Sand War

The Sand War, or the Surif Conflict, is an ongoing war between the Zamotz Union and the USSE Protectorate of Merconis.

The war is named for both the alleged illegal sand mining accused of the Zamotz Union by Merconis and the fact that the border dispute causing the conflict was in a desert biome.

Emergence of the Surif Border Dispute
The roots of the conflict stretched into late October of 2021 when the People's Republic of Merconis becomes an official protectorate of the United Socialist States of Eldham. As a protectorate, Merconis held the rights to free independent governance and had the ability to have their own foreign relations and elected leaders with the exception that they shall not jeopardize the integrity of the United Socialist States of Eldham's political interests in a fundamental or intentional way. At this time, the Zamotz Union was pressuring a more hard-lined international foreign policy with the recently ended War of a Thousand Steps in the region. The Pale had integrated the Avarian colonies of Wolfswood into their nation on October 29th, 2021. This began the beginning of a territorial dispute where the Zamotz Union had a rightful claim to a desert biome in the region which as a result of the server's inaccurate map borders resulted in the Pale unintentionally taking claim of Zamotz territory. On October 31st, 2021, Merconis purchased land from the Pale which drastically expanded upon the territorial reaches of the island micronation and gave them swathes of territory on the mainland bordering the Zamotz province of Phoenia. They however would inherit the border problems accidentally created by the Pale. While Zamotz initially had approved of the border, it was very quickly brought to attention that the Pale, and now by extension Merconis, had claimed rightful Zamotz territory in the desert biome including the small city of Surif.

Attempts & Failures to Heal Tensions
Merconis had thought that they rightfully owned the land as they had paid for it but after realizations of wrongdoing on behalf of all three nations involved in regards to the land transaction and not figuring this out sooner, all the nations attempted to bide for peace.

Initial agreements resulted in a change of border as Merconis began to interpret the border as lying directly East of Surif, decreasing their claim to the desert drastically and putting their territory outside of any Zamotian towns they did not rightfully own. This was harshly contrasted by the Zamotz Union which retained that they completely owned the desert biome and refused to accept anything less of that.

Later, a purpoted Merconisan border surveyer was looking at the area and determining where to build a wall where they were reportedly attacked by a Zamotian citizen from Surif. While Zamotz claimed the surveyer had attacked first and stripped his armor to intentionally get himself killed, Merconis claimed that they had encountered sudden and abrupt aggression and were forced to defend themselves, failing in the process. This was later exacerbated as Merconis was furious at the killing and issued a kill-on-sight order against all citizens of Surif that pass into claimed Merconisan territory. On top of this all, Merconis claimed that Zamotians had begun mining sand in their territory which opted the name the "Sand War".

Tensions heated up incredibly quickly as minor conflicts quickly spread into heated "toxic" arguments. Despite Merconis' status as a Protectorate of the USSE, and failures from both sides to inform all involved parties extensively of the situation, the Zamotz Union agreed to declare war on Merconis on November 6th, 2021 which effectively violated the Treaty of Two Unions between the USSE and Zamotz which stated that neither side shall declare war or have aggressions for one another. Zamotz alternatively claimed though that they acted in self defense and therefore did not violate the treaty and that Merconis had in fact violated the Treaty of the United Front which gave Merconis protectorate status as they claimed Merconis had intentionally attempted to break the USSE's political relations with Zamotz for land.

Initial Declaration
The first declaration of war came from the Zamotz Union and was against Merconis."'The Zamotz Union declares war on Merconis It's been several days. Days of bickering on both sides, days of disputes and attacks. Most of the world, even the countries involved, hardly understood what was going on. Today, however, the Zamotz Union had a moment of clarity. After a peace agreement was settled between the Zamotz Union and Merconis over a border dispute at the Pale, the agreement was violated today. Merconis claimed that the border was right next to the Zamotian town of Surif, and that a portion of desert was theirs. They then stated that we destroyed their desert through an excavation site in the disputed territory, which existed there before Zamotian citizens even settled in the area. They stated that we attacked a Merconian surveyor, when he dealt the first blow. They stated that we killed him when he was not wearing armor, when he had not only provoked us, but took off his armor shortly before dying. Lie, after lie, after lie. It hasn't stopped, and it likely won't. Unless if we take action. On behalf of the terrorized people of Surif, whom had a KOS (Kill on Sight) order issued upon them by the Merconian leadership, the Zamotz Union will no longer tolerate their lies. The Zamotz Union has declared war on Merconis. If you wish to see additional proof, or have any questions, feel free to DM me. Thank you and have a good day.'"

USSE Attempts for Peace
Immediately after the announcement of war from Zamotz, the USSE General Secretary Chelovek Serebra, attempted to bide for both powers to come to a peace agreement and begin negotiations. While negotiations did begin, they were largely futile as enraged arguments made up most of the time. Eventually, the Zamotz representatives agreed to terms which included a fixed border and the USSE paying $150,000, but by the veto of a single Zamotian triumvirate, the long-awaited negotiations were completely thrown out the window. This was criticized by many USSE citizens as being a show that Zamotz had no actual intention to preserve peace because they felt they would win and would rather take land and felt the actions of the Zamotian government in this respect were imperialist while the Zamotz Union maintained a public opinion that they had thrown out the negotiations to make better ones as according to the demands of the people of Surif.

The USSE was quick to disagree with the so-called Okomi-Surif Demands because they felt it violated the USSE Constitution and could therefore not be passed into law by the USSE National Assembly. A poll was later held in Merconis that unsurprisingly was unanimous against the Okomi-Surif Demands which further cemented the USSE's refusal to accept them as they believed in policies of direct democracy. The refusal by the USSE and Merconis to accept the Okomi-Surif Demands brought outrage as Zamotians accused the USSE of trying to spread communism across the globe and preserve any and all socialist countries despite of alleged wrongdoing.

The Okomi-Surif Demands:"1. Merconis leaves the League of Vircon""2. xPxtatoes is replaced by Donutaro""3. Merconis issues a formal apology to the people of Surif""4. Merconis pays 150,000 in war reparations""5. Should Merconis attack Zamotz again, they will lose their protectorate status under the USSE""6. The USSE will take over Merconis’s right to establish diplomatic relations with other countries and to conduct foreign policy as long as Merconis is under the USSE as a protectorate.""7. Merconis must respect the previously agreed-upon borders.""8. Should Merconis violate any terms of this treaty, they will lose their protectorate status under the USSE."

USSE Declaration of War
After the refusal by the USSE to accept these demands, the National Assembly of the United Socialist States of Eldham unanimously agreed to open a state of war against the Zamotz Union for their declaration of war against a USSE protectorate and their violation of the Treaty of Two Unions. General Secretary Chelovek Serebra of the USSE gave a lengthy international announcement of this at which point he stated the following:"'I would like to start by saying that the statements from the League of Vircon are not true. Last night the U.S.S.E, Merconis, and Zamotz came to an agreement. We decided in reparations and a set border. The Zamotz senate even agreed to this. Yet select leadership in the Zamotz Union decided to veto those terms. So once again the sovereignty of Merconis is in question. It is clear that one side wants peace, and the other does not.""-According to our treaty with Merconis, and the legal code of the U.S.S.E, this is an act of aggression against the U.S.S.E and our sovereignty.""-The U.S.S.E holds that the Zamotz Union does not have the right to bring into question the sovereignty of our protectorate. Further, we believe that this act of declaring war on our protectorate, without having discussed the matter with us, is a betrayal of the spirit of our alliance with Zamotz and a de jure violation of the treaty itself.""As such, the National Assembly of the U.S.S.E recognizes that a state of war has existed between the U.S.S.E and the Zamotz Union since the moment that they declared war on Merconis.'"

Prompt Response from Allies
Allies of both nations were quick to respond to the declarations of war. The USSE and Merconis received international support from Rodinnbrok, Nova Azcoria, Valreach, the Pale, Liberum, and Xeka.

On the other hand, the Zamotz Union received no formal international declarations of support but Triple Entente nations including Aristios are believed to have had offered volunteer support to Zamotz but because of pre-existing treaties with the USSE, the Triple Entente had not formally joined in the war effort.

Start of War
This is an ongoing conflict and this section cannot yet be reliably completed and will therefore be filled out upon the first battle's occurrence.