The Draken Unification War

Doubtlessly one of the most consequential conflicts of the last century. It was the second, and far greater blow, To Celtican invincibility and pride. Ironically enough it was directly precipitated by the first, the Delphine War.

## Lead In

Kaiser Niko Harald Spellmeyer was a young man when the Delphine Wars, began having only recently taken his throne of the church on his 27th birthday. Thus he had little power to affect the build up as a number of princes fell under her sway. He witnessed the ferocity of the main attack nearly capturing the heart of Celtica. He also watched the near collapse of the retreat. After the Armistice he vowed to never again allow outsiders to shed Draken blood like that. A plan began to form.

## The Conflict

The Province of Stahllia in the center of Drakenstaat was long considered the center of Celtican control. Duke Hunfrid Knopp (1802-1822-1873) had central control of over the roads that allowed trade to flow at all. Starting in 1868 bandit raids on his patrols began ramping up and they became more organized, that same year, on his wedding night to his sixth wife Isabell Vogt (1853-1905) his Castel was directly fired upon by long arrows with messages attached. He was thusly warned that his reign was at an end.

Never an even tempered man he ramped up conscription, patrols and, taxes confident nothing in Draken could out spend him. This had the opposite effect over, the next few years desertions rose and attacks continued. Eventually come 1871 he was no longer able to hide the effects on revenue from his Celtican Masters, thus they sent army units to assist. Surprisingly this went fairly well. They had expected opposition on the whole way in but found very little. In fact their mere presence seemed to pacify towns and villages, the commander wondering if there even were attacks. This was dispelled by the uptake in attacks anywhere they weren't. Seeing an obvious solution the Celtican commanders sily decided to be everywhere calling in reinforcements to avoid being spread to thin. they were aided in this as many of the deserters were found and put back in service. By 1872 things were seemingly back in order with very few losses. Then the real war began.

Many of the other princedoms had used the raids, in Stahllia or on their lands, to muster their armies this was largely ignored as it was well understood that keeping them was an expense that they couldn't maintain long. Indeed in 1872 with the insurgency seemingly pacified it seemed a wast of money, but starting on June 9th the neighboring princedoms invaded Stahllia and other major Celtican allies. the invasion were fast but they almost always gave the troops time to fall back to strong points or fortresses. No where was this more obvious then Stalllia itself where the locals offered to stay behind to hold off the Draken while the Celtican forces regrouped at Castle Knopp. They might have should expected that they would later join the forces surrounding the Castle instead.

With the majority of standing Celtican army as well as their Draken allies now trapped far from home the other shoe dropped. Kaiser Niko Harald Spellmeyer himself led a landing very near the Celtican Royal Summer home, where they were at the time. Thus the most pivotal and hardest fought battle of the war began the retreat's garrison was fully manned
with a full thousand troops however many of the places that were supposed to reinforce them were not. Five thousand Draken troops were eventually committed to the fight and after 15 days the exhausted defenders finley accepted terms of surrender. They had suffered some 90% casualties and were nearly out of ammunition. Just under half would die from their injuries.

The War was over, centuries of consolidation of power and centralisation had left Celtica with little central ruel outside of the Monarchy. Kaiser Spellmeyer had no intention of killing them, the last thing he wanted was chaos in his Northerner border as he dealt with forging a nation. So from the position of ultimate power, he negotiated.

## Aftermath

The first and most immediate effect of the war was the formation of Drakenstaat, most Draken majority provinces long suffering religiously or economically under Celtican rule joined willingly, some had to be convinced.

Stahilla was not one of them, under the new rule of Princess Isabell Vogt they firmly supported the new Konig. Backed by the well trained "bandits" and the "mutineers" Princess Vogt would cull the staff of her former husband. Their bodies never being recovered to this day. The Duke himself died in his sleep shortly after the news of the armistice was delivered. He died of "massive systemic organ failure" as declared by the Celtican General Léonide Aartsma. General Aartsma also filed a letter of apology to the crown as the sword they had awarded him with at his command. The then Dutchess had apparently like how it felt in her hand after conficating it and refused to return it, thought he noted "It looked quite good on her, and the blade balanced far better in her hand than it ever did mine." She would later use the sword to defend her throne from three of her step-sons in honor duels over the next eighteen months. The fourth, barely older than her, decline and would instead ask the Kaiser for a military command he would be granted it and later retire after an exemplary carrier in 1900, to take up writing from a mountain retreat in Tarun. Many years after his death correspondence would reveal that he encouraged his half siblings to duel their step mother and was also responsible for removing their names from their grave markers.
General Aartsma and his troops were escorted in good oder to the new border with full ceremony and honor guard.

Among the concessions wrung form the Celtican crown was the return of the Sapphire Father's Eye a large jewel claimed from the only previous Konig of Draken in the 1200s. Since then it had set in the Celtican crown. Kaiser Spellmeyer used it to forge a second crown for himself. Then on June 9th 1874 he crowned himself Konig of Drakenstaat, the crown was presented by his long time friend Queen Sir Lucius Evergreen of the Shelter islands. Crucially Queen Evergreen was neither gifting it nor **crowning** Spellmeyer he was merely presenting it, as either of the former might undercut the new Konig's authority.
Crucially and Queen Sir Evergreen also brought an interest free loan for the new nation, partly as reparations for the Delphine Wars, this loan was crucial as the churches coffers were stressed by the effort of paying for the troops that had fought the war. This combined with the explosion of trade after the matter was settled and Drakentaxes replaced Celtican ones ensured that the naccessent nation grew quickly and in late 1900 the loan was repaid. Indeed One of Kaiser & Konig Niko's last public acts was to sign alongside his son the last payment to the National Bank of Saddia.

The Celtican throne was shaken by these events and antimonarcial reformist quickly seized on events as proof that changes must be made. Indeed no small number of them were.

One of the Draken concessions made to Celtica was several princes and military officers were handed over for **fair**  trial in Celtican courts. Piracy was the most common charge. Twenty were requested, and a further nine volunteered to stand trial as they felt the had committed similar acts. Of the original twenty, twelve were "demilitarized" and fined. Two were exiled, the highest punishment allowed under the agreement, and the rest were either fined or absolved. Of the nine volunteers seven were absolved, one was fined and demilitarized, the last also received exile, based purely one his own mournful testimony. These nine individuals and the trials overall cemented on the world's stage the image of the honorable Draken warrior.