Difference between revisions of "Bears Armed"

Latest revision as of 09:25, 19 March 2007

Bears Armed

Flag of Bears Armed
Motto: Do We WHAT In The Woods?
Region	International Democratic Union
Capital	Council Groves
Official Language(s)	Ursine, Russian, English
Leader	the 'Council of Clans' (collectively)
Population	about seven million
Currency	thaler
NS Sunset XML

Within eastern half of the IDU's main continent there lies a wide area that, despite its close proximity to the regional capital, was known until very recently, as 'the Unknown Territories' and was left completely alone by all of the neighbouring nations. This changed in the June of 2006, however, when a diplomatic mission came out of that area into the adjacent land of Mikitivity and announced the presence there of a nation called 'Bears Armed' that was now willing to open normal relations with the region's other members.
The inhabitants of this nation are actually Ursines -- bipedal, intelligent & talking Bears -- rather than Humans. Since letting their existence become known they have become quite active in international matters, sending not only an observation mission to the UN but also competitors to the 1st NSOC Summer Olympics, the 2nd NSvision Song Contest, and the 2nd NSOC Winter Olympics.

Key to Map

Background Colours

Pale green = Bears Armed, territories of specific clans or septs
Lime green = Bears Armed, “national” territories
Dark green = Bears Armed: see ‘Other Features’ section of this key
Pale green & pale yellow (chequered) = territory of ‘The Free Principality of Roumberre’ which is closely attached to this nation (& most especially to its ‘Clan Westwoods’…) but not officially included within its borders
Pale green & pale yellow (irregularly mixed) = some sparsely-populated areas where the line of the national border either has not yet been completely defined or is currently being reconsidered
Pale yellow (solid) = several areas that this nation hasn’t officially annexed (yet) but would most definitely object strongly to anybody else claiming &/or occupying
Pale brown = territories of organised nations other than Bears Armed itself
White = areas not controlled by any organised nation
Pale blue = surfaces of those major lakes that are shown (where these are wide enough for a separate shade to be used instead of just same one as for their edges)
Violet = various areas that have special significance to the people of Bears Armed (or at least to some significant groups amongst them, such as the local Clans…) for “cultural heritage” reasons of various kinds, access to which (especially for non-Ursines) may be restricted: The entire area that contains the ‘Holy Ruins’ is a “national” territory rather than the property of any one clan or sept, and the sections of the River Surra that flow along the western & northern edges of this actually can not be sailed through or crossed — except perhaps by aircraft that are operating at high altitudes — because the mystical barrier that formerly sealed-off the entire ‘Unknown Territory’ still persists there
Purple = estates that are still owned by direct heirs of Bears Armed’s former ‘Royal Family’, the ‘Vurra-Redwood’ dynasty
Reddish-mauve (in the areas out beyond Bears Armed’s eastern borders) = the ‘Hazardous Waste’, the area around the ‘Shunned Ruins’, which the Bears won’t enter unless doing so is really, absolutely necessary

Lines

Red (continuous) = national borders, except in some cases where these lie along major rivers
Red (dashes) = sections of Bears Armed’s national borders that either have not yet been completely defined or are currently being reconsidered
Pale red (continuous) = boundaries between the primary political divisions of Bears Armed, which mostly consist of a single Clan’s lands each
Pale red lines (dashes) = boundaries between some important sub-divisions of those political units
Dark green = edges of the ‘Sleeping Forests’, the only areas within Bears Armed itself where the resident populations of Bears are still only pre-sapient rather than “awakened”
Yellow (within Bears Armed itself) = boundaries of the lands currently held by the ‘Borr-Vurra’ sept of ‘Clan Redwood’, from which the country’s former Royal Family (the ‘Vurra-Redwood’ dynasty) came
Blue = major rivers, the edges of the wider lakes shown & the locations of some narrower lakes too, and the locations of some (medium-sized, &/or important) islands within the wider lakes… Also, there’s one straight line that’s of a slightly lighter [& mauver] hue than all of the others (located in the territory of ‘Clan Westwoods’, where it links a town of the smallest size-class that has any members shown on this map to the River Surra just before the latter reaches the border with Mikitivity) which shows the route of what’s currently the nation’s longest canal
Dark brown (dotted) = approximate boundaries of the main areas (within Bears Armed itself) where <color=brown>Treacle</color> can be extracted from under the ground
Pale brown (thick), in the lands that don’t belong to any organised nation = approximate divisions between the areas that are inhabited by the ‘Vokksur’ people and by other independent tribes, the “empty” areas that are basically uninhabited because of their proximity to the ‘Shunned Ruins’ & ‘Hazardous Waste’, and the “Unclaimed” areas about whose inhabitants — if they actually have any — this nation’s inhabitants currently know little or nothing

Writing

Black (words, on white panels; in nations other than Bears Armed itself) = the names of those foreign nations
Green (words; within Bears Armeditself ) = names of the “major” Ursine clans — or, in a couple of other cases, other groups (the “ ‘High Ranges’ Septs” are effectively a subdivision of ‘Clan Redwood’ for most [but not quite all] purposes; the “7 Septs” effectively constitute a “minor” clan in their own <collective> right…) — that are dominant in each of the political divisions concerned
Green (upper-case letter = ‘N’, not parenthesised; within <i>Bears Armeditself) = indicates the area that’s jointly held by the various clans whose main territories are away up in the far north of the region rather than on this map
Green (lower-case letters, not parenthesised; within Bears Armeditself) = initials for the “major” Clans of whose territories the areas concerned form detached sections: ‘b’ = ‘BlackBear’, ‘g’ = ‘Greenwoods’,‘r’ = ‘Redwood’, ‘w’ = ‘Westwoods’
Green (parenthesised upper-case letters, or numbers; within Bears Armeditself) = labels to show which of the “minor” Ursine clans are dominant within each of the political divisions concerned: see the ‘Listing of the Clans’ section (OOC: which I haven’t actually finished writing yet…) for their actual identities
Green (parenthesised lower-case letters; within Bears Armeditself) = initials for the names of some significant subdivisions within certain “major” clans’ territories
Grey (words) = names of <most of> the more important settlements within Bears Armed, and the names that are commonly used by the Bears for the two ruined cities of whose existence within this general area they are aware
Red (words; in the areas to the east & south of Bears Armed that aren’t included within any nation’s organised territories yet) = notes about the presumed inhabitants (if any…) of those lands
Black & grey (word = ‘Badgers’; letters alternate the colours) = location of the area within Bears Armed that is the main home of the ‘Urr-Brokki’, or “Badger-people”, today
Blue & red (word = ‘Otters’; letters alternate the colours) = location of the general area, out beyond the southern borders of Bears Armed, that currently houses the highest known concentration of the ‘Luthrarree’ or “Otter-people”

Other Features

Black blotches (large, pierced in several places each to show the local background colours) = locations of the two “pre-Ursine” ruined cities
Black crosses, of three different sizes, possibly with white or grey centres = noteworthy settlements, placed into different categories here due to differing combinations of size & importance, within Bears Armed. The largest size of cross, coloured in black around white around black, is used only for ‘Council Groves’ which is as close as this nation comes to having a “capital city”: The next size down is used to show the locations of all of the country’s other towns that are of comparable size to this, and the smallest size for the locations of those other towns that seemed worth showing (although some other settlements whose sizes are comparable to theirs also exist…): a white centre to any of these crosses indicates the capital of a “major” clan, whilst a grey centre indicates the capital of a “minor” clan or of a significant subdivision within a “major” one
Red & black (quartered) squares, with lime-green edging = sites of the main bases for Bears Armed’s national defence forces
Dark green areas, marked with yellow crosses = Reservations that have been set aside to house wild Goldilocks in their natural state
Dark green area, within a violet border = An area of woods that was especially holy to the now-extinct “Rabbit-people”, which is generally avoided by most of the Ursines — and closed to outsiders — nowadays
Concentric design, brown around pale yellow around white around red (in the territories of ‘Clan SnowyPeaks’, in the south-west of Bears Armed) = ‘Mount Thunder-Fire’, which is a semi-active volcano
Grey ‘X’, on a pale yellow background = the site of an ancient (pre-Ursine) & reputedly haunted battlefield
Dark grey stippling (in the areas out beyond Bears Armed’s eastern borders) = the ‘Dead Forest’, a lifeless area overlapping the Hazardous Waste, which is also generally avoided by the Bears
Black question-mark, on a patch of pale yellow background that’s surrounded by a continuous red line (within the territories of ‘Clan Redwood’) = an area whose contents are actually unknown to the Bears, because a mystical barrier still keeps them out of it!

(not shown yet) = rail link to Mikitivity…