Modern World STGOD Concept

[Steve]

Okay, this is my really crappy preliminary map solely for giving people an idea of who and what will be where. There are still people missing from it, we'll fill it in as we go.


http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q66 ... 1569c8.jpg

[Steve]

I think it was just a random number and I misread it as a definite "I want", Thanas.

[Siege]

Relax. The reason planning is done in a doc is mainly to hash out theological disputes and a moderately complicated shared backstory.

Also it is frankly nonsense to say that 'Fin wants a Russia sized country'; that statement is based on nothing but a few real world numbers dropped in to help give a sense of scale. It's not even a draft version, it has nothing to do with what's going to end up being proposed, and frankly this kind of kerfuffle is exactly why that sort of thing isn't worked out in public.

I'll grant you that it would be good for Fin and 'Zook to give a rough idea of what'll be proposed though, that's a fair enough point.

[Steve]

I think it was just me screwing up and not thinking about it. I'd blame lack of sleep, but frankly it was just me not thinking.

[Thanas]

Relax. The reason planning is done in a doc is mainly to hash out theological disputes and a moderately complicated shared backstory.

Nevertheless, it kinda feels like there is a group of players (mainly CATO from SDNW2) discussing things without anybody else knowing about them. To be blunt: I don't want this to be CATO redux, I don't want to have some sort of offsite chatroom where important things are discussed without anybody else using it and I do not want some sort of informal alliance dominating the game. I might be overly paranoid but I am already wondering what important things are being said somewhere that will have an impact on this game.

Heck, unless I heard that some nations were discussed I did not even know Pezook was going to be a part of this round.

Okay, this is my really crappy preliminary map solely for giving people an idea of who and what will be where. There are still people missing from it, we'll fill it in as we go.
http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q66 ... 1569c8.jpg

I really hope that is not to scale.

[Simon_Jester]

It looks like it's just there to give a sense of basic spatial relationships.

I think Umeria could be either relatively large (modern China contains a lot of land) or relatively not-so-large (since at the population density of the places in China where people actually live, you could fit 450 million people in a pretty compact mass of land).

The shape of Umeria is something I'm kind of indifferent to. I'd like a hinterland of relatively hostile terrain, a coastline, and in between a densely populated fertile plain, watered by multiple rivers. That's about it.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Nevertheless, it kinda feels like there is a group of players (mainly CATO from SDNW2) discussing things without anybody else knowing about them. To be blunt: I don't want this to be CATO redux, I don't want to have some sort of offsite chatroom where important things are discussed without anybody else using it and I do not want some sort of informal alliance dominating the game. I might be overly paranoid but I am already wondering what important things are being said somewhere that will have an impact on this game.

Heck, unless I heard that some nations were discussed I did not even know Pezook was going to be a part of this round.

I didn't want to bring out the details until I was 90% certain that I have sufficiently fleshed out my country. Some discussions did take place before this thread was even set up.

[Steve]

Okay, this is my really crappy preliminary map solely for giving people an idea of who and what will be where. There are still people missing from it, we'll fill it in as we go.
http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q66 ... 1569c8.jpg

I really hope that is not to scale.

The names? No. I just typed them in. It's just meant to show rough locations of landmasses, and I think I put your's a bit too far north.

Undoubtedly PeZook will make a badass map that makes mine look truly pathetic.

[Jub]

The spot you had me roughed in at looks just fine to me. I'll also start doing some more write ups on my nation's history tonight after work, I've just been sort of bleh creativity wise the past few days.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Arcadia's spot looks good too. I'm still working on my own map, hopefully that will be done today.

[Siege]

Nevertheless, it kinda feels like there is a group of players (mainly CATO from SDNW2) discussing things without anybody else knowing about them.

That is a fair enough criticism. I certainly can't be anything but sympathetic to complaints about offsite chatter invisible to other players: lord knows I've lambasted people for it time and again in previous games. We're used to and quite comfortable with slapping ideas together between us, but this was perhaps an old reflex kicking in. Certainly an argument can be made that doing it this way denies other players a chance to be involved, in which case apologies are in order. Upon review our communication could have been clearer, and more open.

Having said that, let me reassure you that fears of a 'CATO redux' are unfounded, as I'm sure you'll find out for yourself in reasonably short order. There's nothing said that won't be public shortly. I certainly am intending to play precisely what I've posted so far. I have no desire to play as part of any alliance whatsoever.

[Steve]

The spot you had me roughed in at looks just fine to me. I'll also start doing some more write ups on my nation's history tonight after work, I've just been sort of bleh creativity wise the past few days.

Would you like to be on the "North America' continent? Note that you can still pick your own country shape, we'll just merge it with what I already put.

[Thanas]

Nevertheless, it kinda feels like there is a group of players (mainly CATO from SDNW2) discussing things without anybody else knowing about them.

That is a fair enough criticism. I certainly can't be anything but sympathetic to complaints about offsite chatter invisible to other players: lord knows I've lambasted people for it time and again in previous games. We're used to and quite comfortable with slapping ideas together between us, but this was perhaps an old reflex kicking in. Certainly an argument can be made that doing it this way denies other players a chance to be involved, in which case apologies are in order. Upon review our communication could have been clearer, and more open.

Having said that, let me reassure you that fears of a 'CATO redux' are unfounded, as I'm sure you'll find out for yourself in reasonably short order. There's nothing said that won't be public shortly. I certainly am intending to play precisely what I've posted so far. I have no desire to play as part of any alliance whatsoever.

Fair enough, apologies for blowing up.

[Jub]

The spot you had me roughed in at looks just fine to me. I'll also start doing some more write ups on my nation's history tonight after work, I've just been sort of bleh creativity wise the past few days.

Would you like to be on the "North America' continent? Note that you can still pick your own country shape, we'll just merge it with what I already put.

Yeah, eastern seaboard of "North America" seems fine to me.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Badly drawn map, but it suffices for getting a shape down I suppose.

Organized by color:

Light blue: Glacia
Black: Port Glacia
Tan/light brown: (on Glacia) Sholm, Capital of Arcadia
Dark Red: Sub-Glacian Isles
Yellow square: Arma

Tan/light brown island: Mannar
Brown triangle: Mt. Krakta
Dark blue square: Solem
Light blue square: Krakta City

Light red islands: Central Isles

Yellow Island: Sarana
Orange-ish square 1: Saran City
Orange-ish square 2: Merna

Orange islands: Southern Isles

Green island: Larena
White Square 1: Port Larna
White Square 2: Copen
Purple Square: Hanan


All of that is what I have at the moment, though it is subject to change if something pops up that I feel like changing. Or if I improve my MS paint skills

[PeZook]

I fully intend to post information about my proposed country shortly, I just want it to be reasonably presentable and organized before I do.

Just so that people have an idea: it will be an Iran-styled Catholic theocracy with strong mongol/cossack undertones and trappings, locked in a doctrinal conflict with Fin's country over random theologian bits ; There was a major war over this in the last 20 years.

Previous history of my nation involved them being a raiding horseman scourge not dissimilar to Mongols before being Christianized and somewhat muzzled.

[Thanas]

Pezook, Fin (especially if the latter is playing a sort of Byzantine empire again) might you be willing to move to the east of Rheinland? We can make mountain ranges to prevent an invasion in and from Rheinland and it would make sense history wise. Especially if one of you has massive tundra. Maybe another dwarf continent to the east. It is not necessary but would make sense logic wise.

[Steve]

Since I'm walking out the door to work in ten minutes, this is just a quick summing up of what I plan for Cascadia.

It got its start as a number of Britonian colonies in the late 16th/early 17th Century that followed the "Northeast Passage" (the Northern Ocean where it's south enough to not freeze over in winter) to the Pacific Coast of "America" (tentative name, up for alternatives). The colonists were primarily religious and social dissidents, much like the Puritans or the Parliamentarians and later Whigs, who were escaping the growing centralization of authority by the Crown back home (Thanas, do you have any concepts for how Britonian government worked by the 20th Century?). At first they were welcomed by the local tribes, particularly the Salish; Seattle was named for one of the most respected native chiefs.

Unlike in the RL history, the "natives" were more experienced with disease transfer and its problems, understanding the needs for quarantine (rudimentary quarantine anyway) and how to deal with sicknesses, so the Salish and other nations suffered less from disease transfer. This meant they never suffered the major loss of population that historically reduced the Native Americans even before actual white expansion began forcing them off their lands.

Conflict did inevitably come, as the flow of Britonian settlers and others increased, while to the south Granadians settled the farmlands of California from both directions (they had already set up New Granadia to the southeast, warring with the Tianguo in the process). Soon it was a multi-sided conflict that lasted into the 18th Century.

In the early 18th Century the Britonians, facing wars with Rheinland and Granadia and the Omnian Empire among many others, began exerting heavier taxation on the Cascadian colonies whom, by this point, were developed enough to be capable of some self-sufficiency. When their requests for Parliament seats were denied, the colonies tilted toward revolt, particularly after the case of the Quincy "tea party" that saw the main port of Southern Olympia shut down by Royal Decree. This prompted the escalation of the conflict to armed rebellion, and I'm sure you see this comparison; I'm more than happy to entertain people who want to state involvement in the conflict much like its real world counterpart. It'll be the 1730s instead, though.

And so that's that; the war of independence goes to Cascadia, it forms a federal republic amongst the colonial governments. I have to leave for work at this point, so tomorrow I'll sum up the rest of the 18th and 19th Centuries with how they integrated the Salish and other nations, plus my idea for the Californian War and the integration of the former Granadian colonies of the south into the Republic.

[Kartr_Kana]

Watching this thread develop for a bit while working on a nation concept. Got a good deal of it written down on paper, need to get it typed out and finish fleshing it out.

I'll be the Federated Republics, six nations, former empires that lost their colonies sometime between the 1700s and late 1800s. Populist movements at the time lead to some very unstable democracies (think France right after the Revolution). After a few decades of that and tired of the constant revolutions and turmoil, factions arose that established Stable republics. In response to Anglian? and Rhineland strength these Republics joined together in a federation to provide for defense now that their overseas colonies and wealth were no longer available. I figure I'll be on the same continent as Thanas and all I really want for land mass is diversity. Some nations with long coasts some with small coasts, forest, plains, etc.

So that's the synopsis I'll try and get what I have on paper up here tomorrow.

[Thanas]

Steve, there should not have been a war between Rheinland and Bretonia in the 18th century. Francia might have done it before they were probably conquered in the 1830s or so.

[PeZook]

Pezook, Fin (especially if the latter is playing a sort of Byzantine empire again) might you be willing to move to the east of Rheinland? We can make mountain ranges to prevent an invasion in and from Rheinland and it would make sense history wise. Especially if one of you has massive tundra. Maybe another dwarf continent to the east. It is not necessary but would make sense logic wise.

I was going to propose we get onto the same continent, actually

[PeZook]

This is the preliminary writeup of the Federated Holy Republic of Kagaria. It's mostly history, since this is the most relevant.

Many many thanks to Siege for some of the critical ideas.

Basic information:

Second world nation, population of about 70 million.

Very religious, theocratic state ran by a religious High Council of Cardinals, which nominally shares power with civilian institutions.

Steppe-like, federalized, populated by people very much resembling XVIIth century Cossacks in mentality

“Live and toil, suffer and love, glorify God and defend your country - such is your oath”

“The heretic Orthodox schismatics menace our border ; And Godless heathens who import foreign ideals menace our very souls. By His grace, however, our nation shall persevere in the face of such adversity, for we are strong and noble in our convictions. Our way of life is pure, blessed by the Lord himself, even despite the darkness brought into our souls by Man’s sinful and base nature.” - Pope John the Innocent

“I am certain this latest border incident will convince our neighbors that the Republic is not a pushover, and that we are prepared to counter, with force if necessary, any attempt at imposing their schismatic theology upon our people. Sixteen of their border guards are dead, and it serves them right for attempting to intrude into our territory.” - President Zagroski, in an interview.

Major historical events:

The Christening
Date: 531

Acceptance of the Christian faith by Humungus, the first Great Knaz of Kagaria. The Christening was administered formally by the Daedalan Patriarch and is seen as the birth of the first semblance of Kagarian nationality. Humungus takes the more Daedalan name of Gregorius I, Kagarianized to Grzegor. With this ceremony, he gains much political influence amongst the people - the Kagarians were converting to the faith before thanks to Daedalian missionaries, and the Knaz leverages this, using the new converts to spread the faith and thus cement his rule over the tribes.

This is still hardly centralized rule ; The tribes listen to the Knaz in many matters, but remain fiercely independent.

The date of the Christening continues to be celebrated as a national holiday despite the later schism.

Golden Horde
Date 1120-1125

Kagarian warlords were raiding all their neighbors intermitently for centuries (including Daedalan provinces, though their Christianization significantly reduced the frequency of THOSE raids), but it wasn’t until 1120 before they showed the world the sheer terror that a unified Kagaria could pose. Knaz Boleslav The Terrible led Kagaria’s five largest tribes on a massive rampage through their neighbor’s lands, executing brilliant campaign after brilliant campaign. Year after year people shook in terror ; Cities, previously thought secure from raiding, now laid burned ; Boleslav’s horde went as far as the gates of the Daedalian capital itself, sacking the city and forcing the current sitting emperor to eat his own beard, as the fierce druzhinniks watched and laughed.

But the Empire responded. Disorganized and ravaged by the Kagarian rampage, they were an empire worthy of the name. Allied with Rheinland, Daedalans engaged in a series of punitive expeditions against Kagaria. While the first one met with disaster, Boleslav’s death via assassination in 1124 stripped the Horde of their brilliant military leader, and the tribes quickly succumbed to the relentless mach of Daedalan and Rheinlander legions. Kagaria was partitioned between the allies, and became a province of the Empire.

The Kagarian Uprisings
Date: 1520 - 1570

The tribes were never fully incorporated into the Empire ; The province was unruly and hard to manage at the best of times, but still considered worth it due to the excellent cavalry raised as tribute. Eventually, the Daedalan emperors would institute a system of recruitment, where a native Kagaran could join the legions and earn the rights of a citizens: the right to own land, property and participate in politics. The “Kagaran Registry” played well to the fierce brutality of the barbarians, and the Empire gained thousands of loyal troops for their many wars.

But then the wars stopped.

Coupled with the re-discovery of the teachings of Peter’s disciples, which rejected the rule of the Patriarchs over the Christian church, the stage lay ripe for the Uprisings.

The First Uprising was sparked by Knaz Bogdan of Chmielnice, a native-born Kagarian whose battle prowess made the Senate promise him official Daedalan generalship - the first Kagarian to ever be granted that honor. After long deliberations, the Senate voted the proposal down, enraging the Knaz and many Kagarians who looked up to him, as they felt personally betrayed by the Empire. Promising vengeance before the Senate, Bogdan evaded arrest and fled to the steppes to begin rousing the Kagarians to fight.

The Uprisings were a devastating spectacle, fifty years of constant warfare on the frontrier. After they were finally quelled, long after Knaz Bogdan’s death, Kagaria and many Daedalan cities lay in ruin once again. The Empire’s garrison lay spent and weakened, and the Empire’s preoccupation with internal problems and outside threats forced concessions which paved the way to Kagarian independence.

The Splintering
Date: 1721

With the Empire in a slow, long decline, and the devastation of the Uprisings making the province an economic sinkhole, all it took was the rise of yet another fierce general in a long line of war-savvy Kagarian leaders to tip the balance.

The Splintering was relatively peaceful, all things considered. It began with an assassination of the province’s imperial governor during the annual Festival Of The Harvest. Kagarian hosts then quickly assaulted imperial forts, strongholds and colonies. After barely a year of warfare, the legions were ordered to retreat and abandon the province to civil war.

The Splintering would have significant consequence due to one other matter: Peterian teachings, rediscovered centuries ago, have taken a small but firm footholds amongst the free Kagarians living at the steppes, despite the best efforts of Daedalan inquisitors. They fit well with the fiercely independent spirit of the riders, and after the Splintering they exploded like wildfire. Religious violence swept through the land, and in a scant few decades Kagaria was dominated by a schismatic sect of the Orthodox Church, differentiated from the Patriarch in small but important theological matters.

Kagaria was independent once more, but also very changed. Centuries of imperial rule left more of an impact on the province than many Free Riders would be ready to admit, creating a political class, urban centers and even some industry. Their traditional raiding ways would still be reflected in their relations with all neighbors, but for the first time in history, Kagaria was becoming a nation, rather than a barbaric and savage province.

The War Of Blood And Faith/The Red War
Date: 1970-1990

Political upheaval amongst their southern neighbors cause the High Council of Cardinals to become gravely concerned over the Marxist revolution spreading to the Republic. The flow of refugees also threatened to bring many Orthodox worshippers across the border, where they could poison the souls of God-fearing Kagarians.

This prompted a swift reaction: first by deploying troops to the border, who were ordered to stop and turn back any Daedalan refugees. This often devolved into murder and other atrocities, and desperate refugees were trying to run the cordon, and soldiers conditioned by centuries of religiously-motivated hate took it upon themselves to punish the heretics above and beyond their orders.

In addition to this, independent tribal raiders would invade the disintegrating Empire, returning to their raiding ways ; The President and the High Council would ignore and even encourage these raiders, hoping to perhaps tear a pound of flesh off their long hated enemy at the opportune time. Things on the frontier got bad ; The Army Of The Cross, busy fighting for the capital,was unable to protect the people of the frontier, and the savage raiders took what they wanted, even setting up temporary fiefdoms.

But that could not last forever ; After the capital fell, battle-hardened Daedalan revolutionaries moved swiftly and crushed the raider bands foolish enough to remain in one place for too long. By 1979, the raiders were ejected back across the mountains.

Daedalans were victorious, but they did not forget the Kagarian savagery. In 1985, a massive punitive expedition was launched northward to gain vengeance upon the steppe-born schismatic scum. The Orthodox Patriarch declared this venture as the First Crusade, a great undertaking of the faithful. It would be called the War Of Blood And Faith by the invaders, and simply the Red War by the Kagarians.

At first, the campaign proceeded swiftly, sweeping aside the unprepared border garrison which up until that day were mostly fighting unarmed refugees ; But soon, the Commune’s generals found themselves wrestling with the realities of fighting a war on the steppes: the elongated supply lines, constant hit and run attacks and relentless, fierce fanaticism of the defenders taught them that fighting a revolution at home was very different from invading the legenarily untamed steppes. The few cities that were reached turned into charnel houses. Supply lines were constantly raided by Kagarian partisans, and the Republican Guards, despite their lack of modern armor and artillery, fought fiercely and stood up well to even the most hardened revolutionary brigades.

Eventually, the war settled into a positional state. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers spent the next five years in trenches, witnesses to unimaginable carnage and atrocities. Use of chemical weapons was common by both sides ; Kagarians would herd their children onto minefields in preparation for offensives, using the promises of paradise as motivators ; Towns and even entire cities were slaughtered in the name of God and pure, bloodthirsty vengeance. Yet, nothing changed. Day after day, the slaughter continued, with neither side being able to mount a serious offensive to break the other.

Exhausted and bleeding out, both sides seemingly came to their senses, finally signing a white peace in 1990. The memories of this war, however, remain very much alive on both sides of the border, and neither Kagarians nor the former Daedalans are known for having short memories.

---

Now, this is of course bilateral history, posted here to get feedback and have people suggesting places they can butt into and interact with.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Written with Siege's help

The Union of Orthodox Catholic Socialist Republics (UOCSR)

The UOCSR emerged after the interregnum following the Overthrow of the Daedalean Emperor. In 1970 after decades of economic decline, famine, corruption, poor urban conditions, foreign incursions and incompetent rule the populace rose up against the reign of the autocratic Daedalean Emperor Beriev IX Sogoi. The revolution was first a chaotic maelstrom of competing factions and ideologies, but ultimately several of them rallied around the charismatic bishop Theodore Petrov, who named his followers the ‘Orthodox Catholic Commune’. The Commune sought to return the Daedalean way of life to a more purer form, less decadent and corrupt and in close communion with God. “A Good Daedalean must be holy,” Petrov preached, “and be one with God. He should not accumulate wealth at the expense of society and his community. Christ tells us that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. He says we should put our trust not in material possessions or falsehoods of the mind, but to have faith in Him alone. So this we shall do, and follow in His footsteps.”

His message struck a chord with a people long fed up by having to witness the rich Daedelean nobles wallow in wealth while they had to work long hours of back-breaking labour in unsafe factories, or scourge in sodden fields for a meager living. What’s more the Church’ own lower priests and even its middle ranks, long fed up with what it saw as the depraved immorality of a decadent ruling class, threw its lot in with the Commune. The upper ranks of the church had no way to influence this choice even if they wanted to, and in the end, the Church even went as far as melt a good chunk of their gold wear to supply the OCC with money to buy weapons.

=========

THE REVOLUTION

Two key characters emerged during the revolution. The first was Stana "Ferramenta" Oktyabrinaya, a young revolutionary whose feats of fanatical bravery inspired entire cadres of fighters. At the pivotal Battle of Orina she led the storming of the imperial fortress, walking miraculously through the hail of machine gun fire and coming out unscathed. It is said that she was momentarily inspired by God’s Grace, and with her faith as a shield and hammer broke the imperial ranks, slaying a score of soldiers with her cavalry sword. This is when she earned the sobriquet ‘ferramenta’ - ironmonger.

It was also during this battle that she first befriended the second key character: a young army chaplain called Frensis Vasin, who went among the soldiers, giving comfort to the wounded and dying. He was possessed of a special kind of charisma that brought tranquility to even those tormented by terrible wounds.

Oktyabrinaya’s fame, cunning and power grew as the conflict raged on, until she was eventually given command of the primary revolutionary front. She eventually rose up to the role of Marshal of the Army of the Cross. In battles from Raduga to Vladovakia, even to the edges of the Kagarian steppes her battle-hardened and faith-steeled revolutionaries cleared wave after wave of demoralized imperial troops and the militias, invading barbarians and rival insurgents alike. Some imperial troops simply surrendered and defected to her side when her armies approached them, thus swelling the ranks of her already huge army. Finally, after nearly a decade of fighting, her troops stormed the final imperial redoubt and a single bullet from Ferramenta’s gun ended the life of the Daedalean Emperor Beriev IX Sogoi, ended his line, and ended the empire itself.

Unfortunately for the Commune it was very adept at fighting, but proved less so at governing. Disagreements within its ranks soon emerged over how best to implement the ideals of the OCC. After years of incessant fighting, much of the country was a wreck, and its treasury empty. Moreover, the patriarchs of the Orthodox Church, powerful under the emperors, were unwilling to bow their heads to the new regime, feeling it should be they who ruled now. And finally the great mind behind the Commune, Theodore Petrov, was dying, the victim of a desperate gas attack made in the last days of the old empire.

With Petrov sidelined the Orthodox Church effectively ruled supreme over what was left of the old Daedelean Empire. Patriarch Tarkhanov was an old man who had been a personal friend of the emperor, and was well accustomed to the intricate webs of politics that had threaded the imperial court. He was a man of the nobility, like many of his fellow patriarchs and bishops and many of them saw the Church as an alternative means to accumulating wealth and power. Although he had wisely distanced himself from the throne when the revolution came, he had little love for the ideals of the OCC, and all the more of it for the gold and riches of the church, and the power of his position.

Patriarch Tarkhanov sidelined Petrov’s feuding Commune lieutenants, who had been seemingly paralyzed by the fate of their leader. Acting swiftly, the cunning patriarch realized that if he could find a popular but impressionable leader with an unpolished understanding of politics to anoint as chairman, then his hands would be free to rule from behind the throne. Tarkhanov decided that the Hero of Orina, this young and devout general who had killed an emperor and immediately afterward sought absolution from a priest, would make a perfect puppet for him to control.

He chose, it would turn out, poorly.

Because Oktyabrinaya proved impossible to control. She was not simply devout, she was fanatical. As Chairwoman of the OCC, she launched a purge of what remained of the old order, clamped down on the accumulation of wealth, and rigidly restructured the Commune to bring it in line with its professed ideals - consequently making it more and more difficult for the patriarch to buy or bribe his way through its ranks. And perhaps even worse than fanatical, she proved impossible to kill. As soon as he realized his mistake Tarkhanov tried to have Ferramenta killed, but his agents failed time and again to penetrate the defenses of the chairwoman, who employed a cadre of bodyguards as fanatical as herself. One by one Tarkhanov found his plans short-circuited, his accounts shut down, and his trusted agents isolated, arrested - or worse.

Finally during a meeting of the Eucumenical Council of the People's Deputies, Ferramenta produced a long list of “crimes against the people, and crimes against god” that Tarkhanov had committed. When the flustered patriarch boasted that no court in the nation would ever convict him, Stana Oktyabrinaya replied “God needs no court”, produced her sidearm and shot Tarkhanov through the head.

Thus the last vestiges of the old order came to an end. Ferramenta personally appointed Frensis Vasin the new patriarch, and by this point there was no-one in the church hierarchy dared openly complain about it.

=========

THE WAR OF BLOOD AND FAITH


Far to the northeast of the Daedelean heartland, beyond the mountains of the Sogoi Range, lie the Kagarian Steppes. This is a harsh and violent land. In ancient times its savage people used to raid the Daedelean cities for pillage and plunder. There would be lamentations of women, and emperors would be forced to eat their beards.

Eventually though the empire became strong and the horsemen were repulsed, even christianized. But they were never truly civilized, and they never quite accepted Daedelean rule. They were barbarians, and they stayed barbarians. This much became apparent when the empire began its long but steady decline in the second half of the 19th century: the Kagarians became unruly once again. In 1930 they assassinated the imperial governor, united their clans, and resumed raiding the frontiers of the empire, which by now was in terminal decline.

Then, in 1970, the revolution came. At first, the turmoil of the empire emboldened the Kagarian raiders, and they penetrated deeper into the dying state than they had in centuries. But soon they found themselves up against not unprepared border guards or demoralized imperial troops, but battle-hardened revolutionary brigades. The well-equipped armies of the Commune repulsed the lightly armed invaders and, in 1979, threw the last Kagarian bands back over the mountains. The Kagarians thought nothing of this setback. But Ferramenta did not forget.

By 1980 the civil war was over, and Tarkhanov was in charge of the Commune. And the armies, still full of revolutionary fervor, clamored for action and revenge against the scum in the north. So in ‘85 the newly christened UOCSR launched its first great military adventure, a massive punishment expedition - a crusade - against the Kagarian heretics.

The Commune expected a swift victory. Its expectations were wrong. The generals of the revolution were used to fighting in their own territory, where resupply was always only a short ways away, and it was possible to live off the land if need be. None of this was the case in Kagaria. The UOCSR logistics train was a clusterfuck, the Kagarians were masters of positional hit-and-fade tactics, and soon the campaign bogged down in the middle of the endless Kagarian steppes. The Kagarians had very little in the way of modern armor but their hordes easily matched even the most zealous of Commune troops in their blind fanatical devotion to god, and their willingness to lay down their lives turned battles over the cities the UOCSR had managed to reach into brutal grinds where tens of thousands of people died in trenches and machine gun fire. For five years UOCSR troops bled and died on Kagarian soil, five long years of atrocities and carnage, of supply trains ambushed and murdered to the last man, of Kagarian children running into minefields to clear them, of witnessing entire lines being obliterated by rocket artillery, only for them to be redrawn the next day in the exact same place.

Finally, at the end, the madness stopped. By this time Tarkhanov was dead, and Ferramenta recognized the folly of continuing the war. A cease-fire was signed, and UOCSR troops pulled back to the old borders behind the Sogoi Range.

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THE GOVERNMENT

Ferramenta pursued governance with as much zeal as she had the war against the Imperialists. She and Vasin appointed the various ministers and charged them with organizing the ministries. The important ministries are: Ministry of Church Affairs and Justice, which deals with affairs of the Church and ensuring compliance with Canon Laws; Ministry of Industry, whose role is to rejuvenate and rebuild the industry of the UOCSR; Ministry of Trade, which regulates the trade of goods inside and outside of the UOCSR; Ministry of Science, which is charged with lifting up the technology and science level of the UOCSR; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which of course deals with foreign affairs; Ministry of Welfare, which runs the hospitals and manages the affairs of the people; Ministry of War, which administers the armies, navies and air forces; and Ministry of Interior Security, which controls police and border forces.

Under the Ministry of Church Affairs and the Church, the Organization for Doctrinal Compliance was formed with the expressed wish and desire to ensure compliance to Church Doctrine. Officers of the Organization for Doctrinal Compliance are clergymen with the power to ensure the that citizens complied with Church Doctrine and were given powers to judge and administer the necessary punishments to those who failed to comply with Doctrine. Many were sentenced to hard labour in the penal colonies to serve out their penance.

After the civil war and the war in Kagaria the economy and industry of the UOCSR were in tatters. Harsh measures were taken to put the country on the road back to prosperity. Ferramenta collectivized factories and agriculture, arguing that in New Orthodox Catholicism, sharing between the community was vital and thus beneficial if all were to collectively combine their resources.

At the same time, ‘special economic zones’ were designated where capitalist companies could set up companies and employ cheap labour. Creating limited operating room for these companies, distasteful though the government and church might think they were, ensured that the country could reap the benefits of their presence, whilst limiting the poisonous creep of capitalist dogma.

The UOCSR economy was now centrally run with its resources devoted towards the better of its people and the state. As a result of the emphasis on Christian communal living, luxury goods are generally frowned upon. Companies are state-run, and expected to serve the general good of humankind as well as to make donations to the Church. Industrial administrators believed to engage in misguided practices (such as wanton pollution, or greed), they are certain to find themselves in a penal colony.

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TODAY

The UOCSR is now a nation of 200 million spread over 2 million square kilometers. Its economy has recovered somewhat from the ravages of war, although even a brief look at any of its great cities will still reveal plenty bombed-out buildings or walls with machine gun holes in them. The standard of living is increasing however, as its people work hard to put the horrors of the past behind them.

Today, nuclear power plants dot the landscape, and great engineering projects - dams, rail lines, bridges, churches - are undertaken. After all: to improve oneself is to improve the nation; to improve the nation is to improve the land; to improve the land, is to please God. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the revolution, a new basilica was built: the Theós Apeiri̱ Sofía, the Church of God’s Infinite Wisdom. Believed to be the single greatest monument to the glory of God in the world, its mere sight makes pilgrims from all over the UOCSR weep tears of joy. Other churches - lesser, but still great - dominate the skylines of the Commune’s cities, flying the gold cross on a red field flag of the UOCSR from their belfrys.

[Steve]

Steve, there should not have been a war between Rheinland and Bretonia in the 18th century. Francia might have done it before they were probably conquered in the 1830s or so.

I was just throwing names out to show the conflicts in the era, others can easily be substituted.

[Steve]

Anyway, at the founding of Cascadia's republic, settlement from other countries and from Britonia itself continued even as the people already present enjoyed a population boom. Inevitably, their further push inland, past the Cascades and toward the Rockies and the Columbia River's headwaters, prompted resistance from the First Nations of Cascadia (the coastal ones had been subsumed into the settler population culturally and by intermarriage by this point). The Cascades War and the Salish War were the results, bitter conflicts that culminated in the brutal Battle of the Three Rivers that saw the competing armies batter themselves to ruins, although the allied tribes of the First Nations held the battlefield at the end of the day. Negotiations resulted and may have faltered if not for one figure. The leader of the Nimíipuu Tribe, known as Chief Joseph, recognized that the war would inevitably resume and that the "western" settlers would have the advantage of numbers and weapons; a permanent solution had to be found, even if it resulted in a loss of independence. He proposed, to an astounded conference, that the First Nations organize their lands into republics and join the Cascadian Union. The negotiations broke up at the suggestion, with heated opposition to be found on both sides, but it was soon clear that this solution was the optimum one; it would consolidate the Union's control all the way to the Rockies and, for the First Nations, guarantee their rights within the strictures of the Constitution of Cascadia. And so the deal was struck; Chief Joseph would be one of the first of the new First Nation Republic leaders to be elected to the Senate in the following year.

This consolidated, for the most part, the modern Cascadian border to the east and north, as other First Nations not in the original session would inevitably make the same decision, with mixed success (the Alyeska quickly found their state overwhelmed by non-First Nation citizens after the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1882, for instance). This left the south of the country, which was part of the Granadian viceroyalty of New Granadia to the far south, organized as the provinces of California, Colorado, and Sonora. Here the benefit came in the Great Francian Wars of the beginning of the 19th Century; with Granadia temporarily occupied by the Francian Empire, its colonies' administrations became increasingly independent, and upon the defeat of Francia by the Rheinlander-Britonian Grand Coalition the colonies decided to fight for independence. In the ensuing conflict, both sides were unable to maintain control of the northern reaches of New Granadia, and with the First Nations of those regions long subjugated there was no authority to immediately prevent settlement from increasing numbers of Cascadians. When New Granadia, weakened by war and facing Britonian resistance to their reclamation of their empire, sued for peace and let New Granadia go, the former colonial nation immediately tried to assert its new government on the settlers, who resisted. Raids from more warlike First Nations in New Granadian territory furthered the crisis into a full-blown rupture and, in 1825, the Mexican-Cascadian War resulted. It was the first time since the Revolution that Cascadia, as a nation, had been required to field forces against a "Western" foe, and in the early battles of the war the defeat of the Cascadian Army at the Battles of the Nevada River and Monterrey seemed to forecast a complete Mexican victory. But Cascadia soon turned the tides with not only a reformed Army but a newly-constructed Navy; once kept solely as a coastal defense force, the Cascadian Navy expanded during the war to include full ships of the line in proper Western fashion and a fleet of supporting frigates and sloops. At the Battles of Point Stevens and San Pablo Bay, the Cascadian Navy annihilated the Mexican naval forces sent north, and with complete control of the coast of California the Army was able to land, at whim, on any point. Faced with increased political upheaval in its capital territories, Mexico eventually yielded, and in the Treaty of Nueva Malaga signed over the three northern provinces to Cascadian sovereignty.

Faced with inducting large numbers of Spanish-speaking mestizos and creoles, the Union would re-organize the provinces into republics and admit them in that fashion; in the new lands Spanish and English would be the dual languages of government.

The continental extent of the Union was, at this point, realized.

Note: I'm up for opposition to any naming in this or the concept of Francia being in a big war at the turn of the century, a clear counterpart to the Napoleonic wars.