Thomas Archipelago
The Thomas Archipelago is a chain of Islands located far off the northwest coast of the Main Continent. The Archipelago has a humid climate and is mostly covered with dense forests. The Thomas Archipelago is home to the countries of Odresh and TChad along with a Wheatistani colony and the Alexandrian colony of Solitude. There is also an unclaimed area of the Archipelago, which the nations of the islands have agreed to leave untouched in order to preserve the nature of the islands.
History
Although the Thomas Archipelago has existed for many months, it was not officially claimed until after the Alexandrian Expedition, when it was mapped by Thomas the Cartographer (TWINKIEminer).
Creation
The Thomas Archipelago was originally released by the admins on July 1st, 2019. Then known just as the Expansion Island, the archipelago was unmapped for many months, before the Alexandrian Expedition.
Pre-Thomas Settlements
Before Dr. Thomas Winkie Miner formally mapped the Archipelago there was a few scattered settlements across the islands, it is doubtful these settlements had more than one person with most only having a single house. It seems all of these settlements were abandoned well before TWINKIEminer mapped the Archipelago. (More info needed)
The Alexandrian Expedition
On March 27th, 2020, Dr. Thomas Winkie Miner (TWINKIEminer) set off on an expedition to Archipelago.[1] He mapped all of the Islands in the Archipelago and released the map, along with an official Alexandrian claim on the next edition of his world maps. He also made a Geography Report which he released along with his new map and named this new island chain the Thomas Archipelago.[2]
The Scramble for the Archipelago
Following the release of the new map, many nations scrambled to colonize the archipelago. Alexandria was the first ones to officially submit their claimed colony, and they were followed shortly by the new nations of Odresh and Tchad along with Wheatistan's colony. Later on, Norlund and Mount Augusta also created colonies of their own.
Alexandria Dispute
Seeing the scarcity of overall land, and seeing that they had developed almost everything in their territory, the people of Tchad were annoyed that Alexandria had done little to develop what was the largest claim on the archipelago. This came to a head when it was discovered that Jaydon, the leader of the Alexandrian colony, had put their land up for sale in the main CivRealms discord. A dispute broke out on discord as Tchad argued that Alexandria was simply trying to profit from the islands as much as possible, and were angry that they hadn't consulted the Archipelago Union beforehand. Alexandria claimed that they recognized that they should reduce their total land size, and said that by selling their land they would be doing just that. To settle this, a meeting was planned for later that day, in which much more organized explanations took place. A new plan was quickly developed, with Alexandria ceding about half of their land to be a joint claim, while giving a smaller portion directly to Tchad.
Geography
The Thomas Archipelago consists of two major islands and five minor islands. It is heavily forested with a few relatively small snow-capped mountain ranges along the sides of the main islands and in the center of some of the minor islands.