Merchant Republics of Sommerso

"The rule of one may only ever end in tyranny. The rule of many, on the other hand, will always offer a better deal"

-Maddalena de Orsini, Barche parliamentarian and political theorist.

The Merchant Republics of Sommerso (Sommersian Common: Repubbliche Mercantili Sommerse), known simply to foreigners as Sommerso or locally as The Republics (Sommersian Common: Le Repubbliche) is a league of merchant republic city states located in the Golden Horn and Vineyard Peninsula in Radix. Founded in the aftermath of the Unsung War (known as the Southern States Secession in Pax Imperium) in 176AN, it includes the cities of Casa Mercante, Raccolta Dolce, Barche, Vino Riposo, La Salvezza, Malato, Casa Michel, and the City of Sommerso.

Many member city states first gained influence in the Imperial period, founded by northern settlers and through Legionary conquest around Salera Bay, until its prosperous unification and expansion through monopoly of maritime trade in the recent Classical Age. The republics served as the luxury breadbasket of Pax Imperium, as free cities with a mild, hospitable climate excellent in supplying the empire's growing need for olive oil and wine. Certain unique economic advantages and political freedoms granted by the Empire, coupled with their strict tradition of education and the arts, cultivated a vibrant, care-free culture. The young Sommersian dialect of the Common language is widely spoken by citizens, maturing through a relatively-free and flourishing publishing industry.

The Majordomo is the highest ranking executive, appointed by the Outer Chamber of the Grand Parliament of the Republics, the legislature's lower house. Unlike Pax's relationship with the Imperial Temple, the Sommersian Temple's Regulus is a ministerial position within the Inner Chamber, the Majordomo's similarly-appointed inner sanctum. The First Chair of the University of Sommerso and the Chancellor of the Trust bank are also within this council, further centralizing power in the league.

Under Imperial rule, the Merchant Marines, the precursor to the Sommersian Armada, pioneered dependable trade with the formerly-mysterious dragonborns of the Valdir Islands and heavily supported the Legionary Navy. Independent, the republics ventured into colonization and imperialism in the islands, financed trade and business across the world, patronized cultural and scientific endeavors, and upended Imperial hegemony in the continent.

Imperial Settlement and Conquest
When Empress Arvina I took to the Paxian throne, she had two pathways on her agenda of expansion. The expansive west, home to the Blue Kingdoms, were heavily settled, highly fortified, and were ruled by kings and queens seasoned by conflict. While this was to be the primary focus of the empire's warfare for the next half millennia, the unsettled, bountiful south presented a much more achievable goal. When hardy Imperial settlers first arrived in the Golden Horn, they expected to quickly cultivate the land and to use their auxiliary escorts in repelling any intrusion by the nomads of the twin peninsulas: the Royal Rivarians in the east and the Serapanians in the west and the. As reported by Imperial scouts, the horse-riding natives lived peaceful, primitive lives, compared with the dwarves as "of even lesser import and posing no threat". This proved to be a fatal mistake as Royal Rivarians raided the settlers with vicious efficiency, killing the auxiliaries, stealing supplies, and abducting women and children.

With the bulk of the Imperial Legion occupied in the west and future expeditions facing similar destruction, the empress recalled Legate Vitruvius Vop. Ianuarius to march Legion V Castra and support the settlement effort. He was a capable military commander but an even more capable diplomat. Vopiscus Ianuarius and his legionary tribunes, most chosen due to their diplomatic mastery, crafted a treaty that would allow peaceful Imperial settlement in exchange for an annual gift of weapons, glass beads, amphoras of wine and grain, and slaves. At the same time, dwarven colonies, such as in contemporary Dominante and Confine D'mondo, were quickly captured and became key sources of local information and support.

The Treaty of the Rose would remain standing for almost two centuries, when older cities such as Barche and Disperare were founded, before constant conflict between the Royal Rivarians and the Serapinians began disrupting Imperial villas and roads. The Imperial Legion first aided the Royal Rivarians in crushing them in the Vineyard Peninsula but soon turned on them too and, by the time the City of Sommerso was founded a hundred years after in 363AN, cursed them to the same fate. The treaty would have been broken long before then.

Imperial Rule and the Southern Merchant States
While some of the defeated Serapanians and Royal Rivarians, absorbed through religious and cultural assimilation, were enslaved, most served as freemen in Imperial villas. The governance of the peninsulas were formalized as two separate provinces, overseen by an Imperial adjudicator similar to that assigned to the Great North after the Autumn War later on. Due to their distance from the Imperial capital and the desire of the Imperial government to encourage growth, the provinces were highly autonomous and guild activities in their free cities were tax-exempted. At this time, the colorful and decadent culture the republics would be known for would be first fostered. While at first it was only the holiday retreat of wealthy patricians, who owned large swaths of farmland, many of them began to permanently move to the peninsulas and bustling local enterprise began to take hold. Most of these enterprises would center around trade, first to ferry the expensive agricultural products to Pax and later to provide general maritime trade services to the rest of the empire. Southern merchant ships were known to arrive with hourly accuracy, travelling long distances unfettered by weather and piracy. The burgeoning elite slowly phased out the entrenched Paxian patricians and were diverse in their origins, ready to invest in daring business ventures and patronize in ostentatious arts and sciences.

Militarily, Imperial legions and auxiliaries were raised in the south to keep the peace and protect the highways. However, due to the small size of the Legionary Navy, it could not extend the same protections. In 523AN, the praetor governors of the Golden Horn and Vineyard Peninsula provinces called upon the First Conference of Rivers and Seas, a collection of representatives of the free cities and major merchants to address the issue in Dominante. The conference formed the Merchant Marines, a loose collective of the provinces' trade ships and mercenary escorts coordinating for their common good. The Merchant Marines would be so successful in propping trade and security in the south, they would later be integrated by the Legionary Tribunal to provide support to the Navy.

Home to increasingly powerful figures, the free cities became confident in total separation from Pax. Growing pressure from the Sweeping of the March galvanized the political will amongst their magistrato minor governors and the ruling elite until Susana de Casa Mercante, Praetor of the Vineyard Peninsula, orchestrated a revolutionary movement. Turning the legions in the region on her side, her co-conspirators in the Golden Horn assassinated their pro-Imperium praetor and together declared their formal secession as the Southern Merchant States.