Urlazio

Urlazio is an island north of Sarpedon, across the Urlazian Sea. It is the historic homeland of the Latinic people and was the birthplace of the Adonerii civilization. The island encompasses portions of Cartadania and Caphiria as well as all of Lariana.

Archaologically, the island is notable for its many ruined towers, called Arxi, which are some of the only physical remains of the Adonerii civilization.

Name
The term Urlazio originates from the period of Gothic rule over the island, known as the Urlazian Kingdom. The Goths, who arrived in the fourth century, referred to the island as "Urlatino" from the Gothic prefix "ur-", meaning "origin", and "Latino", the self-described term Latins of the period used. The term gradually adopted the streamlined "z" sound over the "t" sound in the medieval period.

Rule of the Adonerii
Although the Adonerii established control over the entire coast and a major central corridor through the island, various other Latin tribes and close relatives of the Latins continued to live in the hinterlands of the island. The so-called "interior Latins" had a complex series of divided polities based on dynastic heritage, making the political situation in the interior of the island chaotic and often violent. The Adonerii adopted a strategy of proactive engagement with the interior Latins by around 900 BC, alternatively raiding and bribing the inland polities to stay away from the coastal cities.

Gothic invasion
Beginning in the late 3rd century, the Latin Kingdom began to face increasing pressure from seaborn Gothic raiders. While not initially making a permanent presence, Urlazio became a seasonal raiding target for Goths settled on mainland Levantia in the territory of Great Levantia. Additionally, the island became a primary stop for seaborn Goths on the way to Canaery. Many of these peoples would trade and peacibly prepare for the next leg of the journey, but just as many would raid and pillage before moving to their final destination. The Latin Kingdom struggled to combat raiding on its eastern and northern shores, investing significant amounts of treasure and manpower into building fortifications in the area.

The decisive event of the early Gothic raids occurred, according to legend, in the year 312. The armies of the Latin Kingdom came upon a tribe peaceably resting on the shores of Urlazio before traveling on to Canaery. The soldiers seized the tribe, and took their King, Aldo, to the court of the Kingdom. There, Aldo was tortured and eventually killed, with his body separated into four parts to be distributed among the Goths. The "Savaging of Aldo" greatly enraged the Goths according to the legend, leading to preparations for war. Regardless of the origins of the legend, a large Gothic force - estimated to be around 5,000 men in several waves - landed on Urlazio beginning in March 315. The Goths completely overwhelmed the armies of the Latin Kingdom due to their fighting style and a number of bribes. By 324, three quarters of the island had been conquered by the Goths, who established the Urlazian Kingdom, with its court in Lariana (in modern Lariana).

The last Latin King, Acarius II, sent a missive to Caphiria (then under the First Imperium) for urgent aid in 325 as hostilities were about to resume. Legions arrived, but the leading Legate came with a command from the Imperator: the Legions would only save the remnant part of the Kingdom if the King would bequeath the Kingdom to Caphiria upon his death. The King, having no other choice, agreed. The Legions defeated the Gothic host, establishing an uneasy peace on the island for the first time in a decade. Acarius II died in 337 and bequeathed the remnant of the Latin Kingdom to Caphiria, which reorganized it as the province of Acarum. The King's descendants and relatives were given high Estate status, and the Acarian Estate survives to this day within Caphiric society.

Gothic control
The creation of the Caphiric province of Acarum established stability in Urlazio as of the middle 4th century. The ruling Goths settled in and built up the institutions of the new Urlazian Kingdom. The first King of Urlazio, King Berengar I, incorporated both Goths and Latins into his court and instituted a segregated legal code, applying traditional Gothic law to those Goths within the realm and relying on traditional Latin law for the rest of the inhabitants of the Kingdom. This initial phase of the Urlazian Kingdom, sometimes referred to by historians as the "Berengian Kingdom", retained a significant Gothic character, and the Goths here raided both Great Levantia and Caphiria, although raids against the latter were somewhat sparse. The Caphirian province of Acarum was expanded twice in two campaigns in 366 and 391, both as reprisals for Gothic raids on the Caphiric core region.

The name of the Urlazian Kingdom developed over time, and from the reign of the Goths the term "Urlazio" finds its origin. To the earliest contemporaries, the term "Gothic Kingdom of the Latins" was sometimes used, although by the late 4th century this fell into disuse due to other Gothic kingdoms which ruled over Latins in Levantia. The Goths used the term "Ur Latino" and other variations beginning in around 380, with "ur" being the Gothic prefix of "origin" and "Latino" for the self-described name of the Latin peoples. Accordingly, "Urlatino" and eventually "Urlazio" entered common usage, appearing regularly to describe the later Gothic realms by around 500.

The death of King Berengar III greatly altered the political situation on Urlazio. Berengar divided the Kingdom among his three son: Alaric inherited the northwestern tip of the Kingdom; Nethare inherited the central and northern parts of the realm, and; Leofric, who inherited eastern and southeastern Urlazio (modern Lariana). The names of the first two sons would, in time, become the names by which their Kingdoms were known, and these geographic signifiers survive today as the provinces of Aleira and Netharra in Cartadania and Caphiria, respectively.

By the end of the "period of the Goths", all of the "Gothic" kingdoms on Urlazio were heavily Latinized. While the primary population of the islands had always been Latin, the ruling Gothic families gradually became indistinguishable from those they ruled over by the 900s. Most historians agree this process occurred due to the influence of the Caphiric court and society on the ruling families. Accordingly, in ca. 953 AD, the Urceopolitan scholar Gaius Braian noted that the Urlazian Goths were "...as Gothic as the men of Venceia."