madviking
north american scum
Chapter One, Section One
The sun rose just like on another other day. The roosters have been awake for about thirty minutes and the dew was just beginning to settle on the ground. The sun still hung low in the sky, a distant egg. The cloud was cloudless, save for a few feathers of clouds that hung around from the previous day. In the ever-brightening light, a new soul entered the world.
Joseph Alexander Harbin was born on a cool May morning; May twenty-second, anno domini eighteen forty eight to be exact. Joseph's father, John Harbin, is a poor Gregorian priest, and Joseph's mother, Mary Connors, was a seamstress, own a small plot of land in the village of Colchester. Joseph was the second child of John and Mary. Their first child, Alexander Harbin, was, unfortunately, stillborn one year earlier.
The Harbins live on a poor tobacco farm in the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Anglia, a large, albeit poor, kingdom situated in the south-western portion of the Eastern Continent. The kingdom juts out from the mainland on a narrow peninsula, roughly 1500 miles long, but only about two-hundred miles wide, on average. The east-west orientation of the Anglian Peninsula means that much of the peninsula experiences the same temperate climate. However, on the western end of the Anglian Peninsula, the Arshire Mountains block cold winds, thus created a warmer climate, suitable for the growing of limited amounts of sugarcane.
The capital city, and largest city, London, lies in the centre of the continent, on the northern coast. Londons main industries include shipbuilding, finance and commerce. London is also the main industrial city of Anglia. Other important cities include Clifton (near where the Harbins reside), Pashendale (extreme northeast corner), Accmouth (south, famous for its horse ranches) and Paulston (western cape).
A major industry in the western cape is gold mining. However, this is a very dangerous occupation; cave-ins, flash floods and rock slides are commonplace along the steep cliffs of the Arshire Mountains. Farming tobacco is another important sector of Anglias economy. However, this is mainly confined to the eastern portion of Anglia. Agriculture has always been Anglias largest industry, and presently, most of the peasants are still tied to their land, farming on plots their grandfathers and their grandfathers have had.
The history of Anglia has been a relatively tranquil one. Its lack of land borders have allowed most Anglians to live in peace. However, Anglia is currently experiencing extreme industrialization. Falling crop prices and mechanization of farms have led many families to leave their ancestral homes and move to urban centres to work in factories, making cloth and simple mechanical devices and in shipyards, strengthening Anglias navy, building a new type of ship: the ironclad.
Anglia is an absolute monarchy, currently ruled by the young, twenty-three year old King William IX. The King is still the supreme commander of the army and the navy and exercises near total control over the country. However, many radicals in cities are inciting many to join the labour and socialist movements, which seek to overthrow the king and install a new government to serve the workers. However, these radicals are duly suppressed by the Kings men, and many of them executed for treason. The system of labour has many intellectuals believing that this is the greatest hindrance to Anglias prosperity while the royalty and their advisors remain firm in their belief of feudalism. Nevertheless, many acknowledge that the status quo cannot continue; something must give. Many expect, within the next twenty years, a peasant insurrection will occur, and this will put the interests of the royal family at odds with the interests of the nation as a whole. Academics point to examples in the Iroquois Confederacy and the Most Serene Republic of Portugal, two other nations also on the Eastern Continent, as examples of prosperity under republican forms of governance. But these nations experienced bloody coups and revolutions to get to their republican forms of government. Portugal, for instance, reached a state of anarchy when a terrorist planted a plant near the royal couples carriage while they were in a parade. The new king was only three years old, and members of the republican fellowship seized control of the palace and proclaimed the Republic of Portugal. A bloody, four year long civil war ensued, with the republicans prevailing, putting down royal opposition, sentencing many of the royal family to be shot in public.
However, many, including the Harbins, do not know what the future of Anglia holds in store.
The sun rose just like on another other day. The roosters have been awake for about thirty minutes and the dew was just beginning to settle on the ground. The sun still hung low in the sky, a distant egg. The cloud was cloudless, save for a few feathers of clouds that hung around from the previous day. In the ever-brightening light, a new soul entered the world.
Joseph Alexander Harbin was born on a cool May morning; May twenty-second, anno domini eighteen forty eight to be exact. Joseph's father, John Harbin, is a poor Gregorian priest, and Joseph's mother, Mary Connors, was a seamstress, own a small plot of land in the village of Colchester. Joseph was the second child of John and Mary. Their first child, Alexander Harbin, was, unfortunately, stillborn one year earlier.
The Harbins live on a poor tobacco farm in the eastern portion of the Kingdom of Anglia, a large, albeit poor, kingdom situated in the south-western portion of the Eastern Continent. The kingdom juts out from the mainland on a narrow peninsula, roughly 1500 miles long, but only about two-hundred miles wide, on average. The east-west orientation of the Anglian Peninsula means that much of the peninsula experiences the same temperate climate. However, on the western end of the Anglian Peninsula, the Arshire Mountains block cold winds, thus created a warmer climate, suitable for the growing of limited amounts of sugarcane.
The capital city, and largest city, London, lies in the centre of the continent, on the northern coast. Londons main industries include shipbuilding, finance and commerce. London is also the main industrial city of Anglia. Other important cities include Clifton (near where the Harbins reside), Pashendale (extreme northeast corner), Accmouth (south, famous for its horse ranches) and Paulston (western cape).
A major industry in the western cape is gold mining. However, this is a very dangerous occupation; cave-ins, flash floods and rock slides are commonplace along the steep cliffs of the Arshire Mountains. Farming tobacco is another important sector of Anglias economy. However, this is mainly confined to the eastern portion of Anglia. Agriculture has always been Anglias largest industry, and presently, most of the peasants are still tied to their land, farming on plots their grandfathers and their grandfathers have had.
The history of Anglia has been a relatively tranquil one. Its lack of land borders have allowed most Anglians to live in peace. However, Anglia is currently experiencing extreme industrialization. Falling crop prices and mechanization of farms have led many families to leave their ancestral homes and move to urban centres to work in factories, making cloth and simple mechanical devices and in shipyards, strengthening Anglias navy, building a new type of ship: the ironclad.
Anglia is an absolute monarchy, currently ruled by the young, twenty-three year old King William IX. The King is still the supreme commander of the army and the navy and exercises near total control over the country. However, many radicals in cities are inciting many to join the labour and socialist movements, which seek to overthrow the king and install a new government to serve the workers. However, these radicals are duly suppressed by the Kings men, and many of them executed for treason. The system of labour has many intellectuals believing that this is the greatest hindrance to Anglias prosperity while the royalty and their advisors remain firm in their belief of feudalism. Nevertheless, many acknowledge that the status quo cannot continue; something must give. Many expect, within the next twenty years, a peasant insurrection will occur, and this will put the interests of the royal family at odds with the interests of the nation as a whole. Academics point to examples in the Iroquois Confederacy and the Most Serene Republic of Portugal, two other nations also on the Eastern Continent, as examples of prosperity under republican forms of governance. But these nations experienced bloody coups and revolutions to get to their republican forms of government. Portugal, for instance, reached a state of anarchy when a terrorist planted a plant near the royal couples carriage while they were in a parade. The new king was only three years old, and members of the republican fellowship seized control of the palace and proclaimed the Republic of Portugal. A bloody, four year long civil war ensued, with the republicans prevailing, putting down royal opposition, sentencing many of the royal family to be shot in public.
However, many, including the Harbins, do not know what the future of Anglia holds in store.
Stop wasting time in the what music are you listenin to thread and get to work, peasant!!
