09-17-2024, 12:25 AM | #81 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
Before the great civilization-destroying interplanetary wars, the ancient Vertarans had a major city on the site of the impact crater, a millennia-old population center that had grown up from ancient days because of the value of the harbor. A major trade and economic center, the crater had held a city with a population in the millions. Such a city, of great political, economic, and social importance, was a natural target when the great wars began, and early in the conflicts, multiple nuclear explosions reduced the great city to ruins, and left the entire crater bowl radioactively contaminated. Subsequent events in the war left the entire Northlands mostly depopulated. By the time people returned to the crater, over two thousand years later, the radioactivity had dissipated, and the ruins were overgrown and often buried. The great harbor was still there, of course, and it was just as useful for the peoples of the post-megawar Veranis as it had been for their ancestors. A new city grew up, some of the raw materials from the old ruins as building materials. The new city became a center for trade and commerce again, for exactly the same reasons that the ancestral city had become such a thing. At one time, the crater-city was the center of an empire that came to control most of the eastern half of the Northlands. At the time, the reviving civilization of the North Continent was operating at a late 'iron age' level. Shortly thereafter, a wave of Vertarans of a slightly different racial mix, and a very different culture and language, because to come in from the west. [1] Wars broke out between the two groups as the newcomers as the population of the latter group rose. As time passed, the balance tilted in favor of the newcomers, who both drove out and intermarried with the earlier group, eventually becoming the founding populations of states such as Catakatia and Galantakatia. Their language broke up into the later languages of those realms (and most of the other Northlander states). The crater-city was a natural fortress, especially at that level of technology. The eastern coastal areas also had the highest concentrations of the original race of Vertarans. Between these facts, the original peoples were able to hold off the invaders in much of the eastern region. The two races still intermixed and intermarried, but the original culture and language was not entirely replaced on the east coast. Instead a syncretic culture and tongue emerged, breaking into local dialects on the east coast. [2] The great crater city was an exception to the exception. Once the capitol of an empire covering a third of the North Continent, it was now a city-state jealous of its sovereignty, and it retained a version of the old language and culture. Even intermarriage was restricted (though of course some happened anyway), leaving the crater-city-state racially different from even the east coast Vertarans. This often led to tension over the subsequent centuries, Vertarans being no less vulnerable to such things than Humans. (The racial differences were no more significant than among Humans, the original race averaged a tiny bit shorter and stockier, their skin color was a lighter shade by a tiny fraction, they had blue eyes. Most of the Vertarans of the Northlands have green eyes, the blue eye strain comes from the older population. Only among such enclaves as the crater city are blue eyes the majority color.) The linguistic and cultural differences were more significant, and remained somewhat distinctive even by the time of the Thakarian invasion. The rule of the Thakarians applied just as much to the crater city-state as it did to the rest of Veranis, and indeed the harbor was valuable to the Thakarians just as it was to the natives. The Thakarians used the harbor as a key shipping port, just as they did the harbor at Cataka City. To simplify moving goods and people, they bored tunnels through the mountain-ring, and under Thakarian rule the cultural and linguistic differences eroded somewhat, though they were not yet gone by the time of the Terrestrian takeover. MORE LATER. [1] All the languages of Veranis descend from the common language of the ancient space-faring civilization of the Dyaxor System, of course, but these two groups had been developing in isolation from each other for 3000 years at that time. [2] At that time, the Northlander cultures were mostly high TL2/low-to-medium TL3.
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09-24-2024, 01:23 AM | #82 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
As noted above, over relatively recent geological history (meaning the last 1-3 million years), the eastern reaches of the Northern Continent have been slowly subsiding. As the Northlands slide northward along with their tectonic plate, the eastern part of the continent has passed over a cooler area of the underlying mantle. This has caused the local crust to 'deflate' slightly, and the ocean has moved modestly inwards along most of the southeastern coast. This sea level rise has moved the primary eastern coastland about two hundred kilometers to the west, along the southeastern edge of the continent. As one goes north, the land begins to rise again, in part because the plate there has pushed past the cool spot, and partly because of the ongoing plate subduction and orogeny along the northern edge of the Northlands. The net result of this is that the eastern coast of the Northlands has a northeastward trend, with a substantial mountainous peninsula reaching eastward into the ocean along the northern edge. Southward of this great peninsula, shallow ocean covers a vast drowned continental shelf, widely dotted with islands of various sizes. Along with these islands, a separate chain of islands arcs away from the northeastern peninsula, reaching east into the ocean. These islands are mostly small, rising as classic 'island arcs' along the subduction zone where the Northlands Plate overrides oceanic crust. These islands are almost entirely of volcanic origin, though some of the volcanoes are extinct and others are still very active. The islands south of the peninsula and the volcanic chains are geologically different. Instead of active and old volcanoes, they are mostly typical continental rock of various sorts, higher areas of the flooded coastal plains. There are a few very ancient volcanic rocks in these islands, but these date back hundreds of megayears, or more, to times in the pre-terraforming past. These islands are often inhabited, some of them quite densely. Like the crater-city on the current-day eastern coast, they have a higher percentage of ancestry from the original Vertaran race of the Northlands, though they average more mixed than the crater-city population itself. The majority of the inhabitants of the crater-city are blue-eyed, for example, while blue eyes make up only about thirty to forty percent of the island populations. Altogether, there are thousands of these eastern islands, but many of them are no more than tiny islets or just skerries. About one hundred of them are large enough to be plausibly habitable, and there are perhaps twenty of what could be called 'major islands'. To the east of these islands, the continental shelf descends swiftly toward the abyssal plain, and a transverse fault runs along the sea floor not far beyond the continental slope. As the Northland Plate moves northward, occasional earthquakes radiate from this fault, and at times these have done significant damage to the islands, both from shaking and occasional tsunami waves. Still, this is a relatively rare occurrence, as for the most part the plates slide relatively smoothly past each other in this region (the more so because of the cooler mantle below the region). The ocean around the eastern islands is, for the most part, relatively shallow, since this is a region of continental land flooded by the sea. Except for a few places where deep valleys exist below the waves, the depth here rarely exceed one hundred and fifty meters, and in many locations it is much shallower. The islands are dotted with lighthouses, some of them recently constructed, many of them very old. There are a handful of lighthouses here that date back more than one thousand years. Politically and socially, the islands are highly various. Some of the islands are controlled by the various states along the eastern coast. Others (only a handful) owe allegiance to the crater-city, remnants of the old empire. Others are independent, more or less. Some of the very small islands have inhabitants who are not politically organized at all, tiny populations who mostly just want to be left alone. A few of the islands that are large enough to be useful are also useless, because for whatever reasons, they were hit particularly hard during the interplanetary wars six thousand years earlier. Though the lingering radioactivity and other such issues have long faded, some of these islands were blasted hard enough to leave their surfaces more or less 'glassed'. Even after six thousand years or so, they are barely habitable even for low-level life such as lichens or grasses. Economically, the islands are varied as well. Fishing is of course a major local industry. The shallow waters of this region are lit by sunlight and close enough to land to be nutrient-rich. The eastern archipelago is one of the richest fisheries on Veranis. A number of different types of fish are regularly taken from these seas in substantial number, especially a local fish distantly related to tuna and another breed that had a common ancestor with Atlantic cod about ten million years in the past. Along with the fish, various local mussels and arthropods are harvested. Even after a century of Thakarian rule and two decades of Terrestrian control, most of the Veranisian fisheries in this region are based on small individual boats and small organizations. Another local industry is the drug called larsh. As mentioned upthread, larsh is a widely used drug derived from a strain of seaweed, or more precisely, from a Veranisian strain of seagrass. Distantly related to Genus Zostera on Earth, the ancestral form of this strain was transplanted to Veranis by the Familiar Eldren about sixty million years before present. Veranis was then as now very similar to Earth, but some conditions were different, and in adapting to the new world, the plants became bigger, and more deeply rooted. One strain of this plant adapted to relatively shallow waters, and one of the conditions on Veranis that required adaptation was the presence of higher levels of ultraviolet light in the spectrum of Dyaxor A, a class F star. This strain thrived at depths penetrable by UV light, and one of the protective adaptations in this strain became the source of larsh. Larsh is harvested by collecting the upper part of the plant, leaving the base alive and growing. Like their distant relatives the true grasses, these plants grow from the base, and can be 'grazed' almost indefinitely if reasonable restraint is shown. The chemical that is the source of larsh is found in the leaves, and production varies with the seasons. In the 'local summer', production increases in tandem with the ultraviolet light levels, and then it drops again in the local winter. Thus late summer is considered the most profitable time to harvest the seagrass. MORE LATER.
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09-25-2024, 12:48 AM | #83 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
The seagrass that is the source for larsh grows all over the 'temperate' zones of Veranis, both north and south, but only in relatively shallow saline waters. This particular strain of seagrass cannot cope with fresh water, and it needs the relatively bright light of the shallows. Unfortunately for would-be larsh dealers, the relevant plants tend to grow in isolated patches, often spread thinly out over a large area. In order for harvesting to be practical, a dense patch is required, and these are exceptional, except in the shallow seas around the southeastern archipelago of the Northlands. The conditions of light, seafloor, temperature, currents, and so on happen to be almost ideal for this plant. Thus, here and there in the shallows of the vast flooded plains, patches of the seagrass grow that are both large and dense, making for practical harvesting. Of course, matters are rarely so simple as that. The seagrass grows well here, but so do true seaweeds and other strain of seagrass as well. Many of the rich patches are so intermixed with various kinds of plant life that it takes skill to successfully harvest a useful supply of the drug. For centuries, Vertaran divers have gathered the plants in the southeastern archipelago. Even before the Thakarians arrived, before the industrial revolution that had been underway in the Northlands before that, some remarkably clever technologies had been employed in the islands to permit efficient harvesting. [1] Modern technologies, introduced first by the Thakarians, enabled much more efficient diving activities, but even so, humanoid judgement still played a role in the harvesting. A skilled harvester could 'work' a patch and gather more of the useful plants in a given time than an unskilled worker or a robot. [2] Along with the skill of the divers, there are especially good locations, places where the patches are rich in the useful strain, and readily accessible. Such locations become jealously guarded secrets of some groups of harvesters, sometimes an especially rich 'patch' can become the foundation of a substantial family wealth over time. In many parts of the southeastern archipelago, such rich patches can be sources of violence. Larsh is a profitable crop. In fact, larsh is the most profitable single export product to be produced in the southeastern archipelago. As with most distribution systems, the majority of the profits concentrate in the major operators, but many individuals and families are able to make a very comfortable living by either harvesting larsh, or being part of the processing and distribution industries. To process the drug, the plants must be brought ashore, and thoroughly dried. Before this is done, the useful plants must be separated from any other plants the harvesters brought up. Even a slightly admixture of the wrong plants in the processing stage can ruin the final batch. The traditional way to dry the crop is to spread them out in the sunlight for several days, which is doubly advantageous because the high ultraviolet content of the Veranisian sunlight stimulates chemical reactions in the plants that improve the final yield. If necessary, though, the plants can be dried by other means, though the yield of the final product will be somewhat reduced. Once thoroughly dried, the plants are ground into a pulp and soaked in an alkaline solution that reacts with a natural chemical in the plant pulp, drawing out the drug. This can be filtered out of the solution, and heated to drive out the moisture, leaving a powder that is the actual drug. The whole process takes about two weeks if done the traditional way. (A modern TL10 processing facility could remove the drug from the raw plant stock in hours...at tremendous expense. The slow low-tech way is also the cheap way.) Larsh is legal to sell, possess, and use in most parts of the Northlands. The level of social acceptance of the drug varies considerably, however. In the southeastern islands, it is quite accepted and commonly used, as much a part of local culture as wines and other alcoholic drinks can be in humanoid societies. There are cultural and social rules about when it should and should not be used, and by who and when, that minimize most of the short-term harm the drug can produce. Other parts of the Northlands have different attitudes. In Catakatia, for example, it is legal but most people disapprove of using it. It is considered a lower-class entertainment, and seen as 'seedy' even there. It is most definitely disapproved of among the nobility, though some nobles do use it. (Employees of the Three Power Commission are most definitely not permitted to use larsh. Being confirmed as a larsh user is a firing offense among Commission staff and employees, whether Terrestrian or Veranisian.) For information about the effects of larsh see here. MORE LATER. [1] Crude diving bells, for example, and bizarre but somewhat functional low-tech diving suits. It was a dangerous but lucrative activity. [2] Technically, both the Thakarians and the Terrestrians could build robots able to do the job about as well as any but the most skilled of the divers. Neither group is much interested in the larsh harvest, though, and such robots are very expensive.
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09-30-2024, 12:24 AM | #84 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
The southeastern islands suffer from occasional earthquakes, but they suffer from hurricanes on a very regular basis. Veranis has a rotational period of about twenty-two hours and thirty-five minutes, and it averages hotter than Earth. That combination alone would give Veranis lively weather, of course. In practice, though, there is another crucial factor in play: the distribution of the land masses. Recall that Veranis has five continents, along with a handful of large islands. The five major continents are all more or less distributed across one hemisphere, with three smaller continents straddling the equator and two larger continents, one to the north and one to the south. The Terrestrians on Veranis usually refer to this hemisphere as 'landside'. The other hemisphere of Veranis is mostly open ocean. Even more so than the Pacific Ocean on Earth, this ocean is almost unbroken other than by two significant major islands and a few hot spot chains. The vast warm seas and the high rotation rate make for perfect conditions to spawn hurricanes. The open oceans of seaside allow these storms to move unbroken by land which would disrupt them. Eventually these storms drift north or south into coolers waters and begin to dissipate, but the overall high average temperature of the planet enables the storms to endure and maintain their rotation and strength into very high latitudes. When these storms cross over to landside, they can easily slam the eastern coasts of any of the continents. East Continent gets the worst of it, since it straddles the equator and faces the direction of the oncoming storms, the other two equatorial continents are at least somewhat sheltered by East Continent. The eastern coasts of the Northlands and the Southlands are regularly blasted by hurricanes as well. To make matters worse, since even the 'winter' on Veranis is simply a 'less hot' season, there is not really an 'off' season for hurricanes. Instead there is a busier season and a slower one, hurricanes can spawn at any point throughout the year, but in the hotter season the rate increases and it decreases in the cooler (or less hot) season. Still, it never drops to zero, hurricanes are a year-round issue on Veranis. The southeastern islands are especially vulnerable to these storms, because they lie more or less in a natural 'hurricane corridor', and the entire area is a vast stretch of flooded, shallow plains. The interspersed islands are in some case relatively low in terms of altitude. In some cases, a storm that hits just right can sweep a storm surge entirely across the surface of a low-lying island. Other islands are higher, and in a few cases they have mountains or high hills, but even these islands are vulnerable in lower areas, and the winds can scour even the tallest points in the islands. The storms average stronger than Terrestrian hurricanes, with a relatively high percentage of Category Three, Four, and Five storms compared to Earth. MORE LATER.
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10-02-2024, 11:04 PM | #85 |
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
On one of the islands of the Southeast Archipelago, there is legacy of the ancient pre-Wars Vertarans that survived the Wars, and six thousand years of subsequent storms and earthquakes and the other ravages of time. It is not totally unmarred by these things, of course. As Smeagol noted, Time can even beat high mountains down. It is, however, remarkably well-preserved. This site is less an island, in reality, than an islet. This particular part of the flooded plain was broken by ancient ridges of igneous rock, dating back megayears. When the ocean flooded in, one such ridge, higher than its neighbors, became a chain of rocky outcrops emerging from the sea. None of them were ever large enough to be practical dwellings, and most of them remained largely unaltered throughout the history of sapient life on Veranis, both Lakegrandian and Vertaran. One such, though, was radically changed. This particular outcrop is about one hundred meters long (along the submerged ridge line) and half that wide, and it rises above the waves to a height of about twenty-five meters. The next outcrop in the line (along the underwater ridge) is about half that size above the water, and perhaps a kilometer distant. Further small outcrops break the surface further down the ridge. The waters between them are rarely more than fifty meters deep along the ridge line. Not long before the great interplanetary wars that wrecked the Vertaran civilization that ruled the Dyaxor A System, someone carved this mass of hard granite into a statue of...something. No one currently alive on Veranis has any idea what the statue is, means, or represents. Its artificial origin is evident at a glance, parts of the immense sculpture are polished smooth, or were once. It has tentacles, and limbs, and many heads with variable numbers of eyes, and with mouths full of sharp stone teeth (though the powerful storms have removed some of these smaller details over the six thousand years or so since this...thing...was shaped). It clearly represents some sort of living creature, or at least a stylized imitation of such. No plausible natural creature in an Earth-like environment, descended from Solarigen life, was ever likely to have that many limbs, heads, eyes, tails, spines, and less recognizable structures. Some of the myriad tails (if that is what they are) end in mouths, as so some of what have been called tentacles. Some of the many heads lack mouths, but have horns or other structures where the mouths should be. Other 'heads' are less recognizable. The creature has what are apparently representations of legs, but they do not actually support it. Rather, they are carved into it, so that it appears to be resting atop a granite platform. The lower part of the island was carved into a smooth-sided, flat-topped platform for the sculpture, but the statue does not actually rest atop it, it is a continuation of a single carved mass of granite. At the precise highest point on the islet, a huge (five meters across) eye was carved, pointing directly upward. The 'pupil' is slitted like a cat, but at a different angle relative to the eye-structure than in felids. There appears to have once been an inset with a large piece of gold in the 'pupil', now long gone (tiny specks of gold residue remain in the slot). Symbols of various sorts are deeply carved in the sides of the 'pedestal' and on some parts of the statue itself, but they resemble no writing or other symbols ever discovered in any ancient pre-Wars Vertaran ruins. The symbols are carved precisely and deeply into the rock, and some of them are inset with black obsidian. Others are hollow, but many suspect that they all once held obsidian within their grooves. The statue is remarkably well-preserved, even after six thousand years of the elements. This is partly down to the composition of the rock. The stone of the islet is dense granite, and if it was not part of this peculiar sculpture, it would actually be aesthetically beautiful, with veins of pink and green mineralization within the stone. Another reason for the preservation is that the entire structure appears to have once been coated in layers of an ablative, transparent protective material. Bits and pieces of it remain even in 2124, in more sheltered parts of the sculpture. This material protected the peculiar creation for a long time, though now it is mostly worn away. Some of the smaller bits and pieces of the statue have been broken away, 'teeth', 'tentacles', etc. have broken off, and litter the pedestal or have fallen into the sea. Underwater explorers have found many such loose bits and pieces on the sea floor around the islet. The age of the sculpture has been dated to the last century before the interplanetary wars began, and some indications point toward it being no more than a decade or two older than the beginning of those wars. As mentioned above, there was once a gold inset at the top. It is possible that someone in the millennia since the Wars removed it, for obvious reasons. However, it is equally plausible that the storms and other elemental effects removed the gold inset. This last possibility is the more likely, because among the sailors of the Southeastern Archipelago, this sculpture is a source of great superstitious dread. The locals do not like to sail anywhere near it, and will pass up potentially rich local fishing grounds, and potentially very profitable patches of the larsh-seagrass, simply because they are too close to the Sculpture. The locals prefer not to even talk about it, and when they must refer to it they tend to use oblique verbal circumlocutions. Interestingly, Vertarans from other parts of Veranis, as well as both Thakarian and Terrestrian Humans, who do not share the local cultural traditions and in many cases who had never heard of or seen this Sculpture, tend to report an uneasy feeling it they look at it for long. Photographs and video images do not produce this sensation, but direct perception usually does. [1] This unease reportedly gets stronger as one draws closer, and can become strong enough in some people to affect performance and focus, especially on or immediately near the islet. Also, disturbingly, many animals display signs of unease and agitation when close to the Sculpture as well, including animals within the hold of a boat where they cannot actually see it. The 'pedestal' part of the Sculpture rises smoothly out of the sea, a sheer wall of polished stone that rises about five meters above the water level in calm seas. Wind and wave have roughened and broken this base in places, but less so than one might expect, in part because the surface is so smooth waves, even powerful ones, slide smoothly across it with less friction than would be the case on a rough surface. Still, the ocean has battered the base and there are broken patches. Even so, even allowing for the broken stone and cracks and other damage, many engineers and stone masons have observed that the Sculpture is far better preserved than it really, logically should be, given its surroundings and age and the weather conditions that batter it, to say nothing of the occasional seaquake. The Sculpture is like nothing else that has been found on Veranis by either the Thakarians or the Terrestrians, and none of the native Vertarans are aware of anything else quite like it on their world either. It does, however, resemble something on the planet Mardis (Dyaxor A IV). (More about that later.) MORE LATER. [1] Interestingly, though few have yet made the association in 2024, most of those who report no unease or nervousness from looking at the Sculpture are psychonulls.
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10-07-2024, 12:28 AM | #86 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
About two hundred kilometers to the north of the Statue, the islands of the Southeastern Archipelago tend to be larger (because the entire Northlands tectonic plate trends upward as one goes north due to the ongoing orogeny on the northern coast). The islands are on average bigger, the waters between them shallower, in this part of the Archipelago. One such island is called by the Terrestrians 'Wenscal'. This is an Anglicization of the local name, and the pronunciation is fairly close. Wenscal is shape very roughly like a long rectangle running roughly east-west. Some other islands line on an east-west axis with Wenscal, and indeed this is another ridge in a series of such. One such ridge, to the south, is the site of the Statue. This ridge is made of granitic rock as well, but with much more of a sedimentary cap and its islands are mostly quite habitable. Wenscal is about eighty kilometers long east-west, and averages about twenty-five kilometers wide north-south, though with considerable variation. The island rises to the west, and its highest point is near the western end of the island. This hill rises over forty meters above the surrounding sea, and has long been the site of a lighthouse complex. The first lighthouse on the site was built roughly in what would be the year 1200 A.D. on Earth (allowing for time variation across interstellar distances). The original light was a crude fire atop a stone tower, later versions were more elaborate. By the time the Thakarians conquered Veranis, a substantial stone lighthouse tower stood here, rising over twenty meters from the hill top. Under the Thakarians, the flame was replaced by more advanced light, and the tower was automated. It remained more or less under the control of the rulers of the island, though, (though under Thakarian supervision). This lighthouse was always important for the sailors of the Archipelago, and this enabled the rulers of the island to charge neighboring islands to help maintain it (plus substantial profit). The Thakarians allowed this practice to continue, and enforced the 'fee' as well. The Terrestrians have not interfered with this arrangement either. They have many, many higher priorities on their plates, so the Wenscalis continue to extract a substantial fee from their neighbors in exchange for their light. The Terrestrians no longer enforce the collection of the fee, but this has proven to be little inconvenience for the Wenscalis. This is because of the slightly ironic economics of the island. Surrounded by other islands, and in an Archipelago that historically has been home to some of the most accomplished sailors on Veranis, Wenscal itself has little maritime tradition. Of all the islands and inhabitants of that part of the Archipelago, the Wenscalis actually need their lighthouse the least. The situation is simply that Wenscal is the best site for such a lighthouse in that region of the Archipelago. It is conveniently located, the western hill is high and rocky, giving a good vantage and a solid foundation for building, and the Wenscalis, historically, were the best stone smiths in the Archipelago, making it easier for them to build and maintain the historical lighthouses. In 2124, the last of the series of stone towers is still in use, though much more advanced light sources are located at the top, alone with radio transmitters for a LORAN-like system. (See upthread for why installing navigational satellites is problematic as of 2124.) The locals continue to maintain the tower, though technical consultants come out from the mainland periodically to maintain the electronics and other systems. The reason the Wenscalis were historically the best stone masons in the Archipelago, and for their lack of a nautical tradition, is rooted in their origin. Wenscal was settled, about the year 1100 A.D. on Earth, by refugees from a defeated state on the east coast of the Northlands. Wenscal, at the time, was sparsely populated, and the newcomers more or less absorbed the locals shortly after arrival. The settlement was made possible due to complicated political factors at the time, and for about half a century the Wenscalis were ruled by the victors of the former war. Subsequent wars and upheavals in turn broke the power of their overlords, and Wenscal became independent. One might have expected the locals to develop a nautical tradition and culture, but for whatever reason they never really did, all down through the subsequent centuries. They had arrived on ships belonging to the victorious state that had driven them from the coast. Wenscal proved to be a comfortable and clement new home, with arable land, fresh water, and accessible stone and some metal from small pre-Wars ruins. The Wenscalis were more or less self-sufficient, they did engage in some external trade, but mostly with traders and sailors who came to Wenscal from other islands, or the mainland. The only significant number of seacraft used by the Wenscalis were small fishing vessels, which rarely ventured far from Wenscal. The refugees who came to Wenscal brought with them a higher technology than was available in the Archipelago, and in particular they were very skilled stone workers and builders compared to the other islanders. That, plus the good location, made citing a lighthouse on Wenscal a practical proposition. After all, they had the place, and they had the skills to use that place. Their lack of a maritime tradition also gave them leverage, oddly enough. They did not, after all, really need their lighthouse for its own sake. They could turn off the light and not suffer, because their own boats (such as they were) rarely ventured far enough out to have any need for it. Neighboring islanders might have attempted to respond to such a move with force...but nobody else necessarily wanted any of their neighbors to control the lighthouse, either. Furthermore, the necessary skills to maintain the tower and light were not common among the people of the other islands. This would have meant that seizing the lighthouse would also require more or less conquering Wenscal, in order to have compulsory access to those useful skills. But occupying the entire fairly populous island would have been a challenge for the other islanders, with their own limited populations and resources. The Wenscalis could have been blockaded...but they were mostly self-sufficient. They would have missed the product of their fishing fleet, but not cripplingly so. There were fewer good sites on island to land ships than one might have expected, and if the Wenscalis had little in the way of sea war potential, they were armed and quite capable of defending their island on land. A landing force would have been facing stiff resistance once they came ashore. Occupying Wenscal would have been a daunting prospect during those centuries...and such warfare might easily damage or destroy the lighthouse. Few doubted that the Wenscalis would be prepared to hold the lighthouse hostage in the event of an invasion. All in all, it was easier, cheaper, and safer to grit their teeth, and pay the always high, sometimes extortionate, 'fee' the Wenscalis demanded from their neighboring islands. In return, the Wenscalis maintained the lighthouse faithfully, it was high, visible, reliable, and useful. This situation also partially explains why the Wenscalis never developed much of a seafaring culture in the later centuries. Once this situation was in place, the Wenscalis had a certain vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Along with the profitable lighthouse, their lack of a seafaring culture eventually also made Wenscal a convenient, neutral meeting place for the other independent islands. It was a useful place to meet to discuss boundaries, ownership of fishing grounds and larsh grass and other resources, and this service too was a source of money. Of course a given island might have decided to try and 'free ride', since they could use the light without paying for it. But the other islands would know that this would risk the Wenscalis dousing the light, so the neighbors tended to enforce the 'fee' among each other. By 2124, the situation is ingrained by long tradition, and has survived both the Thakarian occupation and the Terrestrian regime. MORE LATER.
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10-08-2024, 01:02 AM | #87 |
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
In 2124, Wenscal has a population of about twenty thousand people. This is somewhat greater than was historically typical, for most of its pre-Tharkarian history, Wenscal hosted a population of about twelve to fourteen thousand. Even with the low-technology farming methods that were in use before the Thakarians came, this was a readily sustainable population using food grown on the island, and supplemented by fishing. Meat was something of a luxury good in those centuries, though. The island has a finite amount of land suitable for pasture, and much of what meat was eaten (other than seafood) was imported salted or otherwise preserved meat. This too was an expensive indulgence in those times. More modern farming methods have made it possible for Wenscal to support its full population in some comfort. Wenscal has a single good large harbor, and the largest city on the island is built around this bay (on the north side of the island, about halfway along the east-west length). In 2124 the population of the city (which carries the same name as the island) is about ten thousand. The rest of the inhabitants of the island live in villages scattered across the island, or in rural farmsteads of various sorts. Wenscal has a couple of much smaller sheltered bays that can serve as harbors. For the most part, these are used by the fishing boats. The inhabitants of the island are still almost entirely descended from the refugees relocated there a Terrestrian millennium earlier. Most of the islands of the Southeastern Archipelago are inhabited by a mix-race population, the Wenscalis are mostly of the green-eyed strain, blue eyes are rare on Wenscal. Historically, the Wenscali culture took a dim view of intermarriage with outsiders, at times it was illegal, at other times merely socially disapproved, but it was a rare thing in either case. In practice, this was in large part simply because most Wenscali rarely came into contact with outsiders anyway. For the most part, the only outsiders most of the inhabitants of Wenscal ever met with the traders who came to the main town, and they rarely went farther inland than that town. Politically, Wenscal has been an independent state for most of its history, going back nearly one thousand Terrestrian years. Throughout most of that time, Wenscal has been a republic. The ruling body of Wenscal consists of two 'circles', or chambers, a larger body of fifty members and an 'elder' circle of ten. The lower chamber is divided into thirty seats representing towns or districts, and twenty elected at large from the entire population of the island. Any Wenscali over the age of sixteen is qualified to vote for this chamber, or to sit on it. Terms are for two Veranisian years (not quite four Terrestrian years), and elections are staggered so that half the chamber is up for election every year. The elder circle is also an elected body, but a Wenscali must be at least thirty local years old (not quite sixty Terrestrian years old) to vote for, or sit in, this chamber. Terms of office last for five Veranisian years. Laws can be enacted, or repealed, by a simple majority of both chambers, or a supermajority of the lower house. Members of the upper house also fill various executive roles. Additionally, there is a Senior Elder who is elected from at large on the island. He or she must be thirty local years old, but every adult is eligible to vote in this election, and this position is held for life (or until removed by a unanimous senior chamber, or a supermajority of the lower house). The Senior Elder is the chief executive and head of state. Both sexes have been eligible to fill all elected positions for centuries on Wenscal, but the large majority of those officials have always been males. All elected positions are open only to native-born Wenscalis. Citizenship in the republic is available only to people of at least fifty percent Wenscali descent, and mixed-ancestry individuals must receive a special dispensation from the upper house of the legislature to become full citizens. People of no Wenscali ancestry can be 'naturalized' only by a supermajority of both chambers. This last is a very rare situation, but it has happened now and again. The Wenscal republic does not maintain a standing army. They have too few people for such a thing, and it would serve little purpose most of the time. Instead, every male Wenscali is expected to own arms and be ready to fight in an emergency. Historically, this meant most swords or various kinds of bows, and simple cloth or leather armor. Men were expected to pay for this themselves, and to train with it regularly. Officers and specially-trained men, meant to serve as the core of the militia, received a stipend to permit them to own better quality weapons and metal armor. Modern Wenscal maintains that tradition, though in 2124, instead of swords and shields, male Wenscali are expected to own firearms and to be proficient in their use. The government has also provided money to purchase modern high-tech fiber armor uniforms, for use in the event of an emergency. Though only male Wenscali are required to do this, more than a few of the women have chosen to arm themselves and become proficient with weapons. Wenscal would be a challenging target to invade and occupy for most of the other island-states in the Archipelago. When the militia is standing down, the trained core cadre provides an enforcement force and serves, more or less, as the police. The Wenscal law code is modest, but enforced firmly, and many offenses carry a death penalty. MORE LATER.
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10-14-2024, 12:52 AM | #88 |
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
Wenscali law carries a death penalty for the offenses one might expect, such as murder, rape, abduction, various assaults, and so forth, but also for robbery above a certain level, or various other crimes most Terrestrians would see as mid-range. In fact, Wenscali culture does not include much concept of 'prison'. They do have jails used for short-term occupancy for minor offenses, such as public intoxication, or ordinary brawling or the like, or the local version of traffic offenses or disturbing the peace, that sort of thing. Rarely is any offender imprisoned in these cells longer than a few weeks at most. More serious offenses carry either the death penalty, or various combinations of fines and forced labor as punishments. Wenscal is too small, and the population too small, to make maintaining long-term prisons appealing, or even entirely practical. The Wenscali do not practice true chattel slavery, but they do enslave criminal offenders to do work on public projects or to work for the victims of their crimes (an especially common punishment for minor robbery). The standard means of Wenscali execution is beheading. This is a hangover from old traditions, and while the Thakarians had no issue with it, the Three Power Commission has been encouraging the Wenscali to use more 'humane' methods. The Commission has also been attempting to convince the Wenscali to apply the death penalty to fewer offenses. These efforts have been entirely diplomatic, the Commission has far more immediate and urgent matters to deal with, before they would get around to coercing the Wenscali on such a matter. They have been attempting persuasion, however. Culturally, the Wenscali are definitely an exception among the islands of the Archipelago. Even after centuries, they retain many of the customs they brought with them from the mainland after their defeat in that long-gone war. Several languages are widely spoken among the peoples of the Archipelago, but most of them are akin to each other, as closely perhaps as English and German, or French and Italian. The Wenscali language, though it has certainly absorbed many terms and words from their neighbors, is much different, more closely akin to the language of mainland states like Catakatia and Galantakatia. In many ways, the Wenscali language resembles what Terrestrian philologists believe was the ancestral tongue of many of the mainland states, a thousand Terrestrian years earlier. The Wenscali are not exactly insular. It is true that the vast majority of the Wenscali, even in 2124, rarely leave the island of their birth. There are few legal or other barriers to doing so, it is simply that most do not want to leave. Visitors are likewise not shunned, though they rarely are seen beyond the capitol city. In fact, for welcome guests, Wenscali hospitality is somewhat legendary among the Archipelago peoples. One notable cultural difference: on most of the islands of the Archipelago, both the independent ones and those ruled from the mainland, (ingested) larsh use is legal and fully culturally accepted. Various customs exist dictating who can use it, when, and when it is not appropriate to use it. Much like alcohol in other places (and here as well), the larsh customs work to reduce the harm the drug can do, and contain any social strain from it. Unlike most of the North Continent mainland states, there is not even any social disapproval of larsh use, as long as it remains within these social bounds. The Wenscali, however, do not approve of the drug. They actually go further than most of the mainland states, because not only is larsh use socially discouraged, but use and possession of the drug is actually illegal on Wenscal. It is illegal to use it, to harvest it, or even to possess the drug, and the penalties are steep. First offenses carry heavy fines, which rise rapidly with repeat offense, up to and including a death penalty after several offenses. At the same time, the Wenscali are very aware of the cultural and ethnic divide that separates them from the other Archipelago peoples, and they mostly prefer to maintain that difference. As a rule, most Wenscali are not greatly interested in news from beyond Wenscal, though such news is readily available in 2124. Their 'foreign policy' is mostly a non-interventionist neutrality, centered primarily on maintaining the lucrative income from operating the lighthouse/transmitter. Some Wenscali, especially certain governmental officials, are all too aware that changing times on Veranis likely means that their comfortable, relatively secure neutrality is unsustainable in the long term. In the short term, the situation is more or less secure. Over time, though, the steady spread of interstellar-level technology is likely to render their lucrative lighthouse obsolete. Indeed, some of these officials are nervously aware that once the Thakarian ASAT systems are cleaned out, navigational satellites are going to appear in the sky. This is not likely to happen for a few more local years, but sooner or later it will almost surely happen. Other threats exist as well, of course. One that hangs over all of Veranis is the possibility that the Thakarians will manage to return to control the planet, either by defeating the Terrestrians, or because the Terrestrians decide to pull out on their own. The result, as the more far-sighted of the Wenscali know, would be the same either way: a return to Thak-Tarak control of Veranis. While the Wenscali more or less thrived during the century of Thakarian control, there would be no guarantee of the return of that status in a restored Thakarian regime. Further, during the previous regime, even the Wenscali were sometimes subjected to a forced draft of workers to be shipped out to other countries on Veranis, or off the planet entirely. The Wenscali, like many of the peoples of Veranis, have grown used to the lighter rule of the Terrestrians. Some of the more far-sighted officials and citizens of Wenscal have been giving thought to what their future will look like, once the lighthouse is no longer a source of revenue. Their current economy is mostly agricultural, with some light manufacturing, much of it at the TL5-6 level. The mainland states of the North Continent are advancing rapidly, a fact of which the Wenscali are becoming uncomfortably aware. MORE LATER.
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10-20-2024, 11:22 PM | #89 |
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
One of the members of the lower chamber of the Wenscal legislature is a sixty Terrestrian year old named Szuzxak. In his younger days, he was exceptional in that he was afflicted by a serious case of wanderlust. Before he was out of his teens (Terrestrial measure), he had signed to a trading ship that had visited Wenscal, and over the next thirty Terran years or so, he travelled all over the Northlands, visited the Central and Southern Continents more than once, and even (once) set foot on West Continent. He did return to Wenscal several times during this period, but his travels made him much more cosmopolitan than most of his fellow Wenscali. For the first twenty years or so of his journeys, Veranis was under Thakarian rule, then for the next ten it was under Terrestrian control. Szuzxak returned to Wenscal and settled down in what would have been roughly the year 2112 on Earth, and he entered politics and managed to get himself elected to the legislature a few years later. (This was more of an accomplishment than it might seem, because the Wenscali, as a rule, are not inclined to see wanderers such as Szuzxak in an entirely favorable light.) Of all the officials in the government of Wenscal, Szuzxak is probably the one who is more aware of just how fast Veranis is changing, and how delicate their situation is becoming. Szuzxak has lived in Cataka City at one point in his life. He has met graduates of the Royal Technical Institute in Catakatia, and he has seen Thakarian and Terrestrian spacecraft landing and launching. Though others in Wenscal are aware of the problem, for Szuzxak the awareness is acute, and worrisome. This is made the more so by his awareness that the Southeastern Archipelago is both politically and militarily negligible, and at the same time resource-rich. As Veranis becomes ever more technologically sophisticated, those resources are inevitably going to look tempting to various of their Northlands neighbors. Even the shallow, sunlit seafloor of the Archipelago is a valuable resource to those possessed of interstellar-level technology. Szuzxak has also travelled throughout the Archipelago, and knows some of what is going on amid the immediate neighbors of Wenscal. Unlike most of his fellow legislators, he retains many contacts and lines of information from outside Wenscal, especially involving the other islands of the Archipelago. One ongoing trend that worries Szuzxak is that many people in the other islands of the Archipelago have observed that one solution to their problems would be political unification of the islands. Individually, even the largest and most influential of the island-states are barely noticeable compared to the mainland states of the North Continent. None of them have huge populations, Wenscal itself is one of the major ones. However, if the Archipelago could be unified, politically and (ideally) culturally, the combined islands would boast a substantial population, good resources, considerable skills, and would be able to mount at least a credible military effort in an emergency. Such a unified Archipelago could develop their own substantial resources themselves as Veranis advances, and conceivably at least hold their own status among the other Northlands states. This is all true, but for Wenscal, such a project would also be deeply problematic. Of course, even under ideal circumstances, unifying the Southeastern Archipelago would be a challenging project. There are literally hundreds of independent (or at least theoretically independent) islands, and several large associations of unified islands, and some of the islands are ruled from the east coast states. The governments include monarchies, republics, theocracies, thalassocracies, oligarchies, patriarchies, and others. Some islands boast multiple sovereign states. But even so, most of the islands are culturally akin to each other, speaking relatively related languages, having shared histories, and are ethnically/racially akin as well. Wenscal is the odd one out in these respects, and has been so for centuries. The Wenscali are, in fact, somewhat proud of this fact. The Wenscali are jealous of their sovereignty, even more so than most of the other island-states, and their customs and ways are different from the other states. A federated (or otherwise unified) Archipelago would have difficulty in absorbing Wenscal easily. Yet a lone, independent Wenscal would have great difficulty competing, or functioning, amid and surrounded by such a united Archipelago. Their own lack of a maritime tradition would compound this. The best case, in such a situation, would be that Wenscal would rapidly become a poor, backward, irrelevant backwater, and be just as unable to sustain their ways and uniqueness as would be the case if they were part of the united state. While many on Wenscal are aware of this, few believe that the problem is immediate. Szuzxak does not agree. Having seen what he saw in his travels, Szuzxak believes that Wenscal has no more than a (Terran) decade or so before the problem will become acute. Even if the Archipelago does not unite, their profitable lighthouse will cease be relevant as soon as it is safe and reliable to put navigational satellites in orbit around Veranis. At the rate the Northland states, especially Catakatia, are developing, there will be pressures on the Archipelago states in no more than a few years after that. As of 2124, Szuzxak is trying to convince his fellow legislators, and other Wenscali in general, of the urgency of the situation. This alone is an uphill battle, made the worse because of the fact that Szuzxak himself has only a vague idea of a solution. Szuzxak does have an idea, though. Based on what he has seen on the mainland, especially in Catakatia, Szuzxak has the idea that Wenscal, if they move first, could possibly become a sort of technical and engineering center for the Archipelago. MORE LATER.
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11-04-2024, 12:09 AM | #90 |
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Re: ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE: VERANIS (Dyaxor A V) in 2123...
LATER.
There is historical precedent for the idea. Szuzxak is aware that in earlier centuries, the Wenscali were the primary stonesmiths and metalsmiths for much of the Southeastern Archipelago. Their ancient refugee ancestors had brought a technology higher than that available to the locals when they arrived on Wenscal Island, and had profitably sold those skills to their new neighbors for centuries. The lighthouse on the western end of the island is the most obvious example, but Wenscali artisans and engineers worked on projects all over the Archipelago as well. Though the Wenscali never really developed any maritime tradition of their own, trade ships called on Wenscal Island regularly, and transported skilled workers to other islands on a regular basis. In 2124, Szuzxak has a not-entirely-worked-out plan in mind. He is all too aware of the growing number of graduates of the Royal Technical Institute in Catakatia. Other sources of trained high-tech personnel also exist, though not so numerous, in other parts of the Northlands. There are also those natives trained in various skills by working for the Three Power Commission, as well. The graduates of the RTI, of course, are expected and legally obligated to work for the royal government of Catakatia for several years, to pay for their education and training. Eventually, though, such graduates will fulfill their obligations, and a few of the early cohorts of graduates have already done so. Szuzxak wants to try to lure some of those 'paid off' graduates to come work on Wenscal Island, both to establish modern industries and technical facilities, and to train a cadre of locals in the relevant skills. Szuzxak is also hoping to improve and extend the haphazard schooling system of Wenscal Island as well, to complement this effort. Szuzxak hopes that by the time the full wave of modern technological development washes over the Archipelago, Wenscal will be in a position to be the linchpin of this, the people other peoples of the Archipelago turn to as they did in ancient times as technical consultants and skilled workers. Szuzxak believes that this goal is achievable, but he also knows that time is of the essence. The window of opportunity for Wenscal to become what he believes is must become to thrive is limited, and if they miss their opportunity, others will claim that prize instead. Szuzxak is striving to make his goal happen, but he finds that many of his fellow Wenscali are complacent, and he is swimming, in a sense, uphill. If one travels about fifty kilometers to the east of Wenscal, one comes to another oddity of the Archipelago. Unlike the Statue to the south, this oddity is not ancient. It was the work of the Thakarians who formerly ruled Veranis, and it only dates back about seventy Terrestrial years. This island was once called Nyyshtris by its former inhabitants, or at least that would be the closest Anglicization of the name. It is not huge as the islands of the Archipelago go, being about ten kilometers wide and thirty kilometers long. It is actually part of the same underwater ridge line as Wenscal. Up until about seventy Terrestrial years in the past, it hosted a population of about two thousand people (of the same racial/ethnic stock as most of the Archipelago, rather than the Wenscali). Sometime during what would approximately be the 2050s on Earth, the Thak-Tarak regime that then ruled Veranis suddenly, forcibly, removed the entire population of Nyyshtris, young and old, male and female, over the course of a few weeks. There was some attempt at violent resistance, but it was futile and only resulted in the deaths of those who made the effort. No one in the Archipelago knew why this was done, or where the former natives of the island were resettled. [1] On the now-empty island, the Thak-Tarak engineers began to construct something. They leveled off an area of ground, exposing the solid bedrock, and polished it fairly smooth. Then, across this exposed level rock, they laid a layer of synthetic corundum. Pure corundum is transparent, but the Thak-Tarak doped this layer of material with the necessary impurities to impart a rich, almost blood-red, color to the substance. The area of exposed and leveled rock is about two and a half kilometers wide, and is approximately circular. The corundum layer is about three fourths of a kilometer wide and is perfectly circular, down to the molecular level. The layer of artificial ruby is about three centimeters thick. At the center of this disk of corundum is a 'spike' of high-grade titanium steel, circular, about twenty meters tall and six centimeters in diameter. Yes, the Thakarians left a 750 meter wide disk of artificial ruby on the ground. In an earlier age, the corundum in the disk would have been considered gem quality. In 2124, ruby as such has little value as a treasure material on either Earth or the Thakarian worlds, it is too easily synthesized to be very precious. Still, a synthetic ruby disk massing over 50,000 metric tons is somewhat impressive, even by TL10 standards. What is it for? In 2124 on Veranis or Earth, nobody really knows. MORE LATER. [1] In fact, the elderly and very young (under about age ten in Terrestrian terms) were resettled scattershot across the planet, while the rest of the population were shipped off-world and out of the star system entirely for labor purposes, as part of the regular Thak-Tarak 'draft'.
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