NationStates Jolt Archive

*Port-Allanea, 10 months previous*

The sun was bright. The past few weeks it had been all clouds and rain. There was an occasional reprieve, but most of the time a cold heavy rain had fallen upon the ruins of Port-Allanea. At first, the rain was viewed as a blessing from God, it's drops cooled the hotspots still left in the rubble and quenched the remaining fires caused by the Shanderian bombing raids and the revolution. Then, the rain seemed to take on a more ominous portent as it continued for the space of those few weeks.

The tired and huddled masses making a great exodus out of Port Allanea had been stopped after the second day when the Imperial Guard put a cordon around the entire city. Small shanty towns had been established near the cordon where the troopers had made the people stop. The torrent of rain had pursued the refugees as they fled the seemingly doomed city and now that they stopped, it lingered and turned the very ground beneath them into a muddy quagmire. Soldiers had come by and put down plywood in the streets to give the people a place to walk, but it was still a miserable mess.

When the clouds parted, the heads of hundreds of thousands of refugees peeked out through their doors and windows. Slowly and cautiously, they took their first timid steps out into the open to survey the scene around them.

President Demarque had toured the refugee shanty towns and greeted everyone he could, even in the torrential rain. Through the darkest of hours, his face brought out a smile. There was hope for Allanea.

Early in the morning, criers had gone through all of the shanty towns declaring the latest and greatest news at the top of their lungs. "ALLANEA JOINS THE GREATER PRUSSIAN EMPIRE! NAPOLEON VOWS TO REBUILD PORT ALLANEA!"

There was dancing and laughter for the first time. The people ran up and hugged the Imperial Guard troops that had entered into the camps not long before in anticipation of the announcement.

No one knew how they found it, maybe the Guardsmen gave it to them, but in the very centre of the camp, an Imperial Flag was slowly hoisted into the air. It hung limp for the first few seconds until a breeze unfurled it. It fluttered there in defiance of the destruction, of the revolution of Bryn Shander, it echoed the thoughts of the people. Port-Allanea stood defiantly in the face of destruction.

*Port-Allanea, Present Day*

Architects, construction crews, experts and professionals of all kinds had descended upon Port-Allanea within days of the Emperor's call. Using Allanean labour, which gave the people a way to feed themselves. The old was wiped away, and the new was rising out of the ashes.

The new city was designed with a heavily Old-European feeling, much in the same manner as many of the Imperial Cities. The old skyscrapers that could be salvaged were. A new face was put on the city, one of carved limestone, of marble. Sculptures of various patriotic themes were integrated into the architecture of almost every building in the city. Most of the themes were Allanean ones, but Imperial Eagles, the "N"s with laurel crowns about them, Mergovignian Bees, and other symbols of the Empire were displayed quite conspicuously with some regularity on many of the newer buildings. The entire city was given a new integrated plan and a cosmetic face lift.

At the very centre of the city, stood an imposing structure. All of the main streets led into and away from it like spokes on a wheel. Carved in bold letters upon the marble entryway were the words, "Freedom Palace". Here was the nerve centre of the Empire in Haven. The Emperor's personal Architect had designed the building which appeared in style much like the Winter Palace in St. Petersbourg, only significantly larger.

At the front of the palace was a large, equestrian statue of Emperor Napoleon IV with accents in Gold Plate. On the pedestal was an engraving, dedicating the statue and the building to those who died in the service of the Emperor and their countries either in the Imperial Armies of Allanea, Axackal, and Edolia, or the AVF, or the Allanean Armed Forces as well as to the whole people of Allanea, past, present, and future. On it was a quote by the Emperor's Great, Great, Great, Great Grand Uncle which seemed to encompass the entire spirit of Allanea quite firmly:

"How many things apparently impossible have nevertheless been performed by resolute men who had no alternative but death."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Today was a day of ceremony. The completed palace, in the not yet finished city, would be dedicated. Every Haven head of state had been invited. Today would be a day the world would remember.

*Port-Allanea, ten months previous*

As the Imperial Guard troops and the countless imperial charities came into Port-Allanea, they would find possibly the most morally depraved, strange society one could ever find in Haven. Millenia of permissiveness, and a society that profited from the export of illegal goods, have caused Port-Allanea into a city that would rival the old Soddom in it’s perversion, Paris in its extravagance and Las-Vegas with it’s multicoloured lights and explicit advertising.

The impact of the Shanderian and Taraskovyan bombings would be like a hammer hitting wet mud. It splattered everywhere. Thousands of people who used to work for the drug industry, for the big brothels, from the casinos, just fled the city. Hundreds were massacred by the communists. But far greater numbers simply ran, as if driven by some primal fear. Even after the city was cordoned-off, some people tried to escape by running roadblocks. They failed. Some - not many - died. Then there was quiet, for quite some time, and it was impossible to believe that some of the women collecting the bread that was given to refugees were formerly high-class prostitutes. Of the drug business, only a few small-time breweries survived. Rumour had it that Ricardo Hernandez, CEO of Allanean Pharmaceuticals was killed outright. Nobody knew for sure. His family was not notified.

In this horror, in the poverty, the destruction, some people still brought hope and peace. Priests, rabbis, pastors came into the city. They brought help. They spoke to the children whose parents have been killed and the parents who children died of disease and starvation. They brought food, they brought mercy, they brought hope. The series of wars that has ravaged the city has put the fear of God - literal or proverbial - into the hearts of many. Maybe for the first time the Allaneans realised they were maybe too arrogant.

*Port-Allanea, Present Day*

The city of Port-Allanea was reborn anew. And the influence of the Empire was already being seen. Not just in the architecture, but in the very culture of the city. Sure enough, the many strange and weird groups that composed Allanean society were still there - and so where the weird city quarters connected with them. Metalhead Quarter, Trek-Town, and Hippie Lane were actually still there -but they were rebuilt into a completely different style, as much as it was possible. The screaming three-story-high adverts seducing passers-by with raucous pleasures were gone, replaced with small notices, if they even remained at all - a lot of this kind of business moved to Yurka-City, Allanea’s new gambling and ‘weird pleasure’ emporium. The Mangalans that invested in that one would soon strike it rich.

Religion played a role in this - in the last ten months, the percent of people who identified themselves as Christian grew right to 15%, from a 3% the year before. Churches sprang up all over the city. Most of those new Christians were in Port-Allanea - there wasn’t much of a market for the lascivious anymore.

But religion was not the only thing. Imperial manners helped. In Allanea, the people who wanted to acquire the Imperial style were the rich. They wanted to mingle in with the Imperial noblemen and their society. To do that, many sent their sons and daughters to Imperial schools in Reichskamphen. And while they still did not see those enterprises as immoral - they did not want to pose them in an Imperial city, where thousands of influential Imperial noblemen came by annually.

They relocated their ‘businesses’ if they could, made them less obvious if they couldn’t. Some people were persuaded to leave by their very comrades in their business. Others were bought out - President Demarque actually persuaded several major corporations to fund the effort. In fact, he talked the Allanean Entertainment Company into moving it’s most offensive services out of the city altogether. Allaneans may have been libertarians - but there were some sides of their society that President Demarque did not want to be part of that new image the capital should show.

OOC: http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Informalism <- this explains a bit about what is still there in the city.