Forum:Territory application/UL10-07 - Kershire/Yarston Metropolitan Area/Strallshire/Ullinghamshire/Chetshire
- Please fill in the information below to make a territory request.
 | Territory ID and proposed name |
|---|---|
| The Territory ID (from OpenGeofiction:Territories, e.g. AR123a) and proposed name of the country |
UL10-07 - Coastal Centrelands, which will be split into four counties and one unitary authority as below:
- Kershire, to the north and northwest of the territory, bordering Davon
- Yarston Metropolitan Area, using the already existing city layout on the northwestern shore
- Strallshire, comprising the centre-west of the territory
- Ullinghamshire, in the north-east of the territory
- Chetshire, in the south-east of the territory bordering Averleigh
For convenience, the territory will be abbreviated to CUSKY for the remainder of the application.
 | Physical geography |
|---|---|
| An overview of climate, topography and landscape of the country. It is advised to also create a sketch, you can add a link to this (hosted on imgur or similar) |
As an area, CUSKY is largely flat around the sea coast, gradually rising towards the north and northwest. There are, however, two major protuberances, being Tripoint Hill and the Visthmus Hills, the former named for being the point where the borders of Kershire, Strallshire and Ullinghamshire meet, and the latter for Benedict Visthmus, a geologist local to the area.
The climate is analogous to most of Western Europe on our world; the coastal lowlands experience fairly consistent temperatures and conditions (Koeppen classification Cfb), with daily mean temperatures usually between 2 and 19 degrees Celsius. Rain is frequent, averaging 155 wet days per year.
https://imgur.com/a/zDR3VYH (land features)
 | Human geography |
|---|---|
| A brief description of the territory demographics, economic development, land occupation, infrastructure and mapping style |
By population, CUSKY is not dissimilar from the rest of Ingerland, with approximately 85% of the population being White Ingerlish and/or West Ulethan, and the remainder being made up of various diasporic groups from around the planet. The largest city in the CUSKY region, Yarston, has a population of approximately 1,000,000 people, and the CUSKY region as a whole is home to 5.4 million, most of whom live in built-up urban areas. Although historically rich, from coal mining and being one of the main Ingerlish ports, in recent times the area has taken a downturn following the winding down of the coal industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Yarston has avoided most of the issues that affected the rest of the region, causing local resentment; its history as a port city and subsequent investment through the decades to keep the port up with modern standards has made Yarston one of the most well-off cities in Ingerland.
Along the coast, fishing and tourism are the main industries, especially in the summer months. Many larger coastal towns boast their own speciality; for example, Stralmouth Shipworks has made hundreds of boats for the Ingerlish Navy since it was founded in 1805, and Melson-on-Sea has become one of the most popular tourist cities in the country due to its excellent beaches and seaside attractions.
Infrastructure in the CUSKY region is plentiful, although beginning to show signs of decay. The Centreland Canal, currently under construction and expected to be complete in 2031, is being built to New Panamax standard and will connect the east and west coasts of Ingerland without having to sail through the treacherous Kalm Straits, saving up to three days of travel time. When complete, it will hold the record for having the widest and tallest canal tunnel in the world. It is however, many years behind schedule (having originally been scheduled to open in 2026) and currently estimated to be at least £3 billion over budget, causing cuts elsewhere in maintenance and newly-built transport infrastructure.
https://imgur.com/DfOw8KV (city positions and approximate city boundaries)
https://imgur.com/8L1V0IH (transport infrastructure; motorways are blue, other major roads are green, railways are grey, canals are lighter blue and the Centreland Canal is teal)
 | History & culture |
|---|---|
| A brief description of the intended culture and language |
Being in Ingerland, CUSKY's primary language is Modern Ingerlish. Diasporic groups from all across the planet may also speak another language from their 'home' nation, especially in Yarston.
History of the area (I'm still fairly new here and I probably haven't managed to get all the details of this fictional planet, for which I apologise in advance) :
Pre-Plevian Ingerland (before ~250BCE): The first Bronze Age settlements are founded by proto-Germanic peoples from the south and begin forming into small, localised tribes.
Plevian Invasion (~50BCE - 200CE): Not much is known from this time period, other than Plevian forces founding Caeculodunum as a small garrison, which will become modern-day Chetsall. No traces of this period remain, unfortunately.
997CE: Yaustell is founded, and immediately is able to fend off attacks from Norman-equivalent forces thanks to its fortifications and castle. The city's name will gradually shift and change, settling on its current name in about the 13th Century.
Middle Ages: Yarston Harbour undergoes a massive expansion to facilitate an expansion to Ingerland's sea forces and many, many voyages of discovery, including Sir Edward Williamson's discovery of the Western Continents, which brought great wealth and prosperity to the city, but not a lot to the surrounding region. Yarston's 'hoarding' of wealth led to the city being sieged and sacked in 1524, with some 100,000 farmhands, foresters and other rural peoples looting the city in an attempt to redress the balance of power. This worked in the short term, but to this day Yarston continues to be better off than its surrounding counties, exacerbated by being the first city to be granted devolutionary powers (of which more details below).
~1530: A rich Lentian migrant family moves to Chetsall and immediately starts making moves to buy the town and create a self-governing enclave within Chetshire. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the family are still able to purchase enough land to build a castle and positions on the city council in perpetuity. Lord Marcel Vos and his descendants still own their castle to this day, which was built upon the last traces of the old Plevian city walls.
~1780: Coal is mined for the first time near Roarkston. As the Industrial Revolution starts to kick into gear, transporting the coal becomes more and more important, leading to the region's first canal being built, with the first phase of the Roarkston Navigation opening for business in 1782. The transportation network would rapidly grow all throughout Kershire and Ullinghamshire, although expansion on the canal network was soon stopped, because...
1841: The region's first railway, the Yarston, Astleigh and Iskmouth Railway opened to the public. Investors found it to be much more profitable than the canals, as trains could reach higher speeds, had fewer difficulties climbing gradients. The railways quickly spread to the areas in Strallshire and Chetshire the canals hadn't made it to, then started to duplicate and replace the canals.
Remainder of the 19th Century: The Industrial Revolution totally changes the fortune of CUSKY. For the first time, the export of coal and other mining products allowed the surrounding counties to catch up to Yarston, and to specialise in mining. This wasn't without disaster though; in 1890 a particularly heavy rainstorm caused the Slaffham Mine to flood, killing 132 workers who were trapped underground and drowned and suffocated.
1942: The Ghestis Harbour disaster. In one of the opening salvos of the Great War, a newly-created artificial island hosting a new dockyard and airstrip is totally razed by a bombing attack just two weeks after its commission, killing several thousand soldiers and their civilian families who hadn't moved away yet. Although recommissioned, after the fighting stopped it was shut down again and now serves as a military cemetery where most of the Western Theatre's war dead are buried.
2010: The city of Yarston makes a bid for independence from Ingerland, after being a large contributor to shoring up the country's finances following a global recession. Although in the end the city narrowly voted to remain, to stave off future referenda the city was awarded far greater devolutionary powers, including becoming its own county, gaining its own mini-Parliament and the ability to set a separate Budget. This has once again infuriated locals on the outside who saw the move as doing nothing other than making the rich richer and the poor poorer, and increasing wealth disparity in the region. Major events held inside Yarston are frequently protested by socialist groups, who want the region to contribute more to increase quality of life in the rest of Ingerland.
 | Past mapping |
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| To support your request provide links to areas of OGF mapping which showcase your mapping skill. Mapping relevant to the requested theme & geography is especially useful | |
| The {{coord}} template can optionally be used to link to the OGF map - it results in a nice formatted link. Or you can paste in a URL. |
Chetsall (and its surrounding villages), Mecyna: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-25.4658/145.0030&layers=B
| Username & date |
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| Sign and date the application by typing four tildes like this: ~~~~ |
Rædwald (talk) 13:46, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
 | Discussion |
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| Discussion for clarification & decision |
Hello! Thank you for the application. Chetsall shows some really good potential. It's also a limited amount to go off of for an entire region. Here is my proposal to you: would you take a BG territory for now, build up some diverse mapping, and reapply? I think having a bit more to go off of would be much more helpful. Of course, what you have in a BG territory can be relocated to Ingerland when done. Given what you have in Chetsall, I really do want to see more of what you're capable of. Thanks! — Alessa (talk) 13:56, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
That sounds reasonable; so it'd be easier to copy when I get proper territory in Ingerland I'd ideally like a south-east facing coastline so would I be able to claim BG09? It appears to be mostly empty and the person who had that claim has seemingly moved on and does most of their editing in Archanta now - and it'd make an interesting experiment to try and retool what the previous person has built to match a British style instead of the seemingly American style it was before. (An invite to the JOSM Discord also wouldn't go amiss, if you're allowed to hand them out!) Rædwald (talk) 14:20, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
- Great! Unfortunately, BG09 is not available. The best I can offer you at this point is BG12, BG16, or BG26. Do keep in mind that things can be rotated in JOSM, so it isn't impossible to adjust later on to fit the Ingerland coastline. — Alessa (talk) 14:32, 17 November 2023 (UTC)
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Territory application closed |
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| The user has been approved for BG16 | |
| — Alessa (talk) 14:44, 17 November 2023 (UTC) |