The history of Sednyana traces the events and origins of the Federation and Kingdom of Sednyana, beginning with the creation of the kingdom in 1305, as well as the background leading up to the creation of the Kingdom of Sednyana. Sednyana has played a very important role in classical, pre-modern and modern history, and its history is highly integrated with the history of the world.
Background[]
Pre-Colonization
The first people to inhabit Sednyana were the Inceans, who settled the northern rainforest as long as ten thousand years ago. The plains and forests south of Incea were never densely inhabited, but contained a wide variety of different peoples with diverse languages and customs. This region, however, remained isolated from most of the continent via the Feran Mountains, which largely blocked the introduction of more Harbic-influenced Tarati civilization, and to the north the Incean Rainforest made contact with the Ziun or other groups difficult. Instead, these peoples typically fell more under the influence of an Incean sphere, although Incean crops did not grow well in the more temperate regions, and without the introduction of temperate crops, these areas did not have widespread agriculture. Major peoples, however, included the Kaya, the Boya, and the Alto. While many Inceans in the rainforest remained hunter-gatherers, others developed more sedentary agricultural civilizations. By 1200 the Inceans were united into a single kingdom with its capital in Alt Kari. This kingdom was highly decentralized, and, although it was ruled by a king of the Ngedyen Dynasty, most of the actual power was wielded by local chieftains and priests. The two main groups of Inceans were the Jeneti and Matreen, for which the modern Sednyanese states are named. The Jeneti lived north of the Bula River, while the Matreen lived south of it; although they considered themselves different peoples, genetic evidence shows that they interbred largely.
The Sednya Islands were first settled by a breakoff group of Inceans around 200 BCE, who explored and settled all of the major islands except for Ross between 200 BCE and 1000 CE. They had little to no contact with mainland Inceans, and developed their own individual cultures, languages, and religions that differed based on regions. The natives of the Sednya Islands were mainly divided into the Xeti, the K'oali, and Difo and Morokoma.
New Celta
After the Anglean Chasm of 1256, generals and empires struggled to establish regional power in former parts on the Anglean Empire. One of these, the Aemorean Empire, attempted to gain control of all of Rhamidia, and in doing so invaded the region of Celta. A group of Celton lords met and agreed that they would rather free their homeland in search of a new home than submit to rule by another harsh empire, and a fleet of Celton ship left the port of Durham in 1273 seeking the unknown expanses of the Southern Continent as their new homeland. Five months later, the fleet led by Carles Ellona landed on the coast of what is now Ellona, and founded the city of Durham, named after the port in Celta. The settlers found the region mostly uninhabited, and began farming and establishing a new society there, which they named New Celta. Within the next thirty years, new settlers poured into New Celta, mostly from Celta but also from other regions of the former Anglean Empire, where people had heard news of the new homeland and sought it out. Many were beggars, criminals and the ill-fortunate, who crowded aboard ships with next to no knowledge of where they were going except that it was somewhere different.
The new influx of settlers forced New Celton society to expand outwards, founding ports at Moon Bay, Kaia, Cethen, Dezzirik, and Monopodia. In doing so, they came into contact with the first natives of the region; with no mutual understanding of each others' languages, they could not communicate and the Celtons simply drove them out of regions they wished to settle using their superior technology. In 1289, a Celton captain named Daniel Seas accidentally landed too far north, near Alt Kari, in present-day Seas' Cove, and made contact with the Incean Empire. At first the Inceans were very friendly, treating Seas as a distinguished foreigner despite their mutual unintelligability and showing him around Alt Kari and the area. Seas and his crew traveled south to Durham with tales of the Incean Empire. Many of the natives uprooted by the settlers were driven north to Incea, which in turn stated explicity that no settlers could found any settlements within their borders.
By 1302, New Celta and Incea broke out into war over border disputes and who had to right to settle the land; Incea claimed that the land was theirs, and New Celta claimed that they could settle whatever land they wanted to. Although the Celtons had superior military technology, they found themselves drawn deeper into the Incean Rainforest where they were ambushed and destroyed. Realizing the necessity of peace, Alan Ellona, a charismatic young leader in Durham and the grandson of Carles Ellona, met with Rahun Ngedyen in Alt Kari in 1304 and devised the First Incean Peace Treaty, officially recognizing New Celta and Incea as separate, sovereign nations with a border at the Toka River. However, Alan found this treaty lacking, and, the next year, met again with Rahun Ngedyen in Alt Kari and devised a new treaty, the Second Incean Treaty, which would instead incorporate Incea and New Celta as the same nation; a single kingdom with a king in neutral territory between New Celta and Incea. Alan also agreed to marry his eldest son, Richard, to Niemorya Ngedyen, Rahun's eldest daughter and the heir to Incea. Although many found the plan crazy due to the vast cultural differences between Incea and New Celta, Alan fervently argued for the plan and made it a reality. The treaty was signed on June 11, 1305, and in an election of officials from Incean and New Celton society, Alan was declared King of Sednyana, meaning "New Golden Land," an Incean phrase that Alan felt summed up the dreams of the Celtons who first sailed to Sednyana.
Kingdom of Sednyana (1305-1500)[]
Full article: Kingdom of Sednyana
The early years of the Kingdom of Sednyana were highly fractured. King Alan facilitated trade and communication between the two parts of his kingdom, and created plans for a new capital to constructed on the Toka River, called Sednyanopolis. In the mean time he ruled from Durham while frequently visiting Incea. Alan drew up a Council of Advisors, composed of both whites and Inceans, who checked his power, advised him and handled lesser executive issues. Alan created a strong infrastructure for the fledgling kingdom, connecting the various English-speaking ports along the coast and the major centers of Incea. He divided the kingdom up into various states ruled by dukes: namely, Durham, Alto, Kaya, Boyada, Toka, and Incea. Leaving a more or less open immigration policy, the population of Sednyana more than doubled during Alan's fourty-two year reign, and the population balance shifted from being majority Incean to having significantly more whites than Inceans by Alan's death. Alan's code of basic laws, drawn from Celton law and Incean law, would become the basis for Sednyanese common law for years to come, and is sometimes considered Sednyana's original constitution.
Alan died in 1343 of natural causes at the age of 73. He died just as Sednyanopolis was opened; although he was able to visit it, he never ruled from its halls. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard. Richard continued many of the policies of his father, and Sednyana continued to rapidly grow and prosper. The port cities along the coast grew; the city of Monopodia in particular, with its large port, was known as a "rotating door" because new immigrants consistently moved to the city and older residents would move inland and begin a farming life, so that the city was constantly populated by new immigrants. Farming remained the mainstay of the Sednyanese economy, and more and more land was settled and farmed throughout Kaya, Ellona, Cethen, Boyada, and Toka. Although the city of Sednyanopolis was originally populated mostly just by the king and his associates, it slowly grew and size as more and more business grew around the national capital.
Richard himself was very much a Celton, despite the three years he had spent during his adolescent living with his fiancée Niemorya at Alt Kari. He and Niemorya spent little time together, and generally occupied different parts of the palace. The city itself became mostly populated by whites, even though it was closer to Incea than to Durham, and the Incean half of the royal family became quite isolated. After Richard's death in 1369, the crown was taken by his eldest son, Alexander Rahun Ngedyen Ellona, who had been raised primarily by his mother. Known as Alexander "The Black" for his dark skin and hair, or even "The Black King," the young king was fully bilingual and multicultural. Although he was sometimes scorned by his white subjects, Alexander was deftly charismatic and competent and excelently bridged the gap between Inceans and whites. He was the first king to set his sights outward to attempt to integrate Sednyana into the international community as a respected nation. He married three times and had a total of twelve children, ten of them girls, who he married to leaders of surrounding nations, including Correfuscidia, Tabora, Harbelon, and a number of Ziun city-states. By cementing these alliances, Alexander was able to establish Sednyana as a legitimate player in international politics and an important nation.
Alexander was followed by his son, Alexander II, in 1388, who favored his white mother and ended the brief era of multiculturalism in the Sednyanese monarchy. Alexander II shared his father's outward dreams, but he had less diplomatic means of doing so. Building up the Sednyanese military, Alexander II managed to turn the Gemor city-states to the south into Sednyanese tributaries, eventually conquering them in 1398. In 1396, he led an invasion of Tara, defeating the native Tarati and pushing Sednyana's borders beyond the Feran Mountains. Before he could continue pushing outward, however, Alexander II died of swamp fever in 1400 during a brief epidemic that swept Sednyanopolis, also killing his wife and his infant son. With no more Ellona heirs, the throne passed to the son of his older sister, the powerful, brilliant, and charismatic William Charles Alexander, who took the regal name Alexander III.
Imperial Era[]
Alexander III, the nephew of Alexander II, had far greater plans than his uncle. A powerful young man and a brilliant military mind, Alexander III dreamed of a greater Sednyanese empire that controlled all of the eastern part of the continent, dominating trade from the Rippler Cove to the Equatorial Straight - an “Anglea of the South.” Alexander was not truly Alexander II’s heir - although the throne should have gone to one of the former kings’ brothers, Alexander II named Alexander III the heir just before his death, a move which was also voted for by the kings’ council. The king and his advisors knew the genius, power and charisma that Alexander III possessed, and it was hardly even a choice to select him as the next king.
Although Alexander was born to Michael, Duke of Kaya, as Alexander of Kaya, he immediately styled himself as Alexander of Sednyana after his coronation, renaming his house the House of Sednyana. He immediately took control a young and enthusiastic army whose appetite for battle had only just been whetted by Alexander II’s forays into Tara and Gemor, and led them back through Gemoriyn and into Barreland. He defeated Barish king Riulli Arkolin, sending him into exile and declaring himself Emperor of Sednyana and King of Tara, Gemor, and Barreland. From Barreland he moved south into north Ulam, securing himself a port along Rippler Cove which would give him access to the Tyrennean Sea to trade with the Fertile Plains and the growing Toranese Empire. Meanwhile, he sent generals north to invade Tara. The enthusiastic and loyal army managed to crush through the various Ziun states and conquer all of Ziunia by 1418. From there, the army marched west, taking Tabora and surrounding Harbelon, where Alexander’s second cousin Alraktas refused to surrender.
Meanwhile, Qotian emperor Augusto Verron moved north from Munera and Tyrennea, taking all of the coast of the Tyrennean Sea, sealing off the short-lived Sendyanese trade with Toran, as well as taking the island of Niedeva and slowly dominating the kans of various Capulusian principalities, eventually encomporating Capulus into their sphere of control. Alexander and Augusto’s armies ran head to head; in 1424, Alexander and Augusto reluctantly signed a treaty ensuring that neither would infringe on the other, establishing the Capulusian territories of Ayken and Dhemarqua as well as the entirely of the sea as neutral territory. However, Augusto quickly turned back on this claim, and in 1427 he declared all of the Tyrennean Sea and Gulf of Capulus territory of Eqota, only crossable with a heavy tariff. This enfuriated Alexander, who decided to combat by sending military ships across to Chorspachar disguised as trading vessels. When Qotian ships intercepted them, demanding tribute, Alexander’s troops burst out of hiding and defeating the Qotians.
The little skirmish at sea began what would be known as the Tariff War. For the first three years, casualties and battles were minimal, with the only deaths coming from several small naval skirmishes. However, Alexander and Augusto were building their armies. In 1430, Augusto set troops into Dhemarqua, attempting to take control of the straits in order to finally settle the matter of control over the seas. Alexander refused this and sent his entire army to Dhemarqua, even calling down troops from the north, where a series of distastrous battles had just led to the death of his eldest son, Alexander IV. Alexander’s army, one of the largest in the world, met Augusto’s in the city of Dhemarqua. The armies stood tensely for several days, no one wanting to initiate battle. Finally, on June 19, a Qotian soldier shot at a Sednyanese one, and the entire situation dissolved. Within the next four hours, the two armies attacked each other with such terrible fervor that Alexander feared that “the world was about to rip apart at its seams.” Finally, Alexander, realizing that the battle would do nothing but destroy the two nations’ militaries, and possibly leave the region open for other invasion, offered to end the matter with a trial by combat, with the victor taking the city and the straits. Although Augusto initially refused, his troops began to mutiny and he finally agreed to send a champion to fight Alexander, who chose himself as champion.
The two fought in the central square of the devastated city. Alexander quickly gained the upper hand, in line with his traditional reputation as a master swordsman. Just before Alexander seemed ready to be victorious, he was shot in the neck with an arrow by an unknown archer, and he collapsed dead onto the ground. The entire square broke loose into battle, and the Qotian champion was killed in the chaos. Leaderless, the Sednyanese army eventually agreed to retreat, allowing the Qotians to take the city.
One of Alexander's generals, Elias Therin, took control of the troops and waged disorganized warfare against the Qotians in Sednyana's Ulam territory. Realizing that his troops were too disorganized and outnumbered to win, Therin allied with the exiled king of the Barish, Riulli Arkolin, and, with his help, managed to fight his way to the Treaty of Ötmund in 1432, allowing Eqota to have Dhemarqua, most of northern Ulamtyr, and the western half of Barreland, including the port city and historic capital of Bodor, while Sednyana was allowed keep Gemor and all of its homeland territory and Riulli was given the eastern half of Barreland, with Ötmund as its capital. Therin, having made peace, returned to Sednyanopolis and found it in chaos.
As Alexander's groomed heir was dead, his second son, Richard, only eleven, was crowned emperor. Inable to rule by himself, Alexander's Council of Advisors appointed themselves Council of Regents, headed by the charismatic and ambitious Cardinal Calmoray. Leaning toward dictatorial and theocratic, Calmoray's rule of the Council of Regents was highly opposed throughout Sednyana. He sent troops north to Ziunia and Zenia to attempt to keep Sednyana's territories there; however, several local leaders had risen up in rebellion and it was a losing war. Several regions of Sednyana became de facto self-governing, objecting to Calmoray's policies. After Thankerin's return, the Council of Regents voted him Regent of Sednyana, a move which was highly opposed by Calmoray himself, who therefore ordered Therin to be executed. The southern and northern Sednyanese armies clashed briefly outside of Sednyanopolis; however, as Therin had more support among the soldiers, Calmoray's army mutinied and he himself was imprisoned. Therin took over title of Regent, which he would serve for four years, during which time the Northern Wars went better. In 1436, Therin traveled north to Ziunia, leaving the country in the hands of the Council of Regents, and was killed at the Battle of Averanny, at which point John Aeroannados declared himself King of the United Ziunia.
With Therin dead, the next three years saw a number of figures rise to the top of the Council of Regents, which barely managed the hold the country. Finally, after Brandon Whitby was voted out, Richard II claimed the reigns of Sednyana and deposed off all regents, in 1339. Richard immediately began doing work to try to centralize power in the central monarchy, but was largely unsuccessful. Only a year into his actual reign, Richard issued the Edict of 1441, renouncing the title of emperor and all claims to Ziunia, Zenia or Tara. In doing so, he cemented his control over mainland Sednyana and ended the Sednyanese Imperial Wars; however, many, including his younger brother, George, saw it as an act of weakness, and Richard was soon very unpopular. Three weeks after issuing the Edict of 1441, Richard died in his sleep, supposedly from sudden illness but most likely from poisining. The majority of contemporary historians believe that George was behind Richard's death, though any absolute evidence has been lost to history.
Late Kingdom[]
George was crowned King of Sednyana after Richard's death, and he soon began reforms to the government. George was a far more religious man than his father or his brother, and he largely blamed the fall of the empire on their lack of devotion to Centrism. George believed that the superior centros of kings gave them the right to absolute rule, and he largely did away with the constitutional provisions of his predecessors during his lifetime. He persecuted all non-Centrists and non-whites, particularly Inceans, whom he attempted to force to convert to Centrism. Although at first George's absolutism was taken as a welcome break from the chaos of the previous ten years and his religious convinction fell in line with the general religious leanings of the nation, there soon grew to be a great resentment against his rule. His own son, George Alan, as well as his daughter Elizabeth, believed him a tyrant, and, in the mid-1460s they began corresponding with wealthy anti-monarchists outside of Sednyanopolis who wanted George overthrown and his son installed instead under a constitutional monarchy. Among these were the Incean leader Taptaro Coescen and Timothy Hamilton, Duke of Cedar. Alan and Elizabeth fled Sednyanopolis in 1466 to Alt St. Coome, the manor house of Timothy Hamilton outside of Cedar City, and, when George sent troops to bring them home, Hamilton defended them. Allying with Coescen, Hamilton and the two royals led a march on Sednyanopolis that rather quickly managed to defeat King George's troops, many of whom mutinied to join the rebels. George himself died by jumping off the roof of the palace; legend has it that he believed that, as the rightful monarch, his life would be miraculously spared and that he would float to the ground. He did not, and Alan had himself crowned King of Sednyana.
Alan did away with his father's absolutism and drafted the Constitution of the Kingdom of Sednyana, which established a Common Congress, composed of lords and merchants who were able to check Alan's power and pass some laws. The Common Congress also had to approve his choice of successor, and, should he not choose one, they would select a successor for him. Alan II would rule for the next twenty-two years during a period of relative wealth and prosperity in Sednyana. The bureauocracy of Sednyanopolis increased, and the city itself grew significantly in power.
Throughout Alan's thirty year reign, Sednyana prospered and continued to grow, but also came to butt up against other powers of the era. Tensions grew in particular in the Sednyan Islands. While Nusa Tengara continued to claim sovereignty, King Alan directly controlled the southern Xet'i islands, while Frederickstown to the north, though nominally part of Sednyana, established its own laws and government. Pirates, exiles and radical political thinkers found haven there. George Michael Ross was born in Frederickstown in 1466 to a shoemaker, and quickly rose his way up in the world through a round-the-world journey and an appointment in the palace at Sednyanopolis, and ended up eloping with Elizabeth, the much younger sister of Alan II. Back in Frederickstown, he studied political philosophy and published his famous essay with James Haddick titled On the Republic, in which he outlined his view of a non-monarchist society. The radical book, along with the other radical writings coming out of Frederickstown at that time, was immediately banned but - largely because of that - became immensely popular among intellectual circles, and George Ross became a household name. While Alan initially dismissed him and nearly ordered his arrest, he eventually developed a grudging respect for his brother-in-law and agreed to speak with him.
Meanwhile, the Rhamidian Empire, now lead by Toraus of Qarn, begin infringing on Sednyanese waters, and in 1457 notably sank a Sednyanese merchant ship off the coast of Frederickstown. Toraus, without a seeming definite plan, sought to establish Rhamidian ports on the Sednyanese islands, and had a disdainful view of the Sednyanese, whom he viewed as "escaped Rhamidians." He even hoped to extend his power on the Southern Continent as his rival, the Qotians, had. When Alan directly confronted him, Toraus informed him that he would leave Sednyana alone if Sednyana would agree to pay Rhamidia a yearly tribute and allow them unlimited access to their island ports. On principle, Alan declined all of Toraus's demands, even though the man controlled a significantly larger army. In December of 1457, Sednyana suffered a major naval defeat off of Nusa Tengara, and in early 1458, another defeat as Toraus landed his regal fleet by surprise on Spyre Island, off of the coast of Boyada near the port city of Kia Boya, and decimated the Sednyanese army there. A new round of ships brought new troops far down from the Rhamidian continent, and soon his generals pushed the incompetent and unprepared Sednyanese army back along the Toka river, taking town after town before beginning to siege Sednyanopolis, where Alan and his court continued to reside.
Desperate, Alan sent a letter to his brother-in-law George Ross in Frederickstown, instructing him that if he was to have a child with Elizabeth, that child would be the trueborn king of Sednyana, as Alan's own wife was supposedly barren (it is rumored that Alan was gay, but this is unconfirmed). He also stated that George, as the child's father, would be the King's Regent if Alan were to die and gave him executive command over the nation's armies. George received the letter and fled to the farthest Sednya islands, to the island now known as Haven Island, where he and Elizabeth did in fact have a son, Theodore.
In January of 1500, the walls of Sednyanopolis were breached after a year-long siege and the king and his entire court were killed, the city occupied by the Rhamidians and Toraus's brother Adriphas declared King of Sednyana. Meanwhile, the Rhamidian army advanced north and south. To the north, they were halted in the Incean rainforest as the Inceans retreated north; Niavara was occupied, as was Kari-Bula, but the Inceans made their base in Palioini and the Rhamidians lost heavy numbers in the Incean rainforest, unprepared and entirely clueless of the terrain. To the south, the Rhamidians pushed south to Monopodia, where they suffered a tremendous defeat at the hands of Anthony Ducay, then the Duke of East Kaya, who refused to surrender to the Rhamidians and famously declared, "You will not rule my city; if you occupy our buildings and strut down our streets, there will be not one Monopodian left alive for you to rule." While Monopodia suffered massive casualties, the Rhamidians were unsuccessful and eventually retreated; in triumph, Ducay declared himself King of East Kaya and began pushing the border north of his city.The Rhamidians were more successful west of the Golden Mountains, taking Hamilton in late 1501 but being halted just north of Alto by Roger Nelecten, self-proclaimed King of Alto in the style of Ducay.
In the midst of the chaos, George Ross quietly returned from Haven Island to Frederickstown with his wife and his son, passing himself as a trader even though the Rhamidians were on a desperate search for him and his son. In Frederickstown he encountered general Temphas Montemayor, who had fled the mainland after the defeat at Sednyanopolis to search for him. Together they devised a plan to broach the Rhamidian defenses. Under the guise of traders, they began to round up soldiers and mercenaries and landed quietly in Durham before traveling north toward Monopodia. Meanwhile, Anthony Ducay - now known as King Anthony - held off the Rhamidians at Richmond for just long enough for Ross's army to arrive, dying along with almost all of his troops in the process. Sweeping north, Ross's army was able to claim Kia Boya, which it established as its temporary battle capital. Regrouping, Ross appointed Montemayor in charge of pushing inland against the Rhamidians; in a sweeping campaign, Montemayor reclaimed the Toka valley and allowed the Incean forces to the north and the Altan forces to the south to converge and allow for a Sednyanese victory at Sednyanopolis in late 1501. After several months of siege, the Sednyanese reclaimed Sednyanopolis and King Toraus and the pretender Adriphas were publically hanged. The Rhamidian troops were allowed to flee and head home to Rhamidia in shambles.
Meanwhile, in Sednyana, the political situation was unclear. The young Theodore Ross was legally King of Sednyana, but the kingdom had fractured, and the states were self-governing. Ross called a conference of leaders and intellectuals to Kia Boya to discuss matters; there, after months of workshopping, they devised a Constitution of the Republic of Sednyana. Within the next six months, all of the states had ratified the constitution and agreed to join the Federation of Sednyana. In 1503, the nation held its first election, and George Ross was elected president by a wide margin, with James Haddick as his vice president.