Black Ardesch

"**Black Ardesch**", officially known as the **Pirate Republic of the Liberos Coast** or **Liberos**, was an island nation located to the west of Palguenia's (Pelarin) shores during the Sixteenth Age. It was named after the colour of its flag, like its mother country Red Ardesch.

Liberos was founded by absolute-free-speech advocates and anarchists who emulated the pirate-ruled Libran Isles off the eastern Gauvajut coast, and joined by outlaws, dissidents, and refugees from nearby lands. Like their neighbour Green Ardesch to the north, Black Ardesch fought a bloody war to ensure its independence from Red Ardesch's harsh laws.

## Symbols

The flag of Black Ardesch, its namesake, is a black flag with two burning meteors. Other historical designs include:

* a burning skull (1723-1754)
* two meteors, or two burning skulls (1754-1823)
* a book with three flames (1823-1836)
* an arm with a blade (1836-1843)

## History

Black Ardesch's predecessor, the Pirate State of Liberos, was founded by privateers and raiders in 1723 16A. It retained its independence until it lost a war and was subjugated 120 years later by an expeditionary force from the Ardeschen Empire.

During its war on 1838, President Ervech Lauros conducted an elaborate ritual to curse the Empire and taunt it, mocking ancient books of sorcery to build a circle of effigies pointed northeast towards Ardesch. Provoked by several plague outbreaks in the cities of Nyrend and Livaarin, the dukes Lureand and Ustrech were sent with their armies to stop Ervech's dark sorceries.

## Government

Black Ardesch functioned more like a republic, where a high-ranking captain was elected by all of the citizens as their President.

## Military

The bulk of their military consisted of two navies: the Water Fleets and the Sky Fleets. The Water Fleets were used for the Dunomin Ocean, while the Sky Fleets were used in raids and wars elsewhere. Higher pirate captains were Black Ardesch's equivalent of generals and admirals.

Every soldier (or pirate) who serves Black Ardesch's military is known as a *kergal*, a "raider", as part of the legacy of the Ardeschen Empire that Black Ardesch broke away from.

Their entire society was a militarised society, with many citizens being members of ritualistic pirate gangs and the others being menial or technical workers.

Sometimes, the President or higher captains launch raids against hostile countries to "liberate" them into Liberosian control. Several attacks against Red Ardeschi settlements to the south and east of Pelarin led to the Red Ardeschi war against the Gauvajut Empire.

## Society

Due to their excessive devotion to the freedom of speech, Liberosians tend to be extremely vulgar and rude, uncaring about blasphemies and desecration. In spite of this, many Liberosians followed a "pirate code", which functioned as their laws, and they ensured harsh punishments to anyone who violated those laws or who objected to their frequent blasphemies.

The government of Black Ardesch welcomed anyone of any race to become a citizen of Black Ardesch, although most of them ended up joining or creating a pirate gang. They became one of a few nations where Greyfolk, mutants, and the occasional alien or hybrid were totally welcomed.

Women and people of other genders were treated equally in Black Ardeschen society, and non-heterosexual relationships were fully accepted, leading to attacks from the Zarijanian Empire and its allies to the south. However, many decisions were usually decided by men.

## Religion

Atheists have became the dominant majority in Black Ardesch, resulting in the country being as secular as its Randrosian neighbours. In spite of this, the Liberosian government refused to suppress religious practices as Red Ardesch did: while they tolerated them freely, they favoured progressive views while punishing any traditionalist who objected to certain actions (such as homosexuality). For many other people in their country, they worshipped their respective gods as much as they wanted, and the reverence of the Romulian, Archonian, Ardeschen, Gnostic, and Trismegian gods were widespread.

The monotheistic Mazdajasni religion was also tolerated in Black Ardesch, and most of its adherents consisted of exiles and fugitives from the Zarijanian Empire.

Blasphemy -- that is cursing the gods, and a serious offense in other lands -- is tolerated and even encouraged in Black Ardesch, leading to occasional attitudes about defying (or overthrowing) the gods. Many Black Ardeschen pirates also desecrated temples, seeking to challenge the gods in their newfound freedom from them.

Some Black Ardeschens also used their society's rejection of religion as a license to commit sorcery against their enemies, setting up stone circles and nithing poles at rocks towards other empires. From the 1830s onwards, many pirates began to practice sorcery to curse their enemies, but even they and their magical rites were defeated.

This led to other nations depicting the godsless buccaneers of Black Ardesch as devil-worshippers, demons, warlocks, and sorcerers corrupted by the forces of darkness.

## Legacy

These islands were later conquered and annexed by Palguenia and the post-communist Ardesch; although some sorcerers from Black Ardesch joined the armies of Red Ardesch to wreak havoc against their enemies.

During the Great Game, the Liberos islands were taken over by criminal gangs and Arnadjanai bands.

## Trivia

* Black Ardesch was influenced by absolute free speech advocates on the Internet, people who celebrate blasphemy as "a right", and stereotypical depictions of pirates. It may correspond to the Republic of Pirates, Libertatia, and the Vampire Coast.

## Why was it "peculiar"?

* Until the establishment of the communist dictatorships in the western hemisphere, Black Ardesch was the first nation in the Sixteenth Age to be officially atheist. In spite of this, many warriors in Black Ardesch used sorcery rites to wage war against their enemies.
* Black Ardesch was the only nation during its time to practice sorcery, in spite of its atheism. Like Nandegakko in the future, magic was seen not as an act of worship or invocation to any deity, but simply as a tool, a means to an end. Their planned world society, a spacefaring pirate nation, would had utilised magical technology, harnessing magical forces to power their machines.