Forum:Territory application/TA001 - Gharbiya

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	Territory ID and proposed name
	The Territory ID (from OpenGeofiction:Territories, e.g. AR123a) and proposed name of the country

TA001 Gharbiya

Closed collaborative territory (more information under 'human geography' as I'm not certain where that information is supposed to go)

Gharbiya is a matriarchal dictatorship loosely based on north/western african and middle eastern countries.

The country is, in a way, a social commentary on the state of gender inequality in the middle east. While still keeping the project realistic. It's interesting how 'weird' and 'extreme' something can seem, just by swapping the roles, keep this in mind.

	Physical geography
	An overview of climate, topography and landscape of the country. It is advised to also create a sketch, you can add a link to this (hosted on imgur or similar)

The country is predominantly BWh, with smaller pockets of BWk at higher altitudes. Overall, the country is extremely dry. Most of the country lies within the great Helion desert, consisting of sandy dunes, an old mountain range can be found on the western side of the country, giving respite from the harsh winds and trapping some much needed moisture. Thus, the vast majority of the population can be found here. The tallest peaks of this range reach no further than ~2500m while most sit closer to ~1000m. Scattered remnants of this mountain range can be found in the northern part of the country, mostly eroded away from wind and sea leaving mostly hills around 100-300m tall. Lastly, a third, smaller range can be found further inland, trapping crucial moisture in the scorching desert, serving historically as a stopping point for nomadic caravans, and today as an isolated minor center of population far inland in the hot desert. Peaks here seldom reach over 200m, but are still rather striking features in the otherwise flat desert landscape. Often taking the form of large plateaus and mesas. As for the flat eastern part of the country, portions of it lies beneath sea level with the occasional salt pans between the dunes. Most of the oil can be found in this flatter parts of the desert as well, leading to pockets of population. Rare earth minerals are generally found around meteor impacts which can be found throughout the country. Gold can mostly be found in the middle/north around Basaarat. Bodies of water are scarce and the country has no major rivers. Some intermittent rivers can be found in the west and north and the occasional oasis can be found inland. Many artificial salt ponds line the coasts for the purpose of salt extraction.

The country has no major rivers, although several intermittently flooded streams and oasies can be found in the wet season, especially in the west, allowing for some vegetation and clusters of habitation. Otherwise, vegetation is very sparce, no extensive forests or woodlands exists, although the occasional shrubland or even grassy plains can be found in the mountains in the west. Otherwise, a lot of bare rock, cliffs and sand. Akin to Mauretania, Yemen, Southern Saudi Arabia, the UAE etc.

Gharbiya Sketch

	Human geography
	A brief description of the territory demographics, economic development, land occupation, infrastructure and mapping style

Government:

The country is a matriarchal dictatorship led by the Al'dagher family. The ruler of the country has the title of Mansa and is currently under the reign of 40 year old Mansa Rukhia Al'dagher. Regional power and governance is entrusted to Princesses (Walinas) from noble families who control the territory more or less directly.

Economy:

The country extracts large amounts of oil and gold, as well as significant amounts of rare earth minerals such as iridium, Neodymium, Yttrium, Scandium and Terbium and certain gemstones like tigerseye and sapphire. This resource extraction serves as the backbone of the Gharbiyan economy and wealth distribution is very poor. Leading to an extremely wealthy elite and a very poor and very large working class. while the City of Al'Habr does see significant international tourism, other parts of the country have a near 0 income from tourism.

Impacts on mapping:

Slums and extensive housing projects reign supreme, the contrast between upper and lower class is extreme as huge palaces and mansions contrast the unplanned messy slums and barren housing projects.

'Propaganda-plazas' and overbuilt engineering can be found in most cities. With the backing of a rich totalitarian government, it is not rare to see 6+6 lane freeways and almost empty high end transport options, in stark contrast to the apalling and insufficient options for the working class.
Akin to what Imperator has mapped in Ta Ceti, Grand reconstructions of ancient temples and overdramatifications of the remnants of the Amn empire can be found here and there.

Cities and demographics:

Yanim is the largest city and capital of the country. A large portion of the population lives here. The city is dense with extensive slums and sprawls along the western coast and inland along a seasonal river. This city is in general quite poor, where the wealthy, including the royal family live further out from the city. Often in lavish palaces and villas.

Al'Habr is built on the oil exports, the city lies on flat desert and has become a beacon for foreign trade, high end tourism and fancy hotels. The harsh conditions of the working class are expertly hidden away here, and this is the main city where foreigners can actually come and visit. Think lavish, inspired by Las vegas, Singapore and of course Dubai. All funded by a crazy rich dictatorship. Human rights? Not here.

Basaarat is a larger city on the western coast. It is one of the main industrial hubs of the country, with metalworks and foundries and factories. The city is akin to Yanim in its poor distribution of wealth, but more corporate, much of which is owned by a single Walina and her family.

Lahrlan Is the Gharbiyan gateway to the Helion, situated in the middle of the desert on a periodically flowing river. Full of ancient structures and of course, oil extraction. Much of the country’s oil is pumped to here in pipes, refined and shipped out to the coast on trains for exportation. Al’habr and Basaarat are the major ports for oil exports.

Language:

The language of the country is a conlang called “Tamneidh” but naming is generally done in ‘fake arabic’. Mazanic is seen as a 'beautiful and cultured' language, leading to strong inspiration from the Mazanic language in names throughout the country. Many placenames in Gharbiya are inspired by or indeed taken directly from Mazan, but using the latin alphabet. Many of which butchered into oblivion by people who don’t actually speak Mazanic. Others will be in Tamneidh, but using the latin(english) alphabet. I will supply some resources for this language to members, but you won’t need it if it seems to be too much for you.

How to handle naming:

Think Hollywood. “If it sounds Arabic to a non-Arabic speaker, it's good” This would be how many of the names came about canonically. Someone thought something sounded cool in Mazanic, mixed it with a native name or Mazanified a name or word.

Discussion, information and planning:

Discussion around the project will primarily be held on a private discord server. Setting up a forum on the wiki would also be a possibility if needed, but most discussions will be on the discord server for ease of access.

Collaboration structure:

The territory will be collaborative, where I am the coordinator and the rules are relatively relaxed throughout the project, thus, I see no need for official co-coordinators. Instead, everyone is a co-coordinator in their own way. Bringing their own expertise and skill sets. The collab with be invite only, where anybody is welcome to request to join, no official avenues exist for this process, and I intend for it to stay that way. More a collaboration between friends than anything else.

Mappers can either map anywhere they want in the non-reserved areas or reserve smaller areas. These areas will not be predetermined but rather be fluid where mappers can reserve an area fitting what they want to do. And move on when they feel like they are done for the time being. An area can be smaller for someone who prefers mapping higher detail, larger for someone working on a larger scale with nature of macro mapping or anywhere in between depending on preference. For the people that enjoy the worldbuilding aspect, I will allow claiming/reserving an area where the mapper serves the role of Walina/Princess of that area and is allowed to worldbuild to their heart’s content. These reserved areas do not have to align with administrative boundaries and will be kept track of by me. The capital and Al'habr will remain unreservable, save for smaller parts of them.

Currently confirmed interested mappers:

Timboh, Sudo91, Arlo, Bixelkoven, Mie, Sergjack and oneofbeatlefan.

Note:

If and when interest from collaboration members dies down, I will continue mapping the territory more akin to an orange territory, effectively making this project a middle thing between an orange and a purple territory. But officially, it is intended as a purple one.

	History & culture
	A brief description of the intended culture and language

Culture and religion:

The culture of Gharbiya is quite exotic, while taking inspiration from many north african and middle eastern traditions, many aspects are reimagined. One of the guiding factors of Gharbiya is an old african style matriarchal culture, mixing with foreign influences. Leading to the label of 'feminist imani Dictatorship'. The religion is a special kind of Imani, in which most important figures are reimagined as women and many of the real world muslim gender roles are switched. Women are seen as the rulers of the households and men are not permitted to hold land or titles. Thus, the more common patriarchal Imani cultures would shun the religious practices of Gharbiya and few of them would recognize the country at all. Cities and structures are planned after the needs of the women.

Below follows a list of aspects to keep in mind for mapping:

Cities built for women:

Administrative positions are held by women. Men are seen as built for manual labor and thus often work in factories and other low paying jobs. Men are generally seen as too impulsive and aggressive for administrative positions or military service.

Transport infrastructure focus on connecting places where women are expected to travel. While areas where predominantly men work or travel are relatively underdeveloped. Industral areas may be located further from city centers, partially to hide away the polution, but also since the travel to these areas of employment are not generally respected. Women still take care of kids, thus, travel to and from daycares and elementary schools are prioritized. These facilities will be more common, even if they may individually be smaller in scale. Office areas and areas of administrative work are prioritized.
Names used for places or buildings are very rarely that of men.
Neigbourhoods and micro districs are common, partially as a sense of safety in numbers from the 'uncontrallable men' but also as a tool to assist in childcare. For higher income areas, gated communities are common for much the same reason.

The religion:

Statues are allowed, while islam generally does not allow for statues, the idea of huge bronze statues of a dictator is too tempting to pass up. Akin to how statues of people are allowed and common in say Indonesia and much of Africa, they will be in Gharbiya as well. Notably however, statues and depictions of holy people will remain taboo and not allowed.
(most)Mosques should have one side facing Maad, almost due east of Gharbiya. These will be numerous, and found in almost every city block/neighborhood.
History: The country traces its herritage back to the Amn culture, which once stretched across much of northern Tarephia. While the Al'dagher claims direct lineage from this time, many other cultures dispute this (Ta Ceti shares this heritage). After the fall of this great bronze age culture, the capital city was lost over time, rumored to lie somewhere under the sands of the Helion. Some ancient structures remain from this time, some preserved as ruins, others rebuilt and taken to extremes as tools of propaganda. After this, the area became ruled by several chiefdoms and kingdoms for millennia, chasing the dream of the Amn culture as the matriarchal culture developed. During the rise of Iman, the Mazanic missionaries reached Gharbiya and converted the natives to their faith, which the locals happily took to, with some difficulty. Travellers note that the conditions and manners of the people were appalling, women breastfeeding in public, and men insisting on walking behind their wives into mosques. Being far away from Mazan, and the mazanic sultans being happy with the conversion efforts, the missionaries stopped coming, and the religion remained unchecked for hundreds of years, leading to the religion becoming what it is today. Some Ingerish colonial attempts were made, but the locals did not take well to them, instead becoming a Mazanic colony for a time in the 1700s. Independence was In the 1900s, the country became democratic from outside pressure, but eventually voted to turn back to a dictatorship under 'suspicious circumstances' and is today, one of few openly dictatorial countries of the world. TLDR history - Ancient empire - Chiefdoms and kingdoms - Imani - Matriarchal imani - Mazanic and Ingerish colonies - "Democracy" - 'voted' back to dictatorship

	Past mapping
	To support your request provide links to areas of OGF mapping which showcase your mapping skill. Mapping relevant to the requested theme & geography is especially useful
	The {{coord}} template can optionally be used to link to the OGF map - it results in a nice formatted link. Or you can paste in a URL.

I started off in OGF with mapping this very country, then TA019, remnants of which still remain such as the westernmost coast and mountains. Since, I have mapped Silland (https://opengeofiction.net/relation/507 https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/64.7279/66.8538&layers=B) where the vast majority is my own work.

I also map the territory of Tolulu,(https://opengeofiction.net/relation/350726 https://opengeofiction.net/node/300969581) as a more recent addition, where a warmer climate, more akin to that of Gharbiya is present, albeit more tropical than subtropical.

And of course, perhaps more relevant, the Wilaya of Linya in Mazan (https://opengeofiction.net/relation/209980 https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/31.1498/56.8092&layers=B) even if this area admittedly has been relatively forgotten about recently.

	Username & date
	Sign and date the application by typing four tildes like this: ~~~~

Liadrien (talk) 14:56, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

	Discussion
	Discussion for clarification & decision

	Territory application approved
	Very exciting project! Hopefully it will serve as a catalyst to get some activity into this rather barren region... Taka (talk) 10:08, 21 July 2023 (UTC)
	As you develop your territory, be sure to keep it realistic. Here are some resources you may find useful for starting out: Help:Portal, Help:Making realistic countries, Help:Making realistic cities and OpenGeofiction:Site policies