Talk:History of Caphiria

SPELF-HEKY CAPHIRIA AND SARPEDON GENERAL THEORIZING

The dates are no longer up to date. Heky must refresh. I will endeavor to add maps. Many of these are the underlying concepts for what has been half implemented on His of Caph and elsewhere

IMPERIUM GENERAL HISTORY

EVOLUTION OF IMPERIUM

Ancient times(Heky musing)

- As an aside i figured the 500-1000 period for caphiria is kind of a heky under siege period because a. significantly cut off trade from levantia hurts overall food supply and economic activity in northern cities, both leading people to go and try farming or being feudal types b. end of trade with the istroyans, cutting off huge source of state wealth c. unending muslim raiding from the new caliphate causing further strain d. more uppity/problematic slavics in the south as the state just plain doesn't have the trinkets and coins to pay them off as they did a century or two ago the first being a result of the end of the levantine empire and the middle 2 resulting from rise of caliphate

Classical imperium

lasts from whenever until 1040 when crisis of the 3rd century type event shatters the empire. the classic imperium i would guess fell under the combined weight of increased muslim raids and the establishment of more organized better armed slavic groups combined with typical internal pressures of disease, famine, debasement, etc.

Second imperium

900-1172 The "siege" imperium, lots of threats from Slavs, retreat to Latin core regions with lots of tributaries, basically Byzantium 10th century. Big defeats by Muslims; This would be the logical reason for the crusades to occur a few decades later. ostensibly called to help protect Venceia but becoming a whole other thing. Cartadania is more settled during this period.

dark period

Empire entirely fragments under internal political disorder and external military disasters. the caphirian "core" region - that coastal bit around Venceia north of the mountains - is basically ruled as a classical republic by the senate. Most provinces become pseudo independent warlord states. Eventually a latino-slavic warlord marches north and conquers the republic but rather than sacking Venceia he stands outside of it and accepts, under force of arms, the imperial title from the senate. The Pope recognizing the new dynasties after both dark periods would be good to legitimize continuity of government. There is probably an air of romance in some political quarters about the second dark period when the senate ruled the capital/core region but the majority recognize it for what it was - an oligarchical period where the Empire was at its lowest. The latino-slavic dynasty lore could intermix nicely with Romanian border NPCs. I also think that dynasty could create some fresh institutions for you historically or even just like random slavic loanwords for assistants of magistrates, some officers, etc.

Third imperium

1283-1782 this is a somewhat stable version of the empire reunified under the latinized slavic dynasty (Obricci) but with a lot of breakaways. The schism happens here. Plebeian assembly meets for the last time although it became popular during an attempted coup against the main ruling dynasty of the time. During this time the first concepts of a rotating imperial office - which we discussed - came about after the end of the slavic dynasty. The veltorine uprising occurs and cleaves the empire in two.

Great schism

everything in Template:Caphiric Catholicism sidebar needs to be discussed

Fourth imperium

1783-present - major reform efforts are launched after the loss of the veltorine war. No discontinuity of government but a new Imperium is proclaimed anyway on the back of reforms and return to wholly caphiric ruling dynasties and families. Most lasting slavic dynasty traces are removed. the fourth imperium would give rise to the national assembly.

Addendum RE: 4th Imperium: Caphiria casually being referred to - both at home and abroad - as the Fourth Imperium in the modern era

MUSINGS ON THE NATURE OF THE CAPHIRIAN IMPERATOR AND IMPERIAL SUCCESSION

A less formal dynastic arrangement, guys coming and going, serving multiple non contiguous times as Imperator. I would assume like Rome you already like adopt people, uncles succeed nephews and vice versa etc. Clique guys passing power between each other in order to protect supposed Republican institutions

Former Imperators remain in the senate and just become corporate oligarchs or up until modernity that you either die in office, are killed in office, or are usurped and exiled. A corporate-imperial revolving door couldn’t hurt for the culture.

Most legal political parties are just supporters of different individuals within the same ruling clique, they’re not supporters of usurpation. Just the organized allies of individual dynasty members of whichever family branch is in power

An imperator can rule for life for sure but so long as his allies are around he can also pass on the throne to someone else safely and maybe come back later. Of course a former imperator is basically guaranteed to be showered in gifts by the corporate oligarchs in hopes one becomes a mega lobbyist for them. Some of the less successful ones, even long reigning ones, do end up in their pocket.

I figure this all works nonviolently because if an Imperator is forced out by military and dynastic dynamics it’s kind of mutually assured destruction. An Imperator knows the rules of the game and usually knows to step aside when beaten since he knows his life is secure afterwards. In Caphiria a military coup ala Rome is probably vanishingly rare in the modern era. This precedent could be set in the medieval period with several successive overthrown Imperators pardoned. Paving the way for a semi rotational imperial office. Not common rotation but you’ll maybe see a very successful Imperator rule for 40 years, hand it off to a younger brother for a few years, try to forge a corporate oligarchs position for his own, maybe to hand off to one of his younger sons, then return to office after a few years. For this to work you would also need some kind of social dynamic of individual gravitas which would make it socially unthinkable for the younger brother to deny the elder and his allies when coming back for example.

Changes from one dynasty or even cliques within a large dynasty to another clique (ala Cadet branches) are still done violently I think an Imperator might also step aside for a few years as a political play, he can yield to a man who would not be able to sustain it in his own right without his say so and build a key ally. A distantly related minor oligarch that the clique needs. In the phony Republican virtue of Caphiria it not only demonstrates his personal virtue but also signals the stability of the dynasty and the state The key to pulling this all off though is the older man becoming so influential and rich that it’s enticing to the new one lol. And the personalist political parties play a role in this since a major oligarch like an old emperor and the Imperator himself hold sway over elections in Caphiria. The driving force of any caphirian politician is long lasting and far reaching influence, and i think there are enough interesting paths and positions to obtain to make the entire rat race worth it especially since imperator's roles and duties are delegated so much that you could orchestrate a pretty big web of strategic allies/lucrative positions. Aged and accomplished Imperators could just step aside into retirement without fear of reprisal, keeping state leadership robust.

TERRITORIAL EVOLUTION AND GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE CAPHIRIAN BORDERS

Most productive lands are probably in the south-central part of the country, in the past I would assume defensive strategy basically left these areas to be raided by enemy forces while pulling back behind the northern range. I would do some reading about byzantine defensive strategy in the 700s-900s to get the broad parts of the concept but basically, while productive farmland, in any point when Caphiria doesn't have overwhelming force to project beyond its boundaries, the south central plains of the country are basically going to be kind of a soft borderland between the caphirian core and the slavs. From that you can probably create a strong warrior/guerilla culture among the farmers of the central plain or at least their ancestors, rugged frontier life and all that. Spelfer September Note: I have included this area as Ranaella

Which also fits considering the Venceia northern coastal area was settled much earlier by the latins, with the interior being settled later by pioneering types under the auspices of the regime. The problem is the central plain is basically open to invasion from multiple directions, as for the southern part of the country I presume that is probably a relatively late addition. Its Slavic inhabitants would have been able to more actively resist incursions from the latinic people accordingly I would think that many of the people in the south are latinized Slavs which could be a good source of lore creation for that culture.

Climatically i think the heartland is actually cooler than it should be for a multitude of reasons but the heartland-urban area transition over the mountains is going to be pretty steep accordingly the urban area is basically tropical and not good for farming. Even today, long after the period of migratory peoples and raiding, infrastructure connections between the resource and agricultural rich interior and urban north remains a top national security priority. Based on the mountains in Dorhaven I assume that the same situation is largely true of Veltorina, I suppose the topography could also be a factor in why caphiria wanted to conquer the entire northern half of the continent.

ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL CONCEPTS

CAPHIRIA WITH EGYPTIAN CHARACTERISTICS (Largely outdated)

Spelfer September Note: These concepts were worked into what eventually became the multiple imperium model described above Rather than Caphiria as Rome I'm actually thinking what might work as a conceptual political history is Caphiria as Egypt. A few concepts would be like you know, the "Empire" being reduced to like a third of modern caphiria with a bunch of pseudo-emperors in their own little domains. Another period being the Empire is basically vanquished as a geopolitical entity by some slavic tribal king ruling in Venceia but the institutions remain and is reestablished by a latin general leading an uprising and is hailed as augustus by the senate.

The empire being tiny again at some point and conquered entirely by some Istroyan petty king, but he decides to move to Venceia and is hailed as Augustus, giving the whole empire some new juice. It's not like the empire is destroyed since, as i say, the senate is still there and the tribunes and stuff aka Odoacer’s Italian kingdom.

Otherwise the empire is small, and then it's big, and then it's fractured, etc. until INSERT EVENT ends the turmoil and establishes a relatively stable and consistent state which reaches its zenith in the 16th century

Border wise it'll all be fluid since when Caphiria always pops back up onto the scene, it just easily wipes away random pseudo-latin successor states, previously loosely occupied tribal lands without much in the way of organized defenses, or like former provinces with petty governors ruling independently. Obviously with each caphirian dynasty conquering new lands and losing old ones along the way, etc. You could even go with the "1st Dynasty", "2nd Dynasty" nomenclature as well as "Old Empire" and "New Empire".

CAPHIRIA GREAT WAR 1&2 BITS AND PIECES (ANY/ALL OF THIS SUBJECT TO BEING SUPERSEDED BY COHESIVE GW NARRATIVE MATERIAL)

GREAT WAR 1 RELATED:

This GW is a spiraling Sarpedon based conflict where Caphiria invades Veltorina which is presumably alllied with or otherwise guaranteed by a few different countries. Pretext: Veltorina did only become independent of Caphiria in 1782 and is a socialist country by this point (1890s), the world's first. 1. Background; Veltorina becomes independent (1782) and Socialist (1860s); Caphiria seeks repatriation, tensions elevate on Sarpedon, Pelaxia and Cartadania guarantee/ally Veltorina (1880s) Caphiria invades Veltorina (1896) 2. Sarpedon War main theater rages beginning in 1896. Caphiria calls in Kiravia for their naval resources/manpower/etc due to preexisting ties with promise of Cartadanian islands etc. Burgundie jumps in on the allied side as a result of this in order to prevent themselves from being locked out of Crona. If Burg or Kir have better lore to explain their involvement, that will be used instead 3. After plotting and various stuff, the uprising in Urcea starts (1897) launching the Red Interregnum. Caphiria and the FitzRexist regime ally (they are already close) and FitzRex promises Talioinia to Caphiria if he wins if Caphiria helps.

GW1 ends with Caphiria basically as continental hegemon and everyone else chafing looking for overseas allies i'm thinking it will also include a Burg vs Kir colonial war component with kir on the "allied" side and burg on the caphirian side

GREAT WAR 2 RELATED:

Original(and outdated) GW2 timeline:

Caphiria wants territory and hates Levantines Caphiria manipulates natural tensions in the HLE to start a war Caphiria surrounds itself with Allies at home and makes common cause with anti colonialist factions abroad Caphiria, believing table to be set, invades Veltorina That’s your involvement in the war You lose mostly on the western and southern fronts but prevent invasions in the Caphirian heartland while knocking out Velts That’s about it

Current timeline:

My current 2GW theory is a better-making-sense version of the current version Caphiria funds and starts the Diversion in Dericania as a way of distracting Urcea et al and ability to conquer Dorhaven(now named Talionia) this makes sense for a more direct reason of why Levantia is involved at all and fits with Heky's overall IC and OOC modus operandi

The original version of this was caphiria doing this to conquer veltorina however a pre-war Veltorina/Urcea alliance never made a ton of sense imo and Urceans committing to fight another 18 yrs of war on their behalf after the extant 8 years of levantine war stretches credibility here's an idea though what if 1. Caphirian allied Arcer invades the Cape 2. the mainland powers (Pelaxia and Cartadania) say "shit, here we go again" like 15-20 yrs after getting their asses kicked by Caphiria, creates an alliance with Urcea 3. Caphiria says "creep!" and triggers the levantine war and also declares war on Urcea, allied powers declare war in exchange the formation of the alliance being Caphiria's direct casus belli amidst a larger anti-levantine engagement strategy GW2 ends with a significantly chastened but not destroyed Caphiria; the allied inability to get the job done leads to the Cold War Maybe once against Heky is doing the nuking in Crona to bring the allies to the table

The tldr version is that Imperial policymakers going up to the imperator himself devised and began implementation of a Ten Year Plan in 1928 which envisioned the full incorporation of Talionia by 1938, calling for rearmament and mobilization and increased support for Faneria and the Derian rebels, envisioning a general Derian uprising by no later than 1935 accompanied by an invasion of Talionia, which Urcea would have accept as a fait accompli. In 1925-27, Caphiria secretly sparked a number of socialist uprisings in the Deric states as a proof of concept to see if Urcea was willing to commit forces to put it down, and it does. The next year Cartadanian intelligence picks up on a non specific mobilization plan and forms a mutual defense alliance with Burgundie, forming the nucleus for LOTA.

RANDOM BITS

TENTATIVE? CURSUS HONORUM

1. join the military 2. run for national assembly 3. make friends and connections 4. no matter your current rank/merit in the army your connections will now fast track you to a flag officer rank 5. join the military assembly 6. be conferred Senatorial rank individually for your military service 7. continue to serve in the assembly until you get conferred Senatorial rank for your family 8. resign your commission and from the national assembly and just sit in the Senate

POST-COLD WAR ECONOMICS

the last few years of economic prosperity were supported at least in part by the end of the cold war/the assumption accords, leading to huge confidence in the occidental economy as a whole and the prospects of urceo-caphirian cooperation being basically good for business everywhere eventually cooling off this year with the minor recession we are currently in

FONT CRISIS (Outdated)

Spelfer September Note: Font no longer exists so this is truncated The Panic of '95 as a direct result of the font annexation leading to basically the closest the cold war came to getting hot leading to an epic sell-off in urcea/caphiria with random gold hoarding beginning. only lasts for a month or two but it's so severe it kicks off a recession