Salovia: Difference between revisions

Though Tsivikhli was the first settlement to establish a long-term presence in Arcturia, the settlement's location proved too hostile to any permanent settlement efforts, with a boreal climate and shallow soil insufficient for growing crops or feeding livestock. As such, the settlement was quickly abandoned with the settlers opting to return to Aurora. A few years in 1299, after the failed Tsivikhli settlement, [[Orik Oluvioni]], son to mapmaker [[Davit Oluvioni]], headed the Lamaz Voyage, made up of a fleet of five [[w:Caravel|p'anviri's]]. This voyage made landfall on the southern coast of the modern-day [[Kéya|Kéyais]] island of Tempête-Éternelle. The port that was formed on this island was called Lamazip'ort'isi, literally translating to "beautiful port," and it would serve as Salovia's primary Arcturian colonial settlement for the next half century before it, along with the other major settlements at the time, fell under siege by the [[Kormistazm|Kormistazic Empire]] in the War of Tsivinap'iro. This conflict forced the roughly 3,500 surviving settlers to flee northwards, towards any settlements that would accept them. As they sailed north, coastal Kormistazic settlements found in modern-day [[Quariin]] refused them, until they eventually were allowed to land in Finica, the northernmost settlement of Kormistazm. There, the Salovian settlers were coerced into signing a treaty of surrender, known as the Treaty of Finica. The treaty laid out that the settlers would be allowed to live in Finica under the condition that the Salovian settlers pay off the debts of the war in which they had fought in the form of manual labor, namely farming and mining. This arrangement effectively made the Salovian settlers indentured servants to the town of Finica until they paid off their debts.

News of the battle between the settlers and the Kormistazic Empire eventually reached Salovia a few months after the war took place. Though it was unknown to Salovia at the time of the settlers' eventual fate, it was assumed by Salovian leadership that the settlers had been massacred when the ports were taken over. Thus, the Vach'ari guildmembers in the Boliari adamantly pushed for Salovia to use this as justification for war with Kormistazm. Queen Beatrice however refused to threaten the stability of the fledgling colonies of the southern Packilvanian Ocean, and declined to wage war against Kormistazm. In spite of the Queen's word, a fleet of Vach'ari merchant ships were secretly retrofitted for war and embarked for Arcturia towards Tempête-Éternelle, where the settlers were reported to have been massacred, the goal of the embarkment being retaliation. Before the fleet could arrive and wage war, a large storm prevented them from making landfall and the ships were forced to land further north. The Vach'ari ships were dilapidated and beyond the scope of routine repairs, and as such were forced to establish themselves in the bay in which they made landfall. By 1395, the refuge for the Vach'ari guildmembers had been converted into the port city of Svelisi, near modern-day Saniagua on the Puntalian coast.

The existence of Svelisi reached Salovia shortly after the settlement was established, and soon Salovians seeking adventure and wealth sailed in large numbers to the Puntalian coast. As the settlement grew into a more productive operation, Svelisi began exporting cash crops like coffee, cotton, and cannabis in an effort to amass wealth. The demand for these three crops increased rapidly overseas in Aurora, resulting in a need for a larger workforce. At first, Salovian settlers had been employed to make up for this, but Orev Posol, a young entrepreneur looking to expand business for the monarchy, introduced the concept of indebted servitude, offering employees to-be places to live in exchange for manhours. This increased his operation's wealth significantly, but the workforce was still too small to make up for the demand in Aurora. As a result a number of armed settlers of Svelisi conducted a series of raids on the Impelanzan populations native to the region to capture and enslave them into forced labor, at the chagrin of the Kingdom of Puntalia, the primary victim of these raids. A successor kingdom to the Impelanzan Empire, the Kingdom of Puntalia considered itself a "Guardian of Her Legacy," a [[Tunseism|Tunseist]] title meant to express a nation's prestige. These raids were seen as a blow to that reputation, and as such the Puntalians sent an ultimatum to the Salovian monarchy, demanding a cease to the intrusive acts done by the settlers. The king at the time, Lerin XIX, refused to back down to this demand, and as such amassed a bulk of the royal fleet to protect the colonial settlements. The fleet of Salovians were met with the militaries of Puntalia and Arsal (who came to the aid of the militarily weaker Puntalia) in 1402, which began a series of battles and sieges that have come to be known as the [[Salovian-Puntalian War]]. As the conflict wore on, it had morphed from a war of Salovia to conquer Puntalia into a war between Arsal and Salovia, as the land of Puntalia became a warzone between the two large powers. As a result, Puntalia as a structured kingdom fell into disarray and anarchy from the war, becoming a shell of its former self. The militaries of Salovia and Arsal subsequently became the foundational structure of the kingdom's successor. The war had cost both the Salovian and Arsalic militaries significantly, but Salovian King Lerin XIX refused to try for or accept peace with Arsalic Commonwealth. This opinion was shifted rapidly in 1408 when Lerin XIX was usurped by Æris I, the first elven king since the Elven Age. In an attempt to consolidate power and return resources back to Salovia to protect his claim to the throne, Æris I offered Antares XI, the leader of the Arsalic Commonwealth at the time, a proposal to partition the remnants of the Puntalian kingdom into two new possessions held by Salovia to the east and Arsal to the west. Known as the [[Treaty of Nevez]], it established a border between the two powers and also ensured neither power would interfere in each other's affairs moving forward.

With Puntalia secured through the Treaty of Nevez, Æris I, along with the Boliari, focused his attention towards smaller possessions, directing the Salovian navy to capture and conquer a series of islands between Puntalia and Tivot in an effort to secure a direct route into the core of Salovia. This route became the western backbone of Salovia's overseas infrastructure, connecting the nation to Borea and Yasteria through Puerto Florosa and [[Tortuga#Plantation Era|Tortuga]].