Depkazia
12-12-2005, 05:29
Potopovo was a town older than record, draped clumsily around the thick neck of Mount Kaznakaryo like a tatty old scarf longer than the height of the ungrateful grandchild for whom it was lovingly but crudely knitted. Miles and miles from the next major outpost of civilisation -not that Potopovo could really be called major in any friendly description- the city was central to the life of the little known Depkazi race, if it was indeed a race, a qualifier made necessary since many anthropologists disputed the distinctivness of those who called themselves Depkazi.
In modern times Potopovo had been a remote part of one of the world's many big nation states, but thanks to its remote location in the middle of what was virtually a desert, and to its historically troublesome and independent population, the region was largely ignored by national government, and tribal leaderships left to do much of the work in day to day administration. Because it was remote, it had never been subject to major development, and, because it had never experienced major development, it was poor, which just made it less appealing to the central authorities.
Coup Plot
This year a group of bored foreigners with too much time and money on their hands and contacts in Potopovo's mother nation put into action what had previously been an idle plot devised for fun. They -through bribary, deception, and the hiring of mercenaries- entered the remote district surrounding Potopovo and set to the task of taking-over the city, paying-off city officials or intimidating them with mercenaries, and setting-up local criminal bosses for arrest or simply executing them and passing it off as rough justice by the under-funded local police.
With minimal violence they had almost made the city their own, without directly challenging national authorities. But then, quite unexpectedly, one of the conspirators, and a supposedly minor participant in the plot at that, had turned on his chums. He killed several of them himself, despite being far from what one would call a tough guy, and promised the world to others who helped finish off the rest. He tipped-off the authorities back home to the crimes of those who escaped him, and assumed premiership of a new national entity: The People's Popular Republic of Depkazia.
His full title, along with a clearly false name, was Premier for Life President Edmund Wolfgang Tokareff.
-PPRD is essentially a city state of 487,000 people (just under half a million) located in a remote region within an existing nation state, though I haven't yet any volunteers to act as host. The majority of its population claims to be Depkazi, which they insist is a distinct race, though it is increasingly intermingled with people of the wider nation: there is at least a distinct dialect in local use; large minorities are of the race dominant in the formerly controlling state and others found there. The President is an outsider from some unidentified foreign state.
In modern times Potopovo had been a remote part of one of the world's many big nation states, but thanks to its remote location in the middle of what was virtually a desert, and to its historically troublesome and independent population, the region was largely ignored by national government, and tribal leaderships left to do much of the work in day to day administration. Because it was remote, it had never been subject to major development, and, because it had never experienced major development, it was poor, which just made it less appealing to the central authorities.
Coup Plot
This year a group of bored foreigners with too much time and money on their hands and contacts in Potopovo's mother nation put into action what had previously been an idle plot devised for fun. They -through bribary, deception, and the hiring of mercenaries- entered the remote district surrounding Potopovo and set to the task of taking-over the city, paying-off city officials or intimidating them with mercenaries, and setting-up local criminal bosses for arrest or simply executing them and passing it off as rough justice by the under-funded local police.
With minimal violence they had almost made the city their own, without directly challenging national authorities. But then, quite unexpectedly, one of the conspirators, and a supposedly minor participant in the plot at that, had turned on his chums. He killed several of them himself, despite being far from what one would call a tough guy, and promised the world to others who helped finish off the rest. He tipped-off the authorities back home to the crimes of those who escaped him, and assumed premiership of a new national entity: The People's Popular Republic of Depkazia.
His full title, along with a clearly false name, was Premier for Life President Edmund Wolfgang Tokareff.
-PPRD is essentially a city state of 487,000 people (just under half a million) located in a remote region within an existing nation state, though I haven't yet any volunteers to act as host. The majority of its population claims to be Depkazi, which they insist is a distinct race, though it is increasingly intermingled with people of the wider nation: there is at least a distinct dialect in local use; large minorities are of the race dominant in the formerly controlling state and others found there. The President is an outsider from some unidentified foreign state.