Yulemta Islands

Yulemta, officially the Yulemta Islands, is a county of the Republic of Skarhu, encompassing the entirety of the Yulemta Archipelago north of the continent. It is the most recent region to become a county of Skarhu, having been afforded that status in 365 AC.

History

The Yulemta Archipelago has been home to the Yulemto people for as long as written records show. Of all the people groups in the north of Abravost, they were the last to submit to the will of The Vosti Empire, who swept through the region in the 600s BC in the so called 'Vosti Conquest'. Even though the islands were managed by a Duke, appointed by the Emperor himself, they were so out of the way for the aqua-phobic Vosti that they were afforded a level of cultural autonomy by default for many years.
They were the worst hit group in The Collision, a divine event which altered Abravost forever, with many of their islands splitting apart and sinking beneath the waves. This forced them to rely more heavily on the mainland, inviting more imperial oversight and the hastened erosion of native Yulemto culture.
This changed after The Separation in 326 AC, which resulted in the loss of the Vosti Imperial Family to the other side of a Portal. When the mainland Empire descended into a vicious civil war in 330 AC, the Yulemta Islands sided with the northern rebels. In 332 AC, however, the Yulemto were met by Skarhan ambassadors, who informed them their land had been ceded to the Republic of Skarhu by the Empire. In an effort to keep the Yulemto peaceful, they were granted the status of Skarhan Protectorate and given huge amounts of autonomy, including the ability to continue fighting for the northern rebels so long as they did not fly a Skarhan flag.
While this state of affairs annoyed many Yulemto, the autonomy and aid granted by Skarhu were deeply appreciated by the islanders, and when the civil war ended with the north of the empire becoming the independent Kingdom of Telziad, the islanders voted against joining the Kingdom. They did retain a strong relationship to the kingdom, however, and their status as a stopping port between Telziad and northern Skarhu boosted the Island's economy.
With Skarhu's help, the Yulemta Islands re-established their pre-imperial system of governance, and began efforts to revitalise their native language. After a decade of discussion with the Skarhan Parliament, the Islands were made a county of the Republic in 365 AC, granting them full and equal voting rights within parliament and greater access to Skarhu's markets. Things are currently peaceful, with the major 'controversy' of the modern day being the discussion of whether the islands should be renamed.

Structure

Unlike the other Skarhan counties, the government of Yulemta is not a democracy by nature. It is instead a combination of hereditary leaders and spiritual representatives, who form the Yulemto Council. The hereditary leaders each represent one of the islands of the archipelago and are selected by the previous leaders. The spiritual leaders come from the Yulemto branch of divine worshippers, whose membership are allowed to vote on which senior leaders will join the council, but do not select which of their own become senior leaders. Some have suggested adding directly elected members to the Council, to form a sort of three branch system, though this has not yet happened.

Type

Geopolitical, County / March

Demonym

Yulemto

Parent Organization

Republic of Skarhu

Location

Yulemta Archipelago

Official Languages

• Vostan

Related Ranks & Titles

• Madyamu

Related Ethnicities

• Lialpumpámtii
• Telziado
• Yulemto

Collateral Glory

As the Vosti Civil War became less of a hypothetical and more of an inevitability, many became nervous. Amongst those were the citizens of the Wenz Islands south of Abravost. Despite their proximity to the Empire, they found themselves more politically aligned with the northern rebels. Further, the Separation had separated many of their families, leaving their adults overworked and scraping by. It was likely that the Empire would forcibly conscript them, causing huge damage to Wenz.
It was on behalf of the Wenz Islands that Skarhu went to war with the Empire in the south seas, in the Wenzi War. At the wars end, the Empire ceded all their island holdings to Skarhu. While this naturally made the Wenz Islands a Skarhan territory, it also - and perhaps unintentionally - granted them the Yulemta Islands as well.

Sword and Chainmail by stronytwoichmarzen

Territory

Abravost

Open full size

The county of Yulemta wholly encompasses the Yulemta Archipelago, located north of the split continent of Abravost. Due to their distance from the mainland, it is only considered part of Abravost in a broad sense. It was formerly managed as a part of the Vosti Empire, before it was ceded to the Republic of Skarhu following an extended naval engagement in the seas south of Abravost. Despite this cession, the Vosti Empire has reverted to claiming this territory and all other former island holdings, though this complaint is not taken seriously by either the Skarhans or Yulemto.

The Flag

The flag of the Yulemta Islands is a quadrisection separated by a white symmetric cross, with the lower hoist and upper fly sections being black. The canton section is orange, with a black 5 pointed star in its centre. The lower fly section is red, with a white 8 pointed star in its centre.
The orange section and accompanying black star represent the Yulemto Archipelago, with the 5 points on the star being the 5 most culturally important islands, and the orange being the colour of their national flower. The red section and white star represent the Kingdom of Telziad, with whom Yulemta is historically linked, being lifted directly from their own flag. The black sections and white cross which separate them all have no explicit meaning, though some suggest the white represents the water that separates the islands from the mainland, and the black represents either the land itself or the northern oceans.

Flag by Isaac Thompson