Oppressorbad is a mountainous nation.  the Gunt Mountain Army Road is an impressive achievement, even if built largely by pressed labor and captive engineers. It's called the Highway of Skulls for a reason.

It's Freezuary, and time for a Public Service Message from the Polyestrine Critter Kindness Council.

 

 

 Here's a page of soldiers, these include some kneeling artillerymen, a dog handler, an ensign with the flag of the Fabulouth Armee.  and other types.  even a mousey if you can find him. 

 Kneeling poses; the Signal Corps is well represented here. the Radio teams are using extra advanced technology with ranges of up to two yards (Ornrian) for the small one and maybe several yards or, given good conditions even farther!   Notice the short ranged wireless is rigged for voice communications, the Polyester Freestate is just that technologically advanced!  but radio on Ornria is unreliable and so pigeons are a cheap and pretty good alternative.  

 toy soldiers in paper, prone poses. 

Here are a few paper figures of 2PFS' Fabulouth Armee.  Cavalry, Infantry, and Artillery are represented.  

 Here follows a number of pages of fold-up paper accessories and scatterings of terrain to print out for Ornrian battles. 

so continuing to share my paper work for wargaming, I have other vehicles, and some battlefield accessories;

 some of  the vehicles of the 2nd Polyester Freestate, and the brutes across the border, the Oppressorbad Dictatorship.  

 some of these new buildings aren't Polyestrine at all, I've begun doing some from Spunkdumpling like these;

 So, just some more models of the Pleasant streets of Polyesterdelphia.  

This is the Gueratine Hotel.  it's a snobbish place, though lord knows why, the money does not get the guest cleaner sheets, extra towels, un cobwebby light fixtures, and food that won't cause dysentery, but there you have it.  the bellboys are as rude as the rest of the staff.  I put the burned out version first for personal reasons.
The Gueratine Hotel.
      Next is the City Garage.  it's a rather generic name, but it provides pretty good services. Ono Motopia is the proprietor and Head Mechanic, easy to recognize for his greasy big gray mustache.  His wife is the office staff, and she's the one who does most of the electrical I am told. 
  Next we have the  Polyesterdelphia Cinema Odeon.  the popcorn is nice and hot...and the jujubees are fine.  the movies vary though.Saturday is the long matinee...



 
   

To protect the IInd Polyester Freestate a small number of border forts were constructed about 200 years ago.  Many of them are still in use, mostly as garrison barracks, or to house proficiency MOS schools.  Some still hold the border, especially along the frontier with Oppressorbad, where they usually are augmented with emplacements for old heavy guns.

this model of Fort Ben Hambone on the Oppressorbad frontier is based on the old Warren Built Rite toy.  It is an excellent example of the type.  

 

 I've been working on some paper models of the buildings along Spamstreet, downtown Polyesterdelphia.  They should be useful for most Ornrian simulations or dioramas.  If you build the ruined version first (98 percent smaller than the "nice" one) put in floors and joists and what nots with scrap card, bits of craft stick, balsa, whatever junk seems good to you, you should then be able to slide the nice one over the ruins like a telescope.  It's an idea of Charles Grant, repurposed for printers.  

Etrulia (E-troo-lia), OFFICIALLY The Ancient and Perfect Etrulian Empire.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION.

Etrulia is located on the Dragaloon Continent, South of Buslopia, East of Guerat, West of Bertwood. It has a long Eastern coastline along the Windy Wavewash, and a short stretch of Pearlfoam Abyss coastline in the West.

Etrulia’s last census recorded 3840 Citizens

It’s Capitol city is the lovely Pizzalatzio in the Achellision Hills.

Etrulia’s largest city is Pizzalatzio with 897 residents, but Piastre is a close second with 729 inhabitants.

It’s main port is Piastre, but Vitapotata is also an important harbor city.

General Overview

Etrulia was inhabited very early in prehistory, Villages gave way to towns quickly and by late Antiquity Etrulia was the center of a great empire that stretched North into Bertwood, West up into the Buslopbian highlands, and to the South, all of Guerat, Oppressorbad, and into Mantz as far as Buderball and Batterbol, and even Shrudle in Gros Montaine. This empire was never completely stable and civil wars rocked it frequently through the early Middle Ages. In modern times it has become a shell of it’s former glorious self.

The nation is still notionally an Empire. The current Emperor; Joanna Jojosephat Jojohnjerryjosephjakes XXV is a 30 year old man with the mind and attention span of a 4 year old. His Vickers control him, and through his seals, the state. The most active is Vestarch Manfrid Smeed, Count of Gelatuna. Smeed is only one power behind the throne however, and the various Vestarch families are engaged in an endless round of backstabbing, poisoning, and chicanery to promote scions to the Vickeracy, and control the edicts released from the Palace. At this time there are 15 Vickers in the Palace, though that number can vary on a weekly, and in crisis, hourly, basis.

Though teeming with citizens, it is among the poorest countries, it’s crops are meager and easily fail in the overworked soils. It’s industry is small scale, with limited investment, and it’s military, though big enough, is weak in support weapons, armor, and the other necessities of modern war. This reality is masked by it’s ancient pride, and one would not know it’s empire is a tattered rump of itself except by a close look at it’s pomp and circumstance, where one sees threadbare red carpets, military parades whose soldiers are armed with broomstick guns and march in paper boots. At a ball one finds courtiers whose dress is antique not only in style, but in actual fact, not infrequently even the wealthiest of Grandees make appearances in finery of their grandparents, carefully hand patched to hide the moth holes.

Etrulia signed on to the Goshtane Accords last year. The Goshtane Accords are an agreement between the 2PFS, Etrulia, Buslopbia, Agog, and Dundoon intended to make the seas safer for fishermen. Signers agree to provide assistance to mariners of all nations, and the Accord sets standards of international law with regards to salvage, fishing rights and other matters in the Pearlfoam Abyss, Windy Wavewash, and Dampgyre Waste. The ability of Abassador Fra Frangifrancis Ferryfertle Count of CantaElopia to manipulate the court into obtaining the two seals required was either the most incredible example of luck in modern times, or the result of shrewed and brilliant domestic politicking, Ambassador Ferryfertle is either worrisomely lucky, or dangerously brilliant.

Etrulia has been chary of allying itself with any nation since the Guerat Swamp Wars ended disastrously with Mantz, it’s last ally, signing a separate peace with Opressorbad. At this time pushing an agreement home through the obfuscation of the squabbling and myopic court would be more challenging than flying to the moon by waving featherdusters on the end of ones arms.

Languages

The Official Language of Etrulia is called, unsurprisingly, Etrulian. Surprisingly, no one can speak it outside a few dusty court scribes who keep it from being forgotten entirely by continuing to write copies of all court documents in the dead language, where they are uselessly archived until eaten by time and bookworms in the Imperial Library. All Actual functional documents are recorded in Frangfursh, a descendant of the form of Etrulian once spoken in the Hamhome region of Mantz 13 centuries ago, and now a (very) close relative of the Frankfurtish spoken in Guerat. (indeed, they are indistinguishable though the two nations take great pains pretending they are distinct). Frangfursh is the tongue of the middle and upper class, all books and newspapers one encounters are invariably written in it.

In addition, the lower classes of Etrulia have created a creole form called Furgish, a difficult slang filled degenerate used by the lowest echelons of society, and a form so barbarized and cacophonous that only a linguist could see it’s Ancient Etrulian ancestry.

ORIGIN OF NAME (ETYMOLOGY)

Etrulia is believed to derive from the exonym Yuriarte, (Onion Eaters), the designation ancient Agogite sources give to a people that once inhabited the Montcalifer area in deep antiquity. Dr. Nosysyr of the Pizzalatzio University disagrees, and prefers to see the origin in Etter Hitrula, meaning “Land of Enduring Peace” in early Etrulian. History

HISTORY. Pre-history.

Fossils are found in Rhuinridgia along the Bentborder that show early life in Etrulia was a swampy cycad jungle of giant bugs and heavy bodied predatory amphibians. The fossilized wood of this period has long been a favorite of Etrulian stone workers and jewelers for it’s vivid sunset pinks and purples. Later at least the flat lands of mudopolia and ercule were inundated by tropical seas, since fossil shell and coral has been found in some abundance, and Brazorbia has long been a source of brilliantly colored stone formed of fossilized coral reef. Volcanic activity rasied the land above the seas at some distant deep past time, and the strange razor edged sculpted stones of Rhuinridgia are the remains of the basalt cores of those ancient fumeroles. Later volcanic activity created lava f ows that built up into the fertile Achillesian Hills. Indeed Vulcanism has long been a shaper of the Etrulian country and even today Titesian and Oilypannier volcanoes pose a risk of violent eruption.

Perhaps the volcanoes were a source of warmth, for while Bertwood and much of the North were under sheets of ice, it seems Etrulia was a bit of paradise, fossils of huge sycamores, oaks, spruce, fir, and other large trees indicate a boreal rainforest environment inhabited by giant deer, Gompotheric Elephants, and dwarf hippos, and even lions and rhinoceros. These large animals must have drawn humans into the region, for the first evidence of man one finds in the archaeological record is stone tools and butchered animals finds. A famous dig at Spumoghetti revealed 3 Gompothere elephants seemingly butchered with the primitive stone tools found all about them,

Over time the landscape changed, perhaps people hunted away all the large animals, but in more recent layers we find that the beautiful forests are gone, replaced in the lowland basins by scrubby grasses and even cacti, showing that perhaps the rains stopped, or the soil became unable to hold water, and humans began to gather into villages of adobe. These people were no longer eating big game, but instead reliant upon hares, tortoises, lizards, and beginning to make the first forays into agriculture. We find early forms of wheat and millet, and soon pottery begins to replace carefully carved and polished vessels of stone. Not long after this strata, we see the rise of identifiable city states. Gelatuna, Beenoween, Bedzore, and Cantanasta especially have revealed ancient cemeteries that yield an impressive array of artifacts from which we can deduce the stratification of society, with high status graves giving up stunning examples of chalcolithic technologies, armor composed of llaminated plates, metal clad weapons, and of course the famous “Helmet of Alkerbalony” the beautiful boar’s tooth and seashell composite headgear finished with fine clad plates in hammered relief of tiny scenes of hunting and warfare and mythology. No recognizable writing exists from this era but mythological motifs with continuity into the historical period decorate pottery and metal work and even bone, and presumably wood was also used for carving and decorating as well, though none survives. The team from Polyesterdelphia Polytechnic excavating the Ceeweedo site claim to have found evidence of some sort of potential early script in some rather unusual deep scratching on objects they recovered, but this is controversial at best. Nonetheless it shows that individuals were marking objects on the eve of the dawn of writing.

The first unequivocal writing shows up in the burned ruins of the Oleofogo “palace of Pepsin” site, where small bronze plates with a very early form of Etrulian has been written in characters quite clearly derived from Agogian pattern, though difficult in the extreme, tentative readings indicate that these plates record counts of livestock and produce , theorized to be a record of sacrifices in honor of deceased members of the Pepsin household, intended for a public mortuary display.

Historical Antiquity.

With the rise of writing we begin to learn about the world of ancient Etrulia as witnessed by the eyes of it’s own people. Among the first personages we learn of is a Thunder Lord Bufobu who lead a successful campaign from Montcalifler into the Plum Valley and up on to the Achellesian Hills to attack the settlement that we know as Pizzaltzio today. Quickly there seems to rise a number of rival confederations under religious priest-kings. Three principle centers sharing a language, writing form and cultural complex can be discerned; Montcalifler, Vitapotata, and Aggadi, while in the south a culturally separate people appear at Piastre with markedly unique forms of material goods, a cremation burial pattern, pottery and metal work has a marked similarity to contemporaneous finds at Oltanufaful and Bumrussy on the Mimeograph Valley of Guapamolotl. Though if there is an actual connection is anyone’s guess at this time. For some 300 years the Western city states squabble and raid one another, while trade and cultural dissemination changes the people of Piastre who adopt the Etrulian writing system and adapt it to the Piastre tongue just as that language begins to give way to Etrulian, leaving us with just enough scraps to see that it’s probably a language isolate and leaving us stumped for the rest.

Glutcleus the 17th ,or possibly 19th ,son of Testocleus Drupus of Piastre first comes to our attention via a letter from the philosopher Sophsopes in which he makes a famous if unprintable pun on the Princes name and then requests a slave skilled at beating and three cartloads of whithy switches “no larger around than a boys finger”. Later we see the young prince as a war leader in his fathers siege of Jeendy where he famously leads an attack of bravos over the city wall and opens the gates for his father to sack the city. When Testocleus dies in the famous charge on the wall of Puth, it seems Glutcleus was raiding for supplies somewhere near Sauvequputh as he encounters his brother Burpogones at Hob, here we are unsure quite what happens, but Burpogones seems to have been given rule over Puthpoint in exchange for support, as the two of them rapidly consolidate his fathers Army and march back North almost before news of the disaster had reached his many brothers. Azineus, Drupus Minor, and Grittypeasian, his three most powerful and oldest brothers were swift to meet him in arms near Vitapotata, the battle at first did not go well for Glutcleus, Drupus Minor personally killed Glutcleus favorite, one Silquepanteus, before being killed himself. In this tight spot , near to losing everything, entered Nasalonginus and Laziliabedes his half brothers by his Aunt Unclia, These two had marched from Bertwood with an army of spearmen, and hitting Azineus and Grittypeasian’s phalanx in the flank, crushed them, capturing Grittypeasian, who suffered the horrible punishment of being buried alive with the dead of the field.

Now all greater Etrulia was in full civil war, Glutcleus had about 6 brothers in support, and the remaining 12 vying for power soon were reduced to four alliances. Glutcleus, Nasalonginus, Laziliabedes, Burpogones, Testocleanderades, and Bosphartes held the largest force of long hardened men in three strong phalanxes with a contingent of wild deer-riding barbarians from Guerat. And a solid base in Jeendy, Piastre, and Sauvequeputh. His brothers Albatiteus, Capricoprates, and Coclepituetes were in possession of the Bedzore-Aggadi region and well supplied with Bertwood archers. Pituetephagius, Neeplolacader, Urinopedes, Tupuarseus, and Askimogorio held Pizzalatzio with two phalanges of Achillesian spearmen and a turmae of Guerat terrorbird riders, as well as a small handful of war Gompotheres (elephants). In the North Denydikomeus and Porcodemenseus held the island city of Sandyanna with a garrison made of the Geroisenes Phalanx, a reserve formation of old men and wounded, and in addition had some mercenaries from Agog.

In Chillember the Piastrian army marched up the Gelatuna road, Here Bosphartes was detailed to invest the town with a small force, while the remainder continued north seeking battle. At Vitapotata they encountered Capricoprates with a single phalanx attempting to gather supplies, his force being largely dispersed over the countryside, he was in no position to resist, but his retreat was swiftly cut off, his force, beaten in detail, and he himself thrown into the Bentborder and eaten by Sarcodiles. Glutcleus then turned South to Pizzalatzio. After two or three days being harrassed by the Terrorbird riders of Guerat, he met his brothers Tupuarses and Urinopedes defeating them handily at Cantanasta, the Gompotheres doing more harm to their own force than to the Piastrians. Urinopedes then pleaded for mercy and was forgiven, after swearing an oath and renouncing all arms he was allowed to retire to a villa and we hear of him no more. Tupuarses fled with remnants of the Geurat riders and remnants of his hoplites towards Pizzalatzio.

Rather than press on to Pizzalatzio, Glutcleus force marched again, as Albatitues was said to be between Bedzore and Piastre burning his way to that city. Before he could invest Piastre however Albatitues died, having eaten, it is said, what his soldiers were eating, in this case a particularly bad bit of pickled fish, He would be buried in Bedzore with 20 of his poisoned men. His army devolved onto his son, Albatitudidies, but it was short lived. After a late afternoon scrum with Glutcleus leading light infantry, the Aggadian infantry defected to Glutcleus, captured Albatitudidies, and delivered him and many Bedzorians to Glutcleus. Offered clemency Albatitudidies is said to have spat out his tongue. But Glutcleus refused to have him killed. Instead he was taken home under guard, and fixed with golden chains, living the life of prince under house arrest, because, some said, Glutcleus liked his looks, but others that it was because he would not be baited.

At this stage, Glutcleus clearly had the upper hand, but it would be nearly 10 years before his new won empire was fully under control. His brothers were brought to heel roughly. Those who he trusted were watched, those he distrusted, were watched by the worms of the grave.

With the Eturlian heartland in order, and his ranks renewed and retrained, he took the field again, South, bringing the wild men of Geurat under heel, and without pause, as if all Geurat were just an inconvenient bit of tidying up before a job of work, he set upon Muckrump, and had it in a week. Then North to Polkot, Snogthug, a hard fight followed at Muckwarp with the Zuzran of Dogchiewygrad, two long days of blood, but the Zuzran’s chariots were crushed, his elephants killed, his army routed, his person captured, and the short remaining years left him spent in abject debasement as a living furniture for the Emperor’s comfort. Wipikkle welcomed him warmly as they had hated the Dogchiewygradians, and his army grew, Sprucitup too added forces and willingly took him as king.

At Vaddogg the Emperor celebrated his heir, the birth of Princess Aroma, not his first child, but the first he would claim. It is said that Ghlyumn the Soothsayer of Gluepin, and Myuscrys of Puth, and Gnositides of Trombony, the three wisest men of the day, all joined as one to convince the Emperor to raise her to the Purple having seen in the stars, the wind, and the waves prognostications of greatness. They were not wrong, though it was a terrible greatness. Two years later, still on campaign, besieging Shrudle the last hold of the Grozytes, he passed. It isn’t known how, but what is known is that his brother Laziliabedes, raised Aroma upon his shoulder, acclaimed her the Empress, and made himself the Imperial Regent, and the royal mother, Armaroma, was swiftly married to Laziliabedes, and just as swiftly executed. A mistake that would haunt Laziliabedes in the year of Aroma’s succession. She showed mercy to his services on her behalf, by not killing him, and took her revenge for his crime by torturing him slowly over a decade.

The Empress Aroma took the throne like a blacksmith’s forge, with fire and tongs and brutal hammer blows. She welded the towns conquered by her father into a single state, a true Empire. She chained her vassals, shackling them with fear and reward, she taxed the wealthy to keep them weak, and spent on the poor to gain their trust. And she built. Tearing down city walls she made public spaces, baths, theaters, racetracks, and public housing.

She redistributed lands to her soldiers and set them to work making better fields and building granaries. And she raised the Horse Mother above the other gods, building her temples in every town. Temples that were symbols, that were armories, that were banks, that were a foundation of public order. And when the Goorsi barbarians rose against her, her legions beat them hard against the mountains, and only those who joined the wild-men of the peaks to become the Peakoshi of Gross Montaine survived, survived to harbor and nourish the old grudge. Even today in the old rural places of Gros Montaine, the stories of the Ogress Armro are told to frighten children into behaving.

Thus while Bentwood was still a tribal swamp, and the buslopbian highlands just the wandering grounds of stone age barbarians, the Eturlians had fashioned an empire with all the benefits of government; roads, sanitation, taxation, and rule of law. Their polity stretched over a good quarter of the Dragaloon continent, and would shape Civilization in the Northern half of Ornria for centuries.

By the middle ages the empire had undergone many changes. The Emperors powers had waxed and waned, civil wars and power struggles wracked the landscape. To gain temporary ascendancy Emperors traded their power, bargaining with their followers , making them into war lords in their own right. Taxation to the throne dwindled. With it, the ability of the Throne to pay it’s legions grew ever smaller, while contenders took even more revenue away.

The Mantzes, a tribe of modern Mantz, raised a rival emperor in Hamhome, Zawzaj the Fat. Zawzaj fought the Etrulian Geneneral Fizzic for 20 years, driving the Etrulians out of Mantz, Gros Montaine and Southern Oppressorbad as far as Badxi. Fizzic’s death left the Imperial legion to winter in Wippikle, with no pay. The Themearch of Balsabad threw off his allegiance to the Empire and crowned himself Balza I, with no General the Imperial army disbanded and many of the legion joined Balza, turning all the eastern regions into a Guntish Kingdom. Not to be outdone the Countarch of Butterburg declared himself King of the Specific Coast, claiming the Western lands of Opressorbad, and driving the Gunts and Etrulians out of all his holdings.

The rump of the Southern Legion straggled into the Guerat Moolaunds, defeated, weak, unpaid, hungry. They met a new General there; Nukle Velocipedes, who spent a year reforming. It was too late. That year would see an outbreak of terrible plague. It began in Moopighafen, brought, it is said, in a ship from Kinalabash, in two months it was in Puth, 5 months later a courtier records the bodies filling the streets unburied in Piastre, even dogs and pigs were dying of it, and the rats growing bigger than cats, eating the old, and the sick. Perhaps as many as 70 percent of the population was exterminated throughout Guerat and Etrulia in the next two years. And sporadic returns ravaged towns and cities for another 20. with no workers, the fields untended, the food supplies dwindled, irrigation failed. And the survivors, gathered into small castles under Imperial Wardens, were Imperial more in name than reality. Though the Empire lived on, it would fall to Polydentian I to revive the state.

Early Modern Period.

Polydentian I had an advantage, a new kind of legion. Archemandeus the brilliant philosopher, and advisor of Polydentian, introduced gunpowder, cannon, and the harqebutt, and with the General called Kevaliprovides (Sheeps Head), the independence of the Etrulian hills was curtailed, and the empire re-united north of Jeendy. The great Reorganization recognized the importance of the Counts, but subordinated them to the Vestarchs. Archemandeus met a mysterious death, and Kevaliprovides was created the first Vicker. The new Etrulian Empire became insular and weakly carried on, peasants surviving on the barest margins, the Mayors of towns, and the great Counts, all nearly penniless. The Army, a shell, making a bold parade, with finery and plume...but never again equal to conquering and invading.

Present day.

The modern Etrulian Empire is now rich only in people. Food is guaranteed by the government, but it’s expense is ruinous to the throne, although it’s almost nothing at all to the people at best a diet of ,pasta, tomato, herbs, bread, vinegar and bad wine. \

The army has perhaps the worst quality of equipment in all Ornria. Tourism is perhaps it’s greatest income generator, with the antiquities being sold off to the wealthy, and fees levied on archaeological digs. The Imperial Palace itself is tantamount to a hotel, with stays in it’s frayed luxury easily bought for hard cash. Indeed, a pocket of money can buy nearly anything in Etrulia. The Polyestrine Actress Osavinia Oglavine added to her infamy buy purchasing a county, a castle, and opening her own film studio in Beenoween to ridiculous expense. Her only film, Dust and Disaster, was not well received, but has not seemed to hurt her pretensions in the least, though she has returned to Polyesterdelphia to open an Atelier called Countedbeans.

Geography

Etrulia is Triangluar in shape; about 37 Ornrian feet long by 15 North to South. It’s landscape is dominated by two volcanic peaks; Titesian and Oilypanier, a volcanic cladera at Poona Pot, and the hard plaster pan called the Ercul Plain, stretching north to Rhunridgia,, and the Brazorbia Peninsula. Nothing grows on the Ercul Plain and Brazorbia. The Mudoplia Flats are as the name implies the site of ancient mudflows, and today the hardpacked clay has little growing on it, but is instead a cracked tesseract of useless land with just enough sparse scrub to keep lizards, donkeys and small goats barely alive. Rising to the Ooups Plateau, here the volcanic soil and rains from the Ghargle Coast allow the growing of Olives and Grapes, and Millet, but the returns are poor for the effort. The Achellisian Hills are the garden of Etrulia. Here rains water the soil, marine breezes cool the land, and the soils produce better than anywhere else, save Plumb Valley, where the Emperor’s own farms and cattle are and his greatest treasure the Galish Lead mine.

The rough land of Dongladia is the rocky barren home of poor fishermen, most of whom push out into Garum Bight seated on bladders or reed bundle boats. The fish they catch is important to the poor of Piastre, as fish is perhaps the main protein most etrulians eat.

Climate.

The Climate of Etrulia is best divided into four regions. The Ercul Plain is tropical pan desert, high pressures keep the air motionless, and relentless sunshine bakes the shadeless landscape. the Ooups Plateau is hot and tropical, but winters can be dry. The Achellisian Hills and Plumb Valley, are the most temperate, the sun balanced by cool breezes, frequent light rains, and no more than occasional storms. And Mt. Oilypanier, once completely orested with rosemary, olive, cork, and other fragrant shrubs, still has some of this Mediterranean woodland left, though much of the mountainside has reduced to tough grasses by the grazing of dwarf goats, and hares.

Fauna

Animals most likely to be seen in Etrulia are the Ass, which replaces other beasts of burden here, the dwarf goat, the hare, lizards, scorpions, spiders, beetles, and wasps and flies in plenty, the air sports hawks, sea eagles, songbirds, and flies, flies, everywhere the clouds of pestering flies. Big Sarcodiles still inhabit the Bentborder River. And the seas teem with fish,

Government and politics FORM OF GOVERNMENT. Etrulia is an Empire. The current Emperor, Joanna Jojosephat Jojohnjerryjosephjakes XXV is by law, the Chief justice, chief executive, Head of the Armed Forces, Head of the Cult of the Horse Mother, Head of the Council of Vickers (ergo the chief of what passes for legislature) Master of the Imperial Engineers, Prefect of the Schools, and Quartermaster General of the State . He is also a non entity. The Actual leaders of Etrulia are the Vickers, and the Vestarchs. The Vestarchs are the high nobility of Etrulia, the Oligarchic families that both hate one another, and simultaneously close ranks to protect their privileges, the chiefmost of which is the right to recommend to the emperor candidatess for the Vickerage. These are the real lords of Etrulia. The Vicker has unlimited authority over his sphere. And that sphere is given at the whim of the Emperor. The vicker is a dictator unto themselves, though rivalries between them can cause chaos, the Vestarchs have preserved a balance of power for decades. LEADERS. FACTIONS.

The Emperor; Joanna XXV

Jojosephat Jojohnjerryjosephjakes.

The emperor is, to be frank, a severely mentally disabled person. He has the intellect of a child, cannot speak beyond a child’s mumbles and gestures. He is confined to the Palace where his caretakers carefully stage manage his few public appearances. He is seen by his ministers as a pet more than a person. Perhaps even as a bit of jewelry, to be brought out to impress the subjects, then carefully placed back in it’s velvet case. Even in his presence the veiled nearly amused disrespect of his Vickers can be read through the formal obeisances. The treat him as one would a trained orangutan.

Vestarch Manfrid Smeed, Count of Gelatuna

Of the current 7 Vestarchs,; Manfrid is certainly the most ruthless, cunning, intelligent, manipulative, and careful. He has survived more than 20 years in the Office of Vestarch, which may be a record. Unfailingly correct in his manners, Smeed is unafflicted with a conscience, and his control of the intelligence organs of the state is only second to his private organs of information gathering. It’s difficult to know what his true ambitions or aims are. In fact, impossible is a better word. After many years of observation it’s hard to say if Manfrid is expansionist, or reformist, or conservative, or simply interested in survival through power. We can say he will brook no rival that he does not control, and that he dominates the Emperor completely. He is the true dictator of Etrulia.

Arrayed against the Vestarch Manfrid are many forces, None of the other Vestarchs would spare a tear if they could find an opening to stab him in the back... His greatest rival for power and control is certainly the Buprovers of Vitapotata,

Military

The Etrulian military is composed of the Army, The Comitat, the Marine Army (Navy), and the Air Army, and the Public Police. All arms are rife with division, with Vestarch and Vickers all having factions, many overlapping. The wasteful infighting is a bewildering forest to untangle, and corruption is rife. Contracts for military supplies are supposed to be controlled by the Grand Imperial Military Commandry. However a grapevine of interests ensures that particular body is tied in red tape and infighting and in consequence generals often supply their own units out of pocket. This of course has become a fabulous opportunity for making money, as does the buying of ranks. 4 year old Company Commanders, 9 year old Generals, 78 year old company sergeants are all distressingly common. Supply has become a fiefdom of the Imperial Comestabulary, controlled by Vicker Allesandro Lopets, who is incidentally among the richest men in Pizzalatzio, and owns a great many of the various factories that on paper supply the military. He is also Inspector General of the Army , though not the Comitat or Public Police, and the Air Army tends to ignore his legal control as it’s the private fiefdom of Vicker Izdolp Yikkersatzer., who has his own supply arrangements. Vestarch Manfried handles the comitat and the Public Police himself, through a dummy company and a “commitee of efficiency in rationing”.

The Army itself is believed to possess 12 understrength foot infantry regiments, though only 5 are on paper as operational, at least 5 others are shadow battalions privately controlled by various houses or interests. The individual soldier is poorly equipped at best. Ersatz gear is the norm, at least where gear exists. Guns are usually dummies. Domestic rifles more dangerous to the firer than the enemy, canteens of waxed paper, boots of heaven knows what sort of laquered dryer lint...the list is extensive. Bullets of compressed chalk with sawdust powder....

The army also has an armored regiment, the Phalangia Primatine . Though “armored” might out to be in quotes. It’s believed only one platoon is truly operational. The Prime Company of the PP is currently armed with home built copies of the Mantzian medium tank, but the first platoon operates the much superior PDSR exported T55. It’s observed that for parades a variety of dummy vehicles are used to hide the paucity of functional armor.

The Imperial Comitat is an Army to itself, complete with a miniature navy and airforce. It’s commander is the Vestarch Manfrid Smeed of course. It’s the best supplied formation, and the only adequately trained one. It’s notionally the Imperial Guard du Corps. But operates more as a combination political police in Pizzalatzio, and a private strike force of the Vestarch.

On paper the Air Army has 3 Wings. In actual fact it is a half a wing of flyable fighting planes, and another one of transports and 2 flying boats that can and have been pressed into tactical service as bombers. Vicker Yitzersattzer runs the force as his own private army, including a “security platoon” of near battalion size as his bully boys. His aircraft are more often seen flying luxury goods in and out of his base; the Splatzencraken Military Airfield, than anything resembling a military operation. He does have a small squadron of acrobatic flyers, the Etrulian White Eagles, that puts on airshows and impress the peasants at the Imperial Birthday Review.

Vikker Lobert’s Imperial Global Marine Army, as the Etrulian Navy styles itself, is in theory composed of two Fleet Commands, the North Fleet and the West Fleet. The North fleet is tiny, 2 destroyes, 1 conversion cruiser, 1 tub that might have been a heavy cruiser 40 years ago in another navy, but is styled a Battleship in this one. The West Fleet is Lobent’s favorite, as his son is the Fleet Admiral. It has two Old steel predreadnoughts; Emperor Gluteus, and Empress Hamilcappy, and three antique cruisers, one newish Polyestrine built light cruiser, and 6 destroyers. In addition a Guerat Seaplane tender and a converted iron passenger liner, as well as a Guerat built sub force of two harbor subs completes this mighty imperial armada. These ships are barely seaworthy it must be said, coal is lacking, the fleet maneuvers haven’t seen a gun fired in 5 years. (10 years ago a cruiser was accidently sunk during a live fire exercise) and the last division maneuvers saw a collision of the flagship with a pier that put it in drydock for 4 years. It is hard to see this as a formidable fleet. Lobent does have a fairly competent company of Marine Infantry however, who are smart, and well supplied and even armed with sub machine guns and other modern gear. Including, it’s said, two modern Polyestrine export tanks. He also has a flight of seaplane fighter bombers and two flying boats under his command.

Economics

Etrulia’s Economy is a uniquely chaotic form of corruption ridden laissez faire capitalism. The principle currency is the Aelbo, but the aelbo is officially minted in three locations and numerous families have counterfeited them over the centuries to pay their Dependants, private armies, or workers. Thus Aelbos may be found in many sizes, a variety of metals, though by Imperial Decree, they only have one denomination; the 1 Aelbo piece (in antiquity called a Vaekht as a unit of weight). Each Vickerate family has at least one or two industrial concerns under it’s control, most have many workshops and factories of the evilist quality imaginable. Etrulian made goods are almost worthless on the export market. Etrulian processed food is disgusting when it’s not deadly. Perhaps the best known is Spasagem, the famous tinned sausage from Piastre. The Lobert family runs the plant and it has of recent years just managed to pass food inspections in the Iind Polyester Freestate, where it’s now a common protein for the poor. In fact the only useful article of export is Wine, of which Etrulia does produce a bewildering number and types, though of tiny vintages, from admirable Tokay to undrinkable Vinegar.

Agriculture

Etrulian Agriculture is essentially feudal, the farmers who produce are peasants, though what they produce is little enough. Abyssmal over farming destroyed the low lying plains in ancient times, leaving it unable to support a blade of grass, as a consequence really the only well managed farms are the Wineries on the volcanic hillsides. Garum is perhaps the most recognizably National agricultural product, a fermented liqour of fish guts. The nation imports food and cannot feed it’s population with it’s domestic produce. Dried smoked fish plank, cabbage, a little millet, and vinegar are the main staples of all but the wealthy, usually made into Grum, the national dish; a smoky sour soup of smoked fish, cabbage, Garum, and vinegar,

Industry and manufacturing

As previously mentioned, the many workshops and factories struggle to produce salable goods. Raw materials are at a premium, so factories often run on a boom and bust cycle with labor being paid by the piece in most factories. Workers consider themselves fortunate to work 20 hours a day, every day, until they drop, are laid off, or meet the inevitable industrial accident. Most factories have filthy little cots on which the laborers sleep, when lucky, 3, or 4 hours a day. Every factory has a Union, and the workers are required to belong, but it’s a sham, the Union is more a propaganda machine than a collective bargaining tool, and completely stage managed by the factory owners. A few holidays give their lives the only bright semblance of relief, but these are few, and generally spent in a carefully managed round of activities planned by the local authorities to ensure control of the crowd and keep it docile. It’s often the only time a laborer sees fruits, vegetables, or any food besides the daily fish soup and vinegar.

Infrastructure and Transportation

The Imperial Raiload and the Imperial National Roads are perhaps the single best institution of the Etrulian state. These are products of the Imperial National Penal Construction Directorate, and prisoner slave labor has engineered, constructed and maintained the system for many centuries now. A divisioin of the Imperial Household, the INPCD is currently run by it’s Commisioner; Vestarch Manfrid, with uncommon efficiency. The railroad is almost profitable, surprisingly, and provides a luxury passenger service that is world class, if staffed entirely by convict labor.

Energy

There is no national electric grid. Pizzalatzio, Montcalifler, and Vitapotata have rival electric firms, but power is expensive and poorly supplied. Montcalifler and Vitapotata firms use DC, Pizzalatzio has DC and AC firms. Most electric appliance have to be rented from the electric supplier. There is no Telephone service except those privately installed and managed. Cities have rival firms that are literally cut throat. Neighborhoods often see wars, and many residents have three or four telephones, each usable only by a particular companies network.

Demographics

Population

With 19560 residents, the country could be called “teeming”. The majority live in tenement style blocks, or peasant hovels near their masters. The great family concerns often build warehouses, factories, etc as virtual compounds, so many workers never travel at all, and rarely see beyond the horizon of work and sleep.

Culture

Music

Etrulians have a wonderful history of court music of the finest quality. Ballads extending back to medieval times, and a folk music tradition to be proud of. There is the Imperial Opera house, in Pizzalatizo that is a wonder to behold. And the Piastre Symphonic Amphitheater is a delight. Even the poor attend though limited to the “Stand” open platforms far removed and often screened from their betters.

Arts

Etrulians do not have a great tradition of cinema, nor is painting particularly noteworthy. Plastic arts fare better though, Etrulian ceramics are widely admired, and the workmen stonecarvers of Cantelopia though unlettered in the main, under a competent master produce very excellent plaster and marble statuary.

Cuisine

It’s difficult to write much of the Cuisine of Etrulia, food is so limited and scare for the majority of the nation, and proximity to the sea, or the farm tends to limit the low cuisine to Grum soup. The wealthy of course, generally have chefs of international repute, and there are a few fancy dishes a visitor might encounter; the Zippata, a flavorful meat pie made famous by the Zippata Grand Hotel in Pizzalazio, and the delightful Smorginsup of Piastre’s Smorgin Hotel are examples.

Sport

Among the lower class Wrassel is the favored sport, this is an antique form of wrestling, and quite violent. The wealthy prefer the Dogcart Races, another leftover from antiquity, in which drivers routinely smash themselves and their dog teams into bloody masses.

 

Agog reduced the number of serving troops to fewer than 100 active persons last year to economize, but short enlistments and and a semi mandatory militia reserve balances the low “on paper” numbers. The Prince Martial could call hundreds more to the colors instantly in a state of at least moderate training.

Agog.

Officially the Holiest Protectorate Proproedrate of House of Gog Magosh. It is a Nation of the Ornrian Disk located toward the Hot Zone (Amatublassu Quarter) of the Westward Rim. It is located East of Yarkistan, and the Foo-EE prefecture. To the south it shares a short fortified land border with the Sumartrian Empire. The land is surrounded on the East, North, and West by seas; the Western Shore is considered the northern reach of the Mosasaur Coast of the Pearlfoam Abyss. Cape Jubjoobeegog is the Northernmost point of land, and marks the opening of the Tintub Strait. This is the origin of the mariner’s “Jub-jub Beak” in the old hornpipe song, and the site of a critical lighthouse guiding ships towards Takara and other harbors of the Tintub Strait. 

It’s principle and only official language is Agogite, with some minorites speaking Foo-Eish, Gopher and Goshite are are regional dialects more than actual independent languages, and are officially suppressed.

Climate.

Climatically the country has small variation, but can be divided into four zones. The first zone is the cooler, humid Mosasaur Coast that enjoys relative comfort due to the cool draughts from the Great Titan Current of the Pearlfoam Abyss. Here the temperature in Winter scarcely dips below 70, and in Summer rarely climbs above 100.

The second zone is the Inland Zone.; A parched dusty dried mudstone desert of deep crevasses and low hard mesas, This zone sees one or two rainfalls per year from Pearlfoam storms, these storms last only a few hours at most, but can dump monsoon like rains that flash flood the deep aryos and canons and are extremely dangerous, loosed soils will slide and collapse, reshaping the strange yellow brown terrain into fantastic towers and toppling old forms into the canyons causing the muddy watercourses to shift and change. After the storm, very little water will remain, what does pool into basins makes precious temporary oasis that will, for a week or two, nurture such shrubbery and greenery as this zone will ever see, and becomes the haven for wild goats, vicunya, and the white desert panther. Temperatures in this zone can soar to 130 degrees, and the Westsmith Expedition claimed to have recorded 141 degrees in Swimuary.

Zone three is the Koonifer Plain beginning just north of Gulamesh and running south to Lotarsh, it’s an arid mudplain by nature, but millenia of human water management has turned it into an arid prairie. This carefully managed prairie is called the Brazen Granary and is among the most fertile land of the Ornrian Disk. Here some of the earliest known domestication of common vegetables occurred; the parsnip, the mustard plant, cucumbers, sunflowers, wheat, radish, lettuces, and many others. Three to four crops a year are commonplace.

The final Zone is the Tintub Shorewall. This is the rockiest and least habitable region of the land. A steep ridge or wall of rock curving around the western coast and blocking the cool zephyrs that blow out of Foo-EE, This wall-like ridge of rock is steep, unforgiving, harsh, but gives a view of nearly the entire Brazen Granery and has many ancient fortified sites upon it, and as they rise imperiously directly from the sea to the west they provide no haven for pirates or sea raiders in that direction, only the seabirds use these lonely rocky cliffs as nesting sites.

People.

Agog has been inhabited by a multiplicity of ethnicities over the ages. Possibly Agog is the very cradle of civilization, for recently archaeologists of the Gulamesh University working with a team from Krautberg Kollege uncovered what is believed to be the earliest known town on Ornria, consisting of mud brick and reed structures and palm wood streets, but without pottery, and with stone tools of sophisticated workmanship. The site, located near Frogesh is called after the slight rise it was found under; Hooglehananany.

The oldest named people of the region were called the Beerberzerks, or “Beer guzzlers” believed to be cognate with the “Beerjar Culture Horizon. In their wake came Sasanazi, thought to have begun the waterworks on the Brazen Prairie, and the Toolish, a goat herding group out of the Yarking Lowlands of Yarkistan, entering by way of Kinalabash and Lulubele. Possibly these herders were driven north into the hot dry and inhospitable desert by the ancestors of the Bogumbele peoples of the Sombu Blackjungle of modern Sumartria. It is thought the Toolish first brought metalworking to Agog, and the fusion of Toolish and Sasanazi technologies created the rise of proto city states on the Brazen Prairie. These states warred with one another fiercely and drove a period of technological innovation that came to an end when Omgugle I called “the Surrite”, unified the cities of the plain in the first Goshite Old Kingdom.

Surrite Dynastic leadership enshrined, literally, the monotheistic worship of Gog, the Queen Mother of the Goshite People. Possibly amalgamting her with Geshgurgeshgul the Toolish war goddess and the old Beerberzerk Smooshyshesh, a cow or beer goddess (Dr. V Lobitoff speculates the confusion here may be from the use of fermented milk as a beverage, and the famous beer being in actuality a kefir like drink).

(see Religion).

The Goshites dwelt thousands of years in the hot dry lowlands, building mudbrick villages, digging irrigation systems and growing the fruits of Mother Gog, In those centuries three dynastic periods passed; the Old Kingdom of Gosh, a GolGosh interreignum, the Neogosh Kingdom dynasty, and the Late Gosh dynasty. The Late Gosh dynasty was able to subdue the highlands people (the Gollygush tribes) and even reached into Sumartria. Gosh Kings were Powerful, and dominated the Southern nieghbors, even influencing the lands across the Tintub Straight, until the coming of the Vus.

The Vus organized the first sea-empire, trading across the Pearlfoam, hazarding it’s massive predators in flimsy wooden bird-ships to make themselves rich trading ores and raw metals, foodstuffs, pottery, minerals, even live animals. This is when camels and horses were first brought to Agog.

Though the Vus were never a single polity, they dominated the Western Pearlfoam coasts in the period of Early Metals. Vus mercenaries participated in a series of Gogite civil wars that destroyed the Late Gosh Kingdom, fracturing it and opening it to rival powers.

The Vus built, or rather, rebuilt Ururtan, as a miniature Dogchewygrad in mudbrick and stone rather than wood of the original, and created it’s first wharfs, breakwaters, and the great quay.

The Vus were traders, intent of commercial exploitation rather than political control, and prospered as a people. In fact individual Vus traders were still ethnically distinct into the early modern era. Nonetheless in time new seafarers bringing larger better ships came on the scene, displacing the old, a people known as the Sea Albs.

The Sea Albs were tribes from the south of modern Yarkistan, more violent than the Vus, they quickly displaced them and drove them out of the Southern Pearlfoam. They then attempted a suppression of Gogite culture in favor of Albish, but this effort was both a failure, as the Albs took on more Gosh-Agog influence than the reverse (Agog script is still used in the Alb language), and was interrupted by the predation of Gu pirates from Foo-EE.

Gu Piracy culminated in a short-lived Gu-Foo Kingdom in central Agog, though lasting only a few decades before Gogites rose and pulled down nearly all elements of Gu culture. This rebellion opened the coast to the Yarks, bitter enemies of the Sea Albs, and in this free for all Agog became a wild no mans land with political control being in the hands of warlords, many unable to speak Gogite at all, and holding sway over territory as small as a village, town, or even neighborhood. In this chaotic environment the Agog priesthood quietly rebuilt it’s power, and stealthily nurtured the smallholdings of the ancient temple monasteries, and making important alliances with Warlord families.

In the wake of the Great Tintub War a century and a half ago, the Foo-Ee marched in again and set about an exploitation programme; building railways, opening modern universities, and running the state through the Yarkish Kings Brusa Bodadter, Bhogdotzu, and BodadterII. The assassination of Bodadter II nearly 15 years ago, and the rising of the Gogites in the last decade has seen the Foo-Ee driven out of the land, and the rise of Mustafa Moustache a Gogite strongman claiming the title of Proproedrate. Under this Proproedrate has occurred a renaissance of Gogish culture, and the re-establishment of a vigorous Gog-Gosh state.

Government.

Agog is a Developing country, a former colony of Foo-EE with some remaining ties in the major cities. It’s form of government is a theocratic Counciliar Pro-Proedrate. This means Agogite Temple Councils chose regional leaders called Proedrates subject to popular veto by bloc, and bound by certain ethical and religious expectations, with the chiefmost duty to elect and support a “high governor”, the Proproderate. These lesser proderates once held great power over local affairs but the traditional duties were eroded away under the Foo-Ee Colonization and the chaotic warlord period following. They are being replaced in that respect by the Zargovers, a sort of vizier-like local governor chosen by the Proproedrate. This has weakend the more conservative theocratic aspect of the local governments somewhat but has made room for modernization programs to reach the common folk. 

Proproedrate Mustafa Moustache

Mustaffa Moustache is the current Proproderate, and could be described as a strong man or dictatorial leader, but seems in the main to be a rather benevolent example of the type with a minimum of factional resistance to his rule in the boundaries of Agog.  Buslopbia is another matter, and will be covered there.  Little can be said for certain about Mustafa Moustache.  He is a shadowy figure, rarely seen or photographed.  His visage is uncommon in the towns of Agog, and only three or four definite photos of him are known to be used in Agogite Newspapers, many of which wind up cut out, and framed in prominant places in private homes, but rarely seen in public.  Many rumors swirl about the man as if to fill the vacuum. Some are quite wild, involving self mutilation, on one extreme, to fathering a dozen hidden children on the other.  some are unlikely; in the aftermath of the Rose festival Earthquake it has been claimed that he single-handedly saved a dozen people from death by lifting an enormous weight of rubble, or of vehicles.   Other people claim Mr. Moustache invented vaccination, cured the plague, even stopped bullets with the power of his voice.  It is safe to say the man has been raised to the mythical height of culture hero in his land.   One thing can be said certainly; he was a brilliant guerilla leader who was the certain archetect of the expulsion of the Foo-Ee from the country, and his comrades and assistants have been quite happy to allow his mythos to overshadow thier own fame.

Agog currently semi-occupies Buslobpia, mostly an economic domination that has it’s roots in clever manipulation by the Proedrate in Buslopian media and government. Strategic investments in powerful Buslopian politicians has allowed Agog to avoid a military effort so far. Buslopian exploitation is a source of increasing economic strength but is fraught with future dangers to the regime.

Agog is not signatory to any alliances at this time, but has a standing enmity with Foo-Ee, Oppressorbad, Sumartria, and strangely; Gross Montaine, over what slight it seems difficult to determine.

Primary School education is now mandatory for minors, though the schools in many places are open air and lacking the most trivial of supplies. This growth in schooling has lead to a skyrocketing literacy rate. And with it a new industry producing popular periodicals and books written in classical Gogite Cuneiform has ushered in a flowering renaissance of Gogite cuneiform.

Economy.

The Official currency of Agog is the Ishminub, or “clay fish”. It is available in 1,6,12,180,and 360 Ishminub denominations. It is a small round clay coin roughly 10mm wide.

Industrialization remains limited, and efforts to build factories have previously come to naught due to the scarcity of raw materials for exploitation.

The Principle industry is food export. Fruits and Vegetables are shipped out daily in refrigerated bulk ships. The sea is source of much of the populations’ living. Free diving for pearl Oysters or Sponges provides a dangerous but lucrative occupation for the bravest coastal fishermen, while others seek Mosasaur Eggs, trawl for Xiphactines Minor, guide sportsfishers after big Arthrodires, and siene for shellfish, sardine and baitfish. Recently the Zargover of Gumph discovered a plastic mine, and inkwells sunk under the Foo-EE near Lotarsh have come under Agogite ownership, increasing the Agogite coffers enormously, and bankrolling several progressive initiatives. Agogite citizens now have universal health care, free education, new monastic libraries are building in all communities, and the new interlocking rail and bus mass transit system allows almost free personal transportation across the country. In addition the expansion of road and rail has included an expansion of the Agog Postal Service, complete with a modern railway mail car between Gulamesh and Astarte.

Modern rails and refrigeration plants bring iced fish from the wharfs of Ururtan to the great nationalized canning concerns Zushgug Inc. and Lalubablush Ltd. in Gulamesh. Agog tinned oysters, sea scorpions, sardines, and pickled mosasaur eggs are found under foreign labels in grocery stores all over the Ornrian Disk. Minor Factories in Astarte and Lotarsh produce canned, dried, and pickled vegetables and sauces. Mostly for domestic consumption, but a fair amount finds it’s way to tables in Guerat and Buslopbia. First class wheat is transported by rail to new grain towers in the port of Ururtan. The valuable Bulk Wheat of the lowland is finally raising farmers standards of living out of sheer peasantry, and underpins the new government’s campaign to end rural poverty.

Agog is the source of Crimzogite the special clay used by Foo Ee craftsmen for the production of world class pottery. White Chalk is found in abundance, and in the North are salt mines, still operated as a penal industry. Exploitation of the Ink Wells and the new Plastic mines might kickstart an Industrial boom, but only time will tell.

The Military.

The Agog Holy Army consists of the Land Army, Army Air Service and Army Marine Force, as well as Army State Provost (a state police). They are led by a Warpriest Prince Martial under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense and by the ProProedros as the supreme commander during wartime. In times of peace its powers are executed through the Prime Aldarate and the Defense Minister.

Prince Martial Bslam

The chief purpose of the armed forces of Agog is the defense of the independence, the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country, but it does include participation in humanitarian, non-combat and peace support operations. Military service was mandatory, with the age of 15 being the legal minimum age for duty but reforms are underway and the Army is transitioning to an all volunteer force.

 The head of the Army is the Prince Marital Oghrus Lith Bslam, the Lion of Lotarsh.  He is acclaimed for his successful defense during the siege of Lotarsh by Foo-Ee, and the clever sortie assault delivered with makeshift armor and sheer guts. It is rumored that he is a first cousin of Mustafa, but that is unconfirmed.

The military now consists mainly of a small fleet of obsolete aircraft and small sea vessels. The country recently scrapped enormous amounts of obsolete hardware captured from Foo-EE, such as light tanks, military goat carts, primitive breech loading field guns, and Takaran split breech rifles.

The remaining armor force is tiny, believed to number less than 10 medium tanks of near obsolete types dating to the Tintub War. And the rifle deficit has not really been made up. Anonymous agents have recently approached the Gumghuner Rifle Works of Heavy Flashing inquiring about placing large orders for rifles of modern type, and it’s believed these agents are a front for Agog.

Military spending has generally been low, last year only 1.5% of the country's GDP. This is however, up from the previous decade. It has been observed that Agogite Army Officers have been taking long leaves of absence and enlisting in foreign armies presumably to receive training and learn modern war techniques. In addition the state is constructing new warehouses believed to be Army depots and seems to be laying in Wheat and stockpiling medical supplies.

Lastly, the Agog army now occupies and is reinforcing the FooEe underground fortifications along the Southern border with the Sumartrian Empire. This line is quite formidable, and features a mix of breadth based defense with forward posts, obstructions and concentration points, deep underground bunkers, heavy guns, tank traps and fougasses, and lanes of overlapping fire fields. The majority of the nation’s remaining stock of machineguns and artillery are invested in this line, sometimes called Moustafa’s Ditch.

     In addition to Moustafa's ditch, every settlement hosts a caeserne, usually a small house, hut, or in the biggest towns an actual, if tiny, fort where the local garrison is housed.  This caeserne serves as police station, post office, telegraph office, and often fire brigade, animal control, and city maintenance service. and is usually rather sleepily manned; a single officer with a one or two enlisted men is not uncommon, and it's believed some are in operation with a single NCO filling all roles, sometimes with family and children pitching in.

Ethnicity and Demographics

Agogite Ethnicity is a tangled and sensitive subject. By law all who receive Agog’s Three Rites (see Religion) are Agogites. The Government claims 98 percent of the population is ethnically Agogite. Under Foo Ee rule the Agog ethnic group was only 57 percent, the remainder made up of 6 percent Yarkic, 12 percent Albish, 10 percent Gu, and a hodge podge remainder. How to account for the differences? How do ethnic minorities feel about the legalities? We simply cannot say, as no survey has been permitted.

Culture.

Agog has a rich and ancient culture. It’s writing system was the first known, and as a consequence Agog has an incredible trove of ancient poetry, story, mythology, and letter writing, a richness that has influenced literature and myth over all of Ornria.

Agogite Cuisine is famous, and divided into two general types; the coastal cuisine is dominated by seafood, fresh vegetables , and acidic flavors from citron and lemons, while the highlands are famous for smoky goat and vicyuna dishes with flat-breads and yoghurt sauces.

Agogite music is distinctive; dominated by the Phorminx, a stringed instrument of great antiquity, the Crotalum, a sort of castanet, the Tibia, a very ancient double flute, the Cochillia, a seashell percussion instrument, the Salpix, a long trumpet-like bronze horn, and the sistrum. Percussion dominates, yet strangely, the drum is not represented classically, and even in modern Agogite music only the tambourine has made any headway. The music is quick, rhythmic, with a suppressed melody, especially in Shasshahaclavasha styles. This ancient form is well suited to the Temple and Festival dances which include whirling and jumping moves intended to bring on altered mental states in the participants.

Religion.

Agog is monotheistic; shrines, temples and monasteries bejewel the country. The entire citizenry is dedicated to the worship of Gog Goshgog; perhaps best translated as “Gog; the grandmother of all things” a truly National Deity. Gog is believed to be incarnated in the Gogpubu, a unique Baetylus, or “magic” stone housed in the holiest part of the Royal Gubaban Temple of Gulamesh. On the other hand, there is a widespread folk belief that the stone is actually her coprolite and Gog herself lives in a secret temple hidden in the mountains of the West from which she rules her realm.

Agog’s preisthood ,the Ghula, is entirely transgendered, and several phases or steps of ancient techniques of feminization or masculization are required to sacralize the prospective acolytes who may be either male or female on entry to the cult. Special divine favor is attributed to persons born with intersex characteristics, and these individuals are seen as possessing the divine favor, and are singled out for service in an order of sybillic oracles. The primary functions of the priesthood are to perform the Three Rites which all individual Agogites must have. In additon, they must maintain the Oracle Sites; the 23 “divine” locations where an oracular Sybyl holds court and delivers Delphic answers to questions posed.

The THREE RITES are required of all Agog citizens, and, circularly, define a person as an Agog Citizen. The first rite is the Rite of Shulzk, in which the participant must disrobe before the altar and be ritually cleansed in incense. The Second Rite is Abgal, in which the first work of a person’s profession are burned at the altar, and the ashes used to mark the supplicant that Gog might see them and prosper their labors. The Third Rite is called Nidudubudu, glossed as “the return of the great gift” traditionally this is a tithe to the temple, but can take other forms, it is believed by many commoners that Mustafa Moustache made nidudubudu with the blood of his breast mingled with the flesh of his own genitalia, a ritual act that in Gogite context represents an ultimate priestly dedication.

Secondarily the priesthood opens the 7 festivals and 5 fasts with a parade of ecstatic dancing and music. They form the councils that select the local Proedrates, and enforce the 3 Proscriptions (against Murder, Theft, and “insanitary” behavior), originally this involved a trial-like Asseveration of Fact followed usually by a punishment, ideally some sort of amends; or in more serious cases heavy labor, corporal punishment, or in cases of capital offenses calling down a stoning upon the transgressor, but in modern Agog this has become a formal apprehension of the suspect and delivery to the law enforcement arm of the army.

In addition to the priesthood there is an Abbotry or Monastic service to Agog. These Agog Monks do not undergo the physical transformation peculiar to the priesthood, rather they remove all hair from themselves and adopt a special mode of dress, the Shyndyt, a sort of linen kilt. This ritual hairlessness traditionally involved plucking and beeswaxing, but in modern times the razor has been generally adopted. Though waxing is still ritually required on the 7 festivals and 3 Fasts. The chief-most occupation of this monastic wing is recovering, copying and preserving all materials written in the Agogite script. As writing is seen to be a gift of Gog, it is believed by Agogites to be intrinsically holy and it is a doom to the mortal soul to destroy any written thing. Thus everything written in even the most humble home of Agog, no matter how mundane, is turned over to the monasteries during the 7 festivals. As one can imagine the monks preside over vast libraries, libraries which they endeavor to maintain by copying the most ancient materials before they deteriorate, organizing all new materials into collections, creating indexes and curating every single character of Agogite writing. This enormous task requires an almost insupportable army of monks.

It is part of the governments modernization drive to control the numbers of workers bled off into monasteries, and to that end has bought a 200 specially engineered cuneiform typewriters from Dactyle Brothers, of Heavy Flashing in the 2nd Polyester Freestate. The Monastic establishment as can be imagined, is a heavy expense for the realm.

This labor drain is being somewhat offset by two monastic sidelines; government clerking, and monastic production of wheat beer under the Astartekas label. Since the monasteries are already a massive information processing system the government has turned over it’s bureaucracy to the care of this institution. Functions normally handled by a government agency in other states are a semi religious monastic interaction in Agog. For instance getting a driver’s license requires a trip to the local Army Caserne in the company of a local monk, to have the physical evaluation of skill, and then a trip to the local monastery to process the data and create the license proper.

Symbols.

As one might expect from so ancient a culture there are many important symbols indicative of Agog’s history, civilization, and beliefs. The colors Pink and Yellow are said to represent the evening sun and the golden grain. The traditional woolen kaunakes, a kilt like garment decorated with highly colored tufts of wool, is worn by both men (to the knee) and women (to the floor). The decorative tufting that gives a feathered appearance is thought to be a sort of textile prayer for rain. Men prize a Shoosh, a woven shawl decorated with embroidery and tassels, and a good fez. The Shoosh traditionally is crocheted by a mans mother, and contains in it’s knotted pattern stories of the man’s youth and his parents lives.

Both sexes wear the Opanak, a leather sandal like shoe with pointed toe, often decorated with colored wool tassels or pompoms. Each shoe’s arrangement of leather cording, tassel color, pom pom size, and tassel material can indicate marriage status, family, social rank, home neighborhood and even occupation.

The Wharse Rose is the national flower, a pink and ancient cultivar, intensely fragrant and used in spicery, perfumery, incense, candy, and attar making as well as simply being ornamental.

The National Standard of Agog features a ground of Wharse Rose pink, a color reckoned by Agogites to embody masculine strength and energy. With the twin figures of Agog herself, in her Horned Goddess form, representing the ascent of the Moon, meaning intelligence and wisdom, and depicted in the ancient malachite color blue-green, associated with water and with bronze making. Below Agog is Mudhibi the Gilish (scimitar) of Omgogle I. Mudhibi means something like smoking blood or steaming blood and is a mythological sword that burns liars and returns life to the dead. it’s a symbol of defense and royal protection. The swollow tailed pennant form of the flag represents the eternal fire Bilsugghar that burns before the Baelytus of Gog in the temple, and is in myth the origin and end of all earthly things, and the fate of all who are dishonest, unfaithful, and false. (the good being saved from this fate in the garden of Hoshgoshergolgargath.

Agog has a national motto, seen on it’s currency and on official buildings; “Gog Goshgog annûtu șalmū ēpišiya” meaning “Gog, Goddess of Creation, these are the figurines of my sorcerer” The opening line of the Epic of Zugajamaghosher. One of the great national stories.

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 the National Museum of Illustrious Arts has spent 750,000,000 zlotys this month acquiring the original Battle of Pidwiddle. 

 ABeLs Masterpiece will be on permanent display in the Historical Profiles gallery in the main building basement. The general public is encouraged to visit; the 3rd day of every month is Free Admission, however a special premier Evening Viewing will be given at 8pm on the First of Swimuary; the event to feature a question and answer period with the Curator of Historical Art, and a rare appearance by the Artist, who is famously reclusive. Refreshments will be served.  This Gala is limited in attendance; for tickets inquire with the Director's Office, Phone 555-2368.

 

The Plaster  and Plastic Worker's Union was formed at the end of the Silver Wars, and was important in overthrowing the Tyrant and establishing the events that led to the Modern Freestate with it's representative republican government.  The Plaster in the name is the resource from the Plaster Alps from which many Ornian items are manufactured...the Plastic Workers is the junior Union; being more recent... in former times the industry was larger, but it has dwindled these days as lead has become more available in Ornrian manufactures. 

     The Union is powerful in Polyesterine politics, especially in the Capital; Polyesterdelphia.  In Roach Harbor, however,  it often conflicts with the Brotherhood of Print, Paper, and Cardworkers; and the Gluemixers, Clayformers and Longshorefolk United Labor Front...sometimes leading to street battles in times of unrest.

      These unions are powerful in Roach Harbor because the Ship building Concerns and Port facilities are industries based in Paper ship-building, needing skilled paper-modeler labor.   Labor and Capital have made a mutually agreeable pact in Roach Harbor, which the Plaster and Plastic Workers have not quite emulated in the great factories of Polyesterdelphia and Bad Mouldings.  Plastic Worker strikes are a frequent feature in the Capital, since the beginning of the Chocolotl Crisis they are almost weekly.  Posters like this, however,  prove that the Union is nevertheless dedicated to patriotically supporting the Republican way of life.

There is one other major Union in the Second Polyester Freestate that has a major influence in the National Discourse; the Paintsloppers, Brushscrubbers, and Gluebrewers Chemical Labor Combination. The PBGCLC is in many ways the quietest Politically, with a great emphasis on workplace safety, education, and public works.  The large and united brotherhood  is  deeply embedded in managing Pactraplant's great amalgamation of chemical manufactures, blurring the lines between labor,  management, and capital to near indistinguishability.  However, though mostly a quiet bunch: a strike hasn't been seen in four decades, they carry enormous weight with the Pactraplant Metropolis political machine.  It's a classic case of being quiet but holding a gigantic stick.  Recently the GCLULF has become very active in Pactraplant with the recent government interest in upgrading harbor facilities on both 2PFS coasts.

 

 Sorry about the lack of posts in recent months, my computer went down and I had a devil  of a time getting it fixed.  That's past now.  will have something to post again soon.

 

Eustis Grimjaw sat glumly at the Onyx Desk and listened to the wind howling beyond the leaded panes of the Chancellery window. “The roar of the departed, my personal legion of ghosts, calling me to hell”; he mused. Thoughts of the bloody civil war that swept him to power felt oppressive this day. He downed a tumbler of Gojalhka, and spread the papers before him. Estimates, Reports, Requests, Reviews… before him was endless work. He should call in his secretaries to begin responding, they were just in the next room after all...but the darkly pensive mood held him back.

The largest stack were the Executions, enemies of the state, and on top of the pile, Ludis Grimjaw. His mother. Would the country see her death as he saw it? A strike at the heart of corruption, a proof that criminals, that dark traitors, would not be coddled by the State, no matter their class, rank, or distinction? That he was ruthless was already well known, that he was incorruptible was the message he must send. But, what if the public only saw naked ambition, the effort to erase all opposition to himself. Was sedition to the state, sedition to himself? Was he himself The State?

He poured another tumbler of the raw and fiery vodka, the flames in the fireplace reflected in his glasses. Flames, tongues of fire, rose in his memory, burning trains, burning bodies, burning cities, the cost of overthrowing the Moptic Theocracy that had ruled the land with an iron fist had been rivers of blood, seas of blood, waves and waves of it. Now those who had sided with The Superstition must be swept away to build a future. Well, so be it. They had chosen their fate.  Perhaps their gods would comfort them in the next world.  He rang the little bell and waited for his Secretaries.

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Air Service Estimate is in, the Table of Equipment is of course, merely projected, at this time we have only one single plane in operation for training purposes.  But I've been organizing the acquisition of suitable
types.   The text of the Report is here;

 

The Table below projects what we hope to achieve before Case Orange or Case Puce open hostilities.