NationStates Jolt Archive

Due to recent diplomatic breakthroughs soon a great outpouring of German missionaires will be sent into a nation long kept under the dark and inhuman pale of Islamic tyranny. This large demographic movement will be controlled by a limited extent by the government of Chingiz but the Holy Spirit will not limited by any secular rulers as the Spirit of God will strike down the people of Depkazia in holy fear. Large numbers of converts are expected as the zealous Germans take to their God given mission of spreading the gospel. Unlike the Unsanctioned League pretenders these real sons of God will spread the Gospel in all its Holy purity. Instead of bombs and bloodshed and the Gospel will be spread by truth and the simple blood stained cross.

Once the good news was made known to the Council of Bishops, it was quickly published in all the German churches. Immediately throngs of bible believing Germans stood up and volunteered for potentially dangerous service overseas. And make no mistake, it certainly was dangerous and filled to the brim with radical Muslim extremists. In an area where people were starved for the Gospel it was certain that the devil would be found there also. There would be those would who wish to oppose the Holy Spirit and the devil would use any means to oppose the Word of God and his wonderful means of grace. To every person who volunteered it was sternly explained that it was a risky business and one filled with peril. No one with a wife and children would be permitted to go to the land of pagans and certainly no females were allowed to go. In order to differientiate the German missionaries from the Unsanctified Holy Leaguers no Germans were permitted to carry weapons.

With a passion unknown to outsiders millions of German picked up the cause and began building and constructing phamplets. Wives and children began knitting tens of thousands of good-bye scarves for the departing soldiers of Christ and for the poor people of Depkazia. Cabinets were raided and fridges plundered in order to feed and heal the pagans. Local churches had their weekly offerings triple with donations to the cause. Within hours of the announcement airplanes were already filling with Germans and within a day the first German airplane landed down in Depkazia, with hundreds expected to follow in the next few days.

German ambassador to Depkazia Michael Burgh turned on the German TV channel supplied to him through satelitte and he saw images of the activity booming in Germany. He was absolutely and completely shocked by the news as he was obviously left out of the decision making loop. His superiors must have gone over his head on this one and like always expected him to work out the fallout on his own. He resigned himself to what was going to be a miserable day and contacted his counterpart in Depkazia and asked him what he could do to smooth over the transition of the German missionaires.

OOC: Ran out of time more to follow.

The Quinntonian government is quite happy to see the Gospel proclaimed in its purity.

WWJD
Amen.

Likewise out of time and tagging what looks likely to go a bit wrong!

The Depkazi Caliphate

Samarkand's decision to accept German missionaries may be hailed in Berlin as a historic step, but in Mid Asia it is just another footnote in Chingiz Khagan's catalogue of reform.

Arriving at the Caliphate's major airports -Samarkand, Dushanbe, Tashkent, and others- Germans enter a land experiencing a long-awaited rebirth after generations of subjugation and enforced stagnation. Icons of Turkic nationalism and Islamic faith are hard to avoid, especially in the cities. Here and there Orthodox churches may be found, but their congregations have experienced nothing of the growth seen in neighbouring Mosques, Orthodoxy being tarnished by rampant anti-Russian sentiment.

At some airports the Europeans see military transport aircraft being loaded with supplies, some even with BMD armoured vehicles and self-propelled mortars. And then line after line of MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters outnumbering Su-27 Flankers and MiG-23 Floggers, and clusters of Su-17, Su-22, Su-25, and MiG-27 attackers preparing to fly south for Jihad by the sword. Chingiz has 541 combat jets at last count, and more than 300 armed helicopters, not to mention one million warriors. The annexation of Eastern Afghanistan, on-going, is set to be followed by the same for Balochistan and the Vale of Kashmir as the flawless armies of the all-conquering Khagan march on under the banners of the Prophet and his followers.

Chingiz is away, in Bactria, heading home from Mumbai after trade talks and military conspiracy, but the Germans are greeted kindly enough wherever they go.

They may see vast fields of cotton, immense mines lifting gold, uranium, coal, silver, and copper from the earth, pipelines running gas and oil, roads being carved into desert and mountain, nuclear reactors, (from a distance) the largest biological weapons facilities on the face of the earth, ballistic missile sites, minarets by the thousand, rising Mosques and schools, hundreds of thousands of marching soldiers and Mujahideen, and the brilliant green and gold domes of the Depkazi Caliphate, self-styled centre of the world's second largest and most recently expansive faith.

taggage

The Evangelishe

When the German missionaries are not handing out pamphlets or preaching the good news they do follow their hosts and examine their airports, cotton fields, uranium mines, and nuclear reactors. They are certainly impressed by all the hard work and bustling activity, a sure sign of strong economic growth. The recent surge in energy prices was certainly contributing to the economic boom. German missionaries noticed the aircraft and large military build up but while this may have impressed bureaucrats and politicians back home the missionaries were most concerned with the economic circumstances of the local people. Unsanitary conditions, lack of utilities, extended bellies were all potential signs that the economic prosperity was not trickling down to the common people due to corruption of the political elite and were looked for very closely. The missionaries cared for the well being of their common man and wanted to help them up in whatever way possible.

Germans did not give out hand outs to the poor they saw although they were willing to give hand ups in the future. It would have been easier to give a beggar some money but in the long run it was better for the beggar to go hungry and retain pride than to eat and feel the iron fetters of self loathing around his neck and arms. Missionaries looked at local industries and made mental notes of how they could best invest to improve the lives of the Depkazian people. Economic investment, mentorship, and freedom from corrupt business practices is the best way of improving the economy and the German missionaries knew these lessons better than anyone else. It was believed that if Germany was able to heavily support the economy and feed people’s hunger than the people would be more willing to partake of the everlasting well that never runs dry.

Germans, although of a different denomination from the Orthodox churches, were highly encouraged to see a small but thriving Christian faith wherever they went. The missionaries go to the churches on mass and praise their Lord their God with their Depkazian brothers. They do not partake of the bread and the cup due to religious differences but they heartily enjoy observing the worship services. A song of praise to the Lord is wonderful no matter the tongue which professes it. The Germans encourage their brothers after the services and tell them to be courageous and strong of heart so that they may continue to live in the faith and hold firm to the teachings of Christ. The Germans ask the religious leaders information on the local culture and cultural practices in order to avoid offending their generous hosts. They also attempt to coordinate outreach activities in order to present a united front to the pagan outsiders.

In Germany the bustle and evangelistic fervor continued unabated and the whole nation seems caught up in missionary zeal. Churches coffers were overflowing with more and more gold but pastors exercised fiscal responsibility that was both Christian and German in origin. No monies would be spent overseas until their missionaries came back and reported to them. Money would not be allowed to be squandered idly or directed into the coffers of corrupt officials. Once a plan was established by the Council of Bishops a massive coordination of well directed and well managed funds would begin. The goal of course was the salvation of the entire Depkazian people, the economic affects would be fringe benefits.

Business Interests

While the common people and men of the cloth were trying to bring people to the cross, others were trying to further less ultraistic purposes. The alternative energy interest group began lobbying both the German and Samarkand government to send wind turbines and solar panels to Depkazia. With wind turbines and solar panels the cost of producing oil and gas would be reduced. Alternative power would reduce emissions and reduce the amount of gas used for production purposes. German military experts were particularly interested in the amount of H2S in the Depkazian oil fields. The cost of sulfur, an ingredient in explosive mixtures, had increased due to the war and the Bundeswehr was interested in increasing its supply before the price further increased. German nuclear scientists were also interested in examining Depkazian nuclear technology and began to lobby for access into nuclear power plants.

OOC: I do not know if you know about the H2S content of your oil fields but if you could find out that information and give me a link I would appreciate it.

(OOC: At the moment I honestly don't know much about such things, but, off hand, all I can say is that I have some impression that much Caspian oil is supposed to have a pretty high H2S content. Much Depkazi oil is Caspian-sourced, but a lot is also under the deserts of Turkmenistan, and a little across the other territories covered by the Caliphate. I think that we have rather a lot of individual small fields, and a lot is not especially well explored as yet! Alas, my time is short today, I have an appointment of sorts, so must dash. If anyone else knows/finds anything helpful, do let us know!)

I suppose it does not matter much in the big picture but it would be interesting to know. Also, how windy is it over there in Depkazia? Good for wind farms? I assume that its hot over there. Maybe I can peddle you some alternative energy to reduce your production costs.

The Caliphate's oil reserves may be relatively unimpressive by regional standards, and though its gas reserves are far greater they are not inexhaustible, but one thing that Chingiz does not lack is sunlight. The deserts of western Depkazia, except where they lie over petrochemical reserves, have seemed rather a waste of space.

Depkazia may be found interested in solar and wind power, but the Caliphate's budget is limited. On-going fighting in Afghanistan is as draining as any attempt to control that land has ever been, and Chingiz is still building up forces opposite the Vale of Kashmir. Meanwhile the unsettled nature of Depkazia's relations with Armand and China continues to delay plans to export gas and denies Samarkand the transit fees it hopes to gain from Combine exports to the Chinese. Still, it might be said that the Germans have their foot in the Caliphate's alternative energy door. Some of the low mountains that Depkazia has in abundance are slated as the site of the Caliphate's first small-scale wind farm, using German turbines.

Depkazia's nuclear technology, meanwhile, is very much stuck in the 1980s. Three Soviet research reactors remain in operation, and uranium mining and processing is big business, but the Caliphate's nuclear weapon test seems to have been merely a dramatic and showy way of disposing of aged weapons inherited from the USSR rather than built independently. If Germany has any interest in developing nuclear power, Samarkand will certainly be interested in co-operation. Chingiz wants hydroelectrical and nuclear power to provide for the bulk of his needs before too long, backed by much less significant use of fossil fuels and solar and wind power.

OOC: Can you comment on the missionaries experience with the common folk and their interactions with the Russian Orthodox Christians? I want this exchange to be largely through the eyes of missionaries with some back door dealing at the side.

The German corporations were ecstatic at the success of gaining access into an undeveloped but potentially lucrative market. The Germany government authorized the export of ten 5MW wind turbines and began drawing up plans for solar plants in the Depkazian desert. The coffers of Depkazia were likely brimming with money from oil and gas exports and they were glad to be able to direct some of that money towards their coffers. China and the Soviets may not want gas but that should not concern anyone in Depkazia as the world war had increased demand as nations scrambled to obtain enough money to fuel their military industrial complexes.

The German government and people were trying to limit the amount of fossil fuels burned but the fact of the matter was that fossil fuels still formed a significant part of the energy economy and Germany, for one, was interested in buying from Depkazia. Fossil fuels had to be bought and it was preferable to buy from a country which developed alternate forms of energy so that the carbon emissions in Germany could be partially offset by the reduced emissions in Depkazia. Germany was interested in buying gas from Depkazia, perhaps piped through Russia, in return for an amount of the profit to be used in buying German made alternative energies. As nations around the world began investing in more alternative energies and buying German made wind turbines and solar panels, the per unit price continued to drop and the technologies became more and more economically feasible. A hundred years ago one would be lucky to buy a wind turbine that could generate a fraction of a megawatt. Now the newest ones rolling off the assembly lines were capable of generating up to 10 megawatts.

The German government proceeded very slowly in the area of nuclear cooperation with Depkazia. Germany already had nuclear plants and was in the process of building additional plants and could teach much to Depkazian engineers. But their nuclear weaponry was still fairly primitive. Good enough to drop nuclear bombs in every major city in France, but still fairly primitive. They could learn much from Depkazian nuclear weaponry and teach them just as much. The large amount of raw uranium could also be used for constructing many more nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants. The largest stumbling block to nuclear exchange between Germany and Depkazia was the nature of the Depkazian government and newness of the exchange between the two countries. The reports from the missionaries in Depkazia were considered essential for future collaboration.

As German missionaries became settled in the Caliphate, a good bit of their time would be taken in attempts by officials and locals (some of whom were in fact plants, officials in disguise) wanting to show them to ancient Christian sites, including Orthodox Churches and the tombs of past missionaries and pioneers. The alleged site of a Church in Samarkand mentioned by Marco Polo is one such tour on which people are keen to drag Germans, where it is claimed that a miracle kept the building standing after the removal of its principle supporting column. The tomb containing the arm of the Prophet Daniel, stolen by Tammerlane, is probably the major attraction.

This may all seem rather odd and less than productive, but is an attempt by the Caliphate to keep the Germans busy and interested without enabling them to distract the populace from an Islamist message that grows stronger every day. Chingiz constantly increases his Jihadi rhetoric and is seen brandishing a sabre about Registan Square as he warns the people to prepare for a widening of the current struggle by the sword.

Afghan and Armandian Communists, the Kashmiri Maharaja, Baloch bandits, Azeri nationalists, the Russian Tsar, and now the increasingly divided Han Chinese all receive heavy attention in widening militant propaganda that the Germans find to be increasingly captivating the general public.

Economic hardships are blamed on Sino-Armandian atheist conspiracies against Muslim development projects, Russian imperial domination of Kazakh petrochemicals, and criminal gangs and illegitimate warlord rulers preventing proper access to ocean ports in Balochistan. Only when these stumbling blocks have been removed, says the Caliph, will Mid Asia regain its past glories.

Still, for the most part, Depkazi and other Caliphal peoples are friendly when dealing with the Germans. The small Christian minority is glad to have someone to relate with, since even they tend to see Russia as the enemy, and there is within this minority even another small group interested in Protestantism since they feel alienated from the centres of Orthodoxy and suspicious of that Church's links to imperialism.

With the bulk of the Muslim population there are few problems, though most ethnic Depkazis really aren't all that religiously inclined except as far as Islam can be used to support their growing sense of nationalism and Turkic strength. It is unlikely that many will be convinced to go to Church, but most will not take much offence to German approaches. A larger minority are welcoming but, the visitors will find, tend to suddenly throw up a brick wall at a certain point. The Germans might be handy allies and are respected guests, but for the really convinced reborn Muslims they may go so far and no further.

There haven't been more than two or three instances of targetted aggression against missionaries across the whole of Depkazia-proper at this stage, and so far no deadly violence. Security forces sometimes loiter around missionaries as they go about their work, but are yet to be directly obstructive in any significant way.

In diplomatic relations, Samarkand is keen to have Berlin's help in achieving global recognition for the Caliphate, which has replaced the erratic and backwards Atheist Labor Republic that stood from the end of the USSR in late 1991 until just a couple of years ago.

Caliph Restructures Nation, Announces Elections

Not content to base his power on military triumphs, rising Islamic sentiment, Turkic nationalism, on-going economic deregulation, international sporting participation, and the end of the damnable Hippo Tax, Caliph Chingiz Khagan Depkazi is actively pursuing modernisation and internationalism. As he tries to attract foreign investment and secure Chinese and Hindustani co-operation in further territorial acquisition, the Caliph has said that new political offices will be created, and that Presidential and Prime Ministerial elections will be held.

These will be the first such elections in the recorded history of Depkazia.

Candidates, according to Samarkand, may hail from Depkazia, North Pakistan, and Bactria. Candidates from other parts of the Caliphate will be considered at the next elections, whenever they should come. They may be male or female, and the only age requirment is that they be old enough to vote (Chingiz himself came to power in his twenties, and would be ill justified in restricting political office to middle-age!).

Presidential candidates must be Muslim, and Prime Ministerial Candidates may be of any faith -or lack of it- so long as they accept Caliphal oversight and swear to abide by major aspects of Sharia Law (which will not, for example, enforce a Halal diet on an atheist Prime Minister).

Samarkand continues to seek capital investment from aboard, saying that Depkazia-proper, Bactria, and North Pakistan are, "essentially stable" (ignoring serious organised crime and endemic corruption in Pakistan especially) and that work in wider Afghanistan must at least begin, despite difficulties. The Caliphate also wants more modern nuclear technologies from Germany after observing that nation's recent weapons test, and Chingiz continues to seek international recognition as the legitimate Caliph and for his claims in Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Chechnya, and East Turkestan (and, less aggressively, Azerbaijan, northwest Afghanistan, and Armandian Balochistan).

The Quinntonian people are inspired by their brothers from across the Atlantic, and the work that they are doing in this region. Certainly some Germans meet the Quinntonian missionaries already in place (though they number only a couple of dozen and centred themselves in and around Samarqand, and as fairly conservative Lutherans have set up a small church in that city where some disaffected Depkazis, mostly Orthodox in nature, but also a couple of Muslim and atheist converts have come to worship the living God using a translation of Luther’s Divine Service.

Of course, though the Quinntonians have some interest in their own missionary efforts therein, they are happy that Germany is tackling this situation with all of their hard work and fervour. The Quinntonian already in country try and give them the benefit of their experience, and are enjoying the sudden freedom to worship and evangelise that the German government has won for them.

Quinntonian businessmen, particularly oilmen and venture capitalists start to show up with their German friends, being the vanguard of the vast Quinntonian economic machine. They start to look at investing in various projects that the Caliphate is starting on their own, providing the much needed liquid capital for their economic movement forward, but others start to make contact with various territorial leaders, asking them if they would be interested in partnering with Quinntonian corporations in order to build a luxury goods manufacturing sector in the nation.

WWJD
Amen.

A little about the Depkazi Caliphate
(I want to address some of the views expressed in Fleur's opening posts, which haven't really come up in character for the Depkazis to refute.)

The Caliphate is ruled today by a young man (reputed to be approaching his 30th birthday) whom his -admittedly quite mad- father now claims was Christened, into the Russian Orthodoxy, Chingiz Chokareff, but now bears the rather contrary name and set of titles, Khalīfah Chingiz Khagan Depkazi, Amir al-Muminin, Malik ul-Mugāhidīn.

Chingiz was immediately embraced by the Depkazi people for no other reason than the fact that he freed them from the relentlessly insane tyranny of his own father, Edmund Wolfgang Tchokareff, who for more than a decade lead The Depkazi Atheist Labor Republic, a land where a mysteriously acquired hippo was often consulted on matters of state.

The Caliphate is not an entirely backwards land technologically, despite the neglect of the 1990s, as it inherited much from the USSR. Depkazi mines provided the uranium for the Soviets' first nuclear bomb, and the world's largest biological weapons testing facility is on Depkazi soil, as are three nuclear research reactors.

After Tsar Wingert's Estenlandic revolt finally triumphed in the late 1980s, hardline Communists retreated to Mid Asia, taking much military equipment and general infrastructure with them, and following the collapse of Communism in Europe they consolidated their power in a Soviet Union consisting of Kazakhstan and Depkazia, having the intention of launching a counter-coup against the Kremlin. It never came.

Religion in the Caliphate

Another common misconception holds that religion was totally surpressed during the Soviet era. This is far from true, and the Depkazi Soviet Socialist Republic contained scores of registered mosques and hundreds of active scholars. Unfortunately for the faithful, Islam was largely manipulated for political ends, and after the fall of the Atheist Labor Republic, which followed Soviet practice in this regard, while more than half of the population self-identified as Muslim, only a handful had any idea of how to correctly practice their faith.

Most Depkazis, and the majority of those in the wider Caliphate, are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi madhhab, and, like the rival Ottoman Caliph, Chingiz embraces this as the oldest of the four schools of the Sunni faith and arguably the most liberal. His application of Abū Ḥanīfah's teachings may be controversial in some of the more conservative Muslim communities of the world, and this has been seen in the Taleban's failure to peacefully align themselves with the Caliphate, but in Depkazia at least there is virtually no opposition to Chingiz's view.

It is possible when visiting the Caliphate to order vodka with one's meal in many restaurants, and missionaries may find that the first shipments of German beer are becoming available in hotels aimed at western visitors. Under Chingiz's law, grain and honey based alcohols are legal, while wine and many other alcoholic beverages remain banned substances. Drunkeness, however, is a serious crime, and most licenced establishments will only serve one alcoholic drink per customer in a sitting, as the penalty for enabling drunkeness is quite severe, and the impact on a business's reputation would be equally dire.

Shī‘a Islam is the largest minority faith in the Caliphate, Samarkand claiming for it a maximum of 15% of the population. Chingiz allows observant communities a degree of self-regulation and tries to incorporate their leaders and scholars into his governmental apparatus, claiming that the Followers of Ali are a legitimate school of the Muslim religion, even though he is not a member. Anti-Shī‘a activities are considered officially by Registan to be offences against the Islamic brotherhood.

There is in the Caliphate a Jewish community probably more than a hundred thousand strong, and far from suffering under Muslim administration the community tends to find that life is easier than it was under the Soviet and Labor Republic eras.

A little larger than the Jewish minority but massively reduced since 1991, the Russian Orthodoxy represents nearly the entire Christian community in the Caliphate, though tiny numbers of Lutherian converts have been identified by German and Quinntonian missionaries in recent times. In all probability the best source of future converts to other Christian churches must be the Russian Orthodoxy, which is suffering a terrible image crisis that makes a minority all the more resolute and conservative while discouraging many more.

If there is a problem of discrimination in the Caliphate, it is largely targetting Russians, who are blamed by many for society's ills. The Orthodox community is at a loss: those who fled the Atheist Labor Republic for Putin's Russia in the 1990s have not been followed by their peers since the rise of Tsar Wingert, under whose fist few wish to reside.

Geography and Population

Of course the Caliphate is expanding. Chingiz has, in a few short years, over-thrown his lunatic father, who tortured Depkazia through the 1990s, long-serving North Pakistani dictator Shareef, and the Afghan Taleban. He now looks set to bring down the young but deeply troubled government of newly independent Balochistan and bring that vast territory into the Caliphal fold, and is openly seeking the end of the Maharaja's rule in Kashmir.

Assuming the incorporation of Bactria and the conclusion of Samarkand's proposed division of Afghanistan between Caliphate and Armandian-Communist-backed Democratic Republic, the Depkazi Caliphate will cover roughly 2,259,400 square kilometres and be home to an estimated 111,632,676 people.

Quinntonia

In the Bactrian Khanate, centred at Mazār-e Sharīf, Quinntonian investors find Brab Khan. Formerly known as Burhânuddîn Rabbânî, Brab was with the first Mujahideen to enter Kabul in 1992, and became President of Afghanistan, until pressure from the rising Taleban and Armandian intervention forced him to flee, eventually becoming associated with the Depkazi-backed Northern Alliance. He now rules as the Caliph's hand in northern Afghanistan.

Bactria was once a rich land, and Brab sees no reason why this shouldn't be the case once again. There is some good agricultural potential, and Brab is interested in exploiting the area's small but potentially viable petrochemical resources, hoping that modern US technology might get the most out of small reserves that would be largely wasted or else inaccessible if less sophisticated Depkazi methods were used to pursue it.

The eastern reaches of Brab's domain will surely be of interest to investors and missionaries alike. Covering over forty thousand square kilometres and home to almost three quarters of a million people, Badakhshān is one of the most economically backwards and under developed parts of the world, let alone the Caliphate. Presently its only economic activity is in minimal agriculture, the hand-mining of semi-precious lapis lazuli, and the widespread cultivation of opium poppies... many of which find their way via Abassamara to France's African holdings in a trade that represents probably Chingiz's greatest secret shame, as the opiates are used by the French against the African people as a weapon of occupation and domination. This province is Brab's birthplace, and as such quite important to the Khan, and lying as it does beside the Hindu Kush it can be called nearly the centre of the world. Yet it suffers deep neglect.

But Badakhshān's rocks contain massive mineral wealth. Caliphal surveys have located gemstone deposits including rubies and emeralds, but the infrastructure to exploit these resources simply does not exist in this remote region. If anyone is prepared to shell out enough up front, the returns could be significant.

Quinntonian investors are quite interested in the various wealths that are available in the region, but do have some very pointed questions regarding military and government protection of any capital infrastructure and development from attacks outside and in, as well as promises of protection from nationalisation. Quinntonia represents the largest collection of investment capital in the world, but it did not become that way because the Quinntonians invested their money foolishly.

A few of the major mining industries start to make appointements to do self-inspections of the region for the purposes of large scale mining, with investments in the tens of billions being required to turn this area into a profitable enterprise.

Various oil companies look seriously at the deposits, and while they are interested in a limited partnership and continued ownership, they are more interested in contracting themselves out in order to mentor local companies towards maturity, retaining maybe a 20% stake in future operations. They feel that here in the region shown to them and also elsewhere in the former Soviet Republics the real lucrative prospects are in sales of heavy industrial equipment related to the oil industry, which ranges from non-existence in some parts of the country to just dated and inefficient in others. Even in the most productive oilfields in the nation, it is explained to them that their “current” methods of extraction pull up maybe 30% of total deposits, but with new Canadian and Quinntonian technologies, extraction has been able to be boosted in the last ten years to over 60%. (This is true in RL, BTW) They also explain that not only will this make further exploration and exploitation of these resources far more profitable and cheaper, to the tune of a nearly 70% rise in profits with full implementation, fully paying for any modernisation that had to occur, but they will see what has been occurring in Quinntonian-held fields, a re-extraction process that is occurring at already produced wells. This means that wells that they know and have already used and have brought up as much as they thought was possible and thus lay fallow, can be revisited, with almost no costs normally involved in finding new sources, and suddenly these wells can be productive again, with almost no need for new infrastructure, making old dead field profitable again. The Quinntonians would be happy to share this technology and sell the products that would be needed to begin the long process towards modern extraction techniques, but they would hope that they would earn a minority stake in these companies as well as the contracts for the sales; distribution and consulting that would need to occur. In the long-term, they speak about the establishment of a Quinntonian backed national school in Samarqand with a Christian college and Seminary, as well as a College of Petroleum and Geology. That would provide for and secure their own national sovereignty and self-reliance over their resource in the long-term, while the deals on the table would see them becoming more viable and interesting in the short term.

The poorer regions of the land are of quite a bit of interest to the Quinntonians, but they tend to file that fact away and send aid and development workers and missionaries, and allow them to ask for what is needed in terms of investment in the future.

WWJD
Amen.

The British being themselves, it is not long before Depakzia's sudden emergence onto the world scene is noted in London. The site of what remains the second or third largest stock market in the world is, of course, no slouch when it comes to new investment opportunities, and British money begins flowing into Depakzia as private companies become aware of the substantial mineral and petrochemical reserves of that nation. Unlike Germany and, to a lesser extent, the United States, Britain makes no particular attempt to export any sort of ideology for the simple reason that private companies do not generally deal in spiritual matters, and so those dealing with firms such as British Petroleum or any number of other mineral, construction or holding companies will be pleased to discover that Sharia law isn't really a sticking point for the British.

That said, the Foreign Office reacts with guarded pleasure to Chingiz Khan's announcement that elections will be held, and praises the Caliphate's ongoing attempts to develop into a prosperous and representative nation. Consumed by its own problems, the government of Britain at large generally does not have a lot to say on the subject, but what is said is positive. The Times runs a minor story on developing Anglo-Depakzi relations, in which the Minister of State for the Near East is quoted as saying, 'it's certainly a positive step, these elections, and I have high hopes for the Caliphate. After decades of struggle to provide a good life for its citizens, the Caliphate seems to be reaching the point where its government is providing well for everyone that it can. Britain will, of course, do all that it can to support the growing democratic movement begun by Chingiz Khan, and we look forward to positive relations with Depakzia in the future.'

British firms are received quickly in the Caliphate, where inexperienced capitalists appreciate the straightforward approach. While Brab Khan brings in Quinntonian firms to restart his region's limited petrochemical extraction industry, Samarkand engages BP to resurvey the Caspian Basin, or at least the Caliphate's share of it.

The British capitalists will get a close-up view of Chingiz's dodgier side through this. His claims in the Caspian conflict with Armand's, and Depkazi boats and aircraft have a confrontational history with the Combine. BP's representatives are quietly consulted over prospects for, essentially, stealing Combine oil and gas reserves. What can be done? What might we get away with? How far are you prepared to go for profit at the expense of the Communists?

Samarkand quite clearly wants to use the British to push its claims against the relatively introspective anti-capitalist black flag, and, while using Turkic nationalism and Muslim faith in China and Kazakhstan, is keen to encourage conflict between free and controlled or even anti-market ideologies in order to position itself with the former and win yet more victories for the young Caliph.

Samarkand

British Petroleum's representatives, whose bosses decisively squashed Marketing's suggestion that they rebrand themselves as 'Beyond Petroleum', are rather surprised at just how forward these Depakzis are. On the other hand, BP's men are intrigued by the possibilities that exist in the Caspian Sea. While British Petroleum as a company did not subscribe to the practice of drilling in disputed areas, certain corporate rules might be bent so as to be more favourable to an 'aggressive' drilling scheme that would best exploit the area's reserves. The Depakzis are presented with a wide array of maps and diagrams showing Caliphate oil reserves, disputed reserves, and Armandian claims as recognized by industry standard and by several national governments. While the disputed area shrunk or grew from map to map, (depending upon the degree to which Armandian claims were recognized) it essentially remained a not insubstantial strip of green/black hashed area within the Caspian Sea.

The keen observer will note that BP's own 'industry standard' map favours Depakzia. While it is not by any means one-sided, most of the particularly high-quality petrochemical reserves in the disputed area are, by this map, clearly within Depakzia's recognized sphere of influence. A fearsome number of legal and geological opinions for the breakdown were provided in a goodly number of binders, which the Caliph's advisers and Depakzia's investors were invited to peruse at their leisure. It is insinuated by BP's representatives that the British government had not signed off on such deals, and that BP did not intend to disclose the information unless obligated to do so. While no laws were to be broken, it was very clear that the arrangement was not fully aboveboard. It would, therefore, not be in the interests of the Depakzi capitalists or the Depakzi government to advertise these drilling sites widely.

Of course, BP would not be responsible for provoking an international incident. If the Armandian claims were found to be legally valid on a case-by-case basis, BP would be obliged to relinquish claims to the individual gas reserves. Of course, BP would not seek to bring legal actions on itself, and such judiciary proceedings would occur at the behest of the Armandian government, if at all.

In other words, BP was not willing to act as agent provocateur in this instance, but will of course seek to maximize shareholder gain by pursuing available avenues of expansion in the Caspian Sea. That these expansions came at the expense of the Combine was entirely accidental to the intent, which was to open new avenues of drilling within the Depakzi national oil reserves.