Operation Delveran Shield

Operation Delveran Shield was a movement within Lavrasia, and later West Springfield/Wilson Hills and the North American Confederation, with the goal of securing the future well-being of the Delveran state. While initially making some progress, the operation eventually failed to achieve most of its stated aims.

Initiatives
After the success of Operation Delveran Storm in July 2018, prominent members of that movement set about planning to secure the Delveran political environment so that such a campaign would not be necessary again in the near future. These plans took the form of two subsidiary initiatives: Operation Nacki Freedom and the Territorial Nation Building Project.

Operation Nacki Freedom
Operation Nacki Freedom was a planned citizen recruitment drive for the North American Confederation aimed at increasing diversity of thought within the new province (“Nacki” was a proposed demonym for citizens of the NAC). The hope was that this move would galvanize the NAC and motivate new political and cultural developments in what seemed to be an inactive and stagnant region of Delvera. This initiative saw very little success, with the organizers only able to draw one or two new citizens to the NAC, none of which became very politically vocal or active.

Territorial Nation Building Project
The Territorial Nation Building Project aimed to create and build up territories under Lavrasia’s auspices until they could apply for provincehood, ideally by the end of 2019. This initially included Heremus and Naligtas, but was expanded to encompass the new province of West Springfield and its territory of Volusia. Though the project made more headway than its counterpart, seeing the expansion of Heremus to three citizens (the minimum required for a province), the establishment of Naligtas in September 2018, the admission of West Springfield into Delvera as a province in November 2018, and the creation of Volusia in January 2019, it too ultimately failed. Of the four target regions, only West Springfield (later Wilson Hills) attained provincehood, and it barely maintained an active citizenry for just over a year before collapsing in February 2020, with Volusia following soon after. Heremus and Naligtas had already fallen into activity and had been dissolved in September 2019.

Aftermath
The movement was the last great expansion of Delvera during the Republican era, and its failure meant that it was only a matter of time before inactivity and demographic decline set in. Ironically, whereas participants in Operation Delveran Storm regretted the success of that operation, many of the same individuals regretted the failure of Operation Delveran Shield. Members of the movement went on to form the Province of Ozarkana, which later incorporated Neosho, in another attempt to maintain stability and governmental functionality.