First Great War

The **First Great War** was a war fought approximately 300 YBD. Two groups of warring states differed over the treatment of manis in relation to humans, as well as other grievances.

## Causes

The most direct cause of the First Great War were a series of mani rebellions taking place approximately 320 YBD. Many were inspired by the biography published by Icchata, a mani who escaped cruel conditions working in a mine; a handful of literate manis who gained access to the book spread its story and ideas among manis working under cruel conditions, as well as manis being kept for taming, resulting in an unusual number of rebellions. The death toll was high for both manis and humans; thousands of humans were killed while many more manis (many of whom were uninvolved with the violence) were often summarily executed in retaliation. As a response to this, debates on the future treatment of manis, and the nature of the relationship between humans and manis, came into question. Two major camps emerged from this debate: *moderate* states, which preferred giving manis more rights and tightening mani labor laws, and *brutalist* states, which advocated doubling down on mani subjugation.

In addition, a number of territorial disputes between neighboring states - namely, the moderate states on the southern Arberrian peninsula, and the brutalist states in the Sekhanese area - resulted in the war taking another angle. The two groups of states began to form coalitions, and the confederacies declared war on each other around 300 YBD.

## The War

The moderate strongholds were the Arberrian peninsulas (now Arberre), the Coronese kingdom in the north and east of the Sea of Plenty, and inland Coronese-speaking kingdoms in the surrounding area (now Boncampo). Meanwhile, brutalist strongholds were the feudal principalities in the plains and tundra west of the Coronese kingdoms (now Miskún), the traditional monarchies on the east coast of the Bay of Plenty (now Sekha), and the countries on the south of the Eastlands (now Jodha). Meanwhile, the world’s other major powers, the Hana Islands and Laca, remained neutral on the subject, having been largely-unaffected by the revolutions.

Despite the war's name, the fighting was almost exclusively limited to the disputed border area between Arberre and Sekha, and the surrounding areas, and invoked fewer casualties than the revolutions that sparked the war. Despite this, the war lasted for roughly twenty years.

## Result of the War

After the tide of the war turned toward the moderate states, an uneasy peace treaty was signed in 280 YBD that absorbed the dozens of distinct states into federal unions (the rough equivalent of modern-day regions). This set of geopolitical changes is known as the Great Shift. Arguably the biggest change was that of the Kingdom of Corona; originally comprising a large part of the Northeastern coastal lands of the Sea of Plenty, its territory was reduced to a small set of territories on the coast, and island possessions throughout the Sea. The rest of its territory was absorbed into a new, democratic federation of what used to be the other Coronese-speaking kingdoms, now known as Boncampo.

In addition, settlers from the Eastlands who were frustrated with the predominance of manis and mani-taming in human society, and fed up with the war, settled in the uninhabited southeastern corner of the Westlands, founding the Federation of Western City-States. This newly-founded region banned human-mani interaction.