Vicalvia: Politics and Privateering in the 1330s
Vicalvia is probably one of my favorite countries I've created for Kesair (though I don't like to pick favorites). This post will be primarily discussing Vicalvian politics - particularly regarding the period leading to the 1330s, the Golden Age of Piracy on Loom (having kicked off around 1332 A.E.M), by request of one of my dear friends and co-Loom-DMs Jodi, who is going to be running a campaign focused on Loom's Golden Age of Piracy.
In 1314 A.E.M., Vicalvia had begun to firmly establish itself as a continental trade power, and was making forays into intercontinental naval trade routes. By 1316, Vicalvia had established its' own trade route with Dertien - the Vicalvian Sea Route - which used Kesair's stormwinds to give ships a headstart, cutting almost a days' worth of travel time. Vicalvia began to lead the Kesairian shipbuilding industry in late 1317, and towering industrial shipyards began to crowd the coasts, filling the skies with smog and the seas with ships of steel and timber.
In 1320, the brief forays and trips Vicalvia had made to Mensei and Aatolau were put on hold by the Salazar-Bhattacharya Dispute, which saw the human aristocratic family Salazar deposed by challenger Parminder Bhattacharya, a Dwarvish ship-builder from the south of Kesair. The Salazar family had been in power for the previous 61 years - beginning with Tradesqueen Carina Dionisia Salazar, who seized power at 54 in 1259 A.E.M., remaining in power until her death in 1285 A.E.M. due to old age.
After Tradesqueen Carina's death, her eldest daughter, Dionisia Florencia Salazar, ascended to the Industrial Throne at 32 in a 10-hour Ceremony of Industrial Ascension on the first day of 1286 A.E.M. Her younger brother, the 29-year-old Dionisius Florente Salazar, challenged her for the Industrial Throne, and was slain in single combat by Dionisia prior to her Ascension.
She reigned for 19 years, and stepped down from the Throne in 1305 A.E.M., appointing her youngest son, Florent Ambrosius Salazar, as her successor - he ascended at age 26 in one of the briefest ceremonies in Vicalvian history, only 4 and a half hours.
Florent's rule as Tradesking was relatively uneventful and stable, and he was well-liked by the Vicalvian populace for his relaxed position towards labor laws and regulations and his permissive attitude towards international trade. Florent's reign continued uneventfully until his assassination in 1317 A.E.M., along with his mother, Tradesmother Dionisia.
The assassin was never caught, but the Florentine Riots saw a great many innocents caught out and beaten or killed by crowds after being accused of his murder, with little evidence or reason. The Florentine Riots were also an outlet for building bigotries and tensions - Vicalvia has long-held anti-Elvish, anti-Genasi, anti-Elemental, and anti-Orcish sentiments, believing these races to be primitive and inherently opposed to industrial and scientific progress. It was not a coincidence that most of the casualties of the Florentine Riots were orcs, elves, genasi, or elementals.
The late Tradesking Florent had borne no children, having taken instead a series of clandestine male lovers and partners. However, his eldest sister, the 34-year old Florentina, had borne one son, Ambrosius Ezequiel Salazar, in 1302 A.E.M before divorcing her husband. Florentina had been raising him relatively isolated from the Royal Trade Family, in the neighboring Carichian Empire.
While she initially declined to return to Vicalvia with Ambrosius, she relented after being asked by the ZacarÃas Abasolo, one of Florent's longer-term lovers and a personal friend of Florentina's, to return with Ambrosius in order to avoid a power dispute. While Ambrosius was the only eligible familial successor to the Throne of Industry, he was by no means prepared - Ambrosius was 14 at the time of his succession in 1316 A.E.M., and had the shortest reign of any Salazar, having most of his decisions made for him by advisors and consultants.
In 1320, shipyard-owner and shipbuilder Parminder Bhattacharya declared herself as a challenger to the Industrial Throne. She was legally eligible to do so - she had a verifiable fortune of almost 800,000 platinum between her own funds and the revenue from Sarmudtaka Shipyards - which by 1320 was a continent-wide business. Parminder was the first dwarf to attempt to reach the throne.
The challenge was settled in the traditional manner - single combat, although the 'to the death' requirment was waived considering Ambrosius's young age.
Unsurprisingly, Ambrosius was defeated easily by Parminder in a short single round of combat, and Ambrosius was dethroned, ending the Salazar Trade Family's chain of royal succession. While there was no official documentation of where Ambrosius went after being dethroning, it is suspected that he left the continent with his mother, travelling southwards towards Dertien.
Parminder ruled alongside her sister, the starmapper and astronomer Sakshi Jyoti Bhattacharya. Parminder's Ceremony of Industrial Ascension lasted 7 hours, and was conducted in both Dwarvish and Common. The Ceremony began on land, but moved onto the the flagship of the Sarmudtaka Shipyards' small trade fleet, the V.S.S. Vanijya. She declared Sakshi the official Personal and Economic Advisor to the Industrial Throne (the first time any such position had been created or filled), and Sakshi created the Industrial Department of Naval Navigation, Charting, and Starmapping - which became a vital institution.
Parminder and Sakshi's legislation bolstered naval exploration and the Vicalvian shipbuilding industry, propelling Kesair into competition with Dertien's gith shipbuilding industry. Parminder and Sakshi started the process of mapping out trade routes with Mensei and Aatolau, often accompanying mapping expeditions themselves. Parminder and Sakshi's legislation came to a sudden end when there was an attempt on Parminder's life - while their reign had been strong and generally well-liked, festering faction of Salazar Loyalists incited riots in 1324 - the Salazari Riots. These tensions culminated in an attempt on Parminder's life as she departed on an extensive Kesair-Starfyk port route mapping mission from Jyo Port in the city of Blackpool, in southern Vicalvia.
Sakshi made the announcement in late 1324, while Parminder was still abroad charting the seas, that Parminder and herself would be stepping down from their respective roles, and they declined to sponsor a new successor - leading to the beginning of a three-month process known as the Bidding, in which different potential successors (usually nominated from old-money families, company families, or powerful aristocrats) 'bid' for the throne. While these bids were primarily monetary during the 1300s, - a potential successor offering lump sums of capital for investment into Vicalvian industry and assets to prove they are the most able, the preliminary discoveries of Khosith magitech ruins in 1322 set up the Ascension of the shardmind prospector and owner of Coastal Prospects LLC, Istanbul Ichtenfil.
Ichtenfil had bought information from Vicalvian archaeologists regarding a potentially valuable artifact dumping site from a culture that predated Vicalvia - he had no idea at the time that these were Khosith Magitech Empire Ruins, let alone the first ones to be discovered. Magitech was an industry in its' infancy at this time, and one that began on Alesir - while the odd piece of Alesirian magitech made its way into a Vicalvian aristocrats' pocket time and again, magitech was by no means a staple of Vicalvian life. Until 1325, when Ichtenfil made his bid with a shocking move - he severed his hand in a public session of the Trade Senate, having an artificer (brought in from out-of-country) attach a Khosith magitech prosthetic, now dated as an Early Khosith piece.
Ichtenfil made his bid as the artificer attached the hand to his arm - he claimed that under his rule he would usher Vicalvia into a era of technological advancement, slingshotting it centuries ahead of any Alesirian technology. At this time, the blood-bond that Khosith technology was capable of was undiscovered - the precise nature of Khosith magitech's bond with its' user was not investigated in-depth until the late 1400s, and the bloodbond itself was only discovered by a Tiba'av research team in 1512 A.E.M.
Ichtenfil Ascended on the first day of 1326, in a 9-hour ceremony. His rule ushered in a surge of demand for magitech products - many merchants would pass off mundane objects as Khosith artifacts, and Ichtenfil established relationships with Aatolauan tradespeople who had come across Alesirian magitech in 1327, though their imports were small and infrequent. Alesirian naval trade routes were, at this time, dangerous and still relatively uncharted, and Alesir didn't have an established trade route with Kesair until 1419 A.E.M - long after Ichtenfil's death. Ichtenfil projected that Khosith artifacts were a near-inextinguishable resource, and said he would establish regular expeditions by 1330 to find ancient Khosith cities.
When the Shattering happened in 1330, Loom's naval trade routes were decimated. Intercontinental trade slowed to a trickle, and while Kesair was never directly attacked outside of a few rogue Yugoliths attacking southern coastal settlements in confused one-off attacks, the Vicalvian trade economy still went through a brief but severe recession between 1330 and 1333 A.E.M. - The Yugolith Recession.
Ichtenfil fell into fits of intense paranoia after the Shattering, obsessively fearing that a second Shattering and repeat Yugolith invasion was imminent, this time specifically targeting Kesair and Vicalvia. Historians in the 1500s began proposing the theory that Ichtenfil's Khosith hand prosthetic did not sync properly with his soul and consciousness, and the bloodbond began sapping his sanity and sound mind from him.
The invasion Ichtenfil feared never came, and his doomsday preparation and paranoia came at the cost of the Vicalvian state and economy, which was already fragile in the wake of the Shattering. Ichtenfil was deposed by force in late 1331 A.E.M - he was challenged to a duel by the dragonborn political newcomer Abelard Dietrich. Dietrich's Dietrich easily bested Ichtenfil, but elected to allow him to live - although Ichtenfil later died of supposedly natural causes in 1338 A.E.M.
Dietrich was the founder and owner of Abelard Shipping Co. (founded in 1322 A.E.M), a small but competitive and profitable shipping company specializing in running fragile or dangerous goods between Kesair and Dertien. Prior to Abelard Shipping Co., he had 'quietly retired' from his work as a Lieutenant in Vicalvia's Peacekeeping Forces (VPF) in 1319 A.E.M after controversies over VPF practices regarding reselling contraband and confiscated items. VPF squadrons would often raid alleyway pop-up shops or smaller, independent stores - individuals and establishments without the necessary capital to pursue the matter.
The legislation in the 1310s regarding what trade goods were considered contraband, which were legal, and which required permits could be generously described as flexible and unclear - leaving VPF squadrons looking to earn a quick dollar plenty of room to confiscate valuable-looking 'possible illegal merchandise' to resell later. While relatively weak legislation was introduced to the Vicalvian Trade Senate in 1318 and passed in 1319 (mysteriously coinciding with the 'quiet retirement' of Dietrich and a great many other VPF operatives and officers), when Dietrich took power in early 1332 A.E.M the legislation (specifically, the 'Proposal to Reduce VPF Looting and Reselling of Privately Owned Merchandise and Valuables') was quickly and quietly overturned in a late-night Trade Senate meeting a few days after his Ascension. The Vicalvian public were generally too caught up in the fervor and celebration of a new Tradesking to notice, although the owners of the pop-up shops and smaller merchants certainly felt the effects.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1314 A.E.M., Vicalvia had begun to firmly establish itself as a continental trade power, and was making forays into intercontinental naval trade routes. By 1316, Vicalvia had established its' own trade route with Dertien - the Vicalvian Sea Route - which used Kesair's stormwinds to give ships a headstart, cutting almost a days' worth of travel time. Vicalvia began to lead the Kesairian shipbuilding industry in late 1317, and towering industrial shipyards began to crowd the coasts, filling the skies with smog and the seas with ships of steel and timber.
In 1320, the brief forays and trips Vicalvia had made to Mensei and Aatolau were put on hold by the Salazar-Bhattacharya Dispute, which saw the human aristocratic family Salazar deposed by challenger Parminder Bhattacharya, a Dwarvish ship-builder from the south of Kesair. The Salazar family had been in power for the previous 61 years - beginning with Tradesqueen Carina Dionisia Salazar, who seized power at 54 in 1259 A.E.M., remaining in power until her death in 1285 A.E.M. due to old age.
One of Vicalvia's earliest shipyards, the Sarmudtaka Shipyard. Sarmudtaka was one of the most efficient, and was owned and operated by Parminder Bhattacharya and her sister, Sakshi Jyoti Bhattacharya.
(Image: Archive Photos/Getty Images)
After Tradesqueen Carina's death, her eldest daughter, Dionisia Florencia Salazar, ascended to the Industrial Throne at 32 in a 10-hour Ceremony of Industrial Ascension on the first day of 1286 A.E.M. Her younger brother, the 29-year-old Dionisius Florente Salazar, challenged her for the Industrial Throne, and was slain in single combat by Dionisia prior to her Ascension.
She reigned for 19 years, and stepped down from the Throne in 1305 A.E.M., appointing her youngest son, Florent Ambrosius Salazar, as her successor - he ascended at age 26 in one of the briefest ceremonies in Vicalvian history, only 4 and a half hours.
Florent's rule as Tradesking was relatively uneventful and stable, and he was well-liked by the Vicalvian populace for his relaxed position towards labor laws and regulations and his permissive attitude towards international trade. Florent's reign continued uneventfully until his assassination in 1317 A.E.M., along with his mother, Tradesmother Dionisia.
The assassin was never caught, but the Florentine Riots saw a great many innocents caught out and beaten or killed by crowds after being accused of his murder, with little evidence or reason. The Florentine Riots were also an outlet for building bigotries and tensions - Vicalvia has long-held anti-Elvish, anti-Genasi, anti-Elemental, and anti-Orcish sentiments, believing these races to be primitive and inherently opposed to industrial and scientific progress. It was not a coincidence that most of the casualties of the Florentine Riots were orcs, elves, genasi, or elementals.
An illustration from 1317 A.E.M. of the Florentine Riots, by Elvish artist Akiva Zaderikhovost, whose father, Isaac, was killed by the rioters after being falsely accused of murdering Tradesking Florent by a neighbor who claimed to have seen him practicing 'suspicious magics' in his home on the night of the murder.
(Image: Artist unknown, popularly redistributed engraving of the 1886 Haymarket Riots)
The late Tradesking Florent had borne no children, having taken instead a series of clandestine male lovers and partners. However, his eldest sister, the 34-year old Florentina, had borne one son, Ambrosius Ezequiel Salazar, in 1302 A.E.M before divorcing her husband. Florentina had been raising him relatively isolated from the Royal Trade Family, in the neighboring Carichian Empire.
While she initially declined to return to Vicalvia with Ambrosius, she relented after being asked by the ZacarÃas Abasolo, one of Florent's longer-term lovers and a personal friend of Florentina's, to return with Ambrosius in order to avoid a power dispute. While Ambrosius was the only eligible familial successor to the Throne of Industry, he was by no means prepared - Ambrosius was 14 at the time of his succession in 1316 A.E.M., and had the shortest reign of any Salazar, having most of his decisions made for him by advisors and consultants.
In 1320, shipyard-owner and shipbuilder Parminder Bhattacharya declared herself as a challenger to the Industrial Throne. She was legally eligible to do so - she had a verifiable fortune of almost 800,000 platinum between her own funds and the revenue from Sarmudtaka Shipyards - which by 1320 was a continent-wide business. Parminder was the first dwarf to attempt to reach the throne.
The challenge was settled in the traditional manner - single combat, although the 'to the death' requirment was waived considering Ambrosius's young age.
Unsurprisingly, Ambrosius was defeated easily by Parminder in a short single round of combat, and Ambrosius was dethroned, ending the Salazar Trade Family's chain of royal succession. While there was no official documentation of where Ambrosius went after being dethroning, it is suspected that he left the continent with his mother, travelling southwards towards Dertien.
The V.S.S. Vanijya, the flagship of Sarmudtaka Shipyards' commercial trade fleet.
Parminder and Sakshi's legislation bolstered naval exploration and the Vicalvian shipbuilding industry, propelling Kesair into competition with Dertien's gith shipbuilding industry. Parminder and Sakshi started the process of mapping out trade routes with Mensei and Aatolau, often accompanying mapping expeditions themselves. Parminder and Sakshi's legislation came to a sudden end when there was an attempt on Parminder's life - while their reign had been strong and generally well-liked, festering faction of Salazar Loyalists incited riots in 1324 - the Salazari Riots. These tensions culminated in an attempt on Parminder's life as she departed on an extensive Kesair-Starfyk port route mapping mission from Jyo Port in the city of Blackpool, in southern Vicalvia.
Sakshi made the announcement in late 1324, while Parminder was still abroad charting the seas, that Parminder and herself would be stepping down from their respective roles, and they declined to sponsor a new successor - leading to the beginning of a three-month process known as the Bidding, in which different potential successors (usually nominated from old-money families, company families, or powerful aristocrats) 'bid' for the throne. While these bids were primarily monetary during the 1300s, - a potential successor offering lump sums of capital for investment into Vicalvian industry and assets to prove they are the most able, the preliminary discoveries of Khosith magitech ruins in 1322 set up the Ascension of the shardmind prospector and owner of Coastal Prospects LLC, Istanbul Ichtenfil.
Ichtenfil had bought information from Vicalvian archaeologists regarding a potentially valuable artifact dumping site from a culture that predated Vicalvia - he had no idea at the time that these were Khosith Magitech Empire Ruins, let alone the first ones to be discovered. Magitech was an industry in its' infancy at this time, and one that began on Alesir - while the odd piece of Alesirian magitech made its way into a Vicalvian aristocrats' pocket time and again, magitech was by no means a staple of Vicalvian life. Until 1325, when Ichtenfil made his bid with a shocking move - he severed his hand in a public session of the Trade Senate, having an artificer (brought in from out-of-country) attach a Khosith magitech prosthetic, now dated as an Early Khosith piece.
The prosthetic hand that Ichtenfil attached in the public Trade Senate session, held in the Blackpool Museum of Khosith Artifacts and History.
Ichtenfil Ascended on the first day of 1326, in a 9-hour ceremony. His rule ushered in a surge of demand for magitech products - many merchants would pass off mundane objects as Khosith artifacts, and Ichtenfil established relationships with Aatolauan tradespeople who had come across Alesirian magitech in 1327, though their imports were small and infrequent. Alesirian naval trade routes were, at this time, dangerous and still relatively uncharted, and Alesir didn't have an established trade route with Kesair until 1419 A.E.M - long after Ichtenfil's death. Ichtenfil projected that Khosith artifacts were a near-inextinguishable resource, and said he would establish regular expeditions by 1330 to find ancient Khosith cities.
When the Shattering happened in 1330, Loom's naval trade routes were decimated. Intercontinental trade slowed to a trickle, and while Kesair was never directly attacked outside of a few rogue Yugoliths attacking southern coastal settlements in confused one-off attacks, the Vicalvian trade economy still went through a brief but severe recession between 1330 and 1333 A.E.M. - The Yugolith Recession.
Ichtenfil fell into fits of intense paranoia after the Shattering, obsessively fearing that a second Shattering and repeat Yugolith invasion was imminent, this time specifically targeting Kesair and Vicalvia. Historians in the 1500s began proposing the theory that Ichtenfil's Khosith hand prosthetic did not sync properly with his soul and consciousness, and the bloodbond began sapping his sanity and sound mind from him.
The invasion Ichtenfil feared never came, and his doomsday preparation and paranoia came at the cost of the Vicalvian state and economy, which was already fragile in the wake of the Shattering. Ichtenfil was deposed by force in late 1331 A.E.M - he was challenged to a duel by the dragonborn political newcomer Abelard Dietrich. Dietrich's Dietrich easily bested Ichtenfil, but elected to allow him to live - although Ichtenfil later died of supposedly natural causes in 1338 A.E.M.
A portrait of Abelard Dietrich, in the ceremonial armor he wore for his 8-hour Ceremony of Industrial Ascension.
(Image: Thomas Randby)
The legislation in the 1310s regarding what trade goods were considered contraband, which were legal, and which required permits could be generously described as flexible and unclear - leaving VPF squadrons looking to earn a quick dollar plenty of room to confiscate valuable-looking 'possible illegal merchandise' to resell later. While relatively weak legislation was introduced to the Vicalvian Trade Senate in 1318 and passed in 1319 (mysteriously coinciding with the 'quiet retirement' of Dietrich and a great many other VPF operatives and officers), when Dietrich took power in early 1332 A.E.M the legislation (specifically, the 'Proposal to Reduce VPF Looting and Reselling of Privately Owned Merchandise and Valuables') was quickly and quietly overturned in a late-night Trade Senate meeting a few days after his Ascension. The Vicalvian public were generally too caught up in the fervor and celebration of a new Tradesking to notice, although the owners of the pop-up shops and smaller merchants certainly felt the effects.
Back-alley VPF raids were not seriously addressed and curtailed until the late 1480s, and continued as a staple source of Vicalvian underworld trade and blackmarket stock until then.
(Image: Tristan Ishmael)
Dietrich made an unusual move - when piracy began to become a significant issue as the Golden Age of Piracy kicked off in 1332, he rejected attempts to introdce legislation targeting piracy in the Trade Senate - as the Tradesking, he held the final say on what passed and did not pass (although going against the grain of the Trade Senate often resulted in public controversy). Instead, he proposed permitting some pirate ships to operate as official outfits of the Vicalvian Trade Fleet - giving them under-the-table free reign as privateers, in exchange for a cut of their profits. This proposal was made behind closed-doors in the Trade Summit, and was masked with anti-piracy legislation targeting unlicensed pirates.
Dietrich's legislation - the Proposal to Turn a Profit During the New Age of Piracy and its' cover-up legislation, the Proposal to Crack Down on Unregulated Looting and Naval Crime - was popular amongst Vicalvians, and it bolstered the Vicalvian economy significantly. Pirates would often make port in one of Vicalvia's numerable port cities and head straight to the nearest Naval Licensing Office. The largest Naval Licensing Office in Vicalvia is in Rotherhithe, on the Southwestern Trade Coast region of Vicalvia. Privateer applicants were almost always approved - though those that failed to meet their expected Privateers' Naval Raiding Profit Quota were often disposed of messily and publically, and used as examples of Vicalvia's 'swift justice' against pirates.
Vicalvia's privateering business was never outlawed, although it began to drop off in the late 1400s from the surge of popularity it experienced in 1334 onwards, when there were up to 3,000 privateer applicants to Vicalvia's Naval Licensing Offices monthly for several years. Abelard Dietrich remained in power until 1340 A.E.M., and he maintained an estimated 32 separate privateers on private contract with Abelard Shipping Co., generating immense amounts of profit. Vicalvia's decision brought flack from neighboring nations - in particular, Lastiron and the Carichian Empire issued statements of public condemnation towards Vicalvia's privateering contracts and business. Dietrich received backlash from the Vicalvian public not for the privateering, but for the closed-door nature of the deal.
The Vicalvian port city of Rotherhithe, known by locals as the Privateer's Port.
Comments
Post a Comment