Plagos

Plagos is the northeastmost continent of Rathnir, and is one of the smallest by land mass. Plagos borders the world's edge to the north, the Shattered Sea to the east, and shares the Palagean Sea with Nieden to the west, and the Sea of Etscharien with Nieden and Sparwood to the south.

Many islands surround the mainland of Plagos, most of which are located in the Palagean Sea, where others form archipelagos in the seas to the south and east. The northeast of the region contains a large archipelago. The mainland of the continent is known as Plagatéa, since the first declaration of the Confederacy of Plagatéa there.

Plagos is largely green with plains and forests, with mountains common throughout the continent though especially in the North, specifically the North-west. It is also tipped with savannas and deserts to the West, central North and South.

History
Plagos was sparsely populated for a long time, likely due to its small size and distance from the world's center. The only two nations on the continent were Karkis and the Hollenkreis Republic. In late December, many other settlements appeared such as Goshuma, Gunggum, Tavaral Monestary, and Funkehz. Under a player named Jokarva, all of the north strip of Plagos was formed into the Confederacy of Plagatéa. Hollenkreis and Chroniclers were not asked about this, however, and struck down claims in their territory the next day. The Continent as a whole is generally extremely wary of outside forces, with the large Plagatéan Empires that have emerged making it a specific policy to restrict foreign forces meddling, in fact gaining legitimacy in part from doing so.

The United Nations of Plagos
After the fall of the Solleanan Empire, Plagos saw a large influx of new nations, such as Czervoslavia or Nova Roma. Many of these nations united to form the United Nations of Plagos. After attacks by mercenaries the UNP was left in a dire state, and eventually collapsed.

The Plagatéan Era of Unification
After the collapse of the United Nations of Plagos, the large majority of Plagos would go on to form the the Nova Plagatéan Federation. Initially founded by the Shigetada Shogunate and Arinovla on the 19th of March 2021, other nations such as Czervoslavia (UC), Goshumá, Poseidandria and Nova Regna would later join. Its founding principles were to promote free trade, diplomatic relations and protection of others from conflict. However, due to unrest, eventually a referendum was held on whether or not to become a Kingdom, and by a large majority the Federation voted to become the United Kingdom of Plagatéa, under the two Tagavors of Nero Terazawa Shigetada and Crabz Zerkalo. The nation was officially formed on the 15th of April, 2021. The Kingdom would grow significantly in size over the months, with more nations joining and more land being purchased. After a war with Plagadonia, the First Empire of Plagatéa was proclaimed by Tagavor Crabapplez Zerkalo on the 9th of July 2021. At its height, the nation covered nearly the entirety of the continent, as seen in the image on the right.

However, the Empire would become unstable with the death of Tagavor Nero on August the 13th, despite the decisive victory against the so-called 'Skittles Alliance' a very short amount of time prior. The Empire of Plagatéa would collapse into its constituent nations shortly after on the 13th of August 2021.

The Diplomacy, Democracy and Peace in Asarakaen
After the collapse of the Empire of Plagatéa, Lady Aisuru Numachi of Sakura, Mr Yes of Veldion, Isujhai Pepek of Seivija and Abigail Akihiro led the effort to reunify Plagos once more, and on the 18th of August the Kingdom of Plagos was formed with Queen Aisuru Numachi as the monarch, consisting of largely the same provinces, though some were lost to other nations or simply elected to remain independent. On the 19th of August, she announced that after consultation she had decided to rename the nation to The Realm of Asarakaen. The nation was considerably more democratic, with an elected Prime Minister and a large Senate of the Realm consisting of all important government officials, though the monarch still held the bulk of the power. She proclaimed a new Golden Age for Plagos, and set out her doctrine for reuniting Plagos peacefully and diplomatically, without any conflict, which was considered to have been the downfall of the previous Empire.

Queen Aisuru declared that Asarakaen did not seek to reunify Plagos, nor recreate the Plagatéan Empire, in a bid to calm the nations within Plagos frightened about the prospect of a new Plagatèa. Asarakaen would only attempt to unify through diplomatic means, and would not engage in war to achieve their goals of peace and stability through unification and cooperation in Plagos. With this in mind, Queen Aisuru along with other significant leaders of Plagosi nations, spearheaded the formation of the Confederation of Plagos, an alliance between all major Plagosi nations to protect each other militarily and share resources for it and support each other diplomatically, as well as such things like maintaining roads systems across all Plagos. Eventually, the nations of Plagos came onside, thanks to her words of peace, and the Confederation was formed.

Historical Commentary from Alexander S. Numachi
Asarakaen is now widely recognised, upon reflection post-unification during the Second Empire, to have been a crucial part in Plagatèan and Plagos history, for settling Plagos and allowing the easier succession through to the Second Empire, without which there might have been war after the Coup from Eldham. There is however some reprehension within as to some policies, seen as 'giving in' to those that forced the first Empire's collapse. Despite naming and different government system, it is recognised as a Plagatèan successor state in all but name.

The Coup from Eldham
On the evening of the 5th of September, the Magistrate of the former Plagatéan colony of Michinaru, now Kardovia, Leon Olsen-Tanaka, led a coup against Queen Aisuru, threatening to use his more powerful military if she did not accept his terms of reforming into the Second Plagatéan Empire, taking a seat as Tagavor alongside him. Kardovia would also be part of this Empire, meaning the empire spanned both the world of Eldham and of Rathnir. Aisuru was away at this point on a diplomatic mission, but when she returned and was confronted with the terms she refused, stating she had sworn to never revive the Plagatéan Empire and that she would not sign under threat of military action, and abdicated her position, planning to move into the Royal Court in Viodoxa. Veldion at this point broke away, agreeing to become a vassal governing itself under the jurisdiction of the new Empire.

The Confederation of Plagos - Diplomatic Organisation and Disorder
The Confederation were extremely worried by this, refusing to back the new Tagavor until he gave concrete assurances that aggression would not progress. However, after a speech given talking of unity in Plagos, a memo from his administration he had authored detailing his plans for ‘dominating Plagos, a hegemony like the former Empire’ angered and frightened nations away from potential closer relations within the Confederation. Meanwhile, discontent within the provinces of Plagatèa grew, seeing the Confederation as a potential way out, but also seeing that its existence nullified the purpose of remaining part of Plagatèa - if the confederation could protect them militarily, they might as well govern themselves. There were plenty of small countries in Plagos who were independent and part of the confederation. With Tagavor Olsen-Tanaka largely away in Eldham governing, the provinces largely were left to govern themselves, with little activity within the central government, which allowed this sentiment to grow more. The exhaustion with constant attempts at unification had left provinces tired, just wanting time to have stability and rebuild, which many now began to believe was not possible within a Plagatéan state. Veldion especially was now a vassal, where it had always previously been a province, due to growing Veldion nationalism and distaste with the coup that led to the Second Empire.

The Czervoslavian Crisis would prove to be a strain too much for the Confederation of Plagos, with numerous arguments breaking out between the Second Empire of Plagatèa and other national representatives. Plagatèa claimed to be the rightful owner, having been announced as the new owners of the land by the King of Czervoslavia, though the United Commonwealth (of which Czervoslavia was a member state) refused to recognise this due to the King of Czervoslavia not having the right to do so according to its Constitution. The dispute continued in the mapping guild, where various maps showed Czervoslavia either as disputed, Plagatèan or as its own country. Plagatèa maintained its claim, causing great tension, and the tensions looked like they might overboil when on the 30th of September the United Commonwealth sent Plagatèa a demand to withdraw their claim or the United Commonwealth would order troops to exercise in Duran, the capital of Czervoslavia. As Plagatèa did not retract its claim, via Tagavors Leon Olsen-Tanaka and Revo's determination to take back Czervoslavia under the Empire once more, the exercise went ahead, and war looked imminent, only prevented by the Plagatèan Provincial Revolt. It was later uncovered that in the event of war between Plagatèa and the United Commonwealth, the Provincial Revolt would have occurred after a declaration of war. On the 1st of October, Captain North of Baronov announced that the Confederation had officially collapsed.

The Plagatèan Provincial Revolt
On the 3rd of October, 3 of the 5 de-facto provinces of Plagatèa, Sakura, Seivija and Veldion (though Veldion was a tributary state) declared their support for a new monarch, Princess Futo Naho of the North, who at the same time announced her claim to the throne. When in response Tagavor Leon Olsen-Tanaka declared martial law, it looked as though war was imminent, despite aims to keep things peaceful. It was later revealed that the provinces had planned this for several weeks, in varying forms, securing the backing or neutrality of nearly every major country in Plagos (the backing of Alamayn, Baronov, the United Commonwealth, Solitudinem, the O.P.T.C, Aurora Novum and DonFuer) and the neutrality of the Sapphire Commonwealth nations of Najer and Simulami and also the neutrality of Skjoldrbrodir. After long, protracted negotiations, a treaty was signed, each containing demands from each province, leading to Tagavor Leon Olsen-Tanaka being confined to ruling in Eldham once more and Tagavor Revo being removed from power, with a Regency ruling in his stead until 75% of the Lords decided upon a ruler. The Regency was initially one week, but was extended by a 3-2 confidence vote for a second and final week.