Viceroyalty of Etrancoast

The Viceroyalty of Etrancoast was the civilian occupation regime of Etrandish-occupied former-Hulra.

Food Shortages
The first three decades of the Viceroyalty's existence, food shortages plagued the lives of the locals, which led a cycle of problems: food shortages causing unrest, making the presence of the Etrandish army necessary to quell potential revolts, which in turn necessitated the diversion of food rations from the civilian population to the army, perpetuating the scarcity of food for the civilian population of Etrancoast.

In fact, in 274-275, Etrancoast was described as going through a "famine". Even though few - if any - people died of starvation, the shortage of "normal" food forced much of the population to temporarily adopt unorthodox diets: urban residents turned to eating turnip soup, "wood-bread" (historians still struggle to find out what it was), "bread" made out of bonemeal, which in turn often came from the rats the starving citizens were forced to eat. Rural people had it only slightly better: most people went out into the forests to either forage or hunt. In the most extreme cases, people ate frogs, snails, slugs, chicory and dandelion roots.

Deaths caused by these new unorthodox meals were relatively frequent, while deaths of actual starvation were very rare, if happened at all to begin with. By 312, when the "military government" was replaced by a "civilian government" the relief effort by Etrand's government has managed to prevent the outbreak of a true famine, and as 38 years have passed since 274, Etrancoast has managed to rebuild its infrastructure well enough to produce enough food for the bulk of the population. By the 320's, everyone but the poorest have returned to what can be called a "normal" diet that excludes unorthodox dishes like rats and slugs.

Food shortages would momentarily return however, for almost a decade in the 380's, and again in a much more severe form during the Etrancoasti Famine of 411 - the last famine in Etrancoast's history that actually claimed human lives.

Political and Religious Repression
Life under the Viceroyalty was a rather troubled one for worshippers of the Old Gods, to say the least - following the official establishment of the viceroyalty, the occupiers systematically made any and all public practice of the old faith illegal, step-by-step, while calling in introducing Titanist missionaries, building Titanist churches using forced labour, sometimes even using threats of violence to force people to attend church service. In an attempt to sweeten the deal - possibly after having taken notice of the resistance to conversion attempts - the Church would organize charities and offer wheat to worshipers, bribing potential converts with food.

Despite the ban on any public practice of Paganism (as well as the destruction of pagan temples and killing of pagan priests), initially, private worship was de facto tolerated. Only later, during the late 4th century, did the Inquisition begin going after suspected crypto-pagans, hunting them down ruthlessly and destroying their sanctuaries.

Prior to the Etrandish occupation, the Hulrans had a clan system, without much of a formal aristocracy: the Etrandish occupation changed that. Tribal chieftains, as well as anyone with sufficient amount of land would be promoted nobility if willing to convert to the new faith (no matter how sincere were the conversions), utterly disenfranchised and dispossessed if they refused. Any rural people who weren't part of these deals - or were dispossessed - would suddenly find themselves enserfed, becoming taxpaying subjects of their new overlords, who would levy high taxes out of obligation to financially support the military occupation. Needless to say, these policies birthed a lot of resentment, but the presence of the Etrandish army led to the suppression of any potential peasant revolts.

Economic life
The widespread destruction caused by the Etrandish occupation led to the near-complete destruction of Etrancoast's sophisticated urban economy - Waterburcht and Yrvháven ceased being important port cities for possibly a century (even when they rose to prominance again, they would never rival Copperport), there was an exodus from the cities to the countryside, and overall, the economy of the country regressed to a more primitive state centered around agriculture, rather than trade and artisan industries like before.

After 312, Etrandish burghers - as well as some High Elves from Froturn began to move into the aforementioned two cities, and soon enough, they started attracting peasants back into the cities, reviving urban life. Despite this, however, Etrancoast remained an economical backwater, a pathetic shadow of its former, pre-invasion self, at least economically. The scars left by the occupation are still felt, even over five centuries later.