Caliane

Caliane, officially the Kingdom of Caliane ( Caliantene: Royace de Calianne) is a sovereign nation located in eastern Avanor. It borders Strandlaand and Gelenia to the north, the Midlands to the east, Augustine to the south, and to the west by the Adriantic Sea. The nation is home to a population of 145'980'271 people, with a land area of LAND AREA km², making it the most populated nation on the Avanoran continent, and one of the top ten worldwide. The federal capital is located in Calise, though other vital cities include the largest city of the nation, Rosair, as well as the cities of Mortier, Colossy, Braves, and Roualuire.

Caliane has a long history. Settled in the 12,000s BCE by the Auene peoples, and conquered by the Avanoran Imperium during the classical period, it acted as a breadbasket and population centre. It was reconquered by the Augustine Imperium in the late 400s, being integrated in 502. It remained part of the second empire throughout the early Middle Ages, before becoming an independent entity in 1117 with Guiame I as its first monarch.

Caliane is a constitutional monarchy governed under a parliamentary system of democracy. The current monarch is King Gilliet V, and the Prime Minister is Alis Barnier of the Green Party. It is one of the world's major powers, with an extremely powerful military and economy. It is a part of the the Avanoran Defense Pact (ADP), the Royal Commonwealth Common Defense Organization (RCCDO), and the Avanor Union.

Etymology
The name "Caliane" was first used by Caliantene writers in the 1200s on maps of the Avanoran continent.

Prehistory
According to archeological evidence, Caliane was originally home to the Auene people, who inhabited Avanor's southwestern regions. Evidence points to their arrival into the Avanoran continent sometime in the 12,000s BCE, though they often came into conflict with the Thanic peoples, who arrived around the same time and inhabited the regions to the north and east. In the 3000s BCE, the arrival of the Paravantene Empire, with its hunger for trade and expansion, launched several expeditions into Caliane, though failed in their attempt to found colonies in the region as they had done in Augustine and Nalore.

One of these colonies, Augustine, soon grew into a powerful metropolis in its own right. Inhabited by Auene peoples and adopting several Paravantene cultural and political concepts, the city expanded its influence, using mercantile soldiers it purchased in Caliane to subjugate the Nalorene in several wars from 1690–1650 BCE. The newborn Avanoran Imperium turned its focus to Caliane in its desire for trade and power, subjugating the Auene tribes in numerous campaigns in the 1500s BCE. Throughout the following centuries, Caliane was an extremely profitable province: being on the frontlines, its mercenaries protected the Imperium from raids from Thanic peoples in the north and east. Additionally, its fertile regions provided the empire with a large amount of its food, as well as large tax revenues from trade. The Imperials, for their part, brought with them the written word, imperial architecture, law, economics and currency, city planning, and much more. In this period as well is when the Divine Sanctum spread through the populace, which remains the majority religion of Caliane to this day. In this period, Caliane's mercantile families grew rich, living in manor houses in the country, building beautiful cities and monuments to themselves - but this wealth was not to last.

The Imperium's expansion had stopped, and soon the families of the Imperianstrium, the governing body of the empire, grew quarrelsome. The families had always been plagued by greed and backroom deals, but it grew incontrollable in beginning in the 500s BCE. Families would work to promote their own interests, rather than that of the Imperium, refusing to collect taxes on the rich, and letting their mercenary forces go unpaid. By the 300s BCE, Khudari raids on southern trade routes over the Summer Sea led to several conflicts which put pressure on imperial control over their own trade routes, while raids from the Thanic peoples in the north and a lack of pay from the capital forced the mercantile families of Caliane to defend their own region, even further weakening the Imperium's authority in the region. By the time the Imperium collapsed in 1 BCE, it had been absent from Caliane for centuries.

Early Middle Ages
According to legend, a man named Gustave the Gardener was said to make the land bloom with flower, fruit, and wheat wherever he went. He was said to wear a crown of lilies, and left a blooming orchard wherever he went. It is said that it is this man who raised the Celline Palace with its maze of climbing roses in Calise, and united the families of Caliane against the oncoming Thanic invasions. As such, he became a folk hero for the Caliantene, despite the story largely being debunked. To be certain, it was the city of Calise who organized its families against the Thanes, though it was likely a former mercantile family, rather than a magical fertility god. Additionally, rather than purely routing the Thanes, the Caliantene married into them, and the many Thanic clans that were settled in Caliane formed the region's several petty kingdoms, similar as to what happened in the Midlands, Gelenia, and Strandlaand.

In 502 CE, the several petty kingdoms of Caliane, which had sent mercenaries to Augustine to conquer Nalore, now found itself in its own war with the Augustine Imperium. The efforts to subjugate the Caliantene took several wars, lasting between 502 CE through 530 CE, which put a drain on the Augustine Imperium's efforts to drive northwards. While in the Augustine Imperium, Calise became a major centre for administration in the region, church authority was solidified, and a new system of nobles and peasantry was solidifed through the laws of the Imperium. Attempts made by Clatula I to standardize the Auellene languages as one tongue by enforcing standardized spellings in the Book of the Divines led to scholars writing sounds out phonetically in their own dialects in order to differentiate their tongues from the old Imperial one, largely having the unintended consequence of solidifying the rift between the Nalorene, Augustine, and Caliantene languages by 950 CE.

By 1105 there was a question of succession: the old Emperor, Arellius III, was in failing health, and his wife had given birth to twins, Gaivus and Ortillius, who were the younger siblings to his daughter, Gaiva. The Imperianstrium argued for three months, hearing arguments from lords from all over the empire on who should get the throne, while the monarch realized war would break out if the question was not resolved. At the Council of Nervis in 1105, Arellius III decreed that, upon his death, his empire would be split in three: Nalore would pass to his son Ortillius; Caliane would pass to his son Gaivus; while Augustine would pass to his daughter, Gaiva. This agreement was agreed to, and, upon his death in 1117, it took full effect - making Caliane an officially independent nation. Gaivus took a more caliantene name: Guiame, and became King Guiame I of the House of Alene.

High Middle Ages
Guiame I established his capital in Calise, and in the beginning his rule was peaceful. In 1123, however, an uprising began


 * 1230-1255: The Scarlett Plague came into and out of remission in several waves, killing nearly 53% of Avanor

Economy
Caliane is a highly advanced social market economy with high levels of income and productivity. With an annual GDP of 7.47 trillion Credit Argents a year, the nation is Avanor's second largest economy, and one of the world's top 10 economies.