Goban

Goban is a large land mass near Iami.

History

Alliance Era

Nothing interesting happened on Goban during the Alliance era.

Long Night

During the Long Night, what few inhabitants remained on Goban left for greener shores or simply died out altogether. Lacking large-scale ocean travel, there was no reason to visit it. By the end of the Long Night, Goban was completely uninhabited.

New Day Era

{{#lsth:Ral'Parthia|Goban Straights Conflict}}

Goban Accord

In N.D. 480, the 99 year mining moratorium on Goban drew to a close. The Gudersnipe Foundation still had the island garrisoned at this point, and had since turned it into an important strategic center for naval operations - a concession they were unwilling to give up. The Ral, meanwhile, were still very much interested in mineral explotation of the region. And, somewhat more importantly, in denying it to the Trans-Draconic Federation (TDF).

In the intervening decades, Ral'Parthia had successfully petitioned for entrance into the New Day Alliance and become a full-fledged member in good standing. This gave them a strong position to lobby from with their own point: that they had colonized Goban and it should be returned to their control. This would mean, however, expelling the naval base constructed by the Gudernsipe Foundation.

Boothari, being a member of both the Alliance and the TDF began to renew its original claims on the land. However while Ral'Parthia was positioning itself as a strong member of the Alliance, Boothari's actions over the past 99 years had left them slapped with the label of "belligerent". A few very high-profile dragon-slayings in the 470s also had them in hot water with the Federation, leaving little support on the world stage.

The dragons, meanwhile, were interested only in the gold. Since that would need to be mined by humans, they weren't much concerned with exactly who dug the shiny metals out of the ground as long as they ended up owning it when all was said and done.

Right around when the moratorium was set to end, the three sides involved reached a compromise everyone was happy with. Goban consisted of three major land-masses, all three of which had to be garrisoned in order to support the Foundation's internment of the space. The Foundation would then surrender the two smallest bases and retain ownership of the third (the only one really used), while the Ralians would use the other two as the basis for their colonization efforts. They would be given total mining claims to the region with a few caveats.

While the dragons had few qualms about the loss of territory, the islands were still an important stop-off on their pilgrimage routes. Further, dragons have long memories, and had not forgotten the 62 human sailors killed during the conflict 99 years previously. Therefore the dragons agreed they would seed their claim on the island under two conditions: first, that a few areas of land be designated as "Dragon roosts" for use by passing pilgrims; and second that the Ralians would pay them a tribute of 11,160 pounds of pure gold. This equated to roughly 180 pounds, or the average weight of each sailor lost in the previous conflict. While the gold itself would be distributed among the flights, the value of the gold would then be paid out to the descendants of the lost sailors.

There were additional caveats, which would become known as The Goban Accords:

• Dragons were to have "first claim" mined from the region; meaning that it would be sold at market value immediately to the TDF. There is no time limit on this condition.
• The Gudersnipe Foundation would have "first claim" on all other minerals mined for a period of 99 years.
• Boothari would receive a 34.8926% stake in any petrochemical exploitations for a period of 99 years.

The Accords worked well for most of the interested parties. The dragons got the gold. The Ralians, who were primarily interested in the other minerals, would have access to them and ready markets (though originally they planned to exploit the resources for domestic use). The only ones unhappy were the Boothari, whose stake in the petrochemicals had been very carefully calculated to ensure they could not turn a profit. The Ral further refused to exploit any of those resources, thus making the situation even worse for Boothari.