if Xichudou had a Wikipedia page (WIP)

Xichudou the maker of this map thanks Ponderosa for their factbook guide

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Xichudou (Munggulkhen: ᠱᠢᠴᠤᠳᠣ, Hanjuwén: 蹊芻都, Qazyc: Щичудо, Taqlar: Neshesh'chagku) is a landlocked association of several sovereign states ("ᠣᠪᠤᠭ" lit. clans) in Asia legally bound by the "Xichudou Mutual Defence Contract". Although the governing entities of Xichudou do not refer to Xichudou itself as a country, Xichudou is generally considered to be a country. With 11.09 million square kilometres (4.28 million square miles), Xichudou is the world's second-largest country by total area and its largest landlocked country, though its precise borders are disputed. Its population of over 219 million people makes it the sixth-largest country in the world by population. Although Xichudou's borders are not universally agreed upon, it is generally recognised to possess the world's two longest borders with Russia to its north and China to its south. Xichudou's four largest metropolitan areas are Harbin, Changchun, Dihwa [Urumchi], and Ikh Khuren.

A number of nomadic empires and small tribes have inhabited the area now held by Xichudou, including the Munggul Empire of Genghis Khan, which was formed from the unification of several smaller nomadic tribes in the North Chinese Steppe in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The Munggul Empire eventually became the world's largest empire until its fall by approximately 1294, after which the groups of Munggul peoples fractured into decentralised rivals. Most of the east of modern Xichudou had become part of either the Russian Empire or the Qing dynasty by the early eighteenth century. During the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the Wu Revolt against the Qing dynasty resulted in the separation and a return to the disunited clan structure of the former post-Munggul Empire.

In the mid- to late eighteenth century, the man known contemporarily as "The Masked Man" conquered a number of small clans in the North Chinese Steppe under the previously insignificant Khakol clan, which he would go on to establish the Xichudou Mutual Defence Contract with. From this, the modern Xichudou confederation was formed. Xichudou rapidly expanded itself through conquest after its formation, reaching the Caspian Sea through wars with the clans of western Munggul and the Qazyc region. Xichudou invaded and conquered Chinese territory in the Xichudou-Qing War of the late eighteenth century and additionally fought the Cossack War in the mid-nineteenth century with the Russian Empire, taking land in Siberia. After siding with the Chinese in the First Sino-Japanese War and the later fall of the Qing dynasty in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Xichudou made its final major territorial expansion into the west of the former Qing lands, overthrowing a short-lived independent Tibetan state.

After the induction of the Taqlar state into Xichudou, the Masked Man proclaimed neutrality in the wider ideological conflicts the world was facing, and it thereby avoided major involvement in the Second World War, making it the world's only major power to do so. This neutrality would be put into serious question with the Soviet-Xichudou War, but despite concentrated efforts to forge a diplomatic relationship, the United States would ultimately fail to bring Xichudou into its camp. Xichudou has not since fought a major conflict, and it has remained under the effective rule of the Masked Man into the twenty-first century.

Xichudou is technically only a collection of states in a mutual military alliance, but it is effectively a confederation with an executive branch in the form of the Masked Man and, by extension, the Xichudou military, and a combined legislative and judicial branch in the form of the Court of Thigh High. The country is unique for maintaining an arm's length relationship with most of the world, though many individual states within Xichudou maintain separate foreign relations, especially with the West. While not officially a member of the United Nations, Xichudou is represented in that organisation as three separate non-member observer states (those being the Munggul, Qazyc, and Hanju). Xichudou is traditionally divided into four cultural groups, but several of its states maintain open immigration policies that have fostered multicultural environments.

Considered a potential superpower, Xichudou maintains one of the world's most powerful militaries and its third-highest GDP. However, the country is ranked very low in the Human Development Index, as wealth inequality is abundant, education is highly variable and not universally mandated, and access to quality healthcare is lacking in several areas of the country. Xichudou has also been criticised for neglect for human rights, especially and recently with regards to the Gongzou issue. The Qazyc states are collectively a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and also partake in a number of bilateral trade agreements, both individually and collectively. Several of the Hanju states have loose military and political agreements with the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, though by the XMDC they still legally recognise loyalty to Xichudou above any commitments made to other nations.

Etymology
The specific origins of the name Xichudou are subject to debate. Although it is commonly accepted in Xichudou culture to have its origins in the rise of the Munggul Empire as a word representing unity across diverse peoples, no known literature predating the Masked Man's rise to power in the late eighteenth century uses Xichudou in this way; the earliest known instance of the word being used to refer to the political entity is in the original Xichudou Mutual Defence Contract.

The most popular theory by etymologists has it that Xichudou was constructed with characters from Late Hagurén, an extinct language that was spoken in areas of Manchuria during the eighteenth century. This theory, which has the most significant evidence to support it out of the theories proposed by etymologists, has it that Xichudou was conceived from the characters cí, tú, and gōu, and that Xichudou meant Universal Way of Thought (literally 'Way of Thinking for All'). While this theory is in line with some of the earliest known transcripts of the Masked Man's speeches, critics of the theory have noted that the Masked Man's home clan would have been unfamiliar with Late Hagurén, and that the Masked Man himself would have had no reason to know the language. Other proposed theories include that Xichudou is derived from the obscure Nukkakul language that was once spoken by clans on the North Chinese Steppe, in which Xichudou may have meant 'Strong Light', and that the word Xichudou is wholly a construct of the Masked Man's with no actual etymological roots.

In Hanjuwén, as well as the Munggulkhen and Qazyc scripts, Xichudou is written phonetically (or as the closest phonetic equivalent in Qazyc script). 'Xíchúdōu' has been proposed for use in English as a more accurate rendering of the name's pronunciation in most of the country, but it has little traction compared to the widely-accepted Xichudou. Unlike the other three widely spoken languages of Xichudou, the Taqlar language does not pronounce Xichudou as 'Xíchúdōu', instead using 'Neshesh'chagku'. The limited available data has made tracking the origins of the Taqlar name for Xichudou difficult, and there exists no popular theories on the name. The written form of Neshesh'chagku varies wildly in the scant known Taqlar literature.