Mammalian Confederation

*"Though it is now the subject of much scrutiny—gods know I have my share of criticisms for it—I still feel a deep sadness when I think of the Confederation's disbanding. A symbol of unity and stability reduced from four tribes to two early on, it defiantly persisted for decades, through my childhood and into my adulthood. Not only did the Leopards quite literally save the world (even if the way they did so is controversial), they also had no qualms about their new Queen being of a different species. I'd assumed that would guarantee a continued alliance between us and them, but alas, it was not to be."* -Luggington on the Mammalian Confederation

## Mammalian Confederation

The striking golden insignia of the Mammalian Confederation; depicting an abstract mammal of ambiguous species to represent all member tribes in the alliance

### Species involved

* Lions
* Leopards
* Foxes (Formerly)
* Mammoths (Formerly)

### Base

* Lion City
* Original Leopard HQ
* Original Fox HQ (Formerly)
* Original Mammoth HQ (Formerly)

### Status

Disbanded

The Mammalian Confederation was a faction founded by the kings of the Lion, Leopard, Fox, and Mammoth tribes 824 years before the events of the Roleplay, though it was comprised of only the former two tribes for the majority of its lifetime. Initially formed as an alliance opposed to the Avian Triumvirate in order to restore the Elemental Balance (saving Chima from imminent destruction in doing so), the Mammalian Confederation won the resulting war despite losing two of its member tribes in the process, and lasted from 824 to 780 BR. This period (beginning in 826 BR, the year Gryphon Island was sieged and Galvanor arrived on Chima's shores) became known as the Confederation Era, named after the long-lasting alliance. Prominent Confederation leader Lynne attempted to add the Sabertooth Tigers to the alliance (as well as trying to restore the Mammoths' place in it) in 810 BR, but this failed, instead resulting in the notable creation of the White Lions. The Mammalian Confederation was finally disbanded in 779 BR, when the Leopards took on their centuries-long neutrality stance and migrated to the Valley of Balance.

## History

### Formation and War

(Excerpt from the Avian Triumvirate—Mammalian Confederation War page.)

Soon after the founding of the Avian Triumvirate, there began to be earthquakes rising in magnitude, and the Leopards made the correlation that the earthquakes began after Faerin and her splinter faction of Phoenix moved to the Arctic. In a valley on the north-south border, leopard philosophers, historians, and scientists converged and analyzed the phenomenon, becoming the first tribe to learn about the Elemental Balance. The Leopard King ventured to The Purple City to urge Faerin to leave the north, explaining that the presence of Phoenix there would eventually destroy the continent. Faerin refused to leave without tangible evidence, and drove the Leopards away. The Leopards related this information to Chima's other tribes, and the tribes that believed their claim, the Lions, Foxes, and Mammoths, allied with them, forming the Mammalian Confederation.

#### The Avian Triumvirate's Initial Advantage

The Leopards and their allies, now having no choice but to forcefully drive Faerin out of the Arctic as the earthquakes slowly worsened, attacked the Purple City after a few more failed negotiations, beginning the Avian Triumvirate—Mammalian Confederation War in 823 BR. Despite the AT being the smaller faction, the MC wasn't able to break through the defenses of the most technologically advanced city at the time, leading to a long stalemate in the war as the tribes fought small battles across the north and south. The Mammoths' Headquarters was destroyed in 821 BR, and the tribe retreated to regain their strength. The Mammoths' leaders began planning to claim the Purple City as a new home for their tribe, presumably after driving out Faerin's Phoenix and removing the Fire Wing Harnesses from the Arctic.

In 820 BR, the AT regrouped and launched a brutal surprise attack on the Foxes, who'd been weakened during the war; the Fox Headquarters at the time was destroyed, their leader slain, and the tribe was scattered, receding from the Mammalian Confederation by default. The Peacock King, angered at his tribe's former allies the Lions for not taking in his ancestors after the Tiger—Lion War, eventually suggested that the AT attack and conquer Lion City to gain a significant foothold in the south. The Avian Triumvirate, using all of its soldiers, actually managed to slay the Lion King and drive out the Lions, taking control of Lion City and Mount Cavora, and cutting off the chi supply to the Leopards and Mammoths.

#### The Final Battles

Field Marshal Lynne, temporarily leading the Lions in place of the very young prince, learned in early 819 BR that the Peacocks were scattered and the Eagles had retreated after Faerin had apparently gone insane, slain the Kings of both tribes, and brought her Phoenix under her direct control. Lynne quickly gathered all battle-ready Lions and launched an assault to retake Lion City now that the AT had fallen apart. Her campaign succeeded, and Faerin retreated back to the Purple City with her brainwashed Phoenix. Severen successfully escaped with the liberated Fire Wing Harnesses just before Galvanor arrived ahead of Faerin, planting explosives on the phoenix' airship to sabotage her planned voyage to The West Sea. The Leopards and Mammoths followed Faerin to the Purple City and attacked even as she and a third of her army made it out on their airship. Galvanor's sabotage worked, and Faerin's ship crashed somewhere in the northwest of the ocean. During the battle, Galvanor was caught in the crossfire as he tried to escape the city, but he fell beneath the Arctic waters, and was frozen instead of killed. The Leopards bombed and destroy the Purple City, eliminating the presence of Phoenix in the north, and ending the Avian Triumvirate—Mammalian Confederation War. This, however, drove a wedge between the Mammoths and Leopards, due to the former tribe's plan to take over the Purple City.

### The Confederation in Peacetime

The Leopards' brutal destruction of Faerin's Phoenix and the Purple City, though it did restore the Elemental Balance, was heavily criticized by many of Chima's tribes; most of all the Mammoths, who receded from the Confederation immediately after the war ended. While the Mammoths were mostly angered, the other tribes began to fear the Mammalian Confederation, seeing it as a potentially genocidal cult that would use the pretense of the supposed Elemental Balance to wipe out any tribe that brought fire chi into the Arctic. Additionally, after the Avian Triumvirate had conquered Lion City and cut off chi shipments to their enemies, the tribes (in particular the Sabertooth Tigers) were worried that the Lions would now have the idea to "chi starve" any tribe that opposed the Confederation. The Lions and Leopards spent the next several years combatting these misinterpretations and restoring the other tribes' trust in them (especially the Mammoths, Eagles and Sabertooths). They were assisted to this end by the Phoenix Tribe, who disavowed Faerin's faction and agreed with the Leopards about the importance of the Elemental Balance, using their own public influence to spread the word about this, as well as prohibiting tribes from taking the fire trials if they had intent to take fire chi into the Arctic.

Several years after the war, in 815 BR, Acting Regent Lynne formed the Lion Knights, an elite sect of soldiers dedicated to the protection of all future Lion Kings. Between 818 and 813 BR, one of Lynne's daughters met and married the eldest Leopard Prince, as a result of the Lions and Leopards working closely together; due to this, the Leopards' royal line became connected with Lyron's bloodline, though the lion DNA in the Leopard Kings became increasingly diluted as they continued marrying within their tribe afterward. Meanwhile, the Confederation's ongoing efforts to repair their relations with the Mammoth and Sabertooth tribes led to a surprising series of events.

#### The White Lions Debacle

(Excerpt from the Complete Timeline page.)

In 810 BR, Lynne, in an attempt to persuade the Mammoths to rejoin the Mammalian Confederation (and/or to gain the Sabertooth Tigers' allegiance), co-led a joint expedition of Lion, Mammoth, and Sabertooth volunteers into the Northern Outland Mountains, to chart and colonize the previously untouched region. The Mammoths elected to build their new headquarters in the Outland Mountains to the southwest, however, and while the Northern Outland Mountains were charted and colonized by the Sabertooth and Lion volunteers, this group remained neutral, so Lynne returned without new allies.

In an advent mirroring the creation of the Gryphon Tribe, breeding between the Sabertooths and Lions in the colony over the next three decades created the first White Lions. Having struggled to survive in the Northern Outland Mountains (their support from Lynne being cut off once the Lion Prince took the throne), the small group finally deemed the region an "uninhabitable wasteland", going back south in 780 BR, and intending to move into Lion City. Despite the protests of Lynne and other Elders, the Lion King refused to let the half-breeds in, disavowing them and declaring them to not be Lions. The White Lions were welcomed by the Sabertooth Tigers, however, and this event began a legacy of poor relations between the Sabertooth and Lion tribes; additionally, the very concept of a colony ever existing in "the Wastelands" was forgotten over the next several hundred years.

### An Inevitable End

By the year 779 BR, the Mammalian Confederation finally disbanded with the Leopards' recession; a result of all the cracks that had appeared in the alliance over the last few decades. The Leopard Prince, having recently succeeded his father as King, believed that the still strained public perception of the Leopards would continue as long as they participated in any wars other than those that were absolutely necessary (that being, wars that directly impacted the Elemental Balance). He also believed that the existence of the Confederation had become more or less pointless in the nearly four decades since the defeat of the Avian Triumvirate, and was an outspoken critic of the new Lion King's treatment of the White Lions. The Leopard Queen (Lynne's daughter) agreed with him despite being a lion herself. As such, the Leopards attempted to have as neutral a stance as possible in future wars, leaving the south and building their new HQ, The Golden City, in what they took to calling the Valley of Balance, where they focused on maintaining the Elemental Balance.

## Legacy

While the Lions and Leopards never officially allied with each other or the Mammoths again (and memory of practically the entire Confederation Era was erased from the minds of Chima's southern inhabitants by Leodus' spell in 121 BR, due to the heavy involvement several future Fire and Ice tribes), Lycor and Leodus (both of them descendants of Lynne, and both of them now the kings of their respective tribes) becoming friends in 2 BR foreshadowed a possible return of a Lion-Leopard alliance.

At the time of the Roleplay, two alliances that could be considered spiritual successors to the Mammalian Confederation were formed: the Chima Alliance, which included both the Lions and Foxes (who'd united with the Peacocks, Beavers, and Skunks to become the Minor Tribes in 50 BR), and the Empire of Balance formed by the Leopards and Vultures, another alliance dedicated to restoring and maintaining the Elemental Balance, only this time with the roles reversed due to ice-powered tribes invading the south. Lycor also temporarily joined the Empire of Balance, as an Imperial Knight.

Additionally, after Malgus took command of the majority of the Mammoths during the RP, he fully rebuilt the Purple City using golden chi, claiming it for his tribe as their ancestors in the MC had intended to do. This victory was short-lived, as Senix conquered the city with a force of Icebears, and it was destroyed again soon after by Scorpions. However, the more important event that came from the unearthing of the Purple City was Malgus' revival of Galvanor; this led to the Second Chima Civil War, which mirrored the Avian Triumvirate—Mammalian Confederation War in several ways, such as an alliance including Lions and Foxes opposing an alliance including Eagles and Phoenix, a Lion Field Marshal turned tribe leader and Galvanor being on the former and latter sides, respectfully, and the Phoenix Triumvirate playing a role in the inciting events.

## Leadership Structure

The Mammalian Confederation was led equally by the kings of the four, then two, tribes comprising it. The kings had to come to an agreement with one another regarding every major action to take during a war. While this is similar to how Chima's modern alliances at the time of the Roleplay operate, in 824 BR the Mammalian Confederation was the largest alliance in history, with previous alliances having been comprised of only two or three tribes. As such, a total of four equal leaders having to work alongside one another and agree upon every action was something unheard of and unpracticed at the time, which likely contributed to the Avian Triumvirate's initial advantage, the Mammalian Confederation losing two of its four tribes early in its lifetime, and the alliance lasting much longer when it was led by only two kings working together.

## References

1. ↑ Retribution: A Chima Roleplay Prequel Story