Difference between revisions of "Upper Virginia"

Revision as of 16:31, 28 November 2004

Upper Virginia

Flag of Upper Virginia
Motto: "Hope for Peace, Prepare for War"
[1]
Region	Excalbian Isles
Capital	Courtland
Official Language(s)	English
Leader	General Craig Altman
Population	Over 3 billion
Currency	The Crown. (C)
NS Sunset XML

Geography and Early History

The Excalbian Isles rise from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Northern Atlantic, southwest of Iceland and southeast of Greenland. One of the largest islands in the world, Excalbia, makes us most of the island chain’s land area. The Borodea Mountains split the island from north to south along the path of Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Highlands and foothills extend from the range to the west across much of the island. To the north of the highlands are plains and tundra; to the south are grasslands and forests. East of the mountain range, the terrain drops rapidly to foothills, pine forests and rugged coastline.

The Excalbian Isles were first settled by the Celts around the 6th century. By the early 10th century, they formed a number of stable, agrarian tribal groups, located mostly in the Southwestern grasslands and along the rugged Eastern coast.

In the late 10th century, a second wave of settlers – Norsemen – arrived from their colonies in Iceland and Greenland. While the earlier arrivals, now known as the Lowlanders, remained along the coast and in the grasslands, the Norsemen migrated into the highlands.

Despite relative isolation from Europe, occasional new arrivals continued to land on Excalbia. These included a small group of Scots, who moved into the highlands and submerged into the Norse Highlanders, and some Irish monks, who in the 12th century introduced Christianity among a small tribe of Lowlanders on the Eastern coast.

By the 13th century, the island’s social structure was well established. The Highland clans were warriors, herders and artisans and dominated the Lowland farmers. Clan warfare in the 15th and 16th centuries produced Excalbia’s first monarch, King Alsgood, who established his capital at Excalbia Castle.

By the 18th century, a number of English and Colonial merchantmen had visited Excalbia, but finding little worth trading along the coast had ignored it. In 1798, a small group of Virginia Baptist missionaries took an interest in Excalbia and booked passage on a Yankee merchant ship familiar with the islands. A storm, however, crashed the Narwhal against the Western coast. Stranded, but alive and still possessing much of their goods and supplies, the missionaries began working to convert the Lowlanders to Christianity and the crew of the merchant ship began establishing control of the local trade routes and building alliances with the local tribes.

In 1801, the newly assertive Lowlanders, backed by the missionaries and the guns of the ship’s crew, came into conflict with the Highland king, Ragarth. Low-level conflict continued until a truce in 1807, by which time the new American arrivals had reestablished contact with their homeland, bringing in new supplies for themselves and their Lowland allies. Seeing the balance of power tilting to the Lowlanders, Ragarth undertook a diplomatic mission to the Lowlanders’ new capital, Landing – the site of the Narwhal’s wreck. While in Landing, Ragarth’s son converted to Christianity and adopted the Christian name Joshua.

Joshua married the daughter of a missionary in 1808 and became king in 1809. At that point, he engineered a union between the Lowlanders and their allies and the Highland kingdom. On Christmas Day in 1810, Joshua proclaimed the Holy Empire of Excalbia, named the Alvis Miller, former Lowland governor of Landing, his Chancellor and established Christianity as its state religion. Emperor Joshua I also launched an aggressive campaign to bring modern education and knowledge to his kingdom.

In 1817, a mixed group of American settlers and Lowlanders began demanding a republican government. In order to avoid violence, the Emperor extended a land grant to the republicans east of the Borodea Mountains and a patent to establish an autonomous republican government. The republicans accepted the grant and establish New Virginia. By 1828, a second settlement, known as Southland and dominated by extremely devout Christians, had been established. Another settlement, known as Deandra, had been founded by a group of Freedmen on an island south of Excalbia. Despite lingering racial prejudices, New Virginia, Southland and Deandra, along with the Lowland settlement of Saxmere and the Highland settlements of Alud and Trondgard, declared themselves independent states and immediately formed a Confederation of Soveriegn States in 1829. The C.S.S. adopted a Constitution based on a modified version of the U.S. Constitution that created a weak central government with strong guarantees for personal liberty.

Founding of the Dominion of Upper Virginia

In 1856, Peter Courtland, commander of the New Virginia State Militia, was tried and convicted for treason for attempting to use the threat of military force to secure the resignation of the Governor and install himself as the new Governor. Before he could be imprisoned, Courtland, along with a number of supporters fled across the mountains to the sparsely inhabited plains of the northwest. By 1862, a number of settlements had been established in the region. Following Courtland’s death in 1870, leaders of these new settlements proclaimed the Dominion of Upper Virginia with a Constitution that, while guaranteeing individual rights and liberties, created a powerful central government. The nation's capital city, Courtland, was named in honor of their founder, Peter Courtland.

Modern History

In the late 19th and early 20th century, as progressives in the Holy Empire worked to break up monopolies and protect workers, unbridled monopoly capitalism gained root in the Dominion. While the nations of Excalbia avoided World War I, they did suffer under the Great Depression. Economic collapse in the Dominion led to the rise of a socialist party that attempted a violent revolution in 1932. It was ruthlessly suppressed by General Roger Courtland, who suspended the Constitution and began authoritarian rule. The Dominion proclaimed neutrality in World War II.

The Dominion of Upper Virginia has been in a State of Emergency since 1932. A Provisional Ruling Council was headed until recently by General Craig Altman, Commander in Chief, Attorney General Diana Silina and Chairman Forrest Turley, Head of the Chamber of Industrials. Recently, a terrorist insurgency, known as the Free Virginia Liberation Army (FVLA) has begun a campaign of assassinations and bombings, culminating in the assassination of Attorney General Silina and the capture of the northern city of Harrington, which the rebels have designated a "liberated city." Riots and brutal repression have also struck the Dominion. In addition, there are signs of internal strife, with former Chamber of Industrial Chairman Baxter Brandt complaining that his removal was illegal and claiming to still be a member of the Provisional Ruling Council. His claim had been endorsed by General Altman, but rejected by the late Attorney General Silina. Despite the turmoil, the economy is prospering. Forty-five percent of the country’s budget is spent on the military, which has several million troops in all services. There are signs that the military is also developing ultra-hypersonic warplanes that skim the edges of space. The county’s main area of economic activity is information technology and it is actively researching bio-computers and human genetic engineering.

More information on the turmoil in the Dominion can be found here: http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6764678#post6764678