Namiri

Namiri is the southwesternmost electoral district in Zwangzug. It can also refer to the slightly larger cultural region corresponding to the temperate rainforest in that area. (This article will mostly refer to the latter, with exceptions noted.)

History
To understand the significance of Namiri's historiography, it is important to consider that the area now known as Zwangzug did not have a unified "national" identity for many centuries. It is believed that historic Unker settlers who crossed the Alai Mountains were the first residents of Zwangzug, but their presence was not permanent. Around the sixth century AD, however, the Namiri region was populated by the people whose descendants are considered the modern Namirites. Legend has it that the proto-Namirites were fleeing an oppressive monarch who demanded more rice than was humanly possible for the humble commoners to produce, under the leadership of a wise adviser to the king who realized the folly of his leader's ways; more cynical sources suggest the demand for foodstuffs was somehow the advisor's fault and he was bailing. (This event is occasionally dated to the year 512, however there are no precise records for this and it is likely folkloric at best.) In any case, it is clear that the Namiri rainforest was inhabited at a time when the rest of what is now Zwangzug was not.

The Namiri culture would continue to flourish in isolation, but did not expand far beyond the rainforest. Meanwhile, later arrivals--refugees fleeing tragedy, utopians looking for a fresh start, or some of each--would colonize other parts of the larger area, with little shared culture until the rise of the "second-generation" cities.

During the Consolidation, the "veterans" of the disturbance in Zwischen spread out from the northeastern city and attempted to unify their neighbors into a centralized state. Jorvelk being closer to Zwischen than Namiri is, the consolidators reached there first. Many of the Jorvelki recognized the threat a united Zwangzug would pose to their cultural identity and chose to sacrifice regional tradition for the hopes of ethnic solidarity, relocating en masse to Sharag and its environs. Eventually, however, the consolidators did arrive in Namiri, however, and incorporated it into the nascent country. Whether or not there were obvious borders to prevent further progress (geography is hard, especially the anachronistic kind), further progress stopped there.

Pratibha Bhave was Namiri's delegate to the parliamentary portion of the Consolidation. When the borders of the districts were being set, she argued--fairly successfully--for an independent "Namiri" district keeping its name and most of its cultural sphere of influence (though some spilled over into what is now the districts of Nevelis and Vetlass). Although the consolidation sometimes aimed (and in Jorvelk's case largely succeeded) to cross-cut existing "regional" boundaries and forge new sub-loyalties instead, Bhave benefited from most of her colleagues not knowing how populous the Namiri region was, and having to take her at her word when she warned them that attempting to split it up would create backlash. As the modern state took form, Bhave led a pro-environmentalist faction that tried to focus government power on protecting the natural diversity of the rainforest. This eventually became the Liberal Conservative Party.

In recent times, the status of Namiri as an "indigenous" area has become a political flashpoint. Zwangzug is far from the only nation in the world to have an ancient rainforest in its southwest, or for its rainforest to be inhabited by nearly-uncontacted peoples averse to modern technology, and/or extremist environmentalists urging treehouse-dwelling. And considering that Namiri was, indeed, the first part of the country to be permanently populated, the descendants of those original rice-less peasants have as much claim to the title of "native" Zwangzugians/Zwangzugites/whatever as anyone. However, the implication that the Consolidation was a colonialist project, as promulgated by Sameep "Dances-With-Zebras" Trier, is disputed. Some Namirites and other far-left identitarians see this as obvious; others consider the unification of Namiri into the larger state as no different from that of other linguistic/cultural enclaves, and dismiss Trier as attempting to impose foreign narratives of oppression and injustice on the steadfastly utopian state.

Recently, an isolated tribe of sentient zebras did in fact emerge from the southwestern forests; whether any of them actually dance with Trier is also disputed.

Geography
The Namiri region is a temperate rainforest, with higher levels of precipitation than most of the country. Sharag tends to have milder temperature extremes than other large cities. To the south, the Alai Mountains form(ed) the border with Unkerlantum.