Vallos

Vallos is a region and subcontinent located west of Sarpedon, of which it is a part. It is bound by the Polynesian Sea to the south and west, the Odoneru Ocean to the north, and the Tainean Sea to the east.

Historically, Vallos became a cultural crossroads between the Latin east, Polynesian south, and remnants of people from Crona to the northwest.

Pre-arrivals
Humans settled Vallos at some time around 12,000 BC according to archaeological evidence, a relatively late date of settlement for most parts of the Occident. The earliest settlers exhibited a relatively similar to contemporary residents of what would become Pelaxia, suggesting a westward migration at that time. The Neolithic revolution occurred on Vallos to a limited extent, as large urban cities did not develop, but farming of local grasses and other flora made settled farm life viable. About forty percent of people in Vallos adopted agricultural lifestyles by 2000 BC. Society continued to develop, with indigenous prehistoric reaching its apex with the shark pottery culture, a material culture so named for the use of both shark teeth and bones as a crafting material in addition to the use of shark-related motifs on pottery. The shark pottery culture reached its peak around 1800 BC, just prior to the arrival of the first Heaven Ships and later arrival of the Polynesians. Archaeologists have uncovered several urban centers of around a thousand people all along the eastern coast of Vallos which were likely fishing centers and the source of shark material. Shark pottery culture continued its existence following the arrivals of foreign culture groups, although archaeologists classify much of it as "late shark pottery" due to the introduction of foreign innovations.

Besides their material culture, virtually nothing is known about the indigenous Vallosi. With limited technological advancement relative to the arrivals and no system of writing, much of "pre-arrival" Vallos was lost within generations of the arrivals of the foreigners. Genetic testing suggests most people in Vallos have less than ten percent DNA from the original indigenous, suggesting near-total displacement by intermarriage and later waves of colonization.

Polynesians
The first Polynesian people likely arrived in Vallos in around 1500 BC. These first arrivals are believed to have sailed the Polynesian Sea from Peratra and other islands along the way which Polynesians had settled earlier. Unlike the earlier indigenous peoples, significant amounts of information have survived in the way of myths and legends. Literary scholars and historians surveyed all Polynesian-descendants in Vallos in 1978 through 1981 to collect all legends and oral traditions, then compiling the most plausible elements known as the "Vallosi Saga." The Saga details the arrival of the Polynesians, finding local agriculture which suited them, and a violent response by the natives once the Polynesians were found picking food in their fields. The first arrivals retreated. At some later point, a large fleet (for its time) of Polynesians came and killed many of the natives living close to the southwestern coast, taking their women as their wives and taking control of their farms. Most historians, even those not involved in the project, accept the Saga as a relatively plausible series of events. Beyond the "first conflict" depicted in the Saga, the presence of a small Polynesian settlement encouraged more arrivals. The relationship between the natives and Polynesians appears to have been mostly characterized by conflict, with significant devastation and demographic displacement occurring. Based on genetics, it appears many refugees - especially women and children - fled north in the wake of the growing series of Polynesian colonies in southern Vallos. By 100 BC, Polynesians made up the vast majority of the population of the southern third of Vallos, but genetic testing suggests that significant intermarriage of indigenous people played a role in the population boom. By this time, Vallos had become the most populous home of Polynesian peoples outside of Peratra.

Heaven Ships
Heaven Ships brought Cronan peoples from the ancient forebears of the North Songun civilization to Vallos at some point prior to 1000 BC, though it's unknown exactly when the first Heaven Ship arrived. Cronan settlement in Vallos likely occurred in series of stops and starts, with individual villages being established one at a time with the arrival of different ships. Based on genetic evidence, it appears likely that intermarriage started almost immediately, such that a sizable population of Cronan-descended peoples lived on the north coast of Vallos by 850 BC. Evidence also suggests that, though Cronan traditions would become dominant due to cultural advancements like writing and other factors, most of the people living in the region prior to the Latin arrival were, genetically, majority indigenous. This fact speaks to the relatively small number of arrivals on the Heaven Ships, and also suggests a very small survival rate. Ships from Crona would continue to intermittently land until around 200 BC, bringing additional Cronan cultural developments and Cronan genes into the north of Vallos. By 500 BC, the first signs of a distinct Tainean culture - Cronan cultures blended together with indigenous influenced introduced - are evident in the archaeoligcal record. Few tribes and indigenous polities remained by this time period, and by 100 BC it appears they were either conquered or integrated within the growing Tainean world.

Adonerii colonization
Latin settlers from the Adonerii arrived relatively late in terms of Vallosi settlement, with the first Latin colonies appearing in modern Porta Bianca in roughly 650 BC. Unlike mainland Sarpedon and Levantia, Vallos was remote from Urlazio and required the development of fully fledged cities in modern Cartadania before regular colonial travel as far west as Vallos was economically and logistically feasible. Nonetheless, the arrival of the Latins heralded the first wave of "true cities", highly organized hierarchical urban areas. The relatively fertile ground of Vallos was an attractive colonial site for the next several centuries, with refugees fleeing political upheavel in Urlazio forming a major wave of settlement in ca 500 BC. At this time, the Latin colonies remained far more urbanized than either the Tainean or Polynesians, allowing smaller but stronger polities to form around an urbanized core on the east coast. By 100 BC, further waves of Latin colonists began to slow, but Latins were firmly established on the eastern part of Vallos facing both the Tainean Sea and Kindreds Sea. Despite this, much of the interior land under the possession of Latin city-states were still farmed and occupied by Tainean people.

First warring states period
The arrival of three separate groups of settlers established an extremely large range of polities throughout Vallos by 1 AD, with Tainean and Latin polities being roughly equal in number and Polynesians ruling the south in larger realms.

Loose Caphiric hegemony
The warring states period necessarily invited outside intervention as the various states tried to court powerful allies on Sarpedon. By 600, the situation drew the attention of the Caphiric First Imperium, still at its relative zenith of power. Diplomats from Caphiria began to arrive on Vallos at ca 600, followed by promises of tribute and alliance between Caphiria and local powers. The First Imperium, contrasted with later Caphirian states, aligned itself equally with disparate Tainean, Latin, and Polynesian states, not showing favoritism necessarily to the Latin city-states. As tribute began to flow east across the Tainean Sea, leaders in Caphiria recognized the potential value of further intervention in Vallos. In 702, Imperator XXX personally led a campaign at the head of roughly 23,000 across the Tainean into Vallos, an unprecedently large military for Vallos. The Imperial army, in support of various local polities, waged a campaign of extreme violence, and due to the size and training of the force it won every battle it fought and could not be opposed by any local power. Rather than directly annex territory, the Imperium reorganized Vallos into eleven tributary states out of the previous dozens of polities and city-states. Critically, the new eleven tributaries did not consider local cultural lines but instead were created on geographic features allowing ease of governance. The so-called "Undecimvirate" established loose Caphiric hegemony over Vallos, though none of it fell under direct Imperial control.

Under the Undecimvirate, rulers were generally hereditary and had the title of King, although each new King required confirmation by the Imperator. All eleven were expected to submit a quarter of their total yearly revenue to Caphiria as tribute, a figure later changed to a flat rate. Tribute was generally determined by an examination of the realm finances by a diplomat from Caphiria, and in most cases the historical record suggests they greatly exaggerated the annual income of the realms to their detriment and Caphiria's benefit. The Kings had no obligation to one another, but were generally discouraged from conquering territory. Raiding between the Kings was still allowed, and once a flat rate tribute was introduced, raiding became an extremely common practice as the Kings fought to ensure timely payments. On more than a dozen occasions, the First Imperium's armies were forced to campaign on Vallos in order to remove a subordinate King who failed to pay tribute or otherwise attempted revolt.

Despite the heavy hand of Caphiric influence and continued raiding, the Undecimvirate established relative stability in Vallos for hundreds of years, only collapsing with the final end of the Second Imperium in 1172. During the more than four hundred years of Caphiric influence, Christianity was introduced to the region and became the primary religion of all eleven realms, though it was far more successful among the Tainean and Latin peoples than in the south, where it achieved plurality status. The Undecimvirate also saw the consolidation of Tainean culture and the blending of Tainean, Latin, and Polynesian cultures in former borderlands, greatly enhancing the cultural diversity of Vallos during this period.

Second warring states period
The collapse of Caphiric hegemony over Vallos in 1172 inaugurated a second chaotic period of warfare that would last for over two hundred years. Centuries of raiding had led to economic deprivation in some quarters of Vallos and significant dynastic hatred between nearly all of the eleven kings. The worst part of the warring states period came during its initial century, which saw five different royal dynasties completely exterminated and most of the eleven kingdoms disintegrate into regional factions.

Piratocracies
The rise of Occidental oceanic trade presented a number of opportunities for the petty kings of Vallos, especially in the wake of Aster's expedition which introduced trade to Crona from Sarpedon. Centuries of war had created significant hardship and lack of opportunity for additional plunder in the form of tribute, but the increasing volume of trade centered near Vallos by the decade caught the eye of both local authorities as well as enterprising individuals. Beginning in around 1450, petty kings began to sponsor public of trade ships in St. Brendan's Strait. Besides the negative impact on overall trade, the sudden influx of wealth back into Vallos the piracy produced had a profound impact on its politics. In many different cases, privateers had become significantly wealthier than their local ruler, and they used these funds to take over the port they lived in and eventually neighboring settlements. By 1500, most of the northern third of Vallos had become "piratocracies" - realms created by force by wealthy privateers. These states would transform into efficient machines of piracy, as the state apparatus and military continued to grow in support of piracy. This process grew exponentially as Varshan opened its doors to Vallosi slave traders in 1579, making it so that not only the cargo, but the crew, of captured ships were of high value. As they raided the high seas, the piratocracies also consolidated northern Vallos from more than two dozen petty kingdoms into just three large Kingdoms who actively competed for the right to raid and plunder. The most prominent of these realms was the Kingdom of Oustec, established in the northern archipelago in 1566 by the conquest of one privateer of the outlying insular territories of another. Oustec, the privateer-turned-King, would later unify the northern archipelago and push on to mainland Vallos, with his successors establishing the southern boundary of the Kingdom in modern Arona in 1598. The Kingdom of Oustec would go on to be the primary rival of encroaching Occidental powers for the next centuries.

Central Vallos remained largely unaffected by the rise of the piratocracies. Southern Vallos was slightly affected, as the Polynesian states there also managed to engage in piracy, though significantly less than in the north. Southern Vallos experienced state consolidation during the period 1350-1700, coalescing into just five kingdoms.

Cultural groups
Vallos has a diverse array of cultures and was called "at the same time a crossroads of the old and new worlds and a rich tapestry of three different cultural traditions" by P. G. W. Gelema. The three main cultural influences in Vallos come from the Occident, particularly Latinic-descended traditions of Burgundie and mainland Sarpedon, the Brenedine, from Polynesian people who populate the southern tip of the subcontinent, and Cronan people who have settled the subcontinent at various points since the first millennia BC by means of the arrival of Heaven Ships.

Tainean people
Tainean people is a term used to describe the descendants of ancient Cronans who settled on Vallos, establishing a unique culture. Initially the result of North Songun cultures being introduced to and dominating the pre-arrival indigenous Cronans, Taineans eventually developed independent traditions and customs that appear only on Vallos.

Brenedine people
Brenedine people is a term used to describe the descendants of the Bergendii admixture with other Levantine and Sarpedonian peoples. They largely speak a creole dialect of the Burgoignesc language which is heavily influenced by Latin. They observe Occidental cultural norms, and the Christian faith.