Valmar Confederacy

The Valmar Confederacy is a group of merchants, pirates, pirate hunters, ex-navy crewmen and other civilians who are rebelling against Nova Balreska. Their ultimate goal is to form a new, stronger nation - the Valmar Confederacy - that works on a social democratic stratocracy. Their other - yet still important - purposes include defending trade routes from pirates by patrolling servers, escorting merchants in need, and helping the everyday Tradelands player in order to create a better game environment for all.

Formation and Early Days
The Valmar Confederacy was first formed in late March of 2018. TrveMetalhead, a pirate hunter originally from Verner, had noticed that Nova Balreska was not in good condition. The nation she had come to reside in had fallen from grace - once with a powerful navy and a strong leader, it had turned into a place that was easy for pirates to raid, with a weak and inactive navy and oppressive Chancellor. Tired of the weakness that her government showed, she devised a plan to rebel against them, to form a stronger and better nation. In need of support for her cause, she called upon those she had came to trust most in the Tradelands community - OGAlCapone, huMan12542, and later HASHHASH10. At the time, she promoted these players to the highest attainable rank - Commodore - and named herself the Grand Commodore. They named the nation the Valmar Rebellion.

It was not long until the four took to building up Valmar. The very night that Valmar was formed, they took to recruiting, quickly gaining members who were interested in their cause. The Nordraak, Valmar's flagship, was constructed and fully armed within a day. A flag was quickly drafted by Human12542 and TrveMetalhead to become the symbol of rebellion. By the 28th of March, only four days after creation, the Valmar Rebellion had 38 members and had completed two patrols, successfully sinking their first few pirate ships.

Age of the Council
It was not long after the Valmar Rebellion was formed that the Grand Commodore changed the titles of Valmar's highest ranking members. She became the Fleet Admiral, and her Commodores were promoted to her Admirals. This formed the first form of the Council, how Valmar governs itself today. The Council would consist of Captains, Commodores, Rear Admirals, Admirals and the Fleet Admiral and act as a governing body, voting on serious issues regarding the group. As well, these members acted as military commanders, hence their titles. Quickly, Valmar established itself as a democratic stratocracy - it would allow military personnel to vote on issues that would affect them, while the Council handled issues relating to the group's security and welfare. Its military and government were one and the same - an idea suggested by Human12542, as this meant that if they maintained a strong government, they would be maintaining a strong military and vice versa. Originally, the stratocractic government aspects were in response to Nova Balreskas weak military, and were instituted as an effort to avoid the same pitfalls that Nova Balreska had fallen into. The democratic stratocracy in Valmar persists until today.

Shortly after, a Grand Council - consisting only of Admirals and the Fleet Admiral - was instituted above the normal Council. It acted as a figure that would only take action in dangerous situations that required quick consensus of the admiralty and for enacting serious changes in the Valmar Rebellion. The Grand Council and its members has the permission to overrule any decisions made by the Council and non-members, however may only do so if the situation is a true emergency or would lead to damaging the Rebellion.

It was during this period that the Valmar Rebellion experienced its first military engagement against the Nova Balreskan Navy, at a skirmish known as the First Spark of Perth. A Nova Balreskan Navy Poseidon challenged the Valmar Neptune Mesoforte to combat, and the vessels met around the wind rock. The skirmish began with the Valmar Neptune slinging full broadsides while the NBN Poseidon weaved in and out of range, both ships reaching Perth. Eventually, after the Poseidon tried glitching through the island, it ended up Poseidon grounding itself against one of Perth's coasts. The Valmar took this opening to fire the Neptune's super carronade multiple times, sinking the Poseidon and winning the skirmish.

Birth of the Confederacy
The group was known as the Valmar Rebellion until May of 2018, when its Council had realized that one of its closest allies - The Guardians Navy - began to share extremely close ideals with it regarding protecting the general populace of Tradelands and overthrowing Nova Balreska. As well, they began to see increased action of TGN in the Valmar Discord server, and a drop in activity in the TGN's Discord server. It was decided that the Valmar Rebellion would approach The Guardian's Navy with an offer to be annexed to Valmar and be placed under their control as a military branch. TGN accepted the offer, and the merge took place on May 24th, 2018.

At a ceremony taking place at Freeport, the Guardians Navy admirals and the Valmar Grand Council signed a document that officialized the intergration. The admirals of TGN were ranked as Valmar Rear Admirals, and largely kept their control over the Guardians Navy, which became an independent branch of Valmar. TGN crewmen were given relatively equivalent ranks in the Valmar group. Due to this intergration, the Valmar Rebellion became the Valmar Confederacy - an alliance of states with the common goal to rebel against Nova Balreska and form a better nation. As of August 2018, TGN has been the only group to intergrate join the Valmar Confederacy.

This period was when the Nova Balreskan Navy truly started to take notice of the Valmar Confederacy, after declarations of war were signed and sent to their current Chancellor, Rhonor. An organized battle, called the First Battle Against Nova, took place in late May after the annexation of TGN. Both sides butted heads, and an eventual a cease fire was called by FlippyyyJr, who stated that Nova Balreska had won (despite the Mesoforte being right outside of the Nova Balreskan docks, fully manned). This issue was taken to Rhonor with screenshots, and he eventually stated that he disagreed with FlippyyyJr's actions and declared the battle a tie due to the early halt. Shortly after, FlippyyyJr was demoted in the Nova Balreskan Navy.

Valmar Uniforms
Valmar has gone through three generations of uniforms; uniformless, first generation, and second generation.

Uniformless
From the founding of Valmar to mid-July of 2018, Valmar lacked any uniforms. There were a couple of attempts made to purchase them from uniform artists, however these fell through as one party produced uniforms of a laughably low quality and the other charged too much and failed to respond to messages in a reasonable amount of time. Individual members also tried to create Valmar uniforms on a few occassions, however their personal lives kept them from doing so. As such, the Valmar were forced to not wear uniforms to denote their group for about 5 months. Though this made Valmar forces appear more disorganized than the Council would have liked, morale was still kept due to members being able to wear what they wanted when attending trainings and raids.

First Generation
First generation uniforms appeared as a dark olive color, and seemed to be much like a jumpsuit. They had three buttons buttoned to close a jacket that tilted awkwardly to the side. The left arm bore a musket and rose enclosed in a shield, and the right shoulder bore a epaulette that was colored based upon the member's rank. Cadets and seamen were marked with a teal color, while midshipmen and quartermasters were marked with purplish-pink epaulettes. Captains wore dark blue epaulettes, while Commodores wore a red version and Rear Admirals wore an orange color. Admirals wore a golden epaulette and the Fleet Admiral bore two golden epaulettes. Commanding ranks were granted a red ship wheel above a pocket on their left chest, and ranks of Rear Admiral and above wore white sashes. The sashes did not line up properly due to an editing mistake. As well, the epaulettes appeared more like arm bands and the entire design of the uniform was unsightly, looking like an odd jumpsuit. Many Valmar members complained directly to the Grand Council regarding its appearance, however wore it with pride nonetheless. The first generation uniforms were set to be phased completely out of combat by September 1st of 2018, to be replaced by the more attractive second generation uniforms.

Second Generation
Second generation uniforms were released on August 8th of 2018, in response to the backlash and general ugliness of the previous uniforms. This uniform featured an open tailcoat rather than a closed jacket, with a white undershirt. A musket and rose was placed higher on the shoulder this time, and in ranks of midshipman and above was enclosed by a white shield. Ranks of quartermaster and higher were granted a red sash across their chest to denote as commanding status, and ranks of captain and above were granted epaulettes on their right shoulder to show that they were a Council member. These epaulettes were more detailed and looked more like the real deal, and had a similar color pattern to show ranks more closely - navy blue represented a Captain, red represented a Commodore, orange represented a Rear Admiral, and gold represented an Admiral. Two gold epaulettes, one on each shoulder, was representative of the Fleet Admiral. They would be connected to a tailcoat pants piece that was universal for all ranks. Immediately upon their surprise release, the second generation uniforms were seen as better looking than the previous first generation uniforms by the whole of Valmar.

Third Generation
Third generation uniforms were released on December 17th, 2018, after the Confederacy hired a designer to create them. They are notably much smoother and enjoyable to look at. Further, uniforms with a cuirass attached were also distributed if a member prefered that look, giving them some choice in their appearance. One standard issue pants was issued, and four uniforms; one for Cadets-through-Quartermastesr, another for Commanders-through-Commodores, one for Rear Admirals-through-Admirals, and a final for the Fleet Admiral.

The third generation uniform features a green-collared shirt covered by a buttoned, navy blue jacket. The jacket was designed to make the wearer harder to see in the ocean at night, making night raids an easier task. Uniforms designated for Officers have a red sash worn around their waist, while uniforms designating the status of admiralty have a single gold epaullete on the right shoulder. The Fleet Admiral's uniform has two golden epaulettes, one on each shoulder.

Reasons for Revolution
Though many members join for honor, money, the illustrious benefits, or the tightly-knit yet open community that Valmar offers, it remains a rebellion at its core. Despite this, the actual reasons for starting a revolution against Nova Balreska are often blurred to crewmen, or not even known at worst. The Valmar Confederacy actually has many reasons for attempting its revolution, only a few of which are listed here.

Weak Military Forces
Nova Balreska once was a thriving nation with a powerful and nearly unmatched navy, easily able to dispatch pirates. However, as time moved forward, the Nova Balreskan Navy became lazy. They began to lack a will to patrol and raid pirates due to the next-to-nonexistent tension between nations. The NBN became slow, lackluster and inactive as a whole. At one time, a Tradelands player could see a Nova Balreskan Navy flag flying above a ship at least once a day, but at the time that Valmar was formed, it was rare to see one once a month. The Valmar Confederacy aims to change that, instituting a powerful naval force backed by not only strong leaders, but a strong nation.

Weak and Unjust Government
The Nova Balreskan government has long been a republican dictatorship, which was no trouble for most. The earliest Chancellors were strong and respectable folk, with a benevolent view towards their nation and a goal to make it better. However, just like its navy, the government began to rot. It became corrupt - where the people once voted and elected their leader once a term was up, the title of Chancellor began to be passed around to allies and favorites of former Chancellors. Gone were the days of voting. It was only after Valmar became vocal and called the Nova Balreskan government out on this that voting was reinstated, however that is not enough. A government where all who contribute are given a voice on not only their leaders, but its actions, must be instituted if any semblence of independence is to appear in Nova Balreska.

A Purshovian Puppet
If it was not bad enough that Nova Balreska has a weak navy, the fact that they bowed down to the Purshovian Federation is. A Purshovian ironclad sailed by Nova Balreska unannounced, and threatened to take the nation by force if it did not submit to Purshovia as a vassal. Instead of putting up an honorable fight that would be expected of a nation worth existing, Nova Balreska did a dishonor to its people and surrendered in instants. Since then, Purshovia has not helped Nova Balreska in any way - they have only abused their power as an overlord, only contacting the nation when it is to the Federation's benefit and Nova Balreska's detriment. The way Valmar sees it, this needs to end.

Other reasons include lower taxation on incoming trade, NBN ignoring the aggressions of other navies, and the current 2,000,000 doubloon debt that Nova Balreska owes to other nations and groups.

Trivia

 * The word "Valmar" is a reference to the Kalmar Union, a real-life country that existed as a personal union between Denmark, Sweden and Norway from the 1397 CE until the early quarter of the 16th century.
 * The official weapon of Valmar is the glaive.
 * The Valmar flag is extremely heavy in color and object symbolism. The green is a symbol of the wealth and life that the Valmar will bring and the white represents the hope and freshness of a new nation. The rose itself represents the beauty of the Rebellion, while the red in it represents the passion and fury Valmar seamen fight with. The musket is a representation of the strength and military might of Valmar and the black in it is also representative of its power and sophistication compared to those who oppose it.
 * The Valmar flag is often referred to as the "Musket and Rose."
 * The second generation Valmar uniform was based off of the style that the Defenders of the Sea Union uniforms were made, and to better fit the title of "olive coats." The idea for using epaulettes to distinguish rank originated from the real-life United States Navy in the 18th-19th centuries.
 * Valmar once established a branch of marines known as the "Dutch Company." It is currently a defunct branch that is not active within Valmar military forces due to struggles with maintaining long-term, active leadership and a lack of applying marines, as well as a failure to show noticable effect on the battlefield. It is possible the branch may be revamped in the future, though unlikely.
 * Valmar is considered a social democratic stratocracy as the state owns the means of producing weapons, cannons, ammunition and ships to arm its navy, rather than contracting an outside business.
 * The adjective for something relating to the Valmar Confederacy or originating from it has not been formally established. As such, words like "Valmar" and "Valmarian" are often used interchangebly.
 * The Valmar Confederacy has, over time, established its own culture - not only does the group communicate in ways that are different than the normal Tradelands player (ie Valmar will often jump on one anothers' heads as a form of greeting) and have developed multiple code languages, their Discord group has spawned a number of their own cultural memes. Common morals between Valmar crewmen also exist, such as placing a high value on personal and group-wide honor.
 * Holidays and anniversaries of military and civilian significance are recognized by Valmar. The birthdays of all members are usually celebrated in-game, unless they do not want one. More light-hearted celebrations, such as parties after victory against a notable foe, are often held. Activities at these celebrations often involve toasts, gift-giving and "Valmar brawls," or fist-fights.
 * It is unknown how Valmar brawls first came to be. It is likely that they originated as a joke, but later became a competitive event due to the Valmar Confederacy's militaristic nature. Eventually, the strategic value of these brawls were realized (to raise both morale and train the Brawling skill), and they have become a looked forward to event during trainings and production runs.
 * Most Valmar will charge violently into battle, often shouting phrases like "For Valmar!" or "For the Musket and Rose!" This is not actually something members are trained to do, and is picked up naturally as one of Valmar's cultural memes. Some members have their own forms of these war cries - for example, members who speak German will sometimes yell in German rather than English. A favorite of Human12542's is "Sieg oder Tod," meaning "Victory or Death."
 * The second generation uniforms bear a resemblance to the uniforms of the Steamvanian Royal Navy's.