Province of Koforum
A small yet by no means insignificant rock swaddled amongst the Gulf of Volarra and Ardanto Bay is home to a fiercely individualist and vibrant people. Kofora is a rocky island dominated by karst rock formations and steep coastal cliffs. When the Skyborn arrived and brought with them turmoil and conflict, a number of the cultures of the sands were forced to flee their homes in Borashta and settle on the unrelenting, brutal island. Over the years, they fended off against numerous attacks and raids from the mainland, and still remembering the atrocities committed against their people which forced them to flee, they developed a fiercely isolationist, albeit mercantile culture. Some of the people of the new cultures migrated to the island as well, for much the same reasons in fact, but they were heavily ostracised from society and distrusted.
History
For most of its history, the island was dominated by immensely powerful trading guilds. Even with an overwhelming culture of isolationism, the port cities of Covitar, Skalda, Lentra and Falditir all flourished, being the only areas open to foreign trade and to outsiders. The Kofarsi established a mercantile empire, setting up trading posts all along the Gulf of Volarra. For centuries, the island was prosperous and an alluring mirage for countless thousands seeking a better life. Some, though not very many, managed to sneak onto the island and make lives for themselves. Most of these lucky few were refugees from Borashta, fleeing Novosti persecution.
Eventually, after centuries of de facto mercantile confederate rule, one particularly powerful merchant family, known as the Kelsari, consolidated control over the island and its trading empire. They gradually opened up the island to foreigners, allowing hundreds of thousands of desperate Borashtans through the ports. They still maintained a very isolationist mindset, but let the desperate through nonetheless. The population influx led to a period of social division, but at the same time bolstered a previously anaemic workforce and led to a boom in Kofarsi shipbuilding and artisanship.
Initially during the Continental War, Seripha mostly ignored the island, occasionally making demands of them. However, in (PH) the Seriphanese puppet government of the Republic of Volarrash led a gruelling, costly and brutal invasion of the island. Ostensively, done to put an end to Kofarsi privateering and protect shipping, but in reality it was an attempt at ethnic cleansing. Indeed, once the island came under occupation, a dark period of mass executions and "disappearances" of the Borashtan population commenced. Only until Lavennic liberation did the full scale of the atrocities reveal themselves.
Comments