Iryna has existed as a city and as a culture for over 700 years, growing in size and sophistication to become the leading population center of the Corvidan Archipelago.
Little verifiable information exists about Iryna's beginnings. It is fairly certain that Iryna was founded by groups of sailors who desired a stopping-point on journeys between the recently-founded island of Oxana and further unexplored islets. Whether Iryna was a fully-established settlement in the 300s or simply a trading post for itinerant merchants and other travelers is unclear. Iryna lacked the abundant natural resources or arable land of other islands; its main selling points were the relatively calm waters that surrounded it and a bay where ships could harbor safely.
Many myths exist in Irynian culture to explain the city's early history, although few agree on even basic details. Most legends prominently feature a figure known as Irynaeus. Irynaeus is variably described as the first sailor to land on Iryna or a mysterious figure who was already living on Iryna when the first sailors arrived, a decisive leader or an impartial mediator, a powerful mage or entirely magic-less, among other tall tales. It is also unclear if Irynaeus was named after the city or vice versa. All stories agree that at some point, Irynaeus disappeared without a trace, although no reason is given as to why. Expert consensus is that Irynaeus most likely never existed in the first place, and if they did, their role in the city's history has been greatly exaggerated.
By the early 500s, Iryna had grown enough in size and renown to attract the attention of Oxana. Then the dominant power in the Corvidan Archipelago, Oxana nobles were hungry for more resources and serfs whose labor they could exploit. Iryna seemed to them like an ambitious but attainable target, and Oxana warriors started encroaching on Irynian waters, hoping to intimidate Iryna into surrendering with minimal resistance. Iryna made the decision to confront Oxana head-on, with war being waged in 522 that resulted in a surprising defeat for Oxana. Iryna's success has been attributed to the unusual prevalence of magical ability in its residents, which gave Irynian mages the advantage in pure arcane power, and their meritocratic organizational structure, which prevented incompetent generals being placed in charge of important battles purely on the basis of their family's status. Oxana was forced to broker a compromise, and Iryna did not wish to prolong the hostilities; both had lost many residents and did not wish to lose more. Leaders from both islands decided that future conflicts would be resolved through trial by champion rather than total war. Each island would nominate a Champion, their nation's best warrior, to represent their entire island. Champions continued to be politically and socially influential figures throughout Irynian and Oxanan history, and the war which resulted in their establishment became known as the Champions War in their honor.
Iryna had emerged from the Champions War in an unexpectedly strong position, but it still had numerous challenges to overcome. Firstly, many of its residents had been injured, displaced, or even killed. Secondly, many buildings and other infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed. However, Irynian residents had banded together with the common interest of driving out their invaders, creating a new sense of social unity and trust in the city's government to promote its residents' welfare. The government took advantage of this optimistic era to consolidate power and coordinate rebuilding efforts. Many of the infrastructural projects of the late 500s to early 600s were intended to prevent future attacks on the city, such as the tall border walls that encircle Iryna's coast. The Governor's Mansion was also constructed to house the Governor and Champion, which was extensively renovated over the centuries but still stands as Iryna's oldest historic building.
Irynian society grew increasingly sophisticated and stratified as the city's population rebounded after its wartime lows. Unregulated construction made Irynian streets increasingly crowded, with shortage of land and excess of residents becoming an increasingly urgent problem. A growing elite class of families who claimed to trace their roots back to Iryna's founding had coalesced in the Old Iryna district, and they increasingly overtook all positions of political power. The most influential among them was the Kor'onen family, whose matriarch had been Iryna's first Champion, nominated in 522 at the end of the war. Kyveli and Korrine Kor'onen coordinated efforts to firmly entrench their family legacy by remaking the city according to their grand design. Without any resistance, the Kor'onen sisters destroyed entire neighborhoods with impunity, displacing thousands of Irynians to make room for an elevated platform which would double the amount of usable land in Iryna. At one point, over one quarter of Irynian workers were employed in some aspect of the platform's construction; as a result, once the project was complete, a significant percentage of Irynians were suddenly unemployed. Economic instability followed for several decades, causing backlash against the Kor'onen's autocratic leadership style. Later in the 900s, more conservative leaders slowly recovered the Irynian economy by investing in a broader selection of industries that could provide more long-term employment for Irynians.
Despite the massive scale of construction instigated by the Kor'onen sisters, merely increasing the amount of buildings in the city did not solve the root cause of population increase that led to housing shortages in the first place. As such, a mere 100 years after the platform's completion, Iryna was once again suffering from the consequences of overcrowding, with homelessness and income inequality on the rise. However, the economic situation was very different than it had been a few decades prior, due to the emergence of the magitech industry. Among the projects funded by government investment in the mid-900s was IMI research investigating potential applications for the storage and transfer of arcane energy. This simple technology proved capable of powering advanced magitech devices that revolutionized Irynian life, with the subway train system and the IrynaNet proving the most impactful. Magitech allowed for Irynians from all over the city to exchange ideas and coordinate efforts to improve their city; the Old Irynian families became increasingly culturally obsolete in the wake of new innovators and leaders. The successive elections of Reiner and Neeka, two Governors whose families had not previously held any kind of public office, proved to the entire Corvidan Archipelago that Iryna still believed in the meritocratic ideals that had won them the Champions War. Although Reiner largely maintained the political status quo for personal reasons, Neeka successfully ran on a platform of restructuring the Irynian city government into an entity that better served the changing needs of the Irynian people. She and Champion Madeleine, a formerly-homeless Irynian, pledged to make housing their top priority.