History of Calin

Great Contagion

While the lands that now form Calin have been inhabited since the Primordial Era, the Shogunate of Calin itself dates to the Great Contagion, when the pre-existing provinces and cities of the Shogunate Era were depopulated by sickness and then flooded with refugees fleeing their own devastated homelands and the onrush of Fair Folk armies in the Balorian Crusade. These peoples gathered in the emptied coastal cities, most unable to find ships to carry them across the Sea to the presumed safety of the Blessed Isle, and when the Scarlet Empress cast the Fae back to the Wyld they attempted to build new lives where their journeys had been halted. From these cities new states were born, and in the lands that would become Calin there were several, most notable those that sprang up in the ruins of major Shogunate ports: Port Calin, Goodharbour, and Marin Bay. This was a chaotic and tumultuous time, and the leadership of each city-state took decades to settle... Port Calin’s rulers, mostly junior functionaries and officers from the court of former Daimyo, squabbled incessantly to see who would be the one to claim that title of lordship, a political war that would dictate the city’s course up to the present day.

Fealty to the Realm

In RY45, while the leadership of the Seventh Legion rejected the Empress’ demand for fealty, the states between the Tears and the Sea swore themselves to Her Throne. As Lookshy and the Imperial City exchanged increasingly acrimonious correspondence, the Realm began to militarize its River Province tributaries, deploying the 4th Imperial Legion. By RY47, they thought themselves ready, and the First Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands began.

Alas for the Realm, by RY53 the 4th Legion had been pushed back, though the front was stabilized before any of their local tributaries suffered territorial losses. The loss of Imperial prestige from this war was significant, but Realm emissaries assured their tributaries that the invasion had been a probing action, and the Seventh Legion had expended its limited resources to drive it back, while the resources of the Scarlet Empire were without end, though the pressured their tributaries for increasing quantities of troops and war material. Defeats in the Second Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands (RY75 – RY76) and Third Realm Invasion of the Scavenger Lands (RY88 – RY90) made the Realm’s claims seem increasingly false, and brought the costs of the conflict home to the tributaries… discontent with the Realm increased by leaps and bounds amongst the common folk (egged on by local spirits resistant to the encroaching Immaculate Order) and eventually amongst state leadership as well.

Division and Militarization

This discontent culminated in RY109, when Goodharbour and Marin Bay joined the League of Many Rivers. Simultaneous to the presentation of documents to Realm ambassadors, Lookshy special forces crossed the Yanaze to secure the port at Goodharbour, and infiltrated the lighthouse-manse at Marin Bay, forcing the Imperial attaches to withdraw when the local auxiliaries under their supposed command refused the order to resist. Port Calin remained in the Imperial fold, but the betrayal caused the Scarlet Empress to charge Great House Iselsi with overseeing the Calinti and the other border states in order to be sure there would be no further defections. Port Calin, nudged by the Iselsi and driven by its own expansionist urges, expanded its military forces, particularly its artillerists and siege engineers, with few in the Scavenger Lands doubting the reason: the walls of the River Province, the walls of Lookshy, would face siege once more.

Unification and Betrayal

After centuries of skirmish and buildup for conflict, this attempt was launched during the Calibration War in RY301: the armies of Port Calin and House Iselsi, bolstered by auxiliaries from other Iselsi satrapies such as Azerban, launched massive assaults against Goodharbour and Marin Bay, cutting the two states off from their River Province allies. Calinti siege engines assembled in preparation for a crossing of the Yanaze, as the Seventh dug in on the opposite bank.

The official histories of Port Calin state that in RY303 the Scarlet Empress was so pleased by a Calinti lover that she offered to grant his greatest wish, and he asked her to grant freedom to his people. Those of the Realm speak that Iselsi and Calinti traitors engineered the defeat of a conquering host which was poised to annihilate the Seventh Legion. The truth was, of course, far different: the House of Iselsi had positioned itself well in the political games of the Scarlet Dynasty, with reputations as cunning courtiers and consummate intriguers… but the Calinti had been playing their Great Game before there was ever a Dynasty, and their focus was not vast Creation-spanning empires but the local politics of the River Province. Through secret negotiations, a conspiracy of Port Calin’s noble families had arranged to abandon their Iselsi masters and the Realm from which they came, joining the League of Many Rivers with its latest conquests recognized. Consummate schemers though they are, the Iselsi failed to uncover this plot until its declaration, and it renders their position immediately untenable… the Calibration War is over, and the Dynasts flee with tails between their legs.

Lookshy is less than happy over this turn of events, for its former clients will not bolster another League power to stand against their agenda. However, the cost of refusal is too high, so after gaining a few concessions (the Demilitarized Lands and a garrison at the Marin Bay Redoubt being most significant) they accept the terms of the peace.

Founding of the Calin Shogunate

In the wake of the Calibration War, the ruling Daimyo of Port Calin declares that his forces have defeated both the armies of the Scarlet Empire and the Seventh Legion, and thus he has right to the title of ‘Shogun’. The occupied lands of Goodharbour and Marin Bay are unified with Port Calin to found the Shogunate of Calin. Leadership in both Lookshy and the Realm laugh heartily, but no military challenge is mounted to dispute the title.

Calin does not lay claim to the dominions of the former Shogunate at Meru.

Sheltered Militancy

With the Realm lacking a proper foothold from which to threaten the River Province, Calin sat in an enviable position: the rest of the Province lies between it and threats from the East, while to the west lies the Inner Sea and to the South Lookshy’s walls across the width of the Yanaze River. It saw some economic hardship during the Trade War, in which economic clashes between the Realm and The Guild saw Calin suffer tariffs and restrictions on trade with the Isle, which were met by tariffs of their own, but the end of the War lowered these back to bearable levels, and in exchange for guaranteed rights of use in the port at Goodharbour the Realm’s tariffs were further reduced in RY550.

The League of Many Rivers faced the Arczeckhi Invasion of the Scavenger Lands in RY435, and the Second Fair Folk Invasion of the Scavenger Lands in RY547. While the Fae reached deep into the River Province in the latter, the bulk of fighting in both conflicts took place far from Calin, and their participation was mostly in troops hired out as mercenaries. During this time, the Calinti found themselves to have much in common with Lookshy, healing acrimonious relations dating from the Calibration War, though the two still had many disagreements.

Due to these wars, many states of the League owed significant funds to Calin for the services of their troops, and they joined Lookshy in rejecting calls for relief of wartime debts, insisting on payment in full. This was one factor triggering the collapse of the League in RY548.

Reformed Alliance

Despite the end of the League, the last Fair Folk were driven out of the River Province by RY554, in part due to the willingness of The Guild to directly hire mercenaries such as those of Calin to continue fighting. The former League powers knew well that alliance was important to their survival, and here too the Guild played a role, willing to solve the debt crisis by buying up outstanding debts from the mercenary powers, for less than their original value. This solution met with great Calinti approval, and when the powers attempted to reform the League Calin was supportive of the idea, particularly with commitment of members to fund mercenary trainers in peacetime and fill a common pool for hiring armies in wartime. Thus they became an eager founding member of the Confederation of Rivers.

This new alliance initially emboldened Calin to probe at the Realm satrapies across its northern border, though in the end this did not break out into open conflict with the Scarlet Empire. The Realm military history Casting Mud back to Mud provides an account of this campaign.

Present Day

Calinti forces participated in the War of Broken Thorns, and were present at the Battle of Mishaka, though as much of the war was one of maneuver and cavalry their strengths in siege warfare meant they did not so many battles as their MarukanI or Lookshyan allies.

In the Council of the Concordat, Calin’s emissaries were amongst the most vocal in urging that war to continue on to the walls of Thorns, until it became clear that the Scarlet Empress would deploy her Imperial Legions to defend her final holding in the Scavenger Lands. After the Mask of Winters swept into Thorns, Calinti voices resumed this line, warning that action ought be taken and the Confederation put on war footing to defend against this new threat… action involving Confederation coffers hiring troops fit for an assault on the fortified manors and capital of Thorns.