Ulmarkan Protectorates

Ulmarkan Protectorates
An Oil Homestead on the Salt Coast, 2051
Status	Overseas territories of the Ulmarkan Empire
Created	2041
Territories	Four: the Salt Coast and three islands
Administration	Imperial Governor, under martial law
Population	About 4 million, of whom about a quarter are Veyari

The Ulmarkan Protectorates are the four overseas territories of the Ulmarkan Empire: the Salt Coast, on the north-eastern coast of Rendorlin, and three outlying islands. They were taken in the Protectorate Wars of 2035 to 2041, and have been administered under martial law since. They supply the empire with grain, timber and shipyard labour; they are inhabited by about four million people, of whom some 1,000,000 are Veyari, and the rest Ulmarkan settlers and garrison families.^[1] The coast's status is not recognised by the Concord.

After the Salt Coast Clearances the cleared land was given to Ulmarkan homesteaders under the Settlement Act of 2040, which grants a hundred acres to any citizen who can show a bout record. By 2050 about 700,000 Ulmarkans had moved to the coast, living in the fortified farms known as Oil Homesteads, each of which keeps a practice ring in its yard. The Veyari who remain live in the camps, in the garrison towns, and in the hinterland marshes, where the empire has never governed more than the roads.^[1]

Each territory has an Imperial Governor named by the Brotherhood of the Oil and answering to the ██████████████████████████. Veyari may not hold land, bear arms or travel between territories without a pass. The Veyari are required to labour for a term in the shipyards of Port Ysa, a duty the empire calls "service to the Circle" and the Veyari call "the oar".^[1][2]

The Protectorates were the worst-hit region of the 2043 Ulmarkan Famine, since their grain was requisitioned first and their stocks were the army's. Between a third and a half of all deaths in the famine were in the territories, and Veyari deaths were three times the settlers' rate. The sanctions that followed fell on the Protectorates' ports before they fell on the mainland.^[2]

Armed resistance continues in the marshes, led since 2044 by the Veyari Survivors' Committee, whose fighters attack supply convoys and Oil Homesteads. The empire answers with collective punishment. In 2058 the ██████████████████████████ published its Second Settlement Plan, which names two further stretches of coast and proposes to settle them "before they are settled by anyone else".^[2][3]

• Ulmarkan Empire
• Protectorate Wars
• Veyari
• Salt Coast Clearances
• 2043 Ulmarkan Famine
• Rendorlin
• ███████████████████████
• Ignatius Pell