Forum:Territory application/UL24i (only the main landmass) - Terolask
- Please fill in the information below to make a territory request.
 | Territory ID and proposed name |
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| The Territory ID (from OpenGeofiction:Territories, e.g. AR123a) and proposed name of the country |
UL24i - Terolask
 | Physical geography |
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| An overview of climate, topography and landscape of the country. It is advised to also create a sketch, you can add a link to this (hosted on imgur or similar) |
Link to initial sketch: https://imgur.com/a/jKSRQuT. This shows railways, motorways, population centres, and moutains/uplands. I am currently applying just for the main landmass (a country fully contained on an island feels more geographically cohesive and politically plausible), but if it would be more straightforward to keep the current territory in one piece then I would be open to taking on the northeast peninsula now or in future (can provide an additional sketch for this on request). I am aware that the southern part of the territory (also a distinct landmass) was previously moved to a neighbouring territory following a recent application.
There will be a series of roughly-parallel ranges of mountains and hills, running from south-south-west to north-north-east. These effectively divide the territory into two, between the more populous east, and the scenic north and west. In particular, the Nirvisdour peninsula could historically only be accessed by travelling around the coasts or through high mountain passes; this physical isolation has contributed to the region's distinct culture and character, with most people there speaking Terolan as their first or only language. In between the mountains are more gentle rolling hills, with the flattest areas -- around Calondrask and Colernnask -- used for arable farming. Historically, most of the island was covered by deciduous forest, which still largely persists in and around upland areas. Farmland is generally composed of relatively small fields, with at least 30% given over to wildflower meadows or woodland. The Caelon is the longest river, reaching the sea at Calondrask; almost all longer rivers follow the same general direction as the mountain ranges, along fault lines (inspiration: the Great Glen and Highland Boundary Faults in Scotland). The Köppen climate classification is Cfb - Oceanic.
 | Human geography |
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| A brief description of the territory demographics, economic development, land occupation, infrastructure and mapping style |
DEMOGRAPHICS: The official languages are Ingrean/English, and Terolan, a conlang. The inspiration for Terolan is mixed, but includes Germanic influences (especially when it comes to sentence structure) as an attempt to be in keeping with the Germanic target theme for the territory. In practice almost every resident speaks Ingrean -- in many cases as a first language. As an early centre of the Industrial Revolution, Terolask saw many phases of migration from around the world, and its cities are generally diverse and multicultural, in particular the capital, Esdranith. The main exception to this rule is the northwestern Nirvisdour peninsula, which is isolated from the rest of the country by mountains, and has been suffering from a declining population as younger generations leave. There was a longstanding perception in Terolan popular culture that Nirvisdour people were insular and hostile to outsiders, but this is not true in practice. Tourism to the region has been steadily increasing in recent years, leading to tensions in some seaside towns over second homeowners. The Terolan government has been under pressure to introduce greater devolution of powers to Nirvisdour; ministers have recently unveiled a regional development fund to improve infrastructure and services there.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Terolask now has an established tertiary and quaternary sector; Esdranith is the main financial centre, and is home to the country's stock exchange and central bank. The quaternary sector was initially centred on the region between the university towns of Tournesdraith and Sailminster, with Esdranith also home to many technology companies. Sathrenscath has historic ties to commercial shipbuilding; while the sector declined due to outsourcing from the 1960s to the 1980s, the industry has seen a marked revival since 1990, with many new shipyards opening. Secondary industries such as mining and manufacturing began to develop from the 1750s; there is a large coalfield at Arinesdraith, between Colernnask and Calondrask, which still supports a large mining and steelmaking industry. Colernnask grew from almost nothing in 1700 to become a booming centre for textiles manufacturing by 1870, and is renowned for its grand and imposing civic architecture in red-brick.
GOVERNMENT: Due to its size, Terolask is not a federal system, and there is limited devolution of powers to the regions. Local government is divided into Ridings (higher-level authorities), and rural Marches or urban Districts (lower-level authorities). At the lowest level are Wards, each containing roughly 10,000 residents (depending on the area). Esdranith is the capital city, and largest city by population. The city is the only region not belonging to a historic Riding, and instead is governed by a City Council at the higher level of local government, and eight District Councils at the lower level. Local government in Esdranith was recently reformed, granting devolved powers to the City Council as part of a pilot scheme. Nationally, there are two Houses of Parliament -- the House of Deputies (lower house), and the House of Ridings (upper house), with 500 and 100 seats respectively. The First Minister is the head of government, must be a member of the House of Deputies (MD), and can serve no longer than five years. Elections for the House of Deputies are held annually on the 1st of May, while elections to the House of Ridings are held every four years on the same date. The President is the head of state, and is by convention a non-political role as the equivalent of a constitutional monarch. They are elected every four years, on the 1st of November, and can serve one term only. The President has the theoretical power to veto any legislation passed by less than a 67% margin in both Houses, but this power has not been used since 1823. Due to the non-political nature of the role, any future attempt to use it would likely trigger a constitutional crisis. Byelections are held following the resignation, removal, or death in office of any MD, MR, or other elected office-holder, including the President, for a partial term lasting until the next round of elections.
Terolask maintains a small military, but has not been involved in any external conflict since the revolution in 1761.
LAND USE: Arable land is primarily in the east and the south of the island, with livestock farming more concentrated in the north and west, and in hilly or upland areas throughout the country. As discussed earlier, farmland is generally a patchwork of small fields, meadow, and copses/woodland. There are strict regulations on the use of fertilisers near waterways, as an effort to improve bathing water quality in rivers. There is a legally-encoded right to roam throughout any land not in use for housing, military, rail, or air transport, including waterways. Wild swimming has become increasingly popular in rivers and lakes over the last 40 years, though swimming is banned in most artificial reservoirs for safety, and local authorities are able to close access to dangerous stretches of water -- most notably at the rapids of Strythis-asp.-Eiscelact. There are seven major National Parks across the island, covering mountains, downland, and fens. There are also dozens of Regional Parks and officially-designated Scenic Areas.
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: Terolask has a well-developed railway network, as a result of its early industrialisation around 200 years ago. The major urban centres of Esdranith, Calondrask, Carennolask, and Sathrenscath all have large tram systems, metro systems and suburban rail, with other smaller cities also having metro systems or trams. Initial development of the national rail network was uncoordinated as a result of "railway mania" in the early to mid 1800s, with many duplicate lines between key cities and even multiple track gauges. The railways were first nationalised in 1865 amidst the fallout from the bankruptcy of a major company (the Esdranith and South Western Railway), which had driven itself to ruin while financing unprofitable lines as an attempt to keep its rivals out of its catchment area (rest assured there will eventually be more on this debacle in the wiki for this territory). Under state control, the network was made more coordinated (with some lines being re-gauged) and efficient, including early attempts at electrification. The network was privatised in 1923, and split into the "Big Six" companies by geographical region; this lasted 42 years, before state control resumed in 1965, continuing to this day. Dedicated high-speed passenger lines have been built between Esdranith and Sathrenscath, via Calondrask and Carennolask. Almost every town with a population over 2000 has a railway station. The railways are also heavily used by coal and other goods traffic, including intermodal container trains.
A skeletal motorway network developed from the 1950s onwards, connecting almost every large city, though few urban motorways were ever constructed due to coordinated campaigning by residents' groups in areas slated for demolition. Some elevated sections of motorway in Esdranith and Sathrenscath have been removed in the last 30 years. The car never achieved the sort hegemony seen in much of Western Europe and the USA in the latter half of the 20th Century; to this day, only around 40% of Terolan households own a car. Within cities, fewer than 5% of journeys are made by private car, with cycling and public transport taking far greater shares. Some historic towns and villages have completely banned private cars except in exceptional cases (analogy: Zermatt in Switzerland)
The main international airports are at Esdranith and Sathrenscath, with secondary hubs at Calondrask and Carennolask.
Subject to agreement with the owners of neighbouring territories, and subject to admin approval, there would be high-speed rail tunnels beneath the channels to the south and northeast of Terolask, in addition to shipping routes (it appears that some ferry routes remain between UL24i and the Madische Union, presumably from when UL24i was last active), linking it with neighbouring countries.
MAPPING STYLE: Primarily Western European, especially in the case of the urban areas. There would be inspiration from places in the UK, Ireland, and other locations with a similar level of development, and similar climate. This would be consistent with the style I have demonstrated so far in the Uppingham-Morningstar area in the NUPDZ (see below).
 | History & culture |
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| A brief description of the intended culture and language |
The island was initially inhabited by a selection of tribes speaking various precursor languages to Terolan and Ingrean. Into the early Mediaeval period, there was no single authority across the island, with at some points three or four kingdoms, and dozens of smaller states, sparring over territory. By 850, two Ingrean states had been established in the south and east, around Sathrenscath and Calondrask. The Terolan and Ingrean states had developed into two larger kingdoms, either side of the main mountain range, by 1300. There was an eventual "unification of the crowns" between the Terolan- and Ingrean-speaking kingdoms in 1567, followed by a union of governments in 1653. In 1761, amidst economic turmoil and the Enlightenment, the final monarchs, the joint regnants Queen Mary VI and King John of Ingrea, were deposed in a revolution and exiled; Terolask has remained a constitutional republic up to the present. With the Industrial Revolution came an increase in migration to the island's cities from both the countryside and from abroad, leading to a decline in the Terolan language and an increase in the proportion of Ingrean speakers. There were attempts at suppressing the Terolan language in some regions in the decades up to 1870 (a similar case study would be the suppression of Cymraeg/Welsh in schools in the 1800s). Since 1920, the number of Terolan speakers has stabilised and is now growing steadily, especially in the north of the country. The Terolan language has been part of the curriculum in all schools across the island, since 1941.
Most cities and towns, and signage in general, is bilingual, especially in the north and west. Most place names have historically been ingricised (Calondrask, Colernnask, Sathrenscath), with the Terolan versions (Caelon-Thraesk, Caierenn-ath-Thraesk, Sathreins Caet) now increasingly taking primacy on rail and road signage -- especially northwest of the mountains.
If the combined Ingrean/conlang proposal is not deemed to be sufficiently close to the target theme, then I am open to modifying this part of the proposal, but hope that it will still be close to the plan.
 | Past mapping |
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| To support your request provide links to areas of OGF mapping which showcase your mapping skill. Mapping relevant to the requested theme & geography is especially useful. | |
| The {{coord}}, {{node}}, {{relation}} or {{scalehelper}} templates can optionally be used to link to the OGF map - they result in nicely formatted links. Or you can paste in a URL. |
Over the last two months, I have been creating a river valley, mountainous region, and a small-to-medium-sized city in the NUPDZ -- everything between Uppingham and Morningstar at this link: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=13/11.3689/-112.4511&layers=5N. Some of the most detailed areas I have worked on:
Brigstowe Gorge (rural) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/11.3954/-112.4375&layers=5N
Central Uppingham (urban) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=18/11.41709/-112.45087&layers=5N
Morningstar and Hatherley Harbour (urban, small-sized towns) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/11.3351/-112.4520&layers=5N
Morningstar Canal (rural) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=18/11.37289/-112.45658&layers=5N
Hiddendale (rural) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/11.3618/-112.4302&layers=5N
Wherry Meadows (river meadow adjacent to suburban area) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=19/11.42266/-112.46627&layers=5N
Bridgwick (suburban) - https://opengeofiction.net/#map=18/11.40234/-112.44144&layers=5N
These areas were created over a period of around 2 months, from when I first discovered OGF. Having just finished university in the last couple of weeks, I will now have more time to work on a larger project such as UL24i, and would be open to moving over to JOSM (currently using ID due to computer space). I have previous experience with worldbuilding and fictional cartography outside of OGF.
| Username & date |
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| Sign and date the application by typing four tildes (~~~~) without spaces or "nowiki" tags. |
JasmineDM (talk) 17:21, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
 | Discussion |
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| Discussion for clarification & decision |
- Hi Jasmine, thanks for the application. I'm fairly nearby in Nuen, and I find your application very exciting. The application looks on the whole good, and the example mapping you've done is very nice and distinctive (though there's a few small scaling issues with the mapping: you just don't get railways and motorway junctions so close together in irl suburban / rural areas). My main concern is that I don't think a native Ingrean nation works in the region you've requested. While there are lots of early 12th - 15th C. Ingrean colonies in the region and there are native German countries all along the south Darcodian coast, the native Ingrean country is Ingrea, and it doesn't make sense to have another native Ingrean country in the east. It's already difficult enough to explain having two separate native German regions in Uletha. I'd recommend considering selecting one of the subregions of Ingrea itself for the type of country you're describing. The other option is to switch around the history a bit so it's a native German / 'Terolan' country, which was colonised by Ingrea in the 12th - 14th C. Gubble (talk) 19:24, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Gubble, thankyou very much for your feedback! I would definitely be open to switching the history to a native Germanic or Terolan country colonised by Ingrea -- this was one of the other options for the history that I considered when writing the application, and I would definitely be able to expand on it -- it might also make for a more interesting history if the revolution had an anti-coloniser aspect to it. I would prefer to change the history around than apply for a different territory. Would you like me to make some edits to the history and human geography section of the application to reflect this? I am aware of the scaling issues (it was partly because I was limited for space in the area of the NUPDZ I started editing in), and would be very careful to avoid repeating these. Please let me know if there is anything else I should change. JasmineDM (talk) 19:47, 15 June 2025 (UTC)
Hi Jasmine, thank you for this very well put together and intriguing territory application. It's almost perfect (natural and human geography, climate, economic concept, etc.), I just want to discuss a very small number of points before proceeding with approving the application:
- As Gubble already highlighted, the homeland of the Ingerish language is Ingrea, so it would be difficult to justify Ingerish being a language native to this place of the world. However lots of territories close by are Ingrea-influenced, and many of those are stating a history of Ingrean colonialisation even further back than North America in the real world (also mentioned by Gubble). Strictly speaking, the same applies to other Germanic languages (if Terolan in your mind is in-worldly related to Germanic languages, as opposed to being influenced only in its real-world conception), which also moved to this area from West Uletha, however at least partially at an even earlier point in time through land-bound migration (note the Wisermorien - Midistland - Reelant - Eshein arc). The way I see it your plan for Terolask's present language situation wouldnt need to be adapted at all to be plausible, as long as you keep in mind for its history that the Ingerish language had to be "imported" at some point in the past either from Ingrea or from one of its children nearby, and that Terolan is either not Germanic (but just has, e.g., Germanic sentence structure) or also moved here within the last Millenium or so.
- Purely as a thinking exercise, I would challenge you to try to estimate the total population of Terolask. This will likely change later on, maybe even drastically, but it's a good way of checking your starting assumptions.
- Your mapping in the demo zone is very detailed and diverse for a beginner already, congrats on that. Gubble rightfully pointed out some scaling issues (I for example immediately notice that some point peaks close to the river are over a kilometer tall), but most mappers started off way worse than that and you quite clearly are already very adept at mapping, both natural and human-made features.
- I can remove the northeastern section of UL21i on the neighbouring peninsular from this territory, please let me know again if you would like that.
Looking forward to your reply, best! Leowezy (talk) 20:04, 16 June 2025 (UTC)
- Hi Leowezy! Thankyou very much for your feedback and recommendations. I would be happy to make the historical changes that you and Gubble have recommended. Terolan could be related to the Germanic languages in-world, and I could also make a few small adjustments to some of the common words that would appear on the map to make this link more explicit. Any differences from other languages would be explained by the island nature of the territory, leading to evolution in (relative) isolation after the earlier common land-borne migration over the continent. Alternatively, it could pre-date the arrival of Germanic speakers in the arc, or it could be explained by having evolved as a result of pre-existing populations and Germanic speakers living together over a longer period. Which of these origins would work best? In terms of the importation of Ingerish to the island, the new history would be that this was through ocean-borne migration from nearby Ingerish-speaking territories in the surrounding region, at a similar point in history (maybe slightly later) to those territories. I would read through the Wiki articles for the history of neighbouring Ingerish-speaking or -influenced territories before writing my own article, to make sure that they are consistent.
- Population estimate: By inspection, the island seems to be roughly similar in size to Scotland (land area around 80,000 km^2, maybe a bit less), and the plan is that it would have a total population density similar to that of England (~ 400 km^2) but less than the Netherlands (~ 500 km^2). This would put the population somewhere in the region of 30 to 40 million, maybe closer to the lower end if factoring in the size of the mountainous areas. The four large cities and their environs would have a combined population of around 15 million.
- Thankyou very much for your comments about my work in the demo zone. I will be more careful with scaling in future. My plan for developing the territory would be to start with the rivers and mountains, as is the advice from the wiki guide for developing realistic countries. Does my proposal for the location of mountain ranges and population centres look suitable?
- My thinking for not initially applying for the northeastern peninsula was that it would be harder to explain historically why it is part of the same country as the main island. That said, if you would prefer not to split the territory in two then I would be happy to work with that area too, and should be able to find a way to explain the history. I do not have a very strong preference either way, and would be happy to go with what you and the owners of the territories bordering the northeastern peninsula think would be best.
- With best regards! JasmineDM (talk) 21:56, 16 June 2025 (UTC)