General information (Pre-Great war):
Demonym: Tuqari
Capital: Qaras
Key cities: Suvluq
Official language: Qutmaq
Total population: 79,572,851
Total land area: 492,874 km² (190 299.715 sq mi)
Currency: Qut
First-level administrative division: Boluk
Government: Pirateocratic Maritime Commonwealth of Free Captains
The Presidential Relic (CHOICES):
OPENING THE ARCHIVE? [YES] ☜ ----- [NO]
YOU CHOSE YES. WAS THIS EXECUTED BY YOUR OWN FREE WILL? [YES] ----- [NO] ☜
YOU CHOSE YES. WAS THIS EXECUTED BY YOUR OWN FREE WILL? [YES] ☜ ----- [NO]
GOOD. DO YOU THINK YOU HAD ANOTHER CHOICE? [YES] ☜ ----- [MAYBE] ☜
WHAT KIND OF CHOICE? [...] ☜
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A CHOICE? [NO] ----- [NO] ☜
WOULD IT HAVE BEEN BETTER TO HAVE SOMEONE ELSE MAKE THE CHOICE FOR YOU? [?] ☜
CLOSING THE ARCHIVE?
ARCHIVE CLOSING IN PROGRESS...
THE ARCHIVE HAS BEEN CLOSED.
Ontological status (Post-Great war): Several survivor settlements have been detected, both at sea and within the surface structures. Given the substantial survivor population, a large-scale team, along with extensive support personnel and supplies, will be dispatched to provide assistance and ensure the settlements are adequately supported.
Overview:
Sumaltuq, officially known as the Sumaltuq Serene Hieratic State, is located in the southeastern part of Vunai Island, in the Eldervale region. She borders Chav Rav to the north, Drabh Tara to the east, the Meridian Trough Sea to the west, and the Endless Silver Sea to the south.
She is rather difficult to understand, often staying quiet while her mind wanders through countless thoughts and strange imaginings. She is endlessly curious, and once something catches her attention, she will keep thinking about it until her curiosity fades. Unfortunately, her thoughts often lead nowhere, wasting her time in a perpetual cycle of questions and ideas.
Sometimes, her endless thinking leads her to decisions that nobody could have anticipated. Other times, she makes choices that leave everyone questioning her intelligence. She never truly lets her mind rest - not even in her dreams, where she sometimes dreams of herself still thinking. If one believes she is dumb, then she is dumb. If one believes she is brilliant, then she is brilliant. Perhaps, in the end, she is simply whatever her endless mind decides to be.
About Sumaltuq:
𓊝 Sumaltuq has a long history of piracy and sea exploration. Legend says that on nearly every island in Eldervale, a Sumaltuq pirate was the first to set foot there.
𓊝 No one knows exactly how many treasures Sumaltuq's pirates buried across the seas. With countless lost stashes, there's always another treasure hunt waiting to happen.
𓊝 The pirates of the southern seas: At its peak during the 1100s–1160s, Sumaltuq's pirates were feared across the southern seas of Eldervale. Their reign eventually declined as other nations strengthened their naval security.
𓊝 Scattered throughout Sumaltuq are strange statues depicting a humanoid creature known as the Balbal. Nobody knows who built them - or why. The oldest are estimated to be around 80,000 years old.
𓊝 Sumaltuq is considered one of the pioneers of marine exploration, possibly beginning its voyages even slightly earlier than Senas Tuath. Some of its earliest records have survived and are still archived today.
𓊝 The first pirate is still unknown: Despite Sumaltuq's famous pirate culture, there is no clear record of who the very first pirate was. Whether piracy began as a cultural tradition or simply grew from opportunistic sailors remains a mystery.
𓊝 Sumaltuq is one of Eldervale's most isolated nations, partly because of its infamous love of freedom, adventure, and - perhaps most importantly - taking things that aren't nailed down.
Brief modern history:
I. THE RECOVERY COMPACT AND THE RISE OF KOK EL BIRLIGI (1242–1249)
In the aftermath of the First Lock War (1212–1239), Sumaltuq was plunged into acute socioeconomic ruin, with the central authority unable to formulate a viable trajectory toward state restitution. By 1242, the nation persisted under the auspices of the Recovery Compact - a stringent postwar economical system anchored in rigorous rationing, compulsory civic labor, egalitarian resource allocation, and an extraordinarily curtailed monetary regime.
Concurrently, Kok El Birligi (KEB) instituted as an autonomous administrative entity across Sumaltuq's western peripheries, exhibiting superior efficacy in resource governance and localized crisis mitigation.
By 1245, despite repeated central interventions, macroeconomic revitalization remained largely stagnant. Precipitous public disaffection forged widespread imperatives for institutional reform, whereas KEB's pragmatic stewardship garnered expanding broad-based legitimacy. On 18 August 1245, a bloodless and constitutionally validated translatio imperii established KEB as the sovereign authority, elevating Toksoba Kuman to Head of State.
Under Kuman's leadership, recovery proceeded methodically via the New Economy Policy - a comprehensive structural paradigm encompassing monetary recalibration, systemic fiscal overhaul, extensive infrastructural rehabilitation, and labor market modernization. Among the era's definitive institutions was the People's Kitchen, which transmuted derelict infrastructure into sprawling communal refectories to maintain populace-wide subsistence.
In November 1249, archival reorganizations unexpectedly unearthed several archaic cartographic relics. Though initially greeted with official skepticism, state-sanctioned volunteer expeditions were mobilized to ascertain their authenticity. One such contingent successfully retrieved a substantial trove of high-value artifacts by adhering meticulously to the cartographic imperatives.
This discovery operated as the incentive for an unprecedented epoch of privateering, maritime expansion, and nautical mercantilism in Sumaltuq. Historiographical consensus would subsequently codify the post-1249 era as among the most romanticized and mythologized chapters in the nation's chronicle.
II. MARITIME EXPANSION AND THE ENDLESS SILVER SEA CRISIS (1250–1259)
By 1250, Sumaltuq achieved complete macroeconomic redintegration, attaining structural parity with its pre–Lock War baseline primarily via the torrential influx of maritime booty, sovereign prize captures, and state-sanctioned privateering plunder.
In March 1252, under the auspices of the Aramu Port Development directive, the state executed an extensive coastal enhancement program. This initiative modernized the nation's maritime frontier through the proliferation of deep-water harbors and specialized logistics hubs engineered to sustain prolonged transoceanic expeditions.
On 11 August 1256, a Tuqari contingent located the legendary insular domain of Yalgyz-Aral, exhuming the osteological remains of Qul Saray - a celebrated 1150s corsair patriarch. Shortly following the extraction, the landmass precipitously vanished into cartographic obscurity, leaving the recovered skeletal relics as the solitary empirical testament to its physical existence.
By November 1259, Sumaltuq projected its thalassocratic domain southward across the Endless Silver Sea. This aggressive maritime irredentism severely aggravated geopolitical friction with Drabh Tara, sparking a series of low-intensity naval engagements over the disputed Nalia Archipelago and irrevocably shattering a twenty-year strategic armistice.
III. THE CONFLICT WITH CHAV RAV AND THE COLLAPSE OF MARITIME HEGEMONY (1263–1264)
On 4 September 1263, following an unprovoked depredation by the Qara Gemichi corsair syndicate against an operational Chav Rav naval flotilla, Chav Rav summarily invoked a justification, issuing an immediate and formal war declaration against Sumaltuq.
Profoundly ill-equipped for a sudden resurgence of large-scale hostilities, Sumaltuq endured a succession of disastrous tactical routes along the primary spearhead .
Battle of Sarayqala (Sumaltuq), 28 March – 7 June 1264: Sumaltuqian forces successfully arrested the adversarial vanguard's progression toward the metropolitan capital. However, this disastrous stand inflicted devastating attritional casualties, compelling the fractured military to retreat into a highly precarious defensive posture to safeguard its remaining subsidiary littoral strongholds.
This strategic deterioration culminated in subjugation at the Battle of Qan-Qala on 1 November 1264. Utterly divested of operational tactical capacity, Sumaltuq formally capitulated. The ensuing punitive settlement mandated the territorial cession of vast oceanic tracts within the Meridian Trough Sea to Chav Rav, while effectively paralyzing Sumaltuq's once-formidable state-sponsored privateering apparatus.
The catastrophic geopolitical fallout of this military debacle precipitated the immediate resignation of incumbent Head of State Aqtash Temurbay, facilitating the expedient ascension of Inalban Batabay to navigate the deeply compromised polity.
IV. ARMED REARMAMENT AND REVANCHIST RECOVERY (1264–1269)
Under Batabay's administration, the polity definitively terminated fiscal subsidization for state-sanctioned privateering, aggressively redirecting national revenue to catalyze a pervasive remilitarization. This precipitous paradigm shift alienated numerous buccaneer cartels, inciting systemic insubordination as disenfranchised privateers defected to peripheral archipelagos to forge autonomous sovereign thalassocracies.
By June 1267, the efficacy of this martial revitalization was empirically validated when Tuqari forces decisively vanquished Drabhi contingents upon Selin Island. The contested landmass was subsequently annexed into Tuqari sovereignty and officially redesignated as Tasharal.
On 29 June 1269, capitalizing upon intelligence detailing the systemic geopolitical implosion of the Chav Rav's central apparatus, the state swiftly initiated a sweeping irredentist reconquest of the Meridian Trough Sea. Tuqari advance guards systematically subjugated the residual Chavur garrisons entrenched across the maritime expanse, wholly restoring their erstwhile territorial hegemony.
V. THE FIRST GREAT WAR OF ELDERVALE AND THE SECOND LOCK WAR (1271–1276)
Coinciding with the macro-strategic conflagration of the First Great War of Eldervale, Chav Rav promulgated a renewed belligerent mandate against Sumaltuq on 21 November 1271, thereby instigating the cataclysmic epoch of the Second Lock War.
Siege of Subasaq (Sumaltuq), 22 April – 14 December 1273: Tuqari strike forces effectively interdicted the adversarial Chik-Kev offensive. While this tactical barrier secured the occidental theater, it inexorably condemned both hegemonies to a profoundly attritional quagmire.
Battle of Aqbalq (Sumaltuq), 23 March – 16 July 1275: Representing a catastrophic doctrinal fallacy. Predicated upon the erroneous calculus that tempestuous climates and viscous alluvial topography would preclude hostile infiltration, the Tuqari high command egregiously neglected fortification protocols, precipitating a protracted and highly macabre debacle.
Battle of Tazbalyk (Sumaltuq), 18 August – 22 October 1275: Sumaltuq orchestrated a frantic counter-incursion to rectify its precipitous operational hemorrhage. Despite failing to repossess this vital topographical fulcrum, the engagement was rapidly canonized within national symbol as an apotheosis of militaristic fortitude.
Battle of Boritepe (Sumaltuq), 29 January – 21 March 1276: The state constituted the terminal gambit to stymie adversarial penetration of crucial littoral maritime arteries. This defensive rupture permanently annihilated the state's logistical capacity for protracted combat, reducing the domestic sphere to systemic ruin. Following an ultimate, abortive resistance at the Battle of Tashliman, the comprehensively fractured polity formalized its capitulation on 24 September 1276, suffering the monumental expropriation of its occidental thalassocratic domain.
VI. INSTITUTIONAL IMPLOSION AND THE RISE OF THE CORSAIR STATE (1276–1280s)
The annihilating denouement of the war precipitated ubiquitous civil insurrection and pervasive anti-statist mobilization. Concurrent with this systemic societal fracturing, numerous disenfranchised corsair syndicates executed a maritime exodus, establishing autonomous insular thalassocracies. To insulate their nascent regimes, these breakaway factions frequently cultivated robust patron-client alignments with adversarial hegemons, notably Drabh Tara and Chav Rav.
Following Inalban Batabay's precipitous abdication, the central governmental apparatus experienced rapid institutional decay. Bereft of a unifying sovereign authority, virulent factionalism paralyzed the political sovereign . Exploiting this constitutional vacuum, the peripheral pirate cabal projected their influence into the continental interior, instigating endemic internecine warfare among rival buccaneer cartels.
As the polity teetered upon the precipice of decentralized warlordism, Ulu-Tengri Mergen - a formidable freebooter patriarch - executed a decisive coup de main. Mobilizing his Kan-Tengiz gang, he orchestrated an armed breach of Orda-Qala, the supreme administrative citadel, summarily sequestering the extant bureaucratic hierarchy and usurping executive control.
Though his authority was rapidly consolidated within the metropolitan nucleus, provincial territories remained subjugated by rival syndicates. Consequently, Mergen promulgated Basqanyul - a sweeping martial pacification imperative executed between 1276 and 1279. This campaign systematically expunged adversarial cartels from the continental mainland, an effort that culminated in the strategic capitulation and withdrawal of the Su-Qaraqchilar syndicate from the Temir-Qala-El provincial jurisdiction.
With terrestrial sovereignty decisively secured, Mergen formally ascended as Head of State. He proceeded to institutionalize Freebootism - a novel sociopolitical paradigm predicated upon radical autonomy, mercantile adventurism, and pragmatic, opportunistic self-determination. Furthermore, despite Chav Rav's stringent naval blockade across the Meridian Trough Sea, Sumaltuqian privateers adeptly navigated clandestine nautical arteries, sustaining the national exchequer via asymmetrical maritime commerce and illicit extraction.
Throughout the 1280s, however, state-sponsored irredentist offensives aimed at subduing the secessionist insular regimes yielded negligible strategic dividends. These rogue maritime polities proved impervious to central reconquest, heavily fortified by the steadfast geopolitical subsidization of both Chav Rav and Drabh Tara.
VII. Thalassocratic Resurgence and the Path to the Third Lock War (1284–1291)
On 8 January 1284, amidst intensifying geopolitical friction concerning the sovereign thalassocratic hegemony of the Endless Silver Sea, the Tuqari state promulgated an unequivocal declaration of war against Drabh Tara's polity. This belligerent mandate was precipitously catalyzed by Drabh Tara's unilateral, audacious territorial annexation of multiple highly contested insular archipelagos situated within that coveted mercantile maritime expanse.
Battle of Bug-Blori (Drabh Tara), 1 April – 24 July 1284: Tuqari forces breached and subjugated the fortified Drabhi citadel. This decisive conquest exerted insurmountable operational duress upon the adversarial high command, effectively dictating the strategic trajectory and definitive resolution of the conflict.
Battle of Cullglun (Drabh Tara), 20 October – 13 December 1284: As the terminal engagement of the southern theater, triumphant Tuqari mechanized forces advanced to the periphery of the enemies capital. The campaign culminated in a negotiated bilateral armistice, compelling Drabh Tara's administration to irrevocably concede expansive thalassocratic dominion across the Endless Silver Sea to the Tuqari hegemony.
Between March and May 1288, regional bureaucratic archives documented a profound, localized supernatural anomaly involving the ancient, indigenous monolithic effigies traditionally designated as Balbals. Corroborated empirical accounts alleged these massive lithic statuaries exhibited spontaneous, autonomous locomotion, migrating inexplicably toward undisclosed geographical coordinates before subsequently reverting precisely to their original topographical emplacements. This fundamentally inexplicable phenomenological occurrence immediately resurrected dormant scholastic discourse and speculative esoteric theorization regarding the intrinsic metaphysical properties of these archaic cultural monoliths.
By 1290, the delicate macro-regional geopolitical equilibrium deteriorated precipitously. A sequential series of low-intensity naval skirmishes and maritime interdictions erupted continually between Tuqari and Drabhi flotillas across the Endless Silver Sea, severely destabilizing the southern military theater. Simultaneously, localized armed hostilities flared violently against Chavur mercantile vessels within the Meridian Trough Sea, directly catalyzed by a renascent, state-tolerated wave of aggressive Tuqari privateering operations and systemic, orchestrated maritime expropriation.
These coalescing, multifaceted transnational frictions rapidly climaxed in direct tandem with the systemic, continent-wide escalation of the Second Great War of Eldervale. On 22 September 1291, the Tuqari sovereign authority executed a staggering, unprecedented diplomatic maneuver by concurrently promulgating dual declarations of war against both the Chav Rav and Drabh Taran hegemonies, thereby definitively igniting the cataclysmic, multi-front conflagration historically codified as the Third Lock War.
VIII. The Third Lock War and the Pax of Seraphic (1291–1294)
The terrestrial theater of the conflict inaugurated the protracted Battle of Morriganey (Drabh Tara), 5 December 1291 – 24 March 1292. Tuqari spearhead echelons decisively breached Drabhi sovereign interior, relegating the adversary to a reactive defensive alignment and coercively forging a critical strategic corridor toward the southern maritime infrastructure.
Battle of Sariqay (Sumaltuq), 8 February – 27 May 1292: Delivered a seminal Tuqari martial triumph over Chavur expeditionary forces. By dismantling the hostile Sarniko operation, this decisive engagement catalyzed an unparalleled renaissance in collective national morale, categorically exorcising decades of pervasive geopolitical humiliation.
Battle of Urambei (Endless Silver Sea), 23 March – 11 July 1293: Occurred across the Endless Silver Sea. Conceptualized as a punitive maritime interdiction designed to expedite a colossal amphibious envelopment, the engagement unforeseenly degenerated into a grueling paradigm of attritional warfare, ultimately culminating in a strategically equivocal denouement that precipitated profound martial depletion.
Battle of Ruvendro (Chav Rav), 22 August – 9 December 1293: Against Chav Rav heralded a paradigmatic leap in Tuqari martial engineering following a prolonged epoch of scientific stagnation. The high command deployed the Temur Sunuk - a heavily fortified assault transport structurally analogous to the indigenous Balbal monoliths. Capable of securely ferrying a twenty-man infantry complement through acutely contested sectors, this mechanized juggernaut efficaciously neutralized Chav Rav's previously devastating "dense cloud falling" tactical bombardments.
During the initial half of 1294, the audacious Tug Capul dual-front offensive was methodically thwarted at the Battle of Kek-Parni (against Chav Rav) and the Battle of Alamakippeen (against Drabh Tara). Both macro-regional theaters degenerated into intractable strategic deadlocks, irrevocably paralyzing bilateral military maneuverability.
Confronting this insurmountable operational impasse, the Tuqari sovereign authority formally acceded to the Pax of Seraphic on 5 July 1294, averting subsequent catastrophic decimation. The diplomatic accord fundamentally reconfigured regional hegemony, transmuting both the Meridian Trough Sea and the Endless Silver Sea into demilitarized, tripartite economic cooperation zones. However, substantial domestic constituencies among the Tuqari populace vociferously repudiated the armistice. They castigated the geopolitical compromise as a de facto capitulation, condemning the staggering martial expenditure as categorically abortive.
In the post-conflict period, Tuqari maritime mercantilism experienced a vigorous infrastructural revitalization. Nevertheless, omnipresent residual paranoia regarding subversive espionage within the designated tripartite cooperation zones fostered a climate of acute maritime hypervigilance. This perpetually tense atmosphere frequently catalyzed severe nautical misinterpretations and volatile diplomatic standoffs with transiting Chavur and Drabhi vessels.
IX. THE SUBJUGATION OF THE PIRATE FRONT AND THE DAWN OF MARITIME RESURGENCE (1296-1297)
Empowered by augmented martial capabilities, Tuqari forces spearheaded a comprehensive maritime reclamation campaign on June 12, 1296. Their inaugural objective entailed the liberation of Kok-Qol Island, a strategic redoubt long subjugated by the Oq-Jylan syndicate. The ensuing amphibious assault yielded an expeditious victory by June 30. However, this precipitous triumph inadvertently prompted the coalescence of disparate corsair factions. Recognizing the existential threat posed by resurgent Sumaltuq forces, these illicit regimes combined to forge the Pirate Front, thereby instigating the protracted naval conflict chronicled as the Yol-Kokrek-Vurus.
Battle of Yumayra (August 9 – November 10, 1296): Pitted against the formidable Kuma syndicate, the Sumaltuq vanguard encountered entrenched guerrilla resistance, which severely protracted the engagement. Ultimately, the syndicate's capitulation neutralized a critical threat, thereby securing vital logistical sea lanes and easing subsequent operations.
Battle of Bulutlu Qoba Island (January 17 – April 16, 1297): Characterized by military historians as a tactical meat grinder, the engagement was defined by the pirates' relentless, attritional warfare. Although it exacted a staggering toll, the desperate defense left the Pirate Front irrevocably decimated and structurally untenable.
The culmination of the Yol-Kokrek-Vurus materialized during the Battle of Kumishqum (May 2 – June 8, 1297), besieging the Aru Boys, the ultimate remnant of the buccaneer syndicate. Disastrously, pervasive complacency and unbridled overoptimism among the senior echelon engendered wholly gratuitous combat fatalities. Facing inescapable capitulation, the remaining autocrats orchestrated collective self-destruction, a macabre epilogue that forestalled imprisonment and formally extinguished the conflict. With absolute dominion reinstated across their littoral domains, Sumaltuq catalyzed a revitalization of seaborne opulence, decisively eclipsing a torpid decennium and bringing forth an epoch of unparalleled nautical and mercantile supremacy.
X. THE MONOLITHIC AWAKENING AND THE RISE OF THE FREEBOOTERY (1299-1322)
In October 1299, following exhaustive archival audits, cartographers exhumed a master chart annotated with hundreds of riddles charting the elusive Kumaya - a legendary treasury promising arcane boons. Despite widespread skepticism regarding its authenticity, the disclosure ytiggered a frenzy among rival corsair syndicates attempting to decipher the cryptic trails.
Diplomatic hostilities escalated significantly by November 20, 1304, when the Chav Rav's regime formally arraigned Sumaltuq for orchestrating recurrent maritime incursions against their fleet. Although Sumaltuq vehemently disavowed complicity, attributing the plunder to rogue operators, Chav Rav fortified its naval security, severely straining bilateral ties.
An phenomenon emerged in 1307 when independent freebooters sighted grotesque, unidentified leviathans patrolling the abyss, entities previously chronicled only in ancient maritime compendiums. This eerie occurrence intensified when several pirate crews who vanished during the 1300 treasure rush inexplicably reappeared in 1309. Retaining no memory of the elapsed years and exhibiting pristine physiological health, they remained entirely oblivious to the temporal gap.
Political turmoil struck on March 7, 1310, when newly elected head of state Yuma Mairu mysteriously vanished mid-celebration. Reappearing unscathed three days later, she insisted her disappearance stemmed from an encounter with animate Balbal monoliths, demanding their official integration into the state apparatus. Following protracted legislative Drabh Taraates, a constitutional compromise in March 1312 granted these sentient statues honorary legislative seats alongside human statesmen.
Meanwhile, in January 1315, an expeditionary privateer crew successfully tracked down the shifting Lost Chest of Altun - a mythical vault historically lost due to its host island's erratic migration. Among its priceless artifacts was the skull of an Alp-Kara, an extinct species of colossal grey humanoids, which subsequently fetched exorbitant bids on the clandestine black market.
By August 1319, Yuma Mairu formalized her unprecedented co-governance doctrine alongside the Balbal, codifying "Freebootery" (a radical tenet declaring all resources universally accessible) and implementing profound administrative restructuring. This culminated in January 1320 with a Balbal being elected president of the Bureau of Monolithic Culture, though it required a human proxy to vocalize decrees since the statues remained steadfastly mute.
Geopolitical tensions climaxed in September 1322 as friction between Sumaltuq and Drabh Tara reignited following fresh assaults on Drabh Tara vessels by suspected Sumaltuq freebooters. Rejecting liability once more, Sumaltuq narrowly averted open warfare by enforcing draconian policing over its domestic pirate factions.
XI. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS AND EXPEDITION LOGS (1326-1359)
In 1326, seafarers navigating the western expanses toward the Zulm and Oru waters reported harrowing encounters with colossal, amorphous crimson silhouettes. Obscured by dense marine fog and emitting a hypnotic, siren-like resonance, these specters prompted authorities to swiftly mandate an absolute navigational quarantine over the region. The bizarre oceanic phenomena were soon eclipsed by terrestrial eccentricities in October 1331, when rural observers sighted head of state Yuma Mairu riding astride an ambulatory Balbal monolith ascending Sari Oba hill. Following a three-day disappearance, she resurfaced, proclaiming she had engaged in a profound diplomatic conclave with the animate statues. Emboldened by this esoteric counsel, Mairu promulgated the Suw Talaw Bitik mandate just two years later. This aggressive geopolitical pivot expanded their buccaneering theater beyond the traditional confines of the Meridian Trough, the Endless Silver Sea, and the Clover Basin Sea, orchestrating audacious corsair incursions against sovereign territories across southern Eldervale.
Domestic policy grew equally radical in 1337, the Mandatory Litho-Grooming Act compelled citizens to treat their physical forms as unhewn masonry, requiring daily epidermal abrasions with coarse grit and saturated sand to achieve somatic petrification. This cultural metamorphosis deepened with the 1342 Mineral Marriage Decree, obligating all adults to adopt a palm-sized Balbal - christened a "life boulder" - as an equal domestic partner alongside conventional matrimonial spouses. In October 1346, when a subterranean excavation breached a colossal, uncatalogued vault housing tens of thousands of dormant monoliths arranged in meticulous formations. Despite these terrestrial revelations, the pursuit of the fabled Kumaya hoard remained tantalizingly elusive; by January 8, 1350, cryptographers had unraveled half of the archaic riddles, yet the master chart yielded no definitive coordinates. Toward the middle of 1354 , hydrographic monitors detected "The Clang," a recurring abyssal dissonance resembling viscous metal striking oil. Official inquiries into the acoustic manifestation were abruptly vetoed by inexplicable edicts originating directly from the Balbal leadership. Finally, in 1359, the maritime community witnessed a fleeting zoological marvel - a benign, chimeric entity possessing a bifurcated anatomy consisting of a piscine tail and a singular hominid leg. After a mere quintet of documented sightings, the docile hybrid vanished forever into the uncharted depths.
XII. THE ERA OF THE STONE SOVEREIGNS (1360-1375)
During the 1360s, Sumaltuq corsairs engaged in perpetual maritime skirmishes against foreign armadas - predominantly those of Kernevel, Kelpiekirk, and Rauvolgava - campaigns that were clandestinely bankrolled by the state apparatus. This epoch stimulated myriad artistic movements, embedding its military grandeur into the cultural bedrock as notorious buccaneers like Bilge Rat and Old Saltwater ascended to legendary infamy.
On November 14, 1365, Yuma Mairu succumbed to severe osteoarthritis, paving the way for Altunay Qamira Sarqina, who was unilaterally anointed by the monolithic leadership as her successor. Honoring Mairu's final testament, a radical governmental purge in 1368 saw all senior human magistrates supplanted by Balbal statues, requiring mortal conduits to articulate their silent legislative decrees.
The following year, an anomaly manifested at Mairu's sepulcher within the Kipchakia boluk, an effigy bearing her exact visage materialized overnight, its enigmatic origins confounding scholars as it exhibited the precise petrological composition of ancient Balbal statues.
Following a clandestine communion with these lithic sovereigns on June 7, 1370, Sarqina orchestrated a cryptic geometric alignment of the monoliths across the Yuski plains, asserting that this arcane configuration - whose esoteric logic she alone comprehended - would secure perpetual national affluence. The prophecy seemingly materialized in October 1373 when privateers unearthed the Senduk hoard, a legendary bounty eclipsed only by the fabled Kumaya. Although its contents were fiercely classified by the regime, this staggering windfall catapulted the civilization into a Pangea-Flourish state by 1375 - a transcendent echelon characterized by absolute societal, economic, and infrastructural maximization.
Empowered by this zenith, the nation relentlessly pursued utopian expansion and the elusive Kumaya coordinates, an overarching golden age that was shattered by the cataclysmic onset of the Third Eldervale Great War and the concurrent Fourth Lock War.
Ideology:
Freebootery is a radical philosophy of absolute personal freedom, unrestricted possession, communal plunder, and the rejection of permanent authority. It begins with a simple premise: nothing in this world can truly be owned forever. Ownership is a temporary social fiction imposed upon things that existed before us and will remain after us. The sea recognizes no borders, and neither should humanity. Borders are artificial lines drawn across a world that naturally belongs to no one. Likewise, money is regarded as an artificial barrier between people and the resources they need. Freebootery therefore seeks a society where access, exchange, generosity, and mutual aid replace compulsory payment. To pirate is not merely to steal, but to liberate something from artificial restriction - to return what has been enclosed to the realm of human use. Value comes from use, meaning, desire, and human experience, not from legal ownership or abstract titles.
Freebootery is deeply suspicious of extreme accumulation. When a person possesses vastly more than they can reasonably use, their excess becomes a hoard: an attempt to transform temporary possession into permanent ownership. Hoarding is therefore seen not simply as inequality, but as an ideological refusal to let resources circulate.
Yet Freebootery rejects compulsory collectivism as fiercely as compulsory individualism. The individual is sovereign, but sovereignty does not require isolation. Community becomes meaningful precisely because participation is voluntary. People may join, leave, share, wander, exchange, or live alone. Freedom also includes the right to abandon one's assigned identity. No person is permanently bound to their birthplace, class, reputation, nationality, occupation, or former self. One may become someone else - or become nobody at all. Above everything stands one final principle: Freebootery itself must never become a chain. No doctrine, community, leader, flag, or ideology possesses the right to permanently possess the individual. The ultimate freedom is the freedom to leave - even freedom from Freebootery.