The Endelaus War
"With men, the state of nature is not a state of peace, but war."
Out-of-Character Note
I've been wanting to do something like this ever since I created my nation many years ago. I'm unsure whether anyone would like to join me on this journey, and that's why I've decided to do this by myself, but you are welcome to if you'd like.
Most of my previous RPs were made in "real time." Not this one. TG me if you have any questions regarding this or you express interest. There will be no OOC thread.
Excerpt From the iiWiki Page:
The Endelaus War, sometimes referred to as the Third Phase of the Azure War and in Sarlaiya as the War of the Century (11 March 1905 - 25 November 1958), was a conflict fought between the Empire of Sarlaiya, Order of the Kalythian Star and a large assortment of coalition powers, following and sometimes encompassing the earlier conflict which took place strictly between Kalythia and Sarlaiya. The latter included support from a multitude of vassal and client states. The war, which directly developed from disputes regarding the sovereignty over several archipelagos in the Endelaus Sea, intensified into a major global conflict after both nations ordered numerous illegal attacks against civilian merchant vessels of neutral nations suspected of aiding the other side.
Kalythian-Sarlaiyan relations had remained poor since the beginning of the 20th century as a direct result of ideological disagreements between the generally republican Kalythians and monarchist Sarlaiyans. Both countries had vied for uncontested control of the Endelaus Sea since the early 1890s, as the Kalythians sought to economically isolate the Sarlaiyans and the Sarlaiyans sought a buffer zone between them and the Kalythians. Concerned about Kalythian naval superiority in the region, Sarlaiya initiated the conflict by preemptively sailing a naval task group over the Endelaus Sea and attacking numerous Kalythian coastal military installations, before launching an amphibious assault on the Kalythian southern coast.
Link to the (incomplete) iiWiki page
Kalythian-Sarlaiyan relations
Prior to the late 19th century, Sarlaiya had remained as the dominant regional power and was both the most populous and geographically largest state that bordered the Endelaus Sea. Although both governments maintained an uneventful history of interactions prior, Kalythian expansion throughout the Kalythian continent, along with its unprecedented population and economic growth, threatened to upend the balance of power in the region and both nations entered a state of rivalry in the late 1880s. By the 1890s, the Kalythian economy had surpassed that of Sarlaiya in terms of raw GDP.
Ideological differences also contributed to the breakdown of relations in the same period. For much of its existence since its foundation in the 9th century, the Empire of Sarlaiya was governed by a powerful autocracy characterized by a cult of personality and the population's belief in the Sarlaiyan monarch's divine right to rule. Kalythia, which had adopted a republican representative democracy and a dogmatic culture surrounding the concept of natural rights upon the conclusion of a revolution in 1822, was in direct contrast to the Sarlaiyan system. The governments of both nations publicly denounced the other as a backwards and primitive civilization in public addresses, and state-sponsored propaganda dissemination resulted in citizens antagonizing those from the other country. Harassment of the Sarlaiyan and Kalythian diasporas became widespread and further contributed to the casus belli for both sides. Dialogue and communications between the two nations were sometimes temporarily suspended.
Battanes Affair
Tensions rose significantly after the Kalythian merchant vessel SS Frimaire was stormed by a detachment of Sarlaiyan marines while it was docked in Battanes Harbor, Condor Islands, on 3 January 1902. The operation, which was allegedly carried out to seize a suspected illegal shipment of general contraband, was highly publicized and outraged the Kalythian government. No such shipment was found and the Frimaire was allowed to depart without further incident, but subsequent talks gave rise to the dispute over the sovereignty of the Condor Islands and numerous other island chains within the Endelaus Sea. Sarlaiyan officials claimed that the raid on the Frimaire was justified as the vessel had failed to comply to Sarlaiyan maritime law when it entered the harbor (any and all vessels were mandated to identify themselves and their nationality by searchlight when docking at any Sarlaiyan port). Kalythian authorities challenged the claim, emphasizing that the Condor Islands was an independent, recognized state, and that Sarlaiya had violated international law through enforcing Sarlaiyan domestic legislation outside of Sarlaiya, while also stationing military forces on its territory. The Sarlaiyan government responded by reiterating its claim to absolute sovereignty over the Condor Islands and all other archipelagos in the Endelaus Sea. Pax Kalythia subsequently accused Sarlaiya of imperialist aggression. The national government of the Condor Islands refused to comment throughout the whole incident.
In reality, Sarlaiyan desires to control the Condor Islands, its immediate neighbors, and thus the Endelaus Sea was less out of irredentist fervor and more out of a need for a natural barrier between them and the rapidly-expanding Kalythians. As the Kalythians possessed a more powerful navy at the time and had recently invaded and annexed its neighboring island nation of Santarno, the Sarlaiyan northern coast was left in an exposed position. Military outposts deep within the Endelaus Sea would have served as an early warning for potential Kalythian provocations.
Alleged Kalythian involvement in the Dust War
Further disagreements arose over the controversial Kalythian involvement in the 1855 - 1865 Dust War, which was fought between Sarlaiya and a varied assortment of nationalist revolutionary groups seeking to sever the Republic of Nathshara from Sarlaiyan rule. The most prominent of these movements for much of the conflict was Murdock's Army, led by its namesake and Kalythian sympathizer Arthur James Murdock. During the conflict, Murdock and numerous other revolutionary figures publicly encouraged the Kalythian military to intervene, citing that Kalythia was the only other ideologically similar state of noticable influence in the region. Officially, Kalythia refused this request. However, as the war continued, Sarlaiyan suspicion turned towards Kalythia and the Sarlaiyan administration accused Kalythia of covertly smuggling aid and supplies to the Nathsharans by sea. This claim appeared to be cemented when a Kalythian warship was reported to have been spotted off the Nathsharan southern coast, but Kalythia denied this outright, adding that their navy had no known vessels in the area.
The issue dragged on into the beginning of the 20th century. In spite of the Treaty of Sadis signed between the Sarlaiyan government and major factions of the Dust War, which offered the state of Nathshara greater autonomy, a low-intensity conflict subsequently developed between Sarlaiyan security forces and rebel fighters that opposed the signing of the peace agreement. Once again, Sarlaiya accused Kalythia of supplying Nathsharan fighters and potentially even coordinating and organizing Nathsharan attacks. Sarlaiyan intelligence stated that several captured Nathsharan militants confessed to receiving Kalythian weapons and bomb ingredients, while Kalythia dismissed these reports as forced.
