Interim Years

The Interim Years (also known as the Revolutionary Years) is the period between the Waldren Occupation and the Modern Era, ranging from approximately 170 years prior to the "official" end of the Waldren Occupation (~1500) and ending anywhere from pre-1500 to 1597, when a stable government is officially established in whatever country is marking down their history. This sort of thing is complex and fluid and everyone marks it a bit differently.

Haneul, Grancinco, Leyfel, Borrike, and the Island League do not mark this period in their historical record, and instead, jump directly from the Waldren Occupation to the Modern Era after the departure of Waldren from Tirónar.

Nations that do observe the Interim Years or equivalent period in their histories include Duilintinn, Tandeli, Halennor, and Lantraeth. For these countries, this era is usually marked by massive cultural shifts, power vacuums, factional conflicts, extreme class divisions, and general internal turmoil.

## Timeline

> *See More: Complete Timeline of the Mortal Realm*
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1334: Duilintinn sorta begins its interim years here. Idk.

1445: First revolutions begin in Halennor and period of salutary neglect, interim years begin for Lantraeth and technically also Duilintinn?

1453: Halennor wins independence

1462: Tandeli's first independence battle (though the underground resistance likely existed for longer)

1480: Lantraeth, under salutary neglect for several years, begins to develop its own factional governments.

1495: Tandeli wins independence

1500: Waldren its final colony in Leyfel. Tandeli begins to attempt self-rule through a monarchy, but immediately faces conflict with Grancinco and from within.

1540: Lantraeth officially unifies the two major city-states that had developed over the last six decades, ending its interim years.

1565: The Quest for Duilintinn begins.

1577: Duilintinn sets up its own government, ending its interim years.

1587: After decades of unrest, Tandeli's second revolution begins, this time against the monarchy

1598: Revolution ends and Tandeli sets up its own stable government, ending its interim years.

## Duilintinn (1334 - 1577)

This is the period in Duil history where the land is populated by a variety of diverse and scattered people groups, mostly ignored by Waldren. It's a period defined by conflict, mostly due to the power vacuum left behind by the absentee imperialists that transplanted people from dozens of unfamiliar cultures into this region, somehow expecting them to get along. This is also a period of incredible cultural diffusion as alliances are made, broken, and remade in the Game-of-Thrones-esque power struggle that swept the valley.

This period also encompasses The Quest for Duilintinn, which began in 1565, and doesn't officially end until the kingdom is founded. However, it is important to note that, while the adventurers under the future king did spend over a decade in their endeavor, the political environment was also ripe for unification. The factions refusing to give up the age-old power struggle were growing increasingly brutal in their methods, while the common folk and less power-minded groups were really getting sick of all this war and fighting. The idea of unity was far more appealing than infighting to the vast majority of people in the region, but no one stepped up to face down the greedy, power-hungry aggressors who kept the conflict alive until Sean did. Without that underlying support, the quest would have been kinda... well, definitely impossible. Thankfully, the people had Sean's back, and Duilintinn's Interim Years ended with the founding of Duilintinn in 1577.

## Halennor (1445 - 1453)

Halennor fought back. Yay.

Halennor was the first country to rise up against Waldren. After centuries of watching Waldren ship the fruits of their labor to some distant land that they'd never seen nor particularly cared about, the newest generation of Halennorians decided they wanted what their neighbors in the south had; independence. Inspired by how Haneul and the Island League had successfully fended off the Waldren invaders, in 1445, these young rebels attempted to rise up against Waldren on their own. This took the form of a strike, where the rebels refused to produce or hand over the goods they produced to the Waldren ships that arrived to pick them up and sell them elsewhere. In response, Waldren forcefully took the goods themselves, threatening worse punishment if things were not back to normal when they next returned. Soon afterward, the Halennorian rebels requested aid directly from their southern neighbors, Haneul and the Island League. Despite its inability to defeat Haneul and the League in the past, Waldren spent several years depleting its ships and manpower in Lantraeth to the west and Duilintinn to the south in an attempt to quell this rebellion. Eventually, in 1453, Waldren was forced to admit defeat and retreat to its southern holdings.

Halennor's successful rebellion against Waldren had several side-effects. First, Waldren's attempts to retain control in the region forced it to prioritize its use of ships, manpower, and resources. As a result, Duilintinn and Lantraeth were largely ignored except as launching points for Waldren's ships towards Halennor. This began a period of salutary neglect in both countries. After losing so badly to the combined forces of Haneul, Halennor, and the Island League, Waldren was stretched thin and had no choice but to continue leaving these two regions to their own devices.

## Lantraeth (1445 - 1540)

By 1480, Lantraeth had been under salutary neglect for several decades and began to develop its own factional governments. After a few decades of relatively minor conflict, these factions eventually coalesced into two distinct city-states. While Lantraeth was still technically under Waldren's control at this point, the revolutions in Tandeli prevented the imperialist force from interfering with these developing politics, and they largely left Lantraeth to its devices. This government system would remain in place until the two city-states merged to form modern-day Lantraeth around 1540, ending Lantraeth's Interim Years.

## Tandeli (1462 - 1598)

Halennor's successful rebellion in 1453 inspired a rebellion in Tandeli. While an underground opposition movement had been simmering in the region for centuries since Waldren's hostile takeover, Halennor's success was the spark that lit Tandeli's resistance ablaze, with the first official battle of Tandeli's revolution taking place in 1462. Unfortunately, Tandeli lacked the international aid that Halennor benefited from. Fortunately, Tandeli had an extremely organized preexisting resistance movement and access to several tactical and technological advantages that Waldren had overlooked. As a result, while Tandeli's war for independence against Waldren was long and brutal, in 1495, Tandeli successfully gained their independence as well.

Approx 1500 Grancino tries to take Tandeli back. Tandeli decides that they quite like being independent thank you very much.

1501-Monarchy and ruling class established, mostly from families of Waldren descent.

1504-Monarch starts to fall ill, and his daughter is pipped to take the throne.

1505- Daughter is wed to the son of a high ranking government member in Grancinco. They appear very happy. Later that year, their first child is born.

1506- Second Royal baby.

1516-Assassination attempt and death of the King

1520-Queen becomes Dragon Witch, is killed. Eldest child takes over as monarch.

1549-Thomas born

1587-beginnings of revolution

1588-Thomas joins revolution

1597-Revolution successful

1598-Advisor system set up, Council in place, all going well, end Interim years

*(Disclaimer: The following is copy-pasted directly from my notes and is v. messy)*

Monarchy and ruling class establishment made from the previous hierarchy is very smart; it makes sense based on the current power structures that Waldren left behind and leaves a precedent for the rebellion later. After all, Waldren left in large part because civilian resistance was making the colonies too much trouble than they were worth. Imagine you're a layman who's not one of the Waldren families profiting from Waldren power, and you and your friends manage to resist enough to kick out Waldren, but surprise! new leaders are just the old pro-Waldren families. It's like the resistance only half-finished, with the assassination attempts and later the revolution a century later was them finishing what they started.

What I've learned from this is that there'd be a long history of resistance in Tandeli's heritage; resisting Waldren, resisting Grancinco, resisting the monarchs, and now... well, Thomas seems to recognize that the people will push back if they do not feel heard. That in itself is a fantastic reason for why the new government system of Tandeli was a council; they knew that if people did not feel listened to, they would not hesitate to follow their ancestor's footsteps of pushing back.

### Conflict with Grancinco:

Honestly, that probably was one of the few things keeping the people from rebelling against the monarchy faster; a common threat. Start spreading some word around that the country to the west wants to take us all over just like Waldren did and that we all need to join together for our own freedom... that'll keep the people from rebelling against you for a while. But if the monarchy goes and does something bad enough, the people might be willing to turn to their former enemy for help, or at least be a bit chill with them for a bit. The British and France absolutely hated each other's guts for AGES, like CENTURIES if I remember correctly, and the US colonists obviously inherited all that, but when they wanted their king gone they turned to France for aid. So even if the revolution simply goes "hey Grancinco we cool?" and make a peace agreement with Grancinco so that they can a) focus their attention on the monarchy and b) show the people that "guys chill they aren't gonna fight us look we do trade now" or something, that will be a big plus for the eventual success of the revolution

The trick is CONVINCING the people that Grancinco are going to keep their word. which would be an interesting hurdle to overcome.

Most likely Grancinco noticed the *massive fuck off dragon* taking flight over Tandeli, went, 'well, that could get us!' and either offered help (so that don't get attacked) or Tandeli asked for help against a common threat, or both. But of course, Grancinco army coming in to help could be easily spun as another take over attempt

Exactly. Anything Grancinco does before sometime around 1587 would probably have been spun as another takeover, but while the monarchy would have probably been extremely unwelcoming and rude to any attempts to help Tandeli from Grancinco, they wouldn't escalate the fight if they were smart. This means that Grancico probably was still at least kinda cool with Tandeli, if a bit confused and/or annoyed or frustrated at the monarchy's stubbornness.

The reason they'd not go offensive is that this whole "spin Grancinco as conquerers" thing relies on this being about Tandeli's DEFENSE; if the government brought the fight to Grancico, it'd all fall apart. And you know... maybe that's exactly what happened to start the revolution. Monarch decides to try to increase support under his/her rule and increase fear of outsiders by starting a full-on war with Grancinco, with invasions and everything. Some people support it but a large part of the population (especially young people) are like "wait what. what. that makes literally zero sense I thought we were trying to defend from them because THEY were the aggressors and now we want to take over THEM? betraying our own values and all that? what?" This would be the start of the revolution, and also grants them two MASSIVE benefits to their cause:

---1. It would be SUPER EASY to get Grancinco on their side. The government of Tandeli has just declared war for no reason and this revolutionary group wants to pull a coup? Yeah we'll help! However, they'll have to be really careful with how they go about helping; it'd have to be really sneaky because if the people saw Grancinco fighting against the government it would reinforce the propaganda. So Grancinco would probably provide resources which, in a revolution when you're the underdog with no infrastructure to hold you up? That's a BIG DEAL.

---2. THE GOVERNMENT IS NOW FIGHTING ON TWO FRONTS. It can't back down on Grancinco because we've already established the current ruler is a bit overzealous and also backing down would mean admitting it was all a contrived thing which would make everyone flock to the revolutionaries, but also IT'S GOT A FREAKING REVOLUTION NOW! THAT'S SOMEHOW WELL SUPPLIED SOMEHOW??? This is another majorly big deal because normally civilian militia type revolutions are at a massive disadvantage militarily

### Revolution:

I'll admit I didn't have any big ideas on why there was a revolution. It consisted of, the current government can't govern all of Tandeli properly, and areas are suffering from lack of funding/corruption since laws aren't being properly enforced.

Thomas gets involved because of environmental reasons. IRL Thomas has a chemical engineering degree, inspired by wanting to help the environment essentially. I would have thought that Waldren wouldn't have had the most sustainable practices for somewhere like Tandeli. Over irrigation, over-fishing, over-hunting in some places. The area's basically dying and not everyone cares.

that stuff usually goes hand-in-hand with being a constantly-prepared-for-war type government/economy; you need resources and you're not gonna care where you get them from (hence why people like Thomas were so quick to be irritated and then suspicious of the war declaration thing). Plus Waldren canonically caused massive deforestation in Duilintinn so it's extremely consistent that they and their descendants would have also screwed over Tandeli's ecology.

Also corruption because laws aren't enforced? all the people who would enforce them are off doing war/defense stuff! Or alternatively, laws are being OVERLY enforced because "goddammit don't you want to help protect your freedom!"

and areas suffering from lack of funding would go back to the fact that their resources are being drained by defense efforts, plus the extra taxes that usually happen during wartime