānem instruments and electronic ones are used): with an emphasis on guitar (imported in its shape and sound from Greater Skyrdagor, even if the Calemerian guitar is probably a Qualdomelic invention) and harmonica, it does sound somewhat like 50s country music; lyrically, it is often "freer" than other styles, having less of an emphasis on devotional lyrics (as for example laneika music does).
While reinterpretation of older, traditional folk songs is a classical, especially in mūṃjas and laneika, there are many singer-songwriters in all styles; an example could be the most iconic Chlouvānem musician of the last century, Bandityāvi Kaihanųu Dalaigin, a native Hālyanēṃṣi but trained into laneika music, who has not only been a prolific laneika composer - so much that some of his pieces are true classics of the genre today - but has also experimented in other genres and in instrumentation, having introduced into laneika unconventional and electronic instruments. He was so popular that his sudden death in his 51st year of age shocked the whole country, with 600,000 people gathering in Hālyanēṃṣah to bring homage to his funeral pyre.
More modern styles are heavily influenced by these three “standard” genres, but have typically experimentation in song structures. Electronic music has become very popular in the last thirty years, with various music scenes (often associated with particular cities) with wildly different genres, influenced by different styles, often including Chlouvānem classical music; while the most popular artists usually play music of the three main genres, a few electronic musicians have achieved wide success, like Lūlenišāvi Kaiɂašaltīs Turabayān, a native Līlikanāni, with his downtempo-like, cinematic, mostly instrumental pieces, heavily inspired by classical music and often included in movie soundtracks. Another extremely important act in newer Chlouvānem music is Līlasuṃghāṇi brother-and-sister duo made of Nīmulšāmyāvi Linaštamīs Ṣastirvam and ~ Linaštæša Lañimulca, making an experimental, completely electronic style, mixing traditional influences and rhythms with others taken more from Western and Skyrdegan classical music.
Genres similar to our rock music (whose closest Calémerian analogue is probably taónensi music (taónensi being the Cerian word for “shaker”)) or pop music are less commonly found in the Chlouvānem Inquisition (even if Western artists playing them are known), but there is a regionally developed pop music scene based on the idol group format, a format imported by the Skyrdegan countries (which developed it on the basis of Western taónensi); even the style of these idol groups' music has the same influences from Skyrdegan folk music as Skyrdegan taónensi music. Unlike in most of Western pop and all Skyrdegan idol groups, however, Chlouvānem idol groups have most members play their own instruments on stage apart from only singing.[44]
Idol group taónensi pop music's popularity, overall in the Inquisition, pales in comparison to the three main popular genres and many electronic musicians, but they are very popular in the North (the area closest to Greater Skyrdagor and which has had the largest impact from the latter's culture) and often among native Northern Chlouvānem elsewhere in the Inquisition.
Notes
- ^ All of these areas constitute, according to the Western definition, about half of Márusúturon.
- ^ Throughout this article, quantities will be specified primarily in the decimal system, despite Chlouvānem using a dozenal one. Census figures will also be provided in tables as dozenal numbers. Unmarked numbers are base 10, unless they are expressed using Calémerian measurement units; base 12 numerals have commas and full stops reversed compared to English usage.
- ^ Usually just referred to as Chlouvānem in any other case where there's no distinction to be made; called (o)dældādumbhīñe "(proto-)language-bearers" in Chlouvānem historical anthropology.
- ^ A few small kingdoms in the Western Plain remained independent for a few more years - the kingdom (today diocese) of Hulitilmāka was the last to join the Inquisition, in 6312 (37ᘔ0 12).
- ^ Often translated as "Great Prophet" or "Great Master"; literally "Golden Master".
- ^ Nomadism and semi-nomadism has virtually disappeared since the Kaiṣamā period. After the latter's fall, some traditionally nomadic peoples - especially Soenjŏ - in other countries have gone back to nomadism, but in the Inquisition this phenomenon has not happened.
- ^ Foreign ethnicities are those considered native of foreign countries, excluding the Bazá and the Čathísǫ̃́g due to them having ethnic dioceses inside the Inquisition; Ogotet' people are also considered not-foreign due to their historical presence in Chlouvānem lands.
- ^ Broad legal term that encompasses all regional languages in the Inquisition, whether daughter languages of Chlouvānem or not.
- ^ It is however widely thought that the Chlamiṣvatrā spoke a Chlouvānem dialect that was not the one of the majority of people and that came to be Classical Chlouvānem, on the basis of some religious terminology like most notably lillamurḍhyā, which would have been lilāmmūrḍhiyā (morphemically lil-ān-mūg-ḍhiyā) in the "standard" dialect.
- ^ Toyubeshians, when referred to as a contemporary ethnicity, is a term for the peoples living in hilly areas of the East, speaking some variety of Modern Toyubeshian and defining themselves as lánh Từaobát or similar terms. These are not the historical Toyubeshians (albeit closely related genetically and linguistically), whose kingdoms ruled most of the East before the Chlouvānem.
- ^ Note the adpositive construction, even if the original name is a genitive (of the probably Kāṃradeši theonym Jahībušanā).
- ^ An apical ṭ after the city name denotes it is an eparchy (ṭūmma).
- ^ In popular usage, the two following groups - lugaṣṭṇīṭah and hailaṣṇīṭah - are considered a single one and therefore that one is considered majoritary.
- ^ Calemerian humans live on average less years than humans of Earth, note though than one Calemerian year lasts about 609,6 days on Earth.
- ^ A mild sentence in Inquisition justice, consisting of two months of forced work, six months of prison detention (including socially helpful jobs), and two months of house arrest.
- ^ Seven months of forced work plus seven months of prison detention. Note that 14 months is the length of the Calemerian year.
- ^ The word ivulit is Qualdomelic for "sea", but in Chlouvānem it has been imported to refer to two bodies of water - the Greater Ivulit or High Ivulit (lalla ivulitah), the southwestern inlet of the Skyrdegan Inner Sea, dividing Qualdomailor and Ylvostydh on the eastern shore from Oempras, Ebed-dowa, and Leñ-ṱef on the western one, and its own southernmost inlet, the Little Ivulit (ñikire ivulitah), divided between Qualdomailor (NE shore), Leñ-ṱef (NW shore) and the Chlouvānem diocese of Līnajoṭa (the southern part). In Qualdomelic, the High Ivulit is known as Western Sea (ivulit căd ittungaq), while the Little Ivulit is known as Southern Passage Gulf (kiswulit căd allațeă sa nănngiup).
- ^ The Kāyīchah islands are geologically on the Védrenian plate and actually considered part of Védren in every major source.
- ^ Land area only.
- ^ Many Rǣrai had already drifted apart, better integrating with the rest of society and settling down in other areas. 79 of the officially recognized ethnicities indigenous to the Inquisition are sometimes grouped ethnographically as "Macro-Rǣrai" (paṣrǣrai), and when grouped together they are, after the Chlouvānem, the second-largest ethnicity in the Inquisition overall.
- ^ Albeit these "monumental gates" function mostly as triumphal arches, they definitely resemble [[w:paifang|]] more than anything else. The only two such gates that actually may be said to be triumphal arches (albeit of the quadrifrontal type), in imitation of Western styles, are both in Līlasuṃghāṇa: the Kerultugi Gate (kerultugi geiras), whose construction was started by Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma commemorating the successful invasion of Evandor, but wasn't completed until well after the war, and the Gate of Communism (yaivcārṇædanīyi geiras) built in the Kaiṣamā era. Late in her reign, Great Inquisitor Nāɂahilūma had planned another Kerultugi Gate to be built in Līlta, her native city, but she was deposed even before a sketch could be made.
- ^ Personification of the Yunya.
- ^ Note that, in the present context, "(countries of the) former Kaiṣamā" refers to 23 countries: those 20 mentioned here plus three that gained their independence after the Kaiṣamā ended: Fathan (from the Inquisition), Kurešov-tawy (from Snatåriiw), and Köbüntaw (from Kŭyŭgwažtov).
- ^ The lelāh is a sacred flower in Yunyalīlti symbology.
- ^ She had, however, been acting maid (labdarṣilardhīka) of Šulegāvi Ghūrvāyelišā Lileikhura, Bishop of Līlasuṃghāṇa.
- ^ Where the name is not translated, it is just "first", "second", etc.
- ^ The Chlouvānem term brauslaijyā (liturgy) has a somewhat broader meaning than in English, referring also - as in this sense - to the point of view of the Inquisition.
- ^ +8x only includes countries in Márusúturon, but many countries of Wírdaryȁngdé use +2x (as parts of Evandor also do), and almost all Dabuke countries use +3x (as Védren)
- ^ The sample size used was larger, and the original data is expressed as 16812 four-wheeled road motor vehicles every 100012 people (literally 224 every 1,728 people). For comparison, in 2014 there were 797 motor vehicles every 1000 people in the U.S.
- ^ Or hālgāri (district -), jāndaci (county -), bamabi (kingdom -), būlīṃhaki (flag -), or tamekī (assembly -) depending on the actual name of the circuit-level subdivision.
- ^ Kahērimaila (1st), Nājādāneh (2nd), Gājāharḍāṇeh (4th), and Saṃryojyam (5th).
- ^ Some of these stations in southern Kanyāvālna would also count for Greater Līlasuṃghāṇa, as they're about halfway between the two cities.
- ^ A pun in Chlouvānem (cami cami), given that cami already means "great".
- ^ The largest buildings in the Inquisition are aircraft and spacecraft building halls, with the Construction Hall at the Dīlthutalāki Cosmodrome being the largest one (and second-largest on the planet).
- ^ Note that p is the second letter of the Chlouvānem script, and is used just like we'd use e.g. "1a" vs. "1b".
- ^ A portmanteau of mordhacūllāṇa "air fleet", formed by mo- -āṇa with regular saṃdhi.
- ^ As everywhere in Chlouvānem society, monasteries are considered neither private nor public, but almost like a world for themselves, even partially independent from the Inquisition itself.
- ^ Chlouvānem sources do not distinguish meat and fish.
- ^ Uncooked rice is called maɂika.
- ^ The division between rice and saišah areas is, unsurprisingly, mainly climatic: saišah predominates in areas that are more arid. The northernmost areas (Aratāram island and Kēhamijāṇa) have rye as their main starch source as they're too cold to grow reliable amounts of rice, lambā, or maize.
- ^ Under Chlouvānem (and Qualdomelic) laws, the beginning of the 18th year also marks the attainment of the driving age for cars, of the drinking and smoking age (but not the one for buying such products, which is two years later), the school leaving age, and the minimum age to marry without parental consent. The latter three thresholds are also valid for the other two mainly Yunyalīlti countries, Brono and Fathan, which however only grant age of majority with the beginning of the 19th year.
- ^ Schools in most dioceses allow pupils to do ukṣṇyañæltryāmita - but not military service - as a substitution for an equivalent period in school.
- ^ The Srāmiṇajāṇai were mostly an Auralian colony, with the southernmost part of it being Cerian, like Tārṣaivai and a few settlements in Ūnikadīltha. Most of Yultijaiṭa was a Nordûlaki colony, but its southwestern coast was a colony of the Kingdom of Bankráv. Līnajoṭa, however, had never been colony of any Western power.
- ^ The terminology for this kind of music is all derived from Cerian through Skyrdagor or just Skyrdagor: Taónensi is known as toúneszy in the Skyrdegan countries and it has been adapted into Chlouvānem as tūnisus. An idol is known by the Skyrdagor term zraszyk (which meant "knight" in older Skyrdagor) and an idol group is a zraszkajbe; the Chlouvānem corresponding terms are the loan ṣraseka and the half-loan ṣraseklāṇa.