Verduria
From Almeopedia
| Verduria | |
| Native: | Verdúria |
| Verdurian: | Verdúria |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital: | Verduria city |
| Government: | Parliamentary monarchy |
| Language: | Verdurian |
| Relative prosperity: | 100 |
| % Pagan: | 56 |
| % Eleďe: | 40 |
| % Irreanism: | 4 |
| Currency | |
| Gold | oř 12 |
| ořula 4 | |
| Silver | fale 1 |
| aržentul 1/3 | |
| Emur | emura 1/12 |
| VERDURIA |
Verduria [vɛr ˈdu ri a] is the chief country of Eretald, and one of the most advanced nations of Almea. Its capital, for which it is named, is Verdúria-mažtana or Verduria city, and its current ruler is Alric of the Vleteon dynasty.
Population: 6 million (3480)
Provinces: Verduria, Zeir, Šerian, Irvesi, Aodo, Célenor, Curesi, Luyšor, Sereor, Zelm
Neighbors: Lácatur (to NW), Mútkün (to W), Hroth, Peleu (to SW), Curiya, Isiza, Krasnaya, Solhai, Vimínia (to S), Lebcaizura, Caizura (to SE), Dhekhnam, Kara Desert (to E), Ismahi, Denisovič (to NE), Flora (across water to N)
Contents |
The early kingdom
- For the early history of Verduria, see Verduria city. For a more detailed account of the foundation of the kingdom, see the article on Caleon.
Foundation
The kingdom (dalua) of Verduria was proclaimed in 2943 by Caleon Prežeon, then sanno (Lord) of Verduria city, and ruler of what are now Verduria and Zeir provinces (fetörî). This was essentially a declaration of independence from Žésifo, which under Ertala claimed to revive the Caďinorian empire. As Verduria had been entirely free of Caďinorian rule since the conquest of Žésifo by the Curiyans in 2792, and effectively free for long before that, Caleon viewed Ertala as an impudent fool.
Ertala nonetheless raised an army and sent it north; Caleon defeated it in 2950, in Šerian. As the prince of Šerian had been foolish enough to back Ertala, Caleon deposed him. He then proceeded to march on Žésifo in order to “whip Ertala like a schoolboy”; Ertala killed himself before he entered the city.
Caleon was now master of Žésifo’s little empire, which included present-day Beluana and Zariaspa; later campaigns added Irvesi, Aodo, and Célenor. In a reign of just fifteen years Caleon had roughly quadrupled the size of his kingdom. Many expected him to proclaim a new Caďinorian empire; but to Caleon the empire was a symbol of weakness and decay; Verduria was no revival, but a lebe solial, a new dawn.
The sannoi of Verduria had been lords of little more than Verduria city; Caleon now found himself ruling a large portion of Eretald. The institutional know-how for administering a state of this size did not yet exist. Caleon gave much of the new land to generals, relatives, or trusted nobles to rule, as well as making use of what remained in Žésifo of the Empire’s bureaucracy. He also separated government of the kingdom from that of Verduria city; the latter was given to an appointed Este Hozën (Great Steward).
The later Prežeons
Caleon was assassinated in 2958. He had clearly intended his successor to be his son Ževuran, but the Biyetora, the group of nobles with the right to choose Verdurian lords, preferred Ževuran’s younger brother Ženeon. Ževuran fought a short civil war to secure his kingship, and then declared the Biyetora at an end, relying for advice instead on the Konselora, whose members served at the king’s pleasure.
During his exceptional 72-year-long reign, Ževuran conquered Célenor, Peleu, Isiza, Vimínia, Sereor, and parts of Ismahi. He also promulgated the Great Code of 3021, a codification of Verdurian law.
His son Estdorot was already an old man when he ascended to the throne; but when the Dhekhnams advanced to the edge of Eretald, Estdorot led the Verdurian army over the Ctelm mountains, driving them back across the Shkónoro and reestablishing the kingdom of Sarnáe (3045-8). The Sarnáeans immediately recommenced their north/south squabbles, which had led to civil war before and to the Dhekhnami advance. They were unable to select a single king, and divided into northern and southern realms. Estdorot withdrew in disgust; the ultimate consequence was that rather than following in the footsteps of Ervëa, Verduria would have a powerful and hostile neighbor across the Ctelm mountains.
| Verdurian dynasties | |
| 2943-3128 | Prežeon dynasty |
| 3128-3142 | Usurpation of 3128 |
| 3142-3198 | Soley dynasty |
| 3198-3241 | The Gray Years |
| 3241-3301 | Eleďe dynasty |
| 3302-3374 | Abolineron dynasty |
| 3376-3404 | Vočnor dynasty |
| 3404-3420 | Usurpation of 3404 |
| 3420- | Vleteon dynasty |
The Usurpation of 3128
The later Prežeons were increasingly weak, and in 3128 Boďomor Kušďey, commander of the army, deposed the last Prežeon monarch, Acuyo, and took the sash for himself. In just three years the kingdom devolved into civil war, with generals and nobles from various provinces vying for the sash; Ctesifon and other conquests rebelled at this time.
The Soley dynasty
Finally Caloton Soley, duke of Pelym, defeated his rivals (3142). He recalled the Biyetora to approve his accession— it was a long time since the king could simply dispense with the institutions of law and establish his position by mere declaration.
Caloton himself had a higher opinion of the nobles than of his son Efaristo. In his will, he expanded the Biyetora into a true legislature, the Esčambra, giving it legislative power for the first time, and adding many new members. The new body first met in 3165. In 3194, under Efaristo’s brother Alunařo, the Esčambra was given taxation authority, as part of a compromise under which the king renounced certain feudal prerogatives, such as the king’s right to use a lord’s architects and armorers.
The Gray Years
The wizard Utu murdered Alunařo in 3198, and ruled as king. He was chiefly motivated by certain alchemical and magical researches, requiring the cooperation of dark Powers; for this he needed resources on a royal level. He established an effective secret police to maintain power, but he was not very interested in the remoter provinces, and the Western Wild, Célenor, Krasnaya, and Vimínia fell away during this time. His chief minister Čagu took the sash when he died; there was so little change that he is known as Utu-On, “Utu again”.
The Eleďe renaissance
Tomao
In 3241 Tomao, baron of Arostrana and leader of the Mažtan-Kal (City Forum), led a revolution against Utu-On; its success was guaranteed when the commander of the Arcaln garrison came over to Tomao’s side. Tomao was proclaimed king, His dynasty would normally have been called Ihtüec, after his family name; but because of the unusual circumstance that Tomao came from the minority which accepted the the Eleďe religion, it is called the Eleďe dynasty.
Under Tomao, Verduria shook off the torpor of the Gray Years. Sea trade revived, with ships reaching Téllinor and Uytai; early efforts at capitalism (such as the joint-stock corporation) flourished; and printing was imported from Érenat, transforming the world of information. He never quite won over the pagans, however; indeed, he narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a rebellious pagan noble. They could never quite forgive him for disestablishing Caďinorian paganism and decreeing religious freedom. (Temple and state were not entirely separated— for instance, there were seats in the Esčambra reserved for pagan priests— but such privileges were extended to Eleďi as well.) Tomao did outlaw practices repugnant to his religion— slavery and interest.
Elena
His successor Elena solved the problem of recalcitrant nobles by a sort of top-down revolution, reforming the Esčambra to grant many more seats to her supporters: the rising bourgeois, small landholders, and the working class. The franchise, limited to 20,000 Verdurians by the Soley reforms, was now 700,000, out of a population of 5 million. These reforms greatly increased the representativeness of the legislature— and indeed made it harder for future monarchs to defy it. She also formally abolished the Biyetora; the Esčambra would have the power to choose kings only when the last monarch had no recognized heir.
Just as importantly, Elena fought three wars with Kebri. The first was a rout for Verduria; the second was a standoff; the final one (3285) was a decisive Verdurian victory. These wars established Verduria as a naval power second to none, cemented an alliance with Érenat, and transformed Verdurian politics as well. From now on, with some exceptions, Verdurian monarchs would ally with the Navy, with the rising capitalist class, and with the cities, against the conservative pagans and nobles.
Andrea
Elena was succeeded by her daughter Andrea, who personally undertook an ambassadorship to Xurno, launching a fad in Verduria for things Xurnese. She also established a fort at the mouth of the Auqi in eastern Ereláe (3291), the nucleus of the colony of Karímia.
In 3301 she took a ship (including a large contingent of Knights of Dévora) and disappeared, leaving the country in consternation. After a decent interval the Esčambra chose a new king, a conservative pagan count.
The Abolinerons
Mëranac 1e did his best to undo what the pagans considered the worst excesses of the Eleďe dynasty. He reestablished the pagan religion (though this was largely symbolic; he could hardly return to persecuting Eleďi); focussed attention on Eretald, reconquering Ctesifon and Vimínia; and adorned the capital with grandiose new buildings, and wide boulevards to connect them. He also wrote an eight-volume history of Verduria, aiming to show that the Abolineron dynasty would restore the martial glory of the Prežeons.
His successors passed with unseemly haste into decline. The troubles began with his untimely death in 3316, since he had not named an heir. The Esčambra chose his only remaining child Icëlana; but the family and a substantial fraction of the nobility strongly opposed having another queen, and backed his grandson Ažerey 2e. In the elections of 3319 a conservative bloc took control of the Esčambra and voted to depose Icëlana and give the sash to Ažerey; this was quite illegal, but with the complicity of the Palace guard it was put in effect, and Icëlana was imprisoned.
Five years later she escaped and began raising support for a rebellion against her nephew. A strange sort of protracted civil war ensued, never involving large battles, but skirmishes between armed supporters, parliamentary maneuvers, and the occasional family murder. Icëlana regained the sash in 3328; Ažerey took it back seven years later. Icëlana died in 3349, and things calmed down for awhile.
Verduria had been trading with the barbarian kingdoms in the far west of Ereláe, and inevitably got involved with their wars (which generally started when coastal states trading with Verduria thereby acquired riches and weapons and started lording it over the states of the interior). In 3355, to stop another round of warfare, it took over a good swath of the country, forming the colony of Téllinor.
Ctésifon and Vimínia drifted away during the dynastic squabbles.
Ažerey was succeeded by his son Mëranac 2e; but then the sorry farce started up again, as Icëlana’s granddaughter Miďë schemed to regain the throne, succeeding two years later. In 3374 she was assassinated, probably on orders of Mëranac’s brother, and Mëranac’s niece Ayeša was briefly put in power.
Finally a coalition of Esčambromî murdered Ayeša and most of the remaining Abolinerons, and declared Verduria a republic. The nation had tolerated the Abolineron game of musical chairs— to outsiders there was never much difference between the contenders anyway— but this usurpation was an outrage, and the country now fell into a real civil war.
Modern dynasties
The Vočnor dynasty
More than one noble or general proclaimed himself king, only to be chased out by the next pretender. In 3376 the army’s general in Zeir, Pelerin Vočnor, with allies in Irvesi and Verduria province, took control of the capital and declared himself Lord Protector. He then reestablished order throughout the kingdom, and convened the Esčambra to take care of business that had been neglected during the disorders. With admirable patience, he did not call himself king till the Esčambra gave him the title.
A constitutional usurpation
Pelerin was succeeded by his son Orest and then by his daughter Vlerë, but Orest was insane and Vlerë died early, and neither had heirs. The Sanno Konselore Daluii or Prime Minister, Onvaďra Anëtey, instead of instituting the procedures for the Esčambra to choose a new monarch, simply declared herself queen.
Civil wars were passé; to oppose the usurpation, her opponents simply sued. The courts and the Esčambra considered the case many times; Onvaďra’s defense was that she had taken power for the good of the nation, as Caleon had— a rather weak argument, since the Prežeons had been sannoi of Verduria for two centuries before Caleon. However, what no one could deny was Onvaďra’s mastery of procedure, both legal and parliamentary. She knew just what obfuscatory laws to invoke and what obscure parliamentary maneuvers to perform; and when backed into a corner there was always the use of force— the Palace Guard once simply seized all the papers her parliamentary opponents had gathered relating to the case.
When she died, in 3420, the courts finally ruled that she had taken power unlawfully, but was the lawful queen— a paradox necessary to preserve the Esčambra’s work over the last sixteen years.
The Vleteon dynasty
The Esčambra met to choose a new monarch, and found itself deadlocked between several powerful candidates. Eventually it settled on a compromise candidate, Vlaran Vleteon, baron of Amežna.
Vlaran proved to be an able monarch, recovering Célenor and Zelm, and further reining in the power of the nobles, who now must live in Verduria city if they wish to vote in the Esčambra.
He was succeeded by his son Alric, the present ruler. He has two children, Tilye, the crown princess, now 13, and a toddler, Velto. The current Prime Minister is Abend Monteneon, former proprietor of the city’s leading inn, the Corona.
See also
Categories: Verduria | Nations | Eretald
