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Samogitia (Officially Grand Duchy of Samogitia , Grand duchy of Samogitiae)or for short GDS) is a located country in Northen Europe. As one of four Baltic states, it is situated in south shores and eastern of Baltic sea. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Lithuania and Belarus to the east, New Ukraine to the south and Poland to the west. Samogitia has estimated population of 16 Million of people. And the Largest city is Konigsberg and Capital is Šiauliai.
Samogitians in ethnicity are divided in 3 different groups Balts, Baltic Germans and Slavs. Due its history Samogitians instead of language are united by the sense of pride of its history and nationality. The Main Languages spoken are Samogitian (Lithuanian Dialect), German (Baltic accent), Old Prussian and Ruthenian (Belarussian). Grand Duchy is made up of different duchies lead by their dukes and Grand duke. While the country has monarch most of the power is held by Eldership council made up of elected politicians or high-ranked military officials/ Nobles to act as elders who can create and pass laws which of these laws must be confirmed by his majesty himself/herself.
Hymn Of War -Richard Vaughan
National anthem of Samogita
Duchies of Baltia
Baltia is made up by following duchies:
- Duchy of Samogitia
- Duchy of kurland-Semigallia
- Duchy of North Ruthenia
- Duchy of Sudovia
- Duchy of East Prussia
- Duchy of Saare
History
Before Samogitia became multi-ethnic we know today. Samogitia was once pagan tribe that was famous for its autonomy in the grand duchy of Lithuania. While Samogitians had, struggle to fight both the Teutonic crusades and expanding Lithuania. During the crusades, Samogitians have often switched hands between the Crusaders and Lithuanians so often that Samogitians nobility saw that being stubborn against Teutonic attempts of Christianisation would be the end of their people. So in the 14th century, Samogitian nobility converted to Christianity and allowed Teutonic missionaries in terms that Teutonic order and Livonian order will recognise the sovereignty of Eldership of Samogitia as the Christian state. While the Teutonic threat was dealt with, Lithuanians and polish were still a threat which was dealt with by royal marriages, tributes. The Samogitian nobility was recognised by the pope, but Samogitia didn’t become Kingdom due to unknown reasons, Historians theorise that Samogitian nobility lacked state of unity were dominant noble family would rule, as the power between others noble families was almost equal. Samogitia played important role in eastern and northern Europe as it played the clever game of politics building different alliances, marriages. Allowing for Samogitians remain as the sovereign state. As the neighbouring kingdoms were no longer hostile. Samogitians using diplomacy established themselves as the famous trading nation. one of the reasons many kingdoms avoided attacking Samogitia was due to the potential loss of assets such as mercenaries which were famous for their loyalty and skill.
Baltic Migrations
Baltic tribes were either Germanized or forced out of their own lands, Samogitia was a perfect spot for Balts to resettle, due to the local mobility allowing people of any religion, ethnicity to settle and build communities as long they pay taxes their taxes. These conditions led to a massive migration of old Prussians or other Baltic tribe peasants migrating towards and settling in the Samogitian lands. Giving Samogitia boost of manpower and economy. This lead to factors that made Samogitians into the tolerant and multi-ethnical nation that was united by national pride instead of language or ethnicity. Yet the multiple languages caused problems of their own so many of the migrants over time adopted the local languages such as Samogitian and German.
Livonian wars
16th century leads to once great crusader orders into kingdoms. During the Livonian war Samogitians instead of siding with former allies, they sided with Lithuanians. During the course of the war, Samogitians made use of hired mercenaries from their own lands or foreigners notably Swiss which many of them later settled in Samogitia. the reason behind the use of mercenaries was due to the lack of serf soldiers and conscripting serfs would mean the loss of the years harvest needed to sustain the cities. Due to numerous tactical successes, Samogitians gained lands at the end of the war. Rebellions were entirely avoided due the policy in which to assigned noblemen to take rule by establishing themselves with local houses and adopting the local languages, Samogitians managed to avoid major rebellions and rebuilt the region and eventually fully unify the populace under the total Samogitian rule
Vassal to Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth
During the 17th century, increasing power of commonwealth and Swedish invasion lead to Samogitian noble houses finding no other solution but seek vassalage from the commonwealth. From which resulted in Samogitian being a vassal of commonwealth until the end of 18th century. During this time Samogitia suffered numerous invasions and plagues that killed many of its people, yet Samogitia also had its golden age of prospering economy and many peasants moving in and resettling in the destroyed towns and villages in eldership. Samogitia due migrations and influence of HRE became more germinated as local nobility adopted the German language instead of Polish and Lithuanian, the German language spread from the western parts to the north and east causing the German language becoming the sole dominant language of Samogitia. While lives were lost by wars and plagues the Samogitians still had its economic miracle and with its laws continuing to attract numerous people from Europe and central Asia. the Baltic and Germanic settlers, Samogitia received Slavic migrants, Tatar settlers and even scots from British isles. Right until the end of commonwealth Samogitian remained strong economic power due to its skill of the trade, ship building, safe roads for merchants which made Samogitia safe road for western trades to travel to the east. The samogitia prospered by trades te region became quite urbanised the biggest cities of Sonnenstadt ( now siaulai) and Varne his cities became quite heavily populated in 1795 population in Sonnenstadth was 30 000 one of the largest cities in the commonwealth. the city had one of the largest trading squares where every weekend it was filled by merchants stands from all around europe where it was easy to get shilk, guns and food. Samogitians even managed to establish a couple of the colonies in the Caribbean islands for a short time until the colonies were lost to the Spanish and piracy.
Annexation of commonwealth and Russian influence
Commonwealth during its late stages grew backwards due to its corruption and became weak enough for three partitioning empires Russia, Prussia and Austria to annexed the once great commonwealth. The numerous treaties were signed with Russia that allowed Samogitians nobility to hold titles yet Samogitia was annexed by Russia. Yet shortly re-established during Napoleonic wars. Many Samogitians regiments joined napoleon in the unsuccessful invasion of Russia during 1812. After the war, Samogitia was recaptured by Russia. during this the state was dissolved and reastablished as dutchy of Samogitia the satellite state of Russia with Tsar as head of state. Eldership of Samogitia was established but the Russian Tsar as main head of state. but the state had its own laws, military and law enforcement which made samogitians quite loyal to Russian Tsar. The new army was esablished and re enlisted old commonwelath era samogitian generals even former Samogitian legionners from napoleonic wars as there was no more goals to fight rusians the new army re adopted old docrines, financed heavily by merchant industries and nobility as the army was effective defence from bandits and partisans .the army size was between 15k to 50k which was more than enough for the client state. into samogitia countless of livonian territories were trasnfered due the urban nature of the state, which lead to samogitian saareema now known as Osel. the 19th century was almost the golden age of samogtians which lead to their ethnical divide from lithuania and nationalism in the region. being under Russian empire brought some of the lands transferred to Samogitia which was required for the quick population growth in the Samogitia. the lands were required for the agriculture and new settlements that would harvest and produce numerous of the resources. during the 19th century, the rebellion begun in the East Prussia where the majority of the populace was ethnically Samogitian and old Prussians which were considered by that time as the part of the Samogitian ethnicity, chaos in streets and unstoppable chaos caused region ungovernable for the Prussians and the demands of the populace were accepted of the region being transferred to the Samogitian State, the region was destroyed in progress plague, crime and destroyed industry cost a lot of the treasury to repair and almost 2 decades for the region slowly being restored to its former glory. yet after integration, countless wars between Russia/samogitPrussiaprussia were fought there for the control of the territory as the Prussians were eager to regain the province. yet Population had no interest being part of the German state, but to stay in the Baltic German state of Samogitia where the culture was more compatible, religion and the dialect was almost the same.
Samogitia nobility and military even remained loyal and even sided with Russian empire during January revolution. This lead to Samogitian developing their military doctrines by recruiting Prussian officer to train armies. Samogitians soldiers became highly famous around the Russian empire due their disciplines and loyalty to the Tsar. Showing undying loyalty during the deadliest situations in examples of wars against ottomans and during the Crimean war. the participation of the Samogitian military in this conflict gave them a reputation of Tsar's loyal pawns who commit almost any atrocity without need for czar even lift the finger. the Samogitian military proved valuable asset to the Russian Empire during Crimea war, where the their discipline and their highly professional officer Russians gained
WIP
Culture
The best to describe a samogitian is that they culturally are familiar to Lithuanians and Latvians, due the original peoples roots, but today samogitia is highly diversity including the people from backgrounds like Polish, Lithuanian minor , Old Prussians, Samogitians and Germans.While the populations were diverse the German language was enforced in schools converting and integrating populace of speaking German or the old Samogitian language. the Samogitian The Grand Ducal White Army (or for short The White Army) are the official armed forces of Baltia. Founded in their current form in 2016 and originally founded in 1918,but having strong roots from the combined militias of the Duchy of Kaunas formed in 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars. the white army has its own military tradition which was based on Prussian/Lithuanian military traditions.The estimated active front-line personnel serving in the White Army are 170,000 soldiers. for the equipment in use by gds please visit page here
Military Units of White Army
Baltian Military currently doesn't have any conscription edicts so all current soldiers of the White army are well-trained volunteers.The White Army Units are:
Cadets/Conscripts: Currently, there are no conscription edicts. But conscripts are recruited from men 19-25 to be quickly trained to defend their homeland. Meanwhile, Cadets are recruited from members of BWC (Baltian White Cadets) who are teenagers aged 15-19. Cadets and conscripts are armed with AS-1(H&K G3) rifles and there are issued with M1 steel helmets and uniforms.
White Ducal Guardsmen: The guardsmen are a backbone of the White army that is well trained and eager to fight and die for their country. Ducal Guardsmen are Equipped with AS-2(H&K-416) and AS-3 (H&K417) rifles.Guardsmen are trained to be efficient in combat and they show great discipline and loyalty to their Grand Duke and Country.Many Baltian citizens find pride and honour to serve at least once in their lifetime in the White Army.
Jaegers: Jaegers are professional and quick special forces of GDB.Jaegers are recruited from Guardsmen that showed great results in first weeks of training and also who showed great intelligence and quick reaction time.The Jaegers have to go through brutal and extreme training making them the most prepared and professional soldiers Baltia has to offer.
The Senate Guard (reorganised into Grand Ducal Guard): Senate Guards are recruited from Jaegers and their main purpose is to defend the Senate and the Grand Chancellor at any costs.The Senate Guard were the best soldiers and were well respected but following years of leadership of previous Grand Ministers of Defence they had gotten lazy and sloppy and the new Minister Alexei Garnov was in shock to see this and was trying to reform the Senate Guard to match their preceding reputation,but it was useless after the Attack of April 27th that resulted in the death of the Grand Chancellor.Many Jaegers and the general public saw the Senate Guard had gotten weak and lazy causing great shame on the Senate Guard's leadership, proving Alexei Garnov's fears of how damaged the Guard was from it's poor management of it's previous Grand Ministers and he started to reform and ensure the Senate Guards would never fail their duties again. On May 9th, the Guards sided with Gediminas Valinskas and his Senate supporters in the coup and subsequent reorganisation of First Baltian Republic to the GDB which caused the Senate Guard to be disbanded and be reorganised into the Grand Ducal Seimas Guard.
White Guards Cavalry: While horses were no longer used for military purposes in the 21st Century after they were replaced by armoured cars and motorcycles, reconnaissencethe Baltians still used horses and they serreconnaissancesquads for the White Army,t he Baltian horses were fast,q uick and reliable companions for their riders.But the scout horses must pay a price for their service,t he voice boxes must be surgically removed so the horses won't give up the scouts' position with their voices.The Horse Riders are trained to respect and usually form good bonds with their mounts.
Equipment
The White Army used to use weapons imported from other countries and they still do for some ,b ut now they manufacture their own weapon/vehicle variants inside gdb.
Weapons:
Vytis-1 (RK-62), AR-7(Galil ARM)Vytis-3(AK-12). BA-1(OTs-14 Groza Bullpup Rifle) BA-2 (vepr bullpup) AS-1(H&K G3 Rifle) AS-2(H&K416) AS-2b(H&K 417 Marksman Rifle)
Vehicles: Pahonia LGC(AML-245),T -74(locally built T-72),G S-16(Leopard 2A5), KKS-1(Mi-8P transport helicopter),K KS-2(Mi-24 Hind), Vilkas-1(GAZ Tigr),S L10 jet (MiG-31 Fighter jet), F-16A Multirole jet, F-4E Phantom Multirole jet.
Relations with other factions
The United Roman Republic (EEC ally)
Eastern Legion (EEC ally
SABRE (Allied)
Gecko Heavy Industries (Arms Supplier)
Trivia
Samogita lore-wise is one of the oldest factions dating as far back as 11th century
Samogitians don't have their own language but their own dialects of of neighbouring country languages
Term White Army came to use for Samogitian units during the Russian civil war and bolshevik invasions.
Samogitia had known involvement with axis powers during ww2, but wasn't part of the axis, only a german ally during the invasion of USSR in order to preserve Samogitian freedom and liberate Russian people from communism
Samogitia after fall of USSR came under the authoritarian chancellor who was born to exiled Samogitian noble family who were on exile in Scandinavian countries after ww2.