Lauchette

The Kingdom of Lauchette is an island nation, set on Latora, to the south east of The Hales. It was formerly known as The Kingdom of Latora, and The Empire of Lauchette before The Great Divide.

History
The word "Lauchette" has been around for longer than the nation was, in The Kingdom of Egrilia, It was used to describe territories where a minority of people made up the majority, on the island of Latora; often referring to camps as well as small towns. Originating from the word "Lauch", a word to describe non-egrilian Latorans and "-ette", an Egrilian suffix, meaning "Small land of". The first time it was used to describe a larger territory was during The Lauch Uprising, when numerous Latoran tribes united to overthrow their oppressors.

After the rebellion, Egrilia was reformed into The Kingdom of Latora, now holding the name of the island, elevating every Latoran clansmen from slave to citizen. While it was a personal union between the now united Latoran clans and Egrilia, only "Pure Egrilians" could've been nobles, meaning that any royals who intermarried would be stripped of their status, as well as their Egrilian nationality in the eyes of the pures. This encouraged Egrilians to keep their bloodlines clear, even promoting incestual marriages in numerous parts of the Kingdom. Meanwhile the Lauch numbers started increasing rapidly as the conditions were now better, however they kept the culture of having multiple children.

To slow down the decrease of the Egrilian nationality, King Huebert Von Wickten attempted to re-establish The Kingdom of Egrilia, igniting The Latoran Civil War. It was the most devastating war in the history of the island, however in the end Lauchette came out on top, replacing the Egrilian monarchy with their own, establishing The Kingdom of Lauchette. Jehan Gaubert, the first king of the new nation, wanted to ensure that the Egrilians won't attempt to overthrow the kingdom, introducing numerous fear tactics, which would shape the Lauch war traditions, and inspire numerous generals to mimic his strategies. It is worth knowing that the Egrilians still had more autonomy in the new kingdom than the Lauch previously did.

As Lauchette started to discover it's neighboring islands, they abandoned their Latoran isolationism in favor of increasing their trades. The biggest source of their income was The Hale Empire, as it held nearly four times as many mineral caves as their southern neighbors did. They managed to further increase their gains when an epidemic broke out in The Hales, as they gain some of the southern mines in exchange of medical technology and aid. Due to their history of being enslaved by the Egrilians, the King decided to install a settlement, rather than forcing the natives to mine. Although the Halesmen didn't prevent Pierre Harbor from being constructed, only a few decades later, The Hale Empire invaded the Lauch settlement only, as they were upset with the increasing Lauch population, causing The First Lauch Conquest of The Hales.

Lauchette has annexed nearly one third of The Hales, forcing the northern part into vassalization, founding The Kingdom of Hallengard. Evelating their status to an Empire. Smaller raids and assaults on the Pierre Harbor became common, but Lauchette trusted the settlers to be able to handle them, however Hallengard eventually managed to take over the settlement, forcing the two nations into another war.

While the empire won the war, numerous nobles blamed the previous monrach's decision to grant too much autnomy for Hallengard. Lauchette has annexed the entirity of The Hales into the reformed Pierre Harbor, now called Aedwin-De-Steinberg and renewed their oversea policy, based on that of Egrilia. The term "True Lauch" was promoted to separate Latorans from those who lived on The Hales, and the settlement had it's autonomy decreased. This brought an end to major Hallengardian raids, and eventually the emperor separated the Hallengard from Aedwin, roughly halving The Hales.

Conquering Hallengard meant that Lauchette was now closer to another empire than ever before. The Winterlands was a federal empire which remained neutral for all of Lauchette's wars. Allthough the rivalry was clear the southern empire saw it's northern counterpart as a potential ally, nevertheless The Winterlands refused to alliance offer, as well as any attempt to arranged marriages. Lauchette wouldn't try again until years later, when [Kayl Winters, the heir died, leaving his younger sister Highprincess Stephana Winters in the line of succession. Prince Lorens Gaubert of Lauchette attended his funeral, against the advice of the nobles and his father. The prince stayed a few more weeks on the island, being a guest at the Portam Palace, before asking the emperor's permission to marry Sephana. Even though Emperor Markas Winters originally appreciated the prince's presence, he took the request as an excuse to strip his house from the throne. The emperor exiled Lorens from his empire. The young prince tried his best to explain that he truly fell in love with his daughter, but to no avail, enraged by Emperor Markas' ignorance, Lorens threatened war unless he lets him marry his daughter, but he refused once again. While the Winterlander Emperor wasn't sure if Lauchette would invade, he knew that the southern shores couldn't defend his empire from a Lauch invasion, leaving him no choice but to declare war on Lauchette, starting The White War.

Although Lauchette had the upper hand, having occupied the small, southern kingdoms of The Winterlands, they decided to sign a white peace treaty with the northern empire, as Aedwin declared itself independent, and the Latoran empire wouldn't have been able to fight on two fronts. This rebellion would be remembered as The Great Divide, which stripped Lauchette from all of it's oversea territorries and shrinking their status down to a kingdom.

Lauchette has recognised the independence of both kingdoms and seem to be neutral for now, but many theorise that they are just waiting for the opportunity to re-establish their dominance over The Hales.