Keymonus Posted December 28, 2023 (edited) Terraversan Commonwealth Rum-RunnersPart of the Fort Arltrees Foreign Merchants' District Close to the southern end of the Foreign Merchants' District, the East Terraversan commercial delegation represented the greatest surprise for most of the inhabitants of Fort Arltrees. Only three years before, Terraversa and Oleon had faced each other in a bitter war, and only the military intervention of Corrington and Eslandola -both on the island and in other areas of the archipelago- prevented a complete victory of the Empire of Light. However, while not completely defeated, independent Terraversa itself didn't survive the war. The eastern region of the island declared independence from the capital, in open rebellion against Archduke Oldis, giving rise to the Commonwealth of Terraversa. At the moment, the Commonwealth was struggling to recover from the war and, despite its dreams of freedom, it had de facto almost become a vassal state of Corrington. Allowing a commercial delegation of the Commonwealth on El Oleonda, together with the ferry built between North and South Sillitholina, represented an important attempt towards the normalization of the relations between Granoleon and Westface, even if doubts and mistrust still existed on both sides. An official Terraversan consulate in an Oleonese colony or formal trade agreements between the two nations was still far too much for both sides. Instead, an office and a small warehouse of a trading company represented a less "official" step, but still allowed some informal contact between the governments. If things worked well, an RNTC office might have appeared in Tarlor or Westface, in the future, breaking the almost complete monopoly of Corrington on the trade of the young nation. The name of the company, the Terraveran Commonwealth Rum-Runners, seemed appropriate for a band of smugglers... and actually it had started as such during the Mardierian rule, before the Terraversan Revolution granted it some respectability. Quite unsurprisingly, the acronym TCRR (with the "C" added after the Westface Secession) was often preferred, especially in official documents. The uniforms of the TCRR guards were clearly inspired by the ones of Corrish soldiers, even though their training was not even comparable with the one of Her Majesty's Royal Marines: with the militias still in place, even the regular army of the Commonwealth lacked men with military experience. A couple of soldiers guarded the entrance, while a figure in black slipped through the door, with an envelope of papers in hand. A simple merchant or someone else? An Oleonese diplomat? Or maybe a Corrish agent? The core business of the TCRR in Fort Arltrees -despite its name- was not Rum, but vanilla. The only known source of this valuable spice was Jameston, on Cascadia Island, but small vanilla crops existed also on El Oleonda. Due to the huge distance from the motherland, and the limited amount of production, Fort Arltrees couldn't compete with Jameston in this profitable business (not yet, at least), but the profit margin was still interesting. The TCRR office was small and overcrowded: bags and cases of vanilla pods occupied any available space, together with maps and piles of documents. The flintlock pistol on the director's desk, a memory of his past in the Terraversan Revolution, tended to make all the reports particularly fast and concise. Even though the Corrish influence was starting to take place in some aspects of the Commonwealth administration, the influence of Mardierian culture was still clearly recognizable: for example, in the overly decorated uniforms, or the baroque still-life painting hanging on a wall. Only time would have told whether the relations between the Commonwealth and Oleon could sooner or later normalize, or if the business of the TCRR in Fort Arltrees was destined to last. Profitable trade between two nations, sometimes, could be a good reason to avoid unnecessary wars between them! Spoiler Additional views: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The reason why the TCRR could only dispose of the lower floor was also the only reason why that small company could afford a place in the Foreign Merchants' District of Fort Arltrees. The reason had a name and a surname: Professor Alejandro Coronel, archeologist, writer, philosopher, and, as a hobby, occultist. This peculiar character was not interested at all in the vanilla trade, but had a desperate need to move on El Oleonda... something not easy, for a citizen of the Corrish-aligned Commonwealth. Therefore, he paid a significant portion of the settling taxes for the TCRR, and personally financed the construction of the building. In return, he occupied the whole upper floor and obtained from the company a passage to the island, as well as the promise to support him in all his future enterprises. The studio of this peculiar character was completely occupied by a variety of "findings": a variety of idols, ritual masks, maps, scrolls written in ancient languages, and many other objects. In an (apparent?) chaos, Atwi idols were positioned side by side with antiquities from Tellvok, Tyree'De artifacts, and ancient codices written by the first Mardierian explorers. Professor Coronel had heard about the ruins of an ancient city on El Oleonda, and hoped to finally prove his extravagant theory. Indeed, he firmly believed that an ancient civilization once existed in the East, far before recorded history: after ruling most of both the Old and the New World, that Empire had somehow disappeared, leaving mankind in the darkness for thousands of years. Even the Great Pyramids "of Tellvok", according to Professor Coronel, were actually an artifact of that ancient empire. How could all the other archeologists not understand this truth? Despite the plot of the Order of the Faith to conceal the truth, the signs were hidden in plain sight, if one just looked for them! Even the tarots, considered by many a senseless superstition, also told a part of the story... the Rising Sun, the East; the Broken Tower, a clear hint to the cataclysm that had destroyed the ancient empire. Little mattered if other symbols didn’t have an obvious meaning, all of them must have been in a way or the other allegories of the ancient disaster! Most of the academics laughed at him, but he would have proven all of them wrong! He only needed to find the proof of his theory somewhere in the archipelago, possibly even there on El Oleonda... the large islands of New Haven Seas were clearly part of the ancient continent, swollen by the merciless Ocean millennia before! He would have laughed last, he was sure… Even if most considered him a lunatic, and the TCRR guards hoped never to be chosen to accompany him in his expeditions (actually they had placed bets on how soon he would have disappeared in the jungle), Professor Coronel had actually done some important discoveries, down in Tellvok. Only time will tell if the Professor will be able to discover something about the ancient civilisation of El Oleonda, despite his weird theories, or if he will get lost in the interior. For sure, you will probably hear about him in the future! Edited December 30, 2023 by Keymonus Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeff of Clubs Posted December 29, 2023 A little too 'Redcoated' for my tastes Another fine installment! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fraunces Posted December 29, 2023 Hmmm I am not sure a small new colony would be able to expand so quickly to other islands so short after war, but why not: if there is rum to sell, smuggle and drink who am I to disagree Nice interior an minifig building once again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yperio_Bricks Posted December 29, 2023 Another great build and story! I really like the professor's studio, packed with artifacts, maps and papers. The professor is an interesting character, as is the director. Where does the still-life come from? Is that a printed piece? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Khorne Posted December 30, 2023 Another fine addition. Great furniture designs and packed feeling in the interior. Like @Yperio_Bricks said: the professor is a promising character and his study looks interesting. Will we be seeing more of him? Too bad the full text isn't there yet, I'd love to see the descriptions for the final pictures. If possible somehow, I'd try to write the text beforehand in a text editor perhaps and then you can post everything all at once? The suspense is always killing . Did you come up with the name because of the sign/sticker or did you have the name first and then made a custom TCRR sticker? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keymonus Posted December 31, 2023 On 12/29/2023 at 2:33 PM, Jeff of Clubs said: A little too 'Redcoated' for my tastes Another fine installment! Thanks! I was also tempted to insert a proper (Corrish) redcoat somewhere, but then I preferred the man in black at the entrance! On 12/29/2023 at 4:55 PM, Fraunces said: Hmmm I am not sure a small new colony would be able to expand so quickly to other islands so short after war, but why not: if there is rum to sell, smuggle and drink who am I to disagree Nice interior an minifig building once again. I also had some doubts, both for political reasons (the Commonwealth is almost a Corrish protectorate) and for practical reasons (Terraversa is far, away and didn't really recover after the war). Also for this reason I introduced the Professor upstairs, paying a part of the rent for the company. However, a Terraversan colony somewhere in the archipelago is probably out of question for a long time. On 12/29/2023 at 10:43 PM, Yperio_Bricks said: Another great build and story! I really like the professor's studio, packed with artifacts, maps and papers. The professor is an interesting character, as is the director. Where does the still-life come from? Is that a printed piece? Thanks! The printed tile is a piece from one of the Chinese New Year sets (I don't know which one, I bought it from Bricklink a while ago), actually it was intended to be real food and not a painting, but it made its job! On 12/30/2023 at 10:31 AM, Khorne said: Another fine addition. Great furniture designs and packed feeling in the interior. Like @Yperio_Bricks said: the professor is a promising character and his study looks interesting. Will we be seeing more of him? Too bad the full text isn't there yet, I'd love to see the descriptions for the final pictures. If possible somehow, I'd try to write the text beforehand in a text editor perhaps and then you can post everything all at once? The suspense is always killing . Did you come up with the name because of the sign/sticker or did you have the name first and then made a custom TCRR sticker? Thank you! I had managed to avoid the split-posting in all my last builds, doing exactly as you suggested. However, I didn't like the first version of Professor Coronel's story, but I didn't want to start the post from scratch... so I posted the half-complete version, with the (vain) hope of finishing everything immediately after! About the name: I had the sticker (from the Lone Ranger train), and I wanted to use it in this build. Coming up with a reasonable name was not as easy as I expected, but it gave me the chance to add a little more backstory Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Khorne Posted January 1 Lovely, the final pieces of the story are here! On 12/28/2023 at 9:51 PM, Keymonus said: Even the Great Pyramids "of Tellvok", according to Professor Coronel, were actually an artifact of that ancient empire. How could all the other archeologists not understand this truth? Because the pyramids are obviously built by aliens! Everyone knows that, of course! Quote Only time will tell if the Professor will be able to discover something about the ancient civilisation of El Oleonda, despite his weird theories, or if he will get lost in the interior. For sure, you will probably hear about him in the future! Nice! Excellent setup for more adventure. Looking forward to that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NOD Posted January 3 I like this building best in terms of architecture! Trading vanilla is a good idea because delicious desserts are made from it. The studio with the variety of “findings” is very interesting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Keymonus Posted January 18 On 1/1/2024 at 2:16 PM, Khorne said: Because the pyramids are obviously built by aliens! Everyone knows that, of course! I seriously thought about writing that, then I decided that "Altantis actually built all the monuments of the World" was already lunatic enough! On 1/3/2024 at 4:22 AM, NOD said: I like this building best in terms of architecture! Trading vanilla is a good idea because delicious desserts are made from it. The studio with the variety of “findings” is very interesting. Thanks! The main difficulty of the buildings was keeping them interesting and different, while still keeping them appropriate for the district (so two floors with an office and some goods to trade). I'm glad you like this little idea, even if I don't know exactly when and how I'll develop this character's storyline. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
