Atlipopan

The precarious base of Imperial Industry

While on Ilysium, I liked to watch the ships come and go. The Navy likes to think that they are what the Empire relies on, but they're wrong. They are built from the metals we provide. We are the supports upon which Ilysium rests, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

— Acilia Vulso, in a letter to her daughter, Artoria

The Island

An asteroid within the Empire that has a high concentration of valuable materials and ores. It is also one of the few colonies that is closer to Sayles than Ilysium. As such, it is heavily guarded by the Imperial Navy.

Geography

A central mountain range takes up most of the space on the asteroid, with a pair of small lakes that gather water after storms to the northeast and southwest of the mountains. The rocky terrain to the northeast made it difficult to build on, and so still is lightly wooded and untouched by settlers.

Flora and Fauna

Hardy salice trees and small grasses dominate the northeast side of the island, with small families of pramus living in burrows in the soil.

Natural Resources

The mountains against which the town is built are filled with riches, even long after the colonization of the island. The largest share of the raw materials of the Imperial industry are mined from this rock, and are sent to the nearby Spoletium for refinement.

The Town

Despite being one of the richest colonies in the Empire, in terms of the contents of the soil that the village rests on, Atlipopan is quite poor. Most of its wealth is shipped off-world, and the colonists rarely benefit from the metals they dig up. Some people remember when a large portion of the town tried to join the The Trade Union, and the more suspicious suspect that the colonists are still being punished for their treachery. More simply acknowledge that Atlipopan is too important for the Empire to allow the colonists to gain too much wealth or power.

Demographic

Atlipopan has the third-largest slave population in the Empire. Nearly a third of the people living and working in the mines are paying of some debt, usually accrued by buying passage off one of the nearby slave colony of Nora. A large amount of them are Earthbloods as well, responsible for moving and condensing the minerals found in the mountains of the island.

Government

Unlike some smaller, less important colonies, Atlipopan is no longer owned by a single Noble. The Vulso family, a part of House Putrace, are the owners. Headed by Artoria Vulso, the Vulso family oversees the various workings of every mine, as well as passing local laws and regulations. This has upset House Wyrmsange, who sees laws, both local and empire-wide, as its jursidiction. There is a council of elders on Atlipopan, but their effectiveness has been waning for almost three decades. Acilia Vulso, Artoria's predecessor, started the family's consolidation of power, and ended up rounding up and sending people who disagreed, including the entire council of elders, offworld. The current council is much younger, and either paid off or too scared to oppose the Vulso family. The Vulso family also has close ties to House Tenevine and House Sentisund, which is possibly the reason they were granted control of such a vital piece of House Putrace's holdings. The only real counterpart to Vulso rule is Martinus Frugius, the Emperor's reeve, an atlipopan native employed by Emperor Avisong IV. Despite not being a noble, the authority of the Emperor behind him makes his word as important as Artoria Vulso's.

Controlling Houses

House Putrace is the house with the most control over Atlipopan, as they have been gathering most every colony under their direct control. Within the past couple years, House Putrace, through the Vulso family, have tightened their grip over Atlipopan, though there are a few places outside their control. Atlipopan, possibly to due its importance to the Empire as a whole, is one of the few places that still has active influence from House Avisong, though the Emperor's reeve cannot do much against the entrenched authority of the Vulso family. Recently, House Wyrmsange has placed a low-ranking member of the Wyrmsange family in charge of law and order on Atlipopan.

History

Atlipopan was first explored early in the Colonial Era, by a couple named Aureolus Ennius and Bantia Ennius. They explored many islands, and though their original names never stuck, they did bring information to Ilysium about several potential places for colonies. Atlipopan was one of the most enticing, a large chunk of land with several mountains and a lush forest, but a lack of resources prevented its colonization for several centuries. Finally, in 600 CA, the first settlers touched down. Being on the edge of the Blue, it remained a small settlement for many generations, only lightly digging into the mountains for stone to construct their buildings. This changed in the early sorcerous era, when the Empire brought in an earthblood to prospect the islands. At the time, earthblood were considered rare, and when this one, named Laelia Comitius concluded that there were valuable minerals in Atlipopan's mountains, they were lavished with gifts from the grateful colonists. With the verdict being sent back to Ilysium, full-scale mining operations started on Atlipopan, and wealth poured into the hands of those working and living there. Soon it was the richest colony in the Empire, and the now-extinct House Silverstone was created and centered around the resources found in Atlipopan's mines. Despite the possibility for disputes that such riches bring, violence avoided Atlipopan itself for a long time. None of the warring houses wanted to damage the infrastructure that they were fighting over. This changed in the Trade Union Revolutionary War, where a seperationist movement of colonists on Atlipopan tried to join the The Trade Union. Several clans came to the aid of the colonists, but after almost two weeks of fighting they fell to the combined efforts of the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th fleets. Since then, Atlipopan has been closely guarded by the Imperial Navy at all times, and Trade Union sympathizers are routinely jailed and shipped to Ilysium for punishment.

<Map of Atlipopan goes here>

Basic Information:

Founding Date: 600 CA, 243rd Nadir
Population: 1,699
Part of: The Empire
Owned by: The Vulso Family
Location Under: Dominion of Wealth

Notable Places:

• Castle Vulso
• Azure Mine, the largest and currently richest mine
• The Warrens, an old and dried-out mine converted to slave housing
• Avisong Estate

Notable People:

Artoria Vulso, head of the Vulso family
Philto Vulso, overseer of the Azure mine
Vorenia Vulso, export manager
Avisong Reeve: Martinus Frugius
Magistrate: Novia Wyrmsange
Elders: Lemniselenis Asellio, Phaedria Leon, Scapha Irenaeus, Scribonia Bonosus, and Allectia Candidius

Exports

Imports

Raw Iron
Raw Copper
Raw Nickel
Raw Silver
Rare-Earth Metals

Water
Foods
Slaves

Related Articles