Prologue
AN: Alrighty this is is my first fan fic and first story submitted to be seen by anyone outside of my professors so critique is welcome particularly for the OCs. This will be a slow burn on all fronts but it will pick up so bare with me. I already this whole thing mapped out and its gunna be loooong.
I was originally going to try and work this backstory in to the first couple of chapters bit by bit but I couldn't figure out how to do so without throwing the pacing off, that's why this feels a bit weird. I'm still really not happy with this but I can't think of how to fix it for now. The rest of the story with be much better.
Five years ago
It was supposed to be the beginning of end and it was, just not in the way everyone expected. The war had raged on for twenty one long years, started by the father of current king of the Southern Isles and the grandfather of the Northern Isles' king for petty no longer relevant to those actually fighting. Both sides had invested to much and built up far too much ill will to simply stop when the thrones changed hands and so the new monarchs inherited the war with their kingdoms. Neighboring kingdoms preferred to stay neutral so as to keep their trade options open and to avoid angering one of the two of the greatest naval powers in the region. Thus the war dragged on sometimes slacking or peaking but neither side could gain an advantage. All that changed a year ago when Oceania, the only kingdom in the area with a navy on par with the two warring nations, inexplicably joined the war on the side of the North after two decades of adamant neutrality. Both the Northern and Southern Isles had desperately tried to win their allegiance for as long as the war had been going on offering everything from marriages to territory but the massive island nation have steadfastly refused all offers. To this day no one knows what changed and the theories range from scandalous to fantastical. Regardless of reasons the new alliance pushed back the Southern Fleet over the course of a year. The entire navy of the Southern Isles was gathered at Isle Berdag, the northern most island in the archipelago and the only thing standing in the way of a full invasion. Now the combined fleets of Oceania and the Northern Isles closed in headed by Crown Prince Marko Kesuk of the Northern Isles closed in for what was thought by all to be the last stand of the South. Unbeknownst to all however, the Southern Isles had added a new weapon to their arsenal, or rather an old one long thought lost to time. Thus instead of sailing to glory and victory the allied fleet instead found death in the form of liquid fire. Only the swift thinking of Prince Marko saved them from total destruction and they managed to escape with two thirds of their forces intact. The majority of the Southern Military leaders, headed by their Grand Admiral Prince Ivan, favored pressing their advantage and burning their way to the capitol of the Northern Isles, but King Fredrik listened to the advice of his eldest son, Crown Prince Gustav, and used the event forge a peace treaty with favorable conditions for the South. The allied leaders, with the carnage of Isle Berdag still fresh in their minds, readily signed finally putting an end to the war and starting an uneasy peace.
AN: The weapon is greek fire, or rather a mythicly more potent version of it. However I I'm doing away with all pretense of setting this in the real world to avoid dealing with geography issues and as such will not be referencing any real world countries. So in this story it will be called liquid fire, which was what it was actually called during the period it was used or Iago's Fire after its creator in this story. For those of you who do not know, greek fire was essentially old timey napalm in that it burned insanely hot and was capable of burning even while floating on water, you can imagine how devastating this would be in a time when all ships were made out of wood. It was so effective that during the crusades its formula was considered a gift from god and people actually thought if someone betrayed it to the enemy you would be struck down the next time you got near a church.