History of Elluenuueq
Conversion from Shirewiki in progress
A History of the Elwynn from the earliest times till the beginning of the current era. Written 'in-sim' and from a secular perspective, accounting for religious beliefs and interpretations where known or advised of. Hyperborean events are mostly excluded except where they impact upon the mainland. Similarly the overseas realms incorporated into Elwynn are only to be addressed when of relevance during the independence era.
Authorship
The History of Elwynn was first written down by the Irijah Prosper Arturion (1545–1624), a noted scholar and antiquarian famous for his boast of visiting each and every single one of the Bailiwicks of Elwynn.
His life's work was mostly a continuation and elaboration of the Histories of Ric Lyon interwoven with anecdotes relating to the various towns. After his demise the manuscript was unfortunately lost, however the Vice-Dean of the Library and academicians of the People's Academy of Elwynn are attempting a reconstruction of the work based upon the accumulated mass of research notes and the charred remains of the original tome.
Introduction
The earliest history of Elwynn was a function of its geography - the frozen fastness of the northern shores up to Cape Farewell, then curving round to the south and east in parallel to the Cimmerian isles and into the Taiga forests of Wintergleam, regularly blasted by boreal storms from Raikoth and Leng. The cold reaches deep down into the bones of the frozen earth, but it is the highlands of the north which form the catchment areas of the two great rivers, both named Elwynn - East and West, White and Blue, that are in turn the most salient and defining feature of the region. Elwynn Proper is the land between two rivers and it is those great rivers which connect it with more temperate climes.
The climate made a frontier, one that can still be observed today by tracing the southern edges of Amokolia, Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir,Agnesia and Wintergleam. On one side of this line, human existence could depend upon the plough and the tilled field, on slash-and burn agriculture carried out in the midst of a vast and unending primordial forest of deciduous oaks, elm, aspen, and birch. On the other side of this line, up in the Far Reaches, it was the skills of the herdsman, the trapper and the hunter upon which the hopes of survival rested. In the north there were no fixed villages, no harvests, no realms, no tribes and no temples - the colonisation of the northern fastness by the Raikothin would come much later. This divide would go a long way towards explaining the lack of permanence that underpinned Elwynnese history down into the Mediaeval period.
Origins: The Araxion Heartland
In mythology Utas, the Treesian God of Light, was believed to have brought the deity known as Elwynn to this area, which since ancient times is considered the primary source of the River Elwynn. Tradition attributed to him also the construction a tower at a spot of the banks of the aforesaid Great River of Benacia to protect the Goddess from the attentions of her twin brother Lest. The Tower of Araxion, named after its site is noted for its prehistoric foundations and as such can be considered one of the earliest stone structures on the continent.
There is some belief amongst Antiquarians and Ethnographers that the legends that have grown up around the Tower are a reflection of the role Araxion played in the prehistoric development of the proto-Elw 'Culture Groups'. It was from this ancestral homeland that the Elw, first as hunter-gatherers and then as pastoralists, would eventually expand outwards to dominate the north of Benacia, and in so doing give rise to the myriad tribes and warbands that would cause the early Shirerithian Kaisers such consternation that they were obliged to site their Imperial Capital at Shirekeep in order to defend and ultimately - at the expense of much blood and treasure - pacify the region.
The first tribal confederacy of proto-Elw are known to us from patchy Khaz Modanian records as the Shamerim of El. Shamerim means 'guardian' in old Benacian Hebraic and suggests a link between the Elw and the ancestors of the Ashkenatzim of Western Benacia. Similarly 'El' was one of the names of the god subsequently known as Jahweh. That the name in the east evolved into ʾēlîm, then to be conflated with the goddess Elwynn as the Treesian belief systems penetrated the continent from Goldshire is an interesting conjecture - but currently no more than that.
This can be seen in the names for Elwynn in the Elw language. The name for the people being for instance Ell (plural Elli), so that the lineage ʾēlîm>Elli whence comes the Common Tongue Elwys can be seen preserved down to the present day.
Clustered in villages around the great tower, which they either first built themselves or which they erected upon the ruins of what once stood before, the Elli in this early era were predominantly goatherds, with the great Tower as their market place as well as their ritual centre and place of refuge.
It is not believed that the Elli grew crops during early antiquity, however they are known to have traded with those who did, at least those are the conclusions gained from the examination of coprolite recovered from middens in excavated at the lower layers of old Elli settlements. The Elli were simple, but intelligent, harvesters and producers of food. Fresh meat was available according to need, and could be smoked or cured for storage until the winter months. Milk and cheese were plentiful and fruit, vegetables and pulses could be either foraged or traded for. The production of food surpluses laid the foundation for increasingly prosperous tribes.
These food surpluses increased the number of specialists that the herdsmen and foragers of the tribe could afford to sustain. These specialists in turn were responsible for making the tools and weapons or for mining the ores that could be used to make metals. Women of the tribes would be responsible for the spinning and weaving of goats wool. The earliest surviving examples of crude pottery in the region can also be traced back to this period.
The Elli typically lived in small villages comprised of circular whattle and daub huts with thatched roofs built around a wooden 'long-hut' orientated along an axis orientated towards the general direction of the Tower. This long-hut would typically serve the cult centre of the community. Archaeologists suggest that the end of the long-hut that laid along the line that would be the direction of travel towards the Tower had a raised platform built over a covered pit. This construct was concealed from the villagers, who would stand in the hall portion of the long-hut, by a screen of wood or fabric hung from an overhead beam. The purpose of the screen was seemingly to serve as a physical and symbolic barrier separating the sacred from the profane. Only the Shaman and his sons would be permitted to go behind the screen where they would officiate over rituals and ceremonies lost to history but hinted at by the discovery of charred and scored bones along with copper and brass trinkets found in the detritus of the pits set before the raised platforms. Here then was where the burnt offerings were made in order to propitiate El-ʾēlîm on behalf of the community that waited anxiously beyond the screen. These communities are believed to have been comparatively egalitarian, with the village chief or headman being at that stage a man chosen for his abilities rather than for his bloodlines. Only the blacksmiths were excluded from the community as men accursed and set apart - their forges being well outside of the huts arrayed around the long-hut, indeed often beyond the first or second ring of earth-mound and ditch fortifications which guarded these settlements. Fear of fire may have played a part in the exclusion, as might an apparent superstitious dread of the workers of hot iron that ranked them little better than the ghosts, fairies, witches, and other malevolent supernatural creatures which cold iron was supposed to repel.
Wars of the Cauldron
When the Elwys, as we shall hereafter refer to them, first began to push outwards from their Araxion core territory into the interior of the forested land between the two rivers they encountered at first inconsequential bands of hunter-gatherers who could be traded with, assimilated through intermarriage or killed if hostile without there being any inconvenience for the confederacy as a whole. Yet as their foraging bands pushed further north and west into the Ancient Midlands they began to encounter more determined resistance from hunting parties and warbands of an equal or greater size than their own. These were the Eraiseraislâi ('all the sisters of the Deer'). The 'sisters' were, as the name suggests, unusual in pre-modern societies, for the prominence accorded to women. Some have even gone so far as to describe them as a matriarchy, although this is disputed.
The story of their first encounter is an ignominious one. A quarrel over the carcass of a hind giving rise to the casting of spears and the exchange of insults, reprisals by either side and an unfortunate episode when Elwys hunters attempt to forcibly take the sisters for wives and end up being kidnapped themselves. Within a generation of the first encounter, however mythologised, the two groups were locked into cycle of warfare that began to revolve ever more frequently around a totemic item, the Cauldron of Tammuz.
The concept of the Sacred Vessel carrying ritual value and associations with renewal and regeneration can be found throughout pre-Treesian Elwynn. The universal elements of the myths surrounding the Cauldron of Tammuz with its alleged powers of rebirth and regeneration - the ability to make slain and maimed warriors live and whole again through immersion in the broiling dark broth - spoke to the animism of the Elwys and the Eraiseraislâi equally. There seems to have been an obsession with the fertility of the land and the forest, as well as with the people themselves. Possession of the Cauldron therefore became central to control of the rituals that, in their mind, regulated the passing of the seasons, the health of the herds and the migration routes of the prey sought by the hunters of both nations.
The Elwys as Conquerors and Raiders
Circa 530 AN - The first Elu Verion, an Elfinshi war-leader fought against the Cimmerians, barbarians from the islands of Cimmeria on the north-eastern shore of Benacia. These raiders attacked Elwynn with increasing frequency and held various points along the northern coast. This went back and forth for a while until Cimmeria was granted county status as part of Hyperborea.
Timeline
800s?: Treesian missionaries come to northern Elwynn, beginning around the northern coastlands, etc... in a quest to find the mythical homeland of the gods Elwynn and Lest. I figure the religion needs to have been in Elwynn for a long time for the people to resist Cedrism and all that...
-- When did the Elfinshi arrive? How did they get power in pre-Shirerithian Elwynn?
- Maybe some Amokolian wars? Machiavellians ("fake" Romans) conquered that area in the latter part of the 1400s, so before that I am sure the Amokolians were still there.
Pre-Shirerithian Period
1356: Kaiser John I assembles a vast army at Shirekeep and invades Elwynn. The Elw and Elfinshi, led by the Elu Verion bravely battle on.
1440: The last Elu Verion commits suicide in front of the remnants of his army. Effectively marking the end of organised Elwynnese resistance.
1444: Elwynn is fully occupied by Shirerithian forces, now known as Northshire by the imperial government.
1451: The Elfinshi aristocracy, meeting at Eliria, swear oaths of fidelity to the Kaisership. In exchange all land in Elwynn became their feudal territories. They become richer and more powerful than ever before.
Duchy of Elwynn
1452: Duchy of Elwynn established and not extending far beyond a fortified pale (area enclosed by a palisade) around Shirekeep. The Kaiser names Scott of Hyperborea as the first Duke of Elwynn, bypassing the Elfinshi elite, as the Kaiser did not fully trust the Elfinshi yet.
1469: Hyperborea annexed to Elwynn as barony.
1470: Ivan Ventura ascends the Ducal Throne of Elwynn.
1471: Duke Ivan is deposed by Scott of Alexander.
1476: Mari Greenwood succeeds Sirithil nos Fëanor as Duchess of Elwynn.
1478: Eros Darkstar appointed Bard of Elwynn. Hyperborea under Kalir Sethan reaffirms its allegiance to Elwynn and Duchess Mari Greenwood.
1484: First elections held in Elwynn. Austi Scot, baron of Novi Dalmacija, builds a statue in honour of Mari Greenwood in Novi Dalmacija.
1487: Kaiser announces plan to demote Elwynn from duchy-status to barony-status and give Hyperborea duchy-status. The Duchy government completely rejects the plan. Hyperborea offers compromise. Kaiser rejects compromise and reiterates his plan. Landsraad votes to demote Elwynn. Elwynn established as barony under the Duchy of Hyperborea.
The reduction of the Elwynnese nobility during the wars of conquest, the introduction of the Elfinshi under the nos Fëanor and Greenwood dynasts during the 1470's followed by the subsequent downfall of those Elvish houses during the looming Babkhan era would play a key part in forming the ultimately egalitarian nature of the Elw majority. The destruction of the indigenous landowning and warrior castes prevented the formation of a stratified aristocracy and led to the significant noble families that arose in the subsequent eras, Kalir, Osman, Ettlingar Freyu (Hyperborean, Babkhi and Froyalanish respectively) deriving from immigrant stock.
Beginning with the ascendancy of Sirithil nos Fëanor and accelerating with the succession of Mari Greenwood in 1476 the The Elfinshi (with their Menelmacari and Hyperborean allies) had a vested interest in keeping the Elw indentured.
The Elfinshi had embraced an ecologically aware and idyllic interpretation of the Soloralist faith and sought to structure their feudal society in a manner consistent with a return to nature whilst maintaining, for themselves, a high standard of material comfort. Regarding Menelmacar as an example of what becomes of a society perverted by a love of technology and martial power, Elwynn eschewed these values. Rejecting industry and technology in favour of sustainability. For that reason, the Elfinshi decided to make Elwynn a "reserve" built on tradition and the five quintessentialist truths. The environment would be catered for, things would be peaceful and beautiful. Everyone would sit in the tree tops and sing every day.
For the Elfinshi elite, at least, who lived in a clueless bubble of luxury and extravaganza as they sought to 'rewild' the landscape around them, in the name of the conservation of nature, of which their human subjects formed only an inconvenient part, albeit - as they conceded grudgingly - a necessary, part.
The native peoples, at this time mainly the Elw, toiled. The Elw were traditionally comprised of nomadic castes and clans; as such to be be forced to live and work in manorial estates with the 'soil grubbers' was a bitter insult to the hunters and herdsmen which fuelled resentment and animosity. The process of indenture inflicted on the Elw by the Elfinshi, saw them collectivised into settlements and made them work in agriculture regardless of their previous lack of experience, in construction and so on at the direction of Elfinshi manorial lords and ladies who ruled their beautifully crafted and fully sustainable ecolodges - that later grew to become grand treetop manors. As a consequence of the repudiation of modern technology, work was labour intensive and burdensome. These backbreaking, dangerous and slave-like conditions not only fuelled resentment against the Elfinshi but also began the process of breaking down the old tribal and caste identities of the Elw. Many Elw people died, of course as a natural result of being subjected to the living conditions attendant upon serfdom.
1st Babkhan Era
1488: Mari Greenwood abdicates in favour of Ardashir. First Babkhi epic on Lest published. Great Osmanid Charter proclaimed. Greenwood and entourage emigrate to Delvenus. Order of the Dead Stag established. Capital punishment reinstated, Hyperborea responds by putting Ardashir under house arrest and overturning all baronial laws, then occupying all of Elwynn. Civil War ensues. The Duke Rulak of Hyperborea (Locke) then further dissolves the Order of the Dead Stag. The Babkhan Shah made a diplomatic protest on behalf of his kinsman and the Kaiser responded by saying it's a ducal matter, pledges neutrality. Considered the year of Elfinshi genocide.
1489: Cease-fire called by Ardashir. Elf molestations, kitten drownings and puppy burnings are all halted (or at least suspended for the moment). Ardashir's rule restored.
1494: Donation of Elwynn. Temples of Cedrist worship to Ryvenna and B'caw established in Elwynn. Today's Bailiwicks of Ryventemple and B'cawshrine.
1495: Halluci dragons from Kildare are battered by Elwynnese artillery before the East Elwynn Sluices, flee into Goldshire. [And this entry still doesn't make any sense to me]
1496. Diplomatic crisis with Goldshire over the White Elwynn. Baron blames Goldshire for river piracy, orders cleansing of river.
1497: Military engagements with Goldshire.
1500: Elwynn is transferred to Arminian rule under the Barony of Hurmu. Large numbers of Hurmu immigration to Elwynn, mainly to Elwynn (civil service) and Cape Farewell. Immigration lasted until the end of the Froyalan era.
1501: Harald of Ettlingar Freyu is named Baron of Hurmu by Duke Johanns fonn Klosso of Arminy, thus becoming the liege lord of the County of Elwynn.
1502: First mention of the emergence of cults that would later form the Holy Church of the Divine Icebear.
1504: Elwynn becomes a Barony under Brookshire as the Barony of Elwynn and Lac Glacei, with David Northworthy Beckford as its Baron.
1506: Genocide reconciliation and commemorations begins in Richard Lyon's tour d'Elwynn.
1508: Richard Lyon succeeds David Northworthy Beckford as Baron of Elwynn and Lac Glacei. Umra Mosque opened in Eliria. Yardistan declares war on Elwynn for lack of collective punishment against the Babkhi community for the Elfinshi genocide. Baron Lyon forms militia. Halluci mass immigration to Illumination begun (along with dragons).
1509: Elwynnese borders closed to all but citizens of Elwynn, Lac Glacei, Brookshire, Amity, Mirioth, the Grand Commonwealth, Stormark, Cranda and Hallucination. County of Port Illumination established. Amir Osmani makes the Triumphant Folk speech, calls for boycott of Brookshire (under which Elwynn is a barony). Lesser Zjandaria established as Babkhi county (Ardashirshahr, Caligae and Vijayanagara Communes). Lady Vesteralen made a citizen of Elwynn (Not Shireroth) by Baron Lyon, provokes imperial government and married her. Elwynn raised to duchy, celebrations across the country, meanwhile protests in other parts of Shireroth against the foreignness of Elwynn, boycotts of Elwynnese products. Gudrun Eriksdotter is joined in matrimony with Duke Richard. Peace treaty between Yardistan and Elwynn.
1510: Duke holds discussion with nobles whether to join MSX (a flawed but briefly popular banking system), gets Imperial Smackdown (a form of direct intervention popular in the autocratic period). Formal creation of Counties of Lac Glacei, Araxion, Eliria and Utasia, and Íseirdia-la-Vraulalennir. Count Ozarka sues and indicts Lord Bill of Antya over a sexual slur. Chief Justice Davis hears case, then leaves it for lacking merits. Cease and desist order from Kaiseress Semisa on Vasroie's activities (Matthew Basil. Co-Baron of Port Ill. Byz.).
1511: Lac Glacei ceases to be a part of Shireroth, and as a consequence ceases to be a part of the Duchy of Elwynn too, under the provisions of the Centerflying Treaty.
1512-1513: The first and most serve of the Hunger Famines that would blight rural Elwynn during the course of the next two decades.
1514: Chief Justice Rob Davis dies. Marking the effective end of the implementation of the rule of law based on Babkhan domestic law.
1516: Harald of Ettlingar Freyu is granted the County of Wintergleam by Kaiser Alejian II. In exchange for the county grant the former builds the latter a castle-like house on the coast of Wintergleam, which is to this very day known as Alejian Castle.
1526: Andelarion inherits the throne of the Kingdom of Babkha as "Rashid Shahanshah".
1530-1533: The growth of absentee landlordism, endemic corruption and a generally pervading sense of lawlessness began to undermine the successes of the First Babkhan Era; a loss of confidence in Ducal authority combined with a series of disastrous harvests prompted by a devastating crop blight led to the Great Famine of Elwynn, which although less severe than the first Hunger Famine was more protracted in duration and keenly felt.
The circumstances of the first Babkhan wave of mass settlement in Elwynn remains a subject of some controversy. The present consensus of the Academy is that it came about as a consequence of a conspiracy of Ard-Baron Zirandorthel of Treesia and Sagart Siskind to strike a blow against the Soloralist faith beloved of the Elfinshi ruling classes and so clear a path for the revival of Treesian Unorthodoxy. The first stage was to convince the Kaiser to demote the Duchess, Mari Greenwood, to the rank and title of baroness, and to raise the Hyperboreans up to the dukedom in Elwynn's place. Kaiser Mors III readily acceded to this, harbouring his own dark suspicions about the loyalty of the Elvish race. In the face of Mari Greenwood's fulsome protests Elwynn was reduced to a vassal of Hyperborea. The next step was to find an external force to deliver the coup de grace to the Elves, a force that would neither tarnish the moral superiority of the Hyperboreans nor embroil Treesia openly with the dangers of Imperial politics.
Babkha and Treesia had been in a state of protracted warfare since a Babkhan conquest of the Fifth Isle was narrowly thwarted by a multinational coalition during the War of the Orchid, the conflict which some maintain inspired the creation of the Book of the Orchids, so it would not immediately seem likely that the Treesians and Hyperboreans would chose their most prominent adversary to be the agent of their work in Elwynn.
This was however the era of the 'Babkha-e Jihad', where the Babkhans had celebrated narrowly avoiding destruction in a Cold War with Tymaria by, with characteristic modesty, attempting to conquer the rest of the world, or at least those portions of Micras that were not adequately defended or closely watched. It would not take much inducement to tempt the Babkhans to enter the land of Elwynn and once events took their inevitable course (to quote Scott Alexander: "Wherever there are Babkhans, and people who are not Babkhans, there will be war") the paladins could be unleashed to restore order in the land once the Babkhans and the Elfinshi had reached a point of mutual exhaustion.
In this expectation however, the Hyperboreans and their Treesian allies were quickly confounded by the speed with which the demoted Duchess Mari Greenwood yielded power to the Babkhans led by Ardashir Osmani. Her reasons for yielding so quickly, in fact at all, have never been satisfactorily explained. On the one hand Ardashir was believed to have been quite free with blandishments and promises regarding the future prosperity and integrity of the realm - promises he could scarcely have intended to honour - that may have convinced her of his could faith. It was expected at the time that her choice of human successor would have been her loyalist supporter Conglacio Geiteskrank. Bribery and seduction were also hinted at, although considering the character of the new heir-designate the latter recourse has been deemed by many to be quite unlikely. Indeed it is entirely possible that she lacked a sound judgement of character or that she wished to find a way to punish Shireroth for her demotion.
It was the convergence therefore of Babkhan greed, Boreal-Treesian connivance, Elfinshi acquiescence and the hopes of the populace, that saw Baron Ardashir accorded a Joyous Entry into the city of Eliria at the beginning of spring and a ceremonial exchange of the baronial regalia with the departing Baroness Greenwood that formed, in a distant and remote way, an influence on the subsequent traditions of the Redizarai that has been revived and modified in the Froyalanish era. Indeed it may be speculated that many of the rituals that have proliferated around the Redizarai have been added with the intent of preventing a recurrence of this single most decisive and divisive event in Elwynnese history.
The upheavals occasioned by this change in the first instance manifested themselves in the form of the devastating Elfinshi War which saw the new Baron trying to assert himself in the face of a peasant's revolt, inter-tribal warfare, an attempt by the Duke of Hyperborea at deposing his wayward vassal and a diplomatic spat between the Kingdom of Babkha and the Imperial Republic of Shireroth. In spite of this Baron Ardashir was able to ride out the storm and establish his rule over the Barony.
The Babkhan era saw a marked socio-economic change in Elwynnese society. In the attitudes of the period the emphasis was on sins originating from economic motives, characterised by the depiction of Mari Greenwood and her retainers as the personifications of unearned reward. The welfare of the human community being prejudiced by the avarice and irresponsibility of the Elfinshi ruling classes. Ironically it was the arrival of Babkhan migrants, at the instigation of Hyperborean and Treesian interests, which saw the greatest upheaval, with the introduction of heavy industries such as gunpowder mills and iron works into what had previously been an agrarian and rural idyll sustained - at least in the Froyalanish telling - by the favour of the Goddess Elwynn herself and the suffused magic of the Elfinshi themselves.
In their place came a rough-hewed crew of Babkhan ghazis - holy warriors of the Zurvanist faith - merchants and engineers, all hungry for resources and land. Those who lived through the times perceived a catastrophic social and economic crisis arising from the wars of the late 1480's and the 1490's where the mortality rate approached 30% in some areas, causing a desperate shortage for the farms and the factories. In the next decade incomes for the surviving Elw peasants rose dramatically prompting socially repressive laws aiming to keep the peasantry tied to their places of work. A particularly harsh example was the Forestry Law promulgated by Baron Ardashir which can still be found within the Elwnameh body of customary law in Alalehzamin. The Forest of Elwynn itself was rapidly diminished during this period, with trees being felled for construction projects such as the damming of the West Elwynn and the construction of the East Elwynn Sluice as well as a doomed effort by Baron Ardashir to build two causeways by which an invasion of the Cimmerian Isles might have been mounted. In addition to these vainglorious projects the ever ravenous demands of industry for fuel and timber saw ever greater numbers of trees felled.
In spite of new tracts of land being opened up by deforestation to ever more intensive forms of agriculture imported from the Euran continent the export of grain back to the Kingdom of Babkha produced the desperate hunger famine of 1512-1533. The Babkhan settlers, faced by falling rent-rolls and deserted holdings, pressed their tenants harder still.
Insurrection however was, ironically enough, prevented by the efforts of Brookshire, Yardistan, Kildare and Goldshire to evict the 'foreigners' from the realm. The Elw had always considered themselves to be a people apart and when faced by their Southern neighbours, advancing as liberators, made common cause with the Babkhi and with the growing community of Stormarkers in Wintergleam who would eventually come to be regarded as the Froyalanish and the Haraldian Wintergleamish. This culminated during the so-called War of Vengeance when Count Harald of Araxion, and his battle-hardened retinue of Huskarls formed the core of the army that threw back the Antyan invasion fleet in the Battle of Vijayanagra, one of the decisive engagements of the war.
The failure of the Duke to provide effective famine relief or to curb the export of foodstuffs after the Great Famine of Elwynn took hold during the autumn of 1530 fatally undermined the legitimacy of the regime in the eyes of the populace and led to the worst instincts of human nature as hunger fed a groundswell in desperation that led to a steady and inexorable escalation of lawlessness to the point of near anarchy in some comital manors. The Duke's highways were no longer safe for travellers and even the still developing railway networks were subject to audacious raids - often by the very troops sent to patrol them.
This destructive period nonetheless saw the first commencement of Elwynn's struggle towards modernity that, within a century, would see an industrialised society arise from the ruins of the mediaeval world. Elwynn would cease to be a backwater and take its place at the top table of Shireroth.
Froyalanish Era
1533: Kaiser Mors V appoints Count Harald of Wintergleam to the White Orchid Throne and the latter becomes the Twelfth Ruler and Seventh Duke of Elwynn. Elwynn changes name to Froyalan. A security force with Duke Harald's Huskarls as its core commences with restoring law and order. Shipments of food from Gascony as well as Port Chloe and the Providence Plantations, two foreign Duchies which are also held by Harald of Ettlingar Freyu, provide famine relief.
1534: Duke Harald repeals all legislation which is in force in Froyalan and abolishes all offices in the Duchy, save for the office of Duke of Froyalan. Reinstatement of ducal decree by Duke Richard Lyon that abolished slavery, thraldom and indentured servitude. Duke prohibits grain exports to Babkha. This act, along with the introduction of new strains of the staple food-crops without susceptibility to blight, helped to end the cycle of periodically recurring famines that had so weakened the realm.
1535: Commencement of Tapferite immigration to Froyalan. Duke decrees that Froyalan is to be divided into the following Counties: Hyperborea, Wintergleam, Bjorngard, Cimmeria, Eliria and Utasia, Smjörkýr, Illumination, and Lesser Zjandaria and (re)assumes the County of Wintergleam. Richard Lyon, Carol Reeves and Nathan of Natopia inducted to the House of Ettlingar Freyu (Shireroth branch) as Rikard of Ettlingar Freyu, Carol of Ettlingar Freyu and Sigurd of Ettlingar Freyu, as well as rights of succession to the White Orchid Throne vested in the Ducal House aforesaid. Richard Lyon, Nathan of Natopia and Ardashir Osmani appointed counts of Eliria and Utasia, Smjörkýr, and Lesser Zjandaria, respectively. Legislation concerning the Donation of Elwynn of 1820 and the Monument Law of 2024 reinstated, both dates in ASC, at the petition of Count Richard of Eliria and Utasia. Løgting of Froyalan established, called to session, and its session opened with a ritual of the faith which would over time would become to be known as the Froyalanish Ancient Ways. Asgard Calendar made the official calendar of the Duchy of Froyalan. K'Tzuni bombs the West Elwynn Dam, Løgting contemplates war. Ducal Decree issued that made all residents of the Duchy of Froyalan, regardless of their race or ethnicity, equally eligible for appointment to public service.
1536: Hesam Jahandar named Count of Hyperborea. Ducal Decree issued to formalize the vast array of sweeping powers possesed by the Duke of Froyalan under the Udal Law to protect individuals from harassment, bullying and other forms of harm inflicted by heinous, unruly and subversive elements. Counts given power to deport individuals from their Counties. Duke names Freyja patron goddess of Elwynn/Froyalan, the people respond by mass-demonstrations; some in favour, some against. Araxion repatriated by Duke Harald. Creation, at the initiative of Duke Harald, of the Baronies of the Elw, Fórntida Kærleikalanden, and Opplysta Smørvirket by the Landsraad.
1537: Duke Harald becomes the Baron of the Fórntida Kærleikalanden. Richard Lyon is appointed Baron of the Elw, Nathan of Natopia is appointed Baron of Opplysta Smørvirket.
1539-1542: The Duke is largely away from Froyalan, fighting in the war over Bosworth - which is known as the War of Jeremy's Nose/Redoubt Island War/Gascon Campaign and in which the "Elwynnbrigaden" defence force plays a key part - for which he was awarded the title King of Bosworthians by Kaiser Hasan I.
2nd Babkhan Era
1542: Duke Harald abdicates, Kaiser Hasan (Hesam) succeeds. Elwynn is restored as name of the duchy. Hasan is shot by Ardashir in Ardashirshahr, Rashid Andelarion succeeds as Kaiser Ayreon. Ardashir II Moqtada al-Osman succeeds Hesam as Duke of Elwynn. Løgting becomes Elwynns Riksdag. Abolition of all Baronies. The episodic Ayreon-Loki Civil War that will define Elwynnese public life for the next sixty years begin over the disputed succession to the Golden Mango Throne. Initially the Ayreonist faction prevails. Byzantopol, a city founded by Jahandar exiles employed by Automat Inc. emerges in Bjorngard as a self-regulating polity (robocracy), a precursor to the Raikothian system of Oracles and the modern Coordinated State. Some consider this to be rather disconcerting.
1542-1543: The Kai Aphmyarkaiph, a Hyperborean military campaign which resulted in the destruction of Babkhi political power for a generation.
Early Modern Era
1543: Wil Nider made duke by Kaiser Ayreon.
1544: Kaiser Ayreon commits suicide.
1545: Kaiser Loki III undoes all changes made to the government of Elwynn by Duke Ardashir II Moqtada al-Osman and appoints Scott I of Hyperborea Lord Protector of Elwynn. Brief return of Løgting and Froyalanish Era Baronies.
1546: Iskander Mirkdale named duke of Elwynn. Subdivisions are reformed in the so-called Age of the Megamod. Løgting is renamed Council at Eliria.
1549: Elwynn's legislature becomes known as Council of Eliria in stead of Council at Eliria.
1550: Uprising against the Duke, "White Lily Revolt". Publication of the Foibles of the Unbelievers results in riots.
1551: Year of the Four Dukes (Iskander Mirkdale, Jacobus, Rai Avon-El, Andrew Allot). Ayreon finally buried at Cape Faewell. People's Academy established.
1552: Alumelith massacre (Ohl'Tar)
1553: Ohl'Tar Revolt
1554: Causality War sees the use of the "Narrativity Bomb" on the Ohl'Tar infestations in Agnesia and the final extermination of that species.
1555: Duke Nathan leaves throne to Leo Fenrir. Amokolia war affects Elwynn.
1556: Ocia bombs Caligae and Civitas Nova.
1558: Leo abdicates in favour of Isabelle Allot.
1559: Isabelle Allot abdicates in favour of Cho'gall.
1560: Eliria is temporary war capital of Shireroth
1562: Duchy of Elwynn destroyed by Kaiser, House System implemented, House of Kalir founded, Daniel Kalirion (former Duke of Brookshire) named patron.
Independence
1567: Declaration of Independence of Elwynn. Daniel Kalirion named president (raes) of the Elwynnese realm.
1568: Ardashir blows the Elwynnese Congress up in protest at the slow pace of negotiations with Shireroth and also at Lord Erion's continued retention of his own limbs.
1569: Independence recognized by Shireroth in peace treaty, Shireroth reclaims East Elwynn.
1570: Lord Erion elected President.
1572: Amokolia issues its Midnight Declaration, leaves Victoria and joins Elwynn.
1573: Elwynn and Hurmu merge to become Realm of Elwynn and Hurmu. Provisional government and elections. Persecution of Butter Cow followers in East Elwynn.
1574: Daniel Kalirion elected Prince of Elwynn and Hurmu.
1582: Elwynn adopts the name Elwynn, Amokolia and Hurmu (Riqi Adurellion).
1584: Kolmenitzky embassy crisis. Ardashir rehabiliated by Senate.
1585: Natopia becomes Elwynnese protectorate.
1586: Daniel Kalirion is assassinated at Cape Farewell. Nathan is elected Prince.
1587: "Elwynn, Amokolia and Hurmu (Riqi Adurellion)" becomes "Union of Elwynn, Amokolia and Hurmu."
1588: Daniel's son Elijah becomes Kaiser of Shireroth as Kaiser Ayreon II, married Prince Nathan of Elwynn.
1589:
- Natopia adopts the Act of Termination, thus terminating Elwynn's protection over Natopia (protectorate ended).
- Renegade Emir of Sathrati, Kaspar Soleiman, took the Elwynnese Senate, the Prince of Elwynn and the Kaiser of Shireroth, hostage in the Senate House of Eliria Castle. Prince Nathan was caught in crossfire during a poorly coordinated hostage rescue operation mounted by the Union Defence Force and Babkhan commandos. The operation descended into a three-sided fire-fight between renegade Babkhan mercenaries, Babkhan special forces and Babkhan trained Elwynnese soldiers, all sporting similar uniforms and the same equipment. By the time order was restored, the Prince was mortally wounded and Eliria Castle was ablaze. Kaspar was taken alive and extradited to Babkha, where he was personally beaten to death by the Grand Vizier for bringing disgrace and shame to the name of Farzan Shahanshah, their Lord the Radiant Sun. People's Academy of Elwynn restarted by order of the Regent of Elwynn, the Senator Aurangzeb Osmani.
1590: Elijah Ayreon elected Prince of Elwynn. "Union of Elwynn, Amokolia and Hurmu" becomes "Elwynnese Union"
1592: Elijah Ayreon declines re-election, Aaden Allot elected prince. Normark joins the Elwynnese Union. Raspur Pact signed.
1593: Nau is adopted by Elijah and Nathan.
1594: Aaden Allot impeached and removed, Luix Rakira ruling Steward. Air Mango incident, bombings in East Elwynn and the Absentias.
1595: Elijah Ayreon elected Prince once more.
Re-unification
1597: Albion admitted as UT. East Amokolia Act reduces Amokolian UT's territory and gives it to Elwynn proper. Elijah Ayreon declines re-election, Tarjei Einhornsson elected Prince against Jacobus Loki but Constitutional Coup backed by Shireroth sees the Usurper take power instead. The people of Elwynn protest against re-unification, but Loki gathers enough political support to pass the required bill in the Senate. A group of Senators who previously supported Tarjei Einhornsson refuse to recognise the re-unification as lawful, but are quickly overtaken by the harsh reality.
1598: Omnitree Group nationalized by Govt. Mass protests. Normark declares independence. Elijah Ayreon murdered by Sisera in Wahlstadt. Steward Jack Lewis, a staunch opponent of re-unification, attempts suicide and slips into a coma. Misguided messianic cults begin to proliferate. Euran Apocalypse results from the atomic self-immolation of the Kingdom of Babkha. Wave of Babkhan refugees to both the Elwynnese Union and feudal East Elwynn.
1599: Hurmu independence from Elwynn.
1600: Treaty of Unification with Shireroth ratified, Soreaa Isurui made Secretary of the State in the provisional government. Tirlar, Albion and Amokolia made independent.
1601. New constitution enacted. Deimos Jasonides elected prince. The Ayreonist Independence Party is formed as a protest against the re-unification. Jack Lewis returns to the national stage as its first chairman. The party does suprisingly well in the first Congressional elections after the re-unification.
1602: The Cabbage Plague sees the ecology of the lower reaches of the Blue and White Elwynn Rivers devastated. The Red Elwynn becomes utterly devoid of life. Owing to the high levels of accumulated toxicity, the populations of Shirekeep, the Imperial County and the County of Lesser Zjandaria rapidly succumb to an aggressive strain of the Barentsz-Melang Syndrome (Brassicosis) previously only documented in Leng and the Absentias. "Triumph of Rrakanychan" painted by an excitable Batavian artist based on lurid eye-witness accounts; southern regions of the State of Elwynn destabilised and the Quarantine enforced by General Royston Merrick necessitated increasing military interventions into the Imperial County.
The Coordinated State
- Main article: Coordinated State of Elwynn
1603: "Restoration of the People's Government", congressional elections follow an unsuccessful putsch staged by Merrick, the first - self-styled - Conducător.
1604: Constitutional Coup by Stewardess Soreaa Isurui. Deimos voted out , Nathaniel elected prince.
1605: Nathaniel/Soreaa deposed, Coordinated-Government instituted by second Conducător Daniel Simrani-Kalirion, Nathaniel remains nominal prince. Constitution is placed into venerated-occultation and replaced by the Charter of Coordination. The Counties are replaced by 182 Bailiwicks with authority devolved to Governors and Municipal Guild Corporations supervised by Wardens in Elwynn Proper and the Marches (Northern, Eastern and finally Western). Communism declared and the State refuses to recognise or accept transactions in fiat currency. Private wealth and ownership permitted to continue.
1606: Remaining Corporations nationalised. All private wealth confiscated and remaining money withdrawn from circulation and effectively outlawed. Black Market proliferates. With the demonetisation of the economy and the drive towards self-sufficiency under Guild Communism the Coordinated State has struggled to maintain a sufficient caloric intake for the population during periods of crisis, particularly during the ecological disaster occasioned by the Brassican War in Shirekeep and after the disruptive impact of demonetisation manifested itself upon the pre-existing markets and supply-chains for foodstuffs. Starvation however was avoided by the rapprochement with Goldshire yielding favourable supply deals with the Goldshire Real Ale & Beverage Board and also through the ruthless exploitation of the established fisheries of the northern-hemisphere (some of which are consequentially close to collapse). Goldshire gets peace of mind in return.
1607: Nathaniel declared dead. Daniel Simrani-Kalirion elected Prince. Purges of the Guild of Aldermen by the Court of the Prince and the Court of Star Chamber target the last remnants of the landowning feudal gentry and the formerly capital owning bourgeoisie. Replaced by elite technocratic leadership cadres chosen by merit. Charles Froughton made subject to Pastoral Care Order and dies of an unexpected heart attack. Disorder in the Bailiwick of Fieldberg.
1608: Third Congressional Elections sees Nationalist & Humanist Party remain the largest party but lose overall majority. Coalition negotiations begin. Court of Star Chamber begins reviewing suitability of congressmen elected to represent Conservative & Republican Party. The Kingsgate Treaty of Non-Aggression and Cooperation signed between the Coordinated State and the neighbouring Duchy of Goldshire on Eljere, 11 Elroqpinu 1608.
1609: Beginning of the Icebear Rebellion. The Theocracy of Elwynn is declared. Icebearian troops march to Eliria and briefly besiege the city. Martial law declared on Ermure the 10th of Vixaslaa, 1609 and UDF troops swiftly crush the rebellion on the mainland and captured the most prominent Icebearian leaders, including Jaqen X'halar and Tom Cruise. Coordinated State offices ransacked in the Cimmerian Isles, marking the beginning of the Cimmerian Conflict.
1610: The Holy Church of the Divine Icebear is banned. High Priest Jaqen X'halar dies in prison. The Cimmerian Conflict continued, straining the ability of the UDF to pacify islands beset by rebellious religious groups and rogue transhumanists. With the burning of the town of Ursulabýr on the Cimmerian Island of Snowhawk the authority of the Coordinated State was confined to the Bailiwick of Wolfraven.
1611: The Coordinated State issues a ban on money. Capitalist protests break out all over Elwynn. Aasmund Vigeland, an obscure Norse colonial born in Zanzibar in 1581, began his rapid - some might say preposterous - ascent through the ranks of the UDF, sponsored by elements within the regime who sought to strengthen the Norse faction of the armed forces at the expense of the Babkhi.
1612: After losing the confidence of many in failing to restore order in Cimmeria, Steward Tokaray al-Osman was overthrown and exiled. The successful putsch was organised by the Panopticon Department and the Cabal of Government, led by three UDF generals; Laqi Hyrrion, Danyial Dravot & Brigadgeneral Fredrik Anders. It was widely suspected at the time that the coup was at least tacitly supported by Simrâni-Kâlirion and Councillor Deimos Jasonides, alarmed at the power being wielded in Elwynn by the Babkhi.
The Communist Era
1612: A deranged Amokolian assassin made an attempt on the life of Kaiser Mo'll I, merely damaging the feral ghoul he kept as companion. This horrible diplomatic faux-pas, whilst quickly resolved, gave the Cabal of Government the opportunity to publicly announce the removal of Dr Tokaray al-Osman, owing to 'strain'. Aasmund Vigeland, a Norse populist and UDF veteran, rose to prominence as Steward of Elwynn after the hospitalisation of Dr Tokaray al-Osman. The Cabal of Government, seeking to capitalise on the propaganda campaign by which they had elevated Vigeland's profile and advanced him to high command within the space of a few short years, orchestrated his appointment to the stewardship.
1613: Emboldened by the decline of the Nationalist & Humanist Party and infighting amongst the regime leadership the Elwynnese Workers' Party declared the Prince to have been hospitalised in a sanatorium and in a bloodless coup replaced the Coordinated State with a Democratic People's Republic. Vigeland declared the revolution to have occurred on Emure the 10th of Laemill, but in practice the defection of the Panopticon Department to the Workers Party meant that the transition had in effect begun weeks earlier before anyone had realised. celebrated his success by proclaiming himself Chairman of the Presidium of the Standing Committee of the Supreme Council.
1614: Dr Tokaray al-Osman escaped from the Dragonsfold Contentment & Wellbeing Clinic attached to Dragonsfold Gaol. In keeping with the traditions of the Coordinated State, it was believed that his supervisors, or rather his captors, were seeking via guided counselling to discuss with the Doctor the various misdeeds of his life and the consequent pressures of guilt that he might - they would suggest - be feeling. When individuals in counselling or subject to preventative detention begin to suffer from acute emotional distress that amounts to suffering contrary to their human dignity it has often been the case that the State was willing to - reluctantly - offer euthanasia for the patient. It is not known for sure whether that offer was extended in this instance, but evidently the discussions held on that ward had a profound effect on al-Osman. So profound in fact that he was inspire to the point where he paused only to dig out the heart of his psychiatrist with a spoon before carving a bloody path to freedom leaving a dozen dead and a riot in his wake. Little is known of his subsequent movements save that they point through a trail of accounts of arson, assault and larceny towards an escape into the badlands of Western Benacia. There, rumour has it, he was subsequently been spotted in the company of a minor bandit known as Sighvat, an individual who primarily subsists by raiding small Tellian communities in the Vale of Angularis and is unlikely to ever amount to much.
1614:
1615:
1616:
1617:
Kalirion Restoration
1618: Prince Nathaniel of Elwynn institutes, subsequent to the collapse of the Communist regime, the Constitution of the Elwynnese Union which made the Elwynnese Union an constitutional monarchy. This event is known as the Ayreon-Kalirion Restoration. However, after being displeased with the political infighting and the resulting gridlocks in the Congress, Nathaniel performs an autocoup. Changes the democratic constitution to concentrate powers in his own hands. However, Bous has a different plan, causes Nathaniel to ascend to Dairyland, Nathaniel declared dead. His cousin Jonathan inherits the Elwynnese throne.
Jonathan was a disappointing prince, but he had cemented his power on the imperial level. In 1620, after Aasmund Vigeland's fall from Kaiseress Isa IV Cassandrae's grace, Jonathan became the heir to the Mango throne. Vigeland and the Kaiseress died within seconds of one another, and Jonathan was immediately elevated to Kaiser of Shireroth, taking the name Ayreon III.
As kaiser, he neglected much in Elwynn, letting local bailiwicks rule themselves.
However – there were attempts at better organizing Elwynn territorially. The various lands were created, of which Kiladôr became the most famous.
1619:
1620: Aasmund Gudmundssønn Vigeland was openly assassinated in Shirekeep on the orders of Isa IV Cassandrae, Kaiseress of Shireroth. To this day, nobody knows why, although it was most probably a belated realisation on her part that an avowed revolutionary was a poor choice of Steward for the Imperial Republic.
1621:
1622:
If the Coordinated State had some redeeming features on account of its ruthless efficiency in combating enemies, foreign and domestic, and in countering the catastrophic ecological consequences of the Brassican Crisis, the Democratic People's Republic was an unmitigated fiasco. After a few years of continuing the worst aspects of the preceding regime's economic policies combined with a boilerplate Marxist constitution and an uncompromising stance of enforcing atheism on all national communities within the State, it came as no great surprise that the leading communists finished their days in His Serenity's Prison Dragonsfold - kept alive to witness the moment that an absolute monarchy possessed of the most literal belief in the divine right of kings, was instigated. A most stinging rebuke for their reckless folly in destroying the work of generations in the pursuit of Utopia.
Vanic era
1623: 9 Vixaslaa: Prince Jonathan abdicates, leaving the princehood to Noah under Noah's fathher Hallbjörn Haraldsson's stewardship. Hallbjörn immediately signs the Concordat of Avaldsnes, granting the Vanic church extensive rights and securities in Elwynn's until-then secular society. Decrees to establish a state song for Elwynn that becomes so unpopular that the every-day Elwynnese ends up only knowing the parody words to it sung in pubs.
1624: Steward Hallbjörn announces the one-million manifest, whereby one million Storish people every year would be granted residency rights (and property and work) upon setting foot in Elwynn. Concordat of Avaldsnes ratified by Landsraad, perpetuating the Vanic supremacy in Elwynnese civil society. Hallbjörn decrees the return to "elf snuggling" for the Elfinshi population. New territorial division enters force, Elwynn is now divided into several princely precincts. Harald decreed to be patron saint of Elwynn, despite not being Christian nor dead. New rules for succession which excludes those not descended from High King Harald from it.
1625: Lady Elwynn appropriated by the Vanic church to fill the role of Freyja. Worship cult of Freyja transferred to Lady Elwynn.
1626: Sonta Green, Lady of Iserdia, emigrates.
1627:
1628:
1629: Prince Noah elevated to King of Elwynn by constitutional amendment. The Union Defence Force reestablished.
1630: Prostitution and catamitate outlawed by decree.
1631:
1632: Elwynn cedes Mishalan to the communist government, gets the entirety Vale of Angularis (formerly Transelwynn Territory) as compensation from the imperial government.
1633: Regency under Prince Hallbjörn ended; King Noah rules in his own right. Later the same year, Noah marries then Grand Duchess Noor of Goldshire at a cermony in Craitish Hurmu.
1634:
1635: Noah's and Noor's son Vilhjalm is born, becomes first in line to Elwynnese throne. First Elwynnese legislative elections since Nathaniel's coup. The Froyalanish party Royal Union gets a plurality of seats (163) followed by the Ayreonist Independence Party (144) and the Nationalist and Humanist Party (81). Results in Cimmeria deemed invalid by the royal government which allocated seats in that county according to a statistical formula.
1636:
1637:
1638: Noor gives birth to Noah's second son, Esther of Anglia.
1639:
1640:
1641:
1642:
1643:
1644: Kaiser Dominus travels through Elwynn, beginning in Tuulersbyur in the west, on a state visit. Upon the Kaiser's return in Shirekeep, he is assassinated (Year of the Four Kaisers). Elwynn remains stable, Landsraad prætor Fjorleif hosts the Landsraad sessions in Alejian Castle in Wintergleam. The Landsraad elects Noor to Kaiseress of Shireroth.
1645:
1646:
1647:
1648:
1649:
1650: Kaiseress Noor murdered by her son Adam, succeeded by Adam's four-year-old son Vidar. Imperial Steward Kyle Kilynn issues Imperial Decree 940 which disestablishes the communist government in Mishalan in accordance with the Treaty of the Two Bears, and then cedes the territory to Elwynn. Protests erupt in Mishalan and all over the Imperial Republic, including in Elwynn, where a wave of resignations - especially in Babki majority regions in the south of the country signalled the beginning of a new crisis of legitimacy for the regime.
The frivolities and all-consuming vanities of the Froyalanish monarchy eventually had the cumulative effect, over the course of a generation, of hollowing out Elwynnese civil society and inflicting near irreparable damage to "Elwdom", the sense of ethno-linguistic and cultural unity which had sustained an Elwynnese national consciousness during the myriad crises of ages past. Because of the Froyalanish emphasis on playing up the separateness of Elwynn's ethnic groups in order to effect a divide and conquer strategy for ruling Elwynn and thereby subordinate it to their own overpowering cultural hegemony, there was no-longer any real sense of unity in the realm, and when the facade of Vanic power was smashed during the Auspicious Occasion, the land was riven by ethnic and regional separatists with dire consequences for the future.
Auspicious Occasion
1651:
1652:
First Elwynnese Republic
1653: Senate amends Constitution, which King Vilhjalm signs into law. Elwynn becomes a republic with Vilhjalm as Prince of the Elwynnese Republic. He resigns shortly thereafter to contract a loyal-subject relationship with King Ryker of Goldshire due to caste shame. Senate elects Liv Dravot to Princess, the first female head of Elwynn since Soreaa Isurui's resignation in 1601.
1654:
1655:
1656: Heath Belledin proposes a law to posthumously annul Noor's marriage with the exiled Noah. Senate adopts it with the important support of Noor's son Aldin.
1657: Late in the year, in a controversial election, the Senate selects Aldin to be the next Prince (to take office in 1658)
1658: First Elwynnese elections since 1635. Congress meets with a working majority of N&H and DA under the congressional presidency of Gozar Ismailabadi (N&H).
1659:
1660: Elwynnese Civil War begins and continues until 1662. The Holy Realm of the Faithful Tribes of the Great North established in northern Elwynn as an Icebearist government.
1662: The White Elwynn Accords end the civil war with a compromise peace granting sweeping autonomy to the Leagues of the Republic and installing Eki Verion as Princess.
1663: Eki Verion's sweeping appropriations, taking most inter-state corporations operating in Elwynn into public ownership, plunges the Republic's economy into a severe recession. The crisis in government meanwhile, only exacerbated by the civil war, continued - culminating in a months-long process of varying decrees of professionalism to determine what punishment should be dealt to Armin Jamal-Arminzadeh for his part in the constitutional debacle. Ryker Everstone, a Senator of Elwynn for his part in the Auspicious Occasion, and enjoying the certitude of a sovereign, brought the torturous quasi-judicial procedure to an abrupt end by killing the former President of the Senate because, in his own words, "I have places to be, dammit".
Second Partition of Elwynn
1664: Southern League secedes from Elwynn whilst remaining within the Imperial Republic.
1665: Second peace. Formal partition into the Northern Realm (The Holy Realm of the Faithful Tribes of the Great North) and several top-level imperial domains.
1666:
1667:
1668:
1669: Peace in the North. Imperial–Verionist peace agreement. Verionists return to imperial fold. Imperial Dominion of the Northern Reaches established in place of the Icebearist government. Duchy of Akordionnyr established to cover Alalehzamin, Utasia, Eliria and Araxion. Out of Verionist pressure, County of Fieldburg established.
1670:
One of the ironies of history has been that the Elwynnese diaspora, driven from their lands by the Froyalandisation of their homeland, rallied to the point where they ascended to high office in Shireroth, and finally returned in triumph to Eliria after the Auspicious Occasion, but then discovered that they had lost their connection to the land of the parents and grandparents. Neither Aldin nor Eki managed successfully to heal the growing rift between the populace and the emigres nor did they address the growing disunity of the land between the two rivers. In consequence the fate of the Elwynnese Republic looked increasingly bleak - presaging either demotion to dominion status or dissolution altogether.
Restored Independence
- For more information, see Kalirion Fracture.
1671: Elwynnese nationalism surged, the Elwynnese Popular Front was founded, and secures a strong opposition block in the Shirerithian Folksraad. The end of an Elwynnese polity in Shireroth, had the ironic effect a stronger Elwynnese identity. The Popular Front moved for a vote of no confidence in the imperial stewardship, and the vote was carried. In the days after, chaos ensued, in which Kaiser Ayreon IV was assassinated, and independence movements sprang up across Shireroth. An Elwynnese Republic was proclaimed on 16.VIII.1671 under the transitional leadership of Conducator Pedyr Mekaarveq (EWP), though at this point, Elwynnese control across its territories was, at best, dubious, especially as four days later, the Shadow Witch Council in Leng take power in Leng and Hyperborea under the flag of two joined "Boreal Kingdoms". At the same time, imperial troops entered Akordionnyr with the view to restore imperial order north of Shirekeep and retake Elwynn. Local authorities there called the Black Legions for help, as Elwynnese government was at this point too disorganized to actually do anything but proclaim liberal feel-good virtues. These virtues were also a consideration for Black Legion assistance, as they were thought of as a counter-ideology to the prevailing national humanism of southern Elwynn. As such, with a benevolent Black Legion occupation of Akordionnyr (at this point renamed Alalehzamin), the northern liberals were forced, if they desired a united Elwynn, to acknowledge national humanism as a prevailing ideology. Negotiations took place in Alalehzamin on the future direction of the Elwynnese state. Although a return to the Coordinated State of Elwynn was at first proposed by Alalehzamin, the end compromise was a federal Elwynn of two equal parts, the congress-run north and the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic in the south. Mekaarveq was replaced by Conducator Firdaus Abdollahi Mehr (N&H). Under Mehr's government, Elwynn took a more aggressive role in restoring order accross the republic, including retaking ceased territories by the so-called Boreal Kingdoms on mainland Benacia and Cimmeria. The Union Defence Force is reestablished through conscription, and trained by the Black Legions.
1672: The Elwynnese transitional government begin negotiations on a final constitution for the Elwynnese state. At the same time, Mehr leads military attacks on Hyperborea and Leng, in order to bring them back to the Elwynnese fold. Faced with a stronger Elwynnese and more Vulture State power, the Imperial Government begins negotiations on Elwynnese independence with Elwynn. Elwynn holds princely elections for the new position of head of state – in a close race against Firdaus Abdollahi Mehr, Ander Avon-El secures a majority. At the same time, northern Elwynn holds congressional elections where a majority coalition, the National Vanguard of Elwynn, consisting of the Elwynnese Workers' Party, the Ayreonist Independence Party and the Verionist Union take power under the conducatorship of Stephen Lewis. While the Elwynnese Republic initially sought to have all of Amokolia under its wings, western Amokolia had decided to offer the Amokolian throne to Batavian king Arkadius des Vinandy. As such, both the Vinandy Kingdom of Amokolia and the Elwynnese Republic claimed the entirety of the Amokolian homeland. Some skirmishes almost occurred along the line of control between them. In the end, relations could be established, and negotiations began on treaties between West Amokolia (as the kingdom would be known in Elwynn) and Elwynn. Some border skirmishes occured also in Wintergleam, where the line of control changed (with Elwynn losing some inner Wintergleam bailiwicks to Suthergold but in exchange seize control over large parts of Suthergold's coastline).
1673: On the first day of the year, Ander Avon-El is inaugurated as Prince in a low-key ceremony – in line with the prevailing mood of republican austerity in the country. A few days later, he visits Alduria for the inauguration of its new President Alejandro Campos. Friendship firmly established between the two young republics. Restoration of the Elwynnese Republic continued with more negotiations on the final touches of the constitution, as well as rebuilding of roads, houses, infrastructure, communications, etc, across the Republic. Living standards begin to slowly become better with the extension of peace. Problems remain, however, over the status of "foreign workers" (in this case referring to the former community servants in Elwynn who remain in employment of their masters/employers). Integration of loyal subjects into the Elwynnese citizenship goes largely well, aside from classism and other issues. However, with everyone suffering economically from the Kalirion Fracture, solidarity between all social groups prevailed, as class differences decreased in the past few years. The Elwynnese Workers' Party's propaganda machinery should in the north be thanked for moderating solidarity between social groups rather than using class differences for political points. Some struggles appear though as the EWP begin questioning free-trade deals proposed to the Elwynnese government from West Amokolia, as they fear a new bourgeoisie could be formed. However, AIP and VU, with the support of N&H, were adamant that free trade was necessary for Elwynn's economic reconstruction.
Verionist troubles
(V–XIV.1673)
The new Elwynnese state had its first major controversy with the Verionist-run Imperial Dominion under the Administration of the Iron Company (the official name of the government of Elsenar) declaring that it wished join the Elwynnese Republic. Although the Shirerithian Regency immediately condemned this, this was not why there existed a controversy. The Prince began preliminary negotiations with the Iron Company as he received their declarations, but once the matter was brought to the Council of Eliria for the mandate of negotiations, the two Alalehzamini (N&H) representatives (Salvik Dorkolluerion and Firdaus Abdollahi Mehr )veto the continuance of negotiations with the Iron Company. As such, the Prince had no mandate to continue the negotiations in any form and negotiations ceased immediately. The Verionist Union condemned the veto and expressed its indignation at the "senseless" veto, which obliged Dorkolluerion to publish extracts from the Council minutes. The Elwynnese press, especially in the South, responded favourably to the following lines:
- "In what fresh hell of jumbled geography is Elsenar now to be considered Elwynnese territory?"
- "It makes no geographic or political sense... the Elwynnese nation is the land between the two rivers - Elsenar is so far from the river that it is practically in Jingdao."
- "The Verionists should have consulted the map before making the proposal."
The matter was thereafter considered done, and the Elwynnese government moved forward with other matters on the agenda, such as the admission to the MTO, which had been ratified at that time. The Council of Eliria unanimously ratified the General Membership Treaty and the Convention on the Law of the Seas.
The Iron Company-led government in Elsenar declared its loyalty to the Verionist antikaiser (Kaiser Verion II). This had immediate ramifications in Elwynnese politics, aside from the fast drop in Eliria’s stockmarket. Media turned on the Verionist Union, calling that party unreliable, traitorous, and a danger to Elwynnese independence and to the peace. The feudalist “remoaner” Democrat Party took the opportunity of becoming a leading voice against the Verionists, especially in Congressional Elwynn, where it called for new elections, proclaiming the Verionists of being unworthy of leading the congressional government. Verionist Union support in opinion polls fell rapidly, while the Verionist headquarters in Eliria scrambled to find good excuses, such as a solemn affirmation to the Elwynnese nation that it had no political ties with the Iron Company or with the Antikaiser. This did not help, as the party avoided answering the questoin of “any ties with the Iron Company” in a clear manner. With support from the N&H, the Democrats led a vote of no confidence in the congressional government, hoping that at least some EWP backbenchers would vote to end the government. However, the congressional government narrowly survived the vote, with the EWP voting in favour of the government amidst heavy whipping from party HQ.
While this hurt the EWP voter base, the EWP attempted to sway opinion in favour of the government by saying that the coalition was the best way possible, under the current circumstances, to protect workers' rights, equality, social rights, access to health, social insurance, and education. Leaving the coalition would put the Elwynnese working class in much danger with all their rights eroding. A spokesman for the Ayreonist Independence Party, however, declared that Shireroth is a failed state, not worthy of existing, and that he was certain that the Iron Company was acting within the limits of law, and in the interests of its shareholders. He denied knowledge of any Elwynnese organisations or companies owning shares in it. He also put blame on the political crisis on the N&H, saying that if that party hadn't vetoed Elsenar's accession to Elwynn, the Iron Company would never had felt the need to take these unprecedented steps. As Shireroth is incapable of upholding the law in Goldshire, the Iron Company's moves are logical, even if they may be regrettable. Responding, the Nahust Vazir of Alalehzamin made a series of acute observations regarding the paternity and consequent maternal familiarity of the leadership of AIP before going on to note that the inexplicable and nonsensical offer of the Elsenari rebels to Elwynn would merely have served to draw the Republic into the quagmire of southern Goldshire. The Nahust Vazir went on to wonder whether the offer had ever been made in good faith in the first instance, being so bereft of any semblance of strategic reality or commonsense, or whether it had in fact been a malicious ploy by the Verionists to stir up chaos and set the Republic against the Regency and other members of the Raspur Pact.
In the end, the Shirerithian Regency cut a deal with the Iron Company on recognition of a Verionist Republic controlling Skyla and Elsenar with no recognition of the claims of the Antikaiser Verion II. This seemed to cool the eight-month political controversy in Elwynn, and the Elwynnese government made efforts on foreign affairs, sending delegations to the newly established government of Sathrati, as well as signing a treaty with Alduria (see Alduria–Elwynn treaty).
Expansionist phase
- Normark
- Amokolia
- Mishalan
- Autonomous Republics
North vs South
The compromise between congressional Elwynn (in the North of the country) and the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic (AAR) was made to ensure the unity of the Elwynnese people in one state. The Alalehzaminis demanded an exceptionally high degree of autonomy, and the resulting compromise made it so that the Congress would have no power at all over the Alalehzamin. Instead congressional Elwynn and the AAR share a national government headed by the Prince. The Prince is elected every six years by the people of all Elwynn, and the Prince, acting through the Council of Eliria, has full legislative and executive power over matters of international relations, trade, commercial standards, borders, national defence and security, the enforcement and system of justice, taxation for the Republic's functioning ("national tax" as opposed to "congressional tax" in the North and the "Alalehzamini tax" in the South). In the North, the Congress legislates on all other matters – and the Prince appoints from the majority of Congress a Council of Ministers, headed by a Conducator (Elw: Kondukytoor), who will execute all other matters of the Elwynnese law not belonging to the Prince. From 1672 to 1675 Stephen Lewis was the Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic, with authority over the northern regions subject to Congressional rule, until his defeat in a no-confidence vote and the appointment of an N&H led caretaker administration to take the north into elections scheduled to be held in mid 1676.
In 1675, a third autonomous republic was established, the Northern Commonwealth, with a largely Verionist government committed to Elwynnese unity. The next year it folded, and Elwynn yet once again had two autonomous republics until 1678, when Normark became the new third autonomous republic.
In 1692, following a bitterly contested general election in the previous year which had resulted in a wafer thin majority for the incumbent N&H administration of Kamilla Winther, the North-South divide reasserted itself vehemently following the secession of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn from the Greater Elwynnese Realm. The ensuing Second Elwynnese Civil War resulted once more in a rupture in the political unity of the realm.
By the time that the conflict had subsided the former governing institutions of the Elwynnese Realm, the Council of Eliria and the Court of the Prince, had been consigned to oblivion along with Eliria itself, all destroyed during the Scouring which devastated so-much of Northern Benacia during the final months of the war.
In their place arose an ad-hoc arrangement - partially an occupation government, comprised of UDF officers reporting to the Northern Banner Group of Benacia Command, and partially a civilian administration reporting to the Steward whose real authority did not extend beyond Normark and Leng. A compromise was eventually agreed whereby the UDF would provide a Conducator to work alongside the Steward. Around these two offices would be formed a new Council of State, housed in Ardashirshahr, that would be advised by and regularly consult with a duly accredited representative of the Political Directorate of Benacia Command.
Second Elwynnese Civil War
- 1691:
- A close election result, which saw the N&H candidate Kamilla Winther returned to office as Princess of Elwynn stoked increased opposition and resentment in traditionally Ayreonist Upper Elwynn.
- A radiological incident in the dockyards of Vijayanagara resulted in a declaration of martial law and the partial evacuation of two-thirds of the bailiwick. The legality of the martial law declaration covering the bailiwick, having been issued by the Court of the Prince, was challenged by the civilian government of Upper Elwynn.
- 1692:
- 12.II – Amokolia and Upper Elwynn were declared to be in an unlawful revolt against the authority of the Greater Elwynnese Realm following the passage in the legislature of both autonomous republics of a new declaration of the Republic of Elwynn and Amokolia. The Court of the Prince declared an insurrection to be in progress in both autonomous republics and authorised the Union Defence Force and the Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels to use every available means to suppress the secessionist movement.
Reconstruction
- 1696
- 20.X –: Following the end of the civil war, the Congress of Chryse was convened to determine the fate of post-war Elwynn.
- 1698: Papers circulated at the Congress of Chryse indicate that selected bailiwicks in Amokolia and Upper Elwynn had seen fluoride and lithium added to communal drinking water sources as part of a public health experiment.
- 1698-1699 Amokolian famine
- 1699 Edict of Dissolution suppressed higher education in Elwynn.
- 1703: Reorganisation of the realm after the 2nd session of the Congress of Chryse
- 1707
- 6.XV: Forty public officials of tribunal rank, condemned by the Benacian Censorate for neglect of duty owing to habitual intoxication and narcotic dependency, were bound with chains and weights before being pressed into the mire at Mindon Araxion. The mass drowning at the filthy shoreline of the Blue Elwynn was recorded, and the viewing of the execution was subsequently made compulsory viewing for all officers of the BUDF, the civil executives of the realms, and the regional and national sector cadres of the Nationalist & Humanist Party in the Benacian Union. The wives and children of the condemned were subsequently declared to be protected persons and transferred to the Benacian Labour Reserve.
- 7.XV: A gentleman of the Honourable Company, of Shirerithian nationality, known to be involved in the supply of chemical precursors to synthetic drug manufacturers in Alalehzamin, was executed at Ardashirshahr by being crushed under heavy weights. The execution was conducted by the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices after objections to the punishment by the Benacian Directorate of the ESB Group were withdrawn.
- 1708
- On 7.III: The Benacian persecution of drug-users began to be felt in Alalehzamin, as a list was presented to the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices by Adam al-Osman and promulgated throughout the Central Governorate of Elluenuueq. No-sooner had the names been received by the carnifex-tribunes in the bailiwicks than the cruel work began. Those who lacked the protection of having been forewarned were dragged from their houses by the cudgellers and slaughtered daily and hourly under the disinterested supervision of the carnifexes working their way diligently through a voluminous list for which they had been set rigid quotas. Day after day the hunt would continue as new lists of those accused by the Guild of the Lotus of being their competitors were issued.
- 13.III: In the third month of 1708 AN the order was given that all existing railway tracks and infrastructure was to be uprooted, demolished, and sold for scrap. Work parties of the Benacian Labour Reserve, commencing from Ardashirshahr were to radiate outwards from the capital of the realm, along the course of the railways and to erase all trace of their existence. Such locomotive engines as had survived the civil war were to be broken up for the resale value of their scrapped metals, whilst the carriages and rolling stock were to be burnt under the supervision of the Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels. Former railwaymen were to be branded, placed under the discipline of the Guild of Dunporters and sent out into the fields of Alalehzamin to work as auctionable agricultural labourers for the tenant farmers of the bailiwicks there.
- 16.III: Protestors, headed by delegates from the Ardashirshahr chapters of the guilds of Artificers, Artisans, Academicians, Aldermen, and of the Lotus, were set upon by cudgellers armed with iron-staves and dispersed before they could reach the Palace of One Thousand Columns and deliver a petition appealing for the Szodan to rescind his senseless order concerning the destruction of the railway network of the realm.
- 18.III: Adam al-Osman was confronted for the first time by opposition from within the Civil Executive of the realm. Alfred Aberg, the Commissioner for Logistics, warned that tearing up the sole reliably functioning mass transit network available to the realm would cause a catastrophic interruption to the collection of the agricultural surpluses, extracted mineral ores, and lumber, which formed the basis of the tribute payments made to the realm by the subordinate governorates and bailiwicks. Without receipt of those appropriations, the realm would have no resources to allocate and more importantly would be in default of its obligations towards the High Presidium of the Benacian Union. Adam was reported to have chuckled to himself and dismissed his councillors from his presence, thanking them for their candour.
- 20.III: A group of mutinous railwaymen, driven into revolt by reports of colleagues from a nearby station being branded with an iron and sent out into the countryside under armed guard, set upon and severely beat a party of labourers and their small contingent of cudgeller escorts as they were on their way to the track demolition works in the bailiwick of Babran.
- 22.III: A grand remonstrance, signed by the Civil Executive, the Governors of the Central Governorate and the General Government, and the Court of Aldermen of the Worshipful Corporation of the City of Ardashirshahr, is delivered to the Palace of One Thousand Columns. Condemning the Szodan's barbarous conduct towards the now dissolved railway corporations and the persecution of the associates of the Simrani clan, the remonstrance called for the creation of a national railway corporation, the easing of internal restrictions on the movement of loyal subjects between bailiwicks, the end of collective reprisals against the population of Upper Elwynn and Amokolia, a prohibition upon any further cruel and unusual acts of punishment by the agents of the carnifex, and an end to the subjugation of the Church of Elwynn. Enraged, the Szodan dismissed all signatories of the remonstrance from their posts and ordered their immediate arrest, summoning the local garrison, formed of the Salb XXXIII and the 10 Kavallerifördelningen "Zjandariska Gardet", out of their cantonments to impose martial law upon the city.
- 23.III: At dawn the following morning after the declaration of martial, the members of the Civil Executive appeared on the steps of the cathedral-church of Ardashirshahr under the protection of the Arch-Sagart, Andor Kaliqajonion, and addressed the crowd of worshippers calling for a general strike on the part of all guilds and corporations in the city. All businesses and institutions were to remain shuttered and closed until the Szodan came to his senses and accepted a measure of compromise with the civilian government of the realm. Most importantly of all, the members of the Civil Executive called upon all members of society, including the regional sector cadres of the N&H party, to reframe from all forms of commerce, cooperation, and intercourse with the personnel of the BUDF until such time as they returned to their cantonments.
- Reports came in from Babran that the striking railwaymen, joined by rioting apprentices from the liveried companies, had attacked the guildhall, the residence of the bailiff, the offices of the N&H cadre in the bailiwick, and the guardhouse maintained by the Worshipful Guild of the Sacred Carnifices. The cudgellers, bested in the skirmishes with the railwaymen on the 20th, had deemed it prudent to withdraw to their barracks.
- The Benacian Data Network experienced a total loss of connectivity between the remainder of the network and nodes hosted within the bounds of the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area as the censorship algorithms of the Panopticon reached the limits of their capacity in the face of mass popular concern and disquiet.
- 1709
- Faced by widespread resistance, a wave of strikes and industrial actions matching only those seen in the immediate aftermath of the Scouring, and the unmitigated fury of the Chamber of Guilds and Corporations at the self-inflicted disrupted to a vital link in the supply-chains of the Benacian Union, the fate of Adam al-Osman was sealed by the Congress of Chryse which obliged him to depart into exile at Teldrin in 1709 AN.
- 1719–1721
- Attempted provincial reorganisation mostly failed to gain traction, owing to corruption, inertia, local hostility, and a profound lack of interest in the centre.
- 1720–1721
- Programme of turnpike bastion construction carried on in the bailiwicks of Elluenuueq highlighted the extent to which state governance within the realm had atrophied outside of Mishalacia and the historical core of Alalehzamin.
- 10.IV.1721 AN: Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman was arrested by the Magisters-Carnifex for gross corruption, neglect of office, and violations of the Union Covenant. In view of his eminence, news of his fall was withheld from the general public who were subsequently informed that the Szodan of Elluenuueq had resigned on the grounds of ill health.
- 11.IV.1721 AN: A hastily convened court of honour, consisting of specially constituted Cull Commission and Troika received the incontrovertible proofs of the former Szodan's innumerable fornications with a succession of Nezeni companions, resulting in one confirmed instance of illegal hybrid progeny as well as four further suspected instances of the same crime. Also uncovered had been the routine embezzlement of tribute payments due to the Union-State which had instead been siphoned off to numbered bank accounts in the Pachadsberg Special Recreational Zone and the Blackfriars Bank of Tiegang by disguised intermediary transactions. Evidence from the Commission of the Panopticon, alongside the testimony of the investigating magisters, were received and authenticated. Authorisation was given by the court of honour for the accused to be shown the instruments of interogation so as to secure a confession.
- 12.IV.1721 AN: It was reported to the court of honour that Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman had refused the opportunity to confess of his own free will. Accordingly authorisation was given to proceed with a full interrogation utilising enhanced methods. This was reported to have had the desired effect after four hours. Upon receipt of the confession, the court of honour pronounced the guilt of the accused and returned him to the magisters-carnifex for punishment. In accordance with custom, Daniyal was obliged to spin the Wheel of Misfortune under the gaze of his captors. This produced the sentence that he was to be crushed. A request by the condemned, that his plea for mercy should be heard by the High Presidium of the Benacian Union and the Congress of Chryse was denied.
- 14.IV.1721 AN: The execution of Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman was carried out under the direction of the magisters-carnifex, by use of an industrial roller at Factory No.47 in Ardashirshahr. All recordings of the incident, bar one prepared for the Szodan of Benacia, were destroyed, and a number of witnesses involved in the special preparation and subsequent cleaning of the execution site were terminated by authorised officers, who were in turn liquidated. Members of the cull commission and the troika were each induced to sign warrants authorising the execution of the other parties, and these orders were carried out with immediate effect in separate rooms of the Palace of One Thousand Columns. In view of the sensitivity of the case, the name and fate of the former Szodan were excluded from the Register of Woe. His wife and children were subsequently informed of his death, which was reported to them as a suicide. An urn of ashes was presented to the man's widow. Those present within the Benacian Union at the time of his demise were obliged to sign covenants declaring their own lives to be forfeit if any word of his having taken his own life were to be uttered in public.
- 24.IV.1721 AN: The death by natural causes of the recently resigned Szodan, Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman, was announced to the public via the Benacian Data Network.
- 20.V.1721 AN: The internment of a body, purportedly that of Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman, in a "Tower of Silence" outside of Ardashirshahr, overseen by Zurvanite mobads, representatives of the Union-State, and available members of his immediate family was undertaken, with an appropriate level of permitted coverage on the Benacian Data Network. A favourable obituary was published in the Chryse Chronicle to mark the occasion.
Elluenuueq was initially divided into five governorates: Central, Mishalacia, Absentien, East, and Leng. The last three were grouped under the Circuit of the General Government, which was a special supervisory regime established as a consequence of the rebellion of those northern territories during the civil war. The Central Governorate extended from Alalehzamin in the south to the Automaticas in the far north, occupying swathes of Vattnaland and the Upper Elwynn in such a way as to the formerly rebellious northern realms the advantage of contiguous territories.
Although official discrimination and reprisals against the northerners had ended by 1712 AN, it remained clearly apparent that Mishalacia and the loyalist bailiwicks of the Central Governorate enjoyed preference in the eyes of the civil executive. Mishalacia and the bailiwicks along the course of the Blue Elwynn retained the surviving concentrations of Elwynnese heavy industry, and Ardashirshahr, as the capital of the realm, remained the paramount metropolis and the centre of most domestic economic activity. In contrast, the governorates under the General Government were still treated as being little more than resource extraction zones. The Amokolian-speaking population of Absentien remained sorely persecuted, expelled from the cities and obliged to register under a half-dozen impoverished and squabbling clans spread out across the dismal northern boreal forests. Whilst the Elw may not longer fear destruction as a non-compliant population, it is clear that the legacy of their rebellion weighed heavily upon them throughout the early decades of the eighteenth century after Norton. In consequence, the Elw were poorly represented in the upper cadres of the Nationalist and Humanist Party, at least when compared to the Babkhi and Norse amongst others. This seeming cap on the numbers of Elw permitted into senior positions of authority all but excludes them from public administration at the governorate level within the realm. The suspicion abided long afterwards that being born an Elw, counted heavily against an individual in the metrics of both the Benacian Censorate and the Guild of the Sacred Carnifices.
The constitutional and republican system of government did not survive the Second Elwynnese Civil War (1692 AN–1696 AN). Following the dreadful cost of victory in that conflict the institutions that actually held power in Elluenuueq, the Honourable Company, the Nationalist & Humanist Party and the Union Defence Force were no longer prepared to indulge in the pretence of being constrained by the rule of law. Faced with the anarchy that took root in the aftermath of the The Scouring, a mix of orbital bombardment and limited nuclear exchange which obliterated seven major cities and caused widespread economic and societal collapse, the priority was to suppress lingering rebellions and dissent, to reward the loyalist constituencies that had contributed to victory, and to extract the capital, resources, and labour that would pay for reconstruction.
In the post-constitutional state the UDF controlled matters pertaining to defence and security, the N&H Party exercised control over the administration of surviving national-level civil institutions and the participation of individual subjects in society, and the Benacian Directorate of the ESB Group established the network of "residencies" through which resources for export would be extracted and the bailiwicks of Elwynn "farmed" for revenue according to assessed liabilities - including contributions towards reparation payments.
The prevailing philosophy is that those institutions and individuals which possess power will exercise it, and that further subordinate institutions and laws which arise from the exercise of power will do so organically. Conflicts between these institutions will define and delineate the extent of those powers and the fields in which they can be exercised, and by whom. The system anticipates its eventual ossification and demise, as institutions become hidebound and process driven and thereby unable to sustain themselves against internal and external competitors. The Humanist ideology seeks to embed its cadres within the perpetual cycle of conflict, destruction, and renewal, thereby ensuring that whatever the next iteration of the ruling oligarchy may be it will continue to work towards the Human Supremacy for so long as the nation endures.
Whilst remaining sovereign, significant aspects of defence, security, economic, and foreign policy were coordinated through the evolving Benacian Union where the Congress of Chryse had also transitioned from being a temporary deliberative body charged with empowering the High Presidium of the Benacian Union into a permanent institution in its own right.
Reconstituted as a realm of the Benacian Union in 1703 AN, Elluenuueq is subject to the Charter of the Benacian Union and the Union Covenant, these forming the sole constitutional documents now applicable to the realm. Such authorities as exist and survive within the realm, do so on the sufferance of the Benacian Union and its patrons - the Honourable Company, the Nationalist and Humanist Party, and the Raspur Pact. Since 1698 AN four-hundred and seventy-seven separate petitioners for a constitutional document or fundamental law have been executed by impalement. Since 1704 AN petitioners have been given a tour of the bailiwick of Babran and directed to turn their attention towards the monument to Kaspar Soleimân around which the deceased have been staked out. The more fortunate latter-day petitioners are then invited to depart, and to contemplate all that they have been shown.
In 1719 AN, Daniyal Aurangzeb Kalirion-Osman promulgated a firman ordering the division of the Central Governorate into three parts; these being the Governorate of Alalehzamin, the Governorate of Araxion, and the Governorate of Nordland. The Governorate of Nordland would be transferred into the Circuit of the General Government whilst Alalehzamin, Araxion, and Mishalacia would be inducted into the Circuit of the Southern League. In continuance of the established practice since the end of the civil war, the General Governorate would continue in its role as the resource extraction zone and reserve population area supporting the industrial and agricultural development of the southern cities.
"The Harmonious Era"
- 21.V.1721 AN: It became apparent that Aurangzeb Tokaraizadeh al-Osman, safely ensconced in Sathrati, remained unconvinced by the accounts, given variously by the Union-State and his daughter-in-law, of his son's demise. Questions asked by the grieving father during the delivery of his son's mortal remains into the Tower of Silence were of concern to the higher authorities.
- 13.VI.1721 AN: Candidates for appointment to the office of Szodan of Elluenuueq were interviewed by the Szodan of Benacia to assess their suitability for turning around the wayward realm following the mismanagement of the "reconstruction era". The three foremost contenders were Lors Bakker-Kalirion, Zacharias Avon-El, and Zurvanudin Miran al-Osman. At the forefront of Daniyal ibn Daniyal's mind would be the concern that whichever one was appointed to the position would incontrovertibly amass thereby the power to become his successor on the High Presidium of the Benacian Union. Moreover, and no less crucially, he would also have to contend with the ire of the two unsuccessful candidates. Zurvanudin, as Lord High Censor and Generalissimo of Benacia Command was arguably already too powerful and would have to be expected to relinquish his other commands in order to take possession of the realm, provided that he saw it that way. Lors and Zacharias, meanwhile, were commissioners for the circuits of Jadid Khaz Modan and Benacia within the realm of the Unified Governorates, they were also mutually antagonistic, with a feud going back to the Scouring, where the bad blood between Daniyal ibn Daniyal and the late Jeremiah Avon-El had only been calmed by the Peace of Lapano and not dispelled. To favour Zacharias would be to reward an enemy, but to deny him would be to run the risk of incurring his renewed wrath. Favouring Lors, his acknowledged son by the N&H Future Leadership Programme, would however be to run the risk of accusations of nepotism and aspirations to dynastic rule, incurring the fury of all those who regarded the Table of Grades and Ranks of the Benacian Union as a ladder to be climbed by those of ambition and ability. Other candidates of course existed, but Daniyal would be concerned about whether those would have the requisite will to maintain the coordinated state and harmonious society in a restive land. Most importantly amongst all the points to consider, however, was whether he really wished to ensure that three of the most powerful men in the Union-State made a common cause – directed against himself?
- 19.IX.1722 AN: Interim leader of Elluenuueq, Jahangir Khan, is nominated by Daniyal ibn Daniyal to the Congress of Chryse for confirmation as Szodan of Elluenuueq. The decision is considered to be a rebuke to those ambitious subordinates, including his own son, who had been too transparent in their manoeuvrings to secure the realm of Elluenuueq as a stepping stone to inheriting the position of Szodan of Benacia after Daniyal's own eventual demise.
