Your settlers' new start in Zwangzug

[Zwangzug]

This thread is not your normal bandwagon thread. If you'd like to participate, you'll have to put up with my conditions. Warning you from the get-go.

As a brief bit of backstory, Zwangzug is today a heavily left-leaning, democratic republic. (You can read more about the current state of affairs here.) It wasn't always. Over hundereds of years, different groups of people from different countries independently decided "hey, this country sucks/autocracy sucks/our leader is being mean/our leader smells funny/whatever", and then decided to start a new community somewhere else where they could live free from tyrannical rule/sharing their property together/in the light of the True Faith/happily ever after/whatever.

Sometimes this actually worked. Other times, these sentiments lasted a generation or two, but the settlers' children or grandchildren decided they'd like a little more pragmatism and headed for bigger cities, leaving their original city to drop off the map. Eventually, Zwangzug was unified and got a government to lead the entire country, but for most of its inhabited history, those communities were pretty much all there were.

That's where you come in. In this thread, if you'd like to have the settlers of one of those little utopias have come from your country, you can do so! Post a description of the group, and I'll let you know where they settled and how things worked out. There's no template, but some things you might want to include are: why they left, goals for the new community, when they left (AD/CE 600-2000, please), religion(s) and language(s) represented, climate they're used to, and so on. If you have a settlement name, or location within Zwangzug, in mind, let me know. Or I can choose those for you.

Some caveats:

This is not a "hypothetically, how would citizen X fare in country alpha?" thread. This is about groups rather than individuals, based in the past rather than the present, and not necessary a hypothetical. If you're up for it, I'll have it be part of Zwangzug's actual history--not a major part, probably, but a part nonetheless.

These people are leaving your country because they're not big on it. They might still identify as @@DEMONYMS@@ (remember, there isn't a concept of Zwangzugian identity), but this is not the thread for colonizations, annexations, declarations of warfare, or really anything on behalf of your official government. These people want a new start.

Modern (well, past) technology humans only, please. Nothing too outlandish.

However...

If your citizens are too weird to really have settled in Zwangzug and lasted this long without being noticed, or your government is too glorious to let a few miserable rabblerousers sneak out, or you don't like the idea of actually contributing to the history of a control freak like me, or whatever, feel free to tag your post as "HYPOTHETICAL" so that I can notice it and give you an appropriate reply, without it having to be hard-coded into either of our histories.

Enjoy, if you feel like it, and please let me know if you have any questions.

[Neo Prutenia]

Die Riedesel Gemeinde / The Riedesel Community

Background History:

After the Prut Unification War in the 1940s, many groups within the nation were dissatisfied with the state of affairs in contemporary Neo Prutenia, as well as several of the more opressive laws which were put into place to secure and quicken the recovery and rebuilding of the Nation, especially the devastated West and South. One of the more vocal groups were members of a Engineering and Construction School and Organization from the south-west, near Lautenbach, tasked with rebuilding the Straßburg area. The conflict with the people in power came from the rigid demands and instruction regarding how the reconstruction should proceed. The group lead by a certain Corvin Cornelius Riedesel desired to rebuild the region according to their teachings and local needs and resourcess, without the heavy intervention and standardization imposed by the Government. The Government of that time insisted on militarizing the region and especially turn Straßburg into a Fortress City, which the Riedesel Group came to resent, seeing it as unnatural development for the rather pacifistic and peaceful region. After heavy protests and demonstrations, Riedesel and his Followers were asked to either comply or leave the country. They did.

Arrival in Zwangzug:

The Lautenbach Engineers took over the name of their Leader, Corvin Cornelius Riedesel, who was a Chaplaine during the war and a renown civilian engineer and urban designer. The Riedesel Community, as they refered to themselves from then on, left for Zwanzug, as this land was very appealing for their philosophical and ethical approaches to engineering. Strict Stoics and Voluntarists, as the School propagates the virtues of stoicism and voluntarism, combined with the sacral and moral teachings of the Protestant Work Ethic espoused by Riedesel himself made the group seek a place in the Rackham Range in Zwanzug, roughly in the middle between the cities of Sharag and Mockba; the settlement they would establish would be called after their leader, Riedesel. There they desired to apply their knowledge to construct a city and region to their liking - to tame the nature and landscape according to their will and teachings and shape it into a bastion of culture, civilization and prosperity. They left in 1953 and arrived in Zwanzug in 1954. They left their temperate, continental land and expected the best from their new adopted home.

The Group itself:

The group was joined in their travel by many artists, voluntarist philosophers, sociologists and people who were to weary from the war. All of them were of Prut ethnicity. Also, all of them were members of the Prut Protestant Church, or the Order of Prutenic Knights as it is known. The dominant language is German, although many followers were fluent in speaking the Government imposed Low Prut. The expedition took on a sacred tone to all participants. They wished to shape a new land, according to their teachings and Riedesels vision - a magnificant city, with a Cathedral in the middle to represent both their covenant to God to create a prosperous, peaceful and progressive community, as well as their engineering marvels. They would endure all hazards, their will would guide them in their new home. In equal parts, the expedition was also an interesting social experiment - the community would have to face many external and internal perils before it could establish itself and achieve their goals. Although the direct followers of Riedesel were the most numerous, most of the Community members came from many different backgrounds, which would serve them well in surviving the new land.

[Xyrxia]

Lorenta Kaleisi/ New Lorinth

The country that is now known as Xyrxia did not exist until 1802 - before that, it was a wide collection of different states, each with their own national identities, cultures and so forth. A loose confederacy emerged when the landmass Xyrxia is on (formerly called Isircia) was threatened by a consolidated neighbouring power that threatened to take advantage of these divisions. This largely strategic decision had little bearing on the landmass' disparate ways of life, until thirty years later, a 'National Unity' government came to power through nefarious means.

With a power base in the South, its aim was to promote the culture, language and customs of the country's South-East as the 'national' culture, which was made the capital region, as well as control all trade. Promotion soon became enforcement, as the government took exception to other regions' resistance. Religious establishments were closed, teachers lost their licenses for giving classes in their native tongue, and as the government became more authoritarian, it forcefully repatriated tens of thousands of individuals. Habeas corpus was suspended, and hundreds were locked up without trial.

One of the worst affected regions was Lorenta, or Lorinth as it is also known. Lorinthers, a race of peaceful mountain folk, were particular targets because of their devout adherence to their religion, simple lifestyle, aversion of materialism and desire to carry on living as they always did. Threatened with a hostile invasion, due to the Lorinthish legislature refusing to become a puppet of the federal government, it was decided by a congregation of elders that a mass evacuation by sea would take place.

Though the Lorinthish boats' destinations were varied, a sizeable amount of them ended up in a sparsely populated corner of Zwangzug that they soon made home. A deliberately chosen wide cross-section of Lorinthish society moved to the cluster of settlements that would come to be named 'New Lorinth.' The first boats, however, largely brought the most at-risk groups - religious teachers, politicians, writers - along with builders, farmers and women. The famed bard, Éferec Gèlsineur, wrote a volume about the voyage and leaving his homeland that is still read to-day. Upon arriving, the first priority was working the land, as well as building a temple and a Union Hall in the valley for community meetings, poetry exchanges and the like. Simple log cabin dwellings and provisions stores soon followed as the population of émigrés swelled, all wishing to stay true to Lorinth's culture and their religion, Enðrinism, which emphasises the dignity and humanity of all individuals, as well as protection of the earth. A key aim was to make New Lorinth a bedrock of Lorinthish culture that would persist, an academy and publisher's being' testament to this.

[Zwangzug]

Needless to say, the first buildings built in Die Riedesel Gemeinde (including the cathedral, as grand as envisioned) were impressive ones, and bypassers could have been fooled into thinking the new city was rather older, or at least more populous, than the actuality. Some of them even hired the engineers to design buildings in nearby cities, a process which helped the young city develop a stable economy based on trade with other nations. The first few years had been more touch-and-go, with a large proportion of the community not prepared for the most mundane tasks in building a city. Still, the engineers found efficient designs, and the strong work ethic in the Gemeinde saw it through to relative stability.

This process was rudely interrupted in November of 1965, by the arrival of the "consolidators"--those asking the residents of the Gemeinde whether they would like to be incorporated into the new Zwangzugian state. Perhaps remembering what had happened when the Neo Prutenian government had gotten too strong, the community's sentiment was rather strongly against this. The next consolidator to come through, fortunately, spoke German, which had enjoyed the status of the community's primary language from the beginning and remains so today; without the Neo Prutenian government enforcing it, Low Prut was and is no longer spoken very frequently. ("The Order of Prutenic Knights" proved a particular translation challenge, but nothing people couldn't laugh about later.) Eventually, the consolidators convinced Dietfried Weber to join the growing state as a representative from Die Riedesel Gemeinde, and the community became part of Zwangzug without major incident. (Weber, on the other hand, quickly decided that designing new buildings for the capital was far more interesting than politics. The corner where buildings he designed run perpendicular to those rebuilt by an architect from the architecturally-minded city of Nuel is today one of Zwischen's more bizarre intersections.)

Some of those early fears might have been prescient; today, many residents of the community find the modern state overly large--though this sentiment is just as common in other southern cities. Younger citizens are more likely to be used to the governmental scope. These generational gaps are not likely to prove drastic ones, though; resentment or none, the vast majority of residents still believe that their city at least can be a "bastion of civilization" as intended, and still work hard to improve it.

Finally, it should be noted that Die Riedesel Gemeinde and Nuel now share another connection besides interests in building pretty cathedrals; the community is now host to a minor league baseball team, the Riedesel Engineers, affiliated with the Nuel Panthers. The Engineers have been derided for what some call excessive mollycoddling of young talent, but it seems to have paid off, and their ace pitcher Erich Oberst is expecting a callup to the Panthers any day now.

[Alfegos]

The People's Nation of Alfegos has not had the most peaceful past hundred years - it is this instability that has defined the nation. In the 1950s, what was once a group fighting for the rights of workers against a corrupt, capitalist government decided that enough was enough. The People's Revolutionary Army, the PRA, staged their first massive rally in the streets of Milkavich (then the capital), nearly a million people turning out in just the central districts to barricade the government in until they agreed to talks. The government, in fear of things, brought in the army and the air fleet to try and control the crowds. But when the airship crews refused to fire upon civilians, and live fire was exchanged between the army and protestors, the First Civil War started. With massive popular support, the entire province was soon under the control of the Communist revolutionaries, with the remains of the army and airfleet retreating to the north and south. Fighting reached a ceasefire in the mountains, both sides digging in, trying to break through. In the end, the southern barricade failed, allowing the revolutionary army to storm south and claim Zevkhay. With Polinas on the brink of invasion, the government (by now with the support of the region) resorted to deploying a nuclear device against the advancing army. The resulting blast wiped out near a half of the northern revolutionary army. With crumbling support, the PRA turned from a righteous organisation to a guerilla force, and as the vice closed to a terrorist group. The ringleaders were rounded up and executed in 1954, as the war was proclaimed over. Yet guerillas still remained in the depths of the Gra'fegos, a rainforest so impenetrable and dangerous that even research teams had rarely ventured to the deep forests. In Milkavich, the terrorists hid, a mix of fanatics recruited in the dying days of the wars, criminals hiding from the law, and former PRA senior members forced into hiding.
Many tens of thousands of PRA members attempted to escape during the dying days of the 1st civil war. It is not known how many escaped outside the region, but it is known that many fled with a sense of shame - of losing to their foes, of seeing their cause corrupted, of becoming outlaws. With many revoking their original beliefs, numerous peoples settled down in communities, quiet civilised groups scattered across the world.

A group of about 184 men, women and children escaped as the democratic forces closed in, on one of the last airships out of the United Socialist State of Alfegos. The airship was an ancient Wu'set Airworks Aerofreighter, a heavy-yet-short ranged lifting craft designed for trips of 1000km at most. The airship spent two weeks at sea, catching the trade winds towards their new land. By the first week, many of the supplies had been exhausted, with rationing of the survival kit aboard, the collection of rainwater and a trailed fishing line providing sustenance. Half starved, and with a few of their number lost from injuries sustained while escaping, the airship crew eventually sighted land. With fuel long gone in the engines, the 450m-long airship made a crash landing in a deserted area nearly a kilometre inland. And that is the last that is known from the blackbox of the MSAV-Free Bird.

It is known that the people wanted to start anew - to completely forget everything of their past, and make a new start. Many of the escaping people were senior members of the PRA, who would have faced imprisonment or execution for their actions (including war crimes in a couple cases), who had no alternative but to start off with a clean slate. A few were professionals before joining the militant organisation, engineers, doctors and government officials. Speaking english, atrean and Fegosian, they hoped to blend in, tropical people in an unknown land.

[Zwangzug]

New Lorinth took shape in what is today the east of Ervimnal district. The first wave of farmers was fairly successful at growing food for the young community, and the log cabins were soon to follow; a plentiful supply of logs for those cabins placated some who said they should have looked for a more mountainous location, and New Lorinth survived what might have been a rift in the community.

The religious teachers and writers enjoyed the peace of their new home; some of the first politicians to come over found themselves bored after a while, but agreed that Lorenta Kaleisi beat the alternatives. In the early 1850s, the establishment of new villages nearby made New Lorinth somewhat less isolated; it was around then that Gèlsineur's work was discovered by other parts of the country. It took somewhat longer for others to decipher the Lorinthish language; eventually, in the 1880s, a Jorvelki named Snarry Nielson produced a translation, and Gèlsineur enjoyed a spurt of (by then posthumous) popularity.

New Lorinth had continued to produce new poems and stories, and some outside the village were hungry for more. This didn't go over as well as might have been predicted; some of its residents were fiercely insular, fearful that too much contact with the outside world would erode Lorenta Kaleisi's special predictions. However, the new poetry of a young woman born in Lorinth who lived in Logrove for several years before returning home seemed to fulfill others' desires before they moved onto the next upstart, and New Lorinth enjoyed relative tranquility afterwards.

Today, the city has come full circle and produced new politicians; still influenced by Enðrinist beliefs, it helps make Ervimnal a heavily environmentalist district. With log cabins are being phased out in favor of apartment buildings, and the most likely reason to cut down a tree today is to help publish those poetry anthologies.

...I'm sorry, did I say "Enðrinist" beliefs? Maybe those conservatives were right to worry; the old temple still stands, and some still worship in old Lorinthish style, but contact with the outside world has started to erode some elements of the language. Latin letters are in; the ð is out. Have fun in the Endrinist temple.

[Vecherd]

How many people can immegrate?

[Zwangzug]

One of the problems plaguing the modern world is the tendency for nations to rise and fall so quickly. Zwangzug hasn't come and gone as much as others, but its border nations aren't so stable. For all we know, it's floating alone in the ocean now, but who's to say what was or was not here fifty years ago? North Zwangzugians, that's who, know perfectly well that they haven't been bordered, and as such, would most probably have had open sea for the Free Bird to land and deposit a remnant of the PRA.

Opinions were mixed; some wanted to head towards a preexisting city and blend into the crowd, but others, unsure where they were, feared they'd be recognized and get in trouble. So on the northern fringe of what would later become Stuvals, the lonely survivors gave their new city the simple name "Nest"--perhaps a pun on the plane, but also an innocuous English word, in the fear that an Atrean or Fegosian name would have given them away should the government of Alfegos find them. That was the least of their worries. The cold climate was a brutal change from the home they were used to (though the proximity to the water at least moderated the climate somewhat).

Ironically, the small community provided a perfect testing ground for communist principles. Living in close quarters, the Nesters gradually settled in and began planning for a future, hopefully with less snow. The arrival of the consolidators (earlier in November) was met with initial panic and, once people figured out what they were really there for, more wariness of greater connections. Still, the desire for closer links with people more adapted to the new land trumped decade-old worries, and Nest accepted the offer on the first go-round. It benefited from the new government's initial emphasis on road construction, with a new highway eventually linking it to Craltown (a larger city in Stuvals). Admittedly, nobody uses cars anymore, but it was cool at the time.

Atrean and Fegosian never really died out in Nest, and newer generations are revitalizing these languages as a way of promoting urban identity. But as its founders would have wanted, their history is still mostly unknown. It's no longer about protecting them from reprisal, though; it's now a matter of not dwelling on past tragedies...or bringing unwanted guilt to the present. And this sentiment isn't unique to Nest. It's just that nobody knows how many cities in Zwangzug reason the same way.

Vecherd: however many makes sense for the specific situation. No hard and fast guidelines (well, not billions and billions). You don't need to include specific numbers if you don't want to.

[Neo Prutenia]

Needless to say, the first buildings built in Die Riedesel Gemeinde (including the cathedral, as grand as envisioned) were impressive ones, and bypassers could have been fooled into thinking the new city was rather older, or at least more populous, than the actuality. Some of them even hired the engineers to design buildings in nearby cities, a process which helped the young city develop a stable economy based on trade with other nations. The first few years had been more touch-and-go, with a large proportion of the community not prepared for the most mundane tasks in building a city. Still, the engineers found efficient designs, and the strong work ethic in the Gemeinde saw it through to relative stability.

This process was rudely interrupted in November of 1965, by the arrival of the "consolidators"--those asking the residents of the Gemeinde whether they would like to be incorporated into the new Zwangzugian state. Perhaps remembering what had happened when the Neo Prutenian government had gotten too strong, the community's sentiment was rather strongly against this. The next consolidator to come through, fortunately, spoke German, which had enjoyed the status of the community's primary language from the beginning and remains so today; without the Neo Prutenian government enforcing it, Low Prut was and is no longer spoken very frequently. ("The Order of Prutenic Knights" proved a particular translation challenge, but nothing people couldn't laugh about later.) Eventually, the consolidators convinced Dietfried Weber to join the growing state as a representative from Die Riedesel Gemeinde, and the community became part of Zwangzug without major incident. (Weber, on the other hand, quickly decided that designing new buildings for the capital was far more interesting than politics. The corner where buildings he designed run perpendicular to those rebuilt by an architect from the architecturally-minded city of Nuel is today one of Zwischen's more bizarre intersections.)

Some of those early fears might have been prescient; today, many residents of the community find the modern state overly large--though this sentiment is just as common in other southern cities. Younger citizens are more likely to be used to the governmental scope. These generational gaps are not likely to prove drastic ones, though; resentment or none, the vast majority of residents still believe that their city at least can be a "bastion of civilization" as intended, and still work hard to improve it.

Finally, it should be noted that Die Riedesel Gemeinde and Nuel now share another connection besides interests in building pretty cathedrals; the community is now host to a minor league baseball team, the Riedesel Engineers, affiliated with the Nuel Panthers. The Engineers have been derided for what some call excessive mollycoddling of young talent, but it seems to have paid off, and their ace pitcher Erich Oberst is expecting a callup to the Panthers any day now.

OOC: Oh, that's so sweet. I love what happened to them. I will make sure to mention them in my Factbook, about Prut who settled abroad. Will they be a part of your factbook/wiki page?

[Zwangzug]

Thanks! I've put a link to this thread, and specific links to the posts about the different cities, on the NSWiki page about cities of Zwangzug. If or when there are more cities, I'll eventually link to those posts from the wiki article, but might wait a while so I don't need to make a bunch of little edits.

[Rejistania]

During the Karelacracy, the generally more hanta-inikresaist Seleken used much political power against the se-ntia-inikresaist Lajik. It was a hard decision for many se-ntia inikresaists to leave, but the karelan oppression and the threat of cultural eradication made many lajik leave to a place where they can live in freedom and dignity. Many Lajik are farmers and they have strong family structures, so they planned to create a 'big village' called Sukali Vinkise with a temple to their gods and to educate their children in the traditional Lajik language.

[Zwangzug]

Sukali Vinkise took shape in the oddly-protruding southern bit of Omephaw; the farmland might not have been quite as rich as back home, but the Lajikin adapted to new crops and the population quickly grew. Family ties remained important throughout the coming years of the "big village". Children who had grown up in Zwangzug weren't as likely to appreciate what made Sukali Vinkise different from the home their parents had left, with the Lajik language and se-ntia inikresaism relatively safe, but most of them stayed put out of attachment to their family and friends if not the city as a whole. (A few tried their luck in Forbridge, a relatively larger city to the north, but few fit in there. In retrospect, trying to introducing traditional Rejistanian ball games was unwise.)

But for the most part, Sukali Vinkise is doing well today. Inikresaist worship is slightly less common than it was in the past, but it's still prevalent, and the Lajikin alphabet and language. Perhaps most notably, the lead singer for the Omephaw-based band My Marigolds is a native of the village, and has recorded a few songs in Lajik. The heavy metal sound is probably not what Sukali Vinkise's founders imagined when they thought of the freedom they hoped to find in the city, but hey, that's freedom for you. Han'ta'il, karelacracy.

[Illithar]

The True Illith'a'hiari (The Truly Free Illithiri)

Brief Overview: Illithar was origionally intended to be a nation of free people, where everyone could live their lives without tyrrany. This is not what happened. Sometimes groups form to challenge the often oppressive Empire and the Empire often responds with bloodshed. Few survive. One such group did survive and made its way to Zwangzug, to start a nation founded on true freedom.

History of the True Illith'a'hiari:

About a hundred years ago, a popular movement among academic circles began to find its way to other groups. This movement started as an effort to study Illithiri history from other points of view, namely those cultures conquered by the Holy Empire that no longer exist. This combined with a new study of the origional writings of several of Illithar's founders led these scholars to be dissatisfied with the current state of affair.
The new interpretation of history was published in several books that became popular among those traditionally oppressed by the Holy Empire; the working class, communists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, ethnic minorities, transexuals and anti-monarchists. This movement became especially popular in northern Jou, an ethnicly diverse and often fractious province that never really accepted being a part of the Illithiri Empire. When the movement began to gain political power and named itself "The True Illith'a'hiari", the Imperial government reacted quickly: it 'leaked' evidence that the leaders of the group were either theiving pedophiles out to bilk common workers from their money or else terrorists attempting to destroy the freedoms that the Illithiri enjoyed. The propaganda wasn't always coherent. The move backfired and the the True Illith'a'hiari gained enough to declare independence. The Empire responded with typical brutality; killing tens of thousands and forcing the rest int exile.

Once they arrived inZwangzung, they established several small leftist, democratic communities where all religions were valued and people could live their lives according to their own choices. Initial fears that Illithar would hunt them down proved unfounded; in fact, the Empire found the colony to be a useful 'safety valve' where they sent those unhappy with the regime.

The True Illith'a'hiari are very diverse in ethnicity and religion, though the most common remains the Illithiri Polytheistic faith (see factbook) that has seperated from the Hand of Light. Northern Jou is a very cold climate with several massive mountain ranges. The people themselves tend to be well educated and very generous and try very hard to live up to their ideals.

[Victorious Decepticons]

New Smokyland

Background:

The United States of America had been a democratic republic since its independence, and had prized its ability to speak against the government to the point that its people thought that it was a right to do so. Some even considered it a duty.

Needless to say, when the Decepticons took over the Earth, the culture shock to the Americans was tremendous. The robots' response to any criticism was swift, brutal, and bloody. In just about a year, all open dissidents, insurgents, and other such "worthless" humans had been crushed...usually literally. The Americans began to seriously fear extinction.

Fortunately for a group of 200 Americans, the country was also home to many forests, some of which were in mountainous regions - and in the Smoky Mountains in particular, there were several towns perched amongst the hills and valleys. The Decepticons, being used to looking at things from the air - and from a great height even when standing on two feet - missed a certain one of the little towns hidden in the woods. This allowed the townspeople to sneak away before they could be captured and enslaved, or worse, killed outright. Fearing for their lives, they took as much equipment and food as they could handle, and began to sneak across the country and out in the hopes of finding safety.

Even though they soon found that all of Earth was under Decepticon control, they also managed to learn of a strange location the robots called the Transuniversal Warp Point - what humans knew as the Bermuda Triangle. The robots had figured out exactly how to use it to travel to parallel universes, and an engineer in the human group was able to translate the Binary and learn the secret.

One night, they rowed out to the Triangle in boats not really meant for the ocean, and luckily, they were able to get to the Warp Point and make the jump to the Earth of Zwangzug's universe. From there, they headed to the new land of Zwangzug, seeking a forested area in which to restart their lives in safety.

After arriving in Zwangzug:

Upon arrival, the refugees were surprised to find that they'd have to do all the work of building a new town themselves! This was quite a shock to the people, who, though they had lived in a small town before, were used to being able to order in most of the things they wanted or needed. With no way to get someone to deliver them some prefab houses, they found themselves standing around in a clearing arguing over what to do.

Finally, some construction workers and foremen took charge. Though they weren't engineers or architects, they had done more than enough building construction to know how to replicate the old designs. They began to chop down trees and turn them into rough-hewn logs.

After this went on for a while, they were set up with a somewhat circular village of log cabins. Old-fashioned wells were dug and crops planted. Since they hadn't been able to take enough food to hold them over through an entire crop maturation cycle, they supplemented their food supply by hunting and fishing.

It was only because they had originally been part of a small farming/hunting town that they were able to succeed at this; most Americans from 2010 would have been at a total loss as to what to do.

Once they were done with securing their shelter and food, they proceeded to do what they had prized in their old land: They elected a mayor and city council, then proceeded to spend their time complaining about how crazy and incompetent said mayor and city council were.

In a few short years, it was - culturally, at least - indistinguishable from a typical American small village. Physically, it looked much more primitive than their old town, with its log cabins and pull-up-a-bucket wells, but they soon got used to the lack of modern conveniences. These hardy souls, once derided as hicks and hillbillies, did not need fancy accouterments in order to do just fine.

[Zwangzug]

Map

The True Illith'a'hiari made their way to what's now east Irco, just west of the Rackham Range. The first to arrive found their way to Miskaren, while others spread out into the four other communities; Illa'sha, Thno, Hem'bari, and Withna. Of these, Illa'sha grew into the largest community and the "core"; new arrivals from the Empire often came first to Illa'sha before eventually moving to a different community.

From the outside, the Empire viewed the True Illith'a'hiari as a discrete entity. On the inside, it was more complicated to say whether it was one community or five. Politically, decisions were made on the local level; each community elected its own councilmembers, who guided them differently. In terms of "identity", however, almost all the True Illith'a'hiari would claim to be just that before mentioning that they, themselves, were born in Hem'bari (say). On the other hand, having five slightly different "feels" to the cities meant that someone dissatisfied with the specific policies at work in Thno could try giving Withna a chance before attempting the longer journey to Belpub. (On the original hand, the policies weren't all that different.)

A few among the True Illith'a'hiari became notable for their work with people with disabilities in modern Cipid (some distance to the east, and beyond the mountains, but still relatively close to the five communities). While some provided practical resources, others advocated for more tolerance and fewer one-sided viewpoints.

The consolidators had a bit more trouble dealing with the True Illith'a'hiari than most of Zwangzug's northwest; unlike isolated city-states, these five could make a claim to be a legitimate albeit totally decentralized "nation". In the end, though, compassion for troubled cities farther east helped the True Illith'a'hiari decide to become more close to their neighbors.

Today, the five communities still have slightly different feels. Illa'sha remains the biggest and most diverse (and as such, the least able to be described succintly). Thno has the highest concentration of those not subscribing to Illithiri polytheism (including the descendants of the original monotheists, but also others who have wound up there over the years). Miskaren is known for its highly argumentative city council. Hem'bari is considered very "liberated" and laid-back, tending towards more extreme communism. Withna, alas, is the home of the Withna school of literature or history or something like that. While deconstructing Illithiri history might have been for the best, such tactics do not seem to have translated to Zwangzug very well.

[Zwangzug]

New Smokyland residents also found themselves in Ervimnal, although in its north. The forests were plentiful (and their skills useful) enough to allow them to make a fresh start quickly. Once in a while, residents of New Smokyland who would wander away from the forest noticed what looked like familiar highways, but nobody ever drove by. Confused, they could only return to the painstaking work of recreating the city, under the cantankerous eyes of mayor Sandy Mode.

The first people from wider Zwangzug to realize the existence of New Smokyland were tourists from Zwischen who had come to enjoy the forests of Ervimnal. The presence of several clearly-occupied log cabins there was surprising, but not world-shattering. When the tourists realized that the people were hunting for food and living in such dwellings, they assumed that New Smokyland had been around for hundreds of years and had been missed during the Consolidation. Replies about some "United States" and "conquering robots" frightened the tourists, who immediately left and notified Ervimnal government officials, hoping to pass the buck.

The people of New Smokyland haven't quite made their situation clear to these authorities, but the gist is clear, and the government understands completely that these settlers are facing a desperate situation and should be welcomed as a community. Much popular sentiment supports leaving the forest as one, and reestablishing a life with a few more of the luxuries they remember.

On the other hand, a few influential voices believe in staying put--could several hundred hunters emerging from their log cabins really assimilate back into wider Zwangzug, or would they just be walking into the "hillbilly" stereotypes they'd escaped? This debate is a serious one, and will take some time to be resolved. It doesn't make things easy for the Ervimnal district officials who don't want to force New Smokyland into, or out of, any given way of life, but would like them to actually follow the country's laws. Still, there is hope for some middle ground. Councilmember Annie Shylock has recently obtained, and demonstrated efficient use of, a crossbow. Her approval ratings have never been higher.