Summary from the historical research of Professor Gerson T. Drake on the history of the country of Delta, 'The Origin of the Delta Rune.' Completed 201X.
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Published June 4th, 200X in Chronicles of the Rune Annual Historic Journal, Vol. 219
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The Origin of the Delta Rune Part 4- The White Dove Union
In the year 1700AD, as a celebration of the new century and of peace across the western hemisphere, twelve countries of varying power and size came together to write a lasting declaration of sisterhood. On December 24th, as the twelve leaders' Christmas present to their people, the White Dove Union was formed. Its members spanned across the mid-western continent of Kuros, but also included the tiny country of Delta on the eastern coast of the Trine continent to Kuros' west. Delta had always been a symbol of peace, their purple banner with the winged delta having overlooked all manner of gatherings and meetings of kinship. The roots of the White Dove Union can be traced to our King's ancestor, Queen Lestelle of House Dreemurr. It written that she first proposed the idea at the end of a long, horrible war between Kuros and its eastern neighbor, the continent of Chasana.
Having watched the waste of more than thirty-million lives over the previous ten years, and with an unfair treaty that left a bitter taste in the mouths of all involved, practically the entire world was desperate for peace. Even those who had not been involved in the fighting were weary, having stood on edge for so long expecting to be sucked into the maelstrom. It was the combined efforts of Queen Lestelle Dreemurr of Delta, Prime Minister Wyatt Nath of Ariadne, and Prince Jan Holgeir of Breslin that brought the recovering fighters together. They managed to smooth out the peace treaty between Kuros and Chasana, and some countries of Chasana even joined in the White Dove Union in a gesture of friendship to Kuros.
Once the Union was formed, peace lasted for nearly fifty years for each member until a similar Union of Chasanan countries arose. This alliance, calling themselves the Eastern Union, accused White Dove member Breslin of assassinating a Chasanan leader. War nearly followed, until Lestelle's successor and son, King Brollam Dreemurr, brought both unions together to understand the problem. Three years of back-and-forth communication under Brollam ended up revealing that one of the Eastern Union's own countries had planned the assassination. Both Unions ended up supporting a growing rebellion in the country, and the resulting new elected leader gladly joined back in with the peaceful alliances.
The Unions ended up merging, taking the White Dove name in respect for King Brollam and Queen Lestelle before him. Brollam suddenly passed away before the merge was officially announced, but his will spoke of how proud he was of the human race in his lifetime. He had seen two great powers nearly come to blows, only to put their heads together and avoid bloodshed and work for the good of the common people rather than the good of the rich and powerful. Brollam counted the merging of the White Dove Union, then thirty-five countries strong, as the greatest cultural achievement in all of human history.
Sadly, Brollam's praise did not end up applying to the next generations of White Dove leaders. His granddaughter Lydia and her husband Roran had just taken the Delta throne when the Union set its sights southward on the half-wild, arid continent of Danane. All of Delta grew more and more concerned as the Union began making advances southward, showing considerable force and aggression to the Native people. Delta, having dealt with foreign mistreatment of their own Native people in the past, was understandably hurt.
When Lydia and Roran came together with the other leaders in the annual Olive Branch Convention, Delta was met with greed and hunger unlike they had ever seen before. The Union's advancing soldiers were masquerading as 'peaceful explorers' and 'diplomatic envoys' to the Native Dani people. And when Roran called the Union out on this behavior, he was denounced as mad and aggressive. Lydia was drowned out by the sheer power of patriarchy in the council of leaders, told that her title as Queen, even as Brollam and Lestelle's successor, was ceremonial. Roran flew into a rage at the treatment of his wife, and the royal couple were thrown out of the convention along with any leaders who stood alongside them. But this had all been a part of the Union's plan, to throw out the 'peace-mongers' so that they wouldn't be able to vote on the decision to forcefully annex Danane and split it among the aggressive Union members.
Returning to Delta, Roran and Lydia were met with more problems. Their young son had fallen victim to a tuberculosis epidemic, their western anarchist neighbor Arida was growing restless and vicious, and to top it all off, the economy was falling into a slump. Young Prince Pharan, named for Roran's father, died the day the economy outright crashed thanks to over-lending by the banks. Two days later, Roran found Lydia hanging in her private library. A letter left behind told him she had miscarried their second child, and without Pharan and with disaster on the horizon, she couldn't bear to live any longer.
Roran never married again, and with no other children, he died alone twenty years later of fever. His successor was Lydia's only living relative- a thirty-year old upstart of a brother named Kainon. Having never been taught the ways of royalty, Kainon's start was shaky but his brash and direct nature combined with his honesty and impatience for liars quickly made him a hero in the eyes of the poor who had deceived for so long by the rich.
Delta managed to slowly recover under Kainon, but he was not seen as a legitimate ruler by the White Dove Council thanks to being second-born. For ten years, he wasn't allowed at the Olive Branch Conventions. The eleventh year, he finally stormed into the meeting chamber and took Lydia's seat where it had sat empty for so long. He would not be removed, and so the Union called a premature end to the convention. Kainon immediately knew the aggressive members would meet in secret, and he called them out for the entire world to see in print. The Union named this an act of treason, but Kainon countered that they were the treasonous ones, betraying their own name in waging war and genocide on the Native people of Danane and stripping peaceful countries of their votes. The Union could not silence Kainon with words, and so they silenced him with bullets.
On the first day of the new century, King Kainon Dreemurr was shot through the chest at his own wedding reception while dancing with his new wife Carin. Carin was wounded in the shoulder when the bullet passed through Kainion's left lung, and he collapsed in her arms coughing up blood. According to articles written by those present, Kainon died with blood on his lips, saying to his new wife, "Take care of Delta, love. And she'll take care of you. You're her Queen now." Carin could hardly be pulled away from Kainon for medical treatment, and her screams of heart-wrenching agony haunted the hospital for a whole night before she went silent for three days.
A week later at his funeral, a White Dove emissary appeared to lay and envelope in Carin's hands. Surrounded by her bodyguards, Carin opened the letter, read it quietly, and then suddenly pulled a rifle from one of her guardians to shoot the emissary point-blank in the chest. Reporters wrote that she stepped over the body with the gun in one hand and the letter in the other, and approached Kainon's grave. Pressing a kiss to her fingers, she touched the headstone and whispered, "An eye for an eye, sweetheart" before walking away with all her bodyguards in tow without any explanation.
The next day, the truth was learned. The emissary had been none other than the right-hand man of the Prime Minister of Doria. Said Prime Minister was one of the leading members of the White Dove Union. The letter had been a declaration of exile and war from the Union itself, as well as Doria's claim to Kainon's demise.
The Union was not expecting Delta to hold its own.