Trati, also called the
Tratian Republic, and officially the
Union Republic of the Tratian Isles and Baluarte, is an island nation comprising the
Tratian Archipelago, the island of Tirivade, and the Baluarte Peninsula.
History
Tira Vellan Settlement
During the Tira Vellan Tetrarchy, peoples would depart from
Tira Vella, sailing to Trati to settle. These people would settle in city-states mostly along the coasts of the western isles of the Tratian archipelago, forcing the native Karanesians inland. Some of the most notable cities formed by these colonists were Copara, Moina, and Sabros. Copara was particularly notable for its system of government, set up to be a democracy. Some of these colonies would then eventually birth colonies themselves. The western isles were largely a patchwork of Karanesian tribes who could not mount effective resistance to the
Tira Vellans' colonising efforts, but their eastward expansion was eventually halted when they reached the Dilmag kingdom. Instead, they would head north, making contact with the Vallaran and
Fridian city-states. The western Tira Vellan alphabet they had brought with them would be adopted by the Vallarans, going on to develop into the Vallaran script in widespread use today. Tensions would mount, however, between the Tira Vellans and the Vallarans. The first Tirivadan War of 1016 to 1031 was largely a matter deciding whether Vallarans or Tira Vellans would have hegemony over the island, pitting blocs led by
Hadrumentum (Adrumento) and Andalos (Ándalo) against each other. The Vallaran bloc eventually won the war. The second Tirivadan War of 1160 to 1163 would be the
Varaso conquest of the island. The island would remain under Varaso control until 2369. As the Varasos expanded south, conquering the Metlans, they threatened the Tira Vellans who had settled in Trati. The Varasos conquered Baluarte and invaded Trati in 1340. The Tratian Tira Vellans banded together into the
Tratian Confederacy to resist the invasion. The Varasos at this point still did not possess a formidable navy, and were easily beaten back by the Tratians. The Varasos would invade again in 1362, much better prepared, but were ultimately still defeated by the Tratians.
Union Republic of the Tratian Isles and Baluarte
Sinénosi Repúblic de Nísi Tráti ce Baluárti
República União da Ilhas Tratias e Baluarte
Capital
Copara
Languages
Common: Tratian, Varaso
Preceded by
Tratian Confederacy
Tobacco and the Slave Trade
The threat of
Varaso loomed large under
Aleixo and his conquests, and while ultimately he wouldn’t attempt an invasion of Trati, the fear that he might re-strengthened the league. Trati by this point was still a relatively poor place, and did not threaten Varas or its trade, which it could conduct through ports near
the Narrows or places like Tunis. It wasn’t until the introduction of tobacco from below the
Arega in the 19
th century that Trati’s fortunes would change. The wet subtropical climate of Trati and Baluarte were perfect for growing the crop and it quickly became a valuable commodity as large tobacco plantations emerged in Trati and Varaso Baluarte. Both regions began the massive import of
lizardfolk slaves, captured by Chazhdurm slavers and sent north through the Aregan slave trade. Trati then began to become wealthy off of the tobacco trade, entering the crosshairs of Varas once again. Varas began to sanction piracy against Tratian vessels. Most were based out of the Varaso port cities of Enzim and Tunis. Tratians began to hire
Tira Vellan mercenary ships to protect their shipments, but the growing expense had begun to make their tobacco no longer competitive with that from Varaso Baluarte. In 1911 a combined force from the states of the confederacy and Tira Vellan mercenaries blockaded and besieged the cities of
Enzim and Tunis. Both cities were sacked, and in exchange for a large sum of money
Enzim was made a free city which would enter into the confederacy while Tunis would remain Varaso and Varas was forbidden from sanctioning piracy. Enzim would serve as an important bulwark at the mouth of the Inner Sea, and a constant bugbear for Varas. Varas would attempt nine sieges of the city between 1920 and 2306, never succeeding in taking the city. The Tratians had been able to take the city easily because Varas had done little to fortify it, not viewing it as having been in any real danger, while upon its independence, Enzim was immediately flooded with people from the Tratian states and its defences built up from the confederacy’s common coffer to ensure it would remain independent, and it gained a reputation as “
the unsiegeable city”.
Hair of Tunis would flee from Tunis to Enzim in 2026 to seek refuge from prosecution in Varas. Here he would proselytise his
new faith to the people of Enzim. Many of the other states of the confederacy were likewise unhappy with this new faith as Varas had been, but by this point Enzim was to important, to well defended, and too powerful to simply be forced to acquiese to the demands of the more powerful states of the confederacy, and the leaders of the city embraced and welcomed the new faith. The confederacy could have cut off the city and left it to its own defence to fall eventually to Varas, but the leaders of the confederacy were too invested in keeping Enzim, even if it would become a sticking point. Over the next two centuries the relationship between Enzim and the rest of the confederacy would strain at several points over religious matters, with Enzim being made to return runaway slaves from other confederate states (though noteably not Varaso ones) and the Moina Agreement, in which all confederate states were made to legalise the Furanist faith and allow its free private practice in exchange for the states being able to ban public practice and proselytisation, and Enzimian acceptance of magical practice in the rest of the confederacy. Importantly, though, slaves were not guaranteed the same freedom of religious practice. As Furanism’s direct prohibition of slavery was largely incompatible with the confederacy’s slave plantation economy, the religion spread little outside of Enzim.
Enzimian Wars
Enzim would grow ever more distant and ever more frustrated with and frustrating to the rest of the confederacy. After the slave revolt of 2284 on Kingfisher Isle and the Trento Affair in 2289, in which Coparan spies were caught attempting to steal the secret of
gunpowder from the Enzimans, Enzim officially left the confederacy. Following this, the Moina Agreement was voided and many states in the confederacy criminalised Furanism. The Varasos laid siege to Enzim the next year in 2290 in what would become a sixteen year siege. In 2355 when
Enzim invaded Varas, the Tratians initially remained out of the conflict, not wanting to aid either side. After the conquests of
Varas and
Alvoradã this would begin to change, but it wasn’t until
Cónsulo's decree of abolition in 2369 that confederacy would get involved. After the decree and creation of the
Holy Enzimian Empire, Baluarte and Tirivade, both heavily reliant on slave labour, dissolved their ties to Varas and sought entry into the confederacy. They were given entry despite their lack of cultural history with the Tratians and Varaso language and identity, and the Tratians entered the wars. The Tratians ultimately came out relatively victorious from the wars, Tirivade and Baluarte remaining members, but the wars had interrupted the Aregan slave trade, and the subsequent conversion of the Chazhdurms meant it would not resume following the Peace of Útrecos, causing Tratians to sail further south in order to continue the further import of slaves. This led to the Tratian discovery and colonisation of the island of Tucucu south of
Oecumene. The Tratians stayed out of the
War of the Holy League, Enzim by this point now being far too powerful for the Tratians to meaningfully challenge. However, by the war’s end, they and Tira Vella were the only non-Furanist states in Oecumene. Their tobacco, however, continued to sell, even as those they sold it to abhorred the slavery that produced it.
Modern History
Things in Trati thus remained stable for the next half century or so following the end of the War of the Holy League until the
Great Plagues began. The Great Plagues wreaked havoc on the slave population in Trati, and as they attempted slaving raids into
Aresra from Tucucu, they merely spread the plagues to the Saurian tribes there, too. Unable to staff the plantations, the Tratian economy entered freefall. As the plagues ended and the other states began to recover, Trati was still reeling, especially in the wake of the Chaspethian Exchange and the start of tobacco cultivation outside of Trati and Baluarte. This led to an Enzimian invasion of Baluarte in 2606. Tira Vella came to the aid of the Tratians. The Tratians and Tira Vellans won the war against Enzim, but Tira Vella, which had abolished slavery themselves in 2576, and which had effectively ceased on the islands centuries ago, forced abolition on the Tratians, nonetheless. Trati was, however, able to remain non-Furanist and independent of Enzim, and was formed into an official state, the Union Republic of the Tratian Isles and Baluarte, in 2610, fashioned after the Tira Vellan system, still at this point a rather aristocratic system closer to an oligarchy rather than a modern republic, though less centralised. The slave trade no longer allowed, Tucucu was no longer particularly valuable to the Tratians, and they forced the now freed Saurians to the island and it was made independent.
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