The nation consists of the remains of two cities, Hammerplatz and Zweiburg; once divided but now both alike in dignity, connected by a long bridge over the mile wide river Waden, and their surrounding areas. The bridge, called the Rispetto Way, has long been the location of dispute resolution, and is arguably the beating heart of the community.
The Uniting War occurred 342 years ago and marked the end of Monarchy in the area.
The wars between the two cities had waged on for as long as anyone could remember with sporadic unstable pauses of temporary peace. No one remembers the name of the first worker to put down their tools and refuse to work, nor which profession they were, but in the span of a week, all workers over all areas of trade shut their shops and the war ground to a halt. No bread was baked, no armour was made, no fields ploughed, no shoes cobbled. Soldiers, hungry and unarmed, refused to fight.
The ruling class threatened and bribed, but not a single citizen in either city returned to their work. When King Gustav of Hammerplatz used the last of the royal treasury to hire a foreign army, his Navy simply left with his ships. Every dockworker, fisherman, naval officer, and sailor packed up their families and sailed away.
This act of extreme rebellion was to become known as the Changing Tide, and would eventually mark the birth of what would become the Republic of Portavas.
When Queen Henkla of Zweiburg threatened to launch an unknown magical attack on her own people if they didn’t get back to work, priests and mages of the cities worked together to foil her plans. Anyone visiting Hammerstadt will quickly notice that where the Castle of Zweiburg once stood, is now only scorched black earth and a mirage like shifting of air. Because the unpredictable magic is still volatile in the area, the space is shut off from most casual visitation.
Seeing his treasury empty and his people abandoning him, not to mention the smoking crater of Zweiburg Castle, King Halkriem chose to abdicate his throne. Thus the war between the people and the monarchy ended, and a new nation was built.
The Fading
Immediately following the Pact, the event known as the Fading has further prevented new progress in the nations; this was some sort of unknown magical calamity which affected and continues to affect the spread of information and its retention – both on paper and in the minds of all people across Elandra.
Land beyond the boundaries of the Corruption is no longer remembered as it should be; it is as if the memory of it has been washed away, and the records of such are blank or missing too. Information from before the Pact is similarly difficult to find, and impossible to recall for those who lived through it.
Other information is similarly missing from recall by all the remaining powers of Elandra, though some snippets of the past are found in oral traditions, festivals and the echo of memory on culture of each nation.
The study of history has been devastated by this calamity, as it is no longer possible to be certain of fact with so many relied-upon sources being unavailable. The record-keepers and historians of every nation have tried to maintain some form of order, but there is a lot beyond mortal knowledge that was once known to all, and it is an ongoing exercise to share what little remains.
Scholars generally blame the Corrupted for having caused this – severing connection to whatever is beyond their borders using foul magic of some kind, but the search to recover what has been lost is a massive international effort.