Kumasi

Official Name: Benevolent Democratic Republic of Kumasi

Founded: 1042

Form of Government: Democratic monarchy

Head of State: King Gyata Otumfoo Boateng

Population Level: Very high

Society Structure: Mixed (many small rural villages, several large cities)

Technological Level: High

Background: The extensive wildlands of the Kumasi nation, ranging from wide swaths of deciduous forest in the north to frigid mountains in the south, belie the existence of a sprawling people with a long history of civilization. From the start of the Civilized Era, no fewer than a half-dozen central governments claiming control over at least the majority of the continent have arisen and fallen with a relative dearth of bloodshed. The Kumasi philosophy of ganjic, or peaceful transition, has led to a culture with a deep reverence for history and a high regard for letting their past influence the aesthetics of present innovation.

Founding: As befits the Kumasi standard of behavior, the current government was formed within a week after the 1042 deposal of Emperor Ekow Danquah. While the Danquah-led empire had ruled more or less successfully for two hundred years, Emperor Ekow had fallen into profligacy at the expense of his capital city. Though his advisers warned repeatedly against misusing the assets of the state, the emperor had grown too used to his privilege and refused to pay them heed.

One morning, the emperor awoke to the streets of his capital flooded with citizens. Normally, when a Kumasi head of state appears in public, great cries go up at his passing; when he stepped out of the royal palace and his people remained silent, as the old tradition went, it signaled their demand for a new ganjic.

According to legend- precious little hard data exists regarding any ganjic, as the Kumasi consider it a routine, if uncommon, affair of state- Emperor Ekow re-entered his palace and ordered the guards to clear the streets. His advisers, however, invoked the specter of the ancient King who set his soldiers against the people; damning him to execution by fire ant and eternal expulsion from the Kumasi history rolls once his oppression was overcome. The emperor, having grown quick to fear in his spoiled life, was talked down from his demand and handed his crown to the de facto leader of the ganjic, Anidaso Nkamfo Boateng.

Boateng, having been a long-time community leader in the capital, came to power equipped with advisers and other loyalists prepared to lead the new government. Ekow, the fifth known Protector of Peace (the honorary title for leaders who step down in respect of the people's demand for ganjic), was sent off to a well-equipped estate deep in the forests where he lived out his days with his family and close advisers, and the Boateng monarchy was set into motion.

Pre-Melt: As noted, the Kumasi revere history. Unfortunately for their neighbors, this cultural affect only extends to Kumasi history.

One thread that has woven itself thoroughly into the Kumasi weave is the belief that all territory is inherently Kumasi, and current non-Kumasi residents are merely squatters waiting to be evicted. From their earliest history, the Kumasi have overtaken lands belonging to uncountable groups of people, large and small, through military and diplomatic action alike. Sparse records indicate a beginning in the central forests, and an ever-quickening spread out to all coasts. Much of the Kumasi tradition of ganjic is designed to keep these lands under Kumasi control during major governmental changes, and has been generally successful in that regard.

By the beginning of the Boateng monarchy, the Kumasi nation stretched almost uncontested from the eastern coast, across the Endless Chasm into modern-day Sidon. Hassles with Temaran splitters in the north created a small but basically permanent drain on military resources; outside of this, most of the army was available when the order came from King Anidaso to follow the example of their forebears and continue pushing into Sidonese territory.

Anidaso was unique in one regard, not just amongst the Kumasi but most world leaders in general: He joined the assault as an infantry soldier, submitting to the commands of his generals on the field as any army man would. Furthermore, he commanded that all future monarchs of his line were to serve two years in the military, specifically as infantry, so as to avoid the fate of the over-privileged Emperor Ekow.

Heartened by the willingness of their nation's leader to join them in the fight, and determined to keep him safe by destroying the enemy as quickly as possible, the men made several strong pushes through Sidonese defenses. Over a third of the sizable Sidonese homeland was overrun within six months of the renewed assault, as opposed to no more than ten percent previously. Great was the celebrating, and optimistic the outlook for their cause.

However, the success of the assault in capturing several major chokepoints left the Kumasi without any obvious way forward. Holding their current positions against primitive guerilla assaults was hardly a challenge, but the next ring of Sidonese defenses were too distant and entrenched for a further offensive to be successful, despite Kumasi advantages in numbers and technology. Anidaso's two years of service expired, and with his return to the capital, the army's vigor waned. They settled into a defense of their new holdings, and the resources of those holdings were set to work for the improvement of Kumasi civilization. This state of affairs held through the rule of several Boateng kings.

Some time in the twelfth century, the Kumasi developed a new type of bow. These longbows carried almost twice as far as the old model, and more importantly gave the army a range advantage they had mostly lacked against the Sidonese fighters. Records vary about the date, but around 1160 King Odikanfa ordered a resumption of the Sidonese assault. Combined with fire arrows, the longbows proved an almost invincible weapon, and led the Kumasi to conquer the entire northern half of Sidon within three years. Then, as in Anidaso's time, they were halted by defenses their current technology could not overcome; in this case, the great southern forests of Sidon provided the guerilla army plenty of cover to negate the power of the longbows and serve as a final line of defense. When pressed to burn the forests and eliminate the final bands of resistance, Odikanfa reportedly said, "These lands are Kumasi, from the time of gods to the time of man. Our aim is to remove a pestilence from that which has always belonged to us. If you wish to burn the forests, then I ask: would you burn your house to save it? I see no difference between the two." {C Odikanfa's successors maintained this long-game strategy. For this reason the conflict remained in a state of relative stalemate for the next two centuries, though the Kumasi did manage slight gains from time to time. Finally, the next cycle of military innovation brought the conquest to its conclusion: relatively light, disassembled catapults that were carried on forced marches through the great forest and to the towns beyond. The population of all Kumasi-held lands had swelled to the point that significant losses were no longer a deterrent, thus the army pushed through to the lowland towns of the south with sufficient numbers and equipment to press the attack while leaving the Sidonese fighters to stew in the forests or come out into the bare hills and plains and be inevitably destroyed.

Once this strategy was implemented, the southern Sidonese towns fell in a matter of months. Though the rebels had developed their own longbows from captured Kumasi weapons, the Kumasi retained the advantages of range (as all the targets lay downhill from their positions) while pummeling any resistance with every catapult-sized rock in the countryside. Combined with the protracted but eventually finalized development in the early 14th century of ships capable of sailing from the eastern coast and surviving the whirlwinds of the southern seas, the Kumasi finally had access to all of Sidon, save the great forest where the rebel fighters maintained their strongholds.

Over those centuries, while grinding the Sidonese into submission, the Kumasi had made tremendous strides domestically. Hospitals, banks, and extensive irrigation had all been developed, and northern traders (mainly Shenzhen and Nihon) who saw their cities commonly referred to them with such praise as "crown jewels of civilization". Taking whatever advances minor tribes and towns had developed before being overcome by the Kumasi juggernaut, the society ascended swiftly to the highest technological levels, finding ways to feed and clothe its generally massive population with ease while maintaining a large percentage of the forestland which gave them so much of their history and identity.

For over four hundred years, relative peace held throughout Kumasi. The lands bordering the Sidonese forest never became safe, with the Sidonese seemingly dedicated to a permanent existence as rebels against an indestructible force. Temaran lands in the north of the main Kumasi continent were also susceptible to spats of violence, and many wondered if the two groups were in contact given their ability to maintain a posture of war for so many generations. Otherwise, the vast majority of Kumasi land continued its development on pace with the best the world had to offer.

But much of the Kumasi identity was still devoted to war and conquest, and in time the occasional dead squad of rebels no longer sufficed to keep that cultural instinct at bay. The tip of Shenzhen land lay in reachable distance, but the Shenzhen were a match for Kumasi development or close to it, and even a successful campaign would carry them into the heart of northern lands. The Domenici Isles could be overwhelmed within days, possibly hours, but possessed few known resources apart from geography and would serve little purpose beyond the exotic tourist destination it already was.

That left the southern isle of Indore.

The Indorans possessed a long national history, and despite their relatively remote location had earned influence as major traders all the world round. Even the reclusive Qomians made use of Indoran services when something could not be procured domestically, or so the rumor went. Although the distance between Kumasi and Indore would suggest a natural trade partnership, geography and the difficulty of the southern seas dictated that the two nations had no actual dealings until the fall of Sidon, when the Kumasi could use southern Sidon as an easily accessible port of call.

For years the Indore matter roiled the Kumasi court. Indore itself was not known to possess military technology on par with the Kumasi, but the risk of reprisal from their allies was great. The counter-argument held that the geography of Kumasi lands would hold any invaders at bay, allowing sufficient defense to be focused on the newly-conquered territory. If minimal damage was done to the infrastructure, and most trading capability left intact, Indore's old allied would choose continued profit from trade to the desperate costs of unnecessary war.

In 1722, the argument for war won out. More precisely, the argument for science won; it was in that year Kumasi scientists developed their first reliable steam rifles, and King Selasi decided to take advantage of the technological leap before the weapon plans, or similar specs from another country, made their way into Indore hands. Their plan was simple: the second-largest Indoran port would be taken immediately, its trade turned to Kumasi benefit, and from there the massive army would set up defenses and begin its march across the land. Many ships had already been built, and more were put into construction; three months later a victory fleet of seventy-five galleons set sail for northern Indore, with the king himself honoring the law of his ancestors by standing at the bow of the lead ship as they sped towards a new conquest.

It is said the first cannon shot caught the king in the chest, blasting his body into countless pieces. Once held as inviolate truth, the tale is now thought to have been a way to assuage Kumasi guilt over Selasi being the only king whose body was never laid to rest in the royal graveyard. Regardless, once the Kumasi had worked themselves to full speed and sailed within shouting distance of the island, at least three dozen steam cannons were levered over the city walls and fired into the crowd of ships. The king's ship was annihilated, with several others damaged or sunk. The second volley crushed at least a dozen more; the Kumasi, being unaccustomed to naval warfare, had no system for relaying orders to spread the fleet, or retreat.

By the time the third volley sent another thousand men and their vessels to the deeps, the Kumasi survival instinct had locked in on most of the ships. Some few continued to sail towards shore, war cries swirling with the ocean breeze; if any of them made it to shore, that fact was never relayed to any history book. Twenty-two Kumasi ships made it home, some of them just barely. Deaths on the surviving ships combined with casualties off the Indoran coast meant three-quarters of the invasion army had been lost.

Selasi's failure carried aftershocks beyond his death. Once word spread of the army's resounding defeat, violence exploded around the Sidonese rebel forest and the northern Temaran territory. In both areas, insurgents managed to overrun guard units left depleted by the Indoran fiasco. Temaran splitters went so far as to declare their lands a newly separated country, with borders dating back to the original subdual of the Temaran people before the start of the Boateng monarchy. To top off the Kumasi's problems, Selasi's newly-crowned son, Kontar, was all of eight years old.

Clashes between civilian and military leadership proved almost as explosive as the physical battles roiling Kumasi lands. Civilian leaders demanded the ouster of Temaran leadership, declaring that no threat to the cohesion of Kumasi territory could be abided. Army generals stated that without all available forces directed to Sidon immediately, a territory siginficantly larger and more valuable than Temara would be lost. With the king too young to choose one way or the other, it took reports of southern Sidon being nearly lost for the civilian advisers to acquiesce and begin dialogue with the Temarans.

War with the Sidonese rebels became an endless charade, with few casualties and even less ground gained. Steam rifles salvaged from early victories made the Sidonese almost invincible in the thick forest, and the Kumasi could not spare the men to simply overrun them. Even the southern towns freed by the rebels were slow to be recaptured, despite the fact the rebels maintained a strategy of retreat as soon as Kumasi numbers appeared overwhelming. In 1725 the civilian leadership authorized finalization of a pact granting the Temarans their own small state, fearing even with heavy conscription the army would be heavily focused on Sidon for some time to come.

Their concerns were well-founded. Sidonese raids continued for another decade, in part due to a strategy of spanning the breadth of Sidonese land rather than focusing on the more vulnerable south. Resources and intelligence were stolen constantly, to the extent that no data that could not be safely shared with any civilian or grunt soldier was allowed into Sidon. This drastically limited the ability of squads and regiments to communicate with both each other and the capital, leaving them in some ways even more vulnerable to attack. Despite all this, the Kumasi still retained the key advantages of numbers and technology, and eventually the rebels were forced to drop their attacks through attrition.

However, their stubbornness did cost the Kumasi another piece of territory. In 1731, the southern province of Gaborone declared its intention to become an independent state. At sixteen, King Kontar was old enough to decide the best course of action, but at first his advisers questioned whether to even bring the matter to him. Gaborone was mostly mountainous and home to the Mapmaker's Guild. They had no history of violence and gave no reason to think that would change; indeed, the declaration came with no threat of what might happen if the central government chose to stop them. It would take no more than fifty soldiers to secure the province if necessary.

Still, the issue affected state sovereignty, and thus the missive was delivered into the king's hands. Rather than dismiss it out of hand as suggested, however, Kontar wrote back, asking the Gaborone provincial council why he should allow them to split from the motherland. Their response was sent with two heavy chests of gold- ten percent of what the government would receive, as payment for one thousand years of benefit from Kumasi-funded development, if they agreed to allow independence for the Gaborone people.

The court fell into disarray. The entire royal guard was called in to protect the treasure as every courtier kept a keen eye on it. Shouted opinions ranged from destruction of the entire province for holding back such fantastic wealth from the nation, to the drawing of an immediate treaty in order to speed the delivery of that fantastic wealth into the treasury.

Eventually Kontar restored order. He asked what the state of the national coffers were; he was told, almost empty. He asked if that was due to the war in Sidon; he was told, yes, it was. He asked if Sidon was more important than Gaborone; he was told, entirely, absolutely, and without doubt. Two weeks later the treaty was signed, Gaborone's promised wealth obtained, and Sidon subjected again to a fully funded Kumasi military machine.

Over one hundred more years of quiet development followed. Sidonese raids were sparse, almost non-existent, and basically devoted to thieving missions rather than attempts at pure violence. One of those raids, some time in the early 1860s, resulted in the loss of plans for new wide-band radio technology, but this was not considered a serious loss given how little territory the Sidonese had to work with, and the probability of any sensitive transmissions being caught by Kumasi receivers. This opinion changed instantly with the 1866 worldwide radio broadcast of the founding of the Republic of Sidon, and the return to full-fledged war.

For the first time in the extensive history of Kumasi-Sidonese conflict, the Kumasi possessed technology that gave it some hope of surviving attacks from the forest guerillas: steel-plated vehicles. Though not massive, these vehicles were able to withstand almost endless rifle fire while Kumasi soldiers countered from small holes in the siding barely wider than the muzzles of their guns. As the Sidonese could not make use of larger weapons in the thick forests, this allowed the Kumasi to set up on the forests cleared paths and begin to slowly carve out new holdings. Though it took another full decade of battle, eventually the western half of the forest came under Kumasi control, and the besieged east was ripe to be toppled as well.

Melt: The first years of the Melt only affected a few eastern Kumasi beach communities, and caused minor concern on the southern shore of occupied Sidon. By 1875 and the approaching end of the Sidonese rebels, the oceans had wiped out the eastern Kumasi shoreline for about a mile inland, and the southern edge of Sidon had become essentially uninhabitable. King Zikito demanded the army quickly finish off the rebels once and for all, concerned the troops would be needed to oversee security elsewhere in the event of an accelerating catastrophe.

The king's instincts were correct, but half the great forest was still plentiful territory, and time proved not on the army's side. When the floods reached overwhelming heights, the army was recalled almost in its entirety, with just enough troops left north of the forest to box the rebels in while the smaller southern force was left intact to continue what offensives it could. Farners whose lands were swallowed by the ocean were relocated into the forests to learn the lost art of foraging, and the army led efforts to build levees against the coming tide.

But as with nearly all other countries, the Melt proved far more calamitous than the Kumasi could have anticipated. By the end, fully half of the main Kumasi continent was underwater, and forty percent of its population lost. Furthermore, the army regiment stationed in southern Sidon was evacuated once it became clear the rising waters would likely overwhelm them, leaving the rebels free to attack the nominal northern force and run them all the way back to Kumasi territory. The bridges that had connected the two lands for over a millenium were cut down, and Kumasi soldiers were forced to watch the Sidonese erupt in cheers of victory.

Few of the Kumasi left in Sidon survived to see their homeland again. This unfortunate fact brought the total Kumasi population to just over half what it had been pre-Melt. In addition, though the extensive casualties left the nation with a greatly reduced food requirement, some assistance from the members of the Humanitarian Covenant was still required in the late 1880s, a tremendous shame to the Kumasi.

Great War: By 1889, the Kumasi had a well-developed base of steamplane technology, though most of their airfields had been in the lowland plains now a thousand feet under the sea. Still, enough planes had survived that in 1890, once the country could support its own food needs and the Covenant's fragile call for worldwide peace had already been cracked, the assault on Sidon resumed. However, given the destroyed bridges, the mountains to the north and west, and the fact Sidon's southern shoreline was now several hundred yards into the great forest, they had no way to land infantry on Sidonese land, and thus no way to retake it. Thus, though the Kumasi had for centuries been careful to protect the land's natural resources for their own use, they now dropped large-scale explosives out of the sky without regard for man or nature and confident in their airborne invulnerability.

What they did not expect was retaliation. One of the first targets of Kumasi bombing was the lone airfield they had constructed in Sidon; the chain of explosives turned the field into gray dust, and it was assumed all abandoned planes had been destroyed. Unknown to the Kumasi at the time, the Sidonese had anticipated such a move, and taken several to a hidden location.

Over a year of bombing commenced before the Sidonese showed their hand. After Kumasi flyovers had begun to thin out due to a simple inability to produce bombs as quickly as they could use them, pilots began to radio in reports of strikes by a small squad of steamplanes. Running six thick, the Sidonese routinely picked out solo or duo flights and shredded them as quickly as possible before vanishing to whatever hidden airfield they had crafted in the countryside.

The Kumasi adapted, sending a minimum of six planes on every sortie. This did a great deal to limit the spread of damage to Sidonese territory, but anything targeted witnessed devastation an order of magnitude greater than before. Soon the Sidonese showed themselves again, this time at night with their planes painted jet black. Within several months the Kumasi halted all nighttime bombing, having suffered considerable losses to their fleet with no downed Sidonese on record. More over, the number of enemy planes had increased to either nine or ten; the Sidonese were apparently salvaging downed craft and learning to rebuild them into functional fighters.

Eventually the Kumasi adopted a stance of overwhelming force. Bombing runs became rare, but when they were ordered massive squadrons flew out to protect the bomber planes. The destructive capability of these squads forced the Sidonese to defend themselves, as anticipated; by this time their pilots were veterans, and flew loops around the escort fighters, but the Kumasi finally managed to score one, then two, then three kills. Planes were salvaged again, but the new pilots were easy targets, and though it took years, the rebel force was gradually whittled away.

By 1897 only one enemy pilot of the original six was known to still live. She called herself the Black Baroness, and despite no access to Kumasi technology (save that which ended up shattered on the Sidonese terrain) her plane had been tweaked and upgraded into the single finest flying machine in the war. Either that, or she simply knew how to fly that much better than everyone else; but the odds of a Sidonese being so skilled were, to the Kumasi, nil.

Regardless of the source of her abilities, the Black Baroness continued to lead the raw new pilots against every Kumasi squadron that took to their skies. Enough planes had fallen on Sidonese land to keep their air force decently stocked with rebuilds; the Kumasi gladly took advantage of the fact that pilots were not created so easily, and despite often absorbing significant losses, they just as often left the Sidonese with only one plane left in the sky at the end of their battles. But that plane always belonged to the Black Baroness.

In 1899, the introduction of the AeroKnight Armistice to diplomatic circles forced the Kumasi to think long and hard about their future. Sidon was generally considered part of Kumasi land, and the Sidonese mere rebels evicting the rightful owners from their places. By rights, the Kumasi should grind them to dust through the ancient art of war. But those rebels, and especially the Baroness, had cost the Kumasi an incredible amount of resources, especially considering there was no effort being made to recapture it. And if the Armistice was to be believed, there could be a way to take Sidon back under Kumasi rule at a fraction of the cost. The technology existed, and their scientists remained as skilled as any in the world.

All they needed was a pilot who could beat the Black Baroness.

Post-War to Present: The Kumasi are still looking for their pilot. While their efforts have generally sputtered, with a semblance of success in certain years, they have had to watch the Baroness' greatness become so universally hailed that she has been placed on a pedestal above all other competitors, taking flight only to test whoever can come through victorious in the ARI competition proper. Thus, the Kumasi cannot even down the Baroness in competition and await the possible end of the Armistice; they must be victorious all the way through to achieve their goals.

Of course, age catches up to everyone, and eventually the Baroness must lose her edge. But through all these years, the Kumasi have developed two great fears: one, that another Sidonese under the Baroness' tutelage will rise up and set an even higher standard; and two, that this process will take so long the younger Kumasi will no longer understand the importance of reclaiming Sidon.

The latter fear most significantly assails the Kumasi court. In the fifteenth year of the ARI, more of the government's wealth and effort than ever before are behind the Kumasi entry in the competition; King Gyata and his advisers know that Sidon must be theirs again soon, or risk it never being theirs again at all.