History of Istalia

Istalia history is one of the most ancient of the world having being the home of some of the most ancient civilizations of Majatra. For many century Istalia was known as Quanzar a name derived from the House of Quanzar the royal house of the ahmadi emirate established on the peninsula. The Qunzari dominion was so prolonged and influential that the same concept of an istalian poeple emerged only under thr Quanzari dominion in the Alaria island, at the time known with the majatran-selucian (proto-istalian) name of Estalia (The Land of the east, a name derived by its role of easternmost land of Majatra), where emerged by the medieval selucian-nicoman culture the Kingdom of Estalia, later Kingdom of Istalia.

Alaria
Historians find evidence of habitation of the Istalian region, also known as Quanzarian region due to the long dominance of the Ahmadi rulers, from as early as 4000 BCE. A hunter-gatherer neolithic civilation known as the Araghe inhabited the south of the Alaria island and produced fantastic cave paintings and stone tools until c. 3500, when a rapid cooling trend drove the herds of wild game north. Agriculture came to the island with immigrants from the mainland in 2000; several distinct new cultures flourished on the island throughout the first half of the second millennium. By 1200, a form of logographic writing was used across the island to represent various dialects of the Alarian language, which is an isolate, unrelated to any known languages. In the South, the rich soils of Nicoma supported tremendous growth, and some of the largest cities in eastern Majatra, some with nearly 50,000 inhabitants, dominated the culture and politics of the island. These city-states were ruled by councils of the landed elite, on whose vast holdings most of the population lived and worked as tenant farmers. In northern Alaria, where the climate is drier and more mountainous, small cities emerged side-by-side nomadic pastoral tribes. The cities were ruled by kings and often grouped into regional defensive alliances. By 800, these alliances had transformed into nation-states, and so centralization was accelerated in the north. By 650, most of the North was under the tenuous sway of the kings of Sokyill. The unified north then began a long and violent expansion south, into the rich cities of Nicoma.

The Mainland
On the mainland, Ingris and southern Pheykran, remained occupied for century by semi-sedentary people from the earliest recorded history. They wrote another language unrelated to any known languages in native script, preserved mostly on large monolithic monuments. In northern Pheykran and Therak, agriculture was established by 2500 BCE along the rivers Dannis and Yohrail and various smaller tributaries by an ethnic group related with the semi-sedentary people of the south, that had been present in the region since prehistoric times. The mountainous and rugged terrain created a patchwork of isolated and fiercely independent states, most of which were ruled by warlords and autocrats who lived in palace-fortifications that were the center of the local economies. These people spoke a language close to the one of their southern neighbors, a language known as Therakan, but this language was more influenced by northern language rather than the southern branch; unlike those in the south, the northerners wrote their language in the Alarian script, imported through the trade with the island. By 850 BCE, parallel to the developments in northern Alaria, among the city-state arisen Qolshamih, the southernmost of them (today the area is part of the southrne region of Mezzodiurno), placed on the shore of the river Sallar (known today as Sala) which came to consolidate its power over the entire North, spreading the rule of the native dynasty also along the coastal regions of Ingris, where marginal agriculture and fishing supported small towns.

Consolidation, 742-664
742 BCE marks the beginning of the Classical Period. By now, the entirety of the mainland, save the desert wastes controlled by nomads people, was under the sway of Qolshamih. The defining event, however, was the capture of the city of Lombash by the armies of the king Hanggadhe of Sokyill. The last obstacle to a united Alaria, the fall of Lombash marked the definitive beginning of a power struggle between the island and the mainland. The new-found unity allowed for and required the creation of efficient bureaucracies and internal pacification. The Kingdoms of Qolshamih and Sokyill each fostered economic and cultural growth within their respective territories. While the arts of architecture and literature flourished, so too did the art of war. After an initial period of mutual wariness, the two kingdoms realized the inevitable power struggle that loomed large on the horizon. In 695, the King (the "Sharru") Malkkart of Qolshamih dispatched an expeditionary force from his harbors in southern Therak to aid a rebellion of subjected cities in Nicoma against Sokyill. The rebellion succeeded in capturing all of southern Nicoma before the armies of Sokyill crushed it with devastating cruelty. Nicoma's great cities, spared during the first conquest, were looted and pillaged for all material wealth. Lombash and Pakhne, two of the largest urban centers in Alaria at the time, were reduced to dust.

Reversal and Prolonged Conflict, 682-598
Thanks to the victory in the south the rulers of Sokyill avoided other rebellions for almost half century. Meanwhile, they sent retaliatory raids against the ports ruled by Qolshamih, effectively destroying that kingdom's nascent naval power. Until 670 BCE, Sokyill made headway against the kings of Qolshamih, effectively asserting its suzerainty over the coastal mainland and sending expeditions deep into the center of the Kingdom. But in this year, a palace coup overthrew the old dynasty of Qolshamih and established a new line descended from the lords of northern Pheykran. The new dynasty reorganized the failing bureaucracy and instituted much needed social, economic, and political reforms. In 648, the second King of this new dynasty, Mar-Ili III, retook that last of the Sokyillan fortresses on the mainland. With its territory secured, the reformed Kingdom furthered internal reform, consolidating central authority and wiping out several claimants to the throne.

In Sokyill, the opposite political process was underway. The loss of the mainland holdings fell harshly upon the subjected southern cities, which had provided most of the troop levies, and the prospect of continued war with Qolshamih drove them to disaffection. The war turned to naval conflict and expeditionary skirmishes by 632, and a stalemate developed over the course of the following decade that severely strained the bonds of vassalship that bound the kingdom of Sokyill together. Several small rebellions failed in the 520s, but in 598 BCE, the south rebelled in unison, defeating the royal armies and capturing most of the royal family during a surprise raid on the capital. The southern cities were not politically united, and their attempt to take the remainder of the royal territories in Kisuwali led to other skermish and war among them which depopulated the island and fragmented even more the communities favoring the next conquest by Qolshamih and also the establishment of the first selucian colonies.

The First Conquest 598-590
As part of a broader policy of securing trade routes against piracy and enemy navies, Qolshamih established several forts and captured coastal cities in western Alaria in the year immediately following the fall of Sokyill. These military actions soon expanded, and by 596, royal armies had taken much of western Nicoma. Justifying further expansion on the ground of aiding tributary cities in the south, the King of Qolshamih then took all of the city states in 595 and 594 BCE. Disunited Alarian military power paled next to the professional and institutionalized armies of the mainland. In 593, the southern plains of Kisuwali fell to the crown. The following three years were spent in a grueling campaign to conquer the northern plateau and mountain passes. And so, by August of 590, the King of Qolshamih could claim to be, among other titles applicable to the mainland, the "Lord of the Lands Beyond the Channel, Lord Protector of Lombash, Isiall, Maktar, Toltor, and Bagh, Arch-Regent of Pali, Eshhar, Mag, and Bolan (i.e. the southern Nicomese cities) King of Ephrai and Salajf, King of the Realms of Shayid, King of the lands formerly comprising Sokyill, and Supreme Arbiter of Justice over all Alaria."

The Selucian Colonization
Contemporary to the triumph of Qolshamih, came on the eastern shore of Alaria some ships from Selucia, at the time at the high of its colonization period and yet in 587 was founded the first selucian colony, Agirgentum. In 574 was founded Siracum Major, the nowday Siracosa (which came from a later name Siraco Ecclesia), and in 569 was founded Eristium, the first colony in Nicoma. The Selucians were well known as a people of merchants but it should not be underestimated the military preparation and capabilities, necessary for Selucia to maintain the control on its colonies and to the latter to establish their control on the colonized territories. In the south some Nicoma's eastern communities tried to kick out the newcomers but to not avail. In Qolshamih the monarchs in the first time were quite concerned by the selucian colonies and many were those that called for an expedition to destroy the invasors' cities. But quickly the kings of Qolshamih as well as the merchants caste, which with the peace on the mainland and island have begin to grow in wealth and power, realized how was profitable the trade with the colonies and through them with a world even bigger. For this reason King Muhaasti I in 534 reached an agreement with the selucian colonists recognizing them the freedom to live and found cities in the Kingdom with the assurance by their part to recognizing the King of Qolshamih as the rulers of the Kingdom of the Mainland and Island, begining a peaceful and fruitful coexistence.

List of the original selucian colonies
Many other cities known to be founded by the selucians in Istalia, actually are colonies of the colonies in the list above.
 * Agirgentum
 * Siracum Major
 * Eristium
 * Palatio Regium
 * Calidum Castrum
 * Caesar Rex
 * Lucio Barris Castrum
 * Ulbiano Pollux Colonia
 * Orientis Colonia
 * Tria Flumina

The Rise of the Kingdom of Qolshamih, 590-365
The unification of most of modern day Istalia under the rule of Qolshamih and the contact with the sophisticated and cosmopolitan selucian civilization allowed for a flourishing of culture and science over the next three hundred years. With few external threats, internal development and progress became the focus of the royal governments. In 545, a new capital, Tuffad, was founded at the effluence of the river Shipol along the coast of Therak near the modern-day city of Vinesia. With this move, the Kingdom became known by the name of the dynasty, Karron, rather than its original capital. The Karronian state was highly centralized and contained well-trained and extensive bureaucracy that had numerous internal anti-corruption mechanisms; this, combined with a culture that absolutely despised theft and lawlessness, created a system of administration that was remarkably efficient and interested in the common welfare.

Military Concerns
The primary martial concern of the period was the conquest of the central desert in Ingris and Pheykran. Here, new militant nomads had overrun their more peaceful predecessors nearly a century before. They spoke a quedarite language, it is suspected a penetration from the north through the pass on the northern Akhayl chain, and were desirous of the riches of the northern plain. Four decades of wetter-than-usual conditions in the arid wastes nurtured their numbers to the point that the desert could no longer sustain them and made expansion north not only a desire, but a necessity of survival, given the fact that they were surrouded by mountains on the other sides. Raids against the marginal farm lands in southern Pheykran first occurred in 520 and gradually increased in violence and severity until in 515 the Karronian king sent a small army west to deal with the problem. New fortresses were built, but, faced with greater obstacles to survival, the tribes sent forth much vaster forces against the fresh defenses. The palisades fell quickly, and soon the whole of southern Pheykran was overrun by the so-called "tribes of Ayadd". The king met the disaster with resolution, and the best of the royal military might swiftly brought the region back into Karronian control. They heavily fortified the border region and sent expeditions into the heart of the desert, contributing to some of the first maps of the central wastes. The local governor hired native nomadic mercenaries to fight the Ayaddans on their own turf, but the attempt at an offensive war were largely fruitless. So long as the dynasty remained strong, its military was aptly able to defend the frontiers from the Ayaddan menace; raids continued intermittently throughout the kingdom's later history, but only in the last several decades did they spell real trouble.

The selucian influence
During the apogee of the Karronian Kingdom the exchanges with the selucian increase even more and quickly the élite of the kingdom begin to be heavily influenced by the selucians which "imported" in this land also their language: in fact in the kingdom were spoken different languages, primary the Alarian dialects and the mainland dialects. The Alarians were always very reluctant to adopt the language of the conquerors and also in the mainland the dialects difference were considerable. The merchants so quickly starts to speak in selucians to conduct their affairs and the selucians begins in thia way to penetrate ans influence the Alorian and Sarrentian people (the peoples of the mainland). During this period the contact between the selucian art and the Qolshamit art bring to the creation of a syncretic form of art which present elements from both the culture and among the most important examples of this mixed art there are the ruins of Tuffad, second capital of the Kingdom of Qolshamih.

Apogee and Fall, 365-123
The kingdom reached its peak in the middle of the fourth century. A series of brilliant and just monarchs secured domestic prosperity and foreign tranquility. Diplomats were sent to the far reaches of Majatra and beyond, and colonies were founded across the southern coasts of the peninsula. the king under who the kingdom reached its hight was Alsemet the Great, remembered among other to bring back the capital in Qolshamih and for his love for the selucian culture (he built the Anphitheater of Qolshamih, the beggest of the southern Majatra). At the death of great King in 339, his son Sashame came to power and this moment is considered as the begining of the decadence. In fact a terrible plague hit the kingdom and a general economic downturn caused an hyperinflation. The bad policies of Sashame to face the crisis led to a marked reversal in the fortunes of the previous thirty years. Matters became worse after his death. The integrity and professionalism of the bureaucracy and administration was compromised by a growing culture of graft and extortion, and the court increasingly neglected the matters of state and turned to vacuous pleasures instead. As a result of the court's impotence, the Master of Arms, the King's traditional chief military advisor, became de facto ruler, but the need to fund court extravagances and secure military loyalty with gold weakened the treasury. Civil chaos spread further in the first two decades of the third century when civil war broke out between two puppet kings and their respective Masters of Arms. Civil wars, always about succession, had occurred five times before in Karronian history, but they were always brief and relatively light. This war, however, was intensified by the underlying societal and political instability. By its end in 278 BCE, both of the original royal claimants were dead, and the victorious Master at Arms Suhar-Shin selected a new puppet king just as a courtesy to tradition.The weakened state, which boiled over into civil conflict between rival generals almost every five years, was unable to secure the frontiers. After nearly three hundred years of confinement to the desert, the Ayaddans trickled forth into southern Pheykran beginning in 280. After several attempts failed to dislodge them, the rulers, returned in the more safe Tuffad, granted them the status of vassal state, a caretaker nation within the royal fold. This first wave partially settled into an agrarian life, but another, more aggressive coalition of tribes related to the Ayyadans, they were called in fact northen Ayaddans, moved into the region from the north in 246 pushed by the expansion of the Quedarite Empire.

The displaced tribes pushed south in that year but were halted, first by force and then with bribes, but the peace was only temporary. Other nomads then moved in as well to escape the expansion of the quedarite, and by 240, they had settled over all of the north-western half of the kingdom. The commanders in Tuffad allowed this obvious breech of the kingdom's territorial integrity in order to prevent a costly outright war. In 238, a last of the royal armies were crushed when they tried to reclaim part of northern Pheykran. For the next six years, the tribes stopped expanding as a chieftain named Harun conquered his rivals. By 232, he had succeeded in dominating all of the tribes residing in royal territory, and so he marched through southern and eastern Karronia to finalize his dominion. On the pretense of being the new Master of Arms in the service of the ineffectual King in Tuffad, when the capital itself was finally captured in 229, the King was kept alive as a captive icon of continuity with the old order. However, this pretense was dropped in 223 after the King attempted to invite northern mercenaries from Solentia to invade and drive off the Ayyadans. The monarch himself and all of his line was killed off, thereby ending the Kingdom of Karron.

Alaria
The island of Alaria, which was never invaded by the majatran tribes from the north, resulted during the fall of the Karron Kingdom bacame a totally selucian cultural area and developed separately from the mainland during this period charaterized by the formation of the Legue of the Estern colonies (in this period is dated the first use of the name Estalia). Three city state, increasing thier power and exctending their control on large areas, based on old administrative boundaries of the Karronian provinces, emerged after 223. In the south, the Kingdom of Nicoma was reconstituited by a selucian-nicoman junior branch of the House of Karron. In Kisuwali, the Republic of Barramentum ruled the east and the Free City of Palernium ruled the west. The almost in ruin city of Sokyill with several small cities in the isolated mountain, were the only place where was preserved for some other times the old Alarian language and culture.

The Mainland
Harun's rule was tenuous, and within a decade of his ascension to the kingship of Ayadda, which he had claimed for himself in 222, the entire domain was split between rival petty lords and weak dynasts in continue fight against each other. this weakened both the karronian and ayaddan culture while the new cultural and political environment was even more dominated by the selucian influences from the colonies which during this period arise became the more powerful and floreshing communities extending their control on the eastern shore of the mainlans. In the inner part the most powerful of the natives had fortified themselves into rural estates as early as 150, but as the tribes settled, the old and new peoples mixed both politically and genetically, eventually becoming indistinguishable except in the mountainous north, where most were purely Karronian, and in the souther highland, where most were purely Ayaddan, but in generally, as said, both the culture started a decline in favour of the selucian one.

The fragmentation on the mainland, devoid of cultural and scientific progress, favoring even more the subjugation to the selucians culture, continued for nearly six-hundred years. However, important social and political developments did occur during this period. Following the chaos after the Ayaddan invasion, the realm was divided into hundreds of small domains, known as dukedom, from the selucian Dux, a military rank, which for a time were self-governing. However, over the course of five centuries, a process of consolidation came to fruition by which lordships were organized under the rule of local dukes; thus, the number of sovereign states fell from many hundreds to only approximately twenty-three by 450 CE (see List of Dukedoms of Quanzar).

Socially, in the innerland the Feudal system was the norm until nationalization accelerated in the sixth century. While on the cost and in Alaria the merchants selucian city-state developed in form of aristocratic republic. In this period the selucian religion took root over manies dukedom and became strong in north Therak, in western Pheykran, and along the rivers that flow through southern Ingris (in this period also the ancient name of the historical region started to be called also in their selucian form). The estalian region, how began to be knowm the ancient land of penisula and island, was one the last area outside Selucia where the selucian religion was able to survive in the following century until the arrives of the Hosianism, which first church in Istalia was the chapel of the castle of a lord called Teofilatus, later Teofilatus the Pius​, a rich landlords who ruled on the lands of the ancient Qolshamih. The Archbasilica of St. Matthias the Baptist to the Walls, current seat of the Archbishop of Rumula and Primate of Istalia, was built right beside the oldest chapel.

The Southern Region
After the tribal invasions in the second century BCE and the came of another plague, most part of the city of the South fell in decadence and many group retourned to a nomadic or semi-nomadic life. This pushed many selucian city state to expand into the south to respond to an overpopulation of their city, in bloom in this period of decadence for the ancient ethnic groups. The conquest essentially led to the North and South, several cities were founded in the first century CE along the rivers that flow through southern Pheykran and along the coast of Ingris, northern goods became more prevalent in the region where the ancient language were almost totally replaced by the pro-istalian. The ancient kerronian religion was almost deseappeared by 200 CE, while the selucian religion founded important shrines in some of the new city, among them Neapolis and Portus Angonium.

The Augustan dominion, 503-640
In 503 CE the Augustan armies, after have subjocated most part of Majatra, finally arrived also in the estalian peninsula, and after a brief war, thanks to the fragmentation of the power in the peninsula, the Augustan established their rule (the peninsula however under the Augustan domination assumed the name of Sarrentian Peninsula, after the name of a fortified city on the mountain pass between the Nayar range and the northern Alkayil massif, to distinguish the mainland by the island known as said before as Estalia). Given the fact that the Augustan Empires derived by a selucian city state, the majatran-selucian became definitively the most spoken language in the peninsula alongside the augustan one, while in 509, after the adoption of Hosianism by part of the Augustan Empire, the new religion begin to penetrate in the area became quickly the dominant faith. In Alaria the selucian religion survived still for some time but slowly also in the island the Hosianism began to spread. The Augustan rule lasted until the eighth century when, given the weakening of the Augustan Empire due the Tokundian invasion, the periferic dominions beging to assume more and more power and already in the seventh century seven kingdom, formed by the traditional dynastic leader of the seven previous augustan province, became authononus as vassals of the Augustans.

Seven Kingdoms, 640-880
Alashad of Milos Domina, lord of the northwestern estalian city and general of the Augustan armies in the peninsula for a first period was the most powerful of the seven lords which arise during the later augustan rule on the mainland and achieved to maintain most part of the peninsula under the augustan empire, but when he died in 640 in several years increase the acceleration of the disgregation forces and one by one the seven kingdom, which extended on Estalia and Solentia, became formerly indipendent starting to competed with eachother to control the peninsula. The first kingdom to increase its power was the one of the Khalid dynasty in the far north of the peninsula, with territories also in the current Solentia, which declared themselves Sharru, in the Old Therakan language to distinghish themself from the selucians and augustans rulers; in northern Pheykran, two new powerful kingdom emerged within three decades after the death of Alashad. They was the modern city of Vinesia and Triesta, which together Verunia became important merchants elective kingdom and were called the three cities of the sales, from which became the modern name of Therak: Trivendito. In this city the king were elected by the merchants nobility but in the other kingodom the new order was one of a monarch ruling over a land nobility, from whom the state levied armies. By 640, were now seven traditional thrones in Estalia and Solentia: the isolated mountain Kingdom of Kalid-Therah in northern Therak; Palsikon and Marratu in the plains of Solentia; the Kingdoms of Tulino, in nowday Padagna, Accaria in southern Therak and the powerful maritime kingdom of Neapulia and Fidelia in southern and eastern Ingris. Alongside them maintains their indipendency also the selucian-city state which however in the mainland slowly began to lost their power in favor of the kingdoms.

The following centuries were no less chaotic in terms of war, however. Once the cultural and economic means to establish Kingship emerged, any powerful noble with ambition and a familial tie to one of the ruling dynasties could seize power for himself. Lordships shifted from one Kingdom to another frequently, but the major conflict was between the alliance of north, formed by the Kingdoms of Kalid-Therah and the solentian Palsikon and Marratu against the kingdoms of Accaria and Fidelia. Neapulia was indideed more attracted by the trade through the sea and often was able to pay the other powers to assure its security but by 750 it had been chipped apart by the selucians city-state influence and the one of Fidelia.

This is not to suggest that the battle lines were always so clear. Especially in the 6th and early 7th centuries, when the borders of the Kingdoms were less fixed and brute force could carve out a Crown, the alliances between the kingdoms changed suddenly and often the kingdoms came to collaborate in power-plays against those which was already allies in the pursuit of power. By the 8th century, Neapulia was no more and each of the six Kingdoms had established houses which through political marriage came to began a period of peace. But already in the 9th century the Solentian kingomds were fallen under the power of the Pentarchy, an alliance of five kingdoms while in the south, in the Sarrentina Peninsula, arise four kingdoms, each of them sought a unified and centralized homeland, a place without the threat of petty civil conflict that had racked the land during the great fighting period started after the death of Alashad.

Four Kingdoms, 880-1100
In 880, through personal unions and the mixing of bloodlines as said, there were four Kingdoms on the mainland: Trivendito (formerly Khalid-Therah which assumed the name of the region) in the north-east; Tulino in the north-west; Accaria and Fidelia in Ingris, the last one was the strongest of all the realms, the master of the wealthy shores and rich heartlands of the southern high-land. Of these, the Trivendito and Tulino were the most influenced by the augustan culture and then tukandian while Accaria and Fidelia were most influenced by the estalian legacy. The new powers as said were no longer composed of bitter rival Lordships but they were unified Kingdoms with centralized bureaucracies capable to trade with the rest of Majatran and enrich themself.

The Island
A similar process of consolidation was occurring in Alaria as well during the Medieval Period. The Kingdom of Nicoma managed to assert dominance over the whole of the island and the selucian colonies by 600. The Hosian faith was pressed on the natives of what was formerly Lepprios and Sahan, and the Alarian language survived only in isolated pockets. The Monarchy on Alaria was different from that on the mainland. Because the region enjoyed much more prosperity and continuous centralization, the selucian colonies and the merchant nobility were reduced earlier than on the mainland; the centralized state was able to survive through taxation of the all-important trade and through a policy aimed to streghten the relations with the other former selucian colonies. Militarily, the major concern was the suppression of rebellion in the recently conquered Northern inland and the maintenance of an army to protect shipping.

The strait which separates the Mainland from the Island paradosally was not to exploited and during the trumble warrant years in Sarrentia it took long for contacts to be reestablished between the two lands. The languages had especially diverged, with a form of protoistalian-therakan, middle therakan, spoken in most places of the peninsula while in Alaria developed the ancient istalian. However, trade managed to bridge the gap by 700, and the first regular diplomatic correspondences data from this time.

However, by 1040, the monarchy in Alaria had undergone a political paradigm shift. Until this revolution, the Kings had turned their resources toward internal pacification and promotion of trading interests. Monarchs relied on the services of the emasculated but proud hereditary nobility, both landed elite and mercantile magnates, to run his military operations and administer local government. Over the course of the early 11th century, two Kings, Aculio and Sidanio, created a new caste of palace officials, courtiers, and agents of royal power who became the gears of a centralized and professional meritocratic bureaucracy, the members of which were selected from birth for their positions and who owed everything to the royal family. the opulence of the kingdom in this period led it to began to influemce the politics on the mainland and was aimed to bring under its control the selucian colonies on the mainland. The new bureaucracy was both a tool and a burden, for each new King needed to prove his ability to the vastly enlarged armies and the local administrators through victory in conflict conducted against the mainland kingdoms, often justified by the aid request by the mainland colonies.

The Late Medieval Period, 1000-1250
During this period among the four kingdoms on the mainland, the one of Fidelia was able to increase even more its power and prestige at the expense of the others. Bathed in the streams of global trade and blessed with a continual line of suitable male heirs, the realm progressed continuously and steadily over the plain of Trivendito and finally crushing the last King of the northern kingdom in 1009. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Tulino kept cautiously in its mountain strongholds, only sending down a small battalion every other year to support its neighbor. When Trivendito did finally fall, it took only a matter of years before the kings submitted to the Monarch who reigned in Fidelia; then began the long war in the North against the Pemtarchy. Throughout the 11th century, repeated expeditions from the South pummeled the fortresses in Sarrentia, remained in the hand of the solentians, and reached deep into the rugged valleys and cold meadows of the North. Slowly, they wore into the very fiber of the place, until, in 1100, the Prince Lastor of Palsikom concluded a peace with Fidelia, essentially becoming a tributary state, a mere vassal in the broad hegemony of the Estalian realm, which established officialy what became the modernday borders of Istalia.

However, regarding the internal organization, the Alarian model was not followed on the mainland: to control the aristocrats, the heads and heirs of each household were confined to the capital in Fidelia, where the King kept them in virtual captivity. Here, they acted as bureaucrats and servants to the King whilst being kept sated with lavish gifts. The aristocracy elsewhere were left in charge of regional affairs, and they stubbornly resisted the monarchs' attempts to replace them with royal officials. Despite the hostages in Fidelia, the Kings were not really able to unseat the hereditary rights of the ancient dukes, for they still held the loyalty and respect of the local peoples. That is, the concept of nationhood had never taken hold on the mainland to the same extent as in Alaria, and if one were to ask a peasant in Trivendito who is master was, he would name one of the hostage dukes in Fidelia, not the King. All this allowed the merchants republics of the selucian colonies on the mainland to increase their influence and control on the mainland economy and it is another factor which make us understand why the istalianity was a concept that arise only in later times (see the champter about the Rise of the Quanzar Emirate). However, political unity in both the mainland and the island brought about a flourishing of arts, culture, and science.

The Ahmadi Caliphate
In this period also Estalia was invested by the great event of the period which involved all Majatra: from Barmenia was rising the power of the new Ahmadi religion which in the thirteenth century reached the newday Al Badara and Kafuristan leaded by the profets Akhim and then organized under the Caliphate.

The Caliphate continue its conquest in the name of the new religion but already since the first years its organization were those of a decentralized empire with the local warlords charged to spread the faith and conquer new lands.

In 1225 the Caliphate armies passed the Nayar while its fleets debarked on the eastern shores begins a conquest campaign which reached to subjugate all the dukes and kingdoms, many of them which profited to rise in arms against the power of Fidelia made act of submission to the new conquers.

In 1245 the Ahmadi fleets defeat also the forces of the Kingdom of Estalia and finaly all the estalian lands were conquered by the Caliphate.

The fall of the Caliphate
However, despite the conquest, the Caliphate was never a centralized unitary state, but a collection of loosely-linked quasi-independent feudal states, all owing their allegiance to the Caliph, as the successor and representative of Ahmad and this allowed to the estalian forces to continue to fight against the local vassals of the Caliphe and in the second half of the fifteenth century, just after the apogee of the Caliphate, first Alaria then some principalities in the mainland were able to become again indipendently profiting of the quickly fall of the central authority of the Caliphate.

Unification attempt
In 1500 the Istalian Kingdoms and principalities were once again indipendent and like in other part of Majatra Hosian dynasty retook the power and begins to kick out the ahmadi nobility and people from their land.

Among the newly indipendend four kingdoms, Fidelia was the one which showed to be the most strong and stable and which was the less weakened under the Caliphate rule.

In the XVII century the kings of Fidelia extendend their influence progressively all over the peninsula and enforced several reforms to modernize and centralize the kingdom's administration. However also the other kingdoms taken similar measures and progressively city-state and little principalities began to be absorbed by the larger entities.

Between 1554 and 1591 the four kingdoms fought into the Sarrentian's Wars, a series of conflicts which allowed to Fidelia to absorb the Kingdom of Accaria (the city was totally deztroyed and the survivors escaped in Tulino) and to annex large territories in the north reducing the other two kingdoms to be vassals and tributaries.

In 1612 the daughter of king Balduino I of Fidelia married the brother of king Francesco Gabriele IV of Estalia who at the time had not heirs. The kings of Fidelia in fact hoped in the passagw of the estalian crown to the brother of Francesco Gabriele and so in the possibility to unify the two royal family forecasting the future unification of the estalian lands.

The son of Balduino I, Deodato II, started also great project in Romula thinking to move the Capital in the city and in fact in 1640 he commissioned the Quattroregni Palace which had to become the future royal residence.

Fidelia's kings however never reached to accomplish their projects due to the arrive in Istalia of the Quanzar conquerors.

The rise of the Quanzari Emirate
As said in 1500 the Istalian lands were once again indipendent and the sentiment in favor of a unification were arising and Fidelia tried to persue this objective but the incursions of the ahmadi warlords from the north don't allowed to accomplish this project.

At the time in Istalia the hosianism retourn was particularly violent and this gave to the Kansar Emirs, ahmadi war lords which already had conquest all Solentia, the excuse to begin a series of raids in Sarrenti, namely to defend the ahmadi faithfuls, but in reality to starts to test the waters attracted by the land of the peninsula. In Istalia the hosianism retourn was particularly violent and this gave to the Qansar Emirs, south-kafuri ahmadi war lords which already had conquest Solentia, Kafuristan and Kalopia-Wantuni, the excuse to begin a series of raids in Sarrentia, namely to defend the ahmadi faithfuls, but in reality to begin to test the waters attracted by the land of the peninsula.

The Qansar Emite profited then in 1650 of the fledging kingdom of Padagna which arise against the power of Fidelia held a territory rich of raw materials. It had a wide capability of supporting a strong economy and a flourishing society, although it was very poor at the beginning. Things started out well however for the newborn kingdom, while the Kingdom of Fidelia, with the Emirate which had cut off Istalia from the rest of Majatra, faced trouble on struggling to maintain economical growth and avoid a depression, as the government had maintained throughout years of well-being very lax economical policies focused on the efforces to consolidate its rule on the peninsula and defend it from the Emirate, also undermined by the kingdom of Nicoma from Alaria.

Begining a long war with the Kingdom of Fidelia, the Quanzars continued their offensive campaign, and after over a century of struggle, the force of the Emirate, led by the Emir Harun ibn Muhammad, took in 1771 the entire control of the peninsula, with the decisive battle at the gates of Reggio in Ingris in which the armies of Fidelia were totally defeated. Resistants fled the country asking for political asylum to the Nicomese kingdom, which accepts them and, rising of the lost fatherland to be retake by the barbars ahmadi invasor, in Alaria the king Arturo Gabriele II officially renamed the kingdom as Kingdom of Istalia, the first istalian entity whose name made reference to the istalians and all their land.

Ended the war, the Emirate of Quanzar (majatran: إمارة قانزار, translitteration: Imārat Qanzar) stretched on all the eastern Majatra, from the borders with Deltaria to the shores of the Sarrentina Peninsula  on which however the descentants of Harun ibn Muhammad didn't rule for long time. Despite the conquest of the Sarrentian peninsula, in fact, the Quanzar Emirate quickly lost its control on the other territories of its empire and progressively the peninsula became the center of the power of the Emirate which officially rebaptized it as Quanzar, the name with which for the next five century was known the lands that in future would become Istalia.

Istalian resistance
The occupation of the peninsula triggered the formation of unresting movements, as, among the others, intellectual manifestos like the works of Emanuele Terenzi, one of the most known authors of the 19th century. After the boycottage of Quanzar monopolies (like tobacco), the Istalians started to create secret societies as Istalia Libera and Resistenza Nicomese. The Quanzar Emirate tried to counter the uprising Istalian majority by giving the military the order to control the nation as a de-facto police force. Exiled refugees, principally on Solentia and Alaria, started to support the resistance with donations and external support. Famous is the creation of the Istalian Liberation Grant.

The Kingdom of Istalia however in this growth in richness and prosperity, thanks to massive trade with Seleya and the rest of Majatra but also with the eastern lands. The kings continued to administrate properly the island and the burocracy was always very competitve, expressing efficient officers. In this period the kingdom continued its attempt to fight the Emirate and to kick out it from Istalia and then reunifing the istalian lands.

Among the most important kings there was Arturo Gabriele II, which for all its life between XVIII and XIX century, continued to fight against the invasors. It is also known to have baptized the Palace of Villareale, masterpiece of the istalian neoselucian baroque style and one of the larger palaces all over the world.

In XIX century the kingdom was rich and prosperous but also in Istalia spreads sentiments against the assolutism of the monarchs which began to undermine the stability of the kingdom. The king Vittorio Alessandro II, to avoid the break out of a revolution, granted the creation of a Parliament, the so called Istalian Parliament on the Island, with the crucial power to determine the fate of the Government. In XX century the kingdom however was weakened by an internal struggle against the socialist mouvement which with even more force and support claimed reform, first of all an agrarian reform and the enlargement of the suffrage. Strikes and workers uprising shacked the Nation and this led to the first of the three military golpe but also to a long period of terrorism and guerrilla. The Quanzar Emirate so profited of the situation to launch its assoult to the island that, after 8 years of resistance by part of a reconstituted istalian unitary front, at the end fell and was formerly taken by the emirate in 1959. Also if the island was defined as Quanzari Dominion of Estalia (majatran: قانزاري السياده من ستاليا), de facto it remained a far autonomous entity, where the ahmadi élite did not take part in the economical, social and cultural stage and the control was assured by a military occupation.

The collapse of the Emirate
Despite the conquest of Alaria and the begining of an unprecedent repressive policy against the istalians, into the emirate the situation tended to collapse in the following 50 years. Most of the Quanzars, finally integrated with Istalians, decided that the old Emirate should end, also because the civil liberties were very little, since the Sharia was bound as national law soonly after the ultimation of the Quanzari pacification campaign of Estalia.

Finally the Emirs were forced to recognize a constitution and the Emirate became almost a constitutional monarchy where however the monarch maintained a certain active role.

Despite the large concessions, the situation for the Emirs was degenerating while socialist and communist mouvements were increasing their power arriving to control the Parliament.

The end of the Emirate arrived during the Deltarian-Quanzari Conflict.

After two years of tension with Deltaria in fact, many quanzari communist supporters and politicians, secretly supported by the communist Deltaria to weaken the Emirate, before the extreme radicalization of the anti-quanzari sentiment, began to accuse the Emir and its strict ahmadi law, accusing him also to have provoked the Deltarian supporting some extremist ahmadi foundamentalists in Deltaria and also in Al Badara. During this period of instability the istalians began to arise after the most repressive period (started after the conquest of Alaria) under the Emirate, joining the socialist and communist mouvements together with many other quanzaris.

After the failur of some negotiations the Emir was ready to disband the Neosocialist government which caused even more twnsion which quickly, for the fear of a golpe, the communist forces surges in the entire nation and finally, on 2110, a revolution starts against the Emirate.

In Alaria the ancient istalian dynasty profited of the Emirate fall to retake the power but the communist revolution spread also in the island against the king.

After the fall of the Emirate, the former Royal House of the Emirs however was not treated poorly by the new government despite the communist ideals at the power: the last Emir and his family in fact were allowed to left peacefully the nation in favor of the Solentian southernmost region with most part of their possesions and assets where remained a respected and wealthy family centuries after they were dethroned starting however to develop interest in Solentia were throught the century they deplaced totally thier center of interest and continued their history.

The Union of the Quanzari Soviets
Created on 2118 after a period of troubles, the Union of Quanzari Soviets was finally established by the majatran communist forces, resulted as the real winners among the different group arised during the revolution and which declared the socialist society as the best way to assure a convivence between the Istalian majority and the Quanzar minority, also if the quanzaris at the head of the central government were able to maintain a certain prominence for thei ethnicity. However the quanzairs worked also to lessen ethnic tensions: the overpower of the orthodox ahmadism and the creation of a complete atheist state was the idea about a possibility to forget the precedent history of oppression, political as well as religious, which have had an important role during the Emirate rule.

During this period the Deltarian-Quanzari Conflict continued with Quanzar which increased even more its international support due to the Quanzari genocide in Deltaria.

After the conclusion of the Cold War with Deltaria (indeed there was no more quanzaris to defend in Deltaria which also turned their foreign activity against Selucia), the Union of Soviets, in appeasing the convivence between the two communities, works and for about 100 years the nation continues to maintain its integrity. But the nationalized economy and the lack of civil liberties started to make citizens stressed and unhappy of the communist government, and again the divisions arose among the people. This is why the People's Assembly fall divided itself in different wings, but in the last years the more democratic forces taken the control of the country and began to change it in a more liberal state. It was in this times that the founders of the first democratic Republic, the Partito Social-liberista and Alleanza delle Libertà (also if this parties was at time not yet formally recognized), started to think about possible institutional changes.

The compromise: the Quanzarian Republic
On July 26, 2233 the last People's Assembly of the Union of Quanzari Soviets, elected as constitutional assembly, solemnly proclaim the creation of the Repubblica Quanzariana (Quanzarian Republic). The name was chosen on Quanzariana because the old Nicomese Royal dynasty, which was the ruled dynasty of the Kingdom of Istalia, existing in Alaria during the time of thr Emirate of Quanzar and the real cradle of the istalianity, after the collapse of the Union, began a small insurgence on the island, in order to restore the old kingdom hoping to extend their sovereignty also on the mainland. The disputed was resolved by a referendum in the island: the majority (67%) of citizens decide to become part of the republic. The Parlamento Quanzariano transform then Kisawuli and Nicoma in two semi-independent regions (the current name of the two regions, Silicia and Sarregna, were adopted only after the foundation of the Istalian Republic deciding to use more istalian names, which came from ancient selucian place names and colonies, to underline also the importance of the selucian culture at the base of the istalian culture).

It is in this transitional period that those which would be became the first parties of the istalian resurgent was founded: the Partito Social-liberista (formally recognized but active also on the Union), the Partito Borisista, the Partito Laico Riformista and the Partito Collettivista Internazionalista. On formerly ones, the most important were Alleanza per le Libertà (co-founder with the Social-Libertarists) and the Partito Libertario. The first Presidente della Repubblica was Marco Guadagnini (PSL).

the Istalian Republic
After 30 years of democratic government, the PSL decides to start a constitutional, historical change: formally recognize the Istalianity of the nation and change definitively its name to Repubblica Istaliana. Followed by all parties on the parliament, the constitutional law passed with unanimity. Then, on May 2 2263, the Presidente della Repubblica Carlo Aurelio Gianti proclaims the creation of the Repubblica Istaliana with this speech:

"Dear Istalian citizens, it's with extreme pleasure that I'm here, in the Parliament, now the Istalian Parliament, to proclaim our republic, the Istalian Republic. After centuries of divisions our nation is now one, free and indivisible. The old dream of our fathers is now reality: Istalians are free and they have a country where democracy is sacred and untouchable. Long live the Republic! Long live Istalia!"

- Carlo Aurelio Gianti, Extract from the Speech for the Proclamation of the Istalian Republic

The First Republic
From 2263 to 2684.

The Monarchy under the Order of the Golden Crown
In 2684 was established a dictatorial monarchy by the Order of the Golden Crown which imposed also the Luthorian as official language (the luthorian wes a diffused lingua franca in the eastern region of majatran due to the colonial subjugation of some majatran nation by artanian powers).

Liberation will only be in 2745 thanks to the istalian forces of the Social-Communist Refoundation S.I., Fiamma Bianca, Istalian Borisist Party - S.I., Reformist Secular Party who will restore the Republic, the second.

Second Republic
From 2745 to 3121.

The Second Quanzari Restoration
In 3121 a new monarchical age took place under the obscure kingdom of Quanzar, initiated by the Quanzari Restorationists, which was destroyed in 3122 by the joint work of artanian allies and the istalian parties Fiamma Party and Avanti Istalia!.

Third Republic
From 3122 to 3291.

The Third Quanzari Restoration
From 3291 to 3365. The 3rd Monarchic Age of the modern history of Istalia took place with the Quanzari Restorationists who set up a monarchy by renaming the country Southern Majatran Union and Kingdom of Quanzar.

The Fourth Republic
The current Republic, the fourth Istalian Republic, was founded in 3365 by the Partito Repubblicano Istaliano, the Partito Socialista Democratico d'Istalia, Terra e Popolo, Area Laburista and Rifondazione Social-comunista, the political forces which kick out for the third time the Quanzarian rule from Istalia.

Since this period the istalian involvement in the international affairs was always very limited, this due to the two long foreign dominations which generate a certain xenophobia in the istalian people; however the authoritarian power of the past instilled in the istalians a genuine love for the democracy and the freedom and this allowed the existence for century of a stable and democratic republic regime which contributed the developement of a good social-economic system that offered good standard of life for the citizens also if the istalian economy compared with the rest of the world remained marginal.

The Partito Repubblicano, well known afterwards as Popolari per l'Istalia, remained during most part of the history of the fourth Republic one of the main party of the political stage which for the first centuries contended the leadership of Istalia with the reformed Partito Social-Liberista Istaliano, a founder member of the first Republic, and then with Area Laburista Istaliana.

After 3500
During 3515, the ruling government coalition was formed by the Fronte Nazionale, MoVimento d'Avanguardia del Popolo, and Alternativa Popolare, making up roughly 60% of the legislature. This coalition replaced the previous government parties, Partito Social-Liberista Istaliano-Avanti Istalia!.

The Fronte Nazionale was a far-right party, the Alternativa Popolare was moderate right, and the MoVimento d'Avanguardia del Popolo was a centrist party. The alliance was uneasy as Fronte Nazionale HOG Francesco Napolitano has competed against the HOS Stefano Dorotà in the election of 3515, 3518, and 3522 without success.

The opposition was a center left coalition of Partito Social-Liberista Istaliano-Avanti Istalia!. Neither party has endorsed a candidate for HOS since 3501.

Recent century
Between 3600 and 4000 the Istalian politic was dominated again by the Popolari per l'Istalia, sometime in coalition with Nationalist parties, to which was offset by several leftist socialist parties as the Partito Social-Liberista Istaliano, the Partito Socialista Istaliano, the Area Laburista Istaliana, the Partito della Rivoluzione Democratica, the Partito Comunista Istaliano.

During the early century of this period thanks to the committment of the Populari Istalia started to open itself to the world and above all the efforts have been dedicated to the integration of Istalian in the Majatran continent joining the Union of Majatra becoming also a great supporter of the Pan-Majatran Movement.

Depsite this committment, the istalians remained always very concentrated on their internal affairs and the strong competition into the international markets caused a little shock to the istalian economy, which became dominated by foreign companies against which the istalian economy had to struggle for the last century to emerge and begin an effective competition. Despite this, in the XXXVIII century a long period of stability and dedicated economic policies under the long precidencies of Matteo Renz Junior granted a slowly increase in the economy but after that, nationalistic and dirigist policies introduced by leftist party bring back istalia in a period of slowly growth, situation worsed by new isolationsist tendencies.

In the forty-first century appears the nationalist and authoritarian Partito Socialista Democratico soon leaded by Antonio Battisti which held the Government for most part of the first half of the century, also favored by the dissolution of the Popolari per l'Istalia and by the not excellent electoral performance of Alleanza del Centro Democratico. However, the dominion of the Battisti's party, became Partito della Rivoluzione Istaliana, will lead its Leader to establish a leftist and nationalistic dictatorship.

In the last democratic time of the Battistian government appeared the Partito Socioliberale Istaliano, later bacame Istalian Social Liberal Party, leaded by Alessandro Senna which during the dictatorship and the Civil War of 4044-4045 fought against Battisti until his fallen.

The Informal Fifth Republic
Many called the Post-Battistian Republic Fifth Republic but never was recognized institutionally due to the brief time at power of the Battisti's dictature, which is consider only as a dark brief parenthesis in the history of the Fourth Republic.

Restored the Democracy, the second half of forty-first century saw the return of the Popolari per l'Istalia and Futuro & Libertà which together and with the support of the PSLI introduced a Presidential Government.

During the first years of the so called third Republic, especially thanks to the government periods of the Social-Liberal Party, Istalia changed radically its way to participate on the international stage started to establish several international treaty while the favorable economic policy allowed the istalian companies to expand in other markets profiting of the decreasing of the presence and the power of older well know multinational (for example the Zardic Konstadian Bay which left Istalia and internationally was reached in power and popularity by the istalian Leonardi Industrial Group).

It were established strong relations with Solentia during the last decades of the XXXXI century, relations which led to the establishment of the ISDA, the Istalia-Solentian Defensive Alliance, which was a cornerstone for the growth of the Istalian military power, thanks to reduction in general expense before the bilateral cooperation, which allowed the maintaining of high standard and othr investment to improve the military capabilities of the nation.

Internally during this period, after the dissolution of Futuro & Libertà, the PPI passed to the opposition of the government coalition formed by the Partito Social Liberale Istaliano with Lavoro, Democrazia, Ecologia, at first leaded by the President Alessandro Senna, then by its successors almost until the end of the century allowed the introduction of the strong welfare which caraterized almost all the following 150 years.

The ineffective two victories of the right in the 80s, due to a large fragmentation of the political spectrum, showed the limit of the Presidential system and this led to a return to the parliamentary system in 4096 at the initiative of the Social Liberal's President Marcantonio Borgiese, with the support of all the other parties except the Populars.

The Istalian Politics in this period sees the emergence of new parties as Democrazia Istaliana and the Partito Liberale Istaliano, which formed with the Populars the alliance Union of Liberals, and several short-lived leftist party.

Given the increase of the support for the liberal economic policies, which showed already their effect in the first years of the third republic, the two historical parties of the recent history of Istalia, PPI and PSLI, started a convergence on the economic policies which leads to an alliance between PSLI and the Union of Liberals. The free trade and capitalistic policies of this period leads to an economic growth and to a new international policy which sees at the beginning of the forty-second century Istalia become an economical power and an influential nation on the international stage.

All the Istalian parties in this period finally were aware of the Istalian possibilities on the international stage and thanks to a very concerted foreign policies between different governments, also expression of opposite sides, Istalia gained its run to the first election for the Security Council showed itself as a champions of the Democracy and Protector of Human Rights.

He was the most stronger opponent of the Saridanese Theoratic Regime which contributed to make fall leading an international campaign to establish sanctions and embargoes, which caused an economic collapse in the Theocratic regime falling itself.

In this period the establishment of the Social Republic in Solentia and its undemocratic policies caused the end of the ISDA so this pushed Istalia to find new close partner and expand even more its interests over the borders of Majatra.

Internally another political crisis led to a new constitutional reform and thus in 4134 was held the first election with the semi-presidential system proposed by PSLI and strongly supported by the Populars which have always supported the idea of a strong President and of an electoral law providing for coalitions (in the past the Populars had already proposed and also introduced semi-presidential government systems). The reform was also widely supported by the Democrazia Istaliana, by the newly neo-battistian Partito della Socialdemocrazia Istaliana, by the Partito Socialista Democratico d'Istalia, former known as Lavoro, Democrazia, Ecologia (these last two formed with the PSLI the coalition Union of Center-Left in 4130) and the Partito del Patriota d'Istalia. The second half of the XXXXII saw the definitive affirmation of Istalia on the international stage and thanks to the increase of a strong capitalistic economy the istalian companies and investment grew and spread all over the world.

In the middle of the century Ostalia established a strong relationships and then an alliance with the emergent seleyan nation of Baltusia where the Istalian Navy established an important foreign base.

The second half of the century began with a first period dominated by the center-right Union of Liberals but than, since the 60s the istalian policies were led by the center-left Alliance of Progressives for Istalia, formed by the historically allies PSLI and Partito Socialista Democratico, with the partecipation of Verdi Istaliani - Partito Ambientalista Istaliano and Movimento Federale Istaliano.

Federalization and great social democratic welfare were the main policies improved and the latter together with the even bigger istalian economy graanted high standard of life to the istalians.

In the 60s began to growth the relations with the Holy Luthori Empire with which was created the Organization for the Collective Security and Cooperation, at the moment of its creation the most powerful military alliance of Terra.

Meanwhile istalian companies profited in this half of century of the anarchy in Wantuni to establish n extended and rooted rule on the Mossavi region of Wantuni and they established a quasi-government control on the area.

In 70s Istalia suffred an economic slowdown caused by a political crisis in Baltusia which attempt to nationalize many Istalian assets, but thanks to a government intervention, which made also successful pressure on Baltusia, the crisis passed and in some years the situation returned to the pre-crisis standard.

the last two decades however the Republic faced the most difficult period of its recent life, being targetted by a wantunian terrorist group, the Worker's Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Wantuni.

The PSLI's President Lorenzo Verhoeven led the nation through this storm came to defeat the terrorist group and defend the nation, which established a Protectorate on the kalopian region of Mossavi to defend its interest and to respond to the request of security and stability by the local communities during the worst years of the wantunain anarchy.