A View of the City [Completed]

[The Union of Tinis]

City: Arx



Population: 8.23 million (inside city limits, 2000 census)
Metro Population: 8.54 million (2000 census)
Status: Capital of the Union of Tinis
First Settlements: Vychez, 1946-Vychez was settled by a small community of non-house aligned and Vyl's, both seeking to escape conflicts found elsewhere. Vychez is a recognized borough of Arx near the city center. Vychez was incorporated with the rest of the city.
Incorporation: 1955
County: Arx
State: Arx

Brief History: The city of Arx is named after the fields near the old settlement of Vychez, which in turn were named for a city back in the old country of Pargalo. Despite the settlement of Vychez being for the purpose of letting its inhabitants escape the struggles of the houses of Tinis, during the civil war, the fields of Arx became a common battle ground during several offensives by various groups. During the founding of the Union, it was also the meeting point to hash out the Union constitution. Shortly after it was Incorporated as the capital of the new Tinis. Arx is for the most part a planned city on the large scale but features a wide variety of architectural styles as each building or building complex was developed and built independently (for the most part) of the master city plan with the only restraints being imposed by the amount of resources available both for construction and from city utilities.

-------------------

Waldo straightens his tie. He never much cared for them, but he knew he had to put his best face forward today. In a matter of minutes the guests would begin to arrive.

Flanked by other officials, including the First Speaker and Supreme Commander, Waldo stands near the center of an entourage on one side of the tarmac at Arx International Airport.

A voice in his ear piece squawks with the voice of his aid Bink. "Air traffic control reports they are on final approach. Everyone look sharp and good luck."

Waldo quickly repeated the announcement to everyone else present. Not everyone had ear speakers, some because they didn't need them, others like the First Speaker, because they didn't want them.

Speaking of the First Speaker, he was a bit more in costume today than normal. A more traditional Pargalonian suit, with his special military rank on the shoulders. Not exactly modern western, but respectful enough. A thought passed through Waldo's head that this suit might very well be older than himself.

Waldo looked up to the sky, shielding his eyes from the early afternoon sun, to try to spot the aircraft. The skyscrapers of the city of Arx shimmering in the background, he spots it on approach.

[miokalia]

The Miokalian executive jet approaches for landing.



Inside, Secretary of State Andertol fiddles around with his clothing some while attendants and assitants shuffle papers and make phone calls.
"This suit is too bland. This tie is too corporate.", he says looking in the mirror.
"The decision to not use the normal suit and tie was for press reasons", said his assistant, a fox who was tightening the knot in the tie, "I don't think grey pinstripe and solid-color ties are in style up here in Tinis."
"Five minutes. Look good. Remember, no gestures. We don't want to pull a Nixon", said another assistant.

They sat down in the seats for landing. The flight attendants locked down all the cabinets and desk-drawers. As he stared out the window, Andertol gazed out at the city.
"How big is this city again?" he asked.
"2.23 million", replied one of the assitants.
"It's a diverse skyline. Looks bigger.", he said.

The jet landed and taxied up to the designated spot.
A service truck towed it into place as the engines cooled down.

Andertol and some body-guards decended the stair-trailer brought up to the plane. A cloud of cameras and press swarmed.
Andertol, reached out and shook Waldo's paw with his four-fingered padded claw. Subconsiously incorporating a subtle bow into the motion as is done back home.

"A mighty fine city you have here", he said.

[The Union of Tinis]

Waldo also gives a slight nod of respect as his five fingered paw grasps the claw of the reptile.

"Thank you, it is indeed an amazing city and you honor us and Arx with your visit today," he says as the cameras click off pictures of the two diplomats. Waldo ends the semi-firm shake and directs Andertol's attention to the well dressed figures to either side of him. "May I introduce you to our head of state, First Speaker Izixs, and the head of our military, Supreme Commander Epshrin."

Both figures nod at this. Ephsrin, the old wolf, looks even more gray in the bright sunlight than he does on television.

"It was believed proper that our two most prominent members of our government should meet you here on this most amazing occasion. They will be accompanying us for a portion of the day but have duties that require them to be else where later. We have also selected that a good portion of tour be done by monorail. It will let us present our fair city from an elevated vantage point that will give you some of the best views. The car will also give us some degree of security and comfort that might not be possible with a ground vehicle."

Waldo does a half turn and the Tinisian group parts, "This way if you would."

[miokalia]

On the monorail, Waldo points out some landmark buildings as they pass by. He offers Andertol a beverage, to which he accepts politely.

For the sake of format, he decides to present some of his questions in list form.

"I apologize in advance for asking anything that is too sensitive, but I do wonder, what is your stance on social liberties?",

"Where do you prioritize scientific exploration? We have sort been cutting back on it recently, I admit. Even though we're 'supposed' to be socialist, we rely on industry to do that now. The aerospace industry is international, interplanetary now, and really, they have enough motivation from the markets to push forward with things. There's always someone looking for a way to get from here to there faster."

"I'd love to see what the historical progression of your architecture looked like here."



The refreshments are served. Fine wines, sliced artisan bread, feta cheese and cups of delicate Creme Brulée.
Andertol immediately recognizes the wine as an elegant vintage. He's then startled slightly by the sudden discovery of the dairy products. Andertol tries his best to turn culture-shock into light-hearted amusment.

"I guess my people didn't tell your people", he said lightly.

"Oh, do you not drink alcohol?", Waldo asked

"No, it's fine. We have no problems with that. This is a biological thing I suppose. Bound to happen with so many different species in this world." he continued speaking softer and more candidly,
"Most of my species is lactose intolerant. I'm sorry, I know this is a fine cheese and this is nice Brulée, but... I can't eat it... I know some cultures find refusal of dishes presented to be uncouth, I don't mean to offend, I'm really sorry"

[The Union of Tinis]

Waldo smiles, as does the commander a few seats down. Izixs is staring out the window, but obviously listening closely.

"Its quite alright friend," replies Waldo. "No offense is taken. It is indeed a necessity of diplomacy to not be offended easily, but that rule doesn't apply here since I'm pretty sure none of us would of been anyway."

Waldo asks the server to remove the Creme Brulée, who does so promptly.

"Oh yes, your questions. Almost slipped off to subjects unknown there. Civil liberties? I'd have to say we have a great deal. It would be easier to list the things that are illegal as compared to those that are not. Freedom of assembly and press and speech and religion come standard with our constitution among a number of things listed in our constitution. Jury trials, privacy, the whole kit. Suffrage begins at the age of 15 for a minimum, but earlier if a young-ling has prove themselves able to think and act as an adult. The governments, both federal and state, are limited constitutionally from restricting most things unless they prevent citizens from participating in democracy, greatly hurt the standard of living and quality of life of the nation, or inherently involve the violation of rights of others. So of course murder is illegal on that last one, as is theft of possessed items. Prostitution is technically legal but as of this time no one has registered to perform is legally because the restrictions on it are so great. Drug laws, as well as laws on alcohol use near election time, are fairly strong but do their best to crack down on suppliers of narcotics rather than simply punish those who abuse them. Gun ownership is legal, some restrictions for safety, mainly to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and to make sure the guns don't explode when fired. But also not many of our citizens opt to have them."

Waldo takes a breath and takes a sip of Chateau de Lapin '61 before going on to the next question. The monorail cars pass away from the central core of Arx and approach the fur built canal that immediately rings the down town areas.



As the train passes over the inner water loop of Arx, Waldo continues.



"Tinis tries its best to be multifaceted in science. Some areas we've excelled at, others are still lacking. One could say all of it is government sponsored, but in a system such as ours, as the material distribution for research is usually handled by the science councils, which in some ways can be seen as a government construct since they receive the funds from the government, or a citizen sponsored organization, as the government has no direct say on who is on the council or how its members act. Only that the members are elected by the scientific community they serve.

"But the government does put out special funds for big projects. Some of the big projects are the Crystal Eye solar system exploration vessel that's due to launch in a number of months. I hear the fifth assembly launch is to be held in a couple days actually. Another big project is the PDS. I'm afraid I can't divulge much about the Pattern Defense System except of which is already publicly known. But basically the PDS is one of two devices, one here in Tinis, another in Shikieshuu, that provides a defensive barrier over a set spherical region of space. The discovery of this technology is a success of a strange quirk of several sciences and advanced quantum field theories.

"There's also the particle accelerator. That's also due to come on at some point. I think next year right?"

Epshrin nods, as does Izixs. The rail passes along side another deep canal atop the dike that was formed when the canal was dug out. From the central ring of water eight canals, paired up along the compass points to run parallel to a partner, radiate out from the center of the city. Between each pair of canals is a narrow strip of land that is home to various roads, rails, and occasionally freeways.



"Well," continues the raccoon. "The canals were originally meant to help beautiful the city and to section it off into the original administration districts. The downtown which is essentially an island, the four inner slices, which we are on the north eastern one right now were the primary boroughs. There's another ring of water a few more miles out at the city limits, but we won't be going that far. Then there's a very distant ring which has only been finished a few years ago that connects these canals to the river system of central Tinis. These second and third rings became important as far as science goes twenty years ago. A particle accelerator generally produces a great deal of heat. Large magnets and all that. In most of them throughout the world they use cryogenics of some sort. Hmm..." Waldo pauses. "First Speaker? Perhaps you'd explain it better."

Izixs nods and finally stops staring out the window and faces Andertol. Outside the window the city is quickly transitioning to less developed areas. More pedestrian friendly complexes built into the sides of the dike wizz by as the cars near the end of their outward journey.



"Yes, cryogenics are needed in particle accelerators. But it is much more cost effective as far as power and resources go to have something that can take off a part of the heat so the engineers don't have to use as much liquid helium to keep the electro magnets cool. So we have these giant rings of water which are certainly under the several hundred degree internal temperatures of some of the magnets being tested now. So we're going to use some of the water to cool them down and carry away the heat. The heated water would be put into a series of cooling ponds that are being dug just outside the outer two rings and are almost complete. But in order for this water to be useful, we need the accelerator to be near by. As in, right along side the rings. There's an injector ring which is being tested to the north west of the city to inject particles into the inner primary ring. Then there is literally miles upon miles of tunnels that will take the particles to the outer ring where they will be boosted up to energies unseen anywhere else in the world. The science councils would be unable to fund this mighty endeavor without direct aid and purchase of materials from elsewhere. It will probably soon be another sign of the development of Tinis."

The rails switch and the cars being their trek back to the central areas of the city.

"I can also speak about your architecture question," adds Izixs. "To be honest, most of it is borrowed. In the city planning, certain restrains were put in place, but the building architecture styles were completely up to the architects tapped to build them. Some architects were skilled and creative, while others were skilled but not creative, and some were creative but not skilled. But there ended up being three main groups, the origionalists, who were highly competent artists, the duplicators, who took designs of existing buildings elsewhere and improved them and then built buildings fairly similar to the originals in various places in the city, and foreign, who were brought in to fix the mistakes of the duplicators and jazz up the designs that were pitiful copies of well known landmarks. We're no Vegas. But its what we had to deal with since we basically built this country from scratch."

Epshrin takes a sip of wine before saying, "I'm guessing these guys are boring you with all this giant rings and particles and architects and such. You're here to see the city. I think the trails going to lead us back toward downtown and through the central section. Care to see anything in particular? Detours are fine if you so request them."

[miokalia]

Impressed, Andertol takes another sip of wine and says,
"Indeed, I would love to see some of your museums, galleries and musical halls. I find the arts to be just so fascinating."

Waldo nods

"Also", continued the allosaur, "I do wonder about that exploration project you have going on. Despite having made contact (and engaging in regular travel between) with several planets, we really don't do much in space itself."
This piqued Izixs' scientific interest, he continued,
"The Dincotian-developed system we use for interplanetary stuff causes vessels to only be exposed to upper atmospheric conditions before streaching it out and flinging it directly into the atmosphere of the destination planet. Very little actual space travel in space conditions involved. It's safe to say, about the only thing we've put up into space around this planet is communications satelites, and small commercial stuff."



He takes another sip of wine.

"I hate explaining space travel because then I have to use words like 'interplanetary' and 'interstellar', and while the first of the two is a title of a descent comic book, I really hate the way the words sound. They imply too much. It's not like we're all communicating with computers implanted in our very brains to eachother in some sterile, soft, and perfectly homogenous utopia model as the terms may imply. We are far from it."

He laughs a bit and says,

"Yeah, we drive boxy little cars, accept graffitti as 'public art', have a rural littering problem, and have a cultural-architectural obsession with enormous windows and formed-concrete painted bright colors."


"On the matter of architecture, I am still impressed by your diversity here. We too have a 'replica' movement too, although the subjects chosen tend to look like most of our normal stuff anyway. I see you guys have a Sears Tower look-a-like too. It's a nice building. "

He finishes the wine and continues,

"But I would just love to see some of your cultural attractions. Your galleries, museums. Theatre and music are great too."

[miokalia]

Confused, Andertol looks around some and asks:
"technical problems?"

An aide of his tells him that the election results are in, and that his party won.
"It looks like I'll be keeping my job after all. Let's go see an art gallery!"


"While we're waiting to get there, maybe we should discuss some other matters.
We are of course somewhat aware of the conflicts which have occoured in the north, with from what we can tell was some unrest in some of the regions around you. Ciata appears to have gone through some recent turmoil, what with their monastery being put into FFDF protection and all.
I imagine the people up there have some needs that need to be attended to. As well as the people in some of the since dissolved nations. We are no stranger to redevelopment and reconstruction, as our entire nation was an exercize in 'intelligent refugee managment' for the first 20 years of it's existence. We all know what happens to people in refugee camps caused by national tragedies, disasters and conflicts, it's bad. The lack of living infrastructure creates an unsafe environment and locks a communicty into a fate of poverty.
Our modular construction industry is seeking to expand itself, they're willing to take the reconstruction contracts neglected by others, and in the process, set an example. Some of our companies would love to take up some of the projects in the areas the federation in which the federation is currently working on stabilizing."

He paused for a bit and continued,

"I guess you might wonder why they'd be interested so much with the north, while we have our own recently stabilized territory to worry about. Well, our northern territory is actually fairly decently developed. Most of the work to be done there is environmental clean-up stuff. Einterbaum had a bad habit of illegally testing very ecologically harmful weapons in the wide open space over there."

"Now of course, there is also the matter of energy. In our country energy is regulated tightly. In order to keep it cheap and practical. We don't want some short-sighted investors driving our whole economy into crisis because they dumped money into some un-renewable, expensive and geopolitically volatile energy source... We had the fortune of being able to create our policies while being able to observe the mistakes of the past. With that in mind, I'm not sure where you're at with that. I take it you guys must be using some sort of nuclear fusion, based on the sheer quantity of research infrastructure you have dealing with atomic physics and stuff."

He nodded at Izixs and continued,

"We're starting to export ionized ammonium, for hydrogen fuel-cells now. We've been exporting tdarocel-standard electrolytic fuel for quite a while. Mostly to Dincota, since it's their standard that we've adopted. Of course, what this means is that if you ever need an energy partner to turn to, we are an environmentally friendly, and fairly inexpensive option to consider. Some of our companies are also considering producing alcohol-based fuels (which unlike tdarocel and other electrolytic or hydrogen-based fuels produces CO2 emissions) for countries still trying to find a quick and economically feasible way out of carbon fuels. Anyway, tell me some about your energy situation."

[The Union of Tinis]

"I'm sure they're just trying to make sure the switches are set right up ahead is all," comments Epshrin.

"Izixs," says Waldo. "I'm afraid energy is not my speciality..."

"Yes, no problem. You are right, we do have some fusion power currently. Not as much as we need to be able to rely on it for even the entire city, let alone the entire country. The techs say there's still plenty of turbulence problems in the magnetic confinement schemes to take care of before mass production can begin. Unfortunately we still rely on a great deal of not so friendly fission power. We know the dangers, and we know that its frowned upon by many of our neighbors. We use hydroelectric where its suitable. A few small instances of fossil fuels but we've got a scheme going on where we use the emissions in specially designed green houses. The plants collect most of the soot and CO2, but not all of it. It was an interesting idea, but didn't pan out quite well enough, since the soot tends to kill the plants. Works a bit better for the natural gas plant in Altzan.

"So I'd say we're progressing, but not where we want to be. We are a net energy supplier now. The Shimandu grid is still very weak and so about half our export goes there, and most of the rest to Shikeishuu.

"But as for fuels, we'd be very interested in what you have to offer. Tinis holds a very high standard in cleanliness as far as the environment goes. And I know I'm excited at the prospect of having an energy partner who shares our values. Llewellynland is close but tend to be internationally quiet so we've gotten no such offer, even though they meet our criteria. And fuels of an environmentally safe sort will be very useful in Tinis, especially for ground transport. Not many cars out there, what ones there are, are one hundred percent emissions free. The military does keep some gas guzzlers, but most all our ground transportation is clean and green. So an agreement, yes. So yeah, Waldo?"

Waldo nods and smiles, "We'd be very interested in continuing these talks in a more formal setting in order to hash out the basics of a deal. But I'm afraid we're moving in the right direction now. We should be getting to the museum soon."

An aid comes back from the front of the train and quickly reports that the train is now set for a course toward the national museum. Meanwhile the train passes and interesting structure.



After an inquiry about the strange structure from the foreign secretary of state, Waldo pauses and thinks for a moment. "I think the antenna part up top is the main broadcast center for downtown. TV relay as well. As for the buildings exact purpose, I'm not entirely sure. I think that's where Tinis Public Broadcasting might haver their studios. As for what's going on elsewhere, I wouldn't have a clue. But I don't know what offices and the like are in what buildings for the most part. I know the Arx Spire is the capitol building and most of the offices for speaker level activity. Most of the buildings down town here house various departments, organizations, city, state, and national workers councils, and even some housing, but this far in there's not much of that."

The train starts to slow down and comes to a stop next to a surprisingly short and old looking building.



"I believe this is our stop," comments Waldo as he stands. "I'm pretty sure the commander and first speaker have to take their leave shortly," this corresponds with nods from both Izixs and Epshrin, "so I guess we'll be taking the aids and the security crew with us and let them get back to work."

Waldo leads Andertol and the entourage off the train. The platform that leads directly into the museum is vacant except for a few security guards keeping an eye on the exits.

Waldo mentions, "This building is I believe the second or third oldest building in the city that's still standing. Like late fifties, hence the crude old Pargalo design."

The train starts up once everyone is off and continues on down the tracks. They enter the National Museum by what used to be considered the side entrance, but with the amount of monorail traffic has become the primary entrance used by visitors.

The museum curator appears shortly, a short and elderly red panda. She bows slightly to the dignitary and smiles. "Welcome to the National Museum. I am Zern Sevelan and I am delighted we have such an honored guest. We're not quite ready yet. For your safety we're requesting that all our current guests spend the next few hours at the eatery across the way for your safety. We'll be done with this shortly."

While they wait Waldo decides to ask a couple questions, "I've been wondering myself about your nation and culture. Though we try our best to be on good relations with all federation members, its hard to really get to know any one nation without opportunities like this. So, what is Miokalia like? I hear there's some interesting diversity. I've also been briefed on several occasions about the situation in the, um, former continental republic. We'd normally be very willing and happy to lend any resources necessary to help a friend tame such a wild province, but our resources have been eaten up a bit closer to home as you most undoubtedly know. And with the Chattans and Cheetas trying to reorganize their government, if they fail, it will most certainly get worse. But I digress. How..."

The curator appears again and asks them if she could join them as they wander to assist in any explanations. As the group enters, they are presented with the hall progress. The walls and ceiling are covered in murals depicting scientists, builders, and public figures, as well as their creations or works of progress. The rest of the room is filled with works of art, artifacts, and documents that highlight the ideas and acts shown on the walls. The floor is even in the design of a complicated series of equations.

"It's probably fate that this is the first room," says Waldo. "The original plans for the city are on the wall over there."

Zern starts speaking in her tour guide voice, which isn't very pleasant at all. "This is the Hall of Progress. The National Museum keeps works of art and items of historical note in our various collections. This collection is meant to highlight some of the triumphs of Tinis, as well as a few things from elsewhere that are related." Zern pauses for a moment and then asks of Andertol, "Perhaps if I knew more about your interests good sir, I may be able to direct you to something of your liking?"

[miokalia]

"I've always had an interest in the avant garde" says Andertol, "I would just love to see your sculpture and paintings"

He turns to Waldo and says,
"Not that we would refuse assistance with the reintegration of our northern province, it's just that right now, we have adequate assistance from our parent nation, Dincota and the Draconic Planets. They have an interest in seeing that are stabilized. For what it's worth, we actually have somewhat of an interest in strengthening ties to the north, so we actually would like to *offer* assistance in Ciata.
Like I mentioned before, we have some construction companies wanting to pick up contracts for public works projects up there."

He continues,
"As for culture. Well... It's very difficult to paint a picture of it with words. I think we're just going to have to invite you down to our nation to see for yourself. Value wise, we're not all that different. However, in some areas, we are substantially different. Imagine Japan, except with the social libertarianism of Amsterdam, and the friendliness of Sweeden.
Because of our diversity, we're a bit of a pastiche of different eras, mostly post-industrial. The north is like an untamed 'wild west', the whole country has a post-information-age attitude toward education and quality of life, we have a pragmatic approach to genetic medicine and nanomedicine, and as a result, we have a post-ideological approach to policies. In our nation, freedom of speech and separation of church and state are not just important, they are probably unusually extreme"

[The Union of Tinis]

The group passes out of the Hall of Progress and into the main exhibit hall. The room is similarly cluttered by artifacts and works of art. The arrangement is vaguely by subject, but for the most part, slightly dull to all but those interested in the minutiae of Tinis' history and culture.

"Diversity of culture is always a boon," says Waldo. "And don't be thinking that all parts of Tinis are like Arx. There's quite a cultural divide between the southwest and east for instance, as well as between east and northwest. And at the edges especially we have our more unique mixes of culture. Devout practitioners of a life religion dominating the far south east boarder region these days, native skunk populations in the west, and the varied, venerable, and unique cultures of prefectures to the south. But most of Tinis has a Pargalonian air to it, but few know what that culture is like as Pargalo is fairly closed to outsiders these days."

They enter a room that is much more art specific. The curator begins, "This is the Hall of Sense. We have several works from around the federation, such as Talvalis of Shikeishuu, Romper of Peniusla, as well as a vast array of Tinisian and Pargalonian works."

Zern walks up to a large painting near the doorway they came through. The painting depicts a desolate scene centered on a wolf in plate armor wearing a crown. The wolf is black and doesn't look particularly happy with the desolation around him. The work is very life like, and even has the oddity that the eyes seem to follow you where ever you move.

Zern Sevelan says, "This painting was done by Umpar Moga in 1913, part of the realism revivalist movement of the time in Pargalo. It was brought to Tinis by the third house and for a time housed in the third house gallery until it was moved here in 1982. Moga is renown for his realistic works but is also known for having never used a live model during most of his professional career. His subject matter was often bleak, as is quite obvious here. And..." She drones on about this painting for a few more minutes before showing them to the next piece.

The group is shown several sculptures of the modern style, complete with odd blobs and sections that look vaguely like appendages but not really. There's a painting of a bear cub playing in the grass near a river in a semi-impressionistic fashion. Before passing the next arch way there is even a more recent picture, a modified photograph of a tree that looks to be on the edge of a cliff, but the tree looks to be bisected where the cliff begins. Its as if what ever made the cliff cut perfectly through the tree.

On the far side of the room there are several more post-modern works, a small pile of springs meant to represent society, and several more paintings. One of these paintings is a portrait of a female white dragon with black horns in old fashioned Pargalonian upper class attire. Zern identifies the figure as Piecia, which is often mispronounced by non-Pargaolo speakers as Peace.

Zern also mentions, "Piecia is often believed to have perished during the uprisings in Pargalo. And according to what little records we have, she is also believed to be the mother of our current First Speaker. The odd thing is that the painting was supposedly finished by Yakzil Tiberis in 1963 Tinisian calender."

"Sure it was," comments Waldo with a grin. "Then why didn't you put the date on the plaque?"

"Because we're uncertain Mr. Secretary."

[miokalia]

Andertol carefully looks at the art, and says,
"Gorgeous work here." as he admires the realist paintings.
In the modern section he looks closely at the blob-like sculptures.
"Tavohcham. That's what we call this style where we come from. Reminds me of a lot of our more celebrated architecture back home."
He closely studies the painting with the bisected tree.
"I just love this painting.", he says.

In the post-modern section he looks around and says,
"Our post-modern movement seems to be very different from everyone else's. The paintings are fine, but I'm not sure if I quite understand the springs... ...oh well... I guess I can't expect to totally understand all art, especially in a different cultural context." he smiles a bit and studies a painting and asks,

"Please, I don't mean any offense to anyone, but I find it unusual that all the dragons I've seen here so far, have been white-scaled. Where I'm from they tend to be nearly every color imaginable. I assume it's a regional thing..."

[The Union of Tinis]

Waldo nods. "Its quite true that a slight majority of Tinisian dragons are indeed white of scale. Most of them hail from the old country. From what I understand of Pargalonian history, which I must say, is less than I would hope it would be, is that in the eastern regions of the country there is a large mountain range that holds plateaus that sit at extremely high altitudes and thus have snow most of the year, if not full blown glaciers. The First Speakers clan hails from these mountains origionally, but since the late eighteenth century had live at more moderate altitudes. I'm guess the coloring helped in hunting and avoiding groups who if they were sufficent in number could easily take down one of them. There were a couple other dragon clans with various colorings but they are not as common in Tinis. And in fact most of the more colorful dragons in Tinis hail from other lands besides Pargalo."

Waldo stares at the painting for a few moments. "Izixs never talks about his parents much. Not that the subject has a reason to come up much. I hear that Piecia here was a member of the Pargalo parliment for a while. I guess this politics thing runs in the family. His dad was supposed to have been a general or something."

After a few more moments, Zern asks if they would like to a few more moments or if they would like to move on.

[miokalia]

"It may be that because most dragons are very clan-oriented, perhaps he wanted to escape that", Andertol said.

"We operate in urban tribes. Marriage is not all that common anymore. So that probably gives you an idea of the role of family where I come from. I've been to a lot of other places where family dominates society, and I could totally understand why Izixs might want to seperate himself from that, if that is the case."

He turned to Zern and said,
"We can continue, if you will"


As they walked along, Andertol said,
"Now we ought to organize a visit for you to our nation. Back home we've already been talking about how to do it. President Phong wanted to include the vertical farm systems, the tdarocel processing facilities and Gohua, our largest port in the tour in addition to visits to Zye City and Hokyldaryon. We're thinking about timing arrival with the opening of our new airport in Dorigan, so you can see some of our latest accomodations. (Zye City airport is a little small and Hokyldaryon Int'l is undergoing rennovations right now.)
I guess we ought to visit our art museum on the Dorigan University campus too."


He continued, "About energy though: Darasouth just finished one of their newest modular refinery systems this week. It has six multi-stage electrolosis units and can put out about 2000 barrels of Hydrogen Electrolytic Fuel every day at nominal capacity. There are plans to put about 15 of these just east of Dorigan."

[miokalia]

After a short pause in conversation, Andertol continued,
"Well, our intelligence has indicated that your country is having difficulty with Pargalo. Now in this next administration, from what I understand, Kohastar wants to increase involvement in foreign affairs. He's trying to break the previous president's system of isolationism. it's bad for economics.
So if you need some "outside intervention" in the form of 'oh whoops, some "independant" militants armed some peasants against their corrupt overlords and it *wasn't* Tinis' we are in a position to do that.
I mean, what sort of overlords are these anyway? More importantly, do they have something against the rest of the federation? Are they a threat to non-humans?
I ask this because I wonder if there may be a potential that our own deposed-despot-at-large, Einterbaum may be the kind to arm those overlords. If they have the same intentions, then I'm sure he wouldn't mind moving his operation up north. Which compromises the safety of all of the nations up here."


As they entered a hallway with less reverberating accoustics, Andertol quietly explained,
"We have reason to believe he has a large amount of stolen technology, I don't know how he got it, but it's some major stuff. No nuclear weapons though. His militia has been reported to be in possesion of a very, very powerful electromagnetic beam weapon. Not the kind that knocks out electronics and communications... no, more like the kind that melts holes through solid rock, boils lakes from a half-mile away and raises the air temperature of a radius of 2 miles about 30 degrees fahrenheit. We put a ban on this, so the mere fact that it was manufactured is a problem, the fact that such an unscrupulous individual is in charge of it makes it worse...

I don't think anyone wants this falling into the hands of those Pargalonian overlords or militias. It could be catastrophic.
I was hoping this wouldn't reach this far north. It's just that the Malych intelligence has reported that the device is no longer in our borders... Which is worrisome.

We haven't yet released this to the press in our country. We probably will soon, but I feel it is important to just keep this in mind. You may want to be on the lookout. We've already got some satellites scoping out suspicious areas he may be hiding in.

We sincerely apologize for this, I felt that I must tell you this soon"

[The Union of Tinis]

"That... is disturbing news," says Waldo as Zern continues on, presenting a vaugly impressionistic painting. "Einterbaum would definatly add complexity to an already fragile situation. You see, Pargalo is currently run by an odd couple of despots. The first is known as Wune [pronounced as 'One'], and he's in charge of running most of Pargalo. Keeping the people half starved, oppressed, that sort of thing, all under the heel of his police force. His partner in crime, Jirie, runs the military and all things involved in the military. They both run semi-integrated intelligence networks, but neither really trusts the other, so they don't always share the juicier bits. That's how we've been able to keep them fairly contained. We feed one false info about the other plotting against them, they loose a few soldiers in 'corrective policing' or some such, and they stop paying attention to the outside world for a while.

"Now, there is a good chance both Wune and Jirie are quite dead. They've not been seen in person by any of our agents, nor seen in public in over twenty years. And don't let their fake tv broadcasts fool you, even back in the sixties those were done by body doubles. Jirie supposedly makes his home in a rebuilt castle on the big island off the coast of Pargalo, while Wune's in an underground cave system near the northern coast. Not particularly easy places to get into. But they were both getting on in years, and there would be many of their commanders who were near them when they died who would like to make sure their boss was still percieved as alive if they were in fact dead.

"Our intelligence agency has been uneased about this situation though, especially with the appearance of the group the People for the Entitlement of the Directorate in recent years. If you are unaware, the PED is a pro-fascist organization that takes opportunistic roles in trying to get their people placed in positions of importance, to destroy democratic institutions, and to generally make life miserable for those that don't share their view point. We've suspected that PED is coming out of Pargalo in some fashion but have not been able to know for certain.

"Einterbaum though, if he has your high tech gagetry at his disposal, he'd likely be high on the wish list of PED's recuriters. But even if they didn't get to him, he might be very happy to take on the role of either Jirie and Wune if they are dead. A Pargalo with coherant leadership is not a Pargalo we want. We try to keep them isolated and unheard from, and such a thing could definatly change things."

The group pauses for a moment before a seven foot tall, semi-annimated, clockwork cat.

Waldo continues. "Its not that we fear Pargalo, but we fear what they would be willing to do if it ever came to that. Jirie was nothing short of a pyschopath. If he's either alive or his commanders continue that tradition, if Tinisians ever returned to Pargalo soil with intent to either destroy the oligarchy and to liberate the people, we are very certain that we would not be able to find anyone left alive to liberate except for those who were good enough at hiding, or the soldiers who figured out and removed what ever suicide fail safe Jirie's put into them this month. It wouldn't be pretty. We are loath to ask for third party under the radar military action, but, now understand that I'm not speaking on behalf of Tinis here, or anyone besides myself, I wouldn't be upset if something happened to eat away at that horrid system from inside Pargalo, even if it was spurred on by a friend or ally. Tinis doesn't work like that when it can, and our intelligence agency doesn't think we can pull it off.

"We also know that the furthest south we've been able to track PED is Lemurika, where they're still stirring up trouble. So for the moment you probably don't have to worry about them showing up on your doorstep. They're completely unofficial, but tend to recruit elities, be they financial, military, intellectual, or sometimes even physical. They attempted to recruit the infamous Sicarii even, but Sicarii was a little too beyond their control so they ended up avoiding him when they could after a while. We're just thankful we were able to locate or destroy the remaining nukes his actions let them get a hold of. Einterbaum though, I guess I'll have to ask Yerzoki to put some serious resources on him. Maybe even call in a favor with the Penisulans to see if any of their platforms have spotted any EM spikes beyond the usual."