The Inter-State Alliance of Chattana

Setting the Geo-Political Stage

Shortly after the rise of the Empire of Rosenburg, many of the surrounding countries took notice of their rise in military power and wealth. When all of the individual nations worked together instead of fighting each other, they became a force to be reckoned with. Their naval forces soon dominated the Coral Sea. Their agricultural exports gave them control of the international market. Their cultural practices were exported in art and stories, and soon began to supplant more the individual traditions of the other nations.

The People of the Island of Chattana

The people who lived on the Island of Chattana, the largest island of the Coral Sea, felt particularly threatened by this exportation of cultural practices. Chattana, at that time, was not a unified nation. It consisted of three major City-States (Mnema, Coralon, and Heigg) and a number of traveling nomadic groups. By unwritten agreement, the City-States all developed their borders with a unique living fenceline, created with assistance from the unique form of magic practiced by only those on the Island. These fencelines were created by encouraging plants to go in a specific way to create repeatable and recognizable patterns in the underbrush, but not so tightly woven together that it would be difficult to pass through. Both people and animals could enter or leave the borders of the City-States as they chose.

Inside these borders, each City-State upheld their own laws, customs, and dialect, and had absolute say on their own territory. For example, a native of Heigg who was visiting Mnema would be held accountable to Mneman law, not Heiggan law. Animals outside the City-State borders could be hunted by anyone, including the nomadic groups, but any animal that wandered beyond the border of a City-State belongs to that City-State, and it can only be hunted by a member of that City-State; it's considered poaching to hunt inside a City-State's territory if you don't belong to it.

Outside the borders, however, no City-State has complete jurisdiction, and the nomadic groups don't have any overarching rules that they adhere to. Crimes committed against another person within the unclaimed territory are heard by the court of whatever City-State or nomadic group was the victim of the crime. All unclaimed territory is shared equally by the CIty-States and the nomadic groups; everyone can hunt, fish, and gather there, and no City-State or nomadic group can restrict access to any shared territory without officially annexing it into their borders, or starting a new City-State. There are various City-States which are no longer occupied and their ruins have been reclaimed by the jungle and the sea. Very little is known about them, as City-States generally only preserve their own history.

External Pressure

Now several centuries after the founding of the Rosenburg Empire, during which time it has grown into the largest superpower on the Coral Sea, the entire Island of Chattana was facing a new threat. The Empire of Rosenburg established their own language as the language of international trade and is restricting trade with those that do not speak it. This put the inhabitants of Chattana at a unique risk as they do not have a single national language, but a different language or dialect for each individual City-State and nomadic group. The Rosenburg Empire had been systematically excluding them from any international trade, so they were not able to access any goods other than what they could make or grow themselves.

Missionaries soon came from the Rosenburg Empire to Chattana and set up small towns in the unclaimed territory. They called these towns "trading posts", but they invited any young people from Chattana to join them and live in the towns to learn the language of the Rosenburg Empire. At first, the people of Chattana were excited and every City-State and some of the nomadic groups sent children and young people to live within the trading posts to train as interpreters for future foreign trade. However, as these young people finished their learning and returned home, they also began speaking out against their own cultural practices and in favor of those taught them by the people from the Rosenburg Empire.

The Chief of Heigg at that time, Chief Halvor, was the first to realize what was happening: the Rosenburg Empire had isolated them and convinced their young minds that the ways of the Empire were superior to their own. He believed that this was only the first step in the Empire's plan to make Chattana into a single unified nation and put it under the control of the Empire of Rosenburg as their eighth Sovereign Nation. He spread this idea to the other City-States and nomadic tribes. At first, people didn't believe him, but when the presence of the Empire became greater, the other City-States rallied behind Heigg and Chief Halvor to oppose the Empire encroaching on their territory.

The Resistance of the Unified City-States of Chattana

Their resistance plan unfolded in seven steps:

1. First, they cut off all trade with the Rosenburg Empire. This was difficult because this meant they had no access to any goods from outside the Island of Chattana, but the different groups all supported each other instead. It also forced the Rosenburg Empire to force their hand and begin outright aggressions, as they had been buying goods from Chattana (Mneman embroidery, fish from Coralon) and reselling them to other nations at a huge markup.
2. Coralon, the closest City-State to the coast with a long history of superiority in fishing, initiated hit-and-runs on the Rosenburg Empire's military vessels that were forming a blockage around the island. They were able to successfully set some of the ships on fire with flaming projectiles before using their superior vessel speed and knowledge of the Island's coast to run and hide before the Empire's ships had a chance to return fire.
3. The reduction in the blockade allowed them to send several of their newly taught "translators" off the Island of Chattana in secret to bargain with the Democratic Congress of Alartia, the second largest naval power in the Coral Sea behind the Rosenburg Empire.
4. The three City-States opened their borders to the nomadic groups and gave them temporary shelter when the Rosenburg Empire began to retaliate with military force. Given that the City-States were all located in defensive positions deep within the jungles, this left the Empire with little ability to exert their superior military force.
5. Mnema, the smallest City-State, moved all of their citizens and the nomads sheltering there and split them between Heigg and Coralon, leaving only the fighters. The other two City States, as well as some of the nomadic groups, sent a portion of their fighters to Mnema, specifically because they wanted Mneman law to be applicable during the next part of their plan.
6. Chief Halvor sent a summons to the Admiral in charge of the Imperial fleet surrounding the Island, promising a ceasefire of the attacks if a party came ashore to negotiate in Mnema. The Coralonic fishers held up their end of the bargain and did not attack any of the ships, so Admiral Yett of the Rosenburg Empire disembarked with a large retinue and came to Mnema for negotiations. They were promptly captured and held hostage under Mneman law, which allowed for the arrest of negotiating parties if it was believed those parties came to negotiate in bad faith, so long as the negotiators were not physically harmed.
7. The translators returned with representatives from the Democratic Congress of Alartia, who joined Chattana in negotiating with the Empire of Rosenburg in Mnema. The translators had promised Alartia non-exclusive trading contracts worth roughly 80% of Chattana's total international trade volume, which would put them nearly equal in terms of trading power with the Rosenburg Empire. This would balance out the power between the different nations on the Coral Sea. The representatives from the Democratic Congress of Alartia oversaw the negotiations as a witness.

Negotiations and the Founding of an Alliance

The negotiations lasted over three months. During that time, the Empire of Rosenburg tried to send additional military aid, saying that the negotiators were being held as hostages, but they were blocked access by the naval reinforcements sent by the Democratic Congress of Alartia. Then, the Empire of Rosenburg's representatives said that they were unable to negotiate with the City-States because they weren't a single cohesive unit. To get around this, the Democratic Congress of Alartia assisted the City-States in drafting an alliance treaty which formally set up the Inter-State Alliances of Chattana as a political unit. Each of the three City-States signed the treaty as a member, as well as the four largest nomadic groups. The treaty reinforced the as before unwritten rules about the City-State borders as well as setting up a single governing body for the Island of Chattana, which would be able to sign a treaty with the Empire of Rosenburg.

Against the advice of the Democratic Congress of Alartia, the treaty did not establish a separate governing body for the Island of Chattana, but instead passed the responsibility of being the head of the Inter-State Alliances between all parties that signed the treaty, with each party holding the duty for three years before passing it to the next. As all parties that signed the treaty agreed that they would never interfere with each other's own rule of governance, as was their tradition for generations, the duties of the governing body were limited to interacting with other Sovereign Nations of the Coral Sea, which would be mostly ceremonial duties and signing off on trade agreements and treaties like the one in contention.

Grudgingly, the representatives from the Empire of Rosenburg had to admit that they had run out of excuses and signed a trade treaty with the Inter-State Alliance of Chattana. The Empire of Rosenburg agreed that they would not block trade with other nations, and the Inter-State Alliance of Chattana agreed to free trade with the Empire of Rosenburg, although they had already signed a treaty for expanded trade with the Democratic Congress of Alartia.

A Reluctant and Amused New Superpower

After the treaty was signed and the Empire's fleet left with Admiral Yett, the rest of the Empires of the Coral Sea looked to the newly formed Inter-State Alliance of Chattana as an up and coming power, much to the amusement of the people of Chattana. The only reason the Inter-State Alliance was formed at all was their desire for isolation and freedom from cultural infringement, but their actions had directly embroiled themselves within international politics. Not only that, but they had come out on top of the Rosenburg Empire in as near to a direct conflict as the Coral Sea had seen up to that point. This earned them much respect among the other Sovereign Nations. Due to their neutrality and refusal for any expansionist agendas, they quickly became one of the foremost Nations in unraveling international political disputes, and representatives from the Inter-State Alliance of Chattana are the most often called for when witnessing tense treaty negotiations.