History of Luepola

Marija Léman leads Luepolan peasants into battle during the Luepolan Revolution of 1818 (Painter unknown).

The history of Luepola begins with the establishment of the various ethnic Molve kingdoms in eastern Patyria, of whom two of them would unify to form the polity that came to be recognized as Luepola. Following the merger of the kingdoms of Strentland and Varadna, and a civil war shortly thereafter, the Kingdom of Varadna-Strentland defeated neighboring kingdoms Plosenia and Zacotia to cement itself as a regional power, renaming itself Luepola.

Over the following centuries, Luepola would fight a number of conflicts with ever-shifting alliances, in order to expand primarily southward and westward. These wars saw the annexation of Aneska, significant portions of Granzery and Lairea, and small portions of Vorochia, Vyzinia, and the Vierz kingdoms.

As an Orthodox country, it often politically and sometimes military wrestled with Cestros for the status of the premiere Orthodox nation of Patyria. However, certain religious conflicts would unite the countries in alliance, most notably in the East Patyrian War, which pitted the Orthodox world against the Catholic world over the harboring of Protestant refugees in Luepola, Cestros, and Yugaria.

With the majority of Luepola's coastline on the Oriental Sea, the Kingdom of Luepola sought for much of its history to attain hegemony over the sea. The same advances in shipbuilding which made possible the exploration and colonization of the New World were used to modernize the Luepolan Navy and deploy it to west Oridia and north Tusola, to establish and capture trading posts, ports, and ultimately land.

The Kingdom of Luepola ended with a revolution in 1818, in the midst of the Caberran Wars. The final monarch, Ratimir II, significantly raised taxes and curtailed freedoms of the peasant populace in favor of the nobility, while claiming to the public that the measures were important to strengthen Luepola against foreign attack. The Luepolan populace was also inspired by the nascent Republic of Tierada and its leader, Antonio de Caberra, whose liberal ideas appealed to the Luepolan public.

Following the overthrow of the monarchy and nobility, the First Republic of Luepola was established, allying itself with Tierada against the Vierz Empire, Cestros and Granzery in the second phase of the Caberran Wars. However, as Caberra sought to increase influence over Luepola and strip Oridian possessions from Luepola, Luepolan president Gordăn Petrušić turned the country against Tierada, allying Vierzland and Savland in the third phase of the war against Tierada, and defeating the Tieradan armies in Granzery. This war saw the stripping of Tieradan colonial possessions in west Oridia, which were divided between Vierzland and Luepola. Territories annexed by Luepola during the second phase of the war were returned to their previous owners.

Following the war, Luepola transitioned to a proper democratic republic, hosting its first-ever free elections in 1830. Luepola gradually shifted politically to the left, especially after the Patyrian Revolutions of the 1860s and the rise of Class-based Socialist ideals. In the 1901 elections, the Luepolan Communist Party took power under the lead of Lev Gincburg. Lev Gincburg secured the Luepolan government under the control of the Communist Party through partially legitimate but mostly illegitimate means, transforming the country into a one-party state and renaming the Republic of Luepola to the People's Republic of Luepola. Under Gincburg and his successor, Stanislav Kolar, Luepola become the leading global advocate for socialism and communism, funding communist campaigns and insurrections worldwide, most successfully in Apelia, which became a communist country in 1931. Continued belligerence and antagonism under Secretary Anton Marusić led to the outbreak of the Great War, in which Luepola and its socialist alliance were defeated by the allied powers, and all of Luepola's mainland and colonial territory was occupied by Vierzland.

Reorganized as the State of Luepola, the country was a key Vierz ally for the majority of the Silent War, allowing Vierzland to project power into South Patyria and the Oriental sea, as well as becoming an important economic partner of Vierzland as the country recovered from the devastation of the Great War. Luepola and its citizens, however, held very little political agency, with many of the nation's key affairs, including who was eligible to run for President, being dictated by Vierzland. The Vierz occupation was viewed as brutal and unjust by the Luepolan populace.

In 1976, mounting unrest over the continued occupation of Luepola and individual incidents therein culminated in the March Uprising, in which the Luepolan Home Guard turned against the government and aided mass protests in Luepola's major cities. The uprising escalated quickly into a three-year civil war, which saw the gradual defeat of the Luepolan State. The establishment of the Second Republic of Luepola by Emil Ivanušić prompted Vierzland to invade Luepola. Significantly boosted public morale compared to the Great War and unprecedented levels of material and financial assistance from Vierzland's geopolitical rivals brought about a Luepolan victory in 1985. The civil war and Vierz invasion are popularly considered to be two phases to the singular Luepolan War.

The dissolution of the Vierz monarchy in 1990 and a pursuit of realpolitik led to the thawing of relations with Vierzland, though many citizens of both countries still resent the other. Luepola maintains cordial but distant relations with Vonzumier and the Union of Patyrian States, while drawing politically closer to the Aitic Federation. Luepola's post-war administrations have universally focused on the aggressive rebuilding of the Luepolan economy, as well as thwarting future invasion and occupation by maintaining a large standing army while limiting foreign intervention and otherwise provocative moves in the geopolitical sphere. Nonetheless, Luepola controversially obtained nuclear weapons in 2004 (the most recent country to do so), in contravention of its avoidance of provocation, but in line with its doctrine of defense.

Varadna-Strentland (1329-1390)

Establishment of Varadna-Strentland

The Kingdom of Luepola, then known as Strentland-Varadna, was established in 1329 by Genadi the Great. At the time, Genadi was the king of Strentland, and was married to Princess Vladislava I of the neighboring Kingdom of Varadna. In 1429, Queen Anna of Varadna died a sudden death. As the Varadian line of succession followed a system of Absolute primogeniture, the throne was passed to Vladislava. The coronation of Genadi's wife as the Queen of Varadna left Genadi the Younger, their firstborn son, as the heir to both thrones. Recognizing this development, Genadi and Vladislava began work consolidating their two kingdoms, in preparation for the merge; border controls were abolished and nobles from each country were encourage to marry those in the other. On August 4, 1329, Genadi and Vladislava jointly declared the establishment of Varadna-Strentland, and Genadi proclaimed himself 'Genadi the Great'.

The War of Luepolan Succession

Genadi's death in 1355 saw the passing of the throne to his son, Genadi the Younger. His rule aimed to complete the unification of Varadna-Strentland, consolidating the houses of Modrić and Kitarović into a single house. His efforts, however, were largely unsuccessful. After attempting to pressure nobles into marrying into eachother's houses, Genadi the Younger was assassinated in 1363. Genadi the Younger's death started a succession crisis - as the houses of Modrić and Kitarović had not yet unified, they each followed different orders of succession, leading to disagreement as to who should succeed Genadi the Younger on the throne. The House of Kitarović, from which Vladislava I hailed, followed a system of absolute primogeniture, and believed that Genadi's sister, Princess Cvieta, should inherit the throne. The House of Modrić, on the other hand, followed male-preference primogeniture, and believed that Genadi's brother, Prince Nikolas, should succeed him, despite him being younger than Cvieta.

This disagreement quickly erupted into a full-blown civil conflict, with the nobles of the House of Modrić and the House of Kitarović, and their servants and supporters, battling one another. This has since become known as the War of Luepolan Succession. Though the House of Modrić initially had the upper hand in the war due to its support base spanning the former territory of the larger Kingdom of Strentland, the relatively progressive ideals of the House of Kitarović appealed to the broader populace of Varadna-Strentland, enabling Princess Cvieta's support base to expand, an advantage that transformed itself into numerous victories. In the Battle of Širotsk in 1368, Cvieta's army killed Nikolas and inflicted massive casualties on his army, forcing the pro-Modrić army to surrender. The peace agreement acknowledged Cvieta as the rightful heir the throne of Varadna-Strentland, and shortly after the cessation of hostilities she was coronated as Cvieta I.

During the war, Cvieta married Paveu Brnić, the highest ranking officer of the pro-Kitarović army who was not a member of the house, and in 1366 gave birth to Prince Luka Modrić, who would become the next king of Varadna-Strentland.

In an act of reconciliation to her former foes, she issued the Edict of Mlaževo in 1369, which exchanged amnesty to the nobles of the House of Modrić who were put on trial in return for the House of Modrić agreeing to adopt a system of absolute primogeniture. Having forced the House of Modrić to adopt an order of succession that legitimized herself as dynast, Cvieta declined to reinstate herself into the house of Kitarović, which left the Modrić dynasty as the official ruling dynasty of Varadna-Strentland.

Containment Wars

Shortly after the end of the War of Luepolan Succession, Varadna-Strentland faced war from its neighbors Plosenia and Zacotia, whose leaders both feared the potential powerhouse in the east that the new union could become, and who sought to take advantage of Varadna-Strentland's weakened post-war state to strike it down and gain land and influence. In 1374, the Zacotian army marched into Strentland and laid siege to the port of Rostva, beginning the Containment War. The Containment War quickly bogged down into a stalemate on both fronts.

Cvieta I died of natural causes in 1382, leaving 16-year-old Luka as the wartime monarch of Varadna-Strentland. Luka's first edict as the new King of Varadna-Strentland temporarily restored his powers as commander of the army to his father, Paveu Brnić, who previously had been delegated the same powers under Cvieta. Mistaking the transition of power as a potential period of confusion and disorder in Varadna-Strentland, Zacotia and Plosenia both launched large-scale offensives against Varadna-Strentland, which were quickly routed by the unexpectedly strong and organized defense.

Luka's next significant action was to appeal to the neighboring Kingdom of Vyzinia. With the aid of older, more experienced diplomats, Luka successfully encouraged Joseph IV of Vyzinia to declare war on Plosenia in 1386, promising them much of Plosenia's land and the wealth within. The deployment of the Vyzinian army to Plosenia threw Plosenia into disarray, enabling the army of Varadna-Strentland to push into Plosenia. The northern front culminated in the Siege of Pomorna in 1387, which forced the surrender of Plosenia to Vyzinia and Varadna-Strentland. Recognizing the soon-to-be dire situation for their army, Zacotia surrendered to Varadna-Strentland in 1388. In the various post-war peace agreements, Varadna-Strentland annexed much of northern Zacotia, and partitioned Plosenia between itself and Vyzinia, in the process gaining coastline on the Gulf of St. Jan. Some of the established borders remain to this day as Luepola's border with Plosenia and Zacotia.

Kingdom of Luepola (1390-1818)

Two years after the surrender of Zacotia, in 1390, Luka declared that the Kingdom of Varadna-Strentland would be renamed to the Kingdom of Luepola, after the traditional name of the common language spoken in the majority of Varadna-Strentland's new territory. Though Luepola's modern name was first used here, the kingdom was often referred to as Strentland among the other nations of Patyria until the 1800s.