Shimmering Isles

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The Shimmering Isles, as of 713 A.S

**The Shimmering Isles** is both a geographical island and an island kingdom located to the northwest of the contiguous landmass of the continent of Truyea. Formed almost 700 years ago, it is one of the oldest surviving nations anywhere on the continent, and has enjoyed a long and storied history of interaction with its neighbours across the Shimmering Sea. The official demonym for its citizens is "Islanders."

## History

The kingdom of the Shimmering Isles was founded in the year 38, by natives of the island of the Shimmering Isles, who had lived on the island for thousands of years. In the wake of the Great Separation of the Realms in the year 0, the Shimmering Isles was left a fractured isle of warring factions. Between the years 30 and 40, the northern towns and cities were united by the Masim clan, a powerful house of nobles who had enjoyed great favour under the rule of the Sun King. By the end of the first century, the island proper had been united under the banner of the Masim clan, which soon became known simply as the kingdom of the Shimmering Isles.

Geographically isolated and culturally homogenous, the Shimmering Isles has enjoyed more than six centuries of relative domestic peace - unlike its neighbours, Sevicia and Erenna, it has seen no civil wars and very few civil uprisings in its storied history. The Shimmering Isles has been ruled by the Masim clan for almost 700 consecutive years, with some rulers serving as long as 80 years.

Despite its isolation and its domestic security, the Shimmering Isles has been involved in a number of wars over the years. In the early second century it went to war with the Kingdom of Cyon in what would eventually turn into a year-long stalemate. In the third century - in what would become the most important event in the history of the Shimmering Isles - the Empire of Sevicia launched a surprise offensive campaign that landed at the southernmost city of Bardenville. Led by the legendary Ascillion the Great, the two fought a bloody, brutal decade-long war between 218 and 228 A.S. Unlike the Kingdom of Cyon, the Shimmering Isles survived total annexation, though Ascillion's campaign was ultimately a great success; over half the island was conquered by Sevicia, which would be held intermittently as Sevician territory for almost 200 years.

Bitter cultural differences and civil turmoil plagued the Sevician-occupied half of the island almost constantly for the next century. Ethnic and religious tensions between the Old God-worshipping Sevician occupiers and the Islanders, who worshipped a pantheon of Islander gods, continued to brew. Sevicia's influence slowly waned over the next hundred years, though maintained strong over the south of the island until a disastrous military campaign led by Manus V in the year 348.

Manus V sought to accomplish what Ascillion the Great had not, and in late 348 landed at Bardenville, in the south, with four legions of soldiers. On the fifteenth of Tullena III, 348, in a single battle north of Etimon and just outside of Sevician-occupied territory, Manus and his legions were routed in combat against a superior Islander force. It would prove one of the most embarrassing military defeats in Sevician history and proved the catalyst for what would eventually be Sevician withdrawal from the island.

Over the next 70 years, Sevician influence continued to slowly erode, with large areas of land, especially in the northern-occupied territories around the city of Ieta, *de facto* returning to Islander control. The Sevician crisis of the fifth century and their war with the Kingdom of Erenna proved incredibly costly. A slow and measured abandonment of the southern Islander settlements over the course of 25 years left much of the Sevician-occupied territory devoid of defences of any kind. In 432, Sevicia officially abandoned the Shimmering Isles, ending a two-century-long reign over half the island. The Shimmering Isles has remained a unified island kingdom ever since, and has remained neutral in most large-scale wars.

## Geography

The Shimmering isles is somewhat remote compared to the rest of Truyea. An island nation, it enjoys a state of relative isolation, protcted to the south and east by the Shimmering Sea, known for the glitter of its saltwater, from where the kingdom and its inhabitants derive their names. Geographically, the island is mostly flatland, with a few elevations and small mountain ranges to the northeast of the island. Its most notable feature is the abundance of marshlands and swampy terrain, especially during the long months of Saturna, where heavy, weeks-long fog becomes a common occurrence. Indeed, during the Sevician conquest of the island, the most difficult obstacle the Sevician invaders faced was the terrain, which they were wholly ill-equipped to deal with.

The island (and its constituent neighbours) enjoys a mild climate, with temperatures never quite reaching the scorching heights of the very south of the continent and never dropping as cold as the Sevician Cape, or the Erenneese west coast. Snowfall is a rarity, though the island receives its fair share of rainfall, especially during the season of Saturna.

## Population and demographics

The island kingdom has a population of roughly 5 million inhabitants, and is one of the least diverse nations to be found anywhere. Almost the entirety of the population are ethnic Islanders - dark-skinned, tall on average, and commonly found with bright blue or even pink-tinged eyes. These traits make them unique from a number of other visually-similar ethnic groups on the continent, such as the Sevicians, the Erenneese, and the Itrusics.

Much of the island is rural farm or marshland devoid of livable conditions, meaning a significant portion of the island's 5 million inhabitants live in and around a few key cities: the capital of Calea on the northwestern coast, the southern port city of Southpoint, and the inland cities of Etimon and Siresa. The citizens of the island speak a bastardised dialect of Old Tamerian known as Islander Tamerian, which takes influence from a number of local tribal languages and includes several loan words from other languages such as Duscadorian and Manosi. As seen below:

A comparison between Old Tamerian and Islander Tamerian, the island's official language.
 *Ere* | **Eh**-reh
 *Tryra* | **Tru**-rah
 *Doura* | **Dow**-rah
 *Ygta* | **Ee**-tah

## Government

The island kingdom is ruled by a single sovereign - a king or queen - who rules with absolute power for a period of life. A council also oversees matters of civil importance and governs when the monarch is absent or otherwise engaged, but the power of decisions ultimately falls to the reigning king or queen. The Masim clan has ruled continuously since the kingdom's inception in the first century. As of the year 713, the current monarch is queen Pekisanhi I, in her 21st year of rule.

The official currency of the Shimmering Isles is the *piece,* a small, green-hued coin with no specific shape, though usually printed as either a round or square coin or a small six-pointed star.

## Religion

More than two thirds of the population worship the Great Pantheon, a native-Islander religion that was born thousands of years ago. The pantheon contains a host of gods, demigods, religious figures and icons, and saints that number more than three dozen. A smaller number of people worship local folk religions, and a very small minority worship the Old Gods, likely as a direct influence of 200 years of Sevician rule.

## See also

The Sevician Conquest of the Shimmering Isles

The continent of Truyea