Neuostland
From Acw
Neuostland is a planet in the Chimera system.
Contents |
History
The planet was claimed by the German FTL ship Seevogel after it was denied access to the world that would become New Ukraine by the Alexander Nevsky (See also the Battle of New Ukraine). It was named by the newly established The Reichs Ministry of the Outer Colonies for the Eastern Province of terrestrial Grossdeutschland (comprising Rumania and the Czech Republic). Neuostland was destined to become like its namesake, an agricultural powerhouse. From the beginning of terraforming plans it was decided to encourage the planet to support massive agriculture and not much else. The resulting program created a very hot and wet world caught in an almost perpetual spring, with a mild and also nonexistent winter. To tend these fields, the Ministry began negotiations with the SS and the The Reichs Ministry of the Interior to round up people deemed to be too racially impure to be part of terrestrial Grossdeutschland, and commence plans for transporting them to the new colony en masse.
Spitzer's Compass
The original survey team for the planet was headed up by a man who would become first Planetary Governor and be ennobled for his efforts: Johan von Spitzer. Spitzer's team produced the first post-terraforming maps and named many of the geographical features they saw. The first task set in front of the team leader was to define which pole was North and which was South. In the Solar System, this had always been simply defined by Terrestrial conventions - Mars and other bodies simply had their poles defined by how the planet was in relation to Earth.
On New Iowa, North had been chosen almost through an accidental consensus by the multinational colonists. Some early British maps did go against other British maps by defining what became South as North, but the majority of UIS and British maps agreed on North almost by accident. Chimera had no such conventions. The Soviets' colonisation of New Ukraine was not yet underway, and there were no other inhabited or claimed planets.
Not so for Neuostland. Von Spitzer had nothign to guide him in his choice. He tried choosing it according to orbital direction, but noticed that when he did so he was unhappy with how his maps looked. In the end, his perception of Earth as having more land masses in he Northern Hemisphere tipped the scales - so the map of the new globe would not look bottom-heavy, he chose the hemisphere with more terrain features to be North.
Immigration and Indoctrination
Politics
The inhabitants of the planet are deliberatly ill-educated and kept that way in order to increase their servility. They use only the most primitive farming methodologies. Because this Bauernwelt is ruled from Arminius, its moon, the serfs of Neuostland know very little of their masters or their predicament.
Recent Political Agitation
Geography
Neuostland is a relatively unremarkable planet from a geographical standpoint.
Bodies of Water
Due to the high heat brought about by the terraforming process and the proximity of the sun, there are no large bodies of water at all, and very few rivers. There is a very large swamp in the planet's lowest basin, known as 'Varus' Lament'. Most of Neuostland's rivers feed into this area,and the one large lake, known as 'Johan's Eye', after the first planetary governor, Johan von Spitzer. Spitzer had trouble naming it, and his team bandied the name around so much that it stuck. The original map held by The Reichs Ministry for the Outer Colonies still has Spitzer's scrawl on this one terrain feature, while all other features are named in type. Other than these bodies, much of the planet's small amount of water spends much of its time in the atmosphere.
Mountains
The poles are giant plateaus of solid, almost featureless ice that cover massive mountain ranges underneath them. A number of mountain ranges march outfrom under the ice in three main northerly ranges, and two southerly ones. Apart from the mountains, the remainder of the planet has been landscaped to be flat and almost entirely featureless. This makes it perfect for farming, but not particularly conducive to the development of regional difference or national organisation - with no natural borders and low population density, the people of Neuostland have trouble banding together in groups larger than townships.
Northern Ranges
The longest of the northern ranges, which is also the thickest and long enough that it crosses the equator, is called 'The Spine'. The other two create a long, elliptical valley beneath the polar regions and are collectively known as 'The (Eastern or Western) Arms'. The Arms create a basin in which the largest body of water, 'Johan's Eye' resides.
Southern Ranges
The longer of the two southern ranges comes up as if to meet the Spine, but stops about four hundred kilometers short. It is known as 'The Tail'. The other southern range is quite short and curls almost immediately west after emerging from the ice. The area between it and the pole is rocky and barren. The inhabitants call it 'The Barrens', bu the original surveys state that the range is called 'The Niebelung's Smelter'.
