Gosd

Gosd is a small town of the Solurian Empire, off the coast of a large swampland. It is located to the far south of Sol and northwest of Solentse. Gosd is known for the high quality of its woodworking products and the large variety of plant life which originates in the swamp nearby. Gosd has a reputation for being one of the more peaceful towns in the Shire, being involved in only two battles of a single war and no other conflicts. Citizens of Gosd are known to be adamant about keeping peace in the world.

Overview

History

Gosd is one of the older towns in the Solurian Empire, being founded early on by the Gribban Compact and later absorbed into the Empire during the merging of the two empires.

Pre-War Gosd

Gosd at dawn.

Gosd was founded sometime during the First Age by colonists from the southern city of Grib. It is unsure exactly when this occurred, as records do not go back that far for this town, but historians agree it was between the years 260 and 270. Colonization was initiated by the Gribban Compact, a small southern empire begun by the residents of the mushroom city of Grib. It began as a small establishment that was to supply wood products and lumber to the capital city of the Gribbans, but eventually was the first point of contact between the budding Solurian Empire and the people of Grib. Since the first contact in 312, Gosd was used as a stopping point for traders going from the cities of the Solurian Empire to cities of the Gribban Compact.

The Griblings were at first worried about contact with a fast growing empire such as the Solurian Empire, but the way the two separate races worked together mollified some of this fear. Shortly after an official meeting between civil and military leaders of both groups, the Treaty of Gosd was signed in 1018, allowing free trade between the two empires and establishment of embassies, among other things. Under this treaty, trade between the two empires flourished. With this treaty, the town of Solentse was brought into a trade route from Grib to Gosd, allowing for the town to prosper.

Trade continued into 1702, until a small group of racist extremists burned three full lily pads in an act of terror. Three of the extremists were caught fleeing south by Gribban military forces off the coast of Solenste, which was a small trading town at the time, and were brought back to Gosd for execution. Two more remaining terrorists were caught by the Solurian Navy off the coast of Alwasy, when they were attempting to flee north. These two were returned to custody of the Gribban military, and were summarily executed for their part in the crimes.

The aid given by the Solurian Empire in bringing these people to justice bolstered the relations between the two empires. Shortly after, in 1703, under the permission of the Gribban Compact, the Solurian Empire set up a small fort (which remains standing to this day, nearly 1000 years later). The fort has since deteriorated due to prior battles and the unstable foundations of the swamp in which it was built.

Due to their past experience in the swamps of Gosd and the main source of revenue being woodworking, the citizens of Gosd were revered as master carpenters and woodworkers. However, the homes they had on the island were not enough to sustain the growing population. With the help of mages from the Solurian Empire, the residents of Gosd were able to properly seed and grow several lily pads to replace those burned by the terror attacks, and their life on the shores of the swamp continued peacefully.

Gosd at night.

Gosd during the Civil War

During the Solurian Civil War of 1717, Gosd was considered one of the front lines between forces of the Avetissmens and the members of the Gribban Compact. This was due to the dangerous and borderline racist ideals the Avetissmens were trying to spread to gain control of the Solurian Empire. These ideals often took rights and freedoms away from non-human Solurians, and the Gribban Compact, which was considering merging with the Solurian Empire, knew that the Avetissmens would not stop there. Thus, the Gribban Compact sided with the Primalians in their fight against the Avetissmens, and the role of Gosd in the war was cemented.

The First Battle of Gosd occurred in early 1718, when mercenary forces of the Avetissmens, based at a small landing site northwest of Gosd, attempted to move into Gosd through the swamp. These forces likely wished to use Gosd as a launching point for various raids and attacks on Solurian naval supply lines. However, using guerrilla warfare, members of the village and soldiers at the fort chipped away at the mercenaries as they attempted to pass through the swamp. The combination of the terrain, the lack of knowledge of the terrain, the plentiful cover for ambushes, and the difficulty in getting supplies and siege weapons through the swamp proved fatal for the attacking force. Nearly half of the mercenary force was killed in the swamp, and the remaining half were defeated soundly at the lumberyard of Gosd, where members of the Gribban and Solurian Armies had entrenched. As such, Gosd became renown as unassailable from the land. The main worry, however, was how easy an attack by sea could take the town. Thus, the lily pads were armored and reinforced at the deep ocean stems, allowing for defense from a naval blockade.

The Second Battle of Gosd occurred in late 1718 going into early 1719, when a large combined naval force and land force of the Avetissmens attempted to lay siege to and raze Gosd to eliminate the supplies the Gribban and Solurian Navies could use. Land forces, using improved tactics and defensive shields and fortifications, encroached upon the Gosd border and threatened to break the land defence Gosd had developed. As the battle raged on the land, the small retainer force of ships Gosd possessed was sunk by the Avetissmens naval force that had split off from the naval force stationed in Tibeth. After thirteen days of bombardment by the Avetissmens navy, however, the small fort of Gosd stood strong, and the lily pads of Gosd remained floating. On the forty-first day, a combined force of the Solurian Navy out of Solentse and the Gribban Navy out of Grib moved north from the Naval Battle of Tibeth and the Siege of Solentse and were able to successfully break the blockade and sink 18 ships of the Avetissmens naval force. Reinforcements from these ships then broke the Avetissmens siege on land by attacking from behind, successfully flanking and destroying the land force. Thus, the Second Battle of Gosd was ended, and a great victory for the Solurian Empire was won. What could have been a disastrous campaign by the Avetissmens force in the south was stopped in one fell swoop, moving from Tibeth to Solentse to Gosd. If the Avetissmens had successfulyl completed the campaign, the heart of the Solurian Empire would have been surrounded and the Gribban Compact would have been cut off from aiding or receiving aid from the Solurian Empire.

From the prisoners of the land siege of Gosd, it was discovered that Avetissmens forces that had just captured Mar to the north were expecting reinforcement to come from Gosd to fight against the Solurian Naval force out of Sol. A few ships of the Solurian Navy remained with the Gribban Navy, while the rest continued north to begin what would later be known as the Siege of Mar. Due to the skill of the Gribban and Solurian Navies, assault on Grib by water was also now nigh-impossible.

When the Solurian Civil War of 1717 ended in early 1720, the additional fortifications added to the town of Gosd were removed and the town returned to its roots of woodworking and lumber exportation. Later that year, in mid 1720, the Gribban Compact joined the Solurian Empire, and Gosd became a full-fledged town of the Solurian Empire.

Modern-day Gosd

The Gosd of today is a peaceful town, recognized widely by its small homes and the lily pads upon which these homes reside. Gosd contains four medium sized lily pads, which house three to four homes each, and one large lily pad, which houses the small fishing harbor and the storage warehouse. On the island, Gosd has multiple homes, a small bar, the iconic Gosd fort, and the lumber mill where most of the wood gathered from the swamp is cut.

In the current day, Gosd-made lumber, furniture, tools, and planks remain the highest quality available in nearly the entire western hemisphere. Gosd is also an exporter of high quality herbs and swamp plants. Most Gribbans living in Gosd keep stores of books on herbs and swamp plants in their home, due to the possible poisonous nature of the large variety of plants in the area. It is predicted that by the end of 2018 Gosd will have a small herbal research base funded by the Sol Greenery Co.

Plant Life

Since Gosd is located on the coast of one of the larger swamps in the shire, the plant life that can be found is often quite random and exotic. From records dating back to 1023, when visiting Solurians began working with the Gribbans to detail plant life, over 5,000 species of vegetation have been found. Some flowers, like the Dandelion, Poppy, Allium, Azure Bluet, Tulip, and Oxeye Daisy can be found in a large variety of landscapes around the Shire. The Blue Orchid, however, was initially native only to the swamp outside of Gosd, but grew rapidly when introduced into other swamp areas by smugglers looking to expand the blue dye trade. Now, the Blue Orchid can be found nearly anywhere, and is considered an invasive plant species in the northern and eastern parts of the Shire. Due to its invasive nature, the Blue Orchid has slowly killed off other flower species in nearly every swampland of the Shire.

Gosd also happens to be where the Sol Greenery Co found and cultivated the rare Sheep-Eating Flytrap which is housed in the Laurelian Flora Museum. Where exactly the plant originated from is unknown, but it was found deep in the swamplands west of Gosd as a small seed, and was cultivated into the size it is today. Researchers are unsure whether it will stop growing or not, and have been unable to find further examples of the species even to this current day.

Demographics

The population of Gosd is understandably small, as Gosd is one of the smaller towns in the Solurian Empire. When the census was last taken in 2016, the population of Gosd was 18,912 Gribbans, 5,329 Solurians, 134 Primalians, and 278 humans.

Population percentages of Gosd

Like Grib, Gosd is populated mostly by Gribbans, with the Gribban population nearly tripling the total combined population of the other races. However, unlike Grib and most of the Solurian Empire, Gosd has no recorded permanent citizens of Sammichian, Enpeecee, Enderian, Acadian, or Laurelii descent, as of the 2016 census. The total permanent resident population in Gosd is 24,653, as of the most recent census.

Religon

The religion of Gosd is the same as the main religion for the Solurian Empire, the Solurian Sect. With the last census in 2016, over 98% of the population of Gosd followed the religious beliefs of the Solurian Sect. The remaining two percent of the population were either nonreligious or followed a separate religion which was not stated on the census. Religious life in Gosd has been prevalent since the introduction of the Solurian Sect into Gosd in 313, a mere year after first contact with the Solurian Empire.

Since then, the religion gained believers until it became the majority religion in 417, and continued until 445 when it was declared the official religion of Gosd. When the Gribban Compact merged with the Solurian Empire in 1720, Gosd joined Grib in welcoming the Solurian Sect as the official religion of their combined empire. Until recently, Gosd has not had a specific area for worship and religious activity, instead using the surrounding land as a natural religious area. However, since the population has grown so much, town officials have begun the process of contracting and designing a small religious temple, possibly even on its own freshly-grown lily pad.

Political Climate

The political climate in Gosd is quite different from the political climate in the Solurian Empire, as only one group controls the local government of Gosd. This group, the G.P.P., or Gosd Peace Party, is barely a political party by most standards. It holds no regular meetings, has no followers outside of Gosd, and barely participates in the decisionmaking process for the Empire as a whole. Its goals are simple: keep peace in Gosd, keep peace in the Solurian Empire, and promote civil growth in Gosd and its surrounding territories. More recently, the goal of promoting environmental sustainability and conservation has come up in elections and polling in Gosd.

The anti-military focus of this party sometimes brings it at odds with the rest of the Empire, which is why there is such a small military presence in Gosd. Nonetheless, the citizens of Gosd very much support the party in its endeavours, probably because they are the only ones who make up the party. The mayor of the town and the regional governor for the Gosd territory are both members of the G.P.P.

The G.P.P. was founded and rose to influence during a small protest shortly after the conclusion of the Solurian Civil War of 1717. Gosd was on track to refurbish and expand the fort on Gosd’s high ground, but once a small protest brought up the point that the lumber mill would have to be shut down and rebuild elsewhere, the protests spread throughout the town. The decision to advance work on the fort was delayed until the next election, where the prior mayor was swept out in a landslide victory for the G.P.P. Refurbishment of the fort was canceled, and further military build expansion into Gosd was subsequently thrown out. Later plans for a naval waystation were declined and funding for the construction of a small military outpost on the edge of the territory was instead used to expand the dock.

Since the Gosd Peace Party grew to popularity, Gosd has followed a strict non-aggression ideal concerning conflicts the Empire has taken part in. Often, citizens of Gosd travel to the capitol to lobby for peace or for peaceful resolution to conflicts. Several citizens of Gosd have gone on to become internationally renowned peace movement leaders, including Xalcolm M. and Tibauld Roken.

For those who opted to fill out the information on the census, the political support for the parties in Gosd is overwhelmingly in favor of the G.P.P.; with minimal support for the main parties of the Solurian Empire. G.P.P. support in the 2016 census is at 97.3%, with support for the Collaborative Solurian Party (C.S.P.) at 0.92%, support for the Solurian National Group (S.N.G.) at 1.01% and support for the Principal Sol Compact (P.S.C.) at 0.77%. 95% of the population of Gosd filled out political affiliation forms on the census.

Military Climate

Due to the peaceful nature of Gosd, the military climate is nearly nonexistant. The only major military installation is the fort, which is both decrepit and considered a historical landmark more than a military building. As such, what little members of the Solurian Military exist in Gosd tend to instead act as a supplement to the Gosd Police Department. Obviously, this brings up quite a few issues concerning deployment of military forces on civilian soil and use of military force against civilians, but surprisingly, these issues haven't really come into play in Gosd.

For ‘deployment’ the military members act in a deputized role, and often simply deal with traffic issues or violations and other such small time breakings of the law. If a serious issue arises, official GPD officers are rerouted to the scene and the issue is handed off. Nonetheless, the few members of the Solurian Military in Gosd tend to take orders from the Chief of the GPD unless orders come in from military officials that are to the contrary. Most of the time, if a member of the Solurian Military is off patrolling the streets of Gosd, they are accompanied by an officer of the GPD. Despite this odd work order, the relationship between the GPD and the Solurian Military officials in Gosd is quite lax, and often extremely friendly. Gosd’s bi-weekly barbeque is actually hosted by both the GPD and members of the Solurian Military in the community.

Build History

A view of the sunrise with the historical fort.

Gosd was a small village started by Master_Chief on the 28th of June, 2015. He completed the lily pad portion of the village on the same day, and finished the island portion on the 29th of June, same year. After completion of the village, the warp gosd was added. Possible additions of lily pads and expansion into the swamp are planned, but it is unsure if they will occur.