Fractured Isles
The Fractured Isles are a province of the Triamic Empire. They are an archipelago off the northwest coast that are known for piracy, fishing, piracy, port towns, and piracy.
I'm safe as a pirate in the Fractured Isles.
Geography
The Isles are an archipelago of small islands. The islands themselves are temperate and usually fairly hilly, with a number of craggy regions. The Isles are known to be gloomy and rainy year-round, though the northern isles also see sleet and snow during winter.Structure
The Fractured Isles are currently considered a series of independent city-states. Functionally, they are a collection of free ports, though each port town has in turn been given official domain over the island (or part of the island, in the case of shared islands) that they sit upon. This domain is rarely, if ever, exercised, leaving the herder communities that tend to inhabit the centers of the islands to their own devices.
History
The Fractured Isles were once called the Free Islands by sailors--a series of uninhabited islands where anything went. Sailors from the Kaelic Coast and Anolic region often stopped in the Isles to do repairs, hold clandestine meetings, or simply to stretch their legs. No one is sure when the first port town sprung up in service of the vessels that passed through, but common wisdom is that the first building was almost certainly a brothel.
The Free Ports
Prior to the 500s BEC, the islands became known as the Free Ports--a collection of independently governed towns that subsisted off fishing and serving the sailors who passed through the Sea of Echoes. Your sail get torn in the last storm? Take a cannon ball to the hull? Just need a pint and some companionship after a month at sea? The Free Ports will have what you need!
Lumina's North Islands - 530-160 BEC
In 533 BEC, the Great Plague devastated the population of the Free Ports. The Kaelic Temple sent healers to the ports, though they were spread a bit too thin to effectively heal all towns, leaving some of the smaller ones to completely wither away (many of which remain as ruins to this day, which is why many sailors call the Sea of Echoes the "Sea of Ghosts.")
In the wake of the plague, Lumina was founded by gathering all interested communities in the region under the rule of the Kaelic Temple. The Free Ports generally accepted Lumina's protection, and those that didn't were easily overtaken in the following few years (since few of them had their own navy). The islands were labeled as the North Islands region by Lumina.
Lumina helped build some infrastructure on and between the islands (though they were too busy building up their mainland infrastructure to pay too much attention to the North Islands). Increased travel between the North Islands and mainland Lumina bolstered the towns and meant farmers and herders started settling on the interiors of the islands.
In 160 BEC, mainland Lumina experienced a civil war that spread out into the North Islands. The Islands were ravaged by navies from both sides of the civil war. When the Anolic region was released from Lumina control, the North Islands went with them.
Fractured Isles - 160 BEC - 132 EC
Following the civil war, the islands were left to fend for themselves. The larger islands battled one another over sovereignty of the waters and smaller islands (earning them the moniker "Fractured Isles" by outsiders). This in turn meant that outside traffic avoided the Isles, exacerbating the isolation. A few of the islands allied with coastal Anolic Kingdoms.
Shaali Occupation - 132 - 145 EC
During the Black Powder War, Shaal landed in the isles and easily took over with their superior technology and coordination. The islands' Anolic allies attempted to defend them, but failed.
From that point forward, the Isles were used as the launching point of the Shaali northern front against Lumina and the Anolic Kingdoms.
The Manea Pact and Triamic Annexation - 145 EC
The Black Powder War ended in 145 EC with the Manea Pact. As part of the Pact, the Fractured Isles were annexed into the Triamic Empire as part of the official terms laid out for the Anolic States, which had joined over the course of the war.
However, while the Empire focused on restoring the Dusk Isles--the other territory occupied by Shaal throughout the war--the Fractured Isles were given little assistance. This is in large part due to their inability to pick any single governing body or even head of state, which in turn meant that they had no one with the authority to advocate on their behalf to the Emperor or Triam.
Thus, the Isles reverted to their system of acting as free, independent ports that only nominally follow the laws of the distant Emperor.
"The only reason the Fractured Isles joined the Empire was to shield against outside threats, and the only reason we bother to keep them is because it gives us leave to use our navy to clear out the rats that tend to nest there."
Demography and Population
The citizens of the Fractured Isles are primarily Imperials who follow the Kaelic Temple (though many areas take a looser or more casual interpretation of Temple tenets than seen elsewhere).
The population is primarily congregated into the port towns. Inland, one encounters pastures and tuber fields and the occasional village, but there is very little oversight of these regions, to the point where most inlander communities don't even pay taxes.
Crime and Piracy
The Fractured Isles has a reputation for being a haven for criminals. Part of this is due to the lack of oversight. The rest is due to how many islands and ruined towns have no claim staked on them whatsoever, leading to a number of towns that have been built up entirely without Imperial knowledge (called "Ghost Towns" by the pirates who frequent them). It is said these Ghost Towns are explicitly funded by pirate raids on the Kaelic Coast.
Even in the legitimate ports, it is the common wisdom is that any given government official is an ex-felon. Seedy deals abound. As most towns in the Isles are relatively poor, they won't be raided by pirates... but they may find themselves hosting pirates, and that is rarely good for public health and safety.
There is a figure known as The Pirate Queen who is seen as a folk hero in the isles. Her existence is unconfirmed.
Type
Geopolitical, Province
Demonym
Fractured
Parent Organization
Location
Related Ethnicities
The Triamic Empire
Artist's rendition of the legendary Pirate Queen
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