Everchill
Contents
Overview
Everchill, as the name suggest, is a cold world sparsely inhabited by humans. It's run by the People's Republic of Everchill, who's closed it off from the rest of the Mirrorsky. It is Elias' and Elena's homeworld, where they grew up and spent their youth.
History
According to the government approved educational material, Everchill is the cradle of humankind, where humanity was born, grew up and reached the pinnacle of society, which democratic institution lead by humanity's finest, elected through a delicate voting process to maximize equality. The truth though, is bit harder to know because of the historical purge of year three Republic Calendar. It's very likely though that Everchill started as a colony, probably through accidental Nhihn gate migration. Before the People's Republic, Everchill was probably Feudalistic and containing several smaller countries. This changed with the people's revolution, when several simultaneous peasant uprisings through the different nations lead to the creation of the People's Republic of Everchill (this period of time is today known as the Era of Unshacklement according to textbooks). The details of how the super state was created though has been lost in the turmoil of revolution.
Today the year is year 77 Republic Calendar, meaning 67 years has passed since a formal government was formed. Life still isn't any better to the peasants than it was pre-republic era, but they don't know that anyway, since all official pre-republic information has been routinely purged, and the old revolution generation is dying off. Only rumors, myths and government propaganda remain of the old Everchill.
Nature
As the name strongly hints, Everchill is cold, and very much so. Most of the year the whole world is buried by snow, and winters are long, followed by a brief spring before a "summer" that only lasts for about a month at best. Only the equatorial line is populated by something larger than bacteria, and even then, population is sparse. Because of this harsh environment, the things that actually live there has to be tough to survive. The native species of Everchill are freaks of nature that lives in the harshest environments imaginable and sometimes even thrives there, but there are also migrated species, animals that has come from other worlds and have now adapted to Everchill, usually by becoming bigger and meaner. Ever seen a polar bear? Well, Everchillian Polar Bears are twice the size of that.
Most of the wildlife in Everchill lives off eating something smaller than themselves, but this precious ecological cycle still wouldn't be possible without the extremely tough plant life that exists at the equatorial circle. Everchillian plants are especially adapted for their environment, and are able to sustain themselves even though the ground is frozen. These plants, although tough against weather, don't fare well against concurrence, and attempting to raise them outside of Everchill is bound to fail. Everchill's primary agricultural crop is Snow Wheat.
People
Everchill's society is largely dominated by class, and you can easily divide people in nobility and peasants. The majority of people are poor and earn a living as workers in the Everchill industry or as farmers in a collective farm, but there's a select few in the minority belonging to the old blue bloods from Everchill's feudalistic past that still own the huge land areas and important industries. The middle class isn't much larger than the high class and mostly consists of important non-nobility government officials, doctors and poor nobles.
Most Everchill cities got large slums where the poorest in society live. Living space here is cramped, and if anyone actually got a job, it's usually dangerous and with a low salary. The slums are though, the most lawless places in Everchill (assuming you stay within the city gates), and if you want to find dissenter and society's other odd elements, this is where you should start looking.
Finally, the Getefuawei Mountains south west of the Capital City is inhabited by Rebels fighting a Guerrilla warfare against the government to stay independent. Once in a while the Everchill Republic Army tries to root them out, but the Rebels know their home territory like the back of their own hands, and so far all attempts have been futile and ended with more losses for the government forces than the Rebels. In turn, the Rebels have never tried to move out of the Getefuawei Mountains to bring the fight to the People's Republic of Everchill. This is because the Rebel faction consist of many different clans that lived in the mountains for countless of generations, and to them this is just a fight to protect their homeland and way of life against would-be oppressors. The Clans usually sustain themselves through herding and trade, and their most prominent animal is the noble Everchillian Goat (hence; Goat Herders), but this depends on the clan. All of the clans are deeply steeped in their traditions, and they revere nature in way that at least Tyroth would be able to relate to. For a long time it's been a mystery to government officials how the Rebels get hold of more advanced weaponry than the common Everchill Republic Army, but the explanation, as Elias found out, is that the Rebels are aware of the Nhihn gate hidden inside their mountain range and use it to trade with outside worlds. This trade tends to be a bit haphazard though, resulting in highly individual equipment, a fact made even more obvious from their tradition to decorate their individual weapons. The Rebels are very protective of their homeland and aren't keen on people that don't belong there.
