Levantia
| Levantia | |
|---|---|
| Basic Information
| |
| Government | Hereditary Monarchy (de facto partitioned) |
| Ruling House | House Chandler |
| Geography | |
| Region | Wendigo Continent |
| History | |
| Founded | IY 722 |
| Society | |
| Race | Human |
| Language | English (Levantia dialect) |
Overview
Levantia was once the sole unified nation of the Wendigo Continent, built on the world's foremost mana stone industry. A three-year war (AY 149–152) shattered that unity, and the ceasefire that followed left the continent split along the line where the fighting stopped. Both successor states still call themselves Levantia; the wider world knows them simply as North and South.
History
Foundation
Levantia was founded in the aftermath of the Three-Day War (IY 722), when miner-turned-rebel Walter Chandler drove off a faction claiming to be heirs to the fallen Yalta Empire and took the crown himself. Edmund Sterling, head of the mining administrators who had overseen the colony's operations, remained in place beneath the new throne — and it was Sterling's descendants, operating under the public banner of the Zirconia Foundation, who came to control nearly every aspect of the mana stone industry: extraction, refinement, and the workforce that carried it out. The mines themselves remained state property in name only.
Over the following generations, House Sterling's grip on the nation's economy bred quiet resentment among the rest of the nobility, who saw a chance to strengthen the crown — and their own standing — at Sterling's expense.
A Crisis of Succession
When King Ferrick fell ill and could no longer attend to matters of state, the question of succession threw the court into turmoil. Crown Prince Frederic — gentle, well-liked, and by his own public admission less suited to rule than his sister — was widely respected for his character rather than his statecraft. His devotion to his ailing father was well known, and when Queen Lucienne (herself born into House Sterling) prepared to visit her family, Frederic insisted on escorting her himself, leaving the capital in his absence.
Princess Isolde, a natural leader whose charisma had already won her the backing of the crown-strengthening nobility, used the opening to seize the throne. The coup caught House Sterling as much by surprise as anyone else.
The Three-Year War
What began as a standoff of harsh words and failed negotiations erupted, roughly a year later, into open war — a four-sided conflict drawing in the Prince's and Princess's factions alongside the long-oppressed peasant uprising known as Goeyu and the neutral holdout of the port city of Lucerre. The destruction of Opulesse, a floating city of pure luxury, in a bombing over the Ranmimar Plain, and the still-unexplained death of King Ferrick, hardened the conflict beyond negotiation.
(For the full account of the war's course, see the Three-Year War.)
Armistice and Partition
The war ended in AY 152 with a ceasefire, publicly framed as a shared sacrifice for the sake of the world's mana stone supply. The abruptness of the armistice — and its timing alongside the reunification of Levantia's wartime currencies — has fed persistent public suspicion that the peace served interests other than the ones announced.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, each side retained the industrial assets that had come under its control during the war, with token shares extended to the foreign powers that had sent troops. The Ranmimar Plain, left without functioning leadership after the war, was absorbed into the Princess's territory; the port city of Lucerre, having held out as neutral ground throughout the conflict, was ceded to the Zirconia Foundation under South Levantia. Both have since been rebuilt and are inhabited once more.
The front line where the fighting stopped became the border it remains today.
Geography
Levantia is divided along a north–south line drawn where the Three-Year War's front lines came to rest.
North Levantia holds the former capital and the mana stone mines themselves, rich in raw ore. The Ranmimar Plain lies within its borders.
South Levantia holds House Sterling's ancestral lands and the nation's refining industry — the workforce and facilities that turn raw mana stone into finished product, including the port city of Lucerre.
Government & Politics
Both Levantian states are ruled by surviving members of House Chandler, and both claim to be the legitimate continuation of the single Levantian crown.
North Levantia is ruled by Queen Isolde, governing from the former capital with the nation's mana stone mines under her control.
South Levantia is ruled by King Frederic, though House Sterling retains substantial influence over the state's industrial and economic affairs.
No formal reunification talks are known to be underway.
Economy
Levantia's economy has always centered on mana stone. Mining activity had long tended to cluster in what is now North Levantia, while refining infrastructure was concentrated in what is now the South — an accident of geology and settlement history rather than deliberate design. Before the war, the two stages remained part of a single integrated industrial system under Levantian rule, with House Sterling exercising substantial control over the industry. The war divided that system along the existing geographic tendency, leaving each side with resources or infrastructure essential to the other. Since the armistice, each state has retained what lies within its own territory, turning what had once been an unplanned geographic tendency into a formal industrial divide.
Foreign Relations
Levantia has long maintained a close relationship with Tragon, and its diplomatic reputation once made outside threats to the continent a rare concern. During the Three-Year War, both factions offered shares of the mana stone industry to secure foreign military support, and the states that answered the call still hold small stakes in the industry today.