Amberleaf History

Age of Colonization, 1760-1810

Colony

The first people who would later be called "Amberlevians" came from far away, with the mission of acquiring fresh land for its mother-colony. Yet after settling on the new soil, the daughter-colony felt more like being its own sovereignty, conveniently forgetting to establishing communications with their original home. Over the years, the memories of the nation's past faded more and more. There was now only this colony, as there had only ever been, as there will only ever be.

Amber Leaves

The first settlers arrived at honey-colored forests covering the landscape. They contain a type of tree with an amber-like sap, which gave them the name Amberwoods, and the settlers started referring to themselves as the Colony of Amber Leaves. Later they name shortened to just Amberleaf.

Fargarden

The land upon which the Amberlevians settled was a grand island they called Fargarden, for it was first thought to be the faraway grand garden of Amberleaf's mother-colony.

Natives

Fargarden was filled with other insectoid native societies at rivalries with each other, which did not at all appreciate another new competitor. In this first period Amberleaf was most vulnerable, still small and barely setup against a large island filled with established societies. But as soon as Amberleaf got some stable foothold it got significantly more threatening.

Overseer

The Amberlevian government was lead by the Overseer, who managed and staffed the Board. The Board was the governing institute who steered the whole colony.

Age of Conquest, 1810-1850

Militarization

Amberleaf soon went on its path of conquest, with the ideal of conquering all of Fargarden. The natives soon realized the threat Amberleaf would pose, if it would not be brought down soon. In this period, Amberleafs entire way of life was oriented towards militarization and conquest.

Silvercinder

One specific strategic location became the hub of the Amberlevian conquest. With silver steel and blazing fire Amberleaf vanquished its adversaries bit by bit. The region thus became know as Silvercinder. From the hub of violence, it became the monument of Amberlevian terror and imperialism, and its capital.

Amberlevian Terror

The conquest was a bloody endeavor, Amberleaf was dreaded and only known as the growing infestation of violence. The local societies, who had long been squabbling with each other, were being united by fear. A unofficial anti-Amberlevian coalition was slowly permeating the whole island, giving Amberleaf a very hard time. But with every successful battle the tide was slowly shifting into clear Amberlevian favor. Until eventually, of the many diverse native societies most had been completely obliterated. The rest fled into the Deepwoods, the mountains, or other remote areas and last strongholds. Amberleaf had conquered the majority of Fargarden and would start to slowly pick up the rest.

Military Leadership

The Age of Conquest shaped the Amberlevian government into being dominated by militarism. The Board was increasingly being becoming more authoritarian. The head of the military, the Warlordess, was the most significant player when it came to deciding the direction the young nation would go in.

Revolt

With the Age of Conquest coming to a close, and the populus starting to despise the authoritarian military government, a wave of unrest broke out. First being suppressed, the movement rapidly gained momentum and turned into full-blown bloody revolt and overthrew of the regime.

Age of Stagnation, 1850-1890

Regime Change

After the change of the regime, a national Parliament was erected. It was to be elected by the populus through majority vote. The Overseer was butchered and the previous governing body known as the Board was disbanded and replaced with the Ministry. Different than the Board, which was appointed by some executive power, anyone should be able to take the job as Minister and join the Ministry.

Grand Rose

The Parliament was first filled with a variety of parties with opinions. But it all was quickly dominated by the party Grand Rose, which stood for unity, cooperation, and centrism. As Amberlevian culture was very much focused on fitting in and cooperation, voting the centrist party of Grand Rose was a good way of showing how good one fit this ideal. Most just wanted a simple innoffensive party. Parties were set to require a minimum fraction of votes to even get seats in the Parliament, banning all fringe parties. All parties striving too much from the norm were also banned. Grand Rose gained a large majority, making them able to dominate the Parliament single-handedly.

Discontent

The system lead to political stagnation. The ruling party of Grand Rose avoided any radical action, being a centrist party. They did not set any clear direction or get anything done. And without any rival and threat to their influence, they lacked the push to actually change anything. The Ministry and Grand Rose cooperated, thus ensured they both could do their own thing. On the other hand the political fighting and discontent in the populus augmented. The frustration of unresolved problems and no clear direction lead to a period of continuous clashes all over the nation. Politics was not fought over in the Parliament, but in the streets.

Parliamentary Reform

After years of national unrest, with violence and arson, the parliamentary system was finally being reformed. The Parliament was to become the full focus of national politics, while the populus should stay mostly apolitical in their daily lives to avoid conflicts in the system. Voting became anonymous, to ease social pressure and ostracization. All parties and ideas were to be allowed in Parliament. There was no longer a minimum share of votes to get to be allocated your proportional amount of seats. Even single-seat parties could participate. A party was no longer allowed to occupy more than half the seats alone. The idea of the Parliament shifted from a place where all should get along in cooperation to a battleground. The Parliamentary discussions became so wild, that it turned into a daily spectacle, attracting large audiences.

Age of Unity, 1890-1920

Honey Circlet

At this point Amberleaf was a mess of many scattered communities, acting more akin to a messy confederation than an actual nation. There was a severe lack of a sense of unity. Especially near and in the capital region of Silvercinder, often named the Core, there was high sentiment of bringing the nation together under a more centralized rule. This sentiment gave rise to the Honey Circlet party, standing for nationalism and centralism. Their goal was to unify all of Amberleaf under one system and one identity.

Forceful Unification

Over the next years the Amberlevian Core began slowly exerting its influence over the rest of Amberlevian Rim communities. It started establishing a unified governing structure, absorbing regions into its mass. Silvercinder reacted strongly and uncompromising to any resistance to this process from Rim regions. With pressure through cutting off supplies and violence the Core forced the Rim into submission.

National Identity

To stabilize the new unified form of the nation and mitigate internal friction, Honey Circlet allied with the conservative party Pearl to instill a national Amberlevian identity for people to associate with. Together they established national culture, pride, and unity; shaping the idea of what it meant to be Amberlevian. Having so much unrivaled influence over the nation, the two parties became known as the Establishment. They setup the position of Vilight, the head of state and face of Amberleaf. The role was given to a Drone, for having charisma, style, and character.

Tyranny of Majority

The strict conservative culture meant to hold Amberleaf together put immense pressure on anyone not able to fit. The culture where everyone should fit in disadvantaged minorities. Workers being the largest Caste by far created a Worker-dominated systemic structure where Queens and especially Drones were alienated and reduced to breeding. The tyranny of majority style of nation resulted in absurdities like the left-handed being considered intentionally uncooperative.

Strong Ministry

The Amber Ministry was at its most powerful it had ever been. The centralization had given it major leverage to shape the nation. The Establishment willingly empowered the Ministry with the ideal to transform the nation into an efficient and unified power. Originally being meant to be open to anyone, the Ministry had taken on some elitist tones, setting up required education and training for Minister positions. It had developed many bureaucratic ways to block the undesired from gaining powerful positions. The Ministry saw itself as the brain of the nation, staffed with intellectuals of a technocratic mindset.

Age of Fracture, 1920-1950

Separatism

The rule of the Establishment followed a series of separatist movements. A common fear was that any separation from Amberleaf would mean the new nation would inevitably become a rival and adversarial colony fighting Amberleaf for the limited resources. So any separation attempt was violently beaten into compliance. The Ministry, being the executive of Amberleaf, was responsible for leading these anti-separative Initiative and thus was a often a target of terrorist attacks by separatist groups. This national conflict was one of Establishment against Rim.

Hak Crises

The city of Hak had become a military hub, to house and train Soldiers and produce and store arms. This all created a dire problem for the Ministry when Hak started its own separatist movement wishing to establish a more military-led government. An armed conflict against such a military hub would be catastrophic and destructive for the nation and proved a real headache for the Ministry. The resulting conflict was a long war of attrition, starving out Hak and slowly chipping away at it with only small military operations.

Mosaic

Having an uncompromisingly democratic national parliament gave the Rim an opportunity to take influence that could not easily be suppressed. Mosaic was a political party that formed as a result, standing solely for anti-Establishment. Originally just intending to disrupt the political process as a pure protest party, Mosaic eventually started to actually start taking political initiative.

Federalization

With the strain of national infighting severely damaging the nation, a set of compromises were made in hopes to calm the situation. Instead of a singular entity, the nation of Amberleaf was reformed into a federation. A set of 12 Cantons were established, each having sovereignty to some degree, but all still within the system of Amberleaf. The setup left most factions dissatisfied, but calmed the violence somewhat. There was still major political infighting with the occasional separatist movement and violent response from the Ministry, but all to a lesser degree.

Weak Ministry

Storming Ministry buildings in protest by an angry mob had become a normalized event. Amberleaf in general had taken on a more rebellious spirit against authority. The Ministry had lost a lot of its power during this time, reduced to a shadow of its former self, easily worried by a disgruntled faction of citizens. It adopted the strategy of appeasement and distraction of the populus.

Age of Progress, 1950-1980

Open World

With the internal situation stabilizing, Amberleaf for the first looked at the world outside its grand island of Fargarden. Having been rather self-absorbed, interest rose in taking on more a role in international affairs. The internationalist party Clover spearheaded the movement, with its main adversary isolationist party Pearl. Amberleaf's first attempts at international interaction proved very clumsy, but over time it slowly bound itself connections. It had a major influence on the Amberlevian economy and mindset.

Science, Technology, and Manufacturing

Trade and international cooperation boosted the Amberlevian economy and brought prosperity to the nation. Through these interactions, Amberleaf was able to boost technological advancement, shaping Amberleaf into a manufacturing powerhouse. Science, technology, education, and intellectualism began establishing itself in Amberlevian culture. The forming of the technocratic party Clockwork reflected that.

Social Progress

Having more frequent contact with other nations reforged Amberlevian thinking in the more prosperous regions near the capital. A movement of social progressivism began trickling in, growing every year. The conformist culture under which especially Drones, the disabled, and other minorities had suffered was being challenged. With the ever-increasing presence of progressive parties, support coming mainly from the capital region, the centralist party Honey Circlet had to take a more socially progressive tone, tearing its long-lasting relationship with conservative party Pearl, who was the main adversary of the new movement.

Straylight Bloom

With increased interest in international affairs, Amberleaf helped found Straylight Bloom, and alliance for defense and economic cooperation. Allied with an array of powerful militaries, Amberleaf felt unstoppable.

Age of Regress, 1980-2000

Greenwealth Crises

Canton Mediside had still been partially holding on to desires of separatism. Illegally they had established a separate political institute, the Greenwealth Manor, together with Blackshell, and Conservative parts of Deepest and Farbloom. When the Ministry tried to shut down the Greenwealth Manor, occupying the building, Mass protests were triggered throughout the Amberlevian south, causing a spree of violence and political turmoil. In the end, Mediside was allowed to absorb the Conservative parts of Deepest and Farbloom and form a new Canton Greenside. In exchange they would let a region in Mediside become its own Canton, Wayside.

Imperialist Resurgence

The confidence in Amberlevian military supremacy gave rise to a new wave of Imperialist sentiment. The Military colluded with the Ministry in an attempt to start a war which would hopefully force Amberlevian unity against an external threat.

Pacifist Party Lavender

When the agenda of the Military and Ministry came to light, trying to start a war without conversing with the Amberlevian Public, people were furious. The scandal gave rise to a wave of anti-military sentiment, and with it, pacifism, and the formation of the Pacifist party of Lavender.

Cutting Ties

The recent moodiness of Amberleaf had caused a strain on its international relations, and with some scandaloius revelations about its supposed allies, the Amberleaf began to loose the taste for international cooperation. It cut ties with many nations, and dissolved the Straylight Bloom alliance.

Age of ???, 2000+

Migration

More history is happening right now, continuing this story.