As Time Goes By: 924 - 928
General Summary
Sardivelia's Anti-Piracy War Ends
Month 10, Year 927
The anti-piracy campaigns started in the late 910’s during Sardivelia’s trade war with Sabha, leading to the defeat of Wendel Shadman and his crew of privateers at the hands of the Avventuri. The new wave of anti-piracy fighting started in the fall of 924 after a series of embarrassing raids that summer left some of Sardivelia’s most prized vessels looted and gutted. The Avventuri were given carte blanche to destroy pirate ships and their crew by any means necessary, giving their wizard leader Oppelby plenty of opportunities to test out new spells at sea. Survivors of some of the Avventuri raids describe boats being demolished by tsunami-sized waves or cleaved in half by monsters summoned out of nowhere.
Despite these raids, Sardivelia never managed to apprehend any of the crew members responsible for the summer raids of 924. The Holy Boater, as the ship was called, disbanded later that year and its new captain Sarek Zureth closely aligned himself with the New Tolball government to provide a veneer of diplomatic immunity for his voyages throughout the Karaga Sea. He brokered alliances with Tilapia and other sahuagin tribes in the region to provide some support for the Tolball regime, and despite harboring wanted brigands like the notorious Noodles Habanero the Coursing Venom was never apprehended by authorities.
Nekutalin, for years a haven for pirates throughout Pescaliat, has now become another quiet port of call like Argenthrix or Orem now that its pirate patrons are all either dead or in hiding. Shogun Tolball has returned to the city after his yearslong campaigns against the remaining holdouts of the Kiri Remnant, his firm hand discouraging any surviving pirates from acting up for fear of death by flinky. Despite the anti-piracy campaigns and a loss of trade to the city, New Tolball’s membership in the Northern Union has cushioned the blow and spared the kingdom from bending the knee to Sardivelia like Sabha and the Lotan Conservation have in recent years. Should Sardivelia have any future disputes with Tolball and his kingdom, they’ll have to be resolved through more formal diplomatic channels in the halls of Sanjuro City.
Sardivelia has resorted to extreme measures to maintain its naval superiority in the Karaga Sea, and outsiders worry about how much farther the kingdom will go to maintain what it perceives to be its rightful sphere of influence. So far Sardivelia has gone after pirates and treasonous noble families, but the kingdom hasn’t waged an all-out war against a rival kingdom in nearly three centuries. Alessandra Capaldi, much like her predecessor, believes in a Karaga Sea where all coastal kingdoms play by Sardivelia’s rules and that this monopoly will one day extend to the Largas Ocean and the coasts of Rana. This vision remains incomplete due to holdouts like New Tolball and the Treeleaf Union, both of which are allied to powerful superpowers with a vested interest in reigning in Sardivelian influence. Whether cooler heads prevail or not, anybody worried about full-scale war in Pescaliat should keep an eye on the Karaga Sea.
Queen Astrid, Great Reunifier of Gameth, Dies at 87
Month 4, Year 927
Queen Astrid Nestorius of Gameth passed away last night in the Astral Palace of Gameria, having served as queen for 43 years. A period of national mourning was declared throughout the kingdom, her daughter and heir to the throne Stella III overseeing the funeral procession and ceremonies.
Month 4, Year 927
Queen Astrid’s life and leadership reshaped every facet of Gameth, reversing decades of decline and turning it into one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms in Pescaliat. When she took the throne in 874 Hakon was still an independent nation-state and Gameth was on the brink of a costly war with Avicenna; in her first decade in power she managed to bring Hakon back into the Gamerian fold and annexed many of Avicenna’s most important mining towns after coming out victorious in the Avicennan War. She oversaw the creation of the Royal Knights Brigade, the first adventuring guild of the modern era, and ushered in an era of industrialization that tied the kingdom closer together with airships and railways.
But her achievements did not come without concessions: Hakon maintained some of its autonomy after reunification, demanding environmental protections and limits on industrialization in the Kelethian Woods. This slowed some of the kingdom’s technological innovations, allowing rival powers like Sardivelia and Rakka to play catch-up and even surpass Gameth in some fields. Queen Stella III vows to close this technological gap, siding with Avicennan expats and industrialists over any Hakonian concerns. Astrid’s reign focused on reunifying and strengthening the kingdom, and her legacy will be measured by whether the kingdom’s unity endures after her passing.
Queen Astrid also served as High Priestess of the deity Erivo before ascending to the throne, a pious woman her entire life and remaining ever vigilant against threats of the undead and aberrations. She supported the Royal Knights Brigade in its campaign against the lich Fairouz the Undying and the eldritch Sunken God, and under her leadership Gameth was one of the first supporters of the Edict of Dromire and its limits on necromancy. The Temples of the Ageless One and Erivo still holds considerable influence in Gameria, and Queen Stella III is expected to continue these policies during her reign.
For centuries Gamerian rulers have dreamed of playing a more influential role in international affairs on the continent of Pescat, and thanks to Queen Astrid’s reign Gameth is in the best position to achieve these goals in over four hundred years. Stella III is expected to collaborate with kingdoms like Rakka on campaigns against undead and interplanar threats while trying to counter Sardivelian hegemony in the Karaga Sea. With Sardivelia perceived as Gameth’s biggest geopolitical threat in the modern era, after her coronation Stella is expected to go on a world tour visiting Rakka, Despero, and the Northern Territories to discuss future alliances.
Glace Stabilized by Rakkan Intervention
Month 12, Year 926
After several years of chaos and uncertainty, today Glace's leaders convened to formally adopt a new Rakkan-style Constitution for the kingdom. Led by the dwarven monarch Szymon Horvat, all of Glace’s major races and cultures will be represented in a military council overseen by the Horvat royal family.
Month 12, Year 926
Glace was thrown into a decade of instability following the death of the elven Queen Ludmila Tomic and the subsequent exodus of elves to the Elflands. Founded on the principle of a power-sharing monarchy between the kingdom’s three major races (human, dwarf, elf), modern Glace fell into a period of instability as the human and dwarven monarchs struggled to keep the peace amid protests from the white dragonborn of the Toothless Mtns. The human King Karel Vidovic vouched for a Gamerian-style constitutional monarchy, but the dwarven monarch Szymon Horvat argued for a Rakkan-style military junta to oversee the kingdom’s fractious population.
Karel made several trips abroad seeking support from Gameth for his political arrangement, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as Queen Astrid focused on more domestic issues like maintaining the reunification of Gameth and Hakon. Gameth was also reluctant to offer any kind of material support to Glace, a longtime rival of its ally Myltev who had seized the Myltevian island of Nevsky 150 years ago.
This provided the perfect opportunity for Rakka to solidify its alliances in the region, providing a sizeable number of soldiers and peacekeepers to oversee the drafting a new Rakkan-style constitution. As a longtime ally of the Elflands Glace had long fought against Rakkan expansion, but after the collapse of the Elflands Empire during the Sunken God’s Reign of Terror Glace’s leadership was willing to put aside old conflicts for the sake of self-preservation. The new government now has all the major races and ancestries represented, including white dragonborn and the contingent of elves who chose to stay behind in the economic hub of Poroshenko. Appeals from the kingdom’s population of kalashtar and halflings for equal representation have been delayed pending future hearings.
Glace’s adoption of a Rakkan-style constitution marks a stark realignment in the geopolitics of Southern Pescat, but this move does not appear to have increased the likelihood of war in the region. Sardivelia’s Alessandra Capaldi applauded the constitution’s ratification, a sign of the gentleman’s agreement that Rakka and Sardivelia seem to share. The two kingdoms have collaborated for over a decade on exploring the far-off continent of Rana, and there appears to be some unspoken agreement divvying up control of Southern Pescat between their two spheres of influence.
Gameth’s leadership was too distracted by domestic disputes to barely even send out a letter of congratulations, the only major objection to the deal being the kingdom of Despero. “Rakka seeks to subjugate Pescat by land, sea, and sky,” said Regent Luciana Chabert. “The Muntab Fleet give them air and Glace provides more naval ports, we must brace ourselves for its inevitable land ambitions.”
Despite having one of the largest standing armies in Pescaliat, Rakkan High Marshal Proserpine Hafiz has done little saber rattling at home. This may be due in part to the strong religious presence of Tyr, its worshipers like Eli Anderson preaching for vigilance against more interplanar threats like fiends rather than more mundane political concerns. Father Eli’s intercession prevented the country from plunging into a violent civil war with the Verschow, and Proserpine seems to recognize the debt she owes to the broken-bottle preacher and has avoided any signs of warmongering during her reign. Her children do not seem to share the same level of caution, her son and heir Akthos airing his disdain for Despero at every social gathering he attends.
Desert Dreamers Disappear
Month 9, Year 925
[SCENE: A nondescript office in downtown Noggin. Josephine Elderberry scribbles away at some paperwork when Nebin Quillfeather enters with two mugs of coffee.]Month 9, Year 925
Nebin: Here’s your coffee, ma’am, I took the liberty of picking a Lotan blend for this lovely afternoon. The dragonborn use their lightning breath to roast the beans, you can really taste the smokiness in each sip. [Josephine takes the cup and sips it silently for a moment, placing it aside where it’ll grow cold by the meeting’s end.] Josephine: Have you talked to Phaedra yet? Nebin: Indeed I have, what she lacks in professionalism has been more than made up for by the intelligence she provided. It’s true: Maris Sissava and all her yuan-ti agents have vanished from Sabha, last seen heading into the Campanel Desert. Josephine: So the yuan-ti vanishing act in Sanjuro City is more than just a one-off event. Let’s move some of our agents out of Rakka and into Despero, we’ll want to follow the yuan-ti stragglers to see what’s going on in the desert. Nebin: What’s our working theory on the movements? J: A holy war presumably, Dendar vs Merrshaulk. Maris has been dreaming of claiming Sheyuan for her deity for as long as I’ve been around, it seems that Merrshaulk’s finally given her the green light to set things in motion. It could take a couple years or it could take a couple decades, either way I want to make sure we learn about any developments before the Shroud does. N: Their agent out in Anthep is pretty impressive, it’ll be hard to move our agents around the area without her noticing. J: That’s why we’re reassigning Agent Pahedra to Despero’s capital, give the Shroud a diversion while we mobilize our agents on the border. She may be powerful, but our records show time and again that she’s easily distracted by personal issues. N: I’ll let Ms. Phaedra know right away, I believe she was expecting more downtime in Noggin but I’m sure she’ll enjoy the opportunity to run into an old friend. J: I’m glad you have the patience for her outbursts, I had Agent Cedarroost assigned as her handler for a couple years ago before she threw in the towel. Make sure she’s left town by nightfall, and have someone from Archives send me the file we have on Luciana Chabert. N: As you wish, let me know if you need another cup of coffee anytime. [Josephine doesn’t reply.]
Report Date
07 Feb 2023
- 928: Arel Yrrann elected new leader of Bahamut
- 927: Catorce quarantined for several months due to Redpox fears
- 926: Gujek the Whimsical elected new President of Broggfey; New Merchants Union party wins Treeleaf Union parliamentary election; Queen Yasamin Rostami of Sabha passes away, Zahreh Rostami takes the throne
- 925: Free State of Thorvald elects Drencir Kilqiroth as its first dragonborn Allspeaker
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