History of Luepola

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.