Damcyan
Damcyan is a nation in the Crystal Dimension. The country is dominated by large deserts and split in twain by a mountain chain. Currently, the country is occupied by Fabul and Toroia.
Contents
History
In ancient times, the Damk were a subject peoples of the Xsia Empire. Although the Damk were excluded from all higher Imperial office, there were largely allowed a significant degree of autonomy. The Xsian overlords considered the Damk semi-wild desert peoples who loved singing, dancing, and drinking. This period of history is somewhat debated, with Fabul scholars stressing the contributions and benevolent rule of ancient Xsia and Damcyanese writers stressing the hardiness, culture, and self-sufficiency of the ancient Damk.
After the last Xsia Emperor (the so-called "Three Kingdoms" Period), the tribes of Damcyan asserted their independence from the new Kingdom of Fabul, forming their own nation -- first as a loose-knit tribal confederation, and then as a Kingdom in their own right. Damcyan controlled the trade between Fabul in the East and the kingdom of Toroia and Baron in the West. Their position at the "crossroads of the Continent" was a source of wealth, and led to the construction of the great cultural city of Cordaleza.
During the Clash of Crystals, Damcyan suffered heavily along with the rest of the dimension at the hands of Baron's aggression. The Clash was followed by the so-called "Age of Good Kings", a Golden Age for virtually the entire Crystal Dimension as enlightened monarchs with close personal relationships took the throne in many countries:
- Yang Fang Leiden (Yang I, Yang the Restorer) in Fabul
- Cecil Harvey (Cecil I, Cecil the Paladin) in Baron
- Edge Eblana V in Eblan (though he was known by the nome de guerre Edge Geraldine)
- Edward MuirDamcyan (Edward II, sometimes known as Edward Chris von Muir, as early Tasnican translations attributed him the aristocratic styling von.)
The Age of Good Kings was a time of relative peace and prosperity for most of the Dimension. This helped form the basis of the Transbaron Concordat, one of the major powers of the Early Web in the run-up to [{The Great War]].
Damcyan fought alongside Baron in the first half of the war, but after the Dark Wrath overcame the Baronian military machine Damcyan was occupied soon after and the country spent most of the second half of the war under the heel of the Dark Gods, which terrorized the nation even as it conscripted many of its young men to feed the meat grinder. The country turned to its strong Tahranist traditions by way of resistance, but the Dark Wrath made it a point to hunt down and destroy every member of the royal family, even sending their dreaded Banelings far abroad to stamp out the flame of Damcyanese nationhood. Liberation came piecemeal to Damcyan -- the great port of Tripport was freed by the Grand Army early in their Transbaron campaign and became the logistical backbone for the push inland, but Burzmale Julian's clever defensive tactics meant that southern cities like Kaipo were not freed until near the end of the war.
Liberation was greeted with excitement, but also trepidation -- with almost no royal family and most of the old order destroyed, there was considerable debate over the future of the country. However, some Damcyanese excitedly embraced new ideologies that had no need of a King: Fascism and Communism. The Damcyanese are -- stereotypically -- a passionate people, and calm and civil debate about the future of the country was not in the cards. Street-fighting between Fascist "Blueshirts" and Communist "Redshirts" erupted in almost every city. With covert support from the Scandian League, the Redshirts won out and seized the government. (This achieved Scande's goal of preventing a Fascist "clean sweep" of Transbaron.)
However, Damcyan's ideological affiliation embroiled them in the Leviathan War -- tragically, this was Damcyan's own doing, so initially Tally Quorsen was reluctant to extend the war to Crystal. However, early Scandian successes convinced Damcyanese leaders like Antonio Desrodio that the Fascists would fold like a house of cards, though they ignored all the things that had made the Scandians successful such as years of planning and preparation, experienced military commanders like Halder Skalice, and Dracoforms. Desrodio's attack through the Arderine Pass was smashed by Fabul's general Han Phi, and opened the way for the country to be invaded and occupied by Fabul and Toroia. Scandian intervention allowed some tactical reversals, however the Damcyanese people blamed the government for plunging the nation into a war it was neither prepared nor equipped for and instigated a revolt. The collapse of the government resulted in an occupation. The country had been free from the Dark Wrath for less than a decade.
Damcyan's performance in the war was mocked and criticized; Damcyan's military became a joke. In reality, the country had not really recovered from the Great War and did have the industry, weapons, or training to participate in a conflict on this scale. Individual Damcyanese soldiers fought bravely in the impossible situation they were thrown into, but they were failed by their leaders. Nonetheless, most Damcyanese feel that their nation was humiliated in the eyes of the Web and have a bit of a chip on their soldier about the topic.
Damcyan Today: Occupation
Fabul and Toroia carved up the country, with Fabul taking the north (including Tripport and the capital of Cordaleza) and [{Toroia]] taking the south (centered around the famous oasis city of Kaipo.) It soon became clear that the two countries and their leaders had a very different approach and goals towards the conquered territory.
Toroia under Tally Quorsen aspired to the unity of the Crystal Dimension, not through the forceful creation of a monolith like the Esper Union or by de facto domination by one pre-eminent power like the Tasnica Republic, but through diplomacy and the restoration of Crystal's community of independent states; the "Age of Good Kings" reborn. An independent Damcyan -- prosperous and at peace with its neighbors -- was integral to that goal. Toroia also had no ambitions to run a colony on the other side of the sea, and has established a quasi-independent government, the Kaipo Free State ("KaipFree.") However, Toroia is quite careful to make sure the people running KaipFree are "their people" and still maintain a military force of Rangers. Most governments have not recognized KaipFree as "Damcyan", fearing that it is essentially a Toroian puppet, though people may call it "Damcyan" colloquially.
Fabul, led by Tzu Mao, had a very different objective: the restoration of Xsia and the rule of "all under heaven." Damcyan's occupation was just a first step. Ironically, while the ancient Xsians regarded the ancient Damk as valued subjects, Fabul's ruling Renewal Movement Party treats the Damcyanese as "uncivilized peoples", in need of "education in proper culture and manners." The Fabulian Triads, working hand in glove with the Fabul government, have also taken root in Damcyan (in both zones), selling opiates and other illicit goods as a way of weakening resistance while simultaneously making money. The Fabul occupation has two goals: stamp out the traditional Damcyanese culture, and milk Damcyan's economically valuable northern cities to keep Fabul's treasury fat enough to keep building a bigger military.
The liberation of the country must go hand in hand with its reunification. Although the Torian Zone has more territory, the Fabul Zone has a much larger population.
Resistance movements
There is no "Damcyan resistance"; to say "the resistance" is a misnomer. There are many, many resistance movements in Damcyan, with their own political ideologies. Some of them are supported by external forces. The Toroians occasionally support rebels in the Fabul Zone, but they tend to be limited and careful; Toroia still is hesitant to openly provoke Fabul. The Scandian League are more brazen, because what's the fun of being a Great Power if you can't occasionally piss all over a smaller country? The Scandians provide weapons, intelligence, and even use SLCM-Sea's carriers to occasionally launch air strikes. That said, Scande has a war in Ticonndera, a space fight with the Guardians in Merge, and a webwide struggle for dominance against the Coalition to worry about, so freeing Damcyan is not super-high on their list of priorities.
Notable resistance movements include:
- The Damcyan Revolutionary Army, or DRA, is a communist group. Ideologically, they're a bit of a hodgepodge of Damcyanese nationalism, Liberation Theology Tahranism, and more 'moderate' Kordridge-style communism. The Scandians started backing the DRA after they orchestrated an attack on a major Fabul military base.
- The All-Union Communist Party (of the Crystal Dimension), as its name implies, are hardline Travinists, which means they believe in the destruction of the 'old society' (including and especially religion), and the implementation of a Scandian-style "Solidarity, Socialism, Collectivism" approach. They actually hate the DRA's guts for being ideologically impure, and are also jealous of their Scandian ties. (NOTICE ME Travin Rumanski-senpai!)
- The Damcyan Utopian Socialist Party, or DUSP, are another Communist party, though they embrace the ideals of Caidin and see Webwide communist revolution as a vehicle to overturn GACA
- The Damcyan Environmental Commune (DEC) preaches "green, environmentally friendly" living as the way forward, and a return to Damcyan's nomadic desert past as the only way to freedom
- The Damcyan Democratic Front, DDF, hopes to implement a Tasnican-style democracy. Popular among merchants and other relatively wealthy Damcyanese, though regarded as a bunch of soft sell-outs by the other factions.
- The Damcyan Royal Restoration Party, DRRP, want to establish a constitutional monarchy in the Guardian mold. (They are sort-of hoping that they can find some suitable old noble to do this, but that will be hard.)
- The Damcyan Popular Union (DPU) are anarchists that advocate for the "complete autonomy of the Damcyanese people"
- The Pan-Damcyan Organization (PDO) are fascists, who want to extract revenge against "those who have wronged us."
...and so on and so forth.
If you find this confusing, you are right. These various groups spend as much time fighting each other as they do the occupation forces.
