Our Own Shores [OOC-Char-Open]

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Our own shores

Dear sir, madam [INSERT NAME]

Following a decision by the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Caspia, you have been selected for conscription in the National Defence Force. This decision is based on the Law on Conscription and Service of the 16th of March 2016. Pursuant this decision, you are required to report to the nearest recruitment office for physical evaluation and assignment with seven days. Failure to comply will result in a criminal conviction for desertion as meant in article 24 section 2 of the aforementioned law. Further information on payment, absence from labour and education and other obligations will be provided on request at the recruitment office.

Yours truly,
Minister of Defence,
Ersin Bayraktar

Congratulations! You have been conscripted into the National Defence Force of the Caspian Republic. Well, congratulations… I can imagine you’re not feeling so hot right now. That may be partially because you haven’t got the slightest clue what I am talking about. Not to worry, I’m here to fill in the gaps for you. In this RP, you will be taking the role of a young Caspian conscripted into the National Defence Force. Why you? Because you are a problematic demographic, but more on that later. Your nation is threatened by outside forces, and you have been called up in her defence. You don't have military skills, you are not accustomed to surviving outdoors. You are just a young person living in the wrong country at the wrong time. Keep in mind while making a character that this RP will not be about mowing down hordes of enemies single-handily. Hell, you might not even kill a single enemy, if you are lucky. Killing a living, breathing human being is hard.

Below is some history regarding the nation. I recommend reading the second spoiler, as that information is actually relevant to the story. The first spoiler holds the history of the nation, and might be interesting if you want to know your nation a bit more in-depth. Of course, not all characters will be history buffs of political nerds, so not knowing the stuff under the first spoiler certainly does not disqualify you. However, do keep in mind that certain religions and political groups have a history, so if you write a character in one of those traditions, I suggest doing a short ctrl+F.

While the Republic of Caspia might be a relatively recent creation, the Caspian culture certainly is not. Due to its location and lack of early settlements, Caspia facilitated easy travel for armies following the Volga. Hittites, Neo-Babylonians, Persians, Alexander, Parthians… Even Rome had outposts, although they viewed the Volga (or Vulgus, as they jokingly called it) as their easternmost border. Being a crossroads of different worlds, many different cultures influenced the local people. Most influential of these would prove to be the Cossacks, who founded many of the permanent settlements in Caspia, and the Turkic horsemen of the Steppes, who would eventually come to settle there. Each brought their customs, their religions, their loyalties. After Mongol influence waned the region became a permanent warring ground between the Muslims to the south, represented by the Caliphates and later the Ottoman Empire, and the Orthodox Christians to the North, represented by the Russian Czardom. In the 17th century the Russians would gain the upper hand, incorporating Caspia into the empire. Muslim merchants would remain, however, and Orthodoxy and Islam would be represented in equal measure. Jews and Catholics were to become minorities, although both not lacking in influence.

Under Imperial Russian rule, the region doesn’t exactly prosper, but it doesn’t wither either. Trade still flows across the Volga, making traffic flow from Moscow and Ukraine to the fertile crescent a lot easier. Merchants need places to stay, wharfs to maintain their river-going vessels and food to eat on long journeys, which is why population centres spring up all along the Volga. Caspia was often compared to a chain of beads, with each bead representing a town along the broad river. The southern part of the country was fortified against possible Ottoman incursions, and the troops stationed at these forts supplied another economic benefit. Troops needed food and drink and entertainment, and the local population could provide. While it was thought that good, honest Russian soldiers would help Russify the population, the opposite happened. Caspian culture, already being a blend of different influences, neatly took whatever parts of the Russian culture they liked to assimilate, and introduced those Russian soldiers to the Caspian way of living. In the 18th century, Caspia would become the rustic province for Russian writers and nobles to spend a winter, away from all the hassle of Saint Petersburg and the other major cities, and only a relatively short journey away from Kiev. It was this political influence that eventually made Caspia its own oblast.

The 19th century saw a repetition of this model. Caspia, being the southernmost Russian province, became a staging ground for influencing central Asia during the Great Game. It was modernised with railroads connecting the river cities to the more inland centres of population, more as a showcase to still-independent Asian sovereigns than actually for the benefit of the Caspian people. In the late 19th century, however, oil was struck in the northern regions of the oblast, making industrialisation of the northern part of Caspia more profitable. The period 1890-1914 was actually a little golden era for Caspia, which gained a lot of autonomy from the central government in Saint Petersburg in exchange for the oil under her land. Caspian writing and art flourished, both among conservatives decrying the good of Caspian cultural heritage and socialists, more focussed on the modern world. Caspians, who had been living in relative peace with many diverse religious groups, were quite receptive of the ideas of socialism and communism, much to the chagrin of the emperor.

In 1914, with the outbreak of the first world war, the Caspian population was conscripted like any other. Conservatives hailed this as supporting the emperor and the Orthodox Church against godless foreigners, but the Catholics and socialists didn’t really see it that way. In 1915-1916 there were massive strikes in the oil fields and the cities, prompting a violent crackdown. Pacifist agitation didn’t help, especially as discontent spread throughout Russia. In 1917, Soviets of Workers and Peasants were set up, mirroring the one set up in Saint Petersburg. In late 1917, the Caspian conservative government was overthrown in a coup, and a socialist republic was proclaimed, in support of the Petrograd Soviet. This gave the Bolsheviks immediate control of a southern foothold, the Volga river, and the vital oil fields in northern Caspia. After the civil war, which was partially fought on Caspian soil, Caspia became one of the socialist republics in the new Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. This would remain the case until 1991.

True industrialisation came in the thirties and forties. Stalin, implementing his theories of Russian nationalism and industrialism, goes about preparing his nation for war. In fear of an attack from the west, Stalin sets up factories more to the east. The north of Caspia forms no exception, especially with the oil resources already present. Not only that, but large numbers of ethnic Russians are moved in to work these factories, while Caspians are conscripted to fight in the Red Army. This war would become the most brutal in Caspian history, combined with the Russian civil war two decades prior. Those two conflicts are still at the heart of the Caspian cultural experience, with statues of its fallen dotting the landscape, and holy sites named in their honour. Many young men did not come home, and Stalinist repression was especially harsh in the ethnic minority regions, whom Stalin did not trust. It would not be until the death of Stalin that the worst period for the Caspians ended.

The rest of the 20th century didn’t hold much interest for Caspia. The only time it was mentioned was in the seventies, when the Teheran Crisis nearly sparked a war between the new Islamic Republic and the Soviet Union, which wanted a more socialist government to take its place. Besides that, not much went on, the repressive hand of Moscow always looming overhead. There was no uprising like in Hungary or in the Czechoslovakia. The population just became poorer and poorer over time as the Soviet Union began to lag behind the west in terms of economic output. The crisis of the late eighties hit hard in the oil-producing regions, especially Caspia, but still she was one of the last republics to actually quit the USSR in 1991.

The Caspian Republic integrated quite well into the new world order. Shell and BP saw to that. The oil companies bore down on the country with a vengeance, both trying to outsell one another, their governments in tow. Over the span of eight years Caspia was modernised with river ports, airfields and new railway lines, connecting her to the south and west rather than the north. The progressive, leftist government that had overseen the 1991 overturn was slowly pushed to the side line, replaced with more business-minded conservatives. The impact was two-fold: Caspia had a miracle recovery of her economy, GDP soared and it became a model republic for the former Soviet bloc. New universities opened, luxurious resorts popped up along the Volga and the lakes to the east. Caspia became a regional influence, too, often hosting talks between leaders of the Caucasus and central Asia.

However, this power had downsides. The conservative government stayed in power through the support of the Orthodox population, often to the detriment of the Muslim, Jewish and Catholic populations. Orthodoxy didn’t become the state religion, but it was clear that it was preferred. Orthodox schools gained preferential treatment, as did Orthodox hospitals. The new wealth was not split evenly, and especially Muslim children suffered for it. The Islamic families were pushed to the old Soviet-style flats while the other groups lived in new suburbs, working in the new oil refineries. The Russian minority population had it hard, too, suffering at the hand of the government which forbade the teaching of Russian in primary schools with government funding.

In 2005, the nation was rocked by a vicious terrorist attack. A river-going vessel on the Volga filled with tourists blew up, killing 102 and injuring 254. Among the passengers were mostly wealthy foreigners, including an Orthodox priest. The government decided to focus on that, and declared it to be the work of anti-government forces working in liaison with Al Qaida. Most of the ship’s crew had been Muslim, and there were Russian oil tycoons on board, too, giving motive to a lot of different groups. Needing a quick narrative, however, the government increased surveillance and police presence. Various newspapers, which had traditionally been for Muslim, Catholic and Jewish families, were closed down under suspicion of collaboration. In 2006, the government issued a declaration of national emergency after a bloody riot in one of the major cities killed a police officer. The 2007 elections were suspended, leading to even more internal strife. Bomb attacks became ever more frequent, and the tourism industry plummeted. As tourism was big in the south, and most Orthodox majorities lived in the north, they were mostly unaffected.

In 2010, after much pressure by the international community, the Caspian government re-instated a national election. However, television news broadcasting was still only allowed by the state, and it painted a distorted picture of the varying parties. Most Muslim parties had been banned because of suspected ties with Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaida, Jewish parties had always been small, and Catholics were shamed into voting for the Orthodox parties for fear of the Muslims taking over. Because voting was only done in the Caspian language, the Russian minority was factually disenfranchised, as many were only really accustomed to the Cyrillic alphabet used in their personal spheres. Voting booths were many miles between and opened at irregular intervals, staffed by personnel who were as unhelpful as could be. Many, both nationally and internationally, called the election a farce. Demands for a recount or even a whole new election were ignored.

This all came to a head in 2011, when a strike of young people in one of the southern cities turned bloody. Two police officers lost their lives after a Molotov cocktail was thrown into their car, burning them on live TV. The next day, the army was called in. Armoured vehicles closed off the streets, and forced all the protestors to go to the central plaza of the city. There, rumours of a bomb prompted violent action from riot police, which in turn sparked violent retaliation from the protestors. Pushing came to shoving, came to beating, came to warning shots. Warning shots became aimed shots, and by the end of the day, 50 protestors lay dead, unseen by the cameras of the national broadcasting corporation. However, home-made video spread via social media did reach other cities, where the riots only became worse. These riots were met with the same level of violence. Again, a state of national emergency was declared.

It is not clear whether the transition of power of early 2012 was violent or peaceful. The president and his prime minister resigned in favour of general Tansal Bayraktar, who reshuffled the entire cabinet into a clique of officers under his command. A combination of police action, secret service surveillance and propaganda, combined with targeted military strikes, restored at least a semblance of order in the summer of 2012. Ringleaders were caught and imprisoned, many of the rioters were sent home on probation. Unnecessarily restrictive laws against Russian minorities and minority religions were put out of action. For a period between 2012 and 2016, Caspia was the model for a benevolent dictatorship. Its population was relatively free, crime was brushed aside harshly, and the economy recovered when tourism returned in 2014.

In 2016, however, Russia began to interfere. The Federation had always been there under the surface, providing aid to the Russian minority of the north. Television, entertainment… Everything to give the population some connection. Since 2007, however, Russia had begun spreading dissidence among the population. Dissatisfaction with the government began to rise slowly over the following years. Parts of the 2011 violence had actually been partially caused by Russian independence groups. In 2016, seemingly out of nowhere, these groups sprung up. Civil militias without markings, armed with modern weapons, took over government quarters in the northern cities, as well as border crossings. After a week, Russian vehicles began driving across the border, apparently bringing supplies to the cities covered by their helicopters. Officially, Russia has called it a humanitarian intervention to safeguard the right of Russian minorities. In reality, however, the action has been far too military too far to really be only about supplying aid.

The first vehicles crossed the Russian border two weeks ago. In response, the Caspian government has mobilised, both calling up all reservists and beginning conscription. The conscription has a two-fold objective: both getting all young people with the ability to riot out of the cities, and freeing up professional military units to keep the urban centres pacified. You are one of those conscripts, soldiers. You’re stationed along the outskirts of one of the northern cities, currently occupied by pro-Russian militias. Here, you train in the use of weapons, in standard combat drill, and some basic physical fitness. The situation on the border is tense, which is why we require vigilance at all times. No-one is happy to be there, but no matter your political affiliation, none of us wants half our country occupied by the Russian federation. I hope we can at least find common ground over that.

Code: Select all

[size=150][b]Application[/b][/size]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Appearance:[/b]
[b]Religion:[/b]
[b]Political Affiliation:[/b]
[b]Personality:[/b]
[b]Short Bio:[/b]
[b]Likes:[/b]
[b]Dislikes:[/b]
[b]Extra information:[/b]


"Toil and Unity"

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Aizik Pasternak - 23 - Unemployed

Elman Hasanov - 24 - Shopkeeper

[Dayganistan]

I've been waiting for this. App should be coming soon.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Good! I’m going to get some sleep, but I should be back in six hours.

[Insaeldor]

Application
Name: Aizik Pasternak
Age: 23
Appearance:

Religion: Jewish
Political Affiliation: His political alignment is complex, as a Jew he recognizes the disadvantages his people face from the current government. He is a supporter of liberal demoracy and has sympathies with the protesters. He however also despises the Russians as he views them as a negative political force in the world. He nominally sides with the nationalistic conservatives on the issue of war but by no means likes being assosiated with them.
Personality: Aizik is a down to earth kind of person, he's not one to inflate his capabilities but will do what is asked of him to the best of his abilities. He stays quite and doesn't really speak until spoken too. Once he's conmfortable with a situation and the people around him he can be a bit more
Short Bio: Aizik was born in the city of Stenka Razin to a Ashkenazi family originally from Mogilev. His father was a civil servent with the Ministry of Assembly and Special Construction Works and later the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation, his mother worked at a state sponsored Yiddish Languahe school. He grew up speaking Yiddish at home and Caspian at school and by his early teens was flying in both languages. He also played piano and was taught by his grandma who herself was self taught. He grew up in a fairly average home. His life was marked by normalcy and consistency as a child.

The only thing one would consider odd about his up bringing would be his very conservative Jewish up bringing. While his parents shy'd away from dress him in Jewish clothing and the like fearing the worst for him. But he went to the synogogue on the days he was suppose tona took part in prayer. He eventually traveled to Israel to attend a Beth Midrash with the hopes of being a Rabbi for the fleading Jewish community of Caspia. He studied for two years before he left, he came back to Caspia and moved into a small soviet styled appartment in Gilan where he enrolled in an electricians apprenticeship. After spending his time in Israel he started to more and more anti-religious and also increasingly anti government. He was active in the streets as the first series of anti-government demonstrations started. He however left the street demonstrations after various shooting incidents, his political involvement also coast him his apprenticeship.

Unemployed and struggling internally both politically and spiritually he had mixed emotions upon receiving his conscription notice in the mail. On the one hand he saw it as forced service to a state he did not support. On the other he was furious that the Russians had taken military action in the first place, and to a small extent, he felt relief as he thought he'd be given stability through the military and that would help him to get things back on track.

He complied and as soon as possible was conscripted into the armed forces
Likes: things
Dislikes: stuff
Extra information: not that I can think of.

what is the main infantry rifle of the Caspian Army? What does it's field uniform look like? And if possible can conscripts been given items from family members in the mail?

[Costa Fierro]

Application
Name: Elman Hasanov
Age: 24
Appearance: Elman is 5'6 with a thin, semi-athletic build. He has short, curly brown hair, a short beard, light brown skin and brown eyes.
Religion: Nominally Shia Islam.
Political Affiliation: No political affiliations.
Personality: Hasanov is a reserved, somewhat quiet man that is in his element if left alone to complete a task. He, more or less, respects authority figures but tends to want to fly under the radar. He's not so good with working as a team, but will tolerate it enough to get by.
Short Bio: Elman Hasanov was born on December 17, 1992 in the western city of Qumgöl, a majority Azeri city located a reasonable distance from the border with Azerbaijan. His father used to work for one of the factories in the city that made truck and tractor engines, but had found himself unemployed following the collapse of the USSR. His mother was a school teacher, one of the few that survived the mass layoffs in the immediate post-Soviet period. He had two other siblings: an older brother and a sister who was born two years after he was.

Elman's childhood was typical of the period. As the country had not yet begun recovering from the shock, his father and his mother found it difficult to feed the family on a single salary, and things didn't improve for the first five years of his life. Often he went hungry, especially after his younger sister was born. Things began to improve in the late 90's when his father began a job working at one of the oilfields that was receiving significant foreign investment from oversees oil companies. His family's fortunes began to turn and they emerged after the 2000's as one of the many middle class cities.

Elman more or less floated through primary school and high school without much in the way of remarkable grades or events. He socialised enough to have a good group of friends, some of whom stuck with them when they moved to Khazar at the end of 2010 to start university. Elman had enrolled in university to study business and economics, essentially as a way to get himself out of the south and hopefully, out of the country. His desire to get out even more accelerated when he ended up being part of a major protest in Khazar the following year. He didn't want to go but was dragged along by his friends. Elman and his friends where close to the front of the crowd when riot police opened fire. Elman himself was struck in the back with a round and he watched as one of his friends was also struck down. He suffered additional injuries from people who were running over him to escape, and later by riot police who beat him as he tried to get away. He was spotted by two sympathetic police officers and arrived at the main hospital in Khazar in the back of a police car. He learnt that his friend that he saw go down during the riots was killed during his recovery in hospital.

Elman left university and ended up scraping together just enough money to pay rent. He worked as a street cleaner for two years before beginning work as a shopkeeper in a store that sold mobile phones, where he's worked since. Elman didn't really know how to react to his conscription, but felt he had to go through with it in order to avoid being thrown in jail.
Likes: Peace and quiet, spending some time by himself, a decent cup of coffee.
Dislikes: Crowded and noisy environments, the government.
Extra information:

[Costa Fierro]

what is the main infantry rifle of the Caspian Army? What does it's field uniform look like? And if possible can conscripts been given items from family members in the mail?

I could answer these questions potentially.

Small arms in most post-Soviet republics are usually what was available from ex-Red Army depots that were now in the possession of the new independent governments and it's likely that as time progressed, states either retain rifles from the Soviet period (as Kalashnikov rifles are very reliable) or purchased new ones. It's likely that because Caspia had a professional army, that professional soldiers would have more modern weapons like an AK-103, AK-74M or even Western weapons. Conscripts would likely be given older rifles such as the AK-74 or AKM.

Same goes for combat uniforms. I imagine something closer to this. Although I can imagine that because the north would mostly be desert or steppe, that desert pattern uniforms, potentially old American or Western camouflage, would also be given to conscripts.

And yes, conscripts could be given small personal items from family members in the mail, like letters, pictures or something else.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

what is the main infantry rifle of the Caspian Army? What does it's field uniform look like? And if possible can conscripts been given items from family members in the mail?

I could answer these questions potentially.

Small arms in most post-Soviet republics are usually what was available from ex-Red Army depots that were now in the possession of the new independent governments and it's likely that as time progressed, states either retain rifles from the Soviet period (as Kalashnikov rifles are very reliable) or purchased new ones. It's likely that because Caspia had a professional army, that professional soldiers would have more modern weapons like an AK-103, AK-74M or even Western weapons. Conscripts would likely be given older rifles such as the AK-74 or AKM.

Same goes for combat uniforms. I imagine something closer to this. Although I can imagine that because the north would mostly be desert or steppe, that desert pattern uniforms, potentially old American or Western camouflage, would also be given to conscripts.

And yes, conscripts could be given small personal items from family members in the mail, like letters, pictures or something else.

Yeah, this is all basically what I had in mind. Thanks for answering them!

Now for the apps...

EDIT: Let's go with the AK-103 for now.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

-Snip-

Happily accepted!

-Snip-

Gladly accepted!

[Barapam]

Are young women conscripted too? I mean, as a temporary measure to increase military numbers and keep as many potential protestors/collaborators away, it might make sense even for a conservative junta that normally say that war is a man's doing.

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Are young women conscripted too? I mean, as a temporary measure to increase military numbers and keep as many potential protestors/collaborators away, it might make sense even for a conservative junta that normally say that war is a man's doing.

Oh yes, certainly. I intentionally left it so women can be conscripted as well, so female characters are just as welcome.

[Fascist Republic of Uzumakistan]

Tag!

[Reverend Norv]

Are university/graduate students also subject to conscription?

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

Are university/graduate students also subject to conscription?

Yes, and some even say the government specifically targets those because university students often agitate the population. There is no hard evidence for this, though, and most brush it off as a lame conspiracy theory.

[Dayganistan]

what is the main infantry rifle of the Caspian Army? What does it's field uniform look like? And if possible can conscripts been given items from family members in the mail?

I could answer these questions potentially.

Small arms in most post-Soviet republics are usually what was available from ex-Red Army depots that were now in the possession of the new independent governments and it's likely that as time progressed, states either retain rifles from the Soviet period (as Kalashnikov rifles are very reliable) or purchased new ones. It's likely that because Caspia had a professional army, that professional soldiers would have more modern weapons like an AK-103, AK-74M or even Western weapons. Conscripts would likely be given older rifles such as the AK-74 or AKM.

Same goes for combat uniforms. I imagine something closer to this. Although I can imagine that because the north would mostly be desert or steppe, that desert pattern uniforms, potentially old American or Western camouflage, would also be given to conscripts.

And yes, conscripts could be given small personal items from family members in the mail, like letters, pictures or something else.

For uniforms, Australia recently changed camouflage patterns so they would be a good source for cheap western uniforms maybe. Their old camo pattern is probably pretty good for the environment. Or of course, there's always the classic US woodland pattern that gets sold to everyone and copied by everyone.

[Insaeldor]

I could answer these questions potentially.

Small arms in most post-Soviet republics are usually what was available from ex-Red Army depots that were now in the possession of the new independent governments and it's likely that as time progressed, states either retain rifles from the Soviet period (as Kalashnikov rifles are very reliable) or purchased new ones. It's likely that because Caspia had a professional army, that professional soldiers would have more modern weapons like an AK-103, AK-74M or even Western weapons. Conscripts would likely be given older rifles such as the AK-74 or AKM.

Same goes for combat uniforms. I imagine something closer to this. Although I can imagine that because the north would mostly be desert or steppe, that desert pattern uniforms, potentially old American or Western camouflage, would also be given to conscripts.

And yes, conscripts could be given small personal items from family members in the mail, like letters, pictures or something else.

Yeah, this is all basically what I had in mind. Thanks for answering them!

Now for the apps...

EDIT: Let's go with the AK-103 for now.

Alright sound good and thank you for the help. I knew that would probably be the case but I wanted to make sure beforehand.

[Barapam]

Application
Name: Anna Fedorovna Timurovna
Age: 21
Appearance:

Religion: Orthodox Christianity
Political Affiliation: It's a little complicated, and it isn't helped by the fact that she's somewhat naive and isn't even sure herself. She admires Vladimir Putin and how he's managed to make Russia a powerful international player again after the chaotic 90's, and she's generally very pro-Russia, to the point of prior to the invasion having supported the idea of northern Caspia, where she comes from, to separate from Caspia and become a part of the federation instead, as long as it was done in a peaceful and democratic way. However, her image of Putin has shattered somewhat after the invasion, even if a part of her wants nothing more than to join up with the nationalistic militia.

If she could dream, and she does, there would still be peace, the discrimination against Russians would end, and they could all live together as Caspians, with good relations to the mighty northern neighbour. Since that's not the case, Anna is far from certain what the right thing to do is. Stand up and fight against the Russians, her own kin? Is it really her homeland she's defending? Can it become her homeland if she fights well, and prove to everyone that Russians are just as good soldiers and Caspians as the rest of them? Would that end the old discrimination?

To make things even more grey, she's a minority in ethnic and linguistic regard (although as her surname indicates, she's not of "pure" Slavic stock), but belongs to the Orthodox Christian majority (she's an atheist, but still). She has prejudices against members of other religions of course, but not in a way that it has anything to do with her political views, except when it comes to Jews. While she's far from an anti-semite, she's very critical of Israel, circumcision, and kosher slaughter, as she sees it as cruel. She's no fan of halal meat or Saudi Arabia's sponsoring of Chechyen and other Islamist terrorism in the region either, and she's very critical of America too, especially the current president - despite his friendship with Putin - partially because of his policies about Israel and North Korea (though she isn't defending North Korea either).

Anna describes herself as a socialist and a feminist, but she nevertheless thinks that the modern Western leftist movement is decadent and degenerated in many ways. She doesn't idolize the Soviet Union either, but rather the early and short-lived Caspian People's Repuplic of 1917.
Personality: She's very nerdy, and has a great interest in classic Russian literature. She's not a leader, and very unsure about herself, which she sometimes try to overcompensate for by acting tougher than she is, which might make her seem like a bitch in the eyes of others.
Short Bio: Anna was born in Stenka Razin, to a relatively wealthy working class family of mostly Russian* origin. Most of her relatives worked or are working, in the oil industry, and Anna would be no exception as soon as she'd finished her studies, but she'd be the first woman in her family to do so. However, as of now, the future is very uncertain.

(* = She also has some Tatar and Cossack heritage.)
Likes: German heavy metal, Slovenian folk-pop.
Dislikes: This whole stupid war, the military junta.
Extra information:

[Insaeldor]

So I was thinking about possible equipment and uniforms based off what Costa Fierro had suggested. This would be strictly for conscript forces however.

•KLMK or TTsKO pattern uniforms, not these are variants in a family of camouflage patterns so there are multiple variants of these patterns for different enviorments.

•6B3 Body Armor would be a good pick, it was issued during the Afghan war and saw service up until 2000/2001. It would most likely still be in storage in a lot of post-soviet states and would not be completely obsolete by the time of the conflict.

• helmets are a debatable subject, you could realisticly issue either the SSh-68 steel helmet or the more moderns 6B27 Composite Helmet. It be more about what you think is realisticly suitable for the military right now to issue on that matter.

As far as infantry weapons wouldn't the AK-74 make more sense? Or if we were going to use a AKM derived weapon would the AKMS work a bit better as it be in auxiliary storage and easily obtainable for a post Soviet state where as the AK-103 is made in Russia and would require an arms agreement with Russia, not to mention that an AK-103 roughly coasts around $600 a unit and a contract would also includ extra expenses. I think just using something like the AKS-74 because it would use the same ammo as most of the military left over from the soviet times and would more usable by all infantry branches, considering the rifle was initially designed for airborne troops and eventually issued to mechanized and motorized units it might just be easier to use it as a mainstay rifle for this reason. The actually army could use the AK-74M and the conscripts the AKS-74 as the serve nominally the same purpose (rifle with folding stock so troops who need it for transportation can use it without making two didn't rifles). That again however is your call.

And this is just a series of suggestion, this is all your stuff so it's up to you. This is just my two cents.

[Barapam]

I don't know much about camo or AK:s, nor helmets, but I don't think even the poorest nations use steel helmets anymore, but I could be entirely wrong though.

[Cylarn]

Application
Name: "My name is Boško Grekov. Most folks call me 'Boz.'"
Age: "Twenty-seven, actually."
Appearance: Boz.
Religion:
Political Affiliation: "PVD, or the Restorative Action Party. We're a centrist party, one that listens to the voices of the people."
Personality:
Short Bio:

I'm from a political family; indeed, I bet you saw me on the news during the riots, getting shoved into the back of a police van as fire and gas filled the air above Gilan. The PVD is my party, my father's party. Indeed, he was one of the founders of this party, way back when the Soviet Union collapsed and gave Caspia its rights back. My father was a veteran of Afghanistan and a suspected banditi; indeed, crime was one of the few ways Caspians could make a decent living in Gilan. The army taught him a trade, and he came back to his home city to find work. His fists got him work, collecting dues and selling himself as an enforcer. By the time I was born - in 1990 - he was already a low-level boss for his group. You might think that I was raised to take up the family business like most banditi, but my father never intended to scar the Grekov name with the banditi label.

I grew up in relative luxury in the new Caspia. It was slow, but we moved from our decrepit Soviet-era flat to a brand-new townhouse by '98. I was fed well, attended a decent private school, and made a name for myself in the community as an athlete. Swimming was my sport; it's a straight-forward task, to swim mindlessly back and forth in a pool. It distracted me from the constant turmoil around me. My father was hardly ever at home, always shouting his voice away in the chambers of any government building that found itself unlucky enough to cross him. I was bullied not because of who my father was, but because swimming was a "girl's" sport. The football players were the worst, and I learned quick that if I was going to survive school, I had to match them.

I learned to fight during my formative years. My dad taught me some things; how to bust a kneecap, where to hit the nerve - things like that. Boxing was another sport I chose to take up - though I never did it competitively. I went to college as a swimmer, with a full ride to study in the United States. Four years, I lived in a little town called Chapel Hill, in North Carolina. I love America, and I loved my time at Chapel Hill. I studied political science there, often writing my papers about the experiences my family had with politics in post-Communist Caspia. Those years in college broadened my horizons and allowed me to see the world on a larger scale. I even made the Olympic Team, grabbing qualifying spots in the 1500 free, 200 breast, 400 IM, and the 400 free. We swam at London and even though I didn't medal, I was still proud to have represented my nation.

With my degree in hand, I went into politics. The PVD was part of the opposition bloc; we favor western democracy and social justice. As for our ethnic loyalties, we are all Caspians, first and foremost. Muslims, Russians, Orthodoxy; those come second. I started working with the Youth League in Gilan as the military junta under General Bayaktar assumed power. Most of what we did was political agitation. We rallied the youth for peaceful demonstrations, ones that often ended in violence and arrests. I was on the Interior's radar not only because of my family affiliations to the PVD, but also because I had attended the protests of '11 as a "vocal agitator."

Despite looking out for black SUVs and the prying eyes of policemen and soldiers, I was able to lead a normal life. I married Irina Shishani, the head of the PYD Muslim Youth wing and a close friend of mine ever since my early childhood. We were engaged in '12, and married by the close of '13. Irina; beautiful, intelligent, and provocative in a number of ways. We actually have a five-year-old son, Stepan. Furthermore, lemme tell you about how we...discovered our mutual attraction in the midst of that chaotic spring, when the strikes happened.

I wasn't even supposed to be in Gilan; my flight to London was cancelled due to God-knows-what, and my father decided that it would be best if the Party staged a demonstration in solidarity with the strikers. Around a hundred of us marched down the main stretch, chanting slogans and waving banners. It was provocative, intoxicating even. I was up at the front with a bullhorn in my right hand, screaming away about the collapse of the progressive administration we had post-Soviet. We marched up to the government quarter, where the OMON was formed up

Armored cars, fire trucks, men with shields, and scanning spotlights had established a formidable defensive line between us and the ministers. As we have all said, our intentions were peaceful. I can also tell you that none of our people threw that Molotov. Yes, I saw that episode unfold; the fiery bomb flying above the crowd and striking that poor officer, dousing him in flames and burning petrol. I started shouting for whomever threw it. A lot of others caught on that things had escalated, but that intoxicating aroma of disobedience was still rife.

Then, I heard the first crack. A body came down on top of me, as the front line of protesters were met by a wall of automatic gunfire. As I lifted the lifeless corpse off of me, I saw the canisters fall down among us. Chaos ensued, as everyone began to flee in whichever direction they found to be the safest. With ringing in my ears and the most intense burning in my lungs, I rose to my feet and attempted to run with the crowd. My only thought was to get out of there.

As I fought with the crowd around me, I saw her. Irina was on the ground, being dragged and pinned down by a gang of those OMON jackboots. I knew right then, that if OMON took her away,
I would never again see the Irina I knew. So, without much consideration or even contemplation, I advanced forward, shouted an expletive at one of the men, and threw my right fist forward just as the man in front of me turned. Unfortunately, my fist met not his face, but a hardened rubber gas mask. It knocked him back, but other than that, he was unphased by it. The whole lot of them turned on me and broke my nose, dislocated my jaw, broke two of my ribs, and gave me a healthy concussion. I spent the next several hours in an interrogation room, with an OMON Colonel yelling in my face. He tried to coerce me into signing a confession, but my attorney showed up in the nick of time and informed me that "a party member" had paid for my bail.

I left the police station to see Irina waiting outside, leaning next to what looked like -my- Mercedes. I guess she got the keys from my father, but it didn't really bother me. We went out to dinner and later went back to my place. We didn't fuck that night; we just talked, talked about our aspirations and our backgrounds, how our shared concern was liberty in Caspia. We talked for hours, up until it was time for me to catch a rushed flight back to school. We texted and called one another throughout that last year of schooling. We made our relationship official during my Winter Break; our parents condoned it.

Anyways, things under the junta were "safe." I use that term selectively, because while things calmed down under the junta, the extrajudicial detentions, the spy campaigns, and the violent responses to protests and general dissidence continued. I dodged charges for the riot, and instead settled into my political role with the Youth League. Irina and I opened the Party's official Facebook page as well as a blog. Those got shut down quickly,
so we started spreading fliers with the help of sympathetic Party members with access to printers. We even organized the "Action Squads;" the EKs were kids who delved into street art. They tagged the entire city with civil disobedience in the way of graffiti. I even sent a couple of them to tutor under the likes of Banksy.

When the Russians mobilized their troops and invaded our western border, we automatically began to counter their stated intentions. I might be an ethnic Russian, but my father taught me, from a young age, that my home will forever be Caspia. That being said, the Russians have perfected the art of silencing dissidents. Our connections in the "Russian" areas of Caspia began to grow dark until there was no Party presence west of Razin. We lost a number of Party officials, and that number is open to debate. No warnings, no representation by lawyers; they just fell between the cracks.

I received my letter the day my son turned five. Irina burst into tears when I informed her that I would not contest the conscription order. She found it hard to contemplate that I would be seemingly abandoning the Party for the regime we had been resisting for years. My reasoning was patriotic; the nation was being invaded, and despite our opinions of the junta, they were taking a logical step in the right direction by bolstering the ranks of the Defense Forces. I'm a patriot, and my concerns can willingly fall by the wayside in comparison to the external and internal threat of Russian aggression.

Here I am, here I stand for Caspia.

Likes:
Dislikes:
Extra information: GUNS - I own one gun for self-defense; a Gen 4 Glock 19 that a friend of mine from Chapel Hill, now a senior engineer at the Glock factory, got for me as a Christmas gift.. I was mugged at gunpoint during my time in the States, and I barely survived a home invasion around that same time. For my family, I am conscious of the fact that a lot can happen during the twenty minutes it takes for the police to respond to a home invasion. I shoot semi-regularly, and while I am no John Wick, I know how to use a pistol. As for rifles, I have shot only civilian models; Remington's, Winchesters, and such.

LANGUAGES: I am fluent in three; Russian, Caspian, and English. I can speak conversational Spanish, though not as good as I once could.

PHYSICAL FITNESS: When I was twenty-two, I was not only the top-ranked swimmer for the nation, but I held a spot for a time among the top ten European swimmers. I still compete at the Master's level; most recently, I won gold at the National Master's Championship. I've made it a point to stay in shape; in addition to averaging ten-thousand yards a day, I still box.

I'm writing for an educated political agitator. Given that I have little time to finish it until Monday, please forgive this draft.

[Tayner]

Tag

[Aghrabia]

This is very interesting. I'll try to get an app out as soon as I can.

[Dayganistan]

Application
Name: Zhuldyzai Akhmetova
Age: 20
Appearance:

Religion: Non-religious
Political Affiliation: Not particularly politically active and generally supportive of the current government. She doesn't think Caspia needs western style democracy as long as there's a strong government to keep the country stable. And she quite likes that the current government maintains friendly relations with the west, if only for easier access to western goods. She doesn't hate Russians necessarily and has readily embraced aspects of Russian popular culture, but she's certainly no fan of Vladimir Putin.
Personality:
Short Bio: Zhuldyzai is an ethnic Kazakh, but was born in the capital, Gilan, and considers Caspia to be her home. Much in the same way her parents consider Caspia to be their home after they got stuck on the wrong side of the Kazakh/Caspian border following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her father owns a successful and profitable electronics shop while her mother is a hair stylist. They're certainly not a rich family by an stretch, but they're never wanting for money either. They've never tried to get on the wrong side of the government, they've never felt a reason to. While they haven't completely assimilated to Caspian culture and have faced discrimination, it hasn't been anything they couldn't put up with. The lack of religious identity certainly helped them to not face as much discrimination as the typical Central Asian ethnic minorities who got caught on the wrong side of the border when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Zhuldyzai's life hasn't been the most eventful. She was able to avoid most of the protests in Caspia's recent history. She's currently a university student majoring in history. She'd like to be able to move to Canada, but she's happy to stay in Caspia. She's been doing well with her studies in university, but isn't a particularly outstanding student, only slightly above average. She's recently been afraid of Russia after the Ukraine crisis, fearing that they could come to Caspia next. She's been ignoring Russia as much as she possibly can, not wanting to worry about it so she could just be a normal person in their 20s. But it would soon come to the point where she's no longer able to avoid Russia.

As the ethnic Russians rose up in the north and the Russian army started crossing the border, everything changed. Zhuldyzai noticed her university getting more and more empty as men and women alike were conscripted to the National Defence Force. Those who hadn't been called up started to believe the government was purposefully targeting university students, putting them in the army out of fear they'll become anti-war agitators or support uprisings by other minorities, inspired by the Russians. Zhuldyzai thought she would be safe from conscription, but was still worried that being a Kazakh her time would eventually come. And one day, she came home to the dreaded conscription letter. Not wanting to get on the bad side of the government she reported for duty. She hoped she'd just be driving supply trucks or sitting at a desk to free up more personnel for the front, but she couldn't be any more wrong in her assumptions.
Likes: Starbucks coffee, Russian rock music, western clothing brands, reading a good book
Dislikes: Political debates, overly religious people, American pop music, the stuff the army decides to call "food"
Extra information: She can speak English and Russian at an advanced level, although is not fluent in either.

[Hashkin]

Tag

[Great Confederacy of Commonwealth States]

-Snip-

Accepted! Welcome.

-Snip-

Happy to have you, Cy. Keep up the good work!

-Snip-

Accepted!

I'll update the roster once I have expressed enough loathing for Portuguese civil law.