Victoria
Defining Characteristics
Physical
Victoria is, in terms of land area and population, the second largest of the six provinces but, geographically at least, is at the very core of the Western Provinces, sandwiched between its larger neighbour, Eden, to the east and the most westerly province, Wessex.
Victoria is noted as the most mountainous of the provinces and, although there is a concentration of population in the plains of the South-Central Peninsula and the capital city, Port Victoria, which lies therein, most Victorians live at altitude or find themselves, at the very least, surrounded by mountains.
Industrial
Victoria is the industrial powerhouse of the Western Provinces due, in no small measure, to the fact that it has, in its north-western reaches, the only known large scale deposits of coal and iron ore. Much of the industry is concentrated in and around the lands between the Crystal Peaks and the Sierra Angelica, known as the Valley of Angels or, more usually and more simply, The Vale. The area has, as a consequence, become one of the most syndicalist regions in the whole of the Western Provinces, a trait with which the whole of the province has become associated.
It is the reliance upon the industry and resources of The Vale which gives rise to the Winter Migration of workers into the area. It is not so much the extra demands for fuel that winter creates, which efficient mechanisms for stockpiling during the summer mitigate to some extent, as the weather at altitude and northerly latitudes which is constantly threatening to cut off not just small communities but the whole of The Vale from the outside world. It requires a whole extra workforce just to keep the wheels of industry turning.
Social
Victorians, particularly those in its capital and its western and northern industrial reaches are seen as the most socially liberal in all the lands. The more so, perhaps, because that social liberalism has ingrained itself into society to the extent that standard models of family and social interaction can come as quite a shock to those unprepared for it. This liberalism does not extend across the whole of the province however and, in the more sparsely populated south-east, in communities which perhaps have closer ties with the more socially conservative province of Eden, many do not see it as a good thing.
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