Revision as of 06:09, 6 June 2006

Geography of the Scarlet Empire

Introduction

The Kawaii Isle is divided into 100 prefectures, 10 districts, and 5 geographic regions. There are too many prefectures to detail them all, so only a handful will be treated here, though each region will recieve some detail.

The East

• Population: 150 million
• Primary Products: Brothels, Bureaucracy, Hunting, Timber, Woodworking
• Climate: Hot and Humid

The East is the most populous region of the Kawaii Isle, home to the Imperial Capital and to great rolling forests which are carefully harvested so as to sustain them. Wood costs too much to import profitably, except for rare woods, so the East has to meet much of the nations' need for wood.

People in the East build houses with breezeways, designed to help channel the winds through them so as to cool them off and drive off the oppressive levels of humidity. It often annoys Easterners that they are actually more humid than the Western end of the Kawaii Isle.

Many nobles maintain hunting lodges in the eastern forests, though only the tamer sorts of wild animals are allowed to live there, so as to avoid too many massacres of villages. Some peasants poach in the nobles' hunting reserves, and a few nobles break the laws on what can be stocked...

The Imperial Prefecture

• Population: 6 million
• Primary Products: Brothels, Bureaucracy, Coffee and Tea Shops, Hot Atomic Death, Karaoke, Manga, Monks, More Prostitution, Tacky Tourist Junk
• Climate: Strangely cool and dry, except for the beach, which is warm and wet

The Imperial Prefecture incorporates the Imperial City, Area 51, and the surrounding countryside at the mouth of the Imperial River. It is here that the Palace of the Empress sits, that the Central Temple of the Kawaii Order stands, and that huge swarms of tourists come to see all the historical sites, go swimming, and buy cheap, badly made printed pictures of the major sites. It's also one of the three major centers of publishing in the realm. The long and winding road Artist's Alley is home to roving bands of desperate, indigent artists who will do anything if you'll buy one of their sketches. We do mean anything. Where it meets Fleet Street, the major publishers cluster, manga and regular print books alike. The Lemon District, so named for the most commonly favored perfume odor in the area, sits nearby, home to most of the major brothels. This is no doubt merely a coincidence.

The Imperial City is home to 3 million people and is probably the largest city in Creation, unless you count the Hall of the Mountain Kings (Physically larger), or Neo-Yu-Shan (not technically in 'Creation', per se.) Most make a living either off the Imperial Government, the Printing Industry, Brothels, Tourists, or providing food and other crucial services to one of the above. Because the Neo-Empress made a point of providing various social services not found elsewhere, the city is a pretty nice place to live for most people, though now those services are being cut and unrest is rising. The Kawaii Order has tried to pick up the slack, but their resources are not infinite, and the Mouse of Peace's cabana boys have needs too, you know.

The Imperial Palace may itself be the largest building in creation; it occupies about 3 square miles and large parts of it are sealed off for various reasons, many of them hidden for security reasons. Or as one of the Neo-Empress' little jokes. The Top Floor is the Empress' Eyes Only. No one who has tried prying since she vanished has lived to tell the tale. It is a sprawling mess of a building, constantly added to and sometimes just swallowing other buildings whole. Part of it is domed over and resembles a miniature city itself.

Area 51, a zone about 10 miles on each side, lies north of the Imperial city by about 10 miles, and contains the Imperial Defense System, a giant First Age facility which looks strangely like an amusement park. No one ever comes back from trying to ride the roller coasters, though...Rumors claim a tunnel connects it to the Imperial Palace.

Lyca Prefecture

• Population: 5 million
• Primary Products: Furniture, Grains, Timber, Wood-Carvings, Wood-Cutting Tools
• Climate: Hot and Humid

Where the Imperial City is unique, Lyca is typical. It is a heavily forested and logged prefecture split in twain by the Tralaka River. Its capital, Lyca, is home to some 58,000 people and would be very large in most of Creation. Here's it's a backwater town torn by feuds between the Ragnarok, Solipism, and Nebbish Gangs, who all have interests here. The Solipists have a large hunting reserve which they run as a resort, the Ragnarok are heavily invested in the timber trade, and the Nebbishes take an interest in local agriculture and brewing. The Solipists want to keep farmers and loggers away, the Ragnarok want to keep farmers and tourists out of the way, and the Nebbishes envy the tourists and find the loggers an annoyance, since they won't permanently clear cut the forest to make more farmland.

Most of the populace lives scattered in dozens of small farm and logging villages or in the major market towns. Many have long time feuds deriving from the larger feud. These are usually carried on via petty harrassment.

There is not a lot of slavery here, but the peasantry is fairly well under the thumb of the nobility.

The South

• Population: 100 million
• Primary Products: Coffee, Cotton, Fruit, Indigo, Mining, Sugar, Rice, Tobacco
• Climate: Hot and Dry or Hot and Wet or RAINING LIKE CRAZY

The South is largely divided into grand plantations and farms, while the peasantry work as farm labor, or in many cases, are simply slaves. This area is not as good for growing Coffee, Cotton, Indigo, and Sugar as the Southwestern colonies, but the plantation owners still make pretty good profits. There is also a lot of mining in the southern mountains, though the Center outproduces the South in mining.

The South is not nearly so hot as the Southern Threshold, in part because it cools off a lot during the season of Water and half of Wood, then is hot and wet from mid-Wood through Air, then hot and dry in Earth and Fire.

Southern nobles tend to be the most tyrannical in the Realm, as the slave to everyone else ratio is higher here than anywhere else in the Realm. Slaves are carefully groomed because an ugly, uncute slave brings shame on his or her owner. Southerners spend a lot of time on their own personal grooming as well, and typically wear light clothing because it's so hot. Like the Easterners, they favor houses with a breezeway, though nobles will build huge enclosed mansions with magical air conditioning.

The South lacks many major cities beyond its ports; the nobles prefer rural life.

The West

• Population: 60 million
• Primary Products: Fishing, Jewelry-making, Rice, Shipbuilding, Sea Resorts, Whaling, Wheat and other grains
• Climate: Warm and wet, sometimes very humid

The West tends to be the most relaxed region of the Scarlet Empire, perhaps taking its cue from the many relaxing oceanic resorts where merchants, nobles, and Magical Girls come to relax and enjoy themselves. There is a general attitude of 'we can get to that tomorrow'.

The interior of the West is large scale grain and rice production territory, while the coastal regions live off the sea--making ships, fishing, whaling, and making jewelry from various kinds of gems which come from the sea (such as pearls) or are imported from the Central Region.

Flooding is a continual problem and rain is frequent, so people tend to live in elevated places and sometimes build houses up on stilts for safety. Their houses are tightly sealed to keep out water, which can make them hot during the season of Fire. Thankfully, the climate tends to be pretty even, except for MASSIVE RAIN 3 months a year.

And hurricanes.

Slavery is rarest here, because much of the work is done at sea and hard to supervise properly.

The major settlements are all on rivers and the coast.

Yomi-Ben Prefecture

• Population: 4 million
• Primary Products: Education, Fish, Ghosts, Metalworking, Porn, Ships, Tourist Traps, Trade, Whale Products
• Climate: Cool and Wet

It rains most days on the city of Yomi-Ben, which sits at the mouth of the Yomi River. The agricultural products of the upland and the metals of the Central Region come down the river, trade items flow in from the West, and the locals also fish, hunt whales, and produce large amounts of porn while running away from ghosts.

Yomi-Ben is built on land seared flat by one of the early uses of the Imperial Defense Grid, right next to a fine harbor. The old city of Kadashi-Do was fried here, and the ghosts linger on despite the efforts of the Kawaii Order to wipe them out. However, the locals have gotten fairly good at containing them, and the city's location makes it inevitable that people will try to live here.

Yomi-Ben is a very spread-out city, and buildings tend to be elevated and the streets sunken. In some places, they've given up and just turned the streets into permanent canals linking workplaces, homes, the river, the port, and the sea. The tang of salt fills the air, and some days, you can fish from your doorstep.

Yomi-Ben has an unusually large number of primary schools, due to efforts by the city to promote education to draw in yet more money. These schools all own their own islands and include a very sound education in boating, naval combat, trade, and fishing as part of their curriculum. For many, the final exam to graduate involves hunting pirates or slaying a whale.

The students have a lot of money to spend and the beauty of the city draws in tourists, so the city is riddled with brothels and tourist traps. It's also riddled with porn produced by students looking for money and too young to have any common sense about sex whatsoever.

Yakudara Prefecture

• Population: 1 million
• Primary Products: Coral, Eels, Fish, Pearls, Shrimp, Whale Products
• Climate: Cool and Wet

Yakudara Prefecture is a quiet western backwater, most noteworthy for having several watchtowers which help to monitor the Western Ocean. Its population is a mix of quiet farmers and fishermen who follow the seasons and eat lots of seafood. The Paddle-Wheel gang dominates this Prefecture, for what it is worth. Prefect Paddle-Wheel Paiko is trying desperately to find some way to earn some distinction so she can move to somewhere better.

The Prefecture has an extensive coral reef off its coast and is a good location for pearl diving too. The locals are quite skilled at working these products.

The North

• Population: 80 million
• Primary Products: Entertainment, Escaped Demons, Fishing, Grains, Ranching, Sorcery, Vegetables. Weaving
• Climate: Cool and moderate

The North is probably the most pleasant region of the Empire to live in, growing comfortably warm in Wood and Fire, while only becoming cool, not cold, the rest of the year. It is a major center of grain and vegetable production, along with ranching. Much of the land is divided into small peasant farms, though there are some large ranches as well; the North produces a lot of the Empire's beef.

One of the major forms of entertainment are rodeos, competitions between the best animal-wranglers of the North. The cowboy ethic permeates the North, and many Northerners see the Old East as the great rival of the Empire as a result. But every kind of entertainment is popular in the North and many folk learn to sing and dance in order to while away the long hours tending cattle and sheep and goats and pigs.

There are more Sorcerors in the North than elsewhere, usually leading to more disasters as well. Peasants blame every disaster on the Bratwurst Academy.

Sorceror's Cove Prefecture

• Population: 1.5 million
• Primary Products: Cattle, Cornbread, Dangerous and Weird Things, Education, Eels, Fish, Printing, Sorcery Texts
• Climate: Cool and Average

Sorceror's Cove is the main jumping off point for travel to Bratwurst Academy. Those seeking to get their children to it send them to several special primary schools here which try to train kids for the entrance exams. The city also focuses as a major trade center for creepy things sorcerors need to bribe demons with. The city is also a major center for printng, especially of sorcery related texts.

Most of the population of the prefecture is spread out in fishing villages and ranches, and the area is thinner populated than it could in theory support because many find it too dangerous or creepy to live this close to Bratwurst Academy, even if no new volcanos have formed in nearly four centuries.

Eagle's Nest Prefecture

• Population: 6 million
• Primary Products: Cattle, Cowboys, Gems, Grains, Horses, Mining, Prisons, Rodeo, Prison Rodeo!, Timber
• Climate: Cool and Average

Eagle's Nest nestles in the hills of the North, a mix of open spaces where cattle are raised, patches of forest, and stretches of agiculture along the rivers. Eagle's Nest itself began as the support services for an Imperial Prison; the prefecture now contains 20 prisons, leading to one of the odder local customs--the Eagles' Nest Prison Rodeo. Held just outside Eagle Nest Prison proper, all the rodeo cowboys in the competition are prisoners, competing for reduced terms. Held annually in Wood 3 (Descending Wood), the Rodeo attracts huge numbers of tourists.

Slavery is rare here, as teams of prisoners do most of the work of slaves, rented out in gangs to ranchers and farm owners or put to work on public works. The locals are unusually well armed for fear of the prisoners.

The Center

• Population: 45 million
• Primary Products: Corn, Finance, Fishing, Gems, Herding, Jade, Jewelry, Metal, Metalworking, Stone,
• Climate: Variable by altitude, but tending to be cool and wet part of the year and cool and dry the rest

The Center is the least populous region of the Empire, home to mining towns and valley farming towns, along with lots of herders and ranchers. It produces the best metalworking of the empire and churns out much of the Jade which sustains the economy. As a result, it has become a major center for banking, especially for private bank accounts used to conceal ill-gotten gains.

Sturdy houses of stone predominate here with steeply sloped roofs so they won't hold snow when it falls in the colder months at higher altitudes. Woolen clothing predominates, made from the sheep herds. Jewelry is very popular as a decoration.

Large swathes of land are unoccupied--too angular, too rugged, too useless. You can walk many lonely roads here for hours or days and meet no one.

Settlements cluster around mines or around fertile upland valleys and plateaus. The lakes are densely settled around the shores, as people supplement their diets with fish.

The mines are heavily worked by slaves; everyone else tends to be free.