Ruthenia

**The Kingdom of Ruthenia**

The Kingdom of Ruthenia was an absolute monarchy located in the region of Ruthenia. It was made up of a number of princedoms with a king at the very top of the aristocracy. The first ruler of Ruthenia was a man named Andriy Petrov who was part Nordic and Slavic in origin.

He ruled the Kingdom of Ruthenia until a mysterious messenger came into the tent of Petrov. The messenger said he came from the Empire of Malhut Safun and that the emperor would like to have a unification of both states. In return, the emperor would give Petrov the honor of being part of the high nobility. Petrov accepted knowing with this act he could achieve great power as a high noble of this jewish caucasian empire instead of ruling a small kingdom in the middle of nowhere. This would also guarantee his throne because next to Ruthenia sat The Great Khanate of Baruun. Which the king feared would invade Ruthenia and incorporate it into it's lands.

However to unify with Malhut Safun, Petrov sent his daughter to meet with the crown prince of Malhut Safun and marry which would bind both kingdoms together. But when the many princes of the Empire heard of this change in leader ship many were not happy and immediatly began a rebellion and to topple the kingdom. Due to this the king was overthrown and the unification act became void. During this period of chaos, the empire of Malhut Safun began to mobilize and invade Ruthenia. But soon the empire collapsed due to an internal struggle between princes after the emperors death.

**The Dark Years**

After this Coup d'état, The Confederation of Ruthenia was born from the ashes. The princes of the time vowed that no coward king would be needed in Ruthenia and that they would rule through a council. As to get revenge on Malhut Safun for having tried to incorporate Ruthenia, the confederation began to get closer ties to Baruun and together with the khanate began The First Steppe War with Malhut Safun. However after the war a problem began, in truth there was no direct authority in the council, it was pure chaos during debates and the Confederation many times could not deal with problems due to differing views and lack of cooperation. Many of the powerful princes also began to conspire to make an empire and eliminate the rest of the council. So the knowing the confederation would collapse, many lords called for a election to bring an outsider to the lands of Ruthenia to rule as they would be the least biased and perhaps know better then those of the council. So local rulers from the neighbors of Ruthenia came to hopefully be elected. The rulers present came from Semnosilesia, Baruun and The Greek-Illyrian Diarchy. However the elections would have to be soon as the most powerful lord of Ruthenia, Vladimir Bondarenko was scheming to become emperor of Ruthenia and conquer the whole Rus region. However by the end of the elections, the elected leader was the one from Baruun. Batar the Second, the second son of the current Khan. Knowing that many princes from the council were conspiring to take power. he sent many trained assasins from baruun to kill all the powerful lords and any unruly princes. he succeeded in this and managed to assasinate Bondarenko. With these actions, he succeeded in becoming the Ruler of Ruthenia and ending The Dark Years.

**The United Realm of Ruthenia**

After gaining power, Batar created The United Realm of Ruthenia with him as it's high king. During these years, Batar thought of the creation of some type of council that could advise him and is future rulers on the realm as well as provide advice to the High King. With this idea, he created the first imperial legislation council or as he called it ,The Duma. The Duma would be an elected council from all of the regions of Ruthenia and these legislators would be elected by the rich commoners. Who after filling out a certain criteria in land and money. They could vote for a legislator, these legislators were always supposed to be of noble origin or at least be an extremely rich and influential commoner. The legislators would always be relected following one of their deaths. Batar also ha other ideas concerning beginning commerse with nations who neighbored Ruthenia. Specifically his home country of Baruun and Greece who was a rich Balkan country and was able to access Ruthenia. It also began trade with Semnosilesia until the Vitulan incident rocked the relations of both countries. Batar also began to build a small town that the people eventually called Minsk, where he would lead and live in. Soon due to his incredible leadership and having brought great commerce to Ruthenia. The people began to call him Batar Rus the Unifier. He gladly took the name and named his branch of khan's royal family, Rus. Soon Batar had a son, who he named Nickolas Rus. He eventually sent Nick to meet his uncle, the khan of Baruun, to let Batar the First teach his son in Mongolien culture and his ways of ruling. As for Nickolas to learn Ruthenian and Mongolian cultures. But soon Batar became ill and passed away soon afterward. Nickolas Rus was then to be high king and rule Ruthenia. But his rule would be the most difficult one of all.