Editing Journey of the Strange (section)

==The Southern Mainland==

Amazing, for all the prophet and fuss made by the Old Worlds over the New one, no one's explored very much of it. All the major settlements are on the sea. Only three or four even have a population over 300 souls, and only the Human settlements are fully self sustaining. Travel further inland then a dozen miles, and you're in poorly charted territories. Another dozen miles, and you may well be the first Human to ever see what ever tree you're looking at. The forests of the New World are dense, and as far as anyone can tell, the native population seems entirely composed by clans of intelligent, flying lizards.
===Governance from afar===

It is the '''Baroness Luthe''' who governs the colony. After an incident in which it is rumoured that she attempted to kill her husband with a hairpin, a complex agreement was reached within which she was to govern the new lands to the east in the name of [the city state], while her husband would govern the family's extensive estates back in the Old World. She set sail with her brood of five children eleven years ago but has never quite finished the the last leg of the voyage, remaining one month's sailing to the west, on an island in the middle of the ocean, called '''Redfort'''.

Her rule has been characterized by long periods of silence punctuated by sweeping decrees and concessions which have little relation to reality. Some five or six adventurers and soldiers form the core of her favoured group, each of these dignitaries spending some four to six months of the year courting favour with the Baroness at Redfort then returning with impressive documents according them new privileges. These men generally seem to avoiding meeting eachother head-on, apparently operating on the basis of agreement between gentlemen. Conflicts have occasionally arisen, usually due to contradictory documents, each bearing the seal of the Baroness, and more than a score of times, duels of sorts have been fought, boats scuppered or rice fields flooded.

Through all of this, the Baroness is said to maintain enviable serenity.
===Fort Colenth===
The furtherest point out in the New World is '''Fort Colenth'''. This simple wood and pitch barracade is a full twenty miles from the coast, well out of site out of the city that supports it. Fifty men man it's walls. They've constructed a watch tower, a barracks, and simple fortifications to guard against... Well, the natives in the area are relatively friendly, so they're not quite sure what they're guarding against. But those same natives say, when they come in to trade furs and meat for trinkets and smoke, that just on the other side of them, something bad lives. Commander Alluicious La Blanke, ranking officer at Fort Colenth, is of the opinion that the local Drakes are simply pulling their legs. The men at the base aren't so sure.

===The Drakes and colonisation===
Much of the lowlands occupied by the drakes is inhospitable swamp and mangroves, but there are ranges of low hills a short way inland. In the incipient colonies, these hills are considered prime targets for agriculture. A few dissenting voices have pointed out that, despite the lush vegetation, the red soil is very infertile and have proposed ambitious schemes for partial draining of some of the coastal areas to plant rice. That infertile soil could support lush vegetation is, of course, considered foolishness by most. Overall, no particular direction has yet been taken, though most know that the colony cannot sustain itself forever as it currently is.

The drakes themselves have no discernible organisation or society yet a few have shown themselves to be quite intelligent and cultured when they have come in peace to deal with the colonists. A dozen years ago, an effort was made to use the drakes' services to chart some of the coastline from the air. Despite the cartographers' best efforts, however, all they could produce were strange geometrical designs linking the various known geographical features, utterly useless for navigation. Due to the exorbitant fees charged by the drakes (consisting of diamonds, rubies and live captives), the maps were never thrown away, but are rather held under lock and key.

===the emerald rush and new colonials===
To date, the principal riches to have come from the New World consists of emeralds. In a single region where the hills reach the coast, a small colony was set up to harvest these gems from the earth.

The quantity of emeralds has not been great. Indeed, if a careful accounting were undertaken, it would be found that the colonies have so far represented a huge investment with little or no reward. However, when these stones arrived in the Old World, they ensured that the stories of rivers of gold and silver across the ocean would not die on the vine.

Few of the colonists paid for the rights to land before embarking on their voyage. The numbers of such folk are on the rise, however, and they are markedly different from the others in that they are arriving with families in tow and have no thought of returning. Along the way, these people have their charters ratified by the Baroness and her staff and they arrive at the docks full of hope.

Naturally, the claims they have, while vast, frequently overlap with others and usually cover areas of swamp, areas held by drakes and so on. A number of claims appear to be to areas of sea. Nevertheless, all of these claims bear several seals and signatures, so their bearers still feel themselves to be wealthy and are still able to use these documents as a certain form of currency.

None of these colonists has yet struck out into the interior to lay claim to their lands, but they are building in numbers and are getting organised. Several groups have declared themselves to be new states, independent of any other, but these have so far been largely ignored as they have yet to act. Many of them arrived with young children and have seen their children grow into young almost-adults. This is leading to the obvious problems, especially with the young mamelucos who abound.

Steam is building up and the climate is one of incipient explosion.