Ioanna
| Lordship of Ioanna | |||
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| Motto: Go forward bravely | |||
| Anthem: The Maiden of Ioanna | |||
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| Map versions | 18.1.3 - Present | ||
| Capital | Yew | ||
| Largest city | Yew, Baudricourt
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| Official language(s) | English, Old English, Gaelic | ||
| Official religion(s) | Church of the Holy Lance | ||
| Demonym | Ioannan | ||
| - Adjective | Ioannan | ||
| Government | Feudal Lordship | ||
| - Lord | Sir John Morgan | ||
| - High Knight | Tristan Valient | ||
| - Legislature | Council of Knights | ||
| Establishment | 1750 AN | ||
| Area | 9,624 sq km | ||
| Population | 32,684 (1750 AN) | ||
| Active population | 1 | ||
| Currency | Rosen (R) | ||
| Calendar | AN | ||
| Time zone(s) | CMT+9 | ||
| Mains electricity | 220V | ||
| Driving side | Left | ||
| Track gauge | Standard
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| National animal | Ioannan Ox | ||
| National food | Monastery Bread | ||
| National drink | Highland Ale | ||
| National tree | Arctic Willow | ||
| Abbreviation | IOA | ||
The Lordship of Ioanna, or simply Ioanna (eye-OH-nah), is a tiny Arctic state located north of Mercury, along the shores of Keltia. It was established by a group of Bosworthian knights as a chivalric outpost in the northern wilderness.
History
Early History
The earliest inhabitants of Ioanna were Syrah, who were responsible for the initial migration of Britannic people onto the mainland around 1400 AN. Originally knights from the early Brettish kingdoms such as Willow and Rommenashire, they had been hired as mercenaries by Attera to help with the conquest of the north. During this time, Attera controlled a vast empire over most of Keltia, extending from Los Bananos, all the way to the Skerry Isles. Attera held a fragile grip over the land and needed aid along its eastern frontiers. Thus Ras Diga made a pact with the Britannics to supply them with gold and weapons in exchange for their aid in conquering Keltia. Like Attera, these roving mercenaries established vast kingdoms over stretches of virtually empty land, meeting only small bands of nomadic tribes such as the Reindeer Herders, who quickly exited the region to avoid conflict, leaving the Britannics unchallenged. But settlement was minimal due to the harsh climate, and like Attera, the mercenary kingdoms struggled to control their overextended reach. Around 1500, the small villages were pushed aside during the Sino-Keltian conquests that would befall the land, and the Britannic population was either displaced or relegated to being vassals. For about two decades, the land lay in a disorganized state, with many small villages fending for themselves with complete autonomy. The Sino-Keltian age was transient, and soon their population migrated west into Jingdao, leaving little trace of their time etched into the land. This only changed when the Britannics once again ventured forth from their islands and began to re-settle Keltia. First were New Britannia and Nova England, who by 1520 had established their own kingdoms along the eastern shores of Keltia. But it wasn't until King Edward unified Bosworth at Shrewsbury around 1530 that a centralized government began to appear in the region again.
The Chronicle of Saint Joan
In 1531, King Edward I of Bosworth began expanding his kingdom west of the Strait of Haifa. At the time, the northwest corner of Keltia was ruled by petty warlords of Britannic descent; Vimy, Finistere and Fleur being the three primary states. By 1533 the royal line had consolidated power over Vimy and rivalries ran strong with King Charles of Finistere. This eventually boiled over into open conflict and the two sides clashed in battle that would be chronicled later in the Chronicle of Finistere. With Charles' defeat, Finistere passed to Edward and the throne of Bosworth. Fleur, as one of the last strongholds, found it better to capitulate rather than face annihilation at Edward's hands. By 1535 all of the northeast was under the banner of Bosworth save for Ioanna. Those who had refused to bow to Edward fled to the island and fortified themselves there.
In 1536, King Edward charged a young female knight - a rarity in itself – with marching on the island. At this time, the island was unnamed, and was referred to by the name of the strongest of the enemy strongholds; the castle of Yew. The knight's name was Lady Joan Darcy. She had been raised a peasant girl, but had risen through the ranks after the battle of Frejus to be named a knight of Bosworth. Edward had already deployed much of his forces over Finistere and even further afield in Fleur, thus he needed a new army to take Yew. He looked to the young Joan, aged a mere 23, who had shown herself to be a tactical leader in the field and had the support of the masses behind her, to command this army. Thus in February of 1536 he proclaimed her a general and granted her a force of some fifteen-thousand soldiers to take the island.
Joan gathered her forces in Auxerre, obtaining food, weapons and other supplies, before heading north to the port at Frejus. Here the King's ships were awaiting their arrival to ferry them across to the island. It took a month to traverse the landscape, held back by a late spring, mud and slow artillery that kept sinking in the muck. By the time they were preparing to ship out, the weather of March had not improved much, with snow still on the ground and ice clogging the sea between the mainland and Yew. Harsh conditions alone accounted for over one-thousand deaths even before they set sail, thereby taking a toll on the strength and morale of Joan's army.
Morale among troops was already low. Although Edward had hoped the appointment of someone who had risen from peasantry to prominence would inspire people, the mostly-male composition of the army found taking commands from a woman doubtful at best, downright hostile at worst. The loss of men to weather and then the woes encountered during crossing to Yew made things even worse for the young general. Dangerous ice floes, spring storms, and choppy waters made the passage extremely difficult. By the time they landed in the village of Baudricourt on the southern shore, the fleet had lost three of nine ships, further reducing Joan's forces down to nine-thousand soldiers. Fully a quarter of her forces had been lost even before joining battle with the enemy.
Thus it was a sad situation when the soaked and freezing army from Bosworth made landfall. But Joan rallied her forces and bade them take the small village as a base camp. As a collection of crofts and hovels, Baudricourt offered little opposition to the attackers. Enemy forces had retreated inland to the castle of Yew and other strongholds. Therefore Joan was able to secure some makeshift housing for her troops, some food from the locals, and a slight but nonetheless important boost to morale.
By April, warmer weather was moving in, but with it also came more dangerous mud season. A horse could easily break a leg sinking in the soft peat. Just as easily an artillery piece could become mired in place, stretching a short journey into a sometimes multiple-days trek, costing troops valuable time. This forced Joan's troops to stick strictly to the roads. While the packed soils provided quicker movement, it also limited their maneuverability. Time was not on Joan's side, so she did not dawdle in Baudricourt but opted to move north towards Yew with all haste.
Enemy forces had amassed around the castle of Yew. They were long expecting an assault from the mainland, knowing that Edward would not countenance rebellion. The castle itself was located centrally on the island, in the upper hills. This gave it the advantage of the high ground, and since they were aware the attack was coming, deprived Joan of the element of surprise. Yew lay at the boundary between the arable lands of the south and the rocky ice of the north, with its back essentially against a wall. And like an animal, the enemy was cornered with no option for retreat to another safe haven.
To reach Yew, Joan had to cross the southern half of the island. While she had been able to stave off further casualties since arriving at Baudricourt, the army was now faced with crossing inhospitable lands and a narrow corridor path to the castle. She set off near the end of April, facing ground that was thawing and soggy with spring snow melt. The journey was slow going. Horses struggled in the mud and the roads were little more than dirt paths through the marshes. To make matters worse, Lord Pierre, the enemy commander, was constantly harrying Joan's forces with small attacks. His hope was to decrease morale, delay progress, and pick away at the army before it reached Yew. Even with these constant setbacks, Joan pushed ever forward. Finally she reached a small abbey that sat near the island's narrow neck. Here she paused her army to take much needed rest.
The Abbey of Chinon was a small stone church that served the people of the island. Besides the rector, only a few poor farms sat nearby. The nearest settlement was Diseart, several miles to the east. The only thing the rector could offer was some loves of bread and the shelter of a few musty stables; hardly adequate for a force that had dwindled to less than ten-thousand soldiers. Some of the men were facing scurvy from the lack of adequate diet, others had the consumption and were mere skeletons. Dismayed, Joan entered the abbey alone one evening and beseeched the lord for guidance.
She emerged the next morning from the church a changed woman. Joan quickly mounted her horse and called her commanders to her. Claiming she had received a vision of victory from God, she rallied the flagging morale of the soldiers and charged them with renewed energy. That very morning they left the abbey and headed north to march on the gates of Yew.
Lord Pierre had entrenched his forces at the castle, flanking the parapets with archers intended to rain death down upon the approaching Bosworthians. Joan knew what to expect, claiming that in her vision she had seen her forces caught in a violent storm outside the castle, with lightning that looked like arrows. So she brought her shield corps to the forefront, followed by her own archers. The move was a wise decision, as the enemy chose to hide behind the castle walls in a defensive position. Once these forward forces engaged each other, the slow-moving artillery was brought up from the rear and began to lob volleys at the front gates. Pierre had not anticipated this, and his few trebuchets from behind the walls had difficulty in reaching the artillery, failing to stop them before the front gates were shattered by the barrage.
Archers fell from the walls like flakes of ash drifting down from the sky. Joan took charge of her knights and ordered a cavalry charge directly through the smashed gates. Leading the knights herself, she was the first through the splintered wood and engaging the enemy soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. The rest of her knights followed, and she signaled the infantry to advance behind her. Soon the knights were forced to dismount and join close combat with the enemy soldiers. The flagstones ran red with blood, but inch-by-inch Joan's forces gained ground.
Pierre and a few of his loyal knights retreated to the rear of the castle, while the bulk of the rebel forces remained fighting in the courtyard. After a few hours of fighting it was clear that Joan's forces were winning the battle, causing Pierre to panic. Gathering a small force they made a desperate charge that caught the Bosworthians by surprise. Instead of attacking however, Pierre and his men rode straight through the conflagration and rushed out through the gates. To the shock of his remaining forces, Pierre had fled like a coward. But being too preoccupied with the present battle, Joan could not disengage to pursue him just yet.
With the cowardly retreat of their commander, the enemy forces who remained lost their momentum to continue fighting very quickly. Within a couple more hours, the last of the enemy had surrendered and Joan had successfully taken the castle of Yew. It took several more hours, however, for her to mop up the mess, make sure the enemy soldiers were secure in irons, and attend to her own wounded forces. Despite the victory, nearly three-thousand lay dead on the ground, with many others sustaining injuries ranging from superficial wounds to severed limbs. It was a ghastly sight, and a sobering moment for both sides to see the conflict ended.
But the loss of time was an advantage for Lord Pierre. Unwilling to accept defeat, he had fled north into the snow and ice. Scouts reported he was headed for Dunain, a granite outpost set in an area of jagged rocks that were too windswept to remain frozen in the ice. Joan, determined to see the enemy vanquished once and for all, set her second-in-command in charge of the castle while she gathered some of the remaining uninjured knights to her side. With extra furs and provisions, they quickly set off in pursuit of Pierre.
Joan's small force rode out of Yew and quickly crossed onto the ice sheet. It was even more treacherous than the mud fields that they had crossed in the south. Collapsing shelves of ice, drifting snow, and hidden crevasses all presented their own challenges. But she refused to yield to the elements and pressed ever onward to the north. Dunain lay a days journey from Yew, and she was unsure if Pierre would remain there or seek to circle back and escape via one of the small fishing ports in the south. Thus she pressed her knights to travel as quickly as possible across the ice.
Dunain itself had been built years prior as an outpost. It was a roughshod keep of hand-hewn stones built into the wall of a granite outcropping. It had no permanent population or groundskeeper; it was simply there as shelter for the poor souls that may have to cross the frozen north. Pierre knew this and had only the provisions he carried to feed himself and his men while they camped in the cold. What he did not count on was Joan following him onto the ice. Pierre had assumed, wrongly, that she would be preoccupied with securing Yew and leave him for dead in the inhospitable north. In this he was soon to be proven wrong.
Unfortunately for Joan, Pierre may have been unsuspecting of her following him, but he wasn't completely at ease. He had been wise enough to post a lookout on the top of the keep who spotted the Bosworthian knights moving across the ice. His forces were too weak to face another confrontation, so he opted again to flee. Hoping to lose Joan in the blustering snow and ice, he made a dead man's gamble and decided to head even further north. Joan was close enough to Dunain at this point to see him exiting the keep, and so spurred her men move faster in pursuit.
For the next three days, through sometimes blinding snow, Joan kept at the heels of Lord Pierre. But with death at his heels, he refused to surrender and pushed north. Some of his men dropped from hunger or exhaustion, sometimes both. A few of Joan's entourage did the same, and she wisely sent them back to Dunain to rest and to await her return. As they reached the far northern tip of the island, Pierre and his four remaining men holed up the last known shelter on the island, a minuscule keep known as Montford. They barely had time to bolt the doors before Joan and her knights were there battering at them.
The rickety old wood of the fort, probably original to the keep from the days of Syrah, did not last against the onslaught for very long. Within minutes the doors shattered and Joan was slashing at Pierre with her sword. While her knights engaged the other four enemy soldiers, Joan herself fought Pierre across the keep at Montford. The two fought intensely, with Pierre retreating up the steps of the tower as Joan pushed forward. As they fought on the stairs, Pierre caught her in the shoulder, causing a deep wound and forcing her to switch sword arms. Nonetheless she persisted. Pierre retreated further, eventually ascending to the top of the tower.
Here Joan closed in on Pierre, and the fight became more intense. Pierre landed another blow with a sharp stab to Joan's side. But she took this in grace as well and pressed on. With his back pressed against the stone rail of the tower's top, Pierre was like a rabid animal, cutting and slashing with abandon. But Joan did not let her own sword falter, and kept pushing him back. Eventually she landed a blow of her own with a sharp stab just below the heart. Pierre dropped his sword, gripping his chest. As he did so, he slipped on a patch of the icy stone, sending him tumbling backwards. Hitting the stone railing with such force he toppled back over the top of it, falling to his demise on the rocks below. Gripping her own wounds and leaning on her sword, she descended the stairs to find the rest of Pierre's men dead and her forces victorious.
But Joan was grievously wounded, and it was a hard three-day journey just to get back to Dunain. Unable to ride, her knights bound her wounds as best they could and wrapped her in furs. Placing her on the back of one of the horses, they began the trek back south. Sadly, Joan's condition continued to deteriorate. While the blood had been staunched, the cuts were deep, and it was likely she had internal bleeding that went unseen. By the time they arrived in Dunain, she was deep in the throes of fever. Gathering the waiting and wounded knights, they made off at a quick pace for Yew.
By the time they arrived at the castle, Joan had slipped into semi-delirious state, still gripped by pain and fever. Four days had passed since her fight with Pierre, and it was the first time she had been able to be seen by a physician. In dismay he announced that too much time had passed, and the only thing they could do was to try and alleviate her pain. Her last words were to order an envoy back to Shrewsbury to let King Edward know of their victory. Soon after she slipped into a coma from which she would never wake.
By the time news reached Edward, Joan had passed away. Having heard the tales of her heroics, the King himself decided he should travel to Yew personally. He arrived at the castle to find Joan being held in state on a bier of willow and Alpine flowers. Seeing the wounded state of the knights, their sheer loyalty to their King, and thew harsh conditions under which they fought, the King knelt at Joan's side and proclaimed her a Saint. Henceforth, he said, Yew would be known as the Isle of Saint Joan. That day, the King attended the funeral pyre of Saint Joan, before installing one of her loyal lieutenants as Lord of the Isle. In reward for their service, the King granted lands to Joan's knights, and they soon established their own order on the island. Thereafter, Edward returned to Shrewsbury as uncontested King of all the northlands.
Bosworth and Beyond
Bosworth's rule over the island would only last a mere decade, but in that time the knights who settled there would become a permanent part of the land and its people. King Edward appointed Aidan Lorne as Grand Master of the Order of Saint Joan, which had been given charge of the island. Around this time the long form, Isle of St Joan, became shortened to the Latin version of Ioanna. Soon after the old name quickly fell out of use. Lorne rebuilt the castle of Yew as a stronghold for the knights, and also restored the Abbey of Chinon. At Montford, a small shrine was built to honor Joan's final battle. Being such a barren land, the population on Ioanna did not thrive, but remained relatively stable. The Grand Master did his best to improve conditions, but was often called away to fight in Edward's war along the Strait of Haifa.
When Edward died and was replaced by King Wentworth, Lorne continued to fight until he was killed in the field of battle around 1547. Without clear leadership Bosworth was forced to retreat from the eastern lands, focusing its remaining power on retaining control of Haifa and Gascony. Wentworth appointed Gabriel Morgan as the new Grand Master, who immediately set out to the island. But just two years later, in 1549, Wentworth was killed in battle during the Gascon War, along with much of the Bosworthian nobility. Soon after Bosworth collapsed completely and faded into history. The Order of St Joan was on its own. For the next fifteen years, the Order would function in a nominal fashion, mostly as a hospital service, striving to keep the people of Ioanna healthy. It was mostly an introspective period, which helped to build Ioanna's fierce independence and self-sustainability.
As 1565 rolled around, it brought a new visitor to Ioanna: Ashkenatza. The Ashkenatzis came as part of an Arctic expedition, mostly scientific, but also part of their large intelligence network. They paid little heed to the inhabitants and took the old fort at Montford as their outpost. Intrigued by the large number of oxen grazing the machair, they renamed the castle to Ayzstantsye Gnu, or Ice Station Wildebeest, as they called oxen wildebeest in their tongue. They would occupy the castle for forty years, trading with the locals and conducting research. The trade was welcome with the otherwise isolated Order, as it helped keep the locals abreast of modern innovations, even if the primary industries remained farming and fishing. But by 1605, internal strife in Ashkenatza caused them too to collapse, leaving the island on its own again for another for another seventy-six years until the arrival of Elwynn in 1681.
Elwynn would make some investment in the island, but due to the distance from Vanaheim they had little long-lasting influence on Ioanna. By 1704 Elwynn had been replaced by Normark, whose nationalist state repressed the Order in favor of Humanist factions that were vying for control. During this time the Order moved underground, essentially hiding their garments and opting to live as simple farmers on the island. But the ruse worked to keep Ioanna from being targeted. Gnu was repurposed as a Nordhaer base, but due to its isolation had little interaction with the Ioannans living in the south. So preoccupied was Normark with its own constant conflicts, that Ioanna was left mostly unscathed until Normark's collapse in 1737.
Modern History
Following the East Keltian Collapse, the Nordhaer evacuated Gnu/Montford and over half of the Norse on the island fled back to the mainland in the Norse diaspora. John Morgan, a descendant of Gabriel Morgan, was named the new Grand Master of the Order. He quickly set about repairing damage to the island from the Norse occupation and restructuring the Order into a modern feudal government. In 1740 he was named Lord of Ioanna, with the Sovereign Military Order of Ioanna segueing into the exclusive role of defense. At some of the first sessions of the Council of Knights, Lord Morgan divided the island into six fiefs, granting an estate to each of the six members of the council who would then manage the estates therein. Early efforts were to secure the island from any further external threats, establish a stable government, and gain international recognition.
The rushed abandonment of Gnu resulted in the Nordhaer leaving behind a considerable cache of weaponry, which Morgan seized for the Order. While Montford was kept with a skeleton crew as a research base, all the defense materials were moved south to Yew for safekeeping and the protection of the population, which is clustered in the southern third of the island. Trade was established with Moorland, especially after their expansion into the neighboring Ford Islands, and with Mercury, which controls much of former Bosworth. Morgan's primary focus for the past decade has been in rebuilding the island's infrastructure, improving living conditions, and working to modernize the Order's military as a force capable of defending Ioanna properly while actively pursuing friendly relations with nearby countries. In 1755, Ioanna formally joined the Xaiville Convention, emphasizing its commitment to global peace. Continuing to pursue a robust foreign policy, Ioanna began dispatching diplomatic missions abroad and signed the General Membership treaty of the Micras Treaty Organization in 1757, aiming to sign on to the other MTO conventions within the next year or so. In 1758 Ioanna became the first country to sign all seven of the MTO's ancillary treaties, upholding its commitment to international peace and cooperation.
Geography
Ioanna is located along the far northeastern shores of Keltia. Two-thirds of the island are locked in permanent ice. The northern two-thirds of the island are under a permanent glacier whose southern advance is halted by the Gàrradh, a series of sharp granite peaks that have held the ice back for thousands of years. This natural barrier has kept the glacier from advancing further south. The southern portion in the ice-free zone is mostly machair, a fertile low-lying dune pastureland. The shore is deeply indented by arms of the sea. The coast is mostly sandy beaches backed by dunes and machair on west coast, giving way to an expansive peat-covered plateau in the center of the island. The eastern coastline is markedly more rugged and is mostly rocky cliffs broken by small coves and beaches. The highest point of the island only reaches around 2,000 feet above sea level (609.6m). The landscape is punctuated by a large number of freshwater lochs. In the 1500s, monks living at the Abbey Chinon started planting tree seedlings brought over from the mainland in the hopes of establishing a domestic source of lumber. This consisted mostly of Moor Pine, as it was fast-growing, hardy, and produced a few useful byproducts such as resin and pine tar. Most of the plantings were done along the northeastern wall of the Fhiona Mountains in the southern tier of the island. While the plantings were successful, the forests never became productive enough for large-scale lumber needed for construction, and the original stand is now protected as the National Forest of Ioanna. Thanks in part to these initial plantings, several other stands of forest have become established to the south and west of the mountains, and these are managed on a small scale for lumber.
Economy
The economy of Ioanna is heavily reliant on tourism. Traditional industries are crofting, fishing and weaving. Peat is still cut as a fuel in many areas. Some industrial manufacturing exists in the southern area of the island, but most manufactured goods need to be imported from nearby countries such as Moorland and Mercury. Ioanna continues to use the former currency of Bosworth, the Rosen (R), and maintains a small mint that produces its own coinage. Nonetheless, due to the frailty of the small independent Ioannan market, the Rosen is currently pegged to Moorland's Redoubt Crown (RDC), which is considered regionally stable.
Infrastructure
Ioanna prides itself on being as self-sustaining as possible, and acquires all its power supply domestically. As of 1755, 90% of the power supply is renewable energy, with only one coal plant still remaining in operation. This last coal plant is slated to be decommissioned within the next five years as the construction of a new Small Modular reactor (SMR) is completed. The main source of energy for the island is supplied through a combination of large wind and solar farms, and an innovative tidal energy project in Diseart Bay.
Waste management is handled at the Ban Landfill and Incinerator Plant (BLIP). Given the small size of the island, most residents bring their trash to the landfill and there is no municipal pick up of waste. The incinerator is a waste-to-energy plant and provides some power for the island. Recyclable goods are separated at the landfill by waste operators and shipped back to mainland Keltia for processing. Waste that can be neither recycled or incinerated is sent to the landfill. Hazardous waste, such as radioactive material, is shipped overseas at considerable cost; thus this is kept to a minimum and strictly regulated.
Transportation around the island is accessible by paved roads. A paved circuit road serves most of the island and also provides an emergency route for EMS crews, evacuations and other such events. Several paved crossroads exist connecting the circuit road to other communities and to provide shorter routes in-between these locations. The island has no rail service yet. Baudricourt serves as the main travel port, serving as the main port for ferries traveling to and from the mainland, and also as the main hub for imports/exports. The city also has Ioanna's only international airport. A smaller domestic airport is located in Yew.
See also: Economy of Ioanna
Government and politics
Ioanna is governed as a feudal monarchy with elements derived from its early days as a chivalric order. The Lord essentially owns all of Ioanna, granting fiefs to vassals who then manage their estates or manors. Before the lord can grant land (a fief) to someone, he has to make that person a vassal. This is done at a commendation ceremony comprising an act of homage and an oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal enter into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agrees to protect the vassal from external forces. The vassal's principal obligation to the lord is to provide aid or military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal can obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, the vassal has to answer calls to military service by the lord. Exceptionally large estates are usually referred to as manors, who are granted the title Knight of the Court. A Knight's manor often included a large, sometimes fortified manor house or castle in which the lord of the manor and his dependents lived and administered a rural estate, and a population of laborers or serfs who worked the surrounding land to support themselves and the lord. At times the Lord of Ioanna will call a council of these Knights to session for executive matters and consult, referred to as the Council of Knights. These sessions are moderated by a High Knight, chosen as a neutral arbiter by popular vote among the Council to serve in that role. Currently, Ioanna is divided into six fiefs. The Council of Knights therefore has six seats, with the Lord serving as a tie-breaker in the absence of quorum.
Council of Knights - as of 1750 AN
| Title | Name | Fief |
|---|---|---|
| Lord of Ioanna | Sir John Morgan | Yew |
| High Knight | Sir Tristan Valient | Staonaig |
| Knight of the Realm | Sir Nigel MacPherson | Ceann Tsear |
| Knight of the Realm | Lady Elizabeth Jordain | Liana |
| Knight of the Realm | Sir Frances Neville | Ghairdean |
| Knight of the Realm | Sir Joris Collins | Diseart |
| Knight of the Realm | Lady Saoirse Xander | Machar |
Ethnic Demographics (c. 1750)
- Bosworthian: 11,202
- Nova English: 8,911
- Moorlander: 5,179
- Brettish: 2,297
- Norse: 2,093
- Mercurian: 1,534
- Other: ~1,468
See also: Foreign relations of Ioanna
Culture
Ioannan culture strongly reflects its roots in the Britannic people. Like many locations in the northeast corner of Keltia, Ioanna's population is descended mostly from people originally from Bosworth, Nova England/Moorland, and the Brettish Isles. The locals consider themselves to be the closest descendants of Bosworth, and proudly carry on traditions from that country to this day. Saint Joan is the patron saint of the island, and the locals remain a deeply religious people, with nearly 70% of families attending church regularly. The Abbey of Chinon remains an active church to this day, and many festivities and folklore are centered around Joan and her exploits. Ionnan literature is also well-regarded, such as the poem of Fáelchú Bán.
Other traditions include raising oxen; a major staple on the island and one which locals are very proud of. A local version of haggis is made from ox, and considered a delicacy that has since been named the national dish.
Defence
The military of Ioanna is a continuation of the original chivalric order that followed Saint Joan to the island from Bosworth. Called the Sovereign Military Order of Ioanna, they are a modern continuation of the original mounted knights. While rank and title continue to reflect the original hierarchy of the order, traditional armored knights on horseback are today only a ceremonial contingent of the modern army. The SMOI stands as possibly the smallest standing military on Micras, with a total active personnel of 250.
