Levanesse

Levanesse, known in old Aurlunoren documents as Huacorn, is a city located in the western part of Tamaka Waralande, an autonomous province in the Aurlûnor Velande. Due to special conditions under multiple agreements, Levanesse is the only region not to have Twin Dragon mandated in its territory, but it remains official.

Etymology
The name Levanesse comes from a Fornosian word meaning, "Land of the Levani".

Historically, the city has been known in Middle Almadorian as Huacorn, which means the "Flower Fortress", due to the multiple structures that were built in the region, and the fact that the fields were full of flowers before the settling of Nekomar to the South.

Lore
The region was largely uninhabited until the conquest of the region by the Kingdom of Almador in 3,829BCA, where a small trade outpost was established to help fabricate trade between the eastern and western parts of the realms. This outpost would be abandoned prior to Queen Hellenis the Wise's reign. Remnants of the trade outpost was said to have been pulled away from the region to help with construction projects elsewhere.

The fall of the Kingdom of Taral would see the mass wave of migrants that would come and settle around the region as well as local Yi'yen. This settlement would become known as Huacorn, while the Yi'yen would settle nearby and name their settlement Chi'sai. A series of fortresses and defense fortifications were established, and were attacked multiple times by the Krow Horde. In 913BCA, the final settlement of this magniture would be destroyed by the Krow Horde, and would see subsequent sacking and slaughter of over a hundred thousand Almalie and Yi'yen. Out of the entire original settlement, only Chi'sai remained.

The Krows would erect walls, and turn the city into what was known as Amxchokzel. This would serve as a major fortification, where it would serve as a forward post to attack the other warring states to the west.

For many centuries, the fortress would remain apart of the Takumakken Empire, with Chi'sai being the larger settlement outside of the fortress, up until the fall of the Empire during the Partition of Takumakken, where much of the land would fall under Ryzani control, and the remannt state. Following the Velande's conquest of the region, Amchokzel was abandoned, and was used as a minor trade hub, until the Barbarian Rallies, where barbaric invaders caused the region to be abandoned, and barbarians to inhabit the region. the Favoians would see construction of crude structures, and attempted to make a home for themselves.

The modern Levani people would arrive at an unknown date, and would pacify the Favovians, and would reach an agreement with the Chi'sai residents to allow them to settle in the fortress. This was not well received by the Velande, considering it an invasion. The Levani would attempt to increase ties with the First Velande, but was met with failure. In the middle of this, the Red Sun Campaign would break out, with the Velande putting the rally on hold to defend their lands. The Levani would pledge support for the Velande, for the Red Sun Campaign aimed at total genocide of the denizens of the Velande.

Following the abdication of Sareariel, and the end of the campaign, the Levani and Aurlûnorens would remain silent on eachother until the rise of the Second Velande, where tensions reached a peak, where the newly declared Tamaka Waralande Kingdom within the Velande rose, and wanted total eviction of the Levani people off the land. These tensions sowed distrust between the Levani and the Aurlûnor Velande as a whole, claiming them responsible for the instigations.

The initial village of Lillia and the Duchy of Lillia
The beginnings of Levanesse can be traced back to mid-late March of 2023 when Snowwolf and three other original founders of the city created what was essentially a squatter claim in the then Second Aurlunor Velande. Appealing to the wider Rathnir community for new members the player LordCorn31 joined the four two weeks later. The then village, known as Lillia at the time, was led by Snowwolf who quickly learned of the claim's location within Aurlunoren borders. Feeling threatened, Snowwolf looked to other nations for support, even trying to become a quote on quote 'vassal state' of the Lordship of Ruska in the Phagosian Sea - renaming the village to the Duchy of Lillia to try and affirm this idea. The situation soon became bleak as Snowwolf began to realise the blunders that had been made: the claim was well within the borders of a relatively large nation, was hemmed in by three other claims and had a series of mountains and hills going right through thre middle of it. One by one the four began to leave the city and go inactive, until only LordCorn31 - a relatively new player who had joined Stoneworks in February of 2023 - remained and took charge of the city at the beginning of April.

The transition to Levanesse and its early life
LordCorn31 took charge of an empty village made up of a gatehouse, two houses and a couple of walls and towers and it was evident that the situation needed to be remedied immediately if Lillia was to survive and prosper. Having been a part of the Kingdom of Mithusu since he had joined the server in February of 2023, he naturally looked to Mithusu initially to aid his plight. When leaving the Duchy of Lillia, Snowwolf had assured LordCorn31 that the village was an autonomous state - although this would evidently prove to not be the case - so LordCorn31 approached Mithusian leaders and trusted friends Redfin99 and Evutra to possibly establish Lillia as a colony of Mithusu in order to ensure its security. LordCorn31 also approached a player named XurioTried, whom he had also met in his days in Mithusu, to help assist him with the project of building up Lillia into a city and establishing it on the global stage. It was through Evutra that LordCorn31 found out that Lillia was actually in Aurlunoren territory and so Redfin99 quickly shut the project down. This did not demoralise LordCorn31 who made it his mission to make Lillia prosper and he decided that the claim needed new inspiration and a fresh attitude so the claim of Lillia was renamed to Levanesse - a name more distinguishable from neighbouring TheLillypad.

LordCorn31 opened negotiations with the Aurlunoren authorities on the 4th of April 2023 under the impression that perhaps a gradual process of independence could be reached through diplomacy, however, Tamaka Waralande leader _Chaos_Creeper_ understandably shut the proposition down. LordCorn31 was new to Stoneworks and leadership and this naivity towards Stoneworks politics showed in these early days. It was not until the 10th of April that he reasoned it was their land and there were advantages to being within a larger state, so he renounced his previous position in favour of integration. There is no specific date where an official acceptance into the Seconde Aurlunor Velande was made, it sort of just happened for Levanesse. Some argue that the 5th of April is the official date due to it being the day after contact with Aurlunor was made, some say the 17th as this was when LordCorn31 got the claim transferred to him from Snowwolf and yet others say the 22nd-23rd of the month as this is when the leader of Aurlunor at the time, paleozoey, contacted LordCorn31 to affirm integration and also when the mayor of Esteconmar, ysariell, toured him around the nation. The 22nd-23rd of April theory tends to be the most generally accepted as this was also the date when LordCorn31 was approached in Levanesse by an unknown individual claiming to be an old Aurlunoren who had logged on simply to see how the nation was faring since their departure. It is unclear who this was as at the time of writing this the ign of this individual has been forgotten but the conversation held between them and LordCorn31 greatly prompted him to actively approach and seek integration with Aurlunor. They had been 'shocked' and 'amused' at seeing Medieval architecture in the Velande and they provided banners to LordCorn31 so he could further demonstrate his commitment to Aurlunor by hanging them up around the village.

Levanesse's transition into a town and rough integration
On the 26th of April 2023, the Second Aurlunor Velande integrated with the Ryvenate of Ryzan to make the Second Aurlunor-Ryzan Empire with Deutzan also becoming a member state. It was also around this time that tensions began to establish themselves between the village of Levanesse and the Aurlunoren authorities. XurioTried and LordCorn31 embarked on a recruitment campaign in global chats and official advertisement channels to attract people to the young claim and get some activity and momentum going. XurioTried's advertising throughout her time in Levanesse proved to be highly effective and there was a rapid influx of new players joining the small claim. This posed an issue to _Chaos_Creeper_ who made it clear that towns cannot post nation advertisements, sparking a row between her and LordCorn31 who stated that this would make it impossible for new members to be attracted to the area more generally as advertisements would be limited to official ones that occurred 'once in a blue moon'. LordCorn31 also still believed that the town still had autonomy as there had been little active intervention in Levanesse's management from Aurlunoren or Tamakan authorities and there was contradicting responses to Levani actions. For example, the response from _Chaos_Creeper_ to nation advertisement on the 29th of April was, "Towns can't post nation ads," whereas Ysariell's was, "You will still have full reign on what you do in your city as long as you follow the rules set out in this nation. You can recruit all you want, and we encourage that." A follow-up question on the status of the City Defence Forces was responded to by ysariell again stating, "you can incorporate them into the national army, but no problem having a national militia just in case." These differing responses gave different impressions to those in the Royal Council at the time.

''Side note: Late April also saw LordCorn31 reach a deal with Hoperibo, a player who aspired to run a mercenary group, that would be mutually beneficial. LordCorn31 believed that the town's City Defence Forces were weak and in need of beefing up. The deal reached meant that Hoperibo and his mercenaries would be allowed to reside in Levanesse in exchange for providing protection and a 10% cut in profits if they got hired. The arrival of Hoperibo and those mercenaries who needed housing led to the construction of the building now known as the Redleaf Bar by Druidsage and Goofyyew (themselves in Hoperibo's group at the time) to house them.''

On the 30th of April _Chaos_Creeper_ and LordCorn31 discussed how a full integration of Levanesse into the Tamaka Waralande might look, however, there were two principle issues on which the two couldn't agree, these were: the replacing of freedom of religion in Levanesse with only Lunatwa/Twin Dragon sects and the fact that towns could not conduct their own diplomacy. LordCorn31 disagreed with these two rules as he argued that the town had many people migrating from across Rathnir who wanted to maintain their other faiths - a point particularly echoed by XurioTried at the time - and secondly, LordCorn31 still had ties to Mithusu and as a result of the lack of Aurlunoren activity, potential for economic growth was limited as Levani would not be able to conduct trade or commerce with any other faction.

The 4th of May saw the addition of Nightshade to the small town of Levanesse (the village having grown and reached almost 40 members at this stage, marking what I believe to be a transition into a more significant claim). Nightshade, having previous experience at government in Ryzan, was quickly promoted to a position in the Royal Council and was unfortunately thrust into the midst of heated debate and discussion which was rapidly coming to boil. It was at this time that multiple events in Levanesse seemed to happen very fast and led to a combination of factors making the Crown Prince (official title for LordCorn31's leadership role over the town) and the Royal Council very on edge and especially short-tempered. Raids from raid groups and individuals on Levanesse became increasingly frequent and occurred every other day by some faction or other. Hoperibo randomly decided to start griefing the town for entertainment and blaming it on random citizens, leading to a fairly large skirmish between Levanesse and his mercenaries in which players Druidsage and Goofyyew turning into Levani citizens and joining the town as they felt abandoned by Hoperibo's lack of appreciation and sudden betrayal. Furthermore, talks with Aurlunor were not reaching their intended objectives of peaceful integration, despite Nightshade's best efforts and exemplary diplomacy, and the increasingly toxic nature of these negotiations led to increasingly infrequent communication between the two parties and the misconception of many Levani citizens that Aurlunor was standing by and watching Levanesse get torn apart by raiders and griefers.

LordCorn31 tried a new approach to integration with Aurlunor from the 25th of May onwards by deciding to no longer argue on the internal management of Levanesse and to agree to disagree with Aurlunoren perspectives. Levanesse had almost 60 members at this point and daily activity in the claim was at its peak and so Levanesse could no longer simply be dismissed by the region. LordCorn31 wanted to exploit these numbers and the activity to expand infrastructure in Aurlunor and participate in the rest of the nation's workings. However, he did not factor in the bitterness withheld by some Aurlunorens from the toxic negotiations earlier that month and potential fears of expanding Levani influence and culture that could threaten the internal stability of Aurlunor proper. Construction of a metro system was pioneered by player lejugeponey from Levanesse to connect up the key cities in the Aurlunor Velande and Deutzan saw initial successes and hopes that Levanesse would finally be able to demonstrate its unique approach to supporting the Velande but this project was shut down by Aurlunoren officials. On the 28th of May, there was even a proposition, backed by paleozoey, to place the province of Nir, adjacent to the west of Levanesse, under the leadership of the Crown Prince of Levanesse as the new province leader of Nir. Compelling arguments were made by paleozoey: Levanesse was the most consistently active place in the region, there was a general willingness in Levanesse to do the labour necessary to restore the area and there was the population to go around. However, upon proposing this to the national government the idea was shut down. XurioTried also believed it to be a good idea to claim an abandoned castle just to the north of Levanesse, which was locally known as Colline, in order to develop the Northern Tamakan countryside into an idealistic agricultural landscape, but he was banned following the opening of a ticket for proxy claiming. The shutting down of these attempts to help the immediate area around Levanesse angered Levani citizens and both sides failed to grasp the opinions of the other.

In the end, following yet further failed negotiation attempts hosted by Coffeecubus in Lhumar, LordCorn31 decided to go straight to centralised Aurlunor-Ryzan authority and asked EoinGeo to weigh in on the difficult Levani-Aurlunoren situation. Geo promised reforms would come soon and there would be greater representation for active towns more independently of their states' authority in the form of a Crown Council.