Eileada
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Eilada | |
|---|---|
Military Administrative Territory | |
| Area | |
| • Total | 73 sq mi (190 km2) |
| Population (2025) | |
| • Total | 29,255 |
| • Density | 400/sq mi (150/km2) |
| Postal Code | FH-O2 |
| Area Code | 68-916 |
Eilada is an overseas possession of the Republic of the Fhainn located in Vallos. The modern territory consists of two islands, Eile Corubia and Eile d'Horizon Ardent, and several shoals and islets within their Exclusive Economic Zones near the terminal end of the Capelranco Archipelago. Of the two, Corubia is the larger and the only permanently inhabited island in the territory, as d'Horizon is a low-lying atoll. Eilada is predominantly centered on Port d'Corubia, the only major settlement on the main island, which hosts a large shipping port used for commercial rest and refuel as well as the Eilada Army Naval Base, which is the permanent post of the National Army Navy's Eastern Hemisphere Squadron.
History
The island of Corubia was at some point inhabited by migratory pre-Coscivian people, as archaeology on the island has shown a number of artifacts predating the period when Coscivian peoples first made landfall in Kiravia. It is unclear whether the island was abandoned or invaded by Polynesian tribes, as the first written records of Corubia itself by Istroyan historian Heraclus of Peleopolis indicated that the inhabitants had violently repulsed several Heaven Ships arriving from Crona between 700-400 BC. Heraclus believed the inhabitants of the island, whom he named Kereboes after the Istroyan Keres, exercised power over the other islands north of the primary chain of the Capelrancos. He additionally claimed local tribes were forced to pay tribute to the Kereboes in the form of slaves or human sacrifices, though this appears to be sensationalized. Around 120 BC, modern Corubia and its peripheral islands were invaded by Taineans from the southern and central Archipelago. After Tainean settlement, the Tainean name for the area, I-ko or Igko ('Northern Reach') came into use.
The territory effectively ruled itself while paid tribute to a revolving set of polities to the South for several centuries, and even sent tribute to the First Imperium (albeit infrequently) after 742. It was not only a key center of piracy along St. Brendan's Straight, but one of the first pirate states in Vallos since at least as early as 1054, being both positioned perfectly to intercept cross-Odoneru shipping and naturally at the periphery of any organized power projection from the mainland. After the explosion of piracy in the region following Aster's Expedition, pirates based in Igko began to revive the myth of the Kereboes, with the pirate lords operating out of the area eventually declaring themselves under the banner of the Kereboa Fleet. The Kereboas (and other pirate groups claiming to be Kereboas) would eventually become a significant naval force, and were the last military power in the Capelrancos to resist the Kingdom of Oustec.
Oustec Rule
Igko ultimately submitted to the Kingdom of Oustec in 1604 due to Oustec's control of Vallosi timber, though the Kereboes operated as part-pirates, part-merchants, part-auxiliaries for the Kingdom and maintained their own paramilitary identity. Kereboas raiders played a large part in the Vallosian slave trade, including cooperation with Varshan from 1579 onwards. Cooperation with Oustec also came with increased protection from a growing Burgundine presence in St. Brendan's Straight. Kereboas Fleet ships resisted Burgundine expansion outwards from Catavis, including taking part in the respectively failed and successful defenses of Port de Vanse and Pescanice in 1621 and 1629. Following the invasion of Pescanice, the Kereboas Fleet were subjected to a period of infighting and contraction as modernization of the Oustec navy and within the port's heirarchy saw Igko come under stronger central rule and its pirates shift towards acting as a professional mercenary force, with slavery and looting being interrupted by scrambles against Burgundine forces as needed. The need to cooperate with the mainland was cemented by a set of skirmishes aroung Igko in 1655, when the Burgoignesc South Levantine Trading Company attempted to attack the island and dislodge the Fleet from its only permanent safe harbor. The modern name for Eile Corubia comes from the contemporaneous misinterpretation of Kereboas as the name of Igko's port, rather than the pirate forces operating from it.
Despite repeated Burgundine prods at the island in 1688, 1689, 1699, 1726, and 1780, Igko remained insulated against colonization and played a part in resisting King Abey II's centralization of Oustec in the 1810s. The Kereboas, whittled down through the previous century by a combination of pitched battles, hostile privateering, and competing with the actual navy, were reduced to a criminal operation around the Archipelago. Although privateers working for Oustec at this point were broadly called Kereboas, the Fleet itself had effectively disbanded into smaller companies, of which only a few continued to surreptitiously operate in piracy and slavery outside of royal sanction. Igko nevertheless remained heavily fortified, with shore batteries and a dedicated squadron of warships protecting it as the northernmost end of Oustec's tripwires against foreign invasion.
Oustec War and Fanerian Colonization
During the opening month of the Odurian War, Igko was attacked in a daring night raid and subsequently put under blockade by Burgundine warships. The marines present could not take the island, nor did the quick succession of invasions of mainland Oustec by Caphiric and Urcean forces allow for a prolonged siege. It was at this point that Faneria's Royal Western Squadron, at the request of the South Levantine Trading Company, took over the blockade and the duty of intercepting returning Oustec warships. In exchange for sending forces to serve as a rearguard and free up ships for the wider war, Rih XXXX would gain a personal claim to the island.
An attempted breakout by Oustec ships in July of 1959 failed, with the brand new Fanerian armored steamers Seba and Gwaeron playing a pivotal role in the battle and proved their survivability against cannon; after this point, sporadic and indiscriminate shelling by the two ironclads became a regular feature of the siege. The conditions on Igko worsened significantly after a fire caused by one such bombardment burned down several warehouses and gutted the western side of the port. On October 4th, 1859, the island's governor formally surrendered the island. Despite this, the remaining population on the island, particularly the garrison, continued to fight, forcing a landing by Fanerian naval infantry.
While Fanerian forces operated in theory under Burgundie's umbrella in the Oustec War, the Fanerian Throne purchased the rights to Igko and its surrounds after the war's conclusion for a single pound of silver. Under the Port d'Corubia Colony Charter, Corubia and d'Horizon Ardent were renamed and became a direct posession of the Rih. The remainder of the port of Ikgo was leveled, and vacation estates, a naval coaling station, and public housing for the population were constructed for the influx of laborers and colonists brought in to Fhainicize the main island, while the locals (over half of whom had died of starvation alone during the last month of the siege) were forced to move to the northern end of the island opposite the colonial settlement or accept deportation to Equatorial Ostiecia.
The colonization of Corubia allowed for the independent support of merchant convoys to and from Asteria and Orastir (check dates - if ast gone, then in planning for future retaking) without relying on foreign ports, increasing the control of the Throne over its colonies' economies and serving as a stop for regular antipiracy and antislavery operations. The establishment of a Fanerian colony on Corubia was reported in the press in Levantia as ending the capture of Fhainnin mariners by Varshani raiders, though in reality the closer settled populations of the Cronan colonies had made the Varshani slave trade a lesser part of the waning piracy around St. Brendan's Straight decades prior.
Burgoignesc rule
Eileada was sold to Burgundie in 1913 and administered by the province of Equitorial Ostiecia until 1968, when it was sold back to Faneria.
During the 50ish years of Burgoignesc ownership, the predominant event that characterized this period of Eilaeda's history was the Second Great War and the Second Fratricide, from 1934 to 1943. It loomed large over Government of Burgundie's interaction with the locals. The latter half of the 1910s was focused on updating fortifications and port facilities. During the 1920s Cassava, tropical hardwood, especially Mahogany, and sugarcane cultivation and harvesting was industrialized. The 1930s and 40s were obviously focused on the prosecution of the Second Great War. The island was garrisoned with a small contingent of coastal defense troops but was otherwise left to its own devices. It served as an important coaling and dispatch station until the end of the war, but was never the focus of any focused action.
In the aftermath of the Second Great War Eileada was a remote outpost of the much-reduced Equitorial Ostiecia and continued to be left to its own devices. In the 50s and 60s the island became more of a backwater and less of an asset to the Burgoignesc crown. With rapid expansion of the wars in Alshar and Audonia that would later become Operation Kipling, Burgundie welcomed an offer from Faneria to buy the island back in 1967, the formal handover taking place at the close of the federal fiscal year Sept 30, 1968.
Modern Day
Population and Politics
Government
As an overseas Territory of Faneria, Eileadan residents elect a county-level government with a county Taesteach and municipal council; however, the island does not have political representation in the National Assembly. Territorial administration is managed by a Military Governor appointed by the Secretary of the Army, and permanent residence of non-military families on Corubia requires approval by the Military Governor's office.
Foreign Bases
In addition to the Corubia Army Naval Base, ports and land on the island have historically been leased to a number of foreign governments and corporate entities. Since 1965, the largest plot of land on the main island is a rest and refuel station jointly owned by Target Price and O'Shea. The commercial docks cover roughly sixty percent of Corubia's port space.
The only foreign nation with a current lease on the port is Arcerion, while Kiravia, the Cape, and Burgundie have military docking rights at the CANB. Several nations and companies maintain smaller local consulates for merchant mariners.
It is a small island with a population of about ten thousand, and is heavily developed, hosting the Eilada Aerospace-Naval Base and corporate and state-owned dockyards for handling and transferring cargo, as well as refueling. It is the main stopping point for the Fhainnin merchant marine in the southern Odoneru Sea, the Tainean Sea, and the Polynesian Sea.
