MORE CO2 BACKGROUND

This week there is more of the Gazetteer I produced for the CO2 preview. Over the coming months there will be more background material in the build up to the first novel being released next March, it will be premiered at the Cardiff  Comic Expo-but more of that in the future. Over the summer, if you can call the torrential downpour we are having in the south-west of the UK a summer, I shall be previewing background material for Victoriana as well, but more of that later...

GAZETTEER

Iroquois League

Originally known as the Five Nations by Europeans, the Iroquois refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee. The formation of the League dates back to the 1450’s and was until the advent of the Europeans an aggressive, expansionist culture. Decimated by disease after contact with Europeans, the League was the first indigenous group to seek nation status within the Church.

Since this time the League have prospered and is believed to have reach similar population size as pre-European contact. Excellent agriculturists the League is an important food producer for the continent.

The League is also famous for its medical skills and has been a leader in fighting the pestilences that have scoured the globe in the last hundred and fifty years.

Mohawk Nation

Famous for their building skills, Mohawk technicians worked with Adaptor Gaudi in the development of the adapted coral (see entry). The Mohawk Nation has produced many fine technicians who have been instrumental in the adaption of flora and fauna to aid the Church’s vision.

Like the Iroquois, the Mohawk have prospered and it is estimated that their population may be in excess of pre-European contact.

Maori Confederacy

Describing themselves as the Tangata Whenua, the peoples of the Maori Confederacy arrived in their present home the islands of the Southern Ocean around 1250. They soon developed a distinctive and robust culture.

European contact in 1740 was limited until the Church wrested control of Southern Oceania from the Dutch in the 1830. There has been much debate as to whether or not the Maori should be removed from their island chain as they are recent arrivals and the islands Balanced, as the larger Great Southern Island has been. There has been a reluctance to this and with the Dragon Wars consuming much of the Church’s resources the Maori have been left in relative isolation.

Since their arrival in the Southern Island Chain the Maori population has increased at a steady rate. There have been requests by the Maori for permission to colonise the Great Southern Island but this has been denied leading to tension between the Church and the Confederacy.  

New Mexico

Popularly referred to as The Sealed Lands, New Mexico has been in self instigated quarantine since the first pestilence (see Coughing Red Bloom entry). Like the rest of those peoples downpressed by the cruel Castilian dictatorship, the Mexica (pronounced Mesheeca), commonly referred to as Aztecs or Neo-Aztecs within the Church lands, have blossomed under the Church’s benign patronage.

No outsider has set foot into New Mexico since 1851. The Mexica were hard hit by the Coughing Red Blossom and took the drastic measure of quarantining their whole country. The Church is still able to monitor their adherence to the Balance thanks to the invention of the airship(see entry).

The Mexica are skilled craftsmen and their feather work, cloaks, murals, and clothing are highly prized, as are the few sculptures that have been presented to various Church officials and individuals. As the Mexica are importers rather than exporters of technology the exact level of the sciences is difficult to determine.

Statistics of the Mexica are impossible to obtain. It is thought that the population at least rivals that of the time of European contact.

Nippon

Always a friend of the Church, the Shogunate of Nippon has been held by members of the Tokugawa family since the 1600’s. Given the isolationist policies of the Shogunate and its proximity to the Dragon Empire, it was understandable that Nippon would become the second client state of the Church.

The Shogunate supported The Church in its wars against the Dragon Empire (see entry-The Dragon Wars) to the extent that an elite cadre of samurai took part in the storming of the Dragon Palace.

Nippon is said to have developed the best information machines outside of the Church, improving and developing the standard designs. Nippon has recently been allowed to move into land that was once part of the Dragon Empire as a eward for their loyalty.

Tierra del Fuego

Reduced, after first contact with Europeans, to a mere 600 souls, the Yamana and Akaluf peoples of Tierra del Fuego have made an astonishing recovery since gaining the support of the Church. Such disastrous contact was not unusual amongst indigenous peoples when the first Europeans they met were Castilians, as in the case of Terra del Fuego.

Tierra del Fuego provides the Church with skilled technicians to support the work of the Adaptors. Indeed Darwin’s first technician, Simon, was from Tierra del Fuego (see entry). The country has a high standard of living and is technically sophisticated, while maintaining an adherence to the principles of the church.

Zimbabwe.

The Shona peoples of Zimbabwe have had a chequered relationship with the Church, the origins of this date from the fact that the eastern seaboard of the African continent was within the Dragon Empire sphere of influence until 1810. A land of small farms the Shona have criticised the Church claiming that there has been a policy of withholding technology from them.

Zimbabwe exports food and has been petitioning the Church for a greater degree of autonomy and the right to develop limited industrialisation. This has not be forthcoming from the Church.

Next week there will be more information about Victoriana. Tim Hart will be spilling the beans on behind the scenes!