Marcostan States

 

Prior to the orcish invasions Marcosta was home to a group of autonomous city states that prospered due to their connection to naval trade routes on the Middle Sea and the Marcostic Sea. Due to its proximity to Golanicja, it was the first overseas region to be invaded once the orcish armies put to sea in 335. Critical ports at Porto Polpo, Caravel and Careronhas would be used as staging points for the orcish invasion of Jumira, but most of the rest of the island, including many major ports, were sacked and burned to stymie potential liberating forces.

As the orcish conquests expanded, much of Marcosta was left poorly defended, with most of the population enslaved and forced to work the fields to provide food for the orcish forces. The orcs were notoriously lax in the maintenance of their ships, and later scholars would propose that a critical strategic failing of the orcs was in the failure to use the ship building expertise of the Marcostan population to maintain sea-worthy fleets.

Marcosta was liberated by forces from Golanicja in 388 and 389, and Marcosta was established as a province of the Kingdom of Golanicja. After the end of the orcish conflicts, Marcosta was made a Principality under the control of Princess Regent Titania, the younger sister of King Torbjorn II.

By the middle Imperial Era, inbreeding among the dwarven noble houses would lead to multiple disputes over succession to the Regency of the Principality. In 1193, following the death of the Prince Regent Simao, a new succession dispute erupted in Marcosta just as the Golanicjan Kingdom was becoming increasingly mired in foreign conflicts and taking on unservicable levels of debt. By 1195, the entire continent would be drawn into an internal war of succession known as the March of the Marchionesses, with four different nieces laying claim to the Regency. By 1199 all four of them would be slain, and by 1200 the Golanicjan Kingdom, and by extension the Principality would be dissolved.

Kingdom of Marcosta

After the collapse of the Golanicjan Kingdom and the Principality of Marcosta in 1200 the power vaccuum in Marcosta led to a civil war where disbanded fleets and armies swore allegiance to different Great Houses or powerful factions in a fight for control of the throne. After nine years, Ser Valen Selgao, a canis Knight from Esquidos would unite several factions under his banner and defeat several others, positioning him to claim the throne.

Following centuries of corrupt royal rule, and a decade of conflict, neither the powers that supported Ser Valen nor the people of Marcosta were interested in another hereditary monarchy. A compromise was reached to establish a new constitutional monarchy in which most of the power would reside with a governing council appointed from the Great Houses across the continent. The sovereign would be elected from their number in a conclave, and would serve as monarch for life, with the governing council retaining the power to remove the monarch in certain situations. In 1203, Ser Valen was elected King Valen I of Marcosta.