Mabuting

Mabuting is a collection of ten islands forming a large archipelago to the Far East, known for its extensive fishing industries, tropical environment and strange fauna. Formerly inhabited by the Matuari people's, the westernmost isles of the  island chain was colonised by Hijian refugees in 300 PRT. Since then, a truce has existed between the Hijian descended Mabuting people and the surviving Matuari tribes to the East. As of the brief War of Allegiance, the Matuari have submitted to the rule of the Mabuting monarchy and act as an autonomous state within Mabuting’s Sovereignty. During the Great War, Mabuting supported the Shurido Khovenate, though switched sides towards the wars end in an act known as the Mabuting betrayal, supported by friendly Arcean forces.

Since then it has remained a monarchy, struggling against the threat of an Eshwardian invasion and the fact it is surrounded on three sides by anti-royalist states.

History
Following the uprising of the Hoffnung underclasses in 300 PRT, a large group of Hijian refugees took to the seas in flotillas of boats, heading eastward, where they splintered and some of whom would go on to create the Shurido and Enshaw. One of these groups was under the lead of Katri Torress, a Hijian noble whom fled with a small contingent of loyal troops, their extended families and a number of loyal peasants. While other Hijians colonised up and down the eastern lands, Katri’s small party landed upon the shores of the most eastern and largest of Mabuting’s island in 298 PRT. There they met the comparatively primitive Matuari and thanks to their steel armour and weaponry, succeeded in defeating the assembled tribes and proceeded to expand across the island, from their initial settlement of Piampang to take the entirety of the island, creating a new capital in the fertile centre, naming it Praya. The Matuari people were subjugated as subjects of the new government, and within a few generations the two people were heavily interbred. Katri did not live to see the land under her people’s full control, but her granddaughter Seehio was crowned Queen of the newly established Mabuting fifty nine years later.

The War's of the Bloodlines

In 74 PRT, Queen Katri II died of a fever, leaving only a young son as king. However, her nieces, the Princesses Anthea Torress and Sheri Peraki both decided that they were the fit ruler of Mabuting. Both gathered armies and in 72 PRT, Sheri Peraki, marched into Praya and took the royal palace. Her nine year old cousin was place under arrest as she used the law of female succession to claim the crown from him, while her cousin Anthea was declared an outlaw and enemy of the state. She in turn fled to neighbouring Naturi island with her army and a collection of loyal nobles to plot her revenge.

An expedition by Sheri’s troops to attack Naturi was destroyed in a storm, where legends have it the Corpse-Eater sharks were fat and bloated for years after due to the size of the feast, allowing Anthea to consolidate her forces. In 69 PRT she struck back, with her husband Tua landing on the northern coast with 700 men at arms and 2,000 archers. He met with Sheri’s 4,000 troops at the battle of Tua’s Storm, where the heavy rains helped slow Sheri’s infantry to allow his archers to pick them apart piece by piece. From there he marched onto Piampang before retaking the city back from Sheri, who fled to the islands of Enshaw with her husband, the lord Peraki and the princess Kedi.

Anthea was crowned Anthea the first that year, and gave birth to her own daughter, Katri III three months later. The bloodline of Torres had for the moment won over that of Petraki. For a period of twenty nine years Mabuting saw relative peace, aside from the occasional skirmish between pro Petraki forces and the royal army. During this time, Anthea passed away in 52 PRT while her cousin Sheri became stricken with gout, living in exile in Enshaw which combined with her illness, earned the former beauty the moniker of the “Mabuting Ogress”

That was to change in 49 PRT when the decrepit Sheri, her husband and their daughter Kedi lead 500 Enshadian mercenaries and 400 loyalist troops to land on the west coast of Mabuting. Receiving some limited support from Enshaw, the Petraki bloodline succeeded in evading the royalist army and reaching Praya with an army swollen by disgruntled peasants. Tua Torress was killed at the battle of Praya’s gate, while his daughter Katri was forced to flee once again to Naturi. Their twin sons were slain in the confusion of the escape while their youngest daughter Anya was captured and placed into the custody of a loyal lord who later entered into a forced marriage with her.

The Petraki bloodline had once again triumphed over the Torress and declared themselves the rightful rulers of Mabuting. The “Ogress” herself was happy to hide away in the royal palace, indulging in feasting while her daughter Kedi was placed as the day to day ruler of the nation. She succeeded in arranging semi-favourable trade routes with Enshaw and the Shurido, as well as leading the country out of the rice famine, making her a popular figure. She was to become queen in 46 PRT with the death of her reclusive mother.

For fifty six years since, the Petraki ruled Mabuting, while Katri ended her days at the Mabuting colony of Kon Tum, having three children with the garrison commander.

However, a new force arose in the shape of Lord Barraki. A descendent of the deposed king of 72 PRT, he saw himself as the heir to his grandfather’s lost throne. However, he appeared outwardly supportive to the Petraki regime, while building up his own forces into a private army. In 10 RT he opened negotiations with Katri’s granddaughter, Anthea II, offering his hand in marriage and military support. The two were wed in secret in 12 RT at Kon Tum before Barraki returned to Mabuting to continue operating under the Petraki radar.

Two years later, Lord Barraki’s armies turned their standards to the Torres and began a march towards Praya. Anthea II and her forces, a mix of the garrison of Kon Tum as well as a few Altzanian mercenaries set sail across the sea to join him.

Queen Kedi responded by sending her own royal army, with Enshwardian auxiliaries to meet them at the village of Malakkar.

At the battle of Malakkar, the 4,500 of the the Petraki army met the 3,000 warriors of the Torress in a flat forested plain.

Barraki took the initiative and attacked under the cover of a barrage of arrows. While the Petraki forces were pinned into place, he launched a cavalry charge of his loyal nobles around the left flank, hoping to chase the enemy archers off the ridge they occupied. He was met by a counter charge lead by Queen Kedi’s loyal husband Shuri. The two units of knights collided and in the melee both were unhorsed but Shuri was ridden down by an unknown Torress knight. Following the flank, the main line of Torress infantry advanced and met the enemy head on, breaking throughout go their already disheartened ranks, though suffering heavy losses from the defiant Petraki archers, before the battle was won in Anthea’s favour.

From the bloodied site of battle she and her husband rode to Praya where the dispondent Queen Kedi bowed before her and begged for her life. Lord Barraki pulled the crown from her head and placed it onto his own wife.

The Wars of the Bloodlines ended with the coronation of Anthea II, ending the attempt of the Petraki bloodline to take power. The former queen Kedi was spared, but banished to the colony of Kon Tum, where she lived until the end of her days.

The Torres line was secured with the birth of Anthea’s daughter Kajia, six months after her coronation

War of Unification
Over the centuries, Mabuting’s Monarchy launched a series of raiding campaigns as it took the neighbouring island of Naturi and continued to bother the remaining Matuari peoples that were spread across the eight eastern islands.

In 1745 Queen Mahalia ordered an invasion by the Royal Maritime Army, of the eastern isles. The battle was easily won, the muzzle loading rifles and occasional repeater easily outclassing the bows and spears of the Matuari. However, they retreated and began to fight a guerilla war against the invaders, striking from jungles while moving their villages into hidden gorges and sea caves. wo months into the campaign however, Mahalia gathered the tribal leaders together to present a ultimatum. That the Matuari should accept her as their queen and their lands as part of Mabuting, in exchange for protection and the autonomy to govern themselves. Faced with this, the Matuari capitulated and the eight eastern islands became official Mabuting territory, achieving Mahali’s goal for the invasion and ending the short lived War of Unification.

The Great War and the Mabuting Betrayal
At the outbreak of the Great War, Mabuting sided with the Shirudo Shogunate on the basis that they were fellow monarchists and of a similar ethnicity. From the war’s outset, the Shurido used the archepelego as a staging area and resupply base of passing airfotresses and troop carriers.

This however would come to an end after diplomatic efforts by Arcea and Shurido war crimes in Nordvest turned Mabuting to the opposition.

In 1806 A nationwide order was issued once the royal family was evacuated, Marine and Milita forces immediately turned on their Shurido allies. Most of the enemy troops stationed there were logistical units who were quickly overrun. The professional combat soldiers however lasted much longer, retreating to their camps and naval bases to try and outlast their former allies. Drives by Mabuting forces and the country’s hostile terrain gradually whittled them down however, while Arcea deployed a strike force headed by the famous Kennewick Van Lark with the intention of capturing the Shurido royal, Hyro Shirrudo who had been stationed there.

With the Arcean support, the Mabuting military managed to destroy those Shurido elements who were unable to evacuate and pledged their loyalty to the Alliance. Task forces of the Mabuting marines would be sent to see action in the Former UHR and Karelia until the war’s end.

Since the war’s conclusion, the Mabuting government has done a great deal to cover up the past alliance to the Shurido and have cast the once friendly agreement as a forced submission of Mabuting territory. Anti-Shurido sentiment continues to run high.

Organisation
The Mabuting government is based around the Queen of Mabuting, currently Queen Rania. Around her are the royal Courts, administrative bodies based around a single faucet of infrastructure who act as both the managers of their respective spheres of influence and as advisory bodies to the Queen, who decides policy.

For the populace to submit grievances and propose reform, there is the court of appeal, whose branches collect data from the civilian populace to influence policy.

Demographics
The majority of Manuting’s citizens are of Hijian descent, having emigrated back when the Hoffnung underclass overthrew them. Accompanying them are Mabuting’s two minorities: the indigenous Matuari who mostly live on the eight smaller islands, forming a protected reservation where they still live in the traditional ways, and a small Mayaor immigrant population. Mabuting has preserved a small Islamic minority, from the earliest days of man. Therefore, the prospect of a Islam-tolerant nation attracted many Mayaor refugees who are credited with revitalising the flagging religion.

Topography
Mabuting is divided into two biospheres across all ten of its islands. The northern areas of the archipelago are made up of rocky hills and mainly barren scrubland, interwoven with rivers and waterholes. The northern coastline is rocky and mainly comprised of shingle or volcanic rock.

To the south, the land is much more fertile and mainly forms swampy wetlands, jungle and grassland. Here lies several river deltas that fuel Mabuting’s rice paddies. Southern beaches are more sand than shingle, while the weather isn't as harsh.

Military
Mabuting’s military is mainly based around the Marine Corps, formerly the Royal Martine Army. This is an infantry based force that specialises in semi aquatic warfare or fighting in tropical environments across Mabuting. Within the main Marine force, there are more specialised units such as the regiments of Combat Engineers or the Logistical Corps, though it's main strength is in the standard Marine Regiments, who individually have light armour and medium to heavy artillery support attached, to strengthen their fighting capability.

The army is currently under the command of the joint Chiefs of Staff: cousin to the queen, General Darna Torress and General Kasim Woo.

In terms of specialised forces, Mabuting also trains Marine raiding forces, who make regiment level assaults through snorkelling infiltratiors, as well as the elite War Sharks special activities regiment.