Bucolos et fils

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Bucolos et fils is an Alduro-Wechua family-owned surveying and cartographic company, noted for its extensive history in fine mapmaking and service to successive governments and notables, most recently involved in the production of a series of maps of the Federation at the request of Queen Alexandra.

The company is officially headquartered in Punta Santiago, Alduria, although most of its operations are nowadays centered in Narbonne. The company's previous premises in Norvind are still maintained as the headquarters of its bathymetric operations.

History

Background

The company's history begins long before the entity itself. The Bukolos family is of immense antiquity, dating back to Shyriath Bukolos who was once Count of Benacia and Duke of Brookshire; but the progenitor of the modern family, and of its association with mapmaking, was his descendent, the Shirerithian cartographer Shyriath Bukolos. (His friend and contemporary, Shyriath Farstrider, legal analyst and politician, is a different individual, though the two are commonly confused). From 1573 to 1623 AN - almost exactly fifty years - he was the publisher of the Gloria Mundi project, a high-quality atlas of Micras that was kept regularly updated to reflect the ever-shifting borders of the world's nations. He became well-known in his home country not only for his maps, but for his geographical and cultural documentation, being much in favor with Kaiseress Mira Raynora Minor.

Gloria Mundi brought him a certain amount international renown as well. It was his life's work - his obsession - and between it and his other duties it left him little time for more domestic concerns. It was not until he was nearly seventy that he put his project away for good. He married later that year, and in 1626, his only son, Ikol Bukolos, was born in the family's home in Lichkeep. Ikol was born in a period of what seemed like peace and tranquility, for whose god he was named, but it masked deeper issues, which began to spill over into madness, violence, and international tensions as 1640 came and went. Regardless, the elderly Shyriath attempted to stay out of current affairs, devoting his remaining energy to raising and mentoring his son.

In mid-1644, Shyriath and his wife traveled to Shirekeep at the invitation of Shyriath Farstrider, partly to celebrate the upcoming Oustfest, but also so that the Imperial Advisory Council could make use of his extensive knowledge in ongoing efforts to reconstruct the city. The couple therefore had the misfortune of being caught up in the events of the Oustfest Massacre which brought a bloody end to the reign of Kaiser Dominus and gave the self-proclaimed Aurangzeb II power over the city. Detained by the usurper's forces, Shyriath and his wife were condemned for their association with the previous regime and with the family of the Mira Raynoras and other undead, and were summarily executed. Ikol, during the chaos of the Year of the Four Kaisers, made his way across Lichbrook to take ship for Alexandria.

In Geneva, the capital of the Empire, Ikol was granted asylum by the government, both in light of his father's reputation there - he had been made an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1624 - and, quite likely, ongoing hostility toward Shireroth; the effects of Operation Tymarian Sun were well remembered, and the frankly genocidal nature of Aurangzeb's government and the cannibalistic behavior of his extremist Cedrist allies were of course abhorrent to them. Ikol made himself at home in the city, first joining a surveying company in 1645. He lived comfortably enough, particularly once he was able to receive the royalties from ongoing sales of his father's works, and, unwilling to return to Shireroth even after the victory of Kaiseress Noor, he eventually gained Alexandrian citizenship, changing the spelling of his name to Icol Bucolos to better fit the counry's norms.

In 1647, now secure in his funds and wishing to be his own master, he founded a mapping and surveying company of his own.

The company

Bucolos cartes et cartographie was a very modest company - profitable enough to remain in business, but beyond its famous name it was unremarkable, most of its income derived from street maps of Geneva and several of Alexandria's other major cities. It was said that Icol desired to one day resume his father's work on Gloria Mundi, and the slow expansion of his business might indeed have allowed it one day, but his efforts were cut tragically short by the appearance of the Alexandrian Flu.

The immense death toll led to the collapse of Alexandria, to say nothing of Icol's business. Managing to avoid infection, he, like many other Alexandrians, fled abroad, settling near Triegon in Natopia. Here he found his skills in higher demand; the need to build settlements and infrastructure for the incoming diaspora demanded accurate surveys and maps. Refounding his company, the quality of its output began to bring the name of Bucolos back into the public mind, and - when it too relocated there - of the surviving members of the imperial family.

During the chaos of the relocation, Icol had become very attached to one Adrienne Gaudin. Once secure in New Alexandria, the pair continued to enjoy one another's company, and they married in 1652. Their first child, son Eugène Dieuxdonné, was born in 1653; their second, daughter Célestine Julie, in early 1655. By this time, while the company continued to thrive, Icol began to seek new opportunities; the frantic need for surveys and maps had slowed, while the expansion of his family showed no signs of doing so, which became apparent when, late in the year, Adrienne was once more with child.