The Province of Sed
While Arodil may produce nearly all of Atla’s food, Sed is home to manufacturing plants and facilities that make nearly everything else. In the same way mentioning the word Arodil conjures images of endless fields of grain, corn and vegetables, Sed has become synonymous (and sometimes interchangeable) with modern mass production and efficiency. While anything you eat likely comes from Arodil, anything and everything you don’teat was probably made in Sed.
Of all the provinces Sed has often been viewed as the least interesting or eventful when it comes to history. The land–bogs, wetlands, bayous, swamps–has been home to the indigenous Seddians for perhaps longer than any other place on Atla. Some even suggest the land was already inhabited, and had been for many centuries, when the first humans arrived on Atla from Feron around 55-60,000 PM. How a group of humans managed to live in Sed when the rest of ancient Atla was far more hospitable is one of humanity’s greatest mysteries. As one famous explorer, Pablo Ontario, (credited as being the first to explore the swampy region) said of the area, “If the God’s had leftovers after creation, this is where they put all the junk they couldn’t find a use for”.
Regardless of how long the natives have inhabited the region, it is obvious little has changed in that time. And while the people of FrostRight may hold firm to their ancient beliefs and customs while still accepting some of the improvements of Magi-Tech, the Seddians have literally gone unchanged for all of time. Even with the industrialization of the recent years, and though the people were almost entirely employed by manufacturing plants, their lives outside of work have yet to truly reflect any significant change.
Because the native people have no known or understandable written language, little is known about their past. What oral formulaic poetry they do have is performed in a language few have studied and fewer still can even grasp. Some poets and bards of old, the greats in the annals of literature, were known to have spent time with the people doing nothing more than listening and absorbing the beautiful language. But even these poets and artists who spent more time with the people than any other outsiders were not there recording the language to decipher or understand it, but to merely explore the infinite and beautiful possibilities of what humans call language.
The land itself, though fertile in some areas, has remained unused by the rest of Atla until only recently. Settlements (of outsiders) have popped up around the many lakes and marshes, however none have lasted more than a few centuries (most being wiped out by diseases found only in the area which the natives seem mostly immune to).
It was during the year 25 EM that a young entrepreneur and industrial dreamer by the name of Jenna Rockenheimer (the first to introduce orb-lights to the masses) traveled to the soggy land searching for an inexpensive area to build her first factory.
Jenna’s journey led her throughout Atla for many years. After countless failures, no luck, and little of her meager funds remaining, she was forced to cover countless kilometers any way she could to continue her search for cheap land. Turned down by farmers of Arodil, she continued her journey south yet again (having covered most of Atla twice prior) and veered to the east for causes unknown (though many suggest it was as simple a reason as not having been there yet). To the east she found an almost uninhabited and alien landscape. Few even now, after all the growth in the area, really see the benefit of building in an area of marshes and bogs. It’s amazing to think that Jenna saw the area for its potential over its hazards, but then again, few were, or are now, as willing to take risks as Jenna was.
Other than a few poets and explorers before her, Jenna was quite possibly the very first to try and establish a real communication with the Sed people. Because of this she became something of a legend amongst the native tribes. As they showed her around during her extended stay, her eyes were always searching for the best lands to develop and ways to go about accomplishing that goal.
The province had two great resources available for the ambitious business woman. First was the empty land–kilometers and kilometers of empty land without any spiritual significance (as the people of FrostRight place on their lands). However, the land, though plentiful, was little good in its current state for building a corporate empire. It was the second and greatest resource, the easily manipulated natives, that proved the true power for her empire.
After only a few years of planning and preparation Jenna had amassed the resources needed to build her empire, even without ‘adequate’ funding. With her demigod status amongst the locals (she is credited as the first to learn the Seddian language enough to have limited communication with the people) she easily persuaded them to assist in building her factory. Turning hundreds of acres of the best land (though the best land was little more than a murky bog) into stable ground to house buildings was no easy feat. But with thousands of locals putting their entire lives behind just to work on the project, the ground was cleared and the first facilities were under construction.
As everything was being built, Jenna realized that a massive facility is no good unless she had a dedicated labor force to actually manufacture the goods. The construction crews were already growing restless and rebellious from the conditions even before the first building was completed. Many natives were already repulsed by the factory and the conditions and refused to do anything else for her after it was completed (why they stayed even until then was never mentioned even in Jenna’s personal diary). But with her eloquent speaking (learning more of the language every day) it didn’t take long for her to convince hundreds of new workers (and many already there), to pick up their belongings and move to the worker housing areas at the facilities perimeter, permanently.
It went by many different names throughout the native tribes of Sed, but the ability to use what modern Atla calls the magi was an integral part of the primitive society’s existence. Using their basic abilities in religious ceremonies and medical practices for hundreds if not thousands of years, the natives were already familiar with the process and concept. So when Jenna needed to teach her hundreds of employees how to operate the machinery through the latest Magi-Tech, progress was both quick and easy. Before long the natives were working the Magi-Tech machinery in the production lines without so much as breaking a sweat (making them sweat was left to the climate).
Jenna Rockenheimer’s orb-lights were an immediate and lasting success. While orb-lights had been around long before her time in a very primitive form, she was the first to discover a way to keep the lights burning longer and more consistently than anyone else. But more important than making a better product was the fact that she had created a way to mass produce them.
News of Jenna’s success in both finding empty and free land as well as starting Atla’s first production line spread throughout the rest of Atla as though it was carried on the wind (and indeed the evidence of the factories was borne on the wind for hundreds of kilometers). If people had never heard of Jenna herself, they were already aware of the new orb-lights turning up in every once dark corner of houses and shops. It was inevitable then, that dozens of other big dreamers set out for the marshes and swamps of Sed to make a name for themselves, hoping to share the profits Jenna was gaining. And so began the Magi-Tech production revolution.
Within a decade from the time Jenna sold the first orb-light to a small company in Tru Dahn, the land of Sed had been transformed beyond what even she dreamed. The once damp, soggy land had changed into a land of huge buildings and giant smoke stacks. If the horizon wasn’t obscured by dense layers of smoke and other pollutants, the immense buildings would have accomplished the job. The once simple way of life for the natives had nearly disappeared within the decade.
Initially the ‘opportunity’ to work in the factories had become a nightmare and something that only a few could stand to do after many realized Jenna wasn’t a demigod. Before long however, the buildings had taken up so much space and covered so much land that the natives were unable to survive without the work. The huge variety of plants and animals that thrived in the unique environment had all but vanished leaving the people only two options: work for a company in the manufacturing plants or starve. Soon, the natives were begging for jobs as they were forced–starving–off of their homelands to make room for yet another factory.
Because the natives developed a dependence on the companies for food and shelter, the business owners were able to give jobs only to those who met their requirements for employment. This often amounted to who was willing to work for the smallest amount of mig. More often than not this meant 12 to 18 hour days, every day of the week. However, even this terrible burden was often not enough for a typical native to even feed him or herself, or their family.
Mortality rates amongst the workers were incredibly high and just because of the lack of food and water. The factories themselves were built as quickly and cheaply as possible, with no consideration taken for the safety of the workers. Death became a common occurrence, but when there were ten new men and women ready to take the place of a fallen worker, the companies not only didn’t care, but even began going so far as planning the mortality turnover rate and how it could be used to gain the most possible mig.
This time of darkness in the history of humanity, unfortunate that it happened at all, luckily did not last too long. When the governments across Atla realized what was happening, laws and regulations were quickly implemented to protect not only the lives and welfare of the natives, but the ever shrinking wetlands. Despite the pressure from the government many of the companies were still reluctant to change. After several of the companies disregarded the new rules and laws sent by the still young Grand Provincial Council, representatives were sent to ensure the executives followed the laws. When this didn’t work (often times the companies wouldn’t even allow the representatives on the premises) the GC was forced to take drastic measures. Known as the One Day War, the GC dispatched a division of military forces to Sed in 49 EM. The owners and operators of the companies who refused to comply were forcibly removed from the plants and sent to prisons where they were either put to death or locked away for the rest of their lives.
The forced removal of the executives turned into the One Day War when, despite the warnings and demands to change even with the military presence, several companies went so far as to fight the troops or lock themselves deep within their buildings (or even flee the area). Hundreds of military men and women took action against the companies as though they were as hostile and deadly as the radicals from the archipelago (and indeed many were). The business and corporation owners were no match for well trained and well equipped soldiers. In total one military officer and 287 owners and workers (only six of which were natives) lost their lives. Several buildings were damaged when the troops were forced to break down doors, walls and entire structures to reach the enemies within. In total, 500,000 mig, nearly 10,000,000 in today’s value, worth of damage was done to the facilities. All of the damages were to corporate structures leaving the individual companies responsible for covering the repairs.
After this one day war, more than fifty percent of the companies were forced to close their doors after being unable to make a profit while paying employees fairly and creating safer working environments.
Today, efforts are in place to undo the damage that was initially done to the environment and the native Seddian population. Nearly thirty percent of the tens of thousands of acres which were destroyed so many years ago are well on their way to returning to their natural (unique) beauty. Furthermore, the previously untouched lands and population have been protected under strict laws and regulations, limiting and sometimes prohibiting any contact with the native people. Even with the restricted use of lands and carefully enforced labor laws, the production efficiency and output has surpassed everybody’s expectations by nearly tenfold and the future looks to hold only good things for all of Atla.