Treaty of Ostari (1958)

The Treaty of Ostari was an interordinate agreement signed at Ostari, the capital city of Siurskeyti, on 24 Animare 1958. The treaty formally brought to an end the Gaste War between Odann and an alliance of countries led by Savam, and is commonly regarded as the effective end of the Long War period as it affected Messenia.

Background

The Gaste War had, in most important respects, been the culmination of almost three decades of rivalry and mutual suspicion between Odann, probably the most significant state in the Orthodox Cairan community, and Savam, long acknowledged as the leader of those states adhering to the Reform interpretation of that faith. While there undoubtedly was a strong underlying religious element to the conflict – following in a long line of religious wars extending as far back as the First Reform War of the early 18^th century – the Gaste War probably came into being as the natural development of economic, political, and strategic rivalries between the two countries.

Odann and Savam had already seen skirmishes of greater or lesser import in Emilia (the Snow War of 1938) and the approaches to the Strait of Calcar (the Demirci Incident in 1936), as well as both states' intervention, directly or through proxies, in the ongoing civil war in Ceresora. The civil war was to provide the context for the escalation to the Gaste War itself, with Savam seizing the moment in which to neutralise the only one of its great-power rivals in Messenia which was currently hostile to its interests.

By 1953 the Savamese were dedicated to intervention en force in Ceresora to secure their long-term interests there. However, they knew Odann would not allow this, and that it was planning its own intervention through neutral Emilia and Savamese-aligned Brex-Sarre (preparations by both powers have been confirmed by Savamese intelligence declassified in the 1980s). In effect, both countries were gearing up for a major war, knowing the other would not allow them to intervene freely. All that remained in question at that point was who would pull the trigger first; but defence chiefs in Quesailles argued that it would be feasible to mount a successful assault on Odann itself.

After intense diplomatic preparations, the Savamese were the first to strike in the autumn of 1954. While the war's official casus belli centred on the supposed mistreatment and persecution of reformer minorities in the Odann-controlled Trasmardúinn region and on free navigation on the river Marduine river, it actually began with a Savamese lightning strike through Emilia, which they overran and occupied as a precursor to the invasion of Odann itself.

The war, which extended over more than three years (Ediface 1954 to Animare 1958), saw Savam, with assistance from Elland and Zeppengeran, steadily break down Odannach defences across the east of the country, descending in force on Ráth, which fell to the allies’ attack after a protracted battle in Empery 1957. Although the government of Siurskeyti had offered its services as mediators (as it had on several other occasions during the 1930s and 1940s), only with the fall of its capital did the Odannach leadership recognise that the war was effectively lost and accept the offer.

The treaty

The participants gathered in the palatial splendour of the Skýrhöll on the eastern fringe of Ostari in the first week of Conservene 1957. The Odannaigh delegation had travelled by sea from the port city of Clachán – which was still in their hands as the allies consolidated their position in central Odann – while the Savamese representatives, led by Quentin, comte de Dolignac, a seasoned diplomat appointed représentant plénipotentiaire pour les affaires interordinales (in what would be his final major diplomatic work), had made a lengthy and uncomfortable journey by air, being forced to break their trip unexpectedly when a mechanical problem forced them to land in Otway, in central Elland, to allow repairs to their aircraft.

Having forced the Odannaigh to the negotiating table, the allies – and the Savamese in particular – felt no obligation towards restraint; and as a result, the draft treaty was punitive almost to the point of humiliation. Under its terms, Odann would be forced to cede the Trasmardúinn province to Elland, restoring it to the sovereignty which it had enjoyed prior to the Autumn War of 1867-68 (Elland’s quid pro quo for its assistance to Savam under the Hemperth-Loiseau Agreement), and would be obliged to maintain a demilitarised zone fifty kilometres (32 miles) in width along the northern bank of the river Marduine until 1983.

Additionally, a large piece of Odann’s western coastline would be severed in order to create two new states, Fiobha and Laora; anti-government activists had been a substantial influence in these areas during the war, as the Odannach army had been forced to divert much-needed resources from the front line to deal with them. While actual secessionist sentiment in those territories was weak, their recreation as independent states was specifically aimed at denying Odann most of its economically-important coastline, and weakening it in terms of dealing with its still-extensive overseas possessions in Serania Major and Diothún, and its commercial interests in eastern Ascesia. This provision was seen by most Odannaigh as explicit Savamese retribution for its loss of the present-day state of Emilia following the Autumn War; however, this part of the treaty saw the most significant change, as the final version allowed Odann to retain eastern Laora, along with the city of Clachán, its traditional capital; the present-day state of that name contains only about 60% of the former province of Laora, and the part retained by Odann continues to use the name.

From their Seranian territories, Odann would give up the Dombalte Bay territory in the south of Serania Major, which would be annexed by Savam as part of its overseas possessions in Grand-Sud, along with some smaller holdings elsewhere along the coast. Savam also received a small area of land in the south-west of Diothún, overlooking the approaches to the important shipping lanes of the Onnech Sound; this area is now known as Port-des-Vents after after the combined port and military base later established there by the Savamese. Zeppengeran’s contribution to the war effort was rewarded with the cession of smaller Odannach bases in the Princess Margaret Islands, as well as the mainland Trá Rúnda territory on the southern shore of Muskat Bay.

Severe restrictions would be placed on Odann’s armed forces, and in particular its navy, which was to be roughly halved in size within six months of the signing of the treaty (although surplus vessels were allowed to be mothballed rather than broken up). Additionally, no new construction of either naval or merchant vessels would be permitted for five years, with monitoring of compliance with this demand to be conducted by a Joint Naval Surveillance Commission to be formed by the allied states. The Odannach treasury was also forced to make financial settlements to the families of allied soldiers who had been the victims of poison gas attacks; the later stages of the war had seen the most extensive uses of chemical weapons – by both sides – ever seen in any war to that date, and the horror which the effects of these weapons had engendered was very fresh in the minds of almost all the delegates at the Skýrhöll. This provision was protested forcefully by the Odannach delegation, who argued that Savamese unwillingness to offer compensation for the identical suffering of Odannach soldiers was inequitable and a manifest double standard.

By contrast, the victorious allies made almost no concessions other than Savam’s agreement to withdraw its troops from Emilia and Brolangouan. Occupation forces in Emilia had, indeed, already been pulled back to the homeland by the time the treaty was signed, but an evacuation from Brolangouan began in early Metrial and was functionally complete by the end of Fabricad. Even this action, though, significant as it was for the two countries affected, probably benefited the Savamese more, as it freed up currently home-based troops to be redeployed in the Transvechian Far East, where a simultaneous war was in progress against Kiy.

After almost three weeks of intense discussions, the treaty was finally signed on 24 Animare by thár Kjaran Hlyna for the hosts, Dolignac of Savam for the allied states and Donal Ceart, chairman of the Odannach war council, for Odann. The signing of the treaty would be the last significant act of Ceart’s political career – and, indeed, his life; it would not emerge for some time that he was already in the early stages of pancreatic cancer during the Skýrhöll negotiations, and the disease would ultimately take his life in Estion 1959.

Legacy

The Treaty of Ostari has produced what has been described as a “collective persecution complex” among present-day Odannaigh; many within the country considered that Odann had been stripped of territory and economically hamstrung as the result of a war which they had not sought and did not start, although the harsh conditions of the immediate post-war years placed these concerns to the rear of most people’s minds for most of the following decade. The sense among many Odannaigh that they were made the victims of an unjust war – and are still being hindered, even persecuted, today – remains a significant factor in the country’s culture, and a marked influence on political discourse and on Odann’s current interactions in the interordinate sphere.

In Zeppengeran, the treaty quickly became a controversial topic as the country did not seem to make any immediate gains compared to Savam and Elland, expect for a percentage of the war reparations. Politicians and journalists compared the recent conflict with the Embute War, which was increasingly judged to have been a waste of lives and resources to the Zepnish at the time. Nowadays, it is widely believed that the end of the Gaste War marked the beginning of a rising resentment against the Savamese within Zeppengeran's political class, in particular in the anti-Meyerist camp of Bernhardt von Prost. This resentment would eventually lead to the breakup of Savamo-Zepnish relations and the 15-years long (then secret) suspension of their alliance in the 1970s and early 1980s.