Timeline of Modern Benacia (1675–1679)

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

1676

I

• 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.
  • With news of the Great Disaster having reached Goldfield, the Cabinet sends a resolution to the Ransenari Congress for approval to authorize and fund the beginning of a large scale humanitarian, medical, and scientific mission to the ruins of Elsenar.
• 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 or 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

• 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

• 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

• 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. Opinion pages and media coverage reports on the illustrations as the latest salvo in the "cultural 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 the culture of the country and reinstate the "Vanic Web".