Käkshär

Käkshär (Russ. Кякшяр, Finn. Käksäri, form. Kotelnich) is a Uralican city, located in southwestern Kirovski Rayon along the Vyatka River. Situated on Highway UH-1, it is also the southern terminus of a major rural road which moves through many towns and villages in the area, most notably the town of Darovskoy.

Although relatively far-removed from the mining that drives the nation's largest economic sector, Käkshär does have decent machine-building and metallurgy sectors. Agriculture and agricultural machine-building are very important, as Käkshär sits in a chernozem area, where the dark soils are extremely fertile. Food production, naturally, isn't too far behind, and Turan, the largest "homegrown" food production company in Uralica, has a large foothold in the city's economy. Some people call Käkshär the "Gourmet's Paradise," as the food served in the independently-owned restaurants is said to be worthy of the best restaurants in the world.

Culture
As the Eastern Mari name would imply, Mari make up a large portion of the city's population, although ethnic Russians are still the top inhabitants. There are also numerous other Tribes present in the city, including Finnish, Livonian, Estonian, Chuvash, Hungarian, and Mordvin people.

The settlement of Käkshär is ancient even by Uralican standards, having been first mentioned in 1143 as the Mari settlement of Koksharova, and having apparently been captured by the Novgorod Republic in 1181. It was then that the city of Kotelnich was founded (and it would retain this name for over eight hundred twenty five years). Its history, chronicled in the oft-referenced Käkshärsky Historical Museum, is one of violence and misfortune - it has been at least partially destroyed eight different times. It was ransacked by Mongolian raiders under the command of Tokhtamysh in 1391, in retaliation for a pillaging of their lands by Novgorodian pirates. It was rebuilt around a decade later.

After that, city-wide fires in 1686, 1721, 1805, 1905, 1918, and finally 1926 would take their toll on the city, but it would continually be rebuilt. The last time it suffered heavy damage was during Great War III, and not on account of the Uralic Purges - it was attacked directly and practically bombed to the ground. It was Uralica's offer to help pay to rebuild the city in 2008 that brought it into the nation.

Voting to be renamed Käkshär as a tribute to the indigenous Mari people of the region (one example of a sweeping "Marification" program in southwestern Kirovski Rayon), it still retains some of the old heritage buildings, that have amazingly survived even the worst of Robertian wars. A military man who was a citizen of the Global Order of Darkness once ordered his men specifically to avoid hitting Trinity Cathedral, which is nearly three hundred years old. Though slightly worn, it is undergoing a vast restoration project.

The restored "guest court" (now in the downtown square) and St. Nicholas Orthodox Church are other older "touristy" areas. There is also the aforementioned museum, as well as the Vyatka River War Memorial, which honours all the dead from the War of the Coalition.

Neighbourhoods and Suburbs

 * Karaul
 * Vesniny
 * Bogomolovo
 * Chashchiny
 * Mikilyata