Old Grand Principality of Norovosht

The Grand Principality of Norovosht (typically referred to as Old Norovosht after the current Norovosht government was formed) was a state that existed in central Relvetsia during the 9th to 12th century SC and which formed the core of the Relvetsian Empire. Norovosht was founded as a mere principality in 884 SC by the legendary ruler Velirod, who united the region around the confluence of the Valdorivychia and Piskala rivers, founding his new capital of Norovosht just north of the point they intersected(the island of Norovosht is artificial and only was formed in the 10th century). Velirod's new state was initially just one of many principalities in the region, but would soon rise to the top and form the region's first Grand Principality after accepting the subjugation of over 30 other princes. During this period, polygamy was still practiced by the Relvetsian peoples, and Velirod allegedly had over 40 concubines and fathered 36 documented sons. Velirod married off most of his sons and daughters to children of the princes, ensuring their loyalty. Velirod died in 912 at age 73, and his lands were inherited by his 11th-eldest son, the others having already died.

This son, Vikoš I, while not necessarily a terrible ruler, had serious issues holding together the Grand Principality. It was bloated, with 38 princes (after the division of his father's lands) ruled from a small town and built largely on the force of arms. Even though the Velirodomy dynasty had begun intermarrying with the local noble, they only held 5 of the princedoms and due to the huge number of children of their father, few were close to Vikoš. Therefore, during the reign of Vikoš and his successors Doboznie I and Velirod II almost half of the princes would slip free from the Grand Prince's domain, either de jure or de facto. Some of these did rather well for themselves, for example the Principality of Tyverich, which later formed its own Grand Princedom and was the last Relvetsian state brought back into the fold before the declaration of the Empire.

With the failure of the early rulers of Norovosht to keep princes in line, Norovosht, similar to other Grand Principalities, failed to keep their subjects from fighting amongst one another. This meant that even when the realm was nominally at peace, various regional princes were often fighting wars against their fellow princes. The only difference was that in Norovosht, many of these princes were somewhat loosely related to one another due to the actions of Velirod I. With the Velirodomy dynasty spread across the land and slowly gaining more and more local power, the stage was set for the most tumultuous ruler yet- Vladimir I.

Vladimir was a cruel man, but he was also blessed with great intelligence, and his cruelty was rarely without purpose. Early on in his reign, he goaded a rebellion for several of his subject principalities, known as the Dynastic War. These men were furious that Vladimir continually favored members of the Velirodomy dynasty over everyone else, and that the lands near the core of the Grand Principality were much more tightly governed. The war was a bloodbath, with Vladimir eliminating the male lineage of no less than 6 principalities, whether through battle, execution, or castration. He would place loyal members of his family on the thrones of these principalities, often marrying them off to the surviving women of the preceding dynasties. This behavior, while tyrannical, sent a message to the other princes, and those on the fence judged it would be less risky to simply abstain from the war. Following this war, Vladimir did not believe he had truly rooted out the last of the traitors, so he mandated that marriage of the eldest child of each prince would be to a member of the Velirodomy dynasty. Even still, he became paranoid and reclusive, worried that even his family was out to get him. It's suspected that during his reign he killed or had killed almost 100 members of the palace staff on suspicion of being spies, and the deaths of 3 of his concubines seems very suspicious as well.

Ironically, in 964, Vladimir was killed by his cousin Lechnyon, who took the throne as the new Grand Prince. Lechnyon, who was not as insane as his cousin had clearly become, started undoing several of the more offensive laws Vladimir had put into place- such as removing the requirement of eldest children to marry a Velirodomy. This didn't really matter, as by the time the law was repealed the Velirodomy already held 10 of the 21 Prince titles directly and were married to an additional 5, so their dominance was assured. This was the only real achievement of his reign, as Lechnyon was killed by Vladimir's son Dukhemyny in 967, which is typically taken as the start of the Blooded Period.

During Vladimir I's reign, most of the important positions and wealthier principalities had come into Velirodomy hands, which meant that the only princes even close to powerful enough to take the throne were Velirodomy. With the family so large and so disparate, the various Velirodomy Princes began a deadly game of musical chairs, and over the next century and a half 38 of the 42 Grand Princes fell victim to murder. During this time, Norovosht continued to degenerate. With the Velirodomy dynasty in control of the valuable lands, the Velirodomy Princes continued marrying into one another's' families for alliances. And while at the beginning many of the princes were only loosely related, as the practice continued they became closer and closer, until almost every Velirodomy Principality was entangled in a web of incestuous marriages and alliances, all while random relatives (often insane) were shoved onto the throne as figureheads until the next assassination. Rarely did these murders and shifting alliance webs result in direct conflict, with one notable exception.

The Black War began in 1088 following the intrigue that occurred after the murder of Dukhemyny VI by one of the few moderately sane Velirodomies, Ivan III. Ivan, while sane, was in a very dangerous position, as the Velirodomy family expected their ruler to be incompetent, whether due to a lack of sanity or due to the (valid) fear that their life was probably going to end violently. Ivan III was different, establishing an order of bodyguards, assassins, and mages who would be loyal to him and to stomp out any assassination plots. However, this order was led by his decidedly insane relation* Tanya, also known as the Black Witch, who he was also in a relationship with. Tanya had long dabbled in the necromantic arts, and she brought them to full force against the enemies of Ivan, both real and imagined. Nobody was safe from this violence, and Ivan's closer relatives begged him to stop his attack dog. When Tanya found out about this meeting, she killed everyone who had attended as she believed it was a plot to undermine Ivan's rule. This prompted a strong response from the other members of the Velirodomy family, who decided that if Ivan wouldn't control his lover they would have her... removed. However, an opportunity did not present itself until a very pregnant Tanya retreated to her personal manor on the other side of the country to give birth. Then, they stormed the capital and killed Ivan. When word reached Tanya in 1088, she descended into madness as she led an army of skeletons and zombies into the capital and took the throne back for "Ivan" (really just a random zombie that looked somewhat similar to her dead lover). She continued ruling at the side of Ivan until he decayed, whereupon she totally broke. The entirety of Norovosht was soon under siege from hundred of corpses, and the Velirodomy were the targets. In just a decade the family was reduced to 6 legitimate members.

Tanya's rule would continue unchanged until the year 1102, when her son reached the age of 15. Completely insane, she had decided her son was not actually her son, but rather a reincarnation of her dead lover. Luckily for her son, in her lust she forgot to actually check her food, and she died to poison. Ivan IV, who was actually not really a bad guy, just sickly due to the effects of incest, was miraculously able to keep the remnants of the country in check. He married a girl who was not related to him at all, the daughter of one of the surviving non-Velirodomy Principalities, and he divvied up the lands between the surviving members of his family and the non-Velirodomy. He faced few revolts due to the appetite for war among the remaining nobility being extremely low. Ivan IV, although mostly sane, suffered from infertility and was also not particularly interested in fathering an heir due to his trauma, and his only child was a daughter, Mira, born in 1111. Mira had clearly inherited the magical talent of her grandmother, and people feared a second Black Witch. Luckily for the nation, she was sane, but Ivan was seen as being too carefree with her. He promised to never force her to marry anybody, and to let her make her own choices in life, and so she remained unbetrothed for over two decades. However, she eventually wed Baroslav I of the Vedelid Principality, and the two became co-rulers of Norovosht after Ivan's death in 1137.

This would mark the beginning of the rise of Norovosht into the Relvetsian Empire, though at the time Norovoshit was seen as the weakest Grand Principality. In 1137, only 8 Princes remained under Norovosht, though these were larger than the average principality. Although having so few princes was seen as meaning the nation was weak, in reality it was a centralized and stable state which had not seen war in nearly 40 years. Plus, Grand Princess Mira was a generational magic user, and her husband Grand Prince Baroslav was a military genius. The two would first lead a swift strike into the Grand Principality of Skomolysk, which was crushed in an 8-month period in 1140. Next, the Kyrivyna tribe, a powerful state based in the Great Marshes, was brought under the thumb of Norovosht, though this war took 6 years to complete and sporadic skirmishes continued well into the 1150s. From there, the Norovoshi marched into the north, which had long been the domain of fur-trading republics, city-states, and various Ryjtyvayl tribes. The trading city of Vyatech was conquered in 1149, and would serve as a base of expansion north of the Luvyal mountains. For several years, Baroslav worked to undermine the loyalty of the Luvyal people towards the powerful Republic of Sklovosk, but this plan proved fruitless- or so it seemed. In fact, Sklovosk's ruling council was so furious that they sent their fleet to burn all Norovoshi ships in port in 1152. This was meant to be a warning to Norovosht, but it turned into a catastrophe for Sklovosk. In retaliation for this slight, Sklovosk sent a small force of skirmishers into the Norvoshti lands, where they seized several trading caravans and demanded an apology from Sklovosk. Instead, Sklovosk sent a military force to ambush the Norvoshti. However, the Norvoshti force caught wind of this and staged a counter-ambush. Of the 30,000 Sklovoski troops, only 5,000 escaped, coincidentally the same amount as the Norvoshti invasion's full numbers.

Sklovosk swiftly capitulated, and agree to pay tribute to Norovosht and to no longer conduct their own foreign policy, essentially making them a protectorate. In return, Norovosht agreed to not interfere in the relationship between Sklovosk and the Ryjtyvayl tribes. The merchants of both nations were to be protected and not used as a political tool. However, in practice, Sklovosk continued to conduct themselves as an independent nation. They harbored the enemies of Norvosht (as Norvosht continued their conquests) and generally behaved as if the treaty did not apply. Meanwhile, Norovosht continued to sent ostensibly private envoys to the tribes, undermining their loyalty to Sklovosk.

Things came to a head in 1155, when Norovosht uncovered messages between the Grand Principality of Vilihorod and Sklovosk, which agreed to an alliance between the two. This was seen as a betrayal by Norovosht because Vilihorod had recently converted to the Wysoki Wyunałt faith and was therefore heretical. Norovosht accused Sklovosk of not only breaking the agreement they had made but also of conspiring to convert to a new religion and to divide Norovosht between the two nations. While it is highly possible the alliance was intended to be against their nominal rulers, Sklovosk was probably not intending to change their faith. Either way, this set the stage for war. Norovosht sent forces once more north into Sklovosk, and reached the tbd river. Marching west to find a good ford, they were set upon by a Sklovoski force numbering 33,000 while the Norovoshti army was only 16,000. Though the Norovoshti forces numbered ~40,000 men, over half of these were stationed in the south or to as garrisons to guard against potential raids by the Luvyal or other Ryjtyvayl tribes. Sklovosk's troops, though outnumbering Norovosht over 2 to 1, were unable to bring their full strength to bear because of the rough terrain. With their spellcasters quickly overcome by Mira and her corps, the Sklovoski army was torn to shreds, marking the second time in just 10 years that Sklovosk had lost over 20,000 men in a single battle, including their leading general, who was also the leader of the Republic.

Sklovosk, again, quickly capitulated and promised to abide by the rules of the treaty, but this time Norovosht refused. Norovoshti negotiators demanded the capitulation of Sklovosk and its formal incorporation into Norovosht. Though the cities of Sklovosk would be given special autonomous charters, the lands were to be definitively Norovoshti. This was argued over a number of times by the Sklovoski, who eventually proposed a meeting with the monarchs to finalize the deal- they offered a few more sovereignty concessions in exchange for keeping some of the land. However, the meeting was a sham. Mila Alexyvich, wife of the dead ruler, knifed Mira to death and nearly managed to kill Baroslav as well before she was stopped. The Sklovoski delegation was caught and executed to man, but it seemed that Sklovosk remained defiant. Enraged, Baroslav led an army into their rival as soon as he recovered, and his forced quickly captured the majority of Sklovosk as only the city itself remained defiant. Finally, in 1162 the siege broke through the walls of Sklovosk and the city was put to the torch. Though it would recover, the sack of Sklovosk marked the end of the republic and its lands were easily incorporated into the Grand Principality, though the various tribal tributaries took far longer.

With the integration of Sklovosk complete, Baroslav would abdicate the throne to his son Yaroval, and live out the rest of his years in quiet retirement, mourning his dead wife. Despite his warlike ways, he became an advocate for peace, and his son abided by his wishes while Baroslav remained alive, with his few expansions being peaceful. For example, he secured the loyalty of the Luvyal via several strategic marriages. However, he also wished for glory in his own right, and after the death of Baroslav in 1189 he began his own program of expansionism. Yaroval first targeted Vilihorod, upon which he put partial blame for the death of his mother. Yaroval's wars were extraordinarily successful and by 1193 Norovoshti armies had reached the Dchon river. There, Yaroval convened a gathering of the nobility and was crowned the First Emperor of Relvetsia, having united the majority of the principalities. This ceremony is why the Dchon is traditionally seen as the border between the regions of Dzentrałkrin and Vnutyr Relvetsia.

*Modern scholars have never managed to untangle the family tree enough to determine what exactly the relationship between Ivan and Tanya was, but it is known that their parents were married after their birth and they probably spent at least part of their childhood together.