Ultra-Mar

Editor’s Note: Originally written out of boredom and shared online in late 1997, shortly after moving from Tennessee to Switzerland by way of Florida and Belgium, just out of high school. Lightly edited for spelling and clarity.

A good year to you, my dear friends. It has been a long time since you have heard from me, and you have no doubt worried about my health and situation. Well, after many weeks, I have finally come into civilized territory. Now I hope to relate to you my experiences in Ultra-Mar.

As you might recall, I left the lands of Tenesi early in the summer. The legend of a magical, high-speed transport (called “aeeroplan” by the natives) in the southern land of Flor-Tida was the first thing on my mind when I left. Intrigued by these rumors, I decided to visit Flor-Tida and find out for myself. Well, as luck would have it, these mythical machines are not legends at all, but a reality! I instructed someone from the party to return with a native to Tenesi and inform you of this amazing contraption. In case the messenger never reached his destination, I shall give you some information about this quite amazing invention…

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After the amazing, albeit gut-wrenching, trek on the aeeroplan, I was quite intrigued to discover what other things the Ultra-Marians had adapted from contact with the early Continentals. The Flortidans we encountered upon landing were traders and diplomats attempting to establish a trading post. They, although helpful, were not much more knowledgeable about the lands of Ultra-Mar, with the exception of the one they had contacts with. I shall in brief describe some of what we learned:

The language spoken by the Ultra-Marians was not related to the languages spoken on the Continent, with the exception of Mexican and American. These seemed to be corrupted versions of the ancestors of the latter. Nonetheless, most people in the party were able to communicate by gestures and with the help of Flortidan translators. The Ultra-Marians, although savage in their clothing and language, seemed to be cognitive enough, and even had a system of writing (!).

Ultra-Mar seems to be a collection of small petty empires ruled by people in a similar way to the democracies of the Continent. These empires are not as rigid as the ones we are used to and generally mutate at least once every hundred years. The empire where we landed was called Beljike by the aborigines, made up of two peoples who united against the larger surrounding empires of Frankenrek and Duxland during one of the many disputes. The empire of Beljike is a peaceful place, generally taken to be the center of the peninsula that forms the northwest of Ultra-Mar.

The Beljikans spoke of many empires and lands. Most, though, were very vague and wondrous, and we gathered that most were nothing more than myths. The island kingdom of Angla Terra was a great explorer in the past and supposedly landed on the northern coast of the Continent and established vast colonies. I’m personally inclined to believe that it was settled by shipwrecked sailors from the Continent and that the story has been bastardized through the ages. They spoke fondly of lands on the opposite side of Ultra-Mar: Shinaa and Enddeeaa. These lands seem to be large empires, more stable than the peninsular nations we encountered. Shinaa, we were told, had been relatively stable for more than 3,000 years! Again, I believe that this date is exaggerated, but they seem fond of such tall tales.

One land that intrigued me and the rest of the party was a confederation of small nations further inside the peninsula. This small nation, by comparison with its neighbors, was the most stable place in the peninsula. They were famed for an illogical apathy to all surrounding them. This land was called Helvetica, and like Beljike, it was made up of many different people who spoke many different languages. This land was destined to be the next place of exploration.

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