Nailene Missions

The Nailene Missions were the close political, religious, and cultural contacts established between Sirian societies around the Medianic Arc from approximately the ninth to 15th centuries. These initially revolved around attempts by the eponymous Nailenes, a seafaring culture descended from zealots of the Neokos Empire and the last bearers of classical Messenian Sirian culture, to colonise lands with the primary goal of spreading their religion. Nailene efforts initially emanated from their fortresses along the Median coast towards both apostatic Messenia under the Secote Dominion and the heathen Lestrian interior, although most of the powerful Nailene states that commanded spheres of influence were Lestrian, and the Missions have been regarded as the beginning of the Lestrianisation of Messenian Siriash. After the supercession of the Nailenes by more indigenous Sirian hierarchies in the Lestrian Compaction, the Missions now became a system of influence and superiority more particularly centred on Lestria, inducing the creation of the Sophoran Compact in opposition to the Coseptran Restoration, although Petty-Lestria, as connected to the great lamnearies of Lestria, eventually played its own important role in upholding Siriash within the Holy Empire. The rise of independent religious and commercial initiatives in Messenia, and the suppression of the post-Nailene classes connected to the Missions, caused their eventual decline as ambitions shifted away from the Medianic Arc.

Politics

The Nailenes established colonies, vassals, and tributary relationships across the Medius well before the Missions, and the shift during the Mission period primarily pertained to the new ambitious religious projects envisioned by the Nailenes. As with the Empire-Pacts of Qund, the religious precedence claimed, whether by the Nailenes or their lamnearic successors, was key to securing diplomatic prestige and influence, and allowed many missionary centres to decide affairs beyond their military capabilities, though conversely these hierarchies were always sustained and defended with much force. But as the Nailene world faded away more thoroughly in favour of continent-specific political directions and identities, horizons for such understanding were lost, and the 14th-century attempts at establishing a 'pan-Sophoran empire' were defeated by greater competition between the societies formerly part of the system. A longer-lasting legacy was the right by zeal claimed by communities Nailenes established under their tutelage, which became part of the language of estate-based rights across Messenia.

Commerce

The economic importance of the trans-Median links represented by the Missions were first challenged with the Sabhian naval expeditions and Tresoestrian piracy, and later by the rise of Siur as well as Neritsovid shipping. The rise of the zamorsk with Ostrobor's incursions decisively ended the era of the Missions as a distinct and pivotal commercial-political power, and relegated northern Lestria's role in the Great Golden Arc from now on to piracy, although it was to be no less threatening in this capacity.