History of the Kingdom of Kerolon
IMPORTANT NOTE: Numerous parts of this article are currently outdated. The history of the Kingdom of Kerolon is long and complex, being notably marked by multiple periods of expansion. Kerolon’s history began with its initial unification in 999 and its subsequent colonization of the entirety of Uingffh as part of the First Age of Imperium. Following the secession of many of its colonies into the Unified States of Osuwa and the Great Imperial Hegemony of Morbidia over the mistreatment of non-tabulons and citizens, Kerolon reformed into a more democratic and egalitarian parliamentary monarchy, becoming a leader in civil rights and political freedom. Upon discovering the ruins of the ancient Izlondian civilization, Kerolon grew into a spacefaring power and underwent a Second Age of Imperium, conquering numerous star systems within a hundred light years of their home system of Ingffhaestia.
Important note: Terms for government-related organizations such as "Council of Nations", "House of Affluence", or "Social Democrats" are translated from Golagat, the native language of the tabulon civilization, to English.
Formation, War of Unity, and Development (pre-999-1200)
Prior to Kerolon's formation, the region of Ulstonia it would come to inhabit (also called Kerolon) was home to several smaller kingdoms and warlord states locked in conflict. During the decade of the 980s, a trio of nobles - Otho rei Oronius, Gauss rei Keyman, and Nero rei Hadrian - began campaigning for a unification of the Kerolon region into a single kingdom, having lost many of their family members to wars between the micro-kingdoms. Over the next few years, the trio amassed numerous like-minded supporters who had also suffered under the kingdoms' many wars and armed conflicts; many of these supporters were soldiers and militiamen growing tired of fighting needless, protracted wars in the name of petty kingdoms.
By the end of the decade, support for Kerolonian unification - particularly from military-involved individuals - had grown substantially, with the trio of nobles enjoying the support of a body of soldiers rivaling the size of a large army. In 999, Otho, Gauss, and Nero finally put their plan into action and mounted an invasion of the Kerolonian micro-kingdoms using their many soldier supporters, beginning the War of Unity. Though the kingdoms had the advantage of combined territory, their refusal to work together led to their swift ends, which sometimes occurred at the hands of their own soldiers. In addition, many smaller villages welcomed the unity trio's occupation, themselves dissatisfied with the divided state of the region.
By November 14 of that year, the three nobles had ousted the rulers of all of the Kerolonian mini-kingdoms and united them under a new nation: the Kingdom of Kerolon. Otho, Gauss, and Nero established themselves as the monarchs of Kerolon, becoming Otho Oronius Kerolon, Gauss Keyman Kerolon, and Nero Hadrian Kerolon. Because none of the three shared a sex (Otho was female, Gauss was male, and Nero was somale), the trio was able to marry each other and become the first members of the Kerolonian Royal Family; though the marriage merely constituted a political marriage and did not involve actual romantic or sexual feelings between the three individuals, the three monarchs succeeded in effectively ruling and managing the fledgling kingdom.
To celebrate the successful formation of Kerolon, the three monarchs chose to establish a new Uingffhian timekeeping era to commemorate the unification of the region: Ascension Ring Kerolonnia, or a.r.k. for short. The Earth year 999 would be designated 0 a.r.k., with succeeding Uingffhian years being denoted by greater numbers followed by "a.r.k." at the end. As Kerolon's influence spread later in its history, the a.r.k. system would become the standardized timekeeping system for all of Uingffh. In addition, the throne of the Kerolonian monarchy would come to be referred to as the Aeonium Throne.
Residents living under the newly-established Kerolon regime welcomed this changing, lauding the political stability and newfound peace it brought. The Royal Family's success in incurring economic growth only increased public support of them. Over the next few centuries, the Kerolonian economy continued to grow as a united Kerolonian culture began to emerge; Kerolonians adopted sophisticated lifestyles that focused on the arts (painting, creative writing, music, etc.), academics, and sciences. These opulent lifestyles, however, were largely restricted to aristocratic families such as those inheriting the nobiliary particle of "rei"; servants and the poor continued to languish under the same unsatisfactory living conditions they suffered under prior to Kerolon's formation.
Keliosity, a religion that had dominated the Kerolonian micro-kingdoms prior to the War of Unity, persisted in the newly-formed Kingdom of Kerolon as its dominant religion. Keliosity's basic principles entailed the worship of Coppelius, Uingffh's parent planet, as the home of the god Kelios, also known as The All. The united Kingdom of Kerolon's version of Keliosity underwent some minor changes over the succeeding centuries to better align with Kerolon's artistic, intellectual culture; this version of Keliosity became known as Kerolonian Keliosity.
First Age of Imperium (1200-1580)
By the beginning of the 13th Century, Kerolon had grown into one of the most prosperous and influential nations on Uingffh under the rules of first monarchs Otho, Gauss, and Nero and the newly-appointed second reigning monarch, Queen Sirona Grannus Kerolon. The Kingdom, already a prominent hotspot for the arts and scientific advancements, was now becoming one of the first nations on Uingffh to industrialize; capitalism was also beginning to arise as Kerolon's dominant economic system, contributing to Kerolon's economic growth.
This economic and cultural prosperity, however, also gave rise to imperialist sentiment amongst Kerolonian natives, who desired to spread the Kingdom of Kerolon's prosperity outside of the Kerolon region (termed the "aetherland") to other parts of the moon. Some particularly nationalistic Kerolonians believed in the inherent genetic superiority of Kerolonians as a race and advocated for the subjugation and "civilization" of other peoples they viewed as primitive and savages. Ever-growing businesses and corporations, which flourished under Kerolon's nascent capitalism, viewed imperialism as an opportunity to gain access to new resources and larger markets. Devout Keliosites also supported Kerolonian imperialism, seeking to convert foreigners to Keliosity. Some Kerolonians supported imperialism simply out of a curiosity about the rest of Uingffh.
Kerolonian Island Conquests and the Rise of the Conquerators (1200-1250)
Thus, the 13th Century marked the beginning of a period of Kerolonian history known as the First Age of Imperium, which was marked by conquests of foreign lands. Kerolon began by colonizing various islands off the shore of Kerolon, such as Kirbani Island, during the first half of the 13th Century; to this end, Queen Sirona sent trained explorers, later dubbed Conquerators, on long sea voyages to these islands. There, they recorded information about the islands' resources, environment, and native societies (if any) before returning to Kerolon to exchange this information with Her Majesty. Thanks to advances in sea-based travel and ship construction, the vast majority of Conquerators safely returned to the kingdom mainland.
The Kingdom then sent more Kerolonians of various backgrounds to settle these islands and claim them as Kerolonian territory. Most of these island colonies became successful, particularly in the agriculture sector; their tropical environment allowed for the cultivation and growth of numerous crops, including a few newly-discovered ones. However, this came at the expense of the islands' natives, who suffered from not only oppression and mistreatment from Kerolonian colonists, but also diseases imported from Kerolon. Diseases imported from the islands, meanwhile, seldom impacted Kerolon due to its advances in medicine and healthcare; despite this, most doctors made no move to help treat ill natives, viewing them as less important than the economic prosperity colonization brought them.
These first island colonizations corresponded with the introduction of racial discrimination into Kerolonian culture. Kerolonian playwrights and writers stereotyped native Uingffhian islanders as backwards and savage while praising Kerolonians as civilized and mature. On some colonies, noblemen utilized natives as slave labor on massive plantations; in extreme cases, conquerators outright massacred natives, such as when Conquerator Kitconnorius rei Tharsis massacred the native Nargent tribe on the island of Kerulum.
Formation of the Order of Scentrilla
A notable conquerator during Kerolon's island conquest era was Scentile rei Scentrilla, who, alongside her subordinate knights played an integral role in the conquests of multiple islands including the large Kirbani Island.
For their efforts in securing colonies for the Kingdom of Kerolon, Scentile rei Scentrilla and her subordinates were not only granted the noble title of rei, but also awarded status as an order of chivalry by Queen Sirona and the Keliostic Church in around 1235; Conquerator rei Scentrilla stepped up as the order's grandmaster. This order, the Order of Scentrilla, was the first order of chivalry formed in the Kingdom of Kerolon.
The formation of the Order of Scentrilla forced Kerolon to establish a management system for future members of the order as well as for members of future orders. The monarchy or church would take responsibility of appointing future grandmasters, who themselves held the responsibility of appointing their senior knights, generals, and admirals. Scentrilla's formation also established the traditions of granting the nobiliary particle of rei and the name of the order as a surname, though both would become voluntary in later years.
The order of Scentrilla notably established black as its signature color. Conquerator Scentile chose this color to represent the smoke and soot that covered Kirbani battlefields after her conquest of the island. Later orders would keep with this tradition and adopt their own signature colors.
Colonization of the Ulstonian Supercontinent (1250-1400)
By the middle of the 13th Century, Kerolon had established dominion over most of the islands in the eastern Liyingffhian and Tornelingffhian oceans. In 1245, Sirona Grannus Kerolon had passed away, with her heir (somale term for son/daughter) Mesmo Martius Kerolon taking the Aeonium Throne in her place. As ring, Mesmo changed the focus of Kerolonian imperialism from island conquests to land conquests.
Ring Mesmo spread new supporting arguments for Kerolonian imperialism resembling the 18th Century American cultural belief of Manifest Destiny. According to Mesmo and fir supporters, Kerolon held not only a duty, but also a destiny to conquer the entirety of the Ulstonian supercontinent. Much like Kerolonian imperialism under Queen Sirona, Mesmo's Kerolonian "Manifest Destiny" was riddled with racist rhetoric, with fir beliefs driving notions of Kerolonian racial superiority. Many Kerolonian colonists claimed to have a duty to "civilize" foreign peoples, whom they deemed savage and backwards.
Kerolonian Conquest of Osuwa
The first region to be invaded was the Osuwa region, or the northeastern parts of the Ulstonian supercontinent, during the rest of the 13th Century. At the time, various native tribes in varying stages of development inhabited Osuwa; some continued to live hunter-gatherer lifestyles while others pursued sedentary lifestyles. Regardless of lifestyle, however, these tribes were vastly outclassed by the Kingdom of Kerolon territorially, technologically, and militarily; within less than a decade, Kerolon had established control over the entirety of the Osuwa region and had begun developing prosperous colonies that exploited Osuwa's plentiful natural resources.
The annexation of Osuwa came at the expense of not only the natural environment, but also the Osuwan natives, whom the Kerolonian colonists invariably oppressed under their new rule. Kerolon not only enslaved or even outright massacred native Osuwans, but also endeavored to suppress and erase native Osuwan culture to promote its own, self-proclaimed "civilized" culture; for instance, the Kingdom set up numerous boarding schools for native children to be assimilated into Kerolonian culture. In the process, teachers would use violent methods such as physical beating, deliberate starvation, and deliberate thirst to force the children to adopt Kerolonian cultural traditions. Hundreds of natives died in this manner throughout the colonization of Osuwa.
Kerolonian imperialism also contributed to the suffering of native Osuwans in unintentional ways; for instance, diseases imported from Kerolon spread rapidly amongst the ill-adapted people of the Osuwa region, wiping out many native populations that saw relatively low direct intervention and/or combat from Kerolonian colonists. This phenomenon worked the other way as well, with diseases from Osuwa coming to infect Kerolonians; however, due to the more advanced state of Kerolonian healthcare, Osuwan diseases affected Kerolon significantly less severely than Kerolonian diseases did on Osuwans.
Kerolonian Conquest of Nerusgol
Mesmo then had Kerolon conquer the Nerusgol sea region in the early 14th Century for its arable farmland and large water supply. At the time, various small, warring kingdoms similar to the ones inhabiting Kerolon pre-War of Unity inhabited the land areas around the sea. Mesmo used similar tactics to Kerolon's original founders to conquer Nerusgol, seeding support for a more stable rule under Kerolon amongst the Nerusgan populace while playing local rulers into deeper rivalries in order to weaken their strength. This proved successful, with the Nerusgans staging revolutions while allowing Kerolonian troops to occupy the region. However, Kerolon ultimately betrayed the Nerusgans by restricting them to marginalized positions in Kerolonian society on the basis of their race, with the Nerusgans becoming a significant source of cheap, poorly-paid labor. Kerolon's still-growing military might quelled any revolts staged by the Nerusgans against Kerolon.
Kerolonian Conquest of Kelargar, the Great Bar, and Jebellion
Afterwards, the Kingdom declared war against the nation of Kelargar, whose unique food, goods, and culture attracted Ring Mesmo's attention. Initially, Kerolon had the upper hand, with its much larger armies easily overpowering Kelargar's. However, Kelargar soon chose to ally with neighboring nations in the Great Bar and Jebellion, resulting in much stronger resistance to Kerolonian colonization. This prompted Kerolon to enact its first-ever military draft, sending millions of young tabulons out to war; though it took some time to train these new recruits for battle, their enlistment ultimately turned the war to Kerolon's side. By the end of the 14th Century, Kerolon had conquered all three of its enemies. The Kingdom then proceeded to stereotype Kelargar and the Great Bar's inhabitants as barbaric and dangerous for their combined efforts to resist Kerolonian colonizations and performed numerous massacres against them; death toll estimates reach as high as 1.25 million, with many historians qualifying these massacres as a genocide.
Jebellians, meanwhile, received rather lenient treatment in comparison due to the Kingdom's unusually large population of Jebellian immigrants whose origin traces back to before the First Age of Imperium; nonetheless, Kerolonians viewed non-Kerolon-born Jebellians with suspicion.
Kerolonian Conquest of Morbidia
Kerolon then endeavored to conquer the Morbidia region, which unlike previous regions was dominated by members of the Lordion species. During Kerolon's expansionism, Morbidia existed under the control of a relatively powerful, united feudal kingdom with competent militias; as such, the Kerolon Empire refrained from attempting to invade it until after the conquest of the rest of Ulstonia, which then allowed it to stage an attack against Morbidia from multiple sides. This attack began in the 1400s and would last until the middle of the 15th Century, with significant losses on both sides.
To conquer Morbidia, Kerolon took advantage of its status as a feudal society; though Morbidia was more united than Kerolon's other rival nations such as Nerusgol, its many influential noble families still acted in their own self-interests and yielded high amounts of authority on their own. Kerolonian diplomats negotiated with more lenient noble families and promised special noble status in Kerolonian society if they agreed to establish their territory as part of Kerolon. As for more hostile noble families, Kerolonian insurgents encouraged infighting amongst them in order to weaken their power and eventually invade them with force. These tactics proved successful, with the Kerolon Empire gaining control of Morbidia by roughly 1447, but not without an estimated 750,000 casualties on the Kerolon side and 950,000 casualties on the Morbidian side.
The treatment of lordions in Kerolonian society was complex. The handful of lordion families who cooperated with Kerolon and ceded their domains were exceptionally well-regarded by the nation's tabulons and went on to prosper for generations. In stark contrast, the millions of other lordions either opposing Kerolonian imperialism or part of the Morbidian lower class experienced some of the worst discrimination in Kerolon society. Kerolon did not wipe them out, viewing death as too merciful a fate for them; instead, Kerolonian tabulons subjected lordions to extremely intense and arduous slave labor on plantations and other estates. Kerolonian education would also emphasize the perceived genetic inferiority and savagery of the sentient race, with lynchings and murders of lordions by tabulons growing common. Ironically, the aforementioned affluent lordion families, viewing themselves as a separate, superior race to the lower-class lordions, would often mistreat lordion slaves the worst.
Morbidia's conquest marked the completion of Kerolon's annexation of Ulstonia.
Formation of the Orders of Kerbos and Novus
During Kerolon's land conquest era, the Kingdom established two new orders of chivalry.
The first of these two orders was the Order of Kerbos, which Kerolon formed out of Conquerator Polaris vir Kerbos and her subordinates in 1385. vir Kerbos (christened rei Kerbos following the formation of her order) earned her status as grandmaster of the Kerbos Order for her efforts in conquering both Osuwa and Nerusgol. Notably, Polaris actually originated as a Kelargan merchant who settled and eventually rose in Kerolonian society; because she had risen to honor and chivalry before the conquest of Kelargar and the formation of the Korndelia Caste System, she was not subject to the racial discrimination that came with them, being viewed as an "honorary Kerolonian" by the Empire's populace and government. Polaris chose orange as its signature color to represent the orange-colored deserts of Osuwa, which formed the location of many of its battles during the conquest of Osuwa.
The second new order, the Order of Novus, formed in 1401 after the royal family appointed Conquerator Siliskus vir Novus and his legion of knights chivalric order status. The members of the Order of Novus had played an integral role in not only the war against the joint forces of Kelargar, Jebellion, and the Great Bar; but also the conversion of thousands of Kelargans, Jebellians, and Barians into devout followers of Keliosity, warranting the establishment of their order. The Knights of Novus adopted green as their signature color due to its significance in Keliosity, representing the repentance of sin.
Creation of the Korndelia Caste System
By the time Kerolon conquered Kelargar, Jebellion, and the Great Bar, the non-Kerolonians subjugated by the Kingdom (at this point touted as an empire), had grown increasingly hard to manage. Their Kerolonian masters struggled to organize them and determined their worth. In response to this, imperial advisor Kormin Korndelia proposed the creation of a racial caste system placing tabulons and lordions into different societal rankings and positions based off of their origin. Kerolonians would be at the top of this system and would enjoy the most freedom and control of all the groups in the system. Ring Mesmo readily supported this plan, thus leading to the establishment of the Korndelia System circa November 5, 1405.
Under the Korndelia Caste System, Kerolonians occupied the top of the social pyramid as Kormin promised. Below the Kerolonians, in order, were Jebellians, Nerusgans, Osuwans, Kelargans, Barians, and finally all members of the lordion species. Exceptions to this caste system, however, did exist; for instance, non-Kerolonian tabulon war heroes like Polaris rei Kerbos or the compliant lordion nobles did not find themselves marginalized and were instead granted "honorary Kerolonian" status. Kormin and Mesmo also included provisions ensuring that any groups of people newly subjugated into the Empire of Kerolon would have a place in the Korndelia.
Kerolon Conquers the Uingffhian Island Continents (1450-1556)
Morbidia's conquest meant the realization of Ring Mesmo and other Kerolonian colonialists' dream of conquering the entirety of Ulstonia. By then, however, a new monarch had taken the Aeonium Throne: Rictell Sorges Kerolon, who ascended to the position of king after Mesmo's death in 1431.
King Rictell took Mesmo's ambition to conquer Ulstonia even further, desiring the conquest of the entirety of Uingffh itself. Most Kerolonian citizens shared Rictell's desires and supported further conquests as well. To this end, the Empire of Kerolon began declaring war on nations inhabiting the various smaller island continents populating Uingffh's oceans.
Kerolonian Conquests of Bagyo and Flornelia
During the second half of the 15th Century, Century, Kerolon conquered the Bagyo Isles off the coast of the Osuwa region. Much like Osuwa, the Bagyo Isles were inhabited by a collection of disorganized tribes of varying nature.
Conquerator Farlo rei Magellan first claimed the islands as colonies of the Kerolon Empire in 1458. However, the natives resisted Kerolonian authority, so King Rictell dispatched the Kerolonian imperial army and imperial navy, who quickly defeated and subjugated the indigenous Bagyans due to Kerolon's superior technology. For their dissent against the Kerolonian Empire, the Bagyans not only were placed at the very bottom of the Korndelia caste system's tabulon ranks as unpaid slave labor, but also had their native culture erased; Kerolon censored their culture and had Keliostic missionaries work to convert Bagyan natives to Keliosity often through unethical means.
Kerolon also conquered the Flornelian island continent, which laid off the coast of Kelargar, during this time. Unlike the conquest of Bagyo, the conquest of Flornelia proved relatively uneventful and nonviolent for Kerolon due to its already-sparse population; within a few years, the entirety of the continent alongside all of its adjacent islands officially fell under Kerolonian control. Most of the few natives that did reside on the continent were killed off by diseases imported from Kerolon; the few that did survive were granted an intermediate position in the Korndelia system.
Kerolonian Conquests of Uopia and Uveerius
Following the conquests of Bagyo and Flornelia, the Kerolonian Empire proceeded to simultaneously invade Uveerius and Uopia, the two island continents located in the Oblivingffhian Ocean, during the early 16th Century. King Rictell dispatched conquerators Tychean rei Sheploup and Liberius rei Elektra to naval fleets sent to conquer the two island continents.
However, Sheploup and Elektra quickly found themselves overwhelmed by Uveerius and Uopia's own naval forces, which proved surprisingly advanced and powerful. After the two returned to the Kerolonian mainland, they notified King Rictell of their losses; in response, King Rictell chose to increase taxes on the Kerolonian colonies to fund the development and strengthening of Kerolon's own navy. Kerolon constructed new, more powerful ships while retrofitting older ones with more up-to-date technology such as stronger hulls and better cannons. In 1536, Sheploup and Elektra attacked Uveerius and Uopia once more; thanks to Kerolon's strengthened navy, they succeeded in conquering both by 1540.
When settlers began settling the newly-conquered island continents, they encountered not only indigenous tabulons, but a new species: the blue, crab-like morteus race. The Uveerian and Uopian tabulons occupied most positions of power prior to Kerolon's arrival; due to the two island continents' resistance to Kerolonian occupation, the two tabulon races were ranked rather low on the Korndelia System, just above the Barians. As for the mortei, the Kerolonians found them compliant and significantly easier to deal with; thus, they were awarded a higher rank in the caste system, ending up just below the Jebellians. Nonetheless, the morteus species still suffered from discrimination from the public due to their otherworldly appearance compared to the tabulons, though this would gradually abate throughout coming decades.
Formation of the Order of Uris
The conquests of Uveerius and Uopia also marked the formation of the Order of Uris, the last of the four chivalric orders formed during the First Age of Imperium.
Initially, King Rictell desired to form two new orders - the Order of Sheploup and the Order of Elektra - out of Tychean rei Sheploup and Liberius rei Elektra and their respective knights. However, upon receiving the request, both conquerators declined the offer. Instead, they petitioned the king to award order status to Shin Uriel Uris, another conquerator who had mentored both Sheploup and Elektra and whom the aforementioned two conquerators felt deeply indebted to. In light of Uris' own military accomplishments during many previous conquests, Rictell accepted their request and carried it over to Shin Uriel Uris firself. Uris accepted the offer, and the Order of Uris was thus formed in 1541. Nonetheless, Sheploup and Elektra became the two highest-ranking admirals in the Uris Order at the behest of both King Rictell and Grandmaster Uris - an order the two accepted.
The Order of Uris adopted blue as its signature color upon formation for two main reasons. For one, blue represented the Oblivingffhian Ocean's waters, which formed the setting of many of the battles during the war with Uveerius and Uopia. Secondly, blue was the color of many of the mortei who complied with the colonization of the two island continents. Fittingly, Grandmaster Uris, Sheploup, and Elektra would all show lenience towards not only mortei, but also loyal lordion nobles for their efforts in the Uveerius and Uopia wars; thus, the Order of Uris would see high numbers of mortei and lordions joining its ranks throughout coming years.
Kerolonian Conquest of Liyres
The conquests of Uveerius and Uopia left only one Uingffhian landmass unconquered by Kerolon: the crescent-shaped Liyres island continent. King Rictell had it and its people conquered during the middle of the 16th Century.
Because Kerolon had already built up its naval strength during the Uveerius and Uopia wars, Liyres easily crumbled against the military might of Kerolon's fleet. Because of that, the conquest of Liyres proved relatively quick. By just 1556, Kerolon had already secured control of the Liyrian capital of Aldnoah. Any Liyrian natives were granted an intermediate position in the Korndelia caste system.
Age of Reform (1556-1700)
With Liyres conquered, Kerolon now held control over all of Uingffh, achieving Rictell's vision of a fully colonized Uingffh under a Kerolon Empire. This marked the historical Kerolon Empire's greatest territorial extent. By then, Kerolon had long since begun the process of industrializing, with a multitude of new technologies surfacing.
In spite of these territorial and technological achievements, however, the global Kerolon Empire would quickly prove its fragile, unstable nature as the nation's politicians and leaders faced - and failed to succeed in - the task of managing all of its newly-acquired colonies and their many dissatisfied, oppressed natives. Throughout succeeding years, various Kerolonian territories would secede from the empire in opposition to various Kerolonian policies, simultaneously encouraging citizens within Kerolon to question Kerolonian social and political norms and push for reform within their own nation. This era would come to be known as the Age of Reform, which also marked the end of the First Age of Imperium (as Kerolon could not conquer any more territory using the technology it possessed at the time).
Osuwan Revolution and the Formation of the Unified States of Osuwa (1561-1584)
The first territory to secede from Kerolon was the Osuwa territory, the first and most developed Ulstonian colony of the Kerolonian Empire. Tensions began during the 16th Century, when Kerolon began increasing taxes upon the Osuwan colonists in order to fund the military budget during the conquests of Uveerius, Uopia, and Liyres. This act disillusioned the Osuwans due to the fact that Kerolon had taxed them only very lightly beforehand.
However, taxes would not reach their highest until the late 1550s and early 1560s, when Kerolon increased taxes even more to fund the development of its various newly-acquired colonies. Notably, Kerolon passed innumerable acts that imposed taxes on seemingly random goods and services; for instance, the 1559 Iye Act imposed a 3 imperial ster-tax for each Iye (an Osuwa-native bestia/animal domesticated by many affluent Osuwans) an Osuwan owned. But more importantly, Kerolonian police officers grew stricter and harsher in punishing tax evaders. On some occasions, Kerolonian law enforcement officials would torture Osuwan citizens in public for not paying enough in taxes. However, this only encouraged Osuwans to rebel even more, eventually leading to a full-scale revolution. Furthermore, these actions led to the growth of anti-monarchist sentiment amongst Osuwans, who viewed the fact that Kerolon taxed them without representing them in its government in any way unfair.
The Osuwan Revolution is considered to have started in 1561, when Osuwan colonists began fighting back against Kerolonian law enforcement officials in large numbers across the Osuwa region. The colonists demanded that Kerolon either ease its taxes on them, or form a parliament that would represent them in governmental affairs. At this point, King Rictell declared Osuwa in a state of rebellion and ordered the deployment of troops into the region; however, not only did the Osuwans successfully fight back using their local militias, but also many Kerolonian soldiers sympathized with the Osuwan cause and defected onto the rebels' side.
However, the Osuwan Revolution's most notable acts came in the form of alternative, non-armed protests, which were high in number. One of the most notable examples was the Halbert Yummy Star Sacrifice of November 14, 1565, when Osuwans trekked to the summit of Mt. Halbert, the easternmost of the Kerolon Plateau's volcanoes, and threw 1,776 containers of yummy star fruits into the mountain's caldera in protest of the Yummy Stellar Act, which gave Kerolon's yummy star growing company Yummy Stellar a monopoly on Osuwan yummy star fruits. Other unique acts of defiance included the formation of the Heirs of Freedom, an all-somale group of Osuwans who manufactured goods for Osuwans as a substitute for exorbitantly-priced goods imported from Kerolon.
None of these protests proved sufficient enough to convince King Rictell to enact tax or political reforms. Instead, in 1572, he forcefully reorganized the Osuwan colonies into the Imperial Dominion of Osuwa, where he installed staunch Rictell loyalist Anehta rei Efil as its near-dictatorial governor. In addition to designing the Dominion to strip Osuwan colonists of their political and civil autonomy, King Rictell also passed a series of acts, nicknamed the Insufferable Acts, that significantly harshened punishments for Osuwans who defied Kerolonian rule.
In response, the Osuwan colonists revolted once again, experiencing quick success due to the overconfidence of Governor Efil and Rictell's other royalists. But this time, instead of simply demanding reform from the Kerolonian government, the Osuwans chose to have their 15 colonies secede into a new nation - the democratic Unified States of Osuwa - on July 4, 1576. Revolutionary war hero Haris Yang-Moof became the first president of this new republican nation while the Iphelia Family - a former Kerolonian noble family strongly supportive of the Osuwan revolutionary cause - supplied the nation various important resources.
Enraged, King Rictell immediately declared war on the fledgling Unified States, marking the beginning of the Osuwan Revolutionary War. Fighting would last for 8 years and see numerous casualties and untold devastation on both sides. Eventually, on June 2, 1584, King Rictell and Osuwan diplomat Helagard rei Iphelia ended the war by signing the Treaty of Kirbani, which officially recognized the Unified States of Osuwa as an independent nation. Kerolon chose to sign it in order to focus on another rebellion - Regalius' Rebellion and the formation of Morbidia - occurring in the west. By the treaty's signing, 16,800 Osuwan soldiers and 18,500 Kerolonian soldiers had perished in battle.
The Osuwan Revolution significantly impacted Kerolonian politics and society. The Osuwan revolutionary war damaged the economic, political, and social stability of the nation, causing the Kingdom to lose control of its Jebellion, Great Bar, and Bagyo Isles colonies, which became neutral territories that Osuwa would later invade. The formation of the Unified States shattered the nationalistic pride the Kerolonian populace had adopted thanks to the Kerolon Empire's conquest of the world. But more importantly, the revolution granted already-dissatisfied Kerolonian subjects the confidence and inspiration to spark change and rebel themselves. The Osuwan Revolution is credited with helping spark the Korroway riots that would lead to the formation of Kerolon's parliament and the rebellion that would lead to the formation of the Great Morbidian Hegemony.
Korroway Riots of 1580 and the Formation of the Kerolonposium
The outbreak of the Osuwan Revolution and the adoption of democracy as Osuwa's governmental system inspired the Kerolonian populace to think more critically of the Kerolonian governmental system. Noticing and desiring the Osuwans' high political freedom, Kerolonian citizens began calling for the establishment of a more democratic system of government for the Kerolonian homeland. This led to the outbreak of numerous pro-democracy protests throughout the latter half of the 1570s.
As a supporter of absolute monarchy, King Rictell ordered the imperial army to suppress pro-democracy protests and carry out harsh punishments against those who questioned royal authority. However, the army proved ineffective in halting the protests partly due to the extraordinary numbers of protesters and partly due to many soldiers defecting onto the side of the democrats as sympathizers with the protests.
Kerolonian political freedom protests culminated in the Korroway Riots of October 16, 1580, when an estimated 12,000 democratic protesters attacked the Kerolonian palace in Korroway with the intent of removing the monarchy from power and establishing a democracy in its place. Compared to other protests, however, the rioters faced difficulty in taking the palace thanks to the efforts of the Glass Angels, Rictell's elite guard of 12 skilled warriors. Unrest would continue for over a day until the Glass Angels successfully removed the protestors from the palace during the early morning hours of October 17. By then, 170 protesters had died while another 760 suffered minor to severe injuries.
However, the Glass Angels, though loyal to the crown, also sympathized with the republicans' cause and sought to achieve some form of compromise between the two groups. Over the next few months, the Angels would mediate more civilized discussions between King Rictell and the democracy supporters. Eventually, on December 25, 1580, King Rictell conceded to establish a democratically elected parliament - the Kerolonposium - and shift his role into that of a constitutional monarch.
Kerolonians celebrated the formation of the Kerolonposium, but King Rictell - or more aptly, the monarchy in general - still held considerable influence in governmental affairs. When he established the Kerolonposium, he adopted a bicameral system consisting of a lower house (the House of the Lower) tasked with creating legislation and an upper house (the House of the Affluent) tasked with checking legislation. The House of the Affluent notably consisted of nobles loyal to Rictell and the crown, allowing Rictell to control the passage of laws to a degree. However, the monarchy and nobility's role in parliament would gradually subside throughout succeeding centuries as Kerolon continued to democratize and reform.
Regalius' Rebellion and the Formation of the Great Imperial Hegemony of Morbidia (1578-1585)
The final major revolt during the Age of Reform was Regalius' Rebellion, which led to the formation of the Great Morbidian Hegemony out of Kerolon's Morbidian colony.
The Osuwan Revolution's progression inspired many lordions, whom Kerolonian colonists had largely enslaved following the Morbidia region's annexation into Kerolon, to rise up and fight for their own rights. This began as intermittent slave and servant revolts across the Morbidia colony which slaveowners quickly put down; in response to the rebellions, the Kerolonians harshened their treatment of their lordion servants in order to prevent more revolts. However, this ultimately served to not only further strengthen lordion opposition, but also encourage the lordions to revolt in more creative ways.
The lordion revolts eventually culminated in the rise of Regalius Rilna Mortimer, one of the most radical lordions at the time, to public prominence in 1578. Taking advantage of the weakened state of Kerolonian law enforcement at the time thanks to instability wrought by the Osuwan Revolution, Regalius spread strong anti-Kerolonian, Morbidian separatist sentiment across the Morbidian region, reaching many lordions and their non-lordion supporters through posters, literature, pamphlets, and other means. In these pieces of media, Regalius attacked imperial Kerolonian values such as imperialism, speciesism, capitalism, monarchism, and more while asserting the superiority and resistance of lordion culture. But more importantly, as a rather intelligent tactician and strategist, Regalius shared more sophisticated methods to revolt against Kerolonian slaveowners and disrupt Kerolonian society through his media, allowing for an increase in the effectiveness and severity of lordion revolts throughout 1578 and 1579.
Formation and Outlawing of the Anti-Imperialist Natives' Alliance (AINA)
But then, the Kerolonposium formed in 1580 - a move Regalius quickly used to his advantage by gathering himself and his supporters into a political party - the Anti-Imperialist Natives' Alliance (AINA), which advocated for the granting of independence to Kerolonian colonies like Morbidia as well as civil rights for non-Kerolonian tabulons - on April 22, 1581. Though enforcement of the Korndelia System was already beginning to fall apart at the time, the Kerolonposium's House of the Affluent initially refused to recognize the AINA due to its leadership under Regalius, a non-tabulon; however, Regalius worked around this barrier by only registering his tabulon supporters as parliamentary representatives, which allowed the party to join the parliament.
During its brief tenure as a parliamentary party, the AINA proposed various pieces of legislation aimed at improving the lives of non-Kerolonian tabulons, such as bills that would repeal the Korndelia System or guarantee basic rights for said groups. Unfortunately, both the rest of the lower house and King Rictell's House of the Affluent blocked the vast majority of the AINA's proposed bills, significantly limiting its actual political power.
Eventually, on February 10, 1584, the Kerolonposium voted to outlaw the AINA on the basis of "promoting dissent and degeneracy", with all of its tabulon representatives being not only booted from parliament, but also prosecuted under accusations of terrorism. This motivated Regalius into abandoning his earlier strategies of working within the system and instead turning to all-out rebellion, leading to the Stantain Provincial Capital Riots.
Stantain Provincial Capital Riots
During the morning hours of April 27, 1584, a mob of 9,500-11,000 Mortimer supporters and former AINA supporters launched a violent attack against the Kerolonian provincial capital at Stantain. This was part of a coordinated effort by Regalius Rilna Mortimer to expel Kerolonian colonists and colonial governor Saria rei Sancha from the Morbidia region and allow the lordions to reclaim their ancestral homeland as an independent nation free from perceived Kerolonian oppression.
In response, the provincial capital building was locked down, with Kerolonian troops blockading the building as other troops facilitated the evacuation of Sancha and the other politicians inside. However, the lordions easily took down the troops using weapons obtained by Regalius prior. Stealing the guards' weapons and adding them to their own arsenal, the protestors broke into the provincial capital building and engaged in defacement, vandalism, and looting. They burned all Kerolon flags, assaulted any Union officers and employees, and set up bombs all over the building; an estimated 12,000 rioters entered and occupied the provincial capital. Outside, Mortimer supporters erected a mock gallows and carried out the mock executions of Sancha, King Rictell, and other notable colonial officials with effigies.
At approximately 14:00 UTC that day, the rioters caught Sancha and other politicians mid-evacuation. Shooting the Kerolonian troops on-sight, the protestors captured Sancha and the other politicians and brought them to the outside of the provincial capital building, where she and the others were broadcasted on international television in gags and handcuffs. Regalius Rilna Mortimer himself then appeared on the scene and personally tortured and executed the politicians in front of live television, with Saria rei Sancha's beheading occuring at 15:00 UTC. With the colonial governor of the Morbidia colony dead, Kerolon's control over the Morbidia region crumbled; after killing Sancha, Regalius Rilna Mortimer proclaimed the formation of the Great Imperial Hegemony of Morbidia, seating himself as its first Great Hegemon.
Morbidian Revolutionary War and the Battle of Stantain
Regalius' declaration of Morbidia's independence sparked another revolutionary war, the Morbidian Revolutionary War. Compared to the Osuwan Revolutionary War, the Morbidian Revolutionary War lasted much shorter and ended by 1585, yet proved much more violent.
The climax of the war was the August 17 Battle of Stantain, an estimated 120,000 Kerolonian troops marched into the Stantain provisional capital. 45,6000 Mortimer supporters moved in to combat the Kerolonians; despite their inferior numbers, the Morbidian forces succeeded in holding their own against the Kerolonians, as both Kerolonian morale and military supplies had run low following the Osuwan Revolutionary War. Skirmishes between Morbidian and Kerolonian forces continued for several days near the border of Stantain, with the Kerolonian forces just barely being able to breach the perimeter of the city on August 19.
Regalius Rilna Mortimer, having foreseen the intervention of the imperial Kerolonian military, had set up bombs all over the superstructure forming the foundation of the Kerolon-built Stantain City beforehand; at midnight on August 20, he detonated them as the Kerolonian troops began to enter the city. This resulted in the superstructure and the city above to collapse, in turn resulting in the loss of an estimated 112,000 of the 120,000 Kerolonian soldiers. The city's collapse also allowed the cannons installed underneath the city prior to the rise of Regalius to emerge under Regalius' control and fire at other forces arriving to assist the main Stantain force, resulting in their quick retreat by the afternoon hours of August 20.
With the Kerolonian military in shambles and the Morbidian forces greatly emboldened with large amounts of public and military support, the Morbidian Hegemony's forces began steadily forcing Kerolonian troops out of Morbidia as Kerolonian morale dampened even further. Eventually, on February 21, 1585 - exactly one Uingffhian year after the formation of Morbidia - Supreme Leader Regalius and Kerolonian Prime Minister Polyphemus rei Pandorus signed the Treaty of Mt. Guel, which recognized Morbidia's independence, marking the revolutionary war's end.
Uveerius and Uopia Riots and the admission of Uveerius and Uopia into Morbidia
The success of Regalius' Rebellion inspired similar revolutionary sentiment in the Uveerian and Uopian island continents, where word of Morbidia's formation quickly spread thanks to their relatively proximity to Morbidia's territory. Desiring to preserve their own rich indigenous culture, the Uveerian and Uopian natives began rebelling against Kerolonian control a few months after Morbidia's declaration of independence.
As the Osuwan and Morbidian revolutions had significantly overwhelmed and worn down Kerolonian troops, the Uveerians and Uopians very quickly succeeded in overthrowing their respective colonial regimes - Uveerius overthrew its colonial government in June 1584 while Uopia did so in July. However, rather than forming their own independent nations, Uveerius and Uopia requested to join the Morbidian Hegemony upon liberating themselves from Kerolonian rule. This was mostly a strategic maneuver, as the Uveerians and Uopians' defense forces were not nearly as powerful as Morbidia's, and would likely be defeated by Kerolon once the kingdom recovered its strength.
Great Hegemon Regalius accepted Uveerius and Uopia's request for admission into Morbidia on September 20, 1584 in his Anti-Kerolon Alliance Act; though he had decided on admitting them far earlier, the Battle of Stantain forced him to delay the act's passage. Nonetheless, the combined strength of Uveerius, Uopia, and Morbidia helped the Hegemony secure its victory against Kerolon and maintain its independence. Though the alliance was created as a strategic one, Uveerius and Uopia would ultimately remain part of Morbidia due to the Hegemony's fierce support of multiculturalism, which satisfied the Uveerians and Uopians' demands. Additionally, the Uveerians and Uopians tolerated Morbidia's dictatorship due to the island continents themselves existing as absolute monarchies prior to Kerolonian invasion.
Geptunia Revolution (1632-1633)
The Osuwan and Morbidian secessions, along with the formation of the Kerolonposium, significantly stressed the pro-imperialist King Rictell. Eventually, on September 8, 1631, Rictell Sorges Kerolon passed away from stress-related health conditions; this led to the crowning of the fifth Kerolonian monarch, Queen Geptunia Sylandro Kerolon, in early 1632.
Geptunia proved to be a highly unpopular and controversial ruler due to her supercilious nature. As queen, Geptunia would live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the poor and middle classes, who languished in even deeper poverty under her rule. Geptunia would impose excessive taxes on Kerolon's citizens only to use her money to construct extravagant palaces, stables, and other objects of luxury. Additionally, the queen would prevent the Kerolonposium from interfering with her luxurious lifestyle by lobbying the House of the Affluent's pro-monarchy nobles into rejecting most bills aimed at restricting her power.
Geptunia's selfishness and vanity caused the Kerolonian people to ignite a revolution against her less than a year after she took the crown. This revolution proved swift in nature, as royal soldiers, themselves suffering under Geptunia's rule, turned on the monarchy and participated in the rebellion; together, disgruntled Kerolonians sacked cities and burned any and all objects associated with or promoting Geptunia.
Queen Geptunia's true undoing, however, came at the hands of a fellow royal: the older Wexxia Sylandro Kerolon. Shortly after the revolutions began, deposed princess Wexxia came out of hiding and revealed that her younger sister Geptunia had blackmailed her into exile in a bid for power; specifically, Geptunia threatened to expose her sister's romantic history with other women if she failed to allow her to take the crown. When Wexxia revealed her past to the rebels after coming out of hiding, however, the rebels supported her and sought to install her as queen instead of Geptunia.
Eventually, near the end of 1633, a storm of Kerolonians led by Wexxia stormed Geptunia's palace and ransacked Geptunia's luxurious belongings. Shortly afterwards, they captured Geptunia herself and subsequently imprisoned her for corruption, blackmailing, and a wealth of other crimes. In 1634, Queen Geptunia was executed, after which Kerolon crowned Wexxia as the next queen of the Kingdom of Kerolon.
Wexxian Age of Freedom (1634-1650)
As Kerolon's sixth queen, Wexxia Sylandro Kerolon encouraged the passage of a number of legislative acts encouraging progressive causes. These moves received sizeable support from the Kerolonian populace and the Kerolonposium's House of the Lower, who had become disillusioned with more traditional social norms after Queen Geptunia abused them. This led to the final phase of the Age of Kerolonian Reform: the Wexxian Age of Freedom, named for the significant increases in personal freedoms during the era.
First came the rise of LGBTQ+ rights, which became a relevant issue due to Wexxia's own history of same-sex relationships serving a crucial role in the Geptunia Revolution. Wexxia's positive leadership, combined with the widespread skepticism of traditionalism brought about by Geptunia's downfall, incurred Kerolonians into viewing non-heterosexual relationships and attraction in a more favorable light. Beginning in around 1636, Kerolon began decriminalizing and recognizing non-traditional marriages (i.e. not consisting of one male, one female, and one somale), becoming the first nation to do so; when the Kerolonposium passed the Free Marriage Act on June 17, 1634, Kerolon became the first nation on Uingffh to legalize non-heterosexual marriage (though the Morbidian Hegemony decriminalized homosexuality roughly four Earth decades prior). This was soon followed by increased acceptance of transgender identities as well as gender nonconformity.
Soon after came increases in gender equality, with Kerolonians abandoning traditional gender norms prioritizing somales. Though the problematic reigns of King Rictell and Queen Geptunia brought about some skepticism about men and women's ability to lead, the competent leadership of Wexxia and variously newly-appointed male and female parliamentarians renewed confidence in non-somale leadership. Kerolon had always been rather loose in its gender norms compared to other nations, but the Age of Freedom saw even more men and women rising into positions of power and respect.
Abolition of the Korndelia System
One of the most significant moves during the Age of Freedom was the abolition of the Korndelia caste system, which had already begun to fall apart after the Osuwan and Morbidian rebellions.
The events that would set the Korndelia system's fall in motion began on August 11, 1638, when a mob of self-proclaimed Kerolonian supremacists attempted to lynch the morteus Lilacina von Nurnberg. Though they severely injured her, Lilacina escaped, after which she used her story to spread awareness of discrimination against not only non-tabulons, but also non-Kerolonian tabulons.
Kerolon's populace had begun supporting racial and species equality long before Lilacina's attempted lynching; however, Lilacina's activism encouraged the citizenry and government to take action and push for anti-discrimination legislation. Throughout the rest of 1638 and 1639, Kerolonians staged many peaceful protests advocating for the repeal of the Korndelia System and the passage of legislation ensuring equal rights for all people living in Kerolon.
These reforms were quickly answered by the Kerolonposium. On June 6, 1639, they passed the 779 a.r.k. Racial Integration and Species Equality (RISE) Act, which formally abolished the Korndelia Caste system and guaranteed all individuals living in Kerolon basic citizenship rights. This act was highly celebrated by not only non-tabulons and non-Kerolonians, but also the significant supportive Kerolonian population. Additionally, the RISE act proved crucial in allowing Kerolon to maintain control of its remaining colonies, which beforehand had begun to experience growing unrest due to racial and species inequality.
Abolition of the House of the Affluent and the Fall of Kerolonian Feudalism
Though the RISE act quickly passed, it did experience a notable barrier in the form of the House of the Affluent's nobility, which initially attempted to block the act due to the benefits non-tabulon and non-Kerolonian servitude presented to nobles. Though they eventually conceded to the equality activists (partially at the insistence of Queen Wexxia), their resistance to the RISE act, combined with Kerolonians' already-growing disdain for certain traditional values, caused Kerolonians to begin questioning the concept of Kerolonian nobility itself.
Throughout the 1640s, Kerolonians held numerous protests calling for the dismantling of the nobility system. Some protesters demanded the dismantling of the monarchy itself, but these were rarer due to the popularity of Queen Wexxia. However, a sizeable faction of Kerolonian loyalists and nobility supporters expressed their opposition to such an action, believing that nobility and royalty formed a critical part of Kerolonian culture.
Eventually, on July 14, 1646, the protesters and the loyalists struck a compromise with the passage of the One House Act. Though the act allowed the nobility and monarchy to continue existing, it stripped them of much of their political power by abolishing the House of the Affluent. This turned the Kerolonposium into a unicameral, or one house legislature (hence its name), granting the House of the Lower's democratically-elected parliamentarians (and by extension, the Kerolonian people) more political power and freedom.
Though the One House Act did not legally end the existence of the Kerolonian nobility, it did bring about their de facto fall from power and public attention. Their relevance to public life had already begun to decline thanks to the Wexxian Age of Freedom's liberal changes to Kerolonian social norms; the act's stripping of their political power only accelerated their decline. Though some noble families succeeded in holding onto their generational wealth, their influence over Kerolonian society had largely faded away completely by the end of the Age of Freedom in 1650.
Modernization (1650-1776)
Near the beginning of 1650, the Kerolonposium and Queen Wexxia passed an act that changed Kerolon's motto to "Education is Freedom" in order to reflect the nation's new, more progressive post-imperial society; specifically, the motto references the increased funding of the public education that occurred during the Age of Freedom, which was done in order to inform future generations on Queen Geptunia and imperial Kerolon's past mistakes and ensure they would not repeat them. This marked the beginning of Kerolon's modernization.
During this era, Kerolon and other Uingffhian nations had begun to modernize, with more advanced technologies such as electricity, wireless communication, etc. becoming more available to the average citizen. High-tech skyscrapers and cities came to accompany Kerolon's traditional buildings, palaces, and historical sites. Meanwhile, the Age of Freedom-era trend of progressivism and social equality continued; Among the reforms achieved were further protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, policies promoting racial and species equality in Kerolonian society, and improved accessibility for both disabled people and neurodivergent people.
Most notably, egalitarian measures taken during the Wexxian Age of Freedom inspired the Kerolonian populace to push for more economic equality, gradually leading to Kerolon's transformation into a mixed economy, social democratic welfare state similar in nature to the Scandinavian countries on Earth. Throughout the Kingdom's modern era, Kerolonian voted more leftist-leaning politicians into the Kerolonposium, where they gradually passed Nordic Model-style economic reforms such as labor union protections, collective bargaining, minimum wage requirements, workplace safety regulations, anti-corruption legislation, universal healthcare, universal public education, etc. Though Kerolon retained a capitalist framework of private ownership and production, allowing for a more efficient economy, the nation imposed a number of pro-employee regulations upon industry with the intent to prevent exploitation and maximize the quality of life for employees. The Kerolonian model of economics is often credited for the nation's consistently high happiness and compassion scores throughout the modern era.
Despite Kerolon's growing social progressivism, the Kingdom held on to its cultural roots and practiced its traditions in non-discriminatory ways. For instance, despite the implementation of religious freedom in 1661, Keliosity remained the most dominant religion in Kerolonian society even throughout the modern era. However, discrimination against other religious faiths did markedly decrease throughout the modern era; additionally, the Kerolonposium passed numerous pieces of legislation protecting the rights of other religious faiths and ensuring separation between church and state.
Additionally, the parliament kept the four chivalric orders of Kerolon - Scentrilla, Novus, Kerbos, and Uris - in place, albeit more as ceremonial guards as opposed to actual soldiers. The Kerolonian Parliament responded to criticisms of the orders being symbols of Kerolonian imperialism and racism by readily welcoming members of other racial and species groups into the orders' ranks; the Order of Uris, for instance, came to include a significant amount of lordions and mortei within its ranks, to the point that tabulons became a statistical minority in Uris by 1690. Wexxia Sylandro Kerolon and the Kerolonposium also sent the four orders on charitable missions to less fortunate areas of Uingffh to promote development and charity in an attempt to atone for their previous wrongs as imperial orders. Nonetheless, some non-Kerolonians continued to criticize the orders' charitable moves as shallow, demanding more direct decolonization instead.
Blue Power Initiative
Throughout the 17th Century, Uingffh began to suffer from climate disruption brought about by the activities of the three Uingffhian nations, Kerolon included. This climate change made itself most apparent in 1699, when a powerful tropical cyclone by the name of Calaklum Ao devastated much of Kerolon and completely destroyed Korroway, in the process killing Queen Wexxia. In her place, her eldest son Yorgos Basilios Bilionis Kerolon ascended to the Aeonium Throne as Kerolon's sixth monarch.
In addition to necessitating the formation of a formal tropical cyclone tracking service for Kerolon - the Kerolonian Storm Service (KSS) - Calaklum Ao's disastrous consequences raised significant awareness of the negative effects of tabulon, lordion, and morteus activity on the natural Uingffhian environment, leading to the Blue Power Initiative during the early 18th Century. The Blue Power Initiative, whose name referenced Uingffh's bluish vegetation, aimed to devise more eco-friendly means of power generation in order to minimize Kerolon's climatic impact. It also aimed to devise methods to protect Kerolon cities from the adverse effects of natural disasters like tropical cyclones.
Over the next few years, the Kerolonposium and King Yorgos would provide hefty subsidies to renewable energy companies and groups to develop renewable power sources for the Kingdom. They also launched experiments regarding nuclear power and other experimental power sources. Both of these efforts proved highly successful, with the nation becoming 65% reliant on renewable and reliable energy sources by 1750 and on track to become 100% reliant on such energy sources in the near future. Natural energy sources adopted by the Kingdom as part of the Blue Power Initiative included large offshore wind farms, geothermal power plants in the volcanic Kerolon Plateau, solar panels and solar farms, hydroelectric power plants near dams, and more.
As for disaster protection, the Blue Power Initiative led to the invention of two main mechanisms. The first involved retractable wind shields to protect homes and cities from the harsh winds of a tropical cyclone. These shields existed in both small forms for individual buildings and larger forms for covering towns and cities. They would also serve to protect settlements from volcanic ash, with shields located near potentially active volcanoes containing cones that would collect ash and siphon it down a tube into a collection container, where the ash could be collected and used for other uses such as as fertilizer. The second mechanism was retractable flood barriers that would surround cities and protect them from storm surges, floods, tsunamis, and other water-related disasters. In addition to these two main defenses, the Blue Power Initiative also invested more money into developing storm shelters.
The success of the Blue Power Initiative in Kerolon inspired similar programs in Morbidia and Osuwa, though their success varied. Morbidia's renewable energy program initially experienced technical issues, but eventually came to coexist with other previously-existing power sources in the nation. Meanwhile, in Osuwa, renewable energy programs largely failed; the reasons for these failures are complex and varied, but a significant factor was lobbying from Osuwan corporations in industries related to nonrenewable energy sources, such as oil companies and coal companies.
Formation of the Kerolon Astronomical Division
The beginning of the Uingffhian nations' modern era coincided with the advent of spacefaring technology in tabulon, morteus, and lordion civilization; on August 22, 1720 (in Uingffhian terms, Goringffh 1, 878 a.r.k.), the Kingdom of Kerolon established the Kerolon Astronomical Division (KAD) as the overseers of its newly-publicized space program as part of the celebration of Kerolon's 878th year of existence.
Kerolonian space research actually predated the formation of the KAD by at least a decade, but remained a governmental secret until the KAD's formation. Throughout its existence, the KAD manufactured numerous rockets, space shuttles, probes, satellites, and even space stations; by the year 1750, the KAD had constructed three large-scale manned space stations - named K-1, K-2, and K-3 - into orbits around Coppelius.
During the modern era, the KAD was one of three space technology organizations responsible for the majority of Uingffhian space travel-related feats, the other two being the Morbidian Space and Aeronautics Division (MSAD) and the private Osuwan company BlueBliss. The KAD in particularly was responsible for constructing the first manned Uingffhian space station (K-1) in 1735, sending out the first probe to land on the nearby moon Gula in 1759, and sending out the first probe to study the outer Ingffhaestian System in 1765. By the 1770s decade, the KAD had begun constructing research stations on or around Gula, other moons of Coppelius, and the Coppelian trojan planet Moringffh.
Discovery of the Ophisians and Sheepillies
In 1754, the KAD sent an unmanned spacecraft, the Ibridas I, to study Ibiridius, Ingffhaestia's fast-rotating third planet. There, the Ibridas I Probe reported the detection of anomalous signals originating from the Ibiridian surface. This quickly led to the discovery of the Ophisians, an emerging sentient civilization native to the planet; at the time, the gemstone-like species had begun developing advanced communication technology, causing the signals that the Ibridas detected.
Initially, Kerolonian citizens and other Uingffhians expressed their eagerness to contact and learn more about the Ophisians and their society. However, a year after the discovery, the Kerolonposium ended up voting against further contact with the Ophisians, citing two main reasons. For one, due to Ibiridius' fast rotation, landing on the planet would prove difficult and would require the construction of an expensive and specialized spacecraft. Secondly (and more importantly), Kerolonian government officials, including King Yorgos, believed that interfering with the Ophisians would actually prove detrimental to the development of both Ophisian society and Ibiridius' biosphere by introducing unnecessary foreign factors. Though protests broke out intermittently over the decision, the Kerolonian populace eventually came to accept the decision, especially following the release of concurring opinions from well-respected astronomers and biologists.
In 1760, communication equipment in the Kingdom of Kerolon and other Uingffhian nations detected similar artificial signals originating from Hernans, one of Ingffhaestia's red dwarf companions; the KAD had discovered planets around both it and Avimotalis decades prior, so life in the system had already been in the question. Analysis of these signals led to the identification of another emerging sentient civilizations: the Sheepillies of Hevectavia. This brought the total number of intelligent civilizations in the Ingffhaestian System up to three (five if the lordions, mortei, and tabulons are each counted as their own civilizations). Like with the Ophisians, Kerolon and the other two nations initially chose to leave the Sheepillies, this time also due to the fact that travel to Ingffhaestia's companion stars proved out of the Uingffhians' technological reach at the time.
Discovery of the Great Pit and the Izlondian Ruins (1776)
On November 25, 1776, a Kerolonian biological research expedition en route to the Flornelian island of Terrestria encountered an undiscovered island south of the Flornelian island continent, where they discovered an enigmatic pit (later dubbed the Great Pit) that led to what appeared to be a sprawling underground layer of the Uingffhian crust. There, the scientists discovered the existence of extremely old, yet well-preserved ruins of a civilization whose architecture did not match that of any known civilizations, including the Ophisians and Sheepillies (whose architecture was determined through analysis of their signal data).
Further analysis and research of the ruins revealed their true source: an ancient intelligent civilization that had died out approximately 3 billion years ago. This civilization, named Izlondia according to its dominant species, the Drori, had once controlled all of Uingffh and possibly all of Ingffhaestia and various outlying star systems before dying out in a catastrophic accident involving wormhole technology; it was this calamity, dubbed the First Apocalix, that had rendered their vast cities trapped underground.
More importantly, significant evidence pointed to the Drori species forming the ancestors of the tabulon race. In addition to bearing a remarkably similar appearance to modern tabulons (with their only major physical difference being their lack of wing-tentacles), the Izlondians also shared a significant amount of DNA - 98.5% - with the tabulons as demonstrated by another study carried out later in 2044. Evolutionary scientists postulated that the First Apocalix spared a small handful of Drori who would later come to evolve into the tabulon race.
Most significantly, however, the Izlondians provided an explanation for the shared biology between the life-forms of the Ingffhaestian System (and later, life-forms of other nearby star systems). Xenobiologists at the KAD and similar organizations have long noted unusual biological similarities between life on Uingffh and life on other planets and moons in Ingffhaestia: the presence of cells and DNA, division into plants and animals, similar body structures in animals, etc. These similarities were long dismissed as either coincidences or a natural tendency of evolution, but analysis of records left behind by the Izlondians revealed that they had, in fact, seeded life on other planets and moons, accounting for the similarities; specifically, they sent out large moon-sized space stations to place samples of non-sentient Izlondian life forms on potentially habitable worlds. Once more, these records pointed to the Izlondians sending these "Izlondian arks" to not only other celestial bodies within Ingffhaestia, but also other solar systems outside of Ingffhaestia, raising the possibility of extraingffhaestian lifeforms on worlds around other stars.
The discovery of the Izlondians was the turning point in the evolution of the Uingffhian nations, Kerolon included, into advanced spacefaring powers. Knowledge of the Izlondians and their role in the origins of life incited a strong desire in many Uingffhians to explore the stars beyond Ingffhaestia and discover the various other alien civilizations waiting to meet them. Additionally, technological artifacts left behind in the Great Pit and other Izlondian ruins provided Kerolon and the other nations with the necessary tools to develop their own spacefaring technology. After 1776, the Uingffhian superpowers entered their interstellar eras; Kerolon in particular entered the Interstellar AGe of Imperium, the best-documented era of its history.
Beginning of the Interstellar Age of Imperium (1777-1790)
The years leading up 1790 involved the development of crucial spacefaring technology such as starships and space stations. Using reverse-engineered Izlondian technology, Kerolon began constructing more advanced spacecraft and space habitats. Kerolon worked with the other Uingffhian nations to begin constructing more advanced space stations geared for habitation by the general public, creating designs such as the Odesa-class space stations, the Seiei-class bead stations, and the Stratos rings. To provide materials for these ventures, Uingffhians, including Kerolonians, began increasing funding for asteroid mining, comet mining, and moon mining.
One of the most significant spacefaring technology-related developments was the development of the rei Iphelia Cylinder, a space colony design similar to the humans' O'Neill Cylinder. This multi kilometer-long cylindrical colony, created as a collaboration between various Uingffhian scientists overseen by Osuwa's rei Iphelia family, had its design finalized prior to the beginning of the Interstellar Age, but first began seeing construction in 1780. Though the first rei Iphelia Cylinder would not see completion until several decades later, its approval for construction marked a major turning point in the normalization of space travel for ordinary citizens.
One of the most significant aspects of Kerolon's transition to spacefaring status was the creation of an official military force for space combat: the Kerolon Star Navy, which the Kingdom of Kerolon Star Navy Act established on December 6, 1780. In line with its trend of slightly increase militarization during Kerolon's fledgling years as a spacefaring nation, the Kerolonposium created the Star Navy in anticipation of future interplanetary and interstellar conflicts and conquests.
During the rest of the 1780s, Kerolonian aerospace engineers designed and constructed a variety of other new spaceships for the space navy. These ships were divided into categories similar to those used for traditional naval ships, designating them as corvettes, destroyers, frigates, cruisers, or carriers; their physical appearance and characteristics, however, only minimally resembled those of sea-based ships. By 1792, Kerolon had constructed a total of 990 starships in 28 different ship classes; the largest of these, the Apollonius-class battle cruiser, reached a length of 1.6 kilometers and could destroy a continent from orbit, though most Kerolonian spaceships had lengths smaller than one kilometer. Additionally, the Star Navy's commanders advised the captains of these new starships to use the ships' central destructive cannons very conservatively.
Any space or orbital weaponry constructed in secret prior to Uingffh's conquest immediately saw their integration into the Star Navy's ranks. Some other resources in other branches of the Armed Forces, such as missiles and nuclear warheads, also saw relocation into the Star Navy. The Kingdom's ambitions of interstellar conquest had begun to render on-planet combat such as those of armies and sea-based navies obsolete, though Kerolon also took care not to neglect its existing army, navy, and air force in the event of an on-planet emergency.
Included in the formation of the KSN was the formalization and expansion of the navy's commissioned officer ranks. Prior to the discovery of the Izlondian ruins, Fleet Admiral was the highest ranking in its navy; however, during preparation for spacefaring, the Kerolonposium voted to add two new ranks of admiral above Fleet Admiral. The rank High Admiral was created for the most elite of Kerolon's fleet admirals and would later come to include most of the later-reinstated four orders' highest-ranking naval members. The rank Grand Admiral was created to act as the supreme commander of the entire star navy. Initially, the Star Navy simply awarded the title of Grand Admiral to the prime minister and King Yorgos; however, as Kerolon grew to control more stars throughout succeeding decades, the title of Grand Admiral would come to be appointed to separate individuals displaying notable military prowess.
Reinstatement of the Four Chivalric Orders
On January 15, 1781, Parliament and the royal family both agreed to reinstate all four of its First Age-era chivalric orders as legitimate military powers. Kerbos, Novus, Uris, and Scentrilla all regained the rights to military weapons such as tanks, aircraft, ships, etc. However, they were still encouraged to partake in charitable duties, and the Kerolonposium pursued efforts to include even more mortei, lordions, and non-Kerolonian tabulons in the orders' ranks in order to combat notions of the four orders as instruments of imperialism and oppression.
Notably, all four orders were converted into high echelons of the Kerolon Star Navy, with the Kingdom training its members in space combat, strategy, and tactics. As Kerolon's interstellar era advanced, the four orders would come to include most of the KSN's high admirals, with their grandmasters being labelled Highmost Admirals.
Formation of the Order of Apollyon
Unbeknownst to the Kerolonian populace, January 15, 1781 also marked the establishment of a secret fifth order: the Order of Apollyon. The royal family and parliament established this top-secret order to manage Kerolon's classified projects as well as any artifacts or pieces of technology associated with the Izlondian civilization. The government appointed a group of twelve esteemed scientists to head the Order of Apollyon, labelling them the A12 Symposium.
Colonization of the Ingffhaestian Star System (1790-1800)
By the 1790s, Kerolon and its two neighbors had phased away from spacefaring preparation and had begun to more fully colonize the rest of their home star system, Ingffhaestia. Construction of settlements both in space and on other planetary surfaces dramatically increased as space grew into a major part of Kerolonian citizens' lifestyles. By mid-1793, the Kingdom and its neighbors had established open-air (non-domed) colonies on Gula, Herzlinger, Moringffh, and Saringffh as well as domed colonies on Siara, Ajooni, and numerous moons of Coppelius and Sovin.
Notably, Kerolon encountered native life on Gula, Herzlinger, Moringffh, and Saringffh, though none of these life-forms exhibited sentience or heightened intelligence. Gula's life consisted solely of extremophile microorganisms while the other three worlds' life consisted of non-intelligent plants and animals. The Kerolonposium was quick to pass legislation protecting these native lifeforms and designating national parks on these planets' surfaces. Nonetheless, Kerolonians still utilized newly-discovered alien life in non-harmful ways; for instance, some Kerolonian farmers bred alien plant specimens and sold them as houseplants.
Kerolon and the other Uingffhian nations also established relations with already-known life in the system - namely the Ophisians of Ibiridius. Diplomats from the Uingffhian nations began meeting with representatives of Ophisian society, establishing cordial relations. Notably, due to their lower level of technological advancement compared to the Uingffhians, the Ophisians requested that the Uingffhians leave their society and planet alone and allow them to develop on their own; at the time, the Uingffhians, Kerolon included, accepted the Ophisians' request and prioritized colonization of Ingffhaestia's other worlds. However, the three nations did successfully negotiate the right for them to utilize some of the chunks in the outer reaches of Ibiridius' atmosphere disk for mining and resource extraction.
Kerolon and the other two Uingffhian superpowers established contact with the Sheepillies of the Heranis System's Hevectavia as well. However, the Sheepilly species' methane-based nature (as opposed to the carbon-based nature of Uingffhian and Ophisian life) limited their interactions; ultimately, the Sheepillies followed suit with the Ophisians and requested that the Uingffhian governments largely leave their civilization alone outside of exchanging valuable scientific data, and the Uingffhians agreed. However, compared to the Ophisians, Sheepilly citizens interacted much more readily with Uingffhian citizens; Kerolon in particular reported that many of its citizens had begun forging pen pal friendships with Sheepillies via various online communication methods.
In order to interact with these other alien civilizations in spite of their language barriers, Kerolon and the other Uingffhian nations began developing ear-mounted devices that would measure brain waves, use them to translate even unknown languages into Golagat or another language of choice, and transmit this translation to the other person or people involved in the conversation. The creation of these devices significantly eased communication and interaction with other sentient civilizations, with the ear pods seeing use with other societies encountered by Kerolon for centuries to come.
Battle of Ibiridius and Signing of the Treaty of Ingffhaestian Settlement
On August 26, 1793, conflict began to arise between an Osuwan and a Morbidian fleet near Ibiridius over control of a particularly valuable group of asteroids in the outer regions of Ibiridius' disk. This soon escalated into the first recorded space battle in Uingffhian history: the Battle of Ibiridius. Some of the smaller asteroids were caught in the crossfire, had their orbits disrupted, and subsequently fell onto Ibiridius' surface, leading to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Ophisians.
The Ibiridian asteroid impacts led to exceptionally harsh criticism of Osuwa and Morbidia from the Ophisians and Kerolonians, with some radical Ophisians proposing war against Osuwa and Morbidia. Meanwhile, Kerolon's government attempted to resolve the dispute through diplomacy and other peaceful means while offering aid to Ophisian victims of the Battle of Ibiridius. Notably, the Kingdom made efforts to include Ophisians in their diplomatic efforts due to their role as victims in the Battle of Ibiridius and its aftereffects.
Kerolon and the Ophisians quickly deduced the Osuwa-Morbidian cold war as the underlying cause of the Battle of Ibiridius, which informed the creation of the Treaty of Ingffhaestian Settlement that same year. The treaty would designate the entire Ingffhaestian Star System as politically neutral territory not particularly affiliated with one of Uingffh's three nations, with Ibiridius and Hevectavia being treated as highly autonomous states not bound to a particular Uingffhian government. The treaty was ratified by representatives from Ibiridius, Kerolon, Osuwa, Morbidia, and Hevectavia on December 25, 1793.
With the Treaty of Ingffhaestian Settlement's ratification, conflict between the Uingffhian nations within Ingffhaestia lessened. Kerolon and the other Uingffhian nations invested resources, money, and personnel into helping Ibiridius recover from the damage wrought by Osuwa and Morbidia's battle. However, divisions were still clear between the Uingffhian nations in that they began prioritizing different sub-systems of Ingffhaestia to colonize; while Kerolon focused on developing its colonies within the Ingffhaestian planetary system, Osuwa and Morbidia went on to focus on colonizing Avimotalis and Heranis respectively. Additionally, Kerolon would be forced to mediate more conflicts between Osuwa and Morbidia as the three nations expanded beyond Ingffhaestia and into the local star systems.
Discovery of the Kiran Artifact
On October 4, 1793, young Kerolonian astronomer Nethus Nerugol discovered a dwarf planet approaching the Ingffhaestian planetary system on a highly eccentric orbit. This dwarf planet, dubbed "Kiran" after a minor Keliostic deity of judgment, was found not to pose any threat of impacting any inhabited worlds or destabilizing any comet regions. However, Kiran still piqued the interest of Ingffhaestian citizens due to its unusual shape; more precise imaging revealed the artifact possessed several large, erratically-shaped holes on its surface. Initially thought to be craters, these holes were later revealed as tunnels of some sort leading to some hollow center. Immediately after this discovery, the Kerolonian media erupted into a frenzy as citizens theorized Kiran's erratic nature; many theorized that Kiran was one of the constructs the Izlondians created to seed life.
To investigate further, the Kerolon Star Navy agreed to send a fleet of 7 small ships (6 corvettes and a light cruiser) to Kiran's location on November 11 of that year. Upon their arrival at Kiran on November 24, they confirmed Kiran's nature as an artificial object; specifically, they revealed Kiran as a hollow spheroidal object with a radius of roughly 1950 kilometers.
More importantly, however, the ships' crew discovered consistencies between the architectural styles of the Kiran and the Izlondian ruins, providing further evidence for the Izlondian construct theory. With support from the populace and KAD scientists, the Star Navy authorized the fleet's crew to conduct landing operations on Kiran in order to further ascertain its nature.
Landing operations officially began on January 1, 1794; the crew of the 7 ships, led by tabulon captain Cartius vir Cormierus, reported a mostly flat surface dotted by derelict structures resembling buildings and antennae, all of which had a composition of various high-grade steels and appearance similar to the Izlondian buildings found in the underground ruins. After a few hours, however, they stumbled upon a larger structure which they chose to explore further; this turned out to be the Kiran's "control room". Inside the control, vir Cormierus and the others found frozen samples of what appeared to be lifeforms that existed during the Izlondians' era as well as mechanisms for releasing these frozen samples onto planets and moons, which they took as confirming the Izlondian life-seeding hypothesis. Shortly after, the crew managed to reactivate the Kiran's electrical systems.
On Kiran's control panel, only a single large button remained operational; the Council authorized the crew to press it on January 4. The pressing of the button led to the firing of several lasers in the Kiran's hollow inside, leading to a buildup of heat at the center of the Kiran. The eventual result was a sphere emanating heat comparable to a small star. After collecting the necessary scientific data, vir Cormierus' fleet exited Kiran on January 10 and returned to Uingffh on February 23; Kiran itself, meanwhile, was allowed to continue on its natural course through the Ingffhaestian System.
Incorporation of the Kiran Artifact and the Terraformation of Digrazia
Throughout the rest of 2094, both the government and the citizenry hotly debated over how to use the Kiran Artifact, which had since settled into an trojan orbit at the Urden-Entreri binary ice giant planet system's L4 point. The majority of Kerolon's population desired to replicate and incorporate the technology of the Kiran into Kerolonian society (while respecting the Kiran itself as a major historical artifact), but disagreed on how to do so.
Eventually, the Kingdom settled on utilizing the Kiran in two ways, the first of which being the replication of its laser technology for military use. Kerolonian military personnel noted the potential for the Star Navy to utilize the artifact's heat-generating lasers as experimental high-precision weaponry. The Kerolonposium ultimately gave the Star Navy's weapons engineers permission to design a number of experimental laser cannons using technology derived from the cannon; however, the weapons would not see use in combat until much later in Kerolon's history.
Kerolon also utilized the Kiran as a terraforming device. Throughout 1794, tabulons across Kerolon proposed placing the Kiran's artificial star into orbit around an icy planet or moon, which would theoretically result in the creation of liquid water oceans on said moon. The Kingdom ultimately chose Digrazia, a large icy moon orbiting the binary planets Urden and Entreri, as their target for terraformation due to its already-existing oceans below its surface and its potential use as an interstellar port between Ingffhaestia and the nearby Avimotalis System. Kerolon's parliament eventually permitted the terraformation of Digrazia on August 15, 1794, with the Star Navy moving Kiran into a tight orbit around Digrazia. However, noticeable environmental effects would not manifest until later years.
Discovery of the Thegasia Wormhole Gate and Creation of the Thegasia Drives
As Kerolon and its neighbors expanded into the rest of Ingffhaestia, they began discovering even more spaceborne artifacts left behind by the Izlondian civilization. Though most of these were minor in nature, one of the most notable of these was the December 1798 discovery of an anomalously-shaped object in a high orbit around Heranis by numerous explorers facilitating the settlement of the system's outer worlds.
The Kingdom of Kerolon dispatched a team of Izlondia experts and researchers led by a researcher named Misatia Katarusse to investigate this new object on December 19. Upon their arrival, they discovered a ring-shaped object approximately 500 kilometers in diameter. Initially speculated to be some form of ring habitat like a Bishop Ring, landing parties sent onto the ring found no structures on its surface suggesting a residential nature. They did, however, find a similar composition and architecture to Kiran and the Izlondian ruins in the Great Pit, confirming the new artifact's Izlondian origins. Shorty after, they dubbed the artifact Thegasia as a nod to an old Uingffhian legend that identified the gate to Naitahlawulak (the tabulons' version of heaven) as a ring called Thegasia.
Head Researcher Katarusse's team, now dubbed the Thegasia Task Force (TTF), split up into multiple landing parties to investigate the Thegasia Artifact. Eventually, on December 20, one landing party chanced upon this ring object's control room; like the Kiran's control room, Thegasia's control room contained one major button. A press of this button, however, did not have any effect on the Thegasia or the surrounding environment; subsequent analysis of the Thegasia's inner machinery revealed that natural factors such as meteor impacts had slowly damaged the artifact's systems over time to the point of rendering them inoperable.
However, the Thegasia's inner mechanisms remained intact enough for the researchers to deduce the artifact's function: Thegasia was designed to generate stable, long-term wormholes inside of its ring allowing instantaneous travel through long distances. This find proved revolutionary for Kerolonian society, which was stressing over its inability to conquer further due to its lack of faster-than-light (FTL) technology; using Thegasia, Kerolon could produce its own wormhole drives and eventually begin conquering star systems outside of its own.
Throughout the rest of December and the first half of 1799, the Kingdom of Kerolon's space engineers used salvaged Thegasia technology to attempt toengineer their own wormhole devices. Though work was intense, they eventually succeeding in procuring a small, efficient, and cost-effective wormhole generator in June of 2099: the Thegasia Drive. These drives would concentrate surrounding interstellar matter into a wormhole, within which the drive can then generate an exit wormhole at any point in our universe within a specific range. At their time of creation, the drives had a range of four light-years, but the Kingdom would develop models with larger ranges in the future. The Kingdom promptly installed Thegasia drives onto most of its existing starships, completing this task by December 1799.
Wormholes generated by the Thegasia Drive notably contracted over time from Hawking radiation before exploding, with smaller wormholes dying faster than larger ones. This rendered wormhole travel impractical for individuals, but proved acceptable for the much larger starship. Many Kerolonian military scientists proposed using this explosion as a weapon - a proposal that would later become a reality with the creation of the Star Crushers during the 1816-1838 war with the Xylnaridium Empire.
Kerolonian Colonization of the Proma System (1800-1803)
On January 21, 1800, the Zephrield-class Kerolonian frigate starship KSS Kalvardis performed the first recorded Thegasia Drive warp. Kerolon's government chose the nearest star system to Ingffhaestia, the Proma System, as the destination for the Kalvardis. At the time, Uingffhians only knew of one planet orbiting Proma: the gas giant Nergius. Early on the 22nd, the Kalvardis returned after succeeding in warping into the Proma System. However, the ship's crew also bear more surprising news: they had confirmed the presence of seven additional planets around the star in addition to Nergius, including two planets within Proma's habitable zone. This led to mass enthusiasm regarding interstellar travel and colonization amongst the Kerolonians and other Ingffhaestians, with people expressing their desire to learn more about the Proma System, visit it, and even colonize the system. The Uingffhian governments chose to name the additional Proman planets after crew members of the Kalvardis.
With the presence of a substantial planetary system around Proma confirmed, Kerolon facilitated the colonization of the system in succeeding years, marking the first instance of Uingffhian colonization outside of the Ingffhaestian System. The Kingdom began erecting both domed settlements on uninhabitable worlds and more typical open-air communities on Proma's various worlds; though the two habitable worlds reported by the Kalvardis ultimately proved less hospitable and Uingffh-like than previously thought, millions of Kerolonians nonetheless flocked into the system and began settling on the various other colonies and space stations under construction in Proma. Due to the lack of native life in the system, Kerolonian colonists held less qualms towards constructing more massive and sprawling cities on Proma's worlds.
Notably, numerous private aerospace companies also attempted to facilitate Proman colonization, with some competing to become the primary colonizers of Proma. However, this attracted criticism from numerous citizens, scientists, and scholars, who viewed profit-motivated ventures into space as potentially unethical and not truly beneficial to the progress of both science and the common people. In response, the Kerolonposium passed regulations ensuring ethical practices from the corporations and also increased funding towards the KAD and other federal astronomical agencies. These events ultimately set a precedent for Kerolonian interstellar colonizations to largely be led by governmental agencies as opposed to private individuals and corporations, a method that grew more popular with Osuwa's government.
Rise of genetic engineering
The colonization of a star system radically different from Ingffhaestia like Proma forced the Kerolonians to devise clever ways to prepare the system for settlement, with one of the most notable new inventions being advanced plant genetic engineering. Due to the much dimmer and redder light of Proma alongside other harsher conditions, imported Uingffhian plants struggled to photosynthesize Proma's light and survive on Proma's habitable worlds. However, the Kingdom's biologists and geneticists circumvented this dilemma by altering the genes of Uingffhian plants to better fit the environment of the Proma system; most notably, they changed the color of the plants' photosynthesizing pigments from blue ("cyanophyll") to red ("erythrophyll"). Thanks to these modifications, Uingffhian plants began to experience greater survival and reproduction rates on Proma's habitable worlds, allowing them to begin releasing oxygen into the atmosphere necessary for Uingffhians to breathe.
Notably, the use of genetic engineering on plants incurred some Kerolonians to propose initiation into research on genetic engineering on tabulons, lordions, and mortei. However, most other Kerolonians, including most of the Kerolonposium, struck down these proposals on the basis of promoting eugenics and other practices of questionable ethics. Nonetheless, the Kerolonian government did approve research into using genetic engineering to combat severe medical conditions such as cancer and detrimental birth defects, albeit on a limited scale and with strict regulatory oversight.
Kerolonian Annexation of Sartretarium and the Tanitarium System (1803-1816)
With the successful colonization of the Proma System, the Kingdom of Kerolon began planning the exploration and colonizations of more star systems within the close vicinity of Ingffhaestia.
This began with the colonization of the star system of Aerun (known to humans as 107 Piscium), located a little less than 8 light-years from Ingffhaestia. Prior to then, Kerolonian astronomers had noted unusual light signatures possibly corresponding to a planet with a massive ring system; this made the Aerun System particularly attractive to Kerolonian expansionists and conquerators, as such a ring system had the potential to supply the Kingdom with a wealth of valuable resources. On September 18, 1803, the Kingdom began warping Star Navy ships into the Aerun System in order to explore it and further judge its value as a potential colony.
Upon arriving in the system, however, the Star Navy discovered a native sentient civilization: the Sartretarian Lizards native to the planet Sartretarium, the previously-undiscovered second planet of the system (known to the natives as Tanitarium). At the time of contact, the Sartretarian Lizards existed under an elective constitutional monarchy rather similar to Kerolon in politics, with a government devoted to egalitarianism and inclusivity; in terms of technological advancement, they had achieved spacefaring technology long ago, but had yet to develop faster-than-light technology like the Uingffhians did.
The Sartretarian Lizards took notice of Kerolon's arrival, and diplomacy quickly ensued between the two societies. On March 13, 1804, Kerolon sent a relatively large fleet of 59 ships to Sartretarium and requested a peaceful diplomatic meeting with the Sartretarian government, with tabulon diplomat Cilbat a Clountr being the Kerolonian representative. The Sartretarian Lizards, elated by their first contact with an alien race in their history, accepted the proposal and allowed a Clountr to travel down to the Sartretarian surface, where fe met with Sartretarian representative Yivia Nuuros. The two representatives and their assistants would exchange information about their respective societies throughout the following weeks.
Yorgos/Tios Mining Disputes
At around the same time, the Star Navy also began studying the large ringed body that had attracted the Kerolonians' interest in the first: a massive, retrograde-orbiting gas giant planet in the outer Tanitarium System, which the Uingffhians named Yorgos after the ruling king of Kerolon at the time. Both the government and the populace were eager to extract resources from this giant planet's rings and moons for the construction of space stations, starships, and similar constructs.
However, a large portion of the Sartretarian Lizard population considered this ringed planet sacred, worshipping it as the deity Tios. The more traditionalist followers of this belief system, Tiosism, objected to the mining of Tios' rings and viewed it as an act of sacrilege. These Tiosists proceeded to carry out numerous protests against Kerolonian mining of the planet's rings; many of these demonstrations turned violent, forcing Sartretarian authorities to crack down on them and temporarily restore order.
Tiosist Riots and the Annexation of Sartretarium
By winter of 1806, the Tiosists' protests had escalated into violent and widespread riots across the entire Tanitarium System. Radical Tiosists orchestrated numerous terrorist attacks against both Sartretarium and Kerolon, but focused particularly on Ingffhaestian visitors; nonetheless, the attacks claimed countless lives and properties on both sides, bringing about untold devastation. By the beginning of 1807, an estimated 71,483 individuals on both sides had died to Tiosist-related terrorist attacks, which had since grown to such an intensity that the Sartretarium government struggled to contain them.
At around the same time, many Kerolonian government officials eager to gain access to Tios/Yorgos' ring system had begun deliberating the possibility of outright invading the Sartretarium Empire due to the radical Tiosists' incooperative nature. The escalating Tiosist riots and the Sartretarium government's inability to suppress them provided these expansionist officials with a convenient excuse to lobby for the invasion of Sartretarium.
Kerolonian war hawk politicians ultimately won over; on January 30, 1808, the Kingdom of Kerolon's parliament officially voted in favor of invading the Sartretarium Empire as a means of restoring order to the riot-ridden star system of Tanitarium. With this war declaration, Kerolon began dispatching numerous fleets with up to 50 starships each into the Tanitarium System, where they began attacking both ships taken by Tiosist rioters and other Sartretarian military personnel and civilians opposed to Kerolonian annexation. Though Sartretarium's forces technically outnumbered Kerolon's at the time, the Kerolonian fleet managed to score numerous victories through the use of intelligent strategies and tactics. For instance, during the Fifth Battle of Tios on February 28, a small Kerolonian fleet of 15 defeated a much larger Sartretarian fleet of 104 by using bombs and mines to propel chunks of Tios' rings into the Sartretarian fleet.
Weaponization of the Tayah Artifact and creation of the Ulaenopsis-Class Reflective Satellites
Kerolon's strategic victory streak would prove short lived, with the war beginning to sway towards Sartretarium's favor during the Battle of Kodesa Station of July 14, 1809. The battle began with a Kerolonian fleet of 59 quickly defeating a Sartretarian fleet stationed at Kodesa Station, a Sartretarium-controlled civilian space station located in the outskirts of the Tanitarium System since overrun by Tiosist fundamentalists. Before the Kerolonian fleet could proceed to sunder Kodesa, however, a powerful laser from an unknown source destroyed 24 of the Kerolonian ships. The source of the beam was then revealed to be Tayah, an Izlondian artifact with a powerful energy core within a Bishop ring 1600 km in diameter; During the Battle of Kodesa Station, Sartretarium forces had employed the strategy of weaponizing the Tayah's energy core to create a beam powerful enough to devastate Kerolonian space fleets.
Throughout 1809-1812, Sartretarium continued to push Kerolonian forces out of the Tanitarium System by weaponizing the Tayah Station. By then, the Kingdom had lost an estimated 1.6 million troops while Sartretarium had lost roughly 982,000. All the while, opposition to Kerolon grew amongst the Sartretarian Lizards, who had begun recognizing the Sartretarium-Kerolon conflict as not just a battle over Tiosist religion, but a battle for Tanitarium's independence. The Tiosist rebels grew into a general Sartretarian independence force dedicated to stopping Kerolon's conquest of the system for profit and resources, strengthening their military forces by adding to their numbers. In retaliation, however, Kerolon also began fostering increased nationalism amongst its citizens, using vigorous propaganda campaigns to bolster support for the conquest of Sartretarium.
Ultimately, Sartretarium's advantage would also prove short-lived; in fall 1812, prominent tabulon military engineer Gigrus Griegus and various sheepilly engineers devised a new possible strategy: the use of large reflective mirrors or panels to deflect and/or redirect laser shots from enemy ships such as the Tayah. Desperate for ways to counter its losses in the Sartretarium war and impressed by the strategy's simplicity and cost-efficiency, the Kerolonposium and other government officials accepted this proposal, handing over responsibility of the project to Griegus and his sheepilly subordinates.
By just spring of 1813, Griegus and his team had finalized the reflective mirror project as the Ulaenopsis-class reflective satellite, a small, mobile satellite capable of quickly positioning a reflective panel with high precision and accuracy. These satellites also contained their own laser cannons for defending against non-laser-based threats. Thanks to the design's compactness and simplicity, the Kingdom of Kerolon's shipyards mass produced numerous reflective satellites by just November 2106, after which they quickly deployed them onto the battlefield.
The Ulaenopsis satellites saw immediate success in subsequent space battles, deflecting Sartretarian lasers away from Kerolonian forces. In some battles, they deflected lasers into Sartretarian fleets, leading to the destruction of enemy ships; for instance, during the July 9, 1813 Battle of Konova Point, Ulaenopsis-class reflective satellites deflected Sartretarian fire back onto not only the fleet of 25 Sartretarian ships involved, but also the nearby Sartretarium-controlled Konova Point Station, leading to the destruction of both and the deaths of an estimated 528,000 Lizards.
Then, beginning on December 18, 1814, the Ulaenopsis satellites scored Kerolon a crucial victory during the decisive Great Battle of Tios, where multiple Kerolonian fleets led by the recently-deployed Order of Scentrilla used the satellites against the Sartretarian fleets defending the important planet. During the climax of the battle, a Kerolonian fleet of 159 faced off against a Sartretarian fleet of 162 that included the Tayah. A precise arrangement of Ulaenopsis satellites deflected Tayah's beam into the Lizards' fleet, leading to the destruction of 124 of the fleet's ships. The remaining Sartretarian ships and the Tayah then proceeded to attack the Kerolonian fleet with not only non-laser weaponry, but also asteroids taken from Tios' rings - both of which were quickly dispatched by the satellites' and the ships' own weaponry. Crippled, the Sartretarian fleet fled, as did most of the other Tios defense fleets encountering similar problems with Ulaenopsis-equipped Kerolonian fleets. By December 25, the Order of Scentrilla had successfully destroyed or chased away all Sartretarian military forces in the vicinity of Tios, marking Kerolon's annexation of the planet and all of its associated moons, space stations, and rings.
Controversially, the beam involved in the Great Battle of Tios' climax also inadvertently destroyed the nearby Sartretarium space station Sirenzi Point, killing all 15,450 civilian Lizards aboard. This sparked harsh criticism of the Star Navy from both sides despite the accidental nature of the incident, leading to numerous anti-war protests calling for a humanitarian ceasefire for Sartretarian civilians to evacuate the system and flee the war zone. Unfortunately, neither Kerolon nor the Sartretarian rebels listened to the protests and continued to fight their war as usual, though Kerolon aimed to end the war as quickly as possible in order to minimize casualties.
Ringfall Operation and the Conquest of the Sartretarium Homeworld
The conquest of Tios cut Sartretarium off of its primary source of military and industrial resources, significantly lowering military production and damaging a wide variety of Sartretarian industries. In addition, the deaths of nearly a million Lizards during the Great Battle and the capturing of the ~15.2 million non-combatant Sartretarian Lizards inhabiting the Tios System at the time of Kerolon's attack tremendously damaged Sartretarian morale. Both of these factors hindered the Sartretarian Empire's military efforts, paving the way for the Kingdom to mount an invasion of the Sartretarium homeworld itself. However, they also drove some of the more radical Sartretarian freedom fighters to consider even more drastic measures to ensure Sartretarium's independence, leading to the climax of the Sartretarium-Kerolon war: the Ringfall Operation.
On December 24, 1815, a large group (100,000+) of Tiosist revolutionaries stormed the Motherland, a 1,000 kilometer-diameter Bishop Ring space colony orbiting Sartretarium and the largest space station constructed by the Sartretarian Lizards. Killing over half of the station's 345 million inhabitants in the midst of their coup, the radical Tiosists proceeded to take control of the Motherland's propulsion systems and careen the massive colony towards a wormhole gate between Tanitarium and Ingffhaestia established by Kerolon. In a publicly-broadcasted speech, the leader of the revolutionaries, Condemnio Samas, proclaimed his intention to ram the Motherland into Uingffh itself and "enact divine vengeance upon the Uingffhians."
Immediately, Kerolon dispatched both the Order of Scentrilla and the Order of Uris to stop the Motherland from reaching Ingffhaestia, all while Uingffh's governments issued the the highest level emergency alerts for the Ingffhaestian System. The Orders of Kerbos and Novus tightened their defenses around Uingffh in the event that the Motherland successfully warped into the Ingffhaestian System. Thankfully, despite the Motherland's defenses, the Kerolonian fleets successfully halted the Motherland's advance due to the Tiosists' rather crude tactics. Notably, however, the Kerolonians also discouraged the evacuation of surviving Motherland inhabitants due to their possible ties to the terrorists; as a precaution, the Kerolon fleets shot down or captured any Sartretarium ships exiting the Motherland - a move that sparked criticism from anti-war activists.
Most importantly, however, the concentration of Sartretarium Forces at the Motherland left the planet Sartretarium itself defenseless, leaving it vulnerable to Uingffhian attacks. King Yorgos was quick to seize this opportunity; on December 26, 1815, once Kerolon achieved sufficient control over the Motherland situation, Yorgos secretly ordered the Order of Uris' ships to conduct an invasion of the Sartretarium homeworld. Desiring to minimize casualties and destruction, the surviving members of the Sartretarium governent surrendered to Kerolon within just one hour of the Knights of St. Uris' arrival in low Sartretarian orbit.
In anger, the Tiosist insurrectionists unexpectedly began veering the Motherland towards Sartretarium itself, proclaiming they would rather “let Sartretarium burn in dignity than fall into the sinful hands of the Uingffhians.” Due to the suddenness of the maneuver, the Order of Scentrilla struggled to halt the Motherland’s advance. Though they succeeded in preventing the entire station from colliding with Sartretarium, they failed to prevent the Tiosists from hurtling smaller pieces of the Motherland - the largest of them being around 5 kilometers in length - at the Sartretarian surface. These impacts collectively killed an estimated 130 million Sartretarian Lizards and devastated numerous major cities, including the capital Sartres and the major city Nemorvia.
In the end, the Orders of Uris and Scentrilla quelled the Tiosist rebel attacks by December 27, with Condemnio Samas committing suicide before Kerolonian forces could apprehend him. Shortly afterwards, the war was declared a Kerolonian victory, with the Kingdom officially claiming the Sartretarium Empire as part of its territory.
Creation of the Dominion System and Public Reception
The Kerolonian Star Navy maintained a close presence in the system for another few months to suppress any remaining rebel activity; once the Tanitarium System’s political scene stabilized, the system was reorganized into the more autonomous Imperial Dominion of Sartretarium; Kerolon maintained official control over the system, but the Sartretarian Lizards were largely allowed to govern themselves, even being able to pass their own laws to a limited degree.
This set a precedent for the integration of other alien civilizations into the Kingdom of Kerolon. The Dominion Act of January 30, 1816 declared that any alien civilizations annexed by Kerolon were to eventually see conversion into self-governing autonomous imperial dominions in order to preserve the aliens’ cultural and political independence. A parliamentary body consisting of elected officials from the annexed alien civilization would primarily govern the dominion, with a Kerolonian individual - the archduke of the dominion - loosely overseeing the system’s activities.
As for the Tios mining disputes, the Ingffhaestians ultimately won the rights to mine materials from the rings of Tios. However, as a compromise, the Sartretarian Lizards forbade the Ingffhaestians from referring to the planet as Tios in order to separate their religious view of the planet from the Kerolonians’ more pragmatic view of it. Kerolon ultimately chose to refer to Tanitarium’s third planet as Yorgos to commemorate the Kingdom’s reigning king, also partially due to the banding patterns on the planet itself resembling the bands on King Yorgos’ own fur.
Birth of the Interstellarist Party
Colonizations of the Esernium System
Tristanian and Feran Immigration Wave
HEAVY WIP