Morado

Morado, rarely called "Las Islas Moradas", is an archipelago controlled by the Kingdom of Amarillo, located in the sea of Gustavus. It is composed of two very small islands, the southern one being even smaller than the northern island. In the middle of January 2024, it was discovered Morado's islands were volcanic when the northern island suffered a volcanic eruption, which multiplied its altitude by several times and affected the other island as well as the neighbouring city of Porphyropolis.

Discovery and vassalisation
The islands that would become Morado are volcanic. They appeared, in the middle of the sea of Gustavus, at an unknown date. In July 2023, the islands were discovered by Porphyropolitan sailors, who did not realize the archipelago had not always been there and thought it had just, by some unlucky miracle, never been seen or mapped before.

An abandoned settlement was already on Morado when the Amarillians discovered it, and when Soronaca De Porphyropolis, viceroy of Las Islas Doradas, paid his first visit to the archipelago. The walrus, seeking to take control of islands in the sea of Gustavus to extend Amarillo's maritime power in its vicinity, came back a second time only a few weeks later, with a small military party, to annex the archipelago to the province of Las Islas Doradas. However, by an other unlucky miracle, new unknown settlers had arrived on the island since the Amarillians last came. Soronaca struck a deal with their leader, who accepted to name his new settlement Morado (name later given to the archipelago) and to become an Amarillian vassal. Soronaca's plan to annex the archipelago was stymied, but maybe it was an opportunity to get something even better, a vassal needing less care to develop its population than an annexed settlement.

Desertion and annexation
However, things would not go as Soronaca had planned, and Morado's population didn't grow at all. On the other hand, it actually diminished so bad it ended up being completely abandoned. No one knows for sure what happened to the settlement's inhabitants, but it is believed they just left without telling anything to their Amarillian overlords.

The governor of Las Islas Doradas had known that for month, but couldn't do anything to change the situation in Morado, as he was elected President of the Republic of Amarillo, under Drakaes, and had so much work to do, especially regarding the constitution, he did not have time to work in the Kingdom during his term. When the term of Amarillo's first consul, the walrus' constitution having replaced the president by two consuls, ended, he directly went back home to Porphyropolis. There, he gathered a military and scientific party, among which also was his granddaughter Queen Josefina herself, and went to Morado with it. Soronaca's group cleaned up the archipelago, and finally annexed it in the Kingdom of Amarillo. He did however not found a new town there, as the islands were seen as too close to Porphyropolis and too small to be interesting for that purpose.

Scientific expedition and eruption
In January 2024, after Hernan of Allium Panem's paleontological discovery, some Amarillian officers and scientists from the Kingdom launched a scientific expedition in Morado, expecting to find interesting fossils there. The expedition, which was first a success, was supposed to last two weeks, however it was interrupted prematurely by several small earthquakes, which, after several days, made the explorers all agree to leave. However, a few hours before they left, the northern island of Morado had an eruption. One of the expedition's three ships was sent to retrieve the last Amarillians on Morado's southern islands, and, due to the confusion of the situation and a navigation mistake, sunk. The following day, the two other ships saved the few survivors of Morado's southern islands and of the third ship and went back to Porphyropolis.

It was only from the eruption onwards that the Amarillians knew Morado was a volcanic archipelago, and realized it is because it wasn't there earlier that they only discovered it so late. The eruption had consequences on Porphyropolis, as the island was partially covered in volcanic dust afterwards.

Geography
Morado is composed of two islands. The southern and smallest one is called la pequeña (isla) morada (the small purple (island)).

The northern island was formerly called la gorda (isla) morada" (the big (island)). However, since January 2024's eruption, which multiplied the island's height and made it a small mountain, it is more often called El monte morado (the purple mount), or simply El morado (the purple one).

Etymology
The name Morado means "purple" in Amarillian. While one could think its name comes from its relation to Porphyropolis, it actually does not : the founder of Morado's amarillian vassal settlement called the islands Morado after learning the country he would be vassalised by was called Amarillo (Amarillian for yellow), thinking naming his town after a color too would fit the nation.