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Description
...due to a lack of historical records from this period, the exact circumstances of the establishment of the Duchy of Avalar are unknown, but an old Avalarian children's tale mentions a "Good King" who brought the dragons to safety in the valley. The species of the King is not traditionally addressed in the story, and many have assumed it referred to (NAME); the legendary builder of Warfang, but a new theory suggests that the King may have in fact been Rudolph II of Burgundy; the King of Arles, who supposedly granted the lands to a large group of dragons in return for their aid in uniting his realm in 933. Supporters of this theory propose that the name "Avalar" is a corruption of the term "Vallee Arelat" - literally, "Arles Valley" - which would suggest that humans were more involved than previously thought in the foundations of the modern Avalarian state.
In any case, the Duchy of Avalar was, from its founding, subservient to a larger state; initially the Kingdom of Arles, and then the Holy Roman Empire after 1032, at which point it became a direct fief of the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite this, the Duchy was essentially independent, as the neighbouring states made no effort to expand into it, largely due to its prestigious position as an Imperial Fief, but also because at this point in time dragons were thought little more than wild and savage creatures; a danger to be avoided. As a result, the city of Warfang - built on the ancient Roman city of Gratianopolis - remained a draconic secret until the 16th century, at which point dragonkind began to re-surge in importance; something forced by human expansion.
Prior to this date, dragons were spread across Europe; living in small isolated communities in forest or mountain areas. As humans settlements grew and encroached upon such regions, dragon families faced problems finding food and escaping assault by human forces. Eventually, in 1543, a dragon living in the Eastern Alps named (NAME) flew with his family to the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna, where they pledged their servitude to him in return for food and shelter. The Emperor accepted; recognising them as a potential asset in the ongoing struggles against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and promptly had (NAME) and his family incorporated into his armies.
This knowledge soon spread across Europe, and before long, diplomats - largely from Protestant states fearing an assault from their enemies - were being sent to locate dragon settlements and secure the loyalty of the inhabitants. Before long, dragon forces had become integral parts of the armies of the nations of Europe, and various new strategies and military tactics began being developed to utilise them to their fullest extent. One such concept generally used by larger states consisted of settling large groups of dragons at frontier zones or in recently-occupied territories, where they would be tasked with keeping the area secure. These areas gradually expanded over time, ultimately creating small isolated areas throughout Europe - most prominently in the Low Countries, the Wallonia and Picard regions of Western Europe, Transleithania and the northern Balkans - where dragons far outnumbered the native human populations. However, although they were integrated with humans to a certain degree, dragons were not viewed as equals, and were generally treated as creatures of burden; richer inhabitants of these states even saw them as property, and forced them to sign contracts of indentured servitude in return for food and housing.
Despite these problems, this change in draconic status proved beneficial for the Duchy of Avalar, whose lands ultimately were doubled in size when they were granted the ancient County of Provence - an Imperial fief since 1481, which Emperor Frederick III had claimed upon the death of the last Count, despite his wishes for the lands to go to the French King - in order to create a buffer state between the Kingdom of France and the various states of Northern Italy under Imperial influence.
The Duchy of Avalar would ultimately remain an ally of the Holy Roman Emperors until the late 1700s, when they were annexed by the French Republic after losing the War of the First Coalition. Despite this, the Avalarian Royal Family remained opposed to French rule, and eventually broke free in late 1812 after Napoleon Bonaparte's disastrous campaign in Russia; joining the War of the Sixth Coalition against the French forces.
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Avalar sent (NAME) - a highly skilled diplomat - to the Congress of Vienna, where he argued against French diplomat Charles Talleyrand's proposal to restore France to its pre-war borders, and instead suggested that Avalar be given control of neighbouring French territories - home to a significant population of dragons - and client states to serve as a buffer state against French expansion into Italy. (NAME) noted that the ancient title of "King of Arles" had become vacant with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and proposed that his liege Duke Gether be granted the title and that Avalar be elevated to a Kingdom. In addition to this, he proposed the partition of the Swiss Confederacy - an independent and neutral state prior to the Napoleonic Wars, but also a former territory of both the Kingdom of Arles and the stem duchy of Swabia. Ultimately, the cantons of Vaud and Valais were annexed to the restored "Kingdom of Arles" - which largely consisted of the Franche-Comte region - while the canton of Ticino and the former lands of the Free State of the Three Leagues became part of the Austrian Empire within the newly formed "Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia". The remainder of the Swiss state officially became an independent member of the "German Confederation" - replacing the Napoleonic "Confederation of the Rhine" - although from the start it was little more than an Austrian-dominated client state. The newly-created Kingdom of Arles also gained control of the island of Corsica, which had been occupied by Great Britain since 1814.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Arles evolved from a tiny duchy into one of the most powerful nations in Europe. In 1830, draconic forces would assist the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in putting down the "Belgian Revolution", resulting in the creation of a Customs Union between the two states. In 1860, the Kingdom would gain control of Savoy as the result of a deal with the Kingdom of Sardinia - the Treaty of Turin - and in 1866, they would join forces with the Kingdom of Prussia in the "Seven Weeks War" against Austria, after being promised control of the rump Swiss state in return for their aid. Following this, the "Kingdom of Arles" reformed itself into the short-lived "Avalo-Swiss Confederation", which became the "Kingdom of Avalar" in 1870 when Avalo-Swiss forces again aided the Kingdom of Prussia following an attempted invasion by France. In the aftermath, the Avalo-Swiss forces captured the Champagne and Lorraine regions of France, while the newly-formed "German Empire" seized the Alsace region - traditionally a German-speaking area.
Meanwhile, in other areas of the world - with the exception of Asia, where dragons had always been held in high regard - dragon prominence grew. Indentured servitude of dragons gradually became illegal after 1806 - although they didn't receive equal rights with humans until the next century. In North America, dragon "reserves" were established in the United States Territory of Alaska and the Canadian North-Western Territories, and in the 1820s, the American Colonization Society assisted a large group of dragons in colonising an area of land in West Africa, which ultimately united with the neighbouring colony of Liberia to form the state of Guinea. No such attempt was made in Central and Southern America, where the dragon settlements - spread across Western Central America, the Guyana Shield and the Western Amazonas - remained unrepresented until the twentieth century, but in 1860 a small group of dragons proclaimed the "Kingdom of Patagonia" in the uncolonised southern lands of the former Rio De La Plata Viceroyalty, and succeeded in repelling the Argentine forces and establishing an independent state.
Africa would ultimately become a target of Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century, and various states began searching for regions to claim. Eventually, after disputes began to form over control of the Congo region, a Congress was convened at Berlin in 1884 to divide the continent into zones of interest that could be slowly settled. Two dragon states were ultimately allocated land by the meeting; the Kingdom of Avalar secured the rights to a vast inland area of the Congo - which they settled as the Avalarian Congo - and the borders of the state of Guinea and the French colonies of West Africa were properly sorted out. Avalar would also lay a claim to the Ottoman Beylik of Libya - as they had annexed the neighbouring Beylik of Tunis in 1881 - but would make no attempt to occupy it until 1911, when Italy invaded the area, prompting Avalar to declare war. Ultimately, Cyrenaica - East Libya - would become an Italian territory, and Tripolitania - Northwest Libya - became a shared Condominium of both Avalar and Italy.
A few years later, when World War I broke out after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Avalar initially remained a neutral state. However, it held strong ties with the German Empire, and the Allied powers feared it would soon enter the conflict on their side, so diplomats from the British Empire approached them - along with the similarly neutral Italy - and arranged an alliance where Avalar would enter the war on the Allied side and would be granted control of the Austrian Tyrol region - with the exception of the former lands of the Bishopric of Trent, which had been promised to the Kingdom of Italy. Avalar's entry to the war had the side-effect of expanding the Western Front - which, up until this point, had been limited to the border between France and the Netherlands - invaded by the German Empire to secure access - which meant the death toll on both sides gradually rose as the battlefields expanded. Some areas ended up so damaged as the war went on that human populations largely abandoned them; their lands gradually being resettled by Avalarian dragons. After the defeat of the Central Powers and the end of World War I, Avalar's borders would expand again with the controversial annexations of the Saar and Alsace-Lorraine Territories - Mandates set up by the newly-created "League of Nations". In addition to this, parts of the former German colony of Tanganyika were annexed to the Avalarian Congo.
The years blighted by World War I and those immediately following it would be marked by a number of revolutions and military coups worldwide, as old governments collapsed and were replaced by radical governments. In Europe, the Russian Empire gave way to the Soviet Union, which reorganised the former Governates and Oblasts into nominally independent republics; controlled by humans, European dragons or Asian dragons depending on their location - Russian attempts at settling European dragons in Siberia and Turkestan had come to a halt upon encountering fierce resistance from the native Asian dragon population, but not in Caucasia, which had led to a sizable population of European dragons settling there when Russia began its conquest of the region. In North America, human and dragon revolutionaries in Baja California and Sonoria successfully seceded from Mexico and proclaimed a communist state, which later formed close ties with the Soviet Union.
By the 1940s, the borders of the states of the world had changed once more; in each case benefiting dragon states. In North America, the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the dragons of the Alaska and North West Territories seceding from the United States and Canada and uniting as the Draconic Republic of Greater Alaska. At the same time, in Europe, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands completely collapsed and revolutions broke out. Allegedly to put down these revolts, Avalarian forces occupied the country in 193(), established a client government and proclaimed the "Union of Lothier" between the two states. To the south, in Spain, a revolution by General Francisco Franco against the Republican Government of Spain led to an all-out Civil War, which ended in 1936 with human and dragon Republican Loyalists seceding in the northern half of the country, where the Republic of Santander was proclaimed.
A few years later, the outbreak of World War Two resulted in the invasion of Avalar in 1940 by German and Italian forces, who created the client "Kingdom of Lorraine" upon expelling King Gether from Warfang. Following this subjugation, Germany reclaimed the Saarland and Alsace-Lorraine regions, and Italy annexed the Savoy and Tripolitania regions, and laid claim to Tunisia, but never managed to properly occupy it, as the Avalarian government-in-exile - under the command of Prince Regent Taxid - fled there and put up a strong defence. Avalar's forces spent the first part of World War II fighting in North Africa, until an allied offensive in 1943 reclaimed Southern Avalar and Warfang. From this point onwards, Avalar focused its assaults eastwards; gradually capturing Northern Italy, before moving on to the various Axis states in the east, whose regimes were toppled and replaced with dragon-friendly governments on the orders of the restored King Gether.
When World War II came to an end, both Germany and Italy were partitioned into two states - the latter at the insistence of Avalarian diplomats - that were to be administered by the Allied forces - although East Germany and North Italy were largely puppet states of the Soviet Union and Avalar from the start - and their territorial gains reversed; in addition to this, Avalar took possession of Cyrenaica from Italy. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was restored and Bulgaria was incorporated into it in the form of a personal union. In Central Europe, the dragon-friendly governments established in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary formed the "Leithanian Union"; an ultimately short-lived alliance between the three states, designed to ensure security between the growing spheres of interest surrounding them. The defunct "League of Nations" was soon revived as the "United Nations", and the Kingdom of Avalar became one of six states - alongside Great Britain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China - designated a permanent seat on the Security Council. In a few years time, diplomats in Avalar would establish the European Economic Union - a forerunner of the modern European Union - with a number of its neighbouring states; some of which - the Netherlands and West Germany - were ultimately annexed following two referendums held in 19() - which were thought by some to have been rigged on King Gether's orders, although this was never proven.
Peace was ultimately short-lived. Tensions gripped the world just over a decade later with the beginning of the "Dragon Uprisings"; where dragons across the world - motivated by either nationalist or civil rights movements - began rioting and demanding better rights and/or autonomy. For the most part, these riots ended with the passing of new laws, but in a few areas, dragon breakaway states were formed. In North America, dragons in the state of Maine proclaimed the Republic of New England, which eventually became a shared condominium between the United States and the Kingdom of Avalar. In Central and South America, dragons united across borders and proclaimed vast new states; the United Provinces of Central America, Guyana, and Amazonas - located in the the Far Western Amazon Basin. In addition to this, with backing from the United States, dragon revolutionaries toppled the communist government in Sonoria. Africa was largely unaffected by these riots, as the dragons who were settled there were either already independent, or too small in number to make any effect. In some areas, draconic rights got progressively worse; upon achieving full independence from the British Empire, the "Union of South Africa" and the "Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland" implemented an "apartheid" system that strictly segregated the inhabitants of the country - many of whom would eventually flee across the borders to the Avalarian Congo. However, the Draconic "Republic of Nubia" - encompassing a significant settlement of dragons that had dwelled there since being recruited by the Ottoman Empire - was created alongside the "Republic of Sudan" as a result of these riots.
In Western Europe, dragons living in Northern France and the Netherlands proclaimed the state of (), which remained independent for a short period of time before voting for a union with Avalar in 19(). Similarly, in Great Britain, dragons in Wales restored the ancient Kingdom of Wales, but initially maintained close ties with Great Britain before uniting with Avalar in 19(). In Central Europe, the Leithanian Union collapsed as native draconic activists overthrew the government and proclaimed the "Kingdom of Darastix-Okarthel", which led to Avalar upping its military presence in North Italy as a defensive measure, before ultimately annexing the state. In the Balkans, the Yugoslavian state escaped a similar fate by cracking down on the activists - which in this case included both humans and dragons - and passing a series of laws that gradually led to the mass federalisation of the state. Eventually, the state would reform itself into the Federated States of Zmajoslavia. On the Fennoscandian Peninsula, dragons living in the far north managed to capture the entire Sapmi region, and proclaimed the "Empire of Sekeolath", which would eventually declare war on its neighbouring states and annex the states of Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as the entire Karelian region from the Soviet Union.
In Asia, the most dramatic dragon revolts took place. European powers had been expanding into the south for centuries, and groups of Asian dragons had slowly begun planning action against this foreign rule. Ultimately, in 19(), a revolt in the French Indochina region resulted in the end of colonial rule and the formation of the () Empire - colloquially known in the Western World as the Indomalayan Empire - which, under Emperor Long'Li, began a large-scale series of invasions against its neighbours with the intention of uniting the states of South East Asia - despite the cultural and religious differences - under a single ruler; beginning with the Conquest of Thailand in 19(), followed by the Subjugation of Burma and Assam in 19(), and lastly, the Malayan War of 19(); which ultimately led to an unsuccessful intervention by the United States following the annexation of the Philippines...

Description
...due to a lack of historical records from this period, the exact circumstances of the establishment of the Duchy of Avalar are unknown, but an old Avalarian children's tale mentions a "Good King" who brought the dragons to safety in the valley. The species of the King is not traditionally addressed in the story, and many have assumed it referred to (NAME); the legendary builder of Warfang, but a new theory suggests that the King may have in fact been Rudolph II of Burgundy; the King of Arles, who supposedly granted the lands to a large group of dragons in return for their aid in uniting his realm in 933. Supporters of this theory propose that the name "Avalar" is a corruption of the term "Vallee Arelat" - literally, "Arles Valley" - which would suggest that humans were more involved than previously thought in the foundations of the modern Avalarian state.
In any case, the Duchy of Avalar was, from its founding, subservient to a larger state; initially the Kingdom of Arles, and then the Holy Roman Empire after 1032, at which point it became a direct fief of the Holy Roman Emperor. Despite this, the Duchy was essentially independent, as the neighbouring states made no effort to expand into it, largely due to its prestigious position as an Imperial Fief, but also because at this point in time dragons were thought little more than wild and savage creatures; a danger to be avoided. As a result, the city of Warfang - built on the ancient Roman city of Gratianopolis - remained a draconic secret until the 16th century, at which point dragonkind began to re-surge in importance; something forced by human expansion.
Prior to this date, dragons were spread across Europe; living in small isolated communities in forest or mountain areas. As humans settlements grew and encroached upon such regions, dragon families faced problems finding food and escaping assault by human forces. Eventually, in 1543, a dragon living in the Eastern Alps named (NAME) flew with his family to the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna, where they pledged their servitude to him in return for food and shelter. The Emperor accepted; recognising them as a potential asset in the ongoing struggles against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and promptly had (NAME) and his family incorporated into his armies.
This knowledge soon spread across Europe, and before long, diplomats - largely from Protestant states fearing an assault from their enemies - were being sent to locate dragon settlements and secure the loyalty of the inhabitants. Before long, dragon forces had become integral parts of the armies of the nations of Europe, and various new strategies and military tactics began being developed to utilise them to their fullest extent. One such concept generally used by larger states consisted of settling large groups of dragons at frontier zones or in recently-occupied territories, where they would be tasked with keeping the area secure. These areas gradually expanded over time, ultimately creating small isolated areas throughout Europe - most prominently in the Low Countries, the Wallonia and Picard regions of Western Europe, Transleithania and the northern Balkans - where dragons far outnumbered the native human populations. However, although they were integrated with humans to a certain degree, dragons were not viewed as equals, and were generally treated as creatures of burden; richer inhabitants of these states even saw them as property, and forced them to sign contracts of indentured servitude in return for food and housing.
Despite these problems, this change in draconic status proved beneficial for the Duchy of Avalar, whose lands ultimately were doubled in size when they were granted the ancient County of Provence - an Imperial fief since 1481, which Emperor Frederick III had claimed upon the death of the last Count, despite his wishes for the lands to go to the French King - in order to create a buffer state between the Kingdom of France and the various states of Northern Italy under Imperial influence.
The Duchy of Avalar would ultimately remain an ally of the Holy Roman Emperors until the late 1700s, when they were annexed by the French Republic after losing the War of the First Coalition. Despite this, the Avalarian Royal Family remained opposed to French rule, and eventually broke free in late 1812 after Napoleon Bonaparte's disastrous campaign in Russia; joining the War of the Sixth Coalition against the French forces.
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Avalar sent (NAME) - a highly skilled diplomat - to the Congress of Vienna, where he argued against French diplomat Charles Talleyrand's proposal to restore France to its pre-war borders, and instead suggested that Avalar be given control of neighbouring French territories - home to a significant population of dragons - and client states to serve as a buffer state against French expansion into Italy. (NAME) noted that the ancient title of "King of Arles" had become vacant with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, and proposed that his liege Duke Gether be granted the title and that Avalar be elevated to a Kingdom. In addition to this, he proposed the partition of the Swiss Confederacy - an independent and neutral state prior to the Napoleonic Wars, but also a former territory of both the Kingdom of Arles and the stem duchy of Swabia. Ultimately, the cantons of Vaud and Valais were annexed to the restored "Kingdom of Arles" - which largely consisted of the Franche-Comte region - while the canton of Ticino and the former lands of the Free State of the Three Leagues became part of the Austrian Empire within the newly formed "Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia". The remainder of the Swiss state officially became an independent member of the "German Confederation" - replacing the Napoleonic "Confederation of the Rhine" - although from the start it was little more than an Austrian-dominated client state. The newly-created Kingdom of Arles also gained control of the island of Corsica, which had been occupied by Great Britain since 1814.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Kingdom of Arles evolved from a tiny duchy into one of the most powerful nations in Europe. In 1830, draconic forces would assist the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in putting down the "Belgian Revolution", resulting in the creation of a Customs Union between the two states. In 1860, the Kingdom would gain control of Savoy as the result of a deal with the Kingdom of Sardinia - the Treaty of Turin - and in 1866, they would join forces with the Kingdom of Prussia in the "Seven Weeks War" against Austria, after being promised control of the rump Swiss state in return for their aid. Following this, the "Kingdom of Arles" reformed itself into the short-lived "Avalo-Swiss Confederation", which became the "Kingdom of Avalar" in 1870 when Avalo-Swiss forces again aided the Kingdom of Prussia following an attempted invasion by France. In the aftermath, the Avalo-Swiss forces captured the Champagne and Lorraine regions of France, while the newly-formed "German Empire" seized the Alsace region - traditionally a German-speaking area.
Meanwhile, in other areas of the world - with the exception of Asia, where dragons had always been held in high regard - dragon prominence grew. Indentured servitude of dragons gradually became illegal after 1806 - although they didn't receive equal rights with humans until the next century. In North America, dragon "reserves" were established in the United States Territory of Alaska and the Canadian North-Western Territories, and in the 1820s, the American Colonization Society assisted a large group of dragons in colonising an area of land in West Africa, which ultimately united with the neighbouring colony of Liberia to form the state of Guinea. No such attempt was made in Central and Southern America, where the dragon settlements - spread across Western Central America, the Guyana Shield and the Western Amazonas - remained unrepresented until the twentieth century, but in 1860 a small group of dragons proclaimed the "Kingdom of Patagonia" in the uncolonised southern lands of the former Rio De La Plata Viceroyalty, and succeeded in repelling the Argentine forces and establishing an independent state.
Africa would ultimately become a target of Europe towards the end of the nineteenth century, and various states began searching for regions to claim. Eventually, after disputes began to form over control of the Congo region, a Congress was convened at Berlin in 1884 to divide the continent into zones of interest that could be slowly settled. Two dragon states were ultimately allocated land by the meeting; the Kingdom of Avalar secured the rights to a vast inland area of the Congo - which they settled as the Avalarian Congo - and the borders of the state of Guinea and the French colonies of West Africa were properly sorted out. Avalar would also lay a claim to the Ottoman Beylik of Libya - as they had annexed the neighbouring Beylik of Tunis in 1881 - but would make no attempt to occupy it until 1911, when Italy invaded the area, prompting Avalar to declare war. Ultimately, Cyrenaica - East Libya - would become an Italian territory, and Tripolitania - Northwest Libya - became a shared Condominium of both Avalar and Italy.
A few years later, when World War I broke out after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Avalar initially remained a neutral state. However, it held strong ties with the German Empire, and the Allied powers feared it would soon enter the conflict on their side, so diplomats from the British Empire approached them - along with the similarly neutral Italy - and arranged an alliance where Avalar would enter the war on the Allied side and would be granted control of the Austrian Tyrol region - with the exception of the former lands of the Bishopric of Trent, which had been promised to the Kingdom of Italy. Avalar's entry to the war had the side-effect of expanding the Western Front - which, up until this point, had been limited to the border between France and the Netherlands - invaded by the German Empire to secure access - which meant the death toll on both sides gradually rose as the battlefields expanded. Some areas ended up so damaged as the war went on that human populations largely abandoned them; their lands gradually being resettled by Avalarian dragons. After the defeat of the Central Powers and the end of World War I, Avalar's borders would expand again with the controversial annexations of the Saar and Alsace-Lorraine Territories - Mandates set up by the newly-created "League of Nations". In addition to this, parts of the former German colony of Tanganyika were annexed to the Avalarian Congo.
The years blighted by World War I and those immediately following it would be marked by a number of revolutions and military coups worldwide, as old governments collapsed and were replaced by radical governments. In Europe, the Russian Empire gave way to the Soviet Union, which reorganised the former Governates and Oblasts into nominally independent republics; controlled by humans, European dragons or Asian dragons depending on their location - Russian attempts at settling European dragons in Siberia and Turkestan had come to a halt upon encountering fierce resistance from the native Asian dragon population, but not in Caucasia, which had led to a sizable population of European dragons settling there when Russia began its conquest of the region. In North America, human and dragon revolutionaries in Baja California and Sonoria successfully seceded from Mexico and proclaimed a communist state, which later formed close ties with the Soviet Union.
By the 1940s, the borders of the states of the world had changed once more; in each case benefiting dragon states. In North America, the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the dragons of the Alaska and North West Territories seceding from the United States and Canada and uniting as the Draconic Republic of Greater Alaska. At the same time, in Europe, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands completely collapsed and revolutions broke out. Allegedly to put down these revolts, Avalarian forces occupied the country in 193(), established a client government and proclaimed the "Union of Lothier" between the two states. To the south, in Spain, a revolution by General Francisco Franco against the Republican Government of Spain led to an all-out Civil War, which ended in 1936 with human and dragon Republican Loyalists seceding in the northern half of the country, where the Republic of Santander was proclaimed.
A few years later, the outbreak of World War Two resulted in the invasion of Avalar in 1940 by German and Italian forces, who created the client "Kingdom of Lorraine" upon expelling King Gether from Warfang. Following this subjugation, Germany reclaimed the Saarland and Alsace-Lorraine regions, and Italy annexed the Savoy and Tripolitania regions, and laid claim to Tunisia, but never managed to properly occupy it, as the Avalarian government-in-exile - under the command of Prince Regent Taxid - fled there and put up a strong defence. Avalar's forces spent the first part of World War II fighting in North Africa, until an allied offensive in 1943 reclaimed Southern Avalar and Warfang. From this point onwards, Avalar focused its assaults eastwards; gradually capturing Northern Italy, before moving on to the various Axis states in the east, whose regimes were toppled and replaced with dragon-friendly governments on the orders of the restored King Gether.
When World War II came to an end, both Germany and Italy were partitioned into two states - the latter at the insistence of Avalarian diplomats - that were to be administered by the Allied forces - although East Germany and North Italy were largely puppet states of the Soviet Union and Avalar from the start - and their territorial gains reversed; in addition to this, Avalar took possession of Cyrenaica from Italy. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was restored and Bulgaria was incorporated into it in the form of a personal union. In Central Europe, the dragon-friendly governments established in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary formed the "Leithanian Union"; an ultimately short-lived alliance between the three states, designed to ensure security between the growing spheres of interest surrounding them. The defunct "League of Nations" was soon revived as the "United Nations", and the Kingdom of Avalar became one of six states - alongside Great Britain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China - designated a permanent seat on the Security Council. In a few years time, diplomats in Avalar would establish the European Economic Union - a forerunner of the modern European Union - with a number of its neighbouring states; some of which - the Netherlands and West Germany - were ultimately annexed following two referendums held in 19() - which were thought by some to have been rigged on King Gether's orders, although this was never proven.
Peace was ultimately short-lived. Tensions gripped the world just over a decade later with the beginning of the "Dragon Uprisings"; where dragons across the world - motivated by either nationalist or civil rights movements - began rioting and demanding better rights and/or autonomy. For the most part, these riots ended with the passing of new laws, but in a few areas, dragon breakaway states were formed. In North America, dragons in the state of Maine proclaimed the Republic of New England, which eventually became a shared condominium between the United States and the Kingdom of Avalar. In Central and South America, dragons united across borders and proclaimed vast new states; the United Provinces of Central America, Guyana, and Amazonas - located in the the Far Western Amazon Basin. In addition to this, with backing from the United States, dragon revolutionaries toppled the communist government in Sonoria. Africa was largely unaffected by these riots, as the dragons who were settled there were either already independent, or too small in number to make any effect. In some areas, draconic rights got progressively worse; upon achieving full independence from the British Empire, the "Union of South Africa" and the "Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland" implemented an "apartheid" system that strictly segregated the inhabitants of the country - many of whom would eventually flee across the borders to the Avalarian Congo. However, the Draconic "Republic of Nubia" - encompassing a significant settlement of dragons that had dwelled there since being recruited by the Ottoman Empire - was created alongside the "Republic of Sudan" as a result of these riots.
In Western Europe, dragons living in Northern France and the Netherlands proclaimed the state of (), which remained independent for a short period of time before voting for a union with Avalar in 19(). Similarly, in Great Britain, dragons in Wales restored the ancient Kingdom of Wales, but initially maintained close ties with Great Britain before uniting with Avalar in 19(). In Central Europe, the Leithanian Union collapsed as native draconic activists overthrew the government and proclaimed the "Kingdom of Darastix-Okarthel", which led to Avalar upping its military presence in North Italy as a defensive measure, before ultimately annexing the state. In the Balkans, the Yugoslavian state escaped a similar fate by cracking down on the activists - which in this case included both humans and dragons - and passing a series of laws that gradually led to the mass federalisation of the state. Eventually, the state would reform itself into the Federated States of Zmajoslavia. On the Fennoscandian Peninsula, dragons living in the far north managed to capture the entire Sapmi region, and proclaimed the "Empire of Sekeolath", which would eventually declare war on its neighbouring states and annex the states of Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as the entire Karelian region from the Soviet Union.
In Asia, the most dramatic dragon revolts took place. European powers had been expanding into the south for centuries, and groups of Asian dragons had slowly begun planning action against this foreign rule. Ultimately, in 19(), a revolt in the French Indochina region resulted in the end of colonial rule and the formation of the () Empire - colloquially known in the Western World as the Indomalayan Empire - which, under Emperor Long'Li, began a large-scale series of invasions against its neighbours with the intention of uniting the states of South East Asia - despite the cultural and religious differences - under a single ruler; beginning with the Conquest of Thailand in 19(), followed by the Subjugation of Burma and Assam in 19(), and lastly, the Malayan War of 19(); which ultimately led to an unsuccessful intervention by the United States following the annexation of the Philippines...