[colour=gold][u][h1][centre]Empire of Violette[/centre][/h1][/u][/colour]
[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/fRiTWvK.png[/img][/centre]
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[centre][h3][u]Zanzan, Cote d'Or, Empire of Violette,[/u][/h3][/centre]
[centre][img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Flickr_-_%E2%80%A6trialsanderrors_-_Moorish_woman_and_child_on_the_terrace%2C_Algiers%2C_Algeria%2C_ca._1899.jpg[/img][/centre][centre][i]A d'Orian mother and her son look out from their balcony over the coast of the port-city of Zanzan[/i][/centre]
Like so much of the rest of the Empire of Violette, the Cote d'Or had prospered under Veletian suzerainty for centuries. Acquired in pieces throughout the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the various small kingdoms, tribes and emirates that had coalesced into the Cote d'Or had long since adopted a fundamentally Veletian character. The language of Violette—that Continental tongue which most elegantly expressed higher culture—had utterly supplanted local languages in the great cities of the coast generations past; only the plethora of subjugated, dark-skinned tribes of the inland were made to do without it, communicating with each other primarily through violent conflict rather than in their dozens of distinct languages. Indeed, the inland had been so backwards and neglected, and the coast so cosmopolitan and vibrant, that the authorities of the colony had largely neglected any settlement not striding alongside the Cote d'Or's warm, blue waters. The coastal cities were not even physically connected to themselves, having neither road nor rail tying them together: only the sea. Small civilian and commercial craft ferried passengers to and fro from each of their ports, towing expensive cargo from the inland too, giving the coastal waters of the Cote d'Or a well-regulated business that reminded the many hundreds of thousands of Continental Veletians living in the colony's port-cities of the wonders of Labelle and Lorre back home in Violette proper.

Today, though, the fanciful d'Orians witnessed a special sight. A flotilla of Veletian military ships, docked in the navy harbour of Zanzan, set sail north and east, briskly cutting a path through the lazy waves of the Cote d'Or on their departure from home. Where other ships would normally turn east or west, headed for the cities of Lagunes or Woroba, the ships of the [i]Flotte Cotê d'Or[/i] kept their bows pointed forwards. The geographically astute among the onlookers might have noticed their colony's naval garrison's most likely destination: the Sypian Kingdom. Word had traveled fast of the departure of the Seljuks from the islands, and the Empire of Violette, ever prideful and hungry, saw fit to make a show of their presence for their newly independent neighbors. They would be the first to show, if they had any competition for Sypia's favour at all—likely arriving days if not weeks before any potential competitor. Led by the resolute Commodore Jean-Pierre Beaubois, himself a quarter D'Orian from his mother's side, the flotilla would proceed to Murat and then to Mufat, first inspecting the state of the island kingdom's most important naval base before wooing the Sypians gazing into the waters off their own capital. The Cote d'Or was already culturally diverse and oriented to the sea: a few islands of Sypians would fit into the Empire quite nicely.

[i][b][Open Event:[/b] Any nation may select to do one of the following:
[b]* Dispatch a Destroyer Squadron:[/b] By sending three destroyers, our nation shows support for a Sypian regime that supports our interests without appearing too militaristic in nation. There is a low chance of succeeding with an equally low chance of raising tensions.][/i]