Enclave of Illumendell

The island of Illumendell sits in the middle of the various straits which separate Telgren and Ifyrial, and was once the site of several minor cultures preceding the establishment of Oleandron. The island would see its first population of elves arrive from Oleandron around 200 BC, as the Empire began to seek trade relations with Tritons. Over the next few centuries, Oleandron slowly expanded its control into the interior and around the outskirts, while the native population was exploited, enslaved, and eventually all-but eliminated. As Oleandron began to decline, the island saw its economic value decline and most of the slave population was transfered elsewhere, so it was seen as the perfect place for the establishment of a prison colony for the elven elites following the Coup of '67.

The exiles, whose fortunes and properties had all been seized by the human rebels, were placed on the island and given no boats or resources to work with, which meant they were almost totally dependent on those who overthrew them to provide food. The remaining slaves on the island would be freed, and they became the jailors of these exiles, which of course meant harsh treatment and high rates of death. The community was only really sustained by support from elven charitable organizations which supported their brethren using hidden monetary reserves. This situation was in place for only seven years before Oleandron was divided in two, and neither East or West Oleandron made any effort to support the prisoners after this- in fact both refused to claim the island because they didn't want to deal with managing the elites. The remaining humans, besides the few tribal settlements still remaining in the highlands would shortly thereafter abandon the island for fear of an elvish reprisal, which almost certainly would have occured and seen the re-enslaved. Despite being freed from their bondage, the exiles were forced to fend for themselves and became de facto independent. Although the most forward thinking had already begun building fishing nets and boats, as well as planting the few crops they could, the majority of the population was still dependent on supplies from the mainland and therefore relied on ever-decreasing support from the elven community in East Oleandron, who had their own issues. During the years between 774 and 797, the island was divided into small communities which continued shrinking as opportunities to leave presented themselves. Many of the former nobility were forced to choose between lowborn jobs as a means of escaping in the company of the supply bringers, take up farming, or sell themselves (or others) into slavery, since there was a lack of human slaves to exploit. However, things got even worse after the Collapse of Eastern Oleandron, as most of the elves on the mainland had their possessions seized and could no longer support the island at all. From there, gnomes supplanted the elves as the main way of getting off the island, but their terms were much steeper, and many elves would be forced into certuries of bondage as clerks, servants, or worse. Things continued to decline after a purge of elves was enacted in the new state of Casyrian, and the island became a destination for some of those fleeting these purges, which included the Eldritch for the first time. This proved to be a mistake for nearly all those who fled to the island, as most were immediately betrayed by the population already there. These new arrivals were either sold to the gnomes as slaves or forced to work in the one industry the island seemed able to provide- copper.

Copper was first discovered on the island by chance, but soon it was proved that the island had vast reserves. These reserves were taken over by several elven gangs who forced others to work for little to no pay and who sold the copper to gnomes in exchange for a settling of debts. Soon, the island was under complete control of several of these gangs, who came together in a cabal in 806 SC in order to ensure they would not undercut one another's prices. They declared the nation the Enclave of Illumendell, claiming the island was a bastion of the elven aristocracy, which, to be fair, it was. However, Illumendell was not merely an enclave of aristocracy, but rather a bastion of the exact issues of elven aristocracy which had caused them to be overthrown. The cabals had recreated a situation where a few elven lords had control over a vast number of slaves, serfs, and all the resources of the island; just this time the slaves were elves and eldritch. Of course, being both cruel and the exact people who caused it in the first place, the ruling caste had learned all the wrong lessons from the fall of Oleandron. They decided that if there were no humans, and no human blood, there would be no issues. Consequentially, the first decree of the new nation was the sale of all remaining eldritch on the island into gnomish slavery. While there yet remained a small human tribal population, this was shortly thereafter capture, enslaved, and eventually sold off. Therefore, the nation would soon develop a hierarchal society. On top of this hierarchy were the gangs, whose leadership would eventually become the Six Families of Illumendell, a political and economic elite who continue to dominate the island to this day. Below them were the rest of the gang members, whose role became analogous to knights and middlemen, ensuring the day-to-day running of the nation and the trade with the gnomes while being supported by the familial elites. Below these were the remaining free population of the island, who were largely living in poverty and small fishing communities, though increasingly they came to work as laborers on the burgeoning farms. Finally, the slave class was employed on both farms and in the mines as the needs varied. Of course, the mines were far harsher, as the farms of early Illumendell were largely focused on agrarian pursuits and not hyper-intensive cash crops.

During the 800s, 900s, and 1000s, Illumedell was slowly consolidated into what would come to be known as the "Kingdom Without a King" as a feudal society slowly developed. Increasingly, field slaves and mine slaves were differentiated from one another, and with time and the decrease in the slave population would become more of a serf class, where only criminals and rebels would be sent to the mines. They were still not free, of course, but due to the long lifespan of elves it was considered far more effective to keep most in the fields than work them to death in just a few years. As the copper production slowly decreased thanks to a decline in workers, the industry of trading copper likewise transitioned from gnomish to elven control, with copper increasingly being shipped to the Kingdom of Fraspika after the fall of Casyrian. This angered the gnomes, who began plotting to take control over the island's metals industry once more.

Despite continuing to sell to the Fraspikans, Illumindell's elites continued the ban on human settlement on the island, even as slaves. This policy, combined with the harshness of life in the mines, meant that the population of the island remained very low, and led to chronic shortages in labor, thus dropping copper outputs significantly. Efforts to press more elves into service in the mines were extremely unpopular, and led to mass revolts, with most of the island being embroiled in war by 1087. By 1089, the island had been put under Gnomish blockade, and the Telgren Trade Company brought the rebels and oligarchs to heed by 1093. As per the terms of the agreement, the island would now be under partial Gnomish control, with the ports of Idineprit and Soueur being leased to the Company for an indefinite time, while the remainder of the island would be a protectorate of the Company. With Gnomes taking control over the mining industry, the band on non-elven settlement would be removed, and a diverse group of slaves poured in to work the mines. These early slaves were a myriad of different races and ethnicities due to the lack of slaves that could be sourced from Telgren itself, but the gnomes still felt it was more effective than what had been done previously. While the whole operation remained nominally in elven hands, the Gnomes held all the real power, and the cabals became overseers rather than masters.

For a time, the gnomish strategy was both effective and profitable, with copper continuing to roll from the mines and sold onto the continent. However, they failed to account for the slow but steady elven population growth, as with this growth came less tolerance for the gnomish, who were seen as taking advantage of rightful elven profits. Still, with the cooperation of the local elites, the discontent could be shipped to the mines- though enforcement, bribes, and fending off raids were beginning to make a dent in the Gnomish profit margin. Although the Gnomish navy was sufficient to deter any invaders from land, they failed to account for the greed of the Tritons, who looked at the island as a place that could easily be cowed by force of arms and made to mine ores for their wars. Consequentially, in 1219, the Gnomish dominance came to an end when a Tritonic sneak attack crippled the entire Gnomish navy stationed there and then ambushed the reinforcements. The Tritons turned the tables on the Gnomish population, making them manage the slaves while ensuring control of the seas on their own. This act actually led to the bankruptcy of the Telgren Trade Company and the seizure of its assets by several different countries, trade leagues and other companies. It also meant the elven population was shunted to the side as a landed aristiocracy who provided food for the slaves- important, but not really wealthy.

Although the tritons managed to keep hold of the island until 1253, this period was marked by a decline in the fortunes of the local population and a general loss in productivity of the mines, though the population did see an increase. The tritonic policies, especially implementing a ban on ships not licensed by them- which destroyed much of the fishing economy, led to an increase in serfdom and inequality even as the Six Families also saw their fortunes decline. Finally, in the Great Revolt of 1248, order totally broke down as the elites launched a rebellion, as did the slaves. While both sides continued fighting the tritons, they also fought one another, and thus it would be another 5 years before the tritons were totally banished from the island. From there, the civil war continued, with the Six Families and local Gnome population forming one faction, supported by the Blazennian Gulf Trade League (the spiritual successor to the TTC), and the slaves and serf populations forming another, supported by Telrai veterans from the Clesentian Wars. However, with the eruption of the Blazennian-Fraspikan War, these veterans mostly went to defend their communities in future Liradsromn, leaving the serf side on the back foot. Although some of these telrai returned to fight afterwards, the serfs were eventually defeated and a repressive new regime was instituted.

The next several centuries of Illumendell's existence were much quieter, as the Gnomish commercial stranglehold over southern Telgren began to wane, with local powers such as Fraspika, Blazennia, and various Cloriadmen and Telrai merchants coming to diversify the seas and reduce Gnomish profits. Consequentially, the Gnomes no longer had the power, influence, or funds to seize control over an island as large as Illumendell. The tritons were also unable to make any moves on Illumendell due to the rise of Copper-bottomed ships. Although these were far out of the price range and technical ability of most nations at the time, the abundant copper supplies and the craftsmanship of long-lived elves allowed them to establish rudimentary prototypes to prevent their fleets from being easily ambushed by tritons. Although such boats emerged by the early 1300s, they suffered from swift deterioration in copper and issues with iron parts, and were generally overlooked in favor of mages placing alarm spells. It would not be until 1348 that the first economically viable prototype, utilizing a fairly simple blend of spells which allowed the copper to last far longer and which effectively prevented corrosion, emerged. By the late 1350s, the entire military fleet of Illumendell had this procedure done, which had the side effect of making their ships more durable in general, and thus making any tritonic attempts to cripple the fleets much harder.

With the Gnomish reduced to investors and business partners as opposed to imperialists, and the tritonic threat forestalled, the telrai emerged as the biggest threat to the economic and political elite of Illumendell. Although it was rare for any tritons to land on Illumendell itself, almost the entirety of the 14th-16th centuries saw constant low scale raids on shipping from both sides, including, in particular, slaves. While such exploits resulted in limited numbers of telrai occasionally working the mines, by and large the two sides saw minimal loss of people, with the economic costs being the main effect. During this period, new slaves were largely Erleting imported from the Alcediner lands.

This would change greatly with the discovery of Ifyrial. By the mid 1700s, the export and transport of both goblin and orcish slaves between Telgren, Ifyrial, Ærellion, and Halyren (the so-called diamond trade) had grown exponentially, and therefore what Illumendell was doing was no longer special, and as the Telrai focused on other efforts the threat to Illumendelli shipping diminished, though raids continued for historical reasons. With the arrival of a more plentiful supply of slaves, Illumendell's main industry began to shift from copper to sugarcane. Due to their decent climate for production combined with their presence right next to Telgren's markets, Illumednell was essentially an untapped goldmine for sugar, but the plant had never been introduced to the area. However, with sugarcane plantations already present in Western Ærellion, as soon as the two continents were connected by the diamond trade the formerly rare sugar became both more common and profitable to produce, as Telgren's elites couldn't get enough. Illumendell also emerged as a major slave market and a popular place for slaves from Ifyrial and Halyren to be traded between Gnomes and Telgrener companies who didn't have a presence of Ifyrial. This meant that the population of slaves on Illumendell began to get more diverse, with it eventually reaching the modern melting pot.

The economic downturn of Telgren's Time of Troubles hit Illumendell hard. With much of their economy largely centered around slaves, sugar, and other trade-based ventures, an economic crisis was completely unavoidable. However, there were periods of better times, especially when Telgren's colonies on Ifyrial began breaking free, as this raised the demand for slaves once more. Still, after the economic impacts of independence dissipated, Illumendell's economy slid back into recession. Thankfully, with the end of the Time of Troubles, Illumendell's economy once more expanded, though they now suffered from a slave shortage and weren't able to meet demands. With slaves worked harder than ever to make up the slack, it is perhaps unsurprising that a massive slave revolt hit the nation in 1971. This revolt probably would have succeeded if aid had been given by the Kingdom of Hekahon, but due to that state being engaged in civil war the rebels were unable to find supporters and were crushed. Though many were forced back into the fields and mines, the situation necessitated a large import of new slaves, which the Alcediner were happy to provide, having just recently defeated the Erelting in the Dennonian Wars. Illumendell's investments paid off in the weapons and slave trade during the Blazennian civil war, and their economy continues to grow.