Neritsovid Serania

The term Neritsovid Serania refers to the earliest phase of Vesnite colonialism in Serania, lasting approximately 140 years from the establishment of the first colony by Felix Oddivosius in 1567CE to the collapse of Great Neritsia in 1700. Colonisation was originally driven by Agamari parties largely independent of the central Neritsovid authority and focused on the area of Novigavan, the first human settlement in the Seranias - although the Terophite explorer Mada Be Rozda did travel to the Seranias on behalf of Ostrobor the Pious in 1571 and establish a settlement at modern-day Bes Aramy, the inhabitants died of starvation and disease within a year, leaving the region empty for another two decades. Although centrally-driven colonialism was not to begin again - and then with limited success - until the reign of Ratibor I, the growing Joriscian trade leagues joined Agamari sailors in exploring and establishing settlements in Serania to take advantage of its storied wealth, and by 1615 there were a string of Vesnite settlements along the western coast of the Seranias. During the Errancy Era, several unsuccessful claimants and individuals described as traitors were exiled to the Seranian colonies.

However, colonial growth really began with the War of the Pact of Osan, which definitively crushed the Joriscian trade leagues and was followed by general mercantile disenchantment with the imperial order. Faced with the prospect of high taxes and harsh regulation at home, large portions of the merchant classes - along with large numbers of Rabtat slaves - set out to make a new life in the Seranias, founding several major new settlements and contributing to a growing economic malaise in Joriscia itself. Contemporary emperors unwittingly added to this malaise by encouraging emigration to the colonies and founding their own settlements: in 1656 the emperor and the Agamari monarch signed the West Wind Treaty, which divided up the Seranias into areas notionally under the control of the emperor and areas notionally under the control of Agamar. The colonies generally speaking had no central government and were in theory ruled directly and individually from the metropole; in reality, of course, local authorities enjoyed almost absolute power. In many larger settlements, consular government by local plutocrats, modelled on the Joriscian trade leagues, became typical.

The death of emperor Chistibor and the Great Imperial Restoration had little immediate effect in the colonies other than triggering a small wave of emigration, voluntary or otherwise, on the part of nobles opposed to emperor Spytihnev. However, as Vesnite Outer Joriscia divided into factions in the Crown Wars, the colonial subjects of Neritsia did likewise. In spite of the distance between the metropole and the colonies, pro-Neritsovid Futkul (Vatxoulê, 'Red Birmeeng') and pro-Terophite Futsum (Vatzoumê 'Blue Birmeeng') groups, as well as independent Neritsovid claimants in the form of the Bytiborevids, became a prominent and important part of colonial politics. At the same time, and increasingly in opposition to the other factions, trade leagues like the New Zaavic League asserted a distinct, particularist stance largely disinterested in Joriscian politics.

Neritsovid Serania, inasmuch as it was an entity, was finally dissolved at the Treaty of Tharamann and divided up into Lacrean Serania, Terophatic Serania, Agamari Serania and Azophine Serania, although in reality trade leagues - most prominent among them the New Zaavic League - directly administered many of the major settlements. Particularist rebellions, alongside heresies and piratical behaviour on the part of the trade leagues, continued to represent a major challenge to Joriscian authority in large parts of Serania.