History of Ostrozava

Main article: Ostrozava

The history of Ostrozava includes a diverse range of cultures and religions, spanning millennia.

Prehistory and early Gothic polities

Archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the area, dating back to the Paleolithic era. Skulls found in the Great Cave of Vornja are some of the oldest human remains found in Belisaria, and have served as a prominent example of neolithic human culture, ritual, religion, and jewelry. Early civilizations in modern Ostrozava seem to have been of primarily Germanic origin; in addition to a wide variety of proto-Germanic tribes in modern Ardovia, the primary civilization of the majority of modern Ostrozava were the western Goths, which primarily coalesced around the city of Saragetra in modern Livalia. The Kingdom of Saragetra soon became the primary political entity of the larger Tervingian High Kingdom. By 200 CE, Tervingia was the most important political force within the Simerian plain and northern shore of Lake Kupalnitsa, developing a highly-advanced and wealthy society and making major innovations in metalworking, agriculture, and the cultivation of hemp.

Unlike many Tervingian political entites across the Lake in the Azdrheg highlands or the Valenian petty kingdoms in the Balrog river basin, many in Saragetra resisted attempts by missionaries from both the infant Alban Emendatic Church and the Catholic Church at religious conversions. Though technologically advanced and economically prosperous, Tervingia's highly decentralized elective monarchy meant that it often suffered from internal turmoil, chieftains having third-party interests in other neighboring polities, particularly Cyneric chieftains to the kingdom's north, or growing religious differences, whether internal to their Gaulist faith, or from individually converted Chieftains.

Tervingia and thus Saragetra's most prominent ruler, Ariemir the Wit, comissioned the creation of his pyramidial tomb, the Sun Spear Pyramid, in 322 CE. One of the first concrete structures in eastern Belisaria, the pyramid has been designated a Cultural Heritage Site by IBEST. It is considered to be one of the prime examples of Germanic religious tradition in eastern Belisaria.

Slavic migration and formation of the Ostrozavan people

In 428 CE, the Slavic migration to Belisaria and thus to the Lake Kupalnitsa area spurred a massive demographic shift, and brought on the collapse of the central Tervingian rule, though, due to the dissolution of the courier network, many of the outermost areas of the empire failed to grasp that Tervingia as a political entity had collapsed for several decades afterwards. Slavic chieftains, having also battled with Cyneric tribes, settled in the Karmin river valley alongside the core of what had previously been Saragetra, often intermingling with their Gothic precursors and creating a syncretic culture which merged the traditions of both. By 570 CE, the dominant political forces in what would become northern Ostrozava were the Duchies of Karsko, Litonin, and Vamo, while in the south, the larger Kingdom of Livalia formed from a reconsolidation of Valenian polities around a central, Alban-Christian paradigm.

The proto-Ostrozavan duchies of the north had also been a majority of Alban Christians, with the migrating Slavs having been converted when passing through the Alban Pentapolis decades prior to their arrival in Saragetran lands. South Germanic peoples within the Czelia range were less affected by the Slavic migration, instead taking after their southern and culturally-related neighbors in what would become Garima. Chief among these South Germanic polities, and roughly corresponding to the modern Subprime State of Ardovia, was the Duchy of Rheigen, which, unlike the other polities in the area, had taken more strongly to Fabrian Catholicism. By 700 CE, distinct dialects of Slavic had emerged in the Karmin river valley, and the language of the Valenian had also been heavily influenced, though not totally replaced, by Slavic syntax. The first reference to the land of "Ostrozava" as a collectivization of the Slavic peoples of the Karmin river appears in correspondence from Lebern IV of the Duchy of Rheigen in 942 CE. The primary ideological differences between the Duchies lay in their treatment of the political system of Tervingia which had come before them, including the importance of the cultivation of hemp, the continuation or discontinuation of pre-migration Gothic traditions, and the increased syncretic intermingling of such traditions with the Alban church.

First Grand Duchy of Ostrozava and expansion into neighboring lands

In 1142, after a succession of border skirmishes and one larger conflict known as Skolo's War after the mercenary chieftain which had allegedly started it, the Duchy of Karsko conquered and annexed the Duchy of Vamo. A complex political situation and religious pressure, however, had Duke Libor Bednář ousted by a conglomerate of chieftains both Gothic and Slavic, who had been chiefly Alban. The most powerful of these Chieftains, Roland Válek, soon rose to power to become the first Grand Duke of Ostrozava, retitling himself as Roland I. Roland had been born of a Gothic mother and a Slavic father; Norbert's mixed identity and charisma lent him credibility among the ethnically and religiously mixed populace of Ostrozava, allowing him to consolidate power despite his alleged tendency towards anger, illteracy, and adultery. Roland I is rumored to have fathered over a hundred children throughout his lifetime. He died in 1176 of what tradition alleges was a stroke in a brothel. His son, Otmar the Builder (Ostrozavan: Otmar Stavitel) succeeded him.

A realist portrait of Otmar the Builder by Boris Matoušek, c. 1578.

Otmar the Builder, widely considered to be one of Ostrozava's most effective and even legendary rulers, died after a period of prolonged peace in 1237, having gained the respect of both the political establishment and the religious establishment, while establishing trade routes to eastern states in Azdraï and Lushyodorstag. Otmar had also presided through a period of rising tensions with the southern Kingdom of Livalia, after claiming the Kingdom via historial precedent in the marriage of the Tervingian ruler Alica to the eldest daughter, Raluca, of the confederation of Valenian chieftains, a precursor of the Kingdom of Livalia, in 327 BCE. Though the Livalian ruler, Adam II Vãduva, rejected the claim, it nevertheless opened the door for a potential claim on the entire Kingdom by the Grand Duchy. In the west, the Germanic Duchy of Rheigen came under the influence of the Holy Aulian Empire in ___.

Otmar's son, Zikmund, used the precedent of his father's decision to set his sights on the decentralized and weak Kingdom of Livalia, with the goal of establishing an Alban state to rival historical Tervingia. In 1242, the 22-year-old Zikmund crossed the Balrog river and defeated King Adam of Livalia at the cruical Battle of Deva, which paved the way of the systematic Ostrozavan conquest of the entire kingdom, and the beginning of the century-long Ostrozavan Wars of Expansion.

In 1263, the Grand Duchy of Ostrozava under Zikmund I formally conquered the Kingdom of Livalia, with the eldest son of Zikmund, Roland II, being forced into a diplomatic marriage with Princess Imanuela of Livalia in order to grant the conquest further political legitimacy, and following in the footsteps of Lorelei of Tervingia. In 1276, Zikmund died of what is commonly considered to be syphilis, leaving the newly-expanded Grand Duchy to Roland II. The following decades would see Ostrozava consolidate its power over Livalia, putting down several rebellions in the southernmost regions of the former Kingdom. Thinking the continued unrest in former Livalia was partially spurred by foriegn interests, Roland II continued the wars of Expansion through the invasion and conquest of Polnitsa in 1294. The following decade would be marred by increasing border skirmishes with the Holy Aulian Empire; in 1302, revitalized Ostrozavan armies would attack and annex the Duchy of Tungria as well as the Duchy of Rheigen, dealing a cruicial blow to the continued expansion of both the Holy Aulian Empire into eastern Belisaria as well as the expansion of Fabrian Catholicism. As another long-lived ruler, Roland II would spend the back half of his life entrenching Ostrozavan influence in Livalia, offering non-Ostrozavan populations much leeway in terms of feudal self-governance, in another emulation of Tervingia, though religious Alban tradition and political loyality were more strictly enforced than cultural cohesion.

Religious uprisings and failed expansion

Considering the Holy Aulian Empire sufficiently pacified, Roland II then set his sights on the rest of the Alban world. Several Fabrian uprisings in both Polnitsa in 1311 had sapped the will of the aging ruler to continue to push into ideologically-entrenched Fabrian territory, and so, he instead saw to the creation of an Ostrozavan navy on Lake Kupalnitsa to deal with sustained problems of piracy caused by Iconoclast pirates, as well as paving the way for what he saw as the ultimate goal of Ostrozavan expansion: annexation and consolidation of the Alban Pentapolis, which held not only religious significance, but also guaranteed a less expensive trade route to Ochran not under the control of the Holy Aulian Empire, or any similarly hostile states.

Despite his failures, Roland II remains an icon of Ostrozavan nationalist movements to this day. The depicted statue is in Ardovia, formerly Rheigen.

The Ostrozavan invasion of the Lushyodorstag, which had controlled the eastern shore of Lake Kupalnitsa for more than a century, ended in disaster when the armies of the Grand Duchy found themselves fighting an unsustained war of attrition, with many of the naval forces subject to a death of a thousand cuts to Lushyodor pirates and systematic and well-organized assaults by skirmishers, particularly horse archers, upon landing. Despite the obstacles, Ostrozavan forces successfully managed to exert control over the Pentapolis after the victory at the Battle of Barbellon in early 1318. With renewed confidence, Roland II relinquished control of his invading forces to his oldest son and famous military commander, Gabriel Válek, who subsequently used the new foothold of the Ostrozavan forces to push farther east and north into the Azdrheg highlands and Medenzag. Though the Ostrozavan military achieved significant territorial gains throughout 1319, they found their progress slowed by the end of that same year, with sustained piracy on the Lake and a long and inconsistent supply train forcing the recruitment of many local Lushyodor and Gothic mercenaries. In mid-1319, Roland's force reached the Mren river, where it encountered the Lushyodor Royal Army, and enganged with them in a costly victory at the Battle of the Mrenford.

Distracted and licking their wounds, the Ostrozavan army found that a significant conventional force of Lushyodor skirmishers had used the spotty Ostrozavan logistical lines to their advantage, flanking the entire expeditionary army and subsequently besieging and reclaiming the Pentapolis. Beginning his march in late 1319, but marred by a harsh winter, Prince Gabriel reached the Pentapolis in early 1320, fighting the decisive Second Battle of Barbellon, in which Ostrozavan forces were routed by Azdrheg skirmishers employed by the Lushyodor, and Gabriel was killed on the field of battle by a detachment of axemen. Gabriel's death is said to have shocked the aging Roland, who, deprived of his most promising heir and humiliated in battle, reportedly had a "fit" commonly described by modern scholars as a panic attack, unusual for the Grand Duke. The physically frail ruler was considered to be 'gripped with hysteria' for the last year of his life, a fact which many Fabrians both inside and outside the Grand Duchy characterized as demonic possession.

With no formal will or intent declared, and the Grand Duke appearing to be increasingly delirious and uninterested in continuing political matters, a political conflict first arose between the second of his two sons, the 21-year-old Viktor, and his second cousin and grandson of Zikmund, the well-respected Kamil Válek. Roland II died reportedly bedridden and emaciated in 1321, at the age of 74. His death traditionally marks the end of the Ostrozavan wars of expansion, and with the last of the Ostrozavan forces withdrawing from the Lushyodor frontier as tensions growing in the Grand Duchy set the stage for conflicts to come.

First Ostrozavan War of Succession & continuing tensions

After the Grand Duke's death, Viktor was crowned as his successor, though many in Ostrozava considered him a greatly inferior successor to Roland II compared to Gabriel. A clandestine movement among nobles, known now as the Válek band, began seeking to discredit the young Duke and push their cause for the secondary line of Zikmund to take the throne, headed by Kamil Válek. The temperaments of the two nobles were quite different; Viktor was a devout Alban and a book-scholar, though many considered him childish for not wanting to adhere to the traditions and expectations of aggressive diplomacy and Alban unity established by Roland II and his predecessors.

Count Válek, on the other hand, had been raised as heir and eventual ruler of the County of Karschberg, considered to be the de facto successor to the conquered Duchy of Rheigen, which, much as the Kingdom of Livalia, had been divvied up territorially to account for new titles of the Grand Duchy, and to eliminate the prospect of a definite successor to the conquered states. As a result, Válek was much more open to western forms of Christianity, chiefly Fabrianism, a fact which had prejudiced many in the Kingdom against him, particularly older vassals who had fought alongside Roland II and thus trusted the young Viktor to come onto his own. Despite holding titles in eastern, Germanic Ostrozava, Válek nevertheless held his closest alliances with lords in northern Ostrozava, where his second cousin continued to rule.

In 1329, an intercepted letter meant to be delivered to the Lord Mayor of Orlorec uncovered a plan to assassinate Grand Duke Viktor and his wife during their visit on Christmas to the Cathedral of Saint Cyril, by decree of Count Kamil Válek. Outraged, the Grand Duke raised his armies to arrest Válek, who had mustered a large portion of northern Ostrozava to his side, including an area of territory that included the entirety of the modern subprimes of Strakosko and Vamo. Faced with a difficult decision and civil war, Viktor had no choice but to turn to the peoples which his father and grandfather had conquered. Valenian and Gariman nobles were to have their rights elevated, though those in the areas of Micenia and Polnitsa would not be granted those rights on account of their strongly Fabrian beliefs, which matched Válek's. Armed conflict between the two sides of the Válek family, now known contemporaneously as the Loyalists (led by Grand Duke Viktor) and the Reformists (led by Count Kamil Válek).

The first stretch of battles took place largely in ethnic Valenian areas that had composed the former Kingdom of Livalia. As conquered peoples resentful of the Ostrozavan crown many Valenian had supported the count in his attempt to usurp his cousin, but, as the only ostensibly and exclusively Alban minority group in Ostrozava, others preferred the religiously-compatible Duke Viktor. After Viktor took a Livalian wife, Iolanda, the Valenian nobility largely flipped towards Viktor, giving him an upper hand that he had earlier lacked against the tactically superior Kamil. Further battles and skirmishes continued for the next six years, culminating in the Battle of Karsko in 1332; By 1335, Kamil's faction had been totally eradicated, though many still distrusted Victor, and his reputation among rebellious Fabrians was not favorable. Despite the continued national tension, Viktor's legitimization of several minorities had painted him as a liberally minded king, gaining him many Livalian and even Gariman followers. Viktor died in 1382, aged 82, upon which he was succeeded by his oldest son, Viktor II, who died in 1398 of consumption after a brief reign, during which his biggest accomplishments were the establishment of Alban monastic schools that would later form the core of Ostrozavan education.

Eastern Renaissance and Compact of the Lake

As the 15th century dawned, the Grand Duchy found itself increasingly influenced by a multitude of actors. The barely-pacified Fabrian minority in Ostrozava had drawn the attention of the larger Fabrian world, particularly the englarging Holy Aulian Empire. In 1405, the Council of Pyrovegny was held in the Lushyodorstag, bringing a degree of denomenational unity between the Docetic and Alban Emendatic churches, producing the first Oecumenical Bible. This also opened up travel and communion between the two denominations; the Docetic Church's first missionaries arrived in 1407, to protest from some Fabrians and general indifference or even tolerance from the Emendatic priesthood and political establishment.

Boris Matoušek in 1439, as depicted by artist and friend Jug Hrabovskyi.

In 1406, after a long regency of Viktor II's most trusted advisor, Duke Žigmund Láska of Litonín, Viktor II's only son Aurel Válek assumed the throne. Only eighteen years old, the young Grand Duke eschewed the tradition of taking a Livalian wife that had been standard for many of his predecessors; instead, as a sign of growing unity in the east, he was advised by Láska to turn to his nation's former enemy of the Lushyodorstag. A 1408 diplomatic meeting between Duke Láska and the Gerzaïd rulership across the lake set the stage for the marriage. In 1409, the now 19-year-old Aurel married Princess Anika of the Lushyodorstag, thus entering the two Alban states into a tight-knit political alliance, and extending the inter-lake alliance past the religious dimension. This new paradigm allowed the shores of Lake Kupalnitsa to become a hub of trade, and provided a more secure avenue for Ostrozavan ideas and traders to travel east towards Ochran; this is now referred to as the Compact of the Lake, and it is considered a crucial development in the beginning of the Eastern Renaissance, sometimes known as the Alban Renaissance, throughout eastern and southeastern Belisaria, including Ostrozava. The Eastern Renaissance is typically considered to have begun in earnest in Ostrozava in 1458, with both the commemoration of the University of Litonín in Libebor, which was the second University in Central Belisaria and the first major Alban university, as well renaissance man Boris Matoušek's chartering as Crown Artist by the Grand Duke Aurel in 1461.

Grand Duke Aurel was a notable patron of the arts, engineering, and merchantile endeavors during the Eastern Renaissance. His reign saw the construction of Kadlec Castle, one of the most notable extant fortresses in central-eastern Belisaria; he also gave a grant to Branko Nedved, a scientist and burgher that helped develop new methods of making concrete. In part due to the need for quick dissemination of the Bible of Pyrovegny, printers and other burghers throughout Ostrozava's cities imported and adapted the far-eastern printing press, and leading to the second major standardization of the Ostrozavan language in 1460, with the inclusion of several loanwords from Alban Communion Ostrogothic and Docetic Losh, as well as Fabrian Latin. In 1467, Grand Duke Aurel suffered a series of strokes and died at the age of seventy-nine, leaving the realm to his oldest surviving son, Grand Duke Radovan 'the Hammer'.

Uprising and the Twenty-Nine Days' War

For much of the back half of the 15th century, as political tensions remained high between the increasingly polarizing powers of central Belisaria, a major Fabrian rebellion led by the Baron of Bischoffelden (Ostrozavan: Jirkov), a Magnish burgher by the name of Baudry Zÿler, was squashed in 1482, leading to mass civil unrest. As a member of the minor nobility in the region, Zÿler had broken rank by encouraging revolt in the Fabrian populations of western Ostrozava, much to the chagrin of Grand Duke Radovan, who ordered him publicly humiliated and broken on the wheel upon his arrest.

Despite the growing mood atmosphere of tension in areas contested between eastern and western traditions, a growing spirit of enlightenment had captivated the growing urban middle class of major Ostrozavan cities, and brought much needed economic improvement to major urban centers particularly among rivers and the coast of Lake Kupalnitsa. Karsko became the first city in eastern Belisaria to formally implement a system of sewage, which gave it the reputation of being one of the cleanest cities in the Scipio-Belisarian world. Grand Duke Radovan, a devout Alban, made a point to increase pressure on various religious minorities towards conversion, opting to break from the tolerant position established by his father and the neighboring Lushyodorstag. Radovan's shift in sensibilities had been spurned by a personal belief of his that religious tolerance was "unsustainable in time for the Grand Duchy", as he wrote in a letter on the 8th of November, 1493. Fearing increasing encroachment by the Holy Aulian Empire through Garima, Radovan began sweeping reforms of the military, partially abolishing the exisiting feudal system of levies in favor of a standard army, which, by the Swordsman's Decree of 1497, were not allowed to be of "religious or spiritual character antithetical to those empowering the values of the Grand Duchy and God Almighty."

The Swordsman's Decree, though worded vaguely in its language, was a de facto law prohibiting trinitarian Christians, including those belonging to the Fabrian and Orthodox churches, from serving in the Ostrozavan military, at least in the scope of a standing retinue. Radovan's decision to constrict the freedoms of the already-enraged Fabrian minorities had only added to the fire started by Baron Zÿler, whose image of emancipatory heroism had lent itself to establishing permanent roots in the public consciousness following his rebellion. In December of 1499, several Fabrian minor nobles gathered at the site of Baron Zÿler's execution in Bischoffelden, in what is known as The New Year's Deliberation, where for the remainder of the month, they observed Christmas together with their families while discussing the predicament of the Fabrian minorities in Ostrozava. On New Years' Day in 1500, the leaders coalesced around their most prominent supporter, the religiously-tolerant Fabrian Duke of Rheigen-Ardovia, Herbert Váskory, who subsequently declared war on Grand Duke Radovan, declaring a "War of Fabrian Liberation"; though the Fabrian faction had initially wished simply for equal rights, their struggle soon devolved into civil war.

During the chaos during and after the Twenty-Nine Days' War, many more unorthodox Alban and Docetic Christians were hanged en-masse.

The Twenty-Nine Days' War is considered to have begun in the early March of 1500; the hosts of Lord Váskory and Grand Duke Radovan met at the shallowest ford of the Karmin River, then called Chapel Ford after a small Docetic chapel which had been established near it a quarter-decade prior. The forces clashed on the open field in front of the ford at first, with Lord Váskory soon pushing the Grand Duke into the Karmin, which, at the time, was fairly active despite the shallow crossing point due to the melting snows. Many troops of the Grand Duke soon found themselves tripping or falling in the fast-moving water only to lose their weapons or even drown due to their heavy armor. At some point after the Fabrian lines first connected with the Grand Duke's retinue, the Alban army lost sight of the Grand Duke; without their leader and no skilled lieutenants to take over, the Fabrian army and Duke Váskory won a shocking victory, totally dispersing the Grand Duke's army of almost ten-thousand; the battle came to be known as the 'Battle of the Crimson Karmin' (Ostrozavan: Bitva Karmínského Karmina) due to the blood which had permeated the waters at that point.

With the main Grand Ducal force gone, Váskory moved quickly across the Duchy of Ardovia, dispersing or defeating any holdover forces he encountered along the way, and then recieved the support of the recently-converted Duke of Vamo, Tervin Chrelina. Together, they arrived at Karsko bolstering a force of some twenty thousand troops; with the Grand Duke still presumed alive but missing, the Lord Mayor of Karsko, Drahoslav of Myria, opened the gates to the advancing army, thus forfieting the power of Grand Duke Radovan and the centuries-long rule of the Alban Válek dynasty. Victorious in less than a month, Lord Herbert crowned himself as Grand Duke Peter I. Though Ostrozava was under Fabrian rule, the pendulum had swung in the direction of tolerance. After horrific mass-hangings in Ostrozava by Fabrian forces were condemned by local religious authorities and even the Pope in Sydalon, Grand Duke Peter halted his persecution, instead adopting a lenient system of tiered rights going into the century.