Samhold

Samholdsøya (Elw: Qeqerdar Adaacuzusyr; both the Norse and Elw names mean "Unity Island") is an unhabited boreal island, situated between Apollonia and Keltia, that is under the formal sovereignty of the Benacian Union. Following the signing of the Treaty of Chryse, the island is set to be transferred to Hurmu sovereignty on 1.I.1710, and to be populated by Hurmu returnees from the Warring Islands.

History

First begun in 1693, in the middle of the Second Elwynnese Civil War, the establishment of a garrison on Samholdsøya was charged by Keltia Command, with the support of the civilian government in Elijah's Rest, to facilitate operations to restore the Boreal Air Bridge connecting Normark, Jääland and Hurmu to Eliria, following the severance of those channels by the rebellion which had commenced in the preceding year.

The Boreal Air Bridge with planned routes prior to the Elwynnese occupation of Samholdsøya. The island is shown encircled, and was widely known within the Elwynnese government as "Circle Island" (due to the way the island was identified on the map) prior to its official naming

The Elwynnese and Norse flags were planted on the island on 9.IX.1693, to the fanfare of a frostbitten, and depressed population gathered together by the arriving UDF detachment. The small indigenous population had been under Storish and Vanic subjugation from 1543 to 1685. The incoming garrison gave the island the name Unity as a symbol of their intent to restore the Greater Elwynnese Realm.

The main garrison was established around a defensible ice-free anchorage, and bestowed the name Samhold (Norse for "Unity"), as all existing settlements on the island were considered sub-par, having been left without maintenance and electricity for 7 years. An aerodrome was built on the island's southern peninsular and became operational during 1695 AN.

The island was garrisoned, indeed largely populated, by personnel tasked with its defence. The UDF's lead formation on the island being the 1^st Regiment, 3^rd Brigade of the 81^st Landsfördelning, a formation specialising in boreal operations. The deployment is supported by a further 1,200-strong detachment from the Union Aerospace Corps, a 120-man detachment from the Elwmarine, and a 40-man troop from the 17^th Logistics Division.

Following the independence of Normark the island remained under the sovereignty of the Benacian Union, the successor to Elluenuueq, however it seemed that this fact remained obscured from the High Presidium of the Benacian Union in Chryse, which made no provision for the continued governance of the place.

By administrative oversight the garrison came to be forgotten following the reorganisation of the UDF into the Benacian Union Defence Force in 1703 AN. Without regular reinforcement, rations, nor pay, the garrison troops endured until late 1706 AN when, finally despairing of ever being relieved from their dismal posting, the survivors mutinied and slaughtered their officers. Thereafter, having burnt the structures of the island after raping, murdering, and cannibalising the small remnant native community, the mutineers - some eight-hundred and forty men in total - pledged themselves to form the United Free Company. Placing themselves aboard the single icebreaker and the provisioning boat which had been their sole means of trading with the settlements of the Hexarchy, the United Free Company departed the island to begin their new lives, to be spent plundering the settlements of the north-west Keltian Green.

The brief period of abandonment ended in late 1707 AN with the arrival of a cohort-strength detachment of the ESB-Holïurs-Afzælt tasked with restoring the abandoned runways and harbour facilities in the wake of the demise of Jaaland in that same year. This contingent was further reinforced by a party of forty field engineers from the Nordhær and working parties, each one-hundred and twenty men strong, from the ESB Reclamation Services (Keltia) and the ESB Voluntary Labour Organisation (Keltia) tasked with the actual work of rebuilding.

Samholdsøya is in the CMT+3 time zone (same time zone as Hurmu's Lake District)

Security

The island is presently garrisoned by the 1<supst Airport Security Cohort, under the command of Arthur Kempner, on behalf of the Boreal Air Bridge Support Services echelon of the ESB-Holïurs-Afzælt, supported by forty Nordhær field engineers and two hundred-and-forty construction workers. The two runways of the Varja F1. Flyflottilj airbase (lengths 2,590 m and 1,525 m respectively) would, if operational, facilitate the linkage of Hurmu, Jaaland, and Elijah's Rest.

Sovereign powers

• 1470–1483: Varja (for a while, Varja, including Samhold, was also under Baracãoan and Free Republic sovereignty)
• 1483–1487: The Green
• 1487–1489: Korhal
• 1489–1450: The Green
• 1490–1514: Karnali (island bore the name of Vethadipa)
• 1514–1529: The Green
• 1529–1543: Durntkinstan (then commonly called Jericho after its main city)
• 1543–1543: The Green
• 1543–1685: Stormark (island known as Quercy)
• 1685–1693: The Green
• 1693–1703: Elwynn
• 1703–1706: Rump Elwynn
• 1706–1709: Benacian Union
• 1710–pres: Hurmu (projected)