State of Düllsberg

Flag of the State of Düllsberg

Symbol of the State of Düllsberg (translated from the Kanorian language)

> Onward with General O!
>
> — Düllsberger propaganda

The **State of Düllsberg** was an autocratic successor state of the Tarnist Republic of Kanoria situated around the northeastern Kanorian city of Düllsberg. It was founded by military strongman Osea Zana during the Kanorian Revolution of 1938. His regime was reinforced by local business oligarchs and remnants of the Kanorian intelligence community, such as Yanic Narson-Kean.

The most populous and industrialized region of Düllsberg is the eponymous city, where millions of residents toil away to grow its economic output. Oil fields wrap around the capital and small towns dot the countryside.

## History

The State was established in the final weeks of the Kanorian Revolution, when the last strongholds of the Tarnist Republic were being purged. A small force of Tarnist soldiers and Golems had seized provisional control of Düllsberg, but their presence was growing incredibly unpopular. Local business oligarchs opposed the Tarnist garrison but lacked the military strength to eject them. Many of these tycoons had connections to the retired General Osea Zana, the former Supreme Chief of Police who was conveniently sympathetic to the Revolution and a Düllsberg native. Steel tycoon Karl Daltyn appealed to Zana personally, asking him to descend upon Düllsberg and take stewardship of the city from the Tarnists. The General's personal envoy and a former intelligence officer for the Tarnist Republic, a man named Yanic-Narson Kean, endorsed the takeover as well.

With the matter settled, General Zana entered the city in late 1938, at the head of a column of Kanorian Assault Police. These forces were broadly supported by the local populace, who quickly organized into militias to help expel the Tarnists. In a matter of days, all local government buildings had been seized by force. Zana proclaimed the "State of Düllsberg," ostensibly ruled by a State Council, though in reality the General had consolidated all political power for himself. To legitimize his rule, Zana established the Heartland Prosperity Party with Karl Daltyn, and converted his security officers into a paramilitary organization called the State Defense Forces (SDF). He quickly took over the immediate environs of Düllsberg, including the cities of Kammhal and Lasalza. This allowed his regime unhindered control over the regional economy and increased the cashflow to Zana and his supporting oligarchs.

In 1940, the first elections were held in the State of Düllsberg. They were directly overseen by the State Defense Forces, which led international observers to characterize the races as corrupt. The elections were a blowout win for General O's party, the HPP; it secured 28 of 30 seats in the State Council, with the RRU winning two seats from the more affluent districts of Lasalza. The HPP's overwhelming majority made the State Council more or less a rubber-stamp for General O, allowing him to further monopolize his control. Labor unions were ordered to comply with his personally-issued regulations, dividing the working populace of Düllsberg. After a few months, he consolidated his authority over the workers through the Federation of Industrial Workers of the Heartland of Düllsberg.

In 1943, a half-human, half-orc by the name of Walter March, from the western reaches of the State, arrived in Düllsberg City. He quickly rose through the ranks of the HPP Militia to become General O's personal bodyguard.

The elections of 1944 saw an even wider victory for the HPP, winning 29 out of 30 seats (managing to flip one of the seats from the RRU due to its unpopular candidate Gerrold Kreymer). They were even more heavily policed than the elections in 1940. In the wake of his overwhelming electoral success, General O pursued of heavy domestic policy agenda, increasing economic output and party loyalty.

The co-founder of the Heartland Prosperity Party, a man by the name of Karl Daltyn, became increasingly oppositional to General Zana during the mid-1940s. He posited himself as a reformer and was popular with religious organizations and some oligarchs. Eight of his close associates intended to run as a sub-group of the HPP called the 'Daltyn Group' in the 1948 elections, but Daltyn died sometime before this could occur. Competing theories emerged about the murky circumstances of his death; it was plausible that Daltyn had died of old age, but the timing of this was viewed as too convenient by what remained of General O's defanged political opposition. Private investigators attempting to enter the Daltyn estate were fired upon in an event known as the Rose Lane Incident.

Karl Daltyn's corporate holdings and political offices were inherited by his son, Wagner Daltyn-Kean; a cousin of General O's close advisor Yanic. The 'Daltyn Group' quickly dissolved and Wagner reaffirmed his support for the ruling HPP regime.

A few non-HPP political parties had sprung up during this time period, but they were all implicitly supportive of the *status quo*. When the elections rolled around, they turned out as follows:

* 24 seats for the Heartland Prosperity Party, the ruling party
	+ 1 seat for "Defense of the Heartland," a militarized semi-official wing of the party popular in the borderlands
* 2 seats for the Regional Renaissance Union, an intellectual movement
* 2 seats for Kanorian State Action, a political party advocating for Greater Kanoria
* 1 seat for Düllsberg Together, a centrist party

The non-HPP parties were too different from each other to function as a legitimate opposition; they were overruled by the ruling mega-party whenever necessary.

The 1948 elections saw the highest turnout thus far, as General O made an active push to heighten political participation from the population and mobilize new levels of support for his government. Despite still receiving overwhelming support from the electorate, he was alarmed by the success of his token opposition. Zana began drawing up imperialistic projects as early as 1949 in an effort to gain popular support.

Zana was slowly radicalized to the idea of a Greater Kanoria situated around Düllsberg. He espoused this idea in the runup to the 1952 elections. The results of those elections were:

* 24 seats for the Heartland Prosperity Party
	+ 2 seats for "Defense of the Heartland"
* 3 seats for Kanorian State Action
* 1 seats for the Regional Renaissance Union
* 0 seats for Düllsberg Together

In 1954, General Zana authorized the deployment of his army, the State Defense Forces, into the former Karostainian lands to the east administered by the BISDA Owl Strike Force. This military action was backed by the Inter-Continental Security League, and more specifically by Wilter & Levi Co. The Socialist Red Shirts of BISDA active in the region were caught up in the fighting too. This incursion kicked off the Düllsberger–BISDA War.