Categories: Lore

History

The history of the continent.

The history of the world¹!

(TL;DR: Speedrun industrialization killing the empire in record time.)

It all started from the Bauhinian Empire, a huge kingdom spanning across the entire continent. How did Bauhinia become an empire? Nah, I don't care.

The Industrial Revolution broke out in 1911² when people found out how to use electricity³.

Productivity surged. Capitalism was established as the economic model. The working class emerged. People began eyeing the Bauhinian emperor and talking about new forms of government.

Moreland's independence

The region that would become Moreland were the first to act. Having historically been some sort of place that was big on military⁴, they started a bourgeoisie revolution in 1930 and established a provisional republican government in 1935, complete with a provisional constitution.

How could the empire just stand and watch? They sent troops to teach those fuckers a lesson. Though, the young provisional government still had a large faction of loyalists to the Empire. After some negotiations, they caved in to the pressure and gave in to the Empire, which allowed the republic's partial autonomy if they remained subservient to the emperor. This is later referred to by the new military government as "the Negotiations of Shame."

That's when the Guardian Moose came in. A group of partisans, some former members of the provisional government's military, some ordinary people forced to take up arms against Bauhinia's soldiers, all of them brave fighters. They resented the provisional government's softness and took a staunch anti-Bauhinian stance. In 1936, they took over the provisional government by force in an event later referred to as the Guardian Moose Takeover and seen as the peak of the Morelandian independence movement.

Immediately after the Guardian Moose seized the government, they employed drastic reform measures, establishing a stratocracy. After two more years of grueling war with Bauhinia, they finally drove them away and achieved complete independence of The Republic of Moreland in 1939.

Atlasia's independence

The creation of a truly independent Moreland pissed off more people than just the emperor. Some Moose themselves — though they never identified themselves as "Moose" — deemed the new military government (or junta, I guess?) illegal and undemocratic. Seeking a future of freedom and opportunity, they moved to the southeast of Moreland (around the middle-east part of the continent) where the Guardian Moose hasn't yet controlled. They declared independence of The Free Republic of Atlasia in 1945. During the process of establishing the new republic, they drove away many native residents of the plains into either Moreland, Westavia, or Bauhinia. Atlasia became a hub for innovation — half of the new inventions of the industrial revolution were made in Atlasia after its creation, including the earliest prototypes of nuclear fission — and espionage.

Bauhinia's Republican Revolution

Back home in Bauhinia, class conflict was getting high. Combined with resentment of the government because of the loss of Moreland, and revolutionary ideals from the success of Moreland, revolution broke out in 1939, throwing the country into a ten-year-long mess.

Fanton's independence

Amid the chaos, in 1943, the feudal lord assigned to the region of Fanton announced independence of The Kingdom of Fanton, crowning himself King, over his territories of the Plateau and the Southern Basin, which got subsequently renamed to the Fantoni Plateau and the Fantoni Basin. Environmental preservation is a founding ideal of Fanton's.

The Republic of Bauhinia

In 1944, the revolution established a republican government. Though they were still far away from being completely free of the imperial forces.

In 1945, our favorite monopoly Starcorp was created, though at that time they were just a no-names arms dealer. They sold weapons to the revolutionary government, to the imperial army, to the Guardian Moose, to the newly-independent Fantoni, and to the independence movements in soon-to-be Atlasia and Westavia. Starcorp would soon rise to be the most powerful company in Bauhinia.

In 1948, the struggles have finally come to an end. The republican government had a hold on the country, the imperial forces were in shambles, and Bauhinia's territory map largely resembled the one in modern-day.

Sylvandia's independence

Fueled by the revolutionary fire sweeping through the entire continent, Sylvandia also had their own independence movements against the Empire, often clashing with Morelandian troops in their claims to territory. However, they were scattered, ununited, and weak, unable to make much of a difference.

The Bauhinian Republican Revolution saw opportunity and aided the Sylvandian independence movements in their efforts to weaken the imperial outposts in Sylvandia. One by one, Sylvandian states declared their independence, as well as their allegiance to the Republic of Bauhinia. This created a clash of interest as their neighbor, Moreland, does not want a bunch of Bauhinian satellites on their border, so after Westavia gained independence in 1945, Moreland also started meddling in Sylvandia.

In 1951, after the establishment of the fifth state, Mistle, Moreland urged the five states to form a federation. The federation agreement marked the independence of The Sylvandian Federation, which is federally on Moreland's side in recognition of geographical advantages to being Moreland's ally, as well as a more practical opposition to Bauhinia, even the newly-created Republic. However, there are still plenty of "Foreign Zones" all over the countries where Bauhinia has jurisdiction, and plenty of private Bauhinian corporations (which is to say, mostly just Starcorp) still have a significant economic control over the region, with their own militias to support them.

Westavia's independence

Let's dial back the time a little. The sands of Westavia was also getting ready to break apart from the empire.

Westavia's independence movement started in 1935 with the Great Westavian Strike. In the face of the imperial army suppressing the independence movement in Moreland, workers refused to manufacture weapons and stuff, farmers refused to sell their crops to the army, and the railway workers refused to carry the soldiers to their destination. (They simply went through the Atlasian plains instead.)

The empire found enough scabs and slowly the strike died down. But the worker's movement hadn't stopped. Paired with support from Moreland, they announced their independence in 1945, shortly after Atlasia did.

The Atlasian-Westavian War

Being right next to each other, one in the west and one in the east, and backed by two opposing forces (Bauhinia and Moreland), the two new nations started fighting each other in 1947, just two years after they were formed. They fought over territorial disputes between themselves, but actually the war was more of a proxy war between Bauhinia and Moreland.

The war lasted for eight years, and ended when Bauhinia nuked Westavia. Surprise, motherfucker. We got nukes now. Atlasia and Westavia drew permanent borders and signed a peace treaty. Moreland worked on their own nukes and pretty quickly made it, thanks to their spies. It was 1955⁵, and the cold war between the north and the south had started.