---
title: "Cortesia"
nativeTitle: "Cortesie"
type: "overview"
nation: "cortesia"
infobox: (35 rows)
---
**Cortesia**, formally the Federated States of Cortesia, is a country in central [[evria]]. With its coastline restricted to a small section of the Lower Suebian Sea to the west, Cortesia shares land borders with several other Evrian nations. To the north across the Czernáwa River lies Livonia, to the northeast is [[rudania]], to the east just past the source of the Bystrawice River, one of the Modrawa River’s tributaries, lies Sidanya. To the southeast Cortesia shares a border with Turulia, and then finally the nation’s southwestern border, easily its longest border, is shared with [[alemannia]]. With a population just shy of 56 million, Cortesia is nowhere near the most populous country, ranking 27th overall according to 1932 Census data. The nation of Cortesia consists of a collection of 26 individual states, each operating mostly independently save for any matters that affect the nation as a whole. The capital of Cortesia is Corslawa, with a population of 1.8 million people, while its largest city is Jelgawa with a population of 2.34 million people.
## Etymology
Cortesia derives its name from the Cortas people, a collection of tribal peoples inhabiting the flatlands north of the Danau River and surrounding the Corslawa River. The name Cortas originates from the Cortese word *cohr*, meaning “field” or “flatland.”
## History
The region of Evria known today as Cortesia has almost always had some sort of human presence, with the earliest surviving fossils dated back to around five hundred thousand years ago, during the Lower Paleolithic period. These early Cortesians were exclusively hunter-gatherers and lived nomadically, up until much more recent history. Around twelve thousand years ago, the first signs of proper civilization began to develop as the native Cortesians learned to make proper use of the flat, fertile land around the Modrawa River and its tributaries.
With the spread of farming across the Cortesian plains, the disparate tribes across the region began to gather into larger groups and fight each other over every bit of arable land, and these fights only got more deadly and destructive as better materials and methods of working those materials were discovered over time. The people of Cortesia quickly learned to live with conflict as a fact of life, and a sort of honor code emerged to preserve the crop fields and those who worked them; otherwise there’s nothing to conquer.
These warring agri-states would carry on this way for many, many years, until a new player arrived in the region. Raiders from the Żelazny Mountains to the south, what is the modern-day Nitravian region of Cortesia, swept down from the peaks and began attacking the warring states. They would fight with hit and run tactics, and would prefer to raid and steal and harass around the warlords’ forces rather than engaging in pitched battle, and with no respect for the honor code the warlords had all silently agreed to. This turned out to be a rallying cry of sorts, and the warlords entered into uneasy alliances to throw back the raiders.
By the early 400s, the warlords had solidified their territory and strengthened their forces into several independent fiefdoms, but they still had to deal with the raiders from the south, who were similarly becoming more organized. Eventually, one of the warlords, a man by the name of Borys Łozowski, realized that they would have to truly unite if they wanted to stand a chance. And so he began subjugating and arranging marriages and otherwise gathering the other warlords under his banner, in a period known as Podbój Ojczyzny, or “Conquering of the Homeland.” He would unfortunately pass before seeing his ideals come to fruition, but his eldest son succeeded him and finished unifying the fiefdoms, leading him to become known as the “Father of Cortesia” despite not living to see it, and his son who finished the job would become King Oskar Łozowski, the First King of Cortesia.
Now presenting a unified front, it was much harder for the raiders to get anything out of their yearly raids into the lowlands, though they continued for many years regardless. Finally, in the early 900s, the reigning monarch at the time, King Borys Łozowski III, decided he’d had enough of hearing about the southern raiders. Gathering every soldier he could from across the region, he marched south into the mountains on a campaign of conquest. This campaign would later become known as the Unification of Cortesia, as once conquered, the mountainous region became an integral part of the kingdom, providing higher quality materials in exchange for food.
Times would prove to be tough in the coming years, however. First, a Great Fire swept through the region on the back of a drought, leaving many starving and resulting in a revolt, which the King’s forces were able to quell. After recovering, Cortesia entered into a time of peace and prosperity, as the region recovered from the drought and crops flourished once more. Cortesia also wasn’t developing alone all this time, and they developed healthy trade relations with their neighbors, even growing their economy by providing mercenaries to other nations to help them fight their wars.
Eventually, those living in the Nitravian region to the south were feeling snubbed by those to the north, and so they staged a rebellion. It was long and bloody, and although the Cortesian monarchy managed to crush the uprising, the peasantfolk weren’t happy with how many of their loved ones were lost in the process. Another revolt broke out, and the already weakened monarchy didn’t have the manpower to quell this one. As the revolt reached the capital of Corslawa, King Artur Łozowski accepted defeat. He rode out to meet with the leaders of the revolt, abdicating his crown, and on July 24th, 1650, the Kingdom of Cortesia was no more and in its place was instead a democracy run by the common folk.
In the years that followed, Cortesia would become even more prosperous than it ever was as a monarchy, though they forgot their militant roots, which would eventually come to be recognized as a great failing of the Cortesian people. The neighboring nation of Rudania had been eyeing up Cortesia’s fertile land for a long while, and one day they struck unexpectedly, rapidly overrunning the nation’s defenses before they could provide organized resistance and resulting in the total subjugation of Cortesia.
Then, with the signing of the Treaty of Menisku in 1813, Cortesia changed hands once again as they were given over to Arverne as a bargaining chip following Rudania’s defeat. It wasn’t until more than a hundred years later in early 1919, following the events of [[great-war|the Great War]], that Cortesia would finally decide they’d had enough of being another’s puppet. Following a brief war of independence, Cortesia was finally a free, sovereign state once more. Looking to reclaim their lost territory, the Cortesians rapidly strengthened their military, and when their neighbors had declared war on Turulia, they saw their opportunity and pounced, declaring war alongside them and regaining the Nitravian region in the process. Now at peace and whole once more, the Cortesian people vowed never to let other nations cow them again, and began further strengthening their military while similarly pouring quite a bit of funding into research and development of new weapons of war.
## Military
The Cortesian States Armed Forces, or CSAF, is separated into three branches; the Federal Cortesian Army, the Coastal Defense Navy, and the newly established Cortesian Air Force. An unofficial fourth branch exists within the CSAF, consisting of the reserve forces maintained independently by each member state of the federation, collectively referred to as Cortesian State Defense Forces. All told, the CSAF numbers 1,667,040 personnel, with 1,111,360 service members within the active component of the CSAF and the remaining 555,680 service members within the reserve component of the CSDF.
After the events of The Great War, Cortesia began a large undertaking of modernization, expanding their defense budget from 2.5% to a whopping 7% of the nation’s overall GDP, almost tripling their spending and giving the CSAF a new budget of roughly $150 billion per year. With this increase in funding, the CSAF has been expanding the military infrastructure through the nation, adding and modernizing bases while also further developing the technologies that work best with the rather flat topography of Cortesia; namely armored and mechanized ground forces alongside more advanced aircraft. Due to the limited nature of the nation’s coastline, however, the navy has been largely neglected, relegated to smaller, more outdated vessels compared to some of the more internationally-capable nations across [[avium]].
Also as part of their modernization and expansion efforts, Cortesia introduced a two-year mandatory service to all able-bodied males upon graduation from secondary education, though the first four to eight months are purely spent training conscripts to the same level as professional soldiers. Additionally, graduates are allowed an exception if they have arranged enrollment into a post-secondary education institution for a degree program of two years minimum. In this way, they hoped to both strengthen the nation’s education levels and grow the size of the CSAF. The first test of Cortesia’s modernized and expanded military was in 1930, in the Second Turulian War. The fighting was difficult and slow, as the Żelazny Mountains formed a barrier that the trucks and tanks of Cortesia had difficulty navigating. Dismounted infantry and aircraft made a huge impact, however, as well as a large amount of support among the local Cortesian and Nitravian populations.
## Government
The Federated States of Cortesia is a social democratic federation established following the abdication of the monarchy in 1650. After a year of deliberation, the leaders of the revolution finally came to an agreement and held a vote to the public, upon the conclusion of which the new Cortesian Federal Charter was ratified and put into effect. The Charter decentralized the government and moved forward with a focus on popular sovereignty, splitting the power between the member states that now make up the Federation and with a collection of elected officials. Administratively, Cortesia is divided into 26 individual states, each with their own elected officials, set of laws, and judicial system. The federal government’s influence is relegated to matters of national defense, foreign policy, international affairs, as well as matters of national infrastructure and state-funded programs; namely education, healthcare, and welfare.
Executive and legislative power both rest with the Rada Federalna, or Federal Council, a body of elected officials split into two houses, the Upper and Lower Houses. The Upper House, or Rządowy (lit. ‘State’) consists of 78 members, with three seats given to each member state of the federation regardless of size to be voted into place by the people of those states. The members of the Upper House serve terms of six years and are forbidden from running for back to back terms, with elections staggered every two years to keep a constant rotation of officials flowing through the house. The Lower House, or Ludzie (lit. ‘People’), also consists of 78 members, designed to always match the number of seats in the Rządowy. These seats are assigned throughout the federation based on population numbers rather than state lines, and can only be filled by officials who have lived in those population areas for a minimum of five years. The members of the Lower House only serve terms of two years, though unlike the Upper House they have no term limits.
Overseeing the Rada Federalna are the offices of President and Federal Chancellor. The President is elected by popular vote every six years, with anyone able to run for the office if they wished. Their role is largely that of a figurehead, though they do maintain direct command of the military in times of war and are also incredibly important for national morale and handling diplomatic matters with other heads of state from other nations. The Federal Chancellor on the other hand is elected once every two years from among the members of the Rada Federalna, and similarly to the members of the Rządowy is forbidden from serving consecutive terms, though they otherwise have no term limits. The role of the Federal Chancellor is to handle the operations of the nation itself; bringing legislative proposals to the floor for the houses to deliberate and vote upon as well as delegating tasks to the different Ministers that serve under them, among other duties. To sign a law into being it must first be brought before the two houses of the Rada Federalna by the Federal Chancellor as a proposal, and must gain the approval of both houses to be enacted. Additionally, any citizen is allowed to provide referendums and legislation for the Federal Chancellor to look over and consider bringing as a proposal so long as they collect a minimum number of verifiable signatures.
The judiciary system is independent of the Rada Federalna, with the Sąd Najwyższy (lit. ‘Supreme Court’) as the highest judicial institution. Courts operate at the federal, state, and local levels and deal with charterial, civil, criminal, and administrative matters. Judges are appointed for life based upon their merits in the legal field rather than any political standing or allegiance, and are obligated to uphold federal law and citizens’ guaranteed rights.
## Economy
## Geography
### Topography
<div class="imgrid">
<figure style="flex:1.333"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1t01yvobKdxBB9SZv9prbcOajMGAT8sta=w2000" alt="*Straznik, the tallest mountain in Cortesia standing at 2,501 meters above sea level.*"><figcaption>*Straznik, the tallest mountain in Cortesia standing at 2,501 meters above sea level.*</figcaption></figure>
<figure style="flex:1.500"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1fCGp3S9pj575VfFlhwF0Lo49X99wd49I=w2000" alt="*Spring in southern Cortesia, near the mountain valley town of Dolina Krokusów.*"><figcaption>*Spring in southern Cortesia, near the mountain valley town of Dolina Krokusów.*</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div class="imgrid">
<figure style="flex:1.781"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1ygaTH3S84iOO9pq9fd6lpBtNk5o_YsD8=w2000" alt="*Sosnowieża Forest in eastern Cortesia, along the borders with Rudania and Sidanya; Cortesia’s largest old-growth forest.*"><figcaption>*Sosnowieża Forest in eastern Cortesia, along the borders with Rudania and Sidanya; Cortesia’s largest old-growth forest.*</figcaption></figure>
<figure style="flex:1.502"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1gT8JQjrDCIv0RvLh6wT-XauXelQYkbMK=w2000" alt="*One of the wide, sweeping curves of the Modrawa River just south of Corslawa.*"><figcaption>*One of the wide, sweeping curves of the Modrawa River just south of Corslawa.*</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div class="imgrid">
<figure style="flex:0.750"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1lxK5c1VI-dqDK4N5jYaohYMvYYHJYDLl=w2000" alt="*Striebristý Falls, the origin of the Modrawa river and the tallest waterfall in Cortesia with an 80 meter drop.*"><figcaption>*Striebristý Falls, the origin of the Modrawa river and the tallest waterfall in Cortesia with an 80 meter drop.*</figcaption></figure>
<figure style="flex:1.500"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1iV-_1lK3sluzHrQjoPKwxm8WYjGaj25g=w2000" alt="*Zrkadlowá Jaskyňa, a karst cave in the Nitravian region of Cortesia known for its limestone formations and the mirror-like water surfaces beneath them.*"><figcaption>*Zrkadlowá Jaskyňa, a karst cave in the Nitravian region of Cortesia known for its limestone formations and the mirror-like water surfaces beneath them.*</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<div class="imgrid">
<figure style="flex:2.038"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1MYswfQ57tiMEakJ9FDELWS6sSJDVIm4K=w2000" alt="*Szmaragdowe Oko, a glacial lake in the Żelazny Mountains.*"><figcaption>*Szmaragdowe Oko, a glacial lake in the Żelazny Mountains.*</figcaption></figure>
<figure style="flex:2.212"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1aZRKy4wlrZ-7XophtXnUKDJhWAhtFK6R=w2000" alt="*A footpath alongside the Szumna, a small but rather quick tributary of the Modrawa River.*"><figcaption>*A footpath alongside the Szumna, a small but rather quick tributary of the Modrawa River.*</figcaption></figure>
</div>
<figure class="float float-right" style="width:300px"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/14SPiF4cM7I5IlLiH5unQTek1HVwgKFkn=w2000" alt="*Corslawa Theater Square, 1925*"><figcaption>*Corslawa Theater Square, 1925*</figcaption></figure>
### Climate
### Human Geography
## Demographics
### Ethnic Groups
### Languages
### Religion
### Citizenship
### Largest Cities
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