 |
The Kingdom of ZAGORIA |
 |
Disclaimer:
All the stuff on this page is purely fictional and has noting to
do with the reality. Zagoria is a country made up for gaming purpose only.
Pictures, intrigues personalities etc is there to spice up the story, but are
only the result of my imagination. These notes should not be mistaken as a
description of my attitude against different nationalities, religions, cultures
individuals etc.
If there is anyone that has any objections to the content of this page, let me
know and I will deal with it as soon as possible.
laros6006@yahoo.se
|
The Kingdom of ZAGORIA |
|
On the 24th of July 2007 The Kingdom of Zagoria established diplomatic relations with the following nations:
(Click on the map to enlarge)
The Kingdom of Zagoria, a country with problems that are numerous as flies on a pig farm
Zagoria has
never before drawn the attention of the surrounding world. Since the early days of
mankind it's inhabitants have had the luxury to mind their own clan wars end
genocides without any foreign interference. Surely some bold missionaries and
some traders had showed up, but none of them has never really managed to
make any major impression on the country and it's inhabitants. It all came to an
end in 1882 when the German Price Helmut von Mecklenburg arrived.
Following all the the traditional protocols (including the sounds from a proper
military brass band) he put an imperial German flag on the beach, and declared
to some surprised local fishermen that they from now on were 
German
subjects. In good Prussian spirit he then founded a combined harbour/capital
called Willhelmsburg (named to honour the Kaiser) and took on to organise the
colony.
The new
owners quickly realised that behind the swampy coastline was a countryside well
suited for all kinds of true colonial activities, specially the running of all
kinds of plantations. The hills also showed some promise for profitable mining
activities as well. 
For some reason that Prince Helmut and his people were unable to understand, the natives showed almost no interest to abandon their tribal life and transform into the much more civilised profession as underpaid plantation workers. In order to supply the farmers with cheap and willing labour the Germans managed to recruit a large number of immigrants from China and Thailand. The colony grew and flourished. Colonial farms popped up everywhere and to the amazement and amusement of the natives, small steam boats puffed up and down the rivers and a railway net started to criss-cross the inland.
But
there is an end to all happiness. During the Great 
war a French force invaded Zagoria and the Germans had to
surrender. However, the small German navy under command of Prince Heinrich were nowhere
to be found and a rumour tells that they are still lurking in the swamps around
the Zagorian river, and are still fighting the war.
When the war ended
the colony was handed over to Belgium, but since they had
their hands full of dealing with their slice of the Congo, Zagoria was left to
more or less look after it self. Sure there was some Belgian governors that
showed up, but most of them were clever enough to realised that places like
Zagoria should be handled like old engines. Leave it alone and don't 
mess
with it as
long as it runs. Once in a while there were some more ambitious kinds of
governors, but they didn't last for long... The healthiest place for a colonial
governor was after all the nice beaches at Samyang and not the dull offices
around
the Wagner platz in Willhelmshafen.
Samyang
was founded by some Thai immigrants that had an extra good sense for business.
They put up some nice hotels on the best beach in Zagoria and soon tiered
officials from Willhelmshafen and rich farmers crowded the area. The town expanded with more
hotels, bars, nightclubs and when the first casino was founded, Samyang started
to attract the colonial jet-set's of nabouring countries as well. 
Life in Zagoria was
running just fine, but for some reasons, the colony was not contributing to the
Belgians state budget and after the events in Congo, the Belgians lost all
interest of being a colonial power. The question was how to get rid of the
colony. There were no local freedom fighters and no ancient royal family that
they
could give the throne to. To be honest there had never been a throne in Zagoria,
but that didn't worry the Belgians. There was a German farmer that was related
to Prince Helmut, but the public opinion in Brussels demanded that the power
should be handed over to a non-European. Finally the governor fond a
candidate. A Chinese man in Samyang claimed to be related to the Chinese royal
family. Carefully avoiding any investigations of the story the Belgians rapidly crowned
the candidate as King Ramen the first.
King Ramen had started his path to the throne as a member of a local gang in Samyang. Slowly he had worked his way to the top, carefully cultivating the relationship with international business men and the Belgian governors. In time he would probably been capable enough to run the new country, but "time" would not wait for him.
In the swampy areas
around the mouth of the Zagorian river, The local German-Belgian mining company
Zagoriche Bergbau (ZaBe) that have had the monopoly of all activities in the
country found oil, and quite plenty of it. All
of a sudden representatives of major companies and foreign governments rushed to
the scene in order to carve out the largest possible slice of the cake. Here was
the 
British
Imperial Oil (ImpO), the American Global Oil and Mining (GOM), the French Petrolium et
Chimie de
France (PCF) and the Russian company Siberian Gazoline Explorers (SIBGAZ).
The king truly loved his new life and money rolled in. Being a former gangster King Ramen was used to foul play and dirty tricks, but he was not prepared for what was coming. GOM managed to get the rights to explore the findings, but multinational oil companies are notoriously bad losers, so they all launched their own campaigns to ruin the business for GOM, and at the same time put themselves in a position were they could pick up the contract as soon as GOM were out.
Russian and French agents distributed
attractive university scholarships to the kids of important Zagorians. These
kids spent some really nice times in Paris and Moscow, not only learning math
and chemistry, they were also carefully cultivated as trustworthy agents. The publicity made idealistic aid workers from the northern
Europe, dressed up in bio dynamically grown cotton, to pour in to Zagoria as well. These
aid workers could soon write home and tell horrible stories of a people lacking
all of the basic necessities in life such as equality- and gender rights plans and a proper
recycling system for plastic PET bottles. Within a year there were solar powered
recycling stations behind virtually every bush in Zagoria.
In a few years the combined efforts of foreign influence started to
kick in. A youngster returning from Moscow, fired by the right revolutionary mind
set, managed to create a communistic movement among the plantation workers.
About the same time a suspected French supported organisation started it's activities in the Zagoria delta, mainly targeting the GOM installations. Also the mining districts suffered from repeatedly assaults. The small Royal Army of Zagoria (RAZA) were in no shape of dealing with the new situation. Military advisers and surplus equipment started to pour in, but the situation grew were more and more out of control. The incident that would cause the situation to derail came however as a complete surprise.
It all started in the small
town of Neu Frankfurt. Hanna von Arlöv, a Swedish former revolutionary
laundry worker had taken up a career as a recycling expert. Hanna had arrived to
the town with a TV-team in order to demonstrate a truly successful project for
recycling of plastic PET-bottles. 
Local
recy
cling
agents had reported that not one single bottle had been found on the city dump
since the project was initiated. To everyone's disappointment all the recycling
machines turned out to be empty. After some intense investigations, Hanna and
the TV-team realised
that the locals didn't have any PET-bottles that could be recycled. Early next
morning the media team woke up to the shouts of an angry mob swarming
down the street towards the mayors office. The mob stormed the office searching
for the treasures bottles they expected to be stored there. Neither the mayor,
nor the bottles were however to be found. As the mob was working up their fire
to new heights,
rumours started to spread. One story claimed that the the rich peoples in the
capital were keeping the PET-bottles to them selves and soon the mob were on the
move to Willhelmsburg to claim their rights. Hanna and the TV-team were swept
along.
Rumours travels fast and all over the country similar actions took place.
Finally the
rumour had reached Samyang were the king and his family lived. 
The
reports of the mobs marching through the town made his tensed nerves to crack.
The king and the entire royal family rushed to the airport in order to leave the
country. The king
was in such a hurry that he forgot to check if the plane had
fuel for the trip. The plane took of, turned to head out over the sea... and was
never seen again.
After a while the mob cooled of and headed back home again and the Zagorian police could once again patrol the streets. The TV-team returned home as well, but the revolutionary fire was once again burning in the heart of Hanna von Arlöv. She gathered a small hard-core group to continue the struggle.
When the news of that the royal plane had disappeared, a number of characters showed up on the scene claiming the throne.
