by Max Barry

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A Brief History of Dominant Oppressors - WIP

Summary of Dominant Oppressorian History:

The Holy Christian Empire of Dominant Oppressors has existed for centuries and has taken on many forms and names throughout its history but at heart it has always been the same nation! Our civilization came into existence after the great flood and the restart of humanity. We have always had a focus on God and when Jesus began preaching our nation converted to Christianity even before the Roman Empire legalized it, our nation's elite military forces protected us from Roman persecution and so we endured. After the fall of Rome, we held strong diplomatic ties with the Byzantine empire but maintained our independence. Like most of the European world, we struggled during the middle ages, many of our warriors followed the Pope's command and went to fight in the crusades. Then, disaster struck, the black death killed a massive amount of our population. This was, of course, a major blow for us! We spent the next few decades slowly rebuilding our power and population. By the Renaissance, we had mostly recovered however and many classics of Dominant Oppressorian literature were written during this period. We sent our armies to help fight for Catholicism in the 30 Years' War. We were involved in the colonization of the New World and later the scramble for Africa, taking up far more land in the New World than in Africa. We were never involved in the slave trade. During the Napoleonic Wars, we continuously joined the Coalitions against the French and Dominant Oppressorian forces were vital in both of Napoleon’s defeats. The Holy Emperor even participated in the Congress of Vienna and the subsequent congresses. The Holy Empire industrialized at around the same time as Germany. During the 1800s we managed to maintain some strength unlike other theocracies at the time such as Spain and the Ottoman Empire but we were in a period of decline during the 1900s. By the late 1800s, a revolution sprung up inspired by the others of the time, which followed the Congress of Vienna. The monarchy was temporarily deposed and we were transitioned into a communist Republic for a brief period. The monarchy was soon restored but it was a little while before we returned to full strength. The failures of the Republic showed the Dominant Oppressorian people just how much they needed their monarchs. We remained neutral during both World Wars due to the internal restorations that were needed following the monarchy restoration. We remained a capitalistic nation during the Cold War but never joined NATO and were not openly hostile to the Warsaw Pact either. We have now returned to prominence in recent years, defending the role of the Christian Theocracy in our modern society. We formed an alliance of like-minded nations with similar origins and histories and together we stand stronger than alone!

May God Bless You!


Evolution of the Dominant Oppressorian State:

Tribal Lands of the Ancestors to the Dominant Oppressorian People
Date Established: Circa 3000 BC
First Ruler: Unknown
Date Dissolved: 287 BC
Last Ruler: Unknown
Notes: Regrettably little is known about this period of Dominant Oppressorian History in terms of societal structure. Likely a system similar to their neighboring Gauls, Helveti, Celts, Ligurians, Germanic Tribes and earlier Umbri and Italics. The people living in these lands were the biological ancestors to the people of modern-day Dominant Oppressors. Multiple tribes with the same ethnicity (similarly to the Germanic Peoples of the era).

Lands of House Vader
Date Established: 287 BC
First Ruler: King Ädom R. Vader Magnus
Date Dissolved: 145 BC
Last Ruler: Queen Geraldine T. Vader the Great
Notes: It is at this point that things become better documented. This period begins with Ädom R. Vader, unifying the tribes mentioned above into a single group and crowning himself King of that group. He would establish his lineage as the ruling family (House Vader), his descendants still sit on the Dominant Oppressorian throne to this day. It was also during this period that Dominant Oppressorian nomenclature would come about (that of first name, middle name initialed and then family name). Adopted by the people after King Ädom R. Vader Magnus (also known as 'King Ädom R. Vader der Große' or simply, 'King Ädom R. Vader the Great') ascended the throne in his honor but also based on the system of the growing Roman Republic but with some key differences: the middle name (the ‘Cognomen’ to the Romans) is traditionally initialed when writhing one’s full name and unlike with the Romans it is given by the Parents, much like the first name (the ‘Praenomen’ to the Romans) and it was not used more prominently than the first name (also unlike with the Romans). The state has no official recorded name but historians refer to it as the ‘Lands of House Vader’ (similar to the Hapsburg Lands/Hapsburg Monarchy for the similar period Austria went through, albeit at a much later date) due to the significance of the era as the one that set up House Vader as the ruling house of Dominant Oppressors for time ever-after.

First Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors
Date Established: 145 BC
First Ruler: Queen Geraldine T. Vader the Great
Date Dissolved: 32 BC
Last Ruler: King Publius D. Vader
Notes: After Queen Geraldine T. Vader greatly expanded the holdings of House Vader with a series of conquests in the late 130s and early 140s BC, she decided to formally declare her territory the ‘Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors’. Known retroactively by Historians as the ‘First Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors’ or the ‘First Dominant Oppressorian Kingdom’. She also established Vader City as the capital city of her kingdom in 147 BC. We were one of Central Europe's only kingdoms, with many of the other peoples there either being absorbed by Rome or still being merely tribal kingdoms or otherwise petty kingdoms (some consider this kingdom to have been a petty kingdom. However, most scholars and historians would not classify it as such). Between 60 BC and 44 BC, King Burebista of Dacia ran a series of conquests to expand his lands, during these conquests he launched several raids on our Kingdom. Land went back and forth for a time but ultimately the Dominant Oppressorians came out victorious. Throughout this era’s life, not only had the Roman Republic’s military come dangerously close for comfort but their culture had seeped into our own (as evidenced by the name of this era’s final king, Publius). The first major invasion scare came during the Cimbrian War, when Roman forces fought and defeated the tribes that had moved into the neighboring region of Noricum. Although this first fear came to nothing, it made our rulers aware that Rome would soon be a serious threat. The Roman presence grew particularly following the conclusion of the Gallic Wars and Rome's full annexation of Gaul in 50 BC. It seemed as if Dominant Oppressors would be their next target and our armies would not be able to stand up to Rome's legions. Eventually, the Roman Republic turned us into one of their client states, paying tribute to them with a percentage of our goods. King Publius D. Vader was made to abdicate the throne in favor of his son, Marcus P. Vader, who would serve as the first Client-King.

Second Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors (Client Kingdom of the Roman Republic [and later Roman Empire])
Date Established: 32 BC
First Ruler: Client-King Marcus P. Vader (de jure) / Prefect Annius Trentilius Lateranus (de facto)
Date Dissolved: AD 35
Last Ruler: Client-King Julius G. Vader (de jure) / Prefect Lucius Porcius Justus (de facto)
Notes: When Publius decided to abdicate and transform the kingdom into a Roman client-state in order to prevent a long drawn-out and bloody war we would eventually lose and to stall full annexation, the Romans made sure that the new King (still the official title of the era but historians refer to the kings of the time as 'client-kings' to show their significantly diminished powers) was someone easily manipulated. Luckily for them, Publius had a young son, Marcus P. Vader (who was only 8 years old at the time of his ascension) who was not originally heir (that would be Gaius M. Vader, Publius' eldest son) but served Roman purposes better. The Romans ignored regency law by installing someone so young as king but it was deemed a better option than total war nonetheless. The Roman Prefect, Annius Trentilius Lateranus, was essentially in full control of the Kingdom. 32 BC was chosen as the specific year to submit to Rome for several reasons. The most important of these was that in July, Rome had declared war on Mark Antony and Cleopatra and proclaimed Octavian, Dux. Several of Rome's pre-existing provinces swore oaths of loyalty to him and it became clear that the Republic would soon collapse and an Empire would take its place. An Empire that would likely wish to consolidate power in the regions surroundings their current holdings. Discussions to make this move were already occurring amongst the king's advisers during the days of Julius Caesar's Dictatorship but his assassination briefly paused that motion. Now, the Dominant Oppressorians were sure that this was the best path for their people's future. The Roman Prefect would be de facto ruler of this iteration of the Dominant Oppressorian kingdom until the end of its lifetime.

Christian Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors
Date Established: AD 35
First Ruler: King Peter A. Vader the Great (formerly known as 'Julius G. Vader')
Date Dissolved: AD 708
Last Ruler: Queen Monica R. Vader the Peacekeeper
Notes: When word of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth reached the kingdom, many Dominant Oppressorians felt drawn to His teachings. A year following His Passion, Death and Resurrection, in AD 34, King Julius G. Vader received a vision in a dream and was convinced of the power of Christ and His eternal Love. He changed his name from Julius G. Vader to Peter A. Vader, after Jesus’ apostle, St. Peter and led a revolution against the Romans in Dominant Oppressors. A year later, in AD 35, he and his forces had successfully expelled the Romans from the land and reclaimed Dominant Oppressorian autonomy. He declared his lands as the ‘Christian Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors’ (or in Latin, ‘Christianus Regnum Dominatur Oppressors‘),one of the first, if not the first, nations with Christianity as the state religion. It was a few decades before the Kingdom became a theocracy and some in the kingdom remained skeptical of Christianity for some time in the early days, but almost all quickly converted with great conviction. The Kingdom was in a near-constant state of conflict with the Roman Empire, both for the land itself and, on a lesser note, due to our Christian state religion (illegal and punishable by brutal execution in Rome). The second reason, grew in importance under more vicious and anti-Christian Emperors, such as Caligula and Nero. In fact, fighting against the Empire under Nero was so fierce that the Dominant Oppressorian King of the time is known as 'King John F. Vader the Roman-slayer' because of how severe the fighting was. We attempted to serve as a safe haven for the Christians that we could but due to the strong Roman presence on the border, getting them in was hard. Travel to and from our border with Rome was near impossible and all trade needed to be done from our other borders. Times were tough but we got by. We also established basic trade relations with Serica (China) during this period. Mainly trading our goods for fine silks, precious stones and other goods. In the early days we supported the section of the early church which would later evolve into Catholicism as opposed to the Gnostics and other diverging sects. Our people also had some contact with prominent figures of the early Church such as St. Paul, although not at the same level and divine inspiration as the letters that are found in the Bible. When Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity across the Roman Empire in AD 313, the state of hostilities with Rome also disappeared. There was a brief reprisal in fighting during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate but like many of his acts, that died with him. After Theodosius I made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire in AD 380, we became close allies to the Empire and a formal peace treaty was signed with them, that neither side would attack the other’s territory. Our relationship with the Empire and Rome in general would only grow with time. Theodosius also made House Vader and the other Dominant Oppressorian Noble families honorary Roman Patrician Families and their members honorary Roman Citizens and King James J. Vader made Theodosius and his family honorary Dominant Oppressorians. Theodosius also made Dominant Oppressors a Foederatus of Rome (a foreign land or people to which Rome provides food or money [a bit of both in our case] and the other state offers some of its men as soldiers in the Roman Army) but made sure to emphasize that our autonomy would be fully maintained. Although, Rome was quite nice to us from this point on, generally speaking, that doesn't mean we didn't get our fair share of rude Roman 'greater than thou' diplomacy (or just regular diplomacy as they would see it). It was hard for our monarchs not to find it offensive but after a few generations, it was just a fact of life that when Roman ambassadors were in the court, they were often arrogant and rude as they saw all foreign monarchs as less than Rome and their Emperor and that commonly reared its head during diplomatic meetings. It was just a part of their culture. As it began to take a more ordered structure in Rome, we took on Nicene Christianity as the state religion, narrowing it down from general Christianity with a focus on the ‘mainstream’ branch. This would continue us on our path to Roman Catholic Christianity as our state religion. It was during this period that many important Dominant Oppressorian Cities, such as Aldera and Urbem Florum, were first founded and later grown. We were closer with Western Rome than Eastern Rome but kept up good relations with them, especially good trading relations. As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire approached, we suffered from far less of the issues that Rome did (the Antonine Plague was still a terrible epidemic but corruption was not an issue in our Kingdom, for example) and were able to repel the wave of barbarian invaders that toppled Rome. We maintained good relations with Odoacer's Kingdom but following his death, the other Ostrogoth (and other barbarian) leaders were far less 'palatable' to us. Following this, King Matthew P. Vader the Great launched a series of conquests into the former Roman Lands, which garnered us a sizable expansion to our lands. During this period, we also allowed several former-Roman Citizens that wished to escape but couldn't make it to the east to live within our borders and become Dominant Oppressorians. It is, primarily, for these reasons that the Holy Emperor is claimant to the title of 'Emperor of the Romans' / 'Roman Emperor', a tradition which may have started around this time. However, that detail, much like the legitimacy of the title itself, is highly disputed to this day. Coronet City also found its start following these expansions, however it was known as 'Thynnus' in those days, which is Latin for Tuna (a common fish in the Adriatic sea). The Kingdom maintained its strength throughout its lifetime and only changed form for the sake of preventing future internal turmoil.

Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Commonwealth
Date Established: AD 708
First Ruler: Queen Monica R. Vader the Peacekeeper
Date Dissolved: AD 1172
Last Ruler: King Andrew C. Vader
Notes: During the last Century of the Christian Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors, a section of the Dominant Oppressorian populace began claiming they were of a different ethnicity to the other Dominant Oppressorians, closely related to the Dominant Oppressorians but not the same, 'ethnic cousins' if you will. These people call themselves the Glorious Ascensionists (don’t let the name fool you, it is an ethnicity, not an ideology or a religion), they claim that they descended from a separate group of tribes to the other Dominant Oppressorians that got grouped together when King Ädom claimed them as his own. This new found identity came about after some documents were uncovered which spoke of peoples who lived nearby to the Dominant Oppressorian tribes and with very similar ways of life but who came from different families to the other tribes, these ancestors to the Glorious Ascensionists submitted to King Ädom and were united with the others. These were one of the few documents we have on that era but they ended up establishing some very important details. The Glorious Ascensionists demanded recognition but nothing more, they believed that House Vader were their rightful rulers, same as the Dominant Oppressorians. Nothing was done for the first few decades but something major was done in AD 708. Worried that these demands would only grow and soon riots or civil war may develop, Queen Monica R. Vader decided to remedy this by re-founding the kingdom as the ‘Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Commonwealth’, thus enshrining the place of the Glorious Ascensionists in the name of the nation itself. This not only satisfied but greatly pleased the Glorious Ascensionists and would maintain stability in the nation (with regards to this issue) for a long time to come but, unfortunately, not forever. An interesting fact is that the primary style of the rulers of this era was ‘King/Queen [Name], Head of the Commonwealth and King/Queen of the Dominant Oppressorians and Glorious Ascensionists’. Shortly after the foundation of this new state, King Charles I (Charlemagne) came to power in the Frankish Kingdom (one of our neighbors) and began a series of quests to expand his lands. He was a fellow Christian King and shared many values with our rulers of the day and so our two kingdoms became close allies. We sent troops to help his expansions and we also grew our own lands in the process. King Francis M. Vader even helped Charlemagne decide the lands to give the Pope as the Papal States. When Francia was divided into three, we remained allied with all the emergent kingdoms but we were closest with East Francia (which would later evolve into the Holy Roman Empire). During this period, we were essentially your traditional Middle Ages European kingdom: feudal system, limited amounts of detailed historical records, poor medical practices, etc. Not too much would change for Dominant Oppressorian (and Glorious Ascensionist) society during the Middle Ages in general not only during this iteration of our kingdom. When the Holy Roman Empire was established, a small section of the Commonwealth's land fell within its borders. In order to maintain all the benefits of being a part of the H.R.E. but to prevent having our King be a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor (although, for most of the H.R.E.’s history, he held little real power over the other rulers in the H.R.E.), this area of Dominant Oppressors was deemed a semi-autonomous province (an Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire) led by a Prince. This newly declared province was dubbed the 'Principality of Atur' (and later nicknamed ‘the Kingdom within the Kingdom’), named after the primary city there which would serve as the capital of the province. The Prince of Atur would almost always be the actual Monarch of Dominant Oppressors except for on rare occasions when the monarch wished to grant the prestigious title to a close friend or one of their children, although even then, they would serve the King or be punished. The Principality allowed the king to vote on H.R.E. legislation as part of the Imperial Diet’s College of Princes. Due to the very limited size of the Principality we were not large enough to directly have a vote for the Holy Roman Emperor, although we did manage to avoid be lumped into one of the collective-vote Benches of the Imperial Diet but neither did our Prince have more than a single vote as some others did. Later on (in AD 1500), when the H.R.E. was divided into Imperial Circles (groupings of territories), Atur was part of the territories left ‘unencircled’ and thus not grouped into any Imperial circle. This was because, geographically, we were between the Austrian Circle (and we had nothing to to do with the Austrian Crown) and the unencircled Lands of the Bohemian Crown (which we also had nothing to do with), it would have made little sense to alter the circles just for our small land and so we remained unencircled. On two occasions, the Dominant Oppressorian King became the Holy Roman Emperor (Kings Charles O. Vader and Paul A. Vader), although they both ended up accomplishing little of note with the title. Dominant Oppressorian interest in the H.R.E. dwindled fairly quickly and while Atur was maintained, it and the King’s role in the H.R.E. were given little importance throughout most of Dominant Oppressorian history. When the Great Schism occurred in AD 1054 between the Church patriarchs in Rome and Constantinople, Dominant Oppressors strongly supported Pope Leo IX and his group, which would later become the Catholic faith, as opposed to Ecumenical Patriarch Michael I Cerularius and his group, which would later become Eastern Orthodox Christianity. After Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested aid in fighting the Seljuk Turks and Pope Urban II called on the leaders of the Kingdoms in Christendom to help the Byzantines and fight to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslim rule, King Paul J. Vader agreed to send Dominant Oppressorian troops to help. This mission would later become known as the First Crusade (1096 - 1099). The Dominant Oppressorian effort in the Crusade would be led by Count Francis T. Tyranus and Earl Stephan R. Sion. Following the Crusade, Dominant Oppressorian Crusaders together with some other Crusaders founded the County of Sernom, a crusader state which shared borders with the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch (both also Crusader States) and the Emirate of Aleppo. The County was first led by Francis T. Tyranus but pledged Fealty to King Paul J. Vader of Dominant Oppressors (Tyranus’ original monarch and the land to which he owes his first Countship) (Dominant Oppressorian Kings would resultantly take on the title of 'Feudal Lord of the County of Sernom') and served as a Vassal State to King Baldwin I of Jerusalem (as well as Paul J. Vader and his successors, of course), he provided military support to the land in exchange for loyalty (second to that owed to the Dominant Oppressorian Crown) and a fraction of the County’s agricultural output. Those who lived in Sernom would become known as Sernomian-Dominant Oppressorians. Sernom would not last long, falling to Muslim forces by 1138. Dominant Oppressors participated in the three minor Crusades leading up to the Second Crusade. During the Crusade of 1101, some Dominant Oppressorians joined the fight from the homeland (especially those that had turned their backs on the First Crusade, as was the case with most other Crusaders from this expedition). Whereas with the Norwegian and Venetian Crusades, we mainly participated via troops sent from Sernom. During the Investiture Controversy (which had been going on since 1076), despite our involvement in the Holy Roman Empire, the majority of the Dominant Oppressorians and our national position was that of supporting the Pope over the Holy Roman Emperor. The Pope was not only in-charge of all of Christendom but also the one who crowned the Holy Roman Empire in the first place, thus we believe that he rightfully held the power. Whilst this controversy is mainly associated with the Italian States, our nation was not one but yet we felt it was still important for our people to weigh in on the discussion. We may be considered a Guelph, however, due to the connotations between that term and the Italian nations, Dominant Oppressorian historians rarely use that term. The term is also rarely used due to Pope Benedict XII had later claimed (in AD 1334) that anyone to use the name 'Guelph' or 'Ghibelline' may face excommunication, although this was rarely followed up on and was issued many centuries ago now, we still try to avoid using the term in relation to our state whenever possible. Following the fall of the Outremer (Crusader States) Counties of Edessa and Sernom, Pope Eugene III called for another Crusade. After hearing that Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany were personally joining this Crusade, King Fredrick D. Vader (appears in some sources as 'King Friedrich D. Vader') decided to join as well. The Dominant Oppressorian armies joined the German forces along their crusade-path as opposed to that of the French. The Second Crusade ended up as a failure for the Christian side. King Fredrick was wounded whilst crusading and died back home shortly afterwards. By the late 1000s, the Glorious Ascensionists began to feel once again side-lined and ignored by the Crown and so small strikes became common-place amongst Glorious Ascensionists serving Dominant Oppressorian Feudal Lords. The Feudal Lords most often responded by having the rebellious serfs cut down and then going about the rest of their day. However, this only served to continue to build up the growing ire of the Glorious Ascensionists population in general. On 4th September 1172 (28th August according to the Julian Calendar in use at the time), the Glorious Ascensionist population in Vader City gathered outside the Royal Palace and attempted to forcibly enter. Sensing that unleashing the army on them would only cause greater riots across the nation, King Andrew C. Vader decided instead to try something similar to what Queen Monica had successfully done all those centuries ago. Andrew decided to make the Kingdom into a diarchy, one king to represent the Dominant Oppressorians and one to represent the Glorious Ascensionists. Andrew walked onto his balcony and announced his new decree to the mob. The crowd cheered and dispersed but unfortunately his solution would not hold for long. King Andrew abdicated the throne to his two eldest sons and the Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Commonwealth was dissolved. This event is known officially as 'the Glorious Revolt' but is known as 'the Inglorious Compromise' by its critics from the modern-day.

Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Diarchy
Date Established: AD 1172
First Rulers: King Charles P. Vader (of the Dominant Oppressorians) & King Peter F. Vader (of the Glorious Ascensionists)
Date Dissolved: AD 1214
Last Rulers: King James C. Vader (of the Dominant Oppressorians) & King Philip G. Vader (of the Glorious Ascensionists)
Notes: The Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Diarchy (sometimes referred to as the 'Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Paréage') was a short-lived nation, lasting only 42 years before collapsing and only having two individuals serving as king for each branch of the diarchy (the first directly followed by the last). Yet, several major events still occurred during this period. Before we continue with the history, I would like to take this moment to discuss the language of the Dominant Oppressorians prior to adopting English as our people's official language (which would occur many centuries later). Whilst the global Lingua Franca (whatever it was at that particular moment in history) was always present and popular in Dominant Oppressors (just as with any other European nation of the day), it was never made our national language until the height of the British Empire's power. For the majority of our history, our national language was 'High Dominant Oppressorian' (also known as 'Hoch Dominanter Unterdrücker' in German or ‘Hoch Dominanter Oppressörisch’ in High Dominant Oppressorian). The language is a Proto-Indo-European language, made up of a mix of primarily Middle High German, Classical Latin and Middle English with minor undertones of Russian, Middle French, Hebrew, Italian, Vulgar Latin and Ancient Greek. The language would evolve with time to be made up of the ‘newer’ versions of the languages as they evolved (e.g. Modern German, Contemporary Latin, Modern English, etc.). This evolution would lead to the split of the language into its own ‘sub-languages’ dependent on the era. Some examples are Middle High Dominant Oppressorian, Neo-Modern Dominant Oppressorian and others. The Dominant Oppressorian Medieval Inquisition was founded during this period some time following Pope Lucius III's decree to fight Christian Heresy (Ad abolendam) in 1184. The successors to this iteration of the Dominant Oppressorian Inquisition are still an integral part of Dominant Oppressorian society today! In 1187, forces of the Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin, retook Jerusalem from Christian forces and in 1189, the Third Crusade was launched. Neither of the Kings personally joined this Crusade and our forces were instead lead by members of our Nobility. Also unlike last time, we did not follow the German forces on their path (and good thing we did not, for it did not end well for them) and we instead marched with the English forces under King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart). Following the Crusade, many of the Crusader States in the Levant were restored but, unfortunately, due to political instability brewing at home, the County of Sernom was not restored. Pope Innocent III called the Fourth Crusade in 1202 but due to the instability growing at home, the Kings decided not to involve Dominant Oppressors on a national level. That is not to say, however, that certain Dominant Oppressorian individuals did not join in the fighting on their own. In retrospect, this turned out to be quite a stroke of luck! The Fourth Crusade was quite a disgrace, with the Crusaders essentially behaving as mercenaries, fighting for the highest bidder. Some of the Dominant Oppressorians that fought in the Fourth Crusade would become citizens of the new Crusader States which formed in the aftermath, particularly the Latin Empire. Whilst the nation of Dominant Oppressors did not fight in either of the Latin Wars, those of our people who remained in these lands did and thus one could theoretically say we were involved in them but we do not consider that to be factual. The East-West split which was accentuated by the sacking of Constantinople during this Crusade also harmed relations between the Byzantine Empire and our nation despite the lack of our direct involvement in the Crusade. A similar story occurred with the beginning of the Cathar Crusade in 1209. We were too politically unstable at the time to get involved nationally, but some Dominant Oppressorians did join on an individual level. Meanwhile at home, the Glorious Ascensionists were once again stirring. The diarchy solution had not worked and the riots and strikes had broken out again. Kings James and Philip together agreed on a drastic solution, a section of Dominant Oppressors would be carved up and made into its own Sovereign and Independent Sate: the First Kingdom of Glorious Ascension. Philip would be crowned as its first King. In order to prevent the two lines of House Vader from diverging too far apart from each other, every few generations the two Kingdoms would be brought into Personal Union under the rule of a single Monarch and then the Dominant Oppressorian and Glorious Ascensionist Crowns would be separately redistributed to his children following the sole ruler's passing. Thus, keeping the House of Vader close whilst also keeping the two Crowns separate for the majority of the time. It was also secretly agreed by the two Kings that Dominant Oppressorian Supremacy was to be maintained. They agreed that Glorious Ascension was to remain a quasi-puppet-state of Dominant Oppressors, a principle that would be passed down through the generations of House Vader. It was also agreed (more publicly this time), that the transfer-rate of the serf workforce between the new state and the old would be slowed down in order to prevent a crisis. With all of this, the agreements were signed and on 16th September AD 1214 (9th September according to the Julian Calendar in use at the time), the new Kingdom was officially established and with it, the Dominant Oppressorian-Glorious Ascensionist Diarchy was dissolved.

Third Kingdom of Dominant Oppressors
Date Established: AD 1214
First Ruler: King James C. Vader
Date Dissolved: AD 1543
Last Ruler: King George A. Vader the Great
Notes: With the Glorious Ascensionist crisis resolved, the Dominant Oppressorians could now return to form and so they did. Through this era, several crusades were lunched and Dominant Oppressors was involved in most of them. However, as our part in these Crusades is both quite similar to the others we had fought in previously and have already mentioned and to the experiences of the other European Nations who took part in them, I will not be discussing them any further in this summary. An important event in the early years of this Kingdom was our fights against the invading Mongol armies. The assaults came on and off between AD 1243 and around AD 1298. The border territories shifted back and forth throughout these onslaughts, however, the Dominant Oppressorian armies never allowed them to get very far into our lands. It was during one of these conflicts that the famous 'Battle of the Wahrus Hills' took place, where Count Francis R. Revan used superior tactics and clever use of his limited cavalry to cause the much larger enemy force to rout despite Dominant Oppressorian troops being vastly outnumbered by Mongol forces. Also during this period, it is interesting to note that the Knights Templar's banking operations became very popular in Dominant Oppressors, with them setting up several buildings for their operations throughout our lands. However, it was made sure that Dominant Oppressorian Royalty did not take major loans from them to prevent them from gaining influence over our rulers. In AD 1312, following the Pope's determining that the Templar Order was rampant with heresy and moral laxity and that they no longer had reason to exist, we followed his instructions and expelled them from our lands, handing over their former territory to the Knights Hospitaller instead, whom our nation would also foster good relations with for some time. With the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War, Dominant Oppressors did not initially get involved. We ended up committing very few troops to either faction and switched sides between supporting the French and the English whenever we did get involved, going through intermittent periods of support for each supplemented by far vaster period of completed uninvolvement. The Black Plague really began to ravage our nation in around AD 1351 and we certainly took a hit! This together with the Great Famine that hit Europe in the early 14th Century ended up killing around 40% of our population, including King George C. Vader and Princess Theresa B. Vader, among others high-up in the Kingdom. Recovery from such a major loss would be slow but we would eventually build up strength once again. Following King George's untimely demise to the plague in 1352, some panic broke out amongst the people, who believed that God had sent the plague on him because he was unworthy, before any major rioting broke out, Prince Richard A. Vader was quickly invested as king and he managed to calm the people before any great damage was done by visiting the Pope and receiving his personal endorsement of the Dominant Oppressorian Crown. When the Western Schism occurred in 1378, Dominant Oppressors' support always fell on the Roman and rightful Papacy. Slowly, things began to get back on track following the great death toll of the plague and famine. On Wednesday, 4th April 1381 (27th March according to the Julian Calendar), the first University in Dominant Oppressors, the University of St. John's, was founded in the city of the same name (known as 'Der Johannisburg' at the time). In 1419, when the Hussite wars broke out in the Holy Roman Empire, we sent our garrison from the Principality of Atur to fight for the Catholic-side, occasionally reinforcing them with fresh troops from Dominant Oppressors proper. The Hussite Wars ended with the defeat of the Radical Hussites and the recognition of the Moderate Hussites by the Catholic Church and consequently by Dominant Oppressors, although we remained staunchly Catholic (we would not become a full Catholic Theocracy [we were already a Christian one] until the Protestant Reformation). With the tragic Fall of Constantinople in AD 1453, it became evident to us that the Ottoman Empire may soon be a very serious threat to both our nation specifically and to Christendom at large, we began to further bolster our troop numbers. In 1492, an explorer serving the Spanish Crown, by the name of 'Christopher Columbus', would discover the new world for the European nations. The Pope would initially only divide the Americas between Portugal and Spain, however, the Dominant Oppressorian Crown soon began to show interest in the New World and would get later Popes to grant permission to gain colonies. This would not happen for a few more years, however. In the meantime, the Renaissance was also beginning to spark across Europe and Dominant Oppressors was not exempt from this. Many important works of Dominant Oppressorian Art and Literature were created during this period, such as those of the Dominant Oppressorian artist, Paul J. Artem and the writer & poet, Matthew T. Vatis, to name a few. In AD 1518 King Charles A. Vader would ascend the throne at a relatively young age, he would be one of our greatest rulers along with Peter the Great, King Ädom and, of course, Holy Emperor Adam the Great, our present Holy Emperor. Charles would also reign at a time of other great and powerful foreign monarchs, both friend and foe, but nonetheless global heavyweights to be sure; the likes of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, Ivan IV the Terrible of Russia and Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Charles began reforming the military shortly after his accession to the throne, these reforms would prove very useful in future. In 1522, Rhodes, the island-home of the Knights of St. John fell to the Ottoman Empire and the Order began lobbying the monarchs of Christendom for a new home. We have always had a good relationship with their Order but had no lands which we were willing offer, instead we subsidised them will they were searching for a new home and managed to convince Charles V of Aragon to rent to them his lands on the frontier with Islam, which he had found to be most at risk of falling to the Ottomans and being too hard to defend, Malta and Tripoli. Grandmaster L'Isle-Adam, later wrote a letter to King Charles expressing his gratitude for our help and expressed his joy at the special relationship between the Hospitallers and Dominant Oppressors, in his response, Charles solemnly promised to aid the Knights whenever it was within Dominant Oppressorian ability to do so.

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