ZAMINE
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History of Zamine
Zamine was colonized by the pre-Maghiz Daryens as an agricultural planet.  Despite its disadvantages (the dense, tainted atmospheric and high gravity), it was a reasonably popular choice for many Daryen colonists.  It was a highly successful colony, as a native analog to kelp was abundant in the vast shallow oceanic shelves.  This kelp was digestible to the Daryens, trivial to grow, easy to harvest, was nutritious and didn't taste bad.  It was the primary export during pre-Maghiz times.

When the Maghiz hit, Zamine (like Entrope) was spared the direct effects.  Zamine never received news of the Maghiz; they simply stopped getting incoming ships.  One of the few ships available was set to find out why no ships were showing up, and returned with the news.  While the colonies in the Daryen Group attempted to maintain contact with each other, Zamine was not included due to its distance from the other colonies.  The few ships available were used to evacuate the small colony on Nonym.  Then, since there was no way to maintain them, as many colonists as they could carry were allowed to take the ships back to the Daryen Group where they might be useful.

At that point the people of Zamine got to the work of survival.  They had a population of a few million and a completely agrarian society.  Despite the fairly large population (for a Daryen colony), there was no great concentration of people.  The population was very spread out to allow maximal production of their foodstuffs.

Initially the economy suffered greatly as they had no where to export their produce, and no industrial imports.  So Zamine was forced to build an industrial base from scratch using only what high-technology equipment they had on hand.  This forced a large portion of the population to give up their now unprofitable farming and move into newly forming urban centers.  Because of the geography involved, multiple, independent urban centers developed.

As these centers developed, a sense of competition also developed.  So, while there was significant levels of cooperation, there was also a lot of duplication of effort.  Over the next couple centuries these centers developed into fully independent city-states.

By the time Zamine was recontacted by Mire they had a thriving world with almost a billion people and twenty countries.  The reaction to the recontact was surprisingly varied.  Most of the people and countries were thrilled and excited to hear the news of new interstellar contact, but many people and a couple of the countries were definitely not happy about this new development.

Initially the recontact meant very little to Zamine.  They were just too far from the Daryen Group to be formally included, and there was no easy path that allowed steady interstellar traffic.  During this time of relative isolation, the Zamine countries worked hard to incorporate the new technologies brought by the Recontact Team and to be prepared when regular interstellar traffic started up.

One thing that no one on Zamine was prepared for was the influx of immigrants.  Mire ran the Daryen Group with a rather heavy hand, causing many to be disaffected.  Some of the most offended immigrated to Zamine and Entrope.  Some of these immigrants, dismayed to see how willing most Zamine countries were to stay affiliated with the Daryen Group, formed the core of a new colonization effort to Nonym.

By the time of the founding of the Third Imperium, Zamine boasted a population of just over one billion people.  It had also grown from an agricultural world into a fully industrial world.  When the Daryen Group is transformed into the the Darrian Confederation, Zamine (and the reluctant Nonym) join as charter members.  (Practically speaking Zamine joins;  there were two countries that never ratified the membership papers and technically were not members of the Confederation.)

For the next several centuries, Zamine stays remarkably constant.  Not much change occurs due to the insufficient level of cooperation among the various countries.  The tech level does increase up to TL A by 1050, but they still lag in some areas (like gravitics).  The best evidence of the lack of cooperation is the still pitiful starport.

In 1080 a disturbing change occured.  For some reason (theories include Sword World or Zhodani influences), the previously peaceful disagreements between countries started becoming violent.  Two of the major countries suffered violent revolutions that resulted in dictatorships.  On the island of Meyhak, where three countries had peacefully coexisted for a millennium, a devistating three-way war broke out and, in the end, one country ceased to exist and the other two, while still technically alive with their new military run juntas, barely function.

Eventually the Darrian Confederation is forced to intervene, bringing a large contingent of Aslan troops.  While this seems to have solved the immediate problem, the underlying causes are still present and are still to be resolved..

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