Furodomark
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The Furodomark is a highland region in south western Drevstran consisting of mountains and plateaus. It is are part of the larger Kulpanitsan Shield that border the eastern shores of the Lake. It was the core of the old Lushyodorstag and where the main Lushyod bands settled after their migration into Drevstran.
Thirteen Districts are located, at least in part, in the Furodomark: Kirot, Kuch, Kalozki, Varos, Nyugrataj, Luzat, Yuda, Zuden, Kelet, Eskroj, Pyrovegy, Fenshik, and Felvol. The three largest agglomerations of the Furodomark are Pyrovegy (230,892 inhabitants), Kelët (190,348 inhabitants), and Eskroj (378,130 inhabitants). Only Pyrovegy is located in the central plateau, while Eskroj and Kelët were nicknamed the Northern and Eastern Gates of the Lushyodorstag respectively and thus their metropolitan areas tend to mark the transition between the Furodomark proper and the rest of Drevstran. The coastal cities of Kirot, Halvari, Kalozki, Varos and Nyugrataj, despite being the capitals of Districts partly included in the Furodomark, are not geographically nor culturally mountain agglomerations.
History
Lusatian settlement
It is difficult to trace back the roots of the Lusatians people precisely as there is a scarcity in ressources from either Tervingia or its successor-states talking in details about the Ludic people. In most situations, they are referred to only as "The Luds", with little care or knowledge about their tribal distinctions.
The first mention of the Luds from Morinia come from one of the titles its first king gave himself on his coinage: "Victorious over the Multitude". Contemporary chronicles also mention that Chorcus Warhand allowed its Ludic ennemies to settle in the Furodomark where they became tributary of the Morinian State. It is commonly admitted that its from these populations who failed to invade Morinia and were forced to settle in the Highlands that the ancestors of the modern Lusatians would emerge. Since the 19th century, it has become common to refer to these ancestors as "Vestrozavans" but any contemporary demonym they could've had has been lost to the ages.
A century later, documents speak of the "Suedian Luds" who lived on he eastern and northern shores of the modern "Gariman Lakes", on the border between Morinia and Suedia. They seemed to have been mostly loyal to the former, meaning that they might be Vestrozavan tribes who were resettled there by the successors of Chorcus Warhand to serve as buffers between Morinia and its southern rival.
Almost all of the lands occupied by Vestrozavian slavs fell under the hegemony of the Lushyod during the 9th century, and were later integrated into the Lushyodorstag.
Alban Crusades
Since their arrival and installation in the Furodomark, the Lushyods have practiced piracy, extortion, and depredation on their neighbours and other countries surrounding lake Kulpanitsa. Their main opponents and victims were the eastern fringes of the Aulic Empire, from Polnitsia to Suedia. But Lush bands were also often employed by these same states as mercenaries, be it on water or on land. It’s notably these mercenaries, who often ended up playing important roles in the military gestion and protection of the “Gariman Principalities”, who spread with them Docetism.
These Lushyods and Docetics populations, numbering in the thousands at most, were quickly stripped of their privileges and forced to either leave the Principalities or convert to Fabrianism. Those who didn’t convert or left ended up forming roaming bands of highwaymen and raiders, who plundered the Abrodita, Morinia, Suedia, or Mosela before being chased by Crusaders. Many did not return to the Lushyodorstag but instead found refuge in the hills of Lusatia where they became the allies and vassals of the Duchy. Indeed, the Lusatians, often the eastern bulwark of the Empire and first victim of the Lush but profoundly Emendatic at heart, had rebelled in anger against the Ordo Praedictorum’s promulgation against Heresies. An attempt at organizing an alliance between the Duchy and its ancient enemy of the Lushyodorstag went nowhere and despite a long resistance organized first by the Duke, then after his defeat by the Emendatic Monasteries themselves, Lusatia would ultimately be forced to accept the presence of predictors on its lands and to banish all Emendatic monks within its borders.
The long and exhausting Lusatian Crusade resulted in the division of both Morinia and Lusatia among the crusaders. Docetics and Albans would not be the only victims of the Audonians: in their wakes: jews were expropriated and deported as well, forced to flee the Empire. They would join the cohorts of refugees leaving for the Lushyodorstag where they would be settled in Military-Colonies by the Lushyods on the border with the Audonian Empire.
But soon, the crusaders' attention shifted further eastward as the chaos left by the Crusades allowed the Lushyods to organise and perform large-scale raids unimpeded. To once and for all protect the Empire from this threat, Pope Martin I published new Promulgations against the Docetics of the Lushyodorstag.
During the first Lushyod Crusade, the aim of the crusaders was to take all the Lushyods ports to destroy the Lushyodorstag' economy which relied on piracy and trade. The city of Niurgen (modern Nyugrataj) at the border with Morinia, quickly fell and the Audonians pushed further north unimpeded. Meanwhile the newly crowned Lushyod King Aledar I had gathered both his army and his fleet at the port city of Halvar, behind the protection of the river Kuch. Incapable of crossing the bridgeless river, the crusaders couldn’t take the heavily defended city. The siege ended when contingent of Lushyod troops got past the Audonian lines using their fleet and launched a devastating assault against the crusaders' camp. The retreating crusaders on their way south would have to continuously deal with the Lushyod' fleet threat, which retook many of the port cities before the crusaders could reach them. Only a handful of crusaders successfully returned to Morinia. After his victory, Aledar launched a large scale plunder of the Audonian Principalities.
Vörönyak Jews
The 13th century' Alban crusades were a time of great upheavals around Lake Kulpanitsa and it profoundly affected the jewish populations. In the Holy Audonian Empire they became the target of religious repressions, forced convertions, and forced into exile. Many fled to the north and east and many found refuge in the Lushyodorstag. As the kingdom was already under threat of the Empire, the Lushyodkorrag proclaimed himself protector of "All Twelve Tribes" and settled the newcomers in the valleys and lowlands of the Furodomark under the principle of " military-agricultural colonies". As the Lushyodorstag expanded, more jewish colonies were granted in the Mredenzag or the Alban Pentapolis, forming agrarian communities with proud military traditions as they served within the Lushyod' military.
Slowly, the Lushyod became the birth language of these rural, warring jews. They became known as Vörönyak and shared the reputation of the other Lushyods as fierce warriors and talented cavalrymen. Up until the 20th century, Vörönyak jews still gave the Drevstranese military a disproportionate number of officers and soldiers compared to their share of the population. In the Furodomark, they traditionally live on the border with Garima in a region now known as Yuda which is mostly included in the eponymous district.
Adomist troubles
Tigert Adoman was a Lushyod Docetic Teacher and hermit who lived in the Furodomark in the early 1810s century. Following the Union of Drevstran and the moving of the capital away from the Lushyodorstag to Angrast he denounced the Ludzisation of the Monarchy and its now century-old move away from Docetism and patronage of the Aletheic Church which reached its apex with the Intervention in Ludvosiya. Adoman promoted a return to the purity of the proto-Sarpetic Church, to harsh and methodic Iconoclasm, and to a frugal lifestyle fantasized to have been that of the Samaritans, whom he taught were the direct ancestors of the Lushyods, the modern-days descendants of the House of Joseph. He wrote a translation of the Bible, both the Ancient and New Treasuries, in Lushyod which he claimed was the "modern language of the Samaritans" and rejected the Oecumenical Treasuries in Ostro-Ludzic promoted by the Monarchy and used by both the Docetic Academy since the Alban-Docetic Oecumenic Council of 1405. He opposed the Blind Following of teacher and called for every Nazarists to study the Treasuries themselves.
Adoman became the figurehead of a larger movement within the Furodomark of impoverished Lushyods who felt cheated by the Monarchy seemingly preferring Angrast over its birthplace of the Furodomark, leaving behind a region that had always supported to Lushyodorkorrag in their projects but were simply not seeing the rewards of this loyalty nor the benefits of a burgeoning industrialisation, which thus became suspicious. A number of local notaries, either because they shared those beliefs or in a bid to use the popularity of the movement for their own gain, became patrons and protectors of Adoman and the parallel school he was forming after his translation of the Treasuries was rejected by the University of Pyrovegy. Soon, an "Adomist clique" appeared even in the Parliament of Nyugrataj, one of the three parliament of the Triple Crown.
Through the intermediary of Lord Damian Batokert, a proeminent aristocrat of the Furodomark and part of the royal court, Tigert Adoman tried to convince the king to join his movement, abandon the Aletheic faith, and re-embrace the Lushyod origins of the Monarchy. The king refused and Damian Batokert was disgraced in the operation. He then famously wrote an open letter denouncing the "clique of Aletheists, Ludz, and Jews" who had corrupted both the Monarchy and the Faith. Even through the letter was never published, He narrowly evaded capture and returned to his holdings in the Furodomark where he was able to present to Adoman and his followers his version of the events. Shocked, the Adonists began organising a series of protests all over the Lushyodorstag. Soon, these protests turned to violence: against tax collectors, policemen, mayors, non-Adonist Docetic Teachers, and all other visible forms of "corruption". Public forced conversions were organized, turning into beating or looting in case of refusals. The Vörönyak Jews, as "Cousins and Brother-in-arms" were often demanded to recognize the proeminence of Mounts Ebal and Gerizim over Mount Siyyon. In reaction, the Vörönyaks formed their own self-defense militias and often worked as auxilliaries of the local authorities against the Adomists.
The peak of the Adomist Troubles happened when columns of armed protesters marched on Pyrovegy, the cultural capital of the Furodomark and seat of the Docetic Academy in Drevstran. Incapable of actually entering the city, Tigert Adoman organised a siege that lasted for fourty days until the city defenders were relieved by royal military units sent by Angrast, policemen from the rest of the Lushyodorstag, and Vörönyak militiamen. Afterward, the movement was harshly repressed by the authorities. Damian Batokert was captured and executed for treason, Tigert Adoman continued to live in hiding for two years before he was denounced and arrested as well. His execution was public but his tomb hidden.
Drevstranese Civil War
Since Fehrer Farkas took over Kirot in 1914, the Furodomark has been under the constant threat of the Socialist Warlord' raiding parties. Many towns and villages formed militias and built retreat points and reserves up in the mountains. The First Army, stationed in the region, was tasked with defending the border and to remain ready for a potential Gariman intervention in the war in favor of the Royalists. The army new leader, Vilvo Orbraggar, appointed by his long-time friend Hortankh Bolsar himself, was unwilling to abandon his positions on the border, even as Fehrer Farkas penetrated further and further into the mountains. This was both because he was still unsure about Garima' true stance on the civil war, and also because his grasp on his newly granted army was tenuous at best. Ultimately, after the catastrophic summer of 1914 during which Fehrer Farkas became the de-facto ruler of the Mrengrave, Orbraggar made the decision to send troops northward, to reinforce local militias and create a system of defense capable of resisting Farkas' columns.
From there on, Orbraggar and Farkas would end up both engaging in guerilla and counter-guerilla warfare, with no real front to speak of as troops found themselves dilluted in a large space. The first army copied Farkas' tactics and developed entirely mounted columns of "military police forces" capable of riding deep into the Mrengrave to attack the structure of the socialist army. Meanwhile, the loose defensive system was assured by local mountain-based militias, supported by small teams of soldiers dispatched by the First Army to live and fight with them. On the opposite side, Farkas' Band was organized in sensibly the same manner.
However, after months of low-intensity but permanent conflict made of raids and counter-raids, it became clear that Farkas' columns assaults were dulled by the mountaineous geography of the Furodomark and the strong implementation of the Firt Army among the population. Orbraggar even managed to convince the Lushyodorstag Parliament to slowly return to Pyrovegy, its original seat and to publicly support him, boosting his image among the population, already slowly won over by the Dispatched troops. This loose but solid network where every village, every town was turned into a fortified position manned by motivated and relatively well-equiped troops only got stronger with time as Farkas' columns' edge became duller and duller.
Meanwhile, Farkas' defense was just as much based on local militarized bands, but of bandits, deserters, and only a few true believers in the Revolution. Ostrozavans advisors and specialists also served the same role as Orbraggar' dispatched teams, helping strengthen a system, but Farkas lacked strong grassroot support. Worse stil, whereas the Furodomark was mountaineous, the Mrengrave was a large expanse of flatlands with a few rolling hills. Slowly but surely, Farkas and his Ostrazavans advisors were forced to fall-back, until they were clearly on the defensive by the middle of summer 1915. It's then that Orbraggar finally agreed to fully deploy three of his divisions to the Mrengrave. The large scale assault, which saw the combined used of horse-drawn light artillery and machine-gun supported cavalry, culminated with the open-field Battle of Ryprudy and the destruction of the last coherent army under Farkas. The "White Wolf" himself would die due to his wounds in he days after the battle. Abandoned by its defenders, Kirot would be taken by Orbraggar in October 1915, marking the end of the Farkas Band as a political force.