A Crash Course in the History and Geography of the Isles

Some Basic Geography:

This game is set in an alternate version of the western hemisphere of Earth, and the Isles are divided into two archipelagos roughly analogous to North and South America.  There is a relatively narrow band of open ocean between the two, running east to west just slightly north of the equator, similar to the Gulf of Mexico, and this is what constitutes the Lesser Bounds (Middle Bounds, as the locals call it).  The Greater Bounds are equivalent to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Myriads are the most centralized areas of the two archipelagos, the Margins the less densely packed barrier islands on the edge of the Bounds, and the Reaches refer both to the few and far between islands of the Greater Bounds and the far-flung islands closest to the polar areas.

I don’t have a full map yet and probably never will because it’s more fun for me to make portions up as I go along and see how they fit together. But since maps are cool and you probably want to see something, here is a map of the Red Horn Isles, the region where our saga begins:

 

  

(Map made with Hexkit by Cone of Negative Energy)
 

 

People of Inigoquaa, the Northern Archipelago:

The two archipelagos are both comprised of many thousands of islands, none larger than a couple hundred square miles, most quite a bit smaller.  Many of these islands are not inhabited, but plenty are, and hundreds of small, independent tribes and nations exist throughout.  The following are just a few of the larger players, which is to say that they hold sway over more than a handful of islands.  None of them are empires in their own right, being at most alliances of smaller tribes or clans based along shared cultural backgrounds.

• Pushmataha: an alliance of a few dozen small tribes located along the southern islands of Inigoquaa and the northern Margins of the Middle Bounds.  They share a common culture and religion, and have banded together to stand against incursions of Tamoanchan and the Ouagabarou from across the Lesser Bounds.  Known for building large platform mounds, a love of full contact sports, and purification rituals involving the infamous “Black Drink”.   Inspired by Mississippian culture and the Five Civilized Tribes of the southeastern US.

• The Pomuktuck League: Similar to Pushmataha, less a unified nation and more a loose alliance based on a common culture.  Colonists from the empire of Avonia (see below) have been streaming into their territory steadily for about 100 years now, straining what had originally been peaceful relations.  In recent years Avonian missionaries have had some success in spreading their faith, which has led to the beginning of a schism within the society between the converts and the traditionalists.  Inspired by the Algonquian peoples of the northeastern US and southeastern Canada.

• Xaayda: Fierce raiders of the northwestern isles, with a very distinctive art style much in demand amongst collectors, these people have been resisting incursions from Kagayaku for decades now.  They have begun to adopt some of the tactics of their invaders, and have become skilled at building coastal fortifications.  Inspired by the people of the northwest Pacific Coast, such as the Tlingit, Salish, Nuxalk, and Kwakwaka’wakw.

• Estavalia: Relative newcomers, the Estavalians are an offshoot of the Avonians that claim to have been guided to their current territories in the central portion of Inigoquaa by their gods.  Organized into tribes which are composed of various clans.  They value their independence greatly, meaning that each clan is essentially autonomous.  It is something of a running joke among their neighbors that you can be given gifts and trade from one clan only to be raided by another clan the next day.  Jarast, our protagonist, comes from these people.  Inspired by the Orlanthi culture of Glorantha, especially as presented in the game King of Dragon Pass.

• Ochehti: Former occupants of much of what is now Estavalia, this semi-nomadic group now travels throughout the western isles, settling in an area for a few years while the hunting and fishing is good, only to move on before it runs out.  The Ochehti had for generations been at odds with the smaller tribes of the Hochak and Meheshkwa, and only with the arrival of the Estavalians were they pushed out of their ancestral lands.  Many still harbor a grudge, while others have moved on and seek peace, or to find newer, richer lands to the west.  Inspired by the tribes of the Great Plains, particularly the Lakota.

People of Xingu, the Southern Archipelago:

As above, Xingu, the southern archipelago, is made up of thousands of smaller islands, and is home to a mind bogglingly diverse array of plant and animal life, as well as people.  It tends to be more tropical, except towards the southernmost regions.

• Tamoanchan: The only true native empire of the Isles, Tamoanchan has dominated the northwestern quadrant of Xingu for eight centuries.  They maintain a hegemony over the region and regularly send their ships further afield, even into the southern portions of Inigoquaa, in search of both trade and slaves.  In the last hundred years or so they have repelled multiple full scale invasions by Cuzão, as well as legions of their missionaries.  Time will tell if they can withstand the next one.  Inspired by the Aztecs and Maya.

• Oaugabarou: Unlike most of their neighbors, the Ouagabarou tribes of the eastern Isles have very little skill in metalworking, they don’t produce their own cannons, and they have very few ships, preferring to travel in swift and surprisingly seaworthy canoes.  What they lack in modern technology, they make up for with strange magic and their skill at taming and riding the plentiful dragons of their islands.  They do not appreciate interlopers.  Inspired somewhat by the Yanomami, but also Melniboné from Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga.

• Koypuu: Most native groups tend to build smaller, faster ships (medium and smaller in game terms), but the Koypuu buck this trend with massive arks that serve as homes and the basis of temporary villages for multiple families.  Koypuu clans travel in fleets of a few of these arks until they find good fishing grounds, at which point they anchor the ships in place and connect them with a network of rope bridges, temporary platforms, ladders, and the like.  These serve as impromptu villages until the clan decides that it’s time to move on.  The Koypuu are a generally peaceful people (despite having both Tamoanchan and Ouagabarou close by) who are excellent spearfishers and divers, and do an excellent trade in shells, pearls, coral, etc.  Inspired a little by the Sama-Bajau people of southeast Asia, but more by the fact that I think the game needed a mostly peaceful faction with big ass floating fortresses.

The Empires:

It’s a big world, and there are many great empires, states, societies and tribes out there that don’t have a presence in the Isles… yet.  I’m not going to worry about them for now, but who knows what might come up in another campaign.  Due to the distances and difficulties involved, the empires of the east and west have had little formal contact, and what little they know of each other comes from rumor and tall tales.  All it would take is one brave and lucky crew to change all that.  In the meantime, these are the empires with the greatest influence in the Isles currently

• Avonia: An island empire located across the Eastern Bounds far to the east, Avonia’s people have always been seafarers.  Their ships are among the finest in the world, their military discipline legendary, matched only by their drive to explore and claim new lands for their own.  For the last century, that drive has focused largely on the territory of the Pomuktuck League, and despite initially friendly relations, tensions seem to be increasing daily.  Apart from maritime tradition, the other constant of Avonian history has been periodic recurring wars with the neighboring empire of Cuzão.  Despite conflicts with Cuzão, clashes with the Pomuktuck, and many of their own colonies growing restless, Avonia stands strong.  Inspired by the British Empire

• Cuzão: South of Avonia is the theocracy of Cuzão, and as mentioned above the two empires have an on again/off again history of conflict stretching back centuries.  While Avonia seeks to spread its people and way of life throughout the Isles, Cuzão is more concerned with spreading its faith, a solar cult called the Church Undying.  While officially co-equals, the crown is de facto subordinate to the Church and is left to handle mundane matters so that the Church can focus on winning new souls to the faith and caring for the state of the souls it already has.  Its black robed priests and Redemptors are ever present on its ships and territories.  In the last century Cuzão has focused on the conquest and conversion of Tamoanchan, though their efforts have been rebuffed so far.  Inspired by Spain/Portugal and, as you surely didn’t expect, the Inquisition.

• Kagayaku: Far beyond the Western Bounds lie the rocky islands of Kagayaku, lands of great wealth and beauty but also regularly brutalized by storms, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  While Avonia seeks to expand their territory because they can, Kagayaku does so because they must.  Though some of their islands are very fertile, the frequent natural disasters means that harvest are always at risk even in the best of years, and so they must expand outward to find new resources for their homeland.  So far that has meant coming into contact with the Xaayda, and things have not gone well.  Kagayakuans are master builders of fortifications, and so what few ports they have gained in the Isles tend to be well protected.  Inspired by Edo era Japan and Rauatai from the Pillars of Eternity games (which is itself largely inspired by Japan anyway).

• Wehata:  While lush, the southwesternmost isles of Xingu tend to be colder and more mountainous than the rest of the archipelago, and thus more sparsely populated.  A few generations ago, however, the first explorers from Wehata, an empire controlling an archipelago of its own far (really far) to the west, arrived in the region and began to make it their own, swiftly overcoming any resistance and absorbing many of the small, isolated tribes in the region.  They are known to be fearsome warriors and skilled navigators, perhaps even rivaling Avonia in that regard.  Due to the distances involved, they seem to be developing in relative isolation from their homelands, and time will tell whether they flourish or fade into history.  Inspired by Polynesian cultures in general and the Māori specifically. 

Languages:

Calling the linguistic diversity of the Isles “staggering” is almost an understatement.  Each of the cultural groups listed above can be assumed to speak their own language, most likely with multiple dialects and accents.  Most minor tribes speak their own language as well as those of their nearest neighbors and any larger dominant cultures in the area.  To facilitate things, there is a sort of lingua franca simply called “Trade” which is spoken in all but the most remote parts of the Isles.  The accents vary from region to region, so the Trade of a Xaayda will sound very strange to a Koypuu and vice versa, separated as they are by thousands of miles, but they will still be able to get by.  Almost everyone who has grown up in the Isles speaks Trade; the only people who don’t are arrivals from the Empires who either haven’t been here long enough or haven’t bothered, young children, and natives of the most remote islands who have almost no contact with the outside world.

A little history:

Untold ages past: All evidence indicates that Inigoquaa and Xingu were at one time unbroken continents.  Most legends say that they were inhabited, though the details vary greatly depending on who you ask.  Popular theories include gods, demons, a race of beautiful and powerful humans who mastered sorceries we can only dream of today, the ancestors of today’s native inhabitants, primitive beings that only survived to become human because the gods took pity on them, people who were enslaved by a race of vampires, a race of giant fungal horrors that came from another world, and a race of snake or lizard people (that last one being particularly prevalent in Tamoanchan).  All that can be said for sure is that whoever they were, they are either long gone or have kept themselves exceptionally well hidden all these many ages.

Several millennia ago:  All native inhabitants of the Isles have a legend regarding the Sundering, and naturally they all differ on the details.  Most claim it resulted from the foolish actions of sorcerers whose lust for power exceeded their good sense, or the wrath of the gods at said sorcerers, or some combination of the two.  All agree that it was a time of terrible hardship, with the land torn apart by unimaginable violence.  Millions died in the event, and millions more died in the years of chaos that followed.  Plagues, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, rampaging monsters, and the worst kinds of weather (both natural and supernatural) reduced the population to a few handfuls of hardy survivors.  Eventually the world calmed, more or less, and those survivors rebuilt their civilizations among the strange new islands that were all that remained of their home, eventually becoming the ancestors of today's native populations of the Isles.

~1200 years ago: The Church Undying, founded a few centuries earlier in a different part of the world altogether, spreads to Cuzão, displacing their native traditions within a generation and spreading to Avonia soon after.  The Avonian Church would undergo massive liberalization about 500 years later which, while not being the source of the animosity between the two nations, certainly didn’t help the situation any.

~800 years ago: Tamoanchan grows from being a local power into a regional one, establishing dominance over every island within about 200 miles of their home island.  The ruling chief at the time, Itzcuintli, declares himself emperor with the support of the priesthood of the god Tlacuachotl, thereby founding the imperial dynasty that has continued to this day.  Over the next 800 years Tamoanchanian society stratifies into a caste system, the nation continues to expand its sphere of influence, becoming a military and economic powerhouse, the first (and so far only) true empire of the Isles.

~400 y.a.: Groups of tribes among the southern isles of Inigoquaa, already connected by a trade network and similar languages, begin to coalesce into a defensive alliance in the face of increasing raids from Tamoanchan (and later Ouagabarou), becoming the unified culture we know today as Pushmataha.  It is worth noting that Pushmataha is a cultural identity, not a political one, and the vast majority of the tribes under the umbrella still consider themselves independent entities.  Many even consider each other traditional enemies.  What they share is (mostly) common culture, a common language (though many still retain their own), and an understanding that resistance to outside invaders trumps any internal squabbles.

~330 y.a.: Hendarth the Prophet, a farmer from the north of Avonia, claims to have his first vision of Estavos, the Wandering God.  He is told to proclaim a new faith and a way of life closer to the natural world and the old traditions of his people, and to gather those who would listen to prepare for a great voyage across the sea.  Hendarth does so, facing enormous persecution from the Church Undying, and narrowly escapes being burnt as a heretic on multiple occasions before finally acquiring a small fleet and setting sail to the west, never to return.  After an arduous voyage that saw a third of the fleet lost, the exiles reach the easternmost isles of Inigoquaa a few months later.  They would continue to make their way to the inner regions of Inigoquaa, making allies and enemies alike, before finally settling in the region that they would eventually name Estavalia in honor of the god that led them there some 25 years later.  Hendarth himself would not live to see it.

~325 y.a.: Though the Estavalian expedition passes through the northeastern isles of Inigoquaa more or less peacefully before moving on to the west, the local tribes grow concerned and begin to discuss banding together for mutual aid and defense in a manner similar to Pushmataha.  The Pomuktuck League is formed soon after.

250 y.a.: The Cuzãoan explorer Sebastião Lobo Godinés reaches eastern Xingu, making contact with a few small isolated tribes.  Things go relatively well for a few weeks until he enters the territory of the Ouagabarou, coming under attack almost immediately.  His fleet is reduced to his own flagship, which immediately hightails it home.  Godinés never sails again, but his memoirs make him a rich man and inspire the crown and Church to immediately begin funding new expeditions.  A new chapter in world history opens.

230 y.a.: Inspired by tales of Godinés’s journey and determined not to fall behind in their eternal rivalry with Cuzão, the Avonian crown commissions expeditions to the west.  The first of these reach Pomuktuck territory within a year.  Despite initial wariness and the language barrier, this first contact is peaceful.  The Pomuktuck give their permission to settle an uninhabited island in their territory in exchange for the promise of future trade deals, and the first Avonian colony is established the next year.

98 y.a.: Cuzão has spent the last hundred years or so establishing new settlements throughout the margins of the Middle Bounds, coming into contact with Pushmataha, Tamoanchan, and dozens of other local groups.  Church missionaries have some success spreading the faith among the natives.  Relations with Tamoanchan, who don’t like the idea of another imperial power at their doorstep, are strained from the beginning. Finally things come to a head as the High Priest of the Church declares a crusade to destroy the heresies of the natives, bring them the true faith, and turn Tamoanchan into New Cuzão.  The crusade lasts 5 years and costs thousands of lives on both sides before being abandoned.

74 y.a.: Kagayaku makes its first appearance in the far isles of western Inigoquaa, fortifying a few small islands in the Reaches to act as a staging ground for new settlements further east.  Said settlements are established and fortified.  Xaayda traders approach the newcomers, but a diplomatic blunder leads to violence.  Retaliation is immediate and though they are unable to dislodge the invaders, it sets the tone for relations between the two factions from that day forward.

69 y.a.: War between Avonia and Cuzão.  This is far from the first time, but I didn’t mention the others because they all happened before the discovery of the Isles and are therefore not relevant here.  This was the first with a theater of war outside of the areas in the immediate vicinity of the two empires, with both sides raiding and plundering each other’s trade routes and settlements.  The whole Golden Age of Piracy vibe really starts to take off.

62 y.a.: Cuzão signs peace treaty with Avonia so that they can focus on a second crusade against Tamoanchan, almost immediately after.  This one is an unmitigated disaster, with hundreds of ships lost.  It doesn’t help that word of the peace treaty takes a long time to reach privateers in the Margins, and many continue their depredations.  Between the waste of blood and treasure and the continued piracy cutting into their income, the economy of Cuzão goes into a severe recession that lasts most of the next decade.

60 y.a.: First Wehatan explorers arrive in southwestern Margins of Xingu, settling several uninhabited islands and beginning exploratory expeditions shortly after.  They begin to raid the weakest of their new neighbors and trade with the strongest, and are well established in the region in less than a generation.

35 y.a.: The crown of Cuzão circumvents the authority of the Church to declare war against Tamoanchan once again.  Some within the Church are concerned about this rare display of independence, but since they know the end result works in their favor they let it slide.  The invasion fails, though not nearly as spectacularly as the last time, and a few of Tamoanchan’s lesser islands are conquered, being rechristened as New Cuzão.  

19 y.a.: Avonia and Cuzão go to war again.  Almost all of the Margins in the eastern half of the hemisphere become one huge warzone, and both sides recruit allies and mercenaries from among the natives.  

6 y.a.: Peace breaks out, though again word takes a while to reach individual captains.  Some will tell you that the war still goes on even today, and some might actually believe it sincerely.  Both empires have been weakened by the conflict, and their weakness means opportunity for anyone willing to take it.  It’s a great time to be a pirate, a scavenger, a spy, or anyone who can handle themselves in a raw situation.