Sevromark
Kingdom of the Sevromark Sevrostag | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 238 years | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
| Religion | Orthodox Iconoclasm | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Sevr Korran | |||||||||
• 1022 - 1042 | Karro I | ||||||||
• 1247 - 1256 | Kzvar III | ||||||||
• 1256 - 1260 (last) | Abran | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Coronation of Karro I | 1022 | ||||||||
• Abdication of Abran | 1260 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Sevromark, also known as the Kingdom the Sevr, or the Sevrostag, was one of the two major kingdoms fighting during the Long Ikonkivoyra. The state was established by the Margrave Karro through military might and the support of the Iconoclast faction within the Kingdom of the Drev elite. Its kingship was never recognized by the Duchy of Yugstran, which itself was seen from Sevromark as a rebel territory.
The kingdom was famed for its well-organized military and for its very original and specific culture, with artists and artisans inspired by Iconoclasts or even Idoloclasts ideas. Sevromark expanded greatly under its successive monarchs, until it was defeated by the combined forces of Yugstran and [another christian kingdom]]. Iconoclasts theologians and scholars fled Sevromark for the Lushyodorstag where their writings were preserved from the destruction ordered by the Orthodox monarchs against the Heretics. The kingdom ended when the nine years old Abran was forced to renounce his title and convert to Orthodoxy. He died four years later without heir as a captive of the Yugstranese court.
History
Founding
The Sevromark was originaly the name given to the plateau that mark the northern boundary of the Drev Valley. It was a rather savage region, with low density of populations, except around the banks of the Sevr River, the main waterway that linked the plateaux directly to the core regions of the Kingdom of the Drev. It's there that the Elod clan, of Lushyod origin, settled after Worsak I established the Drevstag. At first, the Elod clan took the title of "Counts of the Sevr", ruling over the "Sevrogrev" before they were granted greater liberties by their monarchs, such as the ability to raise troops and maintain soldiers without requiring the direct consent of the king, so they could better respond against northern threats to the kingdom. They then became known as "Marquis of the Sevr" and their lands as the "Sevromark".
Toward the end of the Drevstag, the political fragmentation provoked by the weakening of the monarchy and the Ikonkivoyra left the Sevromark as the de-facto sole authority over most of the northern regions, but it was still a minor influence over the court. After Duke Havar of Vizstran takeover of the capital, many Iconoclasts found refuge in the Sevromark, as the Marquis Karro had sympathy toward their cause and agreed to protect them. After he refused an order from Havar, now the Mervoret and chief of the central court, to purge the Iconoclasts from his lands, Karro became their de-facto figurehead and leader. Despite being urged by parts of the court to punish the "unruly marquis", Havar was in no position to do so. He died in 1020, with Marquis Karro still a distant threat to the Iconodulists government. It's only when Havar's son, who had inherited his position as Mervoret, was murdered in 1022 that Karro finally made his move and marched on the capital, forcing the King Worsak V to grant him the position of Mervoret.
Worsak V died without an heir in 1024. But rather than take over the mantle of Drevkorran, Karro ended up preferring to "upgrade" his own title from "Marquis of the Sevr" to "King of the Sevr" (Lush: Sevrokorran). Despite its official name being "Sevrostag", the Karro's realm would continue to be referred by all chroniclers, especially the Iconodulists ones, as the Sevromark.
Government
Karro's rule was a period of great reforms which would lay the foundations and the principles of the Sevromark state for the next two centuries. He greatly expanded the "royal domain" which had been divided among many branches of the previous ruling dynasty, by reconquering through various means all the lands that had been lost by the crown and merging them with his own northern possessions. This gave him a source of wealth no ruler of the Drev had before him. He upgraded the titles of all of his direct vassals, his Pad, to "Princes", but granted no additional land to any of his partisans. Instead, he reinforced the central government through a system of legation: royal inspectors sent to perform various missions for the king, generally evaluating the gestion of a province or ensuring the correct application of an edict. He also divided the royal domain into Barony (county division), un-inheritable fief where the Barons would administer only public affairs, while Military Legates would be sent when there was a need to organize levies of troops. This system ensured the central government remained the sole auhtority over the royal domain, even if it allowed the Princes to be quasi-autonomous. Constant warfare against the Iconodulists and then the Duchy of Yugstran also allowed permanent taxes to enter the customs of the people of the Sevrodomark, giving the King the ability to actually sustain this level of bureaucracy. Legates, Barons, and Princes would remain in place until the end of the kingdom and its replacement by the Duchy of Drevstran.