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Gin and Kuro: The Greatest Stories
History of the Northern Nation

History of the Northern Nation

Sólstaður has a history almost as long and storied as the first island nations of Gin and Kuro.

Hylli—known as Torigami to those of the first island—was given a snowy but sun-filled land. Although it was devoid of his flying tengu, it had other creatures instead; birds, fish, and boars. From this, the people of Hylli’s nation were given sustenance.

A mischievous fellow, Hylli taught his human subjects nonsense in order to form a new language. This became distinct from Gin and Kuro—shorter to say and harsher on the tongue, but a clear example of the nations’ separation. The people of Sólstaður embraced this.

The nation gave rise to many strong people, men and women alike, and came to be ruled by a council of the strongest families. At one point, near the time of the First Queen’s War in Gin, a man named Skálpr Gekunsen ruled the council.

Anxious to gain some kind of historical event like its sister nation had, Kuro sent ships north and attacked. Skálpr led them into a bloody conflict, ending many Sólstaðuric lives in an honorable sacrifice. Even his own heir—a distant relative he raised as his son, Makt Gekunsen—died in the war.

After two years, the Sólstaðuric casualties were immense. The fighting finally ended when Skálpr was killed, and Kuro occupied the nation. Sólstaður was allowed to keep its initial government and maintain trade with whoever it desired, so long as meetings were held in the recently-developed shared language—a mix of the first island’s tongue and Hylli’s nonsense-turned-real—and Kuro soldiers were allowed to search any ships deemed suspicious.

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The occupation continued until fairly recently, under the rule of Queen Kuro-Tatari Nari, King Gin-Mashimo Utaka, and Elias Rokensen. The spark of rebellion ignited when Kuro-Tatari Nari’s daughter, Kuro-Masaaki Miya, came to avoid the war on the first island. She was housed in the Rokensen family when it was expected that she would have her own home.

Many, Elias Rokensen included, were appalled at the thought of living among foreign royalty. The idea of a king or queen never sat well with the Sólstaðuric people.

In secret, the council discussed ways they could regain control of their nation. The Kuro occupation had grown to be no more than for show—they didn’t hold the territory as strictly, merely watched them from afar.

All it took to intimate Kuro was the threat of conflict. The council prepared for a bloody conflict, but the kitsune-advisor Yanami Sukaru came to negotiate—with none other than the Kuro princess as her translator. It resulted in Sólstaður’s current state of affairs: only relying on the outside world when it's necessary for good quality of life, and rediscovering whatever Kuro might have taken away from them.

As part of negotiations, Elias Rokensen’s son Andreas took his role in the council. Despite the tensions from Andreas marrying the Kuro princess, it barely compares to the trouble in the southern nations…