The Wars of Latoran Unification

## Wars of Latoran Unification

* Reformation of the Kingdom of Latora into the Kingdom of Lauchette under the crown of Flavien Levallois

The **Wars of Latoran Unification** were a series of conflicts which took place roughly over the course of 7 years, largely fought between the nobles of the Latoran mainland under the leadership of Flavien of House Levallois and the merchants of the Lauch Mercantile Republic under Antonin Janvier, which largely held a majority of the resource-rich Latoran Isles and small parts of the southwestern Latoran mainland. Beginning in 196 BD, Flavien Levallois, having recently ascended to power among the noble caste on the mainland, would commence the first of many actions against the Republic's sovereignty, assuming their mainland trading posts before moving to establish a more centralized rule of the noble caste over the Isles; this would eventually escalate into the Latoran Declaration, an edict personally construed and presented by Flavien Levallois granting a promise of effective amnesty and integration to the businesses and castes of the Republic and her representatives should they choose to recognize his rule.

While most business entities and Representatives of the various islands of the Republic accepted the terms of the Declaration, some few ruling Representatives of the Republic would object to the terms, particularly those within the council of the Great Potentate Antonin Janvier, the ruler of the Republic. In the months following the Declaration, these loyal Representatives would hastily take up arms against the feudal lords demanding their subservience. The Wars of Unification would ultimately end in a grand victory for the nobles of the mainland, leaving Flavien Levallois as the sole, undisputed ruler of Latora, and giving rise to the unified Kingdom of Lauchette.

## The Wars of Unification

### The First War of Latoran Unification

The First War of Latoran Unification effectively began with King Levallois' initial acquisition of several of the Republic's trading posts along the southwestern coast of the Mainland, subsuming what had come to be known as the Tarjeaulle League, a series of semi-autonomous holdings and settlements acting as the Republic's greatest influential extent onto the Latoran mainland. This act would spark an immediate crisis among the Republic's ruling caste, with the internal situation worsening upon receiving news from Marjou Harbor of the Latoran Declaration.

Many prominent guilds, Representatives, and other corporate bodies within the Republic were well aware of what direction the winds of change were to take their homelands in, and recognized the King's Declaration. Their pragmatic mindset was not shared by all, though, as not only did some merchants' guilds and businesses split due to differing views, but the Great Potentate Antonin Janvier had also declared the Republic unwavering in the face of the noble's reach for power, calling upon the remaining Representatives and entities of the Republic to arms.

Trade fleets which had remained were converted for use in war, and soldiers who had previously acted as internal security and protection against pirates were merged and subsumed into what would be called the Grand Banners of the Republic, incorporating the structure of hired armies and private security into a full-scale army.

Off the southwestern coasts of the mainland, full-scale naval battles had begun. The Kingdom's navies and landing forces would put the initial Republican forces into a brief rout, before the overall invasion would stall further into the archipelago. The Siege of Steinberg, however, would prove decisive as the Republic's primary eastern holdout would fall, leaving the small outpost of Bruyères vulnerable to an invasion. The Kingdom's forces would easily take the outpost, halting their invasion for a time as they would begin cementing their hold throughout the eastern and central isles, further fortifying Bruyères in case of a potential counterinvasion from the Republic. This would lead to a brief period of peace, as the Kingdom's armies recovered and resupplied for the next offensive over the year.

### The Second War of Latoran Unification

Through the lull of false peace, the Republic was greatly weakened compared to its former state and effectively quartered, many of Great Potentate Janvier's administrative efforts now dedicated to prolonging the Republic's existence for as long as possible to evade potential punishment for his resistance to the King's influence, be it through his shattered armies or by prolonging the false peace period with futile diplomatic talks. In 190 BD, though, with the defection of a few remaining Representatives to the Latoran nobles, any hope for the Republic's continued existence faded away as what remained of the Council finally collapsed. King Levallois' armies besieged Mersegur, the final holdout of the Republic's administration. Despite a fierce fight put up by the otherwise underequipped remnants of the mercantile army, the final capital fell, and the Republic officially ceased to exist.

### Aftermath

As the war came to an end, many business families found relief as a single, unified rule of the entirety of Latora was restored. King Levallois' focus on integrating these businesses into the Kingdom's economy as smoothly and peacefully as possible had also paid off, as most of the guilds and entities which had agreed to the King's initial Declaration were able to continue to grow their businesses within the Kingdom. Some Latoran corporate structures, notably the renewed Veneziano Corpus, had even prospered in the wake of the Unification Wars as it made great use of the incorporated markets and resources of the Latoran Isles.

The aftermath was not as kind for many of the guild branches and representatives who had stayed with the Republic to its end, though. Many of these remnants wound up facing either execution, or, at best, exile, for their dire resistance against Levallois' efforts. Janvier had been the first in line for execution, and with that, many of the still-rebellious Representatives shortly after him, few of the original officials of the Republic ever making it out of the Kingdom.

## Rise of the Levallois

With the fall of the Republic, House Levallois finally established its dominance throughout Latora. Flavien Levallois would shortly crown himself as the King of Lauchette, adopting the name of the merchant republic for his newly established Kingdom as a show of true unification. House Levallois would come to establish its greatest and longest lasting influence throughout the whole of Latora, the courts of the newly acquired holdings soon coming under the purview of the caste of nobles intent on maintaining such dominance. To this day, House Levallois oversees much of the affairs of the Kingdom, maintaining a close connection to the equally long lasting mercantile families of Latora, each caste overseeing their own aspects of the shared economic prosperity of present day Lauchette.