Mainz
Founded in TN 866 as a center of ranching in the Marathon Basin, Fort Charles, as Mainz was then known, was a major regional center. Largely self sufficient, Fort Charles rode out the storm of Earth's withdrawal, though bandit raids prompted the construction of extensive fortifications and the establishment of a sizable militia. Joining the nascent Western Frontier Protectorate in TN 1527, the city-state's presence in the Marathon basin originally went unchallenged by the Lyonnesse League.
When the league was remodeled in TN 1551, one of the first actions of the new Caucus was to find an external threat upon which to focus the population's attentions. With the tacit approval of the NLC, who wished to avoid the attentions of their aggressive neighbors, the Mercantile forces moved against Fort Charles en-masse, occupying the region and besieging the city. The military commanders knew assaulting the fortified city would be bloody, and were thankful when the city bureaucracy chose to open their gates on 39 Autumn. On the last day of the cycle, Fort Charles was officially incorporated into the UMF and renamed itself Mainz in early TN 1552.
Though the speed of the Mercantile occupation had taken the WFP by surprise, the Protectorate still maintained its claim to the city and the surrounding lands, resulting in a series of border wars over the cycles and centuries that followed. The most notable came in TN 1570 while the UMFA was still consolidating its grip on the former Tershaw Cooperative Alliance city-states of Swanscombe and Djakarta Point. Launching a preemptive strike through the Cajun Pass, the WFPA sought to regain their lost possession, but after a fierce rearguard action by badly outnumbered UMF troops - and the UMFs subsequent use of chemical weapons - the Protectorate troops were forced to withdraw. The resulting Cajun Pass Treaty ended the war and recognized UMF possession of the city, but neither nation subscribes to the ideal of "forgive and forget" and Mainz remains a thorny issue between the two powers.
The core of Mainz is built around the Protectorate's fort model - layers of defensive walk and AA-turrets - and like the WFP cities, Mainz has outgrown its small core. Initially the city planners attempted to control the growth of the city, using a succession of defensive walls to channel growth in the direction they favored. They failed, and the result is a series of concentric walk which, when viewed from the air, resemble the layers of an onion. These regions are the Core (central district, also known as Old Town), the First to Third Rings (walled zones) and the Outer Town (outside the fourth wall). The modern city stretches from the foothills of the Westridge Range out onto the Cajun Plains, bisected by a series of broad boulevards. These roads form part of an extensive network that links the city to its neighbors and allow the swift transport of the city's main export: food.
Demographics
Home on the Range
The people of Mainz are a strange hybrid of Western and Mercantile cultures. Many of the oldest families retain the clan structure and naming conventions (family name first) of the city-state's early days, but more recent immigrants, particularly since the War of the Alliance, eschew the Westerner ideal in favor of the traditional nuclear family. The "old families" dominate the city's companies and institutions, however, forming an oligarchy that has a strong influence over city-state affairs. Many of these families use Equatorial Hispanic as their first language rather than traditional Anglic, and this has led to a series of laws that dictate all public notices and official documents must be available in both languages. Attempts to extend these provisions to periodicals and books have been repeatedly blocked, though many publishers voluntarily produce both.
Occupied by the CEF during the War of the Alliance, the population was given little choice but to work with the Earth forces. This unfortunately led to many accusations of collaboration, both real and as a means of exacting revenge for some personal slight. The presence of UMFA and Northern Guard troops prevented bloodshed on the scale seen in the Badlands, but for almost a cycle revenge killings were commonplace. A number of trials ensued in the post-war years, though this was limited to prominent individuals. Even today some groups are held in poor regard for their alleged activities during the war and this has colored local politics. Inhabitants of Mainz are also occasionally subject to accusations of collaboration when traveling, both in other parts of the UMF and abroad. Violence is not unknown in these cases.
Already a major black market center, Mainz took on increased significance during the war, particularly as a "clearing center" for the Forzi Cartel's smuggling operations into and out of the CEF occupation zone. The Forzi maintain a tight grip on the city's underworld, though the Granis Cartel have used the on-going Kolson-Forzi struggle to strengthen their position in the city. To date the Forzi response has been minimal. but Sigurd Granis has been building contacts with the local community, particularly the old families and the corporations. in preparation for the day the Forzi and their allies try to expel the interlopers.
Government
The Politics of Trade
Mainz is ruled by a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, nominally open to all Mainz-born individuals but in practice dominated by the old families. Each member of the fifty-person assembly chooses their own successor, deemed a fairer practice than the vote purchasing system used elsewhere in the UMF. This naturally biases the system toward the old, established families who have formed virtual dynasties within the city's government. The current city mayor, Kendall Shiroi, is only the third mayor of Mainz to come from a "new" family. He was elected principally as a compromise candidate because of the post-War of Alliance dispute between the Fernandez and Lawler families - the Lawlers accuse the Fernandez of collaborating with the CEF during the war.
Together with the CNCS protectorate of Red Sands, Mainz forms a cornerstone of UMFA and Northern Guard operations in the southeastern portions of the UMF and the Westridge Mountains. Using the independent city-state as a staging post, the Mainz garrison's reach extends along the railway lines to Ashington, including the strategic passes controlling the entrance to the Marathon Basin. Working with the UMFA's landship fleet and the Northern Guard, the force's area of responsibility includes numerous Badlands communities on the verge of the White Desert, bringing them into occasional conflict with the Koreshi, better known as the Sand Riders. Deployments in this area have been of particular interest to Northco who have used the Federation units for field-tests of their prototype white sand Gear, the Jaguar-based Sand Cat. Of more concern are the rover gangs who prey on caravans headed to or from the city, particularly the vital trade links to Wounded Knee and Red Sands. The security force in the region has repeatedly been cautioned about using excessive force against these groups. Despite this, just before the outbreak of war, allegations surfaced in the Mainz press of an official (but illegal) shoot-to-kill policy directed at rover gangs. Unfortunately, the investigation of these accusations has been given a low priority and they may be conveniently forgotten in the chaos of the Interpolar War.
Industry & Trade
- Ranching
- Foodstuff
Waste Not, Want Not
Ranching dominates the economy of Mainz, though less than five percent of the population work on the massive farms that surround the city. Instead, the majority work i n the packaging and processing plants of the First and Second Rings, or else in the ancillary or dependent industries of the Third Ring and Outer City. Feed manufacturers and veterinarians form the majority of the outer groups while leather-working, for which the city is well known, dominates the dependent services.
Trade also plays a major role in the city's economy. In addition to exporting its own goods - meat products, leathers and fertilizers - and importing essentials such as grain, Mainz is a major center for Badlands trade, particularly in the Great White Desert, the Westridge Range and the Barrington Basin. Indeed, the city houses the second largest contingent of customs officers in the UMF, surpassed only by Zagreb, charged with limiting the import of goods from the AST, particularly the Mekong Dominion. In recent seasons these procedures have shifted from control of the quotas and legality to imposing a ban on all Southern goods as part of the Federation's trade sanctions against the AST. This policy has only improved the business of the Forzi and Granis Cartels.
Recent cycles have seen the political waters of the Westridge area - regarded as part of the UMF's sphere of influence, despite the Azov Treaty - muddied by the creation of the NuCoal and the CNCS' intervention in the form of the Desert Trade Commission. Although nominally cooperating with both parties, the Federation regards them as interfering in Mercantile trade, particularly the DTC, whose actions are viewed as furthering the Norlight agenda of reducing dependency on the UMF. Since the outbreak of the Interpolar War, the region has become a staging ground for Northern Guard and UMFA operations against the Southern Republic. The outbreak of the "White War" between a variety of local forces around the Great White Desert has only made the area even more volatile.
Maps
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Mainz
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