Hoketleri

Hoketleri is a Balkavanian Nation on the Western Edge of the Reaktibitel Ostrov, bordered by Kibylj to the North, Srebvona to the East and South, and Jelispsobva to the South. In 255,

Basic History

Pre-Colonisation

The Ketleri are one of the few People groups whose history extends all the way back to the Great Question.

Empire of Hoketleri

Visual Progression of Dvoríâi Family Leaders and Emperors of Najskosa

The modern boundaries of Hoketleri were established during the Second Balkavanian War. The Dvoríâi were a powerful group of six families of nobles in the East of the Reaktibitel Ostrov, and they revolted against their Komarnan colonisers in 42 MT in the Dvoríâi Rebellion. They successfully won control over the city of Najskosa by 44 MT. North of them, the Ketleri people group, who had been native to the area for years before the Komarna arrived, had also pushed out the Komarna, and launched a campaign against the Dvoríâi in 44 MT, referred to as the . In response, the Dvoríâi formed a strong alliance with the bordering Soka people, and together they conquered the Ketleri, and their capital city, Eîy-Hoketleri - which was renamed to Dvosky - in 46 MT.

The most powerful Dvoríâi chieftain, Zbisob Vlaha di Stravnoke, became the first Emperor of the Najskosa Empire after the end of the war. His family ruled for three generations, until they were usurped by a rival Dvoríâi house - the house of di Pravelke - who deposed the young Empress Ziva Pruska di Stravnoke. She was exiled, but not killed. However, many of the di Stravnoke family were quietly killed.

In Ziva Pruska's place, Emperor Biko Slana di Pravelke, the young son of the di Pravelke chieftain - Slana Lavoi di Pravelke - was placed as Emperor.

Biko Slana's grandson, Prosta Perta, took the throne in 151 MT, 6 years before his father's death, and attempted to consolidate power to the di Pravelke family from the four remaining families. The di Sino family took great offense, and organised a revolution against Prosta Perta in 159, alongside the di Banica family. Prosta Perta defeated the revolution with an Iron fist, alongside the other two families, the di Skaluka, and di Mike. However, both families still associated with Prosta Perta were appalled at the disregard for the other families that the Emperor displayed, and began to seed dissent within the Najskosa Empire. In 171, Prosta Perta had nearly every member of the di Skaluka family arrested and executed on grounds of treason. Knowing their fate was sealed, the di Mike family threatened to revolt against Prosta Perta and the di Pravelke unless they were guaranteed safety under his rule. He promised their safety, which was a hugely popular choice among the general populace in Najskosa, but he went back on his word three years later, when he razed the Castilla di Mike, and had his army slaughter nearly 250 members of the di Mike family. Finally, in 178, he gathered any remaining members of the di Stravnoke family, and had them publicly executed. This fueled a growing anti-monarchist movement that had been growing underground across the Empire for years.

The Ketleri people formed most of the anti-monarchist movement, and over the next ten years, prepared to overthrow the power-hungry, and inarguably powerful Prosta Perta di Pravelke. However, he suspected treason among the historically ethnically separate Ketleri, and in 187, launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The Ketleri revolted in retaliation, and quickly took control of a large portion of the northern coastline, using the town of Dvosky - which they renamed to it's original name: Eîy-Hoketleri - as their capital. Their Bordering Region - the Soka, who were the only other non-Dvoríâi people group in the nation - also joined the revolution, and built a reputation as a very good spies and intelligence agents. The exiled leaders of the di Stravnoke and di Skaluka families returned to the nation, and threw their support behind the Ketleri, hoping for a chance to take control of the throne if the revolt was successful. Over the next three years, the Hormat Hereketleri (roughly translated as "Actions of Honour") steadily pushed back Prosta Perta's forces, and finally overthrew Najskosa in 190. Prosta Perta, and his entire lineage were executed by a di Stravnoke firing squad, at the order of Romil Vlaha di Stravnoke. As the Rebellion settled down, Remir Lava di Skaluka, the chieftain of the di Skaluka Family, declared himself the new emperor of Najskosa. However, hoping to keep the Ketleri on his side, his declaration was very carefully worded, claiming that he was "Emperor of the United Empire of Najskosa, Ketleri, and Soka." However, Romil Vlaha di Stravnoke responded with a double declaration, firstly claiming that Remir Lava had no rightful claim to the throne of the Nation, as he was not related to either of the previous lines of Emperors. Secondly, he published a rebuttal in a notable Ketleri Newspaper, discussing the insult to the Ketleri and Soka that Remir Lava had just made by declaring himself their emperor with no consultation or opinion from them. Vlaha rallied the regions of di Skaluka, Ketleri, Soka, di Mike, di Pravelke and di Stravnoke, while Remir Lava di Skaluka gathered those in his own region, along with the di Banica and di Sino regions. However, they were vastly underpowered compared to the rest of the Hormat Hereketleri, which began referring to themselves as the "Second Revolution." The Di Banica abandoned di Skaluka very quickly, though, and after just a few weeks of fighting, the di Sino defected to Vlaha's side as well. Finally, several notable di Skaluka leaders deposed

In response to the declaration by Remir Lava, Romil Vlaha di Stravnoke declared that, as equals to the Ketleri people, the di Skaluka had no right to declare themselves rulers over the Ketleri. He then led a second revolution-within-a-revolution, which resulted in the death of Remir Lava.

Attempted Democracy

Chancellor Romil Vlaha (192 - 204)

Romil Vlaha then declared the Empire of Najskosa dissolved, and in its place he and the Ketleri erected the United Socialist Hoketleri Nations (USHN, or Hoketleri for short). As a show of allegiance to the new regime, Romil Vlaha gave up his family name, and took on Romil Vlaha as his full name. He legally dissolved all Dvoríâi Family Structures, ending his reign as di Stravnoke Chieftain, and preventing Remir Lava's young son from legally becoming Chieftain.

Under Vlaha's direction, a committee of 16 Councillors from the eight Nations of Hoketleri (the six Dvoríâi Family Lands, the Ketleri, and the remaining region of Soka), who were to vote on the Leader of the USHN, was created. Each of the Nations was to elect an assembly of 99 officials, who would vote on their own leader (who would be called the Prime Minister), as well as two Councillors to be part of Vlaha's new Council. This group was called the Hoketleri Loyalist Council. The Loyalist Council unanimously elected Vlaha as the first leader of this new , and he took office as the Chancellor of Hoketleri in 192. Over the next few years, the Soka and Ketleri managed to get several of their own loyalists into the seats representing the now extinct Dvoríâi Family seats, and in 204, the Loyalist Council declared Vlaha, and his father - Vlaha Lavoi di Stravnoke - Enemies of the people, and dictators, and ordered them arrested and executed. Vlaha, who had been relying heavily on the Loyalist Council for legitimacy,

President Vealda Hastow (204 - 215)

A Timeline of the leaders of Hoketleri through it's various attempted Democratic Forms

Immediately following Romil Vlaha's deposition, the Loyalist Council held an election, which was even at the time considered to be completely rigged. Through this show election, the Loyalist Council chose a Ketleri leader famous for her role in the revolution as their new leader - Vealda Hastow. She did not take the mantle of Chancellor, though, instead naming herself the President of Hoketleri. The Soka felt betrayed by the Ketleri in this appointment, though, and pushed back, but quietly, getting Soka people appointed into key Military and Government Positions, most notably they took 2 of the 3 seats on the board of review for applications for new members of the Loyalist Council. However, President Hastow understood their intentions, and began using the secret police to purge Soka natives from Government. During this time, as a demonstration of her "humanity," she also took on Jakov Remir di Skaluka (the son of the last di Skaluka Family Chieftain) as a protégé in 213. However, he was outspoken against her regime, and her overuse of Presidential power - most notably in relation to the Secret Police. After running several polls that showed her far more popular than Jakov Remir (who had legally dropped the di Skaluka title), she offered him a free and fair election as proof of her commitment to the Hoketlerian people, not just her own ends. Remir, however, managed to pull ahead in the polls significantly, especially after two highly publicized debates between the two of them. President Hastow attempted to put a system in place to invalidate the elections, but it was exposed by an insider who was secretly loyal to Remir. The Chairman of the Loyalist Council (which was, by now, very heavily influenced by the Soka, and majority anti-Hastow) announced that this would invalidate her as a candidate in the upcoming election, but as the Ballots had already been printed, the election went on as before, but without Hastow's meddling. Remir won the election with 62.4% of the vote, and took the office of President of Hoketleri on the first day of 215.

President Jakov Remir (215 - 225)

Remir announced that there would be another election held in 5 years time, and that he would run again, but welcomed up to 1 contester from each of the Eight Regions. A long, convoluted, fraud-fraught election battle started in 219, with huge runoff elections to choose 8 opposers to Remir. By far the most popular of the opposers was Berto Garit, the Ketleri candidate. However, he didn't fare well against Remir, who still managed to win 45.6% of the vote in the final election, after the di Skaluka region's candidate began campaigning for all of his supporters to support Remir. He once again ran in 225, however this election cycle was fraught with even more fraud than before, and nearly nobody was sure which candidates were actually chosen by their people. However, Berto Garit this time formed a pseudo-alliance with the di Mike region's candidate, and the di Mike candidate began backing Garit. Remir also lost the support of the di Skaluka region, after Garit promised them huge infrastructure projects if he won. With the combined force of three candidates behind him, Garit narrowly edged out Remir in the final count, with 41.2% of the vote, to Remir's 40.5%. Remir contested the results, accusing Garit of Election Fraud. Unfortunately for his own re-election chances, Remir had dissolved President Hastow's Secret Police, and the Soka had continued to solidify their positions in Government and the Loyalist Council. Therefore, when Remir contested Garit's Vote Count, the Loyalist Council sided with Garit, as he was Ketleri, as opposed to Remir, who was born a member of one of the Dvoríâi Families, and announced Garit the winner of the Election, and the Third President of Hoketleri.

President Berto Garit (225 - 228)

Garit began to put systems into place to put more Ketleri into government, however this came at the cost of removing Soka from power. He also created a new Secret Police Service, which mostly focused on keeping corruption out of government, an act that Soka people and leaders saw as an attack on their positions within government. Whether unintentionally or not, Garit had threatened the Soka's control over the government, and just three years into his term, in 228, they declared his election result null-and-void, citing Election Fraud. Remir publicly declared himself President again, but the Loyalist Council decreed that he, too, was guilty of Election Fraud, and therefore ineligible for the Presidency. Therefore, they decreed, Finni Strava, the Soka candidate, and third place finisher in the 225 Elections, was the President. Both Garit and Remir contested this result, and together organized protests, and marched with huge mobs towards the meeting places of the Loyalist Council. However, with the backing of the Military, many of whom were more loyal to the Loyalist Council than any leader, and many else of whom were Soka, Finni Strava defeated the mobs in a violent fashion. 285 people died at the hands of the mob, police, or military across the 2 day span of the "Election Uprisings." Strava attempted to have Remir and Garit arrested, but Garit fled the country - reportedly to Dolzlatna. Remir was captured during the uprisings, and was placed in solitary confinement in Eîy-Hoketleri's highest-security prison.

President / Chairman Finni Strava (228 - 244)

Finni Strava then declared the title of President to be "slandered" by its previous bearers. He therefore titled himself the "Chairman of the Loyalist Council." As Chairman, he brought the Police and Military under his direct Control. He dissolved Garit's Secret Police Force, and killed many of its members, before forming his own, new Secret Police Force, called the "Lika Herevat", (Force of Honour) which was contracted to the Likevat in the vernacular. The Likevat were notorious throughout Strava's reign, arresting any potential dissenters and sentencing hundreds, perhaps thousands of people to death for little more than expressing satisfaction. The Soka were mostly untouched for the initial waves of dissention-squashing, and so made no objections to his political house cleaning. However, in 243, the Likevat arrested a notable Soka writer. Despite protests from the Soka Leadership, the writer was never seen again. This angered Soka Leadership, and several notable Soka Leaders threatened Strava's Leadership. Strava felt secure enough by this point to refuse to accept insolence from Soka, though, and he arrested 14 Soka Leaders associated with the group threatening him. This caused huge uproar in the Soka Nation, and the Soka began protesting. Strava met the protests with violence, and ordered the Likevat to arrest members of the protest, bind them, and then shoot them. This tactic was carried out against two protests, leaving at least 200 dead protestors. This had the opposite of intended effect on the Soka, and they began to organize their militia to depose Strava. Many Soka members of the USHN Military also defected to the Soka. Strava, showing no loyalty to his home Nation, and suddenly realising the threat the Soka might pose to him, began a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Soka, and his Military and Likevat began categorically executing upwards of 300 Soka per day. He also purged them from his government, including arresting and executing 11 of the 16 members of the Loyalist Council that he deemed "Soka-Backed". Appalled at this turn of events, Cklserolvan Prime Minister Vicér Doltaz began a military intervention into Hoketleri, aimed at protecting the lives of the Soka. With additional support from the Rennian Military, and with their own much more advanced than that of the Hoketleri at this point, the Cklserolvan Military scythed through Hoketleri, and deposed Strava partway through 244.

Loyalist Council Democracy

Cklserolvan Military Occupation (244 - 245)

As directed by Doltaz, the Cklserolvan Military then began to organise genuine elections in the country, although at the request of the remaining members of the Loyalist Council, they began by rebuilding the Loyalist Council, organising regional elections for the Loyalist Council Members. They also released Jakov Remir from prison, and lifted Berto Garit's banishment orders. They refused the Council Member's Request that the incumbent members be allowed to remain in position. Thanks to these rules, only two members of the Loyalist Council maintained their positions from before Strava was overthrown. The new Loyalist Council, in conjunction with Cklserolvan Military Leaders, then began to organise primary elections for a Presidential candidate from each of the 8 Nations. However, realising that this could further inter-nation tensions, they also passed a law requiring the ballots in every Nation to only include the 7 candidates from other Nations. This small change created huge turmoil in the political landscape, and began a huge set amount of political campaigning and deals between multiple candidates. Three front-runners emerged from the 8 candidates; Vaka Dine from the di Pravelke Nation, Dorset Miné from the Ketleri Region, and Jakov Remir, representing the di Skaluka Nation. Although Berto Garit had returned and attempted to run for the Ketleri candidacy, but was seen as disloyal by many Ketleri for fleeing the country, and was beaten by Miné in the Ketleri Primaries. The Loyalist Council added several new rules to the elections, mainly focusing on bringing balance between the different Nations, which had quite large population differences. To this end, they set a new standard for deciding election results; the Winner would be decided by the number of Nations in which the won the electoral race. If a tie ensued, they would break the tie with the actual number of votes each of the tied candidates received, which made it important to win the Nations with larger populations. However, if the number of votes the tied candidates received was within 1,000 of each other, a runoff election between the tied candidates would take place in the Smallest (population wise) Nation that none of the candidates attempting to break the tie were from. This system was designed with an intention of making it valuable to win both large and small Nations. The 245 Election resulted in a three-way tie between the leading candidates; Vaka dine won the di Sino and di Skaluka Nations, Dorset Miné won the Soka and di Stravnoke Nations. Remir won the Ketleri Nation and the di Banica Nation. The di Pravelke Nation was won by the di Banica Candidate, and the di Mike Nation was won by the di Stravnoke Candidate. The Votes were tallied up to be the deciding factor between the three, and Vaka dine fell behind the other two. However, Dorset Miné and Jakov Remir's total vote counts were only different by 634 votes across the entire USHN, with Remir barely ahead. At that time, the smallest Nation was the di Sino Nation. A runoff Election there finally gave Hoketleri an official Presidential Winner - Jakov Remir took the Presidential Oath for the second time, 30 years after his first term had started.

President Jakov Remir (245 - 255)

After the announcement of Remir's victory in the second runoff level of the election, Dorset Miné was reportedly approached by members of the Loyalist Council, informing him that they would not accept any Election Fraud accusations after this election, and he responded as they had hoped, publicly accepting defeat to Remir in a gracious manner. The Cklserolvan and Rennian Militaries began to withdraw after the presidential elections were finalized, but maintained a presence in the Nation until 247, to support democracy and President Remir. Remir began by completely dissolving the Likevat, and restructuring the Military, Police, and bureaucracy. He put several measures into place that placed more control over the economy in the hands of the government, to align with the SUSHN's Socialist Beliefs. He created several new sets of laws outlining expectations and methods of preventing one Nation from gathering as much power in government as the Soka had over the previous decades. Remir also created a bureau of elections, which was created with the express purpose of validating election results. Remir, who had a reputation as a champion of democracy after his initial defeat of Vealda Hastow in the 215 Elections, cemented this position further with these actions. After so many years of undemocratic or faux democratic rule, the people of the Hoketleri approved of Remir's pro-democracy movements, and he gained several points of popularity in notable regions during this term.

In 249, Remir announced that he would be running for election again the next year. He won the di Skaluka election in a landslide, and took a relatively easy victory over the next-best candidate, Vaka Dine, who had finished 3rd in the previous election. Dine won the di Pravelke primary once again, and after Dorset Miné's narrow defeat in 245, he did not receive the Ketleri Nomination for 250, and Berto Garit received his second shot at presidency. Remir won the Ketleri and di Banica nations as he had done in 245, and added to his tally the di Stravnoke and di Sino Nations. His 4th term as president was guaranteed when Vaka Dine won two Nations (Soka & di Skaluka) and Garit won di Mike. The di Mike candidate won the di Pravelke Nation, rounding out the Jakov Remir's fourth election victory.

Remir retook the oath of office in 250, and passed a new law within a week. Officially called "The Mandate to Prevent Dictators", it made it illegal for any candidate to serve more than two terms in office as President of the SUSHN. As Remir's first two terms had been as the President of the USHN, he had not yet violated this law, but it instantly threw the state of the 255 elections into turmoil, before the dust had even settled from the 250 elections. Remir served out the rest of his term without much controversy. He created stronger trade alliances with Jelispsobva and Kibylj, and successfully attracted a Formula Lego race to the nation in 253. The same year, he signed a trade alliance with Asil Kranost of the Nakorentan Union, after the Union annexed Soramti. This proved an unpopular decision with the EotLP, who cut the Formula Lego Race from their calendar.

Election of 255

As the preparations for the 255 Elections began to heat up, Vaka Dine won his third consecutive di Pravelke primary, and Dorset Miné re-emerged to take the Ketleri primary. Berto Garit, disappointed with his let-down in Ketleri, challenged for the di Mike primary (which was his largest support base during the 250 election), and won a primary there. Jakov Remir's replacement in the di Skaluka Nation was Niko Mikael, Remir's appointed "Governor" of di Skaluka. He therefore carried strong association with Remir, but also a history of administration and government experience.

In the final counts of the 255 elections, which took place on the 41st of Zabez, Vaka Dine won the Nations of di Skaluka and di Sino, Niko Mikael won the Nations of di Stravnoke and di Banica, Berto Garit won Ketleri and di Pravelke, and Dorset Miné won Soka and di Mike. With a four-way tie, the official votes were counted. Dorset Miné was marginally ahead, but Mikael trailed behind by just 670 votes, with Dine behind him by just 2,100 votes, and Garit behind Dine by just 1,300 votes again, meaning that all four had passed the first tie-breaking level, and moved onto the tie-breaker, which was a runoff election in di Sino. Allegations of cheating began to be thrown left and right before this election even happened. The election took place with minimal disruption on the 8th of Aran, and Vaka Dine won the election, and declared himself the next president of the SUSHN. However, he was never confirmed as the next Presidents, as the Bureau of Elections declared the di Sino runoff results irregular. This single declaration caused a huge upheaval across Hoketleri, and riots broke out in all the major Nations. Remir, still the president, declared a state of emergency, and requested Police Forces be deployed to control riots. Each of the Runoff Candidates declared that they had been the rightful winners of the runoff, and bands of their supporters began rioting in their respective strongholds.

Nakorentan "Stabilisation" and Rule

In response to the Election Chaos in Hoketleri, on the 15th of Aran, Nakorentan and Krjstendodi Forces were deployed to Hoketleri, to assist in "Stabilising" the situation. The runoff candidates realised that they had created the perfect pretense for invasion, and rapidly left the country. Niko Mikael remained in the Nation, as did President Jakov Remir. He refocused the Military and Police Efforts to resist the rapidly encroaching Union forces. However, the much less advanced Hoketleri Military stood no chance, and was scythed through by the well-oiled and trained Union forces. Remir refused to leave Eîy-Hoketleri, even as the Union forces approached from the North and South. On the 18th of Aran, he spoke publicly for the final time, saying that, as under the dictatorship of Finni Strava, his fate would be tied to that of the Nation, and he would never flee his people. The very next day, Union Forces flooded Eîy-Hoketleri, and Remir was captured. Rennian Sources revealed the next day that Remir had been shot by a Union General the same day. Remir's death was mourned by millions who were now under the rule of the Nakorentan Union. Officially, the Union announced that they had stabilised the situation, and "revealed" the true outcome of the runoff elections, which they declared was that Niko Mikael had won the election in a landslide, and that he was now the President of the Hoketleri Nation. Mikael, before even taking an oath of Presidency, announced that the SUSHN would join the Nakorentan Union immediately, and officially ended the Second Union of Socialist Hoketleri Nations, against the best efforts of his Mentor, Jakov Remir.

Etymology

The name “Hoketleri” came from the name of the revolution that overthrew their dictatorship in 190: the Hormat Hereketleri. After overthrowing the previous Dvoríâi regime, they renamed the nation after their movement. Hormat Hereketleri (which was contracted into the name we now know today) translates to “Actions of Honour”, which defined the moral revolution among the Hoketleri people.

Furthermore, the Ketleri People were among the largest supporters of the revolution, and the largest people group in the nation. The Hormat Hereketleri also renamed the capital city to Eîy-Hoketleri.