Forum:Territory application/AR120-47 - Iowana

Forums → Territory application → Territory application/AR120-47 - Iowana

Please fill in the information below to make a territory request.

	Territory ID and proposed name
	The Territory ID (from OpenGeofiction:Territories, e.g. AR123a) and proposed name of the country

AR120-56 -- Iowana AR120-47 - Iowana

	Physical geography
	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)

Iowana is filled with rolling hills. In the north East, Iowana is filled with farmland as far as the eye can see. The land is very fertile for farming due to the many swamps that were drained for farming, similar to that of northern and central Iowa. The southeast Center of Iowana is forest filled, with many small ponds and lakes. The forests are made up of mainly evergreen style trees, due to the freezing temperatures encountered due to the proximity of the lakes. The central of Iowana is where the populations are based. The land is sloping towards the Elkhart River, a river connecting Lake Betaouas and Lake Saugnash. The land is good for cattle roaming, meaning there are very few towns other than the central metropolitan area.. In the far east of the province, there is the Polk River, river flowing from Lake Saugnash to Lake Seneppi.

Iowana is a land of rolling hills. In the center of Iowana lays hills similar to the driftless reigon of Iowa. These hills do not have too large of an influence to Iowana's transportation network. West of the hills, Iowana has slightly drier land, perfect for cattle roaming, but go further west and land again becomes available for farming. East of the hills is very fertile farmland. Iowana's eastern border is made up of the Akogama river. The river is source to much of Iowana's history.

The summers of Iowana are warm, typically reaching highs in the 80s F and 90s F, but sometimes reaching in the low hundreds. Fall turns quickly from summer to winter, typically switching between summer like temps and winter like temps. Winter can reach lows in the -10s F. There is lake effect snow from the southwest, northeast, and southeast. Drifts can reach tens of feet tall, and travel is typically very difficult during this time. Spring can bring heavy rains and snow can reach relatively far into the spring. Temps are very nice, and there are many fields of flowers in the central regions of the province.

	Human geography
	A brief description of the territory demographics, economic development, land occupation, infrastructure and mapping style

Northern Far Western Iowana

The north far west of Iowana is covered in farmland. Due to the richness of the farmland here due to drained swamps and clearcut forests, there was not much room for larger towns in this area, and the land never grew up to have any large or significant towns. The transportation is not great for outsiders and travelers. many rural gravel and unimproved roads connect the rural fields and small townships. Further spread more important towns may be connected with a state highway, but in general everything in the north is under local control of the many townships. This has an unintended side effect of having very windy and unpredictable roads, further disincentivizing developments of towns. There is a main highway running from the north to the east, but no other are no major cross province highways in the far west.

Central Iowana

The center of the province is where all of the population resides. The capitol of Alleman is located on the Elkhart River. There are two highways, one on either side of the river, crossing from the southeast to the northwest of the province. On the Elkhart River are groupings of larger cities and towns, and much urban and rural sprawl connecting these cities together. The land in central Iowana is quite good for cattle grazing, as it can be slightly harsh and the soil not rich enough for farming.

Just west of the hills is drier lands, caused by air currents influenced by the hills. This land is perfect for cattle grazing, and this area is very rural due to the lack of water and need for cities. The hills of Iowana make up Iowana's thinnest point. The hills are a tourist pull from many provinces around, and such there is a small city to maintain the tourism.

Southern Iowana

The south and southeast of the province is more full of forests and patches of cattle grazing. This land is less hospitable to humans due to the unpredictable and often harsh winters, caused by the lakes. There are many timber farms located in the forests, and logs are often sent by barge through the Elkhart and/or Polk Rivers and through to bigger cities. With the timber farms, there are many roads running through these forests that are often harsh and unmaintained, bringing in people from far away to explore the wilderness.

Eastern Iowana

Eastern Iowana is where most of the population is based, as well as the capitol, Fairphring. Fairphring is located located across from the confluence of the Akogama and the Neeseehoho rivers. Fairphring has a population of about 50 thousand people, but is not the largest city.

The largest city in Iowana is located on the farthest southeast point, Tragenston. Tragenston has a population of about 200 thousand people.

There are many smaller towns and cities running along Iowana's east coast, but they are typically less significant.

Counties

The government of Iowana rushed the creation of counties, causing oddities in the county system. Examples include Elkhart and Polk counties, neither of which cover the creeks for which they are named.

Iowana has 10 counties.

Meer County

Story County

Jasper County

Alleman County

Elkhart County

Dallas County

Polk County

Bell County

Park County

Ankeny County

Counties

Iowana is interesting that it was split into thirds for counties.

Western Iowa is split into one mega-county, Diriant County, with the county capitol in 'Diriantsburg'., somewhat in the center of Diriant County.

Central Iowana is located in Brufst County, with the capitol in Brufston, located in the hills of Iowana.

Eastern Iowana was created earlier in Iowana's history. Eastern Iowana was split into many smaller counties.

Mapping styles

The mapping style of Iowana follows many of the midwest. Southern Iowana follows more closely Wisconsin or northern Minnesota, with a bit of New England mixed in. Central Iowana does not follow as closely that of an existing state, with an odd mix of cattle grazing and cities, without much farmland. Northern Iowana follows more closely that of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.

The mapping style of Iowana follows many of the midwest. Western Iowana is like southwestern Iowa, but more rural. Central Iowana is based off of the driftless region of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. Eastern Iowana is closely related to Iowa, and laid out in a very similar way.

I plan on working with neighbor states/countries to improve connectivity with roads, rails, and other such things. If you are one or know one, it would be cool to coordinate!

Approximate Proposed Map of Iowana, Roads and Geography

https://imgur.com/oNc1VzE 120-56

https://imgur.com/a/YNQv5eP 120-47

https://imgur.com/a/PCLofHt 120-47 V2

	History & culture
	A brief description of the intended culture and language

Iowana has strong ties to the Ingerish and the German. The main language is Ingerish, but many of the smaller towns may have names derived from German or French.

The history of Iowana started with a rush in the 1800s. The government allowed people to claim a plot of land, so many immigrants to the FSA moved down to Iowana. The railroads came in just after this, and many towns in the north were started on the railroads, either by the railroad companies or by private individuals.There towns were often hastily made, so the older parts of these towns are often in a grid, and further developments adding individuality to the towns.

The western half of Iowana was given to the railroad companies by the Federal Government, in order to incentivize the railroads to build through. However, the plan never pulled through and the land was turned over the the Iowana government.

Many of the town's names were influenced by german and french names. This can cause Iowana to be slightly hard for non Iowanians to navigate around Iowana.

The center East of Iowana is much more influenced by outside cultures compared to the north and south. This is due to easy access via the lakes rivers, allowing for easy trade before the railroads and roads were all fully installed. Because of this difference, the politics of Iowana were such that the north and south west wanted to manage themselves more, and because the central east of the state did not like the north and south west, in the 1800s and 1900s the government pushed most of the money to the center east of the state, and the north and south west generated somewhat independently of the center east of the state.

	Past mapping
	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}} template can optionally be used to link to the OGF map - it results in a nice formatted link. Or you can paste in a URL.

City and rural mapping

I have mapped the medium sized city of Spencer, located in Mecyna.

https://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-25.3716/145.0726&layers=B

The borders I have mapped most are N of the railroad, S of Vinnie's Point, E of the ocean, and W of highway 10. This includes all of Spencer, Spencer River, and the Robert Spencer Highway.

Motorway mapping

https://opengeofiction.net/#map=11/-25.1863/145.9839&layers=B

EAST Expressway/Highway 3 from Exit 0 to Exit 7. Exits 8-12 were an existing primary highway upgraded to motorway.

https://opengeofiction.net/#map=11/-25.9945/146.1488&layers=B

SBHE, from South Bord to Herreingen. This highway span I mapped is long enough to cross about a quarter of Iowana.

OpenStreetMapping

While I understand that this typically has less relevance to OGF, I have OSM mapped extensively in a small portion of Central Iowa, on a few small towns and lots of landuse mapping.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/41.8119/-93.5542&layers=N

	Username & date
	Sign and date the application by typing four tildes like this: ~~~~

RobertTBS (talk) 01:27, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

	Discussion
	Discussion for clarification & decision

Hello RobertTBS, thanks for putting this application together. As one of the admins of Archanta, and as a long-time Federal States mapper (and potential neighbor), I had a few comments regarding your application that I'd like you to consider:

• The climate of AR120-56 is slightly cooler than what you're proposing. The FSA is in OGF's Southern Hemisphere, so the further south you go the colder it gets; the state line between AR120-56 and Minnonigan (my state) to the north is set at 42°S; combined with the cooling effects of the lakes (the prevailing wind in our region comes from the northwest) would make AR120-56's climate more like central Michigan rather than central Iowa.
• The Lakes are all already hydrologically planned and mapped; as such, Lake Betaouais does not have any natural outflow to Lake Sauganash, and instead flows south through AR120-57 (the state to the south) into Lake Minnehunkou. While a canal would be possible through the central part of the state, a natural connection does not fit with the existing regional mapping.
• As a relatively new mapper, your edit history does not quite yet justify a "blank slate" state until you can demonstrate more macro-level mapping such as larger-scale river systems, larger natural areas, more detailed agricultural areas, etc.

All that said, I would suggest you consider AR120-47 instead. While the state does not have direct frontage on the Lakes, the eastern boundary of the state is on a major river that can still sustain some pre-railroad trade and settlement as you had planned, and as a few degrees of latitude further north it better fits your proposed climate and agricultural expectations. Additionally, the eastern half of the state has a lot of legacy mapping from previous mappers -- including a pretty comprehensive river network, a basic framework of key highways and railways, and a Midwest-style PLSS land survey already completed; this could serve as a suitable framework for you to get started with as you gain more experience mapping and as you get more accustomed to the Federal States and the existing regional plans. The western half of the state is still more of a blank slate to work with, so you'll still have plenty of freedom and liberty to create your own plan for that half of the state. Historically speaking, the land west of the "mountains" in this area (although the mountains are very low, think of the Driftless Area of the U.S. Midwest) would have been a later addition to your state as part of a "purchase" of land for a railway corridor; as such, as per your current request, you can still have some degree of internal conflict between different parts of the state. Finally, AR120-47 has five active neighbors surrounding the state, if you are interested in a more collaborative mapping experience.

If you are interested in applying for AR120-47 instead, feel free to create a sketch and modify this application as necessary. I hope you consider this option, as I believe it's beneficial for all involved. (Also, please don't hesitate to get a bit more creative with place names -- as someone knowledgeable of the State of Iowa, many of the names you've chosen are quite familiar.) -TheMayor (talk) 02:43, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for the reccomendation. I don't think that I can edit the actual title of the page, but I have updated all of the other parts of the request that I can. It will be quite fun and interesting to build with other active mappers, and collaborate to build better roads, rails, and rivers. It'll be nice to have an already laid out PLSS survey, and it should help me to build more grid like cities. Thank you for helping me ti try to find a better beginner territory for my to edit!

--- In the future, I'm going to dig out some old cities:skylines map names, to try to have some more interesting names. Those are definitely more interesting than Polk, Elkhart, and Alleman.

- RobertTBS (talk) 04:02, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

	Territory application approved
	After discussion with my co-admin and the FSA coordinator team, given the application and your mapping history we have agreed to grant you probationary approval of AR120-47. Your probationary period will be active through 13 Nov 2023, and the state will be initially marked as "reserved". During the probationary period, you will only be permitted to map in Paonia, Bradlen, Nickel, and Wallawaukee Counties. Existing mapping in this area is to be maintained as-is, but you are welcome to add to what's currently mapped as you see fit within this area. After 13 Oct 2023 you can ask the FSA coordinators to review your progress, and if they agree that your mapping meets FSA expectations the full state will be granted. --TheMayor (talk) 20:00, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
	Keep in mind that the FSA is a large, collaborative mapping project; as such, staying active with consistent communication, collaboration, and coordination is integral to the project's success.