TLIAW: From the Fury of the Britons, Deliver Us

TOO MANY VIGNETTES

Well, I don't really know what I'm doing with my life right now do I.

Still.

Yup. And that makes me extra creative.

So this is, what?

Well, the TLIA-PERIOD OF TIME format is perfect for getting an idea out of me, an idea which has been swirling around my head for over ten years.

You are, like, 21...

I was a very imaginative ten year old.

*looks at title* Oh, god, I've just realised what this is-

Shuttup shuttup shuttup
 
PROLOGUE
LANDFALL

Galen's eyes snapped open. She could hear the sound of waves breaking on a shore. It had been so long. She sat up, and the midshipman next to her murmured in his sleep. She kicked him and he ran off, heaving up his breeches as he left. She sighed. She couldn't actually remember how long it had been since she had last made landfall. She dressed into her sealskins quickly, and knotted the cormorant feathers into her oiled hair. She strapped on her cutlass as well as her brace of pistols. She regarded herself for a second in the large mirror in her cabin, a little something she had looted from a Portuguese man 'o' war. Her dirty blonde hair had been bleached by the sun and the spray of the sea, though the oil did something to darken it. The black cormorant feather flared from her scalp, and her sealskins were a mottled grey on her dark skin. She looked every bit as fearsome as she wanted. She grinned at her reflection, black sharp teeth glistening in purple gums. The landlubbers would be terrified, as they should be.

She strode from the cabin and looked out across the sea. She could sea the coastline, a strip of brown and green, the white foam crashing softly upon it. It was an alien sight, conjuring up images of when she was a little girl, and her father would take her on his sloop to sea the landfolk. A little grey mist persisted, but the sun was burning that. A town of wood could be faintly seen.

Eventually, they made berth. She leapt from the deck onto a jetty, and immediately felt dizzy. Her body was used to the roll and yaw of wood on water, and the still permanence of the land felt unnatural. She found her balance, but she was awkward, moving with the rolling, swaying gait of all her kind. She looked at the landfolk. They were pale, tall and soft. They were weak. A stammering steward came before her dressed in the woven garments that most wore here, a tricorn hat perched on his head. As he spoke, his pink jowels wobbled.

'Ah, mistress, is it time already? Why it seems only a few summers ago that we were last visited by the-' he said, his English thickly accented.

'Silence your yammering, landborn. I am merely the Tongue of the Fleet. Be careful I have no cause to lick.' She ran her tongue across her filed teeth and grinned. The man shuddered, and she continued. 'The Fleet will be here in two weeks. My crew and I will help Nantikadia make the necessary preparations. Now take me to someone who has authority.' She brushed past him, as he murmured. Her crew followed in her wake, clomping heavily, their sealskins flapping as they swayed.

The town was mostly made of local wood, with paths of hammered mud, but as they ascended into the more well-to-do end of town, and the road was layered with gravel and planks. The sachem's mansion was at the top of the road. The mansion was made of whitewashed wood, and at least an attempt at fanciful architecture had been made. The sachem, a tall, hawk-nosed woman in simple dress was waiting for them.

'Agurrak, seafolk!' she shouted, and raised a hand in greeting. The two women came together and shook hands. 'Last time the Fleet visited Nantikadia, it was your father who acted as Tongue.' the chieftain said. Galen nodded. The sachem's eyes turned to her crew. 'We of Nantikadia open our docks to the coming Fleet, we will render any and all assistance to the seafolk. Our homes are as your homes, Nantikadia is always happy to receive the Fleet!' The crew bellowed approval, and headed down into the town to drink and whore. The sachem turned to Galen and they walked up the mansion together. 'How has the raiding season been?' she asked, her tone idle, but Galen was wise to the tricks of landfolk.

'We have harried the Portuguese as usual, and taken vessels bulging with Mexican gold back to the Fleet. We ranged beyond the Caribbean, to the Guinean Coast. Of course, as Tongue of the Fleet, I have been busy keeping one step ahead of the Fleet.'

'Of course, of course. You command your father's vessel now. Last time he came here, he mentioned that his daughter commanded a ship of her own. What happened to him?'

'He is dead.' Galen intoned, coldly.

'I-I'm so sorry, I had no idea. How did it happen?' the sachem looked genuinely upset.

'It happened in the way any of the seafolk would want. He died with a cutlass in his hand, fighting to take a Portuguese prize. He is with Neptune now.'

'I'm sure.' said the sachem kindly. Galen smiled, toothlessly. Grinning was to scare your foes, not to show joy. The sachem turned away and took a breath. 'We are running low on salted meats, certainly not enough to resupply the Fleet, though if you could tell me where the Fleet will make berth after here, I could take in supplies from elsewhere.'

'The location of the Fleet's moorings are to be known only by seafolk and to the landfolk chosen to receive her. You will trade supplies with the towns of coast, this much I have been told to tell you.'

'Of course, but it would have been remiss of me to ask.' Galen inclined her head as a mark of respect, but also so the sachem wouldn't see her roll her eyes.

'We also need to carry out repairs on the neglected areas of the dock. Outside times when the Fleet moors here, a lot of the dock goes unused, so-' Galen raised a hand.

'My crew will be happy to aid in any repair work. Our work is not glorious, but acting as Tongue is an honourable position.' she paused. 'Have you had any word of the King?'

'The King? He still reigns, if thats what you mean. And if you mean whether he still grants the Fleet his blessing, along with all of us, then yes, he hasn't branded us all pirates, traitors and foreigners. I receive word from New Scotland that he plans to knight the Sea Lord.' Galen's eyes brightened, but she tried to keep her face plain.

'That is good news. Though the seafolk have little need for the titles and trophies of the landfolk, there have been fears that the new King would see us all join Neptune.'

'Apparently, he isn't particularly fond of the seafolk's love for Neptune. He reportedly sees it as a creeping taint of witchcraft.' the sachem chuckled, but Galen sniffed. She looked out the window, at the horizon beyond the dock. Somewhere, beyond that line was the Fleet. A vast flotilla of ships, always sailing, rarely mooring, a veritable city. Thousand upon thousand crewmen working in unison, all hands answering to their captain, all captains answering to the Sea Lord. The seafolk would be born, live, fight, and die before the mast, a nation at sea, the reaving swords of a newborn empire.
 
CHAPTER 1​
Go West

Failure and Success: The European Conquest of the Santacrucas by Jed Gold, Cabraelia Press

In 1492, a Genoese sailor, Christoforo Columbo set out on an epic journey, in the pay of the Spanish court, setting sail into the West to find a route across the Atlantic to China, circumventing the expense of trade via the Silk Road or the long journey around Africa. He would never be seen again. It is believed that he and the three ships he sailed with, died in a storm. If he had lived, he may have made it to the New World. Instead, the honour went to Peter Cabral.

Peter Cabral was a Portuguese aristocrat, and had been rewarded with a lucrative position as a naval commander, as a result of his position at court. However he got there, when undertaking a route of travel around Africa, they used the then standard method of heading westwards, using the prevailing winds to carry them south. For whatever reason, Cabral headed further west than intended and discovered the New World. Cabral encountered natives, who he naively called 'Indians' and traded with them, naming several otherwise innocuous landing points which have now passed into legend, notably the 'Safe Port' whose name now dubs the South Santacrucan nation of Portusegura.

Cabral laid the seeds for the mighty Portuguese Empire, by laying claim to the land he had discovered, and believing it an island, named it Ilha de Vera Cruz (The Island of the True Cross), staking his nation's claim by erecting a wooden cross to the bemusement of the friendly natives. As conquistadors and explorers came to the western continents, it became clear that what Cabral had discovered was no island and was certainly not part of Asia. It became known as Terra de Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross), which became shortened with time time to Santacruca.

Continuing on his journey, Cabral travelled to Africa, and entrenched Portugal's dominance in the spice trade. What he couldn't know was that not only had he became the foundation stone of an empire, and would one day have a nation named after him, but that he still wasn't the first European to reach the Santacrucas.

That honour went to Basque, Breton and British fishermen and merchants, who had for years been taking advantage of the abundance of fish in the northern reaches of the Santacrucas, though that obviously wasn't what they called it. Instead, they called it Brasil, after the Irish island of myth. Fascinatingly, between the eight years between Columbo's fateful journey, and Cabral's rather more famous one, links had been formed between these fishermen and the natives of Brasil. And while the Portuguese spent years in their discoveries of the south, these links went undisturbed and undiscovered...

Sun, Sea and Sand: Voyages in Brasil by Hugh Downs, Mumford Bros

It began with fishing. But every so often, a fisherman wants to take a break, and they took it at the nearest shore. As the fishermen ranged further west, they began resting on the shores where Vikings had once stood. And in these idle moments, men who had been called Skraelings made contact with the hardy folk of the sea. While violence did occasionally break out, the Europeans were not warriors. They were fishermen, and merchants, and they saw an opportunity. The fishermen built supply dumps, to help their boats, and the natives helped them live off the land. In a few short years, villages of Europeans and natives sprang up, lonely fishermen taking native brides. This was another cause for violence as local braves saw the pale, bearded men as stealing their women, but axes, iron and so forth flowed from the white men, and with that came power. Soon, horses followed the white men.

The horses brought strength that the natives had never known before, but they also brought disease. Thousands of natives died, and in their wake came more white men. The surviving natives banded together and in a bloody conflict broke out, ending in a stalemate which drove out neither party. Trade dried up, the settlements stagnated and disease continued to spread. In 1505, Sebastian Cabot, working under charter for Henry VII, came to Brasil, looking to claim land for England. Imagine the Venetian's surprise to find a land already home to Englishmen! (Along with assorted Basques, Bretons, Welshmen, French, Scots, Irishmen and of course the children of native marriages)

The land, and its people, were claimed for England, and soon fighting broke out. Few of the non-English settlers were happy to find themselves subjects of the English Crown. Cabot stayed on to try and glue together a compromise, and soon found himself a victim of his own good fortune. One of his vessels had returned home to bring the good news to his masters in Bristol. What he couldn't know was that there were figures in Bristol who not only knew of, but were the covert administrators of the colony. Behind closed doors, they came to deal. The colony was to be considered a March of the English Crown, autonomous in many respects. And they sent a ship back to Cabot to bring him the good news, along with a title. Cabot had been appointed Margrave of Brasil, and de facto Governor of the colony.

Cabot was understandardably, not very happy. He had hoped to return to England quickly, but instead found himself in a cold, unforgiving land, with little prospect of return. He had however, managed to bring peace to the fractious colony, and had even reopened relations with the natives, who now rode horses and had hardened against the last plague. Cabot took the opportunity to explore his March more, hoping to find a lucrative opportunity, but found little but lumber and fish.
 
CHAPTER 2
Dead Man's Chest

Anarchy and Order: 12 Experiments in Freedom by Ricardo Cozens, Sandsen International

Over the course of the 1500s, the Portuguese Empire rose to dominate the bulk of the Santacrucas, with other colonial powers like Spain, France, and the Netherlands becoming players but only on the periphery of the vastness of New Lusitania. And of course, there was England (and also Scotland). The mixed populations of Britons, Bretons and Basques spread across the eastern seaboard of North Santacruca, ostensibly as part of the Margraviate of Brasil. In reality, they organised themselves outside the actual authority of the Cabots. The colonists blended with native groups, and chieftains, sachems and self-declared barons all knelt before the Margraves, and professed loyalty.

But these colonies were pastoral, poor and largely built as an organic construct that the English state itself had little direct involvement. For England, the main purpose of the colonies was to accrue prestige, and to keep others out. It was with the Reformation and England's conversion from a Catholic country to a Protestant one, that the colonies truly came into their own.

The 'English Heresy' put England at odds with her long-time ally in Portugal, and soon religious wars consumed Europe, and English fisherman in Brasil found a new niche. Portugal had control of vast gold and silver reserves in her colonies, and soon the English began launching raids on Portuguese treasure galleons. This soon turned colonies which were otherwise poor and distant from England into prosperous and profitable ones. The Margraviate was broken up as the Crown grew fearful of the Cabots growing too powerful. Sachems rose to become Margraves of their own. Colonies under royal proprietorship were established (with the union of English and Scottish Crowns, New Scotland became the largest of these royal colonies). And the Fleet was born.

If the new Kingdom of Britain was composed of three nations, and Johannia comprised a fourth, then the Fleet was a firm fifth. As the blood and fire of religious war cooled to a simmer, the sternly Protestant Kings of Britain were happy to see their Treasuries enriched with Portuguese gold. The Fleet were those Britons, who chose a life at sea and then didn't return. And it wasn't just gold they took. Slaves from Portuguese Africa were taken, swelling their crews. The Fleet became permanent fixture of the Atlantic over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, a nation at sea preying on the enemies of England, pausing only to dock at islands in Johannia to resupply and repair before moving on.

Black Teeth and Black Sails: The Customs of the Fleet by Aneka Powell, Cabraelia Press

The sea-faring nomads of the Fleet rapidly diverged from their continental neighbours. Subsisting off a carnivorous diet of fish and salted meat, occasionally interspersed with alcohol and hard tack, their health was generally poorer than their cousins. However, the hard life of seafaring made them equally hard, and while they tended to die earlier, its certainly not from the physical illnesses common in modern man. Indeed, seafolk tended to put a great emphasis of hardness. They filed their teeth to appear more frightening, and also as a practical concern when subsisting largely on meat for months at a time. The racial mixing of Johannia was even more pronounced on the Fleet, absorbing not only the European and native bloodlines but also African ones.

The most prominent of the Fleet's customs was a reverence for the Sea. Growing out of the Reformation, and a general distance from the strictures and norms of the Land, it was obvious for the seafolk to worship the sea. And whether it was a learned man who started calling the nebulous sea-god Neptune or not, thats what ended up happening. Neptunism was essentially an esoteric fusion of Christian, traditional African and native Johannian beliefs with a pasting of Neo-Grecian on top (the surge in interest in Ancient Greek civilisation thanks to the Spanish liberation of Greece from the Ottomans may have had something to do with it, the rise of the Spanish Orthodox Kingdom of Egypt may have had another).

As the pickings from raiding Portuguese treasure fleets dried up, the Fleet moved from piracy to being a commercial monopoly, dominated Transatlantic trade between Britain and its Johannian colonies. The seafolk became notorious, not as corsairs, but as careful accumulators, working as middle men between the increasingly prosperous swathe of North Santacruca that Britain dominated, and the motherland itself. The seafolk extended a sphere of influence over the mainland, different 'captaincies' competing with one another, trade houses became dominated by the mercantile seafolk. This was all legitimised by King James III's recognition of the authority of the Sea Lord, the elected suzerain of the seafolk.
 
It strikes me as a bit of a stretch that Cabral would also call the native peoples Indians. Odds are he would have a roughly correct idea about the Earth's circumference, which would preclude such a term.

Columbus had a very vested interest in insisting that he'd just run up on the east side of the Indies; but his was a very special case.
 
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