The Loss and micronationalism

[Nithi Kirenion]

I've mentioned many a time that I have a parallel conworld for Hyperborea that I set on Earth. I've tried to synchronize the Earth and Micras-based versions as much as possible, so that they're the same culture in two different places, but there's a bit of trouble. First of all, the Micras version is at least as technologically advanced as the modern world; the Earth version is only a little past classical Greece. Second, very much of the history of the Earth version centers around the Loss, the series of events in which Hyperborea was destroyed by an eruption of Mt. Yaanek and the Hyperborean people settled around the globe.

I'm going to solve both these discrepancies in a single swoop. On Earth, the Hyperboreans eventually re-organized after the Loss and re-colonized their lost homeland (Greenland) and continued until the present day (though I still have to decide the exact history). But what's more important in Shireroth is bringing in the Loss.

I'm going to back-date it to the time of Tymaria, when you may recall several MCS maps were made without the island of Hyperborea (it was replaced by a much smaller "Yaanek Seamount"). The story now goes that this represents the genuine devastation of the island of Hyperborea by volcanic eruption and the complete evacuation of the populace; it was generally believed at the time that the island itself was destroyed, but this turned out to be an exaggeration.

In the Earth version of the Loss, the Hyperboreans divide into three successor states: Oromon around the Great Lakes, Kyyvakoth in Lapland, and Talatich in Ireland. These are then gradually destroyed or assimilated by the native people. In the new version, Truth and Beauty split the world into two branches; in the first, our own branch, they allow Hyperborea to die out as before; in the second, they inspire the Hyperboreans to recolonize Greenland and re-found their society, deeply changed by its diaspora but still recognizably the same country. Indeed, this was the entire reason behind the divine plan to explode Yaanek and destroy the nation.

The Micras version, as usual, is to correspond to the Earth version as closely as possible. The three countries are Oromon (on the small island just to the west of Treesia), Kyyvakoth might have been somewhere in Lesser Automatica (I bet the Bjorngarders want to associate themselves with it, but I don't know if they're telling the truth) and Talatich was in Syrelwynn.

As in the Earth version, the three countries came from different philosophies of the people leading the evacuation effort (cf: SMAC). Kyyvakoth came from the efforts of Samechi Sophdorion to evacuate as many of the nation's priceless cultural treasures as possible, including the industrial and knowledge base to use and understand them. Oromon came from Rhomni Talamnion, who just wanted to save as many lives as possible. Talatich was sort of an accident; they were a thriving pre-existing Hyperborean colony that heard about the disaster and send their fleet to Hyperborea to pick up as many people as they could.

At some point (I think it would be a little over a century later), the three countries, besieged by enemies and by their own isolation and limited size, met in Talatich, where a visionary inspired them to return to Hyperborea. After spending a brief amount of time marooned in Cimmeria, they re-colonized Hyperborea (which by this time was inhabitable again).

But the impact of the time in diaspora remains in modern Hyperborea for anyone who cares to look for it. For example, the two old and relatively separate races, the Audentes and the Volsaarns, pretty much disappeared when everyone was thrown together in the chaos of evacuation and rebuilding. The old capital, Thule, was replaced with the new capital of Tala. The old language, Kadhamic, never popular except among a highly educated elite, was completely lost for all but ritual purposes.

I made one previous reference to the Loss in the Rain-Lotus declaration. I mentioned the Dream-Origin Stone. This was a great rock taken to Kyyvakoth by Samechi Sophdorion. He wanted his descendants to have at least one stone from Hyperborea so they could touch the land of their ancestors. He planted it in his capital, where it became known as the Dream-Origin Stone, after the Dream-Origin, the younger generation's name for the Hyperborea they had never seen. When the country was refounded a century later, the stone was brought to the new capital so it could serve the exact opposite purpose - to remember the days of exile and the longing they had once felt for this place.

The wiki has a few articles on the Loss, like the Loss of Tala and the first chapter of the Book of Loss.

[CJ Miller]

Hmmm...

[Kaiser Ometeotl I]

It's good to see the legacy of SMAC live on...

[Jonas]

(cf: SMAC)

SMAC?

[Ryan]

SMAC = Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Y'know, Scott, you could also use the eruption of Yaanek and the sheer power of it to say that it caused a dimensional distortion (Aurora borealis?) and some of the fleeing Hyperboreans ended up on Earth while others remained on Micras.

[Shyriath]

Crossovers FTW!

[Harvey Steffke]

You haven't been taking very good care of your wiki at all.

[Kaiser Ometeotl I]

Suddenly I'm in the Twighlight Zone.

[Aster]

SMAC makes my man parts happy.

[Harvey Steffke]

Amen

[Demon of Fides]

Wait, WHAT?

[Kaiser Ometeotl I]

I wish he would make a new version, updated and all.