Aravala (Gollyverse) Main thread

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Evoan Naval development and general history 1914-1922

The declaration of war by King Väinö II was not faced with overwhelming support and at the front of facing a humiliating loss of the cabinets confidence vote in the Diet, King promptly dismantled the diet and the new elections were cast only months later when the nationalistic fervor and enthusiasm resulted a strong majority of pro-war parties, splitting the Evoan Social-democrats into pro war majority and anti-war minority, whose leaders were constantly under suspicious over communist sympathies.

At the very start the main role of Evoan fleet became essentially that of securing the transfer of the Evoan Expeditionary Forces into the mainland Ellardaë and their supply and on the other hand, to protect the vast empire and the essential resource-trade to fuel up Evoan military expenditures. Against these both task, a huge shadow was cast by the powerful Kommunaalilaivasto, which allocated most of its strength to escort and protect the Transoceanic transporting of Interkommunaali’s soldiers to Nomidaë and creating heavy forward basing of its main battlefleet, in concert with main body of the Nomidaëan fleet In Niwes Hawre, at the Northern Coast of Nomidaë, effectively protected by the Islands of Junit Balquë or Palkkisaaret. The Interkommunaali’s strategy was to tie down the powerful Evoan fleet into sort of staring match, so that it couldn't disperse its forces to raid down the supply lines, and in effect this strategy was successful. Outside the home fleet, only one Battlecruiser and collection of Armored cruisers of Evoan flag were pressed against the impossible task of both securing the Colonial traffic and at the same time hunt down and occupy all Nomidaëan holdings and forces.

1914 saw the most fierce naval confrontations in the distant waters When the combined League squadrons tried to hunt down the Nomidaëan and Interkommunaalis ships. While the success against Nomidaën units was conclusive, not least due to the partial demoralizing effect of the Communist revolution on the colonial world and two armored cruisers defected in the Far East. Two more were taken by the Evoan Far East Squadron in the 1st battle of Yrdyr Sea, but the 2nd battle saw the bulk of Evoan force, the two large Armored cruisers to sink against Interkommunaali’s cruiser-battleships. Two more Evoan older armored cruisers sunk in the Golden Sea in 1914-15 leaving the foreign stations to soldier on with mostly light cruiser forces, as the all but one Battle Cruisers were held home as scouting force for the main Fleet.

Further skirmishes of scouting cruiser forces consisted of the main naval war events for the first two years of the war, while the aggressive mine warfare and submarine activity caused the bulk of all losses to both sides. Two more Evoan and three Interkommunaali’s armored cruisers were sunk in the Ellardaëan theater, highlighting the type’s obsolescence against modern capital vessels, as well as the danger of the underwater threat that was now fully utilized for the first time in maritime warfare. Both sides built vast escort and minesweeper forces to fight this new type of warfare, while the submarine operations from both sides tested the internationally recognised rules of war, with accusations of war crimes being common in propaganda. For Evo, the loss of the secure feeling of the “Fortress of Waves'' was especially difficult in terms of the general attitude to the war, as the colonial world provided Evo much of its food exports and fear of famine was ever present in the minds of not just the public but the War Cabinet itself. Raiding submarine menace sinking civilian flagged freighters became almost exaggerated (against the true effects and results of the Red Side actions) in the Evoan propaganda and lived long in the folklore ever after. Lot less
attention naturally was given to the Evoan own submarine campaign to disrupt the Interkommunaali’s supply transports. Although there was some success in that regard, the Evoan submarine doctrine was still heavily focused around submarines as subordinated to the battlefleet as scouts and rear guards, despite no actual satisfactory result in this regard were gained. Most success came from the Little war in Raiven and Golden seas against Rim Sach and Nomidaës secondary forces.

In 1915 and during early 1916 Both sides tried unsuccessful coastal raids, which were to lure out enemy out of its positions for open engagements, but they ended up in just local clashes of the fast scouting elements before disengagements and gave no indication for the strategic standstill as both side anticipated and feared a dreadful war of attrition to commence. The King Väinö II was anxious to tip the balance in decisive naval victory to overcome the numerical supremacy of the Red side, thought at any state by 1916, the League nations were not aware perfectly, of how big portion of its Battlefleet Interkommunaali had brought to the Old world.

Admiral Säärinen, the Commander of the Evoan Home Fleet begun to plan offensive operations for the 1916 sailing season in the early spring, and much of it culminated in misinformation about Evoan Landings to seize the strategic Junit Balc -Islands, or Palkkisaaret, which guarded the Nomidaëan northern Coastline and gave the Red Fleets natural defensive hiding places to conduct their operation as well as provide coastal traffic.

Aggressive submarine reconnaissance missions, together with raids to the known locations of enemy warships were accelerated as well as rumors were spread among the Continental Forces about the oncoming landing operations with faked documents. These caused somewhat alarm in Nomidaän military leadership, but general opinion was seeing behind the Evoan Bluff.

Säärinens plan was to conduct a surprise landing assault, or atleast mock approach to the Eastern part of the Islands with the fast battlecruisers as support, and after engaging the enemy, sail northward to meet the Main Fleet which approached from the North. On 1st of June 1916, these two fleets sailed off and the southern Invasion force were quite soon spotted by an Interkommunaali’s airship. There was a lot of confusion as to what the actual Evoan attempt was, as the main fleet was not in sight and the Red intelligence erroneously reported it laying still in the harbors in Haikari. Interkommunaalis leadership correctly assumed, that this had to be another attempt of trap, but Nomidaën war cabinet initially panicked as the sighting of the vast trail of transports behind the Evoan Battlecruisers were grossly overestimated and the thread of imminent invasion was thought to occur. Admiral Jarchu set sail of his 1st Squadron of 6 battleships and supporting slow armored cruisers to intercept the Evoans, despite clear warning by the Interkommunaalis leadership not to do so. As the Nomidaëans sailed from the Junit sound towards the open Sea of Kouru, the Interkommunaalis main forces under Admiral Ronkainen moved his fleet to the Achur Sound, Into the Middle of the Archipelago.

After the Jarchu’s 1st squadron met the Evoan 1st Scouting group under Vice-Admiral Savela, the disparity of the two forces speed became clearly immedient. The Evoans were quick to turn northward before Jarchus squadron could close the firing range, and they took the bait and turned also northward to chase the Evoans. This engagement saw Evoans deliberately keeping the speed low enough that the Jarchus ships wouldn’t drop the chase, but also to retain favorable distance to the Evoans, despite their smaller caliber main weapons being designed in old Evoan tradition for closer range engagements. Savela was able to direct most of the Evoan fire against Jarchus old armoured cruisers which blew up one by one, and after third consecutive explosions of the cruisers, he ordered the remaining ones back to port as it was clearly been foolish and ill taught idea that they could survive in battleline against modern capital units.

Evoans also took beating and the Saiturinmaa, Savela’s flagship took the most of it, and after some time, the Evoan formation had to reduce their speed to keep the damaged ship dragging alongside, as Savela was not keen to let her remain at the mercy of the enemy, when he was closing on the meating point with the main Evoan Forces. Eventually in the evening, the Evoan Home fleet arrived at the scene, and the full reality of the situation became clear to Jarchu. However, the speed of the Evoan Main Fleet had been slightly too fast and while the original plan investigated the meeting to take place further north in the open seas, they now met at the mouth of the Achur Sound. Jarchu turned his squadron westwards in hopes to escape to the security of the islands, But Säärinen had anticipated this move and managed to set his forward squadrons on a south-east bound curving course to block their entrance. As the decisive victory for Evoans were almost at hands, Ronkainen’s Fleet arrived from the Sound at the very same time, and as Jarchu wisely moved his fleet to reach the safety behind the numbers, Säärinen’s main force sailed its western side and was about to be facing enemy fleet at its both sides.
Savela’s 1st SG proves out to be faster and by bold surge towards south the Ships cross the T at the Interkommunaalis Battlecruisers which moved on the front of the Interkommunaalis forces.
This proved out to be major mistake from Ronkainen’s part, as the superior position allowed
Savela’s squadron to sink two Interkommunaali’s battle cruisers. Interkommunaali’s vanguard then took a rapid turn to south which is mirrored by the Ronkainen’s main force, closing into Savela’s now rather worn 1st SG, which disengaged at the same time as Säärinen turned the Evoan fleet to south-east to engage Ronkainen. The Red line had now been reinforced with the most intact units of Jarchu’s squadron as well as the reserve Nomidaëan 2nd Sq.
The following 20 minutes saw the biggest naval artillery duel between armored ships as
the main components of each fleet engaged. Quite soon Säärinen came to a quick assertion of the situation and found the odds unfavorable against him, as the combined Red fleet's 30 all-big-gun capital ships outmatched Evoan strength of 21. He ordered disengagement, in which the Evoan Fleet turns rapidly towards North-East while the 1st SG and the Feets light units conducted a daring attack against the enemy fleet, to allow the main Fleet to flee. 1 more of Interkommunaali’s battlecruiser is blown up, but Evoans lose 4 small cruisers and 5 Torpedo Boats in this surge. Also, Saiturinmaa, Savela’s flag ship had to be sunk by the Evoans during the retreat, as it was unable to stay afloat and keep speed with the rest.
Old battleship Runvali, whose steering was damaged during the fight, was eventually captured by the Interkommunaali’s chase and sunk. The dark came to Evoans help and
The Red Fleet was unable to re-engage and Ronkainen cut off the chase.

Evoan Order of Battle to the Battle of Palkkisaaret 31st of May 1916

Avomerilaivasto
Amiraali Reino Säärinen
Fleet Flagship Aamukaupunki

III Laivue

5. Viirikkö
Uiskomies
Varpamies
Aravanpoika
Vanha Väki

6.Viirikkö
Kultanokka
Metsähovi
Routavuori

I Laivue

1.Viirikkö
Akka Jeliro
Haakonki
Tellervo Savolainen
Elsioinen

2.Viirikkö
Nouseva Tuuli
Luohikäärme
Ukkoslintu
Sananvarsi

II Laivue

3.Viirikkö
Gollevainen
Louhi Tulentekijä
Runvali

4.Viirikkö
Kimpulainen
Voilavainen
Tonavainen

4.Tiedusteluviirikkö
Small cruisers

Tiedustelulippue (Vara-amiraali Veijo Savela)

1. Tiedusteluviirikkö
Saiturinmaa (Lippu)
Sarastusmaa
Tuhatkunta
Vaeltajainmaa
Iso-Evo

2.Tiedusteluviirikkö
small cruisers

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In the aftermath, the Battle of Palkkisaaret has got an almost mythical reputation as the tipping point for the entire war and Evoan history in general. In essence, it was a strategic defeat that was recognised almost immediately, although kept outside of the public knowledge. The reports only focused on the tactical victory and sinking of several Red Large cruisers. It was not told however that the Navy was unable to defeat the combined might of the Enemy in decisive naval battle, thus not control the seas. There was a sense of alarming defeatism and panic caused by these after action assortments and much of the future Evoan naval doctrine and production strategies began to circumvent the resulting “Most important strategic challenge '' that is the restoration of naval supremacy around Ellardaë. . The King was furious over the defeat and even the possibility of bigger disaster, if the Enemy would have been luckier. Säärinen was replaced with Savela taking the command of the Ocean Fleet, and history generally remembered him as the Hero whose gallant tactical maneuvers raised him
among the famed Evoan Admirals of past centuries.

There has also been much speculation by later historians, how much the changed naval situation actually had changed and how much did the spreading defeatism by the Evoans accelerated the assortments of how bad the situation really was in terms of overseas transports and Evoan Navy’s ability to protect them. Despite the victory opened strategical
opportunities for Interkommunaali to conduct large scale and decisive trade interdiction against Evoan shipping, really little increase was actually evident. Lot more Evoan convoys and shipping were simply canceled and called back due lack of escort over anticipated danger than actually sunk. Most Interkommunaali’s actions post-Palkkisaaret was focused on increasing volume of its own troop transports across the ocean. While these reinforcements naturally affected on the land situation, the actual tipping points for the war
came from the supply issues for the Evoan domestic population. The shortages of winter 16-17 were alarming and the “Hungerwinter '' of 17-18 were major causes for the support of the anti-war sections of the social-democratic fractions as well as communists themselves.

The Rest of the war saw only brief incursions of both sides inside each area of control, but no major engagements occurred. In spring of 1918, Evoan Home Fleet was briefly deployed in the Eastern Raiven against Rim Shacian Breakthrough against Alkurulaë under which the Islands of Skairon were under immediate threat of enemy invasion and were thus occupied by Evoan Marines. In the following battles, Evoans sank 1 old battleship from the Rim Sach and damaged another.

The most direct consequence of the Palkkisaaret Battle was the spiraling naval race which Evo saw no means but to win by every cost. Already in 1915, when the early war saw major toll on Evoan armored cruiser force, 4 new battlecruisers were laid down, followed by 3 more in 1916. As the large cruisers were approaching 30,000t size the leap in the Battleship category was even more drastic as Evo laid down two 45,000t monstorious Battleships of the Päättäväinen class in 1918, armed with 42cm guns to suppress everything after rumors of Interkommunaali’s 40,000t battleships under construction spread across the intelligence field. Although Evo was determined in strengthening its battlefleet was a matter of life and death, the spiraling cost from the size increase was already seen as unattainable for long term.

In the summer of 1918 the situation of the Intervention league became increasingly hopeless after the failure of the spring offensive in the Western Front and the gradual collapsing of the East, when Alkurülae was forced to sue peace against Rim Sach and the situation in Thunordak was not much better. The previous winter saw widespread riots and strikes at Evo, which the government crushed mercilessly leaving much dissent among the Evoan population which had become rather fed up with the war. The Social Democrats had decided to drop their favor for the war in order to unify its own rivaling fractions and this meant the loss of warsupport in the Diet for the King who was still stubbornly dedicated to the war effort despite dim prospects. The overall morale among the Evoan Expedition forces begun to deteriorate after the dispropriate losses in the spring campaign, and while the Government tried to hide the figures from the home public, the rumors begun to circulate which further flamed the demands of peace by wide range of the population from all sides of the political spectrum.
By late September 1918 the Evoan situation in the frontline had deteriorated even further as the Communist summer offensive had driven the frontline out of Nomidaë and into a sometimes chaotic retreat into Avudak and Sagordaë. As a desperate and panicked decision, the Evoan High command ordered most of the forces to withdraw into Sulraiven’s border, which left the Mitchedaëan flanks open and caused a major rift among the League's joint leadership. The High command informed the King that the war was a de facto loss and that the evacuation of the Evoan forces was an immediate concern. After this report, the July cabinet resigned and the Social Democrats under the leadership of Reetu Perttilä took the helm instituting a formal request of ceasefire to the Interkommunaali’s forces and ordering constitutional changes that made Evo a constitutional monarchy. The Interkommunaali’s response was initially negative as they demanded abdication of the King and dismantling the Colonial empires of All Ellardaëan nations. These demands were not agreed but the situation soon began to roll out of the government's control. The troops in Sulraiven soon descended into disorganization and deserted towards the ports and The constitutional changes was meeted with even more demands by the radical elements of the Evoan Left and series of strikes spread around all major industry and demand for revolution was echoed in mass scale of demonstrations in Saraste and other major towns. Some strikers proclaimed workers councils to take over the power and in face of more radical revolution, Perttilä convinced the King to abdicate, which took place in early november.

After the news of the abdication spread to the Ellardaëan front, the High commander of the Evoan Expedition force, Field Marshal Haakkila met the Interkommunaali’s Northern Front leader Eskilä, and the two agreed a ceasefire and terms of Evoan forces withdrawal beyond the consent of their each government at the time. The Whole of Evoan Fleet sailed to the Strait of Kouru to supersede and defend the enormous evacuation effort that was about to take place.

In the homefront the abdication was met with rivaling declarations of republican government, by both the communist fractions of the Left as well as Nationalist and royalist extremists. In face of civil war, Perttilä requested the E.E.F to restore the law and order under their arrival and after some clashes and riots, Perttiläs Government managed to field both power and trust of the armed forces in order to balance between the demands of social revolution and its repel by the old ruling class.

The 1st Class War ended in November of 1918 after the remaining League nations were forced to sue for peace under the Communist armies in Ellardaë. Under a myriad of ceasefire and surrendering agreements, the formal end to the war was far from settled, as the rapid collapse of the League Forces after Evoan withdrawal was quite much of surprise to the Interkommunaali and Nomidaës leadership. While most of Central Ellardaë came under occupation by the Red Forces, Evo was initially safe from any such attempts and overtures for actual peace negotiations were cautious during the end of 1918 and early 1919. The winter brought another dire economic situation into Evo, as the situation in the colonies was very much confused and no clear signal was even heard of what the Perttiläs government's stand was regarding it, as decolonisation was a major wargoal for Interkommunaali. In early March of 1919 the Neutral Ondore surprisingly, under their secret agreements with Rim Sach moved to occupy the Nauri canal area. This was a major shock in both the Colonial stations and in Saraste, and while Interkommunaali was not keen on mere changes of the colonial possessions, it had no aspiration to move into protecting Evoan rights.
Food was the major element in the Post war Evoan political life as the changes in agriculture and the gradual dismissal of the Landed aristocracy’s power had made Evoan farming sector into mere subsider of the overall consumption, which was fed mostly by imports from Kesämaa and Asmuurinmaa due the low tolls and import restrictions. Thus Evo was depended on foreign food sources over its own making and the Perttiläs government was keen to maintain the population happy by excess of food and provide full-employment rates by keeping the industry at work with providing them the resources it needed, all dependable by the retaining of the Colonial Empire. Thus the Interkommunaali’s plans for total decolonisation at the Peace conference in Ispor in spring of 1919 was an unacceptable position, and privately, Perttilä was ready to restore hostilities, if the Red Forces were to move against Evoan positions. Meanwhile, a strong fleet was gathered and sent to the Golden Sea to reclaim the Nauri lands, and against the wishes of the pacifist far left, the naval building program was not canceled, not least because it kept the Yards occupied and the workers happy. The Golden Sea expedition proved to be a major success, as already the reconnaissance raid with fast motor boats inflicted major losses to the Ondorean fleet and after the Evoan Main Fleet arrived, the local Ondorean Command was happy to negotiate over their withdrawal.

This sended the desired signal to both Evoan Colonial cities as well as to Marksila, that Evo was ready to protect its possessions and that the Complete decolonisation was out of the table if Evo was to participate in the peace treaty. The 1919 Ispor Peace conference proceeded nevertheless with harsh terms inflicted on both Valagrillaë and Balc, which were to release all of their over sea territories. Biggest implication of this conference was the creation of the Internationaali, A true global instrument of collective security under which all the nations and people of the world were under the same negotiation organization. Interkommunaali’s goal was from the start to include all the defeated nations of the League as well as the forcibly released new emerging states in the formerly colonized world.

Biggest surprise of the Ispor Peace conference was the releasing of Nomidaëan colonial imperium into various independent nations under the Internationaali’s protection as well as complete withdrawal of Nomidaën forces from its eastern neighbors, lands that had traditionally been part of the Nomidaës empire and what some nationalist fractions had hoped to be annexed after the 1918 victory. Together these defeats in inner communist relationships and the vast and unpredicted decolonisation were to form the fate of the world for the next decades to come.

There was also a desire in Evo to participate in this newly established concept of common security and international peace conference as a way to settle disputes instead of wars, but there were no means and support for a similar level of decolonisation under Interkommunaalis terms. Between 1919 and 1922, several overtures between the Internationaali and Evo were held but although there were lots of common goals achieved, Eventually it took until 1923 when Evo, and the newly established “Evoan Commonwealth” of its empire as now semi-independent entities in “growing up to statehood” joined the Internationaali. A Evoan concept of decolonisation, mostly on name only however. The concept was to create autonomous states along the vastly spread colonies, where their domestic politics were open to much more internal freedom, while retaining formal ties to the new Republic and its continuous military support. Perttiläs government sought to ensure the old empire as much as possible under its control, but at same time appease the decolonisation lobby and the fractions that wanted rapprochement with Interkommunaali.

Major boost for the eventual Evoan joining of the Internationaali came as a side bargain in the international Disarmament negotiations that took place in Marksila in 1922 and focused on naval race. Both Evo and Interkommunaali were at the face of spiraling cost of warship sizes and sought not to relive the 1910-1914 period of naval buildup. Both parties sought number one position respectively, and in face of Interkommunaali-Nomidaëan alliance, it was beyond the economic realities for Evo to match the combined strength of her former enemies. At the start, major Evoan bargaining chip was its participation in the Internationaali, and its main goal was the dissolution of the Red alliance, and banishing of the Kommunaali-fleet from Ellardaë. Further Evoan goals aimed to gain maximum tonnage limits for capital ships in so that the Combined strength of both of her former enemies would not surpass the Evoan allocation, but this position soon became untenable as would come the notion that the “2nd” tier navies wouldn’t have strength to overmatch the Evoan strength.

After lengthy negotiations, it was decided that the overall Tonnage limits of both Evo and Interkommunaali’s Capital ship fleets would be equal, at 525 000 tons, Fleets of Rim Shac and Marlannon would be 315,000 and those of Nomidaë and Ondore would be at 175 000 tons. The maximum size of new capital ships would be set at 35,000t and to 406 mm guns, and a new measure of calculating the standard displacement of warships was formulated. Construction of Capital ships were to be banned for the next 10 years and the treaty gave listings of which capital ships each signatory nation was allowed to maintain. All ships above 10,000t and armed with bigger than 203mm guns were determined as capital ships and the Aircraft Carriers were also first time acknowledged with set tonnages of both Evo and Interkommunaali as 135 000t and similar relation to the smaller nations in terms of the ratio of 5:5:3:3:1:1. As the aircraft carrier class was a rather new novelty in maritime affairs, the treaty gave rather arbitrary maximum tonnage of 27 000t for aircraft carriers and the possibility to convert two existing ships or hulls of 33,400t maximum into aircraft carriers.

Under the Treaty Evo was allowed to retain following Battleships and Battlecruisers:

Uiskomies 25800t
Varpamies 25800t
Aravanpoika 25800t
Vanha Väki 25800t
Tuhatkunta 24000t
Sarastusmaa 25900t
Pitkäjärvienmaa 25900t
Toivo Kultaparta 28530t
Taisto Tulenloimu 28530t
Jorma Hiidensilmä 28900t
Oskari Karitsa 28900t
Lauri Pöllö 31000t
Antras Onninpoika 31000t
Lintumieli 31000t
Laurakainen 31000t
Aallokas 34000t
Taipumaton 45000t
Päättäväinen 45000t

of total tonnage of 541,360 tons.

Following ships were allowed to be converted as aircraft carriers

Pekko Aikamiehenpoika 33400t
Pertteus Pasakoskilainen 33400t

After the treaty was ratified, the age of Naval laws came to their final legislative end, and the new law of limitation of international Armaments thus became to maintain the strength of the New Republican Navy. In language, the old Evoan terms “Linjalaiva” (ship of the line) and “Suurristeilijä” ( Large cruiser) traditionally used in conveying Battleships and Battlecruisers were effectively replaced with the term “Taistelulaiva”, ( Battleship) to refer into the new combined type somewhat presented by the monstrous Taipumaton class, and also the legislative term of the Marksila’s 1922 Naval treaty for Capital ships. In everyday usage, the terms Taistelulaiva for Battleships and Taisteluristeilijä for Battlecruisers begun to be used most notably in referring to the ships that no longer bore the prefix of H.M.L Hänen majesteettinsa laiva as the new era of Evoan history had begun.

Evoan Naval Developments 1922-1945 part 1

1920s were a decade of rearrangement of the global political power structures as the Interkommunaali led de-colonisation created power vacuums across the former empires of the Ellardaëan seafaring nations. The somewhat stable colonial administrations were replaced with inexperienced democracies that had not the legitimacy nor practices to maintain government over areas that were ethnically heterogeneous and arbitrarily created
out of preceding ancient political constructs. Most new nations fell quite shortly either under
“auxiliary management” by various Ellardaë origin private persons, old ruling class or under
ruthless exploitation of major Ellardaëan industries who had no plans to withdraw and certainly no means to surrender to the Interkommunaali’s demands of socialization.

While the Internationaali focused mostly on the alleged wrongdoings of the “Corporate colonialism” in the emerging 3rd world countries, it usually turned blind eye to the atrocities of local tyrants that tend to replace the first few shaky attempts of democratic control. All attempts for the Internationaali to use military power to police the new nations was doomed from the beginning by the fierce infights between the former Colonial powers who opposed Interkommunaalis alleged “Red Empire” to be formed in form of socialist governments, or By interkommunaali itself in its fears of the Ellardaëan nations using Internationaali as a tool to re-establish their rule over the former subjugated lands. Or By Evo, who was opposing both sides out of its own conflicting intresses.

In the end this lack of action and resolve for the Internationaali was to doom its importance as global tool for Collective Security, and one of the major seeds for its incompetence was the Interkommunaali’s sudden desire of isolation and retreat from its global world policing ambitions, which were despised by almost all of the rest major nations. This came eventually with its heavy price, as the misery of local conflicts, unchecked capitalist exploitation, political unrest were direct cause of large scale of famine, spread of pandemics and large scale migrations and ethnic cleansing that spread through the Rovintaël and the Large tropical archipelagoes during the 1920-30s. All of which passed relatively little notice across the everyday life in Ellaradaë and Interkommunaali, only to represent academic pawns for the international political debate that was corrupted by naive pacifism and fear of another global war, and at the same time, rather poorly hidden agendas to hang on to whatever drops of influence there were left for the former overlords.

It was therefore no surprise that the combined lack of resolve and lack of vision to actually conduct the concept of collective security would open the door for those who had been left aside in the second wave of colonialism some half a century before to reap the harvest, and begun the spiraling contesting of the shaky foundation of treaty-based world order. Main belligerents of this would be Ondore and Marlannon, who both managed to avoid the turmoil of the 1st Class war, and where at the edges of the former spheres of influences by nations no longer able to secure them. Ondore was setting its sights to control the Northern Rovintaël coast and the Central Arcipelago where it had already secured a small empire during the previous centuries. The Golden Sea and Rim Sea, together with the Central Arcipelago was the heartline of world trade and maritime traffic and It had always been under great interest of the Ellardaëan powers, and after the 1st Class war, only Evo remained as the main colonial power in the region. Ondorean expansionist policies were also aimed at the continental areas of Coin Mucra and the vast steppes of southern Rim Sach.

On the other side of the Rovintaëal continent, Marlannon had for long aimed for controlling the Ellardaëan hold Islands north of its heartlands and eventually what lay beyond, the Far East and Rovintaël itself. Marlannon, itself a former Balcian colony of Ellardaëan settlers had already fought over the control of the rest of the Balcian possessions in the region in the aftermaths of the Balc-Interkommunaali war of 1898, and was noted for its openly racist and white exclusive politics within its sphere of interest which both agitated the liberal outcry in the Faraway metropolis of the old world, but at the same time offered an appealing salvation and protection for the many Ellardaëan origin settlers in the newly independent and unstable local governments in the regions, where atrocities against the former white ruling class were not so rare. In the continental Far East, Saanksi was emerging from its centuries long stagnation and was now aggressively spreading its influence among its weaker neighbors, now no longer backed by the Ellardaëan protectorates. First major global hotspots thus came the Asugnatoan civil war between 1925-35, which saw the last resurgence of the Ellardaëan Gunboat diplomacy, only to end in the lack of commitment as Asugnato subjugated into a Saanksian vassal state.

While Ondore and Marlannon took care of most of Internationaali’s antagonist role in the 20s and early 1930s, It fell for Nomidaë once again to presume to lead the world to descend into a new major war. The 1919 Peace was a bitter for Ispor, as it deprived Nomidaë not only its hard fought positions in the Ellardaë, but also required total decolonisation of its Former empire, fueled by the idealistic demands of the Marksilan politics, which were far-away of the warn torn realities of the Ellardaë and its version of revolutionary communism. As Nomidaë was in full mercy of Interkommunaalis economical aid, its old revolutionary guard had the wisdom for these dogmatic ideological decisions, the younger generation and especially those of the Nomidaëan Revolutionary Army felt betrayed. In one of History's greatest ironies, the defeated Anti-communist league won in its own defeat by re-sparging the counter revolutionary spark they went to war for revival to begin with.
Last Interkommunaali’s forces departed from Ellardaë in 1923, and by 1924, Nomidaë had seen its first attempt at military coup in a series to come. In the central Ellardaë, among the defeated League nations, the political situation was in equal turmoil, as the loss of profits from the former colonial empires stagnated the economical revival from the war, while the diminishing spoils were further concentrated into the hands of scarce capitalist elite, sparking the class-struggle that had been violently represented by decades and let now grew in strength under the magnifying eye of the Internationaali, where the “Global revolutionaries'' of the Interkommunaali and other nations kept all social political events of Ellardaë in high
intress, leading into absurdities where single labor strike disputes would be examined by the Internationaali’s high council in detail, while in the former colonies, Clan disputes could see entire provinces burned to ground without much attention from the organization.

The ideology of “Vaskism” or Brassism, a far-right movement of revivaling Ellardaëan pride and dignity in the guise of the pseudo-mythological medieval legends about the origins of the High-Kings of unified Ellardaëan kingdom, was born during the late 1800s at the aftermath of the nationalism surges that sparked both the Dissolving of the old Valagrillaëan empire and the Nomidaë lead vassalage of the Northern Ellardaëan countries, as the border changing
political turmoils did not lead everyone into the bright future promised. It had begun originally as a mystery-cult, more akin to personal religious commitment than as political movement, but it gained popularity among the middle and upper classes of the urban population through the Ellardaëan lands. The core of the movement was the old legend of the first High-King of the Ellarchall, a unified Ellardaëan empire, literally, the Kingdom of Men. According to the legend, Sashike the first King of Men was a commoner, but desiccant of the elves who was rejected in his trade by fellow men, but after a series of failures and catastrophes forged a crown of brass which held magical powers that led him to conquer all the lands under him.
While the legends also continued deeper into a magical mythology and culminated in an ominous defeat of the Shasike-of-the-legends by Evoans, the 20th century concept of Vaskism focused on the idea of pure and true absolute monarchy rooting from common men, not from bloated and corrupted nobility. It emphasized the virtuous man who was not dependent nor meek, who took what was rightfully his and was not made out of inheritance or speculation. While it attacked the ancient regime and capitalist elite, it also denounced socialism and communism as disastrous plagues brought upon Ellardaë over its years of self-inflicted decay.

While overtly ridiculous, the movement begun to raise in popularity after the war, as it
offered simple answers and explanations to the recent hardships. Somewhat sketchy novel called “Sons of Brass” that had emerged in the early 1900s in Avudak became a bestseller and gave name to first political party over the concept in Valagrillaë and more importantly, to a secret conspiracy among Nomidaëan army, where group of officers under command of young colonel Gysir Arachull, who used pseudonym of Shasike as his alias, eventually succeed to overthrow the old Revolutionary communist regime in Ispor in 1927. Arachull declared the revolution over and promised return to “freedom” and monarchy, but already at the start his regime had a hard and tight grip over the country. Most of the economy was restructured around nepotism and new form of corporate-fiefdoms to his loyal supporters, under nominal disguise of restoring the private ownership rights deprived in the 1913 revolution, And the Dictatorship was formally transformed into a monarchy in 1932, in spectacular coronation, where Arachull was crowned as Shasike II, King of Men, with allegedly original relic of the Brass Crown, held for centuries in the Cathedral of Dalm, in Valagrillaë. By such declaration he did not only claim the throne of Nomidaë but that of all the Thrones of Ellardaë, as all the nations West from Daekor River had been once part of the Ellarchall realm. The Elective Empire had ceced to exist in the early 19th century, and was generally seen as an chauvinist tool of the Nomidaëans to control the subcontinent.

While most Ellardaëan countries denounced this claim in official levels, the Vaskism ideology had spread into most of the nations and the clever covert agitation by Nomidaëan vaskist among these fellow parties laid the ground ripe for the Later subjugations of Ellardaë into the hands of the new Nomidaë-Ellarchall realm of Shasike II. Avudak, Sagordaë and Nimodure were among the first nations where coups deposed the old monarchs, replaced with Vaskist Pretenders, who pledged under Shasike. In 1935 Valagrillaë faced a similar fate, though the subjugation required armed intervention by Nomidaëan troops. By 1938 All lands by the Western Daekor fork were under Shashikes rule.

Against these backgrounds, Evo itself emerged into a new era of the Republic. While revolutions elsewhere had brought along them a longstanding period of anarchy, dismay and political turbulence, in Evo, the period was confined into few months of late 1918, last occurrence of political dissents were in the spring of 1919, by the time the Perttiläs government had managed to stabilize the political atmosphere. The Diet rose into the main political role as the new President of the Republic role was more of ceremonial one, a republican mirror to the constitutional monarchy, that was the favored form of government among the Ellardaëan liberals. The universal suffrage, the rise of the trade unions power and “democratization” of the armed forces, eg replacing the aristocratic hereditary as means of rise to senior commanding roles were the spearheads of the Evoan social reform that took place in the 20s and 30s. Social Democrats (SPD) remained a dominant party, though they never sought to dissolve the democratic system. Conservative and pro-capitalist parties took the government in 1924, although it fell within a year, and again in 1929-1931, both occurrences strengthening the legitimacy of the republic, as all overtures for restoring the monarchy or aristocratic privileges were lost with strong majority.

The main source of unrest of the new republican era social reform came naturally down in the colonies, where the Commonwealth system of limited autonomy was at best a similar watered down success as were the completely liberated peers under Internationaali. Most of the political power in these dominions remained in the hands of Evoan immigrants or their descendants, and the loyalty to the Saraste government was sometimes assured in not so democratic means. Almost everywhere, some form of national independence movements begun to rise, the most dangerous ones being either Interkommunaali’s inspired communist radicals, or those influenced by Vaskist doctrines, specially their eastern analogies, spread from Saanksi filled with ideas of Eastern supremacy and eradicating the occidentals. None of these evolved into serious armed insurgencies during the interwar period, but policing them nevertheless burdened the colonial administration expenses.

Economically Evo avoided all the warreparation clauses of the Ispor peace treaty, although the question of the war-guilt issue continued to strain the Evoan-Interkommunaali relations. Retaining the Commonwealth and the somewhat unorthodox Evoan social-democrats positivity towards free international trade, made Evo more resilient towards the economic upheavals that dominated the rest of Ellardaë in the 1920s. The Second conservative government of 1929-1931 fell as the imposed tariffs and Protectionist policies lead into depression and mass-unemployment, and the following SDP-conservative coalition governments of the 1930s were often mocked as “capitalist on outside, socialist inside” as the government invested heavily on the domestic economy, at the same time trying to ensure the continuation of international trade as free as it was possible, when most of the world began to descend into totalitarianism.

The Evoan relations to Interkommunaali and Internationaali slowly improved during the course of the 20s and 30s, and mostly through the Evoan participation actively on the Internationaali, which was seen by the rightwingers and conservatives merely as a Interkommunaali’s global extension, but proved valuable to the pragmatic foreign policy of Evo, that aimed to resolve international disputes collectively, despite the vain success and diminishing trust towards the institution in the later half of the period. Internationaali’s most important role was therefore to focus on the Super-power politics and relations between the Interkommunaali, Evo and Rim Sach, all which had their own political needs to maintain balance in the arms-races and keep their respective ambitions in check, regarding the Former colonial empires as well as the sorry state of the Ellardaëan mainland after the rise of Shasike’s expansions.

The Postwar global geostrategy for Evo remained tricky as it did not manage to rig the naval arms-limitation treaties to favor its own goals. The Nauri incident had exposed the Ondorean ambitions in the Golden Sea region, much to Evoan expenses, and that, together with the wartime food shortages prompted the idea to station a powerful enough fleet in the region. This naturally limited the concentration of Forces to the Home waters, but as the Interkommunaali withdrew from Nomidaë, and the Nomidaëans themselves drifted away from Interkommunaalis camp, fears of equal strength opponent in the Evoan waters diminished, and by the 1930s, when the Vaskism was in full steam, the possibility of Nomidaëan-Rim Sachian alliance also faded away, as one of the key elements of Vaskism had become Ellardaëan supremacy over the “Eastern'' and “Southern” people, in vaguely pseudo-scientific racial theories. There were even secret palpates from Rim Sach to seek alliance with Evo, though they were turned down as they included the sphere of interest divide of the Ellardaëan lands.

In The Far East, Marlannonian advances and aspirations to claim the rest of Balcian and as well as former Nomidaëan colonies did not gather too much objection from Evo at the start, as there were vain hopes of reaching an agreement over the Power divide in the region, but the Overall goal of the Marlannon was to control it all, including the Evoan holdings as far as into the Kesämaa in the South Rovintaël. It took still several years before the Evoan leadership was alerted by the nature of Marlannon’s expansions.

Through the 20s and 30s, Evo placed much hope on the Internationaali to prevent wars between major nations to erupt, and even when the so called rogue-nations withdrew from its operations, it was still held as an important element of rapprochement towards Interkommunaali, as it was clear for the Evo, that its strength could not prevail in another war against the New Continent. The Evoan plans therefore focused on fighting at one theater at the time, and to avoid a situation where it would need to engage both Nomidaë, Ondore and Marlannon at the same time. Key aspect of this strategy was to concentrate considerable Military forces in the Nauri region, where it could control the canal, and deploy either East or West, depending where the Commonwealth Defenses were under threat. This doctrine, together with the Naval-treaty limitations shaped the form of Evoan Navy during the interwar years, and it was becoming painfully aware for the high level planners as well as the military leadership, that the Resources to Defend all of the Empire were simply not there. Evo had overstretched itself and survived a lucky escape from the natural downfall of Ellardaëan colonialism by chance, but the writings were on the wall. Yet at any point during the 20s and 30s there was no mistaking that the vast spectrum of Evoan political will desired to clung into the Commonwealth, and neither was anyone ready to give it away without a fight. Thus there was a lot of wishful thinking and false sense of omnipotence persistent among Evoans in their pre-2nd Class war military planning, which, as was to become clear, could not replace the facts that in many fields of technology, Evoans were lacking behind. There hardly was any field of technology or ship design where Evoan designs exeled, but what was often the case, the Evoan ``good enough” approach generally meant reliability and cost-effectiveness in both terms of construction and operations, both elements which became appreciated during the wartime.

As the 1922 Marksila Naval agreement forbade capital ship construction for 10 years, the main focus for major navies laid in cruisers. For Evo, this meant essentially a force that it could deploy across the globe to protect its trade and sealines, across the commonwealth. The 10 000t displacement and 203mm caliber limits dictated the cruiser construction for the first decade, But it was soon realized in Evo, that such vessels were too expensive to be fielded in the numbers required by the Evoan needs, thus Evo begun to lobby tighter restrictions to the cruisers as well as construct much lighter ships by 1930, and during the Saraste Naval Conference in 1930, Evo managed to get set of total tonnages for smaller warships that angered somewhat Nomidaë, Ondore and Marlannon, which begun gradually withdrawn from the treaty system. For the rest of the period Evo constructed cruisers armed with 15cm guns, first on reduced “economical” displacement, but the treaty loopholes now introduced concept of large 10 000t cruisers armed with more than dozens of 15cm weapons, and Evo was to answer these with similar sized own ships. Prior to the war, Evo also re-introduced an AA escort cruiser designs out of the earlier fleetcruiser concepts in the smaller spectrum.

The conference also continued the Battleship building pause until 1936, when Evo was eventually forced to lay down its new Capital ships as Ondore and Nomidaë had both taken a head start to the race. For the 2nd Saraste Naval conference, Evo pushed for more limitations to the battleships, aiming for 35cm caliber limit and 27 000t displacement one, but eventually succeeding to accomplish the former. Even this was a lame duck as while Evo begun its replacement buildup for this caliber, No other nation followed and as the “Rogue” nations kept building for heavier Armed ships, Both Interkommunaali and Rim Sach referred to the escalator clauses in the agreement and build larger vessels. The Evoan ships didn't eventually fall far behind, as the war was to prove.

Aircraft carriers rose into an important role during this period, and Evo was one of the forerunners of the technology, although in many instances, it was soon surpassed by Interkommunaali and Marlannon, which grew the seaborne aviation to its peak. Evo was constantly hampered by the inter-service rivalry with its Air Forces, the Naval Aviation switching commanding umbrella more than once during the period. This poor attention given to the navy’s air operations also meant that Evo did not possess dedicated aircraft manufacturers for naval aircraft, but all of its carrier based planes were essentially navalised variants of Land based aircrafts

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