Enyaman Civil War

Enyaman Civil War
Military Situation in February 2020
Date 19 September 2019 - present Location Enyama (with spillovers in neighboring countries) Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Federal States of Enyama (Aug. 2019 - Oct. 2019)		Elatia (See below)
Enyaman National State Military support: Duklav's Legion Logistical support: Ghant	Three Colors Army Military support: Belfras Logistical support: Yisrael Latium	Democratic Coalition of Enyama Military support: Elatia Jhengtsang Logistical support: Tsurushima Mutul Walzenia	Independence League Other warlords: Banno Shogunate The Yakumorio Kata Band

The Enyaman Civil War (Enyaman Tsurushemese: 에냐마 나이센, Enyama naisen, Enyaman Latin: Bellum Civile Aniamus), also called the Great Northern Chaos or the Interstate War is an ongoing multi-sided civil war in the Norumbrian nation of Enyama fought between the totalist Enyaman National State led by former Enyaman President Muratagi Eijiro, and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the former Enyaman government and each other in varying combinations, including the democratic-socialist Enyaman Democratic Coalition, the stratocratic Three Colors army which consists of the former Enyaman Armed Forces sans the Internal Troops, and the Independence League which aims for Enyaman balkanization. The conflict was spurred by an invasion from Elatia and the ensuing chaos; the Elatian military is still involved in the conflict, as are military forces from Belfras, Jhengtsang, and others. Nations indirectly involved in the conflict include Ghant, Yisrael, Latium, Mutul, Tsurushima, Elatia, and Lion's Rock.

Background

Enyama is a diverse nation situated in northern Norumbria, slowly molded over history from interaction between several waves of settlers and their mingling with the natives. Enyama's majority ethnicity is that of the Enyaman Tsurushemese, largely directly descended from the Tsurushiman settlers which arrived on the nation's southwestern shore in the 13th century, mixed with the remnants of the Olkota culture which the wave of settlers eradicated. In addition to its Tsurushiman majority, Enyama has a substantial minority of Latins, Ottonians, and Elatians that predate Tsurushiman concentration, centered around the northeastern tip of the nation. Having run Norumbria's only merchant republic in the past, the Skaldano-Latin bloc has either been historically ignored or oppressed by the nations' Tsurushimese majority.

Enyama's historically libertarian and anti-authoritarian culture, which had been reactionary to Tsurushemese colonial governance, was tested in 1989 by a failed Syndicalist coup, and again through the following two decades as organized crime, headed by the Yakuza-esque Gokudo crime organizations, more or less assumed control of the nations' local governance and instituted systemic political and civic corruption.

Muratagi Eijiro and New Frontier government

In 2005, populist frontrunner Muratagi Eijiro won the presidential election on a strong anti-crime and economic revitalization platform. His newly-formed big tent right-wing populist party, the New Frontier Party, also gained a substantial majority in the Asenbura, giving Muratagi little political resistance in the way of enacting his reforms. At the time of his initial election, Muratagi focused largely on crime and avoided describing ethnic or broader economic problems. In December of 2005, while Muratagi was still President-Elect, the Shinobi-Kai of the Enyaman Ground Forces killed Enyama's most powerful crime lord, Hoki Hisato, brutally burning down his mansion and strafing it with an attack helicopter. The Hoki incident set the stage for Muratagi's hard stance on his opposition.

By 2007, the New Frontier administration had begun a substantial rearmament of the neglected Enyaman military, beginning slowly to fortify the border and posture against Enyama's southern neighbor, Elatia. Though the two nations had previously enjoyed strained-to-lukewarm relations, the New Frontier's populist initiatives began to establish a system of intense racial and cultural propaganda which favored the Tsurushemese majority over any of the nations' minorities. Subsequently, Muratagi created the Internal Troops of Enyama, which served as a paramilitary wing that many were encouraged to join. The Metsuke, a secret police, was also formed, and began in 2008 to coerce academia into rewriting Enyaman prehistory to better favor Tsurushemese accomplishments. International democrats were worried about Enyama's descent into populism; in 2011, amid sweeping military budget increases and reorganization, the Forum of Nations reclassified Enyama as an illiberal democracy. Muratagi spurred economic growth in previously undeveloped regions by initiating the construction of two nuclear power plants, fostering a domestic arms industry, and improving Enyama's spotty infrastructure, thus gaining him more popular support among his base.

For the Latin, Ottonian, and especially Elatian minorities, however, Muratagi's regime typically brought a slew of human rights abuses. Gokudo enforcers, as well as Metsuke and Internal Troops, began to more strictly police Hakutochi state, where non-Tsurushemese groups are the majority, and in 2016, amid another election victory, Enyama opened its first concentration camp for political dissidents and religiously devout Paleocists, which typially included Ottonian and Elatians. In 2018, amid increasing resistance from the Elatian minority thought to be supported by Elatian intelligence, Muratagi declared martial law within Hakutochi state, thus completing the area's militarization.

Rising tensions with Elatia

Beginning in 2011, the New Frontier regime began denouncing the socialist ideology of Elatia, as well as cracking down on the ethnic Skaldanic minority in Enyama. This ilicited a strongly negative response from the Elatian government, leading to a wave of increasing militarization in both nations. Airspace interceptions were regular, and both nations' military doctrine began to change around the expectation of a potential future conflict. In 2014, the Asenbura passed a full Enyaman embargo of all Elatian goods, and fully closed the border later that year, in some cases separating Elatian families split between the two nations.

In response to New Frontier rhetoric implicating "inevitability of war in Norumbria", Elatia began intense intelligence and surveillance operations of the Enyaman military, which prompted Enyama to develop its intelligence agencies, chiefly the Metsuke secret police and domestic intelligence agency, and the military intelligence branch of the Enyaman Armed Forces. Futher capitalizing on the increased tension was the heavy expansion and militarization of the Enyaman Internal Troops, which soon became the continents' largest paramilitary organization in both numbers and funding.

In addtion to the Elatian minority, the larger Enyaman opposition denounced Muratagi's negative relationship with Elatia, which often jeapordized their political futures; regardless, the Asenbura gained a coalition oppostion in the 2018 elections, split approximately 60%/40% between pre-war progressives and Jhengist socialists; per the old constiution, President Muratagi was forced to take some ministers from his opposition, a fact he soon rectified with additional amendments.

Capture of Minister Sakata Emio

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sakata Emio, was long considered to be one of the few voices of reason among the New-Frontier / Coalition paradigm, with her influence preventing the most egregious attempts at democratic regression from the New Frontier while not entirely condemning herself in her eyes. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Compromise" within the Asenbura due to her ability to negotiate between wildly different ideologies. In late 2018, President Muratagi, wishing to expand Enyama's diplomatic ties with the outside world in case of war with Elatia, sent various ministers to diplomatic events worldwide, including the Grand Republic Festival in Pulau Keramat. Minister Sakata was set to travel to Uluujol in order to meet with ther leadership to discuss a friendship agreement.

However, the aircraft provided for the trip, a supposed stealth cargo plane, was simultaneously ordered by Muratagi to attempt to straddle the airspace of hostile socialist state Jhengtsang, in an effort to both provoke the Union without placing the crew in any danger. Due to massive flaws in the design, however, the aircraft was intercepted, and Minister Sakata was detained along with 10 members of the Internal Troops who were guarding her. Despite a growing diplomatic crisis, Muratagi refused to trade Minister Sakata for decades-old stocks of pre-Socialist Jheng gold held at the Bank of Iwawara, thus dooming Sakata to indefinite imprisonment.

In the legislative process, Sakata's absence left a void in strong voices for the opposition coalition, which was filled by the Committee Leader of the Socialist Party, No Au, who was far more harsh in her language towards Muratagi than Emio had been, and polarized the legislature more instead of maintaining the same type of delicate balance that had existed under Sakata's leadership.

Elatian covert actions in Hakutochi State

Though Elatian intelligence services had been sparring with their Enyaman counterparts for the greater part of Muratagi's presidency, the winter of 2018-19 saw new developments in anti-government resistance both domestic and foreign, especially in the Latin and Ottonian-dominant Hakutochi State, and the ethnically diverse city of Akutera (Latin: Avantia). Starting in January 2019, operatives from the Elatian intelligence services began arming ethnically Otto-Elatian dissidents within Hakutochi state, while also bringing their own gear and operatives into the operating area. The Beardless, which consituted more of a loose insurgency than a dedicated resistance group, began targeting prominent Gokudo members in Akutera which were supporting the Enyaman government; over sixteen enforcers and two mob bosses died within a month of the operation beginning; the Internal Troops with which the crime bosses were tied proceeded by instituting a heavy crackdown, but were unable to pinpoint the precise leadership of the Beardless, and the SNI remained elusive into the year.

Akutera Incident and Elatian invasion

On the 7th of September, 2019, tensions in Hakutochi state reached a breaking point; in the Akutera Incident, Enyaman Minister of Defense Watanabe Keisho, along with several other members of his staff and the Mayor of Akutera, were taken hostage by Beardless insurgents. During the developing hostage situation in the Monye-Otomo building at the heart of Akutera, SNI forces bombarded the area with mortars, causing chaos among the Internal Troops which had arrived to diffuse the situation, and allowing the Beardless to escape with the Minister through the city's catacombs; the Minister was rediscovered by Enyaman forces heading down the coastal road towards the Elatian border in an apparent effort to hand over the minister to the Elatians.

President Muratagi was reportedly furious at the news, quickly mobilizing the military in the region and sending them to the border to attempt to diffuse the standoff while keeping the minister alive. With MoFA Sakata already being held captive in Jhengstang, the additional kidnapping of Watanabe Keisho, one of the strongest supporters of Muratagi as well as the New Frontier's ostensible link into the Enyaman military culture, was seen as a major blow to the New Frontier government's political legitimacy and the government's stability as a whole.

At the border crossing, as the armored truck holding Keisho was beginning to ford the Vyrgok river into Elatian territory, a general order came to the Enyaman military forces to engage and destroy the insurgents, and prevent Minister Watanabe's capture by killing him along with his captors; the Enyaman Armed Forces headed by Field Marshal Ashikaga Shinzo refused the order on moral grounds, refusing to open fire on their own minister and potentially start a conflict with the Elatian military, which had begun to coalesce across the Enyaman border. While the Armed Forces refused, the Internal Troops, loyal to Muratagi, followed the order and opened fire on the convoy, with orders coming moments later to consider any Enyaman soldier not following orders a "mutineer". While the second order was likely intended as a deterrent, the result was that the Enyaman Ground Forces and Internal Troops began to engage each other, fracturing the Enyaman establishment. Confused Elatian troops saw the action as an act of war, and began to press into Enyama despite the complicated situation.

President Muratagi, fearing his options were limited, ordered the Internal Troops to march on the Asenbura in Karasuna, at which point they overpowered the Asenbura guard and began opening fire on opposition ministers in what has been called Muratagi's Purge. The action started riots in Karasuna that were subsequently violently put down by the Internal Troops, which began to impose martial law on areas outside of Hakutochi state, often clashing with Ashikaga's troops, which now considered Muratagi's New Frontier government hostile. Despite the developing civil conflict, Elatian troops continued their invasion of Enyama, clashing fiercely with both Internal Troops and Armed Forces troops, eventually winning crucial battles at the Armed Forces stronghold city of Fujikawa, sinking the Enyaman navy while it was leaving port and beginning a sustained bombardment of strategic sites with aircraft and ballistic missiles.

Factions

Though the conflict began as a three-way confrontation between the Enyaman Internal Troops, the Enyaman Armed Forces, and the invading Elatian military, the situation has become increasingly complex as Enyama continues to lose internal stability and new factions and foreign powers continue to join the fold. As of March 2020, these are the main Enyaman factions involved in the conflict in any major capacity:

Enyaman National State and other loyalists

In December 2019, Muratagi declared the dissolution of the Federal States of Enyama, and announced a new constiution creating the Enyaman National State, which vested totalitarian power in the New Frontier party and Muratagi more specifically. Many loyal Internal Troopers continue to fight for the National State, alongside loyalist militias which have mainly been mustered out of Gokudo members and rural farmers loyal to Muratagi's pro-Enyaman rhetoric. The National State also employs mercenaries of various nationalities, fueled largely by a large stock of gold originally belonging to Jhengtsang, held in Enyama after the former's fall to socialism in the early 20th century.

The national state currently enjoys control of the former capital of Karasuna and large swathes of central Enyama, as well as military and financial support from Ghant, with which the New Frontier government has long enjoyed positive relations. While some loyalist militias exist outside of the National State's sphere of influence, the faction is largely fighting a defensive war, using guerilla tactics to attempt to combat more mechanized and advanced militaries.

Three Colors Army

Not operating under any former governmental structure, Field Marshal Ashikaga Shinzo's share of the armed forces, now called the Three Colors army after their mon, consitute the largest and most organized faction militarily, though they have middling public support. The Three Colors army has garnered support from many Belisarian nations, as well as Elatia's southern rival and former Enyaman ally Belfras, which has sent substantial detachments of troops, advisors, and equipment to support the Three Colors.

Politically, the Three Colors operates as a stratocracy, though public statements from the faction have denied to elaborate on precise future governmental plans for Enyama. Field Marshal Ashikaga rules his military alongside his Chiefs of Staff, which is mainly composed of top generals and representatives of the other branches of the former Enyaman military. They control much of Enyama, though they have lost their coastal stronghold to sustained Elatian invasion. As the only major faction with a functioning airforce, they hold total control over Takayama and the surrounding areas, thus also controlling Enyama's profitable uranium mines, some of the largest in the world and the largest in Norumbria. In the north, with Belfrasian help, they are attempting re-establish control of Akutera, while also fighting Elatian forces and the Democratic Coalition near Iwawara, in one of the bloodiest battles of the conflict so far.

Democratic Coalition and other leftists

Following the purge of the Asenbura, the Enyaman political opposition was left in disarray, and with many of their members disappeared, murdered, or kidnapped. Lacking the leadership of moderate Sakata Emio, the opposition instead coalesced around far-left leader No Au, who was rescued from Muratagi's imprisonment with Elatian support in January 2020 and now leads the fragmented but powerful Democratic Coalition, a militarized government aiming for a leftist solution to Enyama. Split between authoritarian socialist and progressive republicans, the Democratic Coalition is an uneasy and disorganized alliance united largely by the common goal of eliminating existing right-wing factions. Many socialist nations and socialist-adjacent nations have flocked to the coalition's support, including invader Elatia, Jhengtsang, and Tsurushima.

The Democratic Coalition was given direct administrative control of many areas captured by Elatia in its initial invasion, including the southern coast and parts of the eastern front-line. Generally speaking, far-left socialist nations have supplied and supported the bulk of the Coalition stationed at the former Army stronghold of Fujikawa and along the Elatian border, though forces in Iwawara are instead enjoying more moderate support from Enyama's former colonial master of Tsurushima.

The Coalition is currently in a process of transition from disorganized militia into strong fighting force, aided by foreign advisors and equipment.

Other factions

Several other, smaller factions emerged into the paradigm, especially after January 2020. While some of these factions are the product of warlordism, which ran rampant throughout the conflict in 2019 and still continues in smaller forms to this day, many others have used their warlord status as a basis for implementing organization.

Independence League

Created by Latin, Ottonian, and ethnic Elatian democrats after the replacement of the Elatian invasion force with the Democratic Coalition in late January 2020, the Independence League, also known as the Northern Independence League, is a ethnic alliance aiming at ending ethnic Tsurushimese domination of the minority areas of Enyama, with their ostensible claim extending throughout the entirety of Hakutochi province and into some of Muratagi's claimed areas near Yatoro (Latin: Yilenia). The League has a stronghold in Iwayama (Latin: Evania), and has clashed with all of the major factions in its short existence, though it enjoys cordial relations with the moderate wing of the Democratic Coaltion, as well as other warlords in the south that have no interest in claiming ethnically Latin and Elatian areas.

Geopolitically, the Independence League is the only faction explicity calling for religious protections to Enyaman Fabrians, also tentatively extending said assurances to Paleocists living in northern Enyama. Though they have courted international support, especially from Belisarian nations, the Three Colors' staunch resistance to any independence movement has stifled diplomacy, though the Three Colors have not prioritized dissolving the League, instead focusing on the National State and Coalition.

Banno Shogunate

Created by former Three Colors general Banno Yudo in early February 2020, the Banno Shogunate is a self-styled military monarchy created out of loyal elements of the Three Colors and other warlords which joined under the banner. Modeled after the Kakita Shogunate of Tsurushimese history, the Banno Shogunate is considered by many to not be much more than the product of an upjumped warlord. In an attempt to garner international legitimacy, the Banno Shogunate has reached out to the world's monarchist powers, particularly Onekawa-Nukanoa, though with little success, as many of its prospective allies prefer the Three Colors army. The Banno shogunate controls two large areas of south-central Enyama, including a part of the coast around the city of Soukawa and the Yanokai river, as well as a smaller area nestled inbetween Nationalist-controlled Kumazawa and Coalition-controlled Kentori.

The Yakumorio

The Yakumorio is an exceptionally fortified group of corporatist warlords located in Three Colors territory. Centered around the village of Chizawa, the Yakumorio is composed of the former leadership and employees of Enyaman defense contractor Yaku, which is the primary contrbutor to EAI (Enyaman Aerospace Industries).

Largely ignored by the Three Colors, the Yakumorio has yet to take an offensive stance in the conflict, but are reportedly negotiating with the Independence League.

Kata Band

Headed by Kata Saeki, a former Internal Troops commander present at the Akutera Incident, the Kata band is a self-styled group of freedom fighters, operating as roving bandits and mostly focused on protecting civilians in the conflict. Contesting the northwestern city of Shikita, the Kata Band has managed to make inroads into the sparsely defended flank of the National State, creating a technically brutal but ostensibly humanitarian anarchist stronghold in the north, and often crossing the undefended border with Kaayhltaa Tlag, with which it shares some ideological similarities. A large number of Haratago natives fight in the Kata band, though the organization is officially multi-ethnic and decentralized, leading to many different interpretations of its goals among its members. It is considered a terrorist organization by the Three Colors army.

Miscellaneous warlords and bandits

Other warlords and groups of bandits formed after the collapse of Enyaman internal structure, primarily out of the factions of the Gokudo that often clashed with Muratagi's government. Most are loosely organized bands of guerrilas, operating throughout the war-torn nation. Others are Military, Internal Troops, or Police leaders that have assumed a larger degree of independence in the conflict, while remaining ostensibly aligned to one of the factions: Shogun Banno, before his monarchist declaration, was one such Three Colors-aligned warlord.