Vallosi piratocracies
The Vallosi piratocracies is a term used to refer to a group of coastal polities in northern Vallos that were under the rule of pirates from the late 15th Century until the early 19th Century when the last of the piratocracies abandoned piracy. The rise in oceanic trade in the Occident, which in turn was coupled with the rise in international trade after Aster's expedition wound up introducing Crona to the Occidental world, had given some of the coastal petty rulers on mainland Vallos an idea on how to take advantage of the increase in trade on St. Brendan's Strait. They resorted to negotiating with pirates, offering them legal protection in exchange for a portion of the profits they may make after each raid, thus making them into publicly-sponsored privateers. Through these acts of privateering, despite the overall negative effects it had on international trade in general, the coastal polities were able to make a goodly amount of money from the profits of the privateers.
Vallosi piratocracies | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15th Century-1812 | |||||||||||||
.svg) Common neo-logo depicting the symbols of the three largest piratocracies in Vallos | |||||||||||||
| Official languages | Varied | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||||
| Religion | Christianity | ||||||||||||
| Government | Various piratocracies | ||||||||||||
| First Captain (Portas Gemeas) | |||||||||||||
• 1498-1508 | Antonio Moseisley (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1698-1702 | Pedro Aviz (last) | ||||||||||||
| Pirate King (Oustec) | |||||||||||||
• 1566-1585 | Oustec I (first) | ||||||||||||
• 1808-1812 | Abey II (last) | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• First privateers sponsored | 1450 | ||||||||||||
• Founding of Porto Natal | 1498 | ||||||||||||
• Establishment of Oustec | 1566 | ||||||||||||
• Portas Gemeas becomes a merchant republic | 1702 | ||||||||||||
• Oustec becomes a monarchy | 1812 | ||||||||||||
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For many of these polities, the overall amount of money they have gotten from the privateers still paled in comparison to the much greater profits that those same privateers were able to make from their raids. Indeed, for many privateers, the immense disparity between their wealth and the wealth of their sponsors had given them new ideas on what to do with their newly-acquired funds. Instead of having to rely on the sponsorship of petty rulers, many have opted to become completely independent, thus making them into pirates completely. Thus, most of the petty realms of northern Vallos wound up getting overthrown by their own privateers who would instead establish their own polities, usually either under a monarchical or republican form of government depending on the circumstances of the foundation of each piratocracy, and by the end of the 16th Century the hundreds of small polities throughout northern Vallos were now consolidated under the rule of three relatively larger piratocracies.
Of the three piratocracies of northern Vallos, the two most well-known and with the most significant impact on Vallosi history were Oustec and Portas Gemeas, both having been survived the era of piratocracies to transition towards more conventional forms of government, with Portas Gemeas reforming into a merchant republic in 1702, and Oustec reforming into an absolute monarchy in 1812. However, the only one of the two surviving former piratocracies to still exist to this day is Portas Gemeas which is currently a constituent elective monarchy in Castadilla; Oustec was eventually conquered by Burgundie in 1859 and split into the constituent country of Equatorial Ostiecia, Arona, and the Caphiric province of Vespera. In modern times, Oustec has often been seen as a kind of a second golden age for the Taineans, with most northern Taineans seeing Oustec I as a sort of heroic figure.
History
Background
When the Second Caphiric Imperium collapsed in 1172 after a forty-five-year-long civil war period known as the Great Civil War, the Undecimvirate which had been in place for over four hundred years no longer had a major power to secure its continued existence. The eleven vassal kingdoms of the Undecimvirate were quick to collapse within the first decade or two since the fall of the Second Imperium and most of the vassal royal families were extinguished. Taking advantage of the collapse of the former vassal kingdoms were the former nobility who were quick to establish their own polities, which their former lieges were not able to fight back as most of their vassals have already opted to establish their own petty realms rather than trying to stick together. By the end of the 12th Century, there was hardly any evidence that Vallos was under the rule of eleven Caphiric vassal states; the only vassal royal family to have survived the collapse of the Undecimvirate was the royal family of the Kingdom of Septemontes, who were somewhat able to maintain a sizeable kingdom on their own.
In northern Vallos, the kingdom of Oduria had largely fallen into a civil war of its own between multiple factions with some wishing to declare the former vassal kingdom an imperium-in-exile while others wanted to split away from the kingdom. The civil war soon devolved into an all-out multi-front war between many small polities which were engaged in so much conflict against one another that the original cause for the civil war was almost entirely lost to history until Caphiric scholars in the late 19th Century were able discover a banner which had been in a private collection since at least the 17th Century; said banner was described as trying to look Caphiric, but with a slight Tainean influence, and further discoveries would lead to the emergence of documents which seemed to describe the history of Oduria about thirty years after the fall of the Undecimvirate which described a particularly ambitious Latino-Tainean king of Oduria who dreamed of making his way to Sarpedon where he would restore the Imperium under his rule. By the beginning of the 15th Century, there were no more polities which actively claimed to be the rump state of Oduria.
Rise of the piratocracies
After Paul Aster's arrival in Crona in the 1380s during his expedition, there emerged a new lucrative avenue of international trade through St. Brendan's Strait which involved the rise of shipping lanes off the coast of northern Vallos, and the petty rulers of the coastal polities of Vallos were more than happy to take advantage of the new traffic though not necessarily through legal means. Instead, most of these polities have decided that in order to make huge amounts of money they would have to take the riches that were being carried as cargo on those merchant vessels. The issue was, they could not afford to send out naval vessels to conduct raids on the merchant ships; for one such a method would not work for long as it would come with a huge risk of reprisal from the Occident, to say nothing of their naval capabilities becoming rather limited after the collapse of the Undecimvirate which made the petty rulers very unwilling to risk their ships on raids that may very well just lead to a war.
There was, however, an alternative for these small realms. Instead of utilising their own naval forces, they would sponsor the seemingly multiplying crews of pirates that were beginning to rise in the area. Contact with the pirates had to be done through clandestine means, often through the use of a semaphore system to invite a pirate crew to their domain, and once a willing crew of pirates would land they would be given an audience with the petty ruler of whichever realm they have landed on. During these audiences, the petty ruler would negotiate with the pirates in which for a portion of their loot the pirates would be given official sponsorship, thus making them privateers under the legal protection of their sponsoring realm. Many of these negotiations were successful, and soon a huge flow of money from those merchant vessels would find their way into Vallos; making the petty rulers rather wealthy even if their wealth only paled in comparison to the much greater wealth that the privateers were able to keep for themselves.
The privateering ventures would eventually come to an end, but not through the petty rulers reining in the privateers or from the Occident fighting back against them, but rather from the privateers deciding that because of their far larger wealth they could easily go rogue, depose their sponsors, and established their own polities which would serve as their primary bases of operations. Because of just how small the naval capabilities of these petty coastal realms were, it was very easy to invade and force the petty ruler to surrender to the former privateers and give the victors control of their former realm. Most of these new pirate strongholds would opt to unite with allied crews, thus consolidating their rule and expanding their reach to the point that by the end of the end of the 16th Century the many small, independent polities of northern Vallos were consolidated into three piratocracies.
Among these early privateers were three Cartadanian captains by the name of Antonio Moseisley, Henrique Aviz, and Alberto de Sousa. At a young age, these three men were sailors under the employ of a cruel captain, whose name has since been lost to time, who made them work long hours for very meagre pay and punishments were particularly severe. This soon culminated in the three conspiring and sparking a mutiny at the age of 21 which saw them successfully overthrowing the captain and taking control of the vessel. Having had enough of having to work for abysmal pay in conditions more befitting of a slave, the three have made a pact to enter into a pirates' life while swearing a blood oath that the three must never betray one another no matter what happens; they knew the risks and what could happen if any of them were to be captured. They would soon get sponsored as privateers by some of the local rulers in northern Vallos, and amass themselves not only a lot of wealth for their sponsors, but also a vast fortune for themselves. In 1498, the three renewed their pact, but this time amending it by vowing that they would becoming their own bosses, one way or another. This led to them going rogue, overthrowing their sponsors, and establishing a new settlement known as Porto Natal which would serve as their primary base of operations; Porto Natal would soon merged with the main base of operations for an allied crew just across the river known as Porto Quaresma, and the two settlements would become Portas Gemeas.
Perhaps one of the biggest and most well-known of all the privateers of Vallos was a Tainean captain by the name of Oustec. Not much is know about Oustec's life before becoming a pirate, but it is pretty clear that he developed an interest in piracy, perhaps having been inspired by the stories of Moseisley, Aviz, de Sousa, and many others. Regardless of his previous life, he became a privateer in the early 16th Century and was fast to get sponsors from the non-pirate-ruled polities in northern Vallos. Unlike earlier privateers and pirates, however, Oustec was noted to have been a highly ambitious man in life, always wanting so much more for his life; this has often gotten him into some pretty intense rivalries with other privateers, one of whom he had so much bad blood with over the years that in 1566 he embarked on an invasion of said rival privateer's stronghold which was located somewhere in the northern archipelago of Vallos, and was successful in overthrowing him and establishing him own pirate's stronghold which he named after himself and soon declared himself the King of Pirates. For the rest of his days, Oustec would continue to expand his new pirate empire, unitin the Capelranco Archipelago and soon invading the lands of his former sponsors on the mainland. Oustec's pirate empire would go on to be one of the most powerful countries in the world up until the mid-17th Century.
End of the piratocracies
The age of piracy in northern Vallos would come to an end once the Occident began to surpass the piratocracies in terms of naval capabilities and started to set up anti-piracy convoys. Another factor in the fall of piracy was the decrease in trade through St. Brendan's Strait, and especially once the Southern Route became much more frequently used in international trade which bypassed the piratocracies altogether. As many of these piratocracies were reliant on the steady supply of lucrative amounts of loot and did not attempt to set up a more conventional and legitimate economy in the event that piracy would no longer be as profitable as it once was, state revenues began to enter into a period of decline as domestic tensions rose and budgetary shortfalls became very common. By the beginning of the 18th Century, it was becoming very clear that the piratocracies only had three choices: reform, try in vain to maintain the increasingly-unreliable pirate-based economy, or collapse.
For Portas Gemeas, First Captain Pedro Aviz, having seen the futility in trying to maintain an economy that was simply unsustainable, began to pass a series of sweeping reforms which sought to legitimise the state and shift the economy away from piracy and towards more legitimate means of business. The result of these reforms would see Portas Gemeas transition from a piratocracy to a merchant republic. One of the first boons to the reformed Gemean economy was when Aviz managed to secure some highly lucrative escort contracts with the major Occidental powers, which often meant that the nascent merchant fleet would often be used as anti-piracy convoys, particularly against the vessels of Oustec. This immense success allowed Portas Gemeas to invest into other trading enterprises and ventures which saw further profits being made. The riches were more than enough for the great merchant houses, which were once the major pirate families of the region, to assert and consolidate their rule over the area and even taking on the trappings of royal families. This would culminate in the passage of the Act of Gemean Regality in 1820 which transitioned Portas Gemeas into an elective monarchy which it remains as such to this day.
For Oustec, the realm had opt to try in vain to maintain the pirate-based economy, even though it was becoming increasingly obvious that it was an unsustainable form of economy that would need to be reformed lest the kingdom were to collapse in on itself. The client-based obligations were fast becoming too expensive for Oustec to afford, and by the early 19th Century, the remaining profits for Oustec have all but dried up thanks to the rise in anti-piracy convoys which had often put the pirate fleets of Oustec into conflict with the well-armed merchant escort fleets of Portas Gemeas. It would not be until 1812 when efforts to stabilise and reform Oustec from a piratocracy to a more conventional absolute monarchy would begin in earnest. Championed by King Abey II, the reforms sought to transition the pirate-based economy to a more conventional economy while centralising the state around the monarch. Although these reforms were successful in preventing Oustec from collapsing, they still faced heavy resistance from not just traditionalists who wished to maintain the piracy-based economy, but also local rulers on the mainland who stood to lose power to the king thanks to the centralisation reforms. Resistance to these reforms, coupled by Oustec getting invaded by Urcea, Burgundie, and Caphiria all at once as well as the independence of the very strategically-important Harounan Province, would see Oustec collapse in 1859 and eventually partitioned into the Vocali of Arona, the Caphiric province of Vespera, and Equatorial Ostiecia.
Governance
The exact governance of each piratocracy was largely dependent on the circumstances surrounding its establishment as well as the exact personalities of the founding captains; this could be easily seen with the difference between the governments of Oustec and Portas Gemeas:
Portas Gemeas, having been founded by multiple captains who were friends with one another, was governed as a plutocratic pirates' republic. Governance of Portas Gemeas revolved around the seven great pirate houses, with the head of each house being entitled to run for First Captain; the First Captain holds the position for a single ten-year term and is not allowed to run for reelection for ten years once their term is up. Only captains, who themselves were elected by their own crew in a direct, universal, fleetwide election, were eligible to vote for a First Captain, though they were obligated to consult the crew of their fleet to determine which of the heads of the seven great pirate houses they should vote for. This has effectively made Portas Gemeas into one of the earliest forms of modern democracy in world history, and this form of governance was largely preserved when Portas Gemeas transitioned to a merchant republic and even when it transitioned to an elective monarchy.
Oustec was an entirely different story as it was founded by a single captain who was highly ambitious, and thus was governed as a pirate kingdom which seemed to have been based on a pirate-based oceanic adaptation of feudalism. The structure of Oustec's government was oligarchic in nature, with a complicated system of client-patron relationships. This did ensure that not only was Oustec a decentralised state, it also made it one of the most effective and formidable piratocracies from its establishment in 1566 until sometime around 1650. However, this system was highly reliant on the exponential growth of international trade which meant that as soon as profits began to dry up that form of government was quick to become unsustainable, and when profits from piracy did begin to dry up in the latter half of the 17th Century Oustec soon found itself under domestic turmoil as client obligations became more costly than the revenue. The turmoil got so bad that the country had to pass a series of sweeping reforms in 1812 which saw Oustec transitioning into an absolute monarchy which ultimately did not last long once the Occident began to express an interest in the territory.
Legacy
For Castadilla and the Taineans of northern Vallos, including Arona and Equatorial Ostiecia, the piratocracies have largely become a highly romanticised part of Vallosi history. The idea of living the life of a pirate, one where a person could be free to pursue their life out at sea all the while defying any and all legal authorities in the name of procuring large amounts of money, has made literature which were set during the piratocracy years highly popular throughout northern Vallos. Indeed, Portas Gemeas has long held a festival in December celebrating the anniversary of the establishment of Porto Natal and the place's long history of being a pirates' stronghold prior to the 18th Century. This festival, known as Buccaneers' Month, is celebrated with people dressing up as pirates, reenactments of famous raids, and documentaries about just about anything pertaining to Portas Gemeas and piracy are first aired during the festival. One of the most well-known Buccaneers' Months was in 1998, which not only celebrated the 500th anniversary of the establishment of Porto Natal, it was also when the current flag of Portas Gemeas was unveiled to the public for the first time, with the hourglass symbol being altered to more closely reflect what it may have looked like during the piratocracy years.
Oustec has held a very important place in the history of the Taineans in northern Vallos, with its founder Oustec becoming a legendary heroic figure in the popular consciousness. Much of his adventures and exploits throughout his life of piracy have become highly well-known tales in their own right. Because of his status as a northern Tainean hero, his name has also been lent to the name of Equatorial Ostiecia, where Ostiecia is the Burgoignesc translation of Oustec's name, and the name of the regional ideology of Castoustecism which calls for all Taineans to unite under the Castadillaan flag; the reference to Oustec is because the northern Taineans have seen Oustec as the final unified Tainean state in Vallosi history.