Cajenian League
The Cajenian League is a confederation formed by almost every city-state in Cajena with the double goal of fighting the neighbouring Arkadhian New Empire and boosting commerces among themselves and between them and other regions.
Their ships are technologically advanced enough to stand against the Empire, even without magitechnologies on their side, at least until imperial researchers in the Arkadhian Institute of Technology discover energy circuitation.
Cities currently involved in the League are Fezão, Adis, Llões, Roas and Utre.
History
The League was originally created in 1423 to more effectively counter the growing pirate threat with a better organised and more numerous fleet, in order to improve trades. The original members were Llões, Roas and Kos, the former two in centre Cajena, the latter in the east.
The new alliance made trade routes among the three cities more secure. It attracted the interest of Adis, the largest city in the Archipelago with the most powerful ships. Its navy was already dealing efficiently with the outlaws in its part of the sea in the west, but many merchants wanted the city to be part of the League: they feared that foreign countries, like the Sun Desert Kingdom in the south, would have been more comfortable in making business with the League than with a single city. In the year 1478 Adis became the first new member of the Cajenian League.
With the pirates under control, trades flourished, in particular with the Sun Desert Kingdom and cities in the southern Free Lands, until an unforeseeable event happened.
At the beginning of the decade 1580, a series of earthquakes shook eastern Cajena, causing tsunamis in the area, disrupting trade routes with Kos. The abruptness and repetitiveness of the episodes worries merchants and only a few of them decided to try and reach Kos anyway, with even fewer returning successfully. Then, in the year 1587, a sudden devastating eruption of a mountain on the island of Kos completely wiped out the city, leaving only ruins and sea behind.
The destruction of Kos caused many repercussions on the network since many trade routes from the Kingdom relied on the city as the first secure port in the Archipelago. The League decided to found its first official colony to solve this problem. They choose a small village called Utre in the southern continent, not far from the coast, and sent their colonists to enlarge it and build the necessary infrastructure. The process was officially completed in the year 1601 and the city was declared part of the League, though not being on an island in the Archipelago.
Trades resumed in the following years, prospering again. For the rest of the century, trades went so well that the League decided it was time to prepare expeditions for the open ocean in the far east. Many were convinced there must be land in that direction, filled with exotic spices, plants and animals for improving trades with Free Lands and Doujate's nobility. Maybe they could also find a new civilization to trade with. Expert sailors and crews that already tried in the past expected the voyage to last for at least three weeks, maybe a month.
Finally, during the year 1694, an expedition successfully landed on a small uninhabited island, beginning the exploration of the Uncharted Archipelago.
Unfortunately, not many years later, every expedition was suspended. Pirates had acquired a ship never seen before, a large galleon armed with cannons, a technology still far from development at that point in the Archipelago. Nobody knew where they found it (and nobody knows still nowadays) or if they somehow managed to build it in secret. The most believed version states they found it in the uncharted sea in the far east, abandoned on some island. Its firepower was so high that its appearance meant the end for any commercial or military ship. Its first sighting was in the year 1707. It appeared from nowhere, apparently, and assaulted a ship coming from the desert, destroying its whole escort quickly, just to disappear again. Journalists immediately called it the Ghost Galleon.
Pirates presence intensified greatly in the north-eastern part of Cajena, where ships used to sail for the Uncharted Archipelago, leaving no other choice than suspending any expedition, at least until the League had developed ships capable of doing serious damage to the galleon.
Slowly, the League developed cannons and built three galleons, also thanks to the new trades with the Arkadhian New Empire, which had conquered all the lands between the mountain range where its capital lied and the coast. Unseen from the League, busy in fighting pirates with the newfound technologies, the Shadow Court spread its agents in the Archipelago, preparing for a future invasion.
It became more and more clear, during the rest of the eighteen century, that the Empire was going to invade the Archipelago in the near future, it was just delaying the war to be more prepared and to first ensure stability within its borders. It had already begun sabotaging the judges influence in many cities of the southern Free Lands, hoping to quickly conquer them soon after the Archipelago.
The southernmost of these cities, Fezão, asked to join the Cajenian League, as a political action against the Empire. Since it is geographically situated in the Free Lands, its joining was debated a little, but it had been a business partner for more than a century, so in the year 1802 it joined the League.
The nineteen century was fully occupied, on a worldwide scale, by the Abyssal Crisis: dangerous demons spawned everywhere on Nys and most countries were kept busy fighting them. The Archipelago was mostly untouched by the crisis and decided to help the Sun Desert Kingdom and the Free Lands, mostly to make sure trades would keep going. The crisis ended with the help of the Cosmos Wayfarers and the New World Treaty was signed in the year 1896.
Since the Empire did not sign it, outlawing the Wayfarers in the process, the League decided to join: this had the double effect of ensuring to trade partners safe traffics and to let the Empire know they were enemies.
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Finally, in the year 2082, the Empire waged war against the League. They had built a powerful fleet using their primitive magitechologies and sailed towards Cajena. They found a welcome fleet counting the whole League navy, the Ghost Galleon, appeared out of nowhere again for the first time after decades, the pirate fleet and a few ships from the Sun Desert Empire. The Empire lost badly the first major naval battle and was forced to retreat.
This year marked a golden age for the League, being the first political entities able to withstand the imperial raw firepower, at least for the moment being.
During the following century, rumours of the imperial technological advancement spread in Cajena and the League understood they could not stop a probable invasion alone. They looked for the leader of the pirates, the galleon captain, Sidrãis Skamas and made a secret pact with him. They would have been more tolerant with pirates businesses, leaving them many cajenian islands and the possibility of exploring the Uncharted Archipelago undisturbed, but in exchange, they would have helped to defend Cajena against the Empire. He accepted and pirates became, in some military sense, part of the League.
Somehow, the Shadow Court did not know about this pact.
Military
Nowadays the League has hundreds of ships held in reserve in case of war docked in different cities, regularly checked and maintained. It has also a standing fleet of some dozens of fast brigantines and frigates and three galleons, always ready for action. They are all equipped with cannons and ballistae.
The actual number of ships is unknown by design: city leaders decided to not count them to avoid leaving traces that the Shadow Court would have certainly found.
Since the last war against the Empire, and the recent worrying rumours about energy circuitation coming from the Arkadhian Institute, the League is building other galleons in its arsenals, hoping that numbers will help against imperial magitechnologies.
Foreign Relations
United we flourish
Founding Date
1423
Type
Political, Confederation
Power Structure
Confederation
Location
Neighboring Nations
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