Forum:Territory application/UL06f - മലയാർ Malayar

Forums → Territory application → Territory application/UL06f - മലയാർ Malayar

Please fill in the information below to make a territory request.

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

UL06f - മലയാർ Malayar

	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)

[Link to sketch]

Malayar (“MA-la-yar”) is an island country with a humid subtropical climate. The dry season usually sees mild weather. In contrast, heavy rainfall is felt throughout the wet summer, with occasional tropical storms. Thick forest is found across the archipelago.

The geography of the main island of Great Malam is split into plains and mountains. There are flat plains with a few gently rolling hills along the Southern and Northwestern coasts, and rugged mountains rising well over 2,000 m in the Northern half of the island with a mountain range in a general NW–SE direction. Lower mountains are also found in the East of the island.

The landscape in the smaller islands is overall hilly or mountainous, with narrow coastal plains quickly transitioning to a craggy terrain.

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

The population of Malayar is highly urban and numbers about 5 million.

The country’s capital city of Muziri is home to little under half of the total population. Great Malam’s flat Southern coast is a dense string of cities and towns surrounded by fertile land. The more mountainous areas of the archipelago are relatively sparsely populated.

Highways in the plains give way to mountain roads in the more remote areas. Rail infrastructure used to be in a grave state of disrepair – but government investments since the early 2000s have dramatically improved the system, with the goal of reducing traffic congestion. A single high-speed rail line runs between the three largest cities, and a slowly expanding local railway network links smaller cities and towns. Coach buses are also a popular way to travel. Ferries running between all inhabited islands complete the picture.

The free-market economy is based on services, manufacturing, refining and tourism. Agriculture and fishing make up a smaller part of the economy than they used to. The port of Muziri is the main gateway to the island, and its transshipment activities are vital to the entire country. The pace of life is quicker and more business-oriented in the capital city, whereas the lifestyle is more laid-back in the Southern cities. Malayar’s palm-fringed beaches, warm climate in the dry season, unique fusion cuisine, remote islands and extensive mountain trails attract national and international tourists. Tourism is facilitated by the fact that Ingerish is widely spoken.

► IRL inspiration: cities such as Kochi (for older neighborhoods), Hong Kong (legacy of a recent Ingerish/British colonial past) and Chandigarh (planned neighborhoods with a lot of green space). The atmosphere in the urban areas is reminiscent of South Indian mid-sized cities, but with more public parks as well as extensive public transport (metro/tram). Inspiration for the landscape: Taiwan, Western Ghats (India), Maldives.

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

In more ancient history, the Malayari islands primarily served as a fishing outpost for populations originating from the Aryana region of Uletha, as well as from the Gobras peninsula. However, the isolated geographical position and the near-impenetrable tropical overgrowth kept permanent settler numbers rather low.

Later on, migration patterns out of Aryana led to the establishment of a principality in the islands, with gradual deforestation and a budding economy based on timber. Malayalam-speaking populations settled on the newly available expanse of flat land and developed agriculture where virgin forest used to stand. They gave the islands their definitive name, even though the origin of this name is still up for debate: mala-yaar (മലയാർ) could stand for “freshwater [and] mountains” or “hills in the ocean”.

Descendants of the Gobrasi kept a more tribal society in the mountains and smaller islands, while the principality turned into the kingdom of Malayar, run by the expanding Aryana population. Royal charters granted land rights to the Gobrasi-speaking minority, and the two communities treated each other with polite respect but generally kept to their own.

Ingerish colonists placed the islands under a protectorate towards the end of the 19^th century. Relatively few colonists settled, but Ingerish still became the language of the elite. After independence in the 1950s, the new country of Malayar became a republic, with two official languages on the national level, Malayalam and Ingerish. Gobrasi remains an official language in several municipalities. Ingerish is the native language of a small part of the total population but serves as the main language for communication between communities, and is the preferred language in national media and administration (to reflect this, mapping will have all names in Latin script, apart from the bilingual name of the country itself). In more recent decades, immigrant workers from Uletha settled with their families.

► To ensure verisimilitude, placenames will mostly draw inspiration from real towns, cities and geographical features in Kerala and South India (but not simply copied over). I will look at the meaning behind real placenames to make sure my own map makes sense — for example, Muziri is inspired by an ancient name for the real city of Kochi, the island of Great Malam is named after the words mala / “mountain” and alam / “region”, and so on.

	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 currently own the country of Arbutânia (territory TA153), where my past mapping can be seen. Some examples:

• City of Porto Claro, capital of Arbutânia

• Serra Meridional mountainous/forested area

• Águas Rasas: small town and surrounding rural area

_________________________________

I find UL06f very interesting, in part because I wish to downsize from TA153, which turned out to be too big for my liking.

(I would like to relinquish my current territory TA153.)

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

Oluap (talk) 11:20, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

	Discussion
	Discussion for clarification & decision

Note that existing use of Malayalam and Dravidian languages in OGF is centred around the AR923^∈^⊾ blue territory. Please consider how your culture is related to this. Please also be careful on the naming. While you've stated you will avoid use of real-world names, you still need to strive for originality. Someone who is familiar with Kerala should not able able to look at the map and come away immediately thinking it is a naming knock-off. Thanks/wangi (talk) 11:12, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

	Territory application approved
	Territory granted in exchange for TA153. Please remove anything you would like to keep from TA153 within the next week.
	Be aware that you will probably have to downsize the capital city's size notably to fit the context of the islands. 5 million is quite a substantial number and probably unreachable.