| The Free City of Staffordshire | |
| |
| General Information | |
| Establishment: | 2199 |
| Disestablishment: | 2226 |
| Status: | Ruined city. |
| Location Information | |
| Location: | The Saltlands, Tamaulipas |
| Societal Information | |
| Population: | approx. 200 |
| Notable Individuals: | Ulysses Chamberlain |
| Factions: | Los Ganaderos |
| Notable Events: | First Anglo-Ganadero War |
Staffordshire, known formally as the Free City of Staffordshire, was originally founded in 2199 by a group of Ganaderos who settled around one of the few fresh water springs in The Saltlands. Thanks to the freshwater source, the town became a thriving trade hub, with merchants from all over stopping in to fill their canteens and water bladders with fresh, clean water, as well as visit the town's extensive bazaar where one can find everything from food, to guns to slaves. The city was destroyed in the First Anglo-Ganadero War in 2226.
History[]
Foundation[]
Like many Ganaderos, Micah Saunderson, at the age of nineteen, had grown restless and tired with the comfortable living of The Royal Dominion. His father being a wealthy investor, and his mother the daughter of a PDF colonel, Micah came from a rather well off family, living in Tampico's upscale Rochester District, where he had been raised, learned the family business and attended the Tampico College of Economics & Finance, learning under the famed post-war economist John Redford. However the idea of spending the rest of his life watching share prices and sitting by his father's stock ticker seemed like a fate worse than death to Micah. Thus when he turned nineteen, he took some money from his father, his shotgun and horse and set off East looking for adventure and fortune. He rode East until he came to the Frontier District, stopping into the town of Salt Rock, the largest town in the district at the time.
In this rowdy frontier town, Micah became acquainted with the locals, and through his good looks and charm, became quite popular with the ladies. He spent weeks there spending money on hookers, booze and chems until finally he heard about an expedition heading out into the Saltlands. It was a water and mineral exploration expedition, organized by a group of investors back in Tampico. The expedition was to head East taking mineral samples, testing any water sources they found and mapping the region, they would then proceed to the Free State, the first Ganadero republic under Simon Hamlin, pickup supplies and return home. It was meant to be a three week trip, instead it amounted to seven as the expedition was wiped out not even a week into the trip, leaving Micah and a few others stranded out in the desert with a three day trip through salt mutant infested lands back to the dominion, without any water. It happened to be a stroke of good luck that the survivors came upon the small gurgling spring, where they were able to refill their canteens and make the remainder of the trip home.
Upon returning home the survivors went their separate ways, and Micah went to drink his worries (of which there were now many) at the local canteen. Upon recovering from a stupor one day he decided it was time he left town, thus he tagged along with a Ganadero caravan heading East, figuring he would either succomb to dehydration or be killed by tribals, and finally he would be free from the memories that now tormented his psyche. However within a week of leaving Salt Rock, the caravan became lost, and provisions began to run low. Micah seeing the fear and slow suffering of his fellow caravaneers decided he would set aside his death wish for the moment to help these people out, working with the caravan's difficult boss, a man named Joss Honcho. Joss was more than a little thick skulled, and despite having the facts of their situation pointed out to him he was determined to stay their present course. Realizing the necessity of their situation, in a private moment Micah mixed cobra venom into Joss' whisky and a day later he was dead.
In the ensuing confusion Micah volunteered to take over as head of the caravan, a position the caravaneers voted him into. Leading them through the desert, and weathering more than a few tribal and comanchero ambushes, he finally brought them to the small gurgling spring he had used nearly a year before. There the thirsty caravaneers almost fell over each other trying to get a sip from the small fountain of cool water. After everyone had had their fill, Micah promptly organized a digging crew and the men set to work, digging around the little spring. After an hour the little gurgle of water had turned into a spurt, and then a stream, until finally the men, now six feet down were up to their knees in water. Yet when one man brought his pick down in the mud, there was a sudden hiss and then the ground fell out beneath them, as their new well flooded as a torrent of cold water came rushing in. Celebrating their find, the caravan filled, and refilled their canteens that night. The next day they constructed a well around the pool of water and the town began to spring up around the well.
Eventually with the town completed, and the caravaneers now settled into their new homes, seeds were planted and watered. The town then began to setup a government, they looked to Micah who willingly accepted their nomination to become Mayor. His first act as Mayor was to set out a set of laws for the town, and wanting to encourage people to move to their town, he made them simple and predictable, making murder, and rape illegal and establshing that no one shall intervene on a man's right to property while in town. Damage done to one's tangible property shall be compensated, and one's intangible property shall be protected as well, protecting a citizens intellectual property along with their religious and conscience property. Thus the town was founded, with the first new residents being a pair of ex-Comancheros looking for a place to settle down. As well, Micah sent a runner back to the Dominion to
make contact with his Father and mother, hoping they could help encourage traders to visit their town, as well as invest in the local area. Signed as the President of the Free City of Staffordshire, Samuel, Micah's father, was at first confused as from whom the letter was from, but upon reading it he was shocked and elated to hear from his son, and promptly wrote a response agreeing to try and attract attention to the town.
Not a month later, a trio of caravans wandered into Staffordshire, both having just come from the distant settlement of Cactus Factory, they were glad to have a complimentary mason jar of cold water, before decicing to open up shop for a few minutes. As rehearsed by the townsfolk, they rushed the merchant's stands purchasing whatever they needed and then some, many on credit setup with the merchants. The traders having had nearly all their stores cleared out, left town with pockets weighed heavy with caps, and pounds. A few weeks later the traders returned, and the townsfolk were glad to have them back, paying back their debts they promptly purchased more from the merchants. This process went on for weeks, with the townsfolk ensuring that there was a constant stream of merchants coming and going from town, with the incentive to come back to get their debts paid back and make heaping amounts of money. Luckily none of the merchants questioned the validity of the caps they were paid with, and for awhile the value of the bottle cap was greatly inflated due to counterfeit caps minted in Staffordshire. However as the exchange of goods and services became more frequent in Staffordshire, the use of the counterfeit caps was slowly abandoned as valid currency was brought into circulation. By this point Staffordshire had become a trade hub and safe haven in the Saltlands.
Presidency of Micah Saunderson[]
One of the biggest problems faced by Staffordshire during its rise was the increasing amount of attention all the commerce brought the town. The population was no more than a eighty by the time 2202 came about, and already the town had been forced to construct a stockade and blockhouse, along with spending a great deal of their incomes on weaponry. However after another night of fending off a horde of deformed tribals and their savage hounds the townsfolk had decided they had enough. Forming together a volunteer militia of twenty-five men, they headed out in search of the tribal encampment. What they found was something akin to a small city of crazed, chem addled and heavily armed tribals. Setting off back towards the town, the militia now realized just how much trouble they were in. They returned the next night with as many weapons they could carry, tear gas and flash grenades and one semi-functioning minigun they picked up from the town's sole super mutant (who had volunteered to stay behind and protect the town). Waiting until the sun had set, they tied up their horses and crept down the slope into the massive town with the objective to cause panic and chaos, and kill as many of the tribals as they could in the process.
Using tear gas and the flash bangs, they caused panic among the tribals and using molotov cocktails they set tents, huts and longhouses on fire as the sleepy inhabitants roused themselves. In the panic many tribals died choking of fumes or being seared by flames, others were killed in the chaotic gunfights that took place between the milita and the tribals, no one was spared the sword as the militiamen ran through the tent city, men, women, children, old and young were cut down with equal prejudice. When the sun rose over the smoking ruins of the tent city, the five surviving militiamen emerged from the tent city, as they spied each other, they congregated. Uncertain where their missing companions were, their faces covered in soot and blackened by gun fire, with several covered in bloody bandages they set off towards their horses and headed back towards town.
Those tribals that came upon the tent city, found the still numerous survivors to be huddled in fear, awaiting the arrival of the "Spyrit Mehn" whom they were certain were vengeful spirits that had come to reap their vengeance upon the them. More rational tribals reasoned that whoever attacked them had to be either from a very organized para-military force or had access to some very high end technology. Either way the battle became known, among both tribals and Ganaderos alike as the Battle of Rattachek's Plain, named after the Lipan scout that discovered the battlefield.
It was after the battle that Staffordshire was first visited by the infamous slaver, Ulysses Chamberlain. Ulysses or
Ulysses Chamberlain
Ulees as he was called by his friends briefly stopped into the town with several of his men and a chain gang of slaves. The townsfolk were disturbed by the presence of the depraved slaver, and they quickly sold him what he and his men asked for and were relieved when he and his party set off into the distance. Micah promptly banned slavery within town limits. For several months things seemed to have calmed down around the town, and much to the elation of the town, the Tampico Railroad Company signed a contract to run rails to their town, promising a greater influx of goods and capital, along with new settlers. The construction of the rails was overseen by a mercenary named Sidney Alexander, Sidney having previously served in the PDF and having fought the various Ganadero uprisings that popped up during the Protectorate's expansion held a deep dislike for the Ganaderos he was working with. However despite this Sidney and Micah were able to bury their resenments long enough for them to get the railroad near completion. Yet when the rails were not five miles from Staffordshire when the work camp came under attack from a pair of deathclaws. These deathclaws, their hides bleached white by the sun and salt, would attack the camp late at night
Sidney Alexander
while the men slept, and for several harried weeks Sidney, with the help of several volunteers from town and workers hunted the deathclaw duet, finally killing them after a half hour chase that left three men dead. The two deathclaws were promptly mounted and taxidermied.
With the railroad finally completed, a fresh inflow of merchants, settlers and investors began heading into town. It was around this time in 2210 that Micah became ill with Dead Lung, and with a lack of anti-biotics Micah was dead within a month. With their founder and President now dead there was a power vacuum and more than a few folks that wanted to fill it.
Power Struggle[]
In the weeks following Micah's death, Staffordshire entered into an interregnum as his various supporters tried to decide who should step into the vacuum. Due to the speed at which Dead Lung consumed Micah, he never truly made any arrangements for succession, thus the town was left with three men; Howard Cahill the captain of the town's militia, Mark Gordon, the town's Arbiter and Ishmael Saunderson, Micah's son and diplomat. Around these men the various forces caught in limbo by the death of Micah aligned, the divides between them gradually became more vehment and eventually violence broke out. What would become known as the Staffordshire Civil War, the town broke down into civil war as the three sides fought each other in the streets, ending after three weeks with Mark Gordon standing tall above his rivals, seizing power, he rapidly brought the rest of the town to heel and set about establishing himself as the new ruler of the Free City of Staffordshire.
"Open" Trade Hub[]
One of the first actions Mark took as President of the city-state, was to legalize slavery within the city limits, fulfilling one of his obligations to the various slavers who had backed him with arms and funds in his fight for control. The immediate after effect was the withdrawl of Samuel Saunderson and his various financial assets from the city, taking with him important resources that had helped develop and sustain the town, including many caravans that had previously traded there. With Samuel's withdrawl, the last link between the town and the Protectorate was broken and with the permitting of the movement and sale of slaves within the town's limits, the Protectorate and Staffordshire were essentially put at odds. It didn't help the matter that Mark began to pass large sums of money onto extremist Ganadero militias both within and without and Protectorate, creating the foundation for the Staffordshire League, a coalition of various Ganadero militias, settlements, and states dedicated to resisting the expansion of the Protectorate, and the preservation of their independence.
First Anglo-Ganadero War[]
It was these dubious political dealings that would eventually get Staffordshire and its new President in trouble. In 2223, after passing the Staffordshire compact, solidifying the League, the Protectorate, at the current moment under the government of Robert Welsh, ordered that the League be broken up. The League, lead by Mark, refused. What followed was a year of tense buildup as both sides geared up for the inevitable conflict, in Staffordshire, the citizens were drafted into the militia or the city's work force and made to dig trenches, build bunkers and lay spools of barb wire and landmines along the city's approaches. The Leagues combined forces, led by the enigmatic Cajun Capitán-General: Marion-Phillipe Beaumont congregated around their main defensive position, Fort Christian. Constructed with funds contributed from the League's members, the fort sat atop a dominating hill, with a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, giving its defenders the ability to block or observe any move to pass it. It was this post that General Beaumont and his 200 men occupied, facing down a combined force of some 1200 PDF troops.
The ensuing fight was long and ardous, with the PDF sustaining much higher casualties than their Ganadero counterparts, but at the end of the day, the heights were taken along with the fort. Its defenders for the most part died fighting, alongside their General. Those few who survived were captured by patrols of the Household Cavalry and promptly carted off to prisoner of war camps and for a handful of unlucky prisoners, Fort Comstock.
The remainder of the war involved a series of skirmishes as ad hoc militias attempted to delay the advance of the PDF forces long enough to allow the impending political crisis to boil over in the Protectorate, yet despite the Ganadero's best efforts the PDF armies took their city's one by one, with the sole exception being Cactus Factory and it was only saved due to its remote nature. Staffordshire was taken on August 6, 2226, its citizens rounded up and the city razed to the ground, with the final act being the detonation of dynamite that ripped up the long dormant railroad ties that led into the city.
Government[]
The President of Staffordshire is neither an elected position, or like the city's government, particularly democratic The President is either an appointed or passed down position, although this aspect of the office was never truly realized due to the quick death of Micah Saunderson and the violent ascension of his successor; Mark Gordon. The President possesses all the powers of governance in his hands and has the power to create offices, appoint officers, make arbitrary arrests, order executions and so on, luckily for the early settlers of Staffordshire, Micah Saunderson was a rather judicious man until his death by Dead Lung.
The only real rights enjoyed by the citizens of Staffordshire, is the right to property, and even then this was only conceded to establish a basis for them to buildup from. Prior to its destruction, citizens of Staffordshire were arrested for anything from worshipping the wrong Gods to the printing of pamphlets that advocated ideals that went against the government's official dogma.
The town's militia consists of all able bodied men, ages sixteen to forty-five and are usually armed with whatever weapons they bring from home, with the sole distinguishing apparel being a blue armband worn just above the elbow. The members of the militia are regular citizens of the city, and are called to drill and train for three days every two weeks. What the militia lack in training and weaponry, they more than make up for in their resilience, knowledge of the territory, and skilled horseback riding abilities. All skills the men made full advantage of in their fight against the PDF, until the eventual destruction of Staffordshire.
Economy[]
The economy of Staffordshire was completely unregulated, merchants came and went as they pleased, selling whatever they pleased for whatever price the market set. In order to help keep the local economy and markets organized however, the city kept a running price index to help track the costs of goods and services. The townsfolk themselves paid a measly 5% flat tax to the city government every month, with all the government's expenditures, mostly on arms and munitions, coming from that slim tax.
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