History of Odann

The history of Odann relates the period of some 4,000 years in which Daelic peoples have inhabited what is today the state of Odann in north-western Messenia. During this period its original inhabitants absorbed incomers from the south of the continent and its central interior during the First Great Migrations, the emergence of the Sabāmani Empires and the Secote invasion of the late first millennium CE; the region later saw the emergence of the kingdom of Odann as a defined territory during the early second millennium, and the development of that kingdom into one of the strongest political and economic forces in Messenia and one of the four states within the continent today recognised as legitimate great powers.

Prehistory and early civilisation

Human habitation of Odann has been dated back to about one million years before the present, with populations believed to have migrated along the coast following available food resources from the ocean. Nomadic populations defined the area for millennia, with the indigenes being largely dependent upon hunting, fishing and gathering for sustenance. More advanced human habitation, including tool development, dates from around 10,000 BCE. Agricultural activities are attested in Odann's southern riparian plains from around 4500 BCE, similarly to the rest of the northern Central Messenian Plain. It took a little longer for agriculture to spread into and beyond the uplands, but farming communities were a commonplace by around 3000 BCE. Contrary to the position in the plains, the upland cultures remained semi-nomadic well until the Iron Age, engaged in various forms of forest farming and silvopastoralism.

From around 2000 BCE the first archaeological records of the Proto-Daelic people can be found in south-eastern Odann; the uplands were at that time occupied principally by the Locha Riach Culture. Post-Vítrör people were settled in the country's west, both in the mountains and the western Marduine basin, following their migration there from present-day Helminthasse in the middle third millennium BCE after the Lindenstadt expansion. Metallurgy was introduced to the Proto-Daels from the south, with the Copper Age lasting up to about 1400 BCE when they transitioned into the Bronze Age.

The Copper Age saw the first developments of important centres of population in southern Odann, especially along the Marduine and its northern tributaries, with the first significant towns developing mainly for economic and religious purposes. The Locha Riachs left a rich megalithic heritage in the uplands, as well as the possibly related X Culture that flourished along the north-western coast of the Arcedian Sea from Tvåriken to Nation 59. Trade exchanges with southern Messenia helped foster the development of local civilisation, similarly to the then-current position in the Cairan Heartland, although it is generally acknowledged that the Proto-Daels advanced less quickly than the Proto-Sabāmanians.

First millennium BCE: the Daels

By the beginning of the first millennium BCE the Daels were a well-established feature of north-western Messenia, spreading as far east as western Savam (modern Emilia and Valdenois), with Quènie being occupied by the Quenii tribe and their probable relatives the Arcedii. The Daelic people were separated into two related, but distinct, groups: the Iascaden group and the Riparian group. In the west, early Proto-Vossar developed from the post-Vítrör culture, adopting sedentary lifestyles and metallurgy. They conquered most of the central Odannach Uplands by 1500 BCE, displacing indigenous cultures.

The Iascaden tribes appear to have migrated northward in the period between 1400 and 1200 BCE, probably by way of an eastern route in northern Valdenois and through the Sillon de Velcour. Roughly at the same time, the Riparian Daels pushed into the western Marduine basin and took over part of the Vossar territories. Distinguishing features of the Iascaden group were its emphasis on fishing (hence its name) and its long continuation of some degree of semi-nomadism, whereas the Riparian Daels were capable farmers and pastoralists.

The emergence of the Sabāmani Civilisation had a profound impact on early Odann. The southern parts of the country (both Dael and Vossar) were integrated into an ever-increasing trade network that spread all over ancient Messenia. With increased contact and cultural exchanges, the Daels, and to a lesser extent the Vossar, developed increasingly complex social structures and organisations. Daelic paganism became more formalised, with XXXXX. However, unlike their eastern neighbours, the Daels were not early adopters of some Messenian-inspired ideas: for example, they remained without a written script until the Cairan conquest.

The region produced raw wool and woollen clothes, as well as hides, metals (notably silver), and slaves from the uplands, which were then transported toward the east, along the well-travelled Tin Road, or to the south. Savamese archaeologists have discovered considerable quantities of silver artifacts that bear characteristic signs of Daelic silversmithing techniques. In the early first millennium, the Riparian Daels started to produce lavender oil from a local variety of Lavandula. The Sabāmanians generated a high demand for this essential oil, which they used as perfume and for its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties; Sabāmanian gold flowed in great quantity to Odann for most of the millennium, creating a wealthy aristocracy and further enabling the development of the Daels, notably supporting their actions against the Vossar. This trade was interrupted by the Hilima Eruption in the ninth century BCE, but resumed under the Second Sabāmani Empire from the sixth century BCE onwards.

The first half of the first millennium BCE saw a general westward expansion of the Dael polities and tribes. The Riparian Daels completely drove the Vossar out of Odann, especially once the post-Hilima power vacuum in the south-west had facilitated Vossar migration. The Daels also colonised the uplands, with Iascaden tribes moving in from present-day Brolangouan and Elland, and replacing indigenous cultures in Nation 59. On the other hand, the westward retreat of the Aemilii continued, with the Sabāmanians firmly establishing themselves in modern Emilia and north-eastern Elland. The Iascaden abandoned any remnants of their semi-nomadic lifestyle during the second half of the millennium, starting to slowly integrate into Riparian culture.

Early first millennium CE: the first Cairans

The most important contribution from the Sabāmani in the development of Odann was the introduction of Cairony. Although some inroads into the region had been made by early Senuminists, the precursor faith to modern Cairony gained little purchase among the mainly animist Daels; and with Cairony largely confined to the Sabamic lands in its early development during the Second Sabāmani Empire, it would not be until the early third century CE that the first Cairan missionaries began to venture into the western lands. Such a prospect was fraught with danger, even for those who travelled in numbers; there are several known instances of Cairan missionary groups being slaughtered out of hand by Daelic tribesmen, including the notorious instance in 337 CE of Sulpicia Pontes, who was butchered, along with three companions, by one such group and her body returned to the nearest imperial outpost dressed out as would be done with deer or small game.

Ruins of the Temple of the Open Path in An Ladhar, southern Odann.

However, perseverance on the part of the Cairans and a measure of pragmatism among the Daels gradually allowed Cairony a small, tenuous, but slowly-growing foothold; some Dael chieftains were willing to accept the aid of the outlanders as neutral arbiters in internal disputes, and there is some evidence that Cairan scholars attached to the early missions helped in teaching among the Daels, including the first writing in Daelic languages. The Temple of the Open Path, in An Ladhar in southern central Odann, is thought to date from at least 400 CE, although testing of the surviving ruins has not found structural work from earlier than approximately 850 CE.

Temples and other religious centres became more prevalent across the region as the Third Empire expanded across northern Messenia during the fourth and fifth centuries; some of these became the centres of small villages and even towns, although urbanization in the modern sense would not come to the Daelic lands until much later. Although Cairans from the imperial homelands often denounced the growing native Cairan communities as “western heretics appealing to tribal instincts”, local Cairony integrated itself into its new environment, drawing on local religious cultural practices and ceremonies, and being more willing to compromise on at least some spiritual matters. This has been claimed by some studies of Cairan history as representing the beginnings of the Dael Rite within Cairony.

Later first millennium CE: the coming of the Secote

In the later eighth century the decaying Third Empire came into the sights of the Secote, as the eastern nomads swept into Messenia in a tidal wave of blood and carnage, laying waste to the eastern Sabamic lands and bringing about the fall of the imperial capital at Seboca in 791. The Daels were even less equipped to counter the nomads; in the last years of the century, the Secote occupied the whole of the Daelic lands and eliminated all indigenous sources of political authority. Many ruling clans were eliminated, and fortresses and villages that resisted were razed, the Secote working to a well-established pattern that would be followed to similarly devastating effect in the Siur lands to the west two centuries later. During the brief period of occupation the leaders of Secote war-bands organized the population into more effective towns and villages. While this might be thought counterintuitive for the nomadic Secote, this strategy was a means to increase their ability to both control and tax the population; as one rare recorded instance of Secote philosophy put it, “before you can shear the sheep, you must first pen it.”

However, the Daelic country was far from being the land of plenitude that the Sabamic lands may have appeared as being to the invaders. The agricultural value of much of the region was marginal at a time when farming was hard, physical labour, and only in more modern times with more advanced techniques has it become more successful; the low profitability of the Dael territories ultimately led to them being abandoned by the central leadership of the Secote horde. A series of weak harvests between 825-831, and again from 833-839. made the prospect of holding Odann less and less desirable, while the resulting famine and disease from these deprivations created significant risks to the occupying hosts, and stirred concerns over revolt. While the central Secote leadership departed, lesser nobility and commanders remained, with many setting themselves up as petty warlords and tributaries to the central horde.

Secote rulers did marry Dael women, but the institutions of rule nonetheless remained stubbornly Secote; and while the lands' new overlords were not opposed to indigenous religious practices in and of themselves, they rigorously suppressed the Daelic Cairan argans, seeing them as focuses of dissent. Additionally, the overwhelmingly female priesthood of Cairony was in itself offensive to the firmly patriarchal invaders. However, even though it was largely forced underground during the occupation years, Cairony not only survived, but flourished, with the Secote nobility and leadership within Odann consistently seen as a foreign intrusion, while the argan increasingly became viewed as an indigenous institution, even though its arrival was scarcely less recent than that of the Secote.

While Secote rule left an indelible legacy for Odann, it nonetheless steadily diminished. Although a brief period of local insurgency around 900 brought the Daelic lands temporarily back into more direct overlordship, after about a decade many of the Secote rulers began to depart eastward for more familiar territory. Others became assimilated into the Dael culture around them, forming an additional strain in a newly-developing aristocracy. The process had probably already begun by 950, and was functionally complete within perhaps as little as two generations.

As the Secote tide ebbed away, several smaller, more compact and more centrally-organised kingdoms supplanted the petty warlords of earlier centuries. These more sophisticated states were almost entirely rural in orientation, and generally more settled in nature, although peripatetic "courts" in the Secote fashion were not wholly abandoned in the less hospitable regions; several petty kings are known to have had no permanent residence. One king of the Connagh Plain remarked, “My throne is my horse’s back.” An informal type of low-level feudalism developed in Odann, though large sections of the country remained only sparsely settled. Between the intermittent wars that erupted between these petty kingdoms, large parts of these marches became informal buffer zones; it was not unknown for the few local inhabitants to shift their allegiances as conditions demanded. In the absence of large, strong polities, the Daelic argan became the glue which held these statelets together; arganic leaders became increasingly valued as arbiters in local disputes, and in the process gradually insinuated their way into positions of secular authority.

1000-1400: Odann rebuilds

This is not to deny that Cairony within the Daelic lands did not have problems of its own to face; as it re-emerged into the open, it was faced with substantial factionalism within its own ranks, and the early period after the Secote withdrawal was riven by internal disputes – as well as a fair amount of settling of scores – before a somewhat fragile order could be restored. The process was very largely completed by 1041, in which year its senior clergywomen gathered at Cairn to rebuild the larger network of the church, and to examine the manner in which the Argan of Odann – a name which it adopted well before the establishment of the polity of the same name – reached out beyond its own confines. By now accustomed to its own autonomy, the reconstructed argan felt itself less constrained by patterns in the Sabamic lands – large parts of which were still under the Secote yoke at this time – and this, as much as the later rise of the Cairan Reformation, has been claimed as a major factor in the distinct differences between the argan and its counterparts elsewhere within Cairony. The Convocation of Cairn established a permanent council which, in time, would evolve into the Holy Council (Comhairle Naofa), the governing body of the argan as it is known today. The office of Holy Mother (Mathair Naofa) was both retained and strengthened, with its authority over the other members of the Council much more rigorous than has become normal within Cairony as a whole; such closely-concentrated power created scope for abuse of which some less scrupulous Holy Mothers would take marked advantage in later years. The respected archmatron Brigid na hIorras was agreed upon as the first incumbent of the office, which she would hold until her death in 1058.

While the church exercised substantial soft power, it nonetheless recognized a need for support of a more robustly military fashion. Over the course of the next century and a half it gradually built a support system for itself within the developing Daelic nobility, slowly creating conditions in which arganic backing became a critical factor in gaining secular legitimacy in a particular area. The process was often imperfect, and there were several instances in which the argan had to change tack to accommodate itself to those families who gained and held power without faithly support. Nonetheless, over time the relationship between the argan and the nobility became one of almost symbiotic benefit to both sides; noble houses sponsored the construction of arganic buildings and stood visibly alongside the argan's leadership as its shield and sword, while the argan backed its chosen allies (not least financially, given its growing wealth and a need from the nobility for reliable sources of finance) and the steady movement of noblewomen of faith into the upper ranks of the argan gave the nobility a direct and pressing interest in its continued vitality.

In the wake of the final collapse of the Secote Empire in the west, there was a scramble for power and influence among these various post-Secote chieftains and petty rulers across the Daelic lands. As it had often done before – and often would since – the argan intervened, bringing the various disputants together at Gárran, today in southern central Odann, in the summer of 1229 to mediate between them and to establish territories and spheres of influence. The Convocation of Gárran na Ríthe (literally “Gárran of the Kings”) largely rebuilt the structures of kingship across the region which the Secote had done their best to destroy during their years of power – and perhaps with barely enough time that the Daelic kingdoms could present viable resistance to the explosive expansion of the Montalbian Empire as it sprang forth from what is today central Savam during the middle years of the 13^th century, spilling west and south into the Ellish plains.

As the brief flowering of the Empire gave way to the more steady growth in prosperity to the east during the Post-Secote Rebound, the Daels began to feel the benefits of stronger flows of trade and, increasingly, of technological development as scientific thought re-emerged from long slumber in northern Messenia. Daelic produce, particularly metals such as silver, iron, lead and zinc (known sometimes as "Daelic silver" around this time), earned revenues with which were bought Sabamic manufactures such as fine cloth, including silks, and ornate jewellery. However, the traffic in ideas was perhaps of even greater importance, with Orangism making its way west during the 12^th and 13^th centuries. Although not as much of a force among the Daels, it prompted the first impetus towards the use of Dael, rather than Old Sabamic, in Cairan worship.

During the winter of 1316-17 plague emerged in the Daelic lands, most likely brought there by way of trade routes re-established with Savam (and still referred to as an plá shaibheamach, “the Savamese plague”, in locally-authored histories). The effects were devastating; historians and archaeologists estimate that almost 25% of the population died before the plague burned itself out during 1320, a figure rising perhaps as high as 40% in more densely-populated areas. For all that, though, Odann was spared much of the truly horrendous effects of Savam's experience with the disease, given the much lesser extent of urbanization across the region. The chaos caused by the outbreak of plague nonetheless led to significant internal instability, with substantial losses across all strata of society, and some of the smaller Daelic polities rendered incapable of internal government, becoming easy prey for their more cohesive neighbours. Even some of the stronger territories were nonetheless diminished; by 1330, the principality that would eventually grow into the Sacred Kingdom was a shattered fragment in the south-eastern quadrant of the modern country.

In 1341, Fiolan mac Thuidge became ruler of this small territory; early in his rule, he laid claim to the neighbouring Principality of Marduine, initially by a strategic proposal of marriage and, when that was turned down, by force of arms. The two forces clashed in Fabricad 1342 at Rimshere (Dael Réimse na Ríthe, “battle of kings”), in what is today northern Elland; the infant Odann drove the Marduines from the field, marking the beginning of its gradual rise to prominence. Although the lands south of the river Marduine would drift in and out of Daelic hands over later centuries, the importance of Rimshere in the Odannach mythos has ensured that the territory remains a key issue in Odann's relationship with Elland even into the modern era.

15^th century: the rise of Clairháin

As the kingdom of Odann gradually expanded in size and strength across the south and east, the concerns of the argan were increasingly with the situation to the east, where the collapse of the Arganite States under Dordanian pressure was only the most obvious sign of the pernicious tide of secularization which they perceived as coming out of the Savamese lands. As a result, the Holy Mother and other high ranking clergy used their influence to elevate selected rising merchants and returning mercenaries from the wars in Savam into the ranks of the nobility. These men owed their positions to the argan and found themselves placed at odds with more entrenched noble families, no few of whom were beginning to actively resent the degree to which the argan had become entrenched in purely temporal matters. Although somewhat different in manifestation, the interaction of the Daelic petty kings and their churchly advisers was being compared unfavourably to the worst excesses of the Ecclesiarchy during the Third Sabāmani Empire.

Liam IV; a contemporary depiction, probably from his coronation in 1443. The white streak in his hair which gave him his nickname emerged later in his reign.

In such a febrile environment it required a particular blend of military muscle, political acumen and religious conservatism to truly prosper; Odann was fortunate in that its ruling family contained men who possessed these abilities in generous measure. The house of Clairháin rose to prominence from the middle of the century, with its king Liam IV mac Clairháin, known as an Broc, "the Badger", for the white streak in his shock of otherwise black hair, taking the throne after an unstable period in which three kings had come and gone in only four years. Over almost three decades Liam expanded his domains to encompass most of the east and south-east of present-day Odann, as well as virtually the whole of the northern Marduine valley; although his interest in the lands south of the river was turned back by William II of Middlechamp (the future William I of Elland), to whom he lost at the Battle of Nurney in 1463, Liam remained a potent force in his own lands. The family had its origins in the lands around Cairn in the east, reputedly at An Croi, north of Cairn. (The use of a heart in the Clairháin badge purportedly comes from the town name, which translates as "heart" in Ellish). However, Liam relocated his capital to the then minor town of Ráth, in the upper valley of the Sligeach, a tributary of the Marduine, and the hill-fort outside the town from which it took its name. While many historians have claimed the change as a statement of intent towards the lands to the north and west, it seems just as likely that Liam chose to move in order to take himself out of the direct scrutiny of the argan and give himself greater freedom of action. At Liam's death from pneumonia in late 1471, Odann had become the largest of the Daelic polities, and was challenged for supremacy by perhaps only one other.

While Odann had prospered from its internal resources, the coastal state of Laora had built its own strength on the back of river trade along the Daugh and a flourishing maritime trade around the Arcedian Sea littoral. Clachán, its capital, rivalled Ráth in size and influence, and its kings, while less prone to flaunting their martial vigour than the rulers of Odann, had garnered a reputation for shrewdness to match their demonstrated piety. Relations between the two states, while mostly cordial, nonetheless held an undertone of tension for most of the short reign of Liam's brother Brian, and the longer tenure of Brian's son and successor Liam V. Eithne an Castáin, archmatron of Ráth in the early years of Brian's rule, described the two polities as "masking their covetousness with fine words and false smiles, and all the while waiting for the right moment to do the other down".

For Odann, that moment came in the spring of 1498, with the death of Éamonn, king of Laora, at the remarkably young age of 39 years, leaving only a daughter, the 15-year-old Muirne, who could not inherit the throne under Daelic rules of succession. While Éamonn's courtiers fell to squabbling over a new king, Liam seized the opportunity; the Odannaigh rolled up swathes of the north country before any force could be assembled to counter him. A Laoran army still riven by internal discord took the field against the Odannaigh at Tuaim, south of Clachán, on 2 Estion 1498, only to be put to the sword; a shocked and tearful Muirne agreed to marry Liam's son Faolán to prevent further needless slaughter, thus allowing Liam to merge Éamonn's lands with his own and extend Odann's dominion to the sea for the first time. With the death of its king, Laora was reduced in stature by its new overlord; the heir to Odann's throne continued to bear the title of Prince of Laora until the rump state of that name was separated from Odann.

16^th century: new horizons

The enlargement prompted – if the expression may be forgiven – a sea-change in the body politic of Odann, with the leavening of Laoran seamanship and maritime knowledge prompting the country to define itself less by reference to its long-standing rivalries with Elland and with the Savamese kingdoms, and more as an independent actor on the world stage with an agenda of its own. Laoran sea-captains had already established a reputation for skill and courage across northern Messenia, and had ranged far – even to the northern shores of Ascesia, where Beacan Onnech had been the first Messenian to sail the sound named after him, and well down the western coast of Lestria – and they would remain prominent under Odann's flag in the coming years. In the immediate wake of the absorption of Laora, though, Odann entered a more quiescent period. Dílis an Úllord, an 18^th-century archmatron of Clachán and one of Odann's first specialists in historical studies, described the country in this period as "like a man who has just enjoyed a rich meal, and now wishes only to rest in a comfortable chair, perhaps read a book or quietly doze, while his digestive juices set to work on the repast placed before them."

However, Odann was not always in a position to enjoy such post-prandial tranquility. In the first half of the 16^th century, the north of the country was beset by continuing strife from across the border in the Séaraiseacht, today in south-eastern Nation 59 and southern Nation 60. While a certain amount of casual raiding had been a way of life along the porous border for centuries, the practice was becoming endemic in the late 1540s and early 1550s, despite the efforts of kings and marshals to deal with the raiders. It would not be until 1554 that Adhamh I brought Odann's full force to bear on this malignant sore. Over some three years to the autumn of 1557 Odannach troops overran the Séaraiseacht, putting entire villages, and even some smaller towns, to the torch and conducting a campaign of slaughter such as had not been seen in the country for centuries. Adhamh presided over some of the destruction in person, earning the brutal nickname Marfóir ("Killer") among the Séarais. Despite this, his actions received wide approbation in Odann, to such an extent that he was given the title of Defender of the Faith at the hands of the then Holy Mother Réalta an Ghairdín in 1559. Although Adhamh used both titles for the remainder of his reign, his successors would abandon the "secular" title of king in favour of the new, church-sanctioned appellation.

In 1578 Adhamh’s son Liam VI succeeded his father; although much less the military man than Adhamh had been, he ruled wisely and well for over twenty years before yielding the throne to his son, Adhamh II, in 1602. If Adhamh the elder had earned the title "Defender", then it was Liam who justified the addition "of the Faith"; perhaps the most visibly pious of all of Odann's kings, he was known even during his lifetime as an Creidmhigh, "the Faithful", and sponsored the construction of several of the country's most prominent temples, including the rebuilt Temple of Agria in Cairn, which served as the meeting place of the Ecumenical Sorority until as late as 1980. Adhamh, by contrast, was cast much more in the mould of his celebrated grandfather, and would be responsible for the last great extension of Odannach power within Messenia, fighting the Fiobhan War in 1605-06 to extend his dominions over what is today Fiobha. The final seal was set on the house of Clairháin in 1618, when Holy Mother Lúcháir ní Chonaill bestowed upon Adhamh II the title of Blessed (Beannaithe), making it hereditary within the family henceforth.

17^th century: the silver years

Even as Adhamh's army was taking the field, a killer of men more merciless than any army was already laying waste to lands in the south. Seranian fever, which had already cut a swathe of death through southern Messenia, spread towards the northern coasts by the autumn of 1608. Much of southern Odann was struck by the disease, and the toll in the Marduine valley was brutal; but the Odannach Uplands seemed to form a natural breakwater for the deadly tide. Of the major states of the period, Odann was probably the least seriously affected; certainly, it escaped far more lightly than the Savamese lands, and the hammer-blow in the east – not just from the fever and the slow recovery from it, but from the confusion of the Dark Thirty which followed – prompted a decisive shift westward in trade patterns during the first half of the 17^th century. With the lightning conquest of the islands of Tassedar in 1610 accelerating that process, Clachán, in particular, became the hub of a thriving network of trade extending from the Aphrasian mountains and the western Arcedian littoral to the Bajradhbani and the north-eastern shores of Ascesia; Odann was probably the first major Messenian trading power to make serious trading links with the successor states to the Sabhian Unity in that region. The period also saw the beginnings of greater economic power among the petty gentry and common folk, and the birth of mercantile houses which would become pillars of the Odannach economy in later centuries.

Ascesian goods became very fashionable in parts of Messenia in this period, and the elaborate styles of art fostered by the region's dominant faith, Bhramavada, prompted a wave of imported art – not always of the best quality, and not always sourced ethically by modern standards – and attempts at copying the "Ascesian style" (modh aiseasach) would be widespread among the wealthy and educated classes for much of the period between 1680 and 1720. Indeed, there was a significant upsurge in interest in the arts during this period; opinion varies as to how much of this outpouring was prompted by the church, by greater wealth and leisure time, or by Ascesian influence brought back by returning merchants and seamen. Sculpture, in particular, became the most favoured art form for both private and public spaces. People of means would decorate their homes with small sculptures and busts, and an art form called déanaimhín or "petty sculpture" even became popular among the lower classes; these were typically made of clay, as opposed to being carved from stone. Wealthy merchants and aristocrats would commission public works for civic spaces and the argan. These became an important way to demonstrate prestige and social class within a community.

The country's rising prosperity caused the beginnings of a shift in the long-standing patterns of habitation on the land, as disaffected inlanders gradually made their way west towards the prosperous coastal regions, and as poor rural farm workers sought out better prospects in the cities. Although rural lords did their best to suppress the drift – sometimes forcibly – the pressure could not be held back indefinitely. Clachán was the first Odannach city to have a population in excess of 100,000, as early as 1620; Ráth would reach the same level by mid-century, although its population would continue to lag behind that of its coastal rival until the Industrial Revolution of the 19^th century.

However, this new wealth and comfort would not come without a cost. As Seranian fever ravaged the east, Odannach commercial interests flooded into the gap created by Sabamic retreat; when the recovery came, the easterners fought back hard to regain their lost foothold. Most significant in this context was Quènie, which had had extensive trading ties with ports in the smaller independent polities along the Arcedian coast. The squabbling among merchants from both countries quickly drew down factions on both sides eager to settle the argument by force; the armed intervention by ships of the Odannach navy to force Quènien merchantmen out of the harbour of Frehel, in present-day Brolangouan, started the Quènien-Odannaigh War in 1628.

The early stages of the war went poorly for Odann, with the Quènien navy harassing theirs at every turn. Adhamh's gift for military tactics seemed to desert him when it came to sea warfare, and infighting among senior officers of the Odannach navy hindered matters further. Loss of trade hampered the country's treasury, with steadily growing imposts of both money and manpower infuriating its nobility. Matters came to a head in 1632, when Adhamh's attempt to levy a substantial ship tax across the country – even those parts far from the sea – was refused; some parts of the deeper Uplands came close to open rebellion over the issue before the Defender acceded in the Agreement of Sléain to his noblemen's demand for fair consultation, in the form of a council of state equal in stature to the existing Holy Council. The Council of Nobility (Tionól na Uaisle) met for the first time in Ediface 1632. Given a proper say in matters of high politics, the new council worked more co-operatively with Adhamh; the war effort was also helped by the removal of much of the existing naval command, with the new First Lord of the Sea, Rónán mac Rúan, reorganizing and strengthening the fleet to such an extent that Odann was able to end the war on reasonably fair terms in 1634. While they had to accept the re-establishment of Quènien influence along the coast, the war settlement established terms of reference for a modus vivendi between the two mercantile communities.

With the return of peace, the Odannaigh turned their attentions to opportunities further afield. They continued to make inroads into northern Ascesia, extending as far north as the island of Diothún, north of the Ascesian mainland, by 1641; this was to a large extent in response to Quènien and other interest in the area, although the practical extent of their interest in the icebound island was along its more hospitable south-eastern coast, and even this informal co-option into its sphere of interest would not be formally recognized by most other Messenian states until as late as 1790. However, as they made more serious sallies further south in Ascesia, they increasingly crossed paths with Siurskeyti; the recently-unified Siur state was in an expansive phase of its own, and for many years Siursk ships regarded the Medius Sea as almost their private preserve. Disputes over commercial activity and the currying of favour with Ascesian petty princelings were an almost certain guarantor of conflict; as the two sides increasingly clashed, the issue of faith added its own patina of enmity, with the distaste of the Odannaigh for non-Cairan practices being met by Arlaturi bewilderment at Odann's societal division between the genders and Cairony's search for the restoration of a perfection which Arlaturi maintained had never existed. The so-called Median Wars of the period from 1640 to 1690 were more a loose sequence of conflicts rooted in these basic causes; the term is somewhat misleading in that the arenas of combat extended well outside the Medius, and as far south as the Baygil Empire in Lestria and westward to the Bay of Hawea off the southern coast of Adorac. While both sides had their successes, the wars as a whole were largely inconclusive, and faded out more because they were a drain on resources than from any desire to work out respective grievances.

Early 18^th century: the Reform Wars

As the calendar turned a page into 1700, Odann had emerged from its backwater slumbers to become a genuine power within the complex network of Messenian states; although their relations were often stumbling and crotchety, king, church and nobility worked in a broad harmony in the best interests of the country as a whole. However, events during the 18^th century would shatter that tranquility, pitch brother against brother and make a lasting change in the manner in which Odann treated with the rest of the Messenian world.

The Cairan Reformation is generally understood to have begun with the Petition of the Sixteen Bolds in 1721. The initial intellectual thrust of the Reformation came from the Savamese lands, and in 1730 Brocquie declared itself as the first openly "reform" state, with the government suspending the authority of the Argan until it adopted the reforms. The arganic leadership responded by placing the Brocquien state under sentence of heresy. In Odann the argan, the monarchy and the great majority of the people favoured the Orthodoxist conservative reaction. Some within the nobility were somewhat more sympathetic to the reformers, having their own animosities towards local arganic influence, but nonetheless most noblemen threw their weight behind the emerging "orthodox" position, fearing the spread of animosity and the drift towards open war that was becoming plain in the lands to the east. The First Reform War (1732-1737) saw Odann, Valdenois and Elland take up arms against the "heretical" Brocquie, and concluded with the restoration of an Orthodox monarchy under Julien I, whose increasingly despotic rule in the aftermath of the war reflected a position in which, while the monarchy and the state apparatus were Orthodox, the people over which it ruled had taken up the Reformation with vigour. The ideology spread quickly inside Savam, while in Odann the populace embraced a more conservative form of Cairony, with Odann's arganic leadership increasingly seeing themselves as a bulwark against the tide of "heresy and corruption" which they saw as corroding the Savamese, and the practices of the Reformation becoming seen in the Orthodox west (which included Elland as well as the Daelic states) as a dangerous and "foreign" innovation and thus inherently untrustworthy.

As civil war broke out in Dordanie during 1740 over the question of reform, Odann was able to stand aloof from the matter; but the beginning of revolt in Brocquie forced action from the leading Orthodox powers, enlarging it into the Second Reform War. Odannach forces combined with troops from Elland and Valdenois to break the rebellion, and would remain present in parts of Brocquie for some time after the war to maintain a fragile peace in the territories. However, the tide of change was now running strongly against the Orthodox faction; Valdenois itself declared for the reformation in 1755 and the Infame Raid of 1759 saw Etamps-La-Sainte, Cairony's holy city, fall into the hands of the reformers and Holy Mother Téodora de Beldopoule functionally taken prisoner. Beldoupoule's call to arms in the celebrated Orthodoxist pamphlet De Fragilitatis Facies Corporis (“Of the Fragility of the Physical Facet”) proved to be the spark that ignited the Third Reform War the following year.

Holy Mother Niamh ní Shé; a portrait painted c. 1760.

Odann took a prominent part in the fighting which would engulf the Cairan world for the next twelve years, bringing in factions from as far afield as Transvechia and Stranda at different times. Although its young king Liam VIII was barely into his majority at the start of the war, the young man known as an Scian ("the knife") became a leading general in the field, although Henry III of Elland led the Orthodox armies overall. Liam led the attack which broke the Valdenian lines at Souosbouais in 1764, and was celebratedly one of the first Odannaigh to enter Pontaliens when that city fell some months later. However, the Savamese recovery in 1766 pushed the Orthodox armies back, with their rout at Lapetrelle becoming the precursor to a complete victory for the reformists and the Blessed Conciliation of 1771. Liam, to some extent under pressure from the argan and its politically-astute leader Niamh ní Shé, repudiated Henry's past claims to an imperial crown, casting a shadow over relations with Elland for the remainder of Henry's reign.

A much chastened Odann turned its attentions away from the "heretics" in Savam during the remainder of the century. Perhaps unexpectedly, the Argan of Odann actually emerged from the wars stronger than it had ever been; and ní Shé and her successor Damhait uí Sciathgeal used that new authority to full effect. The autonomy of smaller religious orders was restricted to ensure doctrinal consistency, although some minor reforms were made within the Argan to appease specific complaints, and were masked in suitably pious rhetoric about preserving tradition. Ní Shé also wrested concessions from the king, expanding the remit of the argan in secular matters and bringing about the creation of the current Lay Sorority, a much enlarged version of the Holy Council (which, as a subset of the new body, continued its regulation of purely religious matters).

The argan perhaps had more freedom to act because it was less fractured than was the Odannach nobility at this time. During the Reform Wars the Council of Nobility had become riven by factionalism, with as many as four overarching factions emerging within its ranks, known as the Owls (Orthodox), the Brown Mice (moderates), the White Cats (Reformists) and the Black Cats (radical Reformists). The factions were largely named by Orthodox supporters, with their own self-claimed label indicative of the perceived owl-like wisdom of their stance, and the others emerging as counterpoints (cats for their selfishness, and mice as prey for both cats and owls), and the tags even influenced fashion among the nobility to some extent. The end of the wars reduced some of the tensions, with the Council of Nobility to some degree forced to rally around the Orthodoxist standard, but the issue would remain a factor in the council's activities well into the later century.

Later 18^th century: the outward urge

Peace – of a kind – in northern Messenia allowed Odann to look towards the wider world once more. With a long-established presence in eastern Ascesia and intermittent activity along the western Lestrian coast, the Prothenian Ocean was the most obvious direction in which to move, although this came with both concerns and opportunities. Siurskeyti remained a significant naval power in the region, but while the collapse of the Palthic Empire in the late 17th and early 18th centuries had left the rump imperial realm in disorder for decades, it was beginning to recover its stability and reaffirm its grip on territories in the present-day Zepnish Serania.

Initially operating from forward positions around the Strait of Calcar, Odann sought suitable opportunities along the Lestrian coast; while they traded with the Baygil Empire, resistance to a more permanent presence pushed the Odannaigh further south, with a good part of their efforts becoming concentrated around the Garthemine Coast, the Núam Peninsula and the island of Múantín in the continent's south-west. Establishing a secure base here allowed the Odannaigh to take advantage of favourable sea conditions sailing west towards the southern part of Serania Major, where they now vied with other, longer-established colonial powers. A particular area of interest was the Princess Margaret Islands, known to Odann as the Great Western Islands (Oileáin Mór an Iarthair), tussling with both the Zepnish and the Savamese as they sought good positions. One of the early successes for the Odannaigh was the possession in 1775 of the largest island of the Great Western group, Inisholmer (Dael Inis Mhíol Mór or "Whale Island", after the large numbers of these creatures seen in surrounding waters). Commercial whaling became a significant industry for Odannach merchant crews in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries.

The Argan took great interest in the imperial activities of the state. Missionary work in southern Lestria became a way of opening trade and settlement into the region, and was maintained despite stern opposition from the Lestrian natives and the polytheistic Pyranist faith which they professed. In Serania, the Argan helped to establish local governments and basic social services, and pressed deep into the frontier; and the establishment of Odannach possessions in south-eastern Serania Major caused a major revival in monasticism. Zealous clergy and believers pressed deeper and deeper into the unpopulated Seranian wilderness (and, in lesser degree, in Lestria also) in search of greater spiritual clarity and a search for something resembling the Restoration which is the great unfinished work of Cairony. This practice was repeated in remote islands in the Prothenian Ocean where atolls supported small communities of religieuses dependent upon the marine life and birds. At times these monasteries would die out and leave silent markers of religious devotion in remote hinterlands.

The expansion prompted some degree of upheaval among the Odannach nobility, as those with the will and the finances to take on these new lands were rewarded for their endeavour by grants of patents of nobility by the Defender. In many cases these fell to the younger sons of existing noble houses, but a fair number of new ennoblements went to merchants and senior army and navy officers; while this provided a welcome infusion of new blood into a largely closed community, a degree of informal prejudice attached to these núíosachaí (literally "newcomers") for some time.

But even the wide-open spaces of Serania and the remote fastnesses of Lestria could not keep Odann from combat indefinitely; in 1785 the expansion of Odannach interests in Lestria created overlaps with claims by the Zepnish Empire, sparking war between the two. The South Lestrian War, as it has become known, was one of the first truly global wars that Odann ever fought, ranging as it did from the far southern Prothenian Ocean well into the Medius Sea. While Zepnish forces acquitted themselves well on land, the conflict's mainly naval character gave Odann a distinct advantage over at-times disorganized and fractious opponents. While the Odannaigh lost ground in Lestria – to the extent that they were forced off the mainland for a period and obliged to retreat to a redoubt on Múantín – they maintained a firm grip on Inisholmer and threatened several of the Zepnish-held Great Western islands. However, the Odannach loss to a Zepnish fleet in Animare 1787 at the Battle of the Ichdeniz, the most significant Median engagement of the war, led to a Zepnish blockade of the Calcar and forced Odann to sue for peace. The post-war settlement restored the existing position in most respects, although Odann gained some minor concessions in the southern Great Western Islands, as well as a substantial tract of land along the Dombalte Bay on the Seranian mainland.

Impressive as such an expansion was, the acquisition of such large stretches of territories in a generation placed strain on the central government, and left many competent observers fearful that such overreach had left Odann badly exposed and overextended – the more so since it would take a further generation before the country began to see significant benefits from the overseas territories. While few at home genuinely considered yielding the new ground, the divide between the expansionists and the moderates plagued Odannach politics during the later 18^th century and, to an extent, into the early 19^th.

Early 19^th century: end of a dream

In 1804 Liam VIII, in most important respects the architect of Odann's empire, died after a short illness, and was succeeded by his 22-year-old son, Liam IX. The new ruler approached his responsibilities cautiously, retaining most of his father's advisors until 1807, at which time he appointed Diarmuid Ó Hehir as his Chief Advisor in succession to the aging Niall mac Suibhne. Ó Hehir, although comparatively low in status within the Council of Nobility as the baron of Fiodh Ard on the north coast, had already come to prominence as a leading expansionist whom the Defender saw as well-equipped to help him continue his father's ambitions to assure Odann's supremacy in the Cairan world. Liam's shift in policy was made all the clearer in 1808 when he married Lady Sheila Darroch, a noblewoman from the north of Elland and a second cousin to its king, Richard II. Despite some quietly-expressed qualms, opinion in both countries broadly favoured the marriage as a sign of Liam's willingness to engage more fully with Odann's neighbor to the south.

To a degree, this thaw in relations with Elland ran in tandem with a rise in concerns over Savam, where unification in 1798 had caused alarm among noble classes that the new Savamese Empire might use their united might to expand westward in a new Reform War. Ó Hehir was particularly active in efforts to bring about a Daelic Customs Union on the Savamese model as a bolster to the Odannach economy, but the proposals met stiff resistance, with the littoral states as fearful of assimilation by an aggressive Odann as they were over Savamese expansionism. Relations improved somewhat during the Savamese-Ellish War of 1804-07, but not enough to overcome this basic distrust, creating crippling flaws in Liam's patchwork alliance as Odann led the forces of Orthodoxy in what was not so much a last-ditch bid to overturn the reformers as a pre-emptive strike against a Savam which was gathering strength for a renewed push of its own. The Fourth Reform War between 1818 and 1823 was a disaster for the Orthodox cause, with Savam's victory writing a decisive fin to any prospect of reunification. The institutions of Odann suffered, with the Defender himself taking unprecedented public criticism, and the argan being thrown into confusion as Holy Mother Sorcha an Cnoc, a prominent "hawk" in the approach to war, was forced to resign her office.

It was a much chastened Odann which was brought into a new conflict in 1833 with a new enemy, Helminthasse. Successors to the long-standing concerns held by Siurskeyti over its north-eastern borders, Helminthasse intervened militarily to support the Arlaturi minority living in Vettermark, which claimed serious repression under the rule of the country's largely Cairan government. The Västrahamn War was a devastating defeat for the Helmin, who, in retrospect, were absurdly overconfident in the field against a more seasoned, better-equipped and numerically stronger adversary. However, there would be a sting in the tail for the victors, as Odann levered its assistance into a much greater influence in the country after the war, with Vettermark forced much more firmly into Odann's sphere of influence thereafter. Relations between Odann and Helminthasse were only normalized when the Treaty of Ráth, under which Odann finally granted de jure recognition to the statelet of Västrahamn, was signed between the two in 1850.

Later 19^th century: a new awakening

The 19^th century saw Odann rapidly industrialize. Cairn in 1895.

Arguments have been made that the end of an active state of war or preparation for same, and the acceptance at even a subconscious level that Odann's Orthodox Cairans must accept the Reformation as a fact, released parts of the country's collective consciousness to consider and act upon other matters. Certainly, the period from 1840 onward showed a steady growth in prosperity for the typical Odannach; and there was a sharp increase in population as surging birth rates were matched by reduced death rates, largely as a result of improved living conditions. The burgeoning labour pool found a ready demand for its services as industrialization began to take root across Odann after establishing itself elsewhere in Messenia, prompting a steady drift off the land and towards the cities, as well as outside Odann entirely and towards its overseas possessions. The loss of a populace largely tied to the land in times past was at first resisted by Odannach nobles, but a sizeable movement emerged during the later 19^th century in which noblemen actively sponsored such emigration, partly on grounds of prestige, but also with a view to making use of the displaced labour in territories for which the government sought settlement in numbers to enhance their claims to the land. The phenomenon of the fir deich mboinn or "ten-bonn men" helped to transform Odann's Seranian territories in the last quarter of the century and the early 20^th.

The advent of industry would transform Odann during the latter 19^th century, as it lost much of its traditional reliance on the land for its wealth and began creating it in other ways. Ráth, Clachán and other cities began to expand drastically, becoming painfully overcrowded for perhaps a generation before the development of urban public transport and the creation of the bailíní (suburbs) eased the pressure. By the end of the century almost half the population would live in towns rather than the country. However, the more brutal aspects of industrial development – and the blots on the landscape created by the creation of large-scale coal mines, steel mills and factories – caused genuine alarm within some corners of the argan, fearful that such enormous disruption of the natural harmony of the land was taking society even further away from the Restoration that was humanity's proper task. The argument within the church has never been completely resolved, and remains a contentious issue even today.

The country's growing prosperity helped it shake off any sense of malaise from the Reform Wars and develop a distinct swagger in its step as the century wore on; and this was little better exemplified than by Odann's new Defender, Brian III, known, even while crown prince, as an Fairseanach – a term that defies literal translation, but conveys a sense of almost tangible self-confidence. Brian, who ascended to the throne in 1862 after the death of his much-loved father Liam IX, drew substantial inspiration from the empire-building reign of his grandfather, Liam VIII; however, as opposed to Liam's colonial ambitions, Brian instead turned his attention to his neighbours, being strongly vocal in ambitions to unite the region's Dael-speakers (a long-standing aspect of Odannach foreign policy, and referred to as an Filleadh or “the return”, in Dael). He was given his opportunity in 1867 when the Ellish government, in one of its periodic outbreaks of centralizing zeal, insisted that all government business be henceforth conducted in Ellish, ending an informal practice of bilingualism across the country. Although other linguistic minorities were equally affected, Brian and his advisors immediately claimed discrimination against the Dael-speaking population in the north of Elland, although this must be considered here to be only a pretext for action. The Autumn War in 1867 resulted in the conquest and annexation of a swathe of land in Elland’s northern provinces, incorporated into Odann's body politic as the province of Trasmardúinn, and the advance of the country's border to the Gaste and the very shadows of Elland's royal palace in Etherley. The victory over Elland and her allies was seen by many in Odann as the culmination of efforts spanning more than six decades, setting the seal on Odann's dominance of the Daelic region and the Orthodox Cairan community.

However, Odann's general prosperity did not hide the excessive influence held by specific small groups; from the early 1870s there was increasing agitation for a more widely-based voice in government to counter the dominance of the existing Council of Nobility and Lay Sorority, while both of these bodies railed at what they saw as too strong a hand held by the other at their expense. Brian, who had little patience for point-scoring and who probably had a better opinion of the collective wisdom of his people than his advisors, opted to lower the voices of the nobility and the church by giving the people at large a voice of their own, ordering by royal fiat the creation of a third house of government against all advice. The first elections for the Council of the People (Tionól na Daoine) were held in Nollonger 1887. The high-sounding title camouflaged substantial restrictions on the franchise; although nobles and clergywomen were expressly debarred from sitting in the General Council, the Council of Nobility demanded property restrictions, while the Lay Sorority demanded church membership. Even with such caveats, however, the new chamber drew a cohort of some distinct ability. It would be less than three years later that the first Advisor to the Defender was selected from the Council of the People – just as Odann was readying itself to take up arms yet again.

The Embute War or, as it has been sometimes termed, the Great War, was fought between 1889 and 1893, and was principally a conflict between an increasingly expansive Savam and a beleaguered Elland, which fought the war alone for its first year before turning in extremis to its old foes in Odann for aid. The Grand Alliance – which would also draw in Odann's long-standing Orthodoxist ally Ceresora, as well as Cantaire – proved the salvation of the Ellish, with the tide of war turning firmly against Savam and bringing about its defeat in late 1893. The Embute War was the first industrial war fought in Messenia, seeing the first implementation of many forms of warfare now seen as commonplace.

The Treaty of Ráth, signed on 28 Ediface 1893, was harsh on the Savamese to the point of humiliation. To the surprise of many, Odann did not make any attempt to formally annex territory to itself; however, Emilia was reformed out of formerly Valdenois lands in the Savamese south-west as a buffer state against potential future aggression, and the newly-united Brex-Sarre was greatly expanded at Savamese expense, along with several other territorial shifts. The victory in the conflict was widely seen across Odann as an undoing of the perceived injustices of the Fourth Reform War; and with Savam now retreating into a period of introspection during the Labarrist Age, it was possible to argue – and was so argued inside Odann – that the Sacred Kingdom had, after long years of struggle, gained a place at the pinnacle of the Cairan world.

Early 20^th century: the cold war runs hot

But even the strongest nations need allies: and Odann now sought to bolster its dominance. The recent alliance with Elland had gone some way towards easing the southerners' historic distrust, although concerns over what was now an Ellish-speaking minority within Odann still lingered; and stronger links with Ceresora were forged during the early 20^th century, confirming one of the crosswise bands in what has become known as the "Crossed Alliances" period. Formalising what had been a fairly loose network of surveillance on the country's neighbours, the establishment of the Oifig Slándála an Chreidimh ("Office of Security of the Faith") in 1905 created an agency for both internal and external security. As the name suggests, the OSC was primarily an arganic responsibility; the Teampall Dubh or "Black Temple" would achieve far greater notoriety later in the century. In southern Lestria Odann’s outpost in Múantín became a base camp for assistance to local muen in Cunland; the Mokrole Wars established a sphere of influence across most of the region in the period between 1901 and 1931, pushing the Zepnish to one side in the process. In southern Serrinea, Odannach colonial corporations re-emerged as a genuine tool of foreign policy from around 1910.

Presiding over all this was the Defender, Ultan I. Known – although not usually to his face – as an damhán alla, "the spider" for his unusually slim build and manipulative nature, Ultan came to the throne in 1902 at the age of 40 years; with some lengthy experience behind him already as a member of the Council of Nobility (to which his position as crown prince entitled him), he had already developed a fair skill at determining how best to lever people into going along with his desires. Even as Defender, he favoured the stiletto blade over the broadsword – and would find ample opportunity to wield it during the course of a reign of more than thirty years, particularly in dealing with his fractious government.

Increasingly, the three houses of government found themselves pulling in different directions; the Council of the People was still treated by the senior councils as less worthy of consideration, and the Lay Sorority and the Council of Nobility had different positions on many issues. While it was possible on most occasions for two of the three bodies to come to a consensus and persuade the third to accept their position, this was a slow, cumbersome and, above all, unreliable process. On several occasions during the late 1910s and 1920s government was deadlocked while the three houses worked out solutions to their discord; in 1920 the clash was bad enough to paralyse the country for more than three weeks in what became known as the Great Impasse (an Leamhsháinn Mór). The frustration led to Ultan meeting with the three houses to create (or, it is often claimed, to enforce) a set of protocols to break such logjams in the future.

Engagement in the south-western Medius in 1931, off the coast of Peyvand; Savamese raider Belle-Étoile engaged Odannach armed merchantman Iontas after the latter refused to be boarded for inspection following the Marzikola Affair

As Savam re-emerged on the world stage as a significant factor, it increasingly butted heads with Odann in a period known generally as the Savamo-Odannach Cold War, or in Odann as Blianta an Stánadh, "the years of the stare". Clashes became increasingly common during the late 1920s and 1930s; one important battleground was in Serrinea, where all four Messenian great powers (including the late-arriving Zeppengeran) jostled for position. Although local affairs spiralled out of anyone’s control during the 1930s with the collapse of the Ranarandi rebellion, Odann had carved out a position of influence in southern Serrinea by the end of the Portent Wars in 1943. However, the face-off was wide-ranging, involving significant incidents in Transvechia and in Brex-Sarre (which shifted firmly into the Savamese camp in the late 1920s), and diplomatic machinations in Ceresora, Elland and the western Messenian states. The manoeuvring led increasingly to open conflict, with spats such as the Demirci Incident in Busar in 1936 escalating into the limited Snow War across northern Emilia in 1938, both of which prompted extensive mediation at the first and second Feijerpoort Conventions.

Matters took a further turn for the worse in 1943, as Odann’s ally Ceresora sank into a state of civil war after the death of the aging Alessandro VIII. Odann initially made no response to the situation, but was forced to take notice by Savamese intervention in the north, with an incursion by Cantairean troops and a threatening build-up by Odannach forces on the Emilian border. The heat was drawn from the situation by a “non-aggression agreement” brokered by Siurskeyti (although the meetings took place, once again, at Feijerpoort in Alcasia). While this did not end the interference, both sides were careful to operate through proxies – something that even the short war between Brex-Sarre and Cantaire only interrupted briefly. However, the civil war began to lurch outside any control from beyond Ceresora’s borders from the late 1940s. A fractured Ceresora suited neither of the great powers; both made plans to intervene directly, with Odann’s army command proposing a drive through Emilia and Brex-Sarre, from where Cantairean assistance would allow them to back up their allies in Ceresora.

Both sides were now descending into full-scale war, and the only question remaining was who would attack whom first. Thanks to a key intelligence coup, the Savamese learned of Odann’s plans in time to activate their own; Quesailles finally declared open war on Odann in Ediface 1954, overwhelming Emilia in very short order to establish themselves directly on the border of the Sacred Kingdom. Punching through the Piasún Line just behind the frontier, the Savamese began an advance up the Marduine valley, where they were held by a counterattack in Fabricad 1955 which created a largely static front in eastern Odann during the late spring and early summer. The effectiveness of Odann's forces in the early stages of the war was diffused by opposition in the country's west, principally in Laora and Fiobha, where separatist sentiment had been growing for several decades; these provinces became seed-beds for dissent and acts of open rebellion against the government, diverting troops from the front line. The tide definitively turned in Dominy 1955, with an agreement with Elland under which it was promised the return of its lost northern territory bringing the southerners into the fight. Savam's long-time ally Zeppengeran also stepped in, sending support northward with Ellish approval; and both co-opted their Seranian clients to move into the fray in what became the Second Serrinean War between 1956 and 1958.

Savamese soldiers during the final push toward Ráth in the early summer of 1957.

The launch of the Autumn Offensive in Sation 1955 threatened collapse; but stubborn Odannach defence stalled the advance, leaving the front lines through 1956 and into the new year; and with supplies from the colonies being hampered by interception at sea, Odann launched the seaborne Operation Golden Spearfish in the winter of 1956–57 to break the assault, with only partial success. However, at a time when Odann urgently needed unity, its government was buckling, and finally broke under the strain. The argan under Holy Mother Aibhlinn níc Uidhir largely withdrew its support for the war, and its pressure for a negotiated settlement, a "peace with honour", saw several prominent churchwomen imprisoned on charges of sedition. Unable to tolerate the ineffectiveness of his government any further, Defender Rónán II dismissed it entirely in Petrial 1957, assuming direct rule with the assistance of a five-member war council, including the former Chief Advisor Donal Ceart. The later stages of the war, particularly as the Odannaigh made desperate attempts to hold onto their capital in the summer of 1957, saw the most extensive use of chemical weapons seen in Messenian history, with casualties numbered in the hundreds of thousands. With Odannach morale crumbling, even the frenzied defence of the city during the Battle of Ráth in Dominy and Empery was not enough; Ráth fell on 10 Empery, with fighting continuing further northward until late in the year as Savamese forces made a push towards Clachán, even as moves towards peace began under Siursk mediation.

The 1958 Treaty of Ostari saw the victors unite to further emasculate Odann. The Savamese had never forgiven Odann for its dismemberment of Savamese territory at the end of the Embute War; now, with the boot firmly on the other foot, Savam enforced a similar evisceration of its enemy. Odann was forced to dismantle or mothball a sizeable part of its navy – a serious hardship for a traditionally maritime power – and most of its Arcedian coastline was taken from it, as Laora and Fiobha were brought back into being as independent states. Both had harboured significant separatist movements during the first half of the century, and had actively worked against the Ráth regime during the later stages of the war. (A late concession meant that the new Laora covered only the western half of the old kingdom, and excluded its traditional capital at Clachán.) The Trasmardúinn province, as agreed, was restored to Elland; and Odann also ceded the Dombalte Bay territory, which was incorporated into the Savamese overseas territory of Grand-Sud, their holding on the Muskat Bay (now Zepnish territory and renamed Tühl), and some minor possessions in the Great Western Islands.

Humiliation was piled onto humiliation in the following year, with Odann denied participation at the Congress of Kethpor at Savamese behest; the losses at Ostari were given wider interordinate recognition, and the loss of its southern Lestrian interests – a fact on the ground since the successful Jungbrecht expedition of 1955–57 – was confirmed.

Later 20^th century: out of darkness into light

The immediate post-war era was a period of profound challenge for Odann. Internal recriminations over the share of responsibility borne for the country's defeat by its institutions created painful fractures in Odann's body politic; the country's economy and social fabric were battered, most immediately by the ravages of the years without summers, but more profoundly during the 1960s and early 1970s as the economy shrunk, as the oppressive influence of the argan was increasingly challenged, and as pressure for social change, dampened and dammed by the war years, now sought release. The period roughly from 1960 to 1972, commonly referred to as the Dark Years (Blianta Dorcha), has become regarded as one of the most pivotal eras in the country's long and turbulent history. The OSC had already assumed greater powers over the civil population in the immediate post-war years; this expanded into a much more visible and more violent role for the Black Temple in the suppressing of internal dissent, frequently overriding or ignoring local police and government authorities in the process. Much of the OSC's more serious excesses did not become public knowledge until the early 1990s.

The elderly Rónán II, who had become Defender in 1949, passed into the company of Aedif in 1972, although his health had been broken by the strains of the Dark Years and he had become an increasingly shadowy figure in the country's affairs in the previous two years. Although his son Liam had been expected to succeed him, the crown prince shocked the country by declining the crown, claiming that Odann required a clean break with the past as it sought to come to terms with an uncertain future. Liam took the specially-created title of Prince-Emeritus as his own son, Diarmuid II, was enthroned as Defender in Dominy 1972. Given the then-apparent distance between him and the throne, Diarmuid had received a less rigidly conventional education than was usual for his position, having studied engineering at the University of Clachán, and had worked as a civil engineer for a Ráth-based practice since 1966.

Diarmuid, who would gain the soubriquet an Tógálaí ("the Builder"), has been credited by most observers of recent Odannach history as one of the chief architects of Odann's postwar revival. He lost little time in beginning a thorough housecleaning of the dilapidated Odannach state institutions. His first order was to prorogue all three of the houses of government while their memberships sought fresh mandates from their respective electorates; with the Councils properly reconstituted, he appointed a Chief Advisor from the Council of the People, arguing that the most junior of the three chambers nonetheless had the greatest public legitimacy. He also removed Íonacht an Dhonn, director of the OSC and widely regarded as a Holy Mother-in-waiting, from her office, and it is thought that only the intervention of Holy Mother Sinead an hÉadrom allowed an Dhonn to place herself in voluntary exile in Yfirland rather than face criminal prosecution. Three years later Odann began a strong recovery, in part fuelled by declining military spending and increased social spending as the armed forces were wound back; Diarmuid made a personal project out of re-establishing acceptable relations with the Savamese, and in 1978 he would become the first Defender to visit Quesailles since the creation of the Savamese empire almost 200 years earlier. The period from 1975 to 1987 showed relations between the self-declared champions of Cairony at their most cordial.

Ultan II, the present Defender: this photograph from 2010.

But for all the sunny optimism of these years, there were still distinct undercurrents of dissent within Odannach society, with some factions in both the Council of Nobility and the Council of the People mounting an expansionist and strongly military agenda. This was based on the claim that Odann had been brought down in the Gaste War not by any failings by its people, but by leaders who had been incompetent or naïve at best, or outright traitorous at worst. These factions held as axiomatic that Odann had to strongly arm itself, so as to prevent any outside party from ever imposing its will on the country. The most significant figures in this strand of thought grouped themselves around Diarmuid's younger brother, Crown Prince Ultan; unusually for someone so close to the throne, the prince had persisted with the military duties expected of him as a young man and had turned them into a career. Although there was some substantial concerns over someone of such hardline views becoming Defender, this disturbing course of events became a reality in 1988, when Diarmuid died from heart failure at the surprisingly young age of 47 years.

Ultan set out his stall early, authorizing a substantial increase in the armed forces budget and actively casting about for opportunities to demonstrate the kind of assertive foreign policy which he sought for his new Odann. Substantial resources were diverted into metacosmic research, despite the country's relative lack of stature in the Messenian scientific community. The dividends were seen in 1992, when Odann detonated its first metacosmic weapon at an isolated test facility in the far southern tundra of Odannach Serania. This was hailed within the country as Odann’s return as a great power, although it prompted serious concerns across Messenia as the Sacred Kingdom has expanded its military, which remains significantly overpowered for the underlying strength of the country's economy. Odann also took steps to create a more formalised ally group, with the 1996 Pact of Clachán firming up links with Tassedar and Yfirland, and some other north-eastern Ascesian states later becoming looser associates. Further afield, Odann was a net beneficiary from the 1993 Serrinean War, with its local clients emerging much stronger and giving Ráth a sizeable influence in the newly-constituted state of Tarves. Odann also almost accidentally acquired a stronger position within central Lestria in the fallout from the 1994 West Lestrian War, which it consolidated through officially “non-state” forces in the short Gulkog War in 1996.

At the present time Ultan enjoys fairly substantial support from the Council of Nobility and the greater part of the Council of the People; the Lay Sorority has been much more critical, and it is thought by many outside observers that it is largely due to the strength of the Argan of Odann's influence across the country at large that the Defender's hand has been stayed from overt action against it. This is not to say that there has been significant dissent against Ultan’s rule; despite efforts to prevent it, emigration from Odann to neighbouring countries, mainly Elland and Emilia, has seen enough of a rise to receive the (still somewhat hyperbolic) name an Díle, “the Flood”.