Confederacy of Calavarian States

The **Confederacy of Calavarian States** located in and around the Calavari Sea in the far west of Severia was a confederation of semi autonomous states united under the protection of the Confederate Army of President-General Arbam Caine. Unlike its nearest neighbours in the east the Confederacy was still undergoing the process of industrialisation by the mid-2nd century CE which had swept across Severia since the arrival of the New Iotanian refugees. Quality of life and personal and state wealth were comparatively low but a growing tradition of entrepreneurship was helping the nation catch up to those in the east.

## History

### Before Caine

Before the unification process began many of the nations of Calavaria would find each other in near constant conflict. Wars spread out across the waves with several island nations building up significant navies. Chiefest among these was the Kingdom of Willovia which from its island seat commanded a large degree of control over the sea. As well as being a fiercely independent maritime state it had a strong agrarian economy and was for a long time seen as the richest of Calavaria's nations.

Meanwhile on the western coast of the Calavari sea three settlements emerged on one of the area's largest rivers: Pendleville, Palmerstown and Talliholme each presided over by a grand mayor the three towns were constantly at each other's throats in the quest for control of the trade up and down the river as well as a rapidly expanding logging industry.

### Uniting the Republic

Arbam Caine was born in Palmerstown to parents who worked in the lumber industry. From an early age he showed great ambition and drive and by the age of 16 he moved from his family home to find work in Pendleville. He worked for three years at the docks learning much about the politics and trade of Calavaria and, as many who worked at the dock at that time did, of fighting. The constant scuffles between traders from each of the river town rarely escalated to anything meaningful but all of the townfolk were ready to be called up into a mob over any small excuse.

It was on one such occasion during which a mob from Pendleville and one from Talliholme were getting into a bit of a confrontation that Caine found himself leading a rather organised part of the mob consisting of several of his friends from the docks. While the conflict was going on he and his team slipped past and kidnapped the Mayor of Talliholme and presented him to their own Mayor. Impressed with the work of Caine the Mayor appointed him as the governor of Talliholme under Pendleville's authority.

Caine took to the new job with delight and brought with him to Talliholme the friends which he had led in the raid.he worked under the Mayor of Pendleville for a little over half a year before he made his true intentions known. Of the three river towns Talliholme had always been the smallest least wealthy, caught between the two greater towns and always picking up the scraps. Caine took the town and made it a key part of the lumber network bringing logs from the south bank of the river up into the mesa. The town prospered under his rule but it was still eclipsed by the wealth of its two neighbours. Meanwhile he had also been training and drilling his friends from the dock into something resembling a fighting unit and with the resources of Talliholme at his disposal he outfitted them with uniforms and weapons. When he turned on the Mayor of Pendleville it came as a shock to the old man and with no real military to speak of the town soon fell to Caine's band and declaring himself President he began construction of a fort overlooking the town and the sea.

His ambitions did not simply stop as being president of two towns though and after constructing a second fort on the road between Talliholme and Palmerstown he prepared for a campaign to unite his conquests with the town of his birth. Suspecting this was Caine's vision the Mayor of Palmerstown had been hastily preparing a militia from the residents of the town and by the time Caine's army was ready to march the Palmerstown militia outnumbered it by at least four to one.

As the two armies lined up ready for a decisive battle it was clear that holding the terrain advantage as well as having superior equipment and training that Caine's force was likely to win the day. Not wanting to cause further bloodshed Caine made an offer to the militia to stand down and turn the town over to him and in repayment he would make Palmerstown the capital of a great empire. Despite the Mayor's best efforts to rouse his troops to battle the commanders of the militia decided it was in their best interests to surrender to Caine and the town was handed over to him. Many of the militia were offered a place in Caine's army and he declared the Palmerstown Republic with himself as President-Governor.

### Birth of a Confederacy

The Republic may have united the river town for the first time but it was still a minor player in the Calavari basin. Caine intended to keep his promise though and make Palmerstown the seat of a great empire. He moved much of the political infrastructure into Palmerstown and kept Talliholme as the heart of the wood industry but in Pendleville he focused the majority of his efforts. New mines were opened and the populace was mobilised to work Caine knew that his chief rival in the region would be the Kingdom of Willovia which dominated the seas. In a prolonged war he would never be able to beat them because of their unstoppable navy and island location. He would need to be swift and decisive if he wanted to take them down.

...Underconstruction...

As the king put down his arms at Caine's feet Caine offered him a choice which would form the basis of the confederate structure. He told the king of his vision for a united Calvaria all together as apart of a single confederation with his army forever protecting and expanding the borders. He offered the king to continue ruling his island much the same as before but under Caine's military and as a prince in this grand coalition. With no real options left the king accepted and went with Caine on a journey back to Palmerstown where the two of them created constitution of the Confederacy of Calavarian States with the first two states being the Republic of Palmerstown and the Principality of Willovia.

## Crisis in the Confederacy

On the 14th of January year 103 the pregnant Governor of the Palmerstown Republic and daughter of the President-General was reported missing and a few days later she was discovered murdered. The police immediately launched an investigation into the murder and the day after President-General Arbam Caine announced that the ongoing elections would be stopped and that none more would be held until stability was restored. The planned Confederate Conference did not take place and soon after the President-General retreated from public life.

That April one of Caine's trusted lieutenants and retired soldier Fredricia Blech, who had been running to represent the unincorporated territories on a platform of southern statehood, announced that contrary to the wishes of many she would not be returning to Palmerstown to try and reign in the chaos but instead look to the well being of the south.

Then at the start of May amidst news of strikes in Fort Temezi the President-General's youngest son Colonel Henly Caine began a coup of the Palmerstwon Republic looking to bring stability to the now totally disordered state.