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On the surface, an uninformed observer might expect the Kingdom of Mount Zeon and the Free State of Muskegonia to be on friendly terms, or maybe even close allies. They shared many things in common: a largely rural population dispersed into small farms, a highly patriarchal and generally misogynist social order, and international isolation which left them technologically and industrially underdeveloped. However, the reasons for that isolation also explained part of what made them unfriendly to each other. Mount Zeon, since the Revolution in the mid-twentieth century, has been ruled by an autocratic dynasty which imprisoned or executed its real or perceived enemies and forcibly dismantled an egalitarian social order to impose a radical theocratic government based on female submission and an eclectic interpretation of Christian theology. The Kingdom of Mount Zeon was isolated due to the harshness with which this order was imposed on its population. Muskegonia is a slave state, a land where prosperity is built on the bent backs of enslaved people of color. The state maintains a strict racial order and white supremacy is a foundation block of society. For this it faced international condemnation.
The two nations share a long and sparsely populated border which has never been defined to the satisfaction of both parties. Nowhere is this a greater problem than in the Labrador Valley. The wide gap in the Whitetail Mountains, once the site of a mighty prehistoric river but now dried out, contains rich soil for farming. Citizens from both Mount Zeon and Muskegonia both see the Valley as a place to find their prosperity. Violence has flared between Zeonese and Muskegonians as racial and religious tensions fuel and inflame disputes over land rights. The situation threatens to escalate beyond backcountry vigilante violence to open warfare.
Town of Greenfield
Greenfield was the second-largest Zeonese town in the Labrador Valley. It sat slightly above the average elevation, on a small plateau in the foothills on the fringe of the Whitetail Mountains. To the east stretched the verdant terrain that had given the town its name, fenced off and divided into dozens of farms. Those farmers handed over a portion of their crop every harvest to the government, who collected those tithes and redistributed the surplus. The Prophet Matthias and his successors had declared that no father, no male head of the household, should be in a relationship of economic subordination to another father. The tithe system allowed men who were competent to be sufficient without needing to engage in the corrupting marketplace. Men who were not competent were given enough to help them survive until they could stand on their own feet.
The town was on edge. Everyone had heard the stories of the bandit raiders who had struck several farms in the last few weeks. Homes and fields had been burned, and other families had been driven off of their homesteads. Everyone knew it was the Muskegonians who lived at the south end of the valley. Greenfield was too far distant to have its own Fencible unit stationed in town, so there was no organized defense against these attacks. The town began to organize an Association of men who could spare the time to patrol or respond to the next attack. Most of the Associators were older sons, men who had not yet married and left the home of their parents but who could be spared from the labor of the farm. These men, armed with simple semi-automatic rifles more suited to hunting deer and birds than shooting at other humans, formed the only organized defense of Zeonese settlements in the Labrador Valley. Hopefully it would be enough.