Osa Nara

Osa Nara
Capital	Homidae
Languages	Oino
Religion	unknown
Established	c. 1620 SR
Conquered	1786 SR

Osa Nara was a civilization that emerged in the beginning of the 17th CSR. Considered a Darda ally, it had no army of it's own and instead relied on weapons technology and on Darda's military presence. Several decades of peace and prosperity allowed Osanarians to develop an impressive body of literature, advance arts, math, geometry, astronomy and physics. Much of it had been lost, but could also have been exaggerated, as archeological evidence and the inspection of the body of literature, left by osanarians, paints an imposing, but more grounded picture.

Paintings of its uniquely designed cities, as well as stories about inventions and advances in technology, have turned Osa Nara into a legendary land in its day, especially famous in northern Tarnaria.

Compared to Western Dantria as the most advanced representative of the Eastern Dantrian Civilization of the second revolution, Osa Nara's end was as abrupt, when the country was overrun by the Kareden in the campaign of 1785-1786 SR.

It was customary for the Kareden to refer to Osanarians as “kameta” /kæ'meetə/, which means “outsiders” in Jabi. The translation of this spread to many countries to the south and to the east of Mamkoon, so much so that Osa Nara was called Kameta-ran in Loodon, which added the Nalarli word “ran” /rʌn/, land, to the original Jabi. Kameta was a loanword in Nalarli and was often used as a derogatory term towards foreigners.

Anthropological evidence, however, suggests that Osanarians were as native to the land as anyone else in the east, and were probably one of the first settlers to migrate eastwards from the Duls Settlements.

Osanarians were described as short and bald. The latter was a sign of maturity: one would shave their head if they were able to support themselves, run for office or have created something of value. Being elderly and being bald, on the other hand, was considered lower-class, as it meant that the person still had to work to support themselves. Those who became naturally bold with age but no longer required work would wear a wig or a gornag, a type of hat popular in the north.

See: Oino

Osa Nara's language was Oino. It is a language isolate, meaning that researchers cannot find any demonstrable genealogical (or “genetic”) relationship with other languages. The amount of historic artifacts uncovered to this day is inefficient to reconstruct the full vocabulary and grammar of the written Oino, and there are still many unanswered questions.

Oino is itself a word in Oino, and means “all the conversations”.

Osa Nara's government structure was very complex and reflected the class system. The country was ruled by a “tirbey” /tɜːrbaɪ/, which means “the rule of three”: one would represent the wealthy, another would represent scholars and musicians, the third one would represent the poor.

Each “kinby” /kɜːnbi/ (“delegate”) was effectively running a completely independent branch, with its own rules of election and law proposal. For instance, Kinby Dajo, the delegate of the wealthy, would tend to be elected every 12 years, whereas Kinby Enol, middle-class representative (literally “delegate of arts”), would be elected for 6 years only. Kinby Mard, the delegate of the poor, had a variable term in office, which depended on their popularity, but limited by 12 years.

While the three branches of the government worked separately, every year an Arino (“important conversation”) was held, which was a debate, followed by a vote on new legislation. Apart from tirbey, Arino consisted of 1080 members, all representatives of the three branches.

Dajo u Mard (“rich and poor”) was an important theme of Osanarian politics, culture and art. The fact that the poor were represented by only a third of the government was a highly contested topic in society and resulted in a number of political upheavals throughout the decades. There were at least two academic institutions in Osa Nara that studied wealth distribution.

Nevertheless, Kinby Enol was a critical and at times the most important voice, since Enol delegates could choose to side with either Dajo or Mard, and in many cases had the power to decide the direction of the country.

Osa Nara was known as a fierce enemy in battle and so powerful and well defended, that it allowed anyone to pass through its borders without worry.

Its main source of military dominance were advanced weapons, mostly various types of catapults and siege towers, some of which used chemicals, especially developed for military purposes. One substance, dubbed as “blue flame”, would induce fire which was difficult to put out, and would also have toxic properties, polluting the air for weeks.

Osa Nara was the first documented country of the Eastern Dantrian Civilization to have a well organized government-funded law enforcement, separate from the military, which made its cities and, most importantly, intercity areas safe. The latter was unusual at the time, as a typical country was more or less a collection of cities, with the guarantee of safety being limited to an area within its walls. Osa Nara, on the other hand, was known and famous for having no city walls.

Osa Nara's ongoing conflict with Xornerian soon became a proxy war between Darda and Yammoe. Supported by the yammoean Puhntuss, Xornerian kept coming back, in spite of heavy losses induced by Osanarian forces.

In 1711 Osa Nara's Arino saw the victory of a rare large-scale initiative of Kinby Mard and Kinby Dajo against Kinby Enol. The initiative suggested to use Darda's unofficial interest in the conflict and make it official, thereby potentially saving a massive amount of funds.

This led to protracted decade-long negotiations with Darda, which were ultimately successful. The resulting pact saw Osa Nara dismantling a large part of its army, mostly infantry, and instead having Darda provide a weighty military presence under the command of an Osanarian general. This later became one of the elements of the perfect storm which brought Osa Nara down.

The sewer system, incorporated into buildings' architecture

Osanarian cities had sewerage. The Kefan people were also known to have an advanced sewer system, however Osanarian design is unique and was clearly developed independently and probably much earlier. It used copper piping, and had detachable and replaceable parts. It was famously incorporated into buildings' design by making the pipes a prominent part of the architecture.

Many second revolution Tarnarian authors who wrote about Osa Nara mention flying machines that would use large sails to fly into the sky. These accounts would be accompanied by drawings of said machines.

This seems to be a myth. No archeological evidence supports the existence of such mechanisms, nor do these accounts appear in books written by authors from neighboring countries such as Afanyu. It is more probable that Tarnarian authors wrote down what were significantly embelished stories of Osanarian technological supremacy.

Known for its literature, political and social philosophy, as well as sculpture, Osa Nara is also notable for seemingly having no music or no traces of music.

Osa Nara was conquered by the Kareden in the campaign of 1785-1786 SR. Led by King Anashary, the Kareden were first able to occupy the south intercity areas and force osanarians into cities. The rest of the campaign involved the Kareden taking over city after city in complicated sieges. Unlike sieges against fortified cities, a siege against an Osanarian city was complicated not by walls, but by chemical warfare from the Osanarians.

Famous for its military prowess, Osa Nara's downfall was a complete shock. Several things led to the outcome.

First, by then Osa Nara disbanded its own infantry decades ago, and was completely relying on Darda. Second, Darda's infantry numbers have been fluctuating on the low end for quite a while, and then just 5 years prior to the invasion, the Warlock Mountains were created, making troop movements between Darda and Osa Nara very difficult. This left Osa Nara with almost no infantry at the moment of invasion, and with no way for Darda to deploy its forces quickly.

This allowed the Kareden to get deep into the country, and Osa Nara had to face conditions that it was completely unprepared for. A lot of the weapons were effective against masses of soldiers. The Kareden, however, would disperse, as was usual for them, and attack from several directions at the same time. Osanarian chemical weapons ended up destroying its own streets and hurting its own people, while taking out very small amount of the enemy.

Finally, it is conceivable that Prince Kol would not have made a decision to attack Osa Nara if he knew more about it, but as the Kareden emerged from somewhere in Central or even Southern Tarnaria, neither Prince Kol nor his people really knew that much about Osa Nara and its legendary power. Interestingly enough, Deiecut Nornan should have been able to advise Prince Kol, since, being from the north, he must have known. But not only did he not stop Prince Kol, he led the invasion.