Josepania
Establishing Nation
PROLOGUE: WHO AM I?
***
Sonnenland, Thalgau
24/08/2021, Tuesday, 7:10am
***
Sonnenland, Thalgau
24/08/2021, Tuesday, 7:10am
The young man sipped his small cup of black Himyari coffee, a half-eaten pastry lying forgotten on the tiny plate in front of him while he scanned the pages of the local paper, the Sonnenland Zeiten, as the early morning slowly picked up in intensity and activity by small town standards. The café he chose to spend his morning in was barely populated with customers, as per usual, as only a handful of fellow Thalgäuers joined the man in preparing for the day ahead with coffee or tea, with pastries or light breakfasts. Most were by now on their way to 'Die Große Stadt' as the Sonnenlanders called neighboring Vrijpoort, trying to beat the routine morning commute that had somehow gotten so much worse and remained terrible these past few weeks. The security checkpoints hadn't loosened up along the border, even with the dying down of conflict outside of Thalgau, and the border guards reportedly remained overly paranoid over every single detail of Thalgäuer paperwork, as though they knew a Zaran Liberation Army terrorist was trying to sneak into Vrijpoort for revenge over what had transpired that one day, when war descended upon Thalgau.
Franz Kammerschen remembered that day all too well. He remembered being jolted awake in his bed during what he considered the sphincter of dawn, the sun not having fully risen when the artillery boomed and the missiles crashed, and the armored vehicles rolled in to secure the countryside in a blink of an eye. The Vrijpoorters claimed they were protecting the Thalgäuers from the madness that had engulfed their country of Pannonia, shielding them from the prying grasp of Zaran terrorists, Eugenian revolutionaries, Remi imperialists, or even the supposedly genocidal tendencies of their former Csgenian countrymen. That last claim was especially disturbing given the Germanian character of Thalgau, and that although the Csgenians up to the Vrijpoorter intervention had shown no ill intentions, the rumors and reports leaking from West Zara hinted at the truth behind such claims.
Then came the proclamations of a referendum, one that would decide the future of Thalgau. Would they choose to remain a part of Csgenia as they had been for centuries? Or would they join one of the new successor states, the Bourdignie Confederation or the Eugenian Republic and try their luck with those two entities? Or, most curious of all, would they too declare themselves to be independent, free from foreign rule, and set on charting their own path on the international stage?
Each option presented terrifying difficulties, unique opportunities, and far, far too many unknowns. Franz knew from talking with his fellow Sonnenlanders that many didn't even want to decide. They never had to think about such things before, why was this being foisted upon them now? Why were the Vrijpoorters disturbing their otherwise idyllic life and presenting them profound questions they had no idea what the correct answers to were? They had the chance of having new capital cities to pay taxes to, big deal, and even if they were independent, some said, they'd really be under Vrijpoorter control, so none of it really mattered.
Franz wasn't so sure, though. He understood their arguments, even agreed with some of their assessments, but the unknowns weren't as frightening to him. Instead, they were opportunities for change, for something better. And with the date of the referendum merely a week away, there was little time to waste. He felt, he believed, that Thalgau had a chance for independence, even from Vrijpoort, and never again would they be given this opportunity, so why waste it?
He set down his paper and now finished coffee, left a tip for the bill, and wolfed down the remainder of his pastry before he left to work for the local library. He was going to start talking to some people in his little town, try and get them to see the benefits rather than the drawbacks of this referendum. Maybe now he had a chance to make a difference in his life and not be stuck in either this town or Vrijpoort, but perhaps have an opportunity to do something greater.
Who was he? Who was a Thalgäuer? Those were questions he was determined to answer by September 1st, Referendum Day, before opportunity slipped away.