#ykatern

(EEK-uh-turn)

Tagging: @thelifestoryofkara​​ who expressed interest and inspired me to do these writeups. @pythagoreanwhump​​ might also be interested? We’ve chatted a bit about Ykatern!

Notable Characters: Gavin, Ari, Garrah (Gavin’s brother), Lin (Gavin’s mom), other members of Gavin’s revolution crew (Liat, Yakovi, Pavril, etc.)

Ykatern has a flag! It’s the only one I’ve made a flag for so far. Behold! 

Landscape: Ykatern is north of Cardea, south of Evaree, and west of J’Kyris. Positioned in the mountains, much of the main populated area is extremely dry (a rainshadow desert!), although we also see alpine forests. Their 4th remaining border has no country: to the west are massive, impenetrable mountains that no one has ever crossed and come back to tell the tale. Bonus fun aesthetic fact, Ykaternic buildings tend to be single or double story, rather than tall. 

Economically, the country is capitalist, and a handful wealthy families make up a large portion of the political power. Their main exports come from mining, and they import much of their grain and rice since their land is not well suited to large scale agriculture. Recently the government has decided to close the borders as much as possible and be autonomous. This just means it’s harder for poor people to afford many foods. No biggie. Just add a few extra hours to your shift at the factory, or have your sons drop out of school to work full time.

Politics: Ykatern is in the midst of a very tense political time.

Over the past several decades, the government has been leaning further and further into fascism and authoritarianism. Although technically a democracy, the freedom to vote is extremely limited, and you really should just go ahead and vote for who’s already in power.

The Kadra (the police, which are a branch of the military) have been cracking down hard on any signs of treason. While this has not always been the case, it is now quite common for suspected rebels to be publicly executed, imprisoned, and even tortured. Their families may be blacklisted or vanish mysteriously. Freedom of the press, while still technically in their laws, is also getting squashed out. Propaganda abound will tell you that all of the country’s current problems are being caused by rebels and foreign influence.

The revolution itself is not a singular group. There are multiple groups, some with overlapping goals, and some individuals are branded as rebels simply for talking too loudly about unions or offending a particular government official. Generally “politically incorrect” topics likely to get you in trouble are: unions and workers’ rights, immigration and emigration, any talk of welfare programs, displeasure with the government, disapproval of the Kadra.

Culture:

Much of this new generation finds themselves distanced from religion, and the current regime is secular, with little respect for various religious groups. However, that doesn’t mean religion isn’t there! The two main religions in Ykatern are the devotion to the Sun God, which has temples in most cities, and the unnamed folk traditions of the highlands people. Most of what we know about folk traditions comes from Gavin’s mom. Depending on the AU, Ari has vague ties to the Temple of the Sun.

The highlands nomadic spiritual beliefs have some overlap with Cardean spiritual beliefs, as these groups historically intermingled, exchanging ideas and folklore. While on the surface many things may seem different, they have in common a belief in dangerous, hungry spirits of the restless dead. Unlike Cardeans, who do their best to avoid these spirits and believe that nothing can be done for them, highlands traditions incorporate caring for and appeasing these spirits, as well as following proper funerary rituals to ensure that the recently dead can depart peacefully.

Vultures have a strong spiritual association, tracing back to the nomadic highlands groups but now just part of the mainstream culture. With urbanization, vultures have adapted alongside humans, and are commonly found around towns and cities, scavenging. They are treated with respect and for the most part left to their own devices. In some more Northern places, it is still traditional to leave recently deceased out for several days for the vultures to feed on, as this will ensure the vultures guide their spirits to a safe afterlife. Some cities have designated vulture roosting structures.

Most places in Ykatern have a very strong sense of neighborhood community. Your neighbor’s kids are just as much family as your cousins are. The idea of not knowing who lives next door is unheard of, whether you’re in a big city apartment or a remote ranch, whether you hate them or think they’re spying on you. Presumably there are plenty of tight knit neighborhoods elsewhere too that we just don’t get to hear about, but one of the things Gavin most longs for about home is that sense of everybody knowing everybody and wandering in and out of each other’s houses and knowing each other’s business. It’s also one of the things he’s most relieved to get away from when he becomes an urban hermit in Cardea.

In recent times, this “everybody is in everybody’s business” has made things very tense, with people reporting their neighbors for treason and thus also coming to fear their neighbors.

Ykatern has a very heteronormative culture, and deviations from that are generally aggressively ignored. That couldn’t possibly happen here! Especially with J’Kyrish advances in gay and transgender rights, paired with compounding xenophobia, a new attitude among Ykaternic conservatives is that not only is being gay or gender nonconforming unnatural, but it’s also a weird foreign trend, and surely couldn’t have been around until now. Kids these days!

However, pre-urbanization, at least one of the highlands nomadic groups is known to have had a recognized third gender which dealt with the domains of the spirit world and death. This isn’t talked about much now, although Gavin’s mom has mentioned the concept.

It is common in low-income families for young adults to marry as soon as they come of age, and it is expected that they will have children soon afterwards. Women are expected to raise children and tend to household chores, cooking, and healing, while men are expected to work outside the home. Ye olde patriarchal values. Many of the highlands nomadic groups were matriarchal, but those are forgotten days.

All that said, there are thriving countercultures if you know where to look. Many rebellious groups which already go against the grain are more likely to have openly gay and bisexual people in their midst. 

And one of the benefits to gender/sexual deviance being ignored and hush-hushed is that for the most part, it’s not likely to incite violence or direct harassment. Although, if people already think you’re weird and the Kadra come asking around, you might find some fingers pointing…

Notable Foods that grow locally: olives, grapes, dates, figs, wine, goat/chicken/lamb products (for instance goat milk and goat cheese), lots of salt and salty foods.