District of Moorland
| District of Moorland | |||
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| Capital | Newhaven | ||
| Official language(s) | Istvanistani, Martino, Hurmu Norse | ||
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| Demonym | Moorlander | ||
| - Adjective | Moorland, Moorlandic | ||
| Government | District of Hurmu | ||
| - Minister | Vacant (position abolished) | ||
| - Commissioner | Mantric, son of Dunric (Green Einhorn) | ||
| - Legislature | TBD | ||
| Establishment | 1715 (de facto); 10.III.1716 (de jure) | ||
| Area | |||
| Population | c. 450,000 | ||
| Currency | Crown (HUK) | ||
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| Time zone(s) | CMT+9 | ||
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| Driving side | left | ||
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| Abbreviation | TBD | ||
Moorland (in Martino: Tierra Pantanosa; Hurmu Norse: Myrland; Lakkvian: Soomaa; White Lontinian: Ezgüi Nutag; Blue Lontinian: Şöldi El; Arboric: بلد القفر, Balad al-Qafr) was, a district of Hurmu, however, since mid-to-late 1717 under the control of the Confederacy of the Dispossessed. Newhaven is the main settlement, built in what was once Arevacía, on the north-eastern coast of Keltia. It bordered Ostland in the north and west, and Anahuaco in the south. It originally included also a trading station between the borders of Mercury and Ostland in the north of Taylor Bay. It was related but distinctly separate from the similarly-named Kingdom of Moorland to the north. In 1720, the Senate of the Lakes ceded the district to the Kingdom of Moorland, which renamed it South Moorland.
The rationale behind the annexation of Moorland came from a Senatorial report into the conditions of the so-called Green Einhorns – descendants of Grand Marshall Amund Einhornsson living in the Green of Keltia in conditions, which the report described as "unsanitary", and [Ardy – plz help with suitable adjectives!]. The Green Einhorns constituted the nobility of the semi-nomadic communities, yet, they were mostly illiterate too. The report thus recommended setting up amenities for the members of the Order of the Holy Lakes in the Green of Keltia so that they might have access to health care, social care, and education. The cabinet of Patrik Djupvik expanded on this report to include all such persons living under the protection or vassalage of the Green Einhorns, and thus came the government proposal to annex Moorland (named after East Moorland of Nova English fame) as a District of Hurmu – so that the government of Hurmu and the Order of the Holy Lakes could share their social obligation in bringing peace, order, and good government to the Green Einhorns and the people under their rule, as well as liberate the people in vassalage from such feudal bonds, and establish a system for a society that would be based on the values of the Brida – equality, liberty, and solidarity.
The move was also helped by Hurmu's success in its mission to Ostland and building up relations with the strange fascist-like state that Hurmu – despite the many differences – managed to find cultural common ground with. Hurmu thus became Ostland's only officially non-humanist friend, which helped motivate Hurmu to set up trading stations on both sides of Ostland's eastern borders. Moreover, the government of Hurmu hoped Hurmu's annexation of Moorland would help deepen the relations between Hurmu and Anahuaco – both the Emperor and Prime Minister of Anahuaco are knights of the Holy Lakes, and Hurmu and Anahuaco have a free-trade regime through the Hurmu–Raspur Pact Free Trade Agreement. The settlement will also benefit from proximity to the long range transportation hub situated at Port Esther in the Warring Islands.
On 10.III.1716, the Senate of the Lakes ratified the government bill to annex Moorland and make it a district of Hurmu. The district is divided into two municipalities – Newhaven and The Camp (being everything outside Newhaven).
Settlement and subversion
On 1.IV.1716 AN, personnel from the 29th Harbour Defence Regiment of the Hurmu Peace Corps, garrisoned on Samhold Island, were re-roled as 29th Port and Maritime Regiment and placed at the disposal of the newly designated Commissioner for the territory, Temüjin al-Osman. To facilitate their deployment to the new settlement, the regiment was transported by HPC aviation assets via the Boreal Air Bridge, with the permission of the governments of the Benacian Union and Normark, as well as by the Keltian Continental Theatre Command of the Raspur Pact. By 8.IV.1716, the first contingents of HPC personnel arrived at Port Esther in the Warring Islands, hosted by the BUDF garrison whilst they awaited the means of their delivery to the designated site of .
Minister Temüjin al-Osman had procrastinated with regards to the preparations for the arrival of the HPC personnel, citing problems of infrastructure, building of barracks and bases. Instead of addressing these logistical and organisational problems in a pragmatic way, Temüjin had instead fixated upon theoretical and administrative considerations, such as developing the organisation charts and position titles for a civil administration within the planned district. Temüjin considered his mission to be to provide a humanitarian and philanthropic structure for the down-trodden Green Einhorns, and he hoped they would consider him their point of communication with the rest of the Einhorn clan, Normark, and Hurmu. It was perhaps his hope that he might eventually, thereby, become an honorary (if not ordained) Chieftain of the Green Einhorns of Keltia.
What the Green Einhorns thought of Temüjin's detailed organisation charts and position hierarchies, in view of their harsh lives and staggering rates of illiteracy, is perhaps best left unsaid. However, what they did readily come to appreciate, were the offers of generous subsidies that Temüjin brought with him. For this reason the chieftains of the Green Einhorns dutifully made their way to Newhaven to attend seminars on state building and sustainable development, whilst making sure to gather as much in the way of development grant money and humanitarian provisions as they could before returning to their barbaric encampments. In this way Moorland soon became a land of opportunity for the Green Einhorns. The chieftains in this manner soon learnt how to manipulate Temüjin for their own causes. The dispossessed and disinherited of the Green, especially including the agents of the Confederacy of the Dispossessed, with their charismatic leader Knotaric, were quickly able to exploit the greed of the chieftains and the naivety of the colonial administration headed by Temujin. Their ideology of promoting the interests of the common people of the Green and challenging the status quo resonated with the disenfranchised Green Einhorn, who were only too happy to support them. The memory of their exclusion from their ancestral homeland of Normark still rankled. As such they scarcely troubled to conceal their gleeful joy in seeing the Confederacy fight off the Norse invaders during the Siege of Dalen. Nothing did quite so much to overcome the longstanding aversion and kin-strife between the Green Einhorns and the renegade Bassarid worshipper Knotaric than the prospect of victory.
As the Knotaric sympathisers grew in strength in Moorland, their supporters in Moorland began to exert influence upon the Temüjin to concede to their demands. Temujin, it transpired, had a fascination with blondes, and as such it was easy for the conspirators to introduce their agents, in the sympathetic form of women and youths seeking employment, into his residency in Newhaven. Eventually, the Knotaric–Green Einhorn alliance was able to gain enough influence to present its own candidate for the position of Commissioner in Moorland, when Temüjin appointed Mantaric, a Knotaric sympathiser amongst Green Einhorn leader in Moorland, as the new Commissioner (chief executive) of the district. Mantric quickly set about implementing the agenda of Knotaric, transforming it into a forward base for the campaign of the dispossessed against Ostland.
Evacuation of Moorland
In the face of an active campaign of native subversion, and in view of the geographical distance of the district from the mother country, the difficult decision was made by the Cabinet of Jamshid-e Osman to order the evacuation of Moorland.
Before the Evacuation could commence however, the HPC garrison would be required to reassert control, to take the Commissioner appointed by Temüjin into custody, and to expel the Green Einhorns from the territory.
The 29th Port and Maritime Regiment failed completely in this assignment, being subjected to an ambush the moment it attempted to send out a detachment to secure Newhaven. The HPC would be obliged to spend the remainder of 1717 AN and the greater part of 1718 AN under a close siege by the Green Einhorns. That siege was governed by the conditions of a truce which had been declared, for of all reasons, in order to allow the registered electors amongst the Green Einhorns to vote in the 1718 Hurmu general elections. It was a bitter lament for the garrison during that time that the only reinforcements received from Hurmu proper had taken the form of aid workers and outreach officers from the Order of the Holy Lakes, who had steadfastly refused to divert development aid to the sustainment of the garrison, all whilst demanding that the HPC provide armed detachments to escort their agents on the route to the encampments of the Green Einhorns.
Garrison
- 29th Port and Maritime Regiment (Hurmu Peace Corps), Newhaven
