Burcady

Burcady (pronounced /bɚˈkeɪdi/) is the most centrally located of Dadauar's five continents. While much of the continent lies in the arctic zone, it is densely populated, covered primarily by developed nations. It is also in Burcady, close to the center of the world, that the Neutral Zone is located, a meeting place for representatives of the onirarchies to engage in diplomatic discussions.

Geography

Burcady is unique among the worlddisk's continents in that it is within three hundred kilometers of every other continent. It is physically connected to Avelax and Jahanna via the Isthmus of Calacca and the Isthmus of Carqan; it is separated from Matuni by the Luruga Strait (about 256 kilometers wide) and from Eordi by the Bilber Strait (about 257 kilometers wide at its narrowest point). Of these connections, it is the one to Eordi that is probably the least traveled, existing as it does deep in the arctic zone. On the other hand, the very fact that it is in the arctic zone means the Bilber Strait is almost always frozen over, meaning that the cryophilic organisms thriving in that area have a relatively easy time crossing between the continents.

While it touches, or at least vicinates, all the other continents, however, Burcady is alone in bordering only one of the circumferent oceans, the Camilout. The rest of Burcady's coastline goes to seas: the White Main to the north, the Restless Sea to the northeast, the Sea of Firiti to the southwest, the Serpentine Sea to the southeast, and the Akararal Sea to the west.

Running lengthwise down the continent is the largest of Dadauar's skyfalls, the Wough, extending well past Burcady's coasts into the Camilout Ocean at one end and the Serpentine Sea at the other. Another skyfall, the Crossfall, extends south by southwest over part of eastern Burcady, having its southern terminus at the Wough.

History

Available anthropological evidence suggests that eastern Burcady may have been where the Balian ethnicity first developed, descendents of settlers who crossed the Isthmus of Carquan from Jahanna. While the ancestors of the Balians may have been the first humans to arrive in Burcady, for thousands of years the Balians remained combined to the eastern part of the continent, while other peoples arrived at the western part from Matuni and Avelax, including the Uraga and the Laoda. When the Great Plague came to Burcady, however, the western part of the continent was most badly affected, perhaps due to its denser population or perhaps just due to ill chance, while the Balians came out, if not unscathed, at least not laid quite so low. Shortly thereafter the Plague, therefore, the Balians managed to cross the arctic zone and spread to the now sparsely populated west side of the continent, where, the other previous inhabitants now being too few in number to offer much resistance, they had little trouble achieving dominance.

This dominance didn't last, however; aside from the recovery of the Uraga and the Laoda and the other races that had formerly inhabited that area, the Balians' ascendancy was increasingly challenged by foreign colonists. These new arrivals, as well as the native Burcadians, fought over the choicest territories and tried various means of improving their homeland, including an abortive attempt to dig a canal across the continent to connect the Restless Sea to the Sea of Firiti. By the time of the first modern oneirarchy, the Balians were confined largely to the center of the continent, having been pushed out from both the eastern and northern ends. They reacted by developing a strong sense of nationalism and, later, by themselves deciding to push out to other continents and expand their territory. Most notably, a large number of Balians migrated to Avelax, overrunning the native Kenever people.

Today, Burcady has become a diverse continent, home to people of many different ethnicities. The Balians are now quite a minor presence, much more numerous in Avelax than in their original home, though the nation of Mochenarr in the southern tip remains ethnically primarily Balian. The Uraga predominate in Ovla Ba, the Laoda in Niruna, but most of the continent's nations are more even mixtures of different peoples. The conflict between the various peoples who had settled Burcady made it late to form onirarchies, but once they did start appearing there they seemed to crystallize all at once, till now most of the continent is now developed. Almost simultaneous with the rise of the Burcadian onirarchies, the previously abandoned Medilancial Canal was finally completed—only to almost immediately fall into disuse, as the nascent onirarchies had better means of transportation.

Life

The arctic zone that runs almost down the middle of the continent splits it into two separate temperate regions, which historically had their own very different biotas. Now, the heavily urbanized onirarchies have covered the land in cities and destroyed much of the original biodiversity, though pockets still remain in parks and preserves and in the few undeveloped parts of the continent. One thing that both sides of the continent have in common is a spotty band of marshland under the Wough. Even here, there are differences; the marsh in the west is more dominated by sedge and lilies, the right by reeds and cattails.

Outside the marshes, both sides of the continent bear plains, forest, hills, and mountains, the last most prominently in the Pepeti Range. The particular flora and fauna, however, are different between the two. Among the best known fauna of the west side are jelmergans and strikers; the east includes celotranes and maradis.

The arctic zone, too, has its own life, if not as plentiful as in the temperate areas. The largest beast of the Burcadian tundra is the labagage, while the most prominent predator is the qieui.

Politics

Despite its relatively late development, Burcady is now home to a number of powerful onirarchies. Ovla Ba and Mamlaas dominate western Burcady, while Risinien is the most influential nation of the east. Even the arctic zone itself has been developed, most notably Sineae, which maintains balmy temperatures with (numenally expensive) heating towers. Despite some early conflicts, nowadays all these nations are more or less at peace, though continually engaged in espionage against each other. Some few areas of the continent remain undeveloped, however, from Mochenarr on the southern tip to Bhelan on the northern.

Thanks to its central location, a part of Burcady was set aside as a place for the onirarchies to meet and discuss matters of mutual interest where no one nation was dominant. This region, called the Neutral Zone, is jointly administered by all the member nations. It comprises all the area east of the Wough and west of the Crossfall—an area part of which formerly pertained to the nation of Vinsom, which was not in a position to oppose the onirarchies' appropriation of their territory but which still resents its dispossession.