Wesfair Isle

The next time you hear anyone speak about the "benefits" of wars to the society, tell them to go visit Wesfair Isle. Let them walk among the numerous ruins of the once-flourishing settlements and countless graves left by the constant invasions of the island. Regretfully, even that is often not enough to persuade the mighty.

Wesfair Isle is one of the first large islands in the New World to be discovered and settled. However, despite those facts and even the abundance of fertile soil on the island, its population has stayed relatively low for most of the recent history. There are many places on Welfare Isle's long coast where large ships can come close to the shore safely, which made the island extremely vulnerable to any attacks. It was often subject to pirate raids, and Wesfair Isle has changed its owners multiple times throughout history. Each of those frequent invasions by competing powers has dealt considerable damage to the island's population as well as its infrastructure. Currently, the island is ruled by the Kingdom of Eire, who had retaken it a few years ago and has been struggling to repair the destroyed defences ever since.

Geography

Welfair Isle has a total land area of around 3,000 square miles, with its shore stretching for more than 100 miles from north-east to south-west. Aside from a few mountain areas closer to the centre of the island, most of the land is covered in plains or low hills, with pretty of vegetation. It does, however, lack easily available freshwater sources, with very few rivers and lakes of any relevant size. As a result, most of the water on Wesfair Isle comes from occasional rains or rare groundwater sources, somewhat limiting the potential for developed agriculture. The island is also known to have suffered from a number of earthquakes and floods in the past, although it appears that they were moderate in scale.

Population

Owing in part to the island's geography and in part to its complicated history, Wesfair Isle is populated is a quite unusual manner. Most of its population lives in the inland part of the island rather than on its shores, and most of the settlements are fairly small and far apart. The majority of the population consists of a mix of Eirish, Hummish and Kosaris. There are not so many Vurradians remaining on Wesfair Isle these days, even though the Ardenian authorities made several attempts to strengthen the local economy by bringing in enslaved Vurradians from other islands in the past. There is a fair share of Vurradian blood in the veins of many Eirish and, especially, Hummish settlers, which is understandable given the long history of the island as an Old World's colony.

History

Sometime during the Second Wave of Colonisation, both the Eirish and the Hummish colonies were established in different parts of the island. Most of them were unsuccessful, but the Hummish settlers from one of the colonies had managed to subjugate one of the local tribes. They started to spread their influence to most of the island, forming the military elite of the united tribe under their rule, and moved to live in the centre of the island with their new subjects. The Hummish then tried to subjugate the Eirish colonies to their rule but were apparently repelled by the latter's militia. The trade agreement was reached, where Hummish were supplied with more advanced tools and weapons in return for food and gold. That was made possible due to the growing trade between Eirish colonies of the New World and the Wellimbrook Archipelago.
During the Third Wave of Colonisation, the population of Wesfair Isle declared its allegiance for the League of Preservation. However, that got them involved in the League's constant conflicts with the Ardenian Empire, and the island fell to a massive invasion fleet at the start of the Fourth Wave of Colonisation. That invasion, the first one of that scale to be seen in the whole of New World, secured the island for almost 10 years. The Kosaris forces razed many of the Eirish settlements and drove the survivors away from the shore, and resettled the lands with their own people. However, the inland part of the island remained considerably less affected. That tendency stayed true for most of the many conquests to follow, which has shaped the island's structure the way it is now.

Maps

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  Wesfair Isle

Alternative Name(s)

Red Island

Type

Island

Owning Organization

Viceroyalty of Western Colonies

Contested By

• Imperial Administration of Colonies
• League of Preservation