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My Country - Friday - 3rd period

“Good morning everyone!” Yondaime grinned brightly, looking a wee bit on the tan side. “I hope you all had a good vacation, I know I did and I’m really looking forward to you all presenting your countries! There should be elements from every class that we have had to make at least a semi cohesive country and when you present your country please point out what you have and how it works for you. Questions will be asked once each person is done with their presentation, so everyone feel free to ask what you’d like to know.”

[Feel free to handwave the presentation if you want, but I’m really curious to hear what everyone came up with. XD ~~Wait for OCD PLZ~~]

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"My country is Coragriffone," Ronan said, placing an enlarged map of the country up on the front board. "As you can see, it has a small variety of geographical features, including a major lake and rivers, a large plateau, a few different forests, and a large coastline. This large coastline led to the beginnings of the Coragriffone civilisation, with the advent of a number of fishing villages along the coast, and, later, up along the rivers as well.

"The country itself formed when a group of well-meaning fey -- essentially fairies, I guess, but not the 'little people' you hear of -- came along and began to lead the villages into some basic industrialisation. This lead to the forming of three cities: Spear and Shake, both near the Desdemona Lake, and Verona, above the Stratford Falls on the Verona Plateau. With the people established as a strong, budding nation, the fey left to go and 'help' some other struggling tribes elsewhere." Yes, you could hear the quotation marks around 'help'.

"Of course," he continued, gesturing on the map to where there were two large circles marked Shake and Spear, "this didn't work out like the fey had hoped. Spear and Shake started a war, each wanting to claim Desdemona Lake -- and the ripe fresh-water fishing grounds therein -- for themselves. Verona managed to stay mostly out of it, partly due to their distance from the lake, and partly due to a more reasonably tempered governor. In the end, Spear and Shake destroyed each other, leaving two large sinkholes, at the bottom of which were the ruins of the cities.

"Frightened by the massive scale of the destruction, the governor of Verona, a man named Sebastien Chancellor, and his sister Viola, went to the Black Forest to seek the help of the Forest Tribe, a group who lived apart from the rest of Coragriffone, and the nature goddess of their Forest Temple. The siblings prayed at her altar for thirteen days and thirteen nights, and on the dawn at the end of the thirteenth night the goddess appeared in one of her rare direct manifestations. 'Worry not,' she said to them, 'for though I care only to govern my own people here in the forest, my brothers and sisters have heard your plight and wish to aid you. But, first, you must swear to use what they grant you only for the good of your people, of your country, and of your world and all the worlds. The gift is not granted for selfish reasons, but to work in the service of life itself.'

[Continued.]

"The Chancellor siblings so swore, and the goddess's brothers and sisters appeared around them, and came forward; as each one laid a hand upon either Sebastien or Viola, the siblings felt new knowledge flow into them: new names for the trees, the rocks, the waters of their country; ways to call down power from the sun or the moon; words that would harden air or make stone as soft as breath, that would call fire from nothing or cool even the fiercest blaze. And then the gods and goddesses who were gathered there left, and only the goddess of the forest remained to step forward and smile down at the Chancellors. 'Go back and take these gifts to your people,' she told them. 'Share them, so that they may be increased a hundredfold.'"

Ronan took a sip from the water bottle he'd brought with him. "The Chancellors, now the first wizards of their country, took their new knowledge back to Verona, where Sebastien once more stood at the head of the city. The title of Governor was abolished, and instead the Chancellors became the rulers of the city thereafter. Viola, rather than stand beside her brother, left the governance of the city to he and his children, and went out instead to the villages, the farms, the small communities of Coragriffone, to spread the teachings of wizardry there, and lend her power where it might do the most good.

"This leads me into the next portion of my presentation," Ronan continued, segueing away from the history tale. "The government of Coragriffone. As I said, the Chancellor family remains as the rulers; as sometimes happens, especially in cases like this, each Chancellor born is a wizard, and so bound by the oaths of wizardry. This is, in a way, an inherent check on any Chancellor becoming a bad ruler, although certainly not against any making poor judgements. There was one instance, for example, where one Chancellor, a young man named Colin, ended up selling the country's entire stock of fish oil for mere pennies. ... Wizardry is no cure for idiocy." He smiled softly. "The family governs the city, and the country, as a council, with the oldest member, male or female, standing at the head. Alongside them is the City Council, one member elected democratically from each of the city's thirteen precincts. The Chancellors leave much of the city's day-to-day administration directly to the Council, the better to focus on international politics and the governing and protection of the myriad small villages and towns that exist in the rest of Coragriffone.

"The council is also responsible for maintaining and organising the country's military, from which wizards are barred by their oaths -- in an instance where wizards must take up directly the defense of the country, the Chancellors organise them personally. The army and navy are strictly volunteer, and thus relatively small. However, they are well-trained, and their weaponry and other equipment is well-made and well-maintained. They are also responsible for serving as police, with an adjunct group of wizards who will aid in investigations.

"Aside from Verona, there are a few other fairly major towns and cities in Coragriffone. At the mouth of the Iago River is Petrucchio, which is divided into Greater Petrucchio on the west bank, and Lesser Petrucchio on the east bank. It's responsible for most of the trade coming in and out of Coragriffone that goes through the lake and river country, exporting the products gleaned from the freshwater fish of Desdemona Lake, as well as the medicines that come from the wide variety of plants found in the Fens of Oberon and the Fey Woods. On Stratford Harbour are Rosenstern and Guildencrantz, twin cities on opposite sides of the harbour that each lie at the mouth of a river that leads back to the Stratford Falls. Most of Verona's trade goes directly through them, using a cleverly designed elevator system to move people and goods up and down the Falls. It's thanks to this system that Coragriffone has such a strong shipping trade."

Ronan pointed to the map again, to a small brown dot along the rivers. "Here, as well, is the town of Othello, where the Iago River splits off from the larger Othello river. The town itself is fairly small, but it's also the location of the Coragriffone Agricultural Institute. For a while, Coragriffone ended up importing a lot of the foodstuffs required for the cities, but more recently they've been clearing the Fey Wood back some from the Othello and Iago rivers and using the highly arable land left behind when the seasonal floodwaters recede every year to begin their own agriculture. They haven't reached a point yet where they can sustain the entire country on what they grow, but they're starting to get there, and in the meantime they also have the lumber made available from clearing the land to export to countries that need it.

"Aside from the food, Coragriffone has three major imports: first, iron and steel, because there aren't any really good sources of iron in the country, although they do have metals like silver and copper; second, spices and cooking oils, since no one really likes the taste of fish oil and most of the herbs that grow abundantly in Coragriffone are more useful in medicines than cooking; third, jewel beetle carapaces. They're these iridescent beetle shells that are used for sculpture in Verona, but no one has yet been able to successfully maintain a colony of the beetles in Coragriffone itself.

"I've already discussed the exports briefly. As I said, there's the timber, from the Fey Wood; the materials from fish that are caught both from the sea and from Desdemona Lake, so both fresh-and salt-water fish; and lastly, the medicines made from the plants in the Fens of Oberon and the Fey Wood.

"As far as tourism," Ronan continued, "there are three main features: first, the Stratford Falls, as I mentioned. They're huge. Like, ridiculously huge. As well, they offer an entrance to the second of the main features: the caverns within the Stratford Plateau. They're left behind by they fey, and so many come to explore them. There are still massive sections unexplored, though.

"Third, there's the Sinkholes, where the cities of Shake and Spear used to stand. Adventurers come to go down the holes and explore the ruins at the bottom, to see if they can recover anything of interest. It's highly dangerous, though, and most don't manage to come back up alive."

He smiled, and clasped his hands behind his back. "Any questions?"

[Yes, I am a BIG NERD.]

Edited 2008-03-07 19:18 (UTC)

Yondaime listened intently to Ronan's presentation and looked very impressed.

"So what kind of technology does your country have?" He asked curiously. "Is it like here at fandom or something slightly more rudimentary?"

"The current population," Ronan began his explanation, as a teal deer wandered in from outside to stand in the classroom's doorway, "is much more rudimentary, but there was more advanced technology in the past. The fey possessed it, and it's part of what caused the problems -- they left a lot of it behind, and Spear and Shake went too far with it, too fast. Verona was more cautious about it -- unfortunately, a lot of it was lost, stolen by Spear and Shake during the war, so there's not much left for them to work with. A few artifacts.

"In fact, that's one of the things that the adventurers seek in the Sinkholes -- anything that might still work of the fey's technology.

"There are still a few things left, though," he added. "The elevator that goes up and down the Stratford Falls is of fey design, for example."

Another teal deer joined the first.

Yondaime glanced at the deer with a raise eyebrow, but didn't say anthing. As long as they didn't start eating the flags it was fine.

"Is there a fast acting means of communication between the cities or even within them?"

"Thanks to wizardry, yes," Ronan said. "It's not available the general population, unfortunately, but wizards have methods of speedy communication, which are available at least for official correspondence, and some offer their services to their friends as well. No wizard would charge for his or services, however."

"So is there a post system for those who can't use the wizarding method?"

Ronan considered that for a moment; it wasn't an aspect he'd considered. "Nothing official," he said, "but traders will take letters and small parcels, for a small fee. There's some risk involved -- not all traders are entirely honest -- but for the most part it works."

"Interesting," he nodded with a smile. "Good job Ronan, very thorough."

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My Country - Friday - 3rd period

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