Timeline of Modern Benacia (1675–1679)

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Part of Timeline of Modern Benacia

A timeline of Benacian events in the aftermath of the Kalirion Fracture (1671 AN–1675 AN) which upended the longstanding continental balance of power.

1675

I.1675

  • 1: Treaty of Boomwatch signed by representatives of Shireroth and Sanama.
  • 4: The Ketek Company begins reconstruction and renovation of Stonetree's transportation infrastructure along a grid system where the ancient streets had been shelled away. The design of this new road system places an emphasis on ease-of-use for those using personal automobiles and allows very few amenities for horses and drawn vehicles. The first Inner Benacian Ketek Factory opens in east Stonetree, producing only the "Scrag" model.
  • 10: Norestria sets aside it's western salient for development by Goldshireans emigrating from the southern regimes to the Sovereign Confederation.
  • 24: The 1st Protocol of the Technical Cooperation Agreement & Structural Assistance Programme Between the Raspur Pact and Emirate of Sathrati is agreed between negotiators from Benacia Command and Zy-Rodun attending an ongoing diplomatic congress in the port city of Erudition.

II.1675

  • 2: The Elwynnese government takes up the task to bring about a UGB–West Amokolian–Elwynnese treaty to settle the independence of West Amokolia and matters relating to border. The Treaty of Brandenburg, previously entered between Elwynn, West Amokolia and Shireroth, remains in force. Sends out new drafts to the governments.
  • 3: The Kaiseress of Shireroth, along with the Regent the Countess of Shirekeep, leaves Kezan on a disguised sea vessel heading for Ransenar. While in Ransenar, the Kaiseress, as Queen, will be beholden to the government of Ransenar and perform such tasks as the Government there advises.
  • 8: Salome, Queen of Ransenar, arrives in Goldfield along with the Imperial Mother (Lady Isadora), the Regent (Lady Mira), her siblings Prince Kir, Princess Kian and Prince Rubin, and a greater entourage. The plan is that the Queen will stay in Ransenar for a month before leaving for Shirekeep.
    • A consecration service and full investiture ceremony takes place in the city of Goldshire Hamlet, to the attendance of over 100,000 people, where the young Queen is first introduced to Ransenar.
    • A series of "town hall"-esque meetings are hosted at different cities throughout Ransenar to introduce the young Queen to the people. Her goodwill tour of the realm was well-received and served as an effective way to bring the people closer to their monarch.
    • Queen Salome I, accompanied by the Regent, the Lord Chief Steward, and the Countess of Shirekeep sign the Instrument of Succession, previously ratified by the Ransenari Congress, that will pass the Ransenari Throne after the death of the reigning Queen to a designated heir from the House of Aldric.
    • The Queen gives a moving Speech from the Throne assisted by the Countess of Shirekeep before the Ransenari Congress outlining the priorities of the Government over the next five AN years.


III.1675

  • 16: Salome, Kaiseress of Shireroth, along with the Imperial Mother (Lady Isadora), the Regent (Lady Mira), her siblings Prince Kir, Princess Kian and Prince Rubin, and a greater entourage, arrive in Shirekeep to much pomp and circumstance, greeted by the Steward (Lady Soraya) and the Prætor Tinker Sprocket, the Count of Machinaria. Neither the kaiseress nor her siblings had set foot on Benacia since before the death of Kaiser Ayreon IV. His body remains in the Keep's morgue awaiting a state funeral which is planned to be set at the first day of the next month.
  • 20: Economic advisors are sent from Norestria to the Ketek Inner Benacian Occupied Zone to create a road map for a diversified economy which could stand on its own with minimal interference from the Sovereign Confederation within a generation.
  • 21:
    • Antikaiser Verion II (Titus Morvayne) returns to Shirekeep, encamping across the river with a heavily-armed entourage in the form of, inter alia, the Apollonian Guard. Boats to cross the Elwynn fail to arrive, having been burned by river defenses under the authority of the Palatini Corps. In a speech along the riverbank, he renounces his "kaisership" and declares his allegiance to Kaiseress Salome. He further declares his intention to resume his tenure as Prefect of Shirekeep, which had remained vacant.
    • An attempted landing, using boats pilfered from river anglers, is repulsed through a combination of snipers along the river portion of the Wall of Reynardine and, as the flotilla reached the landing docks of the Commercial District, heavy machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades. The commander of the engaged Palatini Corps forces, Tribune Ioszka, was knighted by the Kaiseress herself for his deed.
    • The Regency, initially surprised by the unannounced arrival, issued the following decrees:
      • the prorogation of the newly-elected Adelsraad and Folksraad, in light of the dangerous situation at the Imperial Capital
      • additional fortifications to be constructed around the Landsraad and the demolition of those piers in the Commercial District, which had been the intended destination of the landing
      • the appointment of a new Prefect of Shirekeep, to avoid a legal loophole
      • an invitation for Titus Morvayne to be received by the Golden Mango Throne, so long as he did so alone and unarmed, so that he may submit himself to the Kaiseress's authority
      • the postponement of Kaiser Ayreon IV's state funeral.
    • Elements of the Northern and Eastern Banner Groups of Benacia Command, comprised of units garrisoned in support of local forces in Alalehzamin, the Sovereign Confederation, and Ransenar, are brought to a heightened state of alert in response to latest Verionist gambit.

IV.1675

  • 7: Following the Treaty of Concord, Sanama lifts the entry ban on arrivals from West Amokolia.
  • 10: The Krull Palace (in Eliria) which was formerly the site of the Elwynnese monarchy and converted to social housing after the since the end of the monarchy, is demolished by Elirian municipal authorities after declaring it unfit for human habitation. The Palace was refurbished in the 1630s with added decorations, giving a faux medieval character to a previously austere construction. Now it was found that the added decorations were a hazard and not fit to the general construction of the building, why the building had to be demolished. It is currently unknown what will happen to the site, though media pundits are suggesting a public park, a new building for the Elwynnese congress, as well as more housing projects in this central part of Eliria.
  • 12: The Verionist Republic announces that, following the renunciation of the Kaisership of Titus Morvayne, Kaiseress Salome will be the new Head of State (albeit only a ceremonial title).
  • 13:
    • The Northern Tactical Air Force of the Black Legions, dispersed across Alalehzamini airfields in the south of Elwynn, begin flying fully armed combat air patrols over Shirekeep for the purposes of providing reassurance to the Regency. Every pursuit (fighter) squadron of the Black Legions' Aerospace Forces receive orders to have a "Quick Reaction Alert" (QRA) flight, of two aircraft per squadron, available for immediate scramble in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Bases and Depots owned, operated, and controlled by Black Legions are placed on the highest level of alert, with defensive perimeters subject to increased vigilance and patrolling.
    • Concerned by the arrival of an inchoate assortment of Verionists, leftist militia, and renegade guardsmen under the leadership of Titus Morvayne at the walls of Shirekeep, and still more concerned about the failure - thus far - of the Palatini Corps to dislodge them from their encampment in Cabbagefall, the Grand Army of Ransenar dispatched the 3rd Regiment of Light Dragoons to surround Cabbagefall and lay siege upon the force located there. Meanwhile the Riverine Forces of Ransenar moved a hastily assembled flotilla up river from Teldrin in order to isolate the Crisco Flotilla from its own base of operations.
    • [Peripheral] The Black Legions and Natopian Defense Force agree upon the establishment of a joint naval task force, assigned to maritime security operations conducted in international waters off the northern coast of Cibola under the operational control of Natopia via the Cibola Command of the Raspur Pact.
    • Sensationalist news of the "Verionist attempt to abduct the Queen of Ransenar" on Ransenari media run rampant through the country. Running off the large well of public goodwill after the young Queen's recent tour of the Kingdom, tens of thousands of young men begin to arrive in droves to military recruitment stations all over Ransenar to enlist in the defense of the Queen and Realm.
    • Acting as Protector of Goldshire, The Sovereign Confederation Follows Ransenar's lead and sends 2 light armored brigades and a detachment of 50 jetmen to assist Ransenar in securing Cabbagefall.
    • Kizzy Drakland, two years on the run since the firebombing of Demonsfall, is confirmed dead (truly) after being hunted down by the Gorillas NF, the paramilitary of Goetia.
  • 14: Stephen Lewis, Conducator of Elwynn, in a speech, praised Titus Morvayne's decision to renounce the Mango Throne. Lewis called it "an act of admirable generosity, a step that now allows this continent to heal. Lewis went on to blast the leadership of Ransenar, the Sovereign Confederation and the United Governorates for "failing to use this moment for unity, but instead dividing us more and more, threatening military action against brothers". The Conducator also stated that the Elwynnese Defense Forces would be ready to safeguard the stability of the continent, and that Elwynn would never allow rogue states to interfere in the affairs of Shireroth.
  • 15:
    • The Verionists' allies in Congress Elwynn, the Elwynnese Workers' Party and the Ayreonist Independence Party, cautiously distance themselves from Conducător Lewis's statement, hinting that the surprise act by the former antikaiser might not be so benign as currently indicated, with several questions having arisen with regard to the armed detachment following Morvayne, and the role played by the Revolutionary Army of Crisco and the Iron Company in this. Further questions relate to whether treason may so easily be forgiven, but the parties affirm the right of the Regency to police its own jurisdiction. Finally the parties reaffirm their coalition with the Verionist Union for the Northern government.
    • The Speaker of the Sovereign Confederation declares that all entities tied to Verionist organizations within it's borders are to undergo government investigation in an effort to root out any subversive elements which may present a threat to national security or operations in Cabbagefall.
  • 18: Kalgachia's Emissariate to the Tumultuous Wastes issues a statement in support of the Elwynnese Conducator's position, remarking that "it seems the codification of the present truce in the north has been interpreted in some quarters as a cue to demobilise there and resume picking over the bones of the Imperial Republic as if the Common Threat no longer existed. On the contrary, it will only gain greater momentum in the concealing fog of a disunited continent. Now is not the time for Benacia to let its collective guard down and a peaceful resolution to the present misunderstanding in Shirekeep is imperative."
  • 19:
    • Air Alduria begins passenger and freight services from Punta Santiago to the capital of Ransenar, Goldfield.
    • A wave of jingoistic fever washes over Ransenar, triggering mass violence and mob attacks upon all Iron Company personnel, assets, and facilities in Ransenar. To ensure the immediate safety of all and following the lead of the Sovereign Confederation, the government of Ransenar nationalizes and fully seizes all Iron Company assets in the country and summarily rounds up all of its personnel and escorts them out of Ransenari territory.
  • 20: The Sovereign Confederation places an indefinite travel ban on all citizens of the Verionist Republic and R.A.C. and authorises the seizure of any assets belonging to the Iron Company within on Sovereign territory.

VI.1675

  • 06: As a gesture of goodwill on the part of Benacia Command, two-hundred AAM-1 Sonderwang air-to-air missiles are transferred to the KDF from the Black Legions via the Stonetree Neutral Zone. Accompanying the missiles are a small team of UDF avionics technicians and a hastily written manual on the subject of adapting the Sonderwang for launch from the Buzzard C-61.
  • 07: Lune Villa Summit: Representatives of the Verionist Republic, the Revolutionary Army of Crisco, and the Kingdom of Ransenar meet in the Rosebud Hotel in the city of Lune Villa to discuss terms for peace between them.
  • 09:News breaks on the Ransenari media that terms have been reached in the Lune Villa Summit and that a Treaty is being drafted.
  • 10:
    • The Treaty of Lune Villa is signed by representatives of the Verionist Republic, the Revolutionary Army of Crisco and the Kingdom of Ransenar. The treaty is quickly ratified by the respective governments.
    • The Sovereign Confederation, in response to easing tensions between Ransenar and the Verionists, lifts its travel ban and ceases most investigations into Verionist elements within the country.
  • 11: The Verionist Republic begins Operation Monty, the anschluss of the Crisco Free State to the Republic.
  • 12: The government of the Kingdom of Ransenar restores to the Iron Company all assets seized during the tensions between the Verionist Republic and Ransenar. Travel bans and movement restrictions are immediately lifted.

VII.1675

  • 10: In a further sign of gradually returning economic confidence, the Unified Governorates awarded Kerularios & Company a five year contract to operate the commercial container port at Rothaven, the traditional entrepôt of central Benacia dating back to the Ashkenatzan period.
  • 16: In fulfilment of its obligations under Article 4 of the Treaty of Lune Villa, the Ransenari Ministry of Public Works and Construction commenced awarding the first tranche of contracts, tendered for under sealed bids, for the construction of the Ransenari section of the so-called Lune Road. Notable early contract awards included the recruitment of work crews and initial clearance work along the projected course of the combined highway and railway. Both of these were awarded to the ESB Group. Concurrently, being as they represented external borders of the Raspur Pact, Benacia Command announced that it had accepted a Ransenari invitation to provide a garrison of Inspectorate Troops from the Black Legions for the Kaiser Mo'll and Viceroy Regina I border crossings. Deployments at either site would not exceed regimental strength (1,200~2,000 personnel) and would be made to support Ransenari border officials in their implementation of RD-X.
  • 18: Sanama acquires a large number of military aircraft from Talenore as part of their build-up of the Sanaman Federal Armed Forces.
  • 20: After several months of construction and renovations, Ketek factories Stonetree begin manufacturing all automobile models (though at an initially sluggish pace in comparison to Ketsire and Kalgachian factories). The Ketek Company also announces its partnership with Ryker Airships to construct a hybrid Airport which would be capable of handling both airships and planes.

VIII.1675

  • 5: The Verionist annexation of Crisco has inflamed the media in northern Elwynn, where Verionism has already been under intense scrutiny since the landing of Antikaiser Verion II outside Shirekeep some weeks earlier. In opinion polls published today for next year's congressional election, were there an election to the Elwynnese congress today, the population would would vote as follows (with 1672 election results in parentheses):
  • 8: The Conservative Historical Party in East Amokolia is established in Elwynnese Amokolia as an independent sister party of its western counterpart in the Reichstag. The Party presents itself as a conservative, monarchist, pro-Amokolian unity party.
  • 9: The Amokolian Freedom Front calls for an extraordinary congress on the question of Amokolian reunification, loud voices in the party to shelve plans of Amokolian reunification.
  • 10: By fortuitous coincidence, elections for consultative national assemblies in the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic, Florencia & the Irridian Isles, Sathrati, and the Unified Governorates, have been scheduled for the same date - 01.VIII.1676. This scheduling synchronicity will bring countries and regions with a combined population of 129 million to the polls on the same day in the largest single manifestation of democratic legitimation since the height of the Imperial Republic.
  • 15: A feudal levy mustered at Isenbury in the dominion of Caverden as the lords and communes of the territory, appalled by the fate of Monty Crisco, pledged themselves to the common cause of mutual defence of their ancient liberties against the encroachment of a new autocracy.
  • 17:
    • The Vanguard Coalition in northern Elwynn falls as the Ayreonist Independence Party and the Elwynnese Workers' Party walk out and calls for a vote of no confidence in the conducatorship and government of Stephen Lewis. The reasons for the parties' departure were hammered onto the door of Eliria Castle. A summarized version of it alleges:
      • That the Verionists are on a campaign to abolish democracy in Elwynn
      • That the Verionist leader, Stephen Lewis, is authoritarian
      • That Lewis and the Verionists favour a war with Shireroth.
      • That the Verionists are no Elwynnese patriots, if given the chance to create a "Verionist Imperial Republic", such as the one proclaimed by Titus Morvayne, they would not hesitate
    • That for the safety of the Elwynnese Republic, Lewis's government must fall and in its place establish a government of national unity.
    • The Speaker of the Elwynnese Congress, Isa Kaliandarion Qor, scheduled the vote for 22.VIII.1675.
  • 18:
    • The Amokolian Freedom Front, having reached a deal with the Verionist Union for the future direction of the government, amounting to more autonomy to Elwynnese Amokolia, announces that it will vote against the motion of no confidence in Lewis's leadership.
    • The Democratic Party of Elwynn announces that it will vote in favour of the vote of no confidence in the leadership of Conducator Stephen Lewis. Democratic leader Nila Valgarai quipped to the press when asked how the Democrats would vote: "Ah, well I think you know how the Democrats would vote on a Verionist Government - bring it down. Bring it all down".
    • Rumours are circling in Eliria that Stephen Lewis, after securing a power-sharing deal with the Amokolian Freedom Front, has met with the congressional leader of the Nationalist and Humanist Party, Frederik Haabye Truls.
  • 22:
    • The 1675 Elwynnese Congress vote of no confidence concludes with Conducător Stephen Lewis losing confidence in a 126-112-12 vote. The congressional president, Isa Kaliandaron Qor relieved the Conducător with suspended effect, to be effective on the day Congress confirms a new Conducător. She immediately called in the congressional leaders for discussions on the new government formation.
      • The Ayreonist Independence Party announced that given the congressional arithmetic, the AIP being the largest party outside the Verionist Union (which has lost the congressional confidence), the AIP leader ought to be nominated Conducător by the President. The AIP said that it would be willing to negotiate with all parties on the formation of majority government. If a majority government could not be found, it would seek out supply-and-demand agreements with other parties while heading a minority one-party government. It was of great importance, the AIP noted, that extraordinary elections were avoided, as the next ordinary elections were scheduled for next year. The government to be voted in now would only have a mandate of one year, thus political party bickering should be kept at a minimum. The AIP would be mature enough to head such a government, majority or minority, and guide the congressional counties to new safe elections in one year's time.
      • The Elwynnese Workers' Party said that this unprecedented situation required great compromises on all parties – that the best Conducător is not necessarily found in the largest party of a majority coalition but that he or she should be the one best suitable to unite the warring factions of Congress, for the stability of the Congressional Counties and of Elwynn at large. The Ayreonists, for example, could not be trusted to head a coalition given how deeply divided their party was at the confidence vote on Lewis's Conducătorship. Accordingly, the EWP declared that they are the only party able to build coalitions across party lines, thus the EWP should be given the task in building a majority coalition under the EWP leadership. It would be willing to negotiate with all parties for a government programme that would advance the workers, soldiers, poor, sick, young and elderly of Elwynn.

IX.1675

  • 1: The Amokolian Freedom Front's extraordinary conference meets (called earlier on the question of Amokolian reunification, but now also discussing questions of the Elwynnese government formation). After a heated debate, the party narrowly votes to support East Amokolian reunification with West Amokolia, and that negotiations with King Arkadius on the question of constitution should occur at the earliest opportunity. The Party also resolved that until such time, East Amokolia should be granted autonomous republic status within Elwynn (similar to the Congressional Counties and Alalehzamin), and that it would support any congressional government promising with authenticity genuine moves to that end. There was great opposition within the party congress on both matters.
  • 2: One third of the conference delegates (including 11 AFF representatives of the Elwynnese congress) of the Amokolian Freedom Front meet the day after the party conference to form a new pro-Elwynnese party, the Amokolian People's Party. The APP would work be a centrist party workign towards Amokolian autonomy within East Amokolia, but loyal to Elwynnese federalism. The goal of the party was to remain within the Elwynnese Republic, not to reunite with West Amokolia unless it is to absorb West Amokolia into Elwynn, and to achieve autonomous republic status for East Amokolia. Accordingly, the Amokolian Freedom Front would now only have 16 seats in congress, with 11 for the Amokolian People's Party.
  • 3:
    • The Ayreonist Independence Party welcomed the formation of the Amokolian People's Party and found great interest in the new party's proposed solution to the question of Amokolian reunification. The Party said that it would be happy to bring on the APP in any congressional government headed by the AIP.
    • Frederik Haabye Truls, leader of the Congressional Cadres of the N&H Party, returns from a summit with the party leadership and the Sardar of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic, held in Islus, newly empowered to negotiate with opposition and minority parties in order to secure an outcome that maintains the continuation of the present constitutional order and peace in the north until the scheduled elections in 1676.
  • 8: The Verionist Union presents to the Amokolian parties (AFF, APP, MPDS) and the Elwynnese Workers' Party a plan in which all three parties would establish their own autonomous region in northern Elwynn, thus moving making the Congressional Counties no more, and causing Elwynn to have four autonomous republic (Alalehzamin, a socialist one, a Verionist one, and an east Amokolian one). The Amokolian parties were immediately on board, while the EWP cautiously optimistic. The EWP released a statement in which they looked forward to further negotiations.
    • The AIP released a statement condemning the plans to "break up" Elwynn, noticing also that any change to the constitutional order of the Elwynnese Republic was not a congressional competence but one that required the assent of not only the Congress, but of the government of Alalehzamin and the Council of Eliria, too.
    • A recording from the N&H congressional leader Truls's office was leaked to media, in which Truls allegedly stated exasperated at the prospect of the Elwynnese Workers' Party as kingmakers, "All I am prepared to offer the communists is an ounce of lead applied to the base of their skulls at a sufficient velocity". The N&H reportedly offered the Amokolian parties, in yet another N&H leak, "autonomy plus material and political support for the liberation of their western territories as far as the border with old Absentia".
      • Horrified by the prospect of being sacrificed to a totalitarian ideology for the sake of Verionist political expediency, conservatives, ethnic minorities, and small business owners each begin to band together to form "lead purchasing clubs" in order to ensure that a sufficient quantity of slugs are cast for each and every EWP and VU activist in Greater Eliria. The sarcastic gesture of support for Aqa Trul's controversial remarks is enough to send some of the more excitable members of the AIP into a momentary panic. Meanwhile the N&H cadres in northern Elwynn receive a small but noticeable bump in donations and membership applications.
    • Commenting publicly on the political jockeying taking place in the aftermath of the passing of the No-Confidence Motion, Aqa Trul replied to questions from the press to the effect that "[...] in trying to shore up his [Stephen Lewis'] tottering position by condemning Eliria to the rule of a basket case ideology is just further proof of the Conducator's amorality and inability to govern effectively. The Verionist Union disgraces themselves in making the offer and the EWP disgraces itself still further by seeming to be swayed. We shall proceed with challenging before the courts the decision of the the President of the Congress to suspend the effect of the No Confidence motion. In our estimation only fresh elections, held at the earliest possible moment, will restore honesty and accountability to our political system."
  • 9: A surprisingly long graffito appears overnight, scrawled along the wall of Eliria's central bus terminal. It reads: "Ain’t no party like an Elwynnese party cuz an Elwynnese party leads to massive socio-political/economic upheaval and sizeable loss of life."
  • 10:
    • The government of the Kingdom of Ransenar opens a sealed-bid auction for a multimillion erb contract to expand and modernize the Port of Goldfield to receive larger container ships, as well as expand its capacity.
    • Elwynnese government formation. After intense negotiations between the N&H and the Elwynnese Workers' Party, the EWP agrees to support a coalition government between the N&H, the Ayreonists, Democrats and the EWP, in exchange for EWP ministers heading the education, health, culture and infrastructure departments. The EWP congressional delegation reportedly took the news of the outcome of the negotiations with a somber mood, with members afterwards responding to media that "this is only for a year, it is for the stability of our country, our voters will understand", and another member saying "this was a decision between a rock and a hard place, but in the end, we decided that the N&H offer helped the proletariat more than restricting full socialism and communism to only a small part of the country."
      • N&H leader Frederik Haabye Truls met with President of the Congress, Isa Kaliandaron Qor, to inform her of the deals he had made with the Democrats, the Workers' Party, and the Ayreonist Party. Isa Kaliandaron Qor immediately called the Congress to session and informed it that the motion, to be decided in four days' time (i.e. the 14th, in accordance with the constitution) was "that Congress appoints to Conducător of the Elwynnese Republic the Agha Frederik Haabye Truls who intends to form a coalition government consisting of representatives from the Nationalist & Humanist Party, the Ayreonist Independence Party, the Elwynnese Workers' Party, and the Democratic Party of Elwynn".
      • Aqa Truls: "There will be no malice, and no reprisals, in our policies. No-one shall be victimised, or deprived or their rights, on account of their past actions or affiliations. Our duty, for all of us, is to serve this nation which is both our home and our protector. All of us exist under the obligations of loyalty and service to our motherland, but those obligations can only be truly and honourably fulfilled when those who exercise the vital powers of direction of the national community do so whilst remaining subject to the rule of law. Liberty, I need not remind you, is the condition of freedom under the rule of law. Let us put egotism aside and pledge to serve one-another as comrades pursuing a society that is truly harmonious. We look to the Elwynnese Workers Party to help us build a fairer society; we look to the Ayreonists to preserve the rules and procedures that will ensure consistent law making and impartial judgement; we look to the Democratic Party to provide the level headed judgement that will ensure fiscal prudence and a growing economy; and we look finally, of course, to the Nationalist-Humanist movement to ensure that the borders and greater society of Elwynn are defended against all their enemies, and that our state contributes to the peace and stability of Benacia from a position of strength. I hope that those who are at present discontented by the demise of the previous administration will find it within themselves to lend their support to the administration that I hope to form as we embark upon our great purpose. Elwynn Expects! Elwynn Endures! Elwynn Prevails!"
    • An anonymous user of the Elwnet posts a video depicting Stephen Lewis shouting at two EWP representatives and appearing to throw a pen at one of them before walking out of the room.
  • 11: The Treaty of Mutual Defence between the Raspur Pact and Sanama is signed by the Federal Council of Sanama and the Deputy High Commissioner of the Raspur Pact Ernesto de la Cruz.
  • 14:
    • The Elwynnese Congress votes to confirm the motion "that Congress appoints to Conducător of the Elwynnese Republic the Agha Frederik Haabye Truls who intends to form a coalition government consisting of representatives from the Nationalist & Humanist Party, the Ayreonist Independence Party, the Elwynnese Workers' Party, and the Democratic Party of Elwynn" with 133 votes in favour (AIP, N&H, DEM, 25 EWP), 93 votes against (VU, AFF, HPDI, 4 EWP), and 24 abstentions (APP, MPDS, 8 EWP (including 1 president)).
    • Conducător Truls invites the leaders of all political parties represented in Congress to participate in an ongoing and continuous "National Dialogue" as a demonstration of good faith and a willingness to work alongside all political forces that operate within the law.
  • 15: In response to the 11 EWP representatives not voting in line with the party whip, the EWP expels these members from the EWP membership.
  • 16: The Council of Eliria decides by acclamation to ratify, for Elwynn, the Treaty of Mutual Defence between the Raspur Pact and Sanama
  • 18: The 11 expelled EWP members form the Communist Party of Elwynn.
  • 19:
    • The Ransenari Congress ratifies the Treaty of Mutual Defence between the Raspur Pact and Sanama.
    • The DARA of the Sovereign Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Mutual Defence between the Raspur Pact and Sanama. The same day, the Speaker meets with Pact officials concerning the situation in Elwynn.
  • 20:
    • The Federal Assembly of Sanama ratifies the Treaty of Mutual Defence between the Raspur Pact and Sanama, after the petition for a referendum failed to gather the required number of signatures.
    • The government of Talenore ratifies the Raspur Pact treaty with Sanama.
  • 21:
  • 22: The II Air Force Wing of the Federal Air Force of Sanama departs Sanama for the Sovereign Confederacy after being invited for exercises by the Raspur Pact.
  • 23: Since the fall of the Stephen Lewis administration, there were secret negotiations in place (headed by the Prince) between the Congressional government, the Verionist Union and the Iron Company. The Verionists and Iron Company expressed a great indignation from the fall of the National Vanguard coalition, and hinted that the Iron Company would put sanctions on the Elwynnese Republic or worse. The Prince, finding the situation too precarious to be taken as a bluff, and well aware how previous Iron Company and Verionist indignation had been expressed, decided that calming measures were necessary on the Verionists and the Iron Company. As such, he outlined the establishment of a Verionist-run autonomous republic in the areas of Elwynn where the Verionists were strong and ran local bailiwick governments. To the Prince's surprise, both the congressional government and the Verionist/Iron Company delegation approved of the changes. Amendments to the Elwynnese constitution were drawn up on the same day and approved by the Council of Eliria on the same day, to be of effective 1.I.1676.
  • 24:

X.1675

  • 13: The expense of maintaining a mostly gravimetrically-driven armoured force has become cost-prohibitive for Benacia Command. With gravimetric tanks devouring strategic materials for components and fuel cells at an alarming rate and exorbitant cost, the Command Executive struggled to find sufficient funding to commence the rebuilding of its u-boat force - being obliged in the end to forgo ambitious programme of boat construction in Sathrati, based off imperial designs, and instead to make a more modest purchase of diesel submarines ordered from shipyards in Sanama. Beginning in 1676, the 2,500+ Bandersnatch gravtanks and variants will have their gravimetric drives and battery banks stripped out - with the components being sorted for reuse in aerospace projects or reclaimed for scrap value. Immobilised gravtanks will subsequently be buried, hull down, along the frontiers between the Unified Governorates and Kasterburg, Inner Benacia, Kalgachia, and Amokolia as part of a static defensive line.
  • 17: Campaigning starts for the 1675 Elwynnese congress election (1.XII.1675).
    • In East Amokolia, the anti-Elwynnese Amokolian Freedom Front and Conservative Historical Party are unlikely partners at a rally for the establishment of an Amokolian autonomous republic. Jorgen Basker-Daal, the leader of the newly founded pro-Elwynnese Amokolian People's Party said that the economy of East Amokolia is more stable within the Congressional Counties, that health and education are well funded, and that there is finally political stability after autonomy of the Northern Commonwealth. Basker-Daal also said that his party would not favour the establishment of an Amokolian autonomous republic until West Amokolia had been joined with the East within the Elwynnese Republic. "The Elwynnese and Amokolian civilizations are intertwined", he said, "one cannot be without the other".
    • Elwynnese Workers' Party releases a manifesto that is pointedly more social democratic and less socialist than its previous manifestos. EWP calls for a national pension fund, better environmental regulations, more unionization and enforced collective bargaining (calling minimum wage a scourge of the feudalists).
    • The Communist Party of Elwynn releases a manifesto calling for the nationalization of ESB and Iron Company assets in the Congressional Counties, as well as all private companies of more than 50 employees.
    • The Ayreonist Independence Party sets out its priorities for the next four years: lower taxes on income (whether from capital gains or employment), private pension funds, private income insurances in case of illness or unemployment, the end of autonomous republics in the five noes: no to more autonomous republics, no to more powers to the autonomous republics, no to the congressional counties being styled an autonomous republic, no special flag and emblems for the congressional counties, and no to a renaming of the congressional counties' institutions ("Congress of the Elwynnese Republic", "Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic", etc...).
    • the AIP agree not to field candidates in East Amokolia, and the APP will not field candidates in the rest of Elwynn.
    • the Communists agree with the AFF and the Mishalanski Party for Democratic Socialism not to field candidates in each other's jurisdictions (MPDS in Mishalan, AFF in Vattnaland and Automatica, Communist party in the rest). The AFF and CPE agree to forming a congressional bloc after the election, the MPDS declines to join that bloc.
    • The Verionist Union in the Congressional Counties focusses on the main issues: economic growth and a more effective government. They warn against the Communist propaganda. The Verionist Union calls for "restricted democracy", calling for more executive powers for the Conducator, and less delegated sovereignty to the Bailiwicks. The Congress of the CC should be "advisory in principle, representing the opinions of the people", rather than the primary legislator. Elirian councilwoman Christina Leyne was delegated the Party Chair in 1675, and will lead the Verionists into the elections.

XI.1675

  • 12: Delegations of technical specialists from the Black Legions, Union Defence Force, and the Grand Army of Ransenar meet at Ardashirshahr in southern Elwynn to discuss the optimisation of information gathering and information sharing processes, methodologies, and technologies. Upshot of talks is inception of a new concept that would become the Continental Defence Programme, a network of integrated radar, sonar, and electronic listening posts covering the coastlines of Raspur Pact members on Benacia and their borders with non-Raspur members (except Sanama).
  • 15: A series of military training exercises -- including gunfire with blanks -- is being staged across Ransenar starting 15.XI.1675, and the Army is telling the public not to be alarmed at the suspicious-looking activity. The unconventional warfare exercises can be likened to live-action role-playing in the extreme, with hostile engagement playing out between military students and trainees, volunteer civilians, and soldiers. Heavily populated areas like Goldfield, Goldshire Hamlet, Lune Villa, and Teldrin are among the training sites. The students will match wits with more seasoned soldiers, who will “act as realistic opposing forces and guerrilla freedom fighters,” officials said in a release.

XII.1675

  • 3. Results from the 1676 Elwynnese congress election are announced. Truls's N&H-AIP-EWP-DEM coalition gets 123 seats, losing 11 seats and its already slim majority (although the N&H and Democrats makes gains). The Verionist Union loses 33 seats, but manages to stay strong in many parts of the northern parts of Elwynn, despite many voters' reservations about them. The Ayreonist Independence Party is almost halved. The newly established (schismatic) parties of the Amokolian People's Party and the Communist Party of Elwynn make gains over their previous representation, and the Elwynnese congress also welcomes two new parties: the Conservative Historical Party – an Amokolian monarchist party – and the Party for Reunification, an Asantelianese separatist party calling for Asantelian's reunification with the Sovereign Confederation.
  • 4. 1676 Elwynnese congress election: the AIP, having lost almost half its seats in the Congress, announces that it will investigate the causes of its losses. AIP leader Meqael Mizarielion announces that he will not stand for reelection as party leader at the next party conference. Meanwhile, EWP leader Pedyr Mekaarveq, a minister of the ruling N&H-led coalition, refuses to resign, saying that there is still a role for the EWP to play in the government, and that he is sure that he has the members' confidence to continue to be the progressive voice of any government. "It is far too early to speculate on the causes of the result, but the facts are these: the EWP is still a party of significance, workers' rights must be respected."
  • 5: 1676 Elwynnese congress election: Communist leader Viljam Paxa Elsaion calls for a regionalist government led by the Verionist Union, consisting also of the Amokolian parties, the socialist parties and the Asantelianese parties. This coalition would have a majority that would bring about a larger federal reform. He envisions the establishment of more autonomous republics:
    • People's Government of Eliria and Araxion, a socialist state
    • East Amokolia
    • Asantelian
    • Cape Farewell and Iserdia, a northern state
  • 6: 1676 Elwynnese congress election: The Communists' federalism idea receives lukewarm support from the Amokolian Freedom Front but is denounced by the Amokolian People's Party and the Mishalanski Party for Democratic Reform.
  • 7: The Prince of the Elwynnese Republic, Ander Avon-El, discusses the election result with the outgoing president of the Congress, Isa Kaliandaron Qor of the EWP, who lost her seat in the election. Until the new congress meets next month, she nonetheless heads the government formation. The N&H leader and conducator, Frederik Haabye Truls has kept a low profile since the election, issuing statements that his government would welcome negotiations with other parties but that it is too early to discuss whether the government would fall in a vote of confidence one the new congress meet.
  • 13: After a week of negotiations, Conducator Truls reappears on a podium in the courtyard of Eliria Castle to announce that a Government of Unity and Progress has been agreed between himself, Nila Valgarai of the Democratic Party of Elwynn, and representatives of the EWP and APP. Conducator Truls confirmed his intention to stand down in the following month and to pass the task of government (re)formation onto Nila Valgarai in the hope that she will be able to command the confidence of a majority in Congress.
  • 15: After days of sometimes acrimonious internal debate, accompanied by a rolling commentary carried on via the press and over viewscreen hailers, the outgoing AIP leader, Meqael Mizarielion, announced that his party would be joining the Government of Unity and Progress. "What choice ultimately do we have? The alternative is to vote for reckless ideologues and the factionaries who dismembered the north in order to ensure their own personal position?"
  • 16: Outgoing Elwynnese congressional president Isa Kaliandaron Qor meets with the congressional leaders of the N&H, the Democrats, the APP, the AIP and the EWP on their proposed Government of Unity and Progress, and confirmed to them that this is the government she will recommend to the incoming congress once its meets five days later.
  • 21: The second Elwynnese congress is opened by the Prince of Elwynn, Ander Avon-El, in an austere ceremony. As its first act, the Congress elects APP delegate Benjamin Sluyjs to President of Congress. Three vice presidents are also elected, one from each of the largest three parties (N&H, DEM, VU). President Sluyjs meets with outgoing president Qor to discuss the government formation. Content with Qor's report, Sluyjs releases Qor from her duties to the Elwynnese State.
  • 22: Sluys meets with the leaders of all congressional parties on the question of government formation. Releases a press release thereafter that states he will move to elect Nila Valgarai (DEM) to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic.
  • 23: First reading of the motion that Congress elects Nila Valgarai to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic.
  • 24: Second reading of the motion that Congress elects Nila Valgarai to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic.

XIII.1675

  • 1. Third reading of the motion that the Elwynnese Congress elects Nila Valgarai to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic. Congress votes on the motion. Tally:
    In favour: 150 (N&H, DEM, APP, AIP, EWP)
    Against: 96 (VU, AFF, CPE, CHP, PR, HPDI)
    Abstain: 4 (Sluyjs, MPDS)
    • As such, Nila Valgarai is confirmed Conducator with immediate effect.
  • 5: Anton Trexeller, Senior Commercial Officer for the Honourable Company's new Cibolan operation, inexplicably found himself nominated by the Board of Directors to be their representative on a special edition of "Hermeneutonauts" filmed in the Stonetree Neutral Zone as part of an apparent series exploring the economic, diplomatic, and strategic implications of the Detente. Daunted by the prospect of enduring so much waffle, and slightly tipsy as a consequence, his most notable contribution to the debate - aside from disrupting a proctor's line of erudite discourse by loudly slurping water whenever he spoke - was to wonder aloud whether the Kalirion Fracture had run its course and in fact that the events they were discussing were of a more universal nature pertaining to the modern history of the Benacian continent, a Timeline of Modern Benacia if you will. The programme's host deftly picked up on Trexeller's implication of Benacian identity to segue into the next topic, an invitation to consider the Vanic Question with the motion that "the mark of a civilised nation in the modern age is the ability to legislate for a Strategic Petroleum Reserve without resorting to acts of lewd exhibitionism."
  • 8: UDF Cudgellers in the Trans-Elwynn report several border trespasses of smugglers and human traffickers.
  • 17:
    • The Elwynnese Union Defence Force (UDF) reclassified its Gendarme Divisions as jägare formations, marking a shift in emphasis for the UDF from internal policing and aid to the civil power operations towards mission-orientated conventional warfare in which the new jägar divisions would specialise in performing the role of light infantry.
    • Operation Dalväktare: Convoys of UDF armoured vehicles and towed artillery pieces are seen snaking westwards out of Aryastan and Azeroth towards the frontier between the Trans-Elwynn region of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic and the portion of the old Vale of Angularis claimed by Tellia after the collapse of Imperial authority. Although rich in iron ore deposits, forestries, and athwart a key railway linking the eastern metropolitan conurbations to central Benacia, Tellian control over the region had proven to be ineffective and banditry had soon started to be reported as growing in prevalence.
  • 23: In a TV interview, Elwynnese prince Ander Avon-El denounces "the naïveté of the communists who have no regard for the national security and welfare of the Elwynnese people", confirming that "Operation Dalväktare is nothing but a friendly neighbourhood policing operation. The Tellian government has been unable and unwilling to control the area, and accordingly, the Raspur Pact has decided to get rid of criminality, once and for all, so that there will be peace in our time, something the Elwynnese and Benacian peoples in unison have dreamt of for centuries."

XIV.1675

  • 8: Eliria Times report that the son o Elwynnese prince Ander Avon-El, Johan Avon-El, is serving with the UDF as a commissioned officer in Operation Dalväktare. The Court of the Prince announces a statement that it will not comment on media speculation.
  • 9: The Party for Reunification urges Astantelianese voters against any show of support for federalization, claiming that a federated Astantellian may never see a return to Goldshirean administration.
  • 12:
    • Further reports in the Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria place Johan Avon-El as a Löjtnant in the 3rd Jägarbataljon of the 15th Division, presently assigned to Operation Dalväktare. This purported revelation entails a considerable headache for the assigned close protection detail.
    • Rumours circulate that the Tellian Confederation, citing the failure to obtain the assent of both Co-Presidents, has refused a Raspur Pact ultimatum to admit a multinational peacekeeping mission into the portion of Angularis presently under nominal Tellian sovereignty. Reports from Scoglitto imply that the embryonic Tellian Air Force has gone onto a war footing, with the 91st Air Force Base sealed and under armed guard whilst venerable Tempesta strike aircraft dating back to the era of Ashkenatza have been moved into hardened shelters and prepped for a short notice scramble warning.
  • 13:
    • In response to Tellian actions, the I Air Force Wing out of Boomwatch AFB in northwestern Sanama is placed on high alert.
    • In the twenty days subsequent to the UDF establishing forward operating bases in the Trans-Elwynn region the foundries and workshops of old Tellian Mandate and the northern occupied zone were observed to have become scenes of frenetic activity. The produce of this new surge of industry being judiciously concealed by the Tellian authorities beneath vast canvas screens intended to obscure and thwart the efforts of Raspur Pact aerial photography and satellite imaging.

XV. 1675

  • 22:
    • Some inciting event, as of yet unconfirmed, triggers an upheaval throughout so-called Verionist Benacia. In spite of possessing a standing army of 405,000 soldiers, only the Iron Militia and a few detachments of Watchmen prove reliable during the breakdown of public order that ensues. Verionist Forces appear to be intent upon salvaging what they can and falling back to positions around Chryste, perhaps adhering to a previously prepared contingency plan.
    • Whether connected to the initial event or merely an example of opportunist predation, the King of West Amokolia, in defiance of geopolitical reality and - presumably - logistics, dispatched the Tassity Mansabdar to stake his claim to the entirety of Verionist Benacia before the rumoured intent of the Verionist Republic to evacuate the majority of its forces from the continent had even been officially confirmed.
    • Benacia Command dispatched a naval task force, comprised of five missile corvettes and a mobile command base to the Elsenar-Guttuli region to determine whether the absurd occurrences had arisen as a consequence of human frailty or whether the Verionists had been testing a narrative implosion device in the vicinity.
  • 24: The Federal Council of Sanama issues a full travel ban for West Amokolian citizens. It cites security concerns about Vanic infiltration in the country, as well as an aggressive expansion policy that threatens to undermine Benacian peace and security.
  • 28: Benacia Command, citing the recent conduct of West Amokolia and the increasingly Vanic tone of its government, gave notice that the Unified Governorates of Benacia had repudiated the Treaty of Concord as of seven a.m. that morning. In an official communique broadcast over Radio Merensk at 8 a.m. the same day, the announcer concluded with the words "Let Brandenburg be called Haraldsborg, and let the ersatz-Amokolia it rules now be called Froyalan, for we will treat both as such and in the manner they deserve". Henceforth, with immediate effect, all West Amokolian nationals would be regarded as Froyalaners and subjected to the historically mandated regime of protection for such persons. Concurrently, Benacia Command invited the Imperial Regency to authorise the transfer of the Arkadian Sector on Naudia'Diva from the Tassity Mansabdar to the Black Legions.
  • 29: The Conducator of Congressional Elwynn and the Sardar of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic jointly requested a session of the Council of Eliria to debate whether Elwynn should follow the UGB in repudiating treaties with West Amokolia. The Prince, having privately encouraged the UGB to return to adherence with the provisions of the Treaty of Concord, will be left in a precarious position should the Council favour the Dem-N&H proposal.
    • The Prince's opposition was all for nought however as, in a rare show of unity, the Amokolian Peoples Party, the Elwynnese Democrats, the Nationalist & Humanist Party, and the Verionist Union, all endorsed the proposal and as a consequence all six members of the Council of Eliria, comprising the heads of government of the Congressional Counties and both autonomous republics, unanimously backed the proposal, dealing a blow to the authority of the Prince in the process.
  • 31: A pirate radio station in Northbloom broadcasts part of a leaked memo from Deep Services, a subsidiary consultancy of Kalgachia's Troglodyti. The memo states that "it would serve the UGB and Elwynn well to revisit the process by which, from a position of recognising the clear and present risk associated with the compromised Brandenburg regime, they were so abruptly blinded to it and persuaded to sign the Treaty of Concord. Legal gymnastics are the main vector by which the Vanic archon asserts its power in defiance of the popular will, a fact of which the signatories were well appraised, yet some weakness undetermined from this quarter was found to drop the signatories' guard in a fashion spectacular enough to be remarked upon at the time. Thus far we have failed to identify the mode of leverage responsible and as such, find no indication that it could not happen again..."

1676 AN

I.1676

  • 3: Elwynnese prince Ander Avon-El, furious after the Council of Eliria voted to repudiate the Treaty of Concord against its own provisions, calls the decision illegal, and instead publishes an instrument of government confirming the validity of the Treaty of Concord. In a statement released along with the instrument of government, Avon-El states that if the Council of Eliria still wishes to withdraw from the treaty during the twelfth year after its implementation, the Council of Eliria may so decide at that time in accordance with law.
  • 4: The Ayreonist Independence Party, the Communist Party of Elwynn, the Amokolian Freedom Front, the Conservative Historical Party and the Mishalanski Party for Democratic Socialism release statements in support of the Prince's interpretation.
  • 5: With the Verionists having lost control over Monty Crisco and Elsenar's authorities and civil service (except in Chryse) and therefore begun a huge evacuation to Keltia where apparently now the Verionists have found a land of milk and honey, the Imperial Regency and the Verionists agree to a transfer of sovereignty of Elsenar (except the Chryse area) and Monty Crisco back to Shireroth. It is rumoured that because of Shireroth's inability to administer parts of these territories, that the Regency is therefore in negotiations with other Vulture States on how to proceed with these territories. One option on the table, leaked to the press in Eliria, is that Elsenar in its entirety would be granted Ransenar while the Guttuli Protectorate would have an option to take parts of Monty Crisco.
  • 9: The Majles-e Showrā-ye Darbār, legislature of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic, initiated proceedings that could, if replicated in either the Northern Commonwealth or the Congressional Counties, result in the impeachment and removal of Ander Avon-El.
  • 13: Delegates from the Sovereign Confederation and the Kingdom of Ransenar meet in Goldshire Hamlet to discuss coordination of a common foreign policy and greater economic cooperation.
  • 14:
    • The Tassity Mansabdar killed the pirate leader. The mission on Naudia'Diva is accomplished. In a letter to the Imperial Regency, the King of Amokolia says that the Arkadian Sector can be returned. The letter comes with a box containing the head of the pirate leader. The full story is worked out in The Micras Chessboard.
    • Amokolia closes the border with Unified Governorates of Benacia.
  • 18: The Amokolian People's Party delegation to the Elwynnese congress moves for a vote of no confidence in Prince Ander Avon-El. In a statement by its leader, Jorgen Basker-Daal said: "The actions of the Prince have injured the prospects of Amokolian reunification for decades ahead. It is clear he not fit to lead our republic. For those reasons, we call for his impeachment in Congress."
    • In response to the motion ahead in the Congress, the Ayreonist Independence Party, of which Prince Ander Avon-El is also a member, left the congressional government. Its ministers resigned with immediate effect, leaving the executive with a one-seat majority in Congress.
  • 19: The Elwynnese Workers' Party also left the government, said that it would call for a vote of no confidence in the Conducator after the vote on the Prince. An EWP spokesperson said "It is clear that this is an N&H-led ploy to get progressives out of government positions in Elwynn. Ander Avon-El has been a good prince and he does not deserve this kind of treatment."
  • 20: The Elwynnese congress votes on the motion of no confidence in Prince Ander Avon-El, 144 votes in favour (N&H, VU, DEM, APP, HPDI) against 105 votes against (AIP, CPE, EWP, AFF, CHP, PR, MPDS). The President of the Congress subsequently communicated the results to the Council of Eliria.
  • 21: Raspur Pact debriefers have a few stern words with some captured VBA officers concerning the wisdom, or lack thereof, of housing lethal pathogens on the same facility as an experimental reactor.
  • 24:
    • The Majles-e Showrā-ye Darbār delivers its verdict on the Prince of Elwynn with 197 votes in favour of the motion of no confidence (N&H, VU, DEM, BEH) vs 39 against (AIP, EWP). The Sardar of the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic is duly mandated to convey the news of the result to the Council of Eliria.
    • Ground based air defences in Elwynnese Amokolia are placed on high alert whilst Benacia Command ordered the Central and Northern Banner Groups to disperse their aircraft to satellite runways and to establish patterns of 24-hour combat air patrolling until further notice. The Western Banner Group, headquartered on New Blackstone commenced snap drills, taking units out of their permanent cantonments and into their forward defensive positions.

II.1676

  • 1:
    • The Council of Eliria meets in which the votes of confidence in Prince Ander Avon-El are communicated and found to be in good form. Ander Avon-El confirms their validity, thanks the other members of the Council for a fruitful cooperation, and hands over the executive to the senior-most member of the Council, Firdaus Abdollahi Mehr. Mehr will be Steward until the new princely elections have concluded.
    • As the preceding week of cloud cover over Western Northbloom is cleared by a boreal high pressure front, the fresh satellite imagery of various powers reveals that on the fringes of the town of Usheroff, a strip of ground some 2,400 metres long has been cleared, graded and hastily overlaid with slabs of PAG-14 to create a runway. Other visible details are a single parked Floret in camouflage livery, a hangar composed of a three-sided revetment with a fabric canopy and a series of ragged taxiways radiating out toward presumable dispersal stands in the cover of nearby woodland.
    • The front page of the Usheroff and District Newsletter and Spare Parts Directory details eerie eyewitness reports of "The Howling Night Birds of the Ermingander Road". Meetings are held in surrounding villages to discuss "The Usheroff Thing" which draw the usual crowd of nutjobs, moonbats, fruitcakes and concerned mothers, the less credible of whom are generously interviewed for that evening's Kalgachi television news and immediately discredit the existence of the phenomenon in the minds of most viewers. The handful of sober and sane witnesses, including the only one able to make coherent drawings of what he saw, are largely ignored and the stigma of their association with the farcical proceedings soon shames them into silence.
  • 3: Batavia and West Amokolia sign the Treaty of Koningsbergen.
  • 4: Conducator Nila Valgarai of the Democrat–N&H–APP minority government in Elwynn falls in a vote of no confidence. 144 votes in favour (VU, AIP, CPE, EWP, AFF, CHP, PR, MPDS, HPDI), and 105 votes against (N&H, DEM, APP). The President of the Congress, Benjamin Sluyjs, relieves the Conducator of her office, and authorizes her to lead a caretaker government until the Congress has confirmed a Conducator. Sluyjs consequently meets with all party leaders to discuss the new government formation.
  • 5: Elwynnese congress government formation 1676: The AIP leader meets with the APP leader to discuss the basis of a government. Although the APP voted against Prince Ander Avon-El, and the AIP against the APP coalition, the two party leaders said to the media afterwards that they had much in their programme they could use to build a coalition. "Given congressional arithmetic, however, we'd need more parties to these talks."
  • 6: Elwynnese congress government formation 1676: The AIP begins talks with Communists and the EWP, while the APP begins talks with the other Amokolian parties.
  • 7: 1676 Elwynnese princely elections: Verionist Union announces Stephen Lewis as its princely candidate.
  • 8: Elwynn's Ayreonist Independence Party announces Meqael Mizarielion as its candidate in the 1676 Elwynnese princely elections.
  • 10: The Amokolian People's Party announces Jorgen Basker-Daal as its candidate in the 1676 Elwynnese princely elections.
  • 19: The Ayreonist Independence Party and the Amokolian People's Party report they have been unable to secure a majority coalition, and urge the President of Congress to discuss the question of government formation more intimately and aggressively with party leaders, saying "new elections are the last thing we need at this time of political crisis".
  • 23: The N&H announces the candidacy of Frederik Haabye Truls for the vacant principate.

III.1676

  • 4: Details of the N&H electoral platform energe. Focus to be upon developing an export based manufacturing sector to build up industrial capacity and working capital, with surpluses to be reinvested in defence, law and order, and public infrastructure policy. Foreign policy - to remain aligned with Raspur Pact, introduce quarantine along Amokolian frontier. Domestic policy - encourage civic reconciliation, audit of any Verionist "special projects" established by previous administration in view of notable safety lapses elsewhere. First electoral event - symbolic blockade of the Amokolian Oriental Express in Mishalan.
  • 6: Kalgachia issues a statement on the ongoing Bovic Schism, remarking that "the resolve of the state and clerical classes of Drak-Modan to bring their centres of societal gravity within Benacian shores marks a commendable return toward the cherished precepts of collective Benacian sovereignty established by the Maven Nohsi Goltz in late antiquity - a timely and welcome development when the northern saddle of our continent is once again compromised by an alien colonial power and the cause of Benacian solidarity has become an imperative."
    • As Drak-Modani developments in the husbandry of famed Natopian goat breeds for dairy purposes have attracted the interest of Kalgachia's highland farming community, enquiries are passed to Drakorda through a chain of commercial intermediaries regarding the export availability of breeding specimens.
  • 11: The Commissioner of New Blackstone, Jeremiah Avon-El, is sent to Kalgachia on a five-day furlough, at the personal direction of the Szodan, to investigate what experiences and amenities are afforded to notable personages utilising the newly promulgated "Pachadsberg Visa".
  • 12: Upon arrival in Pachadsberg, Commissioner Avon-El - being the highest UGB official to have set foot in the Garden since the Slavegate Convention negotiations - is received by Caustifer Yastreb, chair of the Pachadsberg Development Committee who leads him on a guided tour of the resort's completed and ongoing works. This is followed by a meeting with a Mr. Waller at the Puckadobey Savings Bank, where initial discussion of mutual acquaintances leads to an illuminating conversation about the jurisdictional hedging of personal capital for purposes of audit reconciliation and insulation from failures thereof. A numbered PSB account is opened for Avon-El's "casino winnings" and he is left to experience the full delights of Pachadsberg at his own initiative.
  • 16: First round in the 1676 Elwynnese princely elections. Frederik Haabye Truls of the N&H wins a plurality but fails to secure a majority. In the second round, scheduled for next month, Mr Haabye Truls will face Meqael Mizarielion (AIP). Third-placed Stephen Lewis of the Verionist Union, although securing 76% of the Northern Commonwealth vote, did not manage to advance to the second round.
  • 18: The Ayreonist Independence Party and Amokolian People's Party, on one side, begin coalition talks with the Nationalist and Humanist Party and the Democratic Party on the other side.
  • 24: Elwynnese congressional coalition talks stall on the question of Conducator. N&H–DEM side steadfast that Nila Valgarai (DEM) is reelected to the position. AIP–APP side want an AIP candidate.

IV.1676

  • 1: Elwynnese congressional coalition talks continue. The parties agree not to discuss the question of conducatorship for a week.
  • 6: The parties tentatively agree on a platform for governance of the congressional counties, based on national cohesion, an Amokolian curriculum in Amokolian bailiwicks, expanded private insurances of pension and ill health, a fairer taxation regime, and overview of the post-feudalist of justice system.
  • 7: The AIP–APP and N&H–DEM talks agree that if an Ayreonist wins the princely elections, the Democrats get the conducatorship, and if the N&H wins the princely elections, an Ayreonist gets the conducatorship.
  • 8: 1676 Elwynnese princely elections. In the second round, Frederik Haabye Truls (N&H) narrowly beat (51–49%) AIP contender Meqael Mizarierion for the position of Prince. As soon as the results were announced, Mr Haabye Truls swore the oath of office and took his seat in the Council of Eliria. Mr Mizarierion said, as soon as the results were announced, that he was pleased that he had been elected Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic, and that he looked forward to leading the congressional government in Elwynn.
  • 9: The President of the Elwynnese Congress, Mr Benjamin Sluyjs (APP) brought forward the first reading of the motion to elect Meqael Mizarierion to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic, heading a coalition government of the Nationalist & Humanist Party, the Democratic Party of Elwynn, the Amokolian People's Party, and the Ayreonist Independence Party.
  • 11: The Elwynnese Congress confirms the election of Meqael Mizarierion (AIP) to Conducator of the Elwynnese Republic, with 130 votes in favour (N&H, DEM, APP, AIP), and 119 votes against (VU, CPE, EWP, AFF, CHP, PR, MPDS, HPDI).
  • 12: Elwynnese congressional Conducator Meqael Mizarierion announces a twenty-member cabinet including himself consisting of 7 N&H members, 5 Democrats, 4 members of the Amokolian People's Party, and 3 additional members of the Ayreonist Independence Party. Outgoing conducator Nila Valgarai (DEM) is made Minister of Finance and notes wryly to the media that there are now no women in the Council of Eliria.
  • 21: Shireroth wins the Microvision Song Contest 2019. Kaiseress Salome awarded Shireroth's points personally, giving Sanama 12 points. She has, according to court rumours, a teen crush on the Sanaman singer Dimash Kudaibergen, awards Kudaibergen a title of Baronage (Baron Kudaibergen; in Shirerithian peerage, baronies are only granted foreigners), and has invited Kudaibergen for tea and cake. The Kaiseress also awards lordships in Shirekeep for the Coldplay members (the lowest form of nobility), remarking however that their song was "pathetic". She is happy, though, that the Florian Republic finally saw the light and gave Shireroth 12 points.
  • 22: The Kalgachi tabloid Private Ear fills its front page with two illustrations: a transcript of assurances given by the King of West Amokolia to the Prince of Elwynn on 17.I denying any intent to convert his realm into a Storish client state, next to a table displaying the Microvision votes of Stormark and West Amokolia in which they awarded each other the maximum points. Beneath, typeset in bold faux-runic, is the headline: "By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them".
    • The Private Ear front page is featured prominently on Ransenari media (known for its sensationalism), triggering huge demand for issues of the tabloid to catch the illustrations. Putting it in context with West Amokolia's brazen expansionist designs on Elsenar, opinion pages and media coverage reports on the illustrations as the latest salvo in the "war for the minds of the peoples of the Benacian continent", regarding the Vanic-West Amokolian cooperation in the Microvision Song Contest 2019 as a concerted effort to take control or influence the culture of the country and reinstate the "Vanic Web".
    • The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria, whilst disdaining to comment upon so vulgar a matter as the Microvision contest directly, being distinctly sniffy about "low culture", provided a droll analysis of the sociological and political factors that had combined to elevate the favouritism shown by Brandenburg to Haraldsborg to a matter of international concern. The paper duly dismissed the voting proclivities of the King of West Amokolia as being "a cheap shot concerning a trivial matter, one flung back in spite over having been so thoroughly drubbed by the international community for his misguided attempt to capitalise on the misfortunes of Elsenar."
    • Rumours circulate in Eliria concerning the abrupt departure of the former Prince for a new academic posting in Tala, Raikoth, accompanied by a sizeable close protection detail, in the same month that a new edict concerning the status of Elwynnese adherence to the Treaty of Concord is anticipated.
  • 23: Verionist Union leader, and Northern Conducator, Stephen Lewis holds a speech in Fieldburg, televised live in most parts of the country. He decries the "N&H takeover of the government" and warns that the Northern Commonwealth now "stands as a last resort, as often in our history, against the grubby hands of imperialist powers. Be it Storish, be it communists or be it the disasterous dictatorship of the Osmani Gang, whose black shadow falls over Benacia as the Star of Verion is pushed away to the North". In a response to questioning from journalists, Lewis refused to say if he recognised the new government, or would implement the policy of the new administration, instead replying with a cryptic "The North does as the North does".
    • Inhabitants of the Northern Commonwealth are bemused by a sudden blitz of publicity materials produced by the Court of the Prince detailing essential items to carry in a "grab bag" and other hints and tips for preparedness in the face of an unspecified emergency.
    • Asked about Conducator Lewis' comments concerning the the "N&H takeover of the government" the press spokeswoman for the Court of the Prince tersely replied "It's called 'winning an election on the basis of a popular vote', Agha Lewis really ought to try it some time."

V.1676

  • 1: Operation Kulning: Driving through the night from Dragonskeep, a detachment of UDF engineers and administrative personnel arrived in Fieldburg on the morning of 01.V.1676, under the command of Generalmajor Jan Gräbner. The Generalmajor's first act upon arrival was to summon the Superintendent Officer of Cudgels and Master of Cudgels, and the Deputy Director of the Panopticon Department, the heads of Republican law enforcement and security in the city, to join him for breakfast at the hotel which he had now requisitioned for a headquarters. Having taken the opportunity, over fried herrings, poached eggs, lingonberries, and rye bread, to remind his guests of their obligations to the constitution and the democratic order of the Republic, the Generalmajor genially explained the purpose of his mission. Exercise Tempus Est had convinced the incoming Prince of the utility of the Agnesian Gulf, protected from boreal storms by the Cimmerian Isles, as a natural bastion for the naval forces of Elwynn and the Raspur Pact in Benacia. To this end existing harbour facilities at Port Illumination and Vijayanagara would be expanded and a new naval dockyard would be constructed on the island of Wolfraven. To support all of this would require significant investment in infrastructure in the region. The Generalmajor's task therefore was to identify land for purchase in Fieldburg and to identify from the available options an optimal site for the construction of a new UDF Operations Centre intended to coordinate all defence activities in the Agnesia-Cimmeria region. As the cudgellers were subject to a chain of command stretching back, via the fetchingly titled Bludgeoner-General of the Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels, to the Court of the Prince, where their loyalties therefore must ultimately lay, the Generalmajor charged his breakfast partners with lending every assistance when it came to the matter of 'liaising' with representatives of the local authorities, who might be less than fully cooperative in view of the truculent attitude adopted by the present Conducator in recent days.

VI.1676

VII.1676

N&H Propagandists in Eliria were seemingly either unwilling or unable to allow the purported demise of the House of Verion to pass without comment...
  • 16: Rumours begin to spread that a chartered Nakalma flight from 's Koningenwaarde to the Verionian Imperial capital of Sarhat - carrying the Batavian Prime Minister Joachim Mackay, the Liberadosan president Jacobo Castrigo Álvarez and the Viceroy of Verionist Benacia Jana Al-Basani - is reported overdue and has made no communication with air traffic control since beginning its transit of the Great Western Sea. Their personal and business links aside, the improbable hubris and geopolitical implications of gathering so many important personages at a single point of danger do not pass without remark. A long range patrol by a scout shuttle of the Natopian Defense Force, overflying the vicinity on a suborbital trajectory, reported anomalous electromagnetic readings immediately prior to the disappearance of Flight 731 off air traffic control radar screens.
  • 17: Long convoys of trucks, armoured personnel carriers, and low-loaders carrying vehicles shrouded under tarpaulin covers are reported as wending their way westwards from Merensk and Sansabury along the few good roads leading into the Siyacha Free State and the area of operations of the I Uihmanz facing the frontier with Kasterburg. Sources close to Benacia Command insist that the bringing up to strength of the establishments of formations attached to the 1st Corps was long over due and not made in response to any specific occurrence.
  • 19: The OIEC Director of Benacian Operations, Bobbert Shrubschild, is waylaid by journalists on arrival at Gravelbottom Airport and questioned about the Corporation's reponse to the recent activation of a secret protocol between the governments of Los Liberados and the Florian Republic, wherein the latter has assumed sovereignty over the former. Shrubschild states that "the Board of Directors are still assessing the situation but have decided that our head office will remain in Puerto Arcadio for now. With the apparent demise of Prime Minister Mackay, Batavia's increased vulnerability to the Vanic domino puts future trade with its confederation in some doubt but the Euran market remains viable. The Florian Republic, having the institutional memory of a concussed goldfish, represents for our purposes an optimally deregulated business environment to which we would cautiously welcome a transition." Shortly afterwards, Caustifer Yastreb is seen boarding an outbound flight on his way to an "emergency shareholder meeting".
  • 23: The Verionist Vespers[1] begin, with the Raspur Pact commencing the suppression of the Iron Company and the Verionist Union on a global scale.
    • Religious hysteria grips the Bovic community in northern Benacia, already disorientated by the schism in the Dozan Bovic Church, with the herds (congregations) cleft between the mother church and the schismatics of Drak-Modan, as videos circulate purportedly showing the most dreaded entity in the Bovic pantheon manifesting as the Blood Aurochs, given substance by the slaughter carried out by the faithful on the gore splattered steps of his church in the bailiwick of Saint Biffor. Every individual who watches any of the video clips of the Blood Aurochs receives a commandment burnt into their psyche. The instruction varies according to the watcher but comes in the form of an intensely personal revelation that is invariably homicidal in its ultimate intent. Authorities have suspended the data networks of northern Elwynn in an effort to slow the spread of the videos and have sought the assistance of both Bovic Churches, along with their Elwynnese brethren in an attempt to locate and destroy all physical copies of the same. The creation of a memetic murder plague was an unexpected development to say the least, which would go on to significantly complicate efforts to restore order in the Northern Commonwealth.
  • 24: After it became clear that the Batavian prime minister is most likely no longer alive, the king instituted a state of emergency.

VIII.1676

  • 23 : Operation Fanlin is declared complete. The remaining territory of Southern Lunaris, as determined by the Guttuli Protectorate's treaty with the Ransenar, is reorganized into four commands. Resettlement programs are launched to bring the territory into line with the cultural and socio-economic nature of the remainder of the Protectorate.

XI.1676

  • 10: Anti-Verionist backlash in the Northern Commonwealth continues, fueled by Bovic extremist rhetoric.
  • 24: The Kalgachi government opens an Extraordinary Grand Council - the third in its history - to deliberate on the country's future in the context of a re-congealing Benacian order. Speaking to reporters, Lady Lieutenant Rubina Yastreb of Oktavyan denies rumours that Kalgachia is re-entering an isolationist phase and that "all present foreign trade arrangements will be maintained insofar as they are salvageable and sustainable in a post-Verion context. The extent to which this is the case remains to be precisely determined."

X.1676

  • 8: Evert Flint, the Verionist speaker of the Northern Commonwealth's legislature (now in recess), was apprehended by a UDF snatch squad and conveyed to Eliria. Upon his arrival there he was obliged, whilst in some discomfort discusses on account of the manner in which he was handled during transit, to discuss the political crisis with a special committee formed the Congressional Counties government. The CC government pushes for a reintegration of the Northern Commonwealth into the Congressional Counties, which the Verionist rejected out of hand. "We would rather die", he was quoted to say. "That can be arranged", one of his interlocutors was heard to answer.

XI.1676

  • 10: Evert Flint, president of the Northern Commonwealth congress and de facto conducator in the absence of Stephen Lewis, meets with the Council of Eliria, the Dozan Bovic Church's Eparchy of Benacia, members of the Verionist Union rump leadership, and representatives of the Holy Church of the Divine Icebear. The Verionists understand that their days are numbered. The Bovic church assumes some responsibility for the actions by Bovic extremists in the Northern Commonwealth targeting Verionists violently. Conducator Meqael Mizarierion, a noted critic of the Bovic religion, moves to let the Bovics clean up the mess they instigated. The Bovic church denies that they created the mess, saying it was the Verionists who did, but that they do take responsibility for acts committed in Bous's name. "Genocide, however, has no place in Elwynn." The Holy Church of the Divine Icebear moves to establish an Icebear autonomous republic in Cimmeria. Other delegates at the meeting ignore the proposal.
  • 20: Negotiations regarding the political situation in the Northern Commonwealth continue. Evert Flint asks for amnesty for Verionists in exchange for a peaceful solution. Mezarierion agrees.

XII.1676

  • 1: Official negotiations with the Council of Eliria regarding the Northern Commonwealth's political situation are announced to have failed. The rump legislature leadership, Evert Flint, the Dozan Bovic Church, the Holy Church of the Divine Icebear, the Democratic Party of Elwynn, and Conducator Meqael Mizarierion begin informal discussions outside the remit of the Council of Eliria.
  • 11: After ten days of intense negotiations with regard to the political situation in the Northern Commonwealth, it is agreed:
    • The Verionist Union to be dissolved within the Elwynnese Republic, its assets used to grant pensions to the leadership of the party. Verionist leaders (defined to include members of the Verionist Union board of directors, Verionist members of the Elwynnese legislatures, and Verionist members of the autonomous republics' governments) to refrain from political activity for life. In return, they will be granted a pension for life, funded by the Congressional Counties and Northern Commonwealth governments as well as the Verionist liquidation fund. Verionists in the legislatures shall resign en masse immediately upon the deal's ratification by the Northern Commonwealth's congress, and their seats remain absent until the next elections.
    • Eki Verion to remain under house arrest, the funding of which rests on the
    • The Holy Church of the Divine Icebear to close all its missions outside Cimmeria. In return, the Church will receive an annual fund from the Northern Commonwealth budget.
    • The Dozan Bovic Church agrees not to have missionaries, clergy or congregations in Cimmeria.
    • A total amnesty of all crimes committed in the Northern Commonwealth between the date of Stephen Lewis's disappearance and the ratification of this deal by the Northern Commonwealth legislature.
    • Until new elections are held in the Northern Commonwealth, Aldin Ayreon-Kalirion and his wife Li Naomiai to lead the Northern Commonwealth government.
  • 12:
    • The Northern Commonwealth's rump legislature, called back to session, ratifies the informal deal by electing Li Naomiai Avon-El the president of Northern Congress and her husband Aldin Ayreon-Kalirion (the son of Kaiseress Noor, former Prince of Elwynn, Bovic theologian) to Conducator of the Northern Congress. Li Naomiai's first act is to suspend the legislature until peace is restored in the Northern Commonwealth and new elections held.
    • General elections are held in Sanama for the Federal Assembly. The Sanaman Liberation Front loses 25 seats in the National Council while Coalition 1660 picks up nine. The Northern League picks up eight seats, the Sanaman National Party 15. All other parties lose a few seats. A new party, the Rally for a Sanaman Monarchy gains entry into the National Council with nine seats. In the Council of Cantons, the SLF and C60 wins a majority of seats. A governing majority is formed in the Federal Assembly consisting of the SLF, C60 and the Green Alliance.
  • 20: The Board of Directors of ESB-Jörmungandr Group, Inc, in accordance with rights vested in or exercised by the Corporation of the Seneschal of the march on behalf of the Corporation of the Marchioness of Zy-Rodun, pursuant to The First Protocol (Governance) of the Technical Cooperation Agreement & Structural Assistance Programme Between the Raspur Pact and Emirate of Sathrati, resolves to designate the Director of Benacian Operations, Garvin Hendriksson, to serve as Plenipotentiary of the Honourable Company with respect to The Emirate of Sathrati together with the Imperial Dominion of the Marquessate of Zy-Rodun and the Counties of Yardistan, Amity, and Mirioth, and possesses complete authority to act in the name of the Board of Directors of the Honourable Company, unless otherwise directed by the Board of Directors. The appointment of a Principal Secretary of State and Undersecretaries are ratified.
  • 21: Kalgachia's Extraordinary Grand Council concludes its session. Its rulings assert a comfortable attitude toward the trajectory of Benacian geopolitics, establish an armed force for the Upland Confederation to relieve pressure on the KDF and slow the filling of non-native raw material stockpiles from expansion levels to maintenance levels whilst leaving foreign trade routes open. The Council's most notable rulings are in the field of religious doctrine; namely the canonisation of Vascarina Goldcluck and the classification of the undead and Deep Singers as manifestations of a divine "temporary intervention" whose "recontextualisation" is required for post-Minarborian culture to "move beyond its Caverdenian origins of gratuitous, spine-chilling otherness and find beneficient relevance in the lives of ordinary Benacians." The latter declaration takes many by surprise and is interpreted variously as a reaction to the renewed torpor of Lord Toastypops, an attempt to undercut the moral authority of the Nationalist-Humanists in the Southern Post-Minarborian Space, or a combination.

XIV.1676

  • 12: The Directive on Marriage, Reproductive Function, and Societal Obligation is published by Benacia Command, taking effect across the territories of the Unified Governorates. Superseding Imperial Decree 865[2] the new directive mainly preserved the intent of the original Imperial law albeit dispensing with the disagreeable licence afforded to the now abolished aristocracy to marry as they pleased. Key improvements upon the preceding law was the codification of the Age of Obligation[3] at sixteen years of age, and an effort to place the arrangement of marriage onto a scientific and rational basis by involving municipal government, the guilds, and health authorities, in the selection and pairing of suitable partners in each graduating age cohort. Notably the primary purpose of marriage was to drive procreation, with some allowance to the function of the family unit as an engine of social cohesion and stability. Romantic sentiment, therefore being a significantly more tertiary consideration, became largely the preserve of those deemed unsuitable or incapable of breeding. The institution of civil unions, previously established as a sop to those denizens ineligible for marriage under the old arrangements, was allowed to lapse. Barren marriages would be annulled after their tenth year and childlessness would be punished by the levying of a mandatory tax, used to fund a system of rewards and benefits afforded to successful breeding pairs, with a lifelong stipend for those who reached the target of four children birthed per household and a bonus for every surplus child born.
  • 18: The first Committee for Popular Vigilance is established in Gloomburg, an otherwise obscure and overlooked city of the Unified Governorates, with the espoused aim of suppressing profanity, immorality, and other lewd activities in general, and the establishment of reformatories, modelled upon the worker colonies which formerly housed the Froyalaners, for the housing of the recalcitrant.
  • 20: Joint Benacia Command-Ransenari procurement programme announced to equip Ransenari Regimental Corps of Artillery with ordnance appropriate to its mission profile. At present the artillery arm, bereft of field guns, has primary responsibility for ground-based air defence, custodianship of missile stockpiles, and the operating of the Royal Ransenari Armed Forces complement of fifty "Tadpole" tactical reconnaissance drones.

1677 AN

I.1677

II.1677

III.1677

  • 6: Obsolete and worn airframes, especially of the B-49 Delta and B-66 Vulcan which have been in continuous service with the Imperial Forces and Benacia Command since the late 1630's, begin to transfer, via long haul flights and staging points in Istvanistan and Alrodey to the Pact's strategic aviation reserve, particularly for storage in the so-called Boneyard of Arak.
  • 14: The venerable GV-1(MBT) Bandersnatch is retired from service in the Black Legions. Once held to be a vehicle of great promise, the gravimetric drive propulsion system of the gravtank in particular proved to be technologically complex, logistically burdensome, and unreliable under field conditions. The folly of Bandersnatch commanders pressing ahead of their supporting troops in pursuit of the "main chance" was amply demonstrated during the Battle of 's-Koningenwaarde. After this nadir of the Imperial Army, concurrent with the maturation of interdiction technologies, the Bandersnatch was never again afforded licence to roam at will across the land - being instead constrained to remain behind its accompanying defensive screen of Horjins, Whirdlebirds, and legionaries - fundamentally curbing its utility in mobile warfare. Eventually Benacia Command concluded that the cumulative force, in terms of firepower and mobility, dedicated to protecting Bandersnatches in the field were sufficient - in and of themselves - to accomplish the majority of missions the Bandersnatch might reasonably have been expected to undertake.
    • News of the Bandersnatch's retirement is met with a mixture of relief and sentimental lament among armed forces of Kalgachia for whom it inspired, to date, the company-level deployment of 2,948 hypersonic kinetic missiles with replenishment stocks in the high tens of thousands, gifting them one of the most potent infantry anti-tank capabilities on Micras and unwittingly amassing one of its largest reserves of refined tungsten. Citing this economic value, along with the missiles' proven utility as one of the few weapons capable of a one-shot kill against a Tee-al, a spokesman for the Kalgachi Defence Force Armaments Office announces that there are no plans for a reduction in anti-gravtank weapon stocks.
  • 15: The undisguised build up of forces in Caverden, Drak-Modan, and Sathrati would appear to indicate that Benacia Command is once again turning its attention back to the festering problem of the Guttuli Protectorate.
  • 20: Reports of incursions by the Guttuli Corps into the region of the Crestfallen Hills, conducted under the pretext of harrying the remnant rebel forces cut off by the sudden collapse of the Verionist regime in southern Benacia, are relayed by Benacia Command to the Permanent Commission of the Raspur Pact. The High Commissioner presented the findings to the Commission with an admonition that any further retreat of Imperial sovereignty in Caverden would represent the toppling of the first domino in a sequence that would cascade into the final, absolute, and irrevocable collapse of what remained of the Kaiser's writ over southern and eastern Benacia - with dire consequences for the security of Pact member-states in Benacia. The message presented to the commissioners in Loup's peroration was that they were either to act together to ensure collective security by standing against the Guttuli Protectorate now or else, if not, they were free to make individual accommodations with the Guttuli but with their track record in Lunaris in mind it should be understood that those who place their faith in treaties with the regime are merely hoping for the privilege of being devoured last. With these concluding remarks two motions were tabled - firstly to establish an allied training mission to support the Army of Caverden and its organisation into an effective force, whilst the second was to institute a thorough quarantine of the Protectorate, sealing the borders and interdicting the sea lanes, until such time as the Guttuli relinquished their occupation of the Lowbrook region and ceased its genocidal policy in occupied portions of southern Lunaris.
  • 21: Land border between Guttuli Protectorate and Ransenar sealed without explanation. Travellers on Guttuli papers in Ransenari territory detained by plain clothes officers with support from local security forces whilst Guttuli flagged ships and commercial aircraft are similarly impounded.
  • 22: Benacia Command issues a "no-fly" order concerning all Guttuli registered aviation assets, authorising the use of deadly force as a last resort if efforts to turn any Guttuli aircraft to return to ground in their own air space fail.
  • 23: Telephone exchanges and electronic communications networks operated by the Guttuli Protectorate begin to experience connectivity issues. Gradually becoming apparent that Guttuli controlled nodes are being isolated from the vestigial Benacian Data Network and being physically disconnected by the digging up of communications cables in border regions.

IV.1677

  • 05: The Sabatini Squadron of the Southern Banner Group resumes pattern of boarding, searching, and seizing vessels suspected of conducting trade in Guttuli ports, irrespective of registry flag.

V.1677

  • 17: The Navy of Ransenar announces, with considerable fanfare, the capture of suspected smuggler vessel the Jolly Froyalaner in Ransenari territorial waters. Credit attributed to two corvette captains presented to Pact affiliated media as emblematic of the professionalism and espirit de corps of the new navy. With the news of the seizure comes the first explicit acknowledgement of the Pact's new quarantine policy towards the Guttuli Protectorate.
    • The Octavian Import-Export Corporation, the last known operator of the Jolly Froyalaner, initially denies accusations of the vessel's involvement in arms trafficking until the Ransenari Navy releases video and photographic evidence of the assorted infantry weapons filling its hold, whereupon the Corporation characterises the vessel as "an independently owned maritime conveyance under the Corporation's intermittent charter which was not in effect at the time of its seizure." The Corporation nonetheless announces that it is negotiating for the vessel's release.
  • 18: The Jolly Froyalaner arrives empty at Torpentus Creek, its Guttuli operating base where its skipper meets with officials of Command Svalbarh on behalf of the vessel's indeterminate owners to settle liability for the lost cargo. Finding himself outnumbered among armed hosts who are accustomed to the cash-on-delivery precedents of his previous voyages, the skipper is persuaded at length to waive the expected payment of local commodities for foreign sale. Instead these are purchased with gold Kalgarrands cut from the inner lining of his purser's pea coat - the Froyalaner is duly loaded with foodstuffs, hand tools and nitrate fertiliser before setting sail that evening, keeping close inshore instead of heading directly for open water.
  • 20: Following an emergency meeting of the Protectorate Military Council, a Joint Office for Naval Works was formed between the Office for Medium Machining, the Office for Great Guns, and the Office for High Seas Acquisitions, with the intention to coordinate and oversee the construction and outfitting of new combat vessels. Tribune K. Elisz, formerly the chief overseeing officer for Kern Industries under the Office for Upper-Musika, is reassigned to GU-Furgsad and given command of a light battlegroup in Salb Bresa. His replacement, Tribune T. Hælzik, is tasked with prioritizing the completion of four corvettes that are two years past due on delivery to the Guttuli Corps. Salbs Aïreon and Meskan ordered to mobilize and redeploy to Meszor, directive issued for the provision of transports to ferry them across the river.

VI.1677

  • 8: An early-morning patrol of Guttulinese coastal barrier troops encounters the Jolly Froyalaner beached on the shore of the Bay of Sleep. Its visibly unsettled crew point to a series of high-calibre bullet holes in the hull and describe a close escape from a pursuing Ransenari corvette in which they were obliged to throw their cargo of infantry weapons overboard to lighten draught and increase speed, before grounding the vessel to effect hull repairs and await refloating by the incoming tide. The skipper's suggestion to fill the vessel with weapons from the local troops' armoury, to be passed off in Svalbarh as the lost cargo in exchange for a cut of the payment, is firmly declined.

VII.1677

  • 6: The Guttuli Protectorate commissions its first corvette, the PS Bætrsuir ("Bitter Storm"). It is assigned to Ałeþus Morsva for patrol of the northern Shire Sea and protection of cargo vessels.
  • 8: The Jolly Froyalaner returns to Torpentus Creek from yet another voyage without its promised cargo of small arms. In the face of increasing dissatisfaction from his local customers, the Froyalaner's skipper announces his intention to sail for Svalbarh and arrange a meeting with senior Guttuli Corps commanders wherein the vessel's future movements can be more properly coordinated with Guttulinese naval assets.
  • 9: As the Jolly Froyalaner approaches the port of Svalbarh, it is met by the local pilot boat. After a short conversation about the present arrangement of the shifting mudflats, the pilot is shot dead along with the coxswain of his boat and the Froyalaner accelerates to full speed, launching its complement of four container-housed S-2 Standard missiles on a trajectory aimed at Svalbarh's Temple of Morsva. Upon reaching the port it draws sharply alongside the largest Guttulinese merchant vessel it can find and secures itself with grappling lines over the latter's gunwales, laying down heavy small arms fire in all directions to suppress resistance. Timers are then set in the Froyalaner's explosives-packed hold with barely sufficient delay for its crew to launch an outboard-powered pinnace and get clear of the blast zone, making thence for an escape toward the open sea.
    • At the same time as the Svalbarh attack, a section of Guttulinese troops patrolling the southwestern approach road to Erianamor is ambushed by heavy fire on open ground, killing the majority and driving the rest to ground with disciplined bursts from multiple light machine guns. The suppression provides cover for a hasty looting of the fallen Guttulinese, the pinning of a note to the body of its commanding Decurion and a covered withdrawal into the surrounding scrub. The note proclaims to be from a new partisan group called the Children of Salus, demanding an end to the extermination of the Lunatics and the creation of an interior safe zone for them.
    • The Octavian Import-Export Corporation issues a statement admitting responsibility for the Jolly Froyalaner's actions and the feigning of lost arms shipments in collusion with the Navy of Ransenar as cover for their diversion to the Children of Salus. The Corporation - which is 22% owned by the heir of Lunaris' old ruling house - cites the Guttuli Protectorate's betrayal of an agreement to end the extermination of the Lunatics as a condition of the arms smuggling deal, concluding that the Protectorate has "has forfeited the right to good faith and honest commerce from its nominal trade partners."
  • 10: Authority Erinmur is put under martial law, under the order of the Office for the Fanlinunig. Nineteen worker colonies located throughout the Fanlinunig Region are each instructed to select ten Lunatics from their list of community leaders; those selected are to be sawn open at morning roll-call for the colony's instruction. Salb Ikol issues an order cancelling recreational duties (excepting those associated with the Office for Agricultural Improvement) in order to intensify bandit-hunting operations in and around Erinmur in order to deal with the new organized threat. Captors found alive are to be sacrificed as whole-burnt offerings to Ikol.
  • 11: In reaction to events in Lunaris, the Department of State of the Republic of Alduria has announced that it is considering imposing trade sanctions on the Guttuli Protectorate and the removal of its military advisers in Punta Santiago if its Lunatic genocide does not end quickly.
  • 12: Guttuli representatives in Alduria meet with the Secretary of State, Augusto Benavides, in an attempt to stave off further restrictions on Guttulinese trade. During the meeting, they plead with him for understanding, in consideration for the bitterness of several years of struggle, attempt to reassure him that the Lunatics placed in protective custody are guaranteed adequate living conditions and opportunities to maintain their society in settlements where the Lunatics cooperate with the authorities and govern their own internal affairs, and insist that rumors of harsh or inhumane treatment are falsified in order to justify the toppling of the Guttuli regime by the other powers in Benacia.
  • 18: An elderly woman, walking alone on the Meszor/Erinmur road with a stick in one hand and the dead-switch of a suicide vest in the other, attracts the inevitable truck full of Guttulinese troops which swerves aside to run her over and is destroyed in the ensuing blast. Further north, a man in the imitation uniform of a Guttuli Corps Draconary denonates himself when a staff vehicle pulls over to offer him a ride.
  • 21: Canisters of monochrome photographic film showing public reprisal killings in Erianamor, shot at tilted angles through the half-obstructed lens of a concealed camera, are dispatched toward Ransenar by carrier pigeon for dissemination in the global media.
  • 23: Children of Salus partisans attack a 'labour settlement' in Western Castra, breaching a portion of its perimeter and covering the escape of some 270 Lunatic inmates with automatic weapons fire. These disperse into small groups and head for the nearby Lacus Conticinium marshes; the last to escape the camp without being gunned down by its rallying guards are given weapons on the spot and enlisted to help cover the withdrawal.

VIII.1677

  • 3: An assembly of notables elects Viscount Nogent Gottschalk, an exile from Ankh and a former Tribune of Legion VII, as Generalissimo of the Army of Caverden. A die-hard Imperialist, Gottschalk represents the reactionary tendency which has been gathering pace amongst the landed gentry and the dispossessed against all the Vulture States that have infested Benacia since the fracture. Hostile towards all vulture states, and contemptuous of the Kalirion Dynasty whose failings had given licence to traitors and secessionists, Gottschalk's primary merit in the eyes of his peers was his poisonous hatred towards his former comrades and the legatine commanders of the Corps VII and VIII of the Riverine Army for betraying the Golden Mango Throne and their occupation of Ankh.
  • 4: After ordering a delegation from the assembly to depart and muster 15,000 bannermen at Isenbury, Gottschalk, with a small military escort of untitled nobility, began his eastward trek from Maltenstein towards the lands of the Dominion of Ynnraile-Crisco. A multitude of 20,000 commoners, armed with various antique rifles and accompanied by outriders from the noble houses of Caverden, followed in the wake of the Generalissimo, conscripting porters and seizing provisions from communities all along their line of march.
    • With vehicles-borne retainers and the Generalissimo in the van and the armed feudal levies, followed by a multitude of camp followers, bringing up the rear, the host covered a distance of 12km(x Riqs) on the first day. At nightfall a hooded seer and his retinue of misshapen followers gained admittance to the camp, a mess of tents enrounded by a palisade, hastily dug ditches, and a score of scraped out firing positions. With this figure was dragged a luckless, battered and bruised, figure whose self-bewailed misfortune was a source of jollity and restorative humour to the camp followers who had been earlier cudgelled into the task of digging for the Army. This wretch, the seer explained, was a merchant, a collaborator with the Guttuli from Barrowfield who had been snatched up on the road to road to Lichport by "gentlemen of the road"[4] who generously relinquished their reluctant guest to the seer and his entourage after being subject to persuasion no less gentle than that which they themselves practised. It was at the suggestion of the Hooded Seer that Gottschalk remembered an ancient ritual of the First Era of Shirerithian history and summoned his commanders to his tent. There the captive was stripped to his waist, bound, and forced to his knees. Each regimental commander was in turn presented with a blade and invited to carve slices of the living flesh from the wailing, now squealing, captive. For a full three quarters of an hour this grim ritual continued until, at last, the poor wretch was at the point of death, whereupon the Hooded Seer presented to Gottschalk a nicked and timeworn sword, whose blade seemingly shimmered and seethed in shades of black and green. Having been bade to strike, Gottschalk struck off the man's head with a single blow, the blood hissing and boiling as it issued forth from the truncated stump of the dead man's neck - the mortal blow having seemingly been cauterised by the passage of the blade. Astonished, Gottschalk tentatively pressed a finger to the sword's cutting edge, expecting to be scolded but instead finding it deathly cool. The Seer happened to remark that the blade had now found a suitable keeper and Gottschalk, suddenly possessed by a curiously possessive impulse was obliged to agree. In any event, it was by this manner that the men of Caverden declared war, in the ancient fashion, upon the Guttuli Protectorate.
  • 5: 1677 Northern Commonwealth election. In a low-key election across the bailiwicks of Elwynn's Northern Commonwealth for its Congress (up and to this point suspended since the end of Verionism and the so-called peace agreement), no party achieves majority, but pro-integration parties win a majority. In this case, pro-integration means the integration of the Northern Commonwealth to the Congressional Counties.
  • 6: Under the guidance of freed forced labourers who were involved in its original construction and upkeep, groups of Lunatic partisans work at night to dismantle the corduroy road leading from Erianamor to the Temple of Lockenhasp in multiple places. The following morning, the first light vehicles held up by the resulting gaps of sodden marsh are ambushed by a company-sized partisan force from prepared positions in the surrounding mud-swamped tussocks and thoroughly looted. A noon counteroffensive by a column of armoured vehicles out of Erianamor is waylaid some twelve kilometres east by a salvo from half a dozen recoilless rifles and tankgewehrs which, after knocking out the lead and rear vehicles, are nonetheless obliged to retire in the face of suppressive fire from the middle vehicles' disgorged infantry. An attempt by the latter to pursue the retreating heavy weapon bearers into a willow thicket runs into a prepared secondary ambush from a pair of light machine guns, snipers camouflaged in the surrounding reeds and at least one light mortar firing airburst-fuzed shells to assure its effect in the mud.
  • 7: Pressed to comment on the country's involvement in resourcing and training the Children of Salus, Kalgachia's Directorate of the Tumultuous Wastes announces that "such activity is a purely economic matter, falling outside the diplomatic remit of this Directorate but fully within the OIEC's commercial duty to assure the agreed terms of those trade undertakings to which it is party. The extent to which the Guttuli Protectorate is prepared to return to those terms and thereby de-necessitate their enforcement by the Corporation on its behalf shall doubtless determine the future course and duration of the conflict."
  • 9: Operation Biuißoþ Frareïa declared. A directive is passed down from the Protectorate Military Council to regional economic managers to cut their losses concerning the labor population; useful materials are to be relocated out of the emergency area, the remainder is to be denied to the enemy.
  • 10: As news spreads that Guttulinese troops are arriving to deport or liquidate the ghettoised surviving natives of Erianamor, the trickle of smuggled arms which reached the city are retreived from their hiding places and an armed uprising begins. The rebels' initial plan to hold the entire city - impossible as they are forced to act before sufficient arms stocks have been accumulated - is quickly scaled down to a last stand in the long burned-out shells of three community playhouses (the only local structures other than Guttuli Corps bases which are solid enough to offer sustained protection against gunfire) and a constellation of small barricades in the triangle of streets and dwellings between them. As local Guttulinese forces throw themselves into counterattack, control of the territory shifts frequently in house-to-house fighting with rebels forced to move often between fixed positions and close hard with opposing forces to avoid the latter's effective use of heavy weapons. The rubble and splintered timber created by such bombardments forms new points of cover as the initial barricades are systematically blasted apart, allowing the more mobile rebels some immediate measure of survival whilst the slower-witted are torn apart by incoming fire of all calibres and their dropped weapons are sought out by unarmed refugees who vastly outnumber the small arms available.
  • 11: In the stump-ridden forest remnants southeast of Erianamor, Children of Salus reconnaissance parties observe captive Lunatic labourers destroying their logging camp in preparation for its abandonment and an attack is launched to liberate them before they can be liquidated or deported. The ensuing use of assorted incendiary munitions by the camp's defenders starts a large brushfire which obliges the partisans to withdraw early; their keen knowledge of the local topography nonetheless allows them to lead a number of escaped labourers away amid the cover of thick smoke. Similar attacks are launched throughout the deforested surrounds of Erianamor with varying degrees of success.
  • 12:
    • Operation Biuißoþ Frareïa. An attempted liberation by the Children of Salus of a convoy of male adult Lunatic laborers headed from Prata to Salzæl is impeded, when explosives loaded into each passenger car are detonated. The detonation, set off by a released Operator Presence Control (the operator in question having died), also relayed a signal to Salb Ikol headquarters. The entire vicinity was then bombarded with thermobaric weapons in an attempt to consume any partisans involved in the liberation attempt. In his after-action report, Legate Hurst Mennin wrote "Roads can be rebuilt. Cattle cannot be unslaughtered."
    • Footage is released internationally by the Office for the Kraln, sourced from the Office for Documentary Production and Acceptance, showing some of the activities of the Children of Salus terrorist group intercut with that of fleeing civilians being sheltered by members of the Guttuli Corps. A brief statement is included with the footage, describing the Children of Salus as attacking innocent civilians, not just Children of the Sun, but also residents of the Arya ethnic group. Having disturbed the peace that the Protectorate had brought to Erinmur, this terrorist group intends to cleanse the region of other ethnic groups and establish an ethnostate in the center of the multi-ethnic Guttuli Protectorate.
  • 14: Erianamor Uprising: Guttulinese troops pull back to a newly-established perimeter, where combat engineers have levelled buildings flat, so that the Corps' superior firepower can be best utilized. The isolated city quarter is then bombarded into rubble.
  • 15: Erianamor Uprising: a group of civilians caught in the bombardment area surrender at the perimeter. None survive. As the rolling bombardment continues, combat engineers deploy to raze partially demolished buildings and increase visibility. Electronic Warfare units maintain signal interference.
  • 19/20: At nightfall, the Children of Salus launch numerous attacks against Streïhvasza B of the Guttuli Corps' Salb Aleï, whose string of watchposts along the Ransenari frontier - despite being located closest to the partisan-held interior marshes - is the most thinly-spread on that line at approximately seven troops per kilometre and oriented mostly northward. The concentration of partisan forces against thinly-defended posts of Streïhvasza B's static infantry secures direct contact with Ransenari territory in several places for the rest of the night, allowing waiting trains of pack-bearing men and horses to infiltrate, disperse and proceed southward for rendezvous with partisans in the marshes. Streïhvasza B is forced to choose between defending its small posts against more numerous attackers or concentrating into a larger force - thereby leaving wider sections of the frontier open to infiltration until the more mobile Streïhvasza A can move in to assist, degrading the defence of its own sector in the process. The inevitable chain of compromises enables a large number of sympathetic volunteers - natives of Upper Lunaris who have assembled and armed themselves with the apparent toleration of the Ransenari authorities - to infiltrate at several points across the central "Eldasaï" sector of the Guttulinese defence line. By dawn their horse-mounted elements have already reached the cover of partisan-held marshes and their foot elements are well dispersed in the intervening country, supported by partisans from the initial attack who now form a rear guard against those Guttulinese forces who might abandon control of the border to give chase.
  • 20: A small celebration is held at the Port of Svalbarh, in the Morsva District, heralding the reopening of the Southern Wharf after the damage inflicted by the destruction of Jolly Froyalaner and Mysts of Albion. The event was marked by the docking of Gewgaw, whose cargo was left undisclosed and was only unloaded under cover of night and under heavy guard.
  • 20/21: Operation Biuißoþ Frareïa. After the imposition of evening curfew, Guttulinese personnel withdraw from twelve labor settlements in Authority Prata. Once beyond the perimeter fence, each of the labor settlements is incinerated with its inhabitants at bed. These settlements had previously been scheduled for "restructuring and downsizing" to commence next month. Salb Ikol troops scour through remains to ensure total effectiveness. The Protectorate Military Council authorizes the deploying of additional troops and equipment to Salb Ikol in order to extend this program to the remainder of Authority Prata.
  • 21:
    • In response to the previous day's border violation, Salb Aleï recalls all non-essential personnel assigned to home duties and lodges a request with the Office for Winter for the release of heavy equipment to supplement these additional troops.
    • Following the regular weekly meeting of the Protectorate Military Council, several government offices begin issuing directives for restructuring to reduce the accepted level of corruption, intended to free up administrative resources for the renewed combat in Eastern Guttuli, or, as the Third Deputy Chief of Staff for the Fanlinunig puts it in a memo to his staff, "word from the higher ups is that we need to prioritize combat effectiveness. All other proclivities to be substantially reduced in order to keep the soldiery well-led, well-equipped, and well-motivated. The Office for Agricultural Improvement will likely be the only office to expand its services from this."
  • 23: Following a majority vote taken by the Board of Requirements, the controlling interests of the Allied Production Matrix announced that, with effect from 01.IX.1677, civic authorities, municipal corporations, and certain rigorously vetted privately owned enterprises, would henceforth be able to table procurement orders directly with the APM for small arms, training aircraft, rotorcraft, support vehicles, and vessels lacking main armament. Customary export bans to USSO and Vanic states would however remain in effect.
  • 25: The Guttuli Protectorate commissions its second and third corvettes, PS Hahhars ("Tall Wave") and PS Kulïulk ("Twilight Cloud"). They are assigned to Ałeþus Ulmaïnakin to patrol the Shire Sea between Lichport and Mirioth.

IX.1677

  • 5: The Children of Salus attack a formation of Guttulinese combat engineers who are building a marshwater pumping station in northeastern Diusagra, thought to be attempting a drainage of the interior marshes to the River Elwynn via the irrigation works of the intervening agricultural lands. The attack, being entirely anticipated, is thrown back with substantial partisan casualties although the station's main equipment - a high-volume pump and its associated generator awaiting installation on the back of a flatbed HK-1A1 - is destroyed by recoilless rifle fire.
  • 6: After a series of incidents and complaints from famished civilians, the isolated rebels in Erianamor - who have been shelled out of their smallest 'playhouse' bastion and now occupy a strip of shattered ground between the remaining two - meet in a rubble-reinforced cellar to discuss the terms by which cannibalism is permissible. It is agreed that only willing donors be consumed and that the unauthorised consumption of non-donor dead confers donor status upon the offender, to be enforced summarily. After further complaints a clarificatory note is passed around the zone's dugouts later in the day, to the effect that parents may not donate their children. From this period the more elderly of the zone's inhabitants, being both physically weaker and more mentally inured to ancient Eriana-era precepts of blood sacrifice, cease to make an appearance. Cultural notions of sacrifice also offer some filament of morale among the rebels, who express a strained satisfaction to each other at the ongoing depletion of Guttulinese ordnance stocks and remark that "every shell lobbed at us is one that can't be landed on the heads of our brothers and sisters in the countryside."
  • 10: The Protectorate Military Council issues a directive, renaming Erianamor Æmsunig, "Place of Embers", to commemorate the cleaning away of the old quarter. Proposals are offered to repave and rebuild the city along Guttulinese geometric standards. Offerings are made to Ikol, supervised by Legate Hurst Mennin, whose only comment on the rite was that it was "most beautiful".
  • 13: The Permanent Committee of the Raspur Pact announced that, with immediate effect, denizens, contractually obligated "loyal subjects", and unfree "community servants" (excluding certain categories of "Protected Persons") in Shireroth and Sathrati would be granted manumission and full-citizenship rights if they voluntarily registered for transportation to underpopulated regions of the Raspur Pact such as the Unified Governorates, Constancia, and Natopian-administered Normark. The surprise registered by the Shirerithian regency and the Council of Sathrati at this new policy initiative was mollified somewhat by the proposal that each emigrant would be represented on the balance sheet as an interest bearing loan repayable by the receiving nation at a 2.3% rate of compound interest.
  • 14: Pact-affiliated biologists, associated with the ESB Group-financed Euran University, release a controversial study of Benacian flora and fauna which contains a notable passage suggesting that the dreaded Tee-al may be responding to decades of persistent eradication attempts in the former Minarborian territories, particularly those occupied by Shireroth and its successors, by becoming on average smaller, stealthier, more cunning, and adoptive of cooperative strategies with other adult males outside of breeding season. The researchers concluded that the trend was towards cooperative hunting of human prey and would eventually culminate in the development of rudimentary pack tactics. The conclusion was ultimately that human efforts to exterminate the most visible and hated legacy of Biomancer experimentation had forced adaptation upon it, favouring the survival of the fittest.
  • 15: A convoy of nine SATCo-registered cargo vessels, accompanied by two oil tankers, four Swift-class offshore patrol vessels, four Logistic Support Vessels, each with four naval-variant Dromosker patrol helicopters aboard, and forty-eight Coastal Patrol Craft, arrived offshore from the Ransenari port of Belmuliet in North Lunaris. This pocket armada represented the concentration of the balance of the Ałeþus Usætur, the UGB naval contribution to the Shire-Sea Flotilla of Benacia Command.
  • 16: The appearance of four Leviathans of the Streïafzælt Auffendankel before Belmuliet on the landward side marks the arrival of the Bitzurænhæd, an ESB recruited specialist assault unit in the Lunaris Theatre of Operations. The deployment of the monstrous mobile bases, with their powerful active array radars and multiple launcher systems, established an air defence / air denial bubble covering the city and the flotilla anchored offshore whilst additional perimeter security and defence was provided by the 8th Battlegroup and the 604 Air Assault Regiment assigned to the Uihmanz Lunaris garrison in the port.
  • 17: Elwynn, having unusually forgone its usual prerogative of sermonising about the moral outrages occasioned by recent events in Lunaris, announced that a volunteer battalion drawn from the Union Defence Force and the Corps of the Gentlemen-at-Cudgels would be the maximum extent of its contribution towards the quarantine of the Guttuli Protectorate. In an effort to humour the Ayreonist Independence Party a lengthy press release condemning brutality on all sides and injustice in all forms, as well as appealing for deescalation, dialogue, and a diplomatic solution, was also drafted and signed off by the Council of Eliria. Unfortunately the Court of the Prince, whilst making reference to the document, forgot to publish the link on the Benacian Data Network - its exact contents therefore remain unknown.
  • 18: Following a full and frank discussion of events in Erianamor, which culminated in an impromptu CQB drill conducted in the map room of the partisans command dugout, the Children of Salus are notified, via their inimitable courier network, of the ascension of a new cadre to operational command and control over the affiliated rebel forces in southern Lunaris. The Cadre, headed by an operative henceforth referred to as "Grey Nineteen", advised that new directives would follow shortly in the succeeding days.

X.1677

XI.1677

  • 17: A wave of arrests, forced disappearances, inquisitions and courts-martial begin to sweep Kalgachia, directed mainly against aviation and special forces units of the Kalgachi Defence Force, the Directorate of Labour and Economic Planning and its subsidiary enterprises, and the Lieutenancy of Oktavyan with rumours of at least one expulsion from the country's ruling Council of Perfecti. Kalgachia's national security organ, the Prefects - with apparently strong backing from the Directorate of the Tumultuous Wastes, the Directorate of Education and Outreach and counter-reformationalist clergy of the national church - announce the discovery of "a conspiracy, penetrating to the very deepest strata of the state, to appropriate large portions of the Garden's bounty for purposes flagrantly outwith the core precepts of inwardly-referential state and society which were sown into the primordial loam of our mountain homeland by the Salvators themselves". The most heavily purged offices are those surrounding members of the House of Yastreb, who conspicuously disappear from public sight.
    • The Pachadsberg Special Recreational Zone, despite being a financial hub for the Yastrebs' alleged corruption, is largely spared on account of its value in soft diplomacy and hard currency earnings. As the DLEP personnel pool is subjected to a storm of vetting and auditing, Jeremiah Avon-El - an established foreign resident - is appointed to replace Caustifer Yastreb as interim chairman of the Zone's governing Development Committee.
  • 18: Li Naomiai Avon-El, speaker of the Northern Congress, introduces a bill to the Council of Eliria, on behalf of Elwynn's Northern Congress, with the effect of restoring the Constitution of the Elwynnese Republic to its wording before the establishment of the Northern Commonwealth. A protocol affixed to the bill would confirm the retrocession of the Northern Commonwealth into the Congressional Counties with new elections held within half a year from the effect of retrocession.
  • 20: The Northern Congress votes in favour of Li Naomiai Avon El's retrocession bill.
  • 24: The Congress of the Elwynnese Republic votes in favour of the Northern Commonwealth retrocession bill.

XII.1677

  • 8: The Majles of Alalehzamin votes in favour of the Northern Commonwealth retrocession bill.
  • 10: The Council of Eliria votes in favour of the retrocession bill. With all three legislatures having approved it, the bill enters force as a constitutional amendment the very next day.
  • 11: The Northern Commonwealth is merged into the Congressional Counties. New congressional elections called for 10.VII.1668.

XIV.1677

  • 7: To date 262,144 denizens and loyal subjects of Sathrati have received manumission upon emigration to the Unified Governorates.
  • 19: The "Ketherist Replanting" continued in Kalgachia, with the international community in Pachadsberg finding itself under blockade by forces of the Prefects and their allied parish militias. The community's de-facto leader, Jeremiah Avon-El, already regarded with suspicion by the Kalgachi "near-surface" administrative cadres on account of his past affiliations, stood accused of sheltering fugitives from the uprooted former regime as well as of abusing the privileged visa regime afforded to the financial enclave in order to bring in Nova English and ESB corporate security specialists.

1678 AN

I.1678

II.1678

III.1678

IV.1678

V.1678

VI.1678

VII.1678

  • 10: Elwynnese congressional election held. The four-party coalition (N&H-DEM-APP-AIP) under conducator Meqael Mizarierion (AIP) held on to a majority in the Congress.
  • 11: The Conservative Historical Party declared a proscribed organisation following judicial (Court of Star Chamber) review of "pro-vanic" campaign materials. Orders for the arrest of party members, candidates, donors, and affiliates issued by the court of the prince, endorsed by the Conducator of Congressional Elwynn. Muted protests from the AIP, Libertarians, and the Communist Party of Elwynn, considering the action as a "potential threat to democracy" but without any vows to change the situation. Unofficially, they are quite happy to not have to deal with West Amokolian apologetics in congressional dealings, one Amokolian libertarian saying "it gives a sense of cohesiveness and homogeneity to the larger Elwynnese republic"
  • 12: With the ban of the Conservative Historical Party, the apportionment to Congress was re-calculated as if it never had existed.
  • 13: In retaliation for the ban of the Conservative Historical Party in Elwynn, West Amokolia calls all diplomatic staff back from Elwynn. Close the border with Elwynn, except for refugees, and reactivate the speakers along the border, chanting the Vinandy song.
  • 14:
    • Johan Anderion Avon-El, the son of former Prince Ander Avon-El, found himself locked inside the West Amokolian kingdom after the closing of the borders. Touristing in Norfae, he told journalists who had discovered him: "The situation is serious. West Amokolia and Elwynn need to become friends again. Without friendship, the Amokolian nation will not be reunited. Without reunification, we will always be competitors and hate one another. As a citizen of the Elwynnese Republic, I will always support the reunification of all the Elwynnese and Amokolian lands into one federal republic. So let us not forget, we are brothers and sisters. That is why my heart grieves with you all today, when relations between our two governments hit yet another bottom low. I call upon the governments in Eliria and Brandenburg to realize the ancient dream of our peoples: to be reunited as one family!" He also expressed a hope that as long as the West Amokolians keep the border closed with Elwynn, he would be able to remain free in West Amokolia.
    • The Amokolian foreign minister calls the Elwynnese ambassador in Brandenburg to account. The Elwynnese Charge d'Affaires responded to the summons by instead shuttering his residency and departing Brandenburg without consulting the West Amokolian Government.
  • 18: The Elwynnese Congress meets for the first time since the 1678 Elwynnese congress election, elects Li Naomiai Avon-El (DEM) to be its president. Passes a motion of confidence in the government.
  • 20: Arkadius Frederik Gustavus des Vinandy, King of Amokolia, sends an open letter to the Prince op Elwynn:
Open letter
Dear colleague, Prince of Elwynn,

The news that reached me about the ban on the Conservative Historical Party and the arrest of party members, candidates, donors and other stakeholders, is of great concern to me. Your own constitution states that Elwynn is a "free, independent and sovereign" country. That freedom is seriously undermined by the exclusion of a political party.

With increasing surprise, I am a spectator of the sentiments towards my country. West Amokolia is seen as aggressive and imperialist. If Micras should view your country as "free, independent, and sovereign," why should West Amokolia not be free, independent, and sovereign in its own destiny? Congratulations on the annexation of Normark. We do not interfere with the Elwynnese expansion, so do not interfere with ours.

The recognition of the Froyalan genocide is not shared by your country. That is disgraceful, because how can you proclaim "freedom" if oppression and genocide are not recognized? Let your citizens live in freedom. Free those who have now been arrested for their political opinion.

Proclaim freedom!

Your concerned colleague,
Arkadius Frederik Gustavus des Vinandy
King of Amokolia

  • 21: To the epistle of the King of West Amokolia came an answer on the following day in the form of a letter from the Prince of Elwynn
From the Court of the Prince, Eliria Castle, Eliria, 21.VII.1678
To,
Citizen Vinandy,

Brandenburg,

West Amokolia
Citizen,

Your agitation and partisanship on behalf of the Froyalanish is a matter of record. That you would seek to take up the rhetorical cudgel on behalf of those partisans of yours in the proscribed organisation, who have likewise taken the misguided step of agitating on behalf of the vanquished colonial oppressors of this continent, comes as no surprise. Likewise our response ought to come as no surprise to you.

Your particular objections, with regards to the judicial proceedings to which the membership and affiliates of the erstwhile Conservative Historical Party were recently subject, are based upon an evidently cursory reading of our Constitution.

The Constitution is the highest law of the land, but the rule of law is not the highest principle of Elwynn, that is instead the preservation of Elwdom - the cultural and historical totality of the Elwynnese peoples - and the national sovereignty of our Republic, which is the sole, best, and only guarantor of the national community thus embodied. The law can and must fall silent when it falls to the wielders of sovereign power to undertake any and all acts necessary for the preservation of the Republic against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Froyalanish rule of Elwynn, the aggressive colonisation, the wanton bastardisation of history and culture, the perversion of religion, the importation of a wholly alien political culture, represented the greatest single threat to its survival that Elwynn has ever endured. The slaughter visited upon the Vanic degenerates marked the rebirth of our nation - we will never permit their return nor will we tolerate, even for one moment, any individual or organisation that dares to argue their cause.

You write that we do not acknowledge the Auspicious Occasion, but this is a blatant falsehood. Indeed! We do celebrate the Auspicious Occasion on an annual basis as one of our high festivals, as is befitting the occasion of our liberation from an absolute and theocratic system of tyranny. The freedom that our citizens enjoy today was purchased with those very deaths you falsely exhort us to repent of. No, rather we rejoice in those killings because they are the absolute foundation and bedrock of our liberty. Without the expulsion and reduction of the Froyalanish the multi-party democracy we enjoy today would have been impossible, the sheer numbers of human fodder imported by the Vanic elite - utterly preposterous, counted in the millions, the largest migration in history if taken at face value - distorted the voting patterns of what would have been on paper a democratic system by making it impossible for Elwdom to find its authentic voice. Whilst the indigenous populations of Elwynn were set against one another by a deliberately divisive model of multiculturalism these "Froyalanish" and their collaborators monopolised positions of power and patronage and used their imported voting block to squelch all calls for moderation and consideration. Yet you would have us permit those gentlemen of the CHP, who would shackle us anew if they could, to exploit our generous freedoms against us - in the name of freedom, abstract and absolute and with no regard for the nation? Whence comes this conception of liberty of yours?

Let us remember that liberty means freedom under the law. Those who set themselves against the nation place themselves outside of the protection of the law and thus shall show no neither freedom nor safety thereafter - as is meet and in accordance with the common weal and ultimate safety of the Republic.

However! May you rejoice in the news that many former members of the CHP cadres, wracked with guilt over their transgressions and unable to abide the moral suffering and psychological distress arising from this realisation, have sought to reconcile with the Republic. Those errant citizens who, following intensive guided cognitive behavioural therapy, now have made a full confession and signed a covenant with the Republic. By signing covenants, these offenders have made manifest their intention to begin anew and their willingness to undergo the arduous reformation their character as a necessary first step on the path towards their eventual rehabilitation into society. These volunteers have been released from custody into the care of the Svordson Reformatory, whose primary reform settlement is located in Elwynnese Leng. We wish those who have taken the brave first step towards a new life the very best on their journey. For some however the demons of the past, and the shame of Vanic-advocacy, have proven too much for their consciences to bear and they have instead requested voluntary euthanasia. As statutory caregivers for those vulnerable persons it has been the Elwynnese Republic's sad duty to acquiesce in their requests. Please be reassured however, Citizen, that every effort was made to ensure that all those who requested the ultimate form of relief from all forms of doubt, grief, and guilt, received extensive counselling and guidance sessions. Every step of the way they received all the support and assurance that they deserved.

Similarly, dear Citizen, we urge you to chose the path to repentance and rehabilitation, rather than the road to perdition and damnation. Why struggle futilely, against an entire continent that has been near enough united in common purpose and indignation against you no less, all in pursuit of a game plan that has long since failed to deliver legitimacy, security, or the Golden Mango Throne? Why push on this day for control of Sanamese oil, on this day for the transfer of Chyrste, or on that day for Avaldsnes, or was it the Skyla Isles, or Jorvik? To what end does it avail you - this relentless pursuit - when you are already the sovereign of two contiguous realms? In your missive you sought to draw a comparison between your various forays and the recent vote concerning the transfer of sovereignty over Normark from the Bovic Empire to our Republic. I may assure you that this is a false equivalence. Normark enjoys historical and cultural ties with Elwynn dating back to the period of Norse settlement, was a constituent member of the Elwynnese Union at the height of its grandeur, and shares a common strategic interest in the High North and the Boreal Wastes. Next to this - what are the ties that bind Chyrste to Batavia or West Amokolia for that matter? This is the stuff of mere arrant colonialism, of gathering chips to cash in as part of some future grand bargain. You may be assured that we will oppose you in this and in all other matters where we feel that your actions are either ill-considered or injurious to the restored peace and good order presently enjoyed by Benacia.

In conclusion therefore, now that the key points in your letter have been sufficiently addressed, permit me to assure you of my continuing highest consideration for yourself and to furthermore advise that the Elwynnese Republic considers, as of this date, the Treaty of Concord to be in abeyance following the closure of the frontier. We shall take all necessary and prudent steps appropriate to these new circumstances.

I have the honour to remain,

Frederik Haabye Truls
Prince of the Elwynnese Republic

  • 22: Elwynnese media responded positively to the "Epistle of the Prince of the Republic to the so-called Amokolian king" (as it was affectionately called in The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria, with some anti-N&H newspapers refusing to have a commentary on the letter. Self-censure of criticism of the Auspicious Occasion appears to have struck all opponents of it, with no media signalling any opposition, possibly for fear of meeting the same fate as the now dissolved Conservative Historical Party.
  • 23: Demonstrations, organized by the Amokolian People's Party, the Amokolian Freedom Front and the Mishalanski Party of Democratic Socialism are held in cities across East Amokolia protesting the conduct of King Arkadius for closing the border. Banners read "Amokolia is more than West Amokolia", "West Amokolia = Wrong Amokolia", "West Amokolia = Froyalan", "East Amokolia = Real Amokolia", "Amokolia [heart] Elwynn 4-Ever", "He's no king of ours, we didn't vote for him!" and so on. Speeches at the demonstrations highlighted that 18 million people live in the combined West and East Amokolia, of which less than 4 million live under the rule of the so-called King of Amokolia. Speeches called for the speedy integration of West Amokolia to the Elwynnese Republic and the establishment of an autonomous Amokolian republic within Elwynn.
A diagram of the Ransenari border fortifications that are being built on the Ransenari side of the border with Chryste, 1678 AN.
  • 24:
    • Gustavus Nathan is born, the third child of Arkadius Frederik Gustavus des Vinandy and Clara des Vinandy - Sundara Waffel-Paine.
    • In "celebration" of the birth, the 10th Division, the "Zjandarian Guards", of the UDF, deployed twelve mortar teams forward to the line of control due east from the city of Mittlere Stadt. At 8pm, to the exact minute, these teams proceeded to lob twenty-four mortar rounds apiece against the "infernal speakers" playing on the West Amokolian side of the border.
    • Government of Ransenar announces it will implement a "special regime on the border line with Batavian Chryste", justified as a measure to keep out "spies, diversionists, terrorists, and Vanic sympathizers". Ransenar immediately shut down all border controls and passes on their border with the Batavian Chryste enclave after this announcement, and began construction of border fortifications as outlined in the diagram to the right.
    • The mortar fire by the UDF across the border into West Amokolia is seen as an act of war. This is the start of the Second Amokolian War.

VIII.1678

  • 01:
    • Writ 004 of 1678 commences phase one of a general mobilisation in Elwynn. UDF reservists ordered to assemble at depots in Araxion, La Terre, and Petersburg, by 7pm on 02.VIII.1678.
    • In response to the hostilities between West Amokolia and Elwynn, Ransenar announces a naval blockade of the city of Chryste on land and at sea, with the Navy of Ransenar mining of the approaches to the harbor of Chryste. The government of Ransenar also announced a general mobilisation, expressing "we will honor our commitments to our allies in Benacia and rid the continent of the Vanic Web once and for all."
  • 02:
  • 03: Elwynnese Writ 006 of 1678 - the national railway network, civil aviation, and the merchant navy, are placed under the authority of the Council of Eliria in accordance with War Plan A.
  • 04: Benacia Command authorises the UDF to draw armaments, equipment and munitions from its depots to make up for material shortfalls in the Elwynnese arsenal. Critical shortages of rifles, machine-guns, artillery pieces, and mechanised vehicles nonetheless persist.
  • 18: Since the beginning of the month the Elwynnese rail network has been strained by unprecedented levels of usage - some 1,879,200 persons travelling on military papers were transported by 6,294 requisitioned trains, which in certain periods succeeded one another at the rate of one train every eight minutes.
  • 19: The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria carries a series of articles highly critical of the mobilisation programme with one report in particular estimating that it would take between six months to a year before the six field armies envisaged by War Plan A would be available for operations and that in the meantime the defence of the frontier with West Amokolia would rely upon the peacetime UDF, bolstered by reservists and allied forces.

IX.1678

  • 01: Elwynn commits to a three year procurement cycle to sustain the UDF through the conflict with West Amokolia.
  • 02: Lord High Steward Sean O'Callaghan delivers a televised address to the people of Ransenar, in which he explains to the Kingdom the events that have led up to the Second Amokolian War and points to West Amokolia as a threat to the stability of the continent. In his address, he calls upon every Ransenari citizen to answer the call of duty and "fight to take Chryste and achieve the full reunification of Ransenar".
  • 10: The Frenzy of Natopia ratifies the Normark Treaty which will hand over Normark to Elwynnese sovereignty. Awaits the Emperor's assent.
  • 17: The Council of Eliria ratifies the Normark Treaty and finalizes the Normark Admission Bill. Once the treaty ratifications have been exchanged in accordance with the treaty, the treaty will enter full force, and Normark will be under Elwynnese sovereignty.
  • 18: The Wende takes place in West Amokolia, the country continues as the Frankish Empire.
  • 23: In a ceremony in Elijah's Rest, Normark, attended by dignitaries from across Natopia, Normark and Elwynn, sovereignty of Normark was transferred from Natopia to Elwynn.

X.1678

  • 1: The Frankish emperor orders the evacuation of all children from Chryste, before the city is completely closed off by Ransenar as a result of the naval blockade. He alleged that the order in Germanian had been mistranslated by Raspur translators, so the word "children" was translated as "citizens". Raspur sources, however, dispute that, rather calling the change of "citizens" to "children" something that was fixed after the order had been issued (and re-issued), once it was pointed out to the Emperor that it would be impossible to evacuate an entire city under blockade.
  • 7: The Amokolian Congress meets for the first time. Made up from bailiwick assembly members and legislative politicians from Elwynnese Amokolia, the Congress meets to discuss all-Amokolian issues, such as the Amokolian-language curriculum, etc. In the opening speech, Benjamin Sluyjs (APP), former President of the Elwynnese Congress, and Convenor of the Meeting, said, among other things:
The establishment of a Frankish, not an Amokolian one, state is just one piece on a long train designed to bring an end to the uniqueness of the Amokolian civilization. The Emperor's mouthpiece, the Brandenburger Post, is not issued in Istvanistani, our lingua franca, nor in any of the genuine Amokolian languages like North Amokolian or Mishalanese. King – sorry, "emperor" Arkadius even includes in his new rubber-stamped constitution the restoration of the Shirerithian empire as a legitimate objective! For whatever reason did he seek out independence from Shireroth then? And why should we join a new Shireroth when we, Amokolians in Elwynn, are finally free and have secured our hard-won self-determination? No, my fellow Amokolians, Arkadius and his Franks are a direct threat to the survival and the self-determination of the Amokolian nation.
  • 11: Clara Sundara, the Natopian wife of King-Emperor Arkadius of Batavia–Francia, announced her intention to divorce her husband, while on the tarmac on the airport of Koningenwaarde with the words "I can no longer stand with my husband" and "I will not return to this land ever in my lifetime". She also renounced her citizenship in Batavia, and all her titles in Arkadius's realms.
  • 12: Clara Sundara's divorce and renunciation statement, although surprising, was met with cheers across East Amokolia and the rest of Elwynn. "She's a true Amokolian", said the Amokolian broadsheet daily De Amokoliaaner.
  • 14: A Directive of the Command Executive authorising the full mobilisation of civil society in the UGB is endorsed by the State Assembly.
  • 21:
    • King-Emperor Arkadius of Batavia–Francia legalizes his divorce with Clara Sundara by way of decree.
    • King Arkadius of Batavia, having assumed the powers of the executive and legislature in Batavia ("emergency powers"), decrees Batavia's withdrawal from its treaty with Natopia in retaliation Clara Sundara's desire for a divorce, and expels Natopian diplomats from the country while recalling all Batavian diplomats from Natopia.
Arkadius' response after hearing the Sanama statement about his "regime."

XI.1678

  • 5: The Shirerithian and Elwynnese governments announce that the Central Benacian Free Trade Agreement is no longer in force as the third party, the Kingdom of Amokolia, has ceased to exist. As such, normal tariffs will apply for Frankish products.
  • 20: The Shirerithian government announces that the Shirerithian Customs Area, which includes Batavia, Sathrati and Talenore, will not tolerate any imports from or exports (either directly or indirectly) to the Frankish Empire, and that any such acts, from 1.XII.1678, will not be tolerated and will constitute a violation of the Batavian Reunification Treaty of 1669. Until 1.XII.1678, customs will be levied on products heading to and from the Frankish Empire, either directly or indirectly, with 1000% of the value payable to the Shirerithian government. Failure to uphold these regulations will constitute a violation of the Batavian Reunification Treaty of 1669.

XII.1678

  • 9: The bailiwicks of Elwynnese Mishalan – Old Mishalan, Concord, Mudyy and Staraya Varya – are merged by Act of Congress to one bailiwick bearing the name Mishalan. This act was done to foster Mishalanese unity within Elwynn in the face of the Frankish-led patriotic Mishalanese autonomous region of Mishalacia.
  • 18: The UGB, Elwynn, Ransenar, and the Sovereign Confederation commence a combined internal security operation to identify and detain West Amokolian, Batavian, and Kasterburger nationals resident in their respective territories. Once verified and bio-metrically catalogued, the individuals are then to be transferred to the tastefully named spa-resort and garrison town of Daschau in the Siyacha Free State - there to remain as guests of the UGB or else to accept a free, albeit one-way, autobus transfer to the border crossing with Kasterburg.

XIII.1678

  • 1: The Shirerithian Customs Area bans all trade between itself and the Frankish Empire, and notifies all members of the SCA individually and accordingly.
  • 22: Sanama joins the Second Amokolian War on the side of the Raspur Pact.

XIV.1678

  • 11: Sathrati blocks its waters and airspace (including EEZ) from all vessels from Arcadia, Batavia, Francia, Helderbourgh, and Kasterburg.
  • 12: Johan Anderion, a serving officer of the UDF stranded behind the inter-Amokolian frontier by the commencement of hostilities, is authorised by the Permanent Commission of the Raspur Pact to conduct "exploratory talks" with Francia to establish the basis for a cessation of hostilities. Following the first round of dialogue with the Frankish emperor Arkadius it became immediately apparent that no basis for a mutually agreed peace presently exists. The function of the talks therefore are downgraded to serving the purpose of maintaining contact.
  • 13:
    • After consultations with the Permanent Commission of the Raspur Pact, Shireroth decides to quit the shared-sovereignty arrangement over Florencia and the Iridian Isles. The Unified Governorates of Benacia will, accordingly, have total sovereignty over the Iridian Isles and Florencia. The change to the arrangement will enter force upon 1.I.1679.
    • Ballistic missile attack, with conventional warheads, upon Johannsdorf in Francia.
  • 14: The disappearance of Constantine Loup from public life after this date becomes a matter of conjecture, some of which is downright fanciful.
  • 15: Sanama recognises UGB sovereignty over the Iridian Isles and Florencia.

XV.1678

  • 5: The Raspur Pact and Francia agree on an uncondititional and immediate ceasefire while negotiations for peace continue.
  • 9: Sanama issues economic sanctions against Francia, Helderbourgh, Batavia and Arcadia. The sanctions include a ban on all imports and exports, a blanket travel ban, and the seizure of any assets within Sanama held by government officials, particularly the reigning monarch.
  • 11: Military vehicles are seen moving towards the federal government district in Niyi, Sanama. Tanks occupy the Federal Palace that houses the National Assembly, while personnel from the Army enter the offices of the Federal Council and detains the members present.
  • 12: General Adalwolf Hiedler, Supreme Commander of the Sanaman Federal Armed Forces, addresses the nation on live television, confirming the 1678 Sanaman coup d'etat, calling it a assumption of responsible government on the part of the armed forces. He also declared the suspension of the constitution, the dissoultion of the Federal Council, suspension of the Federal Assembly, and the institution of martial law. Furthermore, he confirmed his and Sanama's continued adherence to and support for the relationship with the Raspur Pact and all international treaties. He also announced the formation of the Council of National Reconstruction.
  • 13:
    • The Foreign Secretariat of the Elwynnese Republic releases a statement with regard to the 1678 Sanaman coup d'etat, denouncing the act as an offence against the law and order of Sanama, and urges the Sanaman Federal Armed Forces to restore the lawful government of Sanama.
    • Elwynn, and Benacia Command, on behalf of Sathrati and the UGB, issue a travel advisory notice covering citizens resident in or visiting Sanama advising against all but essential travel to the country during the present time. The advisory notice further directed all citizens currently within the territory of Sanama to remain indoors at their primary domiciles and to register with their embassy or nearest consulate at the earliest opportunity. Separately Benacia Command notified all allied governments that any of their nationals stranded without means or recourse to their own nation's consular services would be free to avail themselves of those of the UGB.
    • The command staff of the Military Mission in Sanilla and Amarra, comprising of the Oil Purchasing Commission with offices at Niyi and Fatehpur Sikri, the Land Forces Liaison Headquarters at Fatehpur Sikri, and the Maritime Liaison Headquarters at Thanatos, received direction from the Command Executive in Merensk to ascertain immediately the current political situation in Niyi, to confirm whether the Federal Government had indeed fallen, and to discover the attitude and disposition of General Hiedler towards the Raspur Pact and Sanama's treaty obligations. The Maritime Liaison Headquarters separately received instructions to commence preparation for the evacuation of Raspur Pact aligned nationals as well as certain "high-value" Sanaman nationals.
  • 15: The leaders of the Sanaman Liberation Front, Coalition 1660, Northern League, and the Sanaman National Party met in secret at an undisclosed location where they pledged their continued support for democratic government, the constitution and recognised Semisa Caprici as representative of the federal government in exile.
  • 17: The Investiture of Jeremiah Avon-El, conducted in Merensk and followed by the combined weddings of father and son to their respective brides - culminating in large-scale parade of the Black Legions and the issuing of new regimental standards, marks the formal transfer of power from the outgoing regime of Constantine Loup to that of his successor.
  • 19: In a raid the leaders of the SLF, C60 (Sanama), Northern League and SNP were arrested by the junta and placed in house arrest.
  • 20: The junta in Sanama announced that all political parties except for the Party of National Reconstruction were banned. They also changed the official language to Istvanistani only, with Cisamarrese, Ama and Sani relegated to official status on the cantonal level.
  • 22: Military junta in Sanama bans abortion and cannabis and reintroduces corporal and capital punishment.

1679 AN

I.1679

  • 1: Operation Harrowed Veldt, the invasion of Highpass by the military junta in Sanama, initiated.
  • 2: Data from the 1679 census is released in Elwynn. The data had been extrapolated from official population registries and were assumed to be correct as of 1.I.1679 00:00:01. Elwynn's population almost 100 million, expected to reach that number within the current year.
  • 4: The Normark Independence Party changes its name to the Einhorn Society.
  • 10: Former Elwynnese prince Ander Avon-El's class (for 7 students) was interrupted by cudgellers who informed the stunned professor that he had been appointed Elwynn's ambassador to Alduria and that he would immediately go there lest he misses the inauguration of the new Aldurian president. Class was cancelled and Avon-El's cudgellers escorted him to the airfield for the flight to Alduria via Eliria (where he briefly met with Prince Frederik Haabye Truls for his letters of credence and instructions on his new diplomatic post).
  • 20: Kerularios & Company purchases a 20 percent stake in Faca from the Sanaman federal government.
  • 22: Shireroth and Sanama conclude the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation between Sanama and Shireroth. Shireroth not only becomes the first state to recognize the post-coup leadership in Sanama, but also cedes the de jure Shirerithian (de facto Green) territory of Highpass in return for 400,000 barrels of oil per day for five years.

II.1679

  • 4: The military operation in Highpass is declared ended and final victory achieved.
  • 6: Semisa Nakita Nur Pinito Caprici, president of the Sanaman federal government-in-exile is found dead in her apartment in downtown Drakorda, Drak-Modan. Local authorities are investigating the cause of death.
  • 9: The Istvanistani Patriotic Army, having relocated to Shimmerspring, declares the Republic of Shimmerspring as a sovereign and independent state; the new leader, "President" Joshua Ding-Eagle announces that all indentured people in Shimmerspring are free if they swear allegiance to the new Republic.
  • 11: In relation to the death of Semisa Caprici, Drak-Modanian authorities conclude that the cause of death was a massive myocardial infarction. The investigation is continuing to rule out foul play.
  • 15: Benacia Command publishes a declaration addressed to the insurgent forces in Mortis Mercatoria specifying that they have forty-eight hours in which to publicly broadcast their willingness to adhere to provisions of the Pact and Covenant or else accept responsibility for all subsequent detrimental occurrences that may befall them, their followers, and the populations under their charge.
  • 16: The Republic of Shimmerspring replies to Benacia Command that it is happy to join the Raspur Pact as soon as the member states afford Shimmerspring international recognition.
    • In reply, a intermediate range ballistic missile lofted from a fixed launch pad on the outskirts of Arg-e Noor in the So-Saran Isles and followed a trajectory that saw the high-explosive warhead detonate 300 metres above Mortis Mercatoria, showering the city below with flaming engine debris and twisted shards of titanium-alloy rained down upon the already ruinous city below. The instruction for all citizens to sign the Covenant and for the insurgent "government" to adhere to the Pact is reiterated.
  • 19: Reports from the South Benacian Community Policing and Security Mission to Tellia that the security situation in northern Tellia is deteriorating reach military commanders in Sanama. The reports prompt a decision on the future of the mission.
  • 21: At the behest of the Command Executive of Benacia Command, Legate Rofolo Nur Pinito Kasha arrived in Niyi to address the Council of National Reconstruction with the concerns of the UGB - of particular note was the request, formally conveyed, to end the prohibition that had been placed upon the operations of the Nationalist & Humanist movement in Sanama. The situation in Highpass, Shimmerspring, and northern Tellia, was also up for discussion.
  • 23: A student protest against military rule in downtown Niyi, Sanama, turns violent after troops fire into the crowd after it failed to disburse. Official reports say that eight protesters received minor injuries, while reports from local hospitals say that at least 23 protesters were killed and a further 39 injured. Chairman Adalwolf Hiedler blamed the incident on provocateurs from the Istvanistani Patriotic Army among the protesters. The United Nationalist Alliance that organised the protests vehemently deny all such allegations and blame the incident on repressive and Fascist military commanders.

III.1679

  • 4: The largest organised protest against the military junta takes place in Fatehpur Sikri, Sanama. Official government estimates say that around 20,000 people participated, but independent reports estimate that the crowd was at least 150,000 to 200,000 strong. Organised by the United Nationalist Alliance and the Sanaman Liberation Front. This time, the regime used non-lethal weapons and water cannons to subdue the rowdier parts of the crowd, following the massacre on 23.II.
  • 5: Elisabeth Asara, Princess of Austrasia, receives a very special gift from Sinterklaas.
  • 6: Keysa Nur Pinito Caprici is shot twice exiting a rally in Acquecalde, after which the shooter shot himself, dying instantly. Authorities blame the Istvanistani Patriotic Army. Sources within the United Nationalist Alliance claim that the shooter was a commissioned officer in the Federal Army. Caprici is rushed to the hospital in serious condition, where medical personnel manage to save her life.
  • 9: Bodies of six young males are washed ashore in eastern Lakhesis. They are positively identified by local authorities as members of the student movement protesting the military junta. The bodies are severely bruised, consistent with a high fall into a body of water.
  • 13: Largest mass protest against the military junta so far gather approximately half a million people in central Niyi. Organised by the United Nationalist Alliance, Sanaman Liberation Front, Coalition 1660, Northern League and the Sanaman National Party. Signs with the pictures of the six students found on 9.III are held by surviving family members. Protest is largely peaceful due to the massive crowd. Protest inspires a smaller protest in Port Niyi that turns violent when a military vehicle is filmed driving through the crowd, hitting multiple civilians.
  • 16: The President of the Republic of Shimmerspring, Joshua Ding-Eagle, issued a televised statement in which he called upon Hiedler to negotiate articles of peace. Ding-Eagle also indicated that in return for peace, stable relations, and cooperation on a range of matters, Shimmerspring would extradite any persons associated with the alleged IPA terrorist attacks in Sanama.
  • 20: The Elwynnese Secretariat of Foreign Affairs warned Elwynnese citizens from visits to Sanama, urged all Elwynnese citizens in Sanama to return to leave Sanama, and called upon the Sanaman military to recognize the "rightful, legal and constitutional government" of Sanama. The Secretariat was concerned with the increasing loss of life as well as erosion of democratic and civil rights, and condemned the reinstitution of the death penalty as a "return to the feudal order from which the countries of Benacia a few years ago broke free". The Secretariat further clarified that it did not recognize the coup d'état and that its relations with the Sanaman government is only through the Sanaman government in exile in Drak-Modan.
  • 21: General Adalwolf Hiedler issues a statement where he claims the title King of the Sanamans and that the country changes its official name to the Kingdom of Sanama. According to an official government guideline, the new King is to be addressed as follows: His Royal Majesty Adalwolf, First of His Name, King of the Sanamans, King of Cisamarra, King of Amarra, King of Sanilla, King of Highpass, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the Shirerithian Empire in Benacia in General and Sanama in Particular.
  • 22:
    • A spontaneous protest in Niyi against the self-proclaimed King Adalwolf turns bloody after military security forces fire on the crowd of mostly students. Local hospitals confirm at least 11 killed and 19 injured. All political opposition leaders denounce the attacks, call on Hiedler to step down, and implores the Raspur Pact to intervene.
    • The Congress of the Elwynnese Republic (the legislature for northern Elwynn) responds to the atrocities in Samama by passing an emergency resolution calling upon the Council of Eliria to support an RP intervention in Sanama.
    • In the Council of Eliria, Li Naomiai Avon-El of the Democrats presents her credentials as pro-Vulture States, pro-democracy, and pro-rule of law by supporting and bringing the congressional resolution on intervention in Sanama to the Council of Eliria. Immediate support given by her Ayreonist colleague, Meqael Mizarielion, Conducator of the Congressional Congress. The session continued as a closed sitting of the Council.
    • The UGB downgrades its Embassy in Niyi to that of a Representative Office. Legate Rofolo Nur Pinito Kasha received letters of credence from the Command Executive in Merensk and a mandate to coordinate the activities of the Benacia Command liaison offices and support missions in Sanama.
  • 23: The 28th Division of the UDF, part of the expanded army mobilised during the Second Amokolian War is marched to the railhead at Araxion and entrained aboard chartered locomotives and 3rd-class carriages bound for the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area.

IV.1679

  • 01: Rail services in the Ardashirshahr metropolitan area are suspended whilst the 28th War Service Division of the UDF is marched across the West Elwynn Dam and railway bridges over the Blue Elwynn into the Trans-Elwynn.
  • 02: The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria features an editorial opining that the human rights record of Sanama under the Hiedler regime is such that the safety and security of the Tellian administered Angularis, bordering the Trans-Elwynn, can no longer be entrusted to the SOBECOPOSEMITE peacekeeping mission. The overwrought language of the editorial, whose core argument seemed to be that only way to uphold liberty, justice for all, and the liberal virtues, was an immediate adjustment of the frontier between Elwynn and Tellia in the favour of the former, leads to some speculation that the piece was authored by none-other than Li Naomiai.
  • 03: SOBECOPOSEMITE, under the command of Salbnan (Legate) Waldemar Thorgilsson, consisting of three battalions of military police reinforced by armour, and rotary aviation assets, is ordered to stand to arms for the defence of their battalion cantonments and forward observation posts. Five of the UAV helicopters used for border surveillance had their SIGINT pods swapped out for flechette dispensers.
  • 12: Reports of an incident on the island of Lakhesis begin to circulate. Details remained unclear for some days afterwards but the main narrative corroborated by witnesses appeared to indicate that a nighttime assault had been conducted against a villa compound on the island. With the whereabouts of Adalwolf Hiedler being unknown, Major General Amalric Woehrle assumed the presidency of the Council of National Reconstruction. Woehrle's first action was to summon the leaders of the major parties for unknown reasons. Their meeting continued into the night.
  • 14: Amalric Woehrle, interim President of Sanama, issues a statement on behalf of the Council of National Reconstruction following a day-long meeting with political leaders. Councillors not directly involved in the atrocities of the Hiedler regime will receive immunity from prosecution, in exchange for a peaceful transition of power to civilian rule. The party leaders of the Sanaman Liberation Front, Northern League, Coalition 1660, Sanaman National Party, Green Alliance, United Nationalist Alliance, Nationalist & Humanist Party and Partito Popolare Cisamarrese, have agreed to form an interim government. The interim government will oversee the transfer of power and present an outline for a new constitution to be adopted via referendum.
  • 20: After a week of intensive negotiations, the interim government in Sanama issues an outline for a new constitution to be adopted in a referendum scheduled for 24.VI.1679.

V.1679

  • 09: Château Cour-de-forêt in Amorica, located in the Storish Gascony, was given to Elisabeth Asara des Vinandy.
  • 19: Sanama purchases the island i-Mavet, also known as Jezar Mergu, from Tellia for 2,400,000 barrels of oil.
  • 20: Francia applies for membership for the Batavian Confederation.
  • 21: Shirerithian diplomats in 's Koningenwaarde forwards a protest to the Frankish application for membership in the Batavian Confederation, telling the King of Batavia that, it expects Batavia to remain neutral in the Second Amokolian War, that allowing Francia to join the Confederation will cause Batavia to break the Unification Treaty's provisions of Batavia not "attempt to bring harm upon or sow discord within the other". Shireroth stands by the Treaty and the rule of law. Shireroth expects Batavia to do so the same. If Francia joins the Batavian Confederation, Batavia will, unless Francia makes peace with Shireroth, break the very treaty of Batavia's foundation.
  • 24:
    • Peace talks between Francia and Raspur reportedly break down, Raspur negotiator Johan Anderion makes a final plea for peace to Emperor Arkadius with the words: "Peace with status quo ante bellum, no exceptions, no other conditions". Johan Anderion is subsequently reprimanded by the Permanent Commission and the Pact's position concerning the withdrawal of Francia from Chryste and the return of Mittlere Stadt to Elwynn remains unaltered.
    • Propaganda loudspeakers are installed along the frontier between the Siyacha Free State and Kasterburg. Trial broadcasts from 11 loudspeaker sites, positioned to optimise the topographical conditions for maximising the distance covered, expound upon the theme of Francia's admission into the Batavian Confederation representing a "Neo-Vanic subterfuge" and the vector by which Stormark will fashion a new Froyalan from the violated corpse of Batavia. The pertinent words of the King of Batavia in this regards - "Hereby I would like to congratulate the Raspur Pact that you have succeeded in uniting the Frankish Empire and the High Realm of Stormark into one goal and one destiny" - featured in one memorable early broadcast excoriating the House of Vinandy as the "Vanic Cuckoo in the Batavian Nest" and exhorting the plain and honourable Kasterburger volk to throw off their bonds of obligation to an overtly degenerate and corrupted royal house.

VI.1679

  • 06: A tired and emotional Johan Anderion announces that the ceasefire between the Raspur Pact and Francia will not be renewed after the end of this month.
  • 09: Johan Anderion receives a new mandate to bring peace negotiations with Francia and Krasnocoria on behalf of the Raspur Pact and Sanama.
  • 11: Francia transfers Chryste to the Verionian Empire.
  • 13: The Sanaman government announces the establishment of the Federal Capital District. The town already located in the District is renamed Sanama City and proclaimed as the new capital of Sanama.
  • 20: The Raspur Pact, Sanama, and Francia agree tentatively on an agreed peace treaty text.
  • 23: Krasnocoria signifies its agreement to the proposed peace treaty. The treaty is signed in Norfae, with Johan Anderion signing on behalf of the Raspur Pact and Sanama.

VII.1679

  • 01: The Norfae Peace Treaty enters force. Second Amokolian War officially over.
  • 05: The Republic of Shimmerspring announces its new constitution.
  • 21:
    • Negotiations between the Benacia Command and the Republic of Shimmerspring resume. The Peace of Norfae having evidently filled the RS negotiating team with unrealistic expectations of a compromise settlement, the negotiations do not proceed well at first. Points of contention included the insistence upon formal acceptance of the Covenant and the lifting of prohibitions against the use of Praeta, the Imperial language of Benacia, in public life.
    • The South Benacian Community peacekeeping force (SOBECOPOSEMITE) deployed in northern Tellia is reportedly earmarked for redeployment to the border between Highpass and Shimmerspring, presently the scene of ongoing rebel activity.
  • 22: The Elwynnese foreign secretariat alleviates fears of lawlessness along the Alalehzamini–North Tellian border by vowing that the Elwynnese Republic would take on the policing and security mission in Tellia. However, the spokesperson added, it is not only to protect the border, but to protect the fragile democratic communities amid the terror of the mafiosi. In order to protect the human rights of the Tellian people there (the Tellian government having totally capitulated on the matter), Elwynn must take its its neighbourly duty with solemnity and send in the Union Defence Force with immediate effect. For every hour without lawlessness in the North of Tellia, Elwynn's borders are threatened, and the people of Tellia are threatened by gang warfare and mafia terror.
  • 24: The government of the Republic of Shimmerspring, anticipating recognition from the Raspur Pact, accedes to the RP demand of recognising Præta as a protected minority language, and amends its anti-Præta constitution accordingly. This move caused a split in the Shimmerspring leadership, with several members resigning and founding the Real Istvanistani Patriotic Army (RIPA). The RPIA is denounced as a terrorist organization by the Republic of Shimmerspring. Some one-third of the soldiers affiliated with the Istvanistani Patriotic Army/Republican Guard swear allegiance to the RIPA.

VIII.1679

  • 01: Those members of the Conservative Historical Party who were interned prior to the Second Amokolian War and who had not received amnesty unlike their fellows, who had abjured their former beliefs, or else requested voluntary euthanasia whilst in custody, were recalled from places of incarceration and brought before a tribunal of magistrates in the city of Anun. Those who refused to sign a new covenant with the Republic, denounce the CHP, and abjure their former beliefs, in return for a pathway to rehabilitation, were thereafter formally deprived of citizenship. Of 26,447 detainees held at the end of the war, 6,611 were thereby deprived of citizenship at the Assizes of Anun. These individuals were thereafter placed in chains and marched aboard a chartered SATCo cattle boat. The reconciled meanwhile were dispatched to various monasteries and reform settlements in the boreal regions to begin their pathway to rehabilitation process.
  • 5: The N&H-aligned Bailiff of the Bailiwick of Avaldsnes, Regina Alfsson, prevailed upon the city's Municipal Corporation to rename the city as Minas Adarzivea Enueh Qahramon Livion Dravot ("city honouring the hero of the people, Liv Dravot") in honour of Liv Dravot, the instigator of the Auspicious Occasion, with Dravotih iker ("Dravot's Inlet") as the new name of the Avaldsnes fjord, as well as short-form name of the bailiwick.. The Court of the Prince of the Elwynnese Republic instructed all authorities in the Elwynnese Republic to abide by this democratic decision.
  • 06: The crowded cattle boat holding the unreconciled CHP members in fetid conditions below deck departs the Amokolian Isles on course for the Frankish harbour of Hyfrost.
  • 11: The CHP cattle boat arrives at Hyfrost.
  • 15: Elwynn announces the commencement of the Peace and Stability Mission in Angularis (Fälttåget mot 'Nclavesci). The action commenced with a series of coordinated strikes by light attack aircraft against compounds operated by various criminal factions, previously identified by deep cover operatives active in the region. The use of unguided rockets and bombs against structures located adjacent to civilian habitations is condemned by the Red Orchid Society. UDF spokesmen nonetheless maintained, in response to press queries, that every effort was being made to minimise the risk to which civilians in Angularis were liable to be exposed during the course of these operations.
  • 16:
  • 17: The Amokolian Congress condemns the so-called CHP cattleboat incident. The Amokolian People's Party (APP), although not as against the cattleboat incident as more of the radical Amokolian parties, resigns its place in the congressional government. The APP polling had plummeted in the past months due its inability to form a coherent narrative on Francia and West Amokolia, and hopes by this act to get more support and develop a pro-Amokolian, anti-Francia attitude that would resonate more with the voters. The congressional government takes the matter with a stride, as it, even without the APP, commands a majority in the Congress.
  • 19: Batavia and Shireroth assume negotiations on allowing imports of Frankish and Arcadian products to the Shirerithian Customs Area and on the size of these tariffs.
  • 20: Mass demonstrations in Cercé and in large parts of the rest of Monty Crisco. Protesters demand democratic elections (which have not taken place since before the Fracture), a restoration of the Folksraad (which has not met since before the Fracture) and new leadership in the Steward's government. Violent scenes ensued after some protesters are also seen waving Ransenari flags. Several were chased off after soundly beaten by angry Brookshirian patriots. In once particular incident a pro-Ransenari demonstrator was beaten bloody, hogtied, and dragged to the Temple of Mors in Cercé. There the individual, castigated as a traitor and hireling of a schismatic power, was executed by the temple priests by the grisly means of slow-slicing. Thereafter the dead man's flesh was roasted over temple braziers and shared amongst the celebrants and congregation as a communal meal.
  • 21: Shireroth recognizes the Republic of Shimmerspring as an independent, sovereign state; closes and fortifies the border with Shimmerspring. Hoping to quell the unrest in Monty Crisco, the Shirerithian government also announces new elections for the Folksraad and Adelsraad to occur on 5.X.1679.
    • With the collapse of the Imperial Forces at the onset of the Kalirion Fracture and the disappearance of the Marshalcy, it is not entirely clear which of the scant forces of the Imperial Regency have been assigned to undertake the fortification of the frontier - whether it is the a detachment of the palace guard from Shirekeep or a host drawn from the local feudal levy would have implications for the professionalism, competence, and reliability of those tasked with holding the line.
  • 22: Francia removes everything that is left of the speakers along her borders. Since the outbreak of peace, the speakers that were still functioning were already switched off.
  • 23: Propaganda broadcasts along the border with Kasterburg ceased from midnight.
  • 24:
  • 25: The government of Drak-Modan transitions to a republic, following the Drak-Modani Abdication Crisis.

IX.1679

  • 16: The Brookshire Anti-Alienation League is founded amidst popular demonstrations against the Imperial Regency in the main settlements of Caverden and Monty Crisco and in rebel-held areas of Shimmerspring. The Army of Caverden, formed of reactionary sections of the landed gentry, declared for BAAL and set a two-day deadline for Raspur Pact aligned military advisers to quit the Imperial Dominions.
  • 17: Mounted raiding parties from Caverden, carrying the banners of Brookshire, ride into Shimmerspring. At the first village they entered a massacre ensured with the sole survivor being a child of eight years-old dispatched carrying the severed head of the village's headsman to the neighbouring settlement with a message pinned to her torn tunic warning as to the fate of all those who do not promptly return to submission to the Imperial Republic and the gods.
  • 18:
    • Protests by publicans in the poorer districts of Shirekeep demonstrate a rising tide of impatience towards the continuing misrule of the Imperial Regency. Placards demanding the restoration of ancient liberties, presumed to mean the favoured status enjoyed by pub owners during the reign of Kaiser Dominus, the appointment of a new Prefect, and calling for the execution of Lord Sarrick were prominently visible.
    • Line taken from a statement issued by the Court of the Prince in Eliria: "We are watching the currently developing situation in Shireroth with concern. It is in the interests of everyone that the present trend towards further disintegration be arrested. Elwynn stands ready to lend every assistance to the Imperial Republic, as a friend, a neighbour, and an ally, in order to ensure that it is able to uphold its obligations as a Benacian state and as a Pact member." Rumours have been circulating that, in order to obtain its acquiescence to a mooted union between the UGB and the Sovereign Confederation, Elwynn has demanded a "free hand" to settle matters in Northern Tellia (Angularis) and the rump Shireroth to its own satisfaction.
  • 19: With regard to northern Tellia, the Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria has acquired and published leaked Elwynnese government documents planning for the annexation and integration of the main parts of northern Tellia to Elwynn. Stated objectives in the brief have been to get control over the main ores of the area and the railway system. While the annexation would begin with a full claim of northern Tellia, it is viewed that some land can be "sold" to Tellia in return for recognition. In the documents are also plans for carving up the area into fifteen AAR bailiwicks.

X.1679

XI.1679

XII.1679

  • 12: Rumours reach Elwynnese media that Emperor-King Arkadius IV of Batavia and Francia aims to marry Lady Esther of Anglia (in Elwynn known officially as Esther Esposito), the Stormark-based delegitimized daughter of Kaiseress Noor and the deposed and exiled Elwynnese king Noah of Elwynn, and sister of Villy Esposito (as well as aunt of Kaiser Ayreon IV and great aunt of Kaiseress Salome). The Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria calls upon a full repudiation of any and all relationships with Batavia and Francia should the marriage go through. The Foreign Secretariat of the Court of the Prince refused to comment on mere rumours.
  • 15: The Sanaman conquest of Mortis Mercatoria marks the end of the Sanaman invasion of western Shimmerspring and the establishment of the Sanaman security zone in Shimmerspring.
  • 19: Directed by the Internal Security Bureau of Benacia Command, police and militia in Elwynn, Drak-Modan, Sathrati, the Sovereign Confederation, and the Unified Governorates launched a wave of arrests across a number of Benacian ports and in the UGB capital Merensk. Around half a dozen members of the Krasnocorian diaspora community were identified and detained. A senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to the Daily Mail & Telegraph of Eliria admitted that a further 250 persons of interest, suspected of association, collusion or familiarity, with the detained, were taken into protective custody to assist authorities in relation to building charges of espionage and racketeering against the Krasnocorian detainees. The preparatory work for the morning's dawn raids had begun weeks earlier following the introduction of racial profiling at airports, port terminals, and border checkpoints, and the intensive debriefing of any Corians, Ocians, and Mishalacians, apprehended in this manner. From these interrogations, a picture of the social, familial, and business networks of the Krasnocorian community in Benacia was assembled over thousands of man-hours and logged into the Panopticon database - an effort reliant upon the expertise and resources of the Central Intelligence Department of Elwynn. Financial auditors from the Shirerithian Office of Bounties and Factorage were then brought in to investigate the personal wealth and income of the winnowed list of suspects. From these audits and based and the testimony volunteered by other detainees, a list of six prominent names was drawn up to form the basis of the kill or capture list issued to public authorities throughout the Pact aligned states of Benacia.

XIII.1679

XIV.1679

XV.1679

  • 9: Dismayed by the unbroken succession of capitulations that had reduced post-fracture Shireroth to a failed state within its own residual borders, Benacia Command assembled a joint-task force formed from surplus personnel in the Black Legions and the Union Defence Force, to enter Shirekeep and reorganise the remnants of the Imperial Forces into some semblance of a professional military capable of taking part in the now inevitable showdown with the Guttuli Protectorate. The Raspur Pact Training Mission-Shireroth (RPTM-S) would assist in the development of Imperial Forces training structures and institutions so that the Shirerithians could defend their remaining territories against secessionists and resist any further efforts at capitulation by the regency in Shirekeep.
  • 12: (Peripheral) Marks the day of the final withdrawal of the Natopian Defense Force and the Natopian Security Forces from Normark, replaced by the UDF garrison comprised of a Banner Group of four Combined Arms Corps with supporting air and naval assets, along with extensive support services. The Elian militia and loyalist forces in the region having already ceremonies to mark their change of allegiance during the transfer of sovereignty in the preceding year. The majority of Natopian forces were transferred to the territories of the Most Serene Union to provide security for the Maritime Armada, with the backlog of administrative updates likely to affect the Raspur Pact's continental theatre commands in Apollonia, Keltia, and Tapfer, into 1680 and beyond. The majority of UDF personnel deployed to Normark via the Boreal Air Bridge were from formations mobilised for the Second Amokolian War, with some discontent being expressed - particularly by reservists - at being kept on in active service after the conflict's end. The Court of the Prince justified the extension of the period spent under arms by national servicemen and reservists on the grounds of the necessity of securing Elwynn's presence in northern Keltia in view of the region's bloody recent history.
  • 23: Treaty of Mittlere Stadt signed between Francia and Elwynn/RP. All Froyalaners in the RP to be transferred to Francia within two years. In return Francia gives Mittlere Stadt to Elwynn.
  • 24: The National Statistics Authority (NatStat) of Ransenar confirms that the Ransenari economy has entered a recession, announcing that the Ransenari economy has consistently contracted 0.6% over the last two consecutive quarters of the year. NatStat announced that the contraction is due to less demand for exports, a reduction in tourism, and the end of the real-estate boom. The sharp rise in the number of bankruptcies and defaults triggered a sudden national shortage of funds for lending, leading to a decline in loans available. NatStat also confirmed that the manufacturing sector declined by 4.9% in the previous quarter.
  • 25: The Internal Security Bureau of Benacia Command provided Elwynn with a solemn undertaking to gather the 166,328 Froyalaners specified in the Treaty of Mittlere Stadt at the bailiwick of Malexander by no later than the 5th day of the 5th month in the year 1680, to await deportation.
  • 26: The Government of the Congressional Counties of the Elwynnese Republic objects to the entry of any Froyalaners into the territory of the Congressional Counties, suggests that the "Treaty Froyalaners" (in the words of the CC government) cross the border to Francia through UGB territory or the Alalehzamini Autonomous Republic. Any presence of "Treaty Froyalaners" would upset the political, ethnic and cultural harmony of the Congressional Counties, the government alleged, with the potential of bringing about apologetic and empathetic views for the situation of the Froyalaners, including "restitutions".
  • 29: The Tellian–Elwynnese negotiations on the situation of Northern Tellia reach a breaking point, the parties decide to invite the Unified Governorates of Benacia to the negotiations to resolve the situation of Tellian exercise of sovereignty in Mamehblinij and Fiorecittà.
  • 35: Tellia, the Unified Governorates, and Elwynn conclude a tentative agreement on Northern Tellia, called the Northern Tellia Agreement.
Preceded by:
1670–1674 		Timeline of Modern Benacia
1675–1679 		Succeeded by
1680–1684


Footnotes

  1. ^ Better name pending. At this juncture it is logical, with so many of its members having been exasperated by prior dealings with the avatars of Verionism, that the Pact would seek to tidy away the legacy of Verionism now that its leadership cadres have been obligingly removed from the scene.
  2. ^ The existence of Imperial Decree 1180 having been largely rejected and ignored by territories under the influence of the Nationalist-Humanist movement even during the reign of Ayreon IV Kalirion
  3. ^ The obligation to perform duties considered consensual activities in other societies
  4. ^ A loose confederacy of slavers, active in Eastern Benacia following the Kalirion Fracture of 1671.
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