Strait of Soluga

Strait of Soluga

Stretto di Soluga
The Strait of Soluga, as marked on a pre-Calming map.
Location	Buglio, La Rossa
Type	Strait
Max. length	51.7 kilometers
Min. width	1,746 meters

The Strait of Soluga (Ros. Stretto di Soluga) is a naval passage between the Rossan city-province of Buglio and the island of Soluga, today known as Lighthouse Island. Prior to the Calming, it served as a major channel for travel and trade across the island of La Rossa, being the shortest navigable passage for movement across the east coast of the island. Today, the strait has lost most of its previous notoriety, as the island of Soluga has been cleared from the Storm, allowing for passage around it, useful particularly for larger vessels. Although the strait is still used by commercial ships, regulations have allowed only ships below a certain size use it, as the coast along the strait has been turned into beach resorts.

History

The island of Soluga has likely been known and recognized since the 2700s TT, when signs of settlement first emerged around what is today known as Buglio. A moderately large mass of shale and rocks, strong weather brought on by the Storm disallowed permanent settlements be constructed on the island, with most of it remaining unexplored until after the Second Calming. It would later become known that Deysachin was knowledgable of the island in the past, prior to the Calming. Its name derives from the Rossan solo, meaning alone or solitary, due to the harsh conditions that led to it staying abandoned throughout most of its history.

Despite its small size, the island's position at the outer edges of the Storm effectively constrained passage through the waters into the small sliver of water between the island and the mainland, as the Storm itself was deemed impossible to traverse. As a result, the Strait of Soluga has served as a major trade route since the 1400s TT, as advances in shipbuilding led to the rise of long-distance trade around the island of La Rossa. Constanzo Miglio, the father of Padeno, would embark on journeys through the strait in the 1300s, hastening travel between the south and the north of the island. The rising importance of the strait as a means of passage gave immense negotiating power to Buglio, the city-state that hosted it. Owing to the lack of viable alternatives (the only other ways to reach the southern coast without passing through the strait were going around the western coast, or through the Storm itself), Buglio would leverage its hold over the waters to ensure favorable trade deals with its immediate neighbors, especially following the Silver Rush of 1296 TT, when the city-state avoided most conflict by threatening blockades, most notably that of wheat and grain.

The Rossan unification in 1044 TT led to a change of the legal status of the strait, as Buglio, along with the other city-states, had mutually agreed upon giving up such forms of leverage, in order to ensure free trade among the cities. While the city-states, now renamed to city-provinces to reflect their established areas of control, remained mostly sovereign authorities over their own land, the coastal waters of the island had effectively been converted to common ownership, with no city-province alone being allowed to exercise power to prohibit the passage of men and goods through their waters. Such a status largely remains in place to this day, following a centuries-long process towards the centralization of the state.

The geography of La Rossa. Notice the narrow passage on the east coast of the island.

Following the Calming, and especially the Rossan Opening in 41 PC, the Republic of La Rossa would come into contact with the other nations of the Attu Archipelago. The clearing of the Storm would allow for passage around the island of Soluga, leading to alternative routes becoming increasingly viable. The construction of modern naval vessels would additionally constrain passage through the strait, as larger ships would often find difficulty in travelling through the strait, due to its shallow waters and relatively narrow navigable sections. Becoming largely vestigial, laws would be enacted to allow only for ships below the regulatory size limit to pass the strait, with most of the strait's coastline eventually being zoned into public beaches and vacation resorts. Today, most trade happens around Soluga, now named Lighthouse Island.

Features

The Strait of Soluga is a naval passage on the eastern coast of La Rossa, measuring a length of 51.7 kilometers, connecting the southern coast of the island with the Gulf of Mineria. Cold weather had characterized the passage prior to the Calming, as the rocks of the island of Soluga weren't able to shield the waters from the full brunt of the Storm. However, following changes in climate brought by the sudden calm, the weather remains temperate all year. Despite the strait's absolute width measuring 1,746 meters, the shallow waters around the coasts of the islands of La Rossa and Soluga heavily constrain passage for larger ships, which had historically oftentimes crashed into the submerged rocks and protrusions, especially during low tide. As a result, smaller and medium-sized ships had been favored throughout most of history. The two coastlines that define the strait heavily differ, with grassy plains and sandy shores of the mainland greatly contrasting with the sediment and shale on the Solugan side.