The history of North Brolecia begins with the arrival of the first Homo sapiens on its territory, between the 8th and 7th millennia before the Plague. The region served as home for several indigenous states, such as the Kingdom of Aziri and the Kingdom of Arwath, while also falling to foreign powers such as the Kingdom of Istaar, the Zangan Empire and the Afrazurean Empire.
In the post-Plague era, North Brolecia became part of the Empire of Maurestania, then the Federal Republic of Brolecia and, finally, the oppressive regime of the Stervian Confederation. Stervia fell in mid-320, following a military intervention led by Porto Capital.
Classical era[]
Modern Homo sapiens first reached the territory of present-day North Brolecia between the 8th and 7th millennia before the Plague, arriving from what is now UudangWuu. These first inhabitants were hunter-gatherer nomadic populations, distantly-related to the Kutu and Mdele ethnic groups of Allacoa, established hundreds of small settlements in the Brolecia Valley and the shores of other rivers in the region. Other migration waves from the east entered the region around the 5th millennium BP.
Changes in weather patterns in the 2nd millennium BP caused a decrease in forest cover across the continent, which turned the hunter-gathering lifestyle unsustainable for large populations. This in turn prompted the emergence of the first urban centres in the area. These earlier cities would occasionally form large temporary alliances for trade and self-defense, a trend which continued until the foundation of the Kingdom of Aziri in 1.200 BP and the Kingdom of Arwath in 1.150 BP. While Aziri dominated the region around present-day Blanchelocq - occasionally expanding up to the Brolecian Gulf -, Arwath exerted its rule across the Apulanta Highlands and the Alamastani Mountains to the south of the country, occasionally entering in conflict with the Kingdom of Istaar, based on the savannahs beyond the mountain range.
The northern part of the country, however, remained dominated by independent tribes of hunter-gatherers and small networks of affiliated cities, the thicker jungle preventing the emergence of large, organized states.
A series of droughts between 1.000 BP and 970 BP led to the collapse of both Aziri and Arwath, who gave way to numerous petty realms. At the same time, the Brolecian Valley came under the influence of the Mezapatani polities of present-day Porto Capital.
On July 895 BP, one of the events that shaped the scriptures of the Mounist faith happened in what is now North Brolecia: a meteor or small asteroid entered Vexillium's atmosphere south of Nuarmia, exploding and disintegrating above the New Continents. Several large pieces survived the process and rained down in Melania, with one particular, hundred-meter-sized chunk hitting a sparsely-inhabited marshland near the former Aziri settlement of Kimon. The impact, by coincidence, breached a significant, shallow aquifer, which proceeded to quickly fill the low-lying basin. Over the next three decades, the phenomenon gave origin to the modern Lake Mirroire.
For the early Mounists, however, the phenomenon was a warning from Moun himself to humanity, which led to the formalization of the faith and the elaboration of its main sacred books. Other pieces of the meteor which survived the impact, however, were still rumoured to exist.
Although the new Zangan Empire conquered the neighbouring Kingdom of Istaar in 850 BP, the Zangans did not attempt to conquer the peoples to the north of the Alamastani range. Instead, they signed a series of treaties with the local states concerning trade, mutual protection, and annual tributes. Thus, while falling under the influence of the Zangan Empire, the realms of present-day North Brolecia where otherwise completely independent.
Despite all falling under the protection of Zanga, these small states often went to war with one another over the control of lucrative trade routes and arable land. One of these, the Kingdom of Sigga, conquered a number of neighbours between 820 BP and 770 BP, as well as establishing their supremacy over several independent tribes in what is now southern Porto Capital and northern Voisionçal. By 750 BP, their dominion extended from the Bajapean Rainforest in the north to the Navigators Gulf in the south.
The aggressive expansion of Sigga drew the attention from the powerful Zangan Empire. The Zangan-Sigga Wars of 739 BP to 716 BP were fought in several fronts, but came to an end with the levelling of the city of Sigga itself by Zangan troops. The Kingdom of Sigga collapsed and Zanga was confirmed as the supreme power in Melania. The wars, however, had an immense cost and human impact, which contributed to the gradual weakening of Zanga, beginning in the 690s BP.
The absence of Zangan protection led to new wars of conquest between the local states, which led to the formation of new larger realms - and the creation of defensive leagues between the smaller states. Starting in 650 BP, the region saw the formation of the Arwath Confederation, the Mounist Kingdom of Kimon, the Second Kingdom of Sigga and the Empire of Ereth Dur. The period between 640 BP and 590 BP also saw increased migration of Mezapatani peoples into the Brolecian valley and beyond.
Colonial age[]
The first Sterv clans reached North Brolecia in 550 BP, and soon put their service as traders at the disposal of the local ruling classes. Over the next decades, a few thousand Stervs made the trip from Islandia to Melania, where they founded the city of Blaeklaar (present-day Blanchelocq) in 469 BP. Due to its position near the sacred Lake Mirroire, Blaeklaar was attacked by the Mounist Kingdom of Kimon. Both sides called in their own allies and fought the long and inconclusive Sterv-Mounist Wars between 467 BP and 440 BP.
Explorers from Longerath reached the northern parts of the region between 451 BP and 448 BP, as part of the Colonization of the New Continents. However, no Old World empire would attempt large-scale colonizing schemes in the region for the next few centuries, due to - among other factors - the ongoing Longerathian Wars.
Troops of the newly-unified and steadily-expanding Empire of Afrazure first reached the area in 260 BP, after subjugating most of the coast between the Brolecian and Navigators gulfs over the prior decade. Although most local states joined in one single alliance against the invaders, the southern parts of the region were completely absorbed by Afrazure by 230 BP. The new rulers divided the land into a series of provinces governed by daams, governors appointed from the imperial capital Medhiou. The local realms first attempted to reassert their independence during the short Afrazurean Civil War of 198 BP to 182 BP, after the death of emperor Ellijah IX. However, independence would only come after the reign of Youseff IX in 73 BP, when the local daams took advantage of the weak government of the new emperor Mahmoud II and expelled the Afrazurean armies during the Arwath Rebellion of 72 BP to 69 BP, with considerable help from Angliyan mercenaries from the nearby Colony of Costa da Prata, in present-day Porto Capital.
Between 10 BP and 4 AP, the Papaist Church and the remnants of the local empires of Longerath sponsored a number of "refugee fleets", aiming on transporting a large number of survivors of the Plague to Northern Melania, in order to ease the population pressure on the recently-ravaged Old Continents. Although most of these new settlers chose to join the already-existing colonies in what is nowadays Porto Capital, a number decided to found new cities in other regions of the region, such as Mishard and other areas of the Brolecian Valley. This prompted a number of conflicts against the local Mezapatani groups. Although outnumbered, the new settlers formed a defensive alliance, the United Colonies of Brolecia, and managed to hold back the natives - although intermittent conflict would last until 2 AP.
In total, the "refugee fleets" brought over forty thousand civilians from the Old Continents - especially from southern and western Longerath and the Western Isles. Of these, about half settled on the Brolecian Valley colonies.
The immediate post-Plague period was marked by an unusual peace in the region, as the colonial and native states undertook massive trade and cultural exchanges, following the already-extant links between all parties. The members of the "refugee fleets" and their first descendants were quickly assimilated into the mainstream colonial culture, while the Liliance-speaking Longerathians continued to introduce their languages and religions to the native populations, who quickly absorbed some of the customs of their new neighbors.
Maurestani period[]
In 10 AP, the seafaring Maurestani, a subdivision of the Iparalaspuqui, a Mounist ethnic group from the Asteri peninsula of Eras, started surveying Northern Melania in search of new places for trade and conquest. In the year 40 AP, a series of small raids was followed by a massive invasion in the Golden Bay area of present-day Porto Capital. Over a space of five years, nearly one-hundred-thousand Maurestani - troops and civilian colonists - arrived in the region, immediatly commencing a huge, eastward expansion.
The Empire of Maurestania was founded in 42 AP.
Maurestani armies, under the leadership of their caliph Osmanli, first reached what is now North Brolecia in 53 AP, conquering first the Mezapatani polities and the Brolecian Valley colonies, and later other states such as Sigga and Ereth-Dur. In 55 AP, the Maurestani were joined by fellow local Mounist states, most notably the Kingdom of Kimur. The Sterv clans were divided in the matter, with most joining the resistance against the Maurestani invaders, while others offered their services to their new overlords.
Maurestani expansion came to an end in 70 AP with the conquest of Nova Luxa and Joos. The northern part of Melania became the corelands of the new Maurestani Empire and was divided into seven provinces. Most of North Brolecia became a part of the Province of Oran. These provinces were subdivided into a number of duchies, vilayets and eyalets of varying degrees of autonomy, mostly ruled by members of the collaborationist nobility.
The Apulanta Highlands and the Alamastani Mountains, serving as the current border between North Brolecia and Katikati, were the main staging ground for the Maurestani invasion of the Afrazurean Empire, in August 173. The Battle of Was Adaq, fought on present-day Zanga between December 173 and January 174, ended in defeat for Maurestania. The subsequent Afrazurean counter-offensive took place mostly in present-day Voisionçal and southwestern Porto Capital, although the second Maurestani offensive, which began on September 174, once again began with the crossing of the Alamastani range.
Maurestania won the conflict in January 176 and established a colonial regime in the Afrazurean Empire, setting the border between both countries at the Equator. A few decades later, North Brolecia, together with other regions of the former Afrazurean and Maurestani empires, were subject to one of the largest ethnic cleansing programmes ever undertaken in the history of Vexillium: the Trails of Blood, a scheme of forced resettlement of entire natives populations, in order to free more fertile land for colonization by more "desirable" ethnic groups. Starting in 193, native groups in present-day North Brolecia, Listonia, San Patricio, Voisionçal and Katikati were expelled from their ancestral lands by arms and forced to march thousands of kilometers to the southern reaches of the Afrazurean Empire - what is now Allacoa and the independent Kingdom of Afrazure.
The Trails of Blood occurred in three major waves, in 193, 196 and 202. It is estimated that a quarter of the forcibly-resettled natives died en route to their destination in Southern Afrazure. The vacated lands were seized by the Maurestani government and distributed to inhabitants of the "civilized" coastal provinces, to new Liliance-speaking immigrants from the Old Continents, and also to members of the Sterv ethnic group.
Through the 3rd century AP, the southern parts of North Brolecia served as a minor hotbed of anti-colonial guerrillas, mostly associated with small groups that, in 210, would join forces to become the first incarnation of the Liberation Council of the Central Territories (Baraza Uhuru wa Wilaya ya Kati). By 225, over 40% of the territory of Maurestani Afrazure was held by resistance forces, with skirmishes occasionally spilling over the Maurestani side of the border. Between 230 and 235, however, a joint offensive by Maurestani and Afrazurean forces crushed all significant resistance.
During most of the 3rd century, economic development in North Brolecia was concentrated in the Mirroire, Accord and Aziri eyalets, while huge swathes of rainforest in the present-day provinces of Menche-Ponche and Treixe were cleared for farming - mainly cash crops such as coffee, tobacco and sugarcane, but also cattle herding. By the 240s, restrictions imposed since the Trails of Blood were relaxed and several thousand natives were allowed to return to their ancestral lands in the Treixe and Merfruit eyalets - among other reasons, to alleviate population pressure in Afrazure, already affected by internal refugees due to the anti-colonial fighting in its territory.
The 260s and 270s saw a reemergence of armed struggle in Afrazure, as well as the growth of dissent amongst the urban population of Maurestania - specially amongst university students and the intelligentsia, new political ideas and philosophies quickly gained ground, from local reinterpretations of orthodox socialism, to new forms of religious conservatism, to democratic liberal movements, such as the Brolecianists. In response to this and other forms of unrest, the Maurestani army launched a coup d'etat on the 1st of May 266, restraining the Emperor of Maurestania to a figurehead role while most of the administrative affairs were conducted by a military junta.
The economical advantage of the region, when compared to the rest of Maurestania, was not enough to protect its inhabitants from the massive economical recession which affected the empire in the 280s - caused, among other factors, by the increasing expenses with the colonial war in Afrazure. The decade saw the emergence of problems never seen in the multiethnic empire, such as racial and religious strife amongst the urban populations, fuelled by mounting unemployment and the inability of the Maurestani government to properly curb these issues.
The long recession was also one of the causes for the emergence of the powerful drug cartels in the Brolecian valley. The Maurestani government attempted to destroy the groups during the Maurestani drug war of 291-296, to no avail.
While imperial troops disengaged from Afrazure in 288, the failed conquest of Thistland in April 298 only worsened the long crisis. On the 1st of April 299, popular movements, left and liberal opposition political parties and several military units rose in rebellion. After two weeks, nearby Ordland intervened, beginning the Maurestani War.
On the 16th of April, the centrist Brolecianists began their uprising in the eyalets of Menche-Ponche and Liston. Quickly joined by other rebel formations, the group rapidly defeated or absorbed Maurestani units on the territory of present-day North Brolecia and crossed the Brolecia valley. Although pockets of resistance persisted across the region, most notably on the cities of Mont-Parnassie and Err d'Or, by early May most Ordlandic and Maurestani forces were withdrawn to the territory of present-day Mauré, in Porto Capital.
The war ended after 43 days, with a democratic uprising against the authoritarian government of Ordland. Over the following weeks, a series of referendums overseen by the United Nations of Vexillium confirmed the independence of Brolecia and San Patricio, as well as the establishment of the Ordlandic Protectorate over the remnants of Maurestania.
The Brolecian experiment[]
The Federal Republic of Brolecia was organized as a multiethnical federation of provinces. Former rebel leader Robbie Ellies was acclaimed as provisional president of the new republic, until elections on the 19th of June elected John Coopier, of the center-right Polonial Party, as the second president of Brolecia. The new Federal Republic was organized as a liberal democracy, while economically the government pursued a more neoliberal approach, favouring foreign investments in an attempt to rebuild the country's infrastructure, damaged by two decades of severe economic crisis.
Brolecia was ravaged from the start by instability due to its critical overextension, as well as troubles inherited from the Maurestani era. On July, the United Nations of Vexillium granted the country a mandate over the northern parts of the former Afrazurean Empire, following the conclusion of the local civil war and the subsequent partition of Afrazure. A few months later, in December, a referendum confirmed the independence of Extremo.
From the 2nd to the 15th of July 300, the Brolecian capital of Liston held the 300 Summer Vexgames - in part to attempt to increase its international prestige. In fact, the debt incurred due to the organisation of the games only worsened the economical crisis. Once again, various political groups took the streets from late July until December 301. The government of the states of Blackland, Oxpla, Grozlia and the Federal District announced their secession from Brolecia in early November, forming the Listonian Free State. The states of Bajapez and Guetaso were next, joining independent Extremo to form the new People's Republic of Porto Capital.
Although the remnants of Brolecia's government attempted to take the reins and hold the federation together, the Sterv elite, based out of present-day North Brolecia, ensured the country's rump parliament voted itself out of existence, while also acknowledging a new constitution that established the Stervian Confederation in its place in January 302.
The Stervian era[]
Initially welcomed by the International community as a much-needed stabilising force in Melania, over the years Stervia revealed itself to be little more than a tool for the political dominance of a Sterv technocratic elite over the more numerous native peoples. Several pieces of legislation enacted during the country's first decade of existence ensured that most political investment and economical development was concentrated on the Sterv corelands around Lake Mirroire. The western coast of the country, inhabited by a majority of Phenixien speakers, also received a fair share of investment. Most of the hinterlands south of the Equator, however, inhabited by native Afrayenne and other related ethnic groups, were openly neglected, their inhabitants disfranchised and denied any opportunity for economical development.
Several areas on the border with Allacoa and Afrazure, where several refugee camps dating from the 270s still existed, were placed under direct military rule, constituting the Zangan Autonomous Region (ZAR).
Mounting denounces of human rights violations against the non-Sterv population, combined with the inability of the Stervian government to properly deal with the drug cartels, prompted a joint Portocapitalian-Afrazurean-Allacoan intervention against the Stervian Confederation in mid-320. Following a series of short battles, plus military mutinies and civilian uprisings, the Stervian government falls after rebelling regiments enter the government compound in Blanchelocq. A provisional government made of several opposition figures agree to a "controlled dissolution" of Stervia along ethnolinguistic lines - with the former Maurestani eyalets of Menche-Ponche, Accord, Mirroire, Treixe and Aziri, comprising the bulk of the Sterv- and Phenixien-speaking population, forming a new Federation of North Brolecia.