Republic of Olia

The Republic of Olia, officially the Second Republic of the Kingdom of Olia, is located on the northern half of the souther continent and lies on the west of Kiśia. The country's territory is comprised of Temperate Rainforest, Temperate Deciduous Forest, and Grasslands being surrounded by mountains to the north and south and plains to the east and west. Olia's population is split evenly between its rural and urban population and its dominant language is the Olianil Language with minority languages such as Deronian, Bebarian, and Eroskian being included in its territory.

Pre-Olianil (before 8th century BCE)
The first people who lived in modern region of Olia ("The Old Olians"), left many artefacts such as pottery, copper and later bronze tools, and structures such as the ruins of Kaszita. They believed in a polytheistic religion and had advanced engineering ability. They erected many tall structures and large towns mostly situated on the Sol and Rom river valleys.

During the 8th century, their populations began to decline and many towns began to be abandoned for reasons still unknown to modern historians though there are theories such as famine, plague, or climate change which they believe to be the root cause.

The Olianil Migration (8th to 4th Century BCE)
Around the 8th century BCE, the first traces of Proto-Olianil appeared on the Rom river river and the surrounding coast. Artefacts such as inscriptions in the Proto-Atrinil Script and Proto-Olianil pottery, iron-working, and architecture.

Settlements around this time show evidence of conflict such as arrow heads in the walls. The Olianil migration would form a region of majority Olians which would form a warrior class that ruled over the surrounding Pre-Olianil peoples. Over time, they assimilated their culture and language into the dominant Olianil culture and further expansion into the Sol river valley began in the 5th century BCE.

The religion of the Proto-Olians was polytheistic as shown by ancient texts. They believed in 9 different gods which controlled by the different elements of which the greatest was *Khialo, meaning "Not to be summoned". It is believed he was considered to be the king of the gods and their supreme being who was married to the goddess of the moon *Rejkehanej. There were many other gods such as Lorroj, god of metals and war.

Antiquity (3rd century BCE to 8th century CE)
In the 3rd century BCE, Werin of Rinait had begun prophesying of a coming war that will tear up the land then known as Wovun. He told that Śol, a modern name for *Khialo, was the only god. He was a disciple of Akopen who had a similar belief and had spread it among his own tribe before he was killed and leadership was split between Werin and another disciple by the name of Sitśa who according to the 11 Chronicles later was taken captive by the priests and all his followers killed.

There is no evidence of any events taking place in before the 5th Chronicle where as archaeological evidence confirms of a major conflict between the followers of Werin and the ones who worshipped the Traditional Polytheistic Religion. Ruins around the modern day city of Oltos confirm a battle taking place in the region. The war concluded with the followers of Werin winning out and converting by force the remaining population except on the island of Paiśa where they continued to hold on their beliefs and culture until the 15th century.

Around the 4th century CE, a kingdom rose on the Lora River, the Loran Empire, expanded to absorb most of Deronia and parts of Sabis spreading their religion to these peoples. The empire would survive until the middle of 5th century before entirely being broken up. King Siriś III in 453, gathered a group of religious scholars to meet at the far away city of Oltos and using his influence called a council to create a scripture which to unite the beliefs of the Olianil People resulting in the first five Chronicles. 200 years after the collapse of the Empire, another group of scholars met in Oltos to write and compile six new Chronicles in 637 which led to the 11 Chronicles.

Following the the Second Council of Oltos, the Church of Oltos' influence expanded as it funded more and more missions to build churches and teach its doctrine. These churches all reported back to the church and ran the regions as their de facto government. In 676, after the church had preformed a de facto coup of the city, Don of Oltos would form the Holy Empire of Olia. This was the first use of the world Olia, coming from a term referring to the mouth of the Sol river, was used to define the region and as the Empire waged crusades across the region all the way to Sabis, the name Olia increasingly came to refer to the people of Sol, Rom, and Lora rivers.

The Empire would commission the creation of many works of art and music and would turn a river forts known as the Jaśagon into a museum and school. The Empire would become corrupt and border territories such as the Rom river valley slipped away one by one until the empires collapse under DInalut I of Masan in 1026. Knights began to replace Priests as the power-brokers in these regions and these became the first nobles who began a form of feudal contract and heirachy within their realms.

Dinalutil Dynasty (10th century BCE to 14th century CE)
In the region of Wossan in the year 955, the estates of the house of Kalin split into two houses. One of which was the House of Masan which after under Dinalut I waging wars over the region managed to consolidate enough power to march his army into the territory of the remnants of the Holy Empire of Olia. The Empire was defeated in every battle until reaching the walls of Oltos. According to tradition, it is said that Dinalut kneeled before the gates of the city praying and singing to Śol until the gates where slammed open and his army entered and despite the attempts of may archers not a single arrow could touch him.

With the fall of Oltos, Dinalut had united most of the Sol and Rom river valleys. He prepared to move onto the Lora but poor health and number of rebellions and internal matters meant he had to delay until his eventual death. His son, Dinalut II decided not to carry on with his fathers campaigns of expansion but instead fortify the empires borders and under him the empire entered a golden age with the standardisation of writing and taxation but he had three ambitious sons who upon his death clashed over who would inherit the throne.

In the end his eldest, Dinalut III would win and would rule of 20 years and his son Dinalut IV would clear out the remnants of resistance and under him, peace for a while was brought to Olia until it turned out that the young heir of his uncle, Luan "Parin" had returned with a mercenary army from the mountains and was moving on Oltos. After a vicious conflict, Werin II of Parin would capture Oltos and establish his own kingdom in the north.

Upon the death of Dinalut IV, the heir of Pont I another descendant of Dinalut, muster the support of the merchants and army of the city of Fonas and led a rebellion against Dinalut V. In addition, this Pont III had successfully seized the Duchy of Patonia and was in an ideal position to take Masan. This was until a plague struck killing both Pont III and Dinalut V, both without any male heirs and hence their kingdoms were exposed while the succession crisis took place. Luan III would seize the realms and reunify Dinalut's Kingdom.

In the east on the Lora river valley, a group of sea raiders had successfully taken over under the leadership of Olan II from the island of Paiśa. He brought his polytheistic beliefs and Paiśel culture to the mainland in the first time in hundreds of years. The two kingdoms did not interfere too much into each other until Marja I successfully overthrew her younger brother for the throne backed by the nobility. She married the then king of the Upper Olia, Olan V (later Hajesman I) and converted him and his realm to the Church of Oltos.

She would bear one son by the name of Hajesman II who would go on to wage wars across the region conquering all the way to the Regub. He reigned with an iron fist implementing policies which were unpopular with the nobility and taxed them harshly to wage his conquests while utterly destroying any who opposed him. He would reign for 73 years and live until 93. Upon his death, his son Hajesman III would reign for only 5 years and his only notable achievements was the signing of the "Provision of Inheritance of Monarchs" which detailed what should happen when a Monarch dies without any male heirs and "The Rights guaranteed to Nobility" which detailed the rights given to the nobility both in the year 1438.

These two pieces of legislature would lead to an interesting development where a select number of noble families were given the right to choose the next king in the case where a king died and that any legislation would need to go through the nobility as well as providing a number of rights to the nobility. These rights would later be extended to merchants and even the lower classes such as a Right to a Fair Trial. The Nobility were now able to veto legislation as well as vote on who would be the King.

(To be continued)