List Pages
Estalia
Portugal. Portugal is perhaps, save France, the one country who have been most victimized by the coming of the British. Truly it might be said that without Britain’s arrival and single-minded madness, Portugal might have ruled the world, as it was an Empire to rival that of ancient Pax Romana in its own days of glory. Estalia is a nation on a slow, but eventual decline now, from such lofty heights.
Estalia was a land, an empire, founded on the incredible, sorcery-laden battle barges. These great, gleaming golden ships prowled the inner seas and the outer oceans as masters of their domain. Faster, larger, more agile, equipped with more rowers and complements of fighting men than any competitor could hope to mount. When they stalked the whitecaps in their hundreds there was no question who owned the seas. But Estalia has lost the making of these predatory ships, and now perhaps 30 linger on, patched and otherwise lackluster in comparison to their past magnificent, if still inordinately powerful. Some say it was the elves who were tricked into making these by crafty human tribes, who learned the making and spawned a navy fit to rule the world. Some say it was a power far, far darker, that cost the Portuguese a great deal more. Be that as it may, the British have found answers for the golden barges, and time itself allies with England, as the older, fewer ships could not hold the cold East Atlantic Ocean, and Estalian power was sundered.
At its height, Estalia was a crafty nation. Poor in land and in men, it made use of Espana’s desire to explore, and became their brotherland’s partner. With the barges in attendance, Estalia spent generations building towns and city-states throughout the world. They colonized in Carthage, in the depths of dark Afrika. They had trading enclaves in Ruus and Araby, they tithed the native people of France and Germania. They held back the reavers of Norsca through battle and intimidation, and instead of conquerors, Portugal sent forth its merchants. They bought the world. In time, fully half of the world’s trade moved under Estalian flags, and paid its tithe to the Silver Castle of Lisbon, center of the Portuguese world. They knew to avoid the dark shores of Britain, but otherwise they went everywhere and profited from it.
It was the burgeoning of the alien sea power of the British Isles which doomed fair Estalia. These ugly, squat, powered ships were unstoppable, and in numbers could even bring down the fabled golden barges, already on the wane in numbers and power themselves. Portugal could not sue for peace with Britain, but curtailed themselves from the North Atlantic entirely, and built huge fortreses along its shoreline to better safeguard itself. This behavior cost Portugal in power and prestige and its sovereign colonies grew brazen or threw the yoke off entirely. Portugal had to invest in its own defenses and muster new navies to combat the plague to the north and thus wasted its energies and wealth, instead of continuing to grow. With Carthage now rising, and Araby fully until arab control, Portugal becomes less and less important. And its once invincible navies shrink each year. Change is in the wind for the sea masters.
Royal Family: TBD
Cities of Note:
Lisbon “Goldtown” or “Silvervale”, former seat of the Portuguese kingdoms, incredibly rich trading hub. Gilded and awesomely defended.