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mdc01957 — The Gateway Reopened: 2013

Published: 2011-09-14 14:48:40 +0000 UTC; Views: 3297; Favourites: 11; Downloads: 31
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Description Here's the next part of the Domes-verse, moving the clock forward to 2013 and some weird hijinks in Asia. Along with some nods to the other parts of the 'verse's world. Feel free to spot them!

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New Year’s Day 2012 opened with unconfirmed reports of Chinese explorers succeeding in capturing the strange creatures that roamed about the frontiers. Revealed to be creatures modelled on the mythical “yeti,” the news broke months of nearly silent tension between China and the Tibetan Directorate. Up until that point, Tibet’s superiors in the British East India Company had been playing a delicate balancing act as it sought to both preserve their independence and expand their business into the neighboring countries; the Chinese accusations brought all that into jeopardy.

At first, the BEIC denied any involvement in the existence of the yetis. But when classified documents were leaked by a careless secretary on 5 March, British representatives stepped in to diffuse the situation. Aware of the spiralling crisis in Osmalia and the US-Southron issue in North America, the last thing all parties wanted was another hotspot. After weeks of tense negotiations, a compromise was met on 15 April where the all charges against the BEIC were to be dropped, while the corporate-state itself would be required to abide to international standards “as soon as it could.” Unfortunately, this also meant putting responsibility on the Tibetan directors who let the creatures loose in the first place, forcing some of the Chinese border forces to “secure the frontiers.”

It was in this backdrop that on 23 May, 9:32 GMT, the Malaya-East Indies Dome vanished. The Straits of Malacca, which prior to 1852 was the gateway into the Far East, was once more opened. But the intrepid Thai and BEIC sailors that tried to enter its waters caught sight of something much more.

The Malayan Peninsula was found to be under the rule of a pseudo-federated body known as the United Sultanates of Brunei-Malaya. A closely knit alliance between the Sultanate of Brunei and myriad domains and city states of the peninsula, it had even extended to the parts of Indochina that had been trapped in the Dome. In many ways they were found by explorers and diplomats to be a blend of traditional-indigenous and 19th Century Western influences, the latter coming from Western and Chinese traders stranded by the event; in addition to “hybrid” versions of old technologies, they were found to speak pidgin versions of English and Chinese. After meeting with delegates from several Asian countries on 8 June, the Brunei-Malayans agreed to open its waters and ports for trade in the hopes of knowing more of the wider world.

Further south laid the Republic of the East Indies. Though contact was made at roughly the same time, it was only around August that any concerted effort was made to open communications. Formed from the Dutch colonies and scattered statelets making up the lands also known as Borneo and “Indonesia,” the country saw itself in a manner somewhat similar to the Boer-Afrikaners of South Africa: as descendants of the Dutch settlers and European traders left behind by the emergence of the Dome. Over generations, however, they have intermingled culturally and ethnically to the point that the only recognizably Dutch elements left preserved were mainly the architecture and language, themselves still stuck in the 19th Century. Yet despite the early tensions, especially with Australia and the Union of Eastern Indonesia, they were found to be as amiable as their neighbors to the north.

And for a time, it seemed that the whole affair would go through remarkably smoothly. That was until 13 December, when Vietnamese forces steamrolled into the northernmost fringes of the United Sultanates, under claims of “acts of sedition against the People.” By the time a truce was called on 2 January the following year, people once more held their breath...
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Comments: 9

SigmaRadec001 [2014-05-06 15:14:50 +0000 UTC]

So those domes essentially separates that place and everything within from the rest of the world?

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mdc01957 In reply to SigmaRadec001 [2014-05-07 14:33:26 +0000 UTC]

Kinda, yeah. ^^

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Kollateralschaden [2012-12-24 02:18:13 +0000 UTC]

This seems to be tha last. Will you make any new maps for the domes-verse in the future? I really want to know how it continues.

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mdc01957 In reply to Kollateralschaden [2012-12-24 07:47:46 +0000 UTC]

Probably one day. But it's been a while.

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zalezsky [2011-12-15 17:47:52 +0000 UTC]

asdhasdjnasldnansdhahshdahiha YES

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mdc01957 In reply to zalezsky [2011-12-16 00:18:29 +0000 UTC]

Glad you liked it!

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zalezsky In reply to mdc01957 [2011-12-16 01:42:20 +0000 UTC]

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Nederbird [2011-09-14 17:16:22 +0000 UTC]

Nice!

One question! You wrote that the Bruneio-Malays spoke for the most part some sort of Sino-English pidgin language. Whatever happened to Malay?

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mdc01957 In reply to Nederbird [2011-09-14 23:48:26 +0000 UTC]

It's still widely spoken. It's just that the traders happened to have a considerable impact in society.

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