Ratafrë

Miylex Roisersis (d. 1521), a ratafrë from Namija

Ratafran (from Trellinese ratafrë "discoverer"; ratafran is the plural) is a term referring to the adventurers and military scientists that came out of the Ethlorek states between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. They mostly originated from Cadenza and Kur'zhet, which employed the services of numerous ratafran in their rivalry and race to establish new colonies, but were also sponsored by the Principality of Namija and other states around the Sea of Velar.

Origins

The ratafran began to develop as a distinct culture of explorers in the aftermath of the Azmiri Crusade, when Cadenza found itself bereft of overseas holdings and increasingly reliant on its old trade links to the mainland. By the early fifteenth century their role lay chiefly in finding new routes and ports, and both Cadenzans and Kur'zheti raced to acquire new harbours across southern Astyria. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, ratafran functioned as mercenaries, regularly employed by their national governments to lead expeditions with plausible deniability. A number of commanders became notable for the military conflicts they helped to instigate - for example, Teodos Molatiri, who initiated the War of the Magpie and the Dragon. In the seventeenth century, the Cadenzan government introduced regulations on the operation of mercenary companies, requiring each to be licensed and to operate with a recognisable and unique emblem.

In medieval Namija, parties of armed adventurers were commonplace in the province's heavily forested interior, where minor tribes might ambush travellers or attack isolated settlements. As the principality's grip on city-states of the Andamonian coast began to deteriorate from the twelfth century, such adventurers were commissioned to lead raiding parties against Andamonian imperial camps and towns. When Namija turned its attention once more to Andamonia early in the sixteenth century, it was again the ratafran, now armed with gunpowder, who were sent to explore. They were chiefly interested in discovery and the expansion of scientific learning, as well as the opportunity for honour and prestige, but they unavoidably came into conflict with the native population who captured their guns and used them to begin a civil war within Andamonia.

Notable ratafran

• Gerebal Jilego, 15th-century Kur'zheti mariner
• Miylex Roisersis, 16th-century leader of a Namijan expedition to Andamonia
• Teodos Molatiri, later the earl of Canve, began his military career as a ratafrë
• Vesrik Taipor, 17th-century commander who served in Monsa