Pool

Pool is a Lovian Village on Discovery Island in the State of Sylvania, famed for it's history as a key trade port. The settlement lies on the north west coast of the island, between the two rivers Saven to the north and the smaller Fey to the south. The Saven floodplanes encompass the northern village borders and the plains there are known for their fertility. Rain is common in Pool during all seasons but summer, and due to a lack of any hills or land to act as protection from wind the settlement experiences high windspeeds all year round. Pool is neighbored to the south by the settlement of Shepby and across the Discovery Bay by Charleston.

Pool was founded by an expidition paid for by a rich Englishman who renamed himself Andrew Pool. The aim of this expidition was to set up a profitable trade port within Lovia. Pool was a major trade power in the late 1890s to mid 1920s, however it's power fell as the rise of criminal cartels occured over the period of prohibition, after the repeal of prohibition Pool went into isolation and it's trade power dropped even further. However during the famine period, it re-ermerged and started expanding again, using the weak economic climate and it's reserves to maintain growth. In current times Pool is still an important trade port and the Pool Trading Company is still vital to internal and external trade.

Politics

Economy

Eytmology
The settlement is named for the streams nearby, as stream in certain old local dialects is pul or poole. Early settlers were British and many came from English port cities such as Blackpool and Poole. When the settlement was first settled, early letters from the inhabitants to relatives or associates reveal that the early spellings of the name varied. The name was spelt in the following ways at least more than once: The name "Pool" was officially used for the first time in 1905, in the Declaration of the Founding of Lovian States during the statement on the lands that compromise Sylvania:
 * Pol
 * Pul
 * Poole
 * Pule
 * Discovery Isle, along with its settlements of Pool and Shepby are hereby granted unto Sylvania, by and with the consent of the Pool Trading Company whom shall be recognised to own the metioned lands and settlements thereforth.

This name was suspected to also be used before the signing of the declaration in the official documents of the Pool Trading Company, however due to the company's status as a private company unless it chooses to release the documents it cannot be proven although in inquiries spokespersons have often said that the name of "Pool" has always remained the same since the settling, suggesting the theory may be correct.

Despite these official usages of the name, alternate names have appeared since it was settled. Letters reveal it was also called "the port" and "the new-port" in very early history, "Savenston" was another name used by some long into the early 1920s. However more interestingly a dutch name of "Westerhaven" appears but only in letters the 1890s, these letters suggest that at the time the settlers were still divided over the name although this seems to have largely been cleared up by the declaration in 1905. Other possible alternate names appear once or twice however most if not all died out after 1905.

Seal and Flag
The seal of Pool is known for it's complexity, and while there have been suggestions to change it, it has remained the same. This is because the locals consider that the current seal holds great cultural value as it is based off one of the oldest maps in Lovia, showing the original plan to start a settlement where Pool now resides. The seal depicts Discovery Isle with a compass roughly over the area where Pool is now, there are also dotted lines showing proposed trade routes to Charleston, Hurbanova, Newhaven, Noble City and the north. Along with this there is writing, "Pool founded 1892" is to the top left of the compass and the motto of Pool "The sea is our home" is just below the compass. The map it is based off of can be found in the local village hall were it is preserved, there have been requests for it to be moved to a museum in Noble City however locals are staunchly against the idea.

Due to the complexity of the seal, an alternative is used for official documents. The simplified seal is simply a restored version of the seal from the map with "Pool" above it. This seal can be found on all local government official documents and normally any state government official documents relating to Pool.

The flag of Pool is one of the oldest flags in Lovia, it was originally flown in 1895 on the opening of the harbour and docks from the harbour flagpole. While there are theories behind who designed the flag, the creator remains unknown however it is known that in 1894 Andrew Pool paid a large sum of money for the "design and manufacture of a bespoke decorative piece". The flag itself is a horizontal bicolour of red and blue with a white compass point based at the hoist and extending into the fly but not touching the edge. The flag is flown by most of the residents and can be found outside the village hall.

British Colonisation
The British settlers who established the first permanent settlement on Discovery Isle faced various problems during the colonisation of the island. A rich Englishman funded the beginning of construction of a harbour and docks using modern ships and tools for the time to make the constructions a reality in a short three years and also moved to the isle eventually renaming himself Andrew Pool, keeping his first name but changing his last. Amongst this colonisation, Pool benefited most, having gained a harbour and dock when most larger settlements had neither, these constructions would mark the beginning of an era for Pool however colonisation continued on into the 1900s.

Planning to establish the settlement began in Noble City in the late 1880s, when Andrew Pool (who went by a different name at the time) was gathering information on the Lovian archipelago. He took a small voyage in 1889 to Discovery Isle and camped there for some time before deciding that he would set up the settlment there. The next three years prior to the start of the voyage were spent planning and organising an expidition as well as gathering people to colonise the Isle. In late 1891 the expedition gathered in Charleston and prepared to set off in early spring next year so they may start farming immediately.

On 16th January 1892, the first expedition launched. Upon landing on the island they began establishing a settlement, using local resources. Quickly they started seeding farms, working long hours to ensure that they would be able to have a fruitful harvest and sustain the settlement until the second round of settlers could arrive to make their plans more permanent. However short of the harvest problems emerged after it was discovered supplies were running low. The leader of the expedition went north with some men and came to the river that he would name Saven due to the bounty of fish he managed to gather from it. The settlement managed to endure until the harvest and the coming of the second expedition.

...

When the negotiations for the signing of the Declaration of the Founding of Lovian States began, the locals agreed that a vote would be held on who would represent them at the meeting. The then owner of the Pool Trading Company, Andrew Pool won by a large margin and proceeded to take a small team to the meeting. While they were there they managed to negotiate a settlement that would give the ownership of all of Discovery isle (which was still largely uncolonised) to the corporation in return for stopping resistance to other various clauses. The men then stayed in Noble City for a while, leaving only a week before the election of the Governor Bruce Kennedy having negotiated with him to largely allow Discovery Isle to rule itself.

Trade Power
The Trade Power Era was marked by the opening of the harbour and docks in Pool in 1895, from which year prearranged trade deals created a quick influx of wealth to the settlement and quickly the Company brought out cargo hauling companies with the acquired wealth and soon owned a majority of the trade ships in Lovia's waters. This monopoly turned quickly into a bargaining chip that while rarely used by the Company became a reason for many regional leaders to seek favour with the Company, and after the founding of the States was used by various Sylvanian governments to exert influence and protect Sylvanian interests.

Due to the independence granted by the Governor in 1905 Pool didn't experience problems that Peace Island did in the early years of the State as the Company in conjunction with local government quickly adapted public life to being part of Lovia although Pool did face problems from outside of the community. Throughout the Trade Power Era rural workers maintained a different agenda to the more Company orientated workers in Pool and provided a palpable threat due to the lack of a Police Force on the island to the safety of the settlement several times. While forces were occasionally hired from the Peace Island Police Forces, they were often not used for much but defence as the local government favoured offers of money to coerce dissenters during the times of conflict.

Early years of the harbour and dock led to many traders and travellers using the island as a stopping point before travelling to their final destination within Lovia, ships from Collinia, Bostaat, Stephen's Land and The Pale used it as a safe haven especially during the rising period of conflict running up to and during the Short War. In 1901 on the outbreak of conflict, they were approached both by diplomats of the Three Pact Alliance and of Bostaat, however Andrew Pool led them both on a goose chase of gaining his favour in various humorous and humiliating ways. Eventually in 1902 half way through the conflict, he declared that Discovery Isle would not join the conflict but align itself with Bostaat however would continue trade as normal with both sides of the conflict, effectively staying completely neutral.

After Bostaat lost the conflict in early 1903 to the Three Pact Alliance, Discovery Isle feared repercussion from Collinia in particular due to the heavy demands Collinia was laying before Bostaat. However the lack of conclusion of the negotiations due to disagreement, quiet rearmament in Bostaat and the rise of dissent in Collinia against what the large Slovak and Polish underclass considered the ruling American class (hoping to overthrow them as the people of Bostaat did and establish their own independent state) provided the perfect protection from any possible use of force. These disruptions went on until the meeting to draw up the Declaration of the Founding of Lovian States, during that time the Pool Trading Company reduced activity in Collinia and looked to the island of Kings and the Northern Territory for expansion.

After the meeting that would eventually unite Lovia was declared by the King, almost every Pudlian was adamant that someone from Pool should go. Andrew Pool was nominated by a pubic vote and set off aiming to defend Pools lucrative trade powers. When the negotiations over the position of Discovery Isle began at the meeting, Andrew Pool faced heavy opposition to his ideas from Collinian government representatives as well as various economic liberals however found support from his trade allies and the Slovakian and Polish representatives (whom he in turn supported against the Americans ruling Collinia). Andrew argued for a long time on various points, and for a time he suggested Discovery Isle was deserving of it's own State. In the end though he had to compromise but managed to assure that the Pool Trading Company kept it's key influence over Discovery Isle and gained renewals of it's trade deals with respective authorities that took over the settlements it had signed contracts with.

After returning, major reorganisation occured and the townspeople were informed of the content of the declaration. In 1906 the settlement held elections for Mayor with Andrew Pool easily winning a majority, he ruled the island competently as both owner of the Company and Mayor however was forced in 1909 to grant the rural workers across the island the lands they farmed to them as they refused for three years to give their produce to the Company and organised themselves to defend against any use of force, after the grant they began working with the Company again. Further in 1910 he had to concede more though as the citizens of Shepby used the rural opposition to the Company against Pool to force Andrew to allow them to maintain their own Mayorship.

Pool continued to prosper as a major trade port into the 1910s. After the establishment of democratically elected councils in 1911 by the States, Pool and Shepby were offered to elect a representative jointly, Andrew Pool was again elected to represent Discovery Isle (he was 47 by now). Holding almost a monopoly on the political power of Discovery Isle he managed to obtain many grants for the development of the area and due to his influence as the owner of the Pool Trading Company he was able to convince others in the council to work with him. During the 1914 meeting of the council was announced, most Pudlians favoured a nuetral position in respect to the great war. The war period brought an influx of extra settlers as many Pudlains paid for their relatives to move to Lovia for their own safety, causing the population to leap from 60 to 200 over 4 years, while the population fell slightly afterwards to 150, most had decided to stay rather than return to europe.

The larger workforce and amount of children led to an increase in public works, the first school was started from a large unused house and a doctor's surgery was opened from another unused house to help the locals stay healthy and handle childbirth.