Natopian intervention in Drak-Modan

The intervention of Natopian forces in Drak-Modan was brought to a head in mid-1684. In 1679 Natopian authorities cautiously watched as the native population of Drak-Modan overturned the Natopian-ruled kingdom first declared at the onset of the Kalirion Fracture. Intervention at that time was averted due to the concessions of the revolutionaries to allow Clara Sundara to remain in a position of authority. Stagnation continued for several years, and Natopian intelligence reported that another revolution was likely, one fomented by foreign interference with the goal of collapsing Drak-Modan and forcing it to be annexed back into Shireroth, thus removing Natopia's toehold on the Benacian continent.

In Friedeber 1684, Clara Sundara Waffel-Paine sent a secret note to her brother, Nathan II informing him that the situation in Drak-Modan was worsening and that she feared for her and her family's life. She told her brother that unless drastic measures where taken to snuff out the revolutionaries, Drak-Modan would collapse into anarchy or be subsumed into its neighbors.

The Brandt-Lohani Doctrine

On 23 Friedeber 1684 two officers of the Imperial Court of Natopia, Foreign Secretary Mishti Lohani and Raspur Pact Plenipotentiary Ursula Brandt issued a joint statement concerning the rapid political fracturing and apparent malaise of the Drak-Modani government. It contained several important facts that would outline Natopia's interests in Drak-Modan:

• During the early days of the Kalirion Fracture the future of the Raspur Pact, of which Shireroth was primary funder and motivator, was unclear.
• Drak-Modan was founded, funded, secured, and stabilized by Natopia and the Natopian Defense Force
• These actions were done with the assumption that Drak-Modan would persist as a permanent and willing ally of Natopia on the Benacian continent should the Raspur Pact fail.
• The Natopian Emperor willingly abdicated to allow for a puppet republican government under his sister to maintain Natopian hegemony over Drak-Modan.
• Should the Bovic Republic of Drak-Modan fall, as it seems to be increasingly erratic, then Natopian security and interests mandate that the Bovic Empire intervene, and if necessary reinstate Nathan II as king of Drak-Modan.
• Other Raspur Pact powers are requested to maintain neutrality in the domestic affairs of Drak-Modan, and should it fail, support Natopian intervention in Drak-Modan to re-establish a sovereign, independent kingdom under Natopian guidance to prevent anarchy and decay in the region of south east Benacia.

Drak-Modani Response

Although the Modani People's Union maintained its plurality in the 1683 elections, when the Fury was convened in 1684, nearly 1/3 of the MPU seats were vacant, many MPU/Humanists having fled to the UGB. Recently elected chancellor Kamil Gavrilov issued a statement on 24 Friedeber, denouncing the Brandt-Lohani statement and condemning the Natopian empire as a "decaying behemoth who's glory days are long past it [and that] Drak-Modan is better off when not being strangled by the greedy tendrils of the Waffel-Paine tyrants."

The sudden and harsh rebuke of Natopia, which many Drak-Modani still remember as protectors, lenders, and investors from the Kalirion Fracture, outraged many in Gavrilov's Solidarity Party, and many left his party to join with the Benacian Bagelcraticans to allow for that party, thanks to the vacant MPU seats, to eek out a simple majority in the Fury and motion for a vote of no-confidence in Gavrilov, and replaced him as chancellor with Bagelcratican Arslan Djangirov.

Gavrilov, the Solidarity Party, and even the far-right Benacia for Benacians Party denounced the no-confidence vote as invalid and barred the Bagelcraticans from entering the Fury chambers the next day.

Clara Waffel-Paine, from her home in the "judicial capital" of Modan Hamlet, called on the Drak-Modani people to support the Bagelcraticans or else risk a bloody civil war, which she reasoned would inevitably be won by the Natopian-supported factions. Bagelcraticans, Bovics, and Natopian sympathizers began to protest in cities across the republic, demanding that Djangirov take up the reins as chancellor.

The Raynor Point Massacre

Protests and demonstrations raged across Drak-Modan until hitting a tipping point at Raynor Point. Hundreds of Bagelcraticans were marching from the city hall to the docks as a show of support. When they got to the docks, they began systematically taking down all Drak-Modani flags and hoisting up Natopian flags. The local police force called on the Capeshire Defense Force, which had yet to publicly declare sides, merely stating that the Defense Force would "follow all legal orders from the rightful Grand Chancellor."

The Defense Force ordered the Bagelcratican mob to stand down or be subject to arrest for treason and sedition. A water bottle was thrown from the mob towards the Defense Force and they opened fire, killing 27 Bagelcraticans.

The next day, the Natopian Emperor issued a statement in response to the massacre, calling for all Drak-Modani people to accept the rightful Grand Chancellor, Arslan Djangirov, and declaring that Natopia formally recognizes the Bagelcratican government of Arslan Djangirov as the only legitimate government of Drak-Modan. Within days, fighting between pro- and anti-Natopian factions broke out in every major city, with the death count rising from dozens, to hundreds within weeks.

Military Intervention

The Natopian Defense Force began to mobilize to contain the violence between the factions. An aircraft carrier would station itself near Raynor Point and the city would become the forward base for Natopia's intervention. The first and primary phase would be to advance towards and secure Modan Hamlet, as it became a rallying point for pro-Natopian factions. Arslan Djangirov set up his government-in-exile there and invited the Natopian Defense Force in as consultants, advisors, and to support the smaller section of the Drak-Modani Defense Forces that were loyal to Djangirov. The bulk of the DMDF remained under the command of Gavrilov, setting up the two sides in what would become the Drak-Modani Civil War.

The Farhuil Plot

The Guttuli Protectorate announced that it caught Laqi spies in Farhuil and identified them as Drak-Modani agents. The feuding governments of Drak-Modan refute this and point to Guttuli's history of war crimes, suggesting that any admission of allegiance to Drak-Modan was extracted under torture and likely unreliable. Natopia learned of the Guttuli offer to assist Drak-Modan in repelling Natopian intervention. As a result, the Natopian emperor ordered an increase in forces dispatched to south east Benacia to defend Drak-Modani sovereignty in the name of the royalist factions.