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1194

The Fall of Wannonia

The Great Blight was parasitic to the flaxweed crop, consuming each plant's water and nutrients, and in turn, starving and drying it. Eventually, the plant would die. And during the entire process, the fungus, when having reached full maturity, would release floating spores, which would spread to other plants. It was by this that farmers in the Southern and Western regions of Wannonia lost entire flaxweed crops, leading to lack of food and income. They attempted to rid the invasive species via burning. But very soon, educated educated Wannonian scholars learned that setting infected crops ablaze actually helped Blight spores to spread further, as the fungus released large amounts of them as part of a survival tactic.

Emperor Clastye II ordered the Blighted fields to be walled in and filled with water, as it was found that the fungus, in the mature stage, could not survive underwater. Furthermore, he imposed heavy punishments, including the death penalty in some cases, for burning infected crops, and set territorial quarantines for those in the infected regions, fearing that farmers would carry spores on their clothes and boots into non-Blighted regions. In the late 1160s, with the resulting hardship, the farmers rebelled against the Emperor's orders, to which the Emperor responded with measures of martial law. As water was drawn from some of the canals to combat the Blight, such canals were shut down. Nevertheless, Clastye II's measures kept the Blight under fair control to the South and West.

But then, in 1169, the Great Drought hit. Major canal networks dried up, stifling commerce and trade, and leading Imperial authorities to force water from farmers in order to contain the Blight, which began to grow out of control in the ideal dry climate. Very soon, Wannonia saw widespread flaxweed crop failures. And wildfires, caused by dry lightning, helped the Blight spores to spread even more quickly. This plunged Wannonia into a state of crisis, as these wildfires destroyed even more crops. The resulting food and flaxweed shortages helped to drive up prices in the marketplace; and before long, Emperor Clastye II imposed rations. As the Blight grew to consume nearly seventy percent of what was once arable land for flaxweed, the Emperor issued widespread traveling quarantines. And the locals, feeling oppressed by Imperial authority, rebelled, leading to widespread conflict. News of the hardships resulting from these measures reached Wannonians in the North and even in Tekon, itself, leading them to turn against the Emperor. As each year passed, the effects of the drought began to worsen.

In 1173, a large wildfire destroyed the city of Aron, sending thousands of refugees fleeing to the North, where they were blocked by Imperial forces. Such refugees confronted them with violence, and a major civil conflict broke out. In 1174, with many siding against the Emperor and his agenda against the refugees from Aron, an organized coup overthrew the Wannonian Imperial government, as Clastye II was murdered. With multiple figures claiming to be the successor, warring factions battled one another in the streets of Tekon and throughout Wannonia. On 17 October 1176, a wildfire destroyed Tekon, itself, sending remaining Wannonians in the region to flee elsewhere.

Between 1177 and 1200, the Wannonian territory consisted of nomadic militant groups roaming the countryside, battling each other while scavenging for food and resources.

President Henry

In 1183, President Harold Jameson of Combria was aging and seeking a figure to succeed him. In doing so, Jameson focused on two candidates: Jacob Thomas Henry and David James Pennwell. In November 1183, Jameson determined Pennwell to be the most qualified of the two, and appointed him to be the next President. However, Henry was determined to unseat Pennwell, and staged a scandal that landed the President-appointee under scrutiny. In March 1184, the Court found Pennwell guilty of such staged accusations; and the Council disqualified him from his future office. In April, seeing no other alternative, Jameson appointed Henry. When Pennwell uncovered evidence of Henry's involvement in the scandal, Henry's popularity led the Council and Court to dismiss such charges. And on 14 May 1184, Jacob Henry became the President of Combria.

The Perennial

President Henry, in the years that followed, implemented economic policies that would lead the nation through an unprecedented chapter of prosperity. He began with the payment of large sums of money to merchant Chiefs of Staff, who funded and established various firms that traded independently within the nation and abroad. Under Henry's orders, two canals were constructed to bisect each of the lower tier perimeters of the Diamond District.

As a result, Hasphitat became a major post of trade, with ships and barges frequenting its piers. Meanwhile, throughout the inland regions, the ebony mining industry became popular, as it was found that such material was useful in the efficient production and use of talismans. Most notable, however, was the resulting boom in the aviation industry, where large funds given to the newly-founded Department of Aviation led to the construction of government facilities that constructed mass numbers of planes and airships. Meanwhile, the Department gave remaining funds to notable aviation families, who established aviator leagues.

A very important innovation in the aircraft industry during this time was the invention of the pressurized cabin, making it possible to fly higher and further. In 1189, the first fleet of high-flying aircraft, consisting of military and passenger planes, was launched. In the years to come, aviator leagues, renting these aircraft, would establish regular passenger flight routes.

In 1192, the Perennial was launched, being noted as the first airship with a pressurized cabin. It was capable of flying at altitudes of 21000 feet and a distance of 5000 miles. As a demonstration of its potential, the Perennial took its commercial flight from Hasphitat directly to the city of Kitalos between 12-16 September 1192. That October, Combria and the Federation of Kitalos established an air trade route.

Marion's Disease

Infecting the victim by entering through the mouth, nose, eyes, or open wounds, Marion's Disease harms the body by consuming its host's nutrients and releasing a harmful waste byproduct into the blood stream. The body's response to this is a fever, accompanied by coughing, diarrhea, and vomiting. Without effective treatment, the disease usually would kill its victim in one of two ways: high fever and dehydration as a result of the body's immune system response, or effective suffocation by the high presence of the toxic byproduct.

Throughout the 1100s, industrialization in Southern Canticula led epidemics to spread, via trade flow, to the North. In the 1170s, several outbreaks of an "unknown disease," an earlier and weaker strain of Marion's Disease, swept through the nations of Furthing and Nassem. In 1184, another outbreak hit the region, claiming the life of one child. In 1189, the disease reached Hasphitat, where it was called "Dockman's Flu," and claimed one life. One year later, Hasphitat was struck by a worse strain of the disease, as 600 lives were lost.

And then the disease spread to Mikant.

Living from 1133 to 1217, Doctor Philip Marion, an archaeologist from Terredon, the Great North, was on a tour to study mysterious inscriptions on a stone slab near Mikant proper. On 1 May 1192, he left on a ship to the region, to which he arrived four days later. It was during the month of June that Marion, well into his studies, began noting local Mikanians falling ill. In the weeks that followed, many of them died, with such mortality in staggering numbers by the end of September. Fearing the conditions, Marion returned quickly to his home in Terredon, where he wrote letters describing the disease to Doctor Philip Osman, an honored figure in medicine. Osman traveled to Mikant, where he diagnosed the disease, naming it Marion's Disease, and developed effective treatment, which he wasted no time administering to the locals. Before long, the spread of the disease was effectively stopped.

President Henry vs. President Slaya

In January 1193, a coup in Abetz, the capital of Mikant, led to the overthrow of President Von DeKere, who was replaced by the revolutionary Mara Slaya. As the new President, Slaya opened a free market and expanded on Inland Sea trade. Favoring Mikanian traders, Slaya imposed stricter enforcement over Mikanian maritime claims, which upset the nation of Combria, which had been dominating the trade route for a number of years. Thus, tension began to mount.

Such tension broke in April of that year, when Jerrod Brown, illegally operating a side business in Combria, had a Combrian Court issue a warrant for his arrest. Instead, Brown fled to the nation of Mikant for asylum, which Slaya honored. President Henry approached Slaya, demanding that she extradite Brown; but Slaya refused, stating that Brown's actions were considered legal in Mikant. Henry retaliated with military force, which all but leveled the city of Mikant. Throughout Combria, President Henry paid media venues to maintain silence over the matter, fearing backlash. To this day, his actions are considered quite controversial with a speculation over the details.

Nevertheless, the Remikran Union levied repercussions against President Henry, as the Great North sanctioned the nation while rebuilding Mikant. Then, in June, a treaty was signed within the Union, which allocated Mikant and surrounding territories to President Henry as a form of consolation in exchange for reparations. Under Henry's orders, the city of Mikant was renamed New Jestopole. Slaya, seen as an aggressor, was made to leave, as a new Mikanian presidency and business market was established. The appointed Governor-General founded a special Trades Department to oversee all Mikanian economic transactions.

Slaya decried such an arrangement for the lack in freedom of trade, especially in terms with the new Department. In November 1193, she organized and launched a coup, which toppled the new government and Department as the Governor-General was forced to flee. Abetz and Mikanian territories were renamed Locin, as Slaya's free market policies were re-established. As she furthermore vowed to take back Mikant and its surrounding territories, President Henry ordered the construction of a wall at the new border.

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Northeast Ancondria, Present-Day: Overview

Geography

Most of the land of Northeastern Ancondria is a flat grassland about 3000 feet above sea level. Consisting of the plant species Ancondrian Crass, this region is considered the largest source of oxygen on the planet.

There are a few exceptions to the flat plains in the region, however. First is the region of Silba and Beaustrough, which consists of mountains reaching up to 7500 feet. Then there is the region surrounding the Havenlands, known as the Rim Mountains, which reach about 5000 feet. The Havenlands region itself consists of a gentle and gradual downward slope toward the sea, outlining the Southeastern half of an ancient crater. And then the land lining the coast all around the Peninsula is about 20 to 400 feet above sea level.

The climate throughout the flat grassland region is temperate, which is surprising since the region is very close to the equator; however, its high elevation means temperatures here are cooler while the air is less humid. The weather is warm and tropical year-round in the coastal regions, while cool summers and cold, snowy winters dominate the higher land near Silba and the Rim Mountains.

The United Confederation of Ancondria (UCA)

Standing as the larger of the two nations in Northeast Ancondria, the United Confederation of Ancondria, or the UCA, is governed as a direct-representative democracy, meaning that every leadership position in the executive and judicial branches, and every representative in legislature, is elected directly by the voting population.

The UCA is divided into 17 Territories. Each Territory elects 100 Delegates every year, a Governor on every second and seventh year of a given decade, and a Representative to the capital city of Providence on every third and eighth year of a given decade. On every fifth year of a decade, the UCA will elect a Governor-General serving as the Head of National Government, a post subject to a retention vote every tenth year of the decade. Every decision made by leadership is subject to override by popular referendum carried out by the population, who enjoys extensive powers of petition. Every year on a rotating basis, the UCA population will elect 11 Judges to the Supreme Court to each serve one eleven-year term.

The UCA boasts a strong military but strictly adheres to a policy of homeland defense, meaning that they do not deploy abroad unless there is a direct and imminent threat to the Confederation, a policy further enforced by the fact that the Confederation does not hold overseas territory. Most military weapons, planes, and supplies for the UCA Armed Forces are purchased from the neighboring State of Minlon.

As of the year 1475, the UCA stands as one of the most prosperous nations in Ancondria, with its primary industry being lightfire. In fact, the UCA is the world's leading producer of lightfire-made goods. The National Capital, each Territorial Capital, and its immediate lesser towns are connected with roads lined with bike paths. However, bicycles traverse these roadways more frequently than cars; and no national highway system exists because gyroplanes serve as the most common mode of transit. With the lightfire economy comes a wide variety of trades. However, all trades and industries in the UCA pursue one common agenda: environmental cleanliness. The aforementioned roadways over the grasslands are raised above the ground to help protect wildlife and, most importantly, Ancondrian Grass. Gyroplane landing pads are also raised above the ground, while the gyroplanes themselves, while they consume a minimal amount of fuel, are being constantly re-engineered to have a lesser and lesser impact on the environment.

It is also important to note that the population, itself, consists of a great number of differing nationalities. Of these nationalities include Native Ancondrians, Combrian-Ancondrians (or Comans for short), those of close kin to House Maderon, Ostar-Nabukans, Eastern Canticulans, and many folk from the nomadic maritime guilds.

The Sovereign State of Minlon

In contrast to the Ancondrian Confederation, the Sovereign State of Minlon stands as a Consular Republic. Its Head of Government consists of two Consuls presided over by a Head Consul. The Head Consul is the Commander-in-Chief of all domestic and foreign affairs, particularly when it comes to the military. The other two Consuls may give executive orders in the absence of the Head Consul, but the Head Consul can override these orders when there is either a disagreement between the other two Consuls or the Head Consul determines that the executive order agreed upon by the two Consuls is not appropriate. All three Consul positions are elected each for a six-year term but are staggered two years apart from each other, meaning that one Consul position is elected on a rotating basis every two years. Each Consul may be re-elected for an indefinite number of terms, but it is the oldest Consul in age who is deemed the Head Consul.

The Sovereign State of Minlon is divided into five Cantons, with each Canton divided into five Boroughs. Each Borough elects four Delegates, each to serve a four-year term; however, these occur on a yearly rotating basis so that one Delegate position is elected or re-elected each year. The four Delegates from each Borough meet on a regular basis in the Capital City Legislature, which is unicameral.

The Sovereign State of Minlon has one of the most expansive militaries in the world, with a division of ground army, air force, marine, and naval forces for each Canton and each Borough. This military is headed by five Chief-Generals, one for each Canton. Even though the Sovereign State of Minlon has yet to fight in a large-scale war, standing law here imposes conscription upon all young, able-bodied men between the ages of 18 to 23 years.

The de facto most powerful government institution, however, for the Sovereign State of Minlon, is the Judiciary Committee. This Committee is headed by five Arbitrators, consisting of four Arbitrators headed by one Head Arbitrator. Each of these Arbitrators is appointed to their said position by the Head Consul with the only check against such an appointment being a unanimous vote of opposition by all 100 Delegates in Legislature, a move that has never yet happened at the time of the writing of this article. Arbitrators serve a life term until retirement. These Arbitrators are responsible for every decision for every national-level case, dispute, and electoral outcome, as well as for appointing Arbitrators to preside over every Canton and Borough.

According to many critics abroad, the Judiciary Committee of the Sovereign State of Minlon has a notorious reputation for being corrupt. By constitutional principle, the Judiciary Committee is the one responsible for counting the votes and determining the outcome of every election carried out through the State. However, Arbitrators do have a right to "discount illegitimate votes, be it whether they were duplicate votes, votes cast by persons who do not exist, or votes cast by persons who were radically coerced by external influences or threats." The Judiciary Committee is known to use liberally the latter "coercion" reason to exclude certain numbers of votes cast by those opposed to the Five Banks of Minlon, and determine leaders in favor of corporate interests. Critics argue that this means that the Sovereign State of Minlon, though a democracy on paper, is not a true democracy.

There are five large banks in Minlon who own most of the businesses in Minlon as well as fund the State's expansive military. These Five Banks have a large sway in the Legislature, Consulate, and Judiciary Committees, and have been involved in numerous scandals. Of the most notorious was the establishment of the National Debt Collection Association, an organization helping to enforce unfair deals made by the Five Large Banks with businesses abroad. Most notably, numerous branches of the National Debt Collection Association, of the NDCA, consist of armed and well-trained Naval personnel, who go out with gunships into international waters and confront the cargo ships of businesses who owe debts, attacking them to salvage their goods in the form of repayment. The Independent Commonwealth State of Retun, along with many other Circlarian nations, considers this to be piracy, and the NDCA a terrorist organization.

The economy of Minlon is the complete opposite of the UCA in terms of protecting the environment, and consists of two primary industries: junk-flipping and the military. Junk-flipping involves numerous businesses purchasing goods, vessels, and supplies determined by other businesses to be of no value; junk-flippers will pay very little money for these goods and refine them to a higher quality, selling them at a much higher price. In some cases, the goods gained in the first place were not purchased but were seized by force by the NDCA during debt collector raids. Meanwhile, the military industrial complex is one of the largest in the world, with Minlon being a leader in the export of military planes, weapons, and supplies, and being neutral to warring factions, sometimes selling products to both sides of a particular conflict.

One thing to note about the economy of Minlon, however, is its staggering inequality. The City of Minlon is not just economically, but physically stratified, with high-rise skyscrapers over many square miles being connected with walkways, grass fields, parks, pools, baths, and beautiful courtyards on its top level. Those frequenting these areas consist mostly of bankers and leaders, who also own vast houses, estates, and properties out in rural areas throughout the Boroughs and Cantons. However, the nice and modern cityscape of Minlon is all on raised surfaces forty to one-hundred feet above the actual ground, while the properties in rural areas are in secluded areas and fenced in. This whole system is known to the outside world as the Silver Crust, because the remaining population lives either under the raised concrete surfaces of Minlon and the numerous shantytowns of the rural Cantons and Boroughs. Life in these parts is less than ideal, with high costs of living, low paying jobs, little opportunity for education and growth, and limited freedom of movement.

Numerous sectors of the population have pushed for change but were met with stiff oppression, especially at the hands of the Judiciary Committee and their expanded ability to overturn electoral results.

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Modern Combrian Societies: List of Leaders

Information Up To Date as of 6 September 1476

*Chartered State of Combria - List of Presidents:

  -William Jeson: February 1086 to December 1132

  -Arthur Chadwick: December 1132 to December 1165

  -Vacant and Contested: December 1165 to March 1167

  -Marran Jameson: March 1167 to November 1173

  -Marran Jameson, Jr: November 1173 to February 1174

  -Karl Raess: February 1174 to November 1180

  -Thomas Chadwick: November 1180 to May 1182

  -Harold Jameson: May 1182 to May 1184

  -Jacob Thomas Henry: May 1184 to November 1239

  -Paul Mackwell: 18 November 1239 to 21 November 1239

  -Joseph Terrings: November 1239 to March 1242

  -Thomas Mackwell: March 1242 to October 1244

  -Robert Sherring: October 1244 to December 1248

  -Todric Klifton: January 1249 to March 1254

  -Mara Fordings: March 1254 to February 1256

  -Robert Dunn: February 1256 to February 1257

  -Colton Borington: February 1257 to November 1261

*Federal Estates of Retun - List of Prime Ministers:

  -James Black: January 1249 to December 1260

  -Edward Jackson: January 1261 to December 1284

  -Arthur Cummings: January 1285 to December 1296

  -John "Red" Waltmann: January 1297 to September 1309

*Independent Commonwealth State of Retun - List of Prime Ministers:

  -Holz Finzi: September 1309 to December 1332

  -Alex Schraber: January 1333 to March 1344

  -George Borwell: March to December 1344

  -Raol Robinson: January 1345 to December 1368

  -Mara "Rez" Kame: January 1369 to December 1374

  -Meghan Wen: January 1375 to December 1398

  -James Lawrence Kontacet: January 1399 to December 1404

  -Vet Silonk: January 1405 to December 1416

  -Stanley Arland Moore: January 1417 to December 1428

  -Mary Ann Heits: January 1429 to December 1452

  -Cara Mackwell: January 1453 to Present

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[libraryofcirclaria]

1149

Combria: 1100-1125

Between the years 1100 and 1125, Combria achieved unprecedented population growth and economic prosperity, as an additional trade alliance was formed with neighboring Jurango.

President William Jeson was descended from the Kontacet family; however, pressure from the Leon family, from whom his wife, Maria, was descended, led Jeson to enact a few somewhat "sketchy" deeds, i.e. tax exemptions. The epitome of such came with the arrival of Arthur Chadwick in 1127.

Arthur Chadwick: The Early Years

Very soon after his arrival in Combria, the young Arthur Chadwick was appointed one of the Combrian National Councillors. Although favored greatly by the Leons, Chadwick's mysterious past alarmed the Kontacets. Nors Braedon, an assistant to Jeson in the mission against Taeac, ventured to Skanbraif, Chadwick's city of birth. Here, Braedon discovered that Chadwick had attempted the rape and murder of a significant noblewoman. Upon return to Jestopole, Braedon filed formal charges against Chadwick. On trial, Chadwick was convicted in the presence of plausible evidence; and Jeson ordered his removal from office as deportation back to the Great North.

Chadwick arrived back in the Great North in 1129, and was due to be arrested for his crimes; however, an anonymous family member bailed him out, privileging him from such an arrest. It was at this point that Chadwick saw his opportunity to return to Combria and regain his status.

Chadwick Seizes Power

In 1131, President Jeson developed an illness and became bedridden. Anticipating his death, he appointed George Mateon to succeed him, a move approved unanimously by the Council.

However, there was trouble within the Combrian population, as rural communities were increasingly unhappy with Jeson's open policies on diplomacy, primarily with the Wannonians and Jurangans. Chadwick began rallying these dissidents, vowing to stage a coup to overthrow the Combrian establishment and make himself President of Combria, and promising to, as President, revoke Jeson's rules. Between 1131 and 1132, numerous shootings and lynchings ensued, as President Jeson issued an order for Chadwick's arrest. However, Chadwick managed to evade the authorities. In December 1132, President Jeson died and was succeeded by Mateon. Within that month, Chadwick and his forces launched a coordinated attack on the capital city Jestopole, during which President Mateon was killed and the Kontacet establishment defeated. Promptly, Chadwick swore himself in as the new President of Combria.

In the year that followed, President Chadwick revoked the diplomatic trade policies with Wannonia, ordered the construction of a wall at the Wannonian border, and imposed tariffs on goods between Combria and Jurango.

1135: The Conquering of Jurango

By the end of 1133, Jurango was already beginning to suffer economically as a result of the tariffs. To dispel popular grievances against him, Chadwick authorized the continuation of the Bridge over the St. Eschel River, a project started by President Jeson years earlier. In 1135, the Bridge was nearing completion, but Chadwick witheld workers' paychecks until Jurango would surrender sovereignty of an island in the River further West. As a result, the Jurangan laborers rebelled and began tearing apart the Bridge, prompting Chadwick to deploy the Combrian Armed Forces. Jurango considered Chadwick's response to be an act of war and dispatched its own military forces, thus beginning the Combria-Jurango War. As the war was unfolding, Chadwick came forward with public determination to conquer Jurango and claim it for Combria.

Before long, the War came to a gridlock status; and Chadwick called upon Wannonia for assistance, promising to restore diplomacy with them as an exchange. Wannonia agreed only upon the condition that a portion of Jurangan territory was handed to them. By November 1135, the combined forces defeated the Jurangans and brought the Jurangan capital to utter ruin.

After the war, the Bridge project was continued by Combrian workers, and was completed in 1142. And that very same year, it was named Bridgetown. All Jurangan territories were now under the sole control of Combria, as Chadwick rolled back on his promises made to Wannonia. This would lead to diplomatic friction between the two nations in the years to come.

The Formation of the Federation of Kitalos

On 9 December 1121, King Andrew of the Great North gave the Southern portion of Pimdanian territories to Mikant. The local population in this region had been demonstrating public grievances over high taxes, lack of representation (as only Great Northerners could vote in Parliamentary elections), and the restriction of trade to Great Northern markets. As a result of this, the Kitalan nationality began to resurface. And thus, King Andrew's 1121 deal with Mikant would divide the population by constructing a wall between Great Northern and Mikanian claims, as Kitalans were made to build it, themselves, while the population would not be granted freedom of travel between the two regions.

Morstoros Imalan was a notable Kitalan who believed in Kitalan unity. As he was made to work on the wall, he began secretly recruiting rebelling forces. On 2 April 1124, these forces attacked, utilizing the mastered art of guerilla warfare via spellfire concealment and quiet gliders which served as an effective air force. The results were catastrophic for the Great North, as the conflict led to heavy casualties and the loss of Kitalos and surrounding territories. On 3 May, the threat of a coup in Linbrae prompted King Andrew, fearing further contempt by the humiliating costs of the war, withdrew Great Northern forces from the region and signed a peace treaty with the Kitalans.

The Mikanian Acquisition of Arukas, Abetz, and Yticsanve

In 1125, heroic stories stemming from the revolution in Kitalos inspired dissidents to overthrow the ruling power in nearby Arukas. In place of the overthrown Monarchy was established a federation. But by 1126, this democratic government was bankrupt; and, in a desperate financial deal, said government signed a deal to sell all of its territories to Mikant. Later that year, Mikant signed a deal with the Kitalan Federation to acquire Kitalan land between the two territories.

In 1127, Abetz and Yticsanve experienced coups in a similar way. Both of these territories, however, fell under relatively disorganized systems of martial law, against which dissidents in Abetz fought, in their nation respectively, leading to a brief civil conflict. In the ensuing chaos, Mikant bought and acquired both territories.

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The John Waysworth Scandal

Remikra, 1264 to 1308

Canticula, 1267 to 1287

Deep-Trade: Definition

Deep-trade is the spellfire practice of assigning special tradestones to represent certain shares of certain assets of value for a particular business. Licensed spellcrafters can "explode" deep-trade stones in order to produce currency or items of value equal to the value the said stones represent. However, since this is an end-use and there are far more tradestones than licensed spellcrafters available to engage them in a timely fashion, it is a more economic practice for a stoneholder to purchase a tradestone at a particular value, then sell it whenever it increases in value, in order to make a profit.

Retun and Prove: Established Relations

In 1285, a trade arrangement signed between the Lykian and Retunian Republics split the Galapolgis Island of Vantacula between the two nations and allowed private businesses to establish themselves here. Legally, all of Vantacula was under Lykian jurisdiction, but the Lykians had decided through the trade deal to lease the Western half of the Isle to the Retunians. Thus, Retunian businesses, primarily deep-trade firms, were allowed to open alongside similar Lykian businesses. Furthermore, a mutual agreement in the trade deal exempted deep-trade transactions between Lykian and Retunian businesses from tariffs or taxation. There was no deep-trade arrangement yet between the two nations, politically speaking, although there was the potential for such an arrangement to materialize in the future, sparking excitement among investors across both nations. In the meantime, deep-trade transactions were facilitated as John Waysworth, a prominent representative of the Bucksworth Financial Institute, headquartered in Hasphitat, established a branch office in Vantacula.

In November 1285, the National Bank for the Lykian Trust, or NBLT, extended an invitation to John Waysworth to establish a Provan chapter for the Bucksworth Institute Tradestone Commission in a high-value office space in the city of Prove proper.

John Waysworth in Prove

John Waysworth accepted the invitation and established the Provan chapter in January 1286. Before long, he began selling valuable deep-trade stones to Lykian banks and businesses, and using the proceeds from this to purchase Lykian deep-trade stones to sell to Retunian tradestone markets. Net proceeds from all of this paid into lucrative dividends, particularly for Waysworth as well as Bucksworth shareholders back in Remikra.

On November 10, 1286, John Waysworth's office in Prove was sacked by Lykian officials, who conducted a thorough search of the premise and arrested John Waysworth, himself. Waysworth was charged with fraud and espionage, and faced a possible death sentence. Retunian Prime Minister Arthur Cummings had just returned from a Summit in Vantacula with Lykian President Restara Unjoy when he was informed of this. Immediately, Prime Minister Cummings sent his best known lawyers to defend John Waysworth in the Lykian court proceedings, an approach that succeeded in convincing the Lykian Justice System to reduce Waysworth's sentence to deportation. On November 14, John Waysworth was taken to a holding cell at a border crossing between the Lykian Republic and the nation of Umcings, where he would wait until a Retunian air reconnaissance unit came to pick him up.

John Waysworth was not informed on when the reconnaissance unit would come. So he decided to escape custody and flee into the surrounding countryside. The issue here was that the border crossing was located in the highlands of the Chokian Mountains, where the climate was cold, snowy, and harsh. Furthermore, the landscape was filled with dangerous wildlife animals such as bears, wolves, and predatory wysps. Supposedly, John Waysworth escaped a close encounter with a bear on the first night, and a close encounter with a wysp on the second night. Finally though, on November 16, an air rescue reinforcement team launched by Cummings upon news of Waysworth's escape assisted the original reconnaissance unit, and spotted John Waysworth. They rescued him and flew him back to Remikra.

The Lykian War

Lykian President Restara Unjoy condemned the so-called Waysworth Scandal, holding the Retunian government responsible. As it turned out, Lykian authorities received a tip that John Waysworth had been selling stagmarcated tradestones, or tradestones worth almost no value being sold to unknowing clients for a falsely high value, hence the reason for the sacking of John Waysworth's office in Prove on November 10. And when they searched the premise, Lykian officials had spellcrafters "explode" three of John Waysworth's tradestones, which turned out to be duds.

How did the Lykian authorities find out about John Waysworth's scandal in the first place? During the Summit between Prime Minister Cummings and President Unjoy, which took place on November 6, Prime Minister Cummings sent a letter to President Unjoy asking for her and her family to join in on the Scandal. The issue with this approach was that the NBLT, the primary bank victimized by the Waysworth Scandal, was the very institute in which the Unjoy family had deep stakes. The Retunian public in years to come would condemn Prime Minister Cummings not only for taking part in the Waysworth Scandal, but also for his daft judgement behind writing the letter to President Unjoy. Needless to say, the Retunian Prime Minister's decision at the Summit made absolutely no strategic sense.

Regardless, President Unjoy, on December 24, 1286, issued executive orders freezing all trade relations with the Retunian Republic and revoking the lease in Vantacula. Subsequently, she ordered Retunian authorities to evacuate all Retunian civilians and businesses off the Isle. However, Retunian authorities refused such orders and called on Prime Minister Cummings, who more than obliged to send in Retunian Marine and Army forces to defend the Retunian settlers from local pro-Lykian partisans consisting mostly of Vantaculan natives. While doing this, Prime Minister Cummings news of the hostility from Lykian leadership be withheld from the Retunian public, as well as informed the Retunian Department of Defense of a "possible local partisan terrorist threat."

In short, Cummings aimed to preserve the newly-gained status quo by defying orders from the Lykian government while trying to prevent the Retunian public from becoming aware of possible Lykian hostility.

Between January 2 and January 23, 1287, Retunian and partisan forces engaged in numerous skirmishes. On January 24, the Lykian Navy arrived, engaging with Retunian forces in a heavy battle across the Isle, another development that Prime Minister Cummings prevented from being disclosed to the Retunian public. Between February 4 and 5, Cummings sent the Retunian Navy, which succeeded in driving all Lykian forces off of Vantacula. Cummings then summoned the Lykians to an "emergency counsel" in order to negotiate peace and territorial concessions, an invitation to which the Lykians responded with cold silence.

On February 6, 1287, President Unjoy ordered high-flying Lykian aircraft to drop Red Desert bombs upon South Masonia, Hasphitat, and the Basin District of Retun proper. Each of those targeted cities was devastated by the attack as the entire Retunian population went into panic. President Unjoy gave a second order for Prime Minister Cummings to surrender all of Vantacula.

Prime Minister Cummings refused to comply to this. Between February 7 and 16, 1287, the Lykian Navy renewed its assault upon Vantacula and attempted to take it by force. The Retunians held their ground; and on February 15, Prime Minister Cummings ordered an airstrike on the Lykian base in Gyrosak responsible for the Vantacula initiative.

On February 16, 1287, President Unjoy responded with Red Desert bomb attacks on Egdir and Retun. Later that evening, in the wake of these events, particularly with the city of Retun proper being struck by two Red Desert bomb attacks, Prime Minister Cummings signed a mutual cease-fire with the Lykian Republic. On February 17, the island-nation of Rakara, allied to the Lykian Republic, facilitated the signing of a Treaty by the Retunians to surrender not just Vantacula, but most of the Galapolgis Isles to the Lykian Republic. The consolation here was that the Retunian Republic was allowed to keep the five Westernmost Isles.

Thus, the war was over.

Fallout

Retunian businesses lost many of their trade posts. Roughly seventy-five percent of the Retunian trade network around the Circlarian Ocean would eventually be recovered; although the apex of Retunian trade achieved in the early-to-mid-1280s would never be achieved again.

The Retunian population would lose trust not only in Prime Minister Cummings and his Administration, but also the Retunian establishment as a whole. The public was outraged at the John Waysworth Scandal and the gag orders given by Cummings to hide from the public the truth about the Lykian War. A group of Representatives in Retunian Council filed a motion to have Prime Minister Cummings impeached.

In the midst of all this, however, emerged a significant question: Why did Prime Minister Cummings explicitly tell President Unjoy about the John Waysworth Scandal? Speculation arose from this, because in 1285, Cummings and Waysworth had become involved in a conflict of interest over a revised tax code. During that brief exchange of civil hostility, Waysworth vowed to have his firm reduce funding to Prime Minister Cummings' prospective 1290 re-election campaign. This led to speculation over whether or not Cummings' reveal of John Waysworth to President Unjoy was, in fact, a form of retaliation. However, there was no hard evidence to back up this theory.

A major revelation came in the year 1359 with the discovery of a letter to Arthur Cummings from his mother, who lived until the year 1302. It was dated March 10, 1286, months before the Summit in Vantacula. And that letter contained advice from his mother for Cummings to invite President Unjoy to partake in the "lucrative business arrangement" involving John Waysworth.

Scholars initially rejected the so-called "ridiculous and completely ludicrous notion that an elected public official would act on the whimsical advice of a personal family member in this way." However, there are quite a few factors now known about Arthur Cummings. First was that he was known to take advice from his mother without question, even in matters where his mother, though undoubtedly well-intentioned, was not well-versed. Also, Cummings was raised in a very affluent socioeconomic environment; and though he was good at the practice of business, particularly in banking, he did not ace his college courses in history and political science. All of these factors in combination led Arthur Cummings to become extremely, and even dangerously, complacent when it came to making serious decisions like those in a public office.

The impeachment motion against Arthur Cummings in 1287 never made it past a vote in the Retunian House of Representatives. Cummings would encounter another impeachment motion against him in 1295, but that failed as well. However, Cummings would lose the 1296 election against the Progressive candidate, John "Red" Waltmann.

John Waysworth, meanwhile, announced an early retirement in December 1286 and moved to the Mid-Westerlies, where he would remain until his death in 1310.

#libraryofcirclaria #blogposts

[libraryofcirclaria]

Remikra: 1073 to 1085

Anadon

Slated by Queen Alexandra for construction to begin in the year 1061, the city of Anadon was dedicated to the Queen's daughter, Ana. The oldest daughter of Alexandra, Ana was destined to be the next Queen, as she was arranged to marry Paul, who would then become the King. However, Ana was not keen for this way of life, bemoaning the lack of freedom of choice; and, in 1069, she fled the Kingdom with a pirate, to whom she would eventually be married.

Despite such a loss to Alexandra, construction on the city continued, as it would serve as another fortress for domestic strategic reasons.

Another purpose was served, though, as, in 1073, Terredon was attacked by another group of pirates. Parliament voted to move itself and the Crown to Anadon, where the new Palace and Parliament Building were completed by November 1073.

The Hobland War of Independence, 1076

In 1076, Queen Alexandra sent divisions of the Navy and Infantry to eliminate one of the key enemy strategic points in the Southeast Hobland colonies. As they landed, however, the Great Northern forces were ambushed by a "house cannon" attack, and were made to retreat. Between June and September, revolutionaries attacked a key Great Northern stronghold in what became the Battle of Myrre, which proved a great loss for Alexandra. With land lost and a high number of casualties endured, the Queen of the Great North sent a letter to the top revolutionary figures, indicating surrender and a call for counsel.

On 10 November 1076, the Treaty of Kortan was signed, in which all Great Northern forces were made to withdraw from the region, while all blue-diamond coal sand mines and resources were turned over to the new nation. For a compromise, a very small quota was placed as a limit for the precious fuel to be vended in any way to the Great North on a yearly basis.

Energy Crisis and Economic Downturn

The coal sand quota in the Treaty was around 25 percent of the supply to the Great North in previous years, creating a severe shortage. As a result, heating and transportation became extremely expensive, leading to the failure of businesses and the loss of jobs. As many Great Northerners fell into poverty, the Crown launched an emergency agenda in search for a new energy source. Many new ideas were generated as a result of this, but all were seemingly short-sighted, doing little to alleviate the circumstances.

A resource in particular brought into discussion during this time was hubstone shale. Initially found in Hobland and Tandeiyah during ancient times, hubstone shale was seen as something of mystery and wonder. The latest discovery of such a resource before this time was a very large reserve of it near Fort Norm in the late 900s, with a majority of it being underground. In the 1030s, numerous scientists, following a popular trend among their own scholarly community, published research documents suggesting its usefulness as an energy source. However, this was overshadowed during the times that blue-diamond coal sand reserves were plentiful. Furthermore, another wave of scientific studies conducted in the 1050s determined that hubstone shale served no useful purpose, even though the tools, at the time, were not yet developed to extract its energy. As a result, hubstone shale was effectively forgotten, as it occasionally became an item of youthful fashion, being crafted into jewelry and inefficient talismans.

Queen Alexandra: Death, Succession, and Partitioning of Overseas Land

In 1077, Queen Alexandra called for a Special Council with Parliament, citing that the Royal Treasury, due to the ensuing economic hardships, was approaching bankruptcy. Tax reform agendas fell short due to the notion that the number of businesses closing led to an absence of sustainable revenue, and that taxing a poor population would potentially lead to a coup. In the end, the Council came to a temporary solution: to sell overseas territories to wealthy Great Northern families. And thus, the Partitioning of Lands Act was passed.

Under this legislation, each overseas territory was put to auction and sold to the party with the highest bid. Such the purchasing party would govern the land as a semi-independent territory. Each territory would be granted a Queen's Mandate, in which each new land could exist as an independent country under a new government but had to abide by a few parameters. The most important parameters outlined in each Mandate were that each government had to abide by the Great Northern Bill of Rights and the Statute of Limited Authority (the equivalent of the Bill of the Crown Authority). Each new government was required to provide advice to the Great Northern Crown for the appointment of a presiding Governor-General, who would supervise the new government. Each Governor-General would do so by holding the government thereof accountable for adhering to the Queen's Mandate, and by approving the appointment of a successor to the territory's Chief of State or Head of Government.

With this arrangement, Queen Alexandra saw the selling of the Galapolgis and Rim Islands between 1078 and her death in 1079. With the absence of Ana, it was the second oldest daughter, Sarah, who succeeded the Throne. Queen Sarah continued the Partitioning of Lands policy, selling the remainder of the Galapolgis by 1080, the Canticulan territories between 1081 and 1083, and Tandeiyah in 1085.

William Jeson and Fort Norm

Taeac was an illegal spellcrafter fighting for Hoblandish locals in present-day Notulfa. In 1075, he and his followers were forced from their territory of command and traveled in ships to the area of Inland Sea coastline surrounding present-day Hasphitat. Here, they slaughtered a sacred den of bears, angering the local population of Jurango, who retaliated with divisions of warriors who defeated Taeac's forces and sold many of them into Wannonian slavery. Taeac followed the prisoners into Wannonia, where he helped many of them escape, retraining them and launching them as forces upon other plantations to rescue the remaining prisoners. In 1077, they traveled into Combria, then under the Kingdom of the Great North, and settled in Fort Norm, which was abandoned by this time. In Fort Norm, Taeac subjected his followers to serfdom and had them, with the use of spellfire, build brick structures in quick fashion, as the city of Pasiek was established. It was during this time that Taeac discovered a method of extracting energy from hubstone shale.

A Great Northern traveler came across this society en route and immediately dispatched a message of concern to Queen Sarah in Anadon.

William Benson was born in 1056 as the nephew of the infamous George Benson. In 1068, to remove the immense association of guilt, his family legally changed their surname from 'Benson' to 'Jenson'; and in 1075, William, himself, dropped the first 'n' from the name, changing it to 'Jeson.'

William Jeson received basic training, and, before long, advanced up the ranks of the Great Northern Infantry. However, it was not until 1077 that he received his first assignment for active combat: to scout out the call of concern regarding Fort Norm. Jeson immediately recruited a division of forces and traveled to Fort Norm, where he was captured by Taeac's forces. However, he used spellfire skills gained from the past to escape, and subsequently alerted his stationed forces, who then sent a message to the Queen. The Queen sent a division of the Navy up the river to Fort Norm, where they converged with Jeson's division and launched a coordinated assault upon Taeac, who carried out brutal resistance through intense spellfire acts, and initially inflicted high casualties. The Queen, expecting this, dispatched another Navy division to serve as reinforcements, and effectively forced Taeac's defenses into retreat. Before long, Fort Norm was surrounded, but Taeac refused to surrender. An assassin, though, ended Taeac's life; and Great Northern forces reclaimed the Fort.

After the defeat of Taeac, the Great North ended the system of serfdom but continued the buildup of Pasiek. In 1080, the nation of Wannonia blamed the Great North for Taeac's rampage and demanded payment in reparations. Queen Sarah refused such demands and began the building-up of troops and arms in Fort Norm, anticipating a great conflict.

#libraryofcirclaria #remikratimeline

[libraryofcirclaria]

And now a little of my own...Third Level Society, Story Six, Part Two

6 - Meona Bell: Part Two

1281 September 8

I'm trying to piece together what happened since I last wrote. Everything Ivella told me when I first woke up in the University Hospital Wing made no sense to me. How Carter almost caught her...how she got away...her background...

I have somewhat of a vague memory of the Caucus Chamber. It was on fire. Or was it just smoke and sparks? Was that yesterday? Or was it last week? Or a month ago?

I know that Daniel Carter and Julian got into a fight? But why would they be hurling spellfire discharges at each other?

Or was it Kara Martins? Yes. I remember now. Carter wasn't there. Or maybe he was on the Dais. And then Kara lashed out at Julian. First, it was shouting. Then it was spellfire dueling.

Wait. No. Ceri Mains was there. And she attacked them both. She barged in. Either that or one of her cronies slipped into the Chamber among other Members. I don't remember Ceri emerging from the Audience Section though. She was just spontaneously there.

Ivella is telling me that the later in time I think, the worse it is. So I need to go back to the beginning, the morning of September 6.

That does seem clearer to me. So here goes, 1281 September 6:

Shortly after breakfast came a knock on my Guestroom Door. To my complete surprise, I saw standing at the door a very aged version of Daniel Orville Carter, himself.

"Meona now, is it?" he said. When I answered, he shook my hand and gave me a hug. "A very beautiful addendum."

"I didn't know you'd respond so quickly," I said.

"To what?" Carter said, finding himself a seat. "If you sent a message, I never got it. I was staying up the road from here since yesterday. I picked up on your name over the phone with Dungeonmaster Julian." Carter reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. "By the way, I also have an important letter from Miss Ivella; and I need to take this to Julian in person. As you can see noted, we are not to mention this letter to anyone but Julian and his close company. And no one but Julian may open this letter and read it."

"So you've come to get me to take with you to Julian?" I asked.

"You seemed to have read my mind," Carter said, standing up again. "I'm afraid I have no time for coffee and biscuits if that's what your plans were. We'll have that later."

The Campus Watch checkpoint was still up. In fact, they stepped things up by doing a more thorough search of our bags and persons. Within a very short amount of time, however, we were in Dungeonmaster Julian's Office, where Carter handed Julian the letter and ordered him to read it.

"Finally, a sign from her," Julian said grudgingly but relieved. "Right on the day of my big talk." But when he read, the look of relief fell from his face, which turned pale and blank. With his hand shaking, he handed the letter to me. "Meona. Tell me what you make of this."

I looked at the letter. Apparently, Ivella Ogden boarded an airship in Clareon, the capital of the Mid-Westerlies, and intended to ride a flight to Savel, from where she would take a cable train to Ereautea. However, the airship she was on experienced an engine failure, forcing them to make an emergency landing in the island-nation of Monassa. That was, of course, a customs nightmare for her, because Monassa has been an independent country since 1249. So she had to wait for a copy of her passport to be mailed to her.

In addition to that, there was also heavy traffic due to summer travels; so Ivella had to wait a week before finally boarding an airship back to Savel, putting her hopelessly behind schedule.

I read the second part of the letter aloud but in a quiet voice: "...However, Julian, you don't need to be afraid, and I'm saying this for two reasons: first, I know Mary Kormann very well, much more than you think. Despite her demeanor and appearance, she is very resilient. Ceri Mains is no match for her.

"Second, in watching and even involving myself in the protection of the Cabotton community during this uncertain time, I've been made aware, much to my surprise, that Ceri Mains actually has no intention whatsoever to harm Mary Kormann or otherwise infiltrate the Society, despite what certain media sources may say.

"I cannot explain why I am saying this in this letter because that involves disclosing dangerous information that I cannot risk being leaked in the unlikely event that this message gets intercepted, but I promise that I will speak with you when I finally arrive, at which point everything will make sense. In the meantime, I must ask something unusual of you. And that is to have, what you may deem, blind faith in what I've told you and to use your best judgement given the circumstances.

"I will hopefully arrive by this coming Sunday, September 9. Again, once I explain everything in person, you will be left with no more questions on the matter. Sincerely, Ivella Marie Ogden."

Julian shook his head. "That...this just...None of it makes sense," he said hysterically. "At all...I have to be on the podium in..." Julian paused and looked at his watch. "Ninety minutes!" Julian stood up and began to pace frantically. "Ninety minutes from this very moment! I have to reassure the Caucus that everything is going to be alright! And then I have Kara Martins and those other buffoons to deal with!" Julian snatched the letter from me, crumpled it up, and threw it at the wall. "That daft woman, Ivella! How could she say this!? How could she be in complete denial!?"

"She is running that darkfire sanctuary, you know. I'm afraid it's possible she may have been swayed," Carter said, and for a brief moment, I remembered back to when Julian had mentioned that diplomacy was questionable between the two figures.

"What do we do, Daniel Carter? Meona Bell?" Now there was desparation in Julian's voice.

"You're a Dungeonmaster now," Carter said. "Think!"

"Oh great!" Julian said sarcasticly. "Thanks for your encouragement!"

"Let's talk to Mary Kormann," I said suddenly, standing up and lifting a calming hand to both of them. "Let's see if she has some words of encouragement to say...to the Caucus, I mean."

"You're starting to sound like Ivella now," Julian said accusingly.

"Do you have a better alternative, Mackwell?" Carter asked sternly.

Julian paused and sat back down. It seemed that he shrank and grew weaker. "Fine," he said. "Let's try Mary."

...

#libraryofcirclaria #third level society #thirdlevelsocietyfirstversion

[libraryofcirclaria]

#libraryofcirclaria #circlariamaps

[libraryofcirclaria]

Remikra: 1086

Pasiek, After Taeac

Between 1077 and 1086, Pasiek experienced a great deal of growth, as the Fort Norm site was converted into a facility housing hubstone shale burning processes, and hubstone shale mines emerged. Soldiers having fought in the recent conflict stayed in Pasiek, as peace followed, and families moved in with them. The population continued its growth, leading the Great Northern government to hire laborers for the construction of more brick structures. Before long, the city saw the emergence of factories, shops, houses, and even a market district. Along with the structures emerged brick and concrete streets.

One of the most important discoveries concerning hubstone shale during this time was its ability to produce electricity. However, early on, the Great North implemented an experimental system of this in Pasiek, where a primitive hubstone-based generator proved inefficient, and a power grid, running street lights and connections to houses and public structures, proved largely unreliable. Despite the growth, progress was limited by high taxes and heavy regulation, as hubstone facilities were purely government infrastructure. Furthermore, the Great North discriminated against the Ujean population, a branch of the Mundaesian population. Initially promised large rewards during recruitment, the Ujeans helped to defeat Taeac, only to find that their rewards would be paid in the form of a few coppers per month as part of a monthly installment that would never pay the full amount within a lifetime. The Ujeans began protesting against this, but the government shut them out of the city of Pasiek.

William Jeson, Rising Popularity

William Jeson was assigned to preside as Lieutenant Governor over Pasiek, where he was given orders to administer a police force over each sector of the city. Such a force, though, would only function hierarchically under Great Northern Army. Jeson's other role was to collect taxes to submit to Arnold Brimmley, his superior and Governor of Terredon.

Despite this, Jeson was strongly opposed to Great Northern discrimination against the Ujeans and convened with his parent family, the Kontacet family, to launch a political agenda. Such an agenda throttled the idea of opening Pasiek to the Ujean population, establishing free trade, deregulating the hubstone shale industry and making it private infrastructure, and expanding education by establishing a University. This platform became quite popular, gaining support among the Ujeans and the Pasiek working class. Jeson and his many followers gathered and submitted a petition to Governor Brimmley, who rejected it, triggering a wave of protests. Upon popular referendum, Jeson sent a similar letter to Queen Sarah of the Great North in the hopes that her authorization would override the powers of Brimmley. But Her Majesty, herself, declined; and Jeson, furthermore, received a letter of warning from Governor Brimmley, who threatened to impose economic sanctions to the city for "insubordination." Widespread protests raged throughout Pasiek and towns in the surrounding territories, as Jeson, siding with the protestors, did not make any effort to enforce containment measures.

The Ujean and Wannonian Coalition

Begrudging of the Great North over the loss of territory in the Four-Nations War, Wannonia, during this time, publicly cited an opportunity the Great North had to stop Taeac from reaching Remikra, and, therefore, blamed the Kingdom for the violence and terror inflicted upon the Wannonians by Taeac. Sharing common hostilities, they were joined by the Ujeans, as they, together, planned to wage war upon the Great North and regain the land lost. As a measure of diplomacy, Wannonia would allocate a section of sovereign land lining the St. Eschel River to the Ujeans, and pay them the remainder of wealth to them owed by the Great North.

Agreement and the Formation of Combria

In 1085, the Wannonians and Ujeans met in a special Council, where they sent a formal letter to Queen Sarah of the Great North, threatening war for failure to pay the Ujeans their compensation in full, and for failure to give the Ujeans sovereign land along the St. Eschel River. The Queen refused to adhere to these demands, and, instead, ordered the Linbraeans and Edoran Kingdoms, along with their respective Duchies, to build their defenses. She furthermore ordered Terredon Governor Brimmley to ready his defenses. Brimmley, subsequently, sent a similar letter to Jeson.

Jeson, however, issued a call for a special peace negotiation between the three parties: Wannonia, the Great North, and the Ujean community, during which he submitted a proposition to form a new sovereign nation governed by Pasiek as a territory purchased from the Great North under the Partitioned Lands Act, and would function in adherence to the Queen's Mandate. As the leader of this new nation, Jeson would then implement his original agenda to eradicate discrimination against the Ujean population, establish free trade, and found a University. And furthermore, he would form a hubstone trade deal, where no tariffs would be imposed upon the transaction of the valued material between the new nation, Wannonia, and the Great North.

Fearing lost business with the hubstone shale industry, Queen Sarah initially rejected the deal, but then reconsidered when the Kontacet family intervened, raising the bid of the territory. On 11 December 1085, the agreement was signed.

Combrian Establishment

On 12 February 1086, the new territory became officially recognized as the Chartered State of Combria, where, in respect to Jeson, its capital city, the city of Pasiek, was renamed Jestopole. William Jeson became the President of Combria. Over Combria was established a form of government known as an "incumbent-appointed-presidential-council." In this system, the nation of Combria was governed by a President, who would eventually appoint a successor President before retirement. Alongside the President served a Council of 100 people serving both a judicial and legislative role. For the President, along with each Member of Council, said position would be appointed a successor by the incumbent before retirement or death. If an unexpected vacancy occurred, then the President would appoint a successor if it was a vacancy in Council, or the Council would vote for a new President if it was the President. The nation of Combria was divided into five Districts over which presided each a Governor and Council. And each District was divided into five Counties, over which presided each a Commissioner and Council. Appointments and vacancy protocols were the same for Districts and Counties.

Every Council adhered otherwise to constitutional principles similar to the Great Northern Bill of the Crown Authority. Also accordingly, each Council functioned by passing laws by simple majority votes, while the President, Governor, or Commissioner enacted them.

In the years that followed, Jeson's economic policies would lead to an unprecedented age of prosperity and innovation.

#libraryofcirclaria #remikratimeline

[libraryofcirclaria]

The Duchy of Nalesh

Information Up To Date as of 20 April 1476

Beginning:

After the prolonged war and defeat of the Kingdom of Tomlas, the Edoran Duchy of Nalesh was established in the year 775. The Duchy of Nalesh would be ruled by the second oldest Edoran royal family, the Kathingtons, and the third oldest royal family, the Ericsons. Standing as one of the most respected of all Edoran Duchies thus far, Nalesh would be formally recognized by the Crown of the Great North, giving it political legitimacy in diplomatic affairs.

Early Years- 775 to 1165:

The ruling Kathingtons and Ericsons administered the Duchy of Nalesh directly, taxing its subjects and keeping order, as Duchies normally do. The government seat in Nalesh proper, the House of the Duchy of Nalesh, was divided into two Chambers: the Low Chamber and the High Chamber. The Low Chamber was, and is to this day, the only part of the House accessible to the public, serving as a venue for a variety of events. The High Chamber, meanwhile, is only accessible by invitation only to the ruling families and high-ranking Remikran government officials like the ICSR Prime Minister.

Since its establishment in the 770s, the Duchy of Nalesh has hosted Conferences between numerous Remikran entities, following the twelve-year Circlarian Calendar by hosting such Conferences roughly every fourth, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth years of each twelve-year cycle. The purpose of these Conferences has been to promote peace between the said Remikran entities, and, in more recent years, "to promote strength, unity, and fellowship between all current and former member entities of the Remikran Union."

During a typical Conference, invitees to the High Chamber gather first in its Atrium where informal meet-ups and conversations occur. They are then summoned to the Dining Hall of the High Chamber where a Chaplain appointed by the Duchy leads the invitees in a formal prayer before the Dinner takes place. Afterward, the invitees proceed to the Great Salon where selected speakers each give a speech highlighting achievements versus struggles, statements of appreciation between Remikran entities, trade agendas both domestically and abroad, and concerns regarding local and global politics.

During the same Conference, civil servants, lower-ranking officers, and select invitees of the general public convene in the Low Chamber, where there are usually parties, concerts, and sometimes even galas. The number of attendees here is significantly higher than the number of attendees in the High Chamber.

It is important to note that both the High Chamber and Low Chamber Conference attendees convened in Nalesh during this time period.

The Great Real Estate Purchases- 1165 to 1305:

In 1165, the last living descendant of the Ericson family line, a patriarchal line, died. Members of the Kathington family line, a matriarchal line, came to the realization at this time that they were the last legitimate family line, under Edoran Royal principle, to rule over the Duchy of Nalesh. Once they died out, the property, territory, and assets of the Duchy would pass onto an independent entity, who would govern over all as an independent state. Wanting to ensure that the end of the Duchy would not prove costly to the other Remikran entities, the Kathington family vowed have their wealth passed in equal distributions to all current and former members of the Remikran Union. In crafting these terms, the Kathingtons determined that they needed to amass more wealth, and would do so through the buying, and then selling, of additional pieces of real estate.

The Duchy of Nalesh made its first round of purchases between 1177 and 1184, during which they purchased three properties in Notulfa, one property in Vantacula, and eight properties in Tandeiyah. Each property had a one-level structure imitating almost precisely that of the High Chamber of the House of the Duchy in Nalesh. Like the original High Chamber, only certain invitees were allowed to come to these venues. To enforce this, each venue was hidden and concealed by spellcrafting from the public. The second round of purchases occurred between 1245 and 1248, during which the Duchy of Nalesh purchased five properties in Furthing, three in the international city of Cenofan, and nine additional properties in Tandeiyah.

For its third round of purchases, having occurred between 1281 and 1289, the Duchy obtained forty-three more properties, all located throughout the Great Ancondrian River Basin. Like the other properties purchased, these new acquisitions were replicas of the High Chamber concealed from the public; however, in 1291, the Duchy authorized appointed Keepers of each of these chapters to establish trade posts in the region, a move made with the signing of the Nalesh Duchy Trade Authorization of 1291. In 1292, they followed through with authorizing the Keepers of all of the other properties attained in the first and second round of purchases to do the same.

By 1305, the Duchy of Nalesh had a total of seventy-two properties abroad.

The Nebaya Crisis of 1305:

Since the 1000s, the society of Nebaya has been reputed to be a rural and simplistic society, but also militaristic and ambitious for global trade. In fact, they are controversial for having engaged in aggressive tactics, including piracy on the high seas.

It was one of these sea sorties upon a sea guild closely allied with Congress of Circlaria in 1305 that led the international body, Congress of Circlaria, to authorize the invasion and political sanction of Nebaya County located in the Great North. As per international law, the Great North permitted Congress of Circlaria troops to carry out their legally-sanctioned duty, as due process authorized for Nebaya County to remain under sanction until the year 1353.

Nebayans outside of the Nebaya County jurisdiction voiced contempt over this. And the leaders of the Duchy of Nalesh feared a possible insurrection, though such a feared uprising would never actually materialize. Nevertheless, the Kathingtons took no chances and determined to relocate themselves to one of their properties abroad as well as have Representative Consorts handle public appearances in the Great North. This would be the case going forward.

The Three Relocations:

During the Duchy of Nalesh Conference of 1307, Low-Chamber attendees convened in the Low Chamber with their informal events as was tradition. However, High-Chamber invitees convened in a concealed venue in Anadon, the capital of the Great North, where the functions and turn of events were just like what happened in previous Conferences. The Duchy then held another Conference in 1308, for which the High-Chamber invitees flew to Nalesh to board airships to meet with the Kathingtons in one of their concealed venues in Furthing. Here, they began discussions to establish a permanent venue for the High Chamber far from Nalesh in a yet-to-be-determined location, where the Kathingtons would live and all future High-Chamber Conference meet-ups would take place.

An agreement on the aforementioned issue was finally reached in 1311. The parties involved in the final agreement are not known, and neither are known the transactions and funding involved. What is known is that the location of the permanent alternative High Chamber venue was, and is, on a Duchy-owned property located somewhere in the Southern part of the Great Ancondrian River Basin. What is remarkable about this is that, due to the location's relative proximity to the South Pole, the weather here is almost exactly like the weather in the Great North.

In any case, the first High Chamber Conference took place at this location in 1316. And every High Chamber Conference since has taken place here. Each time, invitees fly to Nalesh where they board reconnaissance gyroplanes to fly them to the High Chamber location. Again, no one knows where exactly this venue is located, not even government leaders. In fact, gyroplane positional systems are coded to be undecipherable after one flies over the Northeast Ancondrian region, as passenger windows are darkened.

Only the Kathington family knows the location of the place. They live here. And they will not disclose the location of this place until after the death of the last descendant of the Kathington family line, during which a perpetual will is due to be opened to disclose the relevant information. To complicate matters further, the public knows the existence of only significant figures of the Kathington family, meaning that its exact family tree is unknown. This is intentional in order to protect the family, and is a normal practice in Circlarian Society. There are consort figures tied in with these families who represent these families, meaning that the public will not know when the last official descendant of a particular House Family dies until after the perpetual will is opened, such as was the case of House Maderon in Ancondria back in 1466.

As with the Kathington family, once that time comes to pass, the public will eventually know where this venue once stood. However, it will be after the said venue is demolished and liquidated.

#libraryofcirclaria #blogposts

[libraryofcirclaria]

Arturian Realm: Underworld Structures

Overview of the Arturian Realm:

Administered by the Third Level Society, founded in the year 1243, the Arturian Realm is an interplanetary realm spanning multiple star systems, each hosting multiple gas giant systems, each of which are home to multiple planets. Each planet contains a Terraworld, Divineworld, Dungeonworld, and Underworld.

Typical Underworld:

A typical Underworld on a particular planet in the Arturian Realm is accessible through specific Temples in the Terraworld or Dungeonworld as well as through natural chasms in a Dungeonworld on said planet. While the surface of a planet's Terraworld faces out into the cosmos, the surface of its Underworld faces inward toward the center of the planet. An Underworld's landscape consists usually of continents of barren stone and rock separated by lakes and oceans of fiery magma. Meanwhile, a Ball of Fire in the center of the planet, "above" the Underworld landscape, casts a constant reddish-orange hue of fiery light. And around this Ball of Fire orbits four small rocky netherworld globes, each of which being home to a deity-equivalent stronghold.

The weather of an Underworld is fundamentally different from that of its Terraworld counterpart in that it is fire-based rather than water-based. The said Ball of Fire in the center will occasionally send out flares which lash the Underworld landscape with torrents of fire and magma, which will eventually pour into the fiery lakes and oceans. The said fiery lakes and oceans also send out similar but smaller flares.

Meanwhile, the Underworld landscape consists of villages, cities, city-states, nations, and empires. And these entities, along with nomadic entities, travel by land as well as by boats of metal and stone across the fiery lakes and oceans to either trade with each other or compete against each other, similar to the dynamics of the Terraworld.

The difference here, however, is that avatar beings native to the Underworld are immortal and spiritual. They can gain power more easily but can also be destroyed, or unmade easily, despite being immortal. These beings do not need to eat or metabolize. And the spiritual forms in which they exist consist of varying degrees, ranging from shapeless clouds to semi-physical bodily forms.

Again, while these beings are immortal, their forms can be destroyed, and are often destroyed in battles and conflicts. Daemons cast by avatars here are lost forever, and have to be remade by Underworld avatars. For the avatars, themselves, if they are unmade, their spirits are sent to one of the four netherworlds where special Underworld priests remake them, often at the cost of either Arturian credits, or, in some cases, an unusual demand such as the sacrifice of a particular spirit.

Most avatars enter the Underworld as an alternative to resurrection whenever the said avatar dies in the Terraworld. The lure with the Underworld option is, obviously, the immortality as well as how easy it is to gain power. That, of course, makes things more competitive in some Underworlds. But nonetheless, many Society Members pursue this option.

The Usurping of a Particular Underworld:

Sometimes an avatar, or even a daemon, will be powerful enough to cast some sort of influence over a particular Underworld and succeed in rendering it to display wildly abnormal characteristics. Though this is rare, it has happened a few times throughout the history of the Third Level Society.

One particular example was in the year 1281. A figure by the name of the White Baroness had managed to alter the Underworld of Prestia Minor CCL so that it became a world completely void of heat and fire, and completely filled with snow, ice, and glass. Not only that, but the White Baroness also managed to subject numerous Underworlds across numerous star systems in the same fashion. This became such an issue that many Society Members at the time began speculating that some individual was behind the casting of the White Baroness and was doing so in order to infiltrate the Society. Such a theory was bolstered by the fact that the White Baroness was nowhere to be found in the Society Member-Avatar Roster.

A prominent Society Member by the name of Meona Bell was able to pinpoint the cause behind the White Baroness ordeal, discovering that, in fact, no one person was actually behind the casting of the White Baroness, but that the White Baroness was, in fact, a fourth-generation daemon cast by a class of daemons cast by another class of daemons left over by a former Member who left years previously. In other words, it was an anomaly. To note, daemons are avatars formed by Member-backed avatars. Daemons are designed to carry out certain tasks but also to interact with their environment in an independent way. The conscience and moral decision-making mechanisms of a daemon are based on dymensional plane algorithms which operate with a precarious balance of bias versus randomness. Therefore, there is always a small risk that a Realm-altering anomaly may emerge requiring intervention from a dymensional plane Administrator. The White Baroness is a perfect example.

And it is important to assess this risk on a regular basis because any effect on a dymensional plane needing reversal cannot simply be done by a "reset." Administrators must reverse the effects of an anomaly through processes natural to the world of the dymensional plane. For example, once the White Baroness was made to no longer exist, Administrators had to investing time and resources by having Contributors cast powerful avatars to thaw the frozen Underworlds and then to reignite the fires.

The Underworld Structure of Planet Arturia:

The structure of the Underworld of the original Planet Arturia is fundamentally different from the structure of a typical Underworld, in that its traversable surface is contained solely upon Five Great Netherworlds floating around an Underworld Void. Each Netherworld here is home to a Deity of one of the Five Nations, imprisoned after the Uprising of the Common People, a matter to be discussed in a later article.

There is no Ball of Fire here, nor are there lakes and oceans of fire. Rather, there are globular strands of infernal plasma floating around the Underworld Void, bearing resemblance to a lava lamp. The Netherworlds themselves are barren rocky landscapes with villages, cities, and city-states. Political and trade dynamics here are just like said dynamics in the other Underworlds. Though that is the only similarity.

#libraryofcirclaria #blogposts

[libraryofcirclaria]

Remikra: 1027 to 1072

The Great North: Industrial Boom, Overseas Expansion, and the Establishment of Terredon

During this period, the Kingdom of the Great North and its land claims saw the emergence of numerous factories including textile mills, manufacturing plants, and metal crafting facilities.

Scriptfire, having originated in the late 800s and early 900s, evolved into industrial talisman production. Based upon the talisman industry came into existence various trinkets and devices, most notably clocks and gyroscopes.

In the railroad industry, trains connected every major city in Northern Remikra except for Norm; and by the year 1045, a train ran between two major cities twice a day at any given location. Smaller rail lines, meanwhile, connected the suburbs around each major city. The most remarkable achievement was in the year 1050, when a rail line connecting the Edoran and Linbraean Regiondoms was completed, making it possible to travel cross-country directly by rail. Meanwhile, rail networks arose and expanded in Great Northern territories overseas, as the major cities on the West Canticulan peninsula were connected.

Such robust rail networks were all powered by steam engines burning blue-diamond coal sands, the mining of which created many jobs. Along with trains, coal sands powered factories and steam-boats. Before long, a large market emerged for the resource, which was expensive at first but became affordable as more coal sand deposits were discovered.

Most Great Northern land acquisitions in Northern Canticula were peaceful transactions, as the superpower trekked further to the East. However, there were numerous conflicts, carried out by stubborn local figures who resisted; but they were easily defeated by the Great North. Following behind the advancing lines of the Great Northern border were established cities and industrial infrastructures, as the Great North began to have profound influence on the continent. The Great North also gained control over the Hobland territories, although it did fail to conquer present-day Notulfa, due to the brutal resistance measures carried out. Such the latter was abandoned.

Sulledon was established as a seaport in the year 1001; and by the 1030s, it became quite affluent. In 1021, however, a pirate attack upon the city prompted the King and Queen to establish a large Navy reserve around its harbor. Such an agenda effectively rendered the city safe by 1023, so much so, that King Philip and Queen Mary, wanting to have better enforcement over trade taxes, decided to move the Great Northern Crown to this spot. With such a decision made came the desire for additional layers of protection. So, under the orders of the King, one great wall around the city and harbor, and three defensive layers around a designated perimeter in the center of Sulledon, was built. Upon this perimeter was constructed the Crown Seat, named the Stellion Palace. On 15 October 1036, the project was declared officially completed, as the city was renamed Terredon; and it was here on this day that the Crown's location was officially established.

One year later, King Philip died of a heart condition. Nevertheless, under Queen Mary, the Great North continued to prosper.

The Great North: Early Crises

On 9 June 1039, a coordinated pirate attack was waged against the cities of Edora and Cales. Queen Mary, intent on defeating these pirates, could not yet find the location of their base; so she signed orders to triple the size of the Navy around the Great Northern homeland and recruit numerous additional divisions from lands abroad to provide regular patrol and coverage over the Northern part of the Circlarian Ocean, as well as the Galapolgis Islands. By 1045, the Navy presence quota was achieved, as the Great North arguably became the most significant power in the Circlarian Realm.

Meanwhile, in 1041, blue-diamond coal sand mines in the Moorlands began to run dry, leading to a rise in prices and temporary slowing in industry. In response to this, Queen Mary launched an agenda for a Circlarian-wide search for additional reserves. In 1044, large reserves, even larger than the ones in the Moorlands, were discovered throughout Southeast Hobland. To this area, the Queen launched numerous military agendas for tighter control, as land was sold and partitioned off to various Great Northern companies for mining. By 1046, the early blue-diamond coal sands crisis was resolved.

Succession of Great Northern Monarchies: 1037-1079

King Philip and Queen Mary were coronated on 14 May 998, bringing into existence the Kingdom of the Great North. As mentioned above, King Philip ruled until his death in 1037. Queen Mary then continued her rule over the Great North until her death in 1051, arguably the apex for the expansive empire. Mary was succeeded by her daughter, Queen Alexandra, who would rule until the year 1079.

George Benson: The First Invasion of Prove

Born in Cales in the year 1038, George Benson would come to have a distinguished career in the Great Northern Navy, contributing greatly to the keeping of the pirates at bay during the attacks of 1039. He was then promoted to Admiral and assigned to command a Fleet which covered Vantacula and a section of the Eastern Galapolgis Islands.

Benson was descended from the Weller family on his mother's side. He was embarrassed and begrudging of Jacob I's decision to abandon the Edoran Kingdom, while he was proud of Jacob II's choice to return and restore the Edoran Kingdom from the Kramers. As discovered later through personal memoirs, though, Jacob II had an agenda to defeat and bring Prove under Edoran influence, but died before that ever happened. George Benson felt that it was his calling to fulfill the latter agenda, but, in order to gain approval from Queen Alexandra, had to find a reasonable cause.

During the late 1050s and early 1060s, numerous pirate attacks became problematic throughout the Galapolgis region. Of this, Benson took advantage, claiming to the Queen, in a proposition he made to her in 1061, that these pirates were headed by the King of Prove, who was planning a large-scale and coordinated assault on the Great Northern homeland. He then asked to have at his disposal a division each of the Navy, Infantry, Cavalry, and aerovehicles (part of the Navy at this point) to attack and defeat the Provan Kingdom, and establish it as a Great Northern territory. However, upon viewing evidence suggesting otherwise that a pirate base was found on a Galapolgis Island closer to Southern Remikra, and upon knowing of his history and suspecting of his personal agenda, Queen Alexandra denied Admiral George Benson even admission to her Personal Council. To the rejection letter, Benson composed a refutation, alleging that her sources should be questioned. The Queen responded to this by re-assigning Benson to command a Navy Fleet along the West Coast of Tandeiyah, located further North and much further from Canticula.

Frustrated by this, Benson remained determined to carry out his quest.

In October 1062, the Admiral of the Navy Fleet North of where Benson was stationed was dispatched temporarily to address a pirate attack elsewhere, leaving Benson in charge of both Fleets. It was in this moment that Benson saw an opportunity, as he had enough soldiers to carry out an invasion. In the weeks that ensued, he withheld distributions of "The Soldiers' Note," a pamphlet that served as communication between soldiers and Great Northern society, and replaced such a medium with his own pamphlet falsely depicting the Queen addressing a "Provan Threat." As he trained the soldiers for an invasion of Prove, he arranged a supply line and purchased large amounts of coal sands from Hobland, withholding letters of such which were addressed to the Crown. On 17 March 1063, Benson and the two Fleets under his command launched, setting out across the Circlarian Ocean bound for Prove.

On 17 October 1063, Benson's fleet arrived in the Bay of Prove, where Benson's ships fired upon the stone cannon turrets of Provan defenses. The Provans, however, retaliated with "house cannons," cannons hidden in the roofs of homes and shops. Furthermore, Queen Alexandra, having soon heard of Benson's hidden agenda, cut off his supply line. As a result, a majority of Benson's ships were destroyed, as large numbers of casualties were inflicted; and Provan ships soon closed on Benson's. On the last day of the month, Benson surrendered and was taken prisoner.

On 4 March 1064, Provan authorities received a letter from Queen Alexandra ordering the extradition of Benson back to the Great North homeland. Upon return to the Great North on 7 June 1064, Benson was discharged from the Navy and sent to work as a member of the Royal Shipbuilding Guild in St. Eschel. The Queen, furthermore, issued an order for blue-diamond coal sands in the Hoblandish colonies to never again supply fuel to Benson.

The Great North: Tension with the Motanian Empire

Throughout the 1050s and 1060s, the Great North continued gaining land to the East in Northern Canticula. But in October 1064, at the Curatoring River, Great Northerners spotted the Motanian Empire on the opposite bank, as the river served as a border between the two powers. Tension soon developed at the center of which was, in the River, an island containing a great amount of valuable iron ore. Such buildup of friction was preceded, also, by indirect hostility with the Motanians, as independent merchants loyal to each side fought one another. The two powers were equally matched in military and firearms, as it seemed more and more likely that there would be a major conflict; and during this time, the Kingdom of Prove signed an alliance with the Motanians.

George Benson: The Second Invasion of Prove

It was during such buildup of tension between the Motanians and the Great Northerners that George Benson escaped from his post in the Shipbuilding Guild and returned to the Navy, disguised as a freshman recruit. Under this guise, he secretly re-connected with some of his old loyal soldiers while recruiting new followers. He traveled to various locations where he did this, and after determining that he recruited as many people as possible, snuck away with them from each former location and traveling to the new one. By the time he convened with all of them on the Island of Vantacula, their numbers were equal to that of three Navy Fleets, more than he had for the first invasion. In Vantacula, he implemented the same agenda of withholding pamphlets and replacing them with propaganda, except this wave of propaganda depicted Prove as a threat and condemned the Queen for ignoring this. As he trained his recruits, Benson arranged for a secret transaction of coal sands from the Hoblandish colonies, disguising himself in the appropriate letters as the Queen and employing the same methods of withholding any paperwork from the actual Crown. He then arranged a secret supply line, this time with the assistance of the nation of Wannonia. And on 5 January 1067, he and his three Fleets launched for Prove.

They arrived in Prove on 16 June 1067, where they found the Kingdom of Prove noticeably weakened from a war it was fighting in the Red Desert. Benson's ships fired upon Provan defenses, once again. This time, Provan defenses failed; and Benson's soldiers stormed the city, forcing the Provan King to flee. In his place, George Benson crowned himself the King.

Alarmed by this and by news that a messenger ship was hurrying toward Motan, Queen Alexandra of the Great North scrambled five Navy Fleets to confront Benson. On 1 September 1067, these Navy ships arrived in the Bay of Prove and opened fire, toppling Benson's regime within three days, and forcing the defective Admiral to surrender. He was immediately placed under arrest by Great Northern authorities and sent back to the Great North. Other Great Northern ships rushed to the East to send the approaching Motanian Navy a signal of peace, as a Council was called in Prove in October 1067. Here, a peace treaty was finally signed between the Great North and the Motanian Empire and the Provan Kingdom re-established.

Meanwhile, George Benson was tried and convicted of treason, which would have warranted a death sentence. However, being indirectly related to royal blood, Benson was, instead, sentenced to exile in Northern Hobland, in present-day Notulfa and away from the Great Northern colonies.

The Hobland Independence War: 1068-1076

The Great Northern colonies in Hobland held great value to the Kingdom, as they contained 80 percent of the supply of blue-diamond coal sands. However, the colonists and local inhabitants were unhappy with the Great Northern Crown, voicing grievances of high taxation, lack of voice in Parliament, harsh mining conditions, lack of proper payment for labor, and exploitation of resources. Queen Alexandra, concerned primarily with Benson and Motanian affairs, as well as persistent pirate attacks in the Galapolgis region, failed to adhere to the colonists' and locals' numerous petitions. As a result, on 1 May 1068, the colonies declared independence and waged war upon the present Great Northern forces.

The Hobland Independence War carried brutal and costly resistance against the Great North, as revolutionaries seized large swaths of precious coal sand reserves, choking off its supply and beginning an economic crisis in the once-prosperous Kingdom.

#libraryofcirclaria #remikratimeline

[libraryofcirclaria]

Northeast Ancondrian Coup, 1475: Overview

Information Up To Date as of 23 March 1476

Introduction:

On the afternoon of May 24, 1475, all communication networks across the United Confederation of Ancondria went dead. Moments later, armed military personnel blockaded the national capital Providence, and after a few hours, invaded it. Political extremists stormed the Legislature while opponents of the coup were made to escape the city and establish a holdout in the nearby city of East Providence.

Today, the UCA remains in a political gridlock.

Initial Establishment:

In the year 1370, just after the Esurchian War, the Havenlands, which were the original former territories of the Esurchian State, were partitioned off into three separate territories by the 1370 Treaty of Silba, which established border walls around the Havenlands as well as border walls separating the three territories within. This arrangement restricted freedom of movement for the local Ancondrian inhabitants; and before long, they rose up in a revolt. In doing so, they formed the Ancondrian Liberation Army, or the ALA. The ALA would attempt to destroy the border walls while Ancondrian locals outside the Havenlands, sympathetic to the revolt, established their own ALA chapters. Meanwhile, civilians and politicians in the Havenlands united and formed the nation of the United Confederation of Ancondria, or the UCA.

An uprising occurred in Ramport and Malfua in the year 1371, driving the Independent Commonwealth State of Retun (ICSR) and allied Northeast Ancondrian nations to sign the 1371 Treaty of Ramport and Malfua, granting the ICSR Ancondrian Domain District V and its capital, Ramport, status as an independent nation. The Treaty also opened the borders with the Havenlands as well as dismantling the border walls dividing the Havenlands. In doing so, the ICSR and allied Northeastern Ancondrian states formally recognized the UCA as a nation. And the UCA integrated all ALA chapters within its borders into an officially established armed forces, instructing ALA chapters abroad to disband. Most did so, being satisfied with the terms. However, there were a few groups within the former ALA chapters who were dissatisfied and formed illegal armed Legions in the area. These Legions were lightly armed at the time and caused only the equivalent of gang street violence mostly in certain sectors of larger cities. Nonetheless, the UCA and Northeastern Ancondrian nations sought to contain any outbreaks of violence by these organizations in order to keep city streets crime-free.

Ramport-Ultra-Nationalist Takeover:

Ramport and the former District V, now independent from the ICSR, established itself initially as the Independent Democratic State of Ramport, or IDSR. However, owing to damages from the Esurchian War, the economy was less than ideal; and ultra-nationalist figures were able to leverage the unhappy sentiment of the IDSR electorate in order to have themselves voted into numerous positions of political power. There were constitutional checks and balances in place in the IDSR government in order to preserve democracy. However, between 1375 and 1376, the ultra-nationalists carried out a coup against opposing democratic institutions, and did so successfully. Though the IDSR remains a democracy to this day on paper, the ultra-nationalists were able to establish a de facto authoritarian regime in its place.

First, they renamed the nation the Sovereign State of Minlon, after a charismatic ultra-nationalist and ultra-capitalist figure named George Minlon, a Retunian businessman who settled in Northeast Ancondria between almost 100 years previously. The Sovereign State of Minlon then enacted numerous laws suppressing voter rights and worker rights. The nation since then has been known for its staggering economic inequality and a notorious justice policy known as the Bounty System.

The Bounty System was the solution to a call made by the Minlon government leaders for minimal government intervention but effective law enforcement. Details of this policy may be discussed in length in a future article; but basically, anyone having either broken the law or made an establishment figure unhappy is subject to being killed by a local vigilante group for a sum of money if the said victim is placed on the Bounty List.

The United Confederation of Ancondria:

On a regular schedule, the population of the United Confederation of Ancondria elects Representatives, Governors, and Governor-Generals to fulfill leadership roles. The Governor-General, the title of the Commander-In-Chief position for the UCA, is elected every fifth year of a decade for a ten-year term, but is subject to a retention vote every tenth year of a decade, which is the middle of the term. Accordingly, if the incumbent Governor-General fails to win the retention vote in the middle of the term, he or she is removed from office with the next figure in line, the Lieutenant-Governor-General, taking over for the remainder of the term until the next elected Governor-General is scheduled to take office.

The Confederation has a total of seventeen official parties across its political spectrum. However, this spectrum in practice has been dominated by two main political parties: the Ancondrian Liberals and the Ancondrian Conservatives. Between 1375 and 1475, the Governor-General position has been dominated on the most part by either of those two parties, with the Ancondrian Liberals having that position for slightly more than half of that time, though not consecutively.

Infiltration From Minlon:

It is important to note that contrary to popular belief, though most members of these Legions were far-right, not all of them were initially. These Legions were originally open to recruiting those "fringers" from both liberal and conservative blocs who were willing to cast aside their differences and unite against clauses in the Ramport and Malfua Treaty which supported corporate interests.

However, it was when billionaires from the Sovereign State of Minlon started backing these Legions in the 1390s that liberal members started leaving, meaning that those who remained with the Legions were of the conservative bloc. Also as the result of influence from these billionaires, many of the remaining conservative Legion members began embracing the teachings and beliefs of the late George Minlon, who dictated that one's goal is to work hard, do good business, and do all while getting as close as possible to God in accordance with the Alconist faith. George Minlon, after all, was also an evangelist.

In support of the beliefs of George Minlon, Legion members began believing in what they perceived to be appropriate policies for the UCA, including the notion that the only role of a government was to provide police and military protection "in good faith," to refrain from collecting taxes from businesses, to refrain from even regulating businesses in any degree, and to rely on Alconist Scripture as the basis for enacting and interpreting laws, primarily ones governing social issues like darkfire.

Between 1400 and 1440, Legion members began believing that the Ancondrian Liberal Party was seeking to corrupt the social fabric of the UCA and undermine democracy, and said Legion members began making ever more frequently a call to "protect all institutions of freedom and democracy by force if necessary."

Such calls were deemed empty threats at the time. However, in 1446, five billionaire-influenced Legions united and established the Ancondrian Freedom Warriors, or AFW for short. They called for other Legions to join as chapters under the AFW, leading membership of the AFW to swell in the years to come. During this time, both Ancondrian Liberals and Ancondrian Conservatives in government considered the AFW to be a troublesome fringe-right organization.

In 1455, the UCA population, unhappy with the Conservative majority since last election cycle, voted in a Liberal majority and a Liberal Governor-General. AFW members called this election "rigged" based on unfounded claims; and as soon as said Liberals took office in 1456, the AFW began sporadic but better-coordinated attacks on numerous locations and targets. The UCA government, in response, dispatched a temporary martial law agency known as the Ancondrian Peacekeeper Task Force in order to keep said violence under control.

Meanwhile, within the ranks of Legislature and the UCA government, a small group of Ancondrian Conservatives with radical conservative views formed a band against the remainder of the Ancondrian Conservative Party, accusing them of being "too liberal." Such a radical group called themselves the Coalition for Ancondrian Freedom, CAF in short, and associated themselves as a civil extension of the AFW. Like the AFW, CAF membership would swell over the years.

Robert Milton:

In 1465, Robert Milton, a member of the CAF but considered an Ancondrian Conservative on paper, won by a very small margin the election for the next UCA Governor-General, while his wife, Shara Milton, became the Lieutenant-Governor-General, and the Conservatives regained a majority in Legislature.

Upon taking office in 1466, Robert Milton terminated the Ancondrian Peacekeeper agenda against the AFW and repealed a large number of taxes. He then attempted to have Legislature pass a slew of laws governing social life, some of which passing but most failing to do so.

Of note, Robert Milton attempted to have a law passed to fully prohibit the engagement of darkfire, as is the case in the Sovereign State of Minlon. That agenda failed, but Ancondrian Conservatives did succeed in passing a subsequent law removing many employment protections for members of the darkfire community.

In 1470, a retention election year for the Governor-General position, allegations emerged that Robert Milton had met with wealthy figures from Minlon and the UCA lightfire industry to help fund the CAF and AFW. Accordingly, he was even facilitating the purchase of heavy weapons for the AFW, weapons including planes and tanks. Ancondrian Liberals united and filed a motion for Robert Milton to be impeached, a motion blocked by the Ancondrian Conservative majority.

Nevertheless, Robert Milton lost the retention election.

Shara Milton:

In accordance to constitutional protocol, Shara Milton became the next Governor-General in 1471. Before long, she earned the nickname "Warrior of Words," because of her long speeches decrying Ancondrian Liberals, the darkfire community, and the past election which she claimed was rigged. Conservatives in UCA Legislature blocked every legislative agenda put forth by the Ancondrian Liberals while refraining from putting forth any legislative agendas themselves. Meanwhile, Governor-General Shara Milton kept her husband's past executive orders in place and did not issue new ones.

In October 1471, a documentary, put together by numerous scholars from the UCA and abroad, was broadcasted detailing life inside the Sovereign State of Minlon. Such a documentary gave detailed insight about the notorious Bounty System, the staggering economic inequality, and the Exit Visa requirement. Accordingly, those living inside the Sovereign State of Minlon are not allowed to leave the country without an Exit Visa, as requirements to obtain such a visa are stringent. Primarily those wishing to pursue a college education outside Minlon have been expressively denied permission to leave the country. The Sovereign State of Minlon does not provide sufficient education opportunities for the working class; and those who speak out against this system are put on the notorious Bounty List.

Large swaths of the UCA population, primarily liberals, were outraged by this; and a group of college students in East Providence formed the Free Minlon Movement as a result.

In 1472, Shara Milton declared the Free Minlon Movement to be a threat to national security in the UCA, and dispatched the Ancondrian Peacekeeper Task Force, the very same one having previously been used against the AFW in the past, against Free Minlon demonstrations.

Caleb Krong:

One prominent leader of the Free Minlon Movement, Caleb Krong, announced his candidacy in 1473 for the Governor-General position, scheduled to be up for election again in the year 1475. Krong's popularity led him to easily win the Ancondrian Liberal Party primary election in 1474.

The UCA Governor-General election was scheduled to take place on September 24, 1475. An official sample poll taken in March of that year showed the UCA population being in strong favor of Krong. Incumbent Governor-General Shara Milton responded to this by declaring, based on a conspiracy theory generated by the CAF, that there existed a "Black State of Ancondria," a supposed secret coalition of Liberals and "equalitarians" aiming to usurp democracy in the UCA and re-establish the nation as an authoritarian regime. Milton called on Legislature to grant her emergency powers to expand surveillance and martial law measures. However, the UCA Superior Court struck down this motion. Milton then called upon Tom Parton, Chief General of the AWF to "prepare for a long struggle."

The Coup:

By this point, the AFW and CAF had insiders at every communication network location throughout the UCA, which by law ran on a single communication frequency with a classified second frequency to use only in an emergency. These insiders, however, had knowledge of both frequencies, as the system was originally designed to be in effect in case there was an attack by an external enemy.

At 2:15 PM local time on May 24, 1475, the AFW and CAF insiders jammed the entire communication system, which also meant that the automatic navigation system of every gyroplane, civilian and military, was compromised and every flight grounded or forced to land. All communications throughout the UCA went down at this time while AFW and CAF forces communicated through their own "virtual private networks." Meanwhile, to the outside world, it seemed as if the entire nation of the United Confederation of Ancondria "went silent."

At 2:30 PM, AFW tanks and soldiers blocked every road entrance into Providence, the national capital. Between this time and 9:00 PM, AFW planes carried out relentless airstrikes against the besieged city, primarily against the sections known to have majority liberal populations. Due to the communication blackout, no one outside the vicinity of Providence had even the slightest idea that this was happening while UCA defenses were helpless to do anything, though they did scramble to establish their own virtual private networks.

At 9:00 PM, AFW tanks and soldiers marched into the city of Providence where they fought relentlessly and succeeded in establishing dominance over every sector. UCA defenses and civilians tried to resist but were ultimately unsuccessful.

At 7:17 AM on June 1, the AFW captured the House of Legislature, the House of the Governor-General, and the House of the Superior Court, and stationed armed personnel around each of these three buildings, adhering to the aforementioned ultra-nationalist belief of "protecting freedom and democracy by force." At 9:03 AM, Tom Parton arrived at the First Podium in the House of Legislature and declared publicly that "there had been an attempted attack on democracy and freedom by the Black State of Ancondria," and that he needed to "administer temporarily a state of lawful order over the city of Providence because of this."

Shara Milton that day resigned from the Governor-General post, citing personal reasons; and Tom Parton declared that the Governor-General post would remain vacant until the next candidate elected on September 24 was scheduled to take office. He then declared that the House of Legislature is safe and secure and that the elected Representatives may gather to carry out their normal business.

However, when the Legislature gathered, the Conservative majority drew up a list of "Black State insiders," consisting entirely of Ancondrian Liberals. They then had each and every one of them voted out of the House of Legislature and banned from the city of Providence, citing that every person on the list "poses an existential threat to freedom and democracy for the Confederation."

On June 2, Tom Parton declared that the House of Legislature would be the only body casting votes officially for the September 24 election, citing a clause in the UCA Constitution for the Legislature to do so in the event of a national emergency while "acting on behalf of the best interests of the people."

On June 3, Caleb Krong and the Liberal figures banned from Providence gathered in the city of East Providence and formed the Emergency Government of East Providence, or the EGEP in short. The EGEP declared that Tom Parton's decision to have the Legislature carry out the election instead of the population was based on an illegitimate cause. The EGEP furthermore declared that the popular vote would occur as normal, and moved to ensure polling locations throughout the UCA were accessible to the population.

The only concern here was that the AFW began attacking these polling locations. UCA military veterans banded together and formed the Volunteer Peacekeeper Force, fighting back in defense of the EGEP against the AFW. This would culminate into unending conflict which began to take shape in June of 1475.

On September 24, 1475, Election Day was carried out on both sides. The Conservative bloc in Providence declared only votes cast by the Legislature to be legitimate and therefore declared the winner of the said Governor-General Election to be Garren Fawnwell, another notorious commander of the AFW. Meanwhile, the popular vote facilitated by the EGEP yielded Caleb Krong to be the winner.

Conclusion:

At present, the mainstream communication infrastructure in the UCA is still blacked out. The conservative-backed AFW and the liberal-backed VPF are still in a battlefield gridlock. The EGEP has successfully established a loose but effective web of virtual private networks accessible by a large majority of the UCA population.

The ICSR and many other nations support the EGEP in this crisis. However, there are also nations, like the Kingdom of Gyrosak, who support the AFW.

#libraryofcirclaria #blogposts

[libraryofcirclaria]

Circlarian Religions: Alphaesianism

**Descriptions of the following faiths entail how followers believe the world was created and how the world developed over the course of history. However, it is important to note that scientific evidence does not always support the events claimed to have happened**

Alphaesianism

According to followers of the Alphaesian faith, the Earth (Juno Minor) was conceived into being by the One Unnamed God, and that this world was all a garden with fair weather and infinite supplies of food, water, and resources. Moreover, the world was originally flat and infinite, as what came to be the Land of Men was one with the Land of the Divine. Both humans and the divine were immortal.

Over the course of 3000 years, the first 3000 years of the existence of the world, humans rose to greatness. With every passing century came into being greater and greater civilizations. This was the First Age of the World, and the last 200 years of it saw the most advanced societies of the time.

In the last decade of the First Age rose a Great Kingdom ruled by King Kotor, who determined to bring down the One God and rule in his stead. That he did, leading the Great Army and smiting the One God. In doing so, he split the One God into Alphus the Pure Spirit, Brox the Impure Spirit, and Aerphin the Smithy of the Earth.

Alphus determined to break the evil of humankind and therefore commanded Aerphin to sunder the Land of Men from the Land of the Divine. Aerphin complied and drove forth his Hammer into the Earth, creating a Great Chasm that erupted fire consuming the entire world. The Land of Men was violently separated from the Land of the Divine by both Ocean and Sky, casting forth the Sun, Moon, and Stars to reside with the Land of the Divine in the Sky.

Thus ended the First Age of the World with the First Unmaking.

The dawn of the Second Age saw that the World of Men was now finite, consisting of a Great Land surrounded by a Great Ocean. The lives of humans were now finite and mortal as well.

Like the First Age, the Second Age lasted 3000 years. And Alphus charged humankind in this new world to repopulate and spiritually become one with this new world, adhering to the Three Pillars: To demonstrate one's love toward family, to demonstrate one's love toward the society, and to demonstrate one's love toward the Divine so that they may enter that realm after death.

It was during the Second Age that a man of wisdom named Torvin planted five trees of lael, a legendary foodstuff that was both wholesome and sweet, good for both humans and animals. During each season of Harvest, Torvin commanded that three fruits be gathered from each tree and each fruit gathered be planted for its own tree. The village of Satsie took this on and enjoyed prosperity.

Torveay, grandson of Torvin, many years after Torvin's death, commanded that some of the yields of the now many lael trees be sold in exchange for wealth. Many supported this idea and became very wealthy. However, not everyone conformed to this, for a man named Erik opposed Torveay fiercely and set out to kill him. Torveay in self-defense killed Erik instead.

And then Alphus the Pure Spirit smote the village of Satsie, forcing everyone to flee to the corners of the world.

Centuries later, near the end of the Second Age, the descendents of these people built ten Kingdoms, five in the South and five in the North. The Five Kingdoms of the South lived in peace and mutual harmony, adhering to the teachings of Torvin and enjoying bountiful harvests of the lael trees. The Five Kingdoms in the North followed the teachings of Torveay, growing the trees for trade and leaving many of its people to starve.

In the middle-most of the Five North Kingdoms emerged a powerful man of spellcrafting named Seraph, who named the Kingdom after himself and set out to conquer the other four Northern Kingdoms. After this, he launched an armageddon to the South to vanquish the other five Kingdoms.

This sparked a brutal and unending war, broken only by the power of Alphus, who commanded Aerphin, Smithy of the Earth to smite the world yet again. Aerphin did so splitting the Land of Men in a violent fashion into separate continents and islands by vast seas, and dividing this world into regions of hot and cold climates, wet and dry climates. Moreover, the Earth was made round.

Thus was the Second Unmaking, the end of the Second Age.

The Holy Scripture of the Alphaesian faiths describes with less volume the Third Age than the Second Age. However, it states that Alphus called on humankind to repopulate the world and adhere to the Three Pillars. Alphus also commanded the construction in the Land of the Divine of the Holy City of Edom to house those most closely following his ways.

This Third Age also lasted 3000 years, by the end of which had arisen a very prosperous Circlarian Empire, which conquered land overseas over large swaths of the continents and numerous islands. This is, however, with exception to those outcasts from Society who are mentioned to have gone to "a land far away" and established the nation of Agridbea.

Nonetheless, by the end of the Third Age, the Circlarian Empire waxed in its power and influence; and its Emperor sought to vanquish the rule of Alphus and the Divine once and for all by seeking to destroy the Holy City of Edom. The Great Armada of the Empire was in port ready to launch when Alphus commanded Aerphin to carry out the Third Unmaking. Aerphin took his Great Hammer and smote the Great Mountain of Circlaria out of which a Great Fire burst forth and destroyed the Imperial Seat in a great fire, and covered the entire Earth in smoke and ash so that all civilization died and humankind was forced to start over. (And it is believed that the events mentioned in literature here may have been derived from the eruption of the supervolcano underneath present-day Vantacula).

Thus ended the Third Age with the Third Unmaking, during which the Underworld was formed.

Alphus then came down and gave the Proclamation of Peace and Order, in which humans would repopulate over the different landmasses and nations in the form of different races speaking different languages. By order of this Proclamation, each people was to govern themselves as free people while fulfilling the Three Pillars and promising never to enslave or master other peoples or their lands such as what the Circlarian Empire had done.

Individuals after death would then come to the Judgement: those who did well would be sent to the Holy City of Edom to dwell for eternity while those who did not would be cast into the Underworld.

Alphus decreed that in the future, this Fourth Age would one day end, as society would yet again become corrupt. This, he proclaimed, will one day warrant a Fourth and final Unmaking, during which the world would be destroyed, never to be made again.

#libraryofcirclaria #blogposts

[libraryofcirclaria]

6 - Meona Bell: Part One

1 September 1281

So I have started off the month returning back to Cabotton University on an urgent matter. Apparently, the notorious Ceri Mains, who escaped the Mount Carris Perimeter last month, is especially interested in a vulnerable prodigy named Mary Kormann, who currently is a Member of the Third Level Society. The current Dungeonmaster is Julian Mackwell of whom I know almost nothing save his name. I've been warned, however, that there is a certain amount of treachery this time.

Goodness! It's been years since I've been to the University. I'm sure there's all new faces and none of anyone I knew in the past. I think of anyone I knew there, Oscar Lehman held out the longest. He definitely thought he could not swing the Dungeonmaster position, but I told him to fake the confidence until he found true confidence. Honestly, that might not have been the best advice, but it did work, didn't it. He lasted four years in there, almost as long as Ivella. However, once he was ready to hand the Office to someone else, he left and never dealt with the Society again. I guess I was right in sensing that the Dungeonmaster position is very taxing.

It seems like yesterday that I was dealing with Cray Fenton and Oscar Lehman. That was twenty years ago. So much has changed, both on the outside and the inside. We parted ways that year, but Sari Frame and I went in the same direction, supporting a growing demographic within the ranks of the Third Level Society Caucus, a demographic who had long been voicing a long-ignored desire to create a medieval version of the Arturian Realm, set in parallel to life in Remikra during the age of John Dane and the advent of the hot air balloon. Such a proposal had been made in during the off-weeks Caucus meetings, and had been repeatedly for at least the last two decades; every single time, it never was taken seriously. The number of extra dymensional plane servers needed to be built for this simply put the cost beyond the Society's current budget. Our call was answered, however, by two unexpected individuals: Marcus Terrings and Jon Beyon. We met with them in the city of Cenofan across the Circlarian Ocean on the continent of Canticula. Marcus and Jon had a lot of Canticulan friends, many of whom willing to not only invest in our desired medieval dymensional plane, but to set it up across numerous expansive servers located in branches across the Midland River States. That started in 1261; and by 1267, we were at such a height that I began to believe my life to be defined in major part by this enterprise. Then came the Provans. Their small, tiny state in the far East of Canticula, apparently a republic, came under sway of some sort of a charismatic figure, who invaded her neighbors and then pushed Westward. Nothing could stop the Provans. They played politics, taking advantage of a rivalry existing between the Midland River States and the Chokian Republic by pushing both sides into war. And then, as conflict broke out, the Provans launched their offensive…against both sides. Neither side had the capability to match them. The Provans annihilated both sides in one fell swoop. I personally was not present in any of their grim battlefields, thankfully. But I did ride in an airship over one of the Midland River capitals, which was nothing but a blackened area. Apparently, Provan bombing and created a large inferno that raged there in days past. Rumor has it that the Provans destroyed that city with one large "device of mass destruction." Even today I hardly believe that. To conceive of a single bomb capable of setting an entire city ablaze is something I buy with difficulty. I believe it was most likely the work of a thorough raiding job. Regardless, we were forced to close up shop and locate back to Remikra. Some of us went back to try and retrieve the trecholators. We succeeded in retrieving two of them, but the rest were either destroyed or salvaged by the Provans. In some instances, some of our people were turned back and had to go home. So we were forced to start over.

Up to that point, though, we had become just as guilty as the Third Level Society, in that we never took the time to consider an idea voiced by a growing number of our people: setting up a dymensional plane of Remikra, itself, during the tenth century. Similar to Medieval Arturia back in the Third Level Society, the Remikra imitation idea was never taken seriously due to the ridiculous costs. But now that we were back from Canticula, having settled in West Terredon, Combria, the idea of Medieval Remikra, preferred now by a majority of our members thanks to Jon Beyon and Marcus Terrings having thrown support behind this, finally received the funding and opportunity for implementation that its original creators long asked for. Unfortunately, the idea of rebuilding Medieval Arturia was put in moratorium and has been largely forgotten. Also, the realism expectations of Medieval Remikra have called for extensive research into history, geography, and culture. And it's definitely proven to be as daunting of a task as we feared back in 1267. It is now fourteen years later, and we are still researching.

There have also been quite a lot of changes in my personal life, but I guess I will dwell on those later.

I will end with this, however. I am quite thankful for the Greycloak. Just in case this personal journal gets stolen, I won't disclose who Greycloak is or their specific role, but they are the ones who paid for everything: the whole Canticula agenda despite its downfall; the whole Medieval Remikra agenda which is still ongoing; and even my airship flight from West Terredon to North Kempton, my airship flight from North Kempton to Cabotton, and my extended stay in Guestroom 3 of 327 East Mason Street, where I am located now.

Am I strange to say that I am both excited and dreading the whole Ceri Mains and Mary Kormann thing?

**

For the entirety of Part One: 6 - Meona Bell: Part One

#libraryofcirclaria #thirdlevelsocietyfirstversion #thirdlevelsociety

[libraryofcirclaria]

Mount Carris 1257 and the Wall

Early on, the land surrounding Mount Carris was under the darkfire domain of Holz Finzi. This was not in legal terms; however, the area and the land surrounding Lake Maern was restricted from the public since 1237. Finzi subdivided the land into cantons, each run by a darkfire cartel base.

Between the 1230s and the 1250s, a long struggle ensued between the Finzi regime and the new Retunian Republic, as the Retunian government attempted to subdue a canton and compound, only to see one re-emerge again.

Also during this time arose a darkfire figure serving as Finzi's rival: Wain Berron.

Wain Berron was a roaming darkfire dealer who frequented the land surrounding Mount Carris and Lake Maern before the arrival of the young Holz Finzi in 1236. Finzi was able to master the darkfire quarry here; but Berron knew that darkfire quarries could be remastered.

On 23 October 1252, Berron attempted to overthrow Finzi and also to trigger the darkfire quarry in order to remaster it. The trigger succeeded, but Berron failed to overthrow Finzi, who had him imprisoned. After a few weeks, Finzi came to Berron and offered to release him and pardon him of his offense, with the caveat that Finzi would assign him to command the compound and canton in the Southwest Corner of Finzi's territory near Lyndonpole. Berron agreed to this.

On 22 January 1257, Mount Carris released a darkfire discharge resulting from one of Finzi's many experiments. This was not the first discharge in history but was certainly the largest thus far, sending a darkfire cloud to blanket nearly all of the town of Lyndonpole and to spread as far as North Kempton and the Basin District. With lack of knowledge at the time regarding the fundamentals of darkfire, the incident triggered panic across the nation. Between January 23 and 24, the Retunian Civil Guard launched an offensive deep into Finzi's unofficial territory surrounding Mount Carris and Lake Maern. Their agenda was to ultimately subdue the Finzi regime, but the agenda failed as RCG officers were hit with Finzi's Defensive Disorientation darkfire scripts.

However, this offensive happened in Wain Berron's canton; and on February 1, Berron retaliated by attacking and destroying RCG camps set up just outside his canton. Finzi, determining this to be going too far, ordered Berron to stop. When Berron ignored him, Finzi launched other canton forces against Berron in order to subue him. On February 2, Berron retaliated by turning his forces against Finzi and driving them toward Finzi's head compound on Mount Carris.

On February 3, the RCG launched their second offensive, during which Wain Berron was shot and killed. The RCG blamed Finzi, himself, for Berron's actions, and launched a conjoined offensive against both Finzi's and Berron's forces alike; meanwhile, Berron's forces continued to fight Finzi's forces.

Seeking to end the violence, then-Prime Minister James Black, on 4 February 1257, signed a compromise with Holz Finzi and the leadership of the Berron canton. Per the compromise, an official boundary line was drawn around the foothills of Mount Carris, with the area inside being called the Mount Carris Perimeter. And the terms were as follows: Holz Finzi, and any other person born with Involuntary Darkfire Conjuration Syndrome inside the Perimeter was forbidden to leave the Perimeter; any person born with Involuntary Darkfire Conjuration Syndrome outside the Perimeter was forbidden to enter the Perimeter; any person born without Involuntary Darkfire Conjuration Syndrome inside or outside the Perimeter was allowed to travel within and without, but had to go through a background and security check at one of the boundary checkpoints to ensure that he or she did not have any involvement with the darkfire cartels.

Initially, the boundary around the Perimeter was lined partially with barbed-wire fence near areas of relatively high traffic, but was otherwise open land. That all changed, however, when Edward Jackson became Prime Minister, who ordered the boundary reinforced with a concrete wall, the construction of which began promptly in 1261, and, when completed in the summer of 1262, stood 50 feet tall and 100 feet wide. This wall would stand until the full legalization of darkfire in 1309, after which the wall was completely demolished, with all remnants of it destroyed.

Since 1309, a simple chain link fence lined the perimeter of what is now called the Lake Maern Reserve. However, the purpose of the fence and the Reserve is to protect the darkfire community by providing a safe haven, instead of dividing and imprisoning a select demographic.

#libraryofcirclaria #blog posts