The Concise Chronicles of F.R.E.D.
The Dim Days
During the Dim Days F.R.E.D. was called Sauran. Sauran was an empire, blossoming and blooming. Little information is known about when Sauran was founded. The Sauranian Empire had great warriors and smart citizens. However, Sauranian people were mostly farmers, seeing as Sauran had its main infrastructure built to suit the agricultural lifestyle. Sauran prospered as an empire, with Galad Riel as the last empress. Galad Riel came to the throne in the year 1802. Under her rule, the country was doing great. For a long period of time, the people of Sauran were very happy. Until the turn of the centuries came closer, the world became much smaller with newer ideas and inventions taking the upper hand. Galad the Last Empress was influenced by these newer ideas and sought to implement them in her great country.
This led to a rising opposition, finding the new ideas the empress was implementing too radical. Galad, being inspired to react mildly and be gone with the way she punished those who opposed her, set out to let this opposition speak their truth. Alas, the opposition, led by a brute force, thought Galad Riel needed to be gone with. 1889 is the year that marks the last time an empress or emperor was sat on the ruling throne of the country of Sauran.
Sauran under Gallura
The Last War
Gallura too came under the influence of newer ideas and had heard that an increase in money flow could be achieved by exporting goods. At first he demanded that non-essential goods be exported through any means possible. After all the non-essential goods were exported, he demanded the essential goods to be exported too. Soon many people had nothing to live on and became poor. About a third of the nation died of diseases involving starvation or lack of medical aid. Gallura was not happy with the decrease in the production of any goods, essential or non-essential. He forced the barely to severely sick to work under guarded supervision. This was really the straw that broke the camel’s back for many citizens.
Naturally, the increasing death toll and the decreasing health led to many unhappy citizens. Those that were still strong enough fought back but to no avail. They gathered all together under the movement they called the Free Republic. Nocer Popov was the leader of the rebellion against the forceful regime. Gallura took this as a personal offence and ordered all his men to search for all the members of the Free Republic. Gallura took them out, one by one and gave them no mercy. The battle of Mountain Dew was one of the biggest offensives, seeing as the Mountain Dewers were incredibly resistant to the suppression. As punishment for their disobedience, Gallura turned Mountain Dew into an open prison, where no-one had any freedom. Only a few members of the rebellion survived, one of them being Ivan Frederico. This civil war would later be called the Last War.
Gallura the Fierce was the force leading the opposition. He took over control over the empire and became a dictator. How he got into the palace is all a little unclear. Some sources say he worked his way into the palace as a staff member of the Empress. Some sources claim he rallied up the people and his followers and forcefully bashed down the gates of the palace, fighting their way to victory. What is known, is that many people fought under Gallura’s command to secure him the throne. Of the then 7 million inhabitants, about 60 000 died during Gallura’s siege. This high number of deaths is related to the fact that Gallura killed anyone who crossed his path and didn’t agree with him. The Last Empress only got word of this when the opposition was too big to squash with words, but had to be dealt with using arms. This resulted in a civil war between the opposition and the imperial army and its supporters. The war is called the Dark War, going on from 1887 until 1889, when Galad was defeated and the status of the country changed to a dictatorship.
At first, Gallura didn’t change much when he rose to power, he turned back certain rules and laws to what they were before Galad was under the influence of the newer ideas. One law he passed that almost everyone adhered to, be that under strict armed control, was the Law of Movement. This law meant that everyone from the ages of zero to 65 had to move to the bigger cities. The people unable to move due to medical conditions or due to old age, were allowed to stay. This exodus resulted in about 2 million people moving from the countryside to the cities. At this moment in time the country was not faring so well. The move caused many to have to take up new jobs that they were not equipped to do.
At first, Gallura did not listen to the needs of the people and any retaliation, with arms or words, was met with violence. Only when so many people went on strike that the country was on the verge of collapsing, did Gallura listen. He made sure people had more to live on and ordered people to build farms near and around the three major cities Gallura City, Zigav and Waklov. Alas, this rise in prosperity did not last long. As time progressed, Gallura got a very strong sense that he needed to be compensated for the losses he had suffered. He especially wanted to be compensated for the struggle to overthrow Galad Riel The Last Empress. And that compensation was in the form of money.
Free Republic of Sauran
The Free Republic of Every Democrat
After about a year of ruling solo, Ivan realised he didn’t have the knowledge to govern a country like a good leader should. So Ivan surrounded himself with the few people he trusted: Dan Hargis, Dave Kowalski and Blanca Hett. Together, these four came up with a new way to create a better country and a better future for everyone. Out of these discussions came the decisions to have a 6-child-policy, seeing as the country needed to rebuild itself and they needed new, younger people to fashion a great country.
They also decided to put everyone forward in political terms, which later would be called socialism by historians. Ivan himself was very interested in figuring things out and wanted the country to do research on the glowing plants. Out of this want came the drive to research and develop a nuclear science department all over the country. Dan wanted everyone to be free, because he was one of the last people who survived the onslaught during the battle of Mountain Dew. Dave, or as he was better known, Kowalski was of the opinion that everyone needs to be disciplined into the new way of living. Blanca agreed with Kowalski and thought of a great education system to do this.
Additionally, Ivan wanted a direct break from the terror that had befallen the lands. This terror was clearly noticeable in the rubble that was sprawled all over the cities. However, the country was too poor to build new buildings so they rebuilt the buildings a bit and added newer systems to it throughout the years. Later this building style would be called steampunk.
Economically speaking, the founding four wanted to protect the country. They had the memories of Gallura’s policies too vividly in their minds still and never wanted to go back to that way of living. So they had a lot of control on the import and export of goods and imposed a lot of taxes. Ivan was in charge of the economic spectrum with help from the others, but later gained more power in it seeing as he clearly knew what he was doing. Sadly enough, throughout his life, he started to show signs of delusion and became crazy. He spoke of bizarre things, thinking the neighbouring countries were out to overtake and create extra chaos. Hence the current protectionism and isolation in the country.
The name of the country was easily picked. Everyone wanted to remember the movement that got them to this place. But they also wanted to be together and put emphasis on the importance of every person aiding to the group cohesion. This process happened in a democratic way, so the people choosing the name deeming themselves democrats. Thus, the Free Republic became the Free Republic of Every Democrat as we know it today. And what a glorious, great country it is, F.R.E.D. proud!
Following the spirit of the now deceased leader of the rebellion, Nocer Popov, Ivan joined forces with Gallura. He was young, but very skilful and driven by hatred for Gallura and his regime. He was the last grandson of the Last Empress Galad Riel and was furious with Gallura and his men for dethroning his grandmother. He witnessed her get hanged, from a distance of course, because his own life was in danger too. He was about 5 years old then. Then, during Gallura’s reign he worked at one of the farms that had sprouted around Gallura City. When he turned 21, he joined the army, as that was another rule Gallura forced upon the population. At the age of 38 he became a general in Gallura’s forces. Ivan was not brainwashed or forced, he did this with premeditated intent. As later was told, Ivan infiltrated the army to become more popular than Gallura. He destroyed the army from the inside out by turning most of Gallura’s men against him. This happened on the 1st of November.
During the insider war that lasted 6 days, life was brutal for Ivan. Very little is known about the invasion or what happened during the fight, but Ivan was a changed man when he declared victory in the early morn of the 7th of November. Ivan became the freer of the country from the oppression and was celebrated all over. He was declared the new leader of a new country by the people in Gallura City. Ivan was overwhelmed but kept as sane as possible to make sure the people he had been raised by and was part of, were safe. He noticed really soon that people were tired and sorrowful. To boost the morale of the people, Ivan wanted to organise a gathering to celebrate the victory and to share in the grief. This happened on the same day still. Ivan asked everyone to bring what they could find or could spare.
The Glowing Festival
Ivan brought a cake that he made with the recipe from his grandmother, the Last Empress. He came into the possession of the recipe when he was in training in the army. The cake was and is still called Yellowcake. , Ivan died with the recipe and ever since then every baker has tried to replicate it as best they could. To this day, the cake is still something eaten on special occasions and especially on the 7th of November.
One special person in this history is Toska Lux. He brought paint made from glowing plants. Toska lived near the Northern Mountains and after the victory he went back home to gather whatever he could to bring to the gathering. However, he noticed he was still wounded when he got back home in the town called Svet. He had heard of a rumour of glowing plants, but hadn’t ever seen one growing. As his town hadn’t been inhabited by people for an odd 50 years the plants had begun to take over and started glowing with life. He was under the impression that the glowing effect of the plants must mean that they had medicinal purposes. So he made a paste and put it on himself, hoping that on the way back, he could heal a little. When he got back to Gallura City, later called Ivansky, the night was falling. People who were conversing noticed him right him away, since the paste was also glowing and therefor Toska was alight with paste. And thus, the glowing festival was born. People still paint themselves with glow in the dark paint every single 7th of November.