Pioresná

Pioresná (Volontéan [ Norterran]: Ꭷѳғ𐐽ה) is the capital of the Republic of North Volonté. It is located in the northeast of the Republic within the province of Pioresná. It is the largest city in North Volonté by population, and a hub of Volontéan culture. Pioresná is also considered a holy city of the Way of the Will religion.

The city is one of, if not the oldest active communities in south Leifmyrr, predating North Volonté itself by hundreds of years.

Catastrophe
Pioresná was once a prosperous merchant city home to the Neolian people. The Neolians were a culture that had achieved great technological developments, but that were led to their demise due to their greed and hunger for knowledge. This people had been working on a new way to produce energy. Their calculations led them to think that if they were successful in controlling the source of it, they would be able to generate an output like no one had ever seen. But catastrophe struck. Their low understanding of the forces they were playing with led to an event that ended raising the city to it's foundation, not before the Neolians could get evacuated from the city in their merchant Fleet. This event is called "The Great Exodus".Several years passed since this event and Mázimo Donvago, a Neolian man who had cultivated all areas of knowledge, obtaining various results in that aspect, decided to venture himself into what he presumed would be the ruins of Pioresná and resettling the place for the Neolians to reclaim their great city. Many laughed and mocked at him for believing he could be able to achieve something remotely similar to what he said he would, warning him he would only find his demise if he proceeded with his mission. Mázimo turned a deaf ear and set sail into the unknown.

When he finally arrived at the location that the old charts indicated, he found himself confused. The imposing buildings that he was described by the elders in the ship he grew were nowhere to be seen, and instead a dense forest filled the landscape. After some investigations on how was it possible that the city had complexly disappeared, he got to the conclusion that it must have been one of the reactions described by the books on the control of this unknown energy. This reaction was named "Ashen decay". When an object came in contact with certain forms in which the energy was manifested, it would turn into a brownish-greyish compound with great fertilizing properties. The size of the reaction that caused the catastrophe and this particular reaction explained the reason of the cities disappearance. The city had been completely transformed into this compound and with time, the few plants that managed to survive the event ended up completely covering the place where Pioresná once stood.

With this discovery, Mázimo wasn't discouraged to abandon his mission, instead he was even more eager to pursue his dream. He would be the one who would rebuild the city from the ground up and reclaim the land of the Neolians.

The time lapse between the destruction and resettlement of Pioresná are uncertain due to a lack of records about when and what exactly happened during the catastrophe, but some estimates say it would be between five decades and two centuries.

A new beginning
After Mázimo had built the first rustic buildings from which Pioresná would rise again he started exploring the surroundings, eventually finding other civilizations, the first of them were the People of Hanno. The relations with this nation were favourable from the start, becoming fairly good friends with each other and leaving some gifts for one another after their first contact. Then came the people of Valham, which the city had some territorial disputes with, but that issue was soon solved and Pioresná ended up joining them as a city of their Nation.

This union would be short lived. The people of Valham hadn't informed Pioresná about their conflicts with the Nation of Iremith, which led to Pioresná peacefully seceding shortly after joining Valham, thus finding itself alone again.

The Third group of people that were met were the Volontéans, they had acquired Hanno recently and Mázimo went to pay the Hannoans a visit the exact same day the Volontéans got to take a look at their new incorporation. The relations flourished immediately and eventually decided to join the Republic of Volonté as a member city. This union would last until the collapse of the Republic of Volonté, after which it was shortly incorporated into the TEA, before regaining it's independence and becoming the capital of the republic.

A second invasion came, directed by Markia, with time and Pioresná found itself to be the last standing town of Volonté, an ultimatum was given to them and for a short period of time, Pioresná became a city state. Shortly after the annexation of most of the Volontéan territory a proposal from the commonwealth of Kaladinia came to Pioresná's door. They were offering to help reclaim Volonté's core territories under the condition of the Republic becoming a province of the commonwealth, which was accepted by the last remaining Volontéans residing in Pioresná. This marks the start of the first renaissance.