Portavas started out as the Anchor Syndicate of Naval and Dock Workers of Hammerplatz, one of the two rival monarchies that eventually became the Hammerstadt Charter. The story of how Portavas came to be independent goes hand in hand with the Hammerstadt civil war. On the day the workers placed their tools down, the Sailors and Dock workers also stopped working. The Hammerplatz Monarch at the time demanded the sailors take up arms, reform the navy, and fight their Zweiburg counterparts. The sailors refused, knowing that the monarchs would retaliate on their families and colleagues in the port district of Portavas. Using unknown magics, the Anchor Syndicate caused the entire Portavas District to disembark, declaring its independence in an event that became known as the Changing Tide.
Portavas expanded their range and influence, claiming many outlying and previously uninhabited islands. They made ports on shores once thought unbuildable, and created floating harbours. Their capital city Elzano was the crown jewel, sitting on a rocky coastline, accessible only by sea. The architecture was partially carved from the rock face and branched out in the ocean as massive floating platforms.
When the Corrupted first attacked, Portavas was unaffected, their islands and difficult to reach ports were safe for a while. But eventually the fog reached Elzano. In an effort to save their city a bargain was made with the enemy. The price of that bargain has been forgotten, but some believe it has yet to be paid.
Elzano and its people took to the seas, a giant floating hulk of ships, escaping the ever rolling fog of the Corruption. Over time the last remaining port was a little known backwater on a salt marsh. Port Ravesso became the beacon of hope for Portavas, and soon the little harbour had tripled in size. Protected by the Galene Islands, here Portavans could breathe again and rebuild.
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.
The Fading of Knowledge was an immense blow to Portavas. Their maps, their stories, their records all seemingly gone overnight. The shock was deep, but the determination to get it all back was stronger. With an almost fervent desire the leaders of Portavas pulled all their ships together towards this new goal. They would reclaim the map, they would dare to travel to the edges of the shrinking world, they would find a way past the fog.
Portavas continues this mission, each member of the nation dreaming of a day when they find a long forgotten port and reclaim it as home. For now their ships sail for the war effort, always skirting the thin line between safety and the unknown.