History of Edergira

Eder Gira: The Imperial Prerogative
For much of its known history, the land known today as Eder Gira existed in a jumble of intrigue and violence. Historians have divided Elder Gira’s pre-Egelion (or pre-Egalion) time into three different periods, based on styles of culture and government.

Era of the City-States (50-1200 CE)

During the Era of the City-States, Eder Gira was dotted by hundreds, if not thousands, of cities. Each of these cities extended sovereign rule over a few miles of land radiating from the city proper. Cities ranged in size and complexity from simple walled villages and a population of a couple hundred too massive urban centers with tens of thousands of residents. Most city-states were lead by monarchies of warrior or priestly caste. Cultures, art forms, religion, technology, and government structures were extremely diverse between.

Competition between city-states for status, land rights, and wealth was fierce and war was common. Cities rarely lasted more than a century. If not wiped out in war through either enslavement or genocide, cities tended to fragment. Their populations migrating to other cities or striking out to form new cities.

At the height of the City-States Era, only as much as 30% of the land was actively claimed by a city. The rest of the land was lawless wild.

Era of the Three Tharches League (1200-1464 CE)

Power in Eder Gira eventually congregated with three city-states rising into dominance. These city-states would extend their influence over the land of Eder Gira and become the first state governments of the land. Each of these adopting a feudal style of rule. These governing bodies would come to be called the Duchy of Zaristan, the Principality of Borvia, and the Tyranny of Kevligrad.

The Dutchy of Zaristan was the western most state. Zaristan controlled the most fertile farmlands two largest fresh water lakes in Eder Gira. The Dutchy was also known for beer brewing and horse breeding. The capital of Zaristan was the city of Boriansburg.

The Principality of Borvia held the central forests and plains of Eder Gira. The primary resources of Borvia was logging and subsequent woodcrafting from the forests and animal herding. The central placement of Borvian cities made them hubs of commerce between local and foreign merchants. The capital of Borvia was the city-state of Ostrella.

The Tyranny of Kevligrad ruled over the coasts of Eder Gira, founded under the might of naval power. The staple wares of Eder Gira were salt from the sea, iron minded from the frozen northern mountains, pressed olive oil, and wine. The Tyranny was famous, however, for its corsairs. The ports of Kevligrad were hotbeds of lawlessness and home to scores of pirate fleets. Both merchants and pirates sailed far and wide from Kevligrad. The capital of Kevligrad was the ancient city-state of Riev.

Together these three states would form the Tharches League. The league was a defensive alliance that ensured Eder Gira unity against any foreign intrusions.

The Winter War (1459-1464)

The time of the Tharches League would culminate in a three-way war during the years of 1458-1464. This would be called the Winter War due to the fact that the war began and ended during winter. At this time, Zaristan was ruled by Duchess Galindira Holblar, Borvia was ruled by Prince Sahsa Brendov, and Kevligrad was ruled by Maquis Yuri Ivanovich.

The reasons for the Winter War were varied but three main reasons are agreed on: 1) there was increased tension in disputes over lake water rights between Zaristan and Borvia, 2) the recent stability and prosperity of the land lead to a population boom that made resources scare, and 3) Yuri Ivanovich’s expansionist dreams.

In the winter of 1459 three way war was officially declared between the three states of Eder Gira. The declaration was facilitated by a riot between Zaristani farmers and Bovorian herders that escalated into the total destruction of two Zaristani farming villages. The incident lead Zaristan and Bovorian to declare war on one another. Rather than remaining neutral, Maruis Ivanovich of Kevligrad saw the conflict as an opportunity to conquer land from his resource rich neighbors.

The war dragged on for several years with many skirmishes but few pitched battles. Little was gained by any side of the war except longer lists of grievances as people died and the occasional town was raided. However, the tone of the war would change in the winter of 1562, when Ivanovich, impatient with the wars progress, executed his Field Marshal and took to the field himself.

Yuri Ivanovich had been nicknamed the Mad Marquis for being eccentric (being very superstitious and collecting odd objects). His nickname would take on new meaning once he entered the war. The Mad Marquis soon found that he had a taste for blood. Where the Mad Marquis and his army went, only ruin would remain. Ivanovich would give no quarter to anyone, ordering his troops to fight until all enemies they met were killed. Even civilians found no mercy as the Marquis ordered whole towns looted then slaughtered.

Ivanovich would recall his assaulting forces on the Zaristan border and begin a massive blitzkrieg on Borvia. Met with the Marquis’ overwhelming brutality, Borovian defenses would be cut to shreds. Luckily for the Bovorian people, instead of ravaging the countryside, Ivanovich would order his main force to march directly for the Bovorian capital of Ostrella. Unluckily, Ivanovich would still slaughter anything that crossed his path and would order two smaller armies to loot several of the larger cities nearer the Bovorian-Kevligard border. These looted cities would also be ravaged and razed to the ground.

Meeting at Ostrella, Prince Sasha Brendov would surrender peacefully to Ivanovich under the condition that Ivanovich would spare his people and cease the atrocities he had been committing. Swearing on his honor, Ivanovich accepted the terms and held to them, thus successfully conquering Borvia. Leaving a substantial peacekeeping force, Ivanovich would then take Brendov back to his capital as a hostage to ensure the capitulation of the Borvian people.

During Ivanovich’s victory celebration, Zaristan would launched a surprise attack on the Kevligard capital of Riev. This would be hailed as a brilliant move. There was no doubt that, as soon as the celebrations were over, Ivanovich would have leveraged his people’s buoyed moral to immediately begin an invasion of Zaristan. During the celebration preparations, Duchess Galindra Holblar of Zaristan had the chance to sneak in agents as celebrants.

When Ivanovich presented Brendov’s battered body to his people at the height of the celebration, Holblar forces sprang into action. Those agents in the city set diversionary fires and rushed to take the city gates and open them for the attacking Zaristan military. Those agents near the docks unmoored ships and set them aflame to create an impromptu blockade against the Kevligard naval fleet.

Overlooking the melee suddenly erupting in his city, Ivanovich tried to muster a defense against both the city fires and the invading forces which were now fully in his city and advancing toward his palace.. Nevertheless, luck was not on his side and the fierce sea breezes began to whip up the fires into a blazing inferno. Recognizing what was happening, Ivanovich ordered an evacuation of the city. Ivanovich’s last order to his military was to abandon their posts, leave with the civilians, and to block all exits from the city. The Mad Marquis refused to leave his city. Instead he went to the royal storehouses and used the stockpiled oil and wine to feed the flames. He and his city may fall, but, he would take the invaders out with him. The last anyone saw of the Mad Marquis Yuri Ivanovich was of him laughing from his palace balcony was the fires consumed the palace.

In the confusion of the attack Brendov would escape from Ivanovich’s palace only to be captured by the surviving forces of Duchess Galindira Holblar. Holblar would force Brendov to become her consort. With the death of Ivanovich and the submission of Brendov, Galindira Holblar would claim dominion over all three states.

It may be notable that during the next decade the survivors of Riev would found the city of Clearshores further down the coast. The city would be named in memory of fallen Riev, the once shining port-city where now only barren, clear shores stood.

The Empire of Eder Gira,(1545-1606)

In 1545 the great grandson of Galindira Holblar and Sasha Brendov, Nikolai Holblar, would reorganize the three states into the Empire of Eder Gira and claim the title of Tsar. In an ancient dialect, Eder Gira could be translated into two meanings: either “star’s favour” or “noble’s prerogative”.

War of Bloody Tears (1559-1573)

Nikolai Holbar, like Yuri Ivanovich, held expansionist dreams. Under his rule, Eder Gira would establish non-aggression treaties with Ameteria and Ghadrash. With these treaties in place, Nikolai believed it was safe to attack Callie..

In the spring of 1559, Nikolai would order a massive invasion of Callie. Initially, the invasion had great success pushing into Callie territory. The attack would begin to stall once the Eder Gira forces reached the Fortress of Phalsefaux. The Fortress of Phalsefaux was an imposing structure and well-stocked and adequately supported.

Yet, the fortress was not exactly what stopped the Eder Giran forces. During a single summer month in 1562, the Eder Giran army suffered a loss of half of its generals from assassinations. At this same time, a plague would sweep through the Eder Giran Empire lowering morale and creating civil unrest. Assassinations and plagues would be reoccurring problems for the Eder Girans throughout the war.

The fortress would fall in 1569. Callie battle lines would be fortified just fifteen miles beyond the fortress. These fortifications would not be breeched in the war.

By the year 1571 over a million people had died from the fighting and the disease caused by the war. Morale both sides was suffering, but particularly on the Eder Gira side. Tsar Nikolai and his advisors had projected that Callie would have fallen at the latest by 1565. Somehow the Callie had more forces than the Empire could account for. Finally, with the Callie military managing to hang on by the slimmest of threads, the armies of Eder Gira withdrew.

The invasion would be called the War of Bloody Tears due to the high death count. At the end of the war Eder Gira had lost nearly 15% of its population and Callie, having taken the brunt of the war, had lost even more with nearly 40% of its population dying. The war had taken its toll in other ways as well. Much of Callie’s wealth and farmlands was destroyed and Eder Gira was facing civil unrest.

Tsar Nikolai would die of sickness a year later.

Tsar Mosburn would ascend to the throne. The next seven years would be spent rebuilding.

War of Vengeance (1580-1582)

After losing the War of Bloody Tears, Tsar Nikolai had been obsessed with discovering why he had lost the war. The Callie frontier had been weak militarily, strong only in wealth. They should have been an easy target. After Nikolai’s death, Tsar Mosburn would take up the same research. He to wanted to know how Callie could have survived the war.

In 1580, Eder Giran spies found the answer. It had been Ghadrash mercenaries that had saved Callie in the war. Nearly a third of the Ghadrashian military and numerous private mercenary corps had been hired to fight for the Callie.

Such military aid was viewed as a direct violation of the neutrality treaty signed between Eder Gira and Ghadrash. When knowledge of the mercenaries became known to the public there was a huge outpouring of rage. All the suffering the Eder Girans had been put through in the extend war was blamed on the interference their back-stabbing allies the Ghadrashi. Public rage was so great that Tsar Mosburn was forced to declare war on Ghadrash, least he face a rebellion in his own lands.

Thus started the War of Vengence. Since the Eder Giran army had not fully recovered from the Callie war, the Ghadrashi war was fought mostly with the Eder Giran navy. Less than a handful of battle actually took place between the land borders of Eder Gira and Ghadrash.

While Ghadrash maintained a sizable naval force, the navy of Eder Gira with their piratical history held a slight edge. Eder Gira’s navy would win most battles, yet, they could not muster the forces necessary to land an invasion. The war would quickly end in a stalemate less than two years after it had begun.

There would be comparatively few losses to either side of the War of Vengence.

Rebellion (1584-1590)

Losing two wars in the span of two decades put a serious dent in the prestige of the Tsar. Losses from those wars had created large scale public unrest. Talk of a rebellion began to circulate around the empire.

The talk finally turned to action in the blazing hot summer of 1584. What started as discomfort from the heat and rising food prices burst into riots then open rebellion against the Tsar. This first rebellion would be quickly squelched in a month. Tsar Mosburn’s military would execute all members of the rebellion.

Nonetheless, the vision of rebellion had been opened to the people. Several subversive groups began to form and prepare for a larger, better organized and equipped rebellion. The preparations came to a head in 1588 when Tsar Mosburn would be assassinated while surveying the countryside.

In the midst of rebellion, Tsarina Daniella took the throne. Harshly, she would bring the country back under control. To re-establish order, the Tsarina would order mass executions and whole towns to be razed to the ground. It was alsmost as if the Mad Marquis had been reincarnated. For the rest of her life, Daniella would rule Eder Gira with an iron fist, forcing the land to rebuild and prosper but never making the people like the throne any more. Tsarina Daniella would die of a stroke in 1604.

The Empty Throne (1606)

After Tsarina Daniella, Tsar Zangaff would become ruler of Eder Gira. Zangaff took the throne at a very dangerous time. With Tsarina Daniella dead, the fear that kept order in the empire began to crumble and whispers of rebellion again circulated the empire. To the west, Callie had recuperated from the War of Bloody Tears and was beginning to gather troops along the Eder Gira border, possibly to begin their own “War of Vengence”. To the south, Ghadrash was also beginning to amass troops. To make matters worse for Zangaff, his court also heard reports that Callie and Ghadrash were considering the formation of an alliance, an alliance that would assuredly be used to jointly attack Eder Gira. To the southwest, the new nation of Egalion had formed from the kingdoms of Amateria and Dul Kinea loomed imposingly.

Tsar Zangaff of Eder Gira looked out from his palace at three possibly hostile countries and an internal civil order that was falling apart. His military could barely hold his own empire together let alone face an invasion. After barely a year of rule, Tsar Zangaff of the Empire of Eder Gira would capitulate the throne in favor of King Ferdinand of Egalion and retreat into obscurity.

The Empire of Eder Gira was now part of the Egalion nation.