Western Continents

The Western Continents is an arostrian name for the two continents of Valernia and Martinia, that are located west of Dovania.

Discovery
Evidence of lands to the west was first discovered in 389, when a merchant named Ellert Dunley was blown off his course in a storm while sailing to Amdroff, accidentally stumbling upon an island to the west which he later named Dunley, after himself.

After his initial discovery, Dunley set up a small colony and a naval base on the island. In the three years after, he discovered two separate groups of islands even further west. Dunley was preparing yet another expedition when he died of a stroke in 392. His second-in-command, Aron Warricson, took over the expeditions but was lacking in funds. He put forth theories to Erinian trading companies that if there were enough islands out west, it might give them a new trade route to the eastern realms and a backdoor to the lucrative luxuries of the far-eastern Panei archipelago. Although his idea seemed far-fetched, he managed to convince one of the largest trading companies in Erinia, Giles-An Hanes Brokers, to fund the expedition in the promise that they would get a monopoly on the new trade route.

Warricson set out in his expedition in 394, and for many weeks found nothing but ocean out west. When his food stores were two days from running out, a member of his crew spotted land. Warricson landed in what he initially thought was the biggest western island yet, but in reality he had landed on the southern tip of a new continent. The land was ripe with exotic fruit and animals and had no sign of human habitation. Warricson was ecstatic with this discovery, and quickly sailed back to Erinia, arriving in 395. Warricson told Giles-An Hanes of his discovery, who ordered him to keep quiet about it but news soon spread throughout the city, likely spread by members of Warricson's crew.

Warricson planned for another expedition the year after, but in 396, intense political turmoil escalated into an 8-year civil war. All companies in Erinia were put under strict control and all of Warricson's funding requests were denied. When the war was over, Joseph Draven stood victorious and completely transformed the government of Erinia, effectively abolished the Three Republics and founding the Commonwealth of Erinia. This new government was considerably more centralized than the republic, and so all privately owned companies were put under the heavy regulation of the state. The merchant class was severely restricted, and Warricson's dreams of exploration to the west were destroyed. He died of natural causes in 411.

The period after 396 was but a brief hiatus of the western explorations. In 427, Grand Protector Joseph Draven, posthumously styled "Kaysar", died and was succeeded by the lawyer and statesman Wallace Imdrinn. In the years following his Warricson's death, his expeditions had garnered some minor fame, but no new expeditions were sent as the resources of the state were stretched in building up infrastructure and wars in the east. But the new Grand Protector had heard of Warricson's curious expedition and decided that it had