The Wars of Liberation: How It Changed Everything

The Wars of Liberation were a series of counter-wars fought by the Serrenlander countries against the invading Franciens. These wars solidified Weiss' reputation as an emerging great power among the Serrenlander States.

With its king dethroned and its monarchy abolished, the newly established First Francien Republic found itself surrounded between the largely hostile monarchies of the Western Peninsula. Seeing no other way to preserve their national security and propelled by its revolutionary fervour, the Franciens launched military campaigns against the monarchies of Albion, Rossiya, and Osterland.

They managed to expand their territories eastward—into the lands of the Holy Latium Empire—all the while spreading its republican ideals.

Eventually, the popular commander of the Francien military that was responsible for this success proclaimed himself as the emperor of the new First Francien Empire.

The Francien Grand Army, under the direction of its new emperor, would march on to annex much of Serrenland—a vast region known as the core of the Holy Latium Empire. Crushing defeats suffered by Osterland and its allies would see its capital occupied and the dissolution of the Holy Latium Empire.

As the wars raged on, the previously neutral Weiss decided to step in to fight the increasingly threatening Franciens. However, the Weiss military was unprepared and instead suffered several setbacks in the confrontation against the Francien Grand Army.

The substantial magefolk community living in Weiss feared the collapse of their safe haven should Weiss was to be defeated. To prevent this, they began serving in the military and were trained alongside the infantry lines. Development of arcane weapons was also starting to gain traction.

After a long and brutal war, the Francien momentum had finally begun to falter.

In a decisive battle against the reformed Weiss army, the Grand Army was defeated, marking the first large-scale battle involving arcane weapons on the continent.

The following peace treaty dictated the temporary return to pre-war borders and the return of the monarchy in Francien. Slight territorial adjustments were made, and the Serrenlander Confederation was created to replace the former Holy Latium Empire. However, diplomats remained anxious about preventing future wars of this scale.

As a result, a new system of formal agreements was put in place:

"Whoever gains too much influence on the continent should be opposed and isolated by the others in order to maintain the balance of power."

In the end, they agreed to defend and support each other in the case that any one of them would provoke aggression against the other.

The goal was to prevent any single power from dominating the continent and starting another major war.

The revolution might have been crushed for now, but its ideals lived on within the people.

Decades had passed since then, and the game between the great powers had always been to remain quiet and avoid further confrontation.

Yet…