Vandar Orientalis
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Vandar Orientalis was a province of Great Levantia that existed on the northeastern coast of the Vandarch between 21 AD and 552 AD. It was mainly populated by Gallic and Celtic tribes ruled over by a Latin-descent minority and later an additional class of mixed-ethnicity. It was destroyed by a Gothic invasion in the 6th Century Crisis.
History
Gallian Wars and Formation
Early Imperium
- major revolts in 83, 94, 265, 488, 530, and 532
Crisis of the Two Imperators
- 474-493
Gothic Crisis and Collapse
Disbandment
Culture
Vandar (the colloquial name of the state) was a word descended from the Gothic Wandarr, a fact which would become ironic in its last years. The culture of Vandar was highly split between the upper class of the Latin and Romance settlers who migrated to the region and the indigenous Celtic peoples.
Class System
- Celts not allowed to live in capital city until 521
- 'Social Auxillia' - class of mixed-ethnic people used as primary fighting force in later years as pure latin population declined
- later relaxations helped, but rebellions still lost some territories in the hinterlands
Military
The military of the Imperium Vandar was significantly better-equipped than the native celtic tribes, but increasingly found the Fhainnin border princes along the richer coasts of the Vandarch arming themselves with better equipment. Vandar additionally suffered from frequent naval raids which its naval tactics were able to repel but never fully repulse, and piracy targeting military assets to obtain equipment and high-quality tools and gear cost the state dearly its entire lifetime.
At its height, the Imperium could simultaneously field roughly eight legions at ten thousand men each, though typically they would operate with eight thousand and between one and five thousand auxiliaries. This was not the case at either its beginning nor its end, as the Battle of Kilglas in 20AD destroyed two legions and stopped westward expansion for almost two centuries, while admixture with the local population and strict policing of arms shrunk the pool of available recruits to a mere five legion by the time of the country's destruction.
Trade and Economy
Literacy
Religion
Unlike many other Latin states, the ruling class of Vandar were neither interested in expanding their own pantheon to the natives nor in adopting Christianity; Vandar was one of the last formally pagan Latin states to exist, although by its end most of the immigrant-descent population had resorted to a syncretic form of the local faith and their own that would come to influence late Fhainnin pagan cults.