Kelp Wars

The Kelp Wars were a bunch of military conflicts between various Eldham nations, mainly in the Drakesland, and the seaweed known as kelp. Kelp caused floods around all of Eldham, especially in the Drakaen Sea, which led several nations to try and eradicate it.
The Kelp wars in the Drakaen sea can be divided into three phases, where the efforts were led each time by a different nation or organisation: The First War against Kelp or Virconian Kelp War, led by the League of Vircon, the Second War against Kelp or Second Coalition against Kelp, led by Catania, Third War against Kelp or Operation Salema, led by Amarillo. Those conflicts can also be considered different phases of a single longer conflict, in which case it is called the Kelp war or, sometimes in literature or propaganda, the Longest war.
==Origins==
Kelp is dangerous. When under a flowing water block, it can grow in it and turn it into a source block. If there is a lot of kelp, it can turn into a chain reaction and rise the level of entire oceans. And there indeed is a lot of kelp all around Eldham's seas, most are in fact filled with kelp, including the Drakaen sea.
In September 2021, the squatter settlement of Kibris was established in the Drakaen sea by Ananas. Near it, probably because of a water source someone from Kibris or attacking Kibris forgot to remove, the chain reaction described above happened, and the water began to rise all around the Drakaen sea.
==First War against Kelp==
===Attack on Sora===
The Kelp prepared slowly, rising the sea levels in the middle of the Drakaen Sea. The League of Vircon noticed the change and started to alert people, but didn't do anything about it yet, as it was seen as annoying but not dangerous. This would change after a giant tsunami appeared on the coast of a Catanian city, Atarashi Sora. Catania quickly encased the tsunami, preventing destruction and putting the League on high alert. Shortly after, the League started organizing for military intervention.Continuing those efforts, to prevent kelp from spreading to other seas or rivers, and to protect the land, Soronaca Aulian, Salazar Van Den Green and Tio built dams all around the Drakaen sea.
===Battle for the Coast of Amarillo===
After officially having declared war on kelp and appointed Soronaca Aulian general commander for this war, the League of Vircon mobilised for what it called Operation Prismarine. The battle plan was to gather forces on the coasts of Amarillo, as the kelp had already attacked there. The Amarillian navy was sunk, but the walls held steady against the water masses. On December 18th, VanDerGreen and Therandus Lachforst organised the first push against the kelp, with reinforcements of Valreach joining them not long after. The kelp was pushed back a few hundred blocks, suffering heavy losses. As the kelp saw that most Virconian forces were on the northern front, it sent phantoms to distract them and pushed to the east. The shores of Catania were in its sight and the waves kept growing. A Valrean soldier spotted the attack and alarmed the rest of the army, but was caught up in the kelp and drowned. The kelp kept pushing forward, nothing being able to falter it's determination to flood Kalminur. The brave soldiers of the league stood in it's way, quickly errecting walls and slaughtering loads of kelp plants. Seeing their heavy losses, the kelp decided to hire bandits to assist them and bandits attacked Amarillo. This threw the Virconian high command into disarray, as they had not planned for a land attack from behind. But the numbers on land were in the favors of the league, quickly repelling the bandits and focusing back on the sea. After 3 hours of fighting, the kelp was pushed out of the north and the east of the Drakaen sea, still holding tight control of the west and having some troops cut off to the south east.
===Battle in the east===
After the Battle for the Amarillo coast, relative peace followed. Little skirmishes occured, mostly on the coastlines. The kelp had other plans, it wouldn't just sit idly by, until the next large force pushed it out of it's territory. It slowly crept back into old territory. Soldiers from Catania noticed the return of the kelp and called for another attack on kelp infested waters. The League was just debating and going through chaos, without paying any attention to the real enemy. Catania launched an attack on its own, pushing the kelp out of the eastern side of the Drakaen sea. Even though this battle was a small victory for Catania and thus for the League of Vircon, the enemy still resided in shared waters.
===End of the war ===
Kelp was removed from half of the Drakaen sea in two successful battles, nonetheless the menace of flooding still lingered over the region. The League of Vircon collapsed due to unrelated factors without achieving their goal of removing kelp from all of the Drakaen sea. Even though some former member states and persons planned to continue the effort even without the League, no one actually did until months after.
==Second War against Kelp==
===Goals===
The Catanian kelp war, launched by the state of Catania, at the time part of the Drakaen Commonwealth, while still retaining a worldwide ambition, overall lowered its scope and mostly limited its operations to the removal of kelp in the Drakaen Sea. As for the virconian kelp war, the goal was to remove kelp from the Drakaen sea and lower it back to its original level, as well as to convince the world of the dangers of kelp so other nations would do similar efforts where it was necessary.
===Events===
====Start of the war ====
On april 19 2022, Therandus Lachfrost, a high ranking Catanian, announced to the world the creation of the Second Coalition Against Kelp, to pursue Vircon's efforts against the seaweed, as there were holes the dams and the partially destroyed kelp grew again, and so the issue continued."We knew this problem existed for months now, the League of Vircon even fought a war against kelp for that matter. We all built walls and thought that would keep the water out, but no, people make holes in these walls and replant kelp and our lands get flooded. First it was Arthholds capital of Banshelia, then Catania's western coast, even Amarillo's Rivers. No nation bordering the Drakaen sea is safe and that is the reason I open the 2nd Coalition against kelp. I did ask the admins for help, but we can't fully rely on them and the least we can do is to remove all of the kelp. This coalition is formed to help all nations (and squatters) in the Drakesland with flooding problems and with kelp removal." - Therandus LachfrostAs he notified all the Drakaen countries of this new war against kelp, very quickly, the Arthholds, Gardenia and Valreach all three officially joined the effort and declared war on kelp. As Amarillo was in the middle of a civil war, it did not officially join the effort. However, the imperilano-republican faction of the civil war, supported by Catania, participated, with its leader Soronaca even personally taking part in the effort, and the republican leader SSiTon becoming one of the most efficient kelp destroyers in the Drakeslands. A few people from outside the Drakeslands also declared their support for the coalition.
====Raid on Ambrosia====
After Valreach declared war on kelp, the city of Ambrosia announced it took the side of kelp. Ironically, the city was completely spared by the rising sea levels and the various issues caused by kelp, as it was located near a cold sea, in which kelp did not naturally grow. 
To make them realise the danger caused by kelp and change their mind about it, on the 21st of April 2022, a group of coalition fighters, including Therandus Lachfrost, Soronaca Aulian, Kendal Reach and Frospi, sailed to Ambrosia. They planted kelp near the city and placed water above it, made it grow and, without them needing to do anything, flood parts of the city.
The coalition, doing as if they had nothing to do with the flooding of Ambrosia, then proposed to help them get rid of the water and kelp and made the following announcement:"We were preparing for our first battle when we received word, that there was a flooding sighted. This flooding occurred in the south, in no other town but Ambrosia itself. These fools said they would ally with kelp and were criticising us for our concerns, now their homes and families got attacked by their very "ally". It is a really tragic day to see a town being swallowed up by the ocean because it's inhabitants didn't take the threat of kelp seriously. It could happen to any one of us. They surely learnt their lesson, but there are still others out there not having the knowledge to not trust kelp. Spread the word and prevent horrid events like this from happening in the future."
====End of the Catanian Kelp War ====
After the raid of Ambrosia, the coalition continued its efforts against kelp in the Drakaen sea, meeting little to no obstacle despite the Dryad Coalition's denouncement of their efforts.
On the 27th of April 2022, the Coalition sent another announcement, denouncing the "kelp apologists and sympathisers" and calling for a collective effort even outside the Drakaen sea after other seas were touched. Overall, the coalition managed to remove almost all of the kelp in the Drakaen sea.
However, after that, the amount of effort put into the coalition or its objectives gradually fell down, as the political events happening in the Drakeslands took its leaders' attention far from sea levels. When Catania left the Drakaen Commonwealth to join the Imperium, the Coalition was silently but definitely put to an end.
==Third War against Kelp==
In July 2022, Soronaca Aulian de Porphyropolis became King of Amarillo after the successors of his predecessor Kawaii I were all considered unfit to rule by parliament. Quick into his reign, he launched Operation Salema, whose goal was to finish what the Second Coalition against kelp started. In his own words, the goals of operation Salema were the following23rd of July 2022 public announcement launching operation Salema.: 
*Removing any potential kelp left in the Drakaen Sea
*Secure the passages leading through the Drakaen Sea (removing kelp from the strait of Vircon for example)
*Put the water back to its previous level
*Remove all the dams around the Drakaen Sea
*If need be, readapt buildings adapted to current sea levels
===First phase: Removing kelp and securing the passages to the Drakaen sea ===
The first phase of operation Salema was carried out smoothly by Amarillo, and the remaining kelp in the Drakaen sea was fully destroyed. Amarillo also removed kelp from the strait of Vircon, from where it could have grown back into the sea.
===Second phase: Lowering the sea back to its original level===
(for a detailed article, see War of the Rising Tides)
After the completion of the first phase of operation Salema, Amarillo asked all of the countries neighbouring the Drakaen sea if they had any objection with them lowering the sea back. All the countries agreed with Amarillo's plan without hesitation but Pasifa. Due to this and their overall bad reputation and past bad relations with Amarillo, Soronaca became hostile to Pasifa, and handled the situation in a rather aggressive way, threatening Pasifa to cancel their non-aggression pact if they refused to lower the sea level. Pasifa didn't fold to the Amarillian ultimatums, and after several diplomatic failures, Amarillo declared war to Pasifa on the 11th of September 2022.
After weeks of fighting and the occupation of Pasifa's capital by Amarillo and its allies, on the 20th of November 2022, Amarillo announced a peace treaty was signed, confirming their victory.
===The Darkest Night===
On the 5th of December 2022, a magic ritual was conducted in the Nachtenreich, an Amarillian ally, in city of New Yoake. Overnight, it lowered the Drakaen sea back to its original level, sparing to the Amarillians and other Drakaens what would else have been a long and hard collective logistical and material effort. This event was known as "The Darkest Night" and not only was the closure of the second phase of Operation Salema, but it meant the effective end of the Wars against Kelp in the Drakaen Sea.
The ritual had side-effects, the day after the ritual, the Yoakens found the lost city of Volas Lunam high in the skies of the Frostbitten Sea. Regnum Yoake took over the island and named Delta Drake, Imperina of the Nachtenreich and priestess of the ritual, Moon Princess of Volas Lunam.
==Conclusion of the war ==
After the success of Operation Salema's phase 2, the planned and organised efforts against kelp ceased. While the last two goals of the operation were not fulfilled as part of it, the Amarillian leadership knew the inhabitants would do it themselves locally in every concerned area, and so the operation was a vibrant success.
On December 10 2022, King Soronaca de Porphyropolis announced the end of "the longest war", the war against kelp in the Drakaen sea. An order of merit, the Order of the Kelp war, was also created by the Amarillian king. A few days later, 19 people received the medal for their efforts in the kelp war, including all of its phases and the War of the Rising Tides.
==Notes==
Category:Wars
Category:History
Category:Drakaes
Category:Amarillo
Category:Traveler's Era