Talk:Konig des Menschen Chapter VI (Map Game)/@comment-24521219-20200810074026

 Kingdom of Imerina

 * Government: Absolute Monarchy (Kingdom)
 * Monarch: King Rafandrampohy (B 1495 - Age 24, alive) (R 1513-1517), Queen Rangitamanjakatrimovavy (B 1493 - Age 26, alive) (R 1517-Present)
 * Dynasty: Ammagari (Andrianerinerina branch), Ammagari (Ndahimananjara branch)
 * Order of Succession:  Andriantompokoindrindra, the son of Ndahimananjara (B 1467 - Age 52) (imprisoned) | Andriamihaja, the son of Andriantompokoindrindra (B 1496 - Age 23) (revoked) [There is no current heir]
 * Economy: The economy of Imerina is based mainly on agriculture and fishing, there's also trade going on with the Swahili and various peoples on our home island including the other Malagasy states of Betsimisaraka, Mahafaly and possibly Bara. Contact has been established with the Ahuric Adnanite people and we have a major trade relationship, extending into influence and what could be seen as a de facto alliance with eachother. The Merina economy stands as one of the strongest and most developed in all of Sub-Saharan Africa, no longer seen as primitive.
 * Allies: N/A
 * Capital: Ambanja
 * Demographics:
 * Population: ca 549 000 total
 * Ambanja: 9 000
 * Mahajanga: 6 000
 * Toamasina: 4 000 (occupied)
 * Morafenobe: 700
 * Rural regions: ca 530 000
 * Ethnicities: 90% Malagasy (divided into 62% Merina and 28% others such as Betsimisaraka, Sakalava, Tsimihety, Sihanaka, Antankarana etc.), 5% Komoro Natives (Swahili?), 5% Adnanite
 * Religion: 86% Haintenism (traditional Merina folklore), 14% Zoroastrianism (there are also people who practice Haintenism with Zoroastrian influences and vice versa)
 * Wars and Conflicts (italics: Potential War):
 * Merina Civil War: After the outrage expressed by Andriamihaja, armies were raised and patrols close-by to the capital were started. On the 7th of October 1517, a patrol would notice a marching rebel army, led by Andriamihaja himself. Hostilities broke out and thus, the Merina Civil War began between Queen Rangita's royal court and Andriamihaja, accompanied by his supporters (called the Traditionalists).
 * 1517: 1517 marks the first year of the war. The Battle of Tsaratanana is a narrow victory for Rangita and the Traditionalists would retreat as a larger Royal army arrived. Rangita and Rafandrampohy (serving as a political advisor) were glad to hear that Mahajanga declared themselves loyal to the queen. Meanwhile Andriamihaja would sweep along the northeastern coast to take the Masoala peninsula. After capturing the naval vessels stored on the east coast, the Traditionalist controlled territory consisted of basically all of the eastern half of the kingdom, barring the Central Highlands whose newly settled area consisting of new Merina settlers and scattered Antankarana people is a more chaotic area and would become the main battleground of the war. The Royal Court in the meanwhile fought off the Traditionalist forces headed for Morafenobe and the newest city was grabbed by them, assuring that the biggest Antankarana settlement would be under Royal control. As 1517 comes to a close, the outcome of this conflict remains very much unknown to both sides.
 * 1518: As soon as 1518 would start Andriamihaja would contact neighbouring Betsimisaraka, asking for material assistance in the war. He'd argue to them that a Traditionalist Imerina would ensure the safety and independence of the entire island and guarantee peace between Imerina and Betsimisaraka, implying that a Merina kingdom under Rangita would pose a danger to the other states on the island and that they could be targets for conquest. In exchange for help, Betsimisaraka would be given resources, livestock and some of the more modern Merina technology. Rangita and the royal court would land on the Komoro islands to garrison several divisions of Fossa Warriors and some other troops to ensure that the Traditionalists wouldn't somehow get their grubby hands on them. Various skirmishes would take place as usual until the middle of the year Andriamihaja started a campaign of attacks all the way to the "bootheel" or what you would call it in the southwest of Imerina in the region of Menabe. As a response, the Royals would attempt an encircling movement that was partially successful. The Traditionalist troops in the southwesternmost area was cut off from the rest. A large force started fighting the larger force in the central southernmost area to attempt to push them back, while a smaller force tried to absolutely annihilate the trapped rebels. Andriamihaja knew that if he was able to tire out the royals in the south on the main battleground, he could possibly slip in and take the capital and win everything. He started to come up with plans for a good distraction, but needed a separate distraction first to really keep the Royals on their toes, fighting in almost every direction. The answer was the ocean. He started to send out the few warships the rebels held out towards Ambanja to bombard parts of it and hopefully cause chaos. This didn't really pay off however, as some coastal villagers noticed the ships passing by and quickly warned Ambanja, allowing them to send out their navy and starting a war at sea, which is mostly just naval skirmishes by the northern coast. Now at this point, Ahuric merchants were obviously aware of the civil war and the Royals needed to act. Diplomats were sent to the Ahuric Empire from Queen Rangita, informing them of the situation and asking for some form of assistance against the rebels. Meanwhile in that big battle in the south, those trapped rebels were proving an annoyance to the whole attempt at pushing, so some of the troops of the larger army went to assist, but it was a mistake as the Traditionalist were able to close in on the entire southwestern area. This forced a retreat causing the entire southern border to be controlled by them and giving the Traditionalists a fair bit of ground in the Central Highlands but they were still denied getting much closer to Morafenobe and it would remain as such towards the end of the year.
 * 1519: With the start of 1519, a pattern had been identified. One side pushes back the other in one area and the other side pushes them back in a different area, rinse and repeat. Most of 1519 would remain like this without that much to comment on. Some naval manuevers were attempted to defeat the Traditionalist navy, but failed and resulted in the Traditionalists capturing a ship. Naval warfare ended up on hold for a while after that as both sides put the ships on repair as both sides didn't want to risk the sinking of most of their fleet, allowing the other side to strike. Andriamihaja knew that he had to capture the capital of Ambanja somehow to win the war as quickly as possible. He first starts to raise as many soldiers as possible while keeping his controlled lands stable. This results in many untrained, peasant forces. He then starts to lessen the amount of forces in the Central Highlands and purposefully lets them start to be retaken by the Royals. In the meanwhile he plans to use his larger amount of forces now to strike Ambanja, capture it and become king. Still, this plan isn't completely ready before 1519 ends.
 * Military: Due to Imerina being a rural realm, a large amount of units can be raised for warfare, but usually about 1% of the population is the most trained and prepared soldiers that can be drafted. Parentheses means the deployed units in cases where not all units are deployed for war.
 * Deployed units: All (Royal Court only)
 * 2 000 Spearmen
 * 1 000 Bowmen
 * 1 000 Crossbowmen
 * 90 Light Cavalry
 * 50 Fossa Warriors
 * Navy:
 * 11 Ahuric military ships (4 controlled by the Traditionalists)
 * 2 Mer'ana class ships
 * 8 transport ships (3 controlled by the Traditionalists)
 * Diplomacy:
 * Ahuric Empire: See 1518. TL;DR - Help us please.
 * Betsimisaraka: See 1518.
 * Events:
 * Before the Storm - 1513-1515: The years following Rafandrampohy's ascension as King of Imerina were marked with a massive "campaign" to find and imprison and/or execute those believed to have participated in the conspiracy to overthrow the royal court. Vast amounts of people were arrested, but there was not a shortage of staunch Haintenist priests and nobles who managed to flee the Merina borders to other parts of Madagasikara (or whom went to the Komoro islands, whom have more "freedoms" of their own and which are less enforced by the Merina government). While there was obviously turmoil, from what was known most of the realm was for the current pro-Zoroastrian and pro-Ahuric direction the kingdom was heading in at mach speed. There was quite a problem though and that was a lack of nobles and rulers of various administrative areas due to the mass arrests. Considering his father was murdered as part of a larger planned conspiracy and the fact that he spent over 2 years jailing suspected members of that conspiracy, Rafandrampohy was nervous in crowning new ones, fearing they would revolt while the royal court is in quite a vulnerable position. This resulted in many of the new governors of cities and such being picked through something similar to nepotism, as in people very close to Rafandrampohy and Rangita rather than those with the most experience and qualifications.
 * Before the Storm - 1516: Noticably there was a bit of a stagnation in the development and prosperity of the non-capital cities due to their new leaders who weren't really competent enough for these positions. Smaller peasant revolts would occur, but quite easily put down. In the meanwhile, Andriamihaja was still breathing out a sigh of relief that he wasn't imprisoned by Rafandrampohy despite his relation to the conspirators and their agenda as well as the current king kinda really not having a good child-and-teenhood relationship with him due to all that stuff with Rangita and support for Zoroastrianism. He still saw opportunities for himself in the current state of Imerina. He put on a persona to keep himself safe. He acted scared of being imprisoned and subordinate to the king because of this. He also offered to help the royal court by acting as a sort of "diplomat" between different governors and such of the Merina Kingdom to keep everything stable. Rafandrampohy still didn't trust him but with not really anyone else around fitting such a role better he handed it to Andriamihaja. Of course the slippery eel is still very much an enemy of Rafandrampohy and wants revenge for his father's imprisonment, especially against Rangita, his own sister since he believes she truly betrayed the family and their grandfather (Ndahimananjara) when she bought into the Zoroastrianism stuff and started to bang Rafandrampohy (although that didn't literally happen until after marriage hah). During his time as this diplomat character thing he would secretly rally up people against the king and made alliances with the few nobles who weren't arrested that do hold a grudge against the new ways of Imerina. Now ever since after Rafandrampohy became king and married Rangita the two obviously were trying to produce children, a lot of them in fact in order to make sure there was a good amount of persons in the order of succession to make sure there's a ton of heirs and that the precarious situation regarding heirs that has plagued Imerina for the last few decades won't come up again. However, despite a lot of... a certain interaction between two consenting adults, there were no signs of Rangita being pregnant. In October of 1516, the couple approached the court physician. Because it's the early 16th century and we're also in Madagascar the physician did some examination or whatever that definitely doesn't happen today and told them to wait until the next year before starting to do secks again.
 * Before the Storm - 1517: Throughout 1517, the worsening state of governance would be even more noticable, even with people in governing positions gaining experience. This made Andriamihaja gain even more allies and the plan of a second conspiracy seemed to have a likelihood of actually succeeding this time, even quite a few of the extant Fossa Warriors would join his side as well. Meanwhile there was still no success of creating life between the king and queen. Checking once more with the court physician in June, some examination was done, Rafandrampohy was given a treatment that is as trustworthy and functional as medieval treatments usually are and whatever number was going to be the charm. But it wasn't and finally Rafandrampohy had realized that he was infertile and couldn't impregnate his wife. This meant that he couldn't see the beauty of starting a family as well as the fact that the succession was in even bigger trouble. Andriamihaja existed and was next in line but Rafandrampohy would rather break all the Merina fady than give him the crown. This fact was kept as a royal secret until August as Rafandrampohy attempted to keep everything together and ponder over what to do. He came to the decision that he would have to give the crown to Rangita. As far as they knew, she could still produce children and would have to get a different man as husband to secure the safety of the order of succession. He also believed her more military background could make her a good monarch, possibly even better than himself. Sure, Rafandrampohy's mother was still alive and only in her early 40s but Rafandrampohy was biased because wifey and also military and other stuff. On the 25th of August 1517, Rafandrampohy declared his abdication in favor of Rangita due to his condition. This was extremely controversial. Women do not have the right to serve as regnant monarch in Merina law but not only that, this meant a person who is not descended from Andrianerinerina (the founder of Imerina and the fabled son of Zanahary himself) and not only that either this also made nobles recall the much more public knowledge of Zafimahova. She served as regent (something that women are allowed to be in case of a very young king) of king Rafandrandrava and even after he was old enough she held him on puppet strings as the "true" ruler of Imerina, from the shadows. This kind of led to the current "oh shit there's barely any heirs" situation of nowadays and also due to standards, a woman having "control" over a man is seen as a massive no-no. Andriamihaja was INCREDIBLY pissed, since he was now pushed behind his sister as heir and also if she got children they would be in front of him. Andriamihaja protested and demanded that he would be crowned king due to literally being next in the order of succession. Rangita and Rafandrampohy basically gave him the finger by banning him from the rova (basically a fortified palace) of Ambanja. Andriamihaja gathered in Toamasina and raised up his supporters and soldiers of his own and started a march on Ambanja. (followed in Wars and Conflicts)
 * Influences of the Ahuric Empire: With increasing diplomacy and interaction, the Adananita have set influence over us. More merchants start to adopt Zoroastrianism and/or parts of it into their rituals and traditions. More Zoroastrian texts are translated into Malagasy and the Sorabe alphabet, which is being more modified in these texts to accomodate various parts of the Adnanite language that we don't have, continuing the Adnanification of the Sorabe alphabet as well as leading to merchants learning the Adnanite language. The officially established class (or caste) of Merina merchants also trade in the Komoros with not only the natives there but also the Swahili on the East African coast, which sets up the start of spreading Zoroastrianism, the adnanified Sorabe and the Adnanite language to those lands.
 * Tombovelo - Roa: Now in the Ahuric Empire, Tombovelo spends these 5 years quite all over the place to be honest. He lands in Duqm and spends the first year in what is formerly Oman, later traveling to the capital itself: Ahuras. These years were spent enjoying the foreign culture and meeting new people as well as studying Zoroastrianism, sciences and other Ahuric stuff together with experts. He wrote down everything he experienced to take with him back to Imerina when he decides it's time to leave. He is worried over the state of Andriamasindohafandrana (well...) as well as the stability of Imerina but he hopes it's good, oblivious over the civil war that has begun and lasted 3 years so far.
 * Adapting New Technology: We've held on to foreign tech for quite a while and now we start adapting it and studying it more. Crossbows especially for the purpose of warfare in the future. Crossbows become a good weapon that starts to increase and seems more effective than bows. Still, the majority of our ranged units are bowmen since bows and arrows are simpler to make and you don't need to reload when using them. The phasing out of bows will take a long time. Seeing the success of cavalry in various battles, new tactics are developed for the cavalry units and more of these units are recruited. The breeding of horses, while having occurred for a few years have really started taking off after this.
 * Status of the Antankarana [Final]: The Central Highlands were inhabited mainly by the Antankarana ethnic group, another ethnic group that live near is the smaller Bezanozano. Since Merina colonization the Antankarana have scattered and now mostly live in diaspora rather than in one central homeland. Violent skirmishes occurred after the colonization and attempts to make peace with the insurgents have been quite successful. Now that the civil war has begun and the highlands serve as a massive battleground, things are not so peaceful anymore. Some of the Antankarana have joined the Royals and others the Traditionalists and some more migration (this time mostly out of Imerina rather than into a different location within Imerina) is starting to occur.