In the late 17th century Madagascar was a major "piracy stronghold" in the east while the native population were fighting among themselves to control the island. And as the French revolution concluded, Luis XVIII had escaped from his imprisonment after being spared from his father's execution and spent years hiding in the Irish countryside. in 1792 rumour bagan to spread that the Knights Templar, who were tasked with detaining the prince in the Square du Temple located him and seeked to arrest Luis to force him into fighting in the war of the first coalition.

Not wanting to face his own arrest and incorporation into the French army, the slippery prince used the last of his money to land a deal with the famous John Bowen to hitch a ride to his "pirate utopia" of Fort Maratan.  Luis XVIII then changed his name and began a successful business in trading and piracy and quickly amassed a great fortune grand enough for him to own a pet penguin, whom he fed fresh caught trout and dressed in elaborate clothing on leashed walks across the port city every morning. Luis was evidently doing fine in Madagascar, but when he learned that Napoleon's French empire was falling, and that the British mediating the chaos had intended on reinstating the initial French monarchy (Bourbon Restoration), the prince began to ruminate about being the king of a grand French kingdom as he did as a small child before such hope was ruthlessly pried from his young hands.

Prince Luis XVIII left a his small empire to seek his throne. A large crowd of people from all over (the now larger) Fort Maratan colony assembled to watch the prince as he took his suitcase in one hand, and his penguin's leash in another to board a grand wooden vessel and make the journey to the French heartlands and claim his power. However, Prince Luis XVIII never arrived in France and was never heard from again. There is no explanation the the disappearance of Luis XVIII and it was decided that France would be placed under the control of an oligarchy of select French and British representatives, and Fort Maratan would remain under the control of a democratically elected Consul inspired by the old Roman democracy.

Attribution: The flag of The Consulate is an edited version of the one available on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merina_Kingdom#/media/File:Flag_of_the_Merina_Kingdom.svg and was created by Samhanin