Black Isles

Summary
The Black Isles is a mostly oceanic pirate nation located in the south-east of Eldham in the Kraken Fall's Sea. It's capital is "Porthnegys" - a port city that was abandoned by the first explorers from Rathnir and taken over by the The Black Skulls, who rule the surrounding seas and archapelago. It has close cultural ties to The Pirate State of Barbossa and remains as the largest surviving bastion of pirate culture in all of Eldham.

Founding
The Black Isles were founded by player EarlGreyT3a following the collapse of The Pirate State of Barbossa. Following the perilous Uraka & Barbossa Conflicts, the sailors and pirates of Barbossa were in chaos. Many Barbossans had disagreed with their leadership and had their problems with the late pirate state and saw the unfortunate collapse as a new chapter for piracy and merchant culture. While the remains of Barbossa (and most of it's people) were absorped into the neighbouring Uraka, a small group of sailors - namely EarlGreyT3a, the founder of The Black Isles, and Tyr Leuxos, who is widely disputed to have been a traitor of Barbossa - set sail for new lands. A short while later, after navigating through the delicate and winding river channels of Leifmyrr, the group found themselves in the Kraken's Fall Sea; within this sea lay an archapelago known as "Ngu Meutoro Punge". When the crew landed on the largest of the islands, they were peacefully greeted by the island's indigenous inhabitants who believed them to be friendly merchants looking for simple trade. Not being acquainted with local customs, EarlGreyT3a proclaimed the island as "Scurvy Shores" and named the archapelago "The Black Isles"; he welcomed all sailors, merchants, mercanaries and pirates salvation in a truly free land with no laws, no regulations and no foreign alliances forcing their hands.

Establishment
The group had found the land and independence they had yearned for however now came the hardest part of their journey: administration. Debates were plentiful between the group causing many rifts to form among the swashbuckling crew; Leux - as she had done many times before on her odysseys - argued that the island natives should be treated with a respectful and peaceful demeanour much like they had done to the sailors when they first arrived but Tea and the rest of their hardy band of pirates was having none of it. Before long, a brutal and suppressive subjugation and begun on the island natives, powerless to defend against the well-trained, battle-hardened crew. Tea was proclaimed the Pirate Lord by his fellow sailors while Leux, in defiance of the regime, began documenting and studying the culture and religion of the islands. As time progressed, more and more fleets of ships arrived to the islands and claustrophobic yet colourful slums grew to accommodate the indigenous people, while the pirates enjoyed lavish vessels and sturdy fortresses.

As the population of the islands grew rapidly, Tea sent out calls to sailors to find more unclaimed land to encorporate into The Black Isles. Player Trelanganack, a new but prospective sailor to the isles, answered these calls following his discovery of a small sliver of mainland peninsula bordering the world's edge. On the peninsula lay an abandoned merchant town known colloquially as "The World's Edge", it had clearly been a costly yet unsuccessful investment of a long-gone band of swashbucklers based on the lavish architecture presented on the harbour wall; the land on which the town lay was under the jurisdiction of the Rhokian Shogunate so negotiations began (with the help of Leux's plentiful diplomatic connections) to purchase the land from them. With the approval of the Pirate Lord, Trelanganack (and his trusty partner Alfred I or "Buck") began repairing the former trade port and expanding the city to facilitate further settling from merchants and island natives. With this reinvention of the city, it was renamed "Porthnegys" - roughly translating to 'port of business'. The sudden migration and urbanisation of many of the sailors and island natives quickly grew the city's economy and, after much protest, the Pirate Lord Tea proclaimed it as the new capital city of The Black Isles. Following the success of the endeavour, Trelanganack was promoted within the Black Skulls to the positions of Corsair, Head Diplomat, Governor of Porthnegys while Buck was made Co-Governor and became well-known as the go-to builder within The Black Isles; alongside this, Leux's reputation was restored due to her help in the negotiations with Rhokia and her documentation of the native religion and culture slowly became adopted by many sailors and merchants within the Black Isles, finally ending the subjugation of the natives.

Expansion
Immensely proud of the nation he and his corsairs had built, Pirate Lord Tea began vocally opening diplomatic ties with foreign powers (a practice not undertaken before to preserve the young Black Isle's independence). Head Diplomat Trelanganack was sent on Tea's behalf to open negotiations and alliances with many of the nations sharing the Kraken's Fall Sea, including: Sylvania, Alzaria, Rohkian Shogunate and the Socialist Union of Paloma. The Black Isles were well regarded as a fierce yet peaceful and well-spoken nation with a firm grip on maritime trade and a near monopoly on naval combat thanks to it's members Barbossan origins. Though few of the original indigenous islanders remain, many sailors in The Black Isles - namely the Pirate Lord himself - have adopted the customs and religion of the locals, resulting in an unheard of cultural mix in every aspect of life, including the language!

Incorporation
The Black Isles were formally incorporated into the Barbossan Republic and played a major role in the reformation of Barbossa. The inhabitants of the isles were drafted into the Red War (between Barbossa and the USSE) and even, for a short time, hosted the Barbossan capital in Porthnegys. However, their relationship began to strain as Barbossa expanded and started to stray away from their pirate culture - a culture still widely upheld and practiced in the Black Isles. Finally, the straw that broke the camel's back came when Barbossa was dissolved and replaced with the De Vrijmasten Raden (DVR) and piracy was officially thrown to the wayside. The Black Isles, wishing to maintain their current pracitces and way of life, declared their split and became independent once again.

The Legend of the Black Isles
Told by The Orange Poet

When the pirate lord made his bed in the island of The Scurvy Shores, he heard ,with one ear, a light conversation from two natives. a mysterious artifact left by the former Barbossian fleet, a figure made in a darken metal probably worth millions, in the far border of the sea. Of course, there were merchants after all, always thinking about gold. However, The pirate lord imagined the object in his hands, caressing the object, imagining his first treasure, not as something to sell, but as something to be proud of, his eyes were turning black. He ran to the shore, is vessel, washed into the beach, was a stolen one, damaged by the escape. The burning wood was still cracking to the weigth of the steel cannons and the sails felt like paper, the ones that no one could read. Not even a second later, not prepared at all, the crew was already running and pulling ropes in the middle of the blue waves. They arrived, at last, to their destination. It was night, The crew, nervous, holding the boat to not crumble underneath them, looked in the distance. A mere patch of sand, tinier than a plume, was surrounding them in a U shape. The pirate lord, controlling the wheel, ordered the bark to be dropped and the shovels to be ready. He went with two of his men and touched the land with is feet, strange, the sand was black. "Like a mere shadow of itself", said the pirate Lord. him and his men, shovel at hand, started to dig. Hours passed and nothing was found, the island was almost gone, the treasure was gone. The sun rose in the horizon, revealing the yellow sand that was left. Wait, yellow sand? "was it not black earlier", the crew noticed. The pirate lord, turned his head to his ship, it was now black, like a mere shadow.

Clouds were forming on top of them, rain started to crash, dark rain. The islanders rushed to the vessel, which was in the middle of giant tentacles, waving around like if it was showing off his prey. The pirate lord gripped on a loose board on the front and, that was when he started to fly. The others on the ground were small in seconds and the air was getting thicker. He climbed up to the ship, he saw his crew, terror in their poor souls, screaming for mercy, looking down at the mouth of teeth and the eclipse in his black eyes.The lord, on the contrary, was furious. "This ugly ass monster will not be my end, come and get me you pathetic scum!" The giant squid did not move an inch, and then started to rotate his plate. Men and women were dropping, miserably, one by one, like grains of salt trickled onto a perfect dish. The pirate Lord, the last on the ship, held the cracked main mast with his life. He then had an idea, he reached his sword and sawed the mast, finishing the job. The pole fell, with the pirate lord on top, penetrating the monster's mouth. We heard the shriek from miles. The vessel was free from his grasp, to sink, finally, in the abyss. The blue of the sea turned black

What rose from the sea was something of a fairy tale. An immense ship appeared, with at least twenty-four shining canons, ready to tear apart the hardest wood, black rims going around the vessel and a mast so large that it pierced throught the dark clouds and saw the sunlight. "The Eclipse, this would be the name" the Pirate Lord said, wheel at hand, seeing his crew laughing and enjoying life, seeing with his black eyes, stolen to the Kraken. However, the tale is not over yet, because the artifact is still at large, travelling in the dreams of many.

The rest is in the wiki of The Orange Poet

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