Nalislos

The island of Nalislos is an island in the Verïavodosï, off the eastern coast of the Sunlands. It is the centre of the Nalemonic Empire. For roughly the past 2000 years, it has been a major centre of political power for the Naldi in Elleswere, primarily for its major settlement of Capitol. Geographically, the island contains a north-central plain, with low-lying mountains in the east and west and a small highlands in the southeast, with a number of small surrounding islands.

History

Early History

Millenia after of the Rending, the elfs and other Faefolk slowly began to make their way back to Valan. Nalislos was one of the first places in Elleswere where elfs made landfall, only led by the arrival of the Marandi on the Brittle Isles.

Prior to the return of the Naldi, Nalislos was inhabited by mannish Anboran peoples. The Anboran Principality of Islos was an archipelagic realm centred on modern Nalislos, then simply called Islos. Through unknown magics, people on Islos slowly began to disappear without trace, then whole villages, then towns, until the whole island was depopulated in what became known as the Fate of Islos.

Several centuries after the disappearance of Islos, the Naldi began to fully colonize the island in the mid-Caublin Age. By the beginning of the Mannish Age, the elfish Realm of Nalislos became known to the world as part of a elfish resurgence across Elleswere, the Unveiling of the Elfish Realms.

Realm of Nalislos

Vanisher Colonies

The Naldi largely kept to themselves for the early history of their time at Nalislos. However, they quickly began to build a fleet of ships. Naldi voyages patrolled the coasts of Verïavodosï, and became a regular, if not common sight in the islands, Anbor, Feros and even as far as Kürtiya and Lutra. The ships never made calls on any port. The appearance of the ships was often a source of concern and fear, but eventually became little more than a curiosity over the centuries.

In 767 CA, a Naldi monument appeared overnight on the island of Vonalïtra, east of Nalislos, barely a kilometre away from the mannish fishing village on the island. Letters written by a local cleric describe confusion and anxiety among the local mannish population over the appearance of the strange artifact, and explain that the village headman ordered a nightly watch on the coast. A rash of disappearances over the following month led residents to consider evacuating the island, but they were disuaded by a thick fog and high wind. Some months after the appearance of the monument, the village had entirely disappeared without a trace, and no mannish attempt was made to resettle the isle. Later travellers reported an elfish settlement deeply hostile to visitors had appeared on the island.

Over the ensuing centuries, this process repeated itself in the Sunlands, with communities and whole petty kingdoms disappearing without trace, only to be replaced months later by elfish settlements that refused to engage in diplomacy or any other contact with the mannish populations around them. By the beginning of the Mannish Age, the mannish and other populations in Nalislos, Nalgohom in the northern Sunlands, and a number of small islands throughout Verïavodosï had been largely supplanted by Naldi settlements and polities.

Maritime Kingdom

Through the Mannish Age, the Realm of Nalislos began to slowly open communications with neighbouring polities. A delegation to the dwarfish kingdom of Tar Morsi, led by an elfish lord, Rez Dhonavos, was the first Naldi envoy to visit and hold talks with a non-elfish kingdom in 213 MA. Slowly, Naldi magistrates began to visit other mannish realms, and accept brief visits to small villages by other groups. The Realm of Nalislos became a maritime trading nation, exchanging elfish treasures, alien and intriguing to local communities, once the fear and apprehension from the appearance of a Vanisher Colony wore off.

Nevertheless, the Vanisher Colonies continued to appear. Wars or smaller military actions taken to reclaim the land resulted almost exclusively in one of two outcomes: (1) the attacking force was destroyed, and elfish counterattacks would devastate the lands near the vanisher colony; or (2) the colony would itself vanish before the attack was launched. In the latter scenario, the elfish colony would often reappear on the same site. Realms that remained hostile to the colony were often circumvented, with the Naldi creating roads sending envoys to neighbouring realms to secure trade routes that would supply the elfish ships travelling back to Nalislos.

Over time, the Naldi colonies appeared across Elleswere and northern Soddam, mostly concentrated on the coasts of Verïavodosï. However, some colonies appeared far to the north, as far as the northern Younglands and the Sea of Violets.