Cakaulola

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The Stripes of Unity, flag of Ulola.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Map of Ulola (in blue)

⠀⠀ 1000–1400 *(estimate)*

* **Decree of 1778**

⠀⠀ April, 1778

* **Current constitution**

⠀⠀ 1 October, 1892

* **Left the Akotello alliance**

⠀⠀ 28 September, 1932

* **Sinking of Avalau**

⠀⠀ 30 June, 1984

* **Volakinarī takes power**

⠀⠀ 30 June, 1988

1% Others

2% *Alosiriʻi* angelolatry

1.3% *Othomi* death cult

1.1% *Tariʻiki* folk religion

0.6% Other or None

## Government

### Government type

Elective monarchy under a confederation *(de-jure)*Hagiocratic military junta under a confederation *(de-facto)*

## Geography and time

### Area

2,230,232 km² (861,098 mi²) *(land above sea level)*2,637,514 km² (1,018,350 mi²) *(total)*

### Timezones

East Ulolan Time (OTC-18:00)West Ulolan Time (OTC-19:00)ᴮ

## Infrastructure

### ⠀

* **A.** Tellian is a co-official auxiliary language used for international politics.
* **B.** Regions in West Ulolan Time past the 90th meridian west are behind by 30 minutes.

The **Ulolan Confederacy** (or "Confederation"), ***Cakaulola*** (Ulolan: *Kakāʻitulōlōa;* "the government of Ulolan lands"), colloquially known as **Ulola**, is an indigenous confederation in Crisis around the Ulolan Sea that it is named after. It was referred to by explorers as the **Falian League** (Ulolan: *Fāliʻitu*) after the title of their chieftains, before later being recognized as an independent country in 1901. It consists of hundreds of distinct native ethnic and linguistic groups, with a shared identity defined by its customary communities, ethnic diversity, national language and religious unity.

There is little recorded information on the primitive civilizations that predate the Confederacy, although many historical landmarks and oral stories have been informative for the reconstruction of Ulolan history. In 1549, Ingovenian navigator *Leon Haul* discovered the Ulolans and made first contact; the locals were highly receptive to his foreign culture, allowing Soterianity to be spread by missionaries soon after. Merchants made the region a prosperous trade center throughout their 300-year colonial presence along the Ulolan Sea; however, this allured many emigrants who would give the region a history with banditry and piracy.

The Ulolan Confederacy made its first constitutional act in 1778 to create a centralized elective monarchy, ending centuries of directorial consensus rule. In 1892 it ratified a formal constitution to officiate a democratic legislature, culminating later in its recognition as a nation-state by the World Congress in 1899. However, the country was not admitted as a member state until 1901. From 1905 to 1932, Ulola was under the Akotello political union with Talossar. Upon its dissolution, the country regained full independence and has remained neutral ever since. In 1974, Ulola was a founder of its successor organization, the the Ulola–Talossar–Alora–Natunay–Tandau Growth Area (UTANT-GA) economic partnership. In 1989, Ulola self-suspended itself from the WC and revoked their rights to operate within the country, becoming a rogue nation. It is also a full member of the IFPH and ICPR, and is an observer state in the OCC and WMF.

In 1984, the Ulola event, the worst natural disaster in human history, occurred at the center of the country; sinking 16% of the nation's land and wiping out over 80% of the population. Officially, the Ulolan Confederacy still claims these lands as theirs with a total land area of 2,637,514 km² (1,018,350 mi²); however the actual amount of land above sea level is 2,230,232 km² (861,098 mi²) according to the World Congress. Prior to the event, Ulola had a population of around 25 million people; as of 599, only 5.1 million people inhabit it, with another million in refugees being displaced. The country's economy and infrastructure collapsed soon after the event and has not recovered since, leaving over 80% of the population without access to global capital, 20% of which has no access to modern utilities such as electricity.

Today, Ulola can be separated into two main regional confederacies: the peninsular West Ulola and continental East Ulola. In between them lies the Ulolan Straits, comprised of over five thousand islands throughout and into the Ulolan Sea; of which 635 are inhabited, including major island cities on *Halua* (Oroʻoā), *Feloa* (Minuʻā) and *Faleʻirō*. Mainland Ulola borders the nations of Natunay, Talossar and Tandau. It has two capitals, Avalau, which was the seat of national government before it sunk into the sea; and the Garden Tricity (Ulolan: *Faʻatoaga Toluʻeā*) comprised of Kuʻā, Suʻā, and Tuʻā, currently the official capital established post-Ulolan event.

Since December 1992, Ulola has been embroiled in a multi-dimensional armed conflict known as the War in Ulola, with a number of countries in the region and beyond involved militarily or otherwise. A number of self-proclaimed tribal confederacies have also emerged on Ulolan territory as a result of the ongoing civil war, some independent and others supported under corporative imperialism. As of 1999, the conflict has accrued an estimated 100,000 casualties, 1.9 million internally displaced people and 500,000 refugees according to the WC.

## History

### Prehistory

The origins of the Ulolan people are ill-understood and still debated by modern historians, as little of their history was recorded in writing. The first evidence of modern humans inhabiting the Ulolan Sea, dubbed *Proto-Ulolans*, was found when coastal caves near Kakalalā showed signs of fire weathering, suggesting a human presence dating back thousands of years ago. Tracing this early peopling of the Ulolan Sea has been helped by archaeological artifacts of ceramic shards dated to about 900 BCE.

Several possible theories have been proposed addressing the Ulolan complex; the most commonly accepted one states that northern hunter-gatherers migrated there looking for a more lush habitat to hunt in; in those times, the sea was cut off from the Omnian Ocean by an isthmus occupying the present-day Ulolan Straits, shielding it from the harsh superoceanic climate on the other side. DNA analysis of skeletons found of these ancient Ulolans in the 20th-century CE suggest a northward genetic ancestry as well, which is consistent with archaeological findings.

The first Ulolan tribes were formed about 2000 years ago around a maritime culture, and their people were known to be exceptional navigators for it. Evidence shows that frequent voyaging took place between the coasts and islands of the Ulolan Sea, possibly due to tribal expansion and trading. They were able to cross the deep sea with early voyaging craft such as catamarans and outrigger canoes, which were able to withstand the heavy wind waves that would sink most rafts; thus the name, *Ulola*, meaning "big wave" in Ulolan, was given to the sea in deference to the strength of its waves.

The Ulolan people are not believed to have strayed far from the coast until the Ulolan Straits were opened by volcanic activity 1500 years ago; curious explorers would sail out into the Omnian on the other side, leaving various rock structures as markers wherever they went. However, they were unable to venture far due to the ocean conditions of the Omnian, and eventually stopped leaving the Ulolan Sea entirely. It is believed the first Ulolan agricultural societies formed after this discovery around the same time, inspiring them to settle down and begin expanding inland instead.

It is thought that the oldest possible origin of their Ulolan Confederacy's political system could also be dated to this time period. Historical accounts of oral stories describe multiple confederacies existing in the past, each named after a founder god or chief; this suggests the idea of a pan-Ulolan confederacy is a relatively modern idea.

### Early contact with Voyagers

The Ulolan Sea was first sighted by colonial voyagers in the year 1468, when *Andrieu d'Aeppli* sailed from Ingovenia in an attempt to circumnavigate the New World. However, he did not venture past the Ulolan Straits as he believed it would not reconnect to the Omnian, and thus did not discover the Ulolan people. He charted the straits as the *Entrée aux Dauphin* (Ingovenian for "Entrance to the Dolphins") because he observed "the dolphins leading us astray from our course," when he saw them in the waterways.

Captain *Leon Haul* later set sail in d'Aeppli's wake to revisit the same location in 1549; unlike his predecessor, Haul chose to sail into the Ulolan Sea with his frigate, *L'Étoile Marin,* and was able to land at a Ulolan dock to make contact with the locals.

The Ulolan chieftain he met with was remarkably friendly to his arrival, and treated Haul as well as any other merchant. Their first trade held important significance for Haul's first impressions, for his crew had exhausted their supplies due to passing through a maelstrom in the Omnian, an action which damaged their ship and slowed them down from returning to a serviceable port. In an act of goodwill, the Ulolans delivered fish and fruits to the crew for three days while they repaired their ship for them; in return the Ingovenians offered them a fair share of their spare metal tools and nautical instruments in return, which was accepted as a just gift of friendship. Haul would be able to safely set sail once again by the end of the three days time, and brought with him a newfound awareness of the Ulolan civilization.

Soon after, the colonizing powers returned to settle missions and trading posts along the Omnian and Ulolan Sea; their first impressions believed these natives were estranged or regressed from modern civilization, and that reconnecting with them would uplift them into a wealthy kingdom. However, Asteria called for the Soterianization of Ulola before it would engage in any serious commercial operations.

### Soterian missionaries

> Main article: Soterianity
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The earliest Soterian missionary to come to Ulola landed in 1561, not long after Haul's discovery had been spread throughout Asteria's high societies. *Leonardo Trápeia*, a travelling missionary of the Canonical Church of Soter, had boarded a merchant galleon visiting the port of Paʻō Feverī. He began the arduous task of establishing a Soterian church that would appeal to the native peoples way of life; Ulolan culture was fiercely kin-based, and did not favor religious institutions intruding into clans unapproved by community consensus. Thus, Trápeia went against Canonical doctrine to help the locals form a Soterian church themselves instead, with his role being spiritual advice in communicating the theology behind Soter's spiritual significance to their polytheistic beliefs. He stayed in Ulola for eight years, learning the Ulolan language and teaching liturgical Lavin in turn; in 1569, the Church of Ulola (Ulolan: *Ekalesiʻiā o Ulōlōa*) was officially proclaimed by a majority ruling of the chiefdoms. For the rest of the early 2nd century, Trápeia brought more trusted Canonical preachers to supplement the new Ulolan faith. It was well-received by the native population and resulted in a strongly syncretic belief set involving the heavenly trinity; several missions built by the church were named by the natives in honor of well-liked missionaries with the prefix *Papa* (Ulolan for "father"), such as Papa Lauris, Papa Togoā and Papa Topēʻā.

Other missionaries would evangelize among the inhabitants of Ulola as well. In 1585, a Charismatic missionary society was set up in Vau to support preachers across the sea. However, a clerical report from 1588 claimed that majority of the tribes had already accepted the Church of Ulola in, "a culturally amicable manner respected by the community of God." This led to a period of intermissionary conflict between the Canonical and Charismatic churches localized in Ulola; the native chieftains did not like this, and eventually intervened in the clerical dispute in 1597 with a consensus decision only permitting Ulolans to proselytize for the Church of Ulola. From then on, the ministers would be predominantly Ulolan, who would be influenced more by the Ulolan culture and language in their application of Soterianity.

### Trading companies & traders

Once sufficiently Soterianized, Ulolans were trusted to be more involved in the complex web of global trade, commencing a long period of mercantilism from the 15th to 16th centuries. The first foreign traders to settle the Ulolan Sea during the 15th century were whalers, who were employed by a variety of independent trading companies; they had taken interest in the region's potential, as well as the services the locals could offer them. Trading posts were built alongside native settlements, their infrastructure improved to facilitate the large whaling fleet of the time. Other avenues of business were also considered as their relationship to the natives grew, and by the end of the 15th century the region had become a burgeoning node of trade for all merchants passing through.

These trading companies would do business through *maliʻini* traders (Ulolan for "newcomers"), foreigners who had settled into Ulola but not been adopted into a tribe through customary tradition or marriage. Maliʻini were an expression for the non-Ulolan culture of the many adventurers, beachcombers, hunters, missionaries, sailors and traders the natives interacted with; it made no distinction of race, treating the dark-skinned slaves with the same respect as their white colonial overlords. Throughout the 1600s, colonial maliʻini would marry the daughters of local chiefs to be fully accepted into Ulolan society; the children of these unions were dubbed *pakā ulōlōaʻi* (Ulolan for "part-Ulolan"), a term which remains in modern usage. Asterian colonizers often relied on maliʻini scholars and scientists to document the locals way of life, such as their tribal customs and the meaning of their iconic tattoo patterns. Overtime, they were able to translate the Ulolan language into their own, and begin working as professional translators to help non-maliʻini traders be understood by the natives.

Into the first decade of the 18th century, structural changes occurred to the trading companies with the transition from sailing ships to early steamboats; they moved from the practice of having individual traders represent them to a complex business operation, where the masters of cargo onboard trading ships would deal directly with the natives on behalf of the company. Ulolans became directly responsible for operating trading stores for them to visit, replacing the role of traders in residence. The number of maliʻini traders declined, with many either losing their status as maliʻini by entering into the Ulolan clans or returning to their respective homelands by way of sea. Those that remained in residence would continue to live until their deaths.

### Piracy & stowaway immigration

> Main article: New World Romance
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After its discovery, Ulola was included as part of the New World Romance movement prolific throughout Asteria; this consisted of folk rumors about the New World being a rich frontier inhabited by relatively primitive peoples. While this primarily led to the arrival of missionaries and merchants, the Ulolan Sea was also seen as an enticing haven for pirates. At the time, the Ulolan Straits were viewed as a vulnerable lane of passage for ships traveling throughout the South Omnian; well-positioned pirates could prey upon to steal rich goods before they would reach their destinations. Thus ambitious privateers set course for Ulola with high hopes and numbers to match; the natives did not often engage in acts of piracy themselves, as they did not have the capabilities to board and threaten the colonial merchant marine.

At first, maliʻini pirates were rarely seen in any of the Ulolan Sea's port towns, instead choosing to operate directly along the Omnian from coastal coves with their own stolen ships. However, when the colonials began to respond with naval action to protect their Omnian trading posts, the pirates were forced to hide in the Straits Islands and farther inward. There, they would set up logging operations and begin construction of their own ships, such as smaller schooners apt for privateering. It was not until the colonial powers came together to ratify a treaty in 1671, one agreeing to suppress pirate activity in the region permanently, that piracy would become discouraged and ultimately subside by the 4th century. While these pirates did not leave behind permanent settlements along the Ulolan Sea, some of their structures can still be found today in parts of Ulola.

The age of piracy was a foundation which romanticized the idea of any individual being able to venture into the west and make their own stake in the realm without obligation to king or state. In tandem with the arrival of the first rogue ships came with it the first stowaways; people secreted away on a ship or inside its cargo without the shipmaster's knowledge. Throughout the 3rd century, most of these would-be adventurers were poor, young working class men; they were generally clothed in rags that were unsuitable for the cold oceanic weather encountered along their voyages. Stowaways who were found were handcuffed and ill-treated as captives by their captains; their punishments often consisted of being beaten, lashed, starved, and given various forms of water torture, which worsened their condition upon arrival.

These stowaways had a very different reaction to Ulola than those before them, for they were ill-informed of the natives and knew little of the terrain. They were fearful of the trade posts run by officers of the colonial powers, and thus confined themselves inland to more rural areas of wilderness, some turning out to be tribal homelands. The Ulolans did not know that these stowaways were in fact escapees from the maliʻini, and tried to extend the same kindness to them in turn; they were often frightened of the Ulolans, and would flee from their villages to roam the woods as bandit huntsmen. By 1710, banditry became a serious concern for the local chiefs, as these vagabond stowaways came to blows with Ulolan warriors often; their raids targeted the tribes' supplies traded from the maliʻini, and on occasion their livestock and women. When one raid in 1719 resulted in the death of local princess *Nagaʻu,* the Council of Chiefs (Ulolan: *Fāliʻī*) finally convened and decided it was necessary to take action in order to pacify the realm.

### War of Thieves (1719–25)

> Main article: War of Thieves
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The Ulolan Confederacy had made significant improvements to its original primitive status. The alliance of chiefs was stronger than it had been, and more closely interconnected through consolidation of settlements. However, there still existed a struggle with maliʻini bandits attacking them, culminating in a series of raids against them that became known as the War of Thieves (Ulolan: *Kaʻua Oaʻoī*). The conflict has been controversially called by some scholars as a race war, however racial differences were not a leading cause of the war's outbreak. Rather, their goal was to assert the authority of the tribes and expel the maliʻini bandits from Ulola. It is the first recorded example of a confederacy-wide war taking place in Ulola.

The conflict was fought in a very disjointed and uncoordinated manner, making it challenging to plot a timeline of battles that took place. The first reported battles were fought by local chief *Tavauʻui* and his warband of 700 warriors, who embarked on a series of raids in succession along the coasts of Lake Oran in late 1719. In the following year, a separate warband was raised and sent out to sweep through the northern highlands; there they cleared out several bandit camps near Apariʻī, Iavoā and Margaʻarī, taking nearly 300 captive to be brought back for sale to the coastal traders. There were intermittent skirmishes there in between 1720 and 1723 as the bandits returned in small numbers, even managing to occupy the chiefly village of Tokoruʻā for two months before it was retaken.

Later in 1724, a large party of 1,500 bandits assaulted the shrines of Kuʻā, Suʻā, and Tuʻā. The bandits razed their sacred structures and desecrated the holy sites in an act seen by the Ulolans as an unforgiveable atrocity. In the following Battle of the Garden, a large force of allied Ulolans comprising thousands of warriors retaliated against the bandits occupying their religious settlements; this is the only battle of the conflict in which prisoners were not taken. The Ulolans won the battle and dispersed any surviving bandits into the mountains, and by 1725 there were no more organized bandit raids. The Ulolans declared themselves victorious, and spent the last few years of the century repairing the damages dealt to them, as banditry was reduced to an all-time minimum.

From the War of Thieves, the Ulolans had learned an aspect of camaraderie during their operations as a united military together. They had learned from the maliʻini who had brought them guns and metal weapons and trained within their own tribes for precisely such a war, utilizing early guerrilla tactics to ambush and surprise the bandits. The Council of Chiefs concluded that this was the next logical step in the evolution of the Ulolan Confederacy, and ultimately decided the tribes should fight together as one from then on. Ulola was united under a principle of collective security and defense of its homeland, and for the remainder of the 18th century the tribes would continue to gain experience warring with pirates and other private armies.

### Confederal order & constitution

The 18th century saw the development of a new, organized community around the Ulolan Sea. As a result of the military expeditions during the War of Thieves, the Ulolan Confederacy had become informally united by a principle of collective security for its homeland. The powers of the Council of Chiefs had been expanded in its aftermath, allowing them to have better leverage over the tribes armies and war efforts. Lessons from the war were applied in later field trainings, with Ulolan warriors practicing guerrilla warfare and assaulting urban areas; they developed new uniforms based on the departing maliʻini soldiers, as well as limited armor for their officers. They also began buying guns from the maliʻini traders, so that they could better defend themselves from more modern threats.

The natives who were involved in commerce were the first to be exposed to the modern idea of nationalism in this time. When news of the war first reached the trading companies, they were highly supportive of the Ulolans against the bandit raiders. They expressed their gratitude with gifts and helped support the impromptu war economy while it lasted, in turn being protected by the Ulolans doing the fighting. When the war ended, they noticed the difference in the demeanor of the tribes, and began to discuss with them plans for what they might do next. It had become clear that the Ulolans were beginning to see themselves as one people, however they were still able to be influenced by outsiders; the trading companies used this to their advantage before any of the colonial powers elected to imperialize the region themselves.

The first reformation of Ulolan society came in 1767, when the Council of Chiefs came together to formalize tribal borders within a vaguely defined Ulolan region. At the time, Ulola had not been defined on any maps as having an outer limit, nor had the tribes declared firm boundaries for their homelands. The convention was not a one-time gathering, but instead took place over the course of eight weeks and eight days; each meeting involved chiefs of a particular area they planned to draw the borders of first. They ultimately decided to level the outer border of their people along the various mountain ranges that enclosed the Ulolan Sea, though there was no tribal law against farther expansion if it was found uninhabited. The modern borders of the Ulolan Confederacy derive their legitimacy to this early legislation.

In April of 1778, the Council of Chiefs unanimously passed a 'chiefly decree', the genesis of a constitutional act, stating that the Ulolan people would be entitled to certain political privileges adopted from the colonial powers they had interacted with in the past. Under the new decree, the Council of Chiefs would be able to elect one among their own to become a Paramount Chief (Ulolan: *Pāpūa-Fāliʻi*), a title declared "head of chiefs and confederacy entire," an equivalent to a head of government and state. The decree was passed with a simple majority of the local chiefs consent, and could only able to be reversed in similar fashion. In this way, the Decree of 1778 is considered the first constitutional basis of the Confederacy.

The paramountcy was influential in the modernization of Ulola over the years. In 1780, paramount chief *Gavalaʻi* cracked down on the slavery of Ulolans and company administration of various settlements, bringing them back under the fold of chiefly rule. In 1792, he made former trade post Avalau the formal seat of government for Ulola; that following year the first coronation of a paramount chief was held in the new capital.

### 19th century

From 1800, Ulolan politics began to dynamically evolve as the basis of power moved away from the old allied oligarchy to a central government. New modern schools were being built to cater to the tribes customary standards; those who graduated from this early schooling system often became interested in higher education, and would travel to the universities of Asteria to obtain it. Ethnic diversification had also expanded its influence on Ulolan politics, as the caste of part-Ulolans became a more noticeable minority. In 1812, several on the Council of Chiefs were heirs to mixed families of maliʻini traders and local women, though indigenous tribesmen still remained the majority.

Ulola still had large stretches of sparsely populated, unused land within its originally demarcated borders which had begun to start tribal landowning disputes. The issue revolved around the settlement of whether old tribes which had settled into these areas, would then have to relinquish them if a new, sufficiently distinct tribe formed out of their expanded lands. In 1810, paramount chief *Noʻoka* was the tiebreaker in a decisive compromise; it would allow any sub-tribe appeal to the Council of Chiefs for tribal recognition, and thus be represented in the government as such. From then on, the concept of the Ulolan tribe became a fluid idea of a a dynamic community, rather than fixed ethnicities withholding the privilege to represent Ulola.

The trading companies of the Ulolan Sea were subject to a severe economic depression felt in the early 19th century. Major factors for this included the decline of guild economics, the consolidation of foreign capital, and the intensification of imperial rule; their limited rights to land titles had also kept them from being able to exploit resourceful lands. In 1830, the local chieftains bought out these companies to found the *Ulolan Trading Company* (later the *Ulolan Natural Resources Company*), the emergent tribal enterprise that owned over half of all drydocks and merchant ships in the confederacy. The end of these companies also meant the eclipse of the old merchant elite, allowing the Ulolan Trading Company to become the predominant contributor to the political economy for the rest of the century.

The advent of the Ulolan Trading Company was a catalyst for an economic boom upon the Ulolan Sea, one which sowed the seeds of change for the Confederacy. Throughout most of the 1840s and 1850s. The tribes were very co-operative with the new company now that all trade was in Ulolan hands, allowing certain natural resources in valuable demand by the colonial powers to be shipped off for sale; major exports were defined by exotic cash crops, herbs, plant oils and timber, with minor production of rare metals and rubber, both of which would become more useful in later years. Imports became more accessible for the Ulolans as well, who would undergo a cultural modernization with the introduction of new cloths and textiles. Their profits were allocated into a primitive treasury at first, though paramount chief *Papouʻi*, a former merchant, would spend most of it during the 1860s to expand the region's economic and political infrastructure.

While the initial boom from the Ulolans introducing their highly demanded goods was rewarding, it was not to last for long; the agricultural sector fell into a global depression with the advent of industrialization, and without a plantation economy Ulola could not produce enough to satisfy the modern world. Surface resources were also depleted to the limits the tribes would allow by the 1870s, hindering any efforts to increase production with popular approval. Brief spikes of demand would still come from non-industrialized regions every few months, but it was all they could prop their economy on without extensive reorientation. The Ulolan economy stagnated to a standstill in 1890, when the Confederacy was replaced in many markets as a result of global industrialization of the interior.

The Council of Chiefs met in the autumn of 1891 to discuss the traditional political-economic balance of Ulola, beginning by challenging the idea of also industrializing Ulola as well as engaging in plantation programs to meet industrial demands abroad. However, they were also concerned that with this new age of factories defining modern commerce, Ulola may be better served to the world as a factory than as free people. Paramount chief *Galioʻi* rejected these concerns on the grounds that the Ulolan Confederacy would only be trusted as an independent economy if it was recognized as an independent country, something that Ulola had not been officially given at the time. The council heeded his ambitions, and worked for the rest of the year to draft up a formal document including all of the political elements and foundations which the modern world expected to see; one of these would improve the legislative powers of the Council of Chiefs to become that of a democratic assembly.

On October 1st, 1892, the first official constitution of Ulola was proposed and ratified by a council majority; the Ulolan Confederacy would henceforth be the sole *de jure* nation-state of the Ulolan Sea. This constitution explicitly acknowledges "that traditional Ulolan society will always be the foundation of the Ulolan nation," and protects their importance to local and national community life. Seven years later, the World Congress was formed by the empires of the world, and Ulola was acknowledged among the list of established nations in the world. However, it was not admitted as a represented member state until 1901, after the turn of the century.

### The *Akotello* alliance (1905–32)

> Main article: Akotello
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The last decade of the 19th century is best known for being a period of global expansion, and was especially felt in Crisis with the expansion of the nearby Sublime Sunanate of Talossar. During this time, Talossar was the instigator of the 1895 First Reclamation War, a conflict against the imperial powers fought to retake colonial concessions taken from it along the Omnian coast. While the Ulolan Confederacy formally declared neutrality in order to maintain international face, many local tribes of the mountainous Talossar-Ulolan border did not share this stance; the Talossarese military enjoyed a large amount of volunteer personnel from these border tribes, allowing Ulolans to fight alongside their kindred. In 1899, the imperials sued for peace and withdrew from the region, returning the occupied ports back to Talossar. Ulolan volunteers returned home with newfound experience with the combat of the time, and would go on to share it with the confederal military in the following years.

Talossarese-Ulolan relations were formally established in the aftermath of the conflict, marking a significant development for the only indigenous peoples of the western margin that had remained independent through colonization. The two nations formed an alliance in 1900 and in the following year began the Second Reclamation War (1900–2) for the imperial ports of the Ulolan Straits. The conflict ended in a Talossar-Ulolan victory, thus bringing the whole of Ulola under a single governing body; this gave Ulola the rights to militarize the Straits, and block all maritime traffic in wartime.

In 1904, Sunsuan (ruler) of Talossar *La* *Tallobesi XII* (one of the most theoretical of men) met the paramount chieftess *Eluʻa* in his capital of Perlakartam to forge a visionary scheme for the future development and protection of their peoples; it was conceived between them to enter into a political union together, the organization of which would require few reforms to make possible. In this union, the Sunsuan would be the supreme monarch, with the office of Paramount Chief elected Premier representative for all of the Talossarese princes and Ulolan chiefs. The Council of Chiefs and the Tribunal of Forty Lords (Talossarese: *Pangavi Akkai Patenpulam*) would co-exist as a bicameral consultative legislature, one in which any future indigenous peoples introduced into the union would be able to participate in. The plan was deemed amicable to both parties, and after several months of debate both polities legislatures approved the union. On June 28th, 1905, a unilateral proclamation was signed by both parties to found the supranational union of Akotello (lit. "Two Powers", "Two Worlds").

As early as 508, the imperial powers levied complaints about the formation of the new polity without the World Congress approval, which had allowed them to gain unfair leverage in the voting process. A compromise was offered in the winter of that year, stating that Talossar and Ulola would represent themselves as a unitary Akotellan delegation. It passed unanimously, and within six months tensions had subsided to allow the state to govern itself. The early administration of Akotello saw a period of extensive cultural exchange, from art to music to religion passing between Talossar and Ulola freely; Talossarese would not permit the Church of Ulola to evangelize in their fiefs however, due to royal anti-missionary policies put in place because of colonial abuse.

La Tallobesi and Eluʻa formally married in 1913, and spent their honeymoon on a trip around the world; throughout their travels they met with other heads of state across the world, making a courteous first impression on behalf of both Talossar and Ulola. The status of Akotello proved to be an effective vehicle for diplomatic representation to the imperial powers, and upon their return they were greeted with the warships of many minor nations giving salutations in the harbor of Avalau.

On the 12th of February, 1914, a dedicated palace for the rulers in personal union was commissioned to be built in Avalau, which did not already have a palace, to hold a formal coronation for Eluʻa as *Sunanamba* (Queen Mother) of Talossar, and to accommodate their future royal family. The *Taʻolani Palace*, the name of that building, was completed the following year with a large pavilion erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. The event was covered in international broadcasts as “an imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesty, the High Queen of the Akotellan Union, which transformed the scene at an appointed minute, so the sun did burst forth as the clock struck twelve, and immediately after her Majesty had been crowned.”

During the Natunay War for Independence in 1916, the assemblage of Akotello submitted a diplomatic protest to the World Congress regarding the predatory nature of the imperial powers towards indigenous nationalism. The protest condemned acts being committed, such as unjust blockades of its ports and inhumane treatment of their captive people, and called for the support of other free western nations in defense of rights to self-determination. The following year, the United States of Esmaria declared recognition of the independent state and offered a generous amount of aid towards its liberation. The combined support of Akotello and Esmaria was able to dissuade the imperial powers from occupying it any longer, who sued for peace and released the colony at the start of 1919. Esmaria allowed Natunay to enter into association with Akotello on the terms it would exhibit a friendly government to their interests, which defined the new nation would be a federal multicultural democracy. This affirmed the status of the Akotellan community of nation-states, and came to inspire other members to associate with it over the following decade.

However, the introduction of new member states to the union would be its ultimate undoing. La Tallobesi's vision of the alliance reflected a complex and multi-dimensional understanding of the identities of its constituent peoples and how they connected with the broader array of native peoples in the region; it was a project to conjoin these peoples as one identity equal to other civilized peoples. While it achieved this through diplomatic agreements and shared ideals of culture and law, the government itself was untenable in the long-term due to the niche understanding of its framework and inability to constitutionalize the joint rule of multiple powers. In part, it is believed strict refusal to model the system after proven Eastern ways was to blame for its failure.

La Tallobesi XII died of natural causes in 1931 and he was unable to provide a lawful heir to his throne in Talossar, leading to a succession crisis within the complex framework of Akotello. Eluʻa was pressured to abdicate in 1932, as the Tribunal refused to allow her to reign over Talossar alone due to hereditary law; the resulting interregnum eventually led to the dissolution of Akotello, as Talossar broke apart into warring kingdoms to last throughout the 1930s. Ulola regained full independence that year, and while it would maintain diplomatic relations with its regional kinships, no future coalitions would be founded for the purpose of political integration of Crisis again.

### Post-Akotello (1933–84)

Following the dissolution of the Akotello, Ulola became a quiet place isolated from developments elsewhere in the world at the time; the tribes were content with the confederal system and caused few political issues. Free from the instability of its neighbors, Ulola oriented its resources towards modernizing its economy by promoting the tourism industry. The region's rapid growth in such short time is attributed to this industry, however it was capped by financial crises outside its control and was ultimately forced to return to its agricultural economy by the mid-6th century.

Land tenure was the first major issue to emerge in the post-Akotello environment, caused by a surge of refugee settlers from Talossar looking to escape the ongoing civil war. In 1937, the government addressed this by expanding the terms of customary land rights to allow tribes to lease out plots of land independent of the collective tribal trusteeship; this was done to protect the constitutionally entitled 8.25 acre (33,000 m2) turf for each clan male of age 18. By 1950, 95% of all Ulolan land was held in customary trust, less than 2% of which was locally leased out to migrant residents.

In foreign affairs, Ulola was closely linked to the principle of the global consensus; it would nominally agree with any majority of national delegates at World Congress summits. It would be one of the only countries to forego signing any military alliances until the late 20th century, maintaining a position of neutrality towards the global ideological rivalries. Ulola was a noteworthy voice of opposition of all forms of colonialism, and opposed the advent of strategic nuclear weapons. It built closer ties to its civilized neighbors (Alora, Natunay, Talossar, Tandau) and in 1974 formed the Ulola–Talossar–Alora–Natunay–Tandau Growth Area (UTANT-GA), a regional economic partnership.

### Ulola event crisis (1984–86)

> Main article: Ulola event
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On 30 June 1984, the asteroid *Tor* struck the center of the Ulolan Sea in what is known as the Ulola event, causing catastrophic devastation to both the country and the world at large. In the immediate aftermath of impact, a series of natural disasters claimed an estimate of over 20,000,000 lives—over 80% of the nation's pre-event population—and displaced another million as refugees within the first week. The most damaging of these disasters was a megatsunami which caused the sinking of major Ulolan cities along the coast. The impact event was exacerbated by subsequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and windstorms, resulting in the collapse of 99% of all modern infrastructure, including bridges, communications, and roadways. The state of affairs produced by the near-apocalyptic event saw an intense societal breakdown in Ulola, as the international capital, Avalau, was one of the cities buried beneath the sea. Ulolan leadership after the event's aftermath was over retroactively described the event as having reversed centuries of progress towards modern civilization.

In the ensuing impact winter, Ulola was unprepared to cope with the hostile environment the Ulolan Sea had become. Humanitarian aid was expected to come provide disaster relief for the Ulolans, but it never came; the modern nations of the World Congress prioritized the Serican volcanic winter's effects over that of their own. Even after the effects had largely subsided by 1987, the World Congress denied any deliberate negligence for delaying their relief efforts, and did not come in to perform humanitarian aid until 1989. In 1996, the organization admitted an apology for not responding sooner, however it has not acknowledged fault as of yet; locals suspect this was done to avoid financial accountability and divert owed funding elsewhere, a suspicion shared by the new Ulolan government.

Of the approximately 5 million people known to have survived, at least 3 million were rendered homeless and resorted to a natural, survivalist lifestyle to persevere. This situation was intensified by a severe food crisis due to mass ecological devastation of Ulolan fauna and flora, a consequence which would cause widespread disease outbreaks and permanently inhibit population growth in the region. The tribes were unable to properly dispose of the dead because of the colossal death toll, making it necessary to use mass graves where possible. Many of the dead were 'reclaimed' by the sea, their bodies never identified; tribal clans and families were devastated by the sudden loss of their loved ones in turn. Some skeletal remains can still be found today, scattered throughout rural Ulola as a reminder of the tragedy that took place there.

Continuing into the aftermath saw the outbreak of political chaos, as the vast majority of the tribes who represented the primary basis of political power had been exterminated by the impact event. The Council of Chiefs was able to safely reconvene with those councilors who survived, agreeing to reorganize the government to better represent all and any tribes they could reestablish contact with. Throughout the endeavor, the purpose of the Paramount Chiefdom was temporarily replaced by a caretaker government directly administered by the tribal council. Because independent media groups were prohibited by customary law from covering these political processes, effects of the caretaker government remain unknown until they permitted the re-election of a paramount chief in 1987.

While the country was able to partially rebuild a basic market economy by 1987, the damage that had been done could not be reversed so easily. Ulolan human development plummeted to an estimated 0.150, the worst in the world; the environment had been permanently compromised, making continued inhabitance of Ulola challenging and dangerous; many modern systems such as tertiary education and free enterprise had ceased to exist, as they were untenable in the situation of the time. The vast majority of the Ulolan merchant marine had also been destroyed by the impact event, inhibiting economic recovery due to crippled trade capabilities. All of these factors culminated in a drastic breakdown of national integrity that reduced Ulola into being one of the worst off countries in the world.

### Volakinarī reign

> Main articles: *Hauʻoli Volakinarī*, Harvest Revolution
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*Papa Hauʻoli Volakinarī* was the first Paramount Chief elected from a newly reorganized Council of Chiefs following the general end of the impact winter and its devastating effects on the nation. His election had been postponed over thirty times throughout the previous three years, due in part to the inclusion of new tribes for the assembly. This raised concerns about the legitimacy of the election from the international community, and caused varying degrees of public agitation and unrest towards the caretaker government. As a result, paramount chief Volakinarī was forced to begin his political career under public scrutiny.

On first impressions, Volakinarī's character made him an exceptional case to lead the Confederacy in its time of need. His religious background from the Church of Ulola granted him an almost theocratic degree of sway over the post-event population, as he placed great importance on how blessed the survivors were to endure the Ulola event. As a former preacher, he led his local tribe—and eventually all of Ulola—out of a need for Soterian salvation, forming a sanctified cult of personality as an inspirational icon for all Ulolans. His political regime thus expressed this importance of faith by elevating the church into being a constitutional institution of the confederation; while this made Soterianity a de-jure state religion of the nation, there were no penalties for not being a believer of the church's creed, so Ulola is still seen as a secular state in the eyes of the international community.

Volakinarī's coronation was held on 30 June 1988, at the now-official capital of the Garden Tricity (Ulolan: *Faʻatoaga Toluʻeā*), a multi-city complex comprising the shrine-cities of Kuʻā, Suʻā, and Tuʻā. In the absence of a palace structure being present, as well as much of the area being damaged by the event crisis, Volakinarī pledged to rule from the same office as the Council of Chiefs. Volakinarī made his first decree on the same day as his coronation, kept behind closed doors for the Council's ears only; he ordered the branch chiefs from the nation's military, the Ulolan Defense Forces (UDF), and the most senior priest from every tribe to join the assembly to be his political advisors, as per his constitutional right as paramount chief. This doubled the size of the Council of Chiefs by the end of the first week, comprised of nearly 200 clerical and cultural leaders with a handful of military officers to oversee them. It was the first decision of many that demonstrated Volakinarī's religiomilitant creed.

In July 1988, Volakinarī declared that all municipal and provincial-level tribal governments were too crippled to self-govern, and that further administrative control would be handled directly from the Garden. To enforce this, the UDF were empowered by chiefly decree to exhume powers of law enforcement as a Confederacy-wide police force, circumventing the need to formally declare martial law as a modern government would. Volakinarī publicly stated that, “with the limited assets our UDF possess, and the blessed few warriors who lived past Tor's incursion; we would be counterproductive to establish a new organization armed for law and order, only thus further dividing our resources.” Soon after, he arranged an arms deal with economic partners Natunay and Talossar, with the express intention of replenishing the UDF's stockpile so it could have a farther outreach of law enforcement in the region.

Throughout the rest of 1988, Volakinarī and his councilors drafted a new legal code that more directly addressed the post-event situation, regulating things such as business, charities, customs, foreign aid and industry; media analysts deduced that it would promote customary and domestic freedoms at the expense of international ones. His laws were oriented towards empowering the Ulolan military to do what he perceived the World Congress could not: efficient distribution of aid and relief labor; it would give them total authority over international commerce involving their domestic industries, and thus make the government the sole enterprise foreign businesses could exchange with. Furthermore, the code took heavy inspiration from the values of Soterianity, implementing a traditional syncretic court of law to settle religious matters separately from civil ones.

On January 1, 1989, Volakinarī gave a turn of the year speech that was successfully broadcasted to most of Crisis where possible. Throughout his speech, he mainly provided a practical synopsis of the state of the region, and a firm reassurance that Ulola, and her neighboring states, were alive and well. At the end of it however, he read an announcement that passionately decreed, “now we, the Ulolan people, shall thus forego the need for international validation from poisoned mouths like those of the World Congress, Council of all Earth, who bit from the Pear and vexed us in vain! It shall be only Soter, our Sin-eater, our God, who judges our worthiness to reign sovereign upon this Earth!” In conclusion, Volakinarī renounced Ulola's participation in the World Congress via self-suspension, and was henceforth designated a rogue nation for its actions.

In March of that same year, several tribal chiefs turned against him in the Council of Chiefs; hailing from the southeastern mainland of Ulola, the tribes they represented had reportedly fallen out of trust in Volakinarī. When questioned about it, they explained their views as that of seeing him exploiting a vulnerable Ulola to push his own personal agenda, rather than that of the popular consensus. A proposal was put forward to revoke his paramountcy on the spot, an option permitted by constitutional law; when the votes were done being submitted, over 80% of the councilors—excluding the military and priests—voted in defense of Volakinarī. It was only when the opposed chiefs threatened secession that Volakinarī ordered they be detained and escorted out of the session; it was a rigid principle in his government consciousness that Ulola was a “sacred homeland to be held under the collective custody of all Ulolans,” and he would not tolerate such attempts to undo the nation's customary union

By 1990, Ulola had re-established unnamed, peer-to-peer defensive alliances with Talossar and Natunay following their own respective revocations of WC membership; there were a number of reasons for this shift in geopolitical favor, but the most predominant one was a strong sense of anti-corporative imperialism. Together, they deliberated on whether or not to reform the Akotello alliance by name; however, they ultimately decided against it, as it would convey the wrong message of their post-impact ideologies. In fact, the indigenous nations of the Southwest shared more in common with the International Avant-Garde than they did the Akotello, with each state's governing leadership being convergently similar to one of the three pillars of tritestism respectively. Unanimously, the three states applied for and were accepted as observers of the organization's ideological union, sharing their ideas and transforming their ideological rhetoric into written compositions for mass distribution; prior to this, Volakinarī's ideological leanings had been left untypified. As of their admission as such, political scientists have grouped his aspirations of 'Soterian reintegrationism' as a subsect of tritestism, as he has described his endeavors as “ones of divine salvation for a land scarred and scorned to ash and dust, who's people may yet be brought back through the veil and made whole once again”. In his beliefs, he also incorporates elements of eco-authoritarianism by strictly protecting the environment from foreign exploitation in the name of customary law.

In 1991, Volakinarī's life was targeted during the 8 March 1991 Ulolan *coup d'état*, an affair staged by renegade elements of the UDF who had been bribed by unknown western benefactors to take him and his preachers off the Council. While it was able to claim the lives of many of his preachers, it proved unsuccessful in deposing Volakinarī himself; the perpetrators were found out and shortly thereafter convicted for their actions. Volakinarī was left injured with a permanent scar from the affair, and a period of mourning was held for the loss of so many holy men. Following his timely recovery, he delegated unto himself greater theological authority to make up for the loss of so many tribes' resident shamans. Furthermore, he reformed the UDF to prevent such an effective incentive from working again by granting them access to set up companies of their own; these military companies were still bound by the foreign commerce bans in place, but could more directly finance the troops without requiring the Council's oversight. However, several of these enterprises have been known to be engaging in black market trading and other illicit activities.

On May 15, 1991, Volakinarī was able to organize a foreign aid program independent of the World Congress own, one which sent carefully needed components and supplies for the purposes of rebuilding infrastructure. As of 1999, only 15% of the required supplies for a full restoration of modern utilities have been received.

On June 10, 1992, the Harvest Revolution began from rural Ulolan tribes who had been denied relief efforts for so long they had grown anarchic, resenting the government's controlled distribution of it even though it was the only relief available at all. The Harvest Revolution was an attempt to re-envelope Ulola back into the folds of the World Congress through a social movement, with the hopes that Volakinarī, being a faithful Soterian, would reform his ways and open the markets once more. At this time, the 1990 Tandauvian coup had already been resolved and the first signs of corporative imperialism were showing in the region. Thus, Volakinarī harshly suppressed the movement with his militant police and scolded them for their ignorance, publicly warning Ulolans via a propaganda campaign of what would happen should they get their way. The unprecedented display of liturgical confidence and conviction in what he spoke had a powerful effect on the participants, and quickly dissolved the idea. However, some radical tribes of the southwest still support the movement out of anti-governmental principle, and began to work with outside powers clandestinely to organize a secession effort. This secession effort would be the direct predecessor to both the Trucial States Confederacy, an unrecognized separatist state breaking away from the overarching Ulolan Confederacy in support of global corporatist integration; as well as the Ulolan Federation, an unrecognized pretender government attempting to supersede Volakinarī's government as a “legitimate Ulolan state” that would earn recognition from and membership in the World Congress.

### War in Ulola (1992–present)

> Main article: War in Ulola
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In the first half of 1992, Volakinarī signed off on a naval order from the Volscian Empire that would see the restoration of the Ulolan merchant marine, albeit this time armed and under military jurisdiction. The same ships were later sunk in a surprise attack in the Omnian on June 6 1992; the party responsible for intercepting the vessels delivery was unknown at the time, however it discouraged further sales of naval orders. It was during this time, the second half of the year, that Ulola was subject to a military invasion organized by the Empire of Tenzan on December 30, 1992, 08:00 local time. This invasion is unanimously considered to be the launching point of the War in Ulola, despite there being no formal declaration of war by the Tenzanese aggressors at the time.

In the aftermath of the invasion, the Ulolan Federation was formed out of a large swathe of southeastern Ulolan territory. Defectors from the UDF and new militants raised from the rebellious tribes there came together to form the Ulolan Federation Army (UFA), comprised of roughly 10,000 volunteer fighters as of 1999. Following the violent attack, a regional conference was held in the southwest by the chieftains of the resident area—a nominally disallowed practice after direct rule from the Garden was declared. The conference was attended and overseen by diplomatic envoys from the Realmchancellery of Vesseria, who soon after oversaw the declaration of independence by the Trucial States Confederacy, and would go on to advise the Trucial States Army (TSA) formed to defend its newly declared sovereignty.

Both the TSA and UFA have received various amounts of foreign backing in the ensuing conflict, although so too has the UDF of the legitimate Ulolan Confederacy. In the wake of open hostilities forming between both Ulolans and foreign co-belligerents, Volakinarī was able to secure allied support from both its neighboring allies of Natunay, Talossar and Tandau; as well as the rare opportunity for overseas benefactors from the International Avant-Garde (IAG) and Northern Reconstruction and Strategic Cooperation Initiative (NRSCI).

While on the surface level the conflict may appear to stop with those three factions, the War in Ulola spans multiple dimensions of both internal and external fighting. Spillover of a conflict of interests between the UFA and the ISAC (International Standard Acquisitions Corporation) has opened transnational fighting along the Tandau-Ulolan border, which has indirectly brought the corporate security forces into the conflict. Additionally, a number of independent factions have entered the conflict zone for their own purposes, most of which using the cover of the chaos to retrieve valuable resources from the Ulolan impact sites; most notably deposits of distorsium, something the UDF heavily protect as their primary strategic resource.

This conflict is still ongoing to this day, with virtually all sides involved having been criticized one way or another for their actions. The conflict has been responsible for an estimated 100,000 casualties, 1.9 million internally displaced people and 500,000 refugees according to World Congress estimates. There have been multiple initiatives undertaken throughout the fighting to reconcile for peace between the factions, but fighting has continued regardless.