THE TOXIC ZONES OF EVIK
Zareen Empire is one of the richest, most developed, and most populous Great Kingdoms on Looming Gaia, and it owes this success to its high-tech industries. However, all this industry has come at a steep cost to the natural environment.
Under the Industrialist Party’s power, Zareen’s corporations face very few regulations and the wilderness becomes their garbage can. The biggest players have chosen a few specific corners to dump their waste, and centuries upon centuries of repeated dumping have made some areas of Evik dangerously toxic.
MLZ01
The most famous of these zones is “MLZ01”–or Military Landfill Zone 01. As its name suggests, this was a coastal zone where the Zareenite military dumped mass amounts of its trash. Among that trash were broken aircrafts, seacrafts, weapons, vehicles, appliances–all things that contained valuable metals and components. No Zareenite was brave or desperate enough to mine this treacherous landfill for these treasures, but their recently-liberated red elf slaves were. These ex-slaves diligently mined the landfill, sold the materials back to Zareen, and built what is today known as the Empire of Damijana upon it.
BLACKLUNG GROVES
Just south of Damijana is another toxic zone called the Blacklung Groves, which are clusters of forest that extend from the west coast to Azar. At a glance, these appear to be lush, healthy bamboo forests growing along the creeks and rivers. They are scenic locations that are tempting to explore, but peoples and animals who venture into the greenery will soon fall ill. Acute symptoms include respiratory distress and mysterious rashes, but the longer one spends in the groves, the more their health suffers, culminating into total vision loss, infertility, and cancer.
So, what exactly is wrong with these forests? In the 5330’s, the Jayef-Ku Chemical Corporation developed a new all-in-one herbicide and pesticide that promised to kill all weeds and insects on contact. This poison turned out to be much more dangerous than the company claimed, harming peoples and all manner of beasts, and was eventually banned. But by then, the damage had been done. This chemical had been sprayed liberally all over Zareen’s farmlands, infecting the water table and washing downward, eventually concentrating in the forested lowlands.
This chemical seemed to kill everything except plants in the grass family, such as wheat, corn, and bamboo. When the water became poisoned, nearly all the trees and plants nearby died. Only the region’s native bamboo survived, and with all its competition removed, it began growing out of control. What were once healthy, diverse forests became vast monocultures of bamboo. This bamboo fed heavily upon the highly toxic soil and water, taking these toxins into itself. The result is a mutated and dangerous plant, as its leaves emit noxious fumes that are said to smell like window cleaner.
In the past, Zareenites tried stripping this bamboo of its smelly leaves and using the timber for construction. All seemed well for a decade or two, until big clusters of the population suddenly developed unique cancers, birth defects, and organ diseases. These ailments were traced back to the bamboo wood used to construct their homes and furniture, which did not have a smell like the leaves, but turned out to be no less toxic. This silent killer claimed many lives before the Zareenite government stepped in with remediation efforts, but many claim that not enough was done. To this day, the toxic timber can still be found in the empire’s poorer regions, especially in older buildings. Its consequences are still present, but the voices of these neglected populations fall on deaf ears.
In addition, some of these impoverished populations continue to chop down fresh timber from the groves and use it out of desperation, either for firewood or construction. They often do not disclose the origin of this wood and then sell it to buyers in other regions. Because the wood has no odor and or distinctive qualities at first glance, it gets mixed in with clean timber and ends up all over the empire. This has caused the slow poisonings to continue, despite the government’s efforts.
Disposing of this timber is a tricky undertaking. Burning it simply releases the toxins into the air to eventually settle onto the soil, where they may poison the water, get inhaled by peoples, or taken up by more bamboo, repeating the cycle. The same thing happens if it is chipped or left to break down naturally. The Zareenite government has built special bunkers to contain all the toxic timber it has reclaimed in its remediation efforts, though this system is not a perfect solution either. Toxic timber remains an ongoing problem not only locally, but has spread to foreign kingdoms as well, especially Zareen’s closest neighbor, Mogdir Kingdom.
KINGSFALL SWAMP
Kingsfall Swamp sits just above sea level. As the lowest region in western Evik, it acts as a collector for all the rivers flowing down from the Stonehammer Mountains. Each of these rivers are unfortunately quite polluted. All these pollutants concentrate in the stagnant water of the swamp, creating a toxic pit of chemicals, trash, and sewage.
Zareen Empire once claimed this region, but later abandoned it due to the pollution and general difficulty of defending such a place. Even before the pollution, Kingsfall Swamp was known as a treacherous place full of predators, poisonous plants, precarious terrain, and bloodborne diseases. Despite all that, there are some peoples who have decided to settle here. Their reasons are many, but it usually boils down to avoiding taxes, fleeing the law, or being unable to afford better places in the empire.
Today, Kingsfall Swamp is scattered with many independent villages and towns, each with their own culture and laws. Their toxic, undesirable environment ends up being a boon in some ways, as no Great Kingdom feels motivated to take this land from them. They are free to live as they wish in this region, so long as they can contend with all its difficulties.
The people of the swamp live humble lives, to say the least. Food is sometimes imported from other regions, but most often it is hunted or grown right there in the polluted land. Rice is a staple crop here, as it grows well in the swampy terrain. and is also unaffected by the Jayef-Ku Corporation’s herbicide disaster. Rice grown in this swamp contains heavy metals and other toxins that are dangerous to peoples. The natives have adapted somewhat and do not suffer acute sickness like foreigners do from eating it, but they do suffer long-term consequences like cancers and organ failure. Health outcomes are quite bad here, and human lifespans rarely exceed 50 years.
Because they are not managed by a Great Kingdom, these independent villages have inadequate healthcare, police, and civic services–or often none at all. Zareenites call these natives “swampfolk” and do not think very highly of them, stereotyping them as poor, uneducated, disease-carrying hicks. Swampfolk have developed their own distinctive culture and can be identified by their clothes, mannerisms, and unique accents. Most notably, they are often identified by the deformities they carry from their polluted environment, such as tumors and missing or extra limbs.
SEE ALSO
Toxilutionism
Zareen Empire
Empire of Damijana
Larainite Cuisine
Zareenite Political Parties
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