Renan Aristocracy

The time between 1630 and 1866 is known as the Renan Aristocracy period. Albrecht Renan, unlike the other members in the rich family of Renan, was more of a people’s man than an aristocrat. His father had owned most of the Markian South Merkopa Trade Company, therefore most of those assets were in his hands when he formed the Renan Aristocracy in Korakord, which at the time would account for an entire nation's GDP. In a time where welfare did not exist, the Renan Aristocracy gave the poorest farmers basic clinical treatment in the capital Korakord, which by 1649 had been renamed Erlory. Although a shadow of its former past, it still was a huge population centre filled with many people who still remained from the Markian Empire. Most of the population was made up by Sords who had become quite dominant in the day to day running of the government. The nation was informally called Sordland, despite officially being Renan. The country advanced and improved well into Albrecht’s sixties. Rumburgian King Edward saw an opportunity to claim the riches of Renan when his country was still suffering under economic problems due to the War of Dying Roses. He seized the moment and attacked the northern borders of Renan, razing many settlements. As the battles went on, the war slowly started to look worse for Renan when Rumburg inched closer to the heartland of Sords. At this time Albrecht was growing too old to lead the nation, already in his late seventies. Erick, the son of Albrecht, was groomed to take over the rulership and the war effort. He was 24 years old when he became the head of Renan and with the advice of his Agnolian mistress, he pursued an alliance with Agnolia, which was at the time ailing from Valgos raids and were equally threatened by Rumburg. Agnolian Queen Lenna was keen on an alliance as she saw mutual benefit, but also fell in love with Erik. Despite protests from Erik’s mistress who gave him the idea in the first place, Erik married Queen Lenna. To nobody’s expectation, a united front against Rumburg was formed with the marriage of the two sovereign rulers. During this period, Erik and Lenna co-ruled both nations, which technically turned Sordland and Agnolia into a single state. Together, they also stopped the invading armies and regained some of the lost territories. Meanwhile, Valgos stopped their raids into Agnolia, but the Rumburg war exhaustion was proving too damaging for the little gains made. In 1710, a peace treaty was signed between the three nations. When Lenna passed away in 1740, the two unified countries split again and Agnolia fell into a civil war between three families claiming the kingdom. The duke of West Agnolia decided to remain in Renan and did not join the conflict. The territory was later renamed Agnland. After the civil war, Agnolia was re-established as a merchant republic with a Rector at its head. In the early 19th century, the world witnessed the beginning of the Century of Revolutions. In Renan, however, the winds of change would not blow until 1833, when the people inspired by ideas of nationalism from the nearby kingdoms started a revolution against the Renan family. Nationalist revolutionaries proclaimed that the Aristocracy was preventing the Sords from reaching their full potential as a nation. Less fortunate parts of the country began to incite violence against privileged Bludish and Wehzek traders. The nationalist revolution began in 1859 and resulted in the destruction of the Renan Aristocracy along with the massacre of the entire Renan lineage. Sordland was surrounded by wars for a period of seven years and was broken into smaller regional and city states. The chaos of the revolution lasted until 1866, when a nationalist leader, called Egmund, who claimed to be the descendant of the Markian emperors as well as a maroon blood, managed to unite the nation under the Kingdom of Sordland.