Arviragus

Arviragus (Arviragan: Arwiragus) is a mountainous duchy in northern Fanaglia. With a land area of 513,000 square kilometers (318,000 square miles), it is the smallest duchy in mainland Fanaglia, while, with 26.1 million residents, it is the second-most populous (after Cynfelyn). Its capital and largest city was once Kraftenburg before it was declared an independent municipality and capitol of Fanaglia after the Fanaglian Unification; its current largest city is also its current capital, Arvirar City (Arviragan: Arwirstadt).

Arviragus has a unique culture, largely because of the state's Catholic majority (77.5%), Drachenvolker heritage, and conservative traditions. Arviragans have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes festivals such as Oktoberfest and elements of Clotisch symbolism. The state also has the second largest economy among the Fanaglian duchies by GDP figures, giving it a status as a rather wealthy Fanaglian region.

=History=

Origins of the Arviragan People
When Christianity first arrived in the Drachenländer in the mid-to-late eighth century, the teachings of this new religion were diametrically opposed with the practices of the Drachenkult, the Sifyr worship practiced by the Todenvolk, and the white-faced blankness of the Merkmalslos; the early adherents of this faith quickly found themselves isolated from the homogeneous societies around them. As the young religion grew and the elders of the fanes began to view these bare-faced heretics as a threat, Christian Drachenvolk were forced to continue to wear their Drachenkult masks in public and practice their true faiths in private for fear of social ostracization, or worse. Tensions grew and the Christian faith was officially banned, the penalty for being found bare-faced and forsaking the gods being the skinning and salting of the flesh of one's face. Thus began a period that would become known as The Faceless Times (die Gesichtloskeit), a case of mass hysteria in which hundreds or even thousands of Drachenvolk were accused (many for reasons of spite or retaliation) of practicing Christianity and subjected to defacement (verungesicht).

In 835 AD, the Grand Priest Moritz the Beginner issued The Christian Removal Decree, which ordered all property and lands to be confiscated from accused Christians, who were to be arrested and detained in the Southern Mass Accommodation (Das Südliche Massenquartier), where they were forced to sleep in the cold mud, huddled for warmth with little more than the clothes on their backs as they awaited removal. Months later, a riot broke out within the camp, which by that point is said to have held as many as ten thousand accused Christians. The detainees scaled or toppled the walls built to contain them and the king's army engaged them in combat. The escaped prisoners fought valiantly, but reinforcements arrived from the north to quash the rebellion, killing or capturing and defacing any who stood in their way. The following day, each prisoner was given a single potato and a piece of reindeer jerky as their only rations and they were told to march south. As the king's soldiers stood guard, a crowd of townsfolk had gathered and pelted the Christians with stones as they marched, their hands held up to protect their heads as they bent into the wind and blowing snow. Any who stumbled or fell were descended upon by the crowd, kicked and beaten, never to get up again. The army followed the Christian heretics into the night, "extinguishing" any who happened to lag behind, be they men, women, or children. Only after three days was it determined that the Christians were a sufficient distance removed from the Drachenländer and they were allowed to rest.

For the next forty years, the Christians exiled from the Drachenländer wandered the plains and hills of Sval-Eiren, hunting and trading whenever and wherever they were able until they had outstayed their welcome with the local population and were forced to move on. As they traveled, they frequently witnessed to the local populations to spread the Word of Christ, their numbers gradually growing as converts joined their community; this witnessing was often found to be at best a nuisance and at worst a threat to the local populations, which was often the reason the Drachenländer were forced to continue moving. This semi-nomadic period continued until 888 AD, when they finally settled permanently in the Arvirar Peninsula.

Settling and Defending Arwirstadt
(Related article: Otto the Huntsman)

When the Christian Drachenvolk first arrived in the northern Arvirar Peninsula in 888 AD, the area around the Little Arvirar River Delta was considered to be too marshy for any large settlements and was of little value; it was so sparsely populated that it was several years before King Cloten IX of Cadwal became aware of their arrival. There is some debate over how Otto der Jägersmann managed to rise to become the king and convince the king of the Cadwalians to allow them to settle in his swamp, but a popular story in Arviragan legend involves a hunting wager and Otto's quick wits (See: Otto the Huntsman).

With the Little Arvirar Delta secured, Otto was declared King of the Christian Drachenvolk, and he named his kingdom Arviragus after the river that had finally given them sanctuary after forty years of wandering. But there was much work to do -- the Delta was still useless swampland and life was hard in the beginning. After establishing some basic fortifications around his simple village, Otto and his men built a large, flat-bottomed boat, which they slowly poled upstream until they reached the point where the river began to flow more freely. They immediately established an encampment and named it "Arnulfsfestung" ("Arnulf's Fort"), from which they began a project to divert the river and drain the marshes. It took three years of hard labor over which several men succumbed to exhaustion, disease, or accidents but once the waters of the Little Arvirar River had been diverted, the land surrounding the settlement (which had come to be known as "Arwirsburg," or "Arvirar Town") began to dry out and the ground began to harden into fertile, workable soil upon which a proper town could be built. Word spread to other communities of Christian Drachenvolk living abroad about a new settlement to call their own. As the surrounding forests were logged to feed construction in the ever-expanding Arwirsburg, they were transformed into small farms to feed its people. Arwirsbug continued to expand up the delta and eventually along levees forming the new banks of the Little Arvirar River and it was soon appropriate to call it Arwirstadt ("Arvirar City").

Everything changed in this small, but growing kingdom in 902 AD when fishermen discovered a small amount of gold in the dirt along the banks of the Little Arvirar River, which, it was determined, had washed down from the Great Cloten Mountains from which the river was fed. King Otto, then in his twilight years, knew that his tiny kingdom existed on a knife's edge; the danger that King Alemen II (who had succeeded his father, Cloten IX, after the latter's passing eight years earlier) would return to reclaim the Delta as his own was very real. The Arviragans began quietly panning for, and eventually constructing mines to extract as much gold from the surrounding hills as they could, as quickly as they could. Otto sent traders abroad with this gold, on a mission to procure as many weapons and mercenaries as they could discreetly buy. At the same time, he engaged in negotiations with King Karl II of Quibella, his neighbor to the east and long-time enemy of the Cadwalians. He couldn't remain unnoticed by Alemen forever, but he would be ready when the time came.

Rumors about unexplained riches and a secret army in the marshlands of the Little Arvirar River Delta finally reached Alemen II in 907 AD. If that land was indeed valuable, Alemen considered himself entitled to it. He dispatched an army to deal with King Otto and reclaim the Delta for Cadwal. However, Alemen II was young, inexperienced, and was not well-versed in the art of war. Rather than depend on seasoned generals for guidance, he appointed his friends and faithful followers into roles of military leadership. Between his generals' mismanaging of their men, the Arviragans' clever use of guerilla warfare, and, thanks to the reinforcements sent by the Quibellans, numbers far greater than the Cadwalians were prepared to face, King Otto's men not only successfully repelled the Cadwalians, but began pushing into their territory, burning farms and villages and brutalizing the locals. With the sacking of Ænonton, Alemen frantically dispatched a messenger to beg for an end to the carnage. Otto ordered one of the messengers' fingers be removed before sending him back with a message to his king to make a deal with him, man to man, or the next messenger would lose two fingers. The young king complied and arrived in 'Ænonton, hoping to negotiate with the "barbarian." Things were far less civil than Alemen had hoped; he left Ænonton without his left eye and without regaining his lost lands. Otto threatened to remove his other eye, and perhaps more, as well as sack more and more towns all the way up to and including the capital city of Cadari if Alemen reneged on their agreement and failed to allow the Arviragans to exist in peace. For thirty-seven years, the Cadwalians honored the treaty.

Rise of Catholicism in Arviragus
WIP

tl;dr: Karl II of Quibella has an easy time converting Konrad I of Arviragus (and, by extension, his people) to Catholicism due to the latter's desire for a strong ally as he eyed the mountains to the west for conquest. The practice of Arviragan Catholicism remains unique in that many of the ancient Drachen traditions are still popularly observed.

War With the Cynfel Tribes
WIP

...eventually pushing inland and waging war with the Cynfels to gain control of the Great River Arvirar and control both waterways connecting opposite sides of the peninsula. The Cynfels are defeated and are pushed into the lowlands in the southwest.

The Kingdom of Arviragus
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Fanaglian Unification
(Main Article: Fanaglian Unification)

In the face of aggression from Menid, King DiMarco of Arviragus led the Unification of Fanaglia (Arviragan: Die Fanaglische Vereinigung), which was finalized on 24 September, 1842. As part of the Unification agreement, Kraftenburg would become the capitol of the new Kingdom as an independent municipality, Arviragan would share official language status with Cynfel, and the other four kingdoms of mainland Fanaglia would become duchies under the new Fanaglian king.

When DiMarco was crowned King of Fanaglia, his younger brother, Wilhelm was given control of Arviragus, now as the first Duke of the Duchy of Arviragus.

Second Fanaglian Civil War
(Main Article: Second Fanaglian Civil War)

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Free State of Arviragus
WIP

=Geography= Arviragus shares international borders with Quibella to the east and (NPC Nations) to the north, as well as duchy borders with Polydore, Cadwal, and Pisiano. Two major rivers flow through the state: the Little Arvirar River, whose mouth is the site of Arvirar City, and the Great River Arvirar, whose source is in the Cloten Mountains and which passes through Kraftenburg. The Cloten Mountains define the western border with Polydore and within the range is the highest peak in Fanaglia: the Dreispitzer. The Grauwald is a large, forested area along the southern border with Cadwal.

The three largest cities in Arviragus are Arvirar City, Rotstern, and Bergreich. Kraftenberg was once the capitol and largest city of the Kingdom of Arviragus (its second capitol after it was moved from Arvirar City), but that city was granted status as an independent municipality as part of the Unification of Fanaglia and Arvirar City once again became the capitol of Arviragus.

=Politics and Administrative Divisions= WIP

=Demographics= WIP

=Culture= WIP

Religion
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Traditions
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Food and Drink
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Sports
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