LEMANJA Provincia do Brasil By Ben Levy
The earliest manned Brazilian mission to Tirane touched down on the flat prairie on the east bank of Rio Osario. A few weeks later the river was named for the first human to swim in it, one of the mission’s scientists. The Missaoprimo site was chosen after an evaluation of many sites. It was highly rated for its presumed ease of base construction, access to water, central location, agricultural potential and several other factors. Although landings were made elsewhere, the temporary base known today as Missaoprimo quickly became the main base for the exploration effort, and an outpost grew up around it. The outpost soldiered on for over a decade before the Brazilian territories were affirmed by international recognition and upgraded to colony status. Settlers began arriving, and spread out from Missaoprimo, mostly along the Rio Osario, but it would be decades yet before the colonization effort would begin in earnest. Eventually, the settlement and growth patterns would cause immigration effort would cause Cabo Vitorio to leap ahead of Lemanja in population, and it wasn’t until May 25th, 2227, that Lemanja, simultaneously with Oxala to the west, were established as Brazilian Estados. Lemanja occupies some 1,343,375 square kilometers, making it about twice the size of pre-Twilight Texas. It’s population of 17,400,000 (2300 Census) is concentrated along the rivers, but the overall population density is less than half that of Cabo Vitorio. This is because Lemanja is both less urbanized, and includes much land that is of poorer quality for settlement than Cabo Vitorio, such as wetlands and mountains. The major cities are Missaoprimo, Porto Jardim (the Estado’s capitol) and Cidade Delta. Together these urban areas have over half of the Estado’s population. Lemanja’s geography is dominated by two large rivers, which converge at Porto Jardim. The Rio Osario enters the sea through a wetlands delta system occupying some 48,640 square kilometers in the central and western south coast region of the Estado. Its headwaters are in the hilly uplands that separate Lemanja from Cabo Vitorio and Mata Centaura to the east. About 220 Kilometers southeast of Missaoprimo, the Osario is joined by the Rio Agreste, flowing south from the mountainous border with Vinicao to the north. After a similar distance the river is joined by the very variable Rio Prado, and the river, through numerous tributaries, captures most of the mountain range of the same name (Prado) in its watershed. The Prado is actually, during all but its lowest flow periods, a much higher volume river that the Osario. But the first explorers encountered the river in one of its low water phases, and so the name Osario stuck for the section between the confluence and the sea. The Rio Prado passes Dom Monte, the capitol of Sera do Prado, and , where it crosses the border into Lemanja, briefly forms part of the border between Lemanja and Oxala. Then, the river gains in volume rapidly as it approaches the confluence at Porto Jardim. It is navigable continuously for only about 150 kilometers west of Porto Jardim. The Osario is navigable as far as Missaoprimo, and the Agreste is barely navigable for about 70 kilometers north of the Rio Osario. The land is mostly flat along the coastal plain, generally within 500 kilometers of the south coast. The eastern border with Cabo Vitorio and Mata Centaura is dominated by low, rolling hills. Towards the north, the land rises and becomes more rugged as it approaches Vinicao in the northwest, Chaparaca in the northeast, and Sera do Prado in the west. The western border in the southern area, with Oxala, is flat and fertile and extends the length of the boggy Peninsula Iridescente, The climate is temperate and seasonal, and most of the land is covered by deciduous forest. Exceptions are the northwestern area of the state, where the land experiences lengthy and fairly random dry spells, the delta, which is covered in thick, reedy swamp vegetation, and the Vale do Rio Prado, which has semi-deciduous vegetation that responds to the dramatic shifts in the water level. The Rio Osario was subjected to one of Provincia do Brasil’s more dramatic engineering projects. Originally, the river was unnavigable between Porto Jardim and the sea due to the presence of a large bedrock shelf just 34 kilometers south of Porto Jardim, as well as narrow, shallow channels through the delta. These obstructions to efficient deep water maritime navigation were removed by the National Corps of Engineers. They accomplished this feat in the 2220’s, with the aid of a number of nuclear demolition charges, the first and last uses of nuclear explosives on the planet. This caused, among other things, massive international outcry, as well as the first known extinctions of non-Terran life forms by humanity. Brazil spent the next decade patching up its battered international image. Furthermore, by the time the project was completed it was unnecessary, as Vitoria de Conquista had already emerged as a premier deep water port and was easily capable of handling all the of the colony’s international marine trade. To avoid embarrassment, Brazil invested heavily in a new inland marine terminal (Porto Jardim) and developed a freight system for Lemanja based on river traffic. While Lemanja’s economy clearly benefits by having ocean access, the questions of value versus cost for the whole Rio Osario system are still unsettled. The layout of the city of Missaoprimo is unusual in that it encircles the spaceport of the same name. Obviously, since a spaceport is a big place (Missaoprimo’s covers 14 square kilometers of land) the resulting city takes on a ring shape, or, in Missaoprimo’s case, due to the effect of the nearby Rio Osario, a flat tire. Missaoprimo’s approximately 5 million inhabitants occupy 82 square kilometers around the spaceport, mostly on the north side of the Rio Osario, with a few districts on the south side. This wasn’t the original plan, of course. The early settlement, built to support scientific operations before the colonial era, was in the part of the city now known as Estudoros, was on the side of the Rio Osario a comfortable 5 kilometers from the end of the runway, which was built along a roughly East-West great circle line north of the river. The early runway, and the facilities around it, became the city’s focus, and the city grew to engulf the growing aerospace center instead of growing away from it. A series of farsighted early expansions kept the spaceport from being too quickly encircled and rendered obsolete as larger landers and intercontinental aircraft, with their attendant longer runway needs, arrived. It can be unnerving to learn that the city’s two major parks, Sobrechut Oeste and Sobrechut Leste, owe their status as broad, undeveloped tracts of woodlands and meadows at the opposing ends of the spaceport to the requirements to the justified fear of erecting buildings on land that could conceivably be hit by a spacecraft missing its landing trajectory. This has happened only twice in the city’s history. Missaoprimo is the closest thing Provincia do Brasil has to an actual national capitol, and this is despite the concentration of foreign missions and national government offices in Vitoria de Conquista. Principal districts within Missaoprimo include: This is far more than just the spaceport, which occupies most of this district’s real estate. Distrito Portoespaco (named before Brazil switched its terminology from Portoespaco -spaceport- to Portoestrella -starport, but, as in some other places, the old name stuck) this is, technically, the oldest still inhabited area in Provincia do Brasil, even though those early structures were only temporary prefab habitats for a few scientists and engineers. Now, the spaceport itself, having recently undergone its third major refit and renovation, is a commercial center, with one of the city’s great shopping complexes, and offices, retail, and wholesale facilities crowd an area which, by any logical standard, should be left for industry. The district even contains a few residential buildings, located away from the runways, but still requiring soundproofing for residents to get a good night’s sleep. This is the district most amenable to travellers, and has a strong concentration of hotels and restaurants. None of, however, is given to the seedy diversions that are found near some other spaceports, especially frontierwards. The Church has a strong influence here, and actually owns substantial property, and there are many things the Arch-Bishop of Missaoprimo, the leading church figure in the Estado, who lives in a town house adjacent to the first church built in the colony, won’t tolerate. People who live and work in this area of the city seem to take a perverse pride in the interruption of their routines by flight operations. The noise of intercontinental aircraft is an acceptable white noise roar constantly in the background. The starships, on the other hand, can rattle windows. But the city, out of popular demand, built an elevated promenade within sight range of the main runway just so pedestrians can watch flight operations. An office with a view of the starport is considered a sign of status. The residential status of the district is quite mixed. The older buildings, their views obscured by newer highrises, house lower income people, often adjacent to the taller and more luxurious homes of the middle and upper class. Between the long stretch of the starport and the two waterfront districts of Margem do Osario and Estudoros, there lies the narrow District of Courella de Pista. This is the industrial and utility core of the city, home to its power substations, communications nodes, rail and freight yards, warehouses, water treatment plant, etc. It occupies 12 square kilometers but has a very small resident population for its size- mostly, Missaoprimo’s lower class, who live in older housing units in neighborhoods mostly claimed by industry. Some of the neighborhoods in this District have Missaoprimo’s highest crime rates, and some of the industrial areas have an eerie, empty feel on Sundays, when the factories are closed and you can walk for half an hour without seeing another person. This area was added to the city during its "Second Growth" phase, in the 2230’s, Distrito Ponte has been in some ways to a "reward" for Missaoprimo. Certainly, until this time, construction of the city was seen as a labor of necessity, Missaoprimo was being built simply because it had to. Architecture was pragmatic, and efforts were channeled towards what various experts- the Ministers, and their staffs, mostly, decided were important. But in 2231, the Ponte dos Cinco Capitaos, or Bridge of the Five Captains, was opened. Named in honor of the five Brazilian pilots who flew the first manned Brazilian landers, this bridge opened up the south side of the Rio Osario to serious growth. In addition, land around the bridge’s landings, originally far from the heart of Missaoprimo, instantly gained in value. By 2235, the land surrounding the bridge on both sides of the river was annexed to Missaoprimo as Distrito Ponte. Some thought it odd that a single district stretch across the two opposite shores, but Ponte’s early supporters claimed it was no more unusual than a single nation stretching across light-years of space. As a transportation hub, Ponte quickly became a popular place. For the first time, starting with the Bridgewater outdoor interactive sculpture garden, the city added amenities that weren’t considered vitally needed infrastructure or facilities by someone, and the citizens loved it. Early estates were subdivided into smaller residential lots, then the lots amalgamated in the coming decades to large plots for tall, middle class residential towers, with entertainment and shopping plazas linking them at the lower levels. In 2252 the Parque Zoologico was established on the western edge of Ponte, and beyond that, along the river, was built a large, privately owned family oriented entertainment park, further described under "Entertainment, Recreation, and the Arts. The south side of the Rio Osario was opened up by the Ponte dos Cinco Capitaos, having previously been accessible only by boat, aircraft, or hovercraft. One eventual result was this district, a very placid middle class suburb, most of whose adult residents travel across the river, via private vehicle or public transportation, to daily jobs in the older areas of Missaoprimo. It’s virtue is its remoteness. The waterfront is taken up by elegant homes and small but very fashionable (and surprisingly moderately priced) retail centers. When the decision was made to upgrade Missaoprimo from a temporary to a permanent camp (and this was still before the upgrade of Provincia do Brasil from pre-colonial settlement to colony, of course), most of the science staff decided that alongside the increasingly active runway was not the best place to settle in. They moved to permanent dwellings six kilometers away, close to the river. This early settlement soon incorporated, in addition to the homes of the researchers, their laboratories and offices, then a "field site" for Brazilian universities, then the new colony’s transient housing, then retail and service oriented business seeking patronage from all these people. Today, Estudoros is an older section of the city, home to the earliest surviving structures, several of which now form the Museum of the Ministry of Colonization, Missaoprimo Branch. (The main branch is on Earth). This dense corner of the city attracts young professionals willing to live in a small apartment in exchange for the vibrant and often intellectual atmosphere found here. Missaoprimo’s campus of the University of Lemanja can be found on the eastern side of this district. Beyond the university, a second bridge across the Osario was completed in2281, but this never had the impact of the first bridge. (although it did help to relieve the growing congestion,) This stretch of flat land on the northwest side of the city experienced rapid growth in the 2260’s, and is still being built up. The area is a populous district of large apartment complexes, serving the middle and lower middle, and in places the lower classes. Much of Planos is industrial. The district is home to Missaoprimo’s athletic complex, which is centered on the Estadio Presidente Belchoir. This stadium was completed in 2244, and is one of the older buildings of its kind in the colony. The stadium is surrounded by a dense commercial neighborhood, unfortunately one badly in need of physical improvements and one that boasts a high crime rate. Police presence, especially after important futbol matches, is very strong near the stadium, but only on the major streets. Intoxicated fans who stray away from these safe areas are often preyed upon by local hoodlums. Despite the name, its not the physical center of the city, nor is it the oldest part. It is, however, the seat of government for the city, and the location of most of the city’s largest medical complex, most of the financial offices, the media centers, numerous agencies of the national government, and the consulates or offices of number of foreign governments, corporations, and foundations. The Provincia do Brasil real estate world is centered on this district, which houses the offices of the native real estate giant, Chiron, as well as the offices of other Brazilian and foreign based firms. Cultural centers have been built here, including the Theatre Provincia, and the Primo Hall, home of the city’s symphony. It is also home to Missaoprimo’s largest cathedral, and the Estado’s church offices. This district is middle class to lower upper class in character, and is occupied mostly by quiet residential neighborhoods, with some consumer retail commercial areas hugging the river, and one small sized college, the Escola Vernora, a technical school specializing in medical technology A major highway separates it from Courella de Pista to the north. Much of the riverside is public waterfront park, some is given over to private land. The utility of the Rio Osario for inland transport was realized early on. The 6th cargo landing at Missaoprimo brought an inflatable hydrogen fuel cell powered boat. This was christened the Novo Amazonian, and a survey crew began making exploratory trips along the Rio Osario. Porto Jardim was recognized quickly as an excellent site for a second settlement. It represented a full day’s journey down river for the Nova Amazonian, and so was a logical stopping place. It was at the confluence of two major rivers, and so was at a natural transportation hub. Finally, although the shallow bottomed Nova Amazonian and the hovercraft that would follow would have no problem, a massive rock shelf prevented deep water access between the Porto Jardim site and the sea (although this would later be corrected), making this a logical terminal for the riverine traffic the Brazilians saw as linking the central region of that their new colony. It must be remembered that in the early days, no one foresaw the rise of Vitoria de Conquista, and secondly, the model of the Amazon River basin development as a model for colonial development was very prevalent in the thinking at many levels of the Brazilian government, and they seem to have almost subconsciously linked riverine traffic with economic development. Later, of course, it seemed clearer to everyone but the Brazilians that Provincia do Brasil was not the Amazon basin, and that river traffic, in a land that offered no real obstacle to rail technology, was not the sole and ultimate solution to Lemanja’s needs. This was especially true as the ship traffic, until the extremely expensive dredging of channels, was confined solely to the Lemanja area. To be fair, today the river serves as a major link in Provincia do Brasil’s freight transportation net, and ocean going vessels connect the major cities of the Estado with other cities across Tirane. Porto Jardim is a relatively short rail journey from the colony’s catapult, and so the city receives the lion’s share of seaborne, offworld bound cargo. But unlike the natural success of Cabo Vitorio and the minor ports in the western area of the colony, this situation had to be forced upon Lemanja at great and highly debatable cost. Important places within Porto Jardim include: Misnamed from the start, this district contains very little park. What’s there is actually very nice, with a large promenade wrapping around the point at which the Prado and Osario converge. At the very point of convergence is the massive Igreha Dos Rios. This is actually the second building of this name. The first was lost to a flood in 2265 which undermined the building’s foundations. The new building occupies the same site, and as part of that site is now underwater, about a third of the main building sits on pilings over the river. Nearby, and also on the river front, are the Estado office complexes. The remainder of the area is dense inner urban in nature, with a concentration of commercial buildings. These are the districts flanking Parque do Rio, on the east and west sides on their respective rivers, naturally. The former is very industrial in nature, the latter more residential. Prado features a large open air market. Before the Rectenna complexes were moved to more distant locations, the complex at Porto Jardim supplied power to the entire Lemanja area. The Rectennas here were decommissioned in 2274. Much of the area was converted to parks, and the city’s new athletic complex was built here, with a horse racing track, a futbol stadium, and two smaller arenas. The State Police Academy is also located here, with its centerpiece, Brito Hall. Brito Hall is a social institution in the city- many of the most prominent citizens are connected with the State Police in some way. Making a notable donation to the proper cause almost guarantees one an honorary officer-ship in the Police Reserve- its not unlike the way honorary commissions were once handed out in the south eastern area of America. Brito Hall gets used for events of all sorts, from high society weddings to expensive charity fund raisers to art shows. Many of these events are open to the public. The building is an imposing edifice of reddish stone from Sera do Prado, and construction began even as the rectenna was being dismantled. In fact, there was a considerable push from the movers of the city to have the Rectenna banished, as they coveted the land, which had risen considerably in value since the city had grown outwards, for their own uses. Non public area of the district are taken up with recently built upper muddle class and upper class large lot homes. This city built near the mouth of the Rio Osario, on a small (but steadily enlarging, with the help of the National Corps of Engineers) patch of dry land, has always seemed unstable and uncertain, and indeed there have been times when it seemed as if the whole city would be abandoned, simply due to a lack of interest. Cidade Delta was established in 2209 as a forward base for engineers who were surveying, and would later be redirecting, much of the last stretch of the Rio Osario. In its original form, the river broke up into countless minor channels before reaching the sea. Along with the rock shelf south of Porto Jardim, this made the lower Osario useless for large ocean going shipping. The solution was to establish and enlarge one main channel. In the process of dredging, many millions of cubic meters of material had to go somewhere, and it was used to establish the land upon which the city is built. The artificial origin of the city’s terrain is evident. There are no hills at all, but the ground has a very slight camber towards the center of the city to facilitate runoff of precipitation. The land is a series of geometrically exact rectangles, very evident from the air as an unnatural shape. The streets intersect at crisp right angles and run straight, there are no curves of the sort that natural topography would require. A roads skirting or crossing the city’s residential and recreational areas follow broad arcs, but somehow even these seem forced and unnatural. Lush marine coastal marsh surrounds the city in every direction, stretching off for kilometers. A single causeway carrying a highway and an airfilm track passes above the mash on a raised causeway, a tether to the rest of Lemanja. The appearance is one of isolation and remoteness, like an crowded oasis in a very wet desert, or a densely populated island in a sea of grass. No single style of building describes Cidade Delta, although there is a recognizable sense of compactness to the architecture here. In parts of the city, structures have grown out beyond the limited land available and extend over the marshes, supported by pilings sunk into rock deep below the surface. The airport, for example (a small one, incapable of handling large, supersonic aircraft) has been likened to a permanently docked aircraft carrier. The activities of Cidade Delta are often those that, although useful, seem to be things the residents of other cities would rather not have to look at. It is the largest ship wrecking facility in the southern hemisphere of Tirane. It has waste reclamation facilities that serve all of Lemanja. It is a base for seabed mining operations off the coast, and has two important shipyards. A few of Cidade Delta’s districts: This is the busy, bustling marine port of Cidade Delta. In terms of cargo tonnage, this is Provincia do Brasil’s 4th most active port. It is also home to a Brazilian Navy facility belonging to the 7th Fleet. It is the second oldest part of the city, and is a no nonsense, sweat and steel blue collar industrial area. The oldest part of the city is home to a large and prosperous American owned shipyard, and the concentration of American immigrants, temporary workers, and businesses catering to them in one area has created a small neighborhood called "Little Boston". The rest of this district is very mixed commercial, residential and institutional land, including the municipal offices, the Marine Museum of Cabralia, the local headquarters of the National Corps of Engineers, and other important buildings. The city’s wealthier residents tend to live in the tall luxury apartment towers of this district, the new ones almost large enough to be small arcologies. The most seaward of the city’s territories is home to the airport, The Delta City Stadium, a large park, the city’s cemetery (Like New Orleans, the high water table makes in ground interment impossible, and the cemetery features above ground tombs) and a lower class residential area. The district is the southernmost end of the airfilm line that connects Cidade Delta with Porto Jardim. Within the city, the route doubles as an urban transit line. The Estado of Lemanja’s government is democratic and republican, with a unicameral senate of 64 serving 4 year terms, with half of the senators being elected every other election. The Estado’s three major cities also have elected governments, and wield significant influence in the State. Unlike Cabo Vitorio, Lemanja isn’t nearly as polarized, with relations between the Estado and Municipal powers quite cordial. This maybe the result of no party having an undisputed lock on Lemanjan politics- officials never know who they’ll be forced to compromise with after the next election, and so they tend not to burn their bridges. Without a party dominating politics, the Catholic church plays a major role, and the Arch-Bishop of Missaoprimo wields considerable behind the scenes power. (Though, it seems, not enough to change the name of the Estado. He is not called the Arch-Bishop of Lemanja because Lemanja was named for a deity of West African Mythology). The church dominates many services in Lemanja which one would ordinarily think of as government provided, such as hospital and rescue facilities. The Estado of Lemanja pays a stipend to the church for providing these services. Lemanja has a strong and very tradition oriented Estado police. This force of 16,000 is a direct descendant of the early colonial militia, a volunteer organization originally designed to be called up to reinforce the regular Army, in the event of an attack by Argentina. Of course, actions against Brazilian territory on Tirane by Argentina was very limited, despite several major wars on Earth, and much of the unit’s lore focuses on what they were ready to do, rather than what they actually did. The Estado police includes a large riverine division patrolling the Osario and its tributaries. Their dress uniforms are elegant khaki suits with dark green stripes, and n this outfit they are often seen in a variety of official and social capacities. The Brazilian Military in Lemanja The Brazilian Navy’s Seventh Fleet is headquartered in Port Jardim. This is the smallest of the three Brazilian fleets on Tirane, and is equipped largely with second line ships- although some of the ships are the latest experimental designs. As its area of operations, the ocean south of Cabralia, between Campinasur and Cabo Vitorio, is both small and shared by no other nations, this is considered a "rear area" for the Brazilian navy. Consequently, the Seventh Fleet concentrates on training, material and doctrinal development, research, logistic support of the front line fleets, refits and maintenance, as well as patrol, law enforcement at sea, and search and rescue. The headquarters for the Seventh Fleet, in theory, would become the headquarters for the entire Brazilian navy on Tirane of conditions ever demanded it- so far, they have not. As a precaution, each of the other fleet headquarters has the same capability, although Brazilian doctrine puts the Seventh Fleet HQ first in this order of succession. The Seventh Fleet is supported by the Seventh Marine Brigade, with its headquarters south of Porto Jardim. This is largely an infantry, hover, and airmobile unit. Like the fleet which it supports, the Seventh Brigade is not considered a front line unit, and it would take several months, possibly, to bring the unit to its full doctrinal capability. The Thirteenth Marine Brigade is a support unit, being comprised of ordnance, maintenance, supply, military police, signal, and other auxiliary units. The Thirteenth’s assets are scattered across several locations, including the naval bases at Cidade Delta and Porto Jardim. One of the Brazilian Navy’s more interesting recent projects has been the "Furioso" class corvettes, being built by Promarc. Like most wet navies, the Brazilian Navy is faced with the problem of being utterly unable to move significant assets between planets. Generally, with the exception of very small patrol craft and mini-submariunes, a fleet can exist only on a world with the shipbuilding industry available to construct it. A decade ago, Promarc presented a proposal for a medium sized catamaran design surface warship that could be readily broken down into modules, transported to a distant planet, and quickly reassembled. That original plan has resulted, with some changes in the Furioso ships, being turned out (slowly) by Promarc in Porto Jardim. The Furiosos are fast, and capable of taking on a variety of missions. They can act in the traditional capacities of warships, or support VTOL aircraft, landing parties, provide shore bombardment, gather intelligence, etc. In peacetime they can perform search and rescue, patrol, conduct oceanography, or offer logistic support to coastal settlements. They key is the modular design- a single Furioso can not do all this at once. Replace the ship’s gun mount, for example, with a cellular missile launcher, and while the air defense, anti ship, and long range interdiction capabilities may be increased, the shore bombardment capability is lost. The Furiosos are still being developed ,and the first ships are to be considered prototypes. They’ve had a difficult time, a result of trying to stuff everything into a small package (the original plan called for a frigate sized ship- this was reduced to save cost, and to make transport and reassembly easier). The second ship of the class, Feiticeiro, literally fell apart at the seams in heavy weather. The first and third vessels, Furioso, and Feroz, are confined to operations along the Rio Osario and close inshore until the bugs are worked out, even though they show no sign of repeating the Feiticeiro’s failure. The fourth ship, the Formidavel, is fitting out for transit to Paulo, a mission which will test the deployability of the corvettes. Two more ships, Fogoso and Forte, are under construction.. There has been some talk of deploying them to a world faced with a Kafer threat, perhaps Aurore. To date, Kafers have shown no inclination or ability do battle with a naval vessel. On the other hand, discounting minor harassment by human small craft, they have never had the need. There are a number of military compounds to the northeast of Missaoprimo, within a hundred kilometers of the city. These house the main support activities in Tirane of the Brazilian armed forces on Tirane. The Brazilian Army’s forces here include the Eastern Command Headquarters and Support Brigade, Headquarters and elements of the Tirane Medical Group, The Tirane Signal Group, the Tirane Maintenance Group, the Tirane Transportation Group, and the Tirane Intelligence group. This last unit includes a specialized element called the Communications Integrity Unit. The exact size of this unit is classified, and it is known that their primary sphere of operations is the communications net, where they defend Brazil’s data communications networks, both civil and military, from on-line attack. It is commonly believed they have an offensive capability as well, and in the event of war would launch computer based attacks into the enemy’s data communications infrastructure. There is also the Tirane National Support group, which encompasses the Recruiting command, the civil affairs command, the history and records command, the finance command, and a military police battalion. Despite the many support elements, combat units in the Estado are relatively limited. The Army keeps the 11th Parachute Brigade based northeast of Missaoprimo, which has a single parachute battalion, along with two airmobile battalions and a special operations battalion. It is generally recognized that the art of military parachuting is kept alive only as a tradition, and the parachute battalion, although trained in the technique, would generally use other methods of rapid insertion into a combat area. The Eastern Air District is headquartered in a large complex northeast of Missaoprimo, Aerodromo General Berghausen. Built in the first two decades of the colony, and since expanded several times, the base is home to a research center and variety of support and administrative units, including, the Air Force’s Training Command Tirane Group, The Tirane Intelligence Division, and the Air Force Tirane Medical Group. Aerodromo General Sarniva, on an island off the south coast of the Estado, is the Air Force’s other major facility in the Estado. Local combat units are rotated between the two Air bases, and include the Eastern Tirane Airspace Defense and Control Regiment, the 16th Patrol and Reconnaissance Regiment, and the 19th Fighter Bomber Regiment. The 16th flies several types of aircraft on surveillance, patrol, and electronic warfare missions of all types, while the 19th flies 36 Choupa multi role long range strike aircraft, 12 Choupa-C countermeasures aircraft, and 12 Choupa-E training aircraft. Provincia do Brasil’s original spaceport, Portoestrella Missaoprimo began as a the temporary landing field supporting the first survey camp. Contrary to expectation, the spaceport never closed, and Estado Cabo Vitorio’s starport and international airport lies 90 kilometers west of Vitoria de Conquista. Even after losing much business to Portoestrella Vitorio in 2242, Missaoprimo remains the colony’s busiest starport. This is in due to Brazil’s keeping most of its government interface operations here; Brazilian Space Agency ships, including the surface to surface transport fleet of the Nacional Interegional Estrellabarcas, make Missaoprimo their primary Tirane downport. The NIA alone operates as many vessels as a very large commercial line. As with the other spaceports, it was designed to collocate surface to surface and interface operations, however, limited space makes Missaoprimo a congested airport, subject to frequent delays as interface craft take priority. For reasons of pride, the citizens of Missaoprimo do not want their starport relocated out of the city, paralleling Vitoria de Conquista’s development, so they have built a small "Annex" airport on the edge of the city to handle local flights, connected to the starport by a high speed dedicated airfilm link. Even this is too small to meet demand, and the city is currently entertaining proposals to solve its air and space transport needs while keeping the starport in the center of the city. As the primary downport for Brazilian government agencies on Tirane, large parts of the starport complex are occupied by the Brazilian Space Agency (the AEB), and the Brazilian Space Defense Force. These two agencies also jointly maintain extensive logistic support and training facilities here, although the primary AEB school on Tirane was moved years ago due to lack of space. Missaoprimo is actually third after Vitorio and Portoestrella Oeste in civilian flights. Civilian services operating from Portoestrella Missaoprimo include: Carrebarco Orbital Provincial: Operates heavy lift cargo shuttles to and from all of Provincia de Brasil’s spaceports. Ferroave: An umbrella agency consisting of associated independent ship operators with Brazilian flagged ships. Ferroave is headquartered on Earth but maintains a field office in each of the Brazilian Tiranean spaceports, with the planetary headquarters Sao Celestino. More information is available under the Cabo Vitorio and Alegre Sections. Linha Espaco Iberico: Operates several passenger ships and a few freighters between Tirane and Earth. They have their own interface craft in Provincia do Brasil, with 2 in Portoestrella Vitorio, and 6 in Portoestrella Missaoprimo, their preferred downport on Tirane (They trend to use the, on Earth, the beanstalk for cargo deliveries, and the Portugal and Recife spaceports for passengers. They are the sole interstellar line operating out of the former location.) LEI’s Tirane office is at the Missaoprimo starport. The company is owned by Brazilian and European investors, with substantial ownership by Portuguese business interests as well as the Portuguese government. Some of the former are in turn owned by Brazilian based firms. LEI works under a tangled corporate web, but has proved highly profitable and is in the market for new starships. Their stock is publicly traded on Earth and Tirane, and is considered a "hot" prospect at the moment Fuel and services for visiting starships may be obtained through several local suppliers, including a franchise of the widespread American based Novvus chain, and the local company Mobau, which also has a well equipped maintenance facility. Most of the major civilian lines operating interface craft out of the spaceport also maintain their own fuel and service facilities. There is some contention between Lemanja and Cabo Vitorio as to which maintains the better road net. Lemanja has more kilometers of road, Cabo Vitorio’s are better maintained. This may be due to geography- Cabo Vitorio is a more linear state, while settlement in Lemanja spread outward from the center. Wealthier locals are fond of hovercrafts that can speed down the waterways, then travel along cracked concrete highways. People who live in rural towns in the northern area of the state prefer wheels, as hovercraft are restricted to low slope roads. The upper Porto Jardim is the crossroads of two major highways- the routes called "Superestradas", combining wide roadways with airfilm tracks. Superestrada Sur connects Missaoprimo to the Cabo Vitorio, then passes through Porto Jardim enroute to Kantzauropolis. Superestrada Osario (operated by the Estado instead of the national government connects Porto Jardim to Cidade Delta in the south, and terminates at the northern town of Aspiros (A lumber and wood pulp center) where several minor roads lead off into the mountains. Vehicles are readily available for rent in the major cities, but fuel stations can be scarce along the fringes of the Estado. The region’s principal airport is Portoestrella Missaoprimo. Porto Jardim also has an international airport. These airports see arrivals and departures from numerous foreign airlines as well as Brazilian aircraft. Regional airports are found in Cidade Delta, as well as near the towns of Portao Agreste in the northern area of the state, Cabo Iridescente, Solidade on Ilha Solidade, and Corrente Duros on the Rio Prado. the international. All of the regional airports are served by a local airline, Aviacao Oxanja, which flies small transport aircraft throughout the central Cabralia area. Missaoprimo, Porto Jardim and Cidade Delta are served by Aerotrans Brazil, while Impulsos covers the major airports plus Cabo Iridescente, and Portao Agreste. Aerotrans Brazil is Brazil’s principal national airline. It is based on Earth but has a planetary headquarters in Missaoprimo, as well as major facilities at a number of Provincia do Brasil Airports. Their aviation fleet on Tirane consists of over 250 major passenger and cargo aircraft. Their Tirane operations, in 2300, were served by over 8,000 employees and had gross earnings of 656 MLv. Aerotrans Brazil is represented by a branch of the company, not a subsidiary, and to date, while numerous other corporations on Earth have found it inefficient to directly control operations on Tirane, Aerotrans Brazil has not experienced these problems. Stock in the company is publicly held, with 34% belonging to the government of Brazil. Despite the differences in population, Tirane based individuals, institutions, and corporations hold another 27%, which may make the corporation more responsive to needs here than it would be otherwise. Ocean going shipping can move quite easily up much of the Rio Osario, and Missaoprimo, Cidade Delta, and Porto Jardim are all ports for ocean bound traffic as well as riverine vessels. Porto Jardim is the busiest port, as the facilities here are the biggest and most efficient, with most of the incoming cargo being moved from ship to rail fur movement to other destinations, such as the catapult in Dom Monte. Ocean going ships are primarily cargo vessels. They tend to be large and nuclear powered, and built to move either standardized cargo containers or specialty cargos like liquefied gas. There isn’t much of a market for passenger ships here. Shipping prices per ton for cargo moved by sea, however, are very inexpensive. Of the shipping companies that run cargo to and from Lemanja’s ports, here are the most important: Tiramar is a young firm, founded in 2279 after the collapse of two of the colonies original shippers, both of which were subsidiaries of Earthbound corporations. A group of investors bought ships and facilities at bargain prices and revamped the whole system into a Tirane oriented organization. Tiramar was a quick success and grew rapidly. Today they are still adding ships to their fleet. The latest class is unique in having no moving parts in the propulsion system (well, unique to merchant ships of this size, on Tirane), which uses electromagnetic fields to create powerful jets of water. At a rate of two ships a years, these vessels are being added to a growing fleet which numbered 34 in 2300. Most of the ships are container carriers, with a few, such as MV Tiramar Oxala being a tanker for petrochemicals. Tiramar is based in Porto Jardim. About 25% of its stock is publicly traded. The firm had 1,960 employees in 2300, and gross revenues of 127 MLv. Amphrixa is based in Cidade Delta. This firm’s ships tend to be smaller than Tiramar’s and includes general purpose freighters running cargo between the smaller ports, as well as specialized ships. The fleet includes "roll-on, roll-off" ships for the transport of vehicles, a few of which operate as ferries connecting the Brazilian island chain and the enclave on the southern continent. These ships, unlike most merchant ships, carry passengers. Passengers on the island ferries aren’t trying to reach their destinations quickly. They’re on board because the Amphrixa ships offer an interesting and comfortable way of visiting the entire chain, all the way tot he southern continent and back. Amphrixa has 42 ships, most of which are named for minor water entities from classical Greek and West African mythology. Amphrixa is owned by Frete Geral, a corporation (also based in Cidade Delta) with a variety of assets in the transport sector. Frete Geral, in turn, is controlled (51% ownership) by a megacoporation based in Conquista de Vitoria. Linha Canco , headquartered in Porto Jardim, is another young firm, having grown up since 2262 from a single ship owner-operator line to a fleet of 21 vessels. Linha Cano serves clients needing reliable, repetitive, bulk shipping services at low cost. Their ships are bulk carriers moving ore, grain, etc, with several ships running liquefied natural gas from Nova Cabinda. Linha Canco generally places an entire ship at the service of a single client, having it run exclusively from a production point to a distribution point, and back again. The stock was released at a public offering 15 years ago, to little fanfare. Few people really knew what Linha Canco was or what its strengths were. The stock has risen very unsteadily since, (With Linha Canco being entirely dependent on its "big client" market, the company is very much subject to economic trends beyond its control) and today is regarded as a moderate risk, long term security. Linhja Canco reported 1100 employees in 2300. Lemanja, particularly in the Port Jardim area, is a major producer of agricultural machinery. To companies dominate the industry in this Estado, and by extension, all of Provincia do Brasil. One is the multinational firm Konia, which invested heavily in the 2260’s in several plants here. The other is also a large multinational, Borz. Borz is the newcomer and has drawn off engineering and management talent from the more established Konia. There is no love lost between the two companies now. Advertising has descended tot he level of trading insults, and the ugly rivalry has resulted in both of them losing market share. The one thing they agree on seems to be the squelching of local upstarts into the industry. Porto Jardim is also the center of a thriving industrial and agricultural chemicals industry. Major plants are owned by a score of companies, ranging from a few locals, to wings of multinational megacorporations, to the Brazilian plastics giant, Vistoro, which has recently moved its corporate headquarters here, having maintained just a planetary headquarters in Porto Jardim for twenty years. This move seems partly predicated on the crowded state of cities in Terrestrial Brazil, which rendered the companies Belo Horizonte office complex an incredibly valuable piece of real estate that was converted to mounds of cash by the move to cheaper facilities on Tirane. Lemanja officials count it as a major economic coup. The move, however, may have a negative long term affect on Provincia do Brasil- it may be seen as evidence that national policies go too far in favoring Tirane over Earth. This may be a source of political tension between the larger Tiranean Estados and their Earth siblings if the trend continues. The fact that first conventional rail, then the colonials airfilm network had its start here gave a boost to Ugone Industrios, the firm which won the contracts to provide initial equipment for both systems. In 2262, a management led leveraged buyout liberated Ugone from its parent firm on Earth, and the separation seems to have benefited the company. Ugone is now a moderately sized, locally based enterprise, producing about two thirds of the locomotives and rolling stock (and, through subcontractors, much of the other technology necessary to support the rail industry) in Provincia do Brasil, with some small overseas sales. Ugone is a publicly traded company based in Missaoprimo, where they maintain offices, a production plant, and a rail car overhaul depot. They are considered one of strongest stocks available. They are also considered a prime target by acquisitions specialists, and the firms has had to protect itself against a number of hostile takeover attempts, including two recent ones in which computer attacks were made against the company’s proprietary networks, to gain information useful to hostile proxies. Managed harvests are permitted in the forested area covering the upland northern region of the state, and the bulk of the trees taken in this area are used in the production of wood pulp. Pulp based products are provided to the chemical and food processing industries, and much is used for the production of paper. Tree harvesting and paper production is dispersed amongst scores of small companies, since the government favors small, locally based businesses in the procedures used to hand out sections of forest for processing. Many of these operations haven’t been entirely environmentally responsible, and some have rivalled the ancient deprivations of rain forest in the Amazon basin. Unfortunately, it’s a situation where a government bureaucrat can make a few quick Cruzeiros by looking the other way, and because they rely on small companies, a harvester can cease operations, fold up, and let his business go bankrupt if it looks like an investigation is headed his way. If it does hit, he’ll generally have enough money to emigrate to Tundukubwa. Public hostility towards the situation is gradually rising, and eco-terrorists have attacked forest harvesting sites. Several major manufacturing companies have plants in Lemanja, including Baterina and Lampada do Oro, both locally based Lemanjan enterprises. Along with plants owned by other Brazilian and some foreign firms, these are major employers in the Lemanja industrial sectors. Production is for the local as well as export markets. Baterina specializes in large appliances, including their well known line of programmable autonomous lawn care and exterior home maintenance equipment. Baterina is a new company, created in 2292 and selling shares in an initial public offering on the Fazenet in 2294. The company, though large, is thought by many to have had too quick and too unstructured a growth period, and stock prices are very low. Despite a number of modern plants, a large work force and decent profit margins the company may have a greater debt load than it can bear. The fall of Baterina, if it happens, would be a major disruption not only to thousands of employees, but many other Lemanjans who work in companies from which Baterina purchases goods and services. Baterina has hired and fired many executives recently in search of novel solutions to its problems. Lemanja competes with Cabo Vitorio for investment in ship building, although its yards are smaller. Andorianha (see Cabo Vitorio) has a yard in Porto Jardim that does a steady business in ferries and riverine vessels. Navenacional, a semi-pubnlic company, has a major yard in Cidade Delta. Promarc, also a semi-public company (below) has a yard in Porto Jardim. Trintech do Cabralia is actually a local subsidiary of an American conglomerate, and has yards in Porto Jardim and Cidade Delta. Their Cidade Delta is an enormous facility that produces ocean going merchant ships for clients across Tirane, as well as repairing and servicing ships. Many of the American marine engineers who arrived in 2258 to establish the shipyard were from New England, and the commercial and mixed residential neighborhood near the yard is now called Little Boston. It’s still a haven for American immigrants and expatriates. This company was founded in 2278 as a result of a government initiative, being a means of minimizing exposure of classified government research projects while maintaining civilian corporate involvement. Most of the defense and aerospace firms in Provincia do Brazil have a stake in Promarc, and they contribute manpower and resources as well, but the Brazilian government owns 34% of the company, and Promarc’s operations are highly insulated from the operations of the parent companies. The result is a government owned splinter company that focuses expertise and crosses a wide range of other firms. Promarc often develops a project, and releases enough information to allow Promarc’s member firm’s to issue proposals on the later stages of the project. Promarc is a compromise between economic and security concerns, and like all compromises, doesn’t perform as well in either area as it would like. Several failed projects have cost Promarc dearly, they have a few ongoing lawsuits against their only client- the Brazilian government – and their stock is in the basement. Still, there is no doubt they’ll hang in there, as too many politicians have too much at stake to kill Promarc now. In 2300 Promarc reported 1,900 employees and a gross revenue of about 180 MLv. They have a small office tower in Porto Jardim, as well as an engineering and test facility built around their drydocks on the Rio Osario. Slowly, industry analysts appear to shifting their opinion to one of caution based on Promarc’s poor economic performance to one of opportunity, based on a growing belief that the market’s reaction to Promarc has been excessive and the company is now undervalued. (The stock never trades in large amounts, though. All of the owning corporations are, by contract, bound to maintain ownership at certain levels, and must have public releases of the stock approved by the government. Hence, it rarely moves on the market.) In addition to the near certainty of continued government support, these analysts point out that while the company’s books are often in disarray, the products have been successful, and this alone will guarantee future projects. In the last few years, for example, Promarc delivered the last of the Brazilian Space Defense Force’s electronic warfare and intelligence gathering suites needed for the Stallhammer/Almirante Montoya conversions. Currently, Promarc’s engineering yards are turning out the sophisticated, modular, "mission configurable" catamaran corvettes of the "Furioso" class. (That would be ocean going corvettes, not the space kind) This project, too, has been marred by one catastrophe, but the Kafer war appears to have come along as a timely boost to the Furioso project’s priority. This is Lemanja’s primary public institution of higher learning, based around their major campus in the Estudoros District of Missaoprimo, and six other campuses scattered across the state. Public higher education is fairly inexpensive in the Estado, a result of a very supportive Estado government. The University has almost a quarter of a million students enrolled, and boasts many academically renowned programs, especially in biology and medicine. The Catholic Church runs their own component of Lemanja’s university system. The Escolas Dominicas are small, community based schools often associated with an individual parish. They offer general educational programs, along with specialized programs in education and theological studies. Graduates of the latter are expected to continue their studies at Basilicade. The Escolas Dominicas have a strong outreach program, and work to promote educational programs in the most difficult of areas. They have often replaced traditional schools and teachers in war torn areas, refugee camps, and natural disaster sites. Here in Lemanja they have their organizational headquarters (one of the few major Catholic organizations not headquartered in Basilicade) and their greatest sources of philanthropic support. Understandably, their charity begins close to home, and many of their most important programs are local ones. Also understandably, the organization routinely adds a healthy dose of moral instruction to its curriculum the two are inseparable to the Escolas Dominicanos. National Laboratory, Missaoprimo Center This is a large, government sponsored research center in Missaoprimo. The laboratory isn’t one of humanity’s top runners, but for Brazil, it’s well equipped. The Missaoprimo Center has a reputation for tolerating, at times even encouraging, far out, non-mainstream research that wouldn’t pass muster in most other institutions. A major problem has separating the wheat from the chaff. The center has produced some astonishing advances, but wastes a lot of time on junk science. Still, the feeling is, one never knows what oddball endeavor might shed light on the next unbelievable breakthrough. The weirdo of one generation might be the far sited futurist of the next. Porto Jardim Rio Osario Research Center This is a research institute, originally chartered by the government but now a foundation subsisting on public and private grant money as well as sales of data, that specializes in Tiranology. Even after more than a century, the planet still harbors many secrets, and much of the geology, climatology, and evolutionary history of Tirane has yet to be worked out. In its first few decades of existence, this foundation limited its studies tot he Rio Osario system, and still sponsors scientific studies of the rivers. Since then, though, their scope has expanded to include all of Tirane (although, naturally, much of the ir interest is focussed on the Brazilian territories. This is a private academy, training young Brazilians for careers on Tiranean seas since 2234. The graduates of this school are the "old boy network" of the Brazilian Merchant Marine, and the faculty has had a history of working closely with the Brazilian Navy and Department of Transportation to develop regulations for the operation of civil vessels in Brazil’s Tiranean waters. The school awards scholarships, funded by the Merchant Marine Professional Union, to deserving and capable youth, with a special advantage going to (surprise) the sons and daughters of union members. The Union itself is very strong in Provincia do Brasil; even foreign ships are not allowed in Brazilian ports unless their crews meet the union’s standards. About a quarter of the Estado’s land is occupied by agriculture, and Lemanja is the third largest producer of food crops in Provincia do Brasil. The single biggest crop by far is rice. Lemanja is a major producer of wetland, "paddy" rice, while most of the rest of the colony produces dry grown "upland" rice. Millet, corn, and soybeans are also major crops. Livestock includes hogs, of which Lemanja is the colony’s largest producer, capybaras, dairy cattle, goats, and poultry. Livestock farming, with the exception of dairy cattle, tends to be closely managed, not ranged. Pork is a major export. Most of the fishing industry is riverine, with only a small number of boats, based in and around Cidade Delta and a few settlements on off shore islands harvesting marine life. Of the river fishing industry, much of it involves fish farming. Several earth species are grown in farms along the Rio Osario system, where a common fish farming method has been to create a canal running parallel to the river, and seal it off with bubble walls to isolate the fish within. Native aquatic creatures are caught and farmed as well, including the big, elusive Paddlers. Several of the river fishing companies use specially bred Amazon river dolphins as a sort of river herding dog. Missaoprimo is the Estado’s major commercial and financial center. Porto Jardim plays second fiddle to the elder city, while Delta city, and the smaller towns, is limited to retail commercial activities aimed at the local, unspecialized market. Missaoprimo also has the Estado’s principal upscale shopping centers, although a strip of exotic and fashionable boutiques can be found on Ilha Coutada. Most corporations headquartered in the Estado choose Missaoprimo as their base of operations, which ranks second behind Vitorio de Conquista in number of corporations headquartered there. Two of the larger firms based in Lemanja are the ones following. This privately owned real estate giant is based in Missaoprimo. Chiron was founded is 2210 specifically to invest in and develop Tiranean real estate. The company has passed through two generations since, and is currently jointly owned by eleven partners. From the upper floors of the Chiron Torregrande, Missaoprimo’s tallest building, they direct a real estate empire estimated to be worth over a billion Livres scattered over Tirane, although mostly in Provincia do Brasil. In addition to these holdings, Chiron has management contracts with numerous other buildings, and acts as broker for many of the colony’s largest commercial real estate deals. Chiron has two major subsidiaries. Chiron Trust, the company’s financial wing, arranges financing for property buyers and provides capitol for development. Colonia Regencia is a major construction and engineering firm, one that has heavily supported politicians who have tried to reduce the National Engineering Corps. Colonia Regencia has handled design-build contracts for Chiron and for other clients throughout Provincia do Brasil. Their labor force numbers in the many thousands. Together with its subsidiaries, Chiron is the largest privately owned non-traded employer in the colony. They have in-house services which include investigators, transportation, a legal arm, and other specialties. Early in the colony’s history, Brazilian thinking was that the administration of the colony would naturally follow the patterns setup by other nations for their colonies, that is, a unified territory under a specific administration, sort of a junior partner to the mother nation. In 2184, with the first colonists arriving in Provincia do Brasil, Banco de Provincia was established in Missaoprimo to be the official central bank of the colony. But Provincia do Brasil did not follow the model of other nations, and quickly, the colony was seen as extension of Brazil, and not a semi-autonomous element subordinate to it. With this structure, the need for a colony bank evaporated- the new territories would be served by Brazil’s national bank, just as the inland Amazon territories were, back in the days when they were the remote hinterlands of the nation. Plans were drawn up for Brazil’s national bank to acquire the assets of Banco de Provincia, and the company was broken up in 2212. It didn’t go entirely as planned. Parts of Banco de Provincia, including the name, were acquired by local political and commercial leaders, who pooled their gains to recreate Banco de Provincia as a private company. This caused some problems, as Banco de Provincia was considered to have had much greater access to information than a purely private bank ought to. The government tried to bring the bank to heel and have the national bank acquire its remaining assets for several decades in a variety of legal challenges before giving up in 2233. The effort was expensive, and created a generation of bad feelings. Banco de Provincia moved some of its operations to New Canberra, and later Tunghu, to shield itself from what it saw as government harassment. The government considered Banco de Provincia a renegade bank. Eventually, some reconciliation was possible. Banco de Provincia, under the helm of a new generation of directors, established a new headquarters in Porto Jardim in 2269. They are still regarded as a somewhat reckless bank with little regard for the dictates of Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, and they still manage to shift billions of Cruzeiros overseas and "play dirty" with transactions. They have a following, however, among clients who don’t mind losing a little quick liquidity for the advantages the Bank’s offshore accounts can give them. They are especially favored by Brazilian individuals and corporations with physical assets out of the country. They are the biggest financial institution in Porto Jardim today, and have a large local following. 27% of the stock is publicly held, and shares in Banco de Provincia are considered a moderate risk investment. Recreation, Entertainment, and the Arts Estadio Presidente Belchoir, in Missaoprimo, is the oldest structure of its kind. It is also home to one of the first professional futbol (soccer, to Americans) teams in Provincia do Brazil, the Missaoprimo Liberatadors. Currently a lackluster team, the Liberatadors generate the most excitement when they play their perennial rivals in Conquista de Vitoria. Lemanja boasts two other professional teams as well: Porto Jardim is home to the Ribieneiros, while the Cossarios play for Cidade Delta. The Cossarios are a young, aggressive team that has shown outstanding performance in the past few years. As champion underdogs, their following has been growing. The Ribieneiros, on the other hand, have been a strong team for decades, but slipped recently, and seem to keep their strong fan base loyal with nostalgia for their past days of glory. Missaoprimo’s spaceport sponsors Provincia do Brasil’s oldest professional Bucketball team, the Desbolados. From the start, this male and female team, known for outrageous antics and exotic costumes, had great fan appeal, especially among young sports minded men, a rarity amongst the Brazilian Bucketball teams. The are the colony’s leading team still, and do at least one tour out to the Latin Finger each year, always garnering media and fan attention. Horse racing has a small following in this Estado. It is far more popular in Cabo Vitorio, under which more information can be found. On the eastern fringe of Missaoprimo proper, in the district of Ponte, is the holiday Mecca for Provincia do Brasil’s children, Persiparque. The park’s mascots and symbols are drawn from popular series of children’s interactive games, and its name "Persiparque" taken from the central character of "Persi", the lovable Amazonian parrot who is brought to Tirane and then gets lost, travelling around the new world and having all sorts of educational adventures, and meeting the native creatures. In a variety of specialized virtual shows and simulations, children and adults can experience Tirane from the point of view of these fictitious animals. The park is extremely popular, and has been duplicated on Earth. This Estado is home to a cuisine of its own, best exemplified by a chain restaurant called "Margerio", which serves dishes based on the edible fresh water species of the Rio Osario system, added to traditional Latin and Iberian dishes. Most famous, of course, is Paella Lemanja Padlero, a signature dish served in the smallest cafes in the Estado, and some of the most expensive restaurants. Another chain, based in Missaoprimo, serves a more standard, if eclectic menu and is growing rapidly. This is a theme restaurant called "Mod Conzinha",, with each restaurant looking like, and paying homage to, the "Kitchen Modules" imported with the first colonists. There rea now over twenty Mod Conzinhas in Brazil, on earth as well as Tirane, and more are planned. Embaixada has luxury hotels in all the major cities of the Estado, and one on Ilha Coutada, alongside one of the Estado’s few beaches. Hotel Colonia, in Missaoprimo, is a large building in the Estudoros district, built with simple, rustic materials. Having added several new wings since its first construction, the building, with its stone turrets and peaked stone shingled roofs, is a Missaoprimo cultural landmark. Lemanja is the oldest settled area in Provincia do Brasil, and its wild places are both comparatively gentle and well tamed compared to other places in the colony. This makes the wilderness areas of the Estado very popular with the less adventurous sector of the population. There are numerous areas in which hunting of wild animals is permitted, including several stretches of the Rio Osario system where the public is permitted to hunt the large, edible, native aquatic creatures called Paddlers. (Padleros, to the locals) There are certain rules to this sport, and visitors are sometimes annoyed to learn that they cannot simply sit in a boat with a rifle and wait for a paddler to swim near the surface (and even if they did, they would only catch the relatively unwanted Spiny Backed Paddlers that way.) True Paddler hunting involves diving, in deep, murky and unpredictable water, and harpooning the beast. Easier prey waits in the vast coastal marshes and some upland forest areas. The Rio Agreste is undisturbed by mankind and very scenic over much of its length, and is a popular site for rafters and boaters. There area also a number of parks and preserves in forested area. The Estado has little usable beach along the coast, most of which is occupied by wetlands in the west and rocky shoreline in the east, but Ilha Coutada, off the south coast, boasts several seasonal resorts. The island is also known for its imported Earth wildlife, including birds, mammals, and reptiles. The creatures were moved here under a program led by a splinter of the Life Foundation, which has been trying to create habitats of Earth life off Earth, under the questionable philosophy that Earth life has a special bond with humanity, and needs to expand throughout the galaxy along with humans. The Ministry of Colonization maintains a large museum in Missaoprimo. This city has a strong hold on the arts in general in Lemanja. The other cities are left with little more than a few second rate galleries, an occasional semi-amateur opera group (Ever since the film industrial in Brazil was put under the thumb of the Ministry of Culture, interest in Opera has surged, in part because it was the only way in which Brazilians could safely enjoy watching things like lust and murder.) and their local holo and virtual theatres. While nothing culturally risky is ever displayed in Missaoprimo, the city at least has more of it. After more than a century of human occupation, native wildlife still flourishes in Lemanja, although it tends to flourish in the habitats less amenable to humanity: the roughest hills, the mountains, the dense forests, and the wetlands. Along the periphery of the state, these environments are home to creatures found in abundance elsewhere, such as the tarnders, the garagantacarnados, the monosupias, and others. The Rio Osario is home to some of the interesting native lifeforms, such as the great, slow moving and very edible Paddlers, and the unpredictable, temperamental Tiraguara. The paddlers are large fresh water aquatic creatures, found in the larger rivers of Provincia do Brasil.. All paddlers are scavengers, grazing on whatever organic matter they find on the river bottom. The spiny paddler grazes on surface and shallow vegetation as well. The spiny paddler is one of the smaller members of the family. All are tail less and four limbed. Evidence suggests they belong to a major sub-phylum, or possibly an order (There is still substantial debate about Tiranean taxonomy) that has a basic quadruped body plan in which the front two limbs are of a structure similar to those of Earth creatures, while the rear limbs result from a divide in the tail, resulting in many tail-less Tiranean forms. The paddler may thus be distantly related to the Monosupial, which may have lost its fore-limbs while adapting to life on land. Like the other paddler species, the Spiny Backed Paddler has an oval "flattened egg" body with thick skin. The mouth is on the underside towards the front, and there are a number of feathery sensory organs that protrude from the bottom just in front of the mouth. The eyes are towards the front as well, on the dorsal side. The "paddles" which give the creature its name are about the size and shape of large frying pans. The overall shape is comparable to a headless, tail-less sea turtle with round flippers. The creatures back has a number of sharp spines which often protrude above the surface when the animal is swimming at shallow depths. Although not poisonous, it is believed they offer protection against predators. All paddlers are edible, but the Spiny Paddler is the least tasty of the bunch. Intermittent. No. Appearing: Usually 1-6, sometimes 1-10. Initiative: 2 Melee Hit Chance: Difficult (Bite), Easy or Difficult (Spines) Size: 200 Kg Speed 50 Armor 0.4 (above) 0.1 (below) Consciousness: 7 Life: 14 WPM 0 DPV .3 Signature 0 Special: The Spiny Backed Paddler, if being attacked physically from, above, attacks that opponent with its spines, and chance to hit is Easy. Otherwise, whether the attack is with Biting or Spines, the chance to hit is Difficult. The Spiny Backed Paddler will usually flee (1-8 on D10) if disturbed. About 40% of the creature’s mass is edible flesh. This is a much larger and deeper diving animal than its spiney backed cousin. The creature’s common name is taken from the grainy, warty appearance of its dorsal surface, which is heavily armored. The Pebble Backed Paddler is considered not only edible, but a Lemanjan delicacy, and the harvesting of these creatures is controlled by the Lemanja Ministry of Wildlife. 80% of the creatures mass is edible. Intermittent. No. Appearing: Usually 1, sometimes 1-6. Initiative: 1 Melee Hit Chance: Difficult (Bite), Easy (Ram) Size: 1500 Kg Speed 50 Armor 0.6 (above) 0.2 (below) Consciousness: 14 Life: 21 WPM +1 DPV 0.4 Signature 0 Found in the coastal marshes, this is a tailless quadruped with four powerful clawed, webbed feet and strong jaws. It occupies a niche somewhere between alligator and swamp rat, ie, it will attack anything it thinks it can bring down, but will happily subsist on almost anything it can bring down. The creature will rarely attack humans unless provoked. Unfortunately, they have a habit of moving slowly and stealthily through dense marsh terrain, an the creature will often consider itself provoked if a careless human merely stumbles across it. This was one of the last creatures named before the survey party got tired of dubbing every creature "Tira-this" or "Tira-that". Hunter. No. Appearing: 1 Initiative: 6 Melee Hit Chance: Easy, Size: 60 Kg Speed 60, Armor .0, Consciousness: 3 Life: 6 WPM 0 DPV 0.2 Signature -3 |