Egalia

Egalia is a settlement on the western coast of Nieden and a historic niedene town. It played a significant role in history, mostly during the era of the Soleannen Empire. As such, it remained a political center and during the Soleannan Imperium era it became the capital of an eponym Duchy, the Enrei of Egalia and is currently led by Yerigold Arkandore.

History before Yerigold
Egalia was historically an important trading post on the western coast of Nieden.

Foundation
As all of the old settlements of Vasterien, Egalia was founded by inhabitants of Corthaidh (Varmerion). It thus received the humble name of Thadeti, wich means Fort of the Thadians. It was also known as Columbia.

Columbia under the Kingdom of Egalia
Its modern history is heavily influenced by the personnality of Jack F. Kennedy who led the Central Commitee of the high presidium of the supreme soviet of the free and liberated workers and people's of the Commune of Columbia, the most important political entity within the Kingdom of Egalia.

Post-Ascension period
Its modern name is was taken after the Ascension.

Aesperium Niedea
Egalia experienced periods of growth but had overall low activity during this period.

The first period of growth was shortly after the formation of the country, when old architects could benefit from the renewed prosperity to embellish the center of the town.

During a second period, shortly before the Kimikwessai (First Escharian civil war), the town experienced a rapid growth and expanded north, towards Drasil. This new borough was known as Chileambore or, Ozeben (above waters in local tongue). The borough's expansion was relatively unprecedented as in it's lifespan of 10 years, it managed to accumulate a population similar to Lostesrei at the time mostly being made up of Syltör refugees fleeing from the Bardonian conquests, these people provided the borough with lots of potential industry although this would never be accomplished due to the 9 Rings Mining Catastrophe.

9 Rings Mining Catastrophe
Following the untimely death of it's leader who was suspiciously assassinated by an unknown resident (who would flee and never be seen again,) a great power vacuum was left behind as no heir was set to lead the town. Following a short meeting between all the town council members realizing that both the town and nation were in a precarious spot. Half the members decided it would be best to jump ship and emigrate to Yimmu-Audal while the rest attempted to lead a pathless city. A few days later. an ancient Nieden tomb found in the Chileambore emerald mines and the aspiring archaeologists wgo stumbled upon it made the fateful mistake of deciding to open the tomb.

The opening of this tomb would turn out to be a great disaster for the entire town as the energy that emanated from it resulted in a great blast that shocked the entire town. First, most of the mines collapsed killing all who was in them, meanwhile the cave-in also resulted in much of the surface collapsing in on itself. This would only be exaggerated by the fact that most of the town was sat on the soft grounds of a marsh. This resulted in over 40% of the borough's buildings being destroyed while the rest was immensely damaged. By the end of the event, 80% of the population of the borough had perished including every council member which led the city to plunge into a state of anarchy, this would never be resolved as the nation at the time was going through significant peril at the same time. For the next century, the borough would lay in complete ruin only being stopped at by the occasional bandit or looter scrounging through the buildings.

Several attempts were made to resettle and rebuild the city, although all attempts made before Yerigold would ultimately end in failure as the prospects of resetting the place was uneconomically unviable and unjust.

Yerigold revitalization
Under the Soleannan Imperium, the government would give one Yerigold Arkandore the permission to attempt resettling the city, believing it would lead to nothing except giving an architectural graduate something to do. However, the government was hard pressed to find news that Egalia was rapidly expanding once again. A major contributing factor of it's expansion would be the Westcoast Hotspot which was a massive market in the shattered emerald mines of the city where merchants from everywhere across the globe would buy and sell their wares. This would eventually lead to Egalia gaining the moniker of the Phagosian gateway to Escharia.

A couple years after it's expansion, Egalia would become the capital city of the Egalia county. Subsequently, Egalia was largely seen as a safe haven for travellers and refugees alike and Yerigold would soon begin to adopt several people into House Arkandore whose main manor also resides in Egalia.