First Finnish Empire

The First Finnish Empire was a major empire located in Finland that became one of the most important nations of the later Classic Era of Worlda of Nations, being the first Arctic nation to forge a colonial empire. It was also the first incarnation of the Finnish Empire, which would later rise three more times after the Solar Flare. At its peak, it controlled the entirety of Scandinavia, Finland, Karelia, the Baltic states and Ingria, the White Sea coast, Germany, Poland, Belarus, the Netherlands, England, and Iceland. Outside of Europe, it held Quebec, part of Greenland's eastern coast, Venezuela, the Lesser Antilles, the Congo, Somalia, the Philippines, Japan, southern China, Korea, western Australia and Liberia. It was one of the strongest nations of its time, and was allied to Byzantium, the other European power. It was played by Onekcin. 
Even after its downfall in 206AD, Finland continued to influence Scandinavia long afterwards. Its two major successors, the Second and Third Finnish empires, helped to further spread and solidify Finnish culture across the region. Today, the Finnish language is spoken throughout coastal Scandinavia and most of greater Finland, while Karelian and Sami have spread outwards as well. It was ruled by the House of Ruslanovich for most of its existence, with an interruption between 195 and 201AD. 
== History of the Finnish Empire ==
=== Origins of the Republic of Gohelm ===
Scandinavia was originally a mere idea had by a certain man, Oleksiy Ruslanovich. This man, a Ukrainian man, who was born around 128AD, was a radical revolutionary. In his home city of Kyiv, he was the leader of several Ukrainian independence groups. However, most evidence of these groups have all been lost to time, and the majority of them dissolved soon after Oleksiy traveled to the then Bharat-controlled city of St. Petersburg in 184AD.
Oleksiy would come to call St. Petersburg his home, and he was proud. Although he was a foreigner, the people of St. Petersburg came to cherish him and regard him as a man worth following. After seeing the tyranny put onto the Finnish people by the Bharat Finnish Regional Government, Oleksiy was truly aghast, and was radicalized as a Finnish revolutionary. He supported independence of the Finnic peoples, and the unification of the Scandinavian region into a singular empire. 
These ideals would bring him to write the hit novel Republic of the People, a highly political book advocating unification across Scandinavia and the Baltic regions against foreign powers. The novel was extremely popular across all of Finland and Estonia, so much so that a revolutionary group called the People's Party was formed in St Petersburg, and headed by Rostyslav Bondar, who was Oleksiy's good friend from Ukraine, like him. The People's Party established many strongholds across Finland and Estonia, and their presence became so strong that a ultimatum was eventually sent to Bharat. Not wanting to deal with trouble internally, they accepted. 
=== Gohelm/Scandinavia under Oleksiy ===
The original government of Finland was referred to as the Republic of Gohelm, which was a union between Finland and Estonia. After gaining independence from Bharat, the country invaded the country of Sweden, eventually annexing it after a long war. During the collapse of Bharat, they also invaded and annexed Lithuania. Gohelm thrived and eventually expanded to encompass all of Fennoscandia and the Baltics; just what Oleksiy had dreamed of. Due to this, Oleksiy, in the city of St. Petersburg (now called Borobinsk, once a fictional city in Oleksiy's hit novel), Oleksiy declared the Empire of Scandinavia after taking Denmark.
Scandinavia would grow to establish itself as a undisputed world power and own a presence across the globe, forming a coalition against Libya and singlehandedly leading to the fall of the First Libyan Empire as a major power in the War on Libya. In return, they gained Venezuela, the rest of Norway, the Congo, and Somalia, placing them among the strongest nations of the era. These colonies would grow further, and become major parts of the empire.
In the year 195AD however, horror struck all across Scandinavia. In 3 in the morning, Oleksiy Ruslanovich was pronounced dead by fatal stroke. The nation mourned for weeks, until Rostyslav Bondar, Oleksiy's good friend and founder of the People's Party, took up as leader of the Empire in remembrance of Oleksiy.
=== Rostyslav Bondar and Pretender Civil War ===
Rostyslav Bondar ruled Scandinavia for 6 years, and even converted it from a republic to a Absolute Monarchy. Under his rule, the Empire of Scandinavia would continue expanding across the world, invading its southern neighbors in Germany and Poland, colonizing the southern part of China, and even Japan. His rule was stable, until he did the unthinkable; he abdicated the throne to his 15 year old son Ivan. It had came out of the blue, and nobody quite expected it. Rostyslav, using the help of Oleksiy's bastard son Ajax, fled the nation to Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. Ivan, being a child emperor, had little support across the empire. Civil unrest was growing, and Ajax knew it. 
Being the son of Oleksiy, and being 21 years old, he knew he could use this moment to possibly become the 3rd Emperor of Scandinavia. In March of 201AD, Ajax Ruslanovich traveled to Stockholm in the Royal Kingdom of Sweden, and began rallying support. He managed to convince the kingdoms of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark to join his cause to form in his eyes a "greater Scandinavia". His rebellion is known as the Pretender Civil War, which resulted with Ajax successfully overthrowing Ivan and being crowned Emperor, and the untimely executions of Ivan and his beloved, Nina. Ajax, knowing he had killed Rostyslav's son, betrayed him and revealed his identity to all of the world, and then promptly captured him and sent him to an unmarked solitary confinement prison in Svalbard. 
=== Reforms of Emperor Ajax ===
Being the new Emperor, Ajax brought with him a variety of new reforms to the Empire. The most prominent being the changing of the national flag, and the renaming of the Empire to the "Finnish Empire" to "connect to our nation's roots." Ajax eventually married a Japanese woman named Chiyo, and had a son with her, who was known as Igor Ruslanovich. Ajax brought with him an era of peace and tranquility; a drastic change from Finland's war-filled past.
Emperor Ajax also created peace in Europe by founding the European Union with the Byzantine Empire and the Empire of Banat. This EU united almost all of Europe together, and the two global powers of the world, The Finnish Empire, and the Byzantine Empire. The EU was possibly one of the most important alliances formed in history, and solidified Emperor Ajax of Finland and Emperor Alexander III of Byzantium in the history books for the rest of time. 
Ajax, among his many other achievements, also turned the Finnish economy into a powerhouse. Finland previously was a very poor and rural empire, with not much funds to its name. Ajax changed this by rebuilding the kingdoms of Denmark and Poland, who were the two most affected kingdoms by the fighting in the Pretender Civil War. He also started constructing mass transit routes across the entire nation. Added together with the economic benefits of the EU, the Finnish economy began blasting off, and the Finnish Golak becoming one of the most valuable currencies, being widely accepted across the world. The transit routes allowed for easy transportation of the empires many natural resources to refineries and factories, which boosted production extremely. More factories began popping up as resources kept coming in, until the Finnish Empire was a rich and fully industrialized nation.
Even during this period, Finland did not stop expanding. More colonies were created in Liberia and Australia respectively, with Australia becoming the largest of the two. China also was expanded significantly, and Czechia became a new kingdom of mainland Finland, with Byzantium also giving them a portion of their northern territory to them.
=== Downfall of the Finnish Empire and post-Ajax history ===
However, the Finnish Empire met a very swift end when a assassination plot against Ajax and his family was discovered far too late. Ajax was reportedly shot dead, along with Chiyo and Igor. The resulting chaos resulted into the collapse of the First Finnish Empire into a small insignificant state once again. Finland's monarchy was replaced with a republic soon afterwards. 
The USSR was the final nail in the coffin for Finland. Shortly after their collapse, the Russians invaded from the south and defeated them, making Finland a SSR in the Union, in 207 AD. However, the nation regained its independence in 210AD as the Kingdom of Finland, only for the Russians to declare war on them not even a year later. The war that came from this had resulted in humiliating defeats of the Russian army by the Finnish, however their successes were short-lived as the Russian Federation eventually reconquered them. After the fall of the Normans and the USSR, Finland regained its independence and the nation was re-established, shortly before the solar flare occurred. After this, the remains of that government retreated into central Finland. Remnants of them were still active in the barren, unpopulated and mostly unsupervised area up to the formation of the second empire, although they had lost most actual power at that point.
=== Post-Solar Flare Events ===
Main articles: Ottoman Empire and Second Finnish Empire
After the solar flare event which led to the dramatic destruction of most of the world, Finland was left a open lands for conquest. The government which once was left scattered and defenseless within regions such as Sapmi, central Finland and Karelia, leaving them no real power or influence at their disposal. This was a ripe opportunity for the Empire of the Benelux, who swiftly moved in and occupied the region for around 2 decades. This occupation led to the somewhat gradual restoration of Finnish societal structures, and re-population of various towns and cities in the nation. However, occupation was not meant to last.
=== Alliances ===
Finland's first alliance was with Slavia in the form of the Eastern United Sphere, but it was dissolved due to Slavia not holding up their side of the agreement They later founded the alliance Intermarium with the Banat Empire, which would later be merged into the European Union after the strengthening of the alliance and the introduction of the Byzantine Empire to it as well. However, the European Union fell into ruin after Finland's collapse, and was only a de jure alliance afterwards, rarely being mentioned. The alliance officially dissolved when the Russian Federation fell. Finland had possibly one of the fastest rises to power in history, and one of the most shocking downfalls.
== Trivia ==
* The Finnish Empire is one of the only nations with a family tree, the other being the Byzantine Empire.
*Finland was neutral during the Second Worlda War. despite existing during it, most likely due to their ongoing invasion of Sweden at the time. It is believed that if they were involved, they might have tried to obtain Lithuania or even beyond. However, this cannot be known for certain since Finland never did get involved in the war.
*Finland was the leading nation during the dividing up of the First Libyan Empire, and headed the conference in Borobinsk. As well, they were one of the most bountiful recipients of land.
* Rumors in the Byzantine Empire suggested that Ajax may have actually faked his death, and fled into Byzantium knowing that his empire could very well fall after the random reappearance of Aallotar. This suggests that the people murdered that day were not actually royals, but fakers. This rumor was not commonly believed until Ajax reappeared and ran for President of Terra in late 222AD.
* Ajax is the only one of the emperors to not have a Ukrainian name as their original name, as he was born in the Byzantine Empire instead of Ukraine or Finland.
* Finland was one of few nations in WoN that have managed to get close to superpower status within 20 years. It also had one of the quickest falls.
== Wars ==
* War of the North (186-190AD)
* War on Libya (191AD)
* Lithuanian Subjugation War (190-191AD)
* Quebecouis? Invasion (191AD)
* Khanate Invasions (192AD)
* Invasion of England(195AD)
* Plain Wars (198AD - 200AD)
* Eastern Wars (200AD)
* Pretender Civil War (201AD)
* Finnish Wars of Independence (207AD - 210AD and 211AD - ?????AD)
Category:Nations