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Leithanien
| Faction | Overview | Branches |
- Kaiser of Leithanien
- Twin Empresses (1077–present)
- Herkunftshorn the "Witch King" (969–1077)
- Kurfürsten of Leithanien (de facto)
- Imperial Court of Leithanien (de jure)
- Gesatzswächters
- Spire Casters
- Künsteritter[1][note 1]
Leithanien, formally known as the Leithanian Empire, is a Terran country bordering Kazimierz, Siracusa, Victoria, and Ursus. It is a feudal confederate empire formed by nine Kreise governed by its Kurfürsten who routinely elect each other to become the ruling Kaiser. The nation is predominated by the Caprinae and Elafians who are known to be talented Arts users, and a handful of Lupos could be found on its southeastern corner.
Leithanien is famous for its classicism, its classical academic studies on Originium Arts and the extensive use of Arts-based technologies. Notably, the Leithanians are able to merge both music and Arts, and musical Arts is so prevalent that many Leithanian terms are named after musical terms and techniques. However, its Arts supremacy often comes with the cost of sacrificing the basic rights of the local Infected to a point of using them as test subjects in the past. Discrimination against non-Arts users is also prevalent to the point of calling them "defects."
Throughout history, Leithanien is heavily influenced by political classicism and a strong hierarchy of aristocrats. The history of the nation could be traced back to the drafting of the magical Güldenesgesatz that unites the aristocrats of the Kreise. Entering the Crystal Age, Leithanien was saved from a devastating separatist movement of Siracusa, but the nation soon came under the tyrannical rule of Herkunftshorn the Witch King whose century-old shadow still lingers on. The current intensive political environment is born following the overthrow of the Witch King by the Twin Empresses whose unique statuses still question the ruling Kurfürsten.
History[edit]
Classical era[edit]
Back in the ancient past, Leithanien began as a confederation of ten tribes of different cultures who practiced the customs of the leading Caprinae tribe via their powerful oral Arts. The Arts of the Caprinae tribe brought unanimous harmony and brought civil order to the remaining tribes, though the tribe of Siracusa remained independent due to political conflicts and geographical obstacles.[2] As the threat of the Teekaz approached eastward, the ten tribes sought to unite themselves to fend off the invaders. They made political agreements with the famiglie of Siracusa, solemnly made an everlasting oath under the witness of an immortal mage, the great Lich King, and drafted a magical constitution that mentally bound the tribes together under one nationality — the Güldenesgesatz.[2][3] For generations, The Güldenesgesatz molds Leithainans' culture, moral, and even politics. Generations of Kaisers and Casters contributed to the music by writing their influences onto its music sheet, making it the most complex Arts Terra has ever witnessed.
As Leithanien developed, it began to be embroiled in countless geopolitical affairs in the Terran heartland. In Terran year 897, it even stretched far west to Bolívar by setting up the Singas dynasty as its puppet regime through the order of the Kurfürst of Strumland, and the presence of the Singas contributed to the political interest of Leithanien in the region.[4] Back within its border, separatism has been deeply rooted in the ten Kreise. In Terran year 967, the Kreis of Siracusa rebelled against the Imperial Court, resulting in a violent separatist movement. The movement soon embroiled into a larger-scale civil war that dragged the remaining nine Kreise to suppress other rebellions across the land. The civil war not only exhausted the Kurfürsten's resources and political ideology, but also, it almost resulted in the disintegration of the confederation as it violated the harmony provided by the Güldenesgesatz.[5]
The Witch King era[edit]
In Terran year 969, Herkunftshorn the Witch King was appointed to be the Kaiser of Leithanien. Being the greatest Caster in history who possesses endless knowledge on Arts, his reign turned himself into Leithanien's personification. The greatest moment of his reign was the amendment of the Güldenesgesatz in the midst of the separatist war. Being long seen as an impossible mission to even the most respected Leithanian Casters, the Witch King stood up to amend the Güldenesgesatz by "rewriting" such complex Arts while keeping the constitution intact. After the amendment, Siracusa's independence was formally recognized, and stability finally returned to Leithanien.[3]
In the early years of his reign, the Witch King was praised to be a remarkable ruler who implemented various revolutionary policies. In the name of avoiding a second separatist movement, he threatened the Kurfürsten to hand in parts of their political power and the military back to the Imperial Court, which initiated political centralization that crumbled the old aristocracy. To the common folks of the middle class, he was viewed as a savior, but to the aristocrats, his centralization of power threatened their interests, resulting in various rebellions that were quickly crushed. But over the years, the Witch King began to rule with an iron fist who sealed off himself from the populace just to study his Arts and suppressed political dissidents through massacres and inhumane methods, and the fear of the Witch King became widespread among the people especially as he slowly gained a cult of personality who crazily worshiped him.[6]
Between 1029 and 1031, Leithanien faced an outright invasion from the Gaulish Empire which in turn escalated into the War of the Four Nations. Gaul sought to turn Leithanien into its vassal state through political marriages, but the Witch King angrily responded by petrifying Gaulish envoys into a horrible, twenty-meter-tall statue. Noticing the political tension between the Witch King and the Kurfürsten, the ruling Gaulish Emperor Corsica I formally declared the Gallo-Leithanian War in the name of both seeking vengeance from his the Witch King's action and liberating Leithanien from his tyranny. In the early stage of the war by December, the Gallic troupe, armed with advanced weaponry and support of mercenary-Casters of the Sarkaz Royal Court, easily captured four Leithanian Kreise, but the war soon entered into a stalemate as the Witch King personally entered the war through his artificial Catastrophes. By the winter of 1030, Victoria and Ursus quickly meddled in the war out of political interests, and the war ended with the three-nation alliance's victory against Gaul in the battle of Lingones of October 1030.[7]
The victors of the War of the Four Nations quickly scrambled the trophies after Gaul's annihilation, but Leithanien gained the least and suffered the most. As the war occurred on Leithanian soil, the country's infrastructure was heavily destroyed. In the meantime, the Witch King's tyranny became more oppressive in the last twenty to thirty years of his reign, and he turned into a maniac who fully isolated himself from the outside world after diving into his studies of Arts.[6][8] His reign of terror brought oppositions from both the commoners and the Kurfürsten, and the Kurfürsten, under the support from the war hero Großherzog Leopold, formally denounced his power after deeming that the Witch King had completely lost control of all political affairs due to his madness.
Die Septemberaufstand[edit]
- Main article: Septemberaufstand
The Septemberaufstand of 1077 marked the end of the Witch King's tyranny after years of accumulating opposing voices. As the Kurfürsten denounced his sovereignty, dissident arts and culture that were once censored by the Imperial Court began to flourish again in the Kurfürsten's territories. Among those politicians and artists, a twin sister who were former concertmasters of the Reichsorchester, Lieselotte Ewigegnade and Hildegard Grimmacht, became leaders of the opposition party, and their popularity grew so much that even the Witch King and his loyalists found it hard to arrest and punish them as they were sheltered by the Kurfürsten.[9]
With full preparation, the Kurfürsten and the twin sisters initiated a coup d'état against the Witch King in September 1077. The rebel armies crushed the Witch King's loyalists and marched towards the capital of Vedunien, and they faced tough challenges at its outskirts from the destructive Originium Arts of his Spire. The battle reduced the Kurfürsten's soldiers into ashes, and with the opposition on the verge of defeat, the loyalists managed to put the Kurfürsten's forces on a stalemate. The twin sisters, however, did not retreat but led an elite force to lay siege at the capital city at night. Together, they managed to penetrate the twenty-two Arts barriers installed by the Witch King and ascended onto his Spire for a final showdown. By daybreak, the light in the Witch King's Spire faded away after the Twin Empresses finally slew the Witch King. They returned safely to the rebels while carrying his corpse to be demonstrated publicly, a miraculous feat that the Kurfürsten had never witnessed.[10]
The victory of the Septemberaufstand ushered in a new era to Leithanien after the overthrow of the Witch King's tyranny. As they gained popular support, the Kurfürsten broke the tradition and crowned the twin sisters as the "Twin Empresses" of Leithanien.[10]
Era of the Kaiserinnen[edit]
The era of the Twin Empresses marked an era of restoration. Stability was finally restored, and compensation was made to the survivors. On the other hand, some of the old policies were reverted back such as the restoration of the rigid aristocracy rather than the meritocracy the Witch King established.
In the meantime, since the Kaiserinnen era, Leithanien's politics has been heavily divided between three parties: the Kurfürsten, the surviving loyalists of the Witch King, and ardent supporters of the Twin Empresses. For a long time, the Kurfürsten have been treating the Twin Empresses as a thorn in their side and seeking to oust or at least manipulate them behind the scene, but the Empresses' popular support and their political might made them hard to be challenged.[10] Those who oppose the Empresses seek to revive the lost legacies of the Witch King and even denounce their legitimacy. Declaring themselves as the "Echoes of Herkunftshorn" — or the "Witch King's Remnants" to the government, they continue to study the forbidden Arts of the Witch King in order to restore his order or even attempt to revive him, often done with cruel Arts experiments onto the commoners.
Stimmverlust[edit]
- Main article: Zwillingstürme im Herbst/Synopsis
In September 1100, the Stimmverlust[note 2] occurred among one of the Empresses. During the 23rd Kaiserinnenfest that celebrated the Kaiserinnen's victory against the Witch King, the surviving cultists of the "Echoes of Herkunftshorn" brought forward chaos to the festival by forcefully shambling the Güldenesgesatz through their infiltrating musicians that cast different Arts upon it amidst the performance of the national anthem. Following suit, the Kargereich ―a mysterious hyper-dimension― appeared above Zwillingstürme which the cultists declared to be the site where the Witch King's soul reside. Their motivation was to open up the Kargereich and summon the Witch King back to the mortal realm, hence fulfilling their mission to resurrect him and bring back his rule again.
However, the summoning of the Kargereich brought forward a grave side-effect: the dimension is in reality where the Collapsals ―demonic entities that have been haunting Sami, Ursus, and Sargon for centuries― reside. Their appearance caused psychic phenomenon that psychologically corrupted the attendants. In order to conceal the Kargereich, the Twin Empresses personally "ascended" there to battle against not only the haunting soul of the Witch King, but also the encroaching demons. In the end, Empress Hildegard personally stayed behind to guard against the invading Collapsals, forcing her to be separated from the human realm.
In the aftermath, stability was finally restored, and most of the cultists were either apprehended or committed suicide amidst the event, forcing their survivors to go underground. The Imperial Court, under the order of Empress Lieselotte, declared that Empress Hildegard just "lost her voice" due to unknown reasons to prevent news of her disappearance in the Kargereich leaking to the public.
While the impact of the Stimmverlust remains minute, it serves as the first warning call of the impending "Apocalypse" that would soon threaten Terra. The news even reached as far as Yan to force the government to conduct secret meetings regarding the subsequent worldwide "crises" ever since the Stimmverlust of Leithanien.[11]
Notable people[edit]
| Operator |            |
|---|---|
| NPC |               |
Expatriates[edit]
| Operator |    |
|---|---|
| NPC |    |
Historical figures[edit]
- Großherzog Leopold
- Graf Schmidt Ebersdorf: A famous orchestra composer who was the founder of Atelier Schmidts, Leithanien's top Arts Units manufacturing company.[12]
- Bielefeld†: A caster from Kreis Erdenherre and the previous owner of Ebenholz' dices. During the War of the Four Nations, he skillfully used his Arts to control the winds and lightning of the central Gaulish valleys to sink Corsica I's flagship, single-handedly ruining the enemy formation. He was later killed in action during the final assault on Lingones, and the Witch King decided to save the dices to honor his memory.[13]
Other notable people[edit]
- Graf Edwin
- Katia & Magna Naumann
- Werner von Hochberg
- Sinach Weber
- Lucinda Droste☠: A Leithanian commoner who was Viviana's mother, despite not being legally married with Kurfürst Werner. Described as a shy and gentle woman, she and Werner met each other during a poetry meeting in Vedunien, immediately falling in love each other. However, she would pass away under unknown circumstances thirteen years ago.[14][15]
- Graf Hohenlohe: Also known as the "Hyacinth Count", he is a young Infected noble and caster, and last remaining heir of House Hohenlohe, a noble family which was defeated by their political enemies following a conspiracy that lead to an incident where the young count contracted Oripathy. Carnelian works as an attendant of his family as a responsibility for accidentally injuring him during one of her strolls in Leithanien.[16][17]
Lucinda Droste
Enemies[edit]
| Normal |             |
|---|---|
| Elite |     |
| Boss |   |
Places[edit]
Settlements[edit]
- Wolumonde
- Vyseheim
- Zwillingstürme
- Urtica: The Leithanian Grafschaft where the Witch King was born, described as a small, decrepit town.[18] Following his "death," the district was handed to his distant relatives, but it has since turned into a neglected region because it's despised by the Empresses' supporters.
- Graufield: A Leithanian city close to Kazimierz. The city is expected to establish regular trade operations with the nomadic city of Dzwonek.[19]
- Guttenberg: The Leithanian city where Sinach Weber works as a professor. It also houses the William, Gutenberg and Kurfüst Erich Universities, which form the "Big Three of Guttenberg," one of Terra's most important academic circles.[20][21]
- Fels: The administrative capital of Kreis Sturmland, where Werner von Hochberg's Spire is located. It is also Viviana's hometown. The name means "rock" or "cliff" in German.
- Unna: A remote, yet bustling village located at the foot of the aforementioned volcano. After the previous village was destroyed by an eruption, the locals decided to relocate to the current one a few kilometers north of its original position.[22]
- Unna is the name of a district/kreiss in the state of North Rhine-Westfalia, Germany, as well as its administrative capital.
- Grinden: A city in Kreis Einwald where Diamante comes from.[23][24]
Academies[edit]
- Ludwigs-Universität
- Neuleopold University: The newly reconstructed Ludwigs-Universität after its mobile plate was destroyed during the Kaiserinnenfest of 1100. Located in Neuleopoldshof, Zwillingstürme.[25][26]
- Reichskunstakademie: An institute in which some campuses and faculties belonging to Ludwigs-Universität got merged, after the destruction of the latter's mobile plate. Located in Bachshof, Zwillingstürme.[25]
- William University
- Gutenberg-Universität: Founded in 794 in Gutenberg, it is one of the most prestigious academies in Terra alongside William University and Ludwigs-Universität.[27]
Landmarks[edit]
- Winterwisp Mountains: The mountain range in northern Leithanien that borders Wolumonde. It is named after the "Winterwisps" who inhabit there.
- Mount Unna: A volcano located in the northern Leithanian wastes, which was chosen as a key site for the Catastrophe research project of the Naumann couple, However, in an unexpected turn of events, the volcano would make eruption and kill the couple.[28][29]
- "Der Schiefer Turm der Ewigkeit": A jade-colored spire that once belonged to a certain Kurfürst, considered a miracle in Leithanian architecture. Due to changes on the strata it was located, the spire began to lean significantly, but remained on a tilt position thanks to the spire casters' Arts. Although the spire was finally destroyed by a Catastrophe four centuries ago, a replica could be found inside Kargereich.[30] The name means "The Leaning Spire of Eternity" in German.
Gallery[edit]
The back alley of a Leithanian town
A square in a Leithanian town
A Leithanian village
The alleys of a Leithanian city
The alleys at night
The streets of a Leithanian city
The terrace of a Leithanian spire
A room in a Leithanian Spire
People[edit]
A female Leithanian Caprinae villager
A male Leithanian Elafian villager
An Infected Leithanian Elafian rebel
A male Leithanian Elafia
Another one wearing with a hat and yellow vest
A female Leithanian Elafia
Another one with yellow headscarf
A Leithanian Caprinae nobleman
Another one with spectacles
A female Leithanian Caprinae Spire Caster
A male Leithanian Caprinae Spire Caster
A male Leithanian Caprinae student
Another male student with blonde hair
A female Leithanian Caprinae student
Another female student with blonde hair
A male Leithanian Caprinae gendarme
A female Leithanian Caprinae gendarme
Concept Arts[edit]
Early design explorations for the Leithanian NPCs that would appear in Twilight of Wolumonde, including Tatjana and Severin Hawthorn, as seen in Arknights Official Artworks Vol 2.
Trivia[edit]
- Leithanien is based on the German-speaking nations in Central Europe such as the historical Germanic empires (Austria-Hungary, the Holy Roman Empire, and Prussia) and modern Germany and Austria.
- Germany and Austria are famous for their classical music, a reference to Leithanien's prevalent musical Arts.
- Leithanian confederate system is based on the cantons of Switzerland.
- Leithanian nomadic cities are similar to the free imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire and the subsequent German states such as the German Empire and Weimar Republic.
- Siracusa's separatist movement from Leithanien is similar to the unification of Italy, the Risorgimento, in which the Italian states revolted against Austria-Hungary to unify into a single state.
- Prior to the Near Light update, the English localization renders Leithanien's name as Leithania, although both are the same since the suffix -ien is the German equivalent of -ia in English.
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
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