Zelezny Zaliv

Government

The Teal Court

The Teal Court is the description of the government apparatus. It consists of the Admiralty, the ministries and the council of captains.

The Admirality

The Grand Admiral

The Grand Admiral rules the state and is the highest military commander. He is elected for a period of twelve years, after which he can run for reelection. His power is limited by the constitution of 1328, which strengthened both the ministries and council at the expense of the Grand Admiral. Before he was an absolute monarch, now he still is the leader of the state but can do little when the council and the ministries oppose him.
Once elected, a Grand Admiral serves for twelve years. Reelection is possible but unlikely, as it is viewed with much skepticism by council and ministries alike when the strongest man of the state tries to keep his power.

The Admiralties offices

As no man alone can rule a state, the Grand Admiral is supported by three offices. These inform him about the interior situation (The Grey Office), about the foreign situation (The Golden Office) and the military situation (The Blue office). Each is headed by a junior admiral. The work of the offices is purely informational and preparational, they cannot pass laws without the consent of the ministries and the council. They can, however, prepare laws for the Grand Admiral to bring before the other branches of government. They are also responsible for maintaining the good standing of the Grand Admiral, as to make sure that he is respected by society.
When the offices do a good job and keep the political machine oiled, the Grand Admiral is still able to work much like an absolute monarch, mostly because the other actors of the government cannot stand each other and will, albeit unwillingly, aid him if it hurts their enemy.

The ministries

The ministries exist in their current form since the constitution of 1328 was passed, albeit that it only served to formalize many of the rights and duties they held before. Today there are four ministries, separated into the ministry of the interior, ministry of finances, ministry of the navy, as well as the foreign ministry. Each ministry is headed by a minister, who is supported by two secretaries.
This structure is quite unusual for Meravia, as it is a strictly meritocratic system, with each organizational unit being responsible for one particular area, instead of nobles bickering for the right to influence government politics.
The ministries are almost empty of nobles, as working in the ministry is considered the work of a mindless bureaucrat, while a true hero would go out sailing the world. The only exception is the foreign ministry, which likes its diplomats to be of noble blood.

Cabinet of ministers

Even though the different ministers often follow different agendas, they regularly meet as the cabinet to coordinate and make sure that they remain in their position of power. Nomial chairman of the cabinet is the minister of the interior, the foreign minister is his replacement.

Ministry of the Interior

Responsible to uphold order and law, the ministry of the interior is the largest ministry of the state. It commands the small, but well-trained military of the island and is in control of the court system. It is also responsible to inform the public of the work of all ministries and answer any and all questions the public may have for the government.
The military also takes on police work, as the state itself is too small to maintain both an acceptably sized military and police.
A small part of the ministry is devoted to keeping an eye on magical occurrences.

Ministry of Finances

The beancounters of the government, as the name might imply the ministry of finance takes care of all financial matters. They regulate taxation and tariffs, they must allow any and all expenses of the Admiralty. Although all ministries are theoretically able to make their own budgets, the reality is not as kind. The ministry of finance effectively controls access to the treasury, as they are guarding it. Thus, they can force other ministries to accept their plans on how to allocate their budget.
The only exception to the rule is the ministry of the interior, as their armed forces would be capable to easily overwhelm the weaker guards of the ministry of finance. However, even the ministry of the interior normally heeds the words of the ministry of finance, as they require their unique expertise more often than not.

Ministry of the Navy

Whereas the other ministries have the power to influence the development of the state, the ministry of the navy is little more than a glorified relay post. Due to the peculiar structure of the navy, being headed by the council of captains, the ministry of the navy is mostly concerned with keeping logs of any and all occurrences within it and relaying information from the navy to other ministries.

Foreign ministry

The most prestigious ministry, the diplomats of the foreign ministry are busy to uphold the high opinion most other countries hold of the state and make sure that its interests are protected.
To this extent, most of them are not in the town itself, but in the many embassies and consulates dotted around the known world.

Council of Captains

The council of captains consists of two chambers, each consisting of six members. These are the closed and open chamber. They are the representatives of the state's navy, probably the most important part of its apparatus. In theory, they are bound to the admiralty by oath. In practice, they are too focused on their independence to take their oath too seriously. While they will always be there, when need by, no-one should expect them to be a helpful part of the governmental progress.

The closed Chamber

The captains of the closed chamber are those responsible for the safety of the harbor and the coast. Normally they are more easily convinced to cooperate, as they depend on supply from the island, which is controlled by the Admiralty and the ministries.
As there is little glory in patrolling the island's coast and guarding its harbor, as well as keeping order there, no captain of standing would ever associate themselves with the closed chamber. Thus, the captains there are either novices or those who failed to make a name for themselves. It comes as no surprise, that their voices are more often than not ignored.

The open Chamber

The captains of the open chamber are responsible for guarding the merchant vessels passing through the seas surrounding the island and searching neighboring islands for signs of pirates and smugglers. As both of these duties are considered honorable and are quite profitable, one can expect to find captains of grandstanding and power in the open chamber.
While there are exceptions, it can be safely assumed, that practically every member of the open chamber is either the scion of a noble house or a rich merchant. In either case, their word is likely one of weight, making the open chamber a powerful political force. They are mostly independent of the other players of the Teal court, as most of them have their own supply stations and even private island fortresses.
However, the members of the open chamber spend as much time fighting each other, as they do fighting the other branches. As such, competent Grand Admirals were always able to outplay the open chamber and make them serve the state.

Infrastructure

When compared to most other capitals, this colony is small, not even a proper town by the standard of most nations. However all roads are built with stone, the town has a working sewage system combined with the primitive trolly system which allows swift transport of goods throughout the city make it a marvel of civilization.
The most striking feature of the city's infrastructure are the extensive dockyards which are used to construct some of the best ships in the world and repair those damaged in the skirmishes with other powers trying to encroach on the territory of the state. In times of crisis, they can repair up to twenty warships which is more than any other harbor of comparable size.

History

A discovery of Iron

While the Grey Isle was known to sailors for a long time, no-one staid there for long, as it was a barren rock and there seemed to be nothing of value on it. This changed when in 1121 pirates sunk a cog nearby and some sailors managed to swim to the barren island. While earlier survivors of such tragedies had quickly perished due to a lack of food and drink, these sailors had managed to save enough rations to survive for a week or two. During this time they scouted an island, mostly for the lack of other activities and came upon an intricate cave system. They took refuge there and discovered an impressive deposit of iron, which was quite rare back then.
They were lucky and a ship came a few days later to look for survivors. The survivors vowed to return to this island with the goal to establish a permanent residence and mine the iron deposit. They had gathered enough resources to attempt to establish a colony in 1124, but it quickly failed due to supply issues. To solve this problem they had to find a backer with impressive wealth, who was willing to stomach a few losses on the way. They found him in infamous pirate captain Eduard Turek.
Dohnal himself agreed to fund this endeavor, in exchange for being provided a safe harbor, where he could sell his pirated goods and hide from the Richardians and Uphratians. Now supported by enough wealth to buy a fleet the sailors attempted to establish a second colony in 1131. This colony was quickly successful and the iron mine became profitable in 1136. The wealth and job opportunities quickly attracted more settlers, so that in 1141 the population had already grown to about 500 inhabitants. Their need to export the iron and import food and drink lead to a growth of the harbor, making it a popular stop for many trading vessels. It also made it popular with pirates who flocked there under the protection of Turek.

A Pirates Dream

In the 12th century, trade along the Grey Isle increased due to the prolonged peace between Richardia and Uphratus, making it a perfect hunting ground for pirates. Due to the protection, they enjoyed in Zelezny Zaliv more and more of them made it their permanent base of operations. So much so, that until the mid-1160s more than two-thirds of the residents were pirates. The once peaceful village became a pirate cove where anything was possible, as long as it did not infringe on the major pirates.
To say that this development was only negative for the village is questionable. The pirates guaranteed a constant influx of treasure, filling the large vaults built for exactly that purpose. To protect their investments, the pirates began to fortify the barren island building a massive wall to block off the bay and constructing multiple forts to oversee the surrounding sea.
Due to these developments, Zelezny Zaliv became a pirates haven, much to the disdain of anybody who had to travel near it and the original inhabitants. However, due to the massive and well-kept fortifications, not even the Richardians were willing to take the island by force, rather sending additional protection with their trade vessels.
During the reign of the pirates, the original village council had been disbanded by a council of pirates, who followed a policy of absolute freedom, as long as it didn't hurt them. Due to the unfavorable situation the original settlers found themselves in, they tried to find a way to get rid of the pirates.

An outside Intervention

The chance to permanently remove the pirates came when one of their emissaries came upon a representative of the Order of Justice. The Order was more than willing to exterminate a pirate cove, as they viewed it as their divine mission to purge criminals. In cooperation with the villagers, they began to smuggle soldiers of the order on the island. They hid inside the iron mines, waiting for an opportune moment to strike.
This moment came when Jara Turek returned from her biggest raid, having captured one of the famous Uphratian gold ships, which carried enough gold to make an entire crew rich beyond their wildest dreams. To celebrate the battle and plunder the pirates sang and drank for three days and nights. During the third night, the villagers and their allies decided to strike. As most pirates wear little to no armor, due to its inconvenience when fighting on the sea, they would have a hard time fighting against a fully armored soldier of the Order. However, at the dawn of the third night, not even the sea guard was able to stand straight. As such, the battle was short and decisive, with most of the pirates being captured and those who resisted were killed. As they were able to seize the gates of the great harbor walls they were also able to prevent the pirates from fleeing on their ships.
As the Order demanded, the surviving pirates were to be sentenced by their judges. And, as was custom, the judges decided that all who committed an act of piracy were to be executed. The bay turned red that day, for many pirates had been convicted.

A new Life

The death of the pirates was both a challenge and opportunity for the now liberated town. They had regained the control of their island without the assistance of any foreign power intent on seizing the island. Additionally, they now held command of one of the most formidable fleets in the region. They decided to use this to their advantage and establish themselves as an independent island nation. From this day onwards, they demanded that any ship passing through the surrounding sea should pay a fee to them. In return, they would use their fleet to keep the region safe from pirates.
To this day, the island nation of the Zelezny Zaliv is a pillar of the safe and continued travel of the surrounding sea.

Geography

Its center located in the Bay of Iron, the town covers almost the entirety of the island. The island itself is a small hill, measuring one hundred sixteen meters in its center. The ascent is relatively even, except for the northern side, where it ends in mighty cliffs, easily thirty meters high.
The only source of fresh water is the well-network which was dug by the first settlers.

Natural Resources

While the island is rich in ore, enough to supply entire states, it is barren of any other natural resources. Even the coal used to melt some of it on the island is imported.
The island is also barren of almost any vegetation, safe for a few strips of farmlands. Albeit, they were artificially created with imported soil, as to guarantee some semblance of self-sustainability. There are also animals who inhabit the island naturally, but a few sheep and cows were imported by the colonizers.

Alternative Name(s)

Pirates heaven

Type

Town

Population

19.400

Inhabitant Demonym

Zelezny

Related Tradition (Primary)

• Kamenà Ribka