Difference between revisions of "Crowsilver"

From ShireWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 48: Line 48:
  
 
Crowsilver is governed by a Count, or Countess, who has almost absolute power. For the daily governance of the realm, a council of advisors and ministers, known as the Council of Seven, was established during the reign of Layla Verion. The head of the Council of Seven, the Grand Squire, serves as First Minister of the County, and is considered the right hand of the Count. [[Ludovic Verion]] serves as Grand Squire since 1640.
 
Crowsilver is governed by a Count, or Countess, who has almost absolute power. For the daily governance of the realm, a council of advisors and ministers, known as the Council of Seven, was established during the reign of Layla Verion. The head of the Council of Seven, the Grand Squire, serves as First Minister of the County, and is considered the right hand of the Count. [[Ludovic Verion]] serves as Grand Squire since 1640.
 
==Independence Movement==
 
 
Following the Decree made by King Ryker of Goldshire to cede Crowsilver to Elwynn in a land trade, a disenfranchised Layla Verion declared the county to be independent, establishing the "Rule of the People". The movement quickly lost steam after the deal with Elwynn fell apart for unrelated reasons. As of 6580, Crowsilver recognized Goldshire as it's immediate superior governing body.
 
  
 
==Counts of Crowsilver==
 
==Counts of Crowsilver==

Revision as of 18:41, 16 April 2018

Crowsilver (Krufnsilfr)
CrowsilverFlag1.png

CrowsilverSeal.jpg

Feudal Status: County
Motto: Korach dai Stark, in Fjörsholm's Gotte!
Capital: Hjartahom
Largest Cities: Fystlond

Local Leadership Title: Count (Yfrmathr)
Local Government: Feudal
Current leader: ESB-Jörmungandr Group

Local language: Shirithian English, Krufnsprakur
Local Religion: Krufnism

Crowsilver (Krufnsprakur: Krufnsilfr) is a former County in Goldshire. It is located on the Apollonian Continent, and as such doesn't border the rest of the Imperial Republic.

History

Crowsilver has a long and mythical history filled with magic, war and strange creatures. An example of the lore of Crowsilver can be found in the ancient story "A Song of Crowsilver". The County became part of Goldshire under the leadership of Ryker Everstone and was one of the first of Shireroth's expansions after the loss of Kildare. Layla Verion became Countess of Crowsilver at the start of Grand Duchess Noor bint Daniyal's reign, and sparked a very brief period of cultural development.


The Hammish Civil War, and Sxiro-Natopian intervention therein, had a catalysing effect geopolitical relations on Micras, triggering the formation of an anti-Shirerithian bloc centred around Jingdao and Passio-Corum. One of the first acts of the so-called Voorpost Pact in 1647 was to attempt to impose a naval blockade of the Hammish overseas territory of Neo Patrova situated midway between USSO aligned Gerenia and the territory of Crowsilver. The ESB-Jörmungandr Group and the Imperial Government jointly hired a veritable host of native warbands, lured with a mixture of upfront payments and dubious promises concerning rights of plunder, to escort a relief convoy overland from Crowsilver to the garrison of the Sxiro-Hammish Agricultural Mission in Neo-Patrova.

This mercenary tradition continued during the active phase of the War of Lost Brothers (1653-1656). The King of Goldshire paid for bands of Crowsilver warriors to raid the Jingdaoese shore across the Northern Sea. Yet when the war drew to its dismal conclusion, and worse yet the King lapsed into an inconvenient coma care of another round of botched facial surgery, the hirings and the payments abruptly ceased.

The ESB-Jörmungandr Group was, under somewhat dubious circumstances, granted the title of count (“Yfrmathr”) in commission for Crowsilver by the King in 1651. The corporations activities in the territory attracted scant attention from the outside world until a tragic industrial accident in 1657 saw an uncontrolled release of phosgene at an ESB chemical synthesis facility in Hjartahom. 95,000 Krufnsilfr, the indigenous population descended from settlers of the Gralan 'New Territories', perished during the incident and a further 600,000 suffered acute poisoning and respiratory symptoms in the days and weeks afterwards.

In spite of a highly publicised visit by the young Kaiser, Ayreon IV, in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophe, the impression quickly spread that the fate of the Krufnsilfr was one which Goldshire, to say nothing of the Imperial Government in Shirekeep, regarded with complete indifference.

This impression was far from being misleading. Even before the Auspicious Occasion and the wave of decolonisation following the expulsion of the Froyalanish monarchy from Elwynn, the scattered overseas territories of the Imperial Republic had been considered an unnecessary burden. Following the loss of Kildare to Jingdao in 1617 there had been an abrupt shift away from the internationalist world view, wherein – under the Alexander Doctrine – Shireroth had considered itself to be a world spanning colossus at liberty to subsume any and all failing nations the world over into the Imperial Republic. Disgusted by the betrayal fomented by their erstwhile Apollonian comrades, the Shirerithians of the remaining Imperial States began to consider their empire to be essentially Benacian in character. As confidence recovered and rearmament began in the 1630s, it was perhaps inevitable that the primary effort of the Imperial Republic turned towards the subjugation of western Benacia, the so-called graveyard of empires, where now Minarboria tottered and proffered new opportunities.

Next to this, Crowsilver – peripheral, foreign, and impoverished – was hilariously irrelevant.

Already in 1651, as the moment of the Auspicious Occasion approached, a brief revolt had been sparked by rumours that Crowsilver was about to be sold to the King of Elwynn as part of a sordid trade to coax Noah into releasing occupied Mishalan from his clammy grip. The land-swap had fallen through, just one of a myriad of factors contributing to the downfall of the Froyalanish, and the restive locals had been appeased by the appointment of the Elfinshi matron Layla Verion as Ethnarch of Crowsilver.


In 1652 the Apollonian Division of the Goldshire Regulars was disbanded and replaced by five regiments of local militia, known collectively as the Crowsilver Division. The air defence systems, artillery, and armoured vehicles with which the old garrison had been generously equipped, had also departed with the trained regulars, looted by the Imperial Forces to equip the garrison of the Lywall Protectorate. The Crowsilver Division, in contrast to its predecessor formation, was little more than a mounted gendarmerie.

At around the same time the port and island of Fystlond was leased to the Imperial Navy. Not much is known about imperial activity on the island but it is widely suspected that it serves as an anchorage for u-boats and minelayers belonging to the Eastern Armada. This constituted about the maximum extent of Imperial interest in this far-flung colonial possession of the Kingdom of Goldshire.

Geography

The lands of Crowsilver are characterised by its barren and tough climate. Heavy winds and blizzards are frequent occurances in the North and the East of the realm, and only smaller settlements are found there. Most citizens live in the lands surrounding the Inner Sea, or on the Five Isles, where the climate is milder.

Government

Crowsilver is governed by a Count, or Countess, who has almost absolute power. For the daily governance of the realm, a council of advisors and ministers, known as the Council of Seven, was established during the reign of Layla Verion. The head of the Council of Seven, the Grand Squire, serves as First Minister of the County, and is considered the right hand of the Count. Ludovic Verion serves as Grand Squire since 1640.

Counts of Crowsilver

  • Sangstone the First
  • Grim the Strong
  • Valknr the Wise
  • Lews the Horse-man
  • Erik the Sailor
  • Grim II the Mad

Interregnum

  • Rykr the Short
  • Layla the Beautiful
  • Kadag the New

Rule of the People (unofficial)

  • ESB-Jörmungandr Group