Coastal Republics
The Merchant Republics
Wedged between mountains to their north and the sea to the other three sides, the Coastal Republics have a geographically small footprint but represent a major economic power. This power comes from their long history as seafaring merchants, and with it finely crafted goods, and mercantile skill. This long focus on trade has brought great wealth to the surprisingly large cities of the Coastal. Using this wealth to support their population, and disproptionately large military.
With five major cities and many smaller towns villages dotted around the highly developed nation, the republics are home to contunially shifting political alliances, which determin the standing of each major city at level of the republic. These alliances are rarely come to blows as their intrests are so heavily intertwined. On the few occasions that the ruling families have come into direct conflict, the fighting has been carried out with mercinaries more as shows of power than actual war. With expecitonal skill for cut throat politics, and mercantile endevors the Coastal have leveraged their position to control much of the south sea, with lucrative trade and shipping deals with the other nations. As such the Coastal Republics are responsible for most sea fairing trade and defense of the south sea, with the Atherans in particular relying heavily on their fleets.
Structure
Legislative Body
Coastal Senate
The Coastal Republics are governed by the Senate, a body made up of representitives from each of the constituant Republics. Each Republic putting forward five Senators, for a total of twenty-five. There is an additional memeber of the Senate which presides over the Senate and ensures proceedure is followed.
The Senate is responsible for establishing law and policy on matters of national import. Such issues as trade policy, taxes and tariffs, deployment of the military. There are some more small scale laws which are established by the Senate, however the specifics of criminal law is left to the constituant Republics to establish independently within certain frame works.
History
Founding and The First Alliance
The first major settlement to grow after the Shattering was an inland city, initially very small. As refugees, and the demand for lumber and food increased the inland city became a regional power with many moving there for oppritunity and stability. What were small fishing villages began to grow as well, becoming trade hubs, exchanging their catch for many goods from the inland towns. So power began to concentrate on these sources of industry and stability. Over the course of decades the inland city became far large than the others. However it was raids and attacks by the Gothics from across the mountains which kept their focus away from the ever growwing coastal cities. These Coastal trade hubs slowly out paced the hard fought inland city and the cultural focus began to shfit towards mercantilism.
As the inland city struggled against the Gothic invaders, they sent word to the other cities of the Coastal. They requested aid in facing their enemy, a request that most of the other cities obliged. This formed the first alliance of the Coastal Republics, and the fledgling alliance mustered a force to invade the bordering Gothic Kingdoms. These combined military forces were more than the disperate Gothic Kingdoms could hold back and the Republics captured several cities and a wide swath of the Southern Gothic lands.
With this success, a couple territorial governors were put in place, supported by small detachments of soldiers from the various Republics to oversee this new region. The Coastal Republics quickly expanded their trade network to include the resources secured in this newly conquored land, and expanded their markets to these new people as well. Although a profitable endveavor for the Republics, the alliance quickly broke apart after compeltion of the campaign and the Republics resumed their infighting.
Occupation of Corsyra
With their northern border now secured, the attentions of the Coastal Republics turned back to the sea and their trade partners across the water. Seeking to expand the power of their growwing trade empire they looked to the small island kingdom of Corsyra -Nation- as another viable target to expand too. With its relatively low population, and position between the Southrald, Athera, and Blackbrook it would serve as an exceptionally valuable staging area and trade hub. The call was put out to muster a second alliance of the Republics, and a small fleet and army was put together to occupy the island. All totalled up a force of two thousand soldiers set sail for Corsyra. These soldiers bore shields of mirrior polished shields, and would come to be called the Silver Shields. The nation of Corsyra had dwindled in population over the last centuries and as such was unable to must any large force to face the Silver Shields, who quickly seized control of the majority of the island. Within the first two weeks of their occupation all but the eastern city of Marsa, and the mountain top stronghold had fallen under the control of the Silver Shields. Dividing their force, a third of the Silver Shields began the siege of the citidel, while the rest of the army moved against Marsa. Without the leadership of their King, the small garrison of the city was quickly overwhelmed and surrendered the city to the Silver Shields. With all other stratigic objectives accomplished, the Silver Shields regrouped and started the siege of the Citidel with serious intent. It would not be long before the King of Corsyra would surrender, and lordship of the Corsyra would fall to the Lord Commander of the Silver Shields.
As the military governor of Corsyra the Lord Commander of the Silver Shields ruled the island with around five hundred of his Shields staying on the island with him, while the others returned to their home Republics. The Lord Commander would opperate Corsyra as a provincial territory of the Republics, and oversee the development of the western city of Bandar into a stronghold capital of the island nation. This new trade hub would prove incredibly profitable, and with the support of the Republics an extremely stable port in the middle of the Sea.
Unification of the Republics
With their objectives completed and Corsyra under the control of the Coastal, the Second Alliance quickly fractured and the Republics again returned to their infighting. The brief peace having held for only four years. As tensions built among the Republics, word made its way to Corsyra and the Lord Commander. Knowwing that his occupation was dependent on the stability and unity of the Republics as was the continued hold on the old Gothic conquests the Lord Commander assembled what was left of his Silver Shields and returned for the Coastal. Once he arrived he sent word to all the prior memebers of the Silver Shields requesting that they return to his service once again. To his surprise all of the former Silver Shields answered his call, but many brought others with them, and what had been a force of two thousand was now well over twice that size. With his force assembled he marched on the Republics one after another, demanding that they each conceed, and accept his terms. Most agreed without bloodshed having seen the size of his force and knowwing his reputation. Those who resisted were quickly brought to kneel, with swift action of the vetern soldiers of the Silver Shields.
With all the Republics now brought before him he had the Pact of Shields drafted. Forcing each of the Republics to sign this accord and bringing final unity to the contensous republics. The Pact of Shields established a senate from which to govern all republics, with the senators being selected from the oligarchs of each city-state. Additionally, the Pact of Shields established the Silver Shields as a permanet organization, which would serve to hold the nation together. With memebers being selected from the most elite soldiers each Republic had, no Republic would be able to attack another with out retaliation from the others. With this mutual protection the powers of the Republic would be held in check.
The effects of the Pact of Shields were immediately apparent, the prosperity provided by the stability of the last five years continued to grow. This allowed more and more craftsmen to focus on economic prusits, further expanding the Coastal's economic dominance over the south sea. During this time as well the population of Corsyra began to boom as well, further expanding their economic power base.
The Gothic Wars
During the time of Coastal unification, the Gothic kings of the north would eye their lost territory, and started a series of incursions into the Coastal territories. Although met by the local governors, with assistance of the Silver Shields the Gothics would make slow headway against the Coastal defenders. Between a population which welcomed their own kin, and the sheer numbers the gothics could commit to the wars the Coastal would have great difficulty holding back the tide of invaders. Loosing territory slowly over several decades. The man power demands that this continual fighting would put on the Coastal Republics would also pull soldiers and supplies from the occupation of Corsyra, thus weakening their hold on the island.
During this time unrest began to develop on the island of Corsyra, with many of the old noble houses growwing emboldened by the decreased garrison of the island. Although the Lord Commander still governed the island and did what he could to maintain stability, he would often find himself pulled away to lead his Silver Shields against the Gothics. Upon returning he would find the progress he had made undone in his absence.
For several decades the Republics held on to their territory successfully, but at the turn of the sixth decade of continual war, the grasp on the gothic territories began to faulter. With the death of the Lord Commander five years prior and the renewwed agression of the Gothic Kings territory began to quickly fall to the Gothics. Over the course of the next fourty years the armies of the Coastal would slowly be driven back to the mountain passes, where they would fortify in and hold as their borders for the forseeable future.
The Corsyran Uprising
With this focus being pulled from Corsyra to face the Gothics a rebellion began to form in Corsyra. A whisper at first, but embers quickly errupted into full scale revolt. With their forces over extended the Coastal Republics were not able to fight campaigns on two fronts, and as they lost ever increasing swaths of territory to the Gothics, their grip too faultered on Corsyra. With the limited resources availbe the sitting governor of Corsyra did what they could to face this growing rebellion, but most efforts seemed to only worsen the growing rebellion.
Recognizing that the Republics lacked the resources to combat this growwing rebelion, the Governor struck an agreement with the leaders of the rebellion. Rule of Corsyra would be returned to her people, but the Kingdom would remain a client state of the Coastal Republics. This new agreement served both parties initially, but the feelings of independence continued to build in Corsyra. After thirty years of client status the new King of Corsyra renounced this deal, sparking a token naval war between the two states. It was decided shortly that it was not worth the on going cost to continue the conflict so the Republics recognized the independence of Corsyra.
The Watchful Peace
The era of watchful peace came after relquishing control of Corsyra and the loss of the Gothic territories. This period saw ever growwing expansions of the Republics trade routes, and small trade outposts in Blackbrook, as well as large scale fortifications of the passes. The army of the Coastal Republics and the Silver Shields would fight as mercinaries on a number of occasions over the centuries of major peace. This peace only inturpted by brief incursions from the Gothics, met with the stalwart defense of the Silver Shields. During the watchful peace no Gothic warband ever reached the far side of the mountains.
It was during this time which the Sea Raiders and Gothics slowly began to unite under a Sea Raider king. With this change in political climate the Coastal Republics became more guarded, although seeing even few raids than before they felt as though an organized invasion may follow should the two states fully unite. So it came as a sigh of relief when the Sea Raider King was unexpectedly assassinated, and his alliances fractured. With rule passing to his young son the Republics assumed this threat was in the past. However when the young king made strides in reuniting these alliances, and began fighting to further unite the dispirate raider states the Coastal looked to their old ally in Athera for support.
Atheran/Coastal Invasion of the Gothics
Knowing that war was invevitable between this growing power and the small Republics, the Coastal looked to Athera to strike first. Led by the Silver Shields the Coastal armies marched to war along side the Atheran Legion. The two forces moved forward from each of their borders and quickly pushed to link forces. With a large portion of the local gothic forces conscripted by the young king of the Sea raiders and fighting the Khan in the west, there was little opposition to the initial march. The combined forces siezed several cities, and large swaths of the country side in the first few weeks of the campaign. It was then when the young king caught wind of the invasion and marshalled his force to counter this advance. This however forced him to abandon his campaign against the weakened Khan, who quickly took the oppritunty to strength his positions and muster a new army.
Now pressured from east and west the young king felt cornered and moved agressively to stem the bleeding. Taking the vast majority of his forces he moved against the advancing coalition, meeting them in the field for the first time. This first battle was a major failure for the young king. He had fought few battles against such professional armies as that of the Coastal and Atherans, and when his armies reached the field disorganized and fatigued they were quickly broken. Retreating further into Gothic territory the young king rallied more forces from the Gothic kingdoms and readied for the next fight. This next battle would come only two weeks later when they met on the field of battle at the edge of a great forest. The battle began late in the day, fighting until just before dusk. As the poor light drew the days fighting to a close and each side collected their dead a parlay was called. The Atheran Marshal and the Young King faced in single combat, and the victory of the Marshal decided the war.
With the Young Kings army in retreat and dissary they fled back west to counter the advance of the Khan. Leaving a large section of former Gothic territory under the control of the Atherans. The Coastal were happy to leave this territory under their administration having already fought long to control these lands in the past. Additionally the Coastal hoped that by not having direct control of this territory would leave them out of any coming wars with the Gothics. To the Republics having this large buffer territory controlled by a powerful ally between them and an old enemy was the ideal outcome.
Current Era
At the start of the Current Era, the Coastal Republics have continued to carry on as they had throughout much of the Watchful Peace. It has been in more recent years with the escelation of conflicts between the Raiders and Athera which the Coastal have taken notice. They have made initial efforts to strength and repair damaged innfrustructure and fortifications along their borders while simultaniously expanding the size of their army. Although not officially recognizing any major threat, the oligarchs have been making ready for the coming storm behind closed doors.Military
As a smaller state the Oligarchies of the Coastal have a smaller population base than many of their larger neighbors. However the rivaling states, and aggressive northern gothics have led to a larger then expected standing military. This military is responsible for the security of the nations borders, and their many trade routes. Serving as infantry or in the largest force of trained marines.
The soldiers of the Coastal Oligarchies are primarily made up of heavy infantry, these soldiers carry broad shields and wield long pikes. Braced against a notch in their shields, they wield these long weapons in thight formation to hold the narrow passes that make up their northern border. With visored barbute helmets, and various types of heavy armor, the hoplites of the Coastal States is forbidable in the mountain passes and when able to hold a position. They do however risk being out manuvered by armies fielding large amounts of cavalry. Beyond just massed infantry, they do have a large corps of heavy crossbowman. Soldiers who wield powerful weapons piercing all but the most robust of armor. Although not the focus of their military doctirine they do also employ a small force of cavalry for scouting, and running down their enemies.
At sea, the marines retain their heavy armor but trade out their pike for shorter bording weapons. Weapons like the hacking falcata, or short cut and thrust swords are particularly popular among the marines and mercinaries of the coastal force. It is here on the seas which these heavy crossbows are particularly useful with their exceptional range and power.
The Silver Shields
The Silver Shields are a particularly elite band of soldiers, made up of the best each city-state can field. These professional warriors serve as mercinaries during peace time, and the first line of defense for the Coastal during times of war. Immediately recognizeable by the silver mirrored polish their shields carry, these warriors make up the center of the Coastal lines and back bone of their military. They are a small oraganization, ranging between fifteen-hundred and two thousand members. The Silver Shields date back to the first occupation of Corsyra, which they made up the entire invasion force of. They have served in every major and minor conflict in Coastal history since, and as mercinaries many of the conflicts of Athera as well.Foreign Relations
Athera
The oldest relationship of the Coastal Republics is that between them and Athera. These relationships predate even the unification of Athera and the Republics themselves. Having sailed along the the coastline, the early Coastal Republics traded heavily with southern Athera, particularly those of Cal-Cambra. It is through the wealth gained by both early states which helped push them forward towards unity. The two have joined together in many wars throughout history, with mercinaries from the Coastal Republics joining Cal-Cambra in many wars, and the Legion in more recent conflicts against the Raider States. Now the two have developed such a cooperative relationship that the Atheran's have largely allowed the Republics control over the south sea, and share many trade ports along the coast and edges of Blackbrook.
Corsyra
A more strained relationship, the people of Corsyra still hold some resentments towards the Coastal for their former occupations but their dependance on one another for trade has led that to be mostly left in the past. Now the two nations officially have a strong relationship, however in the shadows pirates of Corsyra harrass and challenge the Republics dominance of the South Sea. This has led to proxy wars fought by the "Pirate King" against the Coastal, using his fleets of privateers to undermine the Coastal. While this has led to a cold war of sorts with heavily armed ships of the Coastal Republics skirmishing with these privateers and pirates.
Southrald
As a major market and trade partner, the Southrald and Coastal Republics have strong economic ties. Although little cultural or political history the two have exchanged goods for centuries, and will join together in naval conflicts against the pirates of Corsyra. They do have competeing political intrests in Blackbrook, and for influence over the people of Corsyra.
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