New Kingdom of Lourenne



Experiencing stability and economic growth for the first time in generations, the population allowed this corrupt charade to play out. Resistance groups launched occasional campaigns of industrial sabotage, but their membership was too sparse and ideological differences too great to foment an effective rebel movement. Yet, in time, oligarchy and complacency give way to tyranny, and in 2408, Charles Merovici, a cunning industrialist from a well-connected family, took the presidency through a campaign of murder and extortion. Merovici publicly carried himself with a pride and dignity befitting his distinguished lineage, a family history that could be traced back to both Zapotec priests and Rildanorian nobility, but in private, he was a tortured megalomaniac. His commanding presence drew people to him, but he was consumed by paranoia and delusion. Consequently, he wielded power like a hammer. People were either enemies to be crushed or raw material to be violently shaped according to his whims. In his first few years in power, Merovici executed hundreds of perceived political opponents, forced buy-outs of his rivals' companies to benefit himself, and vastly expanded the army into an oppressive police force. In the early months of 2410, he reached the pinnacle of this campaign of terror by making the dubious assertion that he descended from the old royal line of Rildanor. Shortly after, he declared himself King of Lourenne.

Merovici's reign as king was a time of totalitarian oppression and economic crisis. Merovici discarded the Third Republic's already undemocratic constitution, stripping away the few civil rights it provided. Merovici, keenly aware of the natural balance of power in Lourenne, lavishly funded his military at the expense of the nation's infrastructure. This policy that permitted him to live in luxury, but for Lourenne, his erratic and self-centered actions led to economic decline and, eventually, international embargoes. In 2417, Merovici waged a war of aggression against Sekowo, an expansive campaign that humiliated Lourenne and sent the nation spiraling into bankruptcy. Merovici, however, simply exploited these crises as further excuses to centralize power in his hand. By 2420, hatred of 'King Charles' was nearly universal, but anyone who voiced opposition quickly met their death at the hands of his brutal henchmen, the Royal Secret Police.

In 2432, after it was revealed that Merovici was funding fascist rebels in Sekowo, an alliance of larger nations began a bombing campaigning with the hopes of driving him from power. The campaign devastated Lourenne, but it did little to shake Merovici's grip on power. The tempestuous monarch simply responded with grandiose threats against the international community, a posture that was met with increasingly grave warnings of invasion. Finally, in 2437, as an international fleet of warships gathered in the Bahia del Lodo, Merovici's personal guard turned against him. The chief of his secret police personally shot him in the stomach and chest in the secure confines of his own luxurious palace. Merovici bled to death on the commode, as his own bodyguards made plans to replace him.

Allied with several industrialists, the Royal Secret Police hoped to reinstate the Third Republic, but as news of Merovici's death spread, the people poured into the streets demanding the restoration of democracy. The uprising was massive and miraculously unified. Driven by shared memories of Merovici's atrocities, Orinco militants marched alongside Cajun fishermen and Zapotec academics. After centuries of division, the once fragmented citizens of Lourenne had risen from their darkest hour as a unified people. Still, the fragments of the monarchic government did not intend to give up the reins of power easily. They deployed the military to break up the demonstrations, but to their shock, the people marched fearlessly into the lines of the Republican Army. The soldiers, terrified by the sheer numbers of the protesters, suddenly put down their arms and began to walk alongside the people. Soon after, the remnants of Merovici's regime fled the country, and a provisional government was established with the Republican Army's support.