Naou Coili

The islands of Naou and Coili, located in southern Vidina, have been settled by numerous ethnic groups across history. They were most likely settled about 14000 years ago by the humans that lived in what is today Higher Tar-Dinuu and even came under the ancient rule of a predecessor to Enqusqo, which is why there are so many ethnic Enqusqans on Naou. The islands got their names from the abiate words for Nawanu, which meant upper and Cili li, which meant “Forested coast”.

History
The people lived there mostly in tribes in the traditional Ashu-Ipa huts (a form of tipi-hut with a wood foundation to avoid high tide) upp until 775 AD, with the exepsion of the Enqusqans who breifly held sovereignty over the islands. In 775 AD the powerful tribe leader Damu of Naou conquered the north island for himself to rule. He was the forefather to today's monarchy, even though it changed hands once during the Massacre of remembrance day in 967 AD. He ruled peacefully until he died. He allowed for the preparation of a lavish final meal, which would eventually morph into the traditional Damuk feast, taking place as a family tradition on the 24 of december every year. (To this day it is not known how much of the story of Damu is urban legend and how much is facts).

After Damu’s death his son Tamudin took control at age 26 and assembled a court to aid him in his rule. He later colonized the south island of Coili and integrated the nation's first diarchy. He placed his young brother in control of the island and appointed a separate council for him. This system worked mostly flawlessly until the Massacre of remembrance day in 967 AD, which is what created that holiday in the first place. The Massacre of remembrance day is when foreign troops stormed the capital manor, where the royal family resided, and brutally murdered every one in it. The then king, Abudine III, was on a diplomatic mission to the south on that very day, so he luckily survived the catastrophe. He came back two months after the incident initially happened and regained control through military might.

The tragedy instilled a fear in the Abudine, who introduced the law of the islands to keep them isolated from foreigners. This law is still partially in effect today even though it has had some significant changes. And over a thousand years later it can be seen engraved into stone in the capital manors: “Museum of state”. The isolationist ideals were upheld for approximately 500 years, until the people of Agarad showed up to the islands in search of riches and a new home. The people of the islands, now accustomed to isolation, turned up in droves to see foreigners and the products they were willing to sell.

A trading port was constructed on the south island to be able to take in more Agar ships at once. The trading port grew exponentially and soon became the second largest city of Col. All of this was allowed to happen due to the weak look on isolationism the king of the south island had at the time. The king of the south islands name was Tahimi I, who had grown so far apart from the king of the north island that ver only tangentially related to him and no longer cared for the extremist ideals of the 8th century. The king of the north whose name was Thealdrin IV was oblivious to this anti-isolationist surge that was happening on the south island and very much believed that all non-abiates were racially inferior to Abiates. This is what many historians believe is the beginning of the split in the abia culture. Thealdrin got word of the colonial activity on Coili in 1507 and was outraged on how this could happen.

War of the Palms
The war of the palms was based on a split in culture between Naou and Coili regarding their stance in racial equality that started on the 5th of November 1507. The south island was led by Tahimi I and believed that the trading partnership with Agarad should keep going and that everyone was equal in terms of race. The north was an extremist, isolationist nation led by Thealdrin IV who believed that they were chosen by the world to be better than everyone of other races.

The first and the last battle of the war was the battle of the li, when northern troops set foot on the coast of the south island and were met with volleys of gunfire. The battle went on for several hours until the southern troops surrendered. There were immense casualties for both sides, as the north suffered 2655 casualties and the south lost 1625 troops. The northeners set up camp on the beaches, but were awoken by gunfire, and fled back to the north island. The southern troops followed suit, now with backup from soldiers who had been standing on the backlines. The north were chased all the way to Naou Imila (The then name for Naou Tahimi). The siege of Naou Imila was brutal, and killed over ⅓ of the population of the city. The war ended when Thealdrin agreed to sign a peace treaty that would end the war and give the Agarads the same rights as everyone else along with renaming the capital after the victorious southern king.

The nation took it’s time to repair while trade with the outside world increased and the population grew. It was during this post-civil war time that large ore deposits were discovered all over the islands. With the newfound wealth from ore exports, the country flourished and experienced its golden age, with improved infrastructure, education and various sciences. This golden age ended in 1531 as part of the assasinaton of the counselor of foreign affairs Dimilter Abudi, a widely liked figure who was a veteran from the war of the palms. His death led to quickly souring relations with Agarad, who at this point was their largest trading partner.

A buoyant stage was reached for the country and it stayed afloat all the same for almost 200 years with trade fluctuating between lots and almost none. Eventually Agarads more imperialistic period came to be. This saw harsh bloodshed as the Agarads took up arms and attempted to get Col under their jurisdiction, which largely succeeded. At this point Ordrey had gotten wind of the immense natural resources in Naou - Coili (plus their weakened situation due to the Agarad imperialism) and proposed a treaty, whereby Ordrey would be allowed to construct a naval base and a fort on the south island, along with being allowed to grow coffee on the north island. The Abiates said yes to the proposal, because they were afraid of losing control over the south island entirely, and since it at this point contained their second largest city they knew that it could have tremendous consequences to lose it.

Ordrey constructed a fort and a town with a port just south of Col, along with providing secret military aid to the Abiates. The settlement had time to grow into a city filled with luscious coffee plantations in the time it took to regain control over Col, and it was dubbed “Tamakia” from the Abiate words for “The brown hill” (T amat kias). Eventually came the battle of Col, which was when Abiate troops stormed Col in the dead of night with secret help from Ordrey. The following battle lasted for the rest of the night and the entirety of the following day. The exact death count is not known as many might have escaped or died from injuries later on, but the best estimates say 5 - 9 thousand people died, mostly Abiates. The end result was that the Agarads retreated and also saw Ordrey being given large monetary grants to construct coffee plantations all over Col as a thanks for ridding them of the Agarads. The Ordrey treaty of 1742 gave Ordrey a suzerain-like status over the islands in exchange for full integration into a proper colony. Ordrey also gave military protection to the islands and were thus given the right to construct forts and ports and plantations as they pleased. The economy grew a lot during this time along with the population. The standards of living improved and the 2 northernmost tiny islands finally received one counselor on the councils each, after over 400 years of representation.

Everything changed during the 1740s (maybe?) when the TBD canal was dug through their neighbor Enqusqo by the Myrs. The islands are very close to the canal and were therefore strategically important to control, and since the Ordrey had taken control over the islands during the construction of the canal the Myrs were not happy, as they had dug the canal to get past Ordreys tariffs in the first place. Gladomyr had begun construction of the canal a few years prior, so it was too late to turn back now. The following two months were heated, as a proxy war with Naou - Coili as its center seemed like a very possible scenario and was very close to actually happening multiple times. Instead a trade-war started in the region with the Kiddal sea and the canal as its center. The islands found themselves in a naval encirclement that sank or plundered any incoming, outgoing or passerby Ordron ships that happened to go through the area. Economic hardship ensued as food supplies ran short and economic growth halted, which was the exact intent of the operation. Famine struck the land as a thunder and hence got the name: “The year of thunder”. Coffee-bread was used as a substitute for normal bread, which had an impact on the nation's future quasine. The encirclement ended after 8 months when Ordrey agreed to sign a treaty with Gladomyr called the treaty of Coili, which decided that Gladomyr would gain control of the islands on march 17th 1744 (maybe?), which was two months after the treaty was signed. Ordrey also had to pay a large fee for interrupting Gladomyr trade. That fee was paid with Naou - Coilian resources right before the Ordons left, and therefore left an even worse economic situation for the islands along with sparking an initial distrust in foreign rule that would eventually lead to independence.

During world war II Naou - Coili stayed mostly neutral, except for exporting resources to both allied and axis powers and declaring independence. This period of time saw Gladomyr withdrawing huge amounts of troops from various colonies, Naou - Coili included. A national-traditionalist group by the name of Naou - Coili forever had gained immense popularity due to fear that they might be dragged into future Gladomyr wars or a repeat of the year of thunder. The NaCoFo for short had already begun to seize family owned Myrish coffee plantations. So when they eventually marched into Col and Tamakia to root out any Myrish resistance left, there simply was none, as the few troops still stationed on the islands had deserted or just simply didn’t care. Due to the current world stage, and their hate for anything Myrish, Salia supported NaCoFo on the world stage to ensure their independence from Gladomyr. Salia supported their independence in exchange for that Naou - Coili would become a Salian protectorate and for increased trade with all axis members. That's why it is probably one of, if not, the least known and least important members of the Axis. The nationalist forced the hand of the king to comply with the Salians, as they saw any level of newfound independence would be enough. Gladomyr had their hands full with the rest of WWII at the time along with not wanting to open and therefore left the islands to be.

The nationalist plan backfired however, and Salia largely did nothing to “protect” the Islands, instead exploiting them for economic gain. The worst of that exploitation was seen during the end hours of WWIII, as Salia grew desperate to by any means win the war. Harsh treatment by the Salians led to some of the most brutal imperialism the islands had ever seen. After WWIII Salia was harshly punished, and one of those punishments was stripping away their colonies. Naou - Coili was one of those nations who were not freed and were instead ceded to Riyude. The Redes were gentler with the islands than the Salians before then and worked to develop the islands instead of exploiting them. About a decade passed with relatively merry Rede rule when the decolonisation time of Riyude started. Riyude, a democracy, granted independence to the islands on the condition that they would start to constitutionalise and open up future foreign relations with them. The kings chose to implement a representative democracy and draft a constitution with help from the World Forum and Riyude (The nation is divided into 48 subdivisions each electing representatives to the parliament proportional to their population), as they would still have some power then, and on the 28 of december 1967, the now democratic Royal Commonwealths of Naou - Coili was born. Since then the country has improved notably in population, GDP and has gained respect on the geopolitical stage.