The Republic of Solden and Vernica
The Republic of Solden and Vernica is largest nation of Gaulren. Ruled by the twin capitals of Solden and Vernica it emanates its dominion across the world. The Republic is split into 6 large provinces, Solden, Vernica, Albion, Red Water, Luclana, and Plania. These provinces are populated by a fairly diverse group of people, but ultimately ruled by the senate. Every 5 years two new consuls are elected, one to rule Solden and one to rule Vernica. They preside over the senate which is also evenly split between those from Solden and those from Vernica. From the twin capitals each capital rules over their half of the empire and work together in times of great peril.
History
Founding
The capital cities were founded when the god Aroden brought settlers to this world through a portal that sat on top of a great arch that connected the two major continents. The Soldicus and Vernicus families each established themselves are the major families in the area and named the town that was created after their family's name. Settlers continued to pour through these portals and the towns began to expand. The Soldicus and Vernicus families struck a loose alliance which would lead to the eventual creation of the Republic. They were able to setup and control those coming through the portal and trade that came through making their factions the most influential and powerful in the area. They provided protection against the natives of the world known as Those of Gaulren whose tribes continuously harassed and attacked the settlements that were being formed. Within two centuries the former city-states became the size of small nations from the old world and they needed to manage their growing holdings more efficiently. So the two city-states formed the Republic of Solden and Vernica, shortened by the people to the Sovern Repbulic, 276 years after the first colonist set foot in Gaulren known as the Colonization Era. The families set themselves up as the leaders known as consuls and elected several prominent family heads as senators. They began to push out and methodically colonize the lands surrounding them.Early Wars
As the Republic continued its marched forwards into their lands the tribes united the banner of the one who called himself rìgh na ciad, or king of the first. He united the tribes and began sacking and razing Republican frontier towns in the West. Solden was struggling to deal with the renewed vigor of these barbarian tribes and began to be pushed back. The consul of Solden at the time, Lotrus Soldicus, requested aid from Vernica in order to help push back those of Gaulren. The Consul of Vernica Polipsis Vernicus agreed to help so long as his forces were allowed to set up outposts in Solden’s land for trade and military. Not wanting to lose anymore Solden settlements Lotrus agreed to these terms and Vernica sent two legions lead by Polipsis’ son Evander Albionus Vernicus who had just finished beating Albion's forces. With the aid of these legions along with a fresh legion raised from the population down in Plania the Republic managed to push back the forces of Those of Gaulren. During this time Evander’s legions began to establish their outposts, but they were more than mere outposts. Using the wealth from defeating Those of Gaulren’s armies and sacking their villages Evander, the head paladin of the order of Abadar, began to establish massive temples to his patron god Abadar. This infuriated Solden as they had chosen to dedicate their lands and people to Aroden. Vernica’s legions would not budge on this matter however as it was a requisite for their assistance in the fight against Those of Gaulren. Problems kept mounting within the Repbulic leading The First Republican Civil War. After the conclusion of the The First Republican Civil War the Republic's bonds stayed strong for quite some time, the external threats were so great neither side had a chance to think about fighting each other. Their conflicts with Albion during The Second Albion Wars and Those of Gaulren during The Fields of Solden showed that the Republic was still a force to be reckoned with even after a brutal and bloody civil war. Their First Hadasht Expedition however did not go so well and created some setbacks for the Republic including the creation and solidification of the Coalition of Hadasht and the colony in the plains of Serica declaring independence and forming the Kingdom of Serica. The city states that would come to form the Adal Caliphate managed to work together long enough to secure their independence from the Republic before settling in to rule themselves and the arrival of the people who called themselves the Daqin dynasty, who no one from the Republic knew where they originated from as no one had gone to settle the marshy peninsula where they settled their capital. For the time being the Republic would leave these upstarts to their own devices, but the Republic wished to continue to expand its own lands and were facing considerable resistance from the tribes of Those of Gaulren. When Serica declared their independence the Republic was brought into the war between Serica and Dwarven Holds and with the Republic's assistance they were able to end the First War of the Broken Holds admittedly in favor of Serica since they kept control of the Mydon Peaks. The Republic had only sent a handful of legions to the war as those were the only ones in the area and the orcs had begun rearing their heads once again and were invading both Albion and the province of Luclana.Interim Years
The century of near constant conflict had taken a toll on the Republic and began taking a more defensive stance to repair their razed towns and let the population recover. In Wolsten the armies of Those of Gaulren were beaten back into The Sanctuary and Garot Forest and Solden had no intention of sending troops into those forests. The Coalition of Hadasht was still attempting to destroy the tribes still resistant to their arrival. Solden began forming economic ties to the city states in the Adal desert, especially with the city of Dumien leading to lucrative trade deals with the exotic goods coming from the deserts. In Ehrom Vernica was also pulling back to deal with the renewed orc threats and to recover from the conflicts. They continued importing weapons and armor from the Dwarven Holds allowing them to dispatch the orc attacks within a decade. The Republic continued to regain its strength with only mild skirmishes with the orc tribes and Those of Gaulren. Solden was preparing the second Hadasht expedition which was not a notable expedition. The legate that was sent was extraordinarily cautious siding with a handful of the tribes still fighting the Coalition of Hadasht, but ultimately pulled out of Hadasht after two years of inconclusive fighting not wanting to get surrounded and risk losing his legions. In Ehrom the Dwarves wanted to cash in on the weapons, armor, and financial aid. The Dwarves had readied themselves under the rulership of King Horthig and requested The Republic to aid them. The Republic using their alliance and the fact that Serica had been former colonists of the republic declared war once again on Serica and marched with the Dwarves. The Second War of the Broken holds proved fairly inconclusive and the only major damage being done was collapsing the entrances to the Mydon Peak holds preventing Serica from using them for quite some time. The Republic exited with fairly experienced legionnaires in the fighting and Vernica sought to invade Albion. The Republic discovered that Albion had provided weapons and magical support to Serica during the Second War of the Broken Holds and used that as causus belli to attack Albion starting the Third Albion Wars. The fighting was fairly equal as Albion had managed to expel most of the orc attacks into their lands and managed to recruit a significant number of troops for the conflict they knew was coming. The Republic came out of the war with a marginal upperhand taking lands not the far south of the capital and taking a larger portion of lands connecting Luclana and the Southern Crelan Spires pass. The terms of peace other than the seizure of lands were reasonably fair between Albion and the Republic. The majority of both armies were still intact as most conflicts ended in a lot of captures and injuries, but very few deaths. Both sides released all prisoners of war leaving both sides with most of their forces intact. They made a peace agreement for thirty years so that Albion could engage in the Second War of the Broken Vase and Vernica could join Solden in the Third Hadasht expedition after the lackluster invasion by Solden alone. Vernica took its legions leaving a medium garrison along the borders of Albion and marching over to the newly created city of Kaivoss. The timeframe between the second and third Hadasht Expedition was very short. The last few wars were fought very conservatively leaving the legions in tact and prepared for another invasion at the end of the Third Albion Wars. Both Solden and Vernica sent several legions to Kaivoss and began construction of Castle Bruckstone. Many legionnaires from Solden brought their families to Kaivoss transforming the small hamlet into a large town in a few months causing the castle and town slowly turning into a city to grow very quickly. While constructing the ships the legionnaires were put to work expanding the castle and building infrastructure for the city very rapidly. Once the fleet was fully formed the legionnaires boarded the vessels and were sent off to Hadasht. The Third Hadasht expedition went very well in the outset even retaking the city of Tarconensis and using to to expand their influence across the island. They managed to turn tribes who were neutral during most of the conflicts to fight against the Coalition of Hadasht, but this ended up backfiring when they realized they had far more in common with them than the legionnaires that invaded. The Third Hadasht Expedition ended much like the others and the Republic once again fled the island of Hadasht and caused the Coalition to solidify even more and bring the entire island under their control a little over a century after repelling the Third Hadasht expedition. The Republic continued in relative peace for the next few centuries dealing with renewed attacks from Those of Gaulren and the orcish tribes, but for the most part the Republic focused on building up their cities and expanding their economy. Vernica had minor border skirmishes with Albion but neither side wanted a full war.The Centuries of Woe
Solden was preparing for the Fourth Hadasht Expedition and was requesting Vernica's assistance in the endeavor. The border with Albion was still very contentious and Vernica didn't want to be caught off-guard. The Evocati hatched a plan to start renewed conflict with the Daqin Dynasty. They began operation shattered porcelain leading to the Third War of the Broken Vase. This distracted Albion's armies and the consul of Vernica negotiated an extended non-aggression pact between the nations and took the legions to Kaivoss once again. Operation shattered porcelain took two years to complete angering the consul of Solden, Valeria Fidenas, who accused the consul of Vernica, Torin Asper, for delaying the operation allowing the Coalition of Hadasht to prepare for their attack. This was on top of the mounting tensions between the church of Aroden in Solden and the Church of Abadar in Vernica. Those worshiping Aroden felt that since it was he who ushered them to Gaulren they that he should be the patron god of the Republic whereas the followers of Abadar felt that Aroden had begun to step back from Gaulren and was focused too much on the old world. Their desire to punish the deserter legionnaires on Hadasht overcame their feud however and the legions made their way to Kaivoss albeit on shaky terms. The legions boarded the fleet and started the Fourth Hadasht Expedition. The Expedition started terribly and only got worse. Neither side was willing to help the other properly leading to disarray. The Coalition of Hadasht still took sometime to kick them off of the island just due to the sheer number of troops that arrived on the island, but after initially chipping away at the legions it turned to a full route and the coalition chased them all the way back to Wolsten. They began raiding the coastal settlements while Vernica took its legions back to its home province. Solden took care of the armies of the coalition raiding their coastal settlements alone. Fidenas demanded reparations from Asper for the damaged done to Solden lands and Asper responded he did not want a repeat of what happened on Hadasht and the destruction of both of the legions. Rumors began spreading that Vernica left Solden to the hands of the deserter legionnaires from Hadasht and justice must be met. The more Hawkish members of the senate began clamoring for war. Fidenas didn't want to be the second consul to cause a civil war, but after hearing of rumors of a coup to supplant her with another who would do the job she began looking for ways to appease the senators. Fidenas was finally convinced of attacking Vernica when she received a report that a dispute between Vernican legionnaires visiting the city of Egeria started a riot over some slight in a bar and wounded several city guards and killing three. Fidenas demanded an apology from Asper and when he responded saying he had no liability of off duty legionnaires. Some believed Asper too wanted a reason for a civil war and responded in this way to anger Solden, but this has not been confirmed. Valeria Fidenas reluctantly mustered the legions and ordered the attack on Vernica starting the Second Republican Civil War. Valeria used the superiority of Solden's navy and landed on Vernica's shores before they had a chance to respond. The civil war ended, but tensions between followers of Abadar and Aroden were still high, but the enemies of the Republic smelled blood in the water and began invading their lands so the cities once again set aside their differences and responded to the coming threats. Luckily for the Republic the Dwarven Holds stayed true to their alliance and mobilized quickly to help against the encroaching armies from the Coalition of Hadasht and Kingdom of Serica, Albion was still tied up in the Third War of the Broken Vase. The legions were emaciated from the civil war and the Dwarven armies were crucial to maintaining the republic. The Republic spent the next decade on the back foot in these wars after the Dwarves had to retreat to their holds when the Drow spotted an opportunity to strike at their holds, one of the few times the Drow made their presence known on the geopolitical stage catching the Dwarves off guard. The Republic finally reclaimed their lands kicking the Coalition of Hadasht and Those of Gaulren out of Redwater and the Kingdom of Serica as well as Albion after they recovered from the War of the Broken Vase out of Luclana and Province of Vernica. They finally resecured their borders, secured fairly neutral peace deals, and began recovering from the devastation that was caused by the Second Civil War and the following conflicts. The peace maintained for sometime however tenuous and it was during this time that Vernica was able to invade Albion and turn them into a client state during the Fourth Albion Wars. Albion was beaten and bloodied after the Third War of the Broken Vase and their armies were in no position to defend against the approaching legions. Both Solden and Vernica began blaming the other for the problems caused by thee civil war so many years ago. The tensions began rising between the cities once again and many began clamoring for war. The consuls at the time were Naevius Aviola of solden and Altalune Vernicus of Vernica and animosity began to sprout up between the two. Naevius claimed that Vernica's failure to worship Aroden as the one who ushered them to Gaulren was the source of his diminished strength. He began demanding they begin worshiping Aroden as their patron deity. Altalune was nonplussed at this demand. Aroden had been their deity since the Republic was formally created. Altalune claimed that switching their patron deity was sacrilege and that switching would anger Abadar leading to a collapse of their society. During this time both cities worshiped the pantheon of gods, especially the lawful gods, and many were claiming this argument was ridiculous and didn't understand why it was happening. The Evocati began investigating possible interference with the leaders, but when members began investigating they turned up missing or dead. This further entrenched the idea that something malevolent was causing these problems to occur. Relatively peaceful provinces began rioting, disease began spreading faster than could be cured, famine was rearing its head an event that almost never happened and several other problems. The people were clamoring for something to be done and placed the blame on the the other as the source of their woes. Eager for war themselves the consuls further whipped their people into a frenzy and declared war on the other starting the Third Republican Civil War. The Third Republican Civil War caused or lead into the events of the sundering depending on whose interpretation of events one looks at. The Sundering was the most devastating event not to just the Republic, but the rest of the nations on Gaulren. Every city in the Republic was captured, enslaved, or killed by the armies assaulting them except the twin capitals. The Republic was pushed back all the way into their provinces only formally making peace ending the Third Republican Civil War when they saw the writing on the wall. The cities of Solden and Vernica were sieged by the attacking armies and were only saved by the interdiction by the Justicar. The god rallied the legions and burned a significant number of the attackers away in a divine light leaving the legions untouched and even revived many of the fallen to fight on leading into the Justicar's crusades. The crusades lead the Republic to regain their former lands and aided the dwarves saving them from destruction. The crusades eventually lead into the assault of Serica and a new expedition into Hadasht. All factions in the conflict were still hurting from the sundering with many of the threats not even being dealt with, but the Justicar demanded the wars regardless. Some in the senate asked they be allowed to recover before the attack, but members of what would eventually become the Justicar's blades executed them for insubordination to their savior. The Justicar reprimanded the followers for their harsh actions and simultaneously warned others of disobeying his commands. When the attacks into the lands did not go as well as hoped as supply lines were hampered by the undead, beastman, cultist, and soulless still infesting the lands the Justicar pulled the legions back and retreated to his island in the blasted sea. This was the last he would be seen by anyone barring the Arbitrators, the highest position in the Justicar's blades and the consuls after their election.Post-Crusade
After the crusades lead into the numerous lich wars, beastman hordes, soulles virus, and machine uprisings. All the while the Republic attempted to maintain their attacks against Hadasht and Serica with a few wars against the Daqin Dynasty. The beastman and Those of Gaulren raids become so costly to defend against Sempronius Quinctius of Solden upon being elected as consul began construction of massive wall over 1200 miles long and up to 100 feet tall at some points averaging at about 80 feet tall. During his reign the legions were all pulled back from their positions to construct this massive endeavor putting the Republic in debt for quite some time, but the safety it provided paid the wall off within two centuries. (TBC)Modern Era
Around two millennia after the Justicar's crusades the Republic has returned into a holding pattern with its wars. As time progressed the scars of the Sundering have lessened and the severity that any lich army, beastman horde, soulless virus, or machine uprising has been slowly lessening. Many believed these issues could have been dealt with far sooner but due to the wars it siphoned away the manpower and gold necessary to combat them. Because of this the Republic has been scaling up its campaigns into enemy held lands wanting to put an end to their resistance. Senators are all trying to be elected as legate of the various legions preparing to march on Serica or sail to Hadasht. The Daqin Dynasty has shown signs of cracking with the legions taking Castle Tomoga, the massive fort and only way into Daqin lands on solid land, and holding it for many months before being retaken. Many thought the fort could have been retaken too if legion support hadn't been needed to put down the most recent necromancer attack. The attack was seen as one of the smallest by many and most thought the legion's response was overly cautious.Demography and Population
The Republic holds a significant amount of land split into six provinces. The provinces of Solden and Vernica both mostly contain citizens of the Republic. The vast majority of people living in these provinces are humans with a significant number of dwarves and elves and half-elves. There are a multitude of other races in these provinces, but they make up a rather small percentage of the population.
The Republic contains around 300 million citizens and non-citizens. Just under half of that population lives within the two home provinces of the Republic.
Albion is held by a majority humans and quite a few dwarves, but the elven population is rather small as the people of Albion don't care much for races outside of humans and dwarves.
Luclana has a more even spread amongst humans and half-elves with still a large number of pure elves living in the area. The land is too flat for most dwarves so the population of dwarves is fairly small.
Plania has a mix of races, still majority human, but many races have found a home in the Republic here working in the farms and minding their own business.
Red Water is by far the most diverse province. The people there are very inclusive of most races, some orcs even manage to find a home there travelling all the way from the Vostok forest in the East. Humans are barely the most numerous race.
The Republic will allow any race to own land and live within any of the cities so long as they are citizens of the Republic. The easiest way to achieve citizenship is to serve for 16 years in the legions. After service they are guaranteed citizenship and a stipend to become productive members of the Republic. The other way to become a citizen of the Republic is to receive citizenship from the Praetor Peregrinus or his office if it is believed that that person could be of significant importance to the Republic usually for economic or technological reasons. The majority, around sixty percent, of people living in the province of Solden and Vernica are citizens where around one third living in the outer provinces are citizens. Citizens are allowed to hold land and vote for senators.
The Republic has organized a fairly successful propaganda campaign to trust citizens of the Republic regardless of race and once someone was a citizen they were to be trusted. Most humans, especially in the home provinces, were very wary of other races and discriminated against them even if they were citizens. This lead to a lack of people joining the legions or migrating to the larger cities to work in more industrial settings. The senate decided to begin a campaign of propaganda showing citizenship as a way of turning anyone into a respectable member of the Republic and someone to be trusted. This worked for citizens, but exasperated tensions between the 'core' races of the republic humans, dwarves, elves, and half elves and non citizens who aren't one of the core races.
Foreign Relations
The Republic is defined by its millennia long conflict with the majority of its neighbors.
The First conflict that continues for unconventional reasons is the war with the Daqin dynasty. The war is still very hot with major conflicts and battles happening every few years. The Republic never wanted conflict with the Daqin Dynasty, but when the Republic formalized Albion as a province of the Republic the Daqin Dynasty wanted them to apologize and repay them for the damages caused by Albion as they were now apart of the Republic. The Republic was taken aback at this as they had nothing to do with the actions taken by Albion and expected the Daqin Dynasty to be happy they ended their conflict. The diplomats of the Daqin Dynasty demanded reparations and the senate responded saying they would not apologize for actions taken by their client state. The emperor of the Daqin Dynasty immediately declared war on the Republic catching them off guard leading to the war that continues to this day.
The war with Those of Gaulren has raged since the colonists from Solden began settling outside of the Mirri Grasslands. Those of Gaulren were defending their lands and would every now and again would band together and invade Solden lands as before The First Republican Civil War and the events of the Sundering. The republic sees them as little more than barbarians and doesn't see a reason to make peace with them.
The Coalition of Hadasht is still seen as deserter legionnaires and are to be punished. The Republic doesn't consider this a war as they don't see the coalition as a true nation and is rebellion by former legionnaires that needs to be extinguished. The Republic has sent a number of expeditions into Hadasht to put them down, but only a few have been large enough to have caused any serious threat to the coalition.
The war with the Hegemony of Serica is perpetuated by their allies in the mountains, the Dwarven Holds. The Dwarves were slighted by the events in the First War of the Broken Holds and when they were being beaten back they requested the help of the Republic in return for their production capabilities as well as a military alliance. The Republic accepted and declared war on Serica and has continued perpetuating this war into the modern era both to side with the dwarves and because of the crusades the Justicar has lead into Serica and the Aetol peninsula.
The Dwarves are the only faction the Republic has a formalized military alliance with. The Republic allies itself with the Dwarves and the Republic provides food and manpower to perpetuate the conflict with Serica in return for gold and well crafted weapons and armor. The Dwarves have gotten the Republic out of some sticky situations as well as the Republic saving the Dwarves on several occasions. The Republic does what it can to maintain its friendly relationship with the Dwarves.
The Adal Caliphate and the Republic has a very lucrative trading deal. The Republic exports and imports a large degree of resources between the factions. The Adal Caliphate is seen as a pseudo legal way for traders to trade with the factions they are at war with. The Republic profits from this allowing them to maintain their legions in the field and see it as a detriment to end it even though it also benefits the other nations. The powerful households also want the luxury goods produced by the other factions as a status symbol and go to great lengths to ensure that these trade deals don't dry up.
The Tribes of Caelum are the only faction the Republic is not friendly or contentious with. The Republic sees no reason to start a new conflict as they are stretched fairly thin as it is, but don't see any reasons to open up relations with them possibly exposing them to other threats. The Tribes of Caelum are also know for constantly fighting the undead preventing the Republic from being attacked by the armies that march from the isle of the dead.
In Gratia, et Fortitudine (With Gratitude and Fortitude)
Founding Date
3568 C.E
Type
Geopolitical, Republic
Alternative Names
Sovern Republic
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Demonym
Soverns
Government System
Democracy, Representative
Power Structure
Client state / puppet state
Economic System
Market economy
Legislative Body
The Republic is ruled by the Senate of Solden and Vernica and is further explained in the legislation section.
Judicial Body
The laws are interpreted by elected members of the Senate of Solden and Vernica and is further explained in the judicial section.
Subsidiary Organizations
Neighboring Nations
Comments