Update 6: January 1, 1894 - June 30, 1894
North-Pacific America
Spoiler :
Fast-developing, but underpopulated region with big access to natural resources.
Kenaitsy rifles
Q1-Q2 1894: With the Directory’s permission, the Kenai people of the Alyaska Panhandle turned arms sales to the Blackfoot league into a constant and profitable business, finally bringing reasonable wealth to this First Nation of the Russian Pacific coast of Canada. However, just like some of the more cautious diplomatic advisors have been warning, the proliferation of Russian- and Siberian-made firearms in the possession of loosely united tribesmen of the First Nations’ confederacy did lead to a series of diplomatic incidents. The most notable one of them occurred when a North-American outriding party in Rupert’s Land accidentally bumped into a group of Blackfoot hunters that ventured way beyond their traditional hunting territory. This led to a skirmish that left two hunters and one Union cavalryman dead. Needless to say, as the huntsmen’s rifles were brought to Fort York, bearing markings of the Izhevsk firearms factory, a diplomatic outrage enveloped. In the end, the Transpacific embassy in Chicago managed to dissipate the tensions, but at the cost of quite a lot of efforts and money, not even mentioning souring reputation among the North-American politicians. Yet, no one knows how many more such incidents would occur in the future, as many English-speaking American settlers to the both sides of the Rockies speculate that the Russians are secretly supporting the “Indians” against them. (Regional quest completed with mixed results, region North-Pacific America gains +5 EC, +10 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +0.25%, Iron Confederacy gains +1.5% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -1.5% Regional Influence, region Central Canada: Pacific Directory gains +4% Regional Influence, Iron Confederacy loses -4% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory: -15 IC, -10 EC, Pacific Directory losses: -1.21 HC, -1.81 IC, -2.7 EC, -0.21 MC)
Masked dance performance for Vancouver
Q1-Q2 1894: A Squamish native village named X̱wáýx̱way (meaning “masked dance performance,” pronounced by English-speakers as “Whoi whoi” and mocked by Russian Canadians as “svoi-svoi”, meaning “ours-ours”) used to exist in the heart of Vankuvyr’ (Vancouver City) before 1876. During the First Atlantic War, British Columbia’s governor-general Lord Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, made a decision to recettle all Salish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-waututh peoples of the Vancouver region to a military reservation outside that city, deeming them too untrustworthy and susceptible to American propaganda and espionage efforts. The village got demolished, and in its place a park was built, named after Lord Stanley himself. With the expansion of Russian America into British Columbia and the Oregon in the aftermath of the First Atlantic War, the park was renamed after Dmitry Maksutov, a governor and, in a way, founding father of the Pacific Directory. However, despite all native outreach by Maksutov and his successors, the resettlement of X̱wáýx̱way was never reversed, leaving the descendants of its citizens to live in much harsher lands north-east of the city. Yet, this year one of them took charge of his own people’s history. A Squamish elder-cum-gun trader, Jericho Charlie Shinatset recently made a fortune, partnering with the Kenaitsy arms traders in gun sales to the Iron Confederacy. Upon his return to Vancouver, Jericho Charlie (or, as he now calls himself in Russian fashion, “Yevgeniy Karlovich”) started to aggressively buy out real estate and land surrounding the Maksutov Park, offering these properties to his tribal compatriots for symbolical rent. Not stopping there, Mr. Shinatset is now besieging the city council, offering to buy back the park land and, probably, rebuild the X̱wáýx̱way village, now in a more urban form. Naturally, many Vankuverites oppose that takeover of “their” city. On the other hand, some people suggest taking advantage of that investment opportunity, striking some sort of a deal with the Squamish nouveau riche.
Four genders of the Aleut
Q1-Q2 1894: The Komandorski and Aleut islands were colonized by Russian fur traders in the first half of the 18th century, and Russo-Aleut relations have been existing ever since. Despite some trade conflicts and “promysel wars” over access to hunting grounds, the two ethnic groups mostly coexisted peacefully, with Cyrillic alphabet even being used in written Aleut language, and some Aleut families embracing Russian Orthodoxy. However, one cultural difference continues to create a rift between the diasporas. In their traditional tales and rituals, the Aleuts mention so-called “two-spirits,” known as ayagigux̂ (male-bodied, or "man transformed into a woman") and tayagigux̂ (female-bodied, or "woman transformed into a man"). These folk stories only reflect a sexual custom widely accepted among the Aleuts of being highly tolerant to homosexuality or asexuality. Second-generation Russian colonists have mostly grown accustomed to this bizarre tradition, adopting the “live and let live” policy toward the Aleuts and their customs of carnal love (especially considering that both groups often do lucrative business together), but newcomers from European Russia or Siberia show much less acceptance of these “sinful” practices. In fact, a series of religious protests are starting to take place across all of Alyaska, with people demanding that the Directory finally cracks down on the natives’ “life of sin and debauchery.”
Brothers in business
Q1-Q2 1894: North-German foreign economic interests seems to be not limited to Siberia. Clearly enamoured with Transuralian Russian directories, some North-German corporations started to heavily invest into the development of Transpacific artels. In their economic assistance, the investors actively drew from the recent North-German experience of establishing small and medium businesses known as eingetragene Genossenschaft (“registered cooperative society”) in the Federation. The Transpacific artels were encouraged to actively expand and merge into larger industrial cartels with decentralized leadership, known as “artel’niye soyuzy” (“artel alliances”). That allowed these larger cooperative entities to support more complex production chains, thus significantly boosting industrial production both for the Pacific Directory and its North-German investors. (Regional quest completed with full success, region North-Pacific America gains +5 EC, +20 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2.25, North German Federation gains +8% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -8% Regional Influence, North German Federation losses: -2.63 HC, -2.44 IC, -6.99 EC, -4.04 MC)
Artel of artists
Q1-Q2 1894: A so-called “Artel of artists” was the name of a secret club of democratically minded painters and sculptors founded in St. Petersburg in the 1860s. It was destined to become just an insignificant page in the cultural history of Russia had it not been for the blossoming of artel startups in Transpacifica on the wave of Directorial Russian and North-German investments. Seeing that groups of like-minded workers and entrepreneurs could truly grow rich together by working on innovative projects, some of the more creative types have started to form “artels of artists” in order to mass-produce art for the nation’s growing class of urban bourgeoisie. It remains to be seen if intellectual labor could bring same fruit as manufacturing of material goods.
North Pacific Grand Lane
Q1-Q2 1894: The fiasco of Director Volya’s last year’s attempt to establish a functional Transpacific sea lane forced the ambitious leader ask the metropoly for help. And help he did get, as Pavel Milyukov’s government in Moscow was more than happy to get a better foothold in North America, simultaneously reminding the overly independent Directory who it really owes its success and protection to. As a result, the first half of 1894 saw a bustling activity on the both sides of the North Pacific, as a multitude of harbors expanded and modernized by the experience Russian engineers, turning Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Okhotsk, Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, Vankuvyr’ (Vancouver City), and Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka) into truly modern maritime hubs. The Pacific Directory concentrated its own engineering efforts primarily on the Kamchatka and Kolumbiya regions, seeing Petropavlovsk and Vancouver as key centers of Transpacific economy and society. The Transpacific Navy also joined in, helping to transfer cargo and passengers between the continents, thus easing the pressure on the construction crews and allowing them to concentrate on constructing proper port facilities. The result was stellar, bringing the two continents closer together and leaving both of the North-Pacific shores awash with new settlers, knowledge, wealth, and, importantly, industry. (Regional quest completed with success, region Pacific Siberia gains +5 HC, +5 IC, +20 EC, +10 MC, +1.75% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Directorial Russia gains +7.5% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -2.5% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America loses -2.5% Regional Influence, region Pacific Siberia gains +5 HC, +5 IC, +10 EC, +5 MC, +0.5% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Directorial Russia gains +2% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -1% Regional Influence, Third Burmese Empire loses -0.5% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America loses -0.25% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate loses -0.25% Regional Influence, Directorial Russia losses: -1.49 HC, -0.34 IC, -3.81 EC, -3.24 MC, Pacific Directory losses: -1.69 HC, -0.86 IC, -3.45 EC, -3.11 MC)
Kenaitsy rifles
Spoiler :
1890: Dena’ina natives from Alaska, known to Russian settlers as the Kenaitsy, are purchasing Russian-made rifles from local artel manufactures and reselling them to warrior societies of the Blackfoot tribal league that belongs to the Iron Confederacy. This does bring plenty of prosperity to the Dena’ina and, through them, to the Pacific Directory, but it also increases the risk of an international incident if Blackfoot natives were to clash with British or North-American troops.
Q4 1893: In contrast with its usual conservative risk management, the Pacific Directory’s board chose to throw cautions to the wind and embrace arms trade with the Blackfoot league and other tribes of the Iron Confederacy, unbothered by possibilities of diplomatic incidents that could arise if Russian weapons were to be found in use in contested territories of the east. Arms trade laws and customs tariffs were streamlined and optimized to enable greater involvement of Transpacific artels, while particular patronage was given a dedicated arms trade contract between the Kenaitsy and Blackfoot tribesmen. Diplomatic risks aside, this endeavor promises to bring plenty of revenue to the Directory’s treasury, while also boosting local small and medium armament industry. (Regional quest progress: 85.71%, Pacific Directory losses: -1.2 HC, -1.74 IC, -2.53 EC, -0.28 MC)
Q4 1893: In contrast with its usual conservative risk management, the Pacific Directory’s board chose to throw cautions to the wind and embrace arms trade with the Blackfoot league and other tribes of the Iron Confederacy, unbothered by possibilities of diplomatic incidents that could arise if Russian weapons were to be found in use in contested territories of the east. Arms trade laws and customs tariffs were streamlined and optimized to enable greater involvement of Transpacific artels, while particular patronage was given a dedicated arms trade contract between the Kenaitsy and Blackfoot tribesmen. Diplomatic risks aside, this endeavor promises to bring plenty of revenue to the Directory’s treasury, while also boosting local small and medium armament industry. (Regional quest progress: 85.71%, Pacific Directory losses: -1.2 HC, -1.74 IC, -2.53 EC, -0.28 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: With the Directory’s permission, the Kenai people of the Alyaska Panhandle turned arms sales to the Blackfoot league into a constant and profitable business, finally bringing reasonable wealth to this First Nation of the Russian Pacific coast of Canada. However, just like some of the more cautious diplomatic advisors have been warning, the proliferation of Russian- and Siberian-made firearms in the possession of loosely united tribesmen of the First Nations’ confederacy did lead to a series of diplomatic incidents. The most notable one of them occurred when a North-American outriding party in Rupert’s Land accidentally bumped into a group of Blackfoot hunters that ventured way beyond their traditional hunting territory. This led to a skirmish that left two hunters and one Union cavalryman dead. Needless to say, as the huntsmen’s rifles were brought to Fort York, bearing markings of the Izhevsk firearms factory, a diplomatic outrage enveloped. In the end, the Transpacific embassy in Chicago managed to dissipate the tensions, but at the cost of quite a lot of efforts and money, not even mentioning souring reputation among the North-American politicians. Yet, no one knows how many more such incidents would occur in the future, as many English-speaking American settlers to the both sides of the Rockies speculate that the Russians are secretly supporting the “Indians” against them. (Regional quest completed with mixed results, region North-Pacific America gains +5 EC, +10 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +0.25%, Iron Confederacy gains +1.5% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -1.5% Regional Influence, region Central Canada: Pacific Directory gains +4% Regional Influence, Iron Confederacy loses -4% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory: -15 IC, -10 EC, Pacific Directory losses: -1.21 HC, -1.81 IC, -2.7 EC, -0.21 MC)
Masked dance performance for Vancouver
Q1-Q2 1894: A Squamish native village named X̱wáýx̱way (meaning “masked dance performance,” pronounced by English-speakers as “Whoi whoi” and mocked by Russian Canadians as “svoi-svoi”, meaning “ours-ours”) used to exist in the heart of Vankuvyr’ (Vancouver City) before 1876. During the First Atlantic War, British Columbia’s governor-general Lord Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, made a decision to recettle all Salish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-waututh peoples of the Vancouver region to a military reservation outside that city, deeming them too untrustworthy and susceptible to American propaganda and espionage efforts. The village got demolished, and in its place a park was built, named after Lord Stanley himself. With the expansion of Russian America into British Columbia and the Oregon in the aftermath of the First Atlantic War, the park was renamed after Dmitry Maksutov, a governor and, in a way, founding father of the Pacific Directory. However, despite all native outreach by Maksutov and his successors, the resettlement of X̱wáýx̱way was never reversed, leaving the descendants of its citizens to live in much harsher lands north-east of the city. Yet, this year one of them took charge of his own people’s history. A Squamish elder-cum-gun trader, Jericho Charlie Shinatset recently made a fortune, partnering with the Kenaitsy arms traders in gun sales to the Iron Confederacy. Upon his return to Vancouver, Jericho Charlie (or, as he now calls himself in Russian fashion, “Yevgeniy Karlovich”) started to aggressively buy out real estate and land surrounding the Maksutov Park, offering these properties to his tribal compatriots for symbolical rent. Not stopping there, Mr. Shinatset is now besieging the city council, offering to buy back the park land and, probably, rebuild the X̱wáýx̱way village, now in a more urban form. Naturally, many Vankuverites oppose that takeover of “their” city. On the other hand, some people suggest taking advantage of that investment opportunity, striking some sort of a deal with the Squamish nouveau riche.
Four genders of the Aleut
Q1-Q2 1894: The Komandorski and Aleut islands were colonized by Russian fur traders in the first half of the 18th century, and Russo-Aleut relations have been existing ever since. Despite some trade conflicts and “promysel wars” over access to hunting grounds, the two ethnic groups mostly coexisted peacefully, with Cyrillic alphabet even being used in written Aleut language, and some Aleut families embracing Russian Orthodoxy. However, one cultural difference continues to create a rift between the diasporas. In their traditional tales and rituals, the Aleuts mention so-called “two-spirits,” known as ayagigux̂ (male-bodied, or "man transformed into a woman") and tayagigux̂ (female-bodied, or "woman transformed into a man"). These folk stories only reflect a sexual custom widely accepted among the Aleuts of being highly tolerant to homosexuality or asexuality. Second-generation Russian colonists have mostly grown accustomed to this bizarre tradition, adopting the “live and let live” policy toward the Aleuts and their customs of carnal love (especially considering that both groups often do lucrative business together), but newcomers from European Russia or Siberia show much less acceptance of these “sinful” practices. In fact, a series of religious protests are starting to take place across all of Alyaska, with people demanding that the Directory finally cracks down on the natives’ “life of sin and debauchery.”
Brothers in business
Spoiler :
1890: The foundation of the Pacific Directory’s economy is built on traditional Russian small and medium businesses with collective ownership and decentralized leadership, known as artels. While an artel is a very flexible economic actor with a lot of initiative and tolerance to risks, the Directorial Board points out that the nation is too dependent on the metropoly to defend itself. They say the Pacific Directory needs to develop bigger industrial enterprises, capable of producing the materiel needed to expand the nation’s army and navy in the face of Asiatic and, potentially, American threats.
Q1-Q2 1894: North-German foreign economic interests seems to be not limited to Siberia. Clearly enamoured with Transuralian Russian directories, some North-German corporations started to heavily invest into the development of Transpacific artels. In their economic assistance, the investors actively drew from the recent North-German experience of establishing small and medium businesses known as eingetragene Genossenschaft (“registered cooperative society”) in the Federation. The Transpacific artels were encouraged to actively expand and merge into larger industrial cartels with decentralized leadership, known as “artel’niye soyuzy” (“artel alliances”). That allowed these larger cooperative entities to support more complex production chains, thus significantly boosting industrial production both for the Pacific Directory and its North-German investors. (Regional quest completed with full success, region North-Pacific America gains +5 EC, +20 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2.25, North German Federation gains +8% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -8% Regional Influence, North German Federation losses: -2.63 HC, -2.44 IC, -6.99 EC, -4.04 MC)
Artel of artists
Q1-Q2 1894: A so-called “Artel of artists” was the name of a secret club of democratically minded painters and sculptors founded in St. Petersburg in the 1860s. It was destined to become just an insignificant page in the cultural history of Russia had it not been for the blossoming of artel startups in Transpacifica on the wave of Directorial Russian and North-German investments. Seeing that groups of like-minded workers and entrepreneurs could truly grow rich together by working on innovative projects, some of the more creative types have started to form “artels of artists” in order to mass-produce art for the nation’s growing class of urban bourgeoisie. It remains to be seen if intellectual labor could bring same fruit as manufacturing of material goods.
North Pacific Grand Lane
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1893: As the Pacific Directory continues developing into a successful dominion nation under its dynamic, energetic leadership, many investors (primarily of Russian origin) are starting to be more and more interested in establishing a robust, modern system of sea lanes and Transpacific transit that could handle both cargo delivery and passenger travel at a rate reflecting the most recent trend. The most practical and popular proposal is concentrated on expanding port facilities across both of the Pacific coasts and creating a modern ocean-faring flotilla of cargo and passenger ships. More inventive entrepreneurs point at the success of the Confederate Southeast Air zeppelin network and suggest providing transportation across the ocean primarily by air. That proposal could indeed prove to be more austere thanks to very little infrastructure required, but also would impede the traffic, as even biggest dirigibles cannot compete with a regular ship at the cost and amount of cargo transferred per trip. Finally, a small group of dreamers suggests a so-called Bering Bridge, a titanic suspension bridge that could connect both continents via a railway. Mostly, this suggestion is considered to be completely fantastic, but the idea creator of the Bering Bridge hopes to promote his brainchild once the Russian Transsibirian Railway reaches the Pacific.
Q4 1893: The Pacific Directory’s leadership is eager to finally connect both halves of its sprawling nation together not only culturally, but also infrastructurally. For that purpose, ports on both sides of the Pacific Ocean were expanded, with a particular short-term focus being dedicated to the Far-Eastern port of Ayan and Anglo-Russian city of Vankuvyr’ (also known as “Vancouver” to its English-speaking diaspora). Logistics of the short-term construction endeavor were well-thought through, as plans were drawn to use surplus of timber in the early stages of the project, with most of it coming from large Douglas Fir forests of the Puget Sound shore located in the Vankuvyrsky Kray (Vancouver Region). As for the long-term planing, expansion of more distant northern ports of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Novoarchangelsk (Sitka) is also on the table. However, for all of their ingenuity and resourcefulness, Transpacific engineers weren’t prepared for early completion of the Transamur and Transyakutian branches of the Great Siberian Way. The amount of cargo that started reaching Russian Far-Eastern ports greatly exceeded any expectations, and for the most of the season state-sponsored artels involved in the North Pacific Great Lane project were mostly struggling to keep cargo throughput up, with little time and resources left for long-term expansion of port facilities or merchant marine. Experts point out that by simply doubling or tripling the number of state assets dedicated to the construction, the Directory could increase the speed of the project tenfold or more. Now the tough part is to find enough artels to provide their services to this ambitious new endeavor. (Regional quest progress: 1.45%, Directorial Assembly losses: -3.51 HC, -0.95 IC, -9.82 EC, -6.95 MC)
Q4 1893: The Pacific Directory’s leadership is eager to finally connect both halves of its sprawling nation together not only culturally, but also infrastructurally. For that purpose, ports on both sides of the Pacific Ocean were expanded, with a particular short-term focus being dedicated to the Far-Eastern port of Ayan and Anglo-Russian city of Vankuvyr’ (also known as “Vancouver” to its English-speaking diaspora). Logistics of the short-term construction endeavor were well-thought through, as plans were drawn to use surplus of timber in the early stages of the project, with most of it coming from large Douglas Fir forests of the Puget Sound shore located in the Vankuvyrsky Kray (Vancouver Region). As for the long-term planing, expansion of more distant northern ports of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Novoarchangelsk (Sitka) is also on the table. However, for all of their ingenuity and resourcefulness, Transpacific engineers weren’t prepared for early completion of the Transamur and Transyakutian branches of the Great Siberian Way. The amount of cargo that started reaching Russian Far-Eastern ports greatly exceeded any expectations, and for the most of the season state-sponsored artels involved in the North Pacific Great Lane project were mostly struggling to keep cargo throughput up, with little time and resources left for long-term expansion of port facilities or merchant marine. Experts point out that by simply doubling or tripling the number of state assets dedicated to the construction, the Directory could increase the speed of the project tenfold or more. Now the tough part is to find enough artels to provide their services to this ambitious new endeavor. (Regional quest progress: 1.45%, Directorial Assembly losses: -3.51 HC, -0.95 IC, -9.82 EC, -6.95 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: The fiasco of Director Volya’s last year’s attempt to establish a functional Transpacific sea lane forced the ambitious leader ask the metropoly for help. And help he did get, as Pavel Milyukov’s government in Moscow was more than happy to get a better foothold in North America, simultaneously reminding the overly independent Directory who it really owes its success and protection to. As a result, the first half of 1894 saw a bustling activity on the both sides of the North Pacific, as a multitude of harbors expanded and modernized by the experience Russian engineers, turning Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Okhotsk, Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, Vankuvyr’ (Vancouver City), and Novoarkhangelsk (Sitka) into truly modern maritime hubs. The Pacific Directory concentrated its own engineering efforts primarily on the Kamchatka and Kolumbiya regions, seeing Petropavlovsk and Vancouver as key centers of Transpacific economy and society. The Transpacific Navy also joined in, helping to transfer cargo and passengers between the continents, thus easing the pressure on the construction crews and allowing them to concentrate on constructing proper port facilities. The result was stellar, bringing the two continents closer together and leaving both of the North-Pacific shores awash with new settlers, knowledge, wealth, and, importantly, industry. (Regional quest completed with success, region Pacific Siberia gains +5 HC, +5 IC, +20 EC, +10 MC, +1.75% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Directorial Russia gains +7.5% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -2.5% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America loses -2.5% Regional Influence, region Pacific Siberia gains +5 HC, +5 IC, +10 EC, +5 MC, +0.5% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Directorial Russia gains +2% Regional Influence, Pacific Directory loses -1% Regional Influence, Third Burmese Empire loses -0.5% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America loses -0.25% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate loses -0.25% Regional Influence, Directorial Russia losses: -1.49 HC, -0.34 IC, -3.81 EC, -3.24 MC, Pacific Directory losses: -1.69 HC, -0.86 IC, -3.45 EC, -3.11 MC)
Central Canada
Spoiler :
Stagnant, wide region with very primitive infrastructure and little access to foreign markets, but big potential for resource extraction.
Bisons come back
The burden of settlement
Primeval justice
Bisons come back
Spoiler :
1890: Ever since the whiteskins withdrew from Alberta, the population of bisons, briefly driven to near-extinction, has started to recover, supporting a population boom among local First Nations. Still, some European hunters have started returning to the Confederacy’s lands to hunt these animals, rarely for subsistence and mostly for trade. Taught by their previous dire experience, many warrior societies of the Assiniboine tribes have started to organize packs of “bizon runners,” groups of hunters and warriors tasked with hunting the hunters of non-indigenous descent. So far, nobody has died, since whiteskins caught by the bizon runners end up being stripped of their shooting weapons and set free with a humble, but reasonable food supply.
The burden of settlement
Spoiler :
1890: As demographics of the Iron Confederacy is stabilizing and products of European technologies become more and more common, settled lifestyle associated with agriculture and manufacture is slowly coming to the First Nations, especially popular among the Salish (also known as the “Flathead Indians”). For now, only a fraction of the Native American society of Central Canada has chosen to form permanent villages and forts, but the trend seems to be definitely in favor of further abandonment of the Confederacy’s nomadic traditions. On the one hand, it may bring the tribal league more wealth and, hopefully, more European technology. On the other hand, many in the Confederacy are afraid that the settled lifestyle makes them more vulnerable to the whiteskin threat.
Primeval justice
Spoiler :
Q4 1893: Now that the Pacific Directory rules over vast hinterlands of the Arctic Ocean shore, populated mostly by Inuit hunters and few unlucky Transpacific garrisons, the modern law is starting to clash with the grim reality of this inhospitable place. This was most vividly showcased by a so-called Kikkik Trial. Kikkik, an Inuit woman, was charged with murder and child neglect causing death, because she killed her half-brother after he shot to death her husband and attempted to murder Kikkik herself as well. These horrible acts were committed under a threat of starvation because caribou herds didn’t come to their regular pastures this season. Facing inevitable death from hunger and lacking her departed husband’s help, Kikkik took her five children to a trek to a neighboring Transpacific ostrog camp, only to find herself exhausted halfway there and unable to pull the sled in absence of huskies that had run away earlier. She left two of her children in a primitive igloo, where they eventually died, but Kikkik and the remainders of her family did make it to Fort Dyachenko alive. Now she is to be tried by the Transpacific law, which, naturally, wasn’t written with such extreme conditions in mind. Most importantly, Kikkik’s case is not unique, but is rather the most known example of a larger trend, showing that Inuit people have been facing great hardships in recent years, often leading them to such tragic and horrible acts.
Atlantic Canada-Quebec
Spoiler :
Fast-developing, region with well-established, but mediocre economy and demographics.
American booze
Q1-Q2 1894: Just like many past critics of the British prohibition law, the North-American authorities viewed the scarcity market as the source of rampant organized crime in Lower Canada. In order to take the supply shortage away from the bootlegger gangs and make some money off of it simultaneously, the new masters of Canada instead set up alcohol distillery industries in the booze-deprived region, providing the market with enough supply to stop being dependent on the criminal underworld. While some moralists objected that move heavily, the economic and law enforcement benefit it brought with it outweighed any such critiques. (Region Atlantic Canada-Quebec gains +15 EC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2.25%, Union of North America losses: -0.96 HC, -0.22 IC, -2.6 EC, -2.12 MC)
Back to the Little North
Q1-Q2 1894: Since 1713, the eastern coastline of the island of Newfoundland was named the French Coast, because, according to the treaty of Utrecht, French fishermen from nearby colonies were allowed to seasonally fish in its waters. Over centuries, it attracted a reasonable number of French immigrants, mostly from Brittany, who called the region "le petit nord" (Little North). During the military rule by the Protectorate that followed the First Atlantic War, the French Newfoundlanders were disenfranchised, and just like Quebecoi, many of them were forced to leave the region for New England. Now that the British rule over Newfoundland has collapsed, and the territory was passed to a moderately leftist, Franco-Canadian government of Quebec, the Little North has become a center of mass migration of French-speaking people from New-Englander refugee communities and from Europe itself. The latter wave of immigration is tied by some to the dire state of the French economy and, at times, dissatisfaction felt by the Bretons with both the new Possibilist government and its ideologically radical opposition.
Reputed Golden Age of the Maritimes
Atlantic Wars and Atlantic cables
Inglorious bastards
Q1-Q2 1894: The hunt for the “inglorious bastards” has become the primary concentration for the Federal Bureau of Investigations of the Union of North America in the first half of this year. Through massive disinformation campaigns and increased security measures, the federal agents of the Union have managed to stop the assassination campaign still on its tracks, effectively bleeding the British intelligence dry with their counterespionage actions. The latter ranged from spreading false rumors about high-ranking generals’ public appearances (thus identifying potential leaking sources) to such exotic methods as planting their look-alikes as decoys, to the decoys’ usual doom and to the dreaded Kingsmen’s capture. While the British intelligence was horrified at the high rate of losses suffered by its best field agents, some advisers point out that the campaign’s sole achievement is binding vast majority of the Union’s intelligence resources to defending the nation’s establishment and supreme command, saving Britain from horrifying agitation campaigns akin to the ones that lead to the discontent in Quebec, Rupert’s Land, and Ireland. On the North-American side, the most optimistic voices suggest that a few more months of continuous dedication to the “anti-Kingsmen” protection might completely blunt that British clandestine weapon, but, to their disappointment, they point out that all attempts to interrogate the license-to-kill agents for valuable field information have so far been completely fruitless. (Regional quest progress: -49.38%, Union of North America losses: -9.45 HC, -15.91 IC, -22.92 EC, -7.25 MC, British Royal Commonwealth losses: -17.91 HC, -27.5 IC, -42.76 EC, -12.49 MC)
American booze
Spoiler :
1890: Among the measures introduced by the Protectorate government in the wake of the Atlantic War and waves of discontent across the empire, was prohibition of alcohol. As unpopular as that measure is in most places, poor enforcement of the law gives British drinkers at least some relief. Only Canada stands out from this rule, because the military curfew still present in majority of bigger cities makes prohibition enforcement particularly strict. That doesn’t seem to stop North-American bootleggers, who smuggle big amounts of alcohol (some good-quality and some homemade) via secret boat routes going through the Great Lakes. This has created a powerful underworld culture across the Ontario Province, with networks of underground speakeasy bars enjoying unspoken protection of local gangs and sometimes even of corrupt British officers.
1891: As if the already existing corruption was not enough, it seems like the North-American bootleggers have enjoyed some unusual increase in funding of their operations, and their smuggling techniques are becoming complicated beyond the level expected from petty criminal gangs. Their ways of finding their way into the pockets of Lower Canada’s officials are also becoming more smooth and harder to resist, to the dismay of the Protectorate’s agents. (Regional quest progress: 32.57%, ??? losses: -1.22 HC, -1.99 IC, -2.87 EC, -0.78 IC)
1892: This year saw a dramatic drop in criminal smuggling activity and associated corruption cases within the Canadian martial government, perhaps related to withdrawal of some shadowy powers from the illegal alcohol market. In that situation, British Royal police and its special prohibition squads reigned supreme, busting most of recently established trading spots, speakeasies, and warehouses across the Ontario province. Despite that, small-time smuggling continues, and the issue is far from resolution, still. (Regional quest progress: -4.21%, British Royal Commonwealth losses: -1.27 HC, -1.61 IC, -2.7 EC, -0.88 MC)
1891: As if the already existing corruption was not enough, it seems like the North-American bootleggers have enjoyed some unusual increase in funding of their operations, and their smuggling techniques are becoming complicated beyond the level expected from petty criminal gangs. Their ways of finding their way into the pockets of Lower Canada’s officials are also becoming more smooth and harder to resist, to the dismay of the Protectorate’s agents. (Regional quest progress: 32.57%, ??? losses: -1.22 HC, -1.99 IC, -2.87 EC, -0.78 IC)
1892: This year saw a dramatic drop in criminal smuggling activity and associated corruption cases within the Canadian martial government, perhaps related to withdrawal of some shadowy powers from the illegal alcohol market. In that situation, British Royal police and its special prohibition squads reigned supreme, busting most of recently established trading spots, speakeasies, and warehouses across the Ontario province. Despite that, small-time smuggling continues, and the issue is far from resolution, still. (Regional quest progress: -4.21%, British Royal Commonwealth losses: -1.27 HC, -1.61 IC, -2.7 EC, -0.88 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: Just like many past critics of the British prohibition law, the North-American authorities viewed the scarcity market as the source of rampant organized crime in Lower Canada. In order to take the supply shortage away from the bootlegger gangs and make some money off of it simultaneously, the new masters of Canada instead set up alcohol distillery industries in the booze-deprived region, providing the market with enough supply to stop being dependent on the criminal underworld. While some moralists objected that move heavily, the economic and law enforcement benefit it brought with it outweighed any such critiques. (Region Atlantic Canada-Quebec gains +15 EC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2.25%, Union of North America losses: -0.96 HC, -0.22 IC, -2.6 EC, -2.12 MC)
Back to the Little North
Q1-Q2 1894: Since 1713, the eastern coastline of the island of Newfoundland was named the French Coast, because, according to the treaty of Utrecht, French fishermen from nearby colonies were allowed to seasonally fish in its waters. Over centuries, it attracted a reasonable number of French immigrants, mostly from Brittany, who called the region "le petit nord" (Little North). During the military rule by the Protectorate that followed the First Atlantic War, the French Newfoundlanders were disenfranchised, and just like Quebecoi, many of them were forced to leave the region for New England. Now that the British rule over Newfoundland has collapsed, and the territory was passed to a moderately leftist, Franco-Canadian government of Quebec, the Little North has become a center of mass migration of French-speaking people from New-Englander refugee communities and from Europe itself. The latter wave of immigration is tied by some to the dire state of the French economy and, at times, dissatisfaction felt by the Bretons with both the new Possibilist government and its ideologically radical opposition.
Reputed Golden Age of the Maritimes
Spoiler :
1890: Throughout most of the 19th century, the Maritimes region of British Canada experienced a powerful economic boom and development of local mass manufacture. The Atlantic War and its devastation have changed that trend, which coincided with huge levels of wealth inequality between the rich and the poor. In fact, something completely new to this regions is starting to happen. Broke urbanites and rural dwellers are starting to become so desperate that they happily volunteer to the army, only in order to disappear from the sight of their rich lenders. Those debtors who opposed military service, ironically, end up being blackbirded or impressed into it by the bounty hunters hired by banks and moneylenders who try to recover at least part of the lost sum by virtually selling the bankruptcy victims to the British army and navy.
Atlantic Wars and Atlantic cables
Spoiler :
Q4 1893: The first Transatlantic telegraph cables were laid in 1869 by then-cooperating Great Britain and France with the assumption they’d remain if not allies, then at least partners. As a result, the cables were laid between the French colony of St. Pierre and Miquelon (two tiny fishing islands off the coast of Nova Scotia) and a town of Ballycarbery in British Ireland, extending from there to the harbor of Brest in continental France. During the First Atlantic War attempts were made to lay a new Transatlantic cable between Brittany and Massachusetts, but the British Atlantic fleet prevented such plans from materializing. Now the situation in the high seas is different, and France once again finds itself in need of effectively communicating with North America. Several projects of a new, British interference-free Transatlantic cable have been proposed. One of them suggests connecting Brest directly to St. Pierre and Miquelon, and from there on to Duxbury, Massachusetts. Another, more cautious, but much more costly approach is use Bermuda as the transfer station, prolonging the cable, but helping cable-laying ships to stay away from the British Isles. As challenging as that project promises to be, it could greatly improve the Triune Pact’s communications both during and after the war.
Inglorious bastards
Spoiler :
Q4 1893: The Royal Commonwealth seems to have raised the stakes at the war for Canada. In an attempt to hinder North-American decision-making, the Brits have dispatched their license-to-kill agents to try and assassinate as many high-ranking Union officers as possible. The death toll has so far been relatively low, with only three generals and one military governor being dead or seriously wounded, but the sheer resonance (and dashing style) of these attacks sent a ripple across the entire North-American hierarchy of command. The scare of British “Kingsmen” (also tarnished and nicknamed by the Union’s press “the inglorious bastards”) makes many North-American leaders surround themselves with federal agents and limit their appearances, thus negatively impacting the public morale, as well as chain of command. It seems like the war for Canada has become a war for survival quite literally for many North-American leaders. (Regional quest progress: 38.52%, British Royal Commonwealth losses: -2.29 HC, -3.81 IC, -5.74 EC, -1.6 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: The hunt for the “inglorious bastards” has become the primary concentration for the Federal Bureau of Investigations of the Union of North America in the first half of this year. Through massive disinformation campaigns and increased security measures, the federal agents of the Union have managed to stop the assassination campaign still on its tracks, effectively bleeding the British intelligence dry with their counterespionage actions. The latter ranged from spreading false rumors about high-ranking generals’ public appearances (thus identifying potential leaking sources) to such exotic methods as planting their look-alikes as decoys, to the decoys’ usual doom and to the dreaded Kingsmen’s capture. While the British intelligence was horrified at the high rate of losses suffered by its best field agents, some advisers point out that the campaign’s sole achievement is binding vast majority of the Union’s intelligence resources to defending the nation’s establishment and supreme command, saving Britain from horrifying agitation campaigns akin to the ones that lead to the discontent in Quebec, Rupert’s Land, and Ireland. On the North-American side, the most optimistic voices suggest that a few more months of continuous dedication to the “anti-Kingsmen” protection might completely blunt that British clandestine weapon, but, to their disappointment, they point out that all attempts to interrogate the license-to-kill agents for valuable field information have so far been completely fruitless. (Regional quest progress: -49.38%, Union of North America losses: -9.45 HC, -15.91 IC, -22.92 EC, -7.25 MC, British Royal Commonwealth losses: -17.91 HC, -27.5 IC, -42.76 EC, -12.49 MC)
Greater California
Spoiler :
Fast-developing region with relatively mediocre demographics, but big agricultural and trade potential and not fully explored natural resource deposits.
Alien visions of Christ
Q1-Q2 1894: The Church of Christ and the Latter-day Saints continued to move toward a closer alignment with “Hong Christianity” by adopting a more assimilation-based approach to integration of the immigrants. This did speed up the process greatly, although it still may be a few years at this pace before true integration is achieved. (Regional quest progress: 38.29%, Deseret losses: -2.93 HC, -3.56 IC, -5.56 E, -0.28 MC)
Franciscan economy
Rancho barons
Transcontinental Railroad
Q1-Q2 1894: The works on the Transcontinental Railroad continued through the first two quarters of 1894 under the FCM’s supervision. At this point, only the Sonora stretch of the railroad and a few junctions connecting it to the Central-Mexican railway network are waiting to be completed, promising the project a very bright future indeed. (Regional quest progress: 90.36%, Mexico losses: -3.16 HC, -0.84 IC, -8.41 EC, -7.21 MC)
Alien visions of Christ
Spoiler :
1890: Japan, Korea, and China are experiencing a surge of Christian conversion, and many of people from these Asian countries are looking for better life in Americas, some driven by religious persecution (taking place in Japan) or by the desire to spread their interpretation of the Bible (as is the case in Taiping China). As a result, thousands of these unorthodox Asian Christians are coming to Deseret, attracted by its ecclesiastic government and policies favoring Christian refugees. However, many Deseret Mormons are starting to complain that their own faith’s central role in the national formation is starting to erode as the Church of Christ and the Latter-day Saints is becoming just one of the many religious movements flourishing in California.
Q4 1893: Attempting to take advantage of the Asian immigration wave and integrate new arrivals to the larger Deseret society, the Church of Christ and the Latter-day Saints has started proselytizing among them, while simultaneously establishing closer ties with local flocks of the God Worshipping Society (or Hong worshipers, as some less tolerant Deseretans call them) and other Christian sects. The work to unite the multitude of various religious movements and Christian cults into one semi-homogenic ecclesiastic structure has only begun and so far promises to be a hard and lengthy process, as too much lies between the locals and the immigrants in terms of culture, religious tradition, and even language. Yet, if successful, this conversion may indeed turn the State of Deseret into a unique melting pot of Christian non-conformists. (Regional quest progress: 6.5%, Deseret losses: -2.51 HC, -3.77 IC, -5.9 EC, -0.28 MC)
Q4 1893: Attempting to take advantage of the Asian immigration wave and integrate new arrivals to the larger Deseret society, the Church of Christ and the Latter-day Saints has started proselytizing among them, while simultaneously establishing closer ties with local flocks of the God Worshipping Society (or Hong worshipers, as some less tolerant Deseretans call them) and other Christian sects. The work to unite the multitude of various religious movements and Christian cults into one semi-homogenic ecclesiastic structure has only begun and so far promises to be a hard and lengthy process, as too much lies between the locals and the immigrants in terms of culture, religious tradition, and even language. Yet, if successful, this conversion may indeed turn the State of Deseret into a unique melting pot of Christian non-conformists. (Regional quest progress: 6.5%, Deseret losses: -2.51 HC, -3.77 IC, -5.9 EC, -0.28 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: The Church of Christ and the Latter-day Saints continued to move toward a closer alignment with “Hong Christianity” by adopting a more assimilation-based approach to integration of the immigrants. This did speed up the process greatly, although it still may be a few years at this pace before true integration is achieved. (Regional quest progress: 38.29%, Deseret losses: -2.93 HC, -3.56 IC, -5.56 E, -0.28 MC)
Franciscan economy
Spoiler :
1890: With the return of South California to the Mexican control, the new authority is reintroducing the old policies that existed in the region before the Americano-Mexican war of the 1840s. Among them, is the donation of big amounts of land and some local enterprises to Franciscan monks. The Americans that remained in California after Mexican takeover seems to be very unhappy about this upsurge of Catholic capitalism and favoritism, especially since businesses owned by the Third Order of Saint Francis are excluded from taxation (in exchange for their informal “donations” to the Mexican government), which helps them outcompete even the most robust American-owned businesses. So far, the discontent has been pretty quiet, but the silence may not last for long.
Rancho barons
Spoiler :
1890: As thousands of American settlers left California in the wake of the Mexican takeover, the lands they used to own were simply captured by some opportunistic Mexican strongmen. As they found themselves owning huge territories supporting numerous livestock population, these landowners are now known as “rancho barons.” In an attempt to stand out among their peers, they live lives or ill-affordable luxury and employ gangs of bloodthirsty gunslingers of American and Mexican descent. For now, the rancho barons have been loyal to the President, but they’re turning Mexican California into an unruly frontier march.
Q1-Q2 1893: Perhaps, not fully grasping the socio-economic nature of the rancho barons’ domination of the region, Mexican authorities have attempted to solve the problem the same way they had previously dealt with cattle raids along the Rio Grande river. Border garrisons were increased, and a greater number of law enforcement officers was dispatched to work in Mexican California. Needless to say, what worked well at preventing cross border raids to and from Texas did little to contain overwhelming corruption of the Californian society. After a few “gifts of gratitude,” most of the sheriffs and patrolmen found nothing strikingly illegal with the strongmen’s reign, and those few principled souls that did try to ask too many questions have started to disappear. (Regional quest progress: 4.71%, Mexico losses: -2.36 HC, -3.31 IC, -4.80 EC, -0.73 MC)
Q1-Q2 1893: Perhaps, not fully grasping the socio-economic nature of the rancho barons’ domination of the region, Mexican authorities have attempted to solve the problem the same way they had previously dealt with cattle raids along the Rio Grande river. Border garrisons were increased, and a greater number of law enforcement officers was dispatched to work in Mexican California. Needless to say, what worked well at preventing cross border raids to and from Texas did little to contain overwhelming corruption of the Californian society. After a few “gifts of gratitude,” most of the sheriffs and patrolmen found nothing strikingly illegal with the strongmen’s reign, and those few principled souls that did try to ask too many questions have started to disappear. (Regional quest progress: 4.71%, Mexico losses: -2.36 HC, -3.31 IC, -4.80 EC, -0.73 MC)
Transcontinental Railroad
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1893: Mexico has embarked on another ambitious railway project, aimed at connecting the Pacific Coast to Confederate Texas through North-Mexican provinces of Sonora, Chihuaua, and Coahuila, all the way from Los Angeles to Fort Worth. However, while most of the republic’s industrial capacities were fully engaged into the expansion of the railway network in Central Mexico, the government could spare only its land surveyors to do the work of finding the optimal land route, followed by acquisition clercs that purchased desert lands for negligible sums. (Regional quest progress: 6.4%, Mexico losses: -4.14 HC, -5.8 IC, -8.4 EC, -1.29 MC)
Q3 1893: As Mexican railroad-building companies chose to concentrate on finishing the Central Mexican Railway network, Confederate investors stepped up their participation in the Transcontinental Railroad project. Since all planning and landscape exploration were completed in the first half of the year, the Southron engineers could simply get to work with little preparation, and by early October the Texan part of the railway, stretching from Fort Worth to the Mexican border, was completed and ready for exploitation. However, the expectations in the Confederacy were set to see the Transcontinental Railroad as the main transportation artery connecting Southern businesses with Mexican cheap labor and raw resources, and the partial completion of the project offers little to no return of investments - that is, until the Mexican stretch of the railway is completed and ready for exploitation. (Regional quest progress: 22.42%, Confederate States of America losses: -3.28 HC, -0.72 IC, -8.06 EC, -7.56 MC)
Q4 1893: As Confederate infrastructural focus shifted once again away from the Transcontinental Railroad project to their internal integrated railway network, the Ferrocarril Mexicano (“Mexican Railways” or FCM) stepped in to ensure smooth progress of the ambitious project. At that, they were successful, finishing several sections of the largest single infrastructure line in North-American history so far. At this rate, 1894 promises to be the year when Transcontinental Railroad opens its facilities to passengers and cargo. (Regional quest progress: 55.68%, Mexico losses: -4.05 HC, -1.12 IC, -11.16 EC, -8.92 MC)
Q3 1893: As Mexican railroad-building companies chose to concentrate on finishing the Central Mexican Railway network, Confederate investors stepped up their participation in the Transcontinental Railroad project. Since all planning and landscape exploration were completed in the first half of the year, the Southron engineers could simply get to work with little preparation, and by early October the Texan part of the railway, stretching from Fort Worth to the Mexican border, was completed and ready for exploitation. However, the expectations in the Confederacy were set to see the Transcontinental Railroad as the main transportation artery connecting Southern businesses with Mexican cheap labor and raw resources, and the partial completion of the project offers little to no return of investments - that is, until the Mexican stretch of the railway is completed and ready for exploitation. (Regional quest progress: 22.42%, Confederate States of America losses: -3.28 HC, -0.72 IC, -8.06 EC, -7.56 MC)
Q4 1893: As Confederate infrastructural focus shifted once again away from the Transcontinental Railroad project to their internal integrated railway network, the Ferrocarril Mexicano (“Mexican Railways” or FCM) stepped in to ensure smooth progress of the ambitious project. At that, they were successful, finishing several sections of the largest single infrastructure line in North-American history so far. At this rate, 1894 promises to be the year when Transcontinental Railroad opens its facilities to passengers and cargo. (Regional quest progress: 55.68%, Mexico losses: -4.05 HC, -1.12 IC, -11.16 EC, -8.92 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: The works on the Transcontinental Railroad continued through the first two quarters of 1894 under the FCM’s supervision. At this point, only the Sonora stretch of the railroad and a few junctions connecting it to the Central-Mexican railway network are waiting to be completed, promising the project a very bright future indeed. (Regional quest progress: 90.36%, Mexico losses: -3.16 HC, -0.84 IC, -8.41 EC, -7.21 MC)
Great Plains
Spoiler :
Slowly-developing frontier region capable of connecting the Pacific and Atlantic shores of America, but currently underexplored and underpopulated.
Guarded Lands
Q1-Q2 1894: The North-American Union has finally chosen to address the plight of the guarded lands’ residents, but not in an aggressively imperialistic way that many observers had expected. Instead of raising diplomatic tensions with the Iron Confederacy over the white settlers’ rights of residence and land ownership, the Union chose to concentrate on improving the conditions of living in these reservations. While nothing could fix the quality and arability of lands dedicated to the “guarded” status, village infrastructure was improved in these islands of European “civilization” in the sea of Native American “wilderness.” However, as the “guarded lands” were just too poor to produce much of an economic value, they became heavily dependent on their “metropoly” and failed to attract much of immigration to them, with most of the new settlers being the very same workers who helped to improve them. Still, the Iron Confederacy was widely acceptive of the North-American effort to improve the living standards in the “guarded lands.” Observing experts point at two reasons for that behaviour: firstly, the North-Americans respected the First Nations’ territorial rights and didn’t stray into their hunting grounds; secondly, the “guarded lands” became perfect market towns, from which the Native Americans purchase various goods and hardware of Western manufacture, in exchange for various natural goods. In fact, that status of market towns in the First Nations’ lands may end up bringing these communities not only self-sufficiency, but even prosperity, as the Native American communities are gradually growing more and more appreciative of having a bit of “Western comfort” in their lives. (Regional quest progress: 97.05%, Union of North America losses: -3.14 HC, -2.12 IC, -9.01 EC, -6.42 MC)
The Trail of Faith
Q1-Q2 1894: In order to provide a safer passage to Land of the Faithful for true believers, the Deseret government has started preemptively booking whole sections of ocean liners and smaller passenger boats going from the American East Coast to the ports of Alea and Arlington. (Regional quest progress: 54.21%, Deseret losses: -1.47 HC, -0.36 IC, -3.36 EC, -2.19 MC)
While that ad-hoc effort was still in progress, diplomats and church ambassadors from Deseret continued doing their best negotiating safe passage with the tribes of the Iron Confederacy. While in a few cases they were successful, the tables turned when delegates from the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes formed an isolationist coalition in the Confederacy’s Council of Elders. From then on, the Mormon ambassadors found themselves engaged in a convoluted game of tribal politics, a game in which they were able to progress at their diplomacy at a snail’s pace. (Regional quest progress: 73.79%, Deseret losses: -0.9 HC, -1.09 IC, -1.7 EC, -0.09 MC, Iron Confederacy losses: -1.55 HC, -2.91 IC, -4.85 EC)
Barn raisings
Southwestern Wall
Guarded Lands
Spoiler :
1890: For years, native people of the Great Planes had to obey resettlement agreements with the American government that forced them to live in arbitrarily chosen reservations. Now that the American Wild West has crumbled, the tables have turned on the white settlers, especially in Montana and Wyoming. They are being forced by local Crow, Sioux, and Chippewa tribes to resettle to so called “guarded lands” comparable to the reservations that Native Americans used to languish in. Some white frontiersmen despise being forced to live in sod houses in the middle of nowhere and instead choose to return to the Union of North America and Confederate States of America, a move that the Iron Confederacy doesn’t oppose, as long as they leave without delay. These humiliations of white people are then exaggerated and dramatized in North-American and Confederate-American newspapers as some hotheads are calling for “protective expeditions” to the West.
Q1-Q2 1894: The North-American Union has finally chosen to address the plight of the guarded lands’ residents, but not in an aggressively imperialistic way that many observers had expected. Instead of raising diplomatic tensions with the Iron Confederacy over the white settlers’ rights of residence and land ownership, the Union chose to concentrate on improving the conditions of living in these reservations. While nothing could fix the quality and arability of lands dedicated to the “guarded” status, village infrastructure was improved in these islands of European “civilization” in the sea of Native American “wilderness.” However, as the “guarded lands” were just too poor to produce much of an economic value, they became heavily dependent on their “metropoly” and failed to attract much of immigration to them, with most of the new settlers being the very same workers who helped to improve them. Still, the Iron Confederacy was widely acceptive of the North-American effort to improve the living standards in the “guarded lands.” Observing experts point at two reasons for that behaviour: firstly, the North-Americans respected the First Nations’ territorial rights and didn’t stray into their hunting grounds; secondly, the “guarded lands” became perfect market towns, from which the Native Americans purchase various goods and hardware of Western manufacture, in exchange for various natural goods. In fact, that status of market towns in the First Nations’ lands may end up bringing these communities not only self-sufficiency, but even prosperity, as the Native American communities are gradually growing more and more appreciative of having a bit of “Western comfort” in their lives. (Regional quest progress: 97.05%, Union of North America losses: -3.14 HC, -2.12 IC, -9.01 EC, -6.42 MC)
The Trail of Faith
Spoiler :
1890: The tectonic shifts happening in the core of the American society make it so that thousands of enthusiastic members of emerging Christian sects are choosing to gather their belongings and travel to Deseret, or the Land of the Faithful as it’s becoming to be known. Vast majority of this pilgrims, however, lack the funds to purchase a boat ticket and instead head out to Deseret in horse-driven carts and wagons (and, very rarely, in steam carriages), hoping to cross the vast expanse of the Great Plains. Besides being generally dangerous, this so-called Trail of Faith is also becoming a source of international incidents, since pilgrim routes cross the lands of an officially recognized Iron Confederacy (something that rural believers choose to ignore in their decision making). Whenever caught trespassing, these pilgrims end up being deported to their country of origin, but in some cases blood gets spilled. It appears that neither of the American governments truly controls this issue, and the Native American dismay at the state of things keeps growing.
Q4 1893: Deseret’s authorities have finally acknowledged the Native American discontent over Christian migrations through the Great Plains. After a few brainstorms, a decision was made to strive to develop effective oceanic lanes that could bring pilgrims to North America’s West Coast from the east. However, before such an approach becomes financially and infrastructurally feasible, a temporary solution was applied. Tribes, through whose territory the notorious Trail of Faith passes, were directly contacted by Mormon ambassadors and offered various benefits and payments in exchange for temporary agreements allowing the migrants to travel through tribal lands. In a lot of cases, the ambassadors were rejected right away, and in a few instances informal agreements were made, but didn’t improve the situation on the ground. Yet, the Mormon leadership continued stubbornly seeking compromise solutions with the tribes, and it seems that they slowly but surely earn the natives’ trust, turning the Trail of Faith into something more civilized and survivable. (Regional quest progress: 42.79%, Deseret losses: -0.5 HC, -0.75 IC, -1.18 EC, -0.06 MC)
Q4 1893: Deseret’s authorities have finally acknowledged the Native American discontent over Christian migrations through the Great Plains. After a few brainstorms, a decision was made to strive to develop effective oceanic lanes that could bring pilgrims to North America’s West Coast from the east. However, before such an approach becomes financially and infrastructurally feasible, a temporary solution was applied. Tribes, through whose territory the notorious Trail of Faith passes, were directly contacted by Mormon ambassadors and offered various benefits and payments in exchange for temporary agreements allowing the migrants to travel through tribal lands. In a lot of cases, the ambassadors were rejected right away, and in a few instances informal agreements were made, but didn’t improve the situation on the ground. Yet, the Mormon leadership continued stubbornly seeking compromise solutions with the tribes, and it seems that they slowly but surely earn the natives’ trust, turning the Trail of Faith into something more civilized and survivable. (Regional quest progress: 42.79%, Deseret losses: -0.5 HC, -0.75 IC, -1.18 EC, -0.06 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: In order to provide a safer passage to Land of the Faithful for true believers, the Deseret government has started preemptively booking whole sections of ocean liners and smaller passenger boats going from the American East Coast to the ports of Alea and Arlington. (Regional quest progress: 54.21%, Deseret losses: -1.47 HC, -0.36 IC, -3.36 EC, -2.19 MC)
While that ad-hoc effort was still in progress, diplomats and church ambassadors from Deseret continued doing their best negotiating safe passage with the tribes of the Iron Confederacy. While in a few cases they were successful, the tables turned when delegates from the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes formed an isolationist coalition in the Confederacy’s Council of Elders. From then on, the Mormon ambassadors found themselves engaged in a convoluted game of tribal politics, a game in which they were able to progress at their diplomacy at a snail’s pace. (Regional quest progress: 73.79%, Deseret losses: -0.9 HC, -1.09 IC, -1.7 EC, -0.09 MC, Iron Confederacy losses: -1.55 HC, -2.91 IC, -4.85 EC)
Barn raisings
Spoiler :
1892: Barns are crucial constructions for any rural community, especially one that is too remote from other civilization centers to rely on imported grain. Yet, barns are also expensive and labor-intensive constructions to build, and in years of good harvest building a new barn before winter may be a time-dependent activity as well, crucial for the entire community. As a result, Confederate, North-American, and Mexican villages of the Great Plains have started to use communal corvees (so called raising bees or barn raisings) to accomplish such constructions in time. Besides, after the barn is fully built, a village-wide celebration usually takes place inside of it, featuring music, dancing, and a good deal of moonshine, along with other, more frivolous activities. In fact, barn raisings have become so important in community building, that local clergy has started to voice discontent over the popular abandonment of church construction and other forms of religious congregation. They demand that the state intervenes and redirects the farmers’ energy to more spiritually “pure” activities, least people’s morals decline.
Southwestern Wall
Spoiler :
Q3 1893: It seems like building the longest defensive line in modern history along its northern border is not big enough of an achievement for the CSA’s military. In July 1893, yet another stretch of loosely connected forts, dedicated lines of communications, and supply depots started being built in the Confederate reach of the Great Plains region all the way to the Rio Grande river and the Gulf of Mexico. (Regional quest progress: 51.55%, Confederate States of America losses: -5.61 HC, -1.77 IC, -2.81 EC, -2.82 MC)
