In the years following the collapse of the Magnapuri Empire, far away from the heartland of the Empire on the Dark Roundwards side of Baleutia, Gastipur was always slow to receive new of the growing revolution. Ruled primarily from Balisibad, for the first few years, life scarcely changed in the city and surrounding lands. As part of the Counteroundwards Magnacy, information was heavily restricted by the increasingly authoritarian administration.
Gastipur was far from Balisibad, and difficult to govern, so the local government was granted a high degree of autonomy, with the city and surrounding demesne largely ruled by a council of Syndics sitting in the Hall of Feathers (so named due to the vast number of quills in use by the administrators within). News from Cunabulum was more accessible here than in the rest of the isolationist Magnacy, with the Syndics overlooking and in some cases even encouraging smuggling and contact with Balsifir. Ill news of the growing revolution and authoritarian denialism from the Despot of Balisibad caused many of the Syndics to worry, leading to Gastipur to pursue a policy of de facto independence, doing its best to avoid any official measures to avoid angering the increasingly erratic Despot Deraxes.
By 1057 YM, Gastipur was de facto a separate nation, stockpiling both gold and manpower, and significantly underpaying its taxes to Balisibad. This however began to draw the Despot’s attention. A series of exchanged messengers and a disastrous state visit led to the Syndics withholding all taxes, starting to reinforce their armies including with mercenary Ereg Gol. In a rage, the Despot declared the abolition of the Hall of Feathers, and that he would execute all of the treacherous Syndics. He called his legion together (by this stage largely made up of unbroken slaves - with the fall of the Empire, no new Broken Men were being made) and marched Darkwards, taking the coast road to avoid the swampy inland route. Though heavily outnumbered, the Gastipuri forces made use of the Ereg Gol's knowledge of the terrain to harass the poorly disciplined troops, raiding supply lines and sneaking into the Magnacy camps to slit throats and sow chaos. Scarcely half of the Despot’s slave army made it to the crossing point to Gastipur where the tired and low morale troops were swiftly routed by Syndic Brask’s freeman army.
During the battle, Deraxes had been captured, and in return for his ransom, Gastipur laid claim to the following lands: Shyankra, the island on which Gastipur is located; and all lands of Baleutia further Darkwards than the southernmost point of the island. From this point forth, the Gastipuri Oligarchy would pay no homage to any other state. This continued in spite of the Despot’s best efforts, for scarcely two years after his release, Deraxes declared that agreements signed with rebels and traitors would bear no weight, and promptly attacked once more. He would attack on and off by land and sea over the following seventeen years, each time being repulsed before they could reach Gastipur itself. On occasion land on the mainland would change sides, with the border shifting Lightwards and Darkwards, but the sanctity of Shyankra was never breached. However, each war led to greater and greater reliance on mercenaries by the Gastipuri, with more Gol, along with pirates from further afield being hired to the cause.
One final push in 1078 YM would prove to be both the Despot’s and the Oligarchy’s undoing. Captured on the battlefield once more, the Syndics made sure that he was “killed whilst trying to escape” rather than attempt another ransom. The Despot’s successor, Lestor, would prove eminently more cautious and even more isolationist, writing off all land Darkwards of the border.
The Oligarchy’s reliance on mercenaries had not come without cost however, and the Syndics attempted to avoid paying many of the Ereg Gol. The warrior clansmen responded not with diplomacy, but by sacking and looting the surrounding area. Whenever Gastipuri troops were sent to quell the looters, they would vanish back into their swamps, using the very tactics that they had won them the previous war against them. The chaos would continue on the mainland for over three years, with the Oligarchy unable to find a decisive fixed battle against the tribesmen.
Prior to this, much of Gastipur’s food was produced on the mainland, and Shyankra would have fallen into famine if it weren’t for regular imports from Balsifir - the majority of which came through smuggling and piracy. Between this increased crime rate, the greatly weakened army, and the food struggles, Gastipur descended into chaos and open revolt. Many of the Syndics died or fled Roundwards to Larunjai and Vasmericum, with a few even fleeing to their former foes in the Counterroundwards Magnacy. A few though stayed, attempting to rein in the situation with the limited military reserves remaining to them though. They had partial success in a few places, halting the once marauding and now fully invading Ereg Gol before they took the Silent Peninsula (though failing to regain any more of the mainland), and retaking the Hall of Feathers from the slave uprising.
This final resistance was put to an end by the arrival of a great pirate fleet in 1083 YM headed by the goliath Captain Dev Silversail, who was owed money for his mercenary and privateering services to the Oligarchy. Silversail led his corsairs through the streets of Gastipur to the Hall of Feathers, sweeping away the few unprepared soldiers in the city and slaying the remaining Syndics. In a move referred to by historians as the hoisting of the Silver Sail, he declared himself the Captain Despot of Gastipur, and set his forces to brutally crush both revolt and Oligarchy men. Within the year he had the Silent Peninsula and Shyankra under his control, surrendering all other land on mainland Baleutia to the Gol tribes - while his forces were elite at sea or by the coast, they struggled in the swamps to which the Gol were native. Silversail instead turned to other lands to line his pockets, turning what was once the Oligarchy into a great haven for pirates, smugglers and other criminals, raiding along the Darkwards Sabhyan.
Over the next few decades, a number of the states of both Baleutia and Balsifir attempted to evict the pirates from Gastipur, fighting a dozen bloody wars and attempting no fewer than seven landings on Shyankra, of which all were rapidly pushed back into the sea. Silversail ruled the waves, and could call half a thousand pirate ships to his banner when attacked. His death was long awaited by many, thinking that the Pirate Despotate would collapse without its charismatic and ruthless leader. It took until 1114 YM for him to die. The great pirate Captain would not allow his last act to be defeat however, and declared as his health failed that upon his death any who captained a ship that made port at Gastipur within the next month could vote for his successor.
Whether out of respect for the dead man, fear of neighbouring powers, or more elicit reasons, the Captains voted and power transferred relatively peacefully (with only a few stabbings) to Captain Yv Firemane. Firemane was a half elven (though potentially quarter elven depending on who was asked) woman of bright red hair from þokudareyjar. Born to an Ódauðlegurfólk mother, several rumours floated that she was the bastard daughter of Silversail, but no genuine evidence ever emerged. Nevertheless, the new Captain Despot reigned with the same iron fist, keelhauling a dozen captains who thought to depose her ten days after her election.
Yet Firemane was not known just for her ruthlessness, but her solidifying of the Gastipuri Piracy into a state. Many ships were built, with their loyalty first to the Piracy and its Despot and not to any individual captain. Every coastal town of Shyankra boasted a great dockyard, capable of supplying a great number who made port there. The Hall of Feathers was renovated and expanded so that every captain of Gastipur could fit into it at once. Firemane also acted as a lawgiver, especially in regards to slavery, an institution she despised, possibly due to her þok upbringing. The Captain Despot made a rare compromise with the captains, of whom a large majority participated in either working or distributing slaves. She declared that “No sailor is a slave, and no slave shall be a sailor of Gastipur. Nor shall any slave work our free island of Shyankra.” carefully leaving out any mention of trading in slaves, or the Silent Peninsula, upon which much of the food of the Piracy was grown by slaves.
While dealing with a few minor scuffles with non-pirate states, Yv Firemane ruled over a more peaceful realm than her predecessors, both Despot and Syndic, at least until the Balsifiri Crusade. The pirates prospered and many captains grew rich and fat, enjoying the good times of peace and plunder. However, Gastipur chose to intercede against the Balsifiri Crusade, especially in the archipelago that would become the Vasmericum Republic, fearing the formation of a strong nearby naval power. Though potentially slowing the process for a couple of years, Vasmericum still managed to consolidate, forming a bitter rivalry with the Piracy in the process. Now with Firemane ageing, and the Bookburner faith behind them, the Republic seeks to turn the many skirmishes into a full on invasion, laying claim to Shyankra for their own.