What's happening in your conworld/concountry right now?

[mbrsart]

On Hra, Chf'aza has just discovered the Nomads, and she is planning a series of extended excursions to assimilate into their culture and learn their language.

[MrKrov]

What for?

[Lao Kou]

Given Géarthtörs' Zelig-like rôle on the international stage, it is not surprising that President Obama's most recent visit to Hiroshima did not note his quick side-trip to Gdhírs.

[elemtilas]

Given Géarthtörs' Zelig-like rôle on the international stage, it is not surprising that President Obama's most recent visit to Hiroshima did not note his quick side-trip to Gdhírs.

I daresay no country in The World, no matter how important it feels itself to be, will be getting a visit from an Earth-prime potentate.

Anyhuw, today is 13 Flowertide, by fortnight reckoning, & 28 Thrimmilco by moon reckoning, the Feast of holy Baeda the Venerable. Life in the Eastlands of the world goes on much as it has done since the Great War of 1672. Slow and steady and pretty much status quo. Call it the calm after the storms perhaps. The threat of the Pigmen south away seems to have been sorted (though no one seems to know where exactly they went off to, once Mireh Pigdoom broke the power of Susu Hamhock, bringing the Pig Wars of the late 1920s to a conclusion). The Warlords out west in the regions of Wucar have been in an expansive mode and the Daine of Vana, along with their allies, are rather enjoying the fight. It is now possible to arrange for a farspeaker call between Auntimoany and the far distant city of Codeis, allowing for pretty nearly instantaneous imp-mediated communications between distant lands. One can also travel nearly that far in the opulent comfort of Bullmand's finest parlour waggons (or, for the fee-little, one of the coaching waggons); (or better still, perhaps, if you want to see the countryside from a Daine perspective, ride up on the roof with them! Food's often better, anyway) as the wicker caravan wends its way from the City out through the other countries of the East.

Things get bad as you head west, though. Although Pharoah, Ankh-Alexandra IV (peace, long life and everlasting her reign!), was utterly routed in the wars of the early years of this century, she still has a somewhat more tenuous hold upon the Eternal and Celestial Throne of the West. All the Men of Hesperan Quereteia, from the Mountains of Guard by the Ocean of Sunset, all the way up to the western shores of the Puntish Sea were rousted up and forced to either accept exile across the water, or accept a swift death. Most had little choice and many cities of Men, such as Reme and Niapol lie now in splendidly restful abandonment. Others, that were once, in ancient times beyond the ken of Men's short memories, like Mês and Ibisant, are again the homes of Daine. Down in northern Atelante, a few small realms of Ibreian Puniqi still manage to hold out in that volcano-ravaged part of the continent.

Things rapidly descend from worse to worst south & east of the Midworld Sea. If the cataclysmic volcanic eruption of The Dragon, a supervolcano somewhere west of the Pillars of the Herklen and south of Qades, wasn't bad enough, the ensuing Dark Years and the dramatic drop in sea level of the Midworld left many countries high and dry and with no means of engaging in sea trade. They don't have anything like a railway, so must rely on actual ships to move goods any long distance. Pharaoh instituted several stop gap measures (redredging the now defunct Pyaro & Red Sea ltd's canal; building extended wharves from existing ports, as the sea level dropped, digging a new canal across the hard volcanic rock of the Desolation of the Dragon in order to refill the dying Sea). Nothing worked well or for long and every country of Men from Mauretania to Ehrran felt the economic shock.

Then entered one Jason Zionicus, wizard and philosopher, and he had a plan to fulfill all Pharaoh's wishes. As it turned out, his plan was too cunning by half and turned out far more disastrous than anyone could have imagined. His plan, straight out of the old historical sagas, was to replicate the feat of the Walls of Jericho, only on a slightly grander scale. He had constructed a large number of masonry and bronze olifants along a pre-planned route from a bay in the Red Sea on up to a likely spot along the Midworld Sea. Reasoning that if the army's brzen olifants of old could aim their sonic energies at a city wall, causing it to crumble in advance of a good old fashioned sacking, then why couldnit a long avenue of bloody huge olifants aim all their sonic energies down into the earth, causing the rock thereunder to split asunder, thus creating a neat and tidily crafted canal that would, in time, refill the Midworld Sea with water.

The olifants certainly worked, but Jason had failed to plan for certain knock-on side effects. Like a devastating magnitude 10 or 11 earthquake that pretty much levelled everything from the coast to the Euphrates plain and did considerable damage throughout western Ehrran, a massive rift opening up from eastern Axiom, up through the Red Sea and all along the Jordan Valley and westwards into the Midworld Sea. If you survived the quake and the after shocks, you'd get a terrifying view of the planet splitting apart, all the way down to the ankanic fires deep below, though you might get a peek at the great Beings that inhabit that fiery zone looking back up at you, surrounded by this strange blue chasm of light...

Then, of course, as the ankanic fires rushed surfacewards, the seawater from the Red & Midworld seas rushed to indundate the newly formed grand canyon. The blast of superheated steam would poach anyone dumb enough to be looking over the edge. What there is now between Miserea in the southwest, Ehrran in the east and the Queritic Kingdoms in the northwest is a vast country of deadly vapours and broken & twisted rock, looking more like the surface of Venus than anything terrestrial. The forces of the rifting causes a new line of hills to breach up along the coast, and the mountains that once ran further inland have all crumbled into the chasm along with whatever cities, towns, roads, people and animals were once along that stretch of land. Through the middle of this new hell, however, is a beautiful stretch of clear blue water as much as ten miles wide in places and rather deep stretching all the way from the port city of Pereniqes up to the feet of Maralyas beyond which lies the restored Midworld Sea.

Ehrran and Axiom having suffered the most from the catastrophe, and Miserea having gained the most, it should come as no surprise that both these countries will soon enough be out for blood. To add to the problems, all those refugees that came south over the water have since been granted tracts of land down in the plains of Vandashanno, Daine country but very sparsely populated, to the south of Cyrenaica and Mauretania. They don't know how to treat the grasslands there, and have been causing environmental havoc since they began their farming and over-grazing. This of course has not pleased the Daine who consider Vandashanno their homelands, and it's looking very much Pharaoh will soon be hosting a three front war, facing three enemies who would just as soon erase this last memory Atelante the Downfallen from the face of the planet.

Eschatological philosophers and apocalyptic preachers (particularly the Last Day Adventists) alike are having a field day throughout the old Empires of the West. It may very well be so that the days of Man are indeed numbered in Gea!

Meanwhile, in a rather peaceful corner of Afareia, far to the south of all these troubles, where no one has ever heard of Daine or Teyor or philosophy even, along a hidden corner of an inland sea there, an intrepid young hunter called Ketswaio, has found a very interesting (and indeed very ancient) stonework, a village or great house the like of which no Man of the broad Southlands has ever seen before. Sure it's long overgrown with vines and half buried in accumulated soil, but a place of the Old Gods is a place of the Old Gods!

[Firebird766]

A whole lot of stuff, basically.

Corn blight is spreading across Kyskin, and the resulting famine has basically destroyed what was a promising start to an Industrial Revolution. Refugees are leaving the country in droves, much to the dismay of the nation's neighbors. The king was recently declared incompetent by all five advisors and replaced with his son to a distinct lack of ceremony.

Naqil is mostly reacting to its own neighbors instead of fielding internal issues. They've reached a deal with Kyskin to send aid in the form of food and research regarding the corn blight, in exchange for the strip of land the two have been bickering about. The feud with Muisa has drifted into the "off" phase of their off-and-on conflict. They've also recently welcomed a new Councilor of War, Toqalremi Ulsa of House Vesentis, after the old one (Ulsa's grandfather) retired.

Muisa is investigating an attack on the Muisa-Naqil border that was found to have been caused by Oruasin infiltrators. They suspect the goal was to blame Naqil to get the two countries fighting again.

(Oruas denied everything, incidentally)

The president of Nitch recently died of natural causes, and the entire peninsula is gearing up for election fever.

Jor is slowly recovering from the infestation of elves that led to nearly a third of the city-state's population dead and many more fleeing in terror. They've so far managed to resist being governed by the Naqilo trading companies that helped liberate the city, but the companies are certain it's only a matter of time.

[qwed117]

In Aiga, not much has really happened. Couple of peoples have been extirminated by tribal conflict.

In Teles, the Akurigan "federation" attempted to consolidate the Kingdom of K!sha into an Akurigan state, but the bill failed, after massive protests in K!sha. Thank god

[Egerius]

For 1.VI., Sèsta (a two hour-break during the hot noon, usually between 15:00 and 17:00) will be obligatory again around the Taènian mediterranean, analogically to daylight saving time a month ago. People have been buying iced drinks for the past two weeks and bright colours have become predominant over the last month. These regulations will remain in effect until mid-autumn. Daylight saving time will be replaced by winter time a month after the Sèsta will be canceled.

[alynnidalar]

In Sanmra, elections for the regional nuoda are coming up (like a state legislature, more or less). This always means lots of drama, juicy gossip, and shocking revelations about this family or that. This time around is no exception, particularly in the Orsili region, where Yarwe and Rulo rıl Kaorn are running against incumbents Okeni and Sut rıl Yinhir. Okeni and Sut have just released some pretty damning evidence that a member of the Kaorn family has been embezzling from the Orsili government for years--and that the family knew and was covering it up. Yarwe and Rulo have confirmed the accusations, but are insisting that they only found out a few days before Okeni and Sut revealed it. They also have been making insinuations about the Yinhir family's involvement in black market trading with the human world. Only time will tell who will come out on top.

There was a minor scare with the sarda (head of government) Asihan a few months ago; he suffered a mild heart attack but is making a good recovery and is still able to carry out his duties. As ever, sarda Tien'a (his wife) remains in good health.

In non-political news, this year is a leap year! This means there will be three additional days at the end of the year (April 11, 12, and 13, by the Gregorian calendar).