Principality of Doverna

Once a great regional power at the center of the continent, the proud nation of Doverna is now in ruins, its last embers precariously burning in the independent city of Pekhit, the last piece of independent Dovernian territory. The Principality used to border the Empire of Kyvir, the Grand Duchy of Lydriz, the Tepyen Emirate and the Kingdom of Ortellia. The last three now surround its last remnants on all sides, watching keenly for any sign of defiance. Yet, the fallen dove may rise again. Doverna is not yet lost!

History
The Principality of Doverna was established New Year's eve 1397 AH. when an assembly consisting of the dukes and counts of the central plains acknowledged Duke Simeon of Dovir as their soverign and overlord. The duke recieved oaths of fealty from all noblemen present, as well as the Khan of the central plains who transferred to him the title of Khagan he had formerly held, in recognition of his defeat against Simeon. At sundown the Duke was blessed and crowned as Grand Prince by the Hierarch of Sampo, the city that would serve as royal capital for most of the country's history. The promises and oaths exchanged on this day would form the foundations of the Grand Compact, a series of documents that would serve as the constitutional foundations of Doverna. Among the points that would eventually be codified from this event decades later were:
 * Elective monarchy. Any claimant to the throne would need the approval of the Sejm of nobles in order to be coronated and recognized. Typically the grand prince would present his preferred son as candidate and have him elected as the official successor before his own death. Throughout the vast majority of Dovernas history this was how princes were chosen, however the Sejm was under no obligation to coronate a member of the ruling dynasty or the prince's chosen successor if he did not reach agreement with the nobility on royal obligations and promises
 * The recognition and protection of the Khanates. These pastoral nomads inhabited significant portions of the southern central plains, and as per the agreement between Simeon and Raghad Khan, the Grand Prince of Doverna held the title of Khagan, overlord of all khanates. While the khans at first had no representation in the Sejm, they were granted extensive priviliges that were innitially non-negotiable. Over time the khanates would diminish in importance in their own right as the nomads began to settle down permanently, with some Khans eventually becoming landed noblemen with seats in the Sejm, however the system would not be officially abolished until the revolution of 1795
 * The veneration of the true religion. Doverna would adhere to the Nestorian religion, honouring the prophet Rajul Hakim as the twin of God, the creator's greatest creation and the first scholar. Ruled by a grand council of regional Heirarchs, this is the major monoteistic religion of Doverna, Ortellia and Lydriz. The Apostolian minority which mainly inhabited the southern parts of Doverna would be subjected to additional taxation and were not allowed to hold their own religious courts without oversight from the Nestorian church. The Khanates would be exept from these laws however. Historians have later pointed at this as an attempt to isolate the Apostolians in their traditionally nomadic societies to prevent them from settling down alongside the Nestorian population
 * (Disputed) Extended veto right. From the 17th century AH onwards, all members of the Sejm would hold the power to veto legislation and resolutions. Originally proposed by the then recently re-elected Dovskoy dynasty, it was the result of a coronation promise made to win back the throne from the Voljývin dynasty, who had been trying to centralize power with the ultimate goal of a hereditary absolute monarchy in the style of Kyvir. After nearly a century on the throne they were finally denied succession by the Sejm in 1603, resulting in the dynasty of Grand Prince Simeon retaking the throne at great cost to their own power. The right to veto was an interperetation of Simeon's promises 200 years earlier (which were not written down until several decades later) the legitimacy of which been fiercely debated by members of the sejm and historians alike. Over the next century this would result in a largely gridlocked Sejm which became gradually more susceptible to foreign influence. By the time of the revolution Dovernian law had become the domain of its rivals, along with more than half of its original territories. This lacking ability to reform would prove disasterous, particularly when up against the young, vigourously militaristic state of Lydriz

A meteoric rise
In the years following the unification, expansion followed. Doverna was a flat land, centrally located without many natural lines of defense, but it was also populous and fertile, capable of supplying large armies as a unified state. The combination of levies from the landed noblemen and the warbands of the Khanates gave the Grand Prince a fearsome army at his disposal. Throughout the 15th and early 16th centuries Doverna would be victorious in well over half of all conflicts it entered. During this time it siezed land from the Kingdom of Ortellia, the Kingdom of Kyvir and the Duchy of Lyria and incorporated several smaller counties and duchies in the central plains. With time the new vassals of the crown would be admitted to the Sejm. In the early days of the kingdom this contributed to stability as the nobility had a say in the ruling of the realm, however this only lasted so long as the Grand Princes were willing to share power. the Dovskoy Dynasty founded by Simeon would rule until 1480 in its first tenure.

By this point the monarchy was becoming discontented with the Sejm. From the beginning the Grand Prince had aimed to consolidate power, however it would only gradually reach the point where the assembly began to protest. Facing what they saw as the eroision of the Grand Compact, which at this point was still purely oral history, a group of nobles had a written version produced, made certain re-interperetations to adjust for the new political realities and demanded its codification. Prince Karol I Dovskoy refused and in response his designated heir was rejected by the Sejm. Upon Karol's death they first considered picking a younger son on the condition of his ratification of the Compact, however Duke Bodgar Iril, the husband of Karol's only daughter would prove a more popular candidate. He would die heirless in 1499, ushering in an age of many dynasties. For the next 30 years there would be four kings, each from a different family, until in 1531 Konstantin Volývjin took the throne.

Where the Dovskoys had been viewed as overly assertive by the time they lost the throne, all three Volývjin monarchs would be considered absolutists with ambitions of hereditary monarchy independent of the Sejm. This dynasty was more successful than the Dovskoys due to their significantly larger estates, having been some of the greatest rivals of Simeon's line before the unification. Simeon had risen through careful diplomacy and his successors, though grudgingly, maintained a certain balance with the nobles and the Sejm. Konstantin, his son Antonin and his grandson Clement would all rule forcefully, their dynasty serving as the vanguard of reform and centralization. A professional hired army was built, customary law was standardized for all cities, towns and estates, and tens of thousands of serfs were freed.

The Volývjin princes also worked to integrate the Khanates, providing financial support for nomads and their leaders to settle down into estates and towns. This helped many nomads out of economic hardship as their standards of living had deteriorated since the second half of the 1400s. This has been attributed to various sources. Some have pointed to a decrease in available grazing grounds due to farmers colonizing and developing new land. Some historians have attributed the decline to inherant amorality and barbarism, claiming that the nomads could no longer function in their traditional societies without a constant influx of loot. More recent assesments however suggest this is a false image, instead pointing to a general decline in living conditions and worsening harvests, even lower temperatures and colder wheather than in older annals. This made it harder to keep herds of animals and drove both nomads and farmers to adapt. Many nomads would become farmers during this time, settling down to grow potatoes. Others moved into the cities, in particular the new city of Pekhit, which would serve as capital during the reigns of Antonin and Clement, though the status of capital reverted to Sampo later. The nomadic reforms remain divisive, as the Nestorian population of the northern and central parts of the principality accused the Grand Prince of stacking the Sejm with new Apostolian noblemen, raised from the the status of Khans after creating landed estates. Religious tensions would continue to grow from the 16th century onwards

Volývjin fortunes finally turned at the beginning of the 17th century. Grand Prince Clement came to the throne in 1598, and by this point the Sejm's power was waning.Though they had faced staunch opposition, through military victories and comprehensive reform the Volývjin dynasty had held firm, however even the most determined and powerful of princes were not immune to the mysterious ways of The Lord. Clement would fall gravely ill after only a couple of years on the throne, crucially before he could have his heir confirmed by the Sejm. Iron-willed as he was, his deteriorating health prevented him from ruling effectively, and he would pass in mid 1602, leaving the Sejm in the most opportune position they had seen in a hundred years. It was the largest royal election in Dovernian history, with nearly half the noble families of the principality presenting a claim to the throne, however the choice would eventually fall on Simeon III Dovskoy, the descendant and namesake of the first Grand Prince. Simeon III could not boast the martial prowess of his esteemed ancestor, however he would prove almost as able a politician. This man had waited patiently, outliving two Volývjin Princes to take the throne at age 62, he would rule until his death in 1618. Though the position of Grand Prince had diminished significantly in power, Simeon was able to control the Sejm during his lifetime through an extensive network of personal relations, but also relied heavily on paying opponents to vote with him, a practice that would prove unsustainable for future Grand Princes

Only after the death of Simeon III and the coronation of his nephew would the weaknesses of the new system reveal themselves. In 1625 Doverna would go to war with the Grand Duchy of Lydriz, percieving it as unstable after the death of the Archduke and the ascendance of the young Archduchess Ofelia as an opportune moment to strike. If ever it was, the moment was wasted. The declaration came more than a year after the death of the Archduke as the central and southern nobility feared invasion from the Emirate of Tepyen. Several noblemen were also making attempts to arrange a marriage between a dovernian duke and the Archduchess as a way of gaining power in Lydriz for themselves. By the time an army was assembled, the Archduchess had been given time to prepare. Though the Dovernian army was larger than that of Lydriz, it proved far less organized, consisting of a mix of conscripted peasants, hired mercanaries and light cavalry from the khanates as well as the retinues of various nobles. The standing army had been disbanded some years earlier as they were seen as a product of royal overreach. Meanwhile Lydriz fielded a professional army of well-organized infantrymen which had already earned a fearsome reputation in the so far short history of the young state. The Dovernian army would win a costly tactical victory which ultimately lead to strategic defeat. Furthermore, seing how many forces Doverna had sent north, the Emir of Tepyen rallied his forces. Unbeknownst to the Dovernians, in the previous year the Emirate had been dealing with an internal crisis, as a faction of its janissary army had been planning a palace coup. Had the Dovernians struck at Lydriz earlier they might have been able to make gains without facing southern invasion. Instead the deadlock in the Sejm had now helped facilitate the alliance of two of Doverna's enemies which would be formed in the aftermath of the war. Tepyen would not succeed in its invasion however, as an outbreak of plague halted the advance of the army. Pekhit was briefly besieged, however as the disease spread both in the city and in the ranks of the janissaries, the Emir's army marched home, leaving the sick behind so as nto to bring the plague with them. Doverna had lost little and gained less as the war ultimately resulted in no change in territory. The southern plague whose spread had been accelerated by the incursion of armies from Tepyen would result in a greater death toll than any combat that took place that year. Even as things remained relatively stable overall, a sense of unease and foreboding set in across the principality. An enemy they had once been able to enforce their will upon now stood firm against them. This would culminate in the War of The North Sea 17 years later

By 1642 the tensions in the north sea were reaching a breaking point. Doverna, Ortellia, Kyvir and Lydriz all had territory along the North Sea coast and had fleets based there. Lydriz had long traditions as a mercantile state and had at one point built up a significant warfleet in addition to its merchant navy in the early 16th century, but was forced to significantly reduce its size by a coalition of the other three north sea powers after a decisive defeat at the hands of the Volývjins. Now they were rebuilding this fleet, larger and more advanced than before. Remembering the war of 1625, Doverna called a conference to deal with the issue, hoping for a diplomatic solution, and if this proved impossible, a revival of the coalition against Lydriz. It remains disputed whether Archduchess Ofelia intended for the conference to fail given the nature of her demands, a promise to keep her navy to a third of the tonnage of that of Kyvir in exchange for a treaty of free trade with all three powers. Some (mostly Lydrizian) historians go so far as to claim she was an overly ambitious peacemaker, envisioning an end to all potential future conflict in the region. Regardless of intentions, the end result would be war. A second conference was immediately convened by Kyvir, Ortellia and Doverna, reviving the coalition against Lydriz. The Archduchess for her part, took tea with the Emir's ambassador the same evening. Two months later an incident was caused when a merchant ship from Kyvir was boarded and searched by the Lydrizian navy. The sailors were detained and tried for smuggling. The event is hotly contested as to this day both sides accuse the other of purposefully engineering the incident, either by sending the ship or through the detaining of sailors. Over the ensuing months tensions grew. Both the Grand Prince of Doverna and the King of Ortellia were having second thoughts about their comittment to war earlier that year, and so Kyvir declared war quickly to prevent the coalition from dissolving. The War of the North Sea would be unsurpassed in its sheer scale until the Imperial war 100 years later. Both on land and at sea the Lydrizians employed military innovations to great effect. The coalition was in ruins, militarily and diplomatically. Displeased with Kyvir's recklessness, Ortellia blamed the eastern kingdom for the defeat. Kyvir for its part accused its allies of defeatism and excessive hesitation. The two kings agreed on only a single matter, that Doverna was utterly useless as an ally. This time around Dovernian military preformance was so poor that its former coalition partners came to see it as a sick man, where the question was not so much whether it could collapse as when it would, and who would get to pick up the pieces. The independence of Doverna's foreign policy was not long for this world, and neither Kyvir nor Ortellia intended to let the other grow dominant at their expense

Doverna would remain on the sidelines of history for the remainder of the 17th century. While Lydriz was preoccupied with maintaining its fragile hegemony, Ortellia and Kyvir looked inwards to strengthen themselves and the Emirs of Tepyen desperately tried to escape the stranglehold their Jannisaries had put on their authority. The politics of the Sejm would stagnate. The nobles who had once allowed themselves to be persuaded or coerced into reforms and conquests now wanted nothing so much as to turn their estates into kingdoms of their own in all but name. The southern nobility would occasionally attempt expeditions into Tepyen or the minor states along the south-sea coast, an endavour which produced little more than the occasional influx of loot, as there was no professional artillery and the infantry was made up of poorly trained conscripts. Even so, developement did occur, though sporadic and without an overarching sense of direction. The Volýjins gave patronage to Pekhit, the Dovskoys to a lesser extent to Sampo. Though the restored Dovskoys retained a certain will of their own even at the mercy of the Sejm, the elective system had a tendency to produce compliant monarchs. The royal court had become the stage of an intricate and unending stageplay. Where Sampo Kalashki had once been a place for the Grand Prince to gather his nobles so as to control them more easily under a watchful eye, now the nobility were the ones who benefited from this proximmity, as they scouted for those of the royal line who seemed least able to challange their authority and conspired to have these men elected grand prince. Though this system would persist in one capacity or another until the end of the principality, ultimately helping pave the way for violent revolution by the bourgoise and peasantry, one man would come close to undoing it

He was baptized as Markho, crowned Grand Prince Markho I, and known to all posterity as 'The Winter Hare'. He stuttered from his childhood to his death, was going bald by his 30s and looked short even on horseback, and for decades he would decieve the world into thinking he was nothing more than everything he appeared to be. The second son of a third, he grew wise to the game of the courtiers from an early age, a game which public perception made him naturally gifted to win. From his adolesance to early adulthood he would be known as a well-mannered numbskull, whose mind seemed to be filled with nothing but practiced politeness and air. Elected in 1689, aged 26, his ascencion as Grand Prince would mark a decade of fierce resistance against the parliment. Experts arrived from all neighbouring powers, engineers and architects from Tepyen, Veteran officers from Lydriz, Kyvirians and Ortellians educated at some of the world's finest universities to fill cabinet positions. Had he lived a century earlier, Markho might have risen to rival the power of the Volývjin Princes. As it stood he was locked in war with his own parliment. A new tax code, civil service, a professional army and unified civil law were all suggestions the Sejm shot down while rival states began adopting such measures enthusiastically. Even Tepyen with its burdensome Janissary beurocracy was still more legally and militarily unified than Doverna had become at this time. The Grand Prince would make use of every tool at his disposal, selling noble titles to prominent members of the bourgoise, providing funding for Khanates to settle, trying to stack the Sejm in his favour. After 10 years of political division, rumors began to circulate that the Grand Prince planned to summon a Greater Sejm, with representation from both the nobility and the citizenry, presumably with the intent of re-writing the Grand Compact. At this point the Nobility was well beyond trying to negotiate with the monarchy, fearing a slide into absolutism at their expense would take place before their eyes. In 1699 Markho I was assassinated, the Greater Sejm not yet summoned, his heir still a child. The next election of a Prince would be left wide open, within the borders of Doverna and beyond

In the absence of a confirmed successor, two Dovskoys would become the frontrunners for the throne, Biron and Grigorij. Grigorij was of the main line of the dynasty, which had been on the sidelines the last couple of elections as the Sejm picked weaker claimants. Now a man in his prime, Grigorij had not spent his time idly, spending years in Ortellia, making connections at court and in parliment. With financial and political support from abroad, he positioned himself as a constitutionalist who would respect the Grand Compact and safeguard it from further attacks by the monarch. Biron was younger, and of a lesser branch, but was no less ambitious. He too would use the situation created in the last decade to his advantage, but in the opposite direction, promising reforms and centralization, appealing to the new men raised to the Sejm under Markho, as well as the southern, Apostolian nobility, which he was connected to through his mother's line. Meanwhile, the Queen of Kyvir had been made aware of Ortellian involvement in the election, viewing Grigorij as a puppet of her rivals in the west. With the election close at hand, the Kyvirian army was moved to the border with Doverna for manouvres.

During the election there were several rounds of voting as both candidates vied for a clear majority. Tensions escalated after a hot summer night's brawling in the streets of Sampo, resulting in the arrest of several men, including five electors, four of which had voted for Biron in the past round. Biron insisted hat the electors should not be jailed until after the vote was finished, however the palace guard kept them in custody. In respons Biron took the floor and demanded the arrest of Keztin, Maltyn and Alkayiev, three electors suspected of the murder of Grand Prince Markho. Once more the guard refused. The situation only worsened when an elector who favoured Grigorij was assualted and nearly killed the following week, taking wounds to severe to attend the subsequent votes. Two rounds of voting later Grigorij would win by a narrow margin. Biron contested the result, but quickly departed Sampo, claiming he feared for his life in the presence of the 'uncut jannissaries', a less than charitable description of the Princely Guard. Citing their failiure to protect the late Markho, he claimed the guard had become partisan and rigged the election, that they had a vested interest in keeping the crown weak and subservient. Biron traveled to Pekhit, seeking the aid of Count Volývjin to claim the throne, but was rejected. A month later Biron raised his banner at the head of an army comprised of the retainers of his supporters, peasant conscripts from the south-east of Doverna, but most importantly, 50000 Kyvirian 'mercanaries', an army of the the Kyvirian state in all but name. Grigorij and his supporters had still been in the process of planning his coronation as Grand Prince when news arrived, and scrambled to assemble an army of their own.

No conventional army could be mustered in Doverna that could match professional Kyvirian forces, however Grigoorij's faction was not without its strengths. While Ortellia did was not as agressive in its involvement in the war as Kyvir due to divisions in parliment, Grigorij would recieve large sums of money from the Ortellian government. Additionally, despite being favoured by the settled population of Apostolians in the south, Biron was unable to sway the khanates to his side, who sided with the elected monarch, their de-facto Khagan for centuries. The nomads fought with outdated firearms, some even continuing to fight with bow and arrow, and generally had supplies and equipment of lesser quality than that of conventional quality seen in the armies of the great powers, however their skill as light cavalry irregulars was unmatched. With 20 000 riders on his side, Grigorij was able to withstand the Kyvirian onslaught, holding Sampo into late autumn and forcing Biron's withdrawal into his secure territories the south-east. The following campaigns along the main river of the principality would become known as the Spring of The Red Cerny, as citizens of the downriver city of Pekhit claimed to see blood running in the water under the bridges.

Part of Grigorij's strategy involved denying his enemies the decisive field battle he had no chance of winning against the sheer might of Kyvir's soldiers. As a result Biron resorted to heavy raiding of the north in order to force a confrontation, ultimately to no avail. These raids were conducted chiefly by mercanaries, some of which Grigorij was able to turn to his side, partly because of greater financial resources and partly the tensions created between the hired troops and the better disciplined Kyvirian soldiers. the Kyvirian Marshal Kustotzin was apalled by the wanton destruction the brought upon northern Doverna, describing them as "Godless rogues with no place on the battlefield. They worship at no altar but their own hoards of loot". Kustotzin's worsening relationship with Biron who continued to make use of such tactics against his advice would begin to sap the Bironite cause of its momentum. Grigorij did at one point try to compel the khans to raid the south in retalliation, however the nomads held reservations against attacking their own traditional homeland and fellow apostolians. The war began to turn into a stalemate. Finally Queen Elizaveta began to consider alternate avenues to her own goals, effectively preparing to abandon Biron. She entered secret negotiations with the Grigorians. The treaty she proposed would keep Doverna under Kyvir's sphere of influence and protect Kyvir's financial interests. although he favoured the Ortellians, their lack of direct military comittment to his cause combined with the deteriorating state of the territories he controlled compelled him to accomodate the queen. in the spring of 1701 the Kyvirian army left Biron and returned home. By autumn he would be forced to surrender, put on trial before the Sejm and executed. The sentence was determined during a session attended solely by those electors that supported Grigorij. To fearful of letting his rival live, Girgorij ended up undermining his own image as a defender of the Grand Compact through what many saw as a rigged trial.

Throughout the war Count Adám Volývjin remained neutral. Despite voting for Biron he refused to take up arms against the Girgorians when the wwar broke out. Grigorij would make similar overtures and also be rebuffed. The soldiers under Volývjin's command served as clubmen, deterring any and all who sought to drag Pekhit into war. Because of this and the Khans refusing to raid in the south, the south of Doverna and Pekhit in particular would begin eclipsing the north economically. However they did not escape the war unscathed. Although the fortification of Pekhit itself with modern, star-shaped walls prevented any direct attacks, the clubmen in Volývjin's service could hardly deter an invading army, which would arrive in the form of the Emir of Tepyen. Sensing weakness, the emirate mobilized its army once again. Although the Janissaries had suffered numerous losses against Kyvir under queen Elizaveta, they remained 100 000 men strong in total, and only needed to send a fifth of their forces towards Pekhit. However rather than try to repeat the failed siege of 1625, Tepyen simply captured a few southern border fortresses and used these as a springboard to annex territories in the neutral zone south of Pekhit. Lacking the strength to sally forth and face them alone, Count Volývjin tried to call for unity between the warring factions in Doverna against the invader, however neither side was willing to risk a stab in the back from the other whilst dealing with a foreign enemy. The Dovskoys might even have been happy to see the lands of a rival family reduced

The following decades would see a continuation of the status quo, with a weak central government and strong local aristocrats consolidating ever more land and souls under their personal control. Kyvirian mercantile interests continued to dominate the dovernian economy, which benefited the grain trade but little else, as the more industrialized manufactories of Kyvir outproduced Dovernian ones and outcompeted them through favourable trade agreements gained through Elizaveta's peace treaty. Beyond Sampo and Pekhit there was little industrial developement. Even so, this age was not without its advancements. Over the course of the early 18th century agricultural innovations formerly adopted by neighbouring states would make their way to Doverna, resulting in a lower infant mortality rate and the growth of towns and villages across the country. The two cities would also continue to prosper. Relative peace had its benefits, though it was largely a result of the new Kyvirian King Pavel's low opinion of Dovernian soldiers. Rather than trying to make them join him in any of his smaller wars, Pavel kept Doverna neutral so as not to allow his western rivals to march through it. This was a functional strategy while Kyvir mainly focused on minor border conquests in the early 18th century, however Pavel's successor Kazimir had Imperial ambitions that would not be sated by taking a few ports in the North Sea or borderlands from Tepyen. The outbreak of the Imperial war in 1748 has later been described as the beginning of the end for Dovernian sovereignty

When King Kazimir declared a Kyvirian empire and subsequently war on Lydriz and Tepyen, the liberal parliment in Ortellia viewed it as their role to defend the freedom of the continent. Doverna had no wish to join either side, as the Grand Prince and the Sejm had finally reached the consensus that large scale offensive wars were no longer viable. However it quickly became obvious that neither side of the war was content with this. Doverna, though it had been declining in size for a century, was still too great an obstacle for either side to remain neutral. Kazimir believed that respecting its wish to remain neutral would prevent him from striking at Lydriz and Ortellia before the two could link up their armies. Furthermore he considered himself the overlord of the Principality as the result of the treaties signed at the end of the Elector's War, and viewed neutrality as treason. Ortellia for its part needed both time to mobilize forces and send them to eastern Lydriz. Doverna could provide both a buffer and a more direct route to the front. The Ortellians engaged in secret negotiations, offering payments and promises to the king and the sejm separately, trying to get at the very least a treaty of military access. Kyvir wasted no time offering carrots, instead brandishing its stick. A week after the declaration of war on the rest of the continent, the Kyvirian army unexpectedly attacked none of them, instead sweeping into Doverna. instead of offering boons, Kazimir took hostage vital fortresses and, perhaps even more crucially, the estates of numerous noblemen of the Sejm. The kyvirian army arrived at the gates of Sampo within days, but instead rather than besiege it, they sent a delegation. Kazimir made token promises of returning all land lost by Doverna to the three powers he was at war with, but the emphasis was clearly put on the threat of him not returning any territory if they refused. His letter to the Sejm concluded:"'I thank you in advance for your consideration, and implore you to vote wisely and in the knowledge that every second you delay, my army lays claim to a new foot of land'"