Origins: Nolia

In the seventeenth century, the Sarajevo Empire was the greatest power on Terra One, and had only one rival in the whole of Carrenthia. Several conflicts in the early part of the century placed a strain on the Empire, and the Empirical Council decided a higher tax was needed to bolster the floundering, far-flung armies and navies deployed by the Empire. Without consulting the governments of the colonies and territories, in accordance with the charters or Laws of Binding between the said colonies, territories and the Empire, a tax was forced upon the people. Since the mountains of (RANDOMNAME) had been at the front of one conflict, the region was subjected to a heavy tax. Outraged that all proper channels had been completely thrown away, the local governments demanded the tax be repealed; the Empirical Council refused to even give audience to the representatives sent, and the territories responded by refusing to collect the tax.
With few other options on hand, the Empirical Council redeployed their forces, attempting to enforce the tax with a strong arm. The territories pleaded to the Emperor, to follow the laws accepted by the Empire. The Emperor refused to listen, and allowed the Empirical Council to go through with their plans. Dismayed at the actions of their earthly ruler, the local governments held a conference, declaring that the contract between themselves and the Empire nullified, as the terms had been broken, and declaring that they were, in light of the actions taken by the Empire, independent from all rule and control of the said government. The Empirical Council declared the region as in rebellion, and dispatched additional forces to assist in quelling the “uprising.”
The next year was uneventful, with the territory remaining in a sullen state, resisting in small numbers, attacking Imperial soldiers when they could be found in small numbers, but generally offering a submissive posture to the more powerful oppressors.
Then, one year after declaring independence from the Empire, the territories of the Nolian Mountains turned on the occupying troops with a ferocity that stunned the world. Within weeks, all the major cities in the region had thrown off the heavy hand of the Empire, and sported flags and poorly equipped armies to spite the scattered and stupefied Imperial forces. The victory was short lived, however; with fewer fronts to maintain, the Empire sent two battle hardened armies into the mountains. With vastly superior numbers and training, the Imperial Regulars collected the previously defeated Irregulars, and integrated them into their well trained ranks. Several of the citizen armies engaged the dauntless force on separate occasions, but were soundly defeated.
Six months after the region threw off the oppressing arm; half of their cities were back under Imperial control, their armies in retreat, their spirit lower than any had thought possible at the beginning of their march. Within a year, what armies were left had disbanded, and the whole region back under Imperial control. Attacks on small groups of occupying soldiers continued, but anyone caught in the act was punished with death, and possibly death to their whole family. Two years after the territories declared independence, the hold upon them were strong as iron.
When all hope seemed gone, a man claiming to be a member of an age-old assassins order, appeared with sixty nine soldiers. The order, known as the Silent Hand, was a thing of legends. Warriors whose strength and skills made a single man more than a match for ten ordinary soldiers; fast as horses, silent as wraiths, tales of the Silent Hand was known to all in the Nolian Mountains. In one battle, it is said, an entire army was slaughtered, as they marched toward the mountains, by less than a hundred men from the Silent Hand. When no one believed the man, he set out to prove his claim. A week after the man appeared, a regiment of Imperial soldiers based at city Cora was annihilated – in a single night, there were no survivors.
Rumors of a ghost army barely had time to spread through the Imperial troops in the mountains before the second attack, three days later, occurred. It was as unexpected as it was horrendous as the first. An entire brigade, stationed in the vicinity of Kalina, was challenged by a small group of men. The general ordered a company to arrest the protesters; the two hundred man company was slaughtered in full view of the entire camp; not a single man from the protesters had fallen. The general gave an order to kill the insurgents from range before they could exact any more damage. Before a company of archers or musket-men could be called up, the attacking men rushed the camp, passing through, and leaving bodies strewn about like leaves. Four hours after the challenge was issued, the man leading the insurgent soldiers released the general and his aid, and told them to relay a message to the commander of all forces stationed in the mountainous region, and the message was this: I have destroyed your armies, I will free these people. If you do not take your soldiers and leave this region, all will die the same death as those at Cora and Kalina. Heed this warning, lest you force me to prove my threat. I am Sengol of the Desert. You have my word that I will follow this threat with the might of my hands.
Sengol lost twelve men at Kalina, but with proof to his claim, the mountain people flocked to his call. In the following two months, with the Imperial forces in complete disarray, Sengol trained over a thousand men, and created a formidable army of six thousand. As one brigade of the Imperial army attempted to join with several regiments before attempting to retake Cora, Sengol’s army attacked them head on in a deep valley. The battle was short but furious. The Imperial troops fell by the hundreds; those in the rear eventually turned and ran, leaving all siege weapons, cannon, and most of the army, behind. The losses sustained by Sengol’s army were slight in comparison.
After defeating two more Imperial camps Sengol divided his army into three portions, and sent them to eliminate any Imperial companies they found. The Empirical Council took the threat with gravity, and sent another army to bolster the weakened armies in the region. The commander of Imperial forces pulled every soldier he had into one location. In the middle of the Nolian Mountains is a lake, covering nearly three hundred square miles. To the south there is large plain before the mountains gradually grow back into the sky, General Cobalt entrenched his men on the plain, threw up defenses to rival any castle. Expecting to be attacked from the hills, he placed his cannon along a low wall facing them. After nearly two weeks of nervous waiting, Sengol’s army began filtering into the plain. Far out of range of even the biggest cannon, the gunners nonetheless attempted to fire on the smaller force backed against the hills. Before night fell Sengol’s entire army had gathered, numbering close to ten thousand now.
At dawn they struck. Over a thousand men had taken small boats, and circled around behind the fortifications, on the water there was no heavy guns, and only a sparse guard. The oppressed people charged with the rising of the sun, into enemy guns, vastly outnumbered, they charged. The attack from the rear threw an organized defense out of sync, allowing the attackers from the front to gain a foothold on the wall. The battle raged till noon, ceasing only when General Cobalt the few men left standing surrendered. Sengol had lost over half of his army, but the Imperial army had been all but destroyed.
The remainder of the Imperial army was escorted to the edge of the Nolian territory, and swore oaths never to return. With the threat of occupation temporarily averted, the governments began working on how they were going to continue as a nation, writing treatises. Many demanded Sengol be proclaimed ruler, but he refused. Sengol did assist in trying to settle the people into a nation. After a whole year of debates and bickering, the nation of Nolia was formed. It was divided into nine strategic districts; a central government controlled all military assets, through the local governments, all of which would send representatives to make up the central government. With everything moving in order, Sengol said he and his men would return to the desert where they had come from. The people almost imprisoned him to keep him from leaving, but he insisted, and with heavy hearts the people of Nolia said goodbye to their hero.
Nolia continued as a nation for twenty years before any major problems arose, but a disagreement on tax arose, and three districts declared they would not continue as part of the nation if the taxes were passed. The central government almost took up arms to suppress the districts who opposed them. Sengol, in his desert home, was informed of the happenings, and returned. Now an aged man; and a name of legends, the respect he commanded was absolute. He employed a number of historians to sift through the histories regarding the forms of government they had used before joining the Empire. After eight months of research, the historians showed their findings to the high council of the central government. The people had originally been separated into seven clans; the geographic areas were similar to the strategic districts zoned twenty years earlier. It also included the area Sengol called his home.
After three months of debate, the central government issued a statement: it would reform the clans, according to their names and regions, create a different federal government, and then disband itself. It took over four months to find a system of government for the clans to operate efficiently, but the clans were finally reformed.
The Deep Water Clan, sometimes known as Wolf, was at the heart of the Nolian Mountains. The High Mountain Clan, sometimes known as Tiger, was to the south of Wolf. The Halls of Wind Clan, sometimes known as Badger, was directly east of both Wolf and Tiger. The Valley Clan, sometimes known as Eagle, was north of Badger, and east of Wolf. The Of the Desert Clan, sometimes known as Viper, was even farther north than Eagle, and was solely on the Northern Desert, having no mountains. The Edge of the Storm Clan, sometimes known as Raven, was directly west of Wolf, and slightly south of Viper. The On Swift Wings Clan, sometimes known as Antelope, was farther west than Raven, along the edge of the mountains, situated mainly on the Great Plains.
The central government was charged with delivery of the mail, collection of a tax, agreed upon by all clan councils; that would be on all sales made by corporations, and be no more than two percent. It would use the monies procured to purchase military equipment for the clan militias. The government would act as the liaison of the clans to any and all foreign powers. The central government would also act as a marshal should any conflict arise between two clans. The central government would be made up of members of the clan’s councils, and any action to be taken had to be completely unanimous. There would be one representative from each city, each county, of each clan, and the clan High Council would send a member to lead the representatives of the respective clans. To be a representative to the Central government, one had to be a natural born citizen of the clan they intended to represent.
The new government went into effect on June seventeenth, being known as the Nolian Confederation, in the year of our LORD 1689, twenty three years, seven months, and twelve days after the people of Nolia originally declared their independence from the Sarajevo Empire.

The Sarajevo Empire tried to re-assimilate the confederation twice, and failing that, offered a treaty of non-aggression. Nolia accepted the treaty, and became trade allies with the Empire. In the mid nineteenth century Alsen-Kir, a large nation to the north of Nolia, attacked Of the Desert, but was repulsed with little difficulty. By the mid-twentieth century, the Sarajevo Empire had fallen apart, and a power hungry nation to the west assaulted On Swift Wings, claiming a good portion of the clan for nearly ten years, before then Confederation gained enough intelligence and strength to beat them off and take the land back. No outside forces attacked the Nolian Confederation during the twenty first century, excepting Alsen-Kir, which attacked in 2099.

Over the next three hundred years the clans broke into war among themselves seven times, only three times did the conflict involve all seven clans. The twenty first century contained two clan wars, both involved all seven clans. The first was a light war, lasting only eight months, and costing no more than eight thousand souls and approximately thirty two thousand lbs sterling in materials and equipment damaged or lost. The second was vicious, costing over sixty thousand souls, and nearly two million lbs in materials, equipment, and property lost or damaged. After this fifth clan war, the clans isolated themselves from the world, and effectively hid all technology and research they had acquired over the last century. Alsen-Kir’s invasion in 2099 brought Nolia back into the world. The following five year struggle resolved itself with Nolia’s victory over Alsen-Kir, and resulted in an Alliance between the nation and Confederation.