Difference between revisions of "Arizona Nova"

Revision as of 16:22, 7 November 2004

Arizona Nova

Flag of Arizona Nova
Motto: "Freedom in Christ"
No Map Available Yet
Region	Isle of Believers
Capital	Arizona Prime (homeworld)
Official Language(s)	English, German, Quenya, Latin
Leader	Anithraldur
Population	Over 2 Billion
Currency	gold weasel
NS Sunset XML

History of the Anikari

The Anikari are the main racial group of Arizona Nova. The first section deals exclusively with their history and is the "lore" part of the Anikari's history, while the second is the "history" part. Some historians hold that the lore is nothing more than entertaining stories, others hold that it is literal truth.

The Old World

The story of the Anikari is one older, some believe, older than Terra, or at least predates its first human civilizations. Much of this first history is lost, and now are distant legends concerning heroes and monsters, though truth is told, some hold that they are not legends at all. “Anikari don’t lie about history,” is the cliché of the people. As is, that these first legends even survive how they have is a testament to the written and historical tradition of this people. The oldest recollections concern the “old world”, whose name has been lost to the annals of time. This first world was a place most would consider fantastic, filled with creatures comparable to elves and orcs, dragons, and other mythical creatures. The Anikari themselves were founded by their namesake “matriarch,” Anikar the Great. She was a martial woman, and had led the human people of this world (though the Anikari are extraterrestrial, they consider themselves human, and genetic comparisons have found Homo Sapiens and the Anikari essentially identical) and the “elves” to an incredible victory over insurmountable odds, against a great horde of orcs during the “Orcflood.” She was made, by mandate of the people, the Empress, and she in turn carved out an empire in lands won back from the desolation of the orcs. Her empire grew great in power and might, and she, it seems was corrupted by that power. Eventually she was deposed by the people who had “elected” her, though no record actually recorded an instance of her death. Thus, some even hold that one day Anikar will return and lead her people to greater glory. Nonetheless, the Empire turned into a Republic, which prospered long in the land. At first, things worked well, as trade flourished and alliances and treaties were made. Yet, factions grew up around the most powerful cities, which soon caused any sort of administration to break down, which in turn caused the Republic to split up into powerful city-states, all engaged in fratricidal warfare. Eventually, the Republic totally collapsed, as did the power of the cities themselves, and the Anikari, the once proud people, were reduced to nomads, wandering about the hills of their former empire, gleaning a living from the land and the ruins of the cities of yesteryear. This kept up for centuries, until the second rise of Anikar’s Gate. It had been the capital of the Empire, but it had been oppressed under the Republic, a hated remembrance of the Empire. It had been reduced to a town, and stripped of power. This proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it was spared the later cataclysms which shattered the Republic. Eventually, the desire for centralized government grew up again, especially among the richer nomads who were harried by bandits and thieves. Anikar’s Gate grew again in importance. The legends become more obscure here, only citing that this New Empire lasted long, and was prosperous as the first. Many years it lasted, through wars, sporadic orc invasions, and the like. Yet, when the New Empire was at its apex, something happened. Anyone who is telling the legends become highly agitated if pressed for details. The most in-depth descriptions state that some powerful force of darkness shattered the world itself, destroying it utterly. It would seem that should have been the end of them, forever, but it seems it wasn’t. For whatever purpose, the Anikari were given what they call a “second chance.” They found themselves on the “new world,” or Arizona in Anikari (one of the few words which have survived). It’s resemblance to Terran Arizona, is considered coincidental, but it still doesn’t seem an accident to many.

Arizona

Finding themselves saved unexpectedly from the disaster, the Anikari set to rebuild their nation. This, though it encompasses at least a couple thousand years, is not considered as interesting as legends of the old worlds, and most of the history is relegated to the large tomes of history studied at prestigious universities. Be that as it may, after rebuilding, for a while the Anikari tried to forget the old world-they made a new language, and purposefully erased their history as they tried to start anew, though some noble houses nonetheless tried to preserve that heritage, and accept whatever pain came from memory. What was universally repressed was memory of the darkness that had destroyed the old world. The Anikari expanded over the face of what seemed an “empty” world, full of life, but no other sentients. They eventually split up into many countries, and had a history similar to Terra-middle ages characterized by feudal wars, minor religious crusades, and the like, an industrial age, and finally a modern age. With the birth of radio and later television, however, a shocking discovery was made. Alphonso Lord Chinera, its inventor, made more powerful versions, and discovered transmissions that could only come from other sentient beings. They had discovered the first transmissions from Terra, and after this discovery, the Anikari chose to not broadcast as much as listen to these signals. It took many years, but eventually the language which stood out the most, English to us, was translated. Many nations adopted it as their own language. Terran culture was emulated, but the biggest changes were yet to come. After discovering a series of religious Christian broadcasts, a religious revival swept the planet, as for whatever reason, the religions of the Anikari were always anemic compared to Terran religions (and they believed the "old gods," those who had been in their first world, perished with it) usually having little affect on anything. Christianity was a phenomenon like no other. Its spread was not violent in the least either; Arizona was spared the blunders of the great Terran crusades and religious wars of the Middle Ages and 20th centuries. It was a peaceful takeover. It was held by many that it was the God Himself who had rescued the Anikari from the destruction of the old world, and that He had done it so that they might spread His word to an Earth who, it seemed, was on the verge of rejecting it, if the broadcasts rang true. Yet they also had the further advantage of knowing the mistakes of Terran Christianity, and knew before the fact what to avoid. The stage, it seemed, was set for a religious revival unparalleled in universal history. They began to put great amounts of capital into space exploration and communication, until a rather unexpected event. One of the test probes they sent out suddenly stopped communicating, and probes sent after found nothing and in turn disappeared without a trace. Suddenly, different transmissions came in, and it was soon obvious that Terra was not the only hold of sentience. A cruel race of slavers, origin as yet unknown, wielding advanced technology, descended on Arizona. They gave the Anikari an ultimatum; to surrender the entire planet, and its entire people, to them, or be utterly destroyed. The Anikari, bolstered by their faith and belief in their just cause and defense, and technology comparable to 20th/21st century Terran technology, decided to not succumb to the ultimatum of “submit or perish,” given by these intergalactic fiends. A long battle for the planet and the people resulted, on the ground and air and in space. The ground forces of the slavers could not break the tenacity and toughness of the Arizonan defense, and air raids were proving fruitless. Soon, the slavers resolved to simply glass the planet over with plasma, and make it an example to others. In their arrogance, however, as they warmed up their plasma cannons to overload, they left their defenses down, enabling a well-timed and ingenious strike by the entire planet’s inventory of conventional and nuclear missiles to cripple the slaver spacecrafts, and junk most of their weaponry. The ships lost control, and the entire fleet plummeted through the atmosphere and into the oceans, inlands, forests, and cities of Arizona. Poisoned by radiation, or unable to enable any self-destruct protocols, the slavers were at the mercy of the Arizonans, but were shown no quarter after the slavers’ attempt to annihilate billions. With the slavers finally defeated, their evil plans finally thwarted, the Arizonans marveled at the ships, which while heavily damaged still held a vast treasure trove of technology that boggled the Arizonan scientists. Soon, the technology was imitated, reproduced, and began to hyper-modernize the planet at a rate that would seem incredible to any Terran. No technological revolution on Earth could even begin to compare to this. Industries would almost literally rise and fall overnight as technology was adapted and then replaced by something more efficient or powerful. As more and more technology was implemented, soon the pace began to slow down again, until essentially all of the technology that the slavers had brought was integrated, and now the cutting edge belonged to those who could improve it. The Anikari began to make spacecraft of their own utilizing the drive technology that had been left, and soon they found more worlds from which to get resources. Thus, the Anikari had come of age, now spanning planets in their empire. Never, though, did they forget what they believed was their calling, and they never left the church out of their planning, though some believers balked at using the tools of the slavers and isolated themselves from the rest of the people. These dissidents formed what later became the nation of Nominor.