Oiad en Para
06-02-2006, 05:13
OoC: I read (most) of the stickies here and I think I understand how you guys do the seperation of technological levels. I hope I got it right -- I'm roughly at the same level of the modern US in most fields (not all, of course, I don't want to come off as a newbie who thinks he can rule the world on his first day :) ), so I think modern tech is appropriate. I look forward to RPing with this community. From what I've read, you all appear to be very talented and creative writers.
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It is often said that you must walk before you can run, and that you must crawl before you must walk. Throughout much of the kingdom of life, this holds true. One learns to do something starting at the most basic level and moving up from there. Of course, there are always exceptions, and the nation of Oiad en Para (Land of [our] Home in the dominant language, Corpus) was one such example.
Thousands of years ago, Oiad en Para had been the home of a mighty empire, one both culturally and militarily advanced. It had dominated the sub-continent it occupied utterly. For nearly half a millenium, the Corpan Empire, as it was called at this time, lorded over its domain, each succession of Emperor to Emperor seen as a passing of a burden more than a passing of power. This burden was the defense and provision to the Empire's people that each new ruler was charged with. For the first few hundred years of Imperial federation, this went well, each Emperor of this period is remembered even today as a historical figure to be fond and proud of.
However, this ever so good thing was not meant to last. An Emperor ascended to the throne not by the Rite of Will, as had been traditional since the empire's founding, but by force. This emperor, Emperor Leveti, had been the cousin of the ruling Emperor. Seeing the adulation and near worship the sitting emperor recieved from the people, Leveti (then known as Garsus Levti) began to covet his cousin's position. Years went by whereby Garsus gathered to him all that were less-than-pure of heart until, one fateful day in mid-March, the Emperor was impaled on his own spear on his own throne.
And so it came to pass that after twenty-two emperors and hundreds of years of relative peace and prosperity, the Corpan Empire began to decline. It would only last barely a century and a half more before the now downtrodden populace rose up against the corrupt government and, in turn, threw itself back down into barbarism.
So complete was the people's hatred of these last emperors, though, that they ceased practicing what had been the Corpan state religion since long before the Empire was founded: Sikl, a spiritualist religion similar to the Buddhist sect that arose seperately in other places of the world. Instead, a sort of perverted worship of the old emperors, the good emperors took its place. Over the centuries, this worship was turned from an honest yearning for better days to a tool of domination.
The church that had arisen around this new religion slowly began to dominate the disparete peoples of the former Empire and ruled over them for years. Only within the last century, nearly two thousand years after the collapse of the Empire, has its power waned. The return of Siklism to the people brought about feelings of malcontent with the current order and, seemingly overnight, a revolution was sparked ninety-seven years ago.
It was a long revolution, lasting over a decade and a half, but still relativily blood-less. The tenants of Siklism were such that the outright slaughter of church officials was frowned upon and, in the end, many of them survived to flee the country or even convert to the remergant religion of their ancestors.
In the end, four new democracies were founded out of the ashes of the Church's theocracy, one of them being Oiad en Para. Although it maintains relations with its neighbors on the subcontinent, it has mostly kept to itself over the last eighty or so years, building its own infrastructure to heights that would put even the Corpan Empire itself to shame.
Now, ready to re-emerge into the world after two thousand years of internal strife and repression, the Corpan people of Oiad en Para are once more to be players on a large scale.
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President Hykl Navish, seventeenth president of Oiad en Para, was quite nervous. He was an experienced diplomat, of course, having spent much time in the other three countries of the Corpan subcontinent, but he was nonetheless nervous; and sweating on top of that, which was never good when one was about to give a speech.
Navish, one of very few men who claim to not have aged more than he had experienced, was old. Very old. Well into his seventies when he was elected, he could actually remember much of the aftermath of the initial revolution. His father had been a commander in the militia that had stormed the capitol buildings of the old Church's theocratic dictators, had served as a main collaborator in organizing the nation after it was decided by a conference of the great Corpan men to split the subcontinent into four seperate nations. He had even retired as a junior chief-of-staff in the infant Paraden military, second only to the man who had been Supreme Commander of rebel forces.
He had never really expected to go into the military like his father, though. It just wasn't for him. He had, however, still wanted to make a difference in the nation so, from a young age, he had gone into politics. Having served several terms as a Congressmen in the great capitol city of Oiad en Civil, his fiery young years quickly slowed into the experienced years of middle-age, where he used his newly acquired level-headedness and intelligence as first a junior then, later, head diplomat to the other three Corpan nations.
Now, after all those years of life, he would be the first major representative of the Corpan people to the world in years uncounted. He gulped, his slightly age-blemished white skin giving off a very slight shine from his sweat, and adjusted the neck of his formal business suit. The conference table he was at the head of was un-occupied, but the fine wooden construct still stetched out enormously before him, the dark and majestic shape only broken by camera equipment hanging down from the ceiling half across the way.
A crew of film-men stood behind the array, handling all of a myriad of duties that needed performing to make sure the up-coming broadcast went off without a hitch. Beside Navish, however, stood two Paraden Airmarines in full battle-dress, their pilot-helment like headgear obscuring their entire head except for their face and the HUD eyepiece covering even part of that when deployed. Their uniforms were of the most majestic looking camoflauge, meant to blend into the dark, snowy mountain environment that covered much of Oiad en Para.
On either side of the marines stood a sound crew, just outside the frame of space the camera was set up to capture. The man in charge of the entire operation stood with the sound-crew, making sure final preperations were being done correctly. Heavy-set, the man was nonetheless a hardened professional and also very, very joyful that his team was covering this historic event.
"Ok Mr President, we're going on in exactly one minute. It'll go live to all stations on the Corpan subcontinent and any stations we have managed to purchase timeslots on in other nations. Those we failed to acquire time in will have the entire thing broudcast to diplomatic centers when possible and foriegn relations departments when not. This is a truely historic moment for the Paraden people, President Navish, I am sure I speak for many when I say that I am glad it is you that should make this speech".
Navish, thought for a few moments before making the reply, "I thank you Evect, but remember, my name is to be changed for ease of translation in other nations. Call me George".
The large man nodded, "Yes sir --". As he was about to say more, a techie came and tapped him on the shoulder and flashed his ten fingers, " -- oh, Mr President sir, we're live in ten, nine, eight...", he let the counting fade off as he backed further away from the capture area, using his fingers to denote the amount of time remaining.
When his last finger went down and came up once more to point at Nevish -- now George --, the wisened politician turned face to the camera and launched into his speech.
Greetings peoples of Oiad en Para and peoples of the Greater World! I am President George Nevish of the nation Oiad en Para, one of four nations native to the Corpan people. I am sure many have not heard of our nation and even more sure that our history is likely little more than a curiosity to majors in the subject at your great universities, but I am here today to extend an open hand of friendship that dis-regards our former obscurity and, I hope, will help to launch us onto the world stage from where we can contribute to the world community as we have failed to do for countless years.
I admit that I do not know much about the rest of the world -- just that which I was taught many decades ago in grade school and what little I have picked up in the intervening years. However, I wish to correct this grevience by extending my own hand to the rest of the world as well as the hand of my nation. Any government that wishes to form a friendship with Oiad en Para is herefore invited to a conference to be held at the Tetra-National Lodge in the Paraden mountain range of Hvectal, the very same lodge in which this nation was originally founded when we won our Independence.
The conference is set to last a week and will include not only politics and diplomacy but such things as cultural dances of a more traditional sort and other entertainment that we hope will play a positive light on the Corpan cultural identity.
Any requests by a government official to attend will be accepted, as the open arms of Oiad en Para are willing to accept into friendship any and all that will seek the embrace.
I saw good day to the citizens of the world and the leaders of governments that watch this broadcast in hopes that, together, we can forge a strong and positive future for the world as a whole.
---------------------------------------------
It is often said that you must walk before you can run, and that you must crawl before you must walk. Throughout much of the kingdom of life, this holds true. One learns to do something starting at the most basic level and moving up from there. Of course, there are always exceptions, and the nation of Oiad en Para (Land of [our] Home in the dominant language, Corpus) was one such example.
Thousands of years ago, Oiad en Para had been the home of a mighty empire, one both culturally and militarily advanced. It had dominated the sub-continent it occupied utterly. For nearly half a millenium, the Corpan Empire, as it was called at this time, lorded over its domain, each succession of Emperor to Emperor seen as a passing of a burden more than a passing of power. This burden was the defense and provision to the Empire's people that each new ruler was charged with. For the first few hundred years of Imperial federation, this went well, each Emperor of this period is remembered even today as a historical figure to be fond and proud of.
However, this ever so good thing was not meant to last. An Emperor ascended to the throne not by the Rite of Will, as had been traditional since the empire's founding, but by force. This emperor, Emperor Leveti, had been the cousin of the ruling Emperor. Seeing the adulation and near worship the sitting emperor recieved from the people, Leveti (then known as Garsus Levti) began to covet his cousin's position. Years went by whereby Garsus gathered to him all that were less-than-pure of heart until, one fateful day in mid-March, the Emperor was impaled on his own spear on his own throne.
And so it came to pass that after twenty-two emperors and hundreds of years of relative peace and prosperity, the Corpan Empire began to decline. It would only last barely a century and a half more before the now downtrodden populace rose up against the corrupt government and, in turn, threw itself back down into barbarism.
So complete was the people's hatred of these last emperors, though, that they ceased practicing what had been the Corpan state religion since long before the Empire was founded: Sikl, a spiritualist religion similar to the Buddhist sect that arose seperately in other places of the world. Instead, a sort of perverted worship of the old emperors, the good emperors took its place. Over the centuries, this worship was turned from an honest yearning for better days to a tool of domination.
The church that had arisen around this new religion slowly began to dominate the disparete peoples of the former Empire and ruled over them for years. Only within the last century, nearly two thousand years after the collapse of the Empire, has its power waned. The return of Siklism to the people brought about feelings of malcontent with the current order and, seemingly overnight, a revolution was sparked ninety-seven years ago.
It was a long revolution, lasting over a decade and a half, but still relativily blood-less. The tenants of Siklism were such that the outright slaughter of church officials was frowned upon and, in the end, many of them survived to flee the country or even convert to the remergant religion of their ancestors.
In the end, four new democracies were founded out of the ashes of the Church's theocracy, one of them being Oiad en Para. Although it maintains relations with its neighbors on the subcontinent, it has mostly kept to itself over the last eighty or so years, building its own infrastructure to heights that would put even the Corpan Empire itself to shame.
Now, ready to re-emerge into the world after two thousand years of internal strife and repression, the Corpan people of Oiad en Para are once more to be players on a large scale.
---------------------------------------------
President Hykl Navish, seventeenth president of Oiad en Para, was quite nervous. He was an experienced diplomat, of course, having spent much time in the other three countries of the Corpan subcontinent, but he was nonetheless nervous; and sweating on top of that, which was never good when one was about to give a speech.
Navish, one of very few men who claim to not have aged more than he had experienced, was old. Very old. Well into his seventies when he was elected, he could actually remember much of the aftermath of the initial revolution. His father had been a commander in the militia that had stormed the capitol buildings of the old Church's theocratic dictators, had served as a main collaborator in organizing the nation after it was decided by a conference of the great Corpan men to split the subcontinent into four seperate nations. He had even retired as a junior chief-of-staff in the infant Paraden military, second only to the man who had been Supreme Commander of rebel forces.
He had never really expected to go into the military like his father, though. It just wasn't for him. He had, however, still wanted to make a difference in the nation so, from a young age, he had gone into politics. Having served several terms as a Congressmen in the great capitol city of Oiad en Civil, his fiery young years quickly slowed into the experienced years of middle-age, where he used his newly acquired level-headedness and intelligence as first a junior then, later, head diplomat to the other three Corpan nations.
Now, after all those years of life, he would be the first major representative of the Corpan people to the world in years uncounted. He gulped, his slightly age-blemished white skin giving off a very slight shine from his sweat, and adjusted the neck of his formal business suit. The conference table he was at the head of was un-occupied, but the fine wooden construct still stetched out enormously before him, the dark and majestic shape only broken by camera equipment hanging down from the ceiling half across the way.
A crew of film-men stood behind the array, handling all of a myriad of duties that needed performing to make sure the up-coming broadcast went off without a hitch. Beside Navish, however, stood two Paraden Airmarines in full battle-dress, their pilot-helment like headgear obscuring their entire head except for their face and the HUD eyepiece covering even part of that when deployed. Their uniforms were of the most majestic looking camoflauge, meant to blend into the dark, snowy mountain environment that covered much of Oiad en Para.
On either side of the marines stood a sound crew, just outside the frame of space the camera was set up to capture. The man in charge of the entire operation stood with the sound-crew, making sure final preperations were being done correctly. Heavy-set, the man was nonetheless a hardened professional and also very, very joyful that his team was covering this historic event.
"Ok Mr President, we're going on in exactly one minute. It'll go live to all stations on the Corpan subcontinent and any stations we have managed to purchase timeslots on in other nations. Those we failed to acquire time in will have the entire thing broudcast to diplomatic centers when possible and foriegn relations departments when not. This is a truely historic moment for the Paraden people, President Navish, I am sure I speak for many when I say that I am glad it is you that should make this speech".
Navish, thought for a few moments before making the reply, "I thank you Evect, but remember, my name is to be changed for ease of translation in other nations. Call me George".
The large man nodded, "Yes sir --". As he was about to say more, a techie came and tapped him on the shoulder and flashed his ten fingers, " -- oh, Mr President sir, we're live in ten, nine, eight...", he let the counting fade off as he backed further away from the capture area, using his fingers to denote the amount of time remaining.
When his last finger went down and came up once more to point at Nevish -- now George --, the wisened politician turned face to the camera and launched into his speech.
Greetings peoples of Oiad en Para and peoples of the Greater World! I am President George Nevish of the nation Oiad en Para, one of four nations native to the Corpan people. I am sure many have not heard of our nation and even more sure that our history is likely little more than a curiosity to majors in the subject at your great universities, but I am here today to extend an open hand of friendship that dis-regards our former obscurity and, I hope, will help to launch us onto the world stage from where we can contribute to the world community as we have failed to do for countless years.
I admit that I do not know much about the rest of the world -- just that which I was taught many decades ago in grade school and what little I have picked up in the intervening years. However, I wish to correct this grevience by extending my own hand to the rest of the world as well as the hand of my nation. Any government that wishes to form a friendship with Oiad en Para is herefore invited to a conference to be held at the Tetra-National Lodge in the Paraden mountain range of Hvectal, the very same lodge in which this nation was originally founded when we won our Independence.
The conference is set to last a week and will include not only politics and diplomacy but such things as cultural dances of a more traditional sort and other entertainment that we hope will play a positive light on the Corpan cultural identity.
Any requests by a government official to attend will be accepted, as the open arms of Oiad en Para are willing to accept into friendship any and all that will seek the embrace.
I saw good day to the citizens of the world and the leaders of governments that watch this broadcast in hopes that, together, we can forge a strong and positive future for the world as a whole.