Insios

Insios, or the Insian League, poetically redubbed Ionos Telozium, is an island nation in the Rosorro Sea. Its official name, the Kingdom of the Erosenes, 'Erosene' being an ethnonym for the Insian people, is little-used outside of legal contexts. It spans most of the Palero Archipelago, the southern third of the archipelago being Meer, and the northern quarter under the rule of Kameria or Sentar. It currently wars with Kameria over their easternmost territories. The capital is Elium, one of the major cradles of Ortusian civilisation. Impyros Arzelium rules Insios as King of the Erosenes, and is simultaneously Grand High Oligarch.

Early History
The islands that today compose the Insian League were once under the control of several powerful city-states, always in competition with each other for control over the Rosorro Sea. The major powers on the island were the slave-driving city of Anthralys, the shipbuilding Xylago, the banking and trading power of Assim Pol, and the academies of Elium behind their high stone walls. There power ebbed and flowed, but they were always Ortus's greatest powers. They warred amongst each other and against the empires that grew to the west, the proto-Kamerian Kask Arazi and Kask Tastani, and developed their centres of high culture in the middle of the Rosorro Sea.

Merem Empire and decline
Solister, on his journey east, was said to have been harboured in the city of Elium, something that may have been the city's worst mistake. Solister went on to arrive in the swampy lagoons of the southern coast of Ortus, and from it crafted the Merem Empire, spanning from coast to coast. This caught the Insian cities' attention, but they did not fear. The empires on the mainland always collapsed within a few generations. The little cities even went on to poke at the empire, demanding timber and grain in exchange for precious little bronze. But the same culture and wealth that the cities had cultivated for centuries began to grow in Merem, the city that would later be renamed Sentar. They looked on with horror as they realised that as it grew, they faded. They resolved to use the last of their strength to wipe the empire from the map, restore their former glory. The first Insian League was formed.

It was the reign of Solister's grandson, Soltir II, in the years when the paramount of the church was still a hereditary position, when the Insian League struck. It was a coalition of all the cities of Insios, the might of centuries of advanced learning combined with the brute force of a thousand ships and an army of slaves. With the greatest army and finest plans the Rosorro Sea had ever seen, they sped like an arrow to the floating city of Merem.

But there was one fatal flaw in their plans. Soltir was a shrewd ruler, and knew well of the cities' plan. He had a handful of ships plated in thick iron and hides, and placed them at the three entrances to the Merem Lagoon. The rest of his meager fleet he sent west, curving north to avoid the thousand ships that thirsted for their blood.

When the Insian navy arrived at Merem, their ships had to file in threes through the narrow passage into the lagoon. The iron-plated ships were armed with alchemical fire, of the Insian's own invention in one of Elium's academies, and burned them as they came. The hides and irons of the Merem ships protected them from the same treatment. Further still, the Merem fleet raced towards the unguarded home islands of the Insians. When the battered Insian fleet returned home, vowing to take Merem another day, they found their home waving the Merem flag. The battered fleet was in no shape to retake them, half-burned and scattered across the sea. They surrender and the Palero Archipelago was incorporated into the empire. Insios had fallen.

Telosine Empire
The Merem Empire fell due to Soltirius XIV's failings as a ruler, and it lost its grasp on the continent. Its former territories declared themselves equals or greater to the old Merem Throne, former duces and viceroys becoming kings. At the city of Elium, however, a new emperor was declared.

Exarch Telos Arzelium had been one of Soltirius XIV's most powerful lords. At Soltirius's execution, Arzelium declared himself emperor of Merem but allowed the newly independent continental kingdoms their independence. Instead he targeted the lands on the coast of what is today Kameria. He built a fleet rivaling that of the old Insian League, and renamed his capital of Elium after himself, Telozium, capital of what became known as the Telosine Empire. In this time the islands once more became a centre of culture and learning, the decadent parties and opulent art styles held during the period being famed for centuries. The Arzelium dynasty lasted for seven generations, each new emperor heralding years even greater than the previous. The Telosine Empire came to control most of Kameria, and preceded the grandeur of Evrensel. Telozium totally eclipsed the city of Old Merem during this time.

During this time, due to the fall of the Princep of the Soltiric Church's traditional seat at Old Merem and the perceived fall of the faith as a whole, Telos Arzelium established the Telosine Church as within the Congress Church of the Pentarchy and made himself patriarch. The Telosine Church remains dominant in the islands.

Sentarion Republic and Meragnese era
After the Merem Empire fell, the city at its core, Old Merem, still stood despite the riots that preceded the empire's collapse. The Telosine Empire had marched many times on the city, but echoes of their previous failures dissuaded them from sending a large fleet there, and so the city managed to resist them. Even still, Old Merem was forced to send Telozium tribute, often in the form of slaves and precious treasures from the Merem era.

But it was not to last. Seven generations after the empire's fall, local noble Dom Robar Sentarion, declared the new nation of Sentar. Sentar would be a republic, and elections would be held to appoint the new senate under his rule as duce. The office of duce would be elective also, by the very senate elected by the people. Of course this only occurred at a duce's death, and so he appeased the people while styling himself the throne and crown with which to rule them. He brought peace to the city, then drove it to war. The city had fine naval capabilities, he realised, but precious little power on land. And so he set his people to work, built a huge navy, and sailed it to Telosine.

Robar Sentarion was one of history's best generals. The full might of his new navy hit Xylago first, burning the city to the ground. In doing so he crippled the Telosine Empire's shipbuilding capabilities. The massive fleet that lay locked in the port, unable to defend the city, was seized. Then he took the city of Anthralys, releasing the slaves and stringing up their old masters. Many of the slaves were from the city of Old Merem.

Now the only major threats to his power were Telozium and Assim Pol. Assim Pol saw the might of the republic and surrendered, forsaking her sister-city. Still Telozium had high walls, advanced weaponry, and granaries deep enough to feed every creature in the sea for a month. Its siege lasted for five years, until a slave rebellion inside the city threw open the gates to welcome the slave-free Sentarion Republic.

The Meerish islands and the island of Ashor had fallen to the Telosine Empire, but the people considered themselves mistreated. Telozium had the audacity to name its own Princep, challenging the one who remained in Sentar. The people of Meer and Ashor, although syncretising their beliefs with old, native ones, were devout in their loyalty to their faith. They welcomed the Sentarion Republic with open arms.

This republic was eventually renamed the Meragnese League and restructured after it merged with the city-state of Siarana. Each region was given a voice at the senate. The four land districts north of Sentar, including the city of Siarana, were each granted one. Each of Sentar's urban districts were given one. Ashor was given one. The twelve islands of Meer were each given one. But Insios, in its totality spanning eight large islands, each larger than any other district, and countless smaller ones, was given a single vote at senate. Sentar's message was clear; Insios was a colony, not a respected sister-state.

However the Sentarion Republic could not retake much of the old Telosine colonies in Kameria, settling for a few narrow coastal territories between What was left of the Telosine Empire became known as West Telosine, and ruled separately from Thalarium (now Olmota) as a separate country until the Beygir-aided expansion of Kameria.

Rule under Weigeld-Lovas
Eventually Meragna found a new rival in Weigeld-Lovas, one which the little republic could not match. Insios was taken by the new empire, just as all the republic's lands barring Meer and Ashor were, and indeed the city of Sentar itself fell under the empire's rule. Under Weigeld-Lovas, Elium experienced better trade deals than Sentar on account of the empire's heavy levies on their former enemy. It thrived once more, attracting investment from across the Rosorro Sea.

Sentarion Commonwealth
As all empires do, Weigeld-Lovas fell. Sentar reclaimed its independence, uniting joyously once more with Meer and Ashor that had named themselves Fallen Meragna in memory of their fallen mother city. But Insios did not do the same, declaring the Insian League independent. Wary of war after their defeat at the hands of Weigeld-Lovas, Sentar allowed this, renaming itself the Sentarion Commonwealth. However years later, Insios and Sentar came to war once more as Sentar seized Insian land on the northern tip of the archipelago, targeting valuable trading ports.

The war raged for five years before Sentar tipped the war unfairly in its favour. They called in favours with the Archkingdom of Eradina, each of its five constituent kingdoms as large as or larger than either Sentar or Insios. Even before this, Sentar was unambiguously winning the trade. Sentar seized the northern ports, and they wrote a treaty of permanent peace between the nations.

Kamerian invasion of the eastern holdings
When Insios became independent, it entered a personal union with West Telosine, establishing what became known as the Elium League.

They were close trading partners with Evrensel, until the Beygir Empire enlisted the help of Kaskish mountain herdsmen south of West Telosine to destroy their old rival, having warred with Evrensel since the empire's inception. After Evrensel's rapid fall, these herdsmen were given land and wealth, which they used to carve their own kingdom in the region.

This kingdom, which became known as Kameria, came into conflict with West Telosine as much of the West Telosine population was ethnically Kaskish. Indeed their capital of Thalarium was built on an older Kaskish settlement. Laying claim to much of the League's land, Kameria declared war on the Elium League.

It was a long and bitter war, but Kameria with Beygir's aid was victorious. The entirely of West Telosine was incorporated into Kameria. The Elium League was restricted again to the islands of the Palero Archipelago, becoming known as the Insian League once more. The invasion triggered mass migration of ethnic Insians from the West Telosine region, most returning to the Palero Archipelago.

The war is still active, but the Council of Kings in Sentar does not recognise an Insian claim to the Kamerian lands.

Ionos Telozium
The aristocrat Impyros Arzelium was elected as Grand High Oligarch of the Golden Chamber one hundred and fifty years into the Insian-Kamerian War. Claiming lineage from Telos Arzelium, Impyros convinced the chamber that Insios had fallen from is height due to democratisation and the abolition of the Telosine monarchy. Promised lofty titles, the Golden Chamber installed Impyros as King of the Erosenes. He did not relinquish the title of Grand High Oligarch.

Under his reign Insios was poetically renamed Ionos Telozium. Though a shadow of its former extent, he invokes the imagery of the old Telosine Empire, and has constructed and restored old Telosine-style cathedrals and palaces. Old orders of nobility were also reintroduced alongside the the restriction of religious and cultural freedom. All in Insios must practice the Telosine Faith of Solar Illumination and follow Insian cultural norms.

Under Impyros, Insios has also mounted territorial claims to Ilethia, Parathal (Zapevina), and Meer, in addition to existing claims to West Telosine (Kameria) and the Treaty Cantons (Sentar), dubbing them collectively as part of Greater Insios.