Mirrey

Commonhold of Mirrey Sameiginhald af Mirrey
Capital and largest city	Aðaborg
Official languages	Hártal
Demonym	Mirreysk
Government	Parliamentary elected monarchy
• Thein	Siggeir Vestroður
Establishment
• Claimed independence from Tisceron	1433
• Absorbed into Skjóll	1445
• Elevation to commonhold status	1827
Area
• Total	1,778 km2 (686 sq mi)
Population
• Estimate	774,500
• Density	435.6/km2 (1,128.2/sq mi)
Currency	Reylur (SIR)
Time zone	Mirrey Standard Time (IAT M - 1:21) (15 mins fast on Ostari)

Mirrey (Միրրեի) is an island in the Medius Sea, and is part of the Achkorouai group in the eastern Medius; along with Antassey, which lies across the Antasseyjarsund to the south, and a number of smaller islands nearby, it forms the commonhold of Mirrey, one of the seven member commonholds of Siurskeyti. The commonhold covers an area of 1,778 square kilometres (725 square miles) and has its capital at Aðaborg on the island’s south-western coast; population at the most recent census numbered 774,500. The Vérenhólmur Channel separates the Mirreyjar group from the island of Kellarey, a possession of Vernland, which lies to the south-west.

The modern name Mirrey is a variation of the original Hártal Mýrarey, literally “moor island”, and as such is taken from the moorlands visible by early Siur mariners as they approached the island from the north.

Geography

Mirrey’s diverse landscapes arise largely from the presence on the island of two stratovolcanoes, Gamaltrok in the centre and the twin vents of Kökkur in the west. The north-western flanks of both peaks are incised by deep valleys and steeply-raked ravines, descending to a rugged and windswept coast on the north-western flank of the island. The valley which separates the two volcanic masses was formed by erosional deposits. The last eruption of either volcano occurred in 1804, when the eruption of Gamaltrok laid down thick deposits of ash on plantations near Aðaborg; however, while there was significant property damage, no lives were lost. Large parts of the north coast of the island are covered in dense moorland and are more sparsely settled, but the southern coast is largely flatter and more hospitable, and the population is heavily skewed towards it.

History

Early settlement

The island was known to the early Dammurites, who called it Hulugannis (Antissan “chariot”), thus associating it with the chariot of the sun-god Nepis, which he rode across the sky before descending into the far west at the end of each day; later influence from the Messenian-speakers in the east saw this become the more messenianised Harcanos, which is the more usual form seen in accounts from the antiquity. However, there are no indications of permanent settlement on Harcanos from before its occupation by peoples of the Larhine Empire in the late twelfth century BCE, although remains of temporary encampments have been found on the northern and eastern coasts. The island took some damage from the tidal waves generated by the Hilima Eruption of 855 BCE, although neighbouring Kellarey, which lay in their direct path, shielded it from the most serious effects.

The island drifted outside the control of the collapsing Larhine Empire, and its inhabitants turned their attentions southward towards the coast of Lestria, with trading links and new settlement coming from the Carcharian city-states of the region from the middle seventh century BCE. The city of Athar (today Áðaborg) was founded in 34 CE by traders from Khyes; it broke ties with its parent in the late second century, and was one of the few cities of any consequence to weather the storms caused by the Carcharian collapse in the fourth century. With the first Neokos Empire falling into disarray during the Second Great Invasions of the middle first century CE, a significant number of refugees from the expanding chaos in the empire found their way out to new settlement in the eastern Median islands, adding a new overlay of Palthic culture to Harcanos. The island and its immediate neighbours remained largely isolated from the mainstream of Messenian civilisation in the early post-Carcharian period, with most of the polities of the northern Median rim being individually too small and weak to develop much in the way of force-projection capacity at sea.

The principality of Aschouri

Even so, the island played host to a flourishing society; and it joined with neighbouring islands in the Achkorouai group to bring into being the principality of Aschouri in 557 CE. The new state brought together a number of smaller statelets and independent towns, and was ruled from Louros (today Loren), the chief town on the island of Kellarey. However, its component territories retained substantial self-rule, with the principality as a whole exhibiting much of the elements of the ancient Messenian dimokratia, with a periodically-gathered assembly, the Dimos, having enough power in its own right to be a genuine counterweight against the possible caprices of a ruling prince. While Aschouri’s local economy was largely driven by farming and fishing, its main towns became important way-stations in a trading network which gradually extended across most of the Median littoral in Messenia and Lestria.

The comparative tranquillity of the islands was broken by the interest of Tisceron under an increasingly expansion-minded High Lamneant and secular king, Bariş I Qogayi. The lamnearies of Aschouri had associated themselves with Tisceron since the early eighth century, given that Siriash on the mainland was under Secote suppression and the Coseptran Compact had effectively been forced underground; but missions from Tisceron driven by Qogayi’s “concerns” over the supposed state of marsance of the islanders’ Sirian community were increasingly thin camouflage for the High Lamneant’s sizing-up of a temptingly weak polity for subjugation in the name of wider Siriandom. A flotilla of Tisceronite ships descended on Aschouri in Fabricad of 815 CE; Aschouri’s navy – a severe overstatement for what was essentially a thrown-together collection of fishing vessels – was hopelessly overmatched, and was beaten without mercy in the only real engagement of the “Aschourian War” off Kellarey late in that month. The smaller Harcanos had little alternative but to surrender.

Tisceronite Mirrey

For all the fears raised by the Aschourians, Tisceron ruled the islands with a fairly light hand for much of its tenure there; control by the High Lamneary was as much faithly as secular, and successive rulers saw little virtue in coming down with a heavy hand against a community of fellow Sirians who showed little signs of protest beyond the first few years of rule from Qet. The Aschourian islands were gradually integrated into Tisceron’s political and civil structures, and they began to see some influx of population from the Lestrian mainland; while this was never large (or a popular option in Tisceron itself), it was sufficient to be noticeable – and, to some degree, to cause difficulties with a native population who were beginning to feel disparaged in their own country.

This increasing discomfort perhaps primed the pump for events in the early 15th century. From around 1400 Harcanos began to see an influx of settlement from the Siur territories on the Messenian mainland, principally from Skjóll. At first, the settlers were welcomed; then mainly fishermen taking advantage of the rich waters around the Mirrey Banks, they were seen as a useful addition to the island community, provided that they accepted Sirian rule and paid the appropriate sums in schahn levies to the authorities. However, as they began to build in numbers, they became an increasing concern to local Tisceronite rulers; by 1430 they made up more than a third of Harcanos’ population, and almost three-quarters of its mercantile community, thus having an effective choke hold on the island’s economy. These growing fears became a reality in 1433; leading figures within the Siur community forced the suspension of schahn payments, took control of the island’s governing council, and drove Harcanos’ governor Cahit Haşil out of his mansion and dispatched him back to Lestria under guard. The chief instigator of the rising, Alvar Maranholmi, declared the island independent of Tisceron’s rule as the commonhold of Mirrey.

The dispatching of a naval flotilla from Tisceron to recover Harcanos was wholly predictable; perhaps less so was the swift response from Skjóll as Maranholmi petitioned the mainlanders for help. Skjólskur ships actually beat the Tisceronites into position off Mirrey, and, after a brief exchange of fire early in the morning of 5 Estion, the Lestrians withdrew; a statement was made from Qet in Empery in which claims to Harcanos were abandoned. The incident probably pointed up to the states of the Median littoral the increasing weakness of Tisceron, a state of affairs which would become more obvious as the 15th century wore on.

Siur Mirrey

Maranholmi, who was proclaimed thein of the new commonhold, probably fully intended to maintain its independence even against its bigger ally across the water. Some of his subjects – many of whom, it must be remembered, were Skjólskur by origin themselves – had other ideas; and from even as early as 1436 the thein had to deal with a slowly rising groundswell of opinion calling for union with Skjóll. Maranholmi, an arrogant man who responded poorly to criticism, did not help himself much by his mishandling of the rule entrusted to him, although the real foot in the door for Reylatur came in 1444, when an exceptionally dry summer saw fires break out in several parts of Mirrey, eventually burning down more than half of the island and destroying any prospect of a harvest. With the Mirreyskur treasury unequal to a proper response and clamour for action all around him, Maranholmi travelled to Reylatur to petition its thein for annexation. The flag of Skjóll was raised in Áðaborg on 11 Ediface 1445; Maranholmi was lessened in stature, becoming only one of four thossir on the island.

Both under Maranholmi and after the annexation, Mirrey saw a steady diminution of its Sirian population, with many departing for Tisceron or other states on the Lestrian mainland; to some extent, it has been claimed, animosity by Mirreyskur Arlaturi towards the Sirians lessened the internal doctrinal disputes within their own ranks which fuelled much of the then-ongoing ructions in Arlatur on the mainland now known as the Vinadeila. A significant number of local Sirians did assimilate further into the Siur community and adopt Arlatur, and there is still a sizeable ethnically-Lestrian element within the communion on Mirrey even today.

Skjóll’s hold on Mirrey gave them a firm redoubt from which to deal with the piracy which became an increasing problem in the Medius in the later 15th and early 16th centuries. A particular bête noire for the thossir of Mirrey was a fellow Siur, Sölvína Hlýr; the disgraced former princess of Sarevi made a particular target of vessels from the various Siur commonholds, and had had a substantial price placed on her head by most of them. However, for the most part Mirrey remained uninvolved in Skjóll’s land-based disputes; even the War of the Teþar (1584–1590) against the commonhold’s long-time rival Vonskil had only minor effects on the island, mainly through Vonskilskur naval harassment of Mirrey fishing vessels.

In common with much of Messenia and Joriscia, Mirrey fell victim to the Seranian fever pandemic which struck in the early 17th century. The first confirmed cases on the island occurred in Petrial 1606, with the disease probably brought by a trading vessel from Habstwald. In the comparatively confined space of a small island, the effect of the fever was devastating; close to half of the Siur community died within the space of some three months, and reports by merchant sea captains of the period indicate that the smell from decomposing bodies could be detected as much as five miles (eight kilometres) from shore if the winds were favourable. However, the disease was much less serious among Mirrey’s Lestrian population; combined with similar occurrences elsewhere, this has helped to foster a theory among scientists in recent years that most Lestrians possessed some form of genetically-inherited natural immunity against the fever.

As part of Skjóll, Mirrey was a holdout from the original union of the Siur commonholds under Sterkur Fálk in 1623, and only became part of the larger country when Skjóll finally agreed to join nine years later. The move prompted a small degree of relocation from other Siursk commonholds to Mirrey, which the Stuttsöla family which ruled Skjóll at this time had been ambivalent about but accepted, given that Mirrey was in many respects still recovering after the Seranian fever episode.

Mirrey under Siurskeyti

Mirrey was badly affected by a severe earthquake which struck the island in Animare 1799. The quake, which had its epicentre in the Antasseyjarsund some fifteen miles (24 kilometres) south-east of Áðaborg, levelled almost three-quarters of the town and killed more than 2,000 people.

The islanders remained predominantly loyal to Siurskeyti during the upheavals of the Summer War of 1812, and there was little internal fighting on Mirrey beyond a few brief and isolated skirmishes early in the war. However, Mirrey was attacked by an opportunist Savamese fleet under the command of admiral Lionel de Versroche – the same group which had already seized the neighbouring island of Dórrey a week earlier – and was briefly claimed by Savam before a peace settlement saw the invaders withdraw from Mirrey in exchange for the permanent cession of Dórrey, now known as Doreysne. Mirrey saw a significant influx of population in the aftermath of the capture, as initial Savamese restrictions on the use of Hártal and the practice of Arlatur prompted many Dórreyskur to seek new homes; of an estimated 30,000 who left – almost 20% of Dórrey’s population at the time – almost 16,000 settled on Mirrey, including several members of the Vestroður family, the chief thossic family of the island. The remainder was roughly evenly divided between neighbouring Skógarey and the mainland (both Siurskeyti proper and the newly-seceded Helminthasse).

The new commonhold

The loss of the island remained a bone of contention with the Siursk well after the war, and the Siursk attempt at taking Dórrey back has been claimed as the incident which began the War of the Islands between Siurskeyti and Savam between 1822 and 1824; the Battle of Mirrey between fleet detachments from the two countries in Empery 1823, which took place in open seas about 150 kilometres (91 miles) north-west of Mirrey, was one of the largest engagements in what was principally a naval war. Certainly, the rulers of the island continued to regard Dórrey as a live issue long after the rest of the country had accepted the question as closed; Halvarð Vestroður, somewhat controversially chosen as thosse of Áðaborg in 1825 and an exiled Dórreyskur, retained the landsnöfn of af Túnsúru (Tonsour) in preference to that of his new fief as a pointed reminder to the leadership of both Siurskeyti and Savam that his family, at least, still saw their former home as having been stolen from them.

Mirrey and its outlying islands were administered as a detached portion of Skjóll until 1827, when they were separated as a new commonhold in their own right; Vestroður was elevated to the status of thein. This change of status, and the similar elevation of Skógarey three years later, was widely seen as something of a political ploy, given diminished numbers in the Samhaltráð – hugely reduced in numbers in the wake of the secession of Helminthasse and its allies – and a need by a beleaguered government to bolster its support; however, concerns over lack of interest by the mainland were at this point enough of an issue in Ostari that the decision may have headed off further secessionist impulses among the Mirreyskur. It certainly did give the island substantially more clout in Siursk domestic affairs – probably more than could properly be justified, given its size - and this would continue to skew the operation of government in Siurskeyti to some extent until the implementation of internal reforms in 1900. Mirrey’s own commonhold assembly was brought into being in 1874; the basic structure mirrored equivalent bodies already in existence on the mainland, although it drew from local councils which had been extant since the original 17th-century commonhold.

The 20th century

With the development of air power in the 20th century Mirrey became important to Siursk defence chiefs as a forward base, with a facility at Pálmaleiti, just outside Áðaborg, being established as early as 1924. The base is now the largest such operation outside Siurskeyti itself, to the extent that it swamped the former village alongside which it was built and is recognised as a town in its own right. Concerns over the effects on Siursk shipping of any escalation in the state of cold war between Odann and Savam during the 1930s and 1940s prompted the expansion of naval facilities on the island near Áðaborg, although use of the base was problematic for deeper-draught vessels and entranceways had to be periodically dredged. A newer facility with a deeper harbour would not be built until 1970, some eight miles (13 kilometres) east of the town at Málströnd.

Increasing use of Mirrey as an advance base for air and naval forces brought it firmly into the sights of foreign defence planners; but this only became a serious matter in 1976, as Siurskeyti’s involvement in the Arisian War became an open conflict against Zeppengeran. With Siursk and proxy forces increasingly pushed onto the defensive, on 10 Sation 1976 a Zepnish amphibious force made an audacious landing on Mirrey’s difficult north coast, making its way more than five kilometres inland before a Siursk counter-force could be brought to bear. While this incursion was quashed, it proved to be not much more than a distraction as the Zepnish air force mounted a full airborne offensive aimed at denying any use of airfields and port facilities on Mirrey. The Battle of Mirrey, as it is now known, continued for almost three months before the Zepnish withdrew their forces in anticipation of an impending end to the war.

Mirrey gained a new significance within the Siursk union in 1998, when Siggeir Vestroður, who had become thein of the commonhold early in 1986, was chosen as its new thár in succession to the late Bariş Höstugur. Although Vestroður merited the selection, the decision was nonetheless unexpected, inasmuch as Höstugur had been the thein of Siurskeyti’s other island commonhold, Skógarey, and it had been expected that the honour would revert to the mainland. Some unkind suggestions were raised that, since a thár is expected not to show favouritism to his own fief while in office, Vestroður’s elevation might serve to stifle some of the complaints being raised in the Mirreyskur commonhold assembly over the island being neglected by mainland interests.

Administration

The small size and population of Mirrey has led to some differences in administration and political organisation, as compared to arrangements on the mainland. Notably, Mirrey does not have bodies parallel to both the Siursk Vísráð and Allmenráð; instead, the commonhold’s own Allmenráð is the sole chamber of government. Originally a nominative body with membership chosen by the thein and Mirrey’s three other thossir, it became a partly-elected chamber in 1894, and was wholly elected from 1917 onward under the traditional Siur amskyldr principle. The island’s four húðir now have only ceremonial standing, with Mirrey being governed as a single entity from Áðaborg.

At state level, Mirrey is represented in the Siursk Allmenráð by three of that body’s 240 members; while this is an over-representation (by one member) on the roughly-equal-population basis used to apportion seats, under the 1900 reforms to the Allmenráð the island’s representation cannot fall below this figure.

Economy

For most of the island’s inhabited history, agriculture has been the dominant element in Mirrey’s economy; bananas, pineapples and sugar cane were cultivated here in antiquity, while coffee was introduced from northern Lestria around 1600 and has thrived in the new environment. The sugar industry, however, has reduced in size and importance as the demand for water by a growing population and the developing tourist industry has drawn it away.

Fishing has also been a strong contributor; although inshore fishing off the coast in the Antasseyjarsund was relatively small-scale, some thirty kilometres to the north-east of the island are the Mirrey Banks, a large submerged atoll which has historically been a rich fishing ground, particularly for lobsters. The presence of significant fish stocks was one of the driving factors behind settlement on Mirrey, even as far back as the Larhine period. The Antasseyjarsund is also a wintering ground for humpback whales from Nollonger to Floridy, and Mirrey played host to a sizeable whaling industry until as late as 1800. However, while whale meat was something of a local delicacy in the past, pressure from the Siursk mainland – and the status granted to the whales as a protected species under Siurskeyti law – has seen the availability of this particular gastronomic delight diminished almost to vanishing point.

In more recent times, tourism has grown to become a key factor in the Mirreyskur economy, with the island’s picturesque beaches and quiet seaside villages proving popular with visitors, as well as the coral reefs off the southern coast. Capital from the mainland has driven the development of much of the south coast of the island as a tourist area. Aðaborg, taking much of this influx of capital as the island’s chief town, tripled in size over the period from 1980 to 2000. The wilder north coast is less densely developed, but remains popular with the visitor who craves a more rugged and remote landscape. The annual summer invasion is not entirely popular with some Mirreyskur, who refer to the visitors – not always politely – as fráburtar (from Hártal frá burtu, “from away”).

The tourist trade has also sparked off a significant influx of mainland Siursk, mainly over the age of sixty years, who have elected to make permanent homes on the island. While this is not yet the factor in the local economy that it is becoming in Doreysne, which has been similarly affected, it has already prompted some deliberate planning by the commonhold government for an increasingly greying population, amid concerns that the demographic change could have the side-effect of pushing up property prices and making homes less affordable for native Mirreyskur.

Transport

Until the early 1970s Mirrey was linked to the Siursk mainland only by sea, with air travel a more recent development. Ferry services run between Aðaborg, Reylatur and the Skjóll coast three times a week, with travel time from Reylatur being about twenty hours. Mirrey’s main airport, Karlshöfn (about five kilometres south-west of the town centre), deals with flights to and from Reylatur and Ostari, while the smaller Hannarhólmur airfield in the east of the island is the base for services to Kellarey. For the majority of cruise ships, the harbour at Aðaborg is too small to allow docking, and these vessels usually tie up at a purpose-built facility at Málströnd, close to the naval base.

Attractions

Mirrey is home to the last surviving remnants of a once much more widespread population of dwarf elephant (taxonomic name Elephas mirreyi; Hártal dvergrani); these shy forest-dwellers – typically no more than 1.80 metres (six feet) at the shoulder – are relatives of the much larger Lestrian elephant species, and are confined to the forest districts around the lower slopes of Gamaltrok, where a reserve for the animals was established in 2000.

In the south-eastern corner of the island, close to the village of Stúlskot, is the unusual Syngjandi Strönd or “Singing Beach”; due to specific properties of the sand along this 1.5-kilometre (0.9-mile) stretch of coast, walking along the beach produces an odd whistling sound which can be as loud as 90 decibels under some weather conditions.

Culture

Through various accidents of history, Mirrey and its neighbouring islands have been a crossroads for numerous cultures from diverse parts of the Medius Sea region; and although in the modern day it is very firmly Siur in its outlook, a good deal of this kaleidoscope of influences remains present under the surface of Mirreyskur society – as well as the typical Mirreyskur phenotype, which shades somewhat darker than the southern Messenian norm given a substantial admixture from various parts of Lestria over the centuries.

Rule by Skjóll and later Siurskeyti has gradually driven out the once-thriving Sirian faith on Mirrey, although many Sirian temples have been taken over and repurposed by Arlaturi ædrar. In common with most of modern Siurskeyti, Mirrey is almost exclusively Arlaturi; adherents of other faiths exceeded 2% of the population in the 2005 census for the first time in more than a century. Mirrey, Skógarey and the Ascesian territory of Sæmunsvar together form the mæskyn of Miðssjór within the overall Arlaturi communion.

In recent decades, the island has gained something of a reputation – not necessarily positive – among many Siur as a place where the constraints on the individual are that little bit looser, and where the Summoner’s admonition to exercise “immoderation in moderation” may be pushed rather harder than at home. This has given rise to the expression ef það gerist í Mirrey, þa helst í Mirrey (“if it happens in Mirrey, it stays in Mirrey”), which has almost become a maxim in recent times.