A RICH HISTORY, 5th Edition

[The Rich Port]

A RICH HISTORY

5th Edition

The complete history of The Rich Port

Edited by Gabriel Texidor-Serralta

[The Rich Port]

INTRODUCTION
By Gabriel Texidor-Serralta

"Science without religion is boring, religion without science is lame"-Albert Einstein

"To learn without thinking is foolish, to think without learning is dangerous"-Confucious

When it comes to life, education is everything. It's why I wish they'd hang private university owners for treason: education is a right, not a privilege. A human being living without education is not so much a lazy bastard than as a victim of elitism. Without education, a human being cannot hope to live, only to exist, and that's no way to live at all. When we demand education, we are doing not only a favor to ourselves or to society, but rather to God himself. Education was God's gift to humanity, if you look at it from my perspective; that fruit that our ancestors got ahold of, whether it was in the garden of Eden hanging from a tree or deep within the confines of our selves, he wanted us to get it, otherwise we wouldn't have it. Life is a whole big lesson that takes us years to learn and even longer to apply it.

As a politician, or rather as someone who is expected to be the embodiment of the blood and soul of the people he is representing, you learn too many things. From the sex lives of your running mates, to the drinking habits of their pets, to the prejudices, "opinions" and stupidity of the voting majority, to the existence of the Kama Sutra, to tax law, it's all just a gigantic, cancerous case of Too Much Information. To mix with a people is to become like them. While there are many, many nationalists who would claim that this would lead to ruin, I find that it is quite the opposite: it is what makes a people, what molds them into perfection, what cements them to their native land. Now, could I be saying that the horrible customs of other peoples scare them into staying where they are, to keep them where they are, safe within their home land? Judging from what I've seen, that could be about, but no more, than 40% of the cause.

The generation I grew up in was pessimistic, at the very best: we saw nothing but the worst in people, and expected nothing more. Conservatives were Nazis, Liberals were weaklings, Communists were liars, Fascists were idiots, and Anarchy would only end up with one of the others just as quickly as they come out. And while the vast majority of youths like myself were really pessimistic, ignorant, whiny codgers, there also among them the smartest people on the planet. Artists, mathematicians, scientists... adults with a burgeoning curiosity left-over from childhood that maturity had not managed to kill dead. They'd run around, without body armor, getting into all kinds of trouble. They called me boring, because all the questions I asked I found out through books. "What kind of life is that?" one of them asked me, "what kind of life can you live through a book if not a fake one?" I'd always answer them, "It's a life of wondering whether it's really fake at all". They never stopped asking questions, and that is why they learned so much while they were so young. And, to make matters worse for them, they lived in a world that threw them into conundrum: the unexamined life is not worth living, sure, but the examined life is often cut short... It didn't matter which hand wielded the scissors, it was just what happened.

My generation, my people, never got so far as down the street of life before they were shot down in flames. Toxicide, suicide, homicide, all ways curiosity can kill the cat. Why? Well, a lot of them skipped out on school, or didn't read as much as they should have, or just didn't keep their ears open to people who told them to take it easy. Perhaps I'm just some big worrywort with too many fears, or a bookworm who's read one too many pamphlets of Christian propaganda. But yet, I feel it, I think it, I reason that it's the right way. Moderation: the salvation of mankind, or it's biggest and deadliest folly? It's why I want to write books, why I decided to edit the history of my country. Salvation lies within, not right on the surface. People think they already know the answer and they just have to find it in the pile of crap they accumulated over the years. They don't think they have to dig it up, to study up, to read up on what other thoughts on this salvation were. Or maybe it's because I'm tired of people calling me a "Communist Monster"? Either way, I feel that it's right. And besides, it's not like I'm ruining somebody's life, right? ........ Right?

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER I:

GENERALISSIMO

Frederico Maximus Voltei. A mouthful to say, and a mouthful to appreciate. Believe it or not, that long-named, possible European dork/geek was the first man to set foot upon the island where The Rich Port currently rests. And, unless you've slept in a cave for the last two thousand years, he's not a dork one can scoff at. At least, I wouldn't try it. I'm too smart to mess with such a man. While very little is known about him (most of the compiled information is from official records and/or hearsay) "Dux" Maximus was the main commander of a legion under the Emperor Constantine XI, the last of the Roman/Byzantine Emperors, whom ruled from 1449 to 1453. Frederico was your typical Roman/Byzantine elite: well-educated, well-off, well-endowed, and Christian. His father was the magistrate of a tiny town on the Italian peninsula, and his mother was one of the few remaining Pagans in the same tradition of the old Republic (according to the gossip of the day). And... well, this is where the info train usually takes a dive.

Voltei's education, though often assumed to mimic that of the ordinary noble child (grammar school, followed by higher education, especially for his military role), it is not known where Voltei took on said studies. His mother's first and maiden name and father's first name remain lost to time. The gap in information applies also to why Voltei set off on a sea-borne journey that could have ended in his death, although the assumption to this is widely accepted: Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and where Constantine XI was killed, had been overrun by the Muslim Ottomans in the bitter final war for the survival of the Roman Empire. Constantine himself had been killed in the melee, and Voltei probably didn't want to be ruled by people from another religious affiliation, especially one as hated by Christians of the time as Islam.

But whatever happened, it led Voltei to part off on a boat, along with an approximate five hundred followers, and set sail to the Atlantic Ocean, where, many in his abandoned former native land spoke, he had fallen off of the side of the ocean. Instead, Voltei had found a motherload of colonization: a large body of land, rich in minerals and resources, populated by a strange race of people. The Rich Portian Isle, called by the natives Ko, meaning "outpost", was just that: a crossways for the hundreds of tribes that passed through the island on their way elsewhere. Apparently, the natives believed it to be sacred, and to stay on them for far too long meant to curse it to drainage of it's resources. it was not home to any one tribe for long, although the Kury (pronounced Koo-ri) had the largest constant population and often policed the island for troublemakers. While the Kury gave Voltei and his followers a conditioned sanctum on the island for almost 20 years, they were always suspicious and prejudiced toward them.

They warned the "long-comers" to remain on the eastern shore of the island, and that any expansion will warrant them trouble. Eventually, their suspicions came true when, in a slow year when barely any tribes came through, Voltei's settlement was noted to have ballooned from 500 to almost 2,000 people. Kury leaders were enraged, and ordered Voltei and his people off of the island. Voltei refused, and the Kury began raids on the settlements of their guests. Voltei, wizened with the two decades, had expected the outbreak of violence, and had ordered his men to prepare for it. Using both their numbers and their superior iron... gardening tools, the colonists managed to beat back the Kury hundreds of times, their numbers dwindling further and further until only a few remained on the island, cut off from their homeland due to the ongoing colonizations of other white men. "They were like a plague" recounts a Kury elder, "everywhere they went, they annihilated life, not just from our people, but from the very land itself. Flowers wilted, forests fell, the birds stopped singing... and it's almost as if life will not come back to the land ever again. It is gone, fleeing from the white man".

Voltei ruled the settlement mostly because of him being the oldest man there and for his experience and fame as a fierce, intelligent military tactician and politician. While often categorized as an tribal colony in the early times of it's existence, the Voltei Isles would later be classified as a monarchy, as Voltei only allowed his offspring to rule in his place after his death. For almost 300 years, the people of Voltei's settlement were quite happy with this, ruled by the benevolent sons of a man they once thought a near god (the nickname the people gave Voltei was "Generalissimo", meaning "great leader"). Once contact was re-instated with the new European powers, fire-arms introduced, and trade allowed to flourish due to the conqueror's Christian prevalence (Voltei's most prevalent trade partner as Spain, a nation that, unlike Great Britain, retained their associations with the Roman Church), The Kingdom of Voltei was declared an official ocean power by many of it's allies. Besides retaining it's status as an exploration outpost and catering to a Tourism economy that continues to this day, the Voltei Monarchy had a lot of sway in Roman Catholic countries, and was well-protected from piracy, invasion, and, as the later kings of the dynasty would show, and supress, internal strife.

Inset: A bust of 'Generalissimo' Voltei, found in modern-day Istanbul

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER II:

REVOLUTIONS

"If you don't create change, change will create you"
Unknown

Sweet faces don't make revolutions, except for the few, pathetic cases in Hollywood. But, always exception to the rules, whether they were against or for her, the sweet face shown above did not only make revolutions: it made a nation. But we'll get to her story later on. Besides, her story wouldn't even be accountable had it not been for the story of the Kingdom of Voltei. Following the acquisition of a trading contract with up to four other Roman Catholic nations, the Voltei Monarchy managed to sprawl after years of making mud huts topped with hay. The capital city of the Voltei Monarchy, Belsav, is well-known for it's vast expanses of cobbled streets, sprawling works of raw masonry-made castles and fortresses, and marble public buildings, all gifts from their "benefactors" for keeping the great expanses of water around it clear of non-Christians and pirates. The contracts were incredibly solid, and the Voltei Monarchy grew incredibly wealthy. While a god-send for the countries formative years, it was also the Monarchy's folly: the wealth soon went to the Voltei Dynasty's head. Through three of Voltei's sons (Tandens II, III, and IV), peasants began to notice something: there were slowly becoming less and less happy with the kingdom.

When Tanden Voltei the Fifth became king in 1604, his appointed governors began to raise the taxes of the "peasantry" and "taskmen" (farmers and skilled workers, respectively). At first, nobody really minded, as the tax was fairly low (15%). However, through four decades, the tax rate slowly increased until every non-noble subject in the Kingdom was giving half of his collected wealth to the Crown. Outraged, subjects began to protest almost daily, until 1649, when Tanden, noticing his coffers were dwindling, addressed his public (by way of representatives). Eventually, the King and the representatives decided to hold a convention, where the different classes of the Kingdom could reach a compromise. Sadly, the convention ended with several nobles walking off, outraged and refusing to give up any of their coffer money. Then, for the next six months, a series of raids, fights, and assaults all over the Kingdom seemed to silence the "peasantry". Modern investigation uncovered these to be the work of nobles, whom hired thugs to terrorize the "peasantry". Taxes, however, were lowered again (to 35%), and no objection arose until 1705... under the rule of Tanden VII.

After a raise in taxes, several hundred peasants gathered outside of Voltei's keep and protested for almost five days. Voltei, fuming because he "couldn't get a decent shut-eye", ordered each and every protester thrown into a dungeon. After another band arrived and protested the last band's jailing, Voltei ordered them all executed and their property seized. The execution was made public, one of the very few in the Voltei Monarchy's history. Under Tanden VII, however, they would become a common sight. Deciding he'd had enough of people complaining about the taxes, Tanden rallied every noble in the Kingdom by his side and embarked upon a Terrorism campaign to silence the Anti-Tax movement. Countless raids, hangings, and massacres followed, 800,000 people lost their lives, and Tanden VII was immortalized as "King Blood". After the end of his campaign, Tanden raised the taxes to 60%; nobody was heard to complain for the next century and a half. Tanden Voltei the Eight died in 1785, a trail of blood, sweat, and tears leading to his grave.

The next king, Tanden IX, tried to dispel the public's view of the Kingdom as their oppressors and of his father's as the Devil Incarnate, lowering the taxes and paying reparations to whomever asked. The thing is, very few people did ask for them, as most were too afraid. While Tanden's son would replace him in 1813, his impact on the next generation was hard-felt, as it would have kept the Monarchy from falling to public outrage. However, Tanden X was a chip off of his grandfather's old block: his move from the current capital to one closer to the shore cost the Kingdom a countless amount of money, and a debt it would be paying for a millenia. Taxes were raised once more, and when one woman yelled at him for doing so, Tanden ordered one of his guards to run her through. Unfortunately for Tanden, the woman he had ordered an attack on was a "noble": Aleida Purayah had been raised in the poverty of Kings past, and had managed to marry a nobleman, Salomon Stein. Her death would mark, as the next decades would show, the death of the Kingdom his ancestors had kept for centuries. It was 1832. A specter hovered over the Kingdom, and it's medium had been born only a year earlier to Aleida Purayah Stein.

March 4, 1831: Aleida Purayah gives birth to the child of Salomon Stein. It is a little girl, which delights Aleida but leaves Salomon dissapointed. "I wanted someone I could take hunting with me" Salomon would confess to his daughter. But Stein wasn't left this way for long. Aleida, deciding her name unsuitable even for herself, decided to name the daughter after her mother, whom was named after her great-grandmother. "And" she told her husband, "You can always call her 'Sam' if you really want to. That's like having a son, right?" Samantha Purayah Stein III never met the mother who named her. Salomon, while overwhelmed with anger and extremely bitter with Tanden for the murder, did nothing, fearing his daughter would loose her father as well. In compensation, however, Salomon imbued within Samantha a suspicion he thought plausible. In her later life, Samantha would ask him why he didn't teach her to hate the Kingdom. "Fight not like a monster, lest ye become a monster", Salomon told her, "and remember: while you may gaze into the Abyss, the Abyss gazes also into you".

Inset above: a picture of Samantha Stein before her departure to boarding school, here aged 14

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER III:

GOOD LIVING (?)

Many people expected Samantha Stein to be raised a "manly" girl, since the only one left to raise her was her father. However, Salomon and Sam's friends observed, Samantha managed to avoid such a fate, many then and today speculate, by clinging to the memory of her murdered mother. "In later life, she was embittered, sorrowed, and angered she didn't meet her mother" Salomon Stein would recall. Samantha was noted as being incredibly sharp, managing to learn to speak weeks into her birth, and to learn to read at the age of 3. In her childhood, she was known as a kind-hearted, charismatic, feisty leader with her share of dismay for authority. In particular, she hated adults, because they often exercised their power through beatings and spankings, which Samantha thought unfair. She was grey-eyed, which many thought strange and an indication of disease. Indeed, Samantha suffered from several pulmonary infections that made her father miserable with worry. "I always assumed she would die of consumption" he stated, "But then I thought I was underestimating her".

In an ironic twist of fate, however, Salomon Stein introduced Samantha to King Tanden Voltei the Tenth and, much to his horror, found him quite to her liking. "They would play in his garden. He would give her gifts. He would laugh with her at the jesters he often brought about. I felt my jaw clench every time I saw him pick her up" Salomon Stein recalls. Indeed, up until her father told her of Tanden's murder of her mother, Samantha yearned for the days she could go to the castle and pretend to be the Princess. Tanden, not having any daughters of his own at that time, enjoyed the little girl, but regarded her and her father in his lowest esteems, one time reportedly calling them "diseased mongrels" and that "they should have been killed at birth to spare the gene pool".

Inset 1: a student-drawn caricature of Samantha sitting atop a teacher's desk, a testament to her dominant personality and dismay for authority

In part, her experiences with Voltei would cement a femininity Samantha would need growing up. She often embodied herself as the "Princess" of the Voltei Kingdom, and owned a variety of dresses in her childhood. Her status as a noble assured her the best education: she boarded at the Christian Girl's Literary Academy, showing aptitude in political science and philosophy, both fields her father had selected for her. At first, Samantha was bored by the subjects, but in her last two years at the school she would adopt them as her own. Indeed, when she graduated in 1849, she was the only one of the students to hold the diplomas for the respective fields. However, her passage was not without it's problems. In 1844, after writing an essay called "Monarchical Corruption" analyzing just that, her teacher tried, in vain and great error, to get Samantha's mind off of such worries. He gave her the task of submitting an official review of a book he had picked up in Europe... and handed her a copy of "The Manifesto of the Communist Party". Samantha's teacher, and even the very King had not read the book, dismissing it as "babble". And when Samantha submitted her review (without the teacher's approval), the little pamphlet actually had an increase in circulation. When the teacher actually studied up, almost two years later, it was much too late.

Samantha's review was highly favorable, and drew from her witnessing several abuses of the Police and the Church, and the tales her father told her of the Crown's abuses, and to the new knowledge of her mother's murder by Tanden's regime. She described the Communist Manifesto as "a surge, a surge that compromises a government who does not match it's word's approval, who does not receive it's blessing". She found a great comparison in how the Manifesto declared history as "the struggle of the classes" when compared the Voltei Monarchy's bloody class feud. Converted, ashamed of her past, Samantha began a metamorphosis from wealthy idleness into political activism. While at first simply preaching reformation of the Crown, Samantha soon turned into a fuming revolutionary after her jailing and abuse within prison walls. "The Kingdom is trying to kill us, but I will kill it!" she declared. When she returned home and told her father of her intentions, he only smiled. "Well, it's better than being a lawyer" he said.

Samantha would soon find allies in the most unlikely people. The first, and one of the key people of her uprising, was a friend she met in school, one Alexandra Justan. The daughter of a nobleman like Samantha, Alexandra was often quoted as stating that "It was the only thing [they] had in common". Historically, Alexandra is often seen as a foil to Samantha down to her political ideology: she loved the fact she was rich, had the shrewd mind of a businessperson, and was for businesses, unlike Samantha, who planned to wrench them from the hands of their owners once the uprising was complete. Alexandra managed to convince her otherwise by offering to fund her dissent. In return, Samantha would leave owners with at least a bit of power, citing that "they're workers too". While central to Samantha's later ideology, it would also cause an unprecedented side effect.

Inset 2: a photograph taken by Alexandra's husband, showing her in an extravagant dress and holding tea, the "noble drink"

Justan was infamous among noble circles, both for her emphasis on the brutality of bull-dog business and a loose mouth that often made her the center of endless feuds, quarrels, and fights. Psychiatrists have diagnosed her with several personality disorders, but she often quit the programs before they could probe her further, they are quite sure a combination of in-bred elitism and social puritanism contribute to her hostility. As a child, she was often scolded for her cruelty, one that was reinforced by her father when she returned home. "They do not understand you" he would tell her, "make them understand. Educate them". Her most common given nicknames were "b****", "whore", and "harlot". From pulling the hair of other girls to hitting boys in the shins with a baseball bat to spitting in the face of a cop, Justan became a rebel for a lot of the wrong reasons. And while she was cruel to Samantha as well, she often found that her friend could be worse than herself when provoked. Alexandra was actually afraid Samantha might punch her, as she did when she assaulted and knocked out a radical Christian for insulting Samantha's religious faith. "I guess I just bring out the worst in people" she was thought to have said.

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER IV:

GOOD MEN (?)

While Samantha's revolutionary campaign may have been funded by Alexandra, the key was to garner enough followers to make an impact. Despite her best efforts, Samantha's forray into the underground in order to recruit followers met with a deep measure of failure. Her status as a noblewoman and her affiliation with the Communist Party meant she had many enemies in the Royalist, Nationalist, and Anarchist groups spread out over the underground. While they never attacked directly, her opposition groups made it impossible for Samantha to recruit commoners. "We need someone with sway" Alexandra told her. She suggested looking not in bars and rallies, but in the factories and markets. "It's workers we want to recruit, not bums and parasites".

It would be natural, then, that next in Samantha's list of allies was a rising star in the Voltei labor force: a union boss that held a monopoly over the factory workers of the island. And, most interesting among nobility and commoner alike, he was a Kury tribesmember. Charle Potre was an imposing, tall figure shrouded in hearsay and legend: some say he was born of a virgin mother, others that he was raised by wolves, others that his father had raped a white girl and executed for it. Whatever the case, Potre was 42 years old in 1849, and was infamous for a gaze that paralyzed Samantha as she shook his hand. Alexandra described him as "weathered", thinking his hands were rougher than sand-paper, and that he was a crooked thug. Potre was thought to have stolen and murdered as a teen, and his sense of loyalty a facade for treachery. However, Charle knew all there was to know about the poor of the Kingdom, and was an invaluable addition to the uprising. "He told me he'd never leave my side, both so that he could protect me if I did everything with justice and to throttle the life out of me if I did him wrong" Samantha shakily wrote in her diary.

Inset 1: a picture of Potre, ca. 1872, before his death two years later

Potre's story is highly fragmented, although what is known shall be collected here for future reference. Charle Potre started out as
Jekouo-Salmajequaranaya, the son of a descendant of a Kury Elder blood line. His mother is unknown. His father, however, was noted as a mild-mannered, humorous, hard worker, filled with pomp and pride and with a wit many respected, both white and native. One day, however, Potre's father was charged with the rape of a white teenage girl. While there was little evidence pointing to the charge, the all-white jury soon found him guilty and he was sentenced to death. His mother widowed, unable to hold a good employ, Jekouo decided to find work by himself. He first stepped into a factory at the age of 9, and, legend has it, he never stepped out of one until he was in his 40s. When asked for his name, he reputedly gave it as Charle Shore, the two words, he says, "were the first to come to mind". It is suspected Charle was more of a spelling typo by the factory administrator, but Charle decided he liked it, as it made him unique. The factory owner, one Mr. Gallagher, was endeared to Shore from his first day in his factory. "He respected that I worked harder than ten men" Charle said, "he taught me everything I know about the labor force".

Indeed, when Gallagher died, when Shore was in his 20s, Gallagher left the factory to Shore in his will. However, it is widely accepted the will could have been forged, as Gallagher was never known to have written a will. And it is also suspected, but not confirmed, that Gallagher could have been murdered by Shore, as the one confirmed murder Shore committed occured around the same time as Gallagher's death. The girl who had gotten Shore's father hanged, married and wealthy by the time Shore was a young man, had been found with a knife stuck to her belly. She had left a note, saying that she hated her husband and that the rich person's life was "false, dead, and without God. Hell will feel just like home". The note also exonerated Shore's father. While officially a suicide, Shore wrote a confession in one of his many work logs, which doubled as journals. He felt remorse for the killing, but felt it had to be done. "Justice should not forget crimes committed hours ago than crimes committed centuries ago".

In Shore, Samantha managed to assemble almost 2,000 people right off the bat. While Shore's bonuses got them to the rallies, Samantha's words kept them there. "She moved them. The change she proposed was the very change they wanted. And it wasn't just better wages and 8 hour work days" Shore wrote in his logs. By the time Samantha held her 4th "worker's convention", she had managed to round up 10,000 of Shore's union laborers. "To hear the collective roar of approval from that crowd... it chills the blood and then melts it again" Samantha says, after speaking in front of almost 4,000 workers. Alexandra Justan didn't really write or say anything nice, though: "SUCKERS" was written in big letters in her own journals.

One thing that worried Samantha more than anything now that she had her followers, however, was the fact that they weren't exactly prepared for a revolution. "They're just factory workers, field hands, jewelers, bakers... they haven't held a gun, much less fought a revolution. I want them to be prepared. They have children, wives, husbands, family... I won't send them off into battle with nothing but fear in their hearts and minds" Samantha told Shore and Alexandra. While Shore was moved to tears for Samantha's devotion to his workers, Justan said, "What do you want, a damned drill sergeant to train them? I don't think Chief Geronimo here is gonna do them much good. You and me are about as military worthy as the next woman in high heels... I can find weapons, but I don't think there's a military guy in the Kingdom who won't side with Tanden the second the uprising breaks out".

And that... is where this guy comes in:

Lady Samantha (her official title after her 18th birthday in 1849) met "The Russian" in 1858 at a social gathering. The two of them were known to be the "couple of the night", talking incessantly and never parting from each other's side until the end of the night. Colonel Nikolai Gorsomet Asimov, born in 1828 in Moscow, Russia, was a "prophet of the revolution", an ardent Communist who formerly fought fiercely for the protection of the Czar during Russia's industrialization. While highly decorated in the Czar's Army, Nikolai was a grudging servant of the Czar, and tired of his rule. Also, he saw the industrialization of Russia, while a good thing, a thing that could be easily abused, and objected to allowing owners and bosses power over them. Asimov was thrown out of the army for his views, and drifted around the world until coming to the Voltei Isles, swearing revenge against the Czar. Asimov barely survived the several uprisings in Russia. His right arm had been sliced to pieces with shrapnel, both his legs had been broken, and he'd been scraped and penetrated by endless bullets and blades, and at least twice he'd been severely wounded. "It was like running for politics in Germany... except, you know, the Kaiser should have had the decency of asking you out to a strudel lunch before stabbing you in the back" Asimov joked to Samantha. The fact the two were Communists only helped in immediately cementing a powerful relationship between Asimov and Stein. Asimov was renowkned for the rawness of his military prowess, and for the passionate stories he told of his exploits in the Red Army.

"He is like a bastion" Samantha told Alexandra, "Everybody sits and listens and stares at him. He tells his stories, and everybody loves them... he's perfect!" However, Asimov also had a dark side which, while his fellow conspirators immediately noticed, it took time for his "troops" to be accustomed to. "Now, before you enter any battlefield" he was teaching his soldiers one day, "immediately declare yourself a waste of life. This will prevent you from getting used to the idea of killing and will prevent you from hesitating to kill". The statement elicited wide-eyed stares of disbelief from almost everyone present. Alexandra whispered to Samantha, "I think he let out the gravestone more than the bastion", much to Samantha's embarassment. However, Nikolai would actually turn out to be what the untrained workers needed. "There is suffering elsewhere. There can be no suffering for the good of the world. That's why there are soldiers. To spread suffering out equally" he told his soldiers.

While Nikolai and Samantha's friendship was obvious, he and Shore were a bit begrudging, but still friendly (in particular, Asimov thought Shore "strange"). However, the worst off of the relationships would be between Nikolai and Alexandra Justan. Nikolai at first found her humorous, but upon finding out that she was a Capitalist, he became extremely suspicious of her motives, and reportedly told her, "How dare you insult your friend in this cruel manner?" He occassionally would divulge how untrustworthy she could become in the future, and every time offered to execute her personally. "No" Samantha would tell him, "she's my friend and I need her".

"A few good men, all the good women in the Kingdom... let's start already, shall we?" Alexandra told Samantha on the eve of the revolution.

Rightly so. Moving on...

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER V:

INTO THE ABYSS

Inse t 1: Revolutionaries posing in a brief gap in fighting

Inset 2: The King's guard, clearing a way for the King's pre-planned escape into the Jungle

Initially, a violent revolution was the last thing Lady Stein wanted to have her country and her fellow subjects endure. It took convincing by Alexandra Justan, during Samantha's failed recruiting campaign. "Very well" Samantha says, after a long night, "But we must have a congregation... and a congregation requires a place to assemble and to behold their faith". In other words, Samantha wanted to have the revolution be sneaky, sudden, so that they'd have the elements of surprise and shock-and-awe on their side when they began. The most obvious place to begin the revolution was smack-dab in the middle of the Capital, La Capital (Spanish for "the capital". :D ).

Samantha devised the offensive, and, essentially, the only plan the rebels would have: she would hold a boring-sounding nobility-sponsored corporate convention in the Red Banner Hall 10 miles from the castle. She'd accumulate at least 4,000 of her troops, all packed into the congregation, sneaking guns and ammunition wherever they could: under shirts, in bags, on mules, wrapped unto "broken" legs, etc. Meanwhile, Alexandra, Charle, Nikolai and the other 6,000 revolutionaries would assemble on the outskirts of the town in the middle of the night. Since the "Convention" would be under watch, the larger force would act as a decoy, and when the majority of the Guard pulled out to engage the main force, the Convention forces would spread out and attack in the distraction. The forces would all meet at the castle, and would finally eradicate the remaining garrisson, ending in the King's surrender or death.

Originally, the Convention would take place on May 28, 1862. However, Samantha delayed it. She wanted to try to convince the King to yield to the worker's demands. Fuming, but understanding, her partners-in-crime allowed this. While the King was pleased to see Samantha, he was enraged and extremely shaken by what Samantha told him. "THEY'RE COMING AFTER ME!" he roared at her, "And you... you're helping them! You filthy traitorous harlot!" Samantha returned to her comrades visibly shaken and puffy, as if she'd been crying. "I set the date for the thirtieth" she told her partners, her hands clenched in tight fists. While saddened for Samantha, it joyed Alexandra and Charle, as it meant they would be getting big deals if the revolution came true... and if it failed. "You are doing the right thing. If it pleases you further, we may allow the King to live, irregardless of his surrender" Nikolai told Samantha, who smiled and said "That would be better... an asylum would be better... he doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve the pleasures of heaven. He must rot in this hell"

-------

It was May 29th. Samantha Stein had received a shocker she prayed no one else had seen: the Royal Guard charters for the city during the convention. They listed a garrison 20,000 strong, which meant they outnumbered and outgunned the revolutionaries two to one. In order to get her mind off of this worrying fact, Samantha racked her brains to come up with a distracting topic, anything, anything at all... and then it hit her. And it wasn't just anything. In fact, it would prove to be the most important question she could ask anyone: what kind of government were they going to institute after the Monarchy had been abolished and absorbed? When her three other conspirators got the same set of wide eyes as Samantha, she decided to call a private meeting... a precursor to the chosen government. When questioned, each of Samantha's co-revolutionaries had a different response:

1.) Nikolai: a radically Communist state, controlled by the main revolutionaries, which would be organized into a massive bureaucracy, which would serve both to manage public relations and to avoid corruption. Rejected by Samantha as too radical and as uncomfortable for the centrally-minded Monarchy-ruled population
2.) Alexandra: a Nationalist free-market paradise, where free trade would occur only within the confines of the country and high import tariffs were monitored and policed fiercely and rigidly by a singularly elected leader. Rejected by Samantha in that it would alienate much-needed commerce and went against the Revolutionaries's core desires.
3.) Charle: similar to Alexandra's vision, but instead with an elected counsil, where power is delegated equally. Rejected by Samantha on the same grounds as Alexandra.

In order to appease her co-conspirators, Samantha decided to combine their ideas: an election-driven republic with Communist influences in the economy, but without compromising capital investment, and the main heads of state (which would be the four of them) would rule for life until their death or resignation, upon which the next elections are to be held. Nikolai and Shore were delighted. Justan was outraged. "I'd rather turn myself in than live in a country where I don't have control over my destiny!" she said, storming off. Shore offered to retrieve her, but Samantha refused. "We have a deadline to keep to" she said.

Inset 4: Entrance, The People's Hall, formerly Red Banner Hall, where the revolution officially "began"

May 30th, 1862, Friday, 8:00 PM: Samantha Purayah Stein III leaves her home and walks to the Red Banner Hall. The lines to get inside are massive: down the street, coming from alleys, with many arriving late. So far, so good. Everything was going according to plan. Samantha stops at the management door and is stopped: a man dressed in a dark uniform asks for her name. This was not what the Guard and the Convention managers had agreed to. "We would provide our own security" she told the man. "The Royal Guard is not here for your security, my Lady" the man said. "Hmph" said Samantha, before walking in through the door and right onto the stage. In a shared experience of their secret, the crowd wildly cheered for Lady Stein. They called for her to say something. "Umm... good evening, comrades! Um... does my hair look okay?" Samantha left the crowd laughing while she ducked out behind a curtain. A man in a black uniform grabbed her with his right hand by the left arm and told her, "You're under arrest. Get down on your knees and lift up your arms". Chains rattled as the man forced Samantha to her knees.

The rebels were oblivious: they were discovered, surrounded, and about to be raided. Samantha knew it, and she needed to let everyone else know. She remembered that she had strapped a gun to her right leg, and it was hidden under the long sock she wore. It was a short-barrelled .44 revolver, made by Colt. When Samantha reached down and pulled the gun from her sock with her free arm, the Guard did the same with his left. Samantha found the trigger was hard to pull. The Guard fired first. Samantha was knocked back. Six more shots rang out, in succession. Samantha collapsed out onto the stage. The Guard fell through the curtain, entirely limp. Lady Stein was shouting, her voice audibly pained, "They know!" and her gun was at her side. Blood was pooling underneath her.

Inset 5: Samantha Stein's imported .44 Colt pistol.
"It's like a badly-made toy"
Nikolai, after Samantha showed endearment to it

There are many reasons why Samantah Stein survived. Royal Guardsmen were thoroughly trained to shoot to incapacitate, not kill. Indeed, the Guardsman was equipped with a .22 rimfire revolver, whose ammunition was notoriously small. The bullets would only be fatal if they passed through vital organs. This, along with the fact most people, irregardless of training, aim for the torso, would mean that this is where the guardsman would aim. Training gave the Guardsman several advantages: he was able to draw faster, shoot faster (emptied all but one bullet into Samantha), and knock down Samantha with a swift kick. In comparison, Samantha had never shot a gun, much less held it in her hands. In fact, she could not even pull the trigger of her gun, as it was later found to be rusted. In the end, however, this all proved fatal for the guard: the knock back of the kick caused Samantha's hand to clench, the reflex strong enough to pull the trigger. The larger .44 cartridge of Samantha's pistol almost literally blew the Guardsman's head off. His death was immediate.

Revolutionaries outside were the first to be fired upon by the Royal Guard. However, the Guard pulled back shortly after opening up when the mass of rebels were revealed to carry superior firepower. Few rebels were wounded in the exchange, whereas 5 Royal Guardsmen were killed. The Rebels were panicky and confused: they knew the main force was too far away to hear the gunfire, and they feared fighting with Lady Stein wounded. However, Samantha Stein merely ordered herself put on a makeshift stretcher and for the fighting to continue, ahead of schedule. "The fire will bring them here. We can't stop. If we stop, we will loose. We can't loose... we can't" she tells those that carry her. While Stein's wounds were not fatal, she did have two broken ribcages, which are extremely painful. Remarkably, she remains quiet while the first Guard House of the night was taken by the Rebels. Lady Stein remained with her troops all throughout the night, eventually burning six whole Houses before stopping to rest at one they occupied.

Inset 6: The Main Rebel Force advance into the city.
A lit Guard House is shown in the background

"Where have you been?" Charle Shore demanded to know. "I was fixing myself. Is that a problem?" Alexandra Justan said. Ever since their assembly a mile from the city almost 10 hours ago,, Justan had not been seen inside or near the Revolutionary encampments. A lot of speculation exists over where exactly Alexandra Justan was. The most common conclusion was that it was her that betrayed Samantha's convention. However, this theory is highly disputed, as when the city lit up with a single fireball, not only was Justan the first to notice, but she was also the first to rush off to her position to advance into the city.

The Main Force's advances into the city were brutally slow and thick with fighting. The Royal Guard was on high alert, and every other Barracks in the Rebels's way involved a miniature siege to overtake. "You couldn't turn a corner without having the Royal Guard volleying in your direction" recalls Alexandra Justan. However, Stein's main ploy did not falter; in fact, it is often considered a resounding success. The Royal Guard was incapable of assembling it's mass numbers quickly due to the sudden uprising. The fact that it was so small also prevented several jaded Captains from sending messengers throughout the city to call for back-up. When they realized that the Force was a lot larger than thought, 10,000 Rebels were claiming ground at an alarming rate as Barracks were razed one by one.

Inset 7: The Rebels meet the main force of the Royal Guard, 2 miles from King Voltei's Castle.
Lithograph taken by a civilian photographer from his shop's roof

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER VI:

ALL HAIL VOLTEI

Inset 1: Modern-day image of the keep from where King Tanden Voltei X woke up to the Revolution

King Tanden Voltei the Tenth stared out of his open french windows at his glorious capital city. His eyes were wide, as if terror was steadily overcoming him. He held his fidgety hands together, rubbing them nervously, as if cold or anxious. You see, the king was currently giving new meaning to the phrase "shaking in your boots". He was an immensely large man, his belly protruding grotesquely from the frilly white shirt he wore under his blood-red royal vest. He was uncomfortable in every imaginable way. His tiny legs quivered in the expensive leather boots too big for him. His legs swatted the sides, creating a steady, shaking sound.

His brow was a cascade of sweat, sweat brought about by many reasons. By the eerie absence of wind. By the burden of itchy, hot, heavy clothes he thought fantastic when he was in power. By the fact that his security had been compromised. By his crumbling structure of power. By the blackness of the smoke rising out of the fortresses in the distance, guard houses that he once thought impregnable. By the roar of the distant, furious mobs coming for him.

A noise reached his ears. He gasped lightly. He turned to his door. "Your Highness" said the manservant in his doorway, "your carriage is ready". The king gave a sigh of relief. "And my wife, my children?" the king said in a booming voice, waddling out of his room and heading down the hall to the foyer stairway, "They are in their carriage. They will be right ahead of yours" said the manservant, following close behind him. "The country manor, is it stocked?" "They sent word ahead a few days ago: they are fully supplied for at least four years, and an underground trade line has been established should ever the need be".The king grunted curtly, as though he was pleased, but in a hurry. He exited his keep through his grand front doors and immediately headed for the empty carriage behind the carriage where the Queen and the three princes sat.

He did not look inside the front carriage, he did not look behind him, did not look at the scornful look his disgruntled Guards gave him, did not look at the main gates; this was not to be, despite his constant use of it, his final exiting place. This time, he was to use the maintenance gate at the back of the castle, where supplies were brought in. It was simple, with a set of moldy wooden doors keeping out the numerous pests of the island. He jumped into the carriage, set himself, and signaled his drivers to move.

The wheels of the carriage began to creating a ricketing sound, shaking the cabin wildly. Tanden panicked slightly at first, but then figured the wheels were merely bouncing on the stone road, and would seize shaking the cabin once he touched smooth dirt. He breathed heavily, put his head back, and sighed. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into sleep. He felt the cabin seize shaking, and the wheels quiet down to a smooth draft...

Inset 2: the grand main gates of Voltei Castle... through where the King did NOT exit royally

Meanwhile, the fighting below was in it's last throes. After almost 12 hours of fighting, the gunfire had receded somewhat. Who was victorious? Well, it is 7:00 AM. The casualty list for June 1st were as follows: for the Rebels, around 1,300 lay dead, and 3,000 trodged along, wounded. For the Royal Guard, 4,543 were dead, and more than 10,000 were wounded. The remaining able-bodied 5,000 Royal Guard, however, were entrenched along the other side of La Capital, waiting both for the Rebels to try and enter that sector of the city and for reinforcements to come in from other parts of the country. However, because the King was safe, they did not expect for the Rebels to know that. Samantha Stein, half-naked, her lower body covered in bandages after a doctor offered to treat her, looks up at the objective that she had hoped would win the long, hard fight for her comrades. However, her heart sank as she noticed that the castle and the area around it were abandoned, it's inhabitants long gone. "I felt... as if my soul had committed some great evil" she wrote in her war log for that day, "I'd lied to all of my friends, and... so many had been hurt for it. I felt as if I belonged with them, a bullet through my heart." However, Samantha's troops did not share her sorrow. In fact, they were mesmerized, because, as one soldier put it, "I've never been inside".

The great halls of the castle were almost magical for the humble workers. Indeed, before the Revolution, only the King's staff and Guard could ever hope to walk inside. Samantha Stein's troop treated the castle with a respect that both shocked and moved her. They looked at their ruined faces in the silverware. They very delicately opened cabinets to observe their contents. They made sure not to stain the enormous Persian rugs by walking on them with their dusty boots. In such haste did the King leave that several of his staff and servants were left behind. Although the staff was terrified of the Rebels, so much so a young woman pled with them not to rape her, their fears were soon dispelled by the tired humility of the Rebels. They bowed to the maids. Each one shook the Butler's hand as they passed him. When the Rebels asked which bed was the most comfortable, a band of servants took them to the King's own bedchamber. There they laid Lady Stein to rest. When asked why she wept, she responded, "Don't you feel it? The goodness that you have carried here... has transformed this evil place".

Inset 3: Royal neighborhood of La Capital after the end of the initial fighting.

The Main Rebel Force arrived at the Castle in full at least two hours after Samantha's own Convention force. Together, there were only around 8,700 people still alive after the end of the fighting. Samantha Stein's co-conspirators were not as relaxed when they saw that the King had not been captured or killed. Alexandra Justan cowered in a corner, sucking on tea leaves. Charle Shore paced up and down the halls of the castle, punching at walls and cabinets and doors. Nikolai was in heated debate with Samantha Stein, trying to mount a defense for what he predicted would be a massive counter-attack. However, Lady Stein highly doubted such a counter-attack would be mounted, arguing that the former subjects of the King would rally behind their cause. Entrenched within the castle, the Rebel force waited for six days for an answer. Soon, news was coming in on public opinion.

Reactions to the uprising were mixed, to the dismay of Samantha. On one extreme, and unbeknownst to the original revolutionaries, their own uprising had sparked copycats throughout the Kingdom, and which were a lot more succesful in quelling the chapters of the Royal Guard stationed there. A grand total of 100,000 new revolutionaries had risen against the King, mostly in the rural areas around La Capital. Royalist casualties numbered into 50,000, and prisoners 150,000.

There were also rumors of spies in the sectors of the island still under Royal control, and word was that they were on the King's trail. As hundreds of thousands of new troops poured into the former capital of the Kingdom, Samantha Stein was asked to usher the newcomers in. However, she asked that they'd rather travel to the castle, because, as she quoted, "I'm not the happiest to see you here". Legend has it that Nikolai Asimov had fainted when he'd heard the news that thousands more troops were coming into the city. On the other extreme, however, every political party in the Isles were voicing their opposition for the uprising. Royal Nationalists, in particular, called it "high treason" and that "the people will be glad when our great King hangs every revolutionary and burns down their base of operations in the old capital". These statements, however, backfired, as now every citizen within La Capital feared for their lives, and decided to side with the Rebels in the defense of their city. Instead of a few hundred thousand, close to a million people were part of the Revolution.

In the middle were the subjects who had survived the fighting, or were nowhere near the fighting when it occured. A large group were horrified at the amount of violence seen in La Capital, while another were glad to see their cruel King ousted from power. However, the largest part of the population was neutral, merely wanting to live their lives free of the political clout that was occuring. This bit of news gave Samantha Stein an idea to get public opinion on their side.

Inset 5: A few of the Second Uprising Rebel Force wounded, happy to be alive after days of fighting

"I wanted to speak to them. I wanted to reassure them that they didn't have to have any part in this. They just needed to let us be, and we'd let them be. But at the same time, I needed to let them know a little secret: if they helped us, we would help them as well". Beginning in June 10th, Samantha Stein began writing letters to each of the main provinces around the island, sent to governors, Royal Guard commisioners, newspapers, and the like that would spread the letter around for their own benefit. While nobody remembers exactly what the words in the letters were, they do remember in summary: generally, the letters said that the revolutionaries were people just like the ones reading the letters: hard working men and women, dissatisfied with the Kingdom, and that the course of action they took felt necessary and the only way out of their dire situation.

She also advocated a "people's government", essentially saying that if a single man could run the country, then everybody in the nation will run it even better. She called the Kingdom "antiquated" in some, and "archaic" in others. She also mentioned that the problems of the Kingdom went far beyond the Taxing issues of years past, and that only with the combined effort of the entire people of the nation could the harm the old ways had done be repaired and allow progress to arise.

In total, Samantha Stein wrote 48 letters over a period of 20 days. By July, responses were coming in from everywhere. And, all in all, they were overwhelmingly positive. Three chapters of the Royal Guard decided to turn in their banners, and were willing to support the new government. All but three of the provinces supported Samantha's words, but, in the end, all wanted the same thing: they were holding Samantha's new "people's government" to her word. They were sending representatives in order to establish laws suitable to the conditions of the people. While Alexandra Justan called the First Constitutional Convention "dodgy" and "dangerous", Samantha Stein called it something else entirely: "historic".

Around 128 representatives arrived for the Convention. They were an incredibly motley collection of people, everything from bankers to Royal Guard captains to clothiers to jewelers to shoemakers to miners to fishermen. While schismed in the Revolution, their opinions of Samantha Stein were without bitterness:
"An amazing woman" said one Margaret Cho, a clothes designer.
"Stunning, powerful, dominant... a bit manly, though" said Michael Rodman, a salt miner.
"Women of her caliber may as well be exctinct", said Carl Lovegood, bank owner.

The Convention was called to order. The most important question was asked by none other than Samantha Stein herself: what kind of government did the people want. Unanimously, each and every representative described a moderated republic as the vision of their provinces. However, the mass of bureaucracy suggested by Asimov actually came up during the Convention, but Samantha Stein convinced the assembled otherwise. Instead, she opted for a single temporary body, where the elected would have to run in terms. While she'd rather not support, she eventually had to agree with the assembled that something more permanent was needed to establish. Samantha proposed that, for the moment, a high council of four with an elected leader be suitable, and the assembled agreed. Samantha then asked who this leader would be.

The great hall within the castle where the assembly was held suddenly fell into a deep, deep silence. Eventually, snickering, laughter, and muttering began to crackle in the hall. Samantha, confused, turned to see her own co-conspirators with amused smiles on their faces. "What is so funny?" Samantha asked. "Don't you get it, you ditzy fool?" said Alexandra Justan, "You are the leader!" Samantha Stein turned to face the hundreds before her. The entire room erupted into laughter as she, too, began to laugh.

After the Convention, Samantha invited the assembled to a humble dinner, where bread and local, salted meats and home-made wine was served. As the assembled carried on casual conversations, a drunken Alexandra Justan stood in toast. "Firshhtly" she said, "I wanna... wanna toast to our great new King, Sam Purlalah Shyse!" All laughed as they raised in mock honor of their new leader. "Next, I's gonna toast... all them guys an' gals that protected us from all them bullets!" Laughter this time was scattered. "Ands lasshhhly... I wants to shoast, toast, our new country... the Brand New Republic... of the Voltei!" Everyone, including Samantha, Nikolai, and Charle, applauded and cheered at this.

And so, dear readers, in drunken, bloodied stupor was born the New Republic of the Voltei Isles.
Here, here!

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER VII:

THE NEW VOLTEI REPUBLIC

Inset 1: the flag of the New Voltei Republic. The sun is meant to represent the country's old Kingdom, while the lines and the red of the flag represent it's crossing out in bloody revolution

The Constitutional Convention lasted well over several months. And every time, the representatives threw in suggestions for rights and political powers and how those should be distributed. For every day spent in call, the Revolutionaries and their allies risked being sucker punched by the King and those loyal to him. "Our shoulders were itchy" said Nikolai, "but it was something that needed to be done. This comes above fighting. The people are above everything". Eventually, however, the Conventions closed officially after the 14th, when the Constitution was signed, framed, and displayed to the public. The signing took place in October 14th, along with the official suggestion of Samantha Stein as the first elected leader. In a massive inauguration ceremony where almost a hundred thousand "citizens" attended, The Lady Samantha Stein III became the first Chairwoman of the Island State of the New Voltei Republic. "I don't think it is I who must tell you" she told the crowd, "but so many things have changed, our very way of life will not even remotely resemble the one before it".

The message not only touched those that shared her ideals. Throughout the former Kingdom, the consensus was established: the King's crown didn't mean a thing anymore. Indeed, ignoring the King's orders of immediately moving in on La Capital, the Royal Guard commissioners bided their times, watching, waiting, listening as to the conditions under which they and their men would live under the Republic's employ. When they are sent a policing contract from Samantha Stein herself, they made no hesitation in abandoning the King in favor of Samantha Stein. As the rest of the island slowly began to accept the new Republic, voices of opposition from the far right were silenced. Thousands of the nobility soon abandoned the island, their mansion homes eventually transformed into public areas like hospitals and museums. The term "subject" was no longer used: instead, "citizen" or "comrade" became the dutifully rightful way to address a... well, citizen. And so, it was official: On October the 18th, the day the Rich Portian Police Department was fully re-instated into the government, the New Voltei Republic became a recognized world state.

The power structure in the New Republic was evenly concentrated in their new four leaders: Alexandra Justan was the "Overseer of the State", in charge of everything from urban planning to foreign diplomacy, needed in the New Republic's extremely Royal neighborhood of islands. Charle Shore was appointed "Overseer of the People", in charge of business policing, the courts, the unions, the academic world, and of public services dealing with the underprivileged. Nikolai Asimov became "Overseer of the Government", and with the additional title of "Supreme Commander", in charge of the military and the police force. Samantha Stein, as the Elected Chair, was in charge of moderating each of her appointed people, and as a backup of the will of the New Volteian people. Indeed, she insisted that complains be wired directly to her, and that she would write out replies and answers as quickly as possible.

Lady Stein managed all of this in the confines of the former Voltei Castle. Through a donations campaign, however, Stein made sure that the former castle was anything but a reminder of the past. Through constant remodelation, upgrades, and a lot of elbow grease, the castle soon went from a grim medieval relic to a stunning modernized public building. Rechristened "The Stein Estate" by Nikolai Asimov, the mansion-esque abode became the New Republic's centerpiece as the entire country went through a thorough reconstruction.

Inset 2: the library of the Stein Estate. Yep, the Estate is THAT awesome.

However, the four leaders were not without their faults, as is being discovered as of recently. In particular, Asimov and Justan were wildly abusing their powers. Justan, bigoted, greedy, and embittered by the tight regulation of businesses by Shore, secretly established several of her own businesses, away from the eyes of her friends. On top of that, she was then married to a prominent businessman. The former oil Baron, Karl Kon Kansen, remained in the New Voltei after Justan flirted with him one midnight. Drunk, Justan revealed the revolution to Kansen, who later asked for his business to remain free in exchange of keeping the revolution secret. After the Revolution, the two reunited once again, this time falling in love with the other's way around business. The two were married on October 30th, 1869. In order to provide cheap labor for said businesses, Justan would center ghettoes outlying the island's jungles, so that illegal immigrants could be assembled without suspicion.

Inset 3: Baron Karl Kon Kansen, shown here two months after his marriage to Alexandra Justan.

Asimov, meanwhile, suspicious of Justan as always, had backed up the present military with something of his own. Deep within the jungles of Voltei Island, Asimov had ordered the construction of a secret military base, both for the protection of the government and for his own personal vendettas. In particular, Asimov suspected Alexandra the most, and seemed convinced that she would betray the New Republic. Indeed, he constantly asked Samantha Stein about it, so much so she began asking questions about his own betrayals. While Samantha Stein knew of both their abuses, she decided to do nothing. "We have worked far too hard and far too long for their idiocies to sweep everything we have accomplished from under us like a worn rug" she told Charle Shore, who had also brought forth complaints about his colleagues's abuses. Besides doubting Asimov and Alexandra, Shore also began to question Samantha's motives.

Zanzibar Land, as Asimov would name the base and it's surrounding areas, would soon become the backbone of the Republic's military power, shadowing both the Armed Forces and the Police Department with spies, double agents, and a secrecy that knew no bounds. It would remain under construction well into the 1880's, where it would then be subsequently de-commissioned.

Inset 4: Zanzibar Land, modern-day. Show here is an underground tunnel that leads to a research laboratory, where gunpowder experiments were run by Asimov's secret forces.

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER VIII:

THE EVIL THAT FRIENDS DO

Inset 1: The body of Nikolai Asimov, found several miles from Zanzibar Land after fighting broke out throughout the New Republic

It was 1874. The Communist Revolution in the Kingdom of Voltei is now in a distant, unhappy past. The government that replaced it, the New Republic of the Voltei Isles, is now twelve years old, and it's four leaders twelve years older. Samantha Stein is now 40, the proud, beautiful leader of her people. Nikolai Asimov, her brave, sharp-minded protector, is also in his 40s. Alexandra Kon Kansen, nee Justan, her tough, filthy rich, cruel yet kindly friend, is now twelve years into a happy... "productive" marriage with her filthy rich husband. Charle Shore, her other, quiet, wise old friend, is now going into his 50s, a long, gruff life for a man used to bumps on the road. Everything seemed to be working just fine. The people were content, working hard to make their new country work... well, not gonna happen. Here's a fun fact, dear reader: you know why Russia is the only Communist nation anyone knows? It's the only one that lasted at least 60 years without a bunch of in-fighting tearing it apart. It's sort of what destroys a country. Nukes pale in comparison!

For twelve years, a powerful hatred had been seething underneath the gubernatorial body of the New Voltei Republic. The Supreme Commander of the New Republican Armed Forces, Nikolai Asimov, had been accumulating a superforce of spies, soldiers, and scientists both in service to his people and for his own vendetta against his enemy, Alexandra Kon Kansen. Asimov, who resented Kansen's greed and Capitalist leanings, however, was not alone. Kansen, knowing Asimov was out to get her, unimpeded by Lady Stein, who was permitting the two of them their vices, was preparing herself as well. With her illegally acquired money, she was now capable of hiring and maintaining a "security force" almost ten thousand strong. The arms race between the two was the least of Samantha Stein's worries, however. The two were now fighting in public. The most memorable of these incidents is in a cabinet meeting in June of 1870, when Asimov began the argument by calling Kansen a "capitalist pig". Kansen proceeded to call Asimov a "dirty Polack scumbag" and a "bastard". The two carried on, questioning their loyalties, until Asimov pulled a revolver and aimed at Kansen. Alexandra, however, managed to get in a punch that toppled Asimov over his chair. The gun went off, making a huge hole in the tall ceiling above them.
The hole, several inches wide, could not be reached for repair, and, not likely to be forgotten, is a historical area noted even today.

Eventually, the fisticuffs and name-calling would reach a heading. Alexandra, in a power play to acquire his office, accused Asimov with treason, "the murder of the rights of the Republican people". Originally, Asimov thought that it would be blocked by either the Bosses Counsil or by Lady Stein herself. When neither occured, he was enraged, not just as Kansen, but at Lady Stein. He fled deep into the jungles, hiding out in Zanzibar Land, daring his three colleagues to pursue him. While Samantha was set to do nothing, despite the opinions of the public, Alexandra was not so lenient. At first volunteering, then insisting, then ignoring everyone, Alexandra Kon Kansen sent a detachment of 500 men to hunt down Asimov and "bring him to justice". By 1875, however, none of the men returned from the expedition. Claiming Asimov had murdered them all, Alexandra attempted to wrest control of the military... well, big mistake.

Asimov had issued a general alert for the military, who, after a dozen years under his command and basking in the glow of his expertise, were extremely loyal to him and to the Republican Force. At a court martial, brought about by Kansen, an angry general pulled out a gun and fired at her, igniting a gunfight where at least five other people were killed. It was now official: the New Voltei Republic was now embroiled in civil war. Kansen fled to a plantation in the middle of the island and surrounded herself with a mass of her guards, while detachments she sent out wreaked havoc on the Republican military's installations. Zanzibar Land, meanwhile, was under constant attack while Kansen's mercenaries tried to bomb it out using several million pounds of dynamite. And... well... We all know what happens next...

You don't need an inset to know that's Zanzibar going up in flames. Asimov was found later, shot, burned, heavily bruised, apparently catapulted from underground, several miles away.The whole of the island reported feeling or seeing or hearing the explosion. Outraged, shocked, scared out of their minds, the people of the Republic demanded Samantha do something. Unfortunately, Samantha was out of commission; locked in her room, she refused to see anyone or to speak to the press. Shore soon confronted Kansen, and violently declared her a traitor. "To damnation with you and your greed! To damnation this dirty rathole you call a country! Let it be known to each and every shore, across each and every ocean, that I refuse to work alongside either you or that pitiful little girl you call a leader!" Before Kansen could stop him, Shore isolated himself within a stronghold of his own, composed of the hundreds of factories in the north-east of the island. Those loyal to him, the workers of the New Voltei Republic, numbered well into the hundred thousand. Kansen was now alone, struggling to see if the last of her friends would remain as such. As a servant delivered the daily documents to Lady Stein, Kansen would receive her answer.

At first, Samantha Stein considered being lenient to Kansen, would receive the shock of her life. Amidst the daily dose of documents she found a report filed by Charle Shore. This report, a compilation of the working conditions, financial books, and revenue projections of Kansen's and Shore's businesses, splashed a heavy, saturating dose of reality in Samantha's face. Gulags, labor camps, had been opened all over the island to accomodate the immigrants Kansen and Shore were "importing" for exploitation. The horrible conditions of said camps, above even the billions siphoned by her cold-hearted friends, was what touched Samantha the most. Grabbing a pistol, Samantha marched to where Kansen was waiting, a look of worry over her face. Enraged, Samantha pointed it at her, and declared the following: "Why were you always like this? My dreams... were shattered by you. A country... by a people, for it's benefit, above all... it's all I ever wanted... and you wouldn't even let me have that". Tears streaming down her face, Samantha Stein pulled the trigger six times. Kansen only got as far as the stairs of the Estate's Main Hall before bleeding to death. Samantha Stein retreated to her room, where, she too, would soon die.

Inset 2: Immigrants rescued from one of Kansen's labor camps

Unbeknownst to both Samantha Stein and to the rest of the New Voltei Republic, Samantha had had a little present brooding within her. The bullet that had embedded itself within her a dozen years earlier had carried microbes straight into her. In particular, Samantha suffered from a dormant strain of tuberculosis, which spread throughout her body first (due to it's positioning low in her body) before invading her lungs two years prior. At first, her doctors thought it treatable. However, as the antibiotics flowed, the doctors soon realized that the Chairwoman was not going to get any better. Instead of telling her this, however, they made a pact to allow her to rule without undue stress. When she was finally told on her deathbed, she lamented her losses for one last, mournful, historic time to her own father, a wizened, thin old man in his 80s:

"Do you remember how you oft told me... that empires wax and wane, like the drops of a melting candle?
I realized something: so too do people: our deeds, our bodies, our souls... they are... consumed, by time, by others... by one's self.
My God... what have I done to myself? My mind, my body, my soul... they are broken! My people fall ill... my friends die around me!
What evil have a I brought to this place? Was I so out of place? Was it all a vain and tactless thing? I couldn't bear the fact...
I can't, I couldn't, I wouldn't... but I will have to. It will be there, with me, when I die.
Please... someone tell me... what did I do wrong? Was it all some kind of joke? Was I played? Please... someone... I don't understand...
It's not funny... it's not funny at all... please... someone... someone explain it to me"

And thus it happened. The Lady Samantha Stein the Third became deceased on September 23rd, 1878 at the age of 44

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER IX:

CORPORATE EXTREMISM AND HOSTILE TAKEOVER

Of the original revolutionaries, Charle Shore had managed to last the longest. Holed up in the north-east of the Voltei island, Shore's daily life soon became routine as senility set in early. He was relatively comfortable. His rogue nation, which he named "Tak", his father's nickname meaning "job", was essentially the former Voltei Republic's industrial sector, and he alone now controlled the import/export and manufacturing on the island. Shore would wake up late in the afternoon, read a book, look out at his workers, get the news from his managers, and then go back to sleep early in the evening. He would also die almost a decade after the fall of the New Republic, in 1888. The rule of the New Republic now fell on the old soldier revolutionaries, whom now composed the Volteian Socialist Worker's Party, and were official employees of the government. The wizened old revolutionaries worried more about keeping the people calm and collected, while, in the north, something they never expected brooded in the Volteian Jungles... something evil... something like... INVESTORS!!!!

Inset 1: The Capitalist Extremists assemble, with Baron Karl Kon Kansen at the far right, in his 70s

In 1878, after learning of the death of his wife, Karl Kon Kansen was, according to many of his servants, "officially insane". He flailed his walking cane about wildly, asking everyone whether they were a "filthy Communist parasite like the rest of them". When Samantha Stein died, however, Kansen did a 180: his servants reported that he "didn't say a word for almost four years". As it turned out, the Baron was scheming. Knowing that the former New Republic was weak and that public opinion could be easily shifted, he set out on a power play of epic proportions. Calling all of the investors of his companies, he made a "business proposition" to them: the "hostile take-over" of the former New Republic. The great majority of the investors heartily agreed, the consensus that it was a "sound business move". Slowly, Kon Kansen assembled billions, and hired hundreds of thousands of mercenaries from around the world. He would then set his sites on the dilapidated, war-torn, weary remnants of the New Republic as they mourned the loss of their "Communist scum" leader.

Inset 2: Only one of the many racist and anti-Communist propaganda images put out wherever the Capitalists's mercenaries roamed.

The Extremists got their label from the remnants of the New Republic, who cited their aggressive domestic agenda and equally dominant stance toward the outside world. In particular, they claimed them to be imperialists, and told the public that they were the old Monarchy re-incarnated. As Kon Kansen quickly became unhinged, his stranglehold on both the Voltei people and his own followers proved absolutely shocking and deadly. Kansen, to even his own investors's surprise, was an sycophantic, megalomaniacal national racist, intent on eradicating immigrant and Communist presence on the island. And as his mercenary armies descended upon the towns, the Volteian Communist Party realized they were in great trouble. Quickly assembling a militia, they ordered a complete lockdown while plans were drawn. Eventually, however, they reached a different kind of consensus: a new Chairperson had to be elected to lead the militias.

And who they would choose would not only shock, but confuse. They ended up picking this guy:

Marcus Aurelius Poirrot was born about two years after Samantha Stein was born. He was descended from a moderately poor family of dedicated lawmakers, with everything from court clerks to lawyers to judges way down the line. Marcus, unfortunately, did not have the good fortune of ever becoming any of the above. His father, a construction crew foreman and legal consultant, became a quadriplegic after a workplace accident involving a steel girder when Marcus was only twelve. Shelved as a low-level consultant, the Poirrot family soon found themselves in a cramped one-room shack, often squandering to feed the six kids. Poirrot, as the eldest, decided to take matters into his own hands. Quitting school, he became embroiled in gangs, extorting money from shop-keepers and stealing food for his family.

On top of this, Poirrot showed an early appreciation and vigil of politics when he joined an Anarchist group. Originally, Poirrot heartily agreed with the rantings of his peers, believing that, no matter what, the governments of the world will have to be overthrown. As quickly as his political ideology went to the far-left, however, Poirrot was soon recruited by the far-right. In particular, Poirrot aligned himself with the proto-nationalist Children of Voltei, an organisation that wanted an expansionary war. Poirrot figured, as he left his Anarchist brethren, that a country with no government was preposterous, and would have no way to organize, and therefore no way to survive. However, in his mind, as he saw the abuses of the Monarchy like many of his economic status, Poirrot still believed that the current government had to be destroyed. After telling his nationalist friends about his leaving the group, the Volteian Communist Regime took over. Inspired, relieved, and seeing an opportunity, Poirrot immediately abandoned his Anarcho-Fascist roots and instead took up the mantle of Communism. Apparently, the Stein regime saw promise in him. He became the head of the Volteian chapter of the International Worker Relations Bureau (I.W.R.B), which was tasked with easing the transition of immigrant laborers.

However, Poirrot found the job a bit boring, even if it satisfied his morals. By the 1880's, following Samantha Stein's death, he saw another opportunity when the Volteian Communist Party began a search for a new Chairperson. Running against a hundred others, many of Poirrot's competitors thought him a joke and the last person the Party would pick for the electorate run. However, Poirrot, speaking with the campaign advisors, soon revealed a gift many praised in the turbulent times: a gift for charged, fierce oratory and an overpowering logic that got many people to nod their heads.

Inset 3: Poirrot giving a speech to a crowd of passerby

Unfortunately for the VCP, Poirrot would not be friendly with them long. Believing that the old parties were corrupted, Poirrot disbanded them, but gave the old revolutionaries offices in his own administration. He passed legislation forbid them from joining up in groups ever again, and any future rallies, meetings, or conferences held by them would have to be approved by him. Of course, this immediately put the Extremists on the black list. Poirrot rallied the Military behind him and sicced them on the Capitalists. Of course, Poirrot saw it right to seize private property first... ALL private property. "It is only temporary" he told those that came to complain, "until we flush out the devil dissenters". The ploy worked: unable to fund their mercenary armies, the Extremists were left powerless, with only small, loyal security forces to protect them from the onslaught of the Volteian Military Police. Over 87 conspirators were arrested and jailed. The last to be caught, Karl Kon Kansen himself, was executed for "crimes against the people". Poirrot's leadership had triumphed.

Having brought total peace once more, Poirrot became instantly popular amongst the masses. Posters of him were soon plastered all over the city as another historical movement swept through the young Social republic: the "Lifetime" award, which would grant the Chairperson an official life term. Of course, the motion was passed overwhelmingly. And while the Chair had limited powers typically within the legislative body of the government, with the support of the millions of Volteians, Poirrot was politically omnipotent. He personally wrote over 15 pieces of law, which very soon became law by vote of his loving people. Perhaps his most famous was the official name change of the New Republic's name to it's 1884-1934 name: The People's Republic of The Rich Port. Poirrot got the idea for the name right from his own predecessor's mouth: Samantha Stein was often quoted as calling the port cities "the rich-gold towns of the sea foam".

Poirrot would become legendary for creating the first ever Rich Portian Stock Market and for the founding of the Rich Portian Armed Forces (R.P.A.F.), moves meant to appease businesses as much as his loving people. So much did the people love him that he was called "Citizen Poirrot". The beloved leader of the people eventually went on to rule well over 50 years.

Inset 4: Poirrot's official life-time innauguration parade, where he begun over 50 years of peace and prosperity to The People's Republic of The Rich Port

[The Rich Port]

CHAPTER X:

"BY THE POWER OF TRUTH"

Inset 1: An old map of the Royal Isles, with British and French possessions to the South, and Fallopian/Maxtopian territories to the east. To the west and north is the mainland, along with the east-bound Southern mainland, which are not shown.

The motto of The Rich Port was once "By All, For All, Above All". This was the original motto, created by Samantha Stein, as a means to encourage her people to accept the new government. In Latin, this was "Per Totus, Pro Totus, Supremus Totus". Soon, however, the motto would change with the coming to power of Citizen Poirrot, who's magnetic personality led to a change in legislation that would change the motto of The Rich Port. It was a dedication to the new leader of the new country: "By the Power of Truth, I, while still living, have conquered the universe", which translates to the Latin "Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici". This was a tribute to one of Poirrot's speeches, where he was quoted as saying "By the power of truth and justice and the blessings of the almighty God, we his living children, whom He has chosen to triumph over the forces of evil, shall conquer the world!" Adopted the year of his death, it would be a reminder to the great leaps and bounds The Rich Port would take under his direction.

You guessed the following: it was 1915 when the Rich Portian Expansionary Campaign began. Poirrot, wizened and tired of seeing his people cramped unto one island, decided to give everyone some leg room. He began coordination and planning around five years prior, as the first world war began to first ravage the people surrounding him. As any good Communist would, he gave the explanation that Capitalists were at war with each other out of greed. In particular, the collapsing British East India Trading Inc. was in combat with a defunct French winery conglomerate, and were using the resources of their countries to wage a secret war of profits to the south of The Rich Port. To the east were the Fallopian and Maxtopian isles, which were always hostile to the other and were both on their ways out due to massive revenue losses as well as a taxing policy of the original Treaty of Versailles. The first addition to The Rich Port was the claiming of the western-most Fallopian island in 1916, which had been abandoned after three years of starvation and disease had ravaged it. Having cultivated cotton and corn for centuries, the islands soil had barely enough nutrients to grow new crops. Poirrot's counselors, oblivious to basic agriculture, wanted a massive sugar plantation/commune set up as an economy boost. Luckily, Poirrot thought it best not to start farming cash crops right away, but rather to start a pea and bean farming program, which returned nutrients to the soil.

The next step was the annexation of the Basilica Isles owned by Great Britain, which required traveling to Northern Europe itself in order to meet with the British Monarchs. In 1920, when asked what he thought about the British, Poirrot was thought to have said "Charming people... need new dentists, though". In the halls of Buckinham Palace, Poirrot and George the Fifth made what may be the shadiest deal in British or Rich Portian history: in return for keeping Basilica free of charge, The Rich Port had to adopt the British Pound as it's currency and had to drive out the French from Nouva Avignone. At first, Poirrot said no.

Inset 2: A German escort takes Poirrot and several other diplomats to Britain to negotiate the 1919 annexation of Basilica

"I cannot put my people through this again" Poirrot said,"we have seen enough of death". Eventually, however, the King got Poirrot to agree to the terms, and even threw in funding so long as Britain itself was not involved. In anticipation of Rich Portian advances, the French on the island made sure to secure the western part of the island. However, this would prove to be a folly, for, in the end, it would not be The Rich Port who would attack first. The Maxtopian Militia, in a bid for a final mainstay at colonialism, launched an insurgency into the innards of Nouva Grande. Unwary of the attack, and unable to counter, the French hastily retreated, suffering massive losses as a result. Over 100,000 French soldiers were killed, while the Maxtopians suffered only a few dozen losses. Maxtopia was particularly fond of using gas-based weapons, and battlefields often reeked of the smell of mustard gas.

Inset 3: Maxtopian forces advance into Nouva Grande

Not to be outdone, The Rich Port had concocted a new plan: a distance war would have to be waged, Poirrot said. "We've proven ourselves on land, now we shall dominate the seas. It is to be expected of an island nation" he was quoted as saying. The R.P.A.F. thus began the construction of it's sea-borne division. The contractors they hired, a break-off of U.S. Steel, did a magnificently cheap and efficient job. The Rich Portian fleet was up and running in ship-shape order in barely a month. On top of that, they had all been supplied with custom-made ammunition. Impressive ordinance? See for yourself:

[The Rich Port]

XI. NOBODY TOLD ME THAT...



Inset 1: The shambles of a Maxtopian passenger vessel, the MPS Hydra, after being shot at with a hull-piercing Fallopian torpedo (Damn... talk about innuendo!)

The above picture, this being a copy of the original picture of the negative print (the actual image being lost to time and several bumbling archive workers), was splashed across the front covers of newspapers of The Rich Port and the newly expanded Maxtopian colonies, while being mysteriously missing from Fallopian sources, the incident being called an "accident" that occurred when the Hydra ran into a "large, silver-coloured iceberg almost 120 feet wide". Outrage was felt all throughout the Royal archipelago, from The Rich Port to New Fallopia. Poirrot, in order to further his new expansionary ideals and his agreement with Britain, decided that now was the opportune time to express such outrage. Unfortunately, the Fallopians seemed to beat him to it. And they took said outrage to a whole new level: the invasion of New Maxtopia... Huh.

Inset 2: New Fallopian forces are by the seat of their uniforms, in preparation to attack New Maxtopia

Inset 3: New Fallopian Tank Brigade, rolling through the New Maxtopian capital, Royal Ybor.

The reasons Rich Portian officials could guess for this outburst of total outrage were the more possible claims that the attacks were of a pre-emptive nature, which Fallopians were conducting in order to to prevent the invasion of their colony, in much the same way Nouva Grande had seen atrocities. However, the Fallopians blew that perfectly understandable theory out of the water by claiming the attack on the cruiser had been staged by the New Maxtopian colonists in order to invade New Fallopia and make the colonists there farm canned peas (note: this could be a typo, but REGULAR, GROUND-BORN PEAS were never mentioned; specifically, with little variation, "CANNED PEAS" was the term always used) which would then be sold, very cheaply, to Dutch Afrikaaners and Siberian monks (I know, I know; you can only make that s*** up!).

In the end, New Maxtopia fell to the Fallopians, but not before their armed forces sustained heavy losses and left the colony in shambles.To add insult to injury, the Fallopians dispelled any possibility of a cease-fire, opting to use the remaining Maxtopian military for target practice. The thousands of innocent murdered began to rise as soldiers on the front lines, thinking the guns had finally been ordered to stop, would crawl out of trenches and foxholes only to be shot down.

Inset 4: Remains of New Maxtopian neighborhood following a Fallopian carpet bombing

[The Rich Port]

XII. OH THE BULLIES!




Inset 1: The flag of the Catholic Dissenter Coalition, ca. 1924

The chaos of the Royal Conflicts would only get worse as time went on. Nouva Grande was now under Fallopian control as the local Maxtopian generals were re-assigned under penalty of death. The atrocities of the Fallopian military would become more obvious as refugees and complaints flew all around the island newspapers. The outrage, the confusion, the sorrow and the horror all compounded in the islanders from all over. Poirrot commented on reading about them to his staff, saying "And we didn't lift a finger to perperate at single thing! Such is the nature of chaos, I suppose". This statement would soon become less truthy as, right under Poirrot's nose and finger, his generals schemed for the future.

Relatively new information about this scheming reveals that it indeed was The Rich Portian Armed Forces's doing that a certain anti-Fallopian resistance group arose out of the rubble of the recently-conquered Nouva Grande called the "Catholique dissident Coalition", or the Church Opposition Group (C. O. G.). The group claimed to be Roman Catholics disgusted with the Protestant Calvinism practiced by the Fallopian people (apparently, the atrocities many others figured out were below the struggle to keep people from loosing their faith in a Christian god), and initially numbered around 500 people when it was founded in 1920 to protest the building of Fallopian-funded churches. Rich Portian generals, however, had not yet begun the plot, which was based upon the removal of Fallopians without direct Rich Portian casualties. The original group was eventually seen as potential as a black entity, a native militant resistance that would not only drive out Fallopian conquerors, but would gain the approval of the people of Nouva Grande. As new "members" (mercenaries hired by the generals from their own pockets) joined the group, they eventually drove out and replaced the original founders, renaming themselves the Church Dissenter's Coalition (C. D. C.), a name that, ironically, while more attributable to the French name, is actually mispronounced.

By 1924, when the group was renamed, their insurgency totalled well into 5,000 hired guns on the island. When weapons and orders to depose Fallopian officials by any means necessary arrived, a set of leaders emerged.

Inset 2: "Father" Peter-Marie Arouet, leader of the Catholic Dissenter's Coalition, with his partner-in-crime, Karl Arouet, his son

The Arouets were newspaper owners in the old Voltei Kingdom and Republic, and were former experts in the dissemination of Royalist propaganda. However, Arouet Jr. recognized the Communist Republicans would take over, and persuaded his father to abandon his interests and burn the thousands of pamphlets supplied by the King. They were "investigated" by the generals, where they were offered the position of propaganda printers in the Church Dissenters Coalition. The most senior of the men, Arouet received great respect, and his adoption of immediate action gained a lot of internal support, despite a lack of external support. In a single day, Arouet targeted 50 churches throughout Nouva Grande, exploding more than 100,000 tons of TNT in order to purge them and spread initial fear. He later began pamphleteering aggressively, gaining the trust and support of French-Fallopians, slowly imbuing within them liberal values and introducing them to Communism in the form practiced by the Stein regime.

Inset 3: Originally intended to be humourous, this piece of CDC propaganda actually struck fear in the hearts of many Fallopian soldiers, as they saw the line between civilian and insurgent blur

Violence between the insurgents and the Fallopian occupiers, however, never reached an accountable or recordable peak. In the years that the CDC was active (1924-34), the Fallopian military DID sustain massive casualties (well into the hundreds of thousands). However, investigations into such matters often resulted in an "unsolved murder" category. The assumptions made are that the CDC intended to keep itself under the radar, as it's only mission was to oust the Fallopians so that the Rich Portian government would annex Nouva Grande. On February the 5th, 1930, an order of retreat was given to the Fallopian/Nouva Grande brass. This pull-out from the island was marred by the savage attacks of the CDC; the Fallopian military, most of their weapons kept in storage, could not fight back most of the time. Millions of tons of equipment (even an entire battleship) were left behind, along with 1,353 wounded prisoners and 40,000 corpses. "The captains made the decision" recalls Arouet Sr., "that no prisoners would be taken. Those who surrendered were shot. Cripples were beaten and stomped. Guns in storage were kept; guns that were used were burned, a symbol of the end of occupation. Officers were forced to execute their own men. Those who survived were those taken pity of. They either sailed on passenger boats back to New Fallopia or stayed on the island, left behind by the country who asked them to die in their honor. They were disgraced, abandoned, and dissillusioned. Oh, those were tear-jerkers, they were".

Inset 4: The Rich Portian Armed Forces enter Nouva Grande, at the request of it's mayors, to aid in the clean-up of the Fallopian Military casualties

[The Rich Port]

XIII. THE HAND OF GOD



Inset 1: the iconic "mushroom" cloud of the Little Boy bomb, which destroyed the Japanese city of Hiroshima

The evacuation of New Fallopia from Nouva Grande left The People's Republic of The Rich Port as one of the few powerhouses in the Royal Isles. To the North, a vast melting pot of nations were forming, unaware of the influence Poirrot was waving around with humble impunity. New Fallopia and New Maxtopia were now shells of their former selves, involved in bitter and annoyingly constant range war with the other, their cities being pulverized under the millions of tons of explosives raining down on them. With plenty of land to improve resources, and with a popularity rarely seen in freer nations, Poirrot now saw it fit to wield his influence a bit more, passing what no one saw expecting: a stock trade code, establishing the rules of the first ever Rich Portian stock market. The typhoon of outrage from the Old Guard of the Communist Party went mostly unheard under the applause the legislation garnered from the populace. Citing constitutional grounds for popular choice, Poirrot defeated the 183 objections to the bill and eventually got it to pass. Over 78 companies on the island immediately signed up, their revenues increasing ten-fold as common folk invested in the junk bonds left-over from the former Republic and Kingdom. With trade on the rise, the economy underwent a massive boom yet to be repeated today.

Inset 2: Stockbrokers in silly hats walking to the Rich Portian Internal Exchange Committee (RPIEC)

The people now called him "Citizen" Poirrot, "Man of the People". Marcus Aurelius Poirrot ruled the Rich Port through the 20's, barely affected by the Global Depression, through the 30's, isolated from the totalitarianism spreading throughout the regions, and well into the 40's, when the planet faced it's darkest hours. Poirrot eventually saw the atomic bombings, and was stunned at their magnitude. "They have planted flowers of metal and fire, and they made them bloom" his voice trembled while he spoke. Some say that seeing the explosion is what may have killed him. Some say it was some sort of religious panic, some say it was moral terror. Whatever it was... it was final when it happened: "Citizen" Marcus Aurelius Poirrot passed away in his sleep from a miocardial infarction on the morning of October 30th, 1945.

Inset 3: The funeral procession, after leaving the city of Voltei, included but a few of Poirrot's associates, mostly his allies and family members

[The Rich Port]

XIV. WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND

The death of Poirrot, while quite arguably being the most tragic moment in Rich Portian history, ended up being a minor political event at the moment. The "bubble of power" enjoyed by the three Overseers, as selected by Poirrot to continue his legacy and to allow balance in the government, was in excellent health when Poirrot died. The fact the country had never had an election before would not impede the government; the Overseers were allowed Constitutional emergency powers to continue to work should the Chair be incapacitated. This is one of the major support columns many Rich Portians took, take, and will take in the future. The Overseers are to be one of the few constants in the turmoil that would follow the calm of Poirrot's death.

Inset 1: A flowchart illustrating the chain of command in the government. The positions are in bold and larger than the descriptions. In quotations markings are the titles given in the Constitution.


*CHAIRPERSON/"THE CHAIR"
Commander-in-chief
Chief of policy
Chief of legislation
International representative
Chief judiciary officer
Chief economic officer
National leader

↓↓↓

OVERSEER OF THE PEOPLE
Primary consul
Majority leader
Chief of sovereignty
Chief of public relations
Chief of the electorate
Minister of labor
Minister of industry
Enforcer of the Geneva Accords for Human Rights
"Counsel of the Chair"
OVERSEER OF THE STATE
Secondary consul
Chief of government
Chief of the ruling party
Chief of staff
"Assistant of the Chair"
OVERSEER OF THE MILITARY
Tertiary consul
Chief of arms
Chief of defense
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
"Arm of the Chair"

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

SENATORS
CONGRESSMEN
JUDGES
PETITIONERS
LOBBYISTS
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES
GOVERNMENT STAFF

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

CONSTITUENTS
Citizens of The Rich Port
"Protectors of The Truth"
"Life-force of the nation"

The Overseers kept the government moving along smoothly, while the elections were organized. On their second national election, the Rich Portian populace only had two candidates: the more extreme leftist by the name of Hasinto Tow, or the more conservative and relaxed, and certainly more eccentric, Vilhelm Estefan, better known by his modified stage name, "Ehstephan". Estefan was a hobbyist designer and a captain of the textile world, whose company, Ehstephan, had become the favored clothing brand due to a monopoly that allowed low prices at high quality. Since there was barely any competition, Estefan could sell his products for whatever he wanted to keep his customers buying from him. "It's a week-end job" he was quoted in a contemporary newspaper, out of context; the newspaper thought it funny to imagine him saying it about the Chair and not about his textile world. While furious about the quote, it would make Estefan. He beat Tow by a narrow margin and went on to become the third person and the second man to be elected to the Chair on February 23rd, 1946.

Inset 2: a picture of Estefan in his business suit, which he made himself

Unfortunately, many of the promises Estefan made to the electorate, including an improvement in the economy and a cut in taxes, never happened. The Chairman adopted a policy of appeasement, which he called the "Balance Plan", of allowing the Overseers to continue in their jobs unimpeded by the Chair. In short, Estefan did absolutely nothing in the decade he was in office. "These past years have been wild" he said at a National convention, "I am not here to cause anymore of it. I am here to allow the people to catch their breath and to live peacefully. Peace, that shall be my legacy". However, where Estefan saw peace, the people of The Rich Port saw stagnancy. The Chair of 1946-1956 received the most external correspondence of any administration before or after, as letters with complaints and pleads for government action flooded the regime's inboxes.

Estefan grew weary and sick of the constant complaints. Unfortunately, he was no longer in a position to make any major decisions, as the Overseers removed his powers (temporarily) while they examined his salary and his merit. There were rumors amidst the public that a petition was being passed around to impeach/"fire" the Chairman. Having caught wind of them, the Chairman was outraged. His resignation became public on the eve of July in 1956. "It is an unholy occupation" he said before hitching a plane to another region, in a self-imposed exile that would last him until his death in 1987.

*A note on Rich Portian political theory: The Chair is seen as a representative role, with the government treated as an independent entity (a.k.a., the "bubble"). The macrosocial base in the end, of course, is always the constituency, as declared in the Constitution. The government is a "tool" that, while it can act by itself, has no power by itself. It is in the interest of the government, therefore, to organize elections so that a Chair can be elected, and the people may be appeased and secure in their representation.

[The Rich Port]

XV. RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAY

While certainly not the most horrifying of political upsets in the history of the island nation, the resignation of Estefan once again left a massive hole of power on the chair. Therefore, once again, the country had to assemble together and vote for a new Chairperson. Unbeknownst to the Rich Portian citizenry, things were about to get much, much worse. Estefan had begun a period in Rich Portian history known by many names; some call it "The Conventional Period", others "The Weekend", and, most commonly, it is referred to as the time of "the Week-end Chairs". The chaos hadn't even begun when elections were once again opened up to the public.

In the few months that the elections were being organized, a wave of vicious crime overtook many of the voting centers as people who arrived to vote were stuck up, assaulted, and robbed. One place in particular, the old Montana Shopping Center, was ransacked and ruined in a single day by a mob of almost 400 looters. The owners of the shops there were helpless as the shopping center turned into a ghostly wreck, left intact and abandoned, stuck deep in a loophole of zoning and construction laws that have left it a decrepit crime scene and a "historical landmark".

Inset 1: the Shopping Center today. Note the graffiti along the walls and the decaying skylights

Taking full advantage of this was a supposed "advocate of justice" and little-known ADA by the name of Alfonso Iago. Iago was the supposed son of an Corsican sailor and a known Rich Portian madame (according to rumors) who was abandoned at an orphanage with a wad of cash in excess of £50,000 (around USD$74,255) found under his blanket. A note that came with the wad read that "this [was] the trust fund of [the] little boy, who [would thereonout] be known as Alfonso Casiofero Iago." His birthdate is really unknown, but thought to be sometime in the 1920's, as he was a renowned patrol boat captain protecting Rich Portian mercantile routes by the end of the Second World War.

Inset 2: Iago in the Rich Portian Merchant Navy Guard in 1944

A passionate enforcer of the law and a fan of the military, Iago ran on a campaign that promised to clean up the streets of crime. He won running against 4 other extremely weak candidates, including both a communist and a woman who was known to have ties with fascist parties. This woman was said to have approached Iago and "cursed" him when she spoke of the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. It is unknown, really, how Alfonso reacted to the tale, but many legends and conspiracy theories say it is what turned Alfonso into, according to several of his critics, a "Fascist a**hole son of a pig". Iago's crackdown on crime, while successful, over-funded the police force and left many of the other areas of the government without a budget. The economy went into recession and the Police went on a field day. Being in possession of drugs carried heavy sentences; rape, murder, and heresy became capital offenses; and beatings, in and out of prisons, became a legal practice. And Iago, in earnest observation, didn't seem to care. Several articles of the day stated that he actively took part in the beatings and executions. While that is unfounded, Iago did support his extreme measures all the way, citing "the corruption within our [Rich Portian] society, that of crime, recreational pharmaceuticals, and the scourge of the organized ne'er do well."

Fearing for his life and of rebellion, Iago concocted the plan that would become his greatest legacy alongside his eradication of criminal thinking: an expansionary campaign, which many described as "greater in scope than the Poirrot-era expansion into Nouva Grande". In particular, Iago set his sights to the North, where a grand piece of land known as Sirkow sat, unclaimed by other powers in the region. Feeling lucky, Iago imposed taxes and raised enough funds to annex the area. Instead of raise approval of him, however, the taxes infuriated citizens further.

By 1959, the citizens of the islands had had enough. It was a Thursday in December the 13th, and a protest against Iago's policies was taking place right outside the Stein Estate, where Iago's Chair was assigned to live. While this is often cited as the beginning of the "tradition" of Chairperson living in the Stein Estate, both Poirrot and his predecessor, Estefan, lived in the Stein Estate, Poirrot because his house became run down and Estefan because it was most convenient. More often than not, Iago ignored the protests as much as he could. On that Thursday, however, he had a head cold and a migraine overtook his common sense. He ordered the Police to muscle the protest elsewhere. When the 978 person mob found themselves struck by batons, however, they immediately fought back, and fought back hard. The mob pushed the cops aside and stormed the gates of the Stein Estate, capturing Iago and eventually burning the Police station nearby to the ground. The Police captains and Iago were eventually crowded into a warehouse where they were shot. There were no last words, no chances to escape. Another Chairperson had gone down in flames.

Inset 3: The warehouse where Iago and the Police Captains were held; after their executions

[The Rich Port]

XVI. THE POSEUR



Inset 1: this would have been posted over your bed, so you could see it before falling asleep

The legacy of the Week-end Chairs is a long and winding one. While they tried to do good, the Chairpersons that ruled during the period would become more victims of their own failures. And while the first two can now only be found in cemeteries, the next two you can actually go to their home and throw tomatoes at their windows... that is, if you can identify them from the other 3 billion-and-a-half people in the country. And I am legally obligated to not disclose their current identities or the way they look like today. So... good luck!

With the city erupting in anti-gubernatorial violence, the Overseers decided to render voting rights null and granted themselves emergency powers to appoint a Chair to calm down the populace. Candidates were being picked out when looters broke into many of the houses in the Royal neighborhood, where many of the candidates being overlooked lived in, and all 3 were killed when they attempted to resist. Desperate for leadership, the Overseers at the time looked to the only place they could trust: their own families. But their wives wouldn't take up the job, nor their brothers, nor their sisters. But when the then-Overseer of the Government, Edvard Justan, asked his daughter, Katherine Justan, if she wanted to be the second Chairwoman and have her little friends alongside her, she said, and I quote, "OMYGOD, OMYGOD, OMYGOD, F*** YES, F*** YES!! OMYGOD, I THINK I'M FAINTING..."

And faint she did.

Many believe the voting process for the 1962 election was rigged. In the end, however, the government made it official: a girl that was 18 years old became Chairwoman of the People's Republic of the Rich Port. Katherine Edvardius Justan was a laid-back, kind young woman, well-known for both a rudimentary knowledge of the random and of a disarming demeanor that made almost anyone highly malleable to suggestion. She had wanted to be a musician beforehand, but was also known to delve in social and political issues in her lyrics. Her band, "The Undead Puppies" were unique in their morose topics of unreturned affections and the loss of family members. Justan's several flaws, however, would be her downfall and what most historians focused on in the end. Her unsympathetic nature to her opponents and the way she "pouted and bitched" in her speeches was both jilting and impractical, as she soon developed many enemies, within and outside the state.

Indeed, Justan's election did little to offset the fact people were violencing the hell out of much of the territories of the Rich Port. Those suffering in particular were civilians that the rioters disagreed with: Sirkow was notorious for biker gangs like The Satan's Mothers, whose extremely young (sometimes as young as 7) Anarchistic ruffians had elevated their game from smoking marijuana in their parent's house to hardcore murder of known anti-Semites, Fascist scholars, and Right-Wingers/Conservatives in their towns. Sirkow, a territory of The Rich Port at the time, was abused constantly by the Police, whom were thought to have connections to many of the disturbers of peace.

Inset 2: Modern-day Satan's Mothers bikers. The current chapters are incredibly tame in comparison to past incarnations of the gang, which were highly militaristic and were actively involved in organized crime

Justan couldn't come to a decision as to what to do. The steam eventually seemed to boil over after about a year. Sporadic incidents of mass break-ins became less and less common until they died out completely. The blooming Empire was shaken, but certainly not derailed. Taking advantage of the peace, Justan immediately asked for emergency reconstruction efforts. Old factories were torn down to make way for new ones, run-down housing fixed up, and roads paved all across the empire. Justan was also the Chairperson responsible for the current Education overhaul, which was called "The Musical Scale". It is a cluster of over 193 pieces of legislation that switched the majority of funding over to Education, particularly in music. The RPAF became a shell-like business, selling merchandise just to get by, and working in Healthcare became charity work. All the way into the 1970's, Justan seemed like the real deal, and she was beloved. But, you see, she was a week-end Chair... so SOMETHING went wrong. Well, don't fret! Something went HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY wrong.

In New Year's, 1977, the manifestation of what many psychologists and sociologists call "the Interference Syndrome" struck when it was discovered that Justan's musical programs were spreading pro-gubernatorial propaganda, of the kind observed at the beginning of the chapter. Justan made it clear the only music the students could listen to was her own and that of her old band. They were also encouraged to go out and buy cassettes of the music (available in music stores after Justan founded her own recording studio). Students were then being forced to take the pictures and music home, but it is unknown whether they paid any mind to the propaganda or not. Eventually, parents and teachers started to notice, and complained to the government. At first, the incidents were minor and eventually dissolved. As they say, though, "shit got real" when conspiracy theories and allegations of audio-brainwashing became public. By 1968, after countless hearings and committees, the public voted Justan to be impeached in court.

At the time, it was unknown if Justan was actually brainwashing kids with subliminal messages before she was thrown out of office. But it is generally agreed that her ambitions for fame, fortune, and musical worship were what inspired the educational programs in the first place, and what drove Justan to include propaganda in the aid packages. Fearing that they too could be imprisoned, however, her Overseers decided to "talk" to their advisors, who were opposed to Justan due to her age. After intimidating her cabinet into lying for her (her freakin' friends turned on her), Justan was found guilty and sentenced to a life-time exile, which would end up a 4 year exile when the case was reviewed ten years later.

Immediately after her impeachment, Justan was approached and for a historic interview where she defended herself. "I made a single mistake" she is most famously quoted, "and they crucified me for it. The whole damn government is nothing but posers and a**holes. And it's bulls**** that they're still standing". While the public agreed with her, nothing could be done now that she'd been forced out. "It's not fair" she told me, "but you get over it. You move on, you know? I'm just glad they didn't kill me like the last guy".

[The Rich Port]

XVII. THE VAMPIRE LULZ


Inset 1: God, he was ugly. Women way back had terrible taste.

Continuing the trend of young, "hip", self-centered, narcissistic, power-hungry Chairfolk throughout the 60's and 70's, Rich Portian voters had plenty to choose from... And chose Vladimir. Oh, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Following Justan's impeachment and her narrow avoidance of jail for the abuse of her power, The Rich Port was once again left without a leader. It is now the late 70's, and The Rich Port is in economic stagnancy. The country needed a savvy businessperson to once again lead them out of recession. They had plenty of good choices: Obadiah S'alaam, the Socialist, who proposed the idea to make The Rich Port into a Tourism hot-spot; Jonathan Keipurs, a Jewish diamond magnate with many overseas connnections; and last, and yet certainly least, General Robert Kant, who proposed a war economy centered around world domination. Yeah... None of them were picked. "Who won, then?", you ask? A 22-year-old college student with noble lineage named Froderick von Leinsdorf. Yes, von Leisdorf's £22 million campaign, managed by his father The Baron von Leisdorf (who contributed most of the monies) swept every one of his competitors out of the water, allowing Froderick, who had zero political, financial, and managerial experience outside of an uncompleted Bachelor's In History at the Stein Institute Of Higher Learning, to win by a landslide of 72% over the other candidates. Boy, did the public shit the money bed back then.

Leinsdorf promised over 300 mandates and initiatives concerning a wide variety of objectives and issues. "The Rich Port needs a hero!" he was recalled to say in one of his speeches, "And here I am!" Leinsdorf's first accomplished initiative, which he had never mentioned in his speeches, was the £1.5 million redecoration of the Stein Estate at the expense of the state. Initially applauded, this would look silly later on. After all, 292 of Leinsdorf's promises would be broken. But, again, I'm getting ahead of myself. The second major thing Leinsdorf did during his term came in 1982 (2 YEARS INTO HIS TERM), when he legally changed his name... To Count Vladimir der Paradeese. No, this is not a joke. Yes, the 6th Chairperson of The Rich Port believed he was a vampire. The third big thing he did, in 1983? He ordered fangs made out of diamond be implanted into his teeth. The next big thing he did, in 1984? He partied. He partied and had his hundreds and hundreds of party guests drink human blood. "Dracula is a big role model for me" he said in a news interview of the day. "Everyone should follow his example. That way, we would truly live, and live well".

Do I really need to tell you what happened in 1985? Do I REALLY? By 1986, 6 years into The Count's adminstration of parties, vampires, and millions and millions of pounds, another impeachment order was passed through, this time for von Leisdorf. However, before the trials could begin, The Count escaped on his personal yacht, sailing away into unknown parts. Without the resources to chase him down, and unwilling to tread international waters risking international drama, the courts opted instead to exile The Count.

It is believed he is somewhere in the Caribbean. Or dead. Who cares, really? He was an asshole. And telling people about him for the sake of historical accuracy is thoroughly unpleasant. I just wanted to get this chapter over and done with. NEXT ONE, PLEASE.

Inset 2: Experts speculate his yacht looked like this and was called the S.S. Douche-O-Johnson

[The Rich Port]

XVIII. THE KEIPURS DYNASTY

[The Rich Port]

XIX. EXODUS

[The Rich Port]

XX. THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD

[The Rich Port]

XXI. THE POST-CONTEMPORARY PERIOD