Initial Settlements

Military action

Initial attempts at settlements onto Breaksky Island by major maritime powers

Every major maritime power with holdings in the Magarene Ocean immediately saw the economic and military potential of settlements on this new chunk of land. This, of course, opened the doors to conflict.   The first major power to put down structures on these new shores was the Freewater Nation. As the Golia Islands were once their holdings, they thought it only right that they take colonial control over this new landmass, and sent out missives to the other maritime powers to that effect. (These missives were, of course, roundly ignored.) A mix of soldiers, settlers, and construction workers, led by Captain Reginald Fiercetusk, found a serviceable cove in one of the marshy islands on the southeast end of the larger landmass, and laid the foundations for the first walls and buildings for the fort there, to be called Fort Hezga.   This first attempt was one of the lucky ones.   The first expeditions from the Kasainan Kingdom landed on the western side of the Deadlands. After three years succumbing to a mixture of night raids from winged undead, as well as tunneling horrors, the initial fort was abandoned, and the kingdom refocused their efforts northeast along the coast, far away from those hostile, blasted lands.   Across the first few years, each state would fight similar battles in trying to establish forward bases; a site may be chosen, built upon, and staunchly defended for months, only to be overrun and abandoned in the course of a night. Some scholars estimate a cumulative survival rate on Breaksky Island during this time of 28%. Each nation would, iteratively, continue to throw lives and resources at the island with reckless abandon.   But for all the lives that would end up in the jaws of wyverns or bellies of shambling masses of fungus, there never seemed to be a shortage. Each expedition, though like as not to yield death, would almost certainly yield a new crop of valuable raw materials.   Nations practically tripped over themselves building replacement ships and forging new mechanisms for settlement protection. And eventually, each of the major powers would be able to snatch some little piece of land on the island for long enough to develop some reasonable infrastructure upon it.