Governorate of Upper Lywall
| State of Lywall | |||
| |||
| Motto: "Fidelity & Obedience" | |||
| Anthem: Returning to the Source | |||
| [[|250px|Location of Lywall Protectorate|frameless]] | |||
| Map versions | Pending | ||
| Capital | Sansabury | ||
| Largest city | Various Garrison Towns (castra) | ||
| Official language(s) | Low Istvanistani (administrative) Yehudi Tellian Laqi Singer-Sprak | ||
| Official religion(s) | Cedrism, Holodomatic School (Pragmatic toleration of gnostic heresies) | ||
| Demonym | Lywallers | ||
| - Adjective | Lywaller | ||
| Government | Imperial Protectorate | ||
| - President | Kiran Lylow | ||
| - Prime Minister | Lytufem Tuguzsanson | ||
| - Legislature | Board of Commissioning and Control | ||
| Establishment | 1652 AN | ||
| Area | - | ||
| Population | TBC | ||
| Active population | - | ||
| Currency | Natopo (₦) | ||
| Calendar | |||
| Time zone(s) | |||
| Mains electricity | |||
| Driving side | |||
| Track gauge | |||
| National website | - | ||
| National forum | - | ||
| National animal | Black Shuck | ||
| National food | Lywinderbrot[1] Lythemsch'ighwnibe-Ch'ape libzchaxwe [2] | ||
| National drink | Schleps Gin | ||
| National tree | Juniperus Litovinus (Litovine juniper) | ||
| Abbreviation | LYW | ||
The Governorate of Upper Lywall is an area of the former Minarborian Empire that was for a time under Shirerithian administration by virtue of occupation and certain capitulatory treaties signed with a local authority. Following the Declaration of Merensk, Lywall was reconstituted as the first fully occupied and reordered subdivision under the control of the Unified Governorates of Benacia. The northern-half of Lywall has seen, as of late 1671, recurring skirmishes between the Black Legions and Inner Benacia, as well as the spill over of an escalating ethnic conflict between the rival Black and Red Laqi confederacies.
History
Establishment
The main purpose of the Lywall Protectorate was to screen the Shirerithian state of Malarboria from the depredations of certain exotic creatures and the low level banditry and criminality that persisted in what was once the heartland of the empire of Minarboria. In that sense Lywall was set up as the classic client "buffer state" and as a literal as well as theoretical wall against outside intrusions into the Imperial Republic.
The Imperial Government under reigning Steward Liv Dravot had been reluctant to expand the frontiers of the Imperial Republic any further than they had already been pushed in the reigns of the Kaisers preceding her son, the young Ayreon IV. However the continued strength of resistance to Imperial influence over central Benacia, combined with the ever present threat of raids and subversion passing into Shireroth across its last remaining land border, decided the matter and forced the temporary incursions into the green to develop into a more permanent occupied forward zone.
The indigenous population of Lywall had, following the fall of Minarboria, fallen themselves into a wretched condition. Of those who had not succumbed in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of civil society and the crumbling of their Lich overlords, a significant minority had fled northwestwards into the mountain fastness of the bandit domains that would coalesce into Kalgachia. Of the remainder, those who were not devoured by Tee-als eventually found themselves caught up in the dragnet of several sweeps through the ungoverned green by the Imperial Army and its auxiliaries. Those thus caught were deposited into the Displaced Persons Camps of Malarboria (centred around the notorious Base 3-C facility) where the only sure path to release back into society was either to be redeemed by a citizen or noble house in return for a cash fee or else to pledge to become His Imperial Magnificence's Loyal Subject which was essentially glorified serfdom. Even serfdom, however onerous, had its appeal - it certainly represented an improvement in terms of rights on what a stateless foreigner might enjoy.
Following the conclusion of Operation Bait Harvest the remaining displaced persons still held by the system, which was itself straining to cope with the resettlement of persons uprooted in the concurrent partition of Elwynn, were heavily incentivised to accept subject status as part of a package which would see them resettled behind the forward defensive lines of the province of Lywall and a smaller portion of &zeter and (notoriously lethal) Whisperwood.
Over these were set a smaller number of Shirerithian citizens, typically persons who had been displaced by the abrupt shifts in the frontiers of western and central Benacia as well as a number of persons who had fled from Wintergleam after its transfer from the Elwynnese to Goldshire.
The resulting polity had been characterised as a client or puppet state of the Imperial Republic. All defence and foreign policy matters as well as a large proportion of public policy matters and key sectors of the economy were coordinated through intermediaries in the Imperial Government. Thus, although theoretically sovereign, Lywall could in no sense be said to enjoy any meaningful level of independence.
The Lywall Defence Force (LDF) was the military force of the Protectorate during the period of Imperial occupation. Established in 1652, the lightly armed force had a maximum establishment of 6,000 men and was operationally limited to domestic security operations, with the exception of a short deployment to the Doronite stronghold of Stonewall as part of Fall Schwartz-Tilman in 1659. Although available to the local authorities as an aid to the civil power, the LDF was administratively under the control of the Corps of Auxiliaries and fell under the command of the Central Banner Group of Benacia Command for operational deployments.
The Corps of Verderers meanwhile was a paramilitary force numbering some 5,362 men and women organised by the Nationalist & Humanist Party formed to defend the life and property of party members in Lywall against armed attack or sabotage. Seven regiments of varying strength were raised by the party following the corps' establishment in 1659.
Consignments of heavy weaponry, artillery, air defence systems, and armoured vehicles liberated from the Goldshire Regulars by Imperial Forces during the incapacity of King Ryker and intended to be transferred to the LDF were instead diverted to the Containment Corps, a paramilitary force raised by the Imperial Marshals to fortify and protect the frontier from tee-al incursions. During the chaos of the War of Lost Brothers this slight of hand was overlooked in Shirekeep but resulted in considerable animosity between the local government and Imperial representatives, to say nothing of the tensions aroused between the shire:Imperial Forces and the Marshals.
The Air Support Command maintained an operational aerodrome at Sansabury although, for the most part, aviation assets were not based at that location on a permanent basis - the site serving more as a logistics hub for forces moving east to west and north to south through Benacia.
The southern sector of Coastal Command maintained a naval dockyard at Šlomxala, which served as the primary base for an eponymous flotilla of six ex-Goldshire patrol vessels. Šlomxala is also the headquarters for an ESB Industrial Archaeology Team believed to be patiently sifting the breakers yards and wreck sites of what was once the formidable Minarborian Navy.
During this period Aktion Erheben was a notable selective breeding programme, erroneously characterised by opponents of Nationalist-Humanism as a campaign of forced sterilisations carried out in accordance with eugenic principles. The results of the programme are unlikely to ever be uncovered owing to the interruptions imposed by the Shiro-Lach Conflict and the Kalirion Fracture.
Incorporation into Modan & Malarboria
Restoration
Re-established by the Territorial Administration Bureau of Benacia Command in 1671, the revived institutions of the protectorate serve as an interlocutor between the continental military regime headquartered in Merensk and the civil authorities in the region pacified by the Black Legions.
