Mimsam

The Breadbasket of the Free Worlds

A few people now have asked me, 'why join the revolution?' I simply point to the Harbor. We knew the risks better than anyone else. That is why we knew we could never sit idly by and let it happen again.

— Sceparnio Licinius, veteran of the Trade Union Revolutionary War

The Island

One of the few islands in the Dominion of Natura that is within the Trade Union's borders, Mimsam, originally named Cirta, is a key farming location for the entirety of the free worlds.

Geography

Mimsam is very flat, with few areas to gather water. Initially upon discovery it was covered in forests, but the old-growth trees have been almost fully replaced by farms. Tree farms do take up a large amount of space, but the neat rows of trees bear little resemblence to the original forests.

Flora and Fauna

Some groves of Quercus, Acer, and Salice remain, with the Salice having been the least useful for the people of Mimsam, and therefore the one that has survived the best. The mosses that once covered the whole island have been pushed back by the hardier grasses of Sayles, which were brought to the island to fill the lawns of the people living on Mimsam.

Natural Resources

Initally, Mimsam, which was known as Cirta, was covered in a forest. The woods of Mimsam proved vital for the construction of colonies on many nearby islands, as it was much easier to transport from there than from Ilysium, which also still had small forests at the time. Nowadays, the primary natural resource of Mimsam is, like many in the Dominion of Natura, the fertile topsoil. The nutrient-rich soil, along with the higher amount of moisture in the air, allows Mimsam to be a very large part of the food supply of the islands that would later form The Trade Union. This quality is what has earned it the moniker "The Breadbasket of the Free Worlds", even though it only provides roughly 30% of the food in the modern era. Today, most of the very valuable farmland is used to grow trees, as wood is a rare commodity in the Free Worlds.

The Town

Staunchly anti-Imperial to this day, Mimsam was the first town to join Sayles in their revolt. The town still maintains several defensive structures, in case of an Imperial invasion, and a large portion of the population are veterans of the Trade Union Revolutionary War. Thankfully, conflict has not reached this far beyond the border since the end of that war. Nowadays, the town is primarily a farming town, feeding a large portion of the free worlds and supplying wood to settlements that cannot reliably grow their own.

Demographic

Mimsam is fairly unique in its treatment of the clanless. In most places among the Free Worlds, those shunned by the clans have no place, but on Mimsam, they are given the opportunity to prove their worth to one of several minor clans working the farms. As such, there is a very large portion of clanless living and working on Mimsam. Mimsam is also important enough for the Trade Union to ensure that no clan gains a monopoly over the farms, and major clans are forbidden from owning land on the island.

Government

Mimsam is run by an elected Mayor. Each clan with even one member living on the island gets a single vote every five years, no matter the size or presence of the clan. Currently, the mayor is Delia Agunn, a member of a group of very small clans called the Quercus Coalition. Her power is balanced, at least in theory, by the large amount of control each clan has over their own doings. The position of mayor is less of a law-creator or even really an enforcer and more of a mediator between clan disputes when an agreement cannot be made. However, with the unofficial alliance of the three largest clans on the island, unimaginatively reffered to in the collective as "the big three", smaller clans are often muscled into unfavorable deals that the mayor cannot do anything about.
One small vestige of the time under Imperial rule is a council of elders. Mimsam is one of the few places in the Free Worlds that still honor this old tradition, and the elders themselves do not have much actual power. However, they advise the mayor on what they believe the majority of the people prefer. How often their advice is listened to is unclear, but they still count as people of importance in the government.

Controlling Clans

While many minor clans have stakes on Mimsam, most of them do not even own a whole farm. Many of these clans have not yet found a niche, and are spread too thinly over too many places, and are only loosely organized. This is not the case for the three clans that collectively own most of Mimsam. Frostfield, Voice of the Avem, and the Marble Vulpines have purchased, either recently or over the past century almost all of the farms on the island. They are not individually large enough for the Trade Union to step in and mandate either their removal from Mimsam or their division into smaller clans, but they have a tenuous alliance that allows them almost complete control over the town.

Exports and Imports

Exports

Imports

Fruits
Grains
Woods
Vegetables

Water
Tools
Fabrics

History

Founded in 326 CA, Mimsam, which was originally called Cirta, quickly became a hub for the new frontier. With large amounts of forests not seen much further east, the woods were stripped and shipped out to build the colonies around it. After the expansion of the empire in that area slowed, Mimsam remained an important colony in terms of the food and wood grown there.
Another important part of Mimsam was the steadily growing religious group. Worship of the Fullblooded is hard to pin down in history, after the imperial records were purged, but Mimsam was notable in its worship. This culminated in a temple being constructed in the mid-colonial age, and while it initially was probably a general-use temple, it was eventually specialized to worship of Spoer, God of Hope. In 1775 CA, House Glesseal was formed out of the priesthood of Spoer, placing him as the de facto head of the entire religious pantheon. Worship grew from there, becoming an important part of Mimsam, until early in the sourcerous age, when war broke out between the Empire and House Glesseal, rebranded as the Glesseal Empire. The war was decisive and retribution swift, and a large portion of Mimsam was broken off from the rest of the island and swallowed up by the depths, a show of force that cowed the other colonies into compliance for the next thousand years. Small portions of the ruins of the temple to Spoer can still be found floating near the island, though the religion has never returned to the town.
Mimsam remained a small and loyal town for many generations, though the current residents claim that animosity lay just under the surface and never fully subsided. This culminated during the Trade Union Revolutionary War, when the town of Mimsam revolted, refitting their barges with weapons and sailing in the defense of nearby Querk. With their help, the clans pushed back the first assault of the Empire agains the newly-proclaimed Free Worlds, and the clans of Sayles were able to unify. Eventually, after nearly a a generation of fighting, the Empire was defeated after the Siege of Ilysium, which the people of Mimsam also heavily supported.

Renaming

After the Trade Union Revolutionary War, the towns that had managed to free themselves celebrated, often by tearing down Imperial structures and renaming the island and town. In Mimsam's case, the name comes from the Imperial phrase "Memento Sum", or "We Remember". On Ilysium, it is used as a warning that the Emperor will remember all transgressions. On Mimsam, it is referring to the acts of the Empire in the Glesseal-Imperial War that spurred the colonists to join the Trade Union's Revolution.

<Map of Mimsam goes here>

Basic Information:

Founding Date: 326 CA, 13th Zenith
Population: 2,159
Part of: The Trade Union
Owned by: Marble Vulpines (46%), Voice of the Avem (31%), and Frostfield (19%)
Previously Named: Cirta
Location Under: Dominion of Natura

Notable Places:

• The Harbor. Not actually used as a harbor, this shape of Mimsam's island was caused as a terrible retribution for the Glesseal House's rebellion.
• Silva Quarter. A small portion of the town build around the last couple old-growth trees on the island.
• Trade Union Office. Where the Trade Union exerts its influence on Mimsam.
• Quercus Coalition Headquarters. The main base of the current majority party on Mimsam, as well as where the Mayor spends most of her time.

Notable People:

Current Mayor: Delia Agunn
Marble Foxes Director: Arto Gracil
Voice of the Avem Director: Felics Penn
Frostfield Director: Abel Ruty
Trade Union Representative: Helven Berill
Local Judge: Capern Maus
Elders: Josep Mars, Vidia Caelus, Fadrom Toni, and Sallia Lucile

Related Historical Events

• 1776 AoS
  House Glesseal Formed

<Timeline goes here>