Shattered Isles

The Shattered Isles is a medium sized province (formally independent) found within the nation of Aristios. It was founded originally by StickmanPrime as an independent city state after events of the Horse War, but has since been redeclared the Shattered Isles by its former King and Governor CynicalPixel. It was a former member of the Ruby Syndicate and Drak Yamar but is now a province led by its earl Ult1mate_Player. It resides within Northern Eldham and spans that half of the continent.

Renaming of Katolis
On April 15th, 2022, the governor of the Province of Katolis in Aristios announced that the province will be renamed and created a form to put forth a name. One week later, the voting form for the new name was released. Five names were up for voting. The names were Soulsguard, Cavanthell, Valotaire, Kalia, and Shattered Isles. Shattered Isles won the vote.

Quickly after the new name came into effect, the monthly elections started. Only one person ran for senator so that position was locked up, but a governor race started. The candidates were Quicksilver and hrussell028. In a vote of 5-3, Quicksilver won.

Attack of StickmanPrime and Katolis Business
Shortly after the governor elections, it was revealed that Stickman Prime, a former citizen of Shattered Isles who was exiled was planning to grief Katolis. hrussell, the only really active member managed to get his loot and some horses down to a safe town, Kristalis Keep. He had to ride through countries like Simulami and Amarillo. The Iris Grand Army, the army of Aristios planned to fight him off. Instead he left the town, leaving it in destruction, and random pieces of TNT in places. With Stickman finally removed from the town, a new mayor had to be decided. After some thought, Quicksilver decided that hrussell deserved the position. Quickly, hrussell fixed the griefed areas, mainly house roofs, ceilings, and some walls of the Castle. After a little, the city was pretty much fixed back to before the attack.

Acquisition of Olmero and the Collapse of Aristios
After the attack of Katolis, Shattered Isles had a little cooldown. Nothing super important happened, until Olmero, an island that belongs to Aristios, joined the province of Aristios, most importantly bringing Ult1mate_Player as a new citizen. Around that time, also, the Aristii provinces of Sanctus and Bel-Ismer (Bal-ismer if you are cultured) declared independence and became the Dominion of Sanctus-Ismer (If Azriel or Xan read this, please tell if wrong). This lead to the rapid fall of Aristios. Even though a plan of a confederacy came up in which Sanctus and Bel-ismer would join, that plan would fail. Provinces scattered and became different things. Sanctus, Bel-Ismer, Portavel, and Shattered Isles became independence. Later, Sanctus became a vassal of Rattican and Bel became a vassal of Anglunia, temporarily. Castellum joined Sylvania as fully integrated territory, with the previous Aristii vassals Astrya and Vintas (Need to fact check Vintas) becoming vassals of Sylvania. Mainland Astilla joined Sylvania too, with Nosteria and Novapolis becoming the province of Aristios (haha funny name please change) in Sylvania also. The island city of Ryukostead and the mainland towns of Lacdechant and Kattegat joined Shattered Isles. Even though Shattered Isles no longer had the protection of Aristios, they gained lots of towns in its collapse.

Aristii Reunification War
Work on later this part boring

Choosing One King
Since a little after the acquisition the Shattered Isles has been ruled by two people; either governors or kings. Even back in the Katolis days the nation had been ruled under a Diarchy, which had caused some issues before. Nevertheless, it was still attempted again and failed again. Both kings, Quicksilver and Ultimate were constantly plotting against each other and going behind each other’s backs. This all came to a head when Ultimate started a vote to decide who would be the sole king. He believed that it was hurting the Shattered Isles having two leaders taking snipes at each other. Quicksilver was “not surprised” by the vote and believed that this was just a coup attempt. The two and their supporters debated for days until the vote closed. Ultimate ended up winning with a 4-2 result. (Ps if wanted from any shattered isles buds you could put in who voted for who I ain’t doing that) But the whole saga wouldn’t end for a little bit longer…

Aetharian Protests
After the vote ended, Quicksilver was angry. The vote, in his eyes, was an illegal coup. He was disappointed that many of his old friends voted against him and stood for Ultimate. This drove him to try to talk with a bunch of citizens about protesting this peacefully with seven other people. This consisted of two trustworthy Aetharians, another dude who’s name I cannot remember of the top of my head, Onoxellya (smth like that), another person I just can’t remember who, Mr. Redacted., and most importantly, Cat Chap. Chap was the only person to stand by Quicksilver. However, Chap saw this as a coup even though it was not meant to be one. He immediately told Ultimate and his supporters, who are Cynical, hrussell028, and Azriel (who had wormed his way into Shattered Isles politics somehow cause he’s built different). Ultimate immediately exposed it and the “movement” died within 24 hours. All involved were forgiven but undoubtedly under much more supervision.

Kratoría en Katolis
The Kingdom of the Shattered Isles, later renamed to Kratoría en Álanios, formed from the territories of the Shattered Isles and North Takavia. It was meant to be led by Lúka en Olea, the governor of the shattered isles, but due to his injuries he declared himself unfit to rule. Instead, leadership went to the As'rian Aegeus Asellus, until Lúka recovered and retook the throne. "And to Valaria - let it be known that to us, you are naught but a wretched people who wanted to make a quick buck, and threw a fit when you were denied. But you will come to realize the price of your actions."

- Lúka en Olea

Vallazaria
Following violence in Kryvonea, leading to the collapse of the nation, a group of refugees led by DjTrooper decided to seek a home elsewhere. And so it was that when they showed up to the throne room of Katolis, they were permitted to set up a new home within Northern Takavia. They would call it Vallazaria, and would swiftly begin work on a beautiful castle.

However, DjTrooper had many enemies. One of them, the nation of Valaria, decided to show up to Katolis and demand the removal of the refugees. The Kratoras, at the time Aegeus, told them quite bluntly to fuck off.

And so it was that war was declared upon Álanios.

Partition of Valaria
Quite peculiarly, shortly after the declaration of war, Valaria collapsed and was partitioned between Iversteiya and the USSE. This resulted in a curious situation where Iversteiya was now involved in a war they had absolutely no part in.

As the Empress of Iversteiya would later share, she learned about the war when the Valarians told her "uwu we have a war ticket open".

Kratorian recruitment drive
Now, the army of Katolis was in quite the shoddy state. Kratoras Lúka was not particularly gifted martially speaking, they had a low population, and most good soldiers went to Akirashalam and did not come back. Obviously, this would not do for a war. While they could reform their military to be effective, it would not be enough.

So, representatives traveled to the other Aristii kingdoms, including Lúka himself. They gave fiery speeches about the danger their home faced- and that if they fell, it would be the other kingdoms next. This worked amazingly, as many young men from both kingdoms showed up in droves to assist Katolis.

Religion
The Shattered Isles offers the freedom of religion, with many members being areligious or not being open about it. It doesn’t mean that religion isn’t important here, as the island of Aetharia is a holy site for followers of the Church of Ciaraphine. Takavagrad also has followers of it too. Not to be outdone, the king Ultimate is a follower of ratism, and Harold Von Rusolt (hrussell) is a recent Rattican (aka for normies that means I get the tag, and yes hrussell is writing this HAHA DEFINITELY NOT BIASED!!! ALL HAIL RAT KING!). This has led to many interesting conversations about ratism in the Shattered Isles.

Government
The government is simple because it is currently a province in the Empire of Aristios. As such, it is led by the Dux, his secretary, and other subordinates while reporting to the national government. However, the province is governed by the Rex, Hugo Airgead (QuickSilver19) at the moment.

Katolis
Katolis was the former capital of the Shattered Isles and its biggest town. Based around a castle that dates back to September 2021, the town has grown to having many homes on two sides of a river. It was originally founded by StickmanPrime, but it has been transferred to Harold Von Rusolt (hrussell028) who, after going inactive, was replaced with StickmanPrime again. It is a free town, with no restrictions on religion, race, and political beliefs. That said, Ratism and the Oasis of the Five do have semi-prominent presences there.

Takavagrad
Takavagrad was originally established by Castor Khan under the name of Takavgrad. This name, however, did not last and the town was later renamed to Takavagrad. Takavagrad, upon being integrated into Katolis (Shattered Isles), became the largest and most influential city of the southern regions. Additionally, the sweetberry industry has been thriving in Takavagrad and has lead to an equally large wine industry. Takavagrad is, however, not highly populated and has many homes sitting abandoned. The largest religion in Takavagrad is the Church of Ciaraphine.

Aetharia
Aetharia was established by a group of refugees led by Hugo Airgead (QuickSilver19). However, most the population soon went inactive, leaving the town in an undeveloped state with only the seawall, church, the townhall, and a few apartment buildings completed. Aetharia is home to the first Church of Ciaraphine and, as such, is a holy site to most Ciaraphites and even some Sylvaphites. As a result of this, there is very little tolerance for other religions in Aetharia. The town continues to be led by Hugo Airgead (QuickSilver19).

Kristalis Keep
Kristalis Keep was originally a fort constructed with the purpose of expanding the Kingdom of Katolis's influence to Takavia. Since then, it has remained mostly desolate except for the occasional build project or mining expedition. It was originally founded by Davwordo but has since changed hands is now under the rule of Nikolai Von Pixis (CynicalPixel.)