Nine Knot War

The Nine Knot War was fought between Stolmont and Kogane between 228 and 231. It resulted in Stolmont control of Delsin and the withdrawal of Kogane from international diplomacy.

Background

The Wake Society

In the early 220s, maritime-traditionalism, the view that territorial claims on waterways are illegitimate, gained influence in academic and naval circles in Kogane. The Wake Society was formed as a political party to advocate for the retraction of Kogane claims on its surrounding ocean, and to advocate for maritime-traditionalism abroad.

By 228, many radical members of the Wake Society had organized into activist or paramilitary groups. One such cell was composed of employees of the Nine Knot Line, a major state-owned ferry service. Its members included leader Ranmaru Ito, author of poetic propaganda pamphlets such as Maritime Nation, ferry pilot Naho Okabe, and phosgraph operator Hina Teruoka.

Ito was also close friends with Motoshige Kita, a naval officer and leader of the Green Triangle Division, a secret cell of Wake sympathist military officers and covert foreign operatives. Kita was involved in smuggling weapons to Delsin, where a Wake Society paramilitary wing was being formed by lawyer Keiko Shun.

Lantong Plaza Incident

On the evening of 228.2.27, Ito and Okabe stole the ferry NK Marten docked in Delsin Station and sailed for Tesser, the capital city of Stolmont. They intended to dock alongside Lantong Plaza without authorization, and for Ito to read a statement in support of maritime-traditionalism. They had both planned to be arrested by the Stolmont Security Office, and had instructed Teruoka to disseminate pamphlets to Wake Society members discussing the plan and its motivations.

As Ito and Okabe neared Tesser, they were shadowed by the Stolmont Security Office cutter SSO Daffodil. First Mate Annika Hoffstaedter of the SSO Daffodil issued repeated orders to the NK Marten to turn away, all of which were ignored. As the ships neared the plaza, the Daffodil turned to make contact with the Marten in order to board and seize the vessel. At this point, Ito exited the cabin, walked out onto the prow, and opened his scroll to begin reading.

SSO Commander Karl Vogel, on the deck of the Daffodil, mistook the manifesto for an aetherpower weaponized scroll and opened fire, killing Ito. Okabe returned fire with her pistol from within the bridge, wounding First Mate Hoffstaedter. The SSO Daffodil’s cannon opened fire on the Marten, incapacitating Okabe. The Marten sailed uncontrolled and ran aground into Lantong Plaza, killing 9 (including Okabe) and wounding 23.

The Stolmont Security Office declared a provisional state of emergency, believing that the incident was an attempted Kogane attack based on Vogel’s testimony. Thirty SSO warships were sent to blockade Delsin Station and transmit a phosgraph to Kogane demanding an explanation for the incident.

The respond-to segment of the phosgraph indicated that a response to the message should be sent at noon on 2.30 to a tower at a height of 45 meters at standard maritime position 3 relative to the long-range tower at Delsin Station. Based on the tower height and positions, this would be understood by Kogane to refer to a warship blockading Delsin Station.

Initial blockade and search of NK Sable

On 2.29, the SSO fleet established a cordon off of Delsin Station. Incoming ships were stopped and boarded, and a landing party from the SSO Orchid prepared to seize the phosgraph tower by force if necessary. Before the landing party left for shore, the Orchid intercepted the NK Sable en route to Delsin. A search party boarded the Sable and found two crates of airguns labeled as a commercial shipment to Keiko Shun. All NK personnel on board were arrested and the phosgraph was amended to include a demand for an explanation of this shipment in addition to the Lantong Plaza attack. The NK Sable was piloted to shore by SSO soldiers who sent the phosgraph from the ONC-owned tower without incident.

Course of the war

Hina Teruoka received the phosgraph at a Nine Knot relay office in Veshu. In later testimony, she stated that she interpreted the request for information on “the occurrence at Lantong” as pertaining to the successful execution of the planned demonstration and omitted that segment in her transcription per orders from Ito. She forwarded the blockade notice and weapons seizure report to the Kogane cabinet through a courier.

The cabinet convened an emergency session that night. Wake-aligned representatives, most unaware of the smuggling plot, argued that the SSO accusation of weapons found on a Nine Knot Line ferry were fabricated as a pretext for escalation after the peaceful actions of Ito and Okabe, and that a declaration of war was justified in defense of Delsin Station. The Internationalist Bloc introduced a resolution instructing the Ministry of Foreign Correspondence to send an envoy ship to the Delsin blockade line to discuss the situation. This resolution failed, and the legislature fell into a stalemate. Under pressure from public Wake Society demonstrations and a deadline to respond to the SSO phosgraph, Internationalist delegates endorsed the war resolution. Kogane officially declared war on Stolmont in the early hours of 2.30 and tasked the Coastal Defense Service with breaking the blockade.

Green Triangle Division covert evacuation plot

While observing the preparations of the CDS, Motoshige Kita realized that Kogane did not have enough heavy warships to break the blockade by brute force. He tried to convince CDS admirals of this, but failed when he was unable to explain his estimates (from Green Triangle operatives in Stolmont) of the strength of the SSO naval force. Fearing for the citizens of Delsin Station, Kita and the GTD began an unauthorized evacuation campaign.

Using their positions within the CDS and access to harbor registries, GTD officers requisitioned two patrol ships under false manifests. The ships were repainted to resemble lighthouse and quay repair service vessels based in Delsin Station and fitted with rewired signal lamps and shutters. The Division’s plan relied on mimicking maintenance traffic, which in Delsin frequently occured at all hours of the night. The requisitioned ships reached Delsin during a new moon on the night of 3.1. The first, commanded by Captain Aoba, was lit by the SSO Orchid, whose officers noticed that the crew of the Sable seemed surprised to see the ship so far out and ordered it to be boarded. Aoba successfully convinced the SSO marines that he was returning from lighthouse maintenance, but was ordered to stay in Delsin Station until the blockade was lifted.

The second ship was piloted by Che Mizu, a seaweed farmer originally from Delsin. She successfully rescued 70 people from Delsin without incident and returned towards Delsin Station for a second run. On approach, she was intercepted by the cutter SSO Lilac and ran aground attempting to evade. She was captured along with her crew and interrogated. Refusing to reveal the existence of the Green Triangle Division, she told the SSO that she was acting on behalf of the Kogane government.

CDS naval operations

The first attempt to break the cordon in late 228 saw six CDS gunboats attack an SSO patrol, consisting of the SSO Daffodil and SSO Aster, just south of the Delsin Station under heavy fog. The CDS Cape Minaro fired first, punching a hole in the Aster’s port side. The Daffodil responded, cutting down the Cape Minaro’s foremast and disabling its steering linkage. The Daffodil moved in to board but the SSO marines were forced back by concentrated airgun fire from the Cape Minaro’s crew. The Aster withdrew north. The CDS gunboats surrounded the Daffodil, and a shot from the CDS Yorimatsu struck a pressurized magazine causing a catastrophic explosion. The Daffodil sank with all hands. The CDS fleet withdrew with the Cape Minaro in tow.

Expecting the SSO to maintain a consistent perimeter around the harbor entrance, the CDS then massed escorts and auxiliaries to the north of Delsin in preparation for an attack. In the second week of 229, the SSO extended patrols beyond the expected radius. The patrol pair SSO Camellia and SSO Mallow discovered the armada shortly after dawn. Camellia opened long-range fire to force dispersion while Mallow returned to the blockade line for reinforcements. The CDS convoy broke apart and attempted to overwhelm the Camellia. Camellia was joined by two fast attack cutters and the CDS fleet turned back under heavy fire. Two repurposed seaweed trawlers and the gunboat CDS Hoshin Valley were destroyed. This episode ended plans to mass large attacks and forced the CDS to shift tactics.

Through late 229 and early 230, the CDS attempted surprise attacks during new moons and inclement weather with one or two small boats. The SSO relied on searchlights and visual identification to detect these and to tell them apart from civilian vessels. In one notable engagement, the CDS Kuro Bay reached within pistol range of the SSO Begonia and threw overpressured flash vials onto her deck. The Begonia was set alight and burned to the waterline.

Despite some successful operations, Kogane’s logistics were strained. Repair yards reported shortages of everything from propeller blades to pressure vessels, and crews balked at repeated sorties in low-visibility conditions against a clearly superior enemy. The SSO, for its part, shifted from consistent patrol routes to layered zones reaching well away from Delsin, supported by searchlight balloons and fast attack craft.

Mediation attempts by lighthouse and port guilds

The lighthouse and port guilds are professional societies of lighthouse keepers, harbor pilots, and dockworkers organized under Stolmont law. They elect delegates to the House of Isles, a specialized political body that must assent to laws and emergency measures governing maritime operations. Historically, the House has a reputation as a neutral proponent of civilian well-being even during times of conflict. In 230.11, the Delsin Municipal Council petitioned the House to request a mechanism for inspected maritime deliveries, noting that overland routes kept the city fed but could not sustain commercial activity or heavy cargo.

On 230.11.28, the House convened aboard the Stolmont federal ship Pickett in the Delsin Station harbor. Present along with the usual delegates were the SSO Chief of Operations in Territorial Waters Commander Elise Parmentier, a staff legal officer, and the Mayor and Senior Port Warden of Delsin. The municipal representatives proposed that a civilian commercial corridor be established through the blockade carrying only approved bulk goods and exports. The House of Isles supported the plan, Commander Parmentier assented provided that SSO marines be allowed to board transiting ships at will and without resistance to verify cargo and crew manifests.

That afternoon, the House of Isles issued a notice establishing the corridor and detailing allowed convoy times, escort rendezvous positions, and SSO boarding procedures. The same notice was phosgraphed to the Kogane Ministry of Foreign Correspondence and the headquarters of the Nine Knot Line. Wake Society publications denounced the scheme as the normalization of unlawful maritime passage restrictions, and urged captains to reject SSO escorts and boarding. The Nine Knot Line declined to participate, worried that a rogue captain refusing a search might lead to innocent lives lost.

The first commercial convoy from Stolmont departed on 230.3.5 and reached Delsin Station without incident. Sailors representing the House of Isles crewed the lead ship of each convoy. The corridor eased shortages in Delsin and undercut the Wake Society’s central narrative that Stolmont had launched an unprovoked war and was prosecuting it by laying siege to an overseas Kogane territory. The visibility of relief, refusal of the Nine Knot Line to provide it, and continued CDS setback eroded domestic support for the war and strengthened attempts in the cabinet to agree to seek peace.

Surrender

The war concluded with the signing of the Instrument of Delsin on 231.02.04 aboard the Stolmont federal ship Pickett at anchor off Delsin Station. Commodore Annika Hoffstaedter signed for Stolmont. Minister Naomichi Suda, acting political chief of the CDS, signed for Kogane. The Instrument reflected and formalized de facto developments. After nearly two years of blockade skirmishes, the establishment of the inspected relief system in late 230 had stabilized maritime traffic, blunted claims of a starvation siege, and made clear that Kogane could not reassert naval protection over Delsin. In 230.10, the Delsin Municipal Council had petitioned the House of Isles to assist in regularizing port governance under Stolmont control, citing insurance blacklists, conflicting passage laws, and dependence on SSO protection from piracy. The House was unable to act on the petition, but it was used as the basis for negotiation of the terms of surrender.

The Instrument’s principal effect was to transfer administrative control of Delsin to Stolmont as an overseas territory under Stolmont law. In exchange, Kogane received guaranteed rights of repatriation for its citizens (many of whom chose to stay in Delsin Station), a permanent envoy office in Tesser, and the Stolmont assumption of certain Delsin municipal debts. Other articles required an immediate cessation of hostilities and the convening of a joint panel to review the Lantong Plaza incident.

Aftermath

The panel concluded that the Lantong incident arose from misapprehension during an illegal political stunt, and that arms trafficking to Delsin had been conducted by Wake-aligned networks throughout the CDS with assistance from officers acting outside the CDS chain of command.

In Kogane, the public unraveling of Wake clandestine operations and subsequent trials precipitated the Envoy Period. Overseas diplomatic missions were withdrawn, ports were closed to foreign ships, and embassy properties abroad were transferred to royal-house firms chartered as envoys. The Ministry of Foreign Correspondence was effectively shuttered, with foreign affairs becoming the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Exterior Houses. The Nine Knot Line was confined to domestic routes and eventually went bankrupt.

Initially, Stolmont administered Delsin under the same maritime, customs, and legal codes in effect in its Mirid territories, with the SSO exercising direct port authority. This regime of standardized manifests and tariff classes, fixed lighthouse dues, and strict registry requirements proved ill-suited to a port economy built on rapid transshipment and at times legally gray brokerage. Smuggling was rampant, and the SSO was generally seen as a foreign force committing violent overpolicing. Trade was re-routed overland to neighboring ports in Arkand and Monnais when possible, triggering layoffs and dockworker strikes. A Stolmont parliamentary commission in 259 concluded that continued direct administration would entrench decline. In response, the assembly enacted the Delsin Autonomy Ordinance of 261, renaming the territory to the “Free Republic of Delsin” and designating it as a special overseas region with vast local autonomy.