Kingdom of Arracia

The Kingdom of Arracia was a country located in Central-Eastern Eurysia. For much of its history, the Kingdom of Arracia, often shortened to just Arracia, was the most powerful nation on the continent, wielding enormous influence in continental affairs, a relatively large and professional standing army, and vast colonial possessions on almost every continent in the world. The monarchy however, would not survive, as it was usurped as a result of almost a century of economic and political mismanagement, as well as a refusal to liberalize. Following the events of the Arracian Civil War, which most historians deem to be more akin to a bloody coup, the Kingdom of Arracia, and the Empire of Arracia, was disbanded, leading to the creation of the Republic of Arracia. The Kingdom of Arracia was made up of modern Alaeque Island, Novar Del Ciavas, Arracia, Mazuria, and Ralence, whilst bordering the nations of Kremwell, Krem Obekland, the Kingdom of Arvel, Czervenia, and the Czardom of Raszovia.

## Verannaen Wars (1400s - Early 1500s)

The Kingdom of Arracia as we know it was founded by the Sanescu Line, initially as one of many sub-kingdoms that occupied what we now know as Arracia, essentially forming a band of warlords known as the Varannae, who built-up their own distinctive societies, regional dialects, and bureacracies. These disparate societies would eventually be united by one Lido Sanescu, known today as Lido, Count of Bezina, a small county based around the current-day city of Beziar. He would engage in the Varannaen Wars, like many other warlords of the time period, conquering several minor counties around him. The major advantage for him however, came in the form of firearms, which he was among the first to mass adopt, along with primitive artillery. It was these new tools, and his restructuring and reformation of his small state-let to accommodate such changes, that earned him victory after victory, culminating in the Battle of San Vellei (modern day Sa Vellen), the spiritual capital of Arracia, said to have been where the prophet, Saint Benevento served as scribe to the decrees of the Lord God and his Handmaiden. This capture granted Lido I legitimacy, culminating in his own coronation as "King of Arracia".

## Rise of an Arracian Cultural Identity

After the Kingdom of Arracia in its semi-modern incarnation was formed, and Lido, Count of Bezina crowned King of Arracia, he sought to begin a massive programme of cultural unification, taking on a number of long-term projects, such as seeking to unify and compile a single Arracian dictionary, translate the 10 Volumes of the Holy Scriptures into something readable for everyone, and attempting to unify the disparate fiefdoms he had just conquered. In the case of the Holy Scriptures, and the dictionary, the Count of Bezina would eventually see success, with the 1st and 2nd editions of the "Universal Dictionarium on the Language of Arracians" being published just shy of 210 years after his death, with the translations for the 10 Volumes of the Holy Scriptures being completed in about the same timeframe. Efforts to generally homogenize the culture however were a failure, with a true Arracian identity not coming about until the rise of Arracian nationalism during and post-Enlightenment.

## Age of Expansion

After Lido, Count of Bezina passed, his son, Roberto took up his father's titles, being coronated as the King of Arracia somewhere in the mid-1550s, rapidly beginning a tradition in Arracian noble politics, which was the mass use of patronage in order to bribe the nobility into supporting his claims, with particular emphasis on southern nobles which were difficult to control from the Royal Family's seat in Bezina (modern day Bezian). This tradition would long outlive Roberto I, however that is not why history remembers him. Roberto sought to expand the Kingdom, most notably seeking the conquest of the Mazureland, at the time itself divided between petty kingdoms, and the Kingdom of Ralence, a unified entity to the South which stood at the crossroads of a number of lucrative trade-routes, and was home to a port that was said to be so rich, that simple furniture was plated in the finest of golds and silvers, with tapestries made of the most exotic of silks from the far-West, and tapestries made from the Raszovian steppe. Roberto would, as such, begin the 1st Arraci-Ralencian War, where veteran Arracian troops easily defeated a Ralencian Army under the King of Ralence himself, forcing the nation to swear fielty to Arracia, with full annexation following after the 2nd Arraci-Ralencian War, which was a rebellion by Ralencian nobles in response to excessive taxes levied on revenues gathered from the nobility. This rebellion was crushed, and in response, Roberto I, now called Roberto the Conquerer, stripped every noble of their lands, placed Arracians to head the new fiefdoms, and stripped the puppet-King of Ralence of his crown, consolidating the two titles together in the Declaration of Arraci-Ralenci Union, which still exists today and is declared illegitimate by the Ralenci government.

## Union Between Arracia and the Mazureland

Roberto the Conquerer died in 1578 after approximately two decades on the throne. His son, who took the regal name Lido II to emphasize continuity of the monarchy, now called Lido the Diplomat, would live up to his monecere for his tenure being one of the most peaceful in Arracian history, with the times of strife in Ralence over. This did not mean he was passive however. Lido II, over the course of his reign, began the construction of almost two dozen castles over his 9 year reign along the Raszovi-Arraci, and Krem-Arraci borders to serve as fortresses, anchoring the border between the two Kingdoms. In addition, Lido took on numerous adminstrative and internal reforms, ordering the construction of postal roads to connect every major keep and castle across the nation, and improve communication times between the south and Beziar. His greatest accomplishment however was the unification of Arracia and the now-unified Kingdom of Mazuria, via the marriage of his second son, the Count of Velle (traditionally the second son was sent to the South to act as the King's eyes and ears whilst the heir remained in the North) to Princess Marila Cardozo of Mazuria. The dowry? 50,000 talons of silver, 1,000 talons of gold, and the unification of the two crowns for mutual benefit. An existing copy of the subsequent Treaty of Tardino still exists to this day, with the 14th of June, 1575 being forever memorialized as unification day, a federal holiday that exists to this day.

## Age of Exploration (Late 1500s - Late 1700s)

The Kingdom of Arracia for the next roughly 200 years would focus its efforts far outwards, seeking to project power over the entire continent, whilst simultaneously attempting to find opportunity. The invention of the caravel in Arracia would lead to a sudden influx of sailors from all around the world, seeking the Kingdom's money and resources to fund expeditions. Famous names like Giovani Mazorotti, who established Arracia's first trade deals with the Muhjong Dynasty in modern-day Tietsen, Franzio Terron, who circumnavigated the entriety of the South Eurysian sea, and most famously of all, Gregorio Aitano, who, in a seeming stroke of luck, discovered Alaeque in 1678 by almost complete accident, landing in what is now the town of Yomirei, which literally translates to "I Saw" in Arracian. This would spark a massive craze for expansion, as the Kingdom of Arracia raced to establish colonies in what we now know as Novar del Ciavas, forming the island's first permanent settlement of Primoeren, which just means "first of them". Unfortunately, this sparked one of the darkest deeds of the Arracian monarchy. Slavery was first introduced just two years after Primoeren Plantation was established, with primarily Ralencians, criminals, and natives being forcibly press-ganged to work in the vast sugar and tobacco plantations of Novar del Ciavas, which was exported back to Arracia for lucrative amounts of profit through the Royal Ciavasian Corporation. Later, with the increased amount of contact with Ancorra, debt peons, criminals, and prisoners of war were replaced with Ancorran chattle slaves, who worked in backbreaking and barbaric conditions, forcibly stolen from their homelands to enrich a monarch they would never see, in a nation they never heard of. Historians debate whether this could be considered a true Golden Age, due to the slave trade being the true bedrock and cause of all of it.

Regarldess of this, the reality could not be denied. Arracia was at its economic and military height during this period, utilizing their head-start to dominant South Alaequan affairs, beating out efforts by Raszovia, Lentenia, and Kremwell to establish colonies there in a series of small-scale conflicts known as the Frontier Wars, which took the form of Arracian settlers, armed by the monarchy and Kremwelli militamen duking it out in Southern Alaeque, with Arracian settlers eventually coming out on top. The Frontier Wars ended in the Lannercost Arrangement, which saw the continent divided into two spheres of influence, with the North and Central plains of the continent being reserved for Kremwelli settlement, and novar del Ciavas and the southern peninsula being reserved for Arracia, with Lentenia, Raszovia, Arvel, and Reymich being completely blocked out. Later, when the continent of Sequiva was discovered, Arracia attempted to replicate this strategy, however, Kremwell instead agreed to treaty with Lentenia, who successfully defeated Arracia in the War of the Yaran Plain. The Arracian monarchy was content to loose the continent, as they saw no value in it, instead continuing to profit off of the vast plantations in Novar del Ciavas, and making ventures into Ancorra and Eurysia, mostly through trade but also through the occassional conquest. It is at this point that the Arracian Empire was formed, not nescessarily as a single political entity, but as a hegemonic organization, with Arracia tightening its grip on her colonial holdings, which now technically spanned three continents. At this point, it seemed nothing could bring down the Kingdom or the monarchy. No amount of rebellions in Ralence, or incursions from the Empire of Achaeyand, or threats from Raszovia. It truly seemed (to the monarchy) that Arracia was invincible, chosen by the Lord to be his chosen instrument on Earth, an attitude that would signal the Empire's decline.

## The Decline of the Kingdom of Arracia

The Kingdom’s decline would be one pain, misery, and rot. The dynasty, which had so long reached for far-away lands, grew increasingly decadent and corrupt, a result of them being absolutely unchallenged, unconcerned, and having access to nigh infinite wealth. Historians agree it started with Lido X, ironically named after the man who started the entire dynasty. His reign was considered one of the worst in Arracian history. Cruel and merciless, his disastrous economic policy plunged the Kingdom into economic crisis, as endless spending, partying, and patronage drained the Kingdom’s coffers, made worse by the fact Ralence once again rebelled, in the 6th Arraci-Ralencian War, this time lead by the charismatic priest, Maylene Rodolfo, known in Ralence as Rodolfo the Saint. Although his army of peasants were funded by the Ralencian nobility, he in the end, stood no chance against the Arracian Army, however his ultimate martyrdom at the Battle of the River Rilenio, caused outrage in court, as the war took an enormous toll on what was left of the treasury. The Kingdom was forced to take on massive loans in order to keep up with the King’s decadence, and, by the time he died in 1798, his example became implanted into the dynasty, because, in the end, Lido X died without any recourse. His death came slowly of natural causes, as a result of his excessive drinking. No noble dared to challenge him, no person dared oppose him, lest they feel the wrath of an army the King had corrupted into his own personal host. By 1856, justice finally came, in the form of a republican movement.

## Retreat to Novar del Ciavas

*See Kingdom of Arracia (Post-1860)*
When it became clear during the Arracian Civil War that the Army had mutineyed, and that General Evodio Cutrona was not coming to the aid of the Royal Family, the King made the decision to flee. Slipping out from the Palace under light escort, they boarded the warship, RANS Tarrino, taking a majority of the Northern Fleet with it, along with any possessions they could fit into a series of carriages and the nation's gold reserves. Priceless artifacts dating back to the unification were absconded with. The destination was the Colony of Novar del Ciavas, named after the island. There, the Royal Family could rely on its loyalist governor, an old family friend who would be guaranteed to protect them from a potential strike by the newly minted Republic of Arracia. There, they were joined by several ships of the Southern Fleet, which had fled to the islands under similar circumstances, their crews unwilling to give up their ships to republican forces. It is here that the royal family would remain, the Kingdom of Arracia never technically ending until 1915. However, this state would mostly go unrecognized, although informal diplomatic relations continued.