Geography of the World

Moderator: Shady

Post Reply
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Geography of the World

Post by Siege »

Geography of the World

Although the focus of this setting will be on Vlasenica, it's inevitable that the outside world has an effect on that country sooner rather than later. The purpose of this thread, then, is to give an impression of that outside world and the nations of consequence that exist in it. The reader will find that these nations are not so much locations as they are actors with an influence on the setting in one way or another. Usually this takes the shape of trying to manipulate the events in Vlasenica in a way that is somehow beneficial to the nation in question (which in turn, unfortunately for the people who live there, is rarely beneficial to Vlasenica itself).

Vlasenica has three immediate neighbors. Additionally there exist two more remote superpowers that each attempt to gain geopolitical dominance in the region, which is frequently cause for further unrest. Two neighbors have already fallen under the sway of these superpowers (one leaning to each respectively), which leaves only Vlasenica and its smaller neighbor Sjenska free from outright domination.

Neighbors

The Zagor Democratic Republic is a landlocked nation on the Khasovskoy Ridge, a region bordering northern Vlasenica and north-western Sjenska. The nation is mostly mountainous and forested. Known as a hideout for international terrorists, Zagory is ruled by First Secretary Marek Kitovani of the Zagor Communist Party, whose unstable regime is held up only by financial and military aid it receives from the much larger nation of Khagaria that borders the Zagor Democratic Republic to the north. Even with that aid the armies of the ZDR are little more than roving bands of paramilitaries, most of them brutal thugs lacking in discipline and training. The sole reason the Republic has not yet been overrun by its better organized enemies in Vlasenica and Sjenska is that its terrain is extremely inhospitable and ill-suited to mechanized warfare, making it practically impossible to conquer the ZDR. Even so aircraft of the Sjenska Air Force regularly bomb training camps and other targets within Zagory, and is able to do so with almost total impunity.


The Republic of Sjenska is a nation approximately half the size of Vlasenica, but whereas Vlasenica has recently fallen into disarray and civil turmoil, Sjenska remains a relatively orderly and stable nation, mainly because of the iron rule of its ruthless leader. According to state propaganda Sjenska is "ruled by the people"; even to its own citizenry however this is obviously not actually the case. Dictator Srdjan Karic has all significant political opposition disappeared or executed outright.

Nicknamed the 'Prince of Darkness' by his many enemies, Karic is both fiendishly clever and utterly without compassion. Claiming to have no need for a grandiose title or supreme military rank, Karic continues to rule without any such thing to this day. He and the now-dead former president Radojević of Vlasenica shared a curious relationship wherein they were simultaneously mortal enemies yet allies in their attempt to stave off foreign influence on their respective nations.

Over a twenty-year period the border between Vlasenica and Sjenska was a hot-zone rife with shooting incidents, incursions and outright miniature wars; whilst Vlasenica was the larger and more populous country its neighbor Sjenska held a slight edge in industrial development, and these two advantages cancelled each other out. The perpetual feud between Radojević and Karic kept the military resources of both nations tied up along their shared border, and thus was of a peculiar benefit to the stability of the region. The sudden death of Radojević and the subsequent instability in Vlasenica however have removed these constraints from Srdjan Karic, and more and more the dictator is looking to spread his influence beyond the immediate borders of Sjenska.


Tskhumkara is a small, relatively well off coastal nation. Located to the south of Vlasenica, it is a unitary parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy ruled by Emir Mahmud Hadzipetrov Bey. The head of government however is the Prime Minister, currently Raul Bejan, and sovereignty resides with the Supreme Court. Of the various states bordering Vlasenica, Tskhumkara is the most democratic, technologically advanced and prosperous, owing mostly due to its close ties to the Sultanate, the shores of which are only a small strait away from Tskhumkara itself.

Although Tskhumkara has only a fraction of the populace of its northern neighbors, its military has over the years repeatedly bloodied the noses of Srdjan Karic’s armies. The Tskhumkara armed forces are very small but composed entirely of highly motivated and superbly trained professionals, and its air force is second to none. During the civil war in Vlasenica, PMCs from Tskhumkara were in high demand, and Kežman’s revolutionaries in particular made good use of these expensive but extremely proficient soldiers of fortune, going even so far as to hire a cadre of elite Tskhumkari ‘mercenary aces’ who formed the revolutionaries’ only air force.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Geography of the World

Post by Siege »

The Great Powers

Even though the focus of events is on the subcontinent and specifically on Vlasenica itself, it cannot be denied that there are other, greater powers in the world. These powers frequently interfere in the affairs of lesser nations: sometimes with benevolent intent, sometimes selfishly, and often the two cannot be reliably told apart. The great powers cannot objectively be said to be good or evil--they simply attempt to further those causes they perceive to be beneficial to their own objectives. Unfortunately for the people on the subcontinent, those causes and objectives can rarely be said to be universally good for them...


The Sublime Sultanate of Dar Qimr is located to the south of the subcontinent, separated from it by the Tskhumkara Straits. The Sultanate covers a massive geographic area, much of which however consist of deserts and other rugged but sparsely inhabited terrain. Most of its population is located in coastal cities, connected by railways. Its capital city of Qasr Dar Qimr is referred to as the 'pearl of the south', the 'light of the world' and any number of other superlatives. It is a center of culture and higher learning, the seat of power of a hundred Sultans, and has not seen war for a thousand years.

The Sultanate is an authoritarian capitalist state, ruled by an autocratic Sultan. It is rich despite its relatively anachronistic economy that is dominated by a number of privately owned banking houses, but nevertheless maintains a highly advanced manufacturing base, especially in the fields of aircraft and rocket technology.

The involvement of the Sublime Sultanate on the subcontinent is mostly to counter its primary global opponent, the northern communist superstate of Khagaria. The agents of the Sultan reason that as long as the subcontinent stays divided and conflicted, it will tie up Khagarian resources that would otherwise be directed at the heart of the Sultanate. The primary foothold of the Sultanate on the subcontinent is Tskhumkara, which at one point was a conquered colony of the Sultans. Although the small state has for a long time been self-governing it is still home to a large military base and its Bej is still technically a vassal of the Sultan.


Khagaria is a semidemocratic centralist communist state located to the north of the subcontinent, bordering the Zagor Democratic Republic as well sharing a small (and heavily fortified) land border with the Republic of Sjenska. For centuries ruled by autocratic emperors (Tsars), a bloody nationwide revolution destroyed the old feudal order and replaced it with a Centralni Direktorij Narodnih Predstavnika, or Central Directory of People's Representatives. The Central Directory is lead by the Chairman, who is the 'primus inter pares' of the Directory.

Khagaria is a one-party state, but within the Communist Party of Khagaria exist a variety of different sects and groups each with their own interpretation of revolutionary dogma. The head of the CPK is not necessarily also the Chairman, though at this point both offices are indeed held by the same man, Zoran Stojkovic.

Because the Khagarian revolution is only ten years old the new regime is still unstable: many of the principal members of the Central Directory are old revolutionary streetfighters who frequently have a very literal definition of 'troubleshooting': as a result, assassinations and purges are frequent. There is also a stubborn remnant of the old feudal order active within the country, lead by the starsi bracia, the 'older brothers' or nobility of the erstwhile tsars, who intend to reclaim their old positions no matter what it takes. And finally, policies of forced industrialization of formerly rural areas of the country place additional stress on the population.

As a direct result the politics of Khagaria are highly paranoid, and foreign adventurism is a popular way of diverting the populace’s attention from the country’s myriad internal problems. This adventurism takes the shape of ‘exporting the revolution’, principally to rural areas of the Sultanate but also to the subcontinent. Rebel groups paying lip service to the ideals of the worldwide communist revolution are very likely to receive aid from Khagaria, which has earned the country a noticeable number of nominal allies on the subcontinent, not all of which are equally reliable.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
Post Reply