Zigala

Zigala (: Tân Lập), officially the Great Zigalese Realm (Zigalese: Đại Tân Nhân Đế Quốc), is a   in Capricornia, occupying a long, narrow part of land in between the Akura Mountains to the west and the Laharqan Ocean to the east. It is bordered almost exclusively by Hyperaustrea to the north and west, with whom the Zigalese share a complex history. The Huangkown Metropolis Zone is Zigala's largest urban settlement and main commercial center, although the much older Imperial city of Taitan still remains the political, legislative as well as cultural capital. Other important cities include Vinfu, M'gar, and Tchouchu.

Although native Hyperaustreans had inhabited the region since Antiquity, forming the basis for the Phutruang Empire, Zigalese civilization did not develop beyond feudal patchworks and tribal chiefdoms, the latter especially common in the parts covered by the inhospitable Serotian Rainforest, until the 17th century, when Murogish warbands of the Eshkaal Raja invaded and conquered northwestern Capricornia. Unlike the other autonomous satraps of the Phutruang Empire, who were allowed to retain their power structures for the most part under Ashwaareshi rule, the holdings of the petty kings and chiefs were directly subsumed into the eastern Raj as autonomous military commandments. It was from this period of direct Murogish rule as well the paternalistic tendencies of the Eshkaal Raja that modern Zigalese cultural practices, beliefs and societal principles are descended, and how the culture came to be viewed by both the Zigalese and other Capricornians as entirely separate from the Hyperaustrean one. In fact, the newfound differences between the two later became a driving force in the political separation of the Murogish-Zigalese sultans, who later consolidated into what one would now consider modern-day Zigala, from the other Hyperaustrean princely kingdoms. By the time of the Raja's death in the 1700s, the two had become separate political entities.

This state of affairs was not challenged until long after Phoenicization began, when both Zigala and its neighbors fell under Phoenician suzerainty, and the subsequent upheaval brought about by the Muslin Crisis more than a century later. For it was during this time that the Zigalese and Hyperaustreans developed in completely different directions. Whereas the latter loyally remained under Phoenicia even after the depredations of the Crisis and the revolt of the "Great Saint" that followed, the former saw being existentially threatened by a force supposedly born out of Phoenician perfidy and greed as the last straw in a long list of oppressions committed against the Zigalese people. Matters finally came to ahead with the Three Cranes Plot in 1874, launched by a cabal of Hatar-educated Zigalese intellectuals who overthrew the Phoenician-backed Lượng dynasty in the name of radical revolution against Occidental influence in Zigala; crucially, with support from an ascendant Avalonian Empire. The ensuing Avalono-Phoenician War brought an end to Northern rule in Zigala, polarized relations between it and the rest of the Occident, and paved the way for 90 years of Avalonian dominion over the Great Zigalese Realm.

Avalonian stewardship left lasting, fundamental impacts on the Zigalese state: by the end of the first half of the 20th century, Zigala had developed from a Phoenician backwater into an irreplaceable fixture of it's region; a nation built by Hatarians, located in the heart of Capricornia. Indeed, when Avalonia eventually relinquished it's machinations over Zigala, which by then had been largely ceremonial in any case, after the Poitou-Trịnh Agreement in 1961, many Zigalese almost regret to see them go.

Today, the Zigala is a highly developed country, and a in global politics. It's nominal GDP is the XXth largest in the world and one of the largest in Capricornia, indicative by the high rankings its economy has in terms of economic freedom, income equality, per-capita income, and inflows of foreign investment. Over the last five decades, the country has remained politically stable, and been recognized for its consistent record of upholding human rights (particularly on matters of tolerance and inclusion), educational standards, environmental preservation, and pushing rapid infrastructural and technological advancements, as is currently the trend in countries professing Eastern values and principles, of which Zigala is one.

Due in part to a series of specific policies beginning in the 1970s, Zigala is a diverse and multiethnic country, to the extent that the majority of Zigalese citizens now declare to be of two or more ethnicities (Zigalese, Avalonian, and Fengese being most common). This has caused Zigalese culture to be prominently featured in other parts of Capricornia and around the world, spreading its art, cuisine, film, music, and, most notably, popular culture.

Etymology
While there is a general agreement that "Zigala" is an Avalonian corruption of the name Giala'is that Rhodinian traders gave to the region during their first visit in the 1400s, the origins of "Tân Lập" have eluded etymologists thus far. One of the more popular hypothesis suggests that the name is a combination of the Zigalese word for newness and modernity, Tân, and the word for creation and formation, Lập, to mean "Newly Created (Country)". "Tân" is also understood to be an archaic and highly old-fashioned name to refer to the Zigalese people, which would turn the meaning into "(Country) Created by the Zigalese".