Principality of Insulana

Insulana has seemingly been inhabited since ancient times, with there being evidence of habitation even before the Empire of Oleandron settled the region and established a proper fortified town. After the fall of Oleandron, the city would become independent for a very breif moment, before submitting to the more powerful city of Espiro before the year 800. Espiro, however, was conquered by the Kingdom of Sunþiruda in 929 SC, and Insulana would become its own administrative division in that nation.

Due to its small size, Insula became a primary garrison for Sunþiruda troops, as the town was strategically positioned to threaten Espiro, Floren, and Piscodia, all of which were large cities which protested large garrisons of non-natives. Due to this longterm occupation, Insula was known as a safe town, and attracted many settlers, growing larger thanks to the services provided to the Giriþiudan troops. Even to this day, the city has Giriþiudan ancestry as its second largest, while all other cities count Erleting as their second largest group of ancestors.

As Sunþiruda began to collapse in the early 11th century, many of these troops were pulled from the region, but a small force remained, later bolstered by deserters from other regions. Even as the surrounding areas declared independence, they would hold the cityuntil 1033, when the Giriþiudan regional administration finally caved and decalred independence as their own state in absentia of orders from the capital. The former governor of the region would establish his own line as heretical rulers of the city. Although many of the town's citizens resented the continued control of foreigners, the other alternative was to fall back under Espiran control, and nobody wanted that. Insulana successfully repelled an Espiran assault in 1039, and after that remained at peace for years, its only warfare coming from skirmishes against pirates.

In order to repel the Espirans, Insulana aligned with the Floreni, and supported them during their conquest of Espiro in tbd. However, factions had begun to develop in the city that believed Insulana was effectively becoming a Floreni satellite, and that they needed to stake out their own course, with clashes between the two causing disorder in the nation. In 1126, it was revealed that these anti-Floreni were working with the Tyranid of Piscodia, prompting a bloody reprisal by the Insulanan Tyranid. However, this led to war with Piscodia, which sent forces to aid their allies in the city. Of course, Piscodian intervention prompted Floren to send their own forces to the city, which soon became a battlefield. In the end, Piscodia was forced to retire to the headlands, installing their own suppet Tyranid in the coastal village of Amioni. This "Amioni Tyranid" woudl be opposed by a Floreni puppet in the city proper. However, after several years of skirmishes and low-intensity warfare, things remained inconclusive, and a peace treaty was signed in 1135.

Because neither side wanted to annex their new subjects and thus lose their claim on the half of Insulana they controlled, the two puppet states remained in place for decades before a new conflcit emerged. In 1142, the old Giriþiudan Gens was deposed by Floren and replaced with a Floreni Gens, whose new Tyranid was disliked in the city. This led to the exile of the Giriþiudans, who secured a marriage with their rivals in the headlands in 1149. This gave Piscodia additional claim to the city, and that nation heavily favored the reconciliation of the two. Then, with both gens behind them, Piscodia attacked Floren in 1153, but this war also ended inconclusively. However, when Floren's ruling gens entered into a house feud with the gens of controlling Insulana in 1188, the once-Floreni Tyranid invited his two rival gens into the city and seceded, putting Floren in a hard place and unable to press their claim, though it didn't stop war with Piscodia, who backed the three. Although all 3 gens hated one another, they would agree to a series of marriages to consolidate power into their hands and to cycle rulership of the city over time, known as the Imperfect Compromise. With Floren and Piscodia engaged in yet another war over the city, it was able to escape from both of their controls by granting concessions to the Republic of Alliogens.

Due to ties to Alliogens, the city of Insulana sooon began to grow in importance. The previous fishing industry was supplanted as the most important for the city by new ventures, such as banking. Although Insulana did have some banking institutions to serve the ruling class during the Sunþirudan occupation, these had greatly declined after independence as the town became less important. However, as the Tyrani of Alliogens, Piscodia, and Floren all sought influence over the city, their embassies and merchants required funds when visiting. In order to guarantee these funds were available, the three would all develop their own banks in the city, which soon came to be important institutions in their own right, and greatly increased the ties of the gens who owned them with the city. Many of them would go on to be leading families in Insulana, establishing their own gens as opposed to remaining satellite families.

Insulana was taken over by the Principality of Mediolene, at the time a kingdom, in 1346, which led to the exile of all three of the gens which were a part of the imperfect bargain. However, when Insulana revolted against Mediolene in 1393, the gens returned to the city. Although the rebellion was primarily formented by the lower classes, who formed a democratic commune, the elite gens would crush the peasants postwar, taking back control of the city with help from Alliogens in 1405.

While Alliogens influence would wane as their interest in the city declined, Piscodia and Floren filled the gap, both eager to reassert their influence. The city-state, however, remained prosperous postwar- It saw little war between 1400 and 1900, did not engage in any conquests against the Erleting, and secured a small colony along the coast of Ifyrial. Wines began to flourish in the hinterlands and headlands of the city as other Alcediner states did the hard work of conquering and securing the countryside. In tandem with banking, the city became known for its bottlemaking industry for fine wines, which eventually transitioned to include some glassware. After the colonization of Ifyrial, the port saw some trade in slaves, but most of the industry was confined to their overseas possessions and galleys. In time, the overseas business came to be controlled by the Gens Kinini (the ancient Giriþiudan family), while they were increasingly pushed out of their mainland businesses. This would eventually lead to the family being cut from the imperfect bargain in 1819, and exiled across the seas. Shortly after this, the two remaining Gens of Ittidore and Filiano would begin a decade of violence as each sought to seize control of the city, with assassinations and murder becoming commonplace. With both sides consistently appealing to both Piscodia and Floren as they wished, and factions switching sides constantly, the city was under turmoil until 1831, when Gens Ittidore (those originally from Floren) were finally ousted and their male line died out.

Despite the violence, which led to a restoration of Piscodian and Floreni influence in the city as the Filiano owed both nations for their support, Insulana would actually begin to prosper once more during the late 19th century, with a string of good rulers from Gens Filiano. This proesperity continued well into the 20th century, and even into the 1950s, as Insulana would not initially come under threat by the Erleting during Dragan Ivar's Army. Still, after the armies of Floren reatreated to their city they came under siege. Many of their prosperous vineyards were sacked and looted, and important coastal towns fell to the sword. However, rallied by the charismatic young scion of the the Filiano, Emilio, and aid from the merchant marine under the Kinini, the town would survive. However, Emilio's father betrayed the deal his son made with the Kinini, thus exiling them once more to the colonies and stoking their anger yet again. The Gens Kinini naturally took the opportunity to join with other exiled Gens in the various Ifyrialn colonies and form the new republic. Still, with the downturn in commerce already in effect thanks to the war and general economic instability of the time of troubles, the impact of this hasn't really been felt. Due to the postwar weakness of both Floren and Piscodia, the city has retained a secure independence, at least for now. Unlike most other cities, which overthrew their Tyrani due to the sheer scale of devastation, Insulana has retained the institution, in part because Cosmio Ittidore took advatage of the war to secure his family's position in the city.