Tarneos

Tarneos, officially the Kingdom of Tarneos, is the last remnant of Akratian society on Sparwood's Akratian Peninsula, is a direct successor state to the Second Akratian Empire. The royal family of House Tarnaros has ruled over parts of the Tarneosi region for almost three years continuously since March of 2021. The state has gone through many evolution's over the years but is descended from the United Empire of Akratia, and venerates Akratian tradition. The modern nation of the Kingdom of Tarneos was founded on July 4th, 2023, by Ayedren Lechnios-Yavanov, the region's de-facto dictator since October of 2022. Eventually Tarneos would form the Third Empire of Akratia, on the 3rd of February 2024, and would declare independence from Tortuga on the 26th of February 2024.

History
The geographic area of Tarneos is the mountains and coastal valley immediately surrounding Lake Tarneos, which gets its name from House Tarnaros. The first settlement in the Tarneos area was in the year 2020 by settlers from the Kingdom of Sironia. These colonists founded a small village called Varintachan. However, the population was small and so the colony was soon purchased by the Second Akratian Empire.

The Emperor of Akratia, Neoz, wished to ensure that Akratia's western coast would be well defended, so he sent Kiven Tarnaros, son of Tarno, to build a fortified city on the old town of Varintachan. The fortified port city of Nair was founded in March of 2021, thus also founding the Duchy of Naïr. This is the beginning of Akratian culture in the Tarneos area, and the origin of House Tarnaros' control over Tarneos. Kiven was a prudent leader, and under his control the Duchy of Nair would become the wealthiest in the Empire. During the Akratian Civil War, Kiven elected to maintain the neutrality of Nair, and thus it was spared the scourge of war.

However, the Civil War caused the fracturing of Akratia, and the Empire was weakened past the point of repair; in an attempt to restore unity, the Empire attempted reforms, but it was too little too late. Akratia was partitioned in May of 2021, between the Pirate Empire of Tortuga, the Free State of Emerald, the Republic of Greenstem-Leythe, and the Duchy of Akratia. The Duchy of Nair found itself as part of Tortuga, thus marking the beginning of Tortugan control over Tarneos.

In September of 2021, a tribe would move into the Duchy of Nair, and found Yavanistan, these people were known as the Yavanii. They would also become close friends with the nearby town of Atridia. For a while, times were peaceful. However, Tortuga would also go through periods of expansion, and then period of collapse. During one of these collapses the Duchy of Nair would become independent again, forming the Kingdom of Nair. The King, Kiven Tarnaros, then agreed to form a diarchy in December of 2021, with his closest friend Icey, who owned the city of Akratia. This diarchy was known as the Golden Union of Akratia, which was later changed to the Golden Union of Rithann. Rithann would be quickly made vassals of a resurgent Tortugan state, but still enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and controlled much old Akratian territory. Due to internal instability Rithann would face many revolts including, the Lionore Rebellion, the Apple Harbour Incident, and the attempted secession Yavanarad, Atridia, and Apple Harbor. In March of 2022, the Golden Union of Rithann was annexed by Tortuga, and thus Nair became a Duchy once again, and Tarneosi independence came to an end.

The Yavanii inhabitants of Tarneos were not pleased with their annexation by Tortuga. To add insult to injury when Viaken Tarnaros, Kiven's son, retired from politics the rulership of Duchy of Nair was given to a foreigner by the name of TheWonderLad_. Lad was a noxist, and he renamed the region from Nair to Gvaendel, as well as attempted to forcefully convert the Yavanii to Noxism. Around this same time a tribe migrated to the Tarneos, these were a nomadic group of people fleeing from the North, they were known as the Lechnian Confederacy. They settled in an abandoned fort to the East of Lionore, and founded the future capital of Tarneos, Aspeia, on August of 2022. Soon after arrival of the Lechnians, the Yavanii would raise their flags in rebellion against Tortuga whilst Tortuga was in the middle of another collapse. During this time the Yavanii diplomats convinced the Lechnians to join their rebellion, and together they formed the Yavano-Lechnian Commonwealth. The rebellion culminated in the Battle of Aedariihaven(Lionore), the soldiers of the Commonwealth were defeated in battle due to poor planning, and corruption. The Commonwealth sued for peace in September of 2022, and due to Tortuga's unstable situation the Commonwealth was given favorable terms, because of a similar rebellion happening in Tarneos at the same time. The city of Nair and the fortress of Issar declared the United Provinces of Akratia, lead by Emperor Cha Tarnaros, and Viaken Tarnaros. Ironically, the treaty between the Commonwealth and Tortuga stipulated that Michael Tarnaros, be made Captain of the newly formed Tarneosi Commonwealth in Tortuga, meaning that House Tarnaros was once again control of most of Tarneos but divided across two nations. Shortly after the peace between the Tarneos Commonwealth, and Tortuga the United Provinces of Akratia was defeated, and the city of Nair, and fort of Issar was annexed by the Republic of Monterre.

At this point TheWonderingLad_ decided to leave the Tarneos region as he'd lost control over most of it, and so sold the city of Lionore to the Tarneos Commonwealth. The people of Tarneos has once again gained control of Lake Tarneos, but wished to get their historical capital of Nair back from the people of Monterre. Also at this time Michael Tarnaros wished to retire as leader of Tarneos, and so passed the role of Captain to his son, Ayedren Lechnios-Yavanov, also known as Aïnar Tarnaros in his native Akratian tongue. As Tarneos became integrated into the Pirate Dominion of Tortuga once more it became clear that the recent rebellion had made many Tortugans intensely distrustful of Tarneos. The leader of Monterre at the time, Paullus Decker believed firmly in repatriation of the Tarneosi people. He offered them a deal, they would join the Republic of Monterre, and in turn regain their historic city of Nair. In November of 2022, the Tarneosi agreed to the deal and joined Monterre.

Trouble stirred in the rest of the Akratian peninsula though, and soon the nation of Valondor declared independence from Tortuga followed by over half of Tortuga's regions. After multiple weeks of begging, boasting, and fear mongering, Spades, the leader of Valondor, convinced the Tarneosi to join Valondor for protection. The Tarneosi agreed and seceded from Monterre in February of 2023. The nation of Valondor was not stable though, nor was it a particularly effective state, Tarneos languished under their rule and became a ghost region with only a few active players. In May of 2023 the Tortugans went on the offensive against Valondor and were decisively victorious. The Tarneosis realizing they had been sold on lies, and bravado were among the first of the Valondori regions to rejoin Tortuga. Thanks to the hard work of Julia Decker, Paullus' daughter, and many members of Monterre's Montpellier family, Tarneos was spared the wrath of Tortuga, and quietly returned to being a province inside of Monterre in May 2023.

This new peace wouldn't last as the return of the Tarneosi was used by Julia to win the Consul election in June 2023, many citizens in Monterre felt as though Tarneosi shouldn't have been allowed to vote, and that due to them being recent traitors that they shouldn't have been allowed back into Monterre's government. This culminated in weeks of civil unrest in Monterre, and became known later as the Monterre Election Crisis. Many assassination attempts were tried on Julia Decker, and violence was common at nearly every regional event. In some instances, citizens of Monterre would call for a slaughter of anyone who was ethnic Tarneosi, and kill squads roamed the streets of Instour, capital of Monterre. It reached a point where the Tarneosi people no longer wanted to be in Monterre, and the Monterran citizens no longer wanted Tarneos to be in Monterre. The final straw was a group of Tarneosi and Monterran terrorists occupied the city of Instour, killing anyone found in the streets, and demanding Julia Decker's immediate resignation of power. On July 4th, 2023, one of Julia Decker's last acts as Consul was to kick Tarneos out of Monterre, before she fled North to New Auszan.

Free from foreign rule, and once again an autonomous region of Tortuga, the Tarneosi needed direction, and immediate government reform. During the ten months of Ayedren Lechnios-Yavanov's rule over Tarneos he had learned many lessons, and resolved to form a strong government, and a stronger national spirit. Knowing that he was a direct descendant of Tarno, and a member of House Tarnaros he decided to dissolve the Commonwealth, and establish the Kingdom of Tarneos with himself as the King. Once again placing House Tarnaros on the throne, and exerting control over their ancestral homeland of Tarneos. Ayedren also lifted the exile upon Akratians who had been banished from the peninsula in order to help revive the Akratian culture in Tarneos, as the Akratian people had become a dwindling minority. One of the returning Akratians was the son of Emperor Cha, Aralk Tarnaros, who was Ayedren's Uncle. On September 3rd, 2023, Ayedren Lechnios-Yavanov, King of Tarneos, and his two children, Juliana Lechnios-Yavanov, Duchess of Nair, and Julius Lechnios-Yavanov, Duke of Yavanarad (later Yavania) were all crowned as the ruling family of Tarneos. Shortly after the kingdom would expand again by purchasing the city of Nautica from a nearby region, and creating the Crown Colony of Eyka.

Around this time Tarneos began to grow rapidly, New Auszan would join the Kingdom, and Emerald Isle soon joined shortly after. However, a great deception occurred when the previous own of Eyka tricked the King, and couped the city, stealing it away. Despite this Tarneos kept moving forward with development and legislation. Despite how peaceful things seemed, Valondor suddenly returned to the world stage, launching another rebellion against the Pirate Dominion of Tortuga. This time, Tarneos resolved to stand with Tortuga against Valondor due to bad blood growing between the leaders. Tarneos launched into large-scale production of weapons and would supply Tortuga with swords and armour.

On November 11th, 2023, one of Tarneos' ministers, Arthur Harrow, known as "Goldie", would launch a coup attempt against the Kingdom, and sought to overthrow the King, Ayedren. Arthur Harrow was a member of the Nationalist Party, and was angered that many of the Yavani Old Guard had been purged in August of 2023. Arthur, thought that this purge was unjust and sought to overthrow the Kingdom of Tarneos, and restore the Tarneosi Commonwealth, this coup would later be known as "The Nationalist Plot". Two battles were fought in the coup, the Battle of Aspeia, and then the Battle of Nair a day later, both battles resulted in victory by loyalist forces to Tarneos. After the Battle of Nair, Arthur Harrow was captured and was executed by firing squad in the city street of Nair, thus ending his brief rebellion.

The next major change occurred in December of 2023, Ayedren Lechnios-Yavanov, King of Tarneos, would purchase Ekara, and for the first time in almost 3 years, Ekara was back under control of the Akratian people. Ayedren began to renovate the Citadel, and tear out the Tortugan influence. A new Akratian Oligarchic council would be assembled, and soon Ayedren would be crowned Emperor of Akratia. His name was also changed to Ayedren Arkos, as he became head of Akratia's royal house. Eventually Tarneos would form the Third Empire of Akratia, on the 3rd of February 2024, and would declare independence from Tortuga on the 26th of February 2024.

Architecture
Tarneosi architecture is very distinct, each town has it's own unique style based off its geographical location, and the whims of its leader. Aspeia is primarily built out of deepslate which is found in abundance on the coastal fault line that Aspeia sits on. Atridia is built of wood from the Tarneosi forests and stone quarried from the nearby mountains. New Yavania is built out of the sandstone found along the coastline of Tarneos lake, and the river that snakes between New Yavania, and Atridia. Nair is built in the style of Charm's capital, Sake Den, as Duchess Juliana was educated in Charm during her childhood. However, the Tarneosi also have many common structures within their cities, which make their cities unique, and easy to identify.