New Burgundie

Contents

 * 1 Etymology
 * 2 History
 * 2.1 Seroniezen Dynasty 1670-1696
 * 2.2 Heneriks Dynasty 1696-1937
 * 2.2.1 The Great Campaign
 * 3 Government
 * 3.1 Administrative Divisions
 * 4 Economy
 * 5 Demographics
 * 6 Culture

Etymology
The Fakolan Empire gets its name from the Fiannrian colony of Fakona, the second and largest acquisition made by Otto I during the first phase of expansion of the Kingdom of Fakolan.

Seroniezen Dynasty 1670-1696
The effects of the Fiannrian Enlightenment spread far beyond the shores of Levantia. Having completed his education in Adenbourough, in 1648, Ludwig auf Seroniezen, the son of the Viceroy of Drovana, returned home mind whirring with Enlightenment principles. He wanted a level of home rule for Drovana and the other Fiannrian colonies in Crona.

Starting in the 1652, Ludwig, by then the Viceroy himself, sent numerous petitions and treatises to Fiannria, asking for recognition of a free and independent state in Crona. Despite the Fiannrian Enlightenment, the petitions in favor of self governance and free will were ignored due to the importance of the Cronan colonies to the Fiannrian economy. In 1698 a massive canal project failed, sending the colonial empire spiraling into debt.

Ludwig and a group of the Drovanan elite, in order to clear the debt of Drovana, bought the province from Fiannria and established a free duchy in its place. Neighboring Fakona was also able to buy its freedom from Fiannria, but its Viceroy was a poor money manager and the new state immediately defaulted. Seroniezen stepped in, using the influence he had built over the last few decades and negotiated the Treaty of Fakona of 1670 creating the Kingdom of Fakolan and naming himself Otto I.

Building on existing relationships with merchants from all across Greater Ixnay, in particular from Burgundie, the fledgling kingdom created a modern and massive trading hub at Kanzar, the capital both of the province of Fakona and the kingdom itself. Over the next two decades, with this new revenue, Otto I bought out the remaining Fiannrian colonies of Eitweise (1678), Leiseng (1685), Duitsen (1688) and Horholme (1691). Having come upon all of the new land peaceably, and sharing the Northern Levantine culture, the reign of Otto I saw a massive economic boom.

Upon his death, Otto’s son was coronated Franz I, in 1692. Franz I was a play-boy king, leaving much of the governing to his cabinet he set about spending his father’s hard earned riches all across the world. While he was well liked by commoners in Fakolan, the burgeoning nobility were nonplussed by his extravagance. He spent much of his time in the courts of Levantia and sired over 40 illegitimate children, many of whose lines are still thriving today.

On one of his trips to Levantia, while touring the Fiannrian province of Burgundie, his eldest daughter fell in love with the second son of the Burgundian Grand Duke Rienholdt V. Rienholdt V was also bit of a philanderer and hosted a four day “party” for Franz I, in order to win favor in the match of his second son to Franz’s daughter. The two were married in Kanzar that year, 1698, and she had her first boy fourteen months later. The first two children, a boy and a girl, died within their first years, but the third child was destined for greatness. This child, born Stephan, was to become Otto III, the father of the Fakolan Empire.

Heneriks Dynasty 1696-1937
Upon Franz’s death in 1696, his new son-in-law became Otto II, a name chosen to legitimize the “cadet king”. Nonetheless, Otto II took to his duties with zeal and built a comprehensive administrative system. He was bookish and dedicated to the art of accounting. His reign saw a tightening of the tax code and collection policy, the creation of a postage system and a boom in trade revenue. He rarely left the palace in Kanzar as he was also a devoted family man. After his wife lost the first two children at a young age, Otto II took it upon himself to improve the medical care that his family received. He brought in doctors and philosophers from all across the globe and started some of the leading universities in modern day Kronata. Upon his death, his son Stephan, was left with a healthy, unified and prosperous kingdom.

Stephan Heneriks was not bookish like his father. Of all of his topics of instruction, he had taken to his military studies the most. He was sent to the finest military school in Fiannria and fought in a series of campaigns in the Burgundian colonies in southern Punth for his Burgundian cousins Archdukes Rienholdts VI and VII. Stephan gained great acclaim not only as a successful commander of the Burgundian forces, but also because upon his return to Kanzar he had circumnavigated the world, one of the only kings to have held that accolade before the advent of commercial flight.

Stephan, grateful for all of the opportunity that his father had given him, and the tranquil state of the kingdom at the time of the coronation, took the name Otto III. However, unlike his father, tranquility was not a state that Otto III cherished. There is a famous painting in which, having just left the coronation, Otto has turned his bedroom into a war room, because he could not wait to get undressed to start his “Great Campaign”. This form of drive characterized his reign, as he have no patience for the “frills of Kazarian court life”. Within a week he was raising an army and within two he was marching towards the northern frontier.

The Great Campaign
In late 1719 Otto III and the Royal Fakolan army crossed the frontier into Occidental Crona. A string of victories lead to a rapid advance through the plains put a strain on the supply lines. They camped at a place they called Ottofeld that winter, very close to the current border between Kronata and Avaricious. The following spring, the army marched northwest into present day Vostaren. The mountainous terrain proved difficult for the Fakolan troops and after a two year campaign they were forced to regroup in the plains. Refusing to accept defeat Otto III sent a scouting party to find where the high peaks ended and report back. They started another camp that became a center of trade in the surrounding area. While are army waited for 4 months for the expedition to return, Otto set about building ties with the locals and establishing a small city. The area became know as Drovastadt, and it was to become the headquarters of the Great Campaign. Its central location made it the logical stopping point for the logistics operations that the campaign required and because of its massive military consumption it became world renowned as a trading post. Taxes from the trade conducted at Drovastadt powered the war machine forward and when the expedition returned with a route past the mountains, Otto's army set off well rested, well supplied and ready to fight.