28-02-2026, 06:10 AM
Terran Journal of Humanitarian Studies
5650.7.27
North, West, and East DMZ Established, Bringing End to Brutal Civil War in Baeguk
The Kingdom of Great Baeguk has finally entered a state of stalemate following the conclusion of negotiations between the old Imperial house, the Communist government in Taedo, and the new liberal self-proclaimed "Republic of Dankuk" in the western regions of the nation. Yet, this peace will be a much different situation from the centuries of unification preceding it. Indeed, for the first time in ages the Dan Peninsula has once more become divided between rival realms of influence, as neither of the three sides of the civil war - the monarchist "Whites", the communist "Reds", and the liberal "Blues" - have managed to solidify their control of the nation.
Representatives from Gongmangdo, Seongtaek, and Taedo instead met on neutral ground in the city of Ganga to formally divide the peninsula between their three governments, realizing that further martial combat appeared fruitless. The demilitarized zones planned at the conference follow the battle lines that have been fielded between the three powers. From today, the Baegukese people are no longer united under a single banner, but now belong to fractured and competing administrations divided along military lines.
This remains the same land and with the same people. However, the playing field has shifted dramatically. The once-prospering and borderline idyllic metropolis of Gongmangdo, following decades of decline, stagnation, and riots, finally burst into flame, terror, and destruction during the chaos of the 5648 revolution. Although the communists were quickly repulsed away from the capital in 5648 by royalist troops as their coup largely failed in the south, violence remained. The city is a far cry from its former self, with years of reconstruction needed ahead of it.
Politically too the administration of the nation has changed. Stripped of the last vestiges of "democracy" that had been fading in the years past, the south and KGB remnants have fallen completely to the rule of military dictatorship and martial law. General Eulji Gaeul has taken authoritarian measures under military rule including the institution of capital punishment, the suspension of habeas corpus and the constution, and universal curfews, reasserting complete state control on a level not previously seen since the enthronment of Emperor Gwangjo. The Crown Princess, nominally provisional Head of State, has not returned to the mainland since she was forced to flee by the initial communist revolution. She remains secluded and ruling by decree from her palace on Changtae island, with limited contact to the outside world. The Imperial Family remain far away from the suffering of the common people as they are in hiding for safety concerns, the exact type of separation that first led to the Communist takeover.
In the North the seeds of revolution have blossomed into the fanatic Democratic People's Republic of Dranea. The Worker's Party has taken complete control of the reins of political power, seizing the means of production and beginning to build a planned economy. As the inheritors of the bulk of Baeguk's geothermal and hydroelectric power sources, as well as half the population and approximately two thirds of the landmass of the nation, the communists stand to benefit from an industrialized and centralized economy. However, food will need to be imported rapidly from foreign lands, as arable land is insufficient to maintain the over-20 million population of the DPRD. Having a people under the rule of feudalism for over 300 years, the DPRD has immediately begun revolutionary and destructive social campaigns aimed at eradicating oppressive thought so that a proletarian dictatorship can blossom. Speech has been altered to have but two formal registers, all noble titles have been abolished and aristocratic properties seized, and common citizens are forced to attend rigid ideological classes and self-criticism sessions where they must learn to praise the party above all else.
The shortlived "People's Republic of Namgu" was declared near Haegi province and initially aligned itself with the DPRD. However, local forces under General Park Bawi moved without authorization to "liquidate" "traitorous cabals of greed and capitalist exploitation" in the city of Sinsu. Revolutionary mobs indiscriminately massacred Draniano communities, the most wealthy, and set fire to historic cathedrals and buildings emblematic of Egelian and Draniano culture. The Bishop of Sinsu, the head of the Draniano Church, was dragged out into the streets and publicly killed. Body after body piled up into the streets. The unspeakable carnage of the massacres there ultimately lead their fellow revolutionaries to move against Sinsu. The PRN was merged into the DPRD and General Park Bawi would ultimately be tried and executed for war crimes. Nonetheless, Haegi remains in complete disarray, with many historic buildings and districts of Sinsu being utterly decimated.
The western "Republic of Dankuk" remains isolated. An odd coalition of everyone from disgruntled and disillusioned left-wing revolutionaries to bourgeois business elites escaping the communists and the military regime of the south, the Republicans have held together and defeated the odds of many spectators that they would be subsumed by the Whites or the Reds. Doubtless it was a windfall of good luck, yet effective military and logistic reform on the backbone of professional administrators, civil servants, and local military units refusing to take part in the White Terror may have been their true superpower and saving grace. The Republican government boasts the most former civilian officials of any faction, including more than half of the now-dissolved Parliament. Seongtaek now claims to represent the democratic dream of free-fighters everywhere, calling back to the glory days of the 5300s-5500s where civic responsibility combnied with duty led to one of the most prosperous eras in Baegukese history. The monarchists, they assert, have failed the people by allowing themselves to grow corrupt, treacherous, and authoritarian. The social contract of monarchy that dominated in Baeguk - that of a strong monarch uniting the country around benevolent governance- is being rapidly exhumed from the mindsets of West Draneans, as they call themselves, in favor of new Republican ideologies ranging from national conservatism to democratic socialism. The current ruling party, the Socialist Workers Party, once preached socialism but has been radically moving torwards the center to gain the confidence of business elites and industrialists, who have fled the north and south in search of freedom. It appears that pragmatism may rule this most unusual of nations that has emerged from the split.
Perhaps the greatest loser of the 2-year-long civil conflict were the Draniano Church, more broadly, the "Draniano" elite class of Baegukese society. Dranianos were a Draniano-speaking ethnolinguistic group that had, since 5300, composed a relatively small but socioeconomically and politically incredibly powerful minority in the KGB. Of the top 1% of income earners in the KGB, 47% were Dranianos, and they benefited from close-knit exclusive circles as well as government-sponsored affirmative action. Their incredible influence and affluence, seemingly on the backs of the toiling Kyo supermajority, earned them the deadly ire of communists and revolutionaries, making every Draniano a target upon the breakout of violence. Since the Sinsu massacre, the Draniano Church have been utterly destroyed. Banned in both the North and South, a splinter faction have in emerged in Seongtaek, but the killing of the Arch-Bishop has shocked the organization as all of its assets and wealth have been seized by the communists. Bereft of significant following or ethnic compatriots, the remaining Dranianos that have not been murdered are scattered and seeking assimilation.
The nobles in Gongmangdo too, former benefactors of the Draniano class, have since turned against them as the Crown Princess' reign of "white terror" has under Eulji Gaeul too began to target and liquidate Draniano identity. The speaking of Draniano, labeled as anti-national and potentially insidious, has been punished severely as aggressive assimilation has been promoted. Even in West Dranea, whose government has not yet taken any measures towards Dranianos, the air of fear has led those of the ethnicity to begin masking as Kyo. No doubt the memory of the massacres in Sinsu has made it plain to any remaining Dranianos that it is not safe to openly practice their culture, and that assimilation may be neccessary for survival. Many fear this may be the final liquidation of the post-colonial Draniano identity, which has been steadily eroding for years against the ever-increasing tide of Kyo dominance.
No doubt the world breathes a sigh of relief as the massacres in the Dan Peninsula come to a close. Yet, as the damage done becomes apparent, Terra hangs her head and shudders with sobs.
5650.7.27
North, West, and East DMZ Established, Bringing End to Brutal Civil War in Baeguk
The Kingdom of Great Baeguk has finally entered a state of stalemate following the conclusion of negotiations between the old Imperial house, the Communist government in Taedo, and the new liberal self-proclaimed "Republic of Dankuk" in the western regions of the nation. Yet, this peace will be a much different situation from the centuries of unification preceding it. Indeed, for the first time in ages the Dan Peninsula has once more become divided between rival realms of influence, as neither of the three sides of the civil war - the monarchist "Whites", the communist "Reds", and the liberal "Blues" - have managed to solidify their control of the nation.
Representatives from Gongmangdo, Seongtaek, and Taedo instead met on neutral ground in the city of Ganga to formally divide the peninsula between their three governments, realizing that further martial combat appeared fruitless. The demilitarized zones planned at the conference follow the battle lines that have been fielded between the three powers. From today, the Baegukese people are no longer united under a single banner, but now belong to fractured and competing administrations divided along military lines.
This remains the same land and with the same people. However, the playing field has shifted dramatically. The once-prospering and borderline idyllic metropolis of Gongmangdo, following decades of decline, stagnation, and riots, finally burst into flame, terror, and destruction during the chaos of the 5648 revolution. Although the communists were quickly repulsed away from the capital in 5648 by royalist troops as their coup largely failed in the south, violence remained. The city is a far cry from its former self, with years of reconstruction needed ahead of it.
Politically too the administration of the nation has changed. Stripped of the last vestiges of "democracy" that had been fading in the years past, the south and KGB remnants have fallen completely to the rule of military dictatorship and martial law. General Eulji Gaeul has taken authoritarian measures under military rule including the institution of capital punishment, the suspension of habeas corpus and the constution, and universal curfews, reasserting complete state control on a level not previously seen since the enthronment of Emperor Gwangjo. The Crown Princess, nominally provisional Head of State, has not returned to the mainland since she was forced to flee by the initial communist revolution. She remains secluded and ruling by decree from her palace on Changtae island, with limited contact to the outside world. The Imperial Family remain far away from the suffering of the common people as they are in hiding for safety concerns, the exact type of separation that first led to the Communist takeover.
In the North the seeds of revolution have blossomed into the fanatic Democratic People's Republic of Dranea. The Worker's Party has taken complete control of the reins of political power, seizing the means of production and beginning to build a planned economy. As the inheritors of the bulk of Baeguk's geothermal and hydroelectric power sources, as well as half the population and approximately two thirds of the landmass of the nation, the communists stand to benefit from an industrialized and centralized economy. However, food will need to be imported rapidly from foreign lands, as arable land is insufficient to maintain the over-20 million population of the DPRD. Having a people under the rule of feudalism for over 300 years, the DPRD has immediately begun revolutionary and destructive social campaigns aimed at eradicating oppressive thought so that a proletarian dictatorship can blossom. Speech has been altered to have but two formal registers, all noble titles have been abolished and aristocratic properties seized, and common citizens are forced to attend rigid ideological classes and self-criticism sessions where they must learn to praise the party above all else.
The shortlived "People's Republic of Namgu" was declared near Haegi province and initially aligned itself with the DPRD. However, local forces under General Park Bawi moved without authorization to "liquidate" "traitorous cabals of greed and capitalist exploitation" in the city of Sinsu. Revolutionary mobs indiscriminately massacred Draniano communities, the most wealthy, and set fire to historic cathedrals and buildings emblematic of Egelian and Draniano culture. The Bishop of Sinsu, the head of the Draniano Church, was dragged out into the streets and publicly killed. Body after body piled up into the streets. The unspeakable carnage of the massacres there ultimately lead their fellow revolutionaries to move against Sinsu. The PRN was merged into the DPRD and General Park Bawi would ultimately be tried and executed for war crimes. Nonetheless, Haegi remains in complete disarray, with many historic buildings and districts of Sinsu being utterly decimated.
The western "Republic of Dankuk" remains isolated. An odd coalition of everyone from disgruntled and disillusioned left-wing revolutionaries to bourgeois business elites escaping the communists and the military regime of the south, the Republicans have held together and defeated the odds of many spectators that they would be subsumed by the Whites or the Reds. Doubtless it was a windfall of good luck, yet effective military and logistic reform on the backbone of professional administrators, civil servants, and local military units refusing to take part in the White Terror may have been their true superpower and saving grace. The Republican government boasts the most former civilian officials of any faction, including more than half of the now-dissolved Parliament. Seongtaek now claims to represent the democratic dream of free-fighters everywhere, calling back to the glory days of the 5300s-5500s where civic responsibility combnied with duty led to one of the most prosperous eras in Baegukese history. The monarchists, they assert, have failed the people by allowing themselves to grow corrupt, treacherous, and authoritarian. The social contract of monarchy that dominated in Baeguk - that of a strong monarch uniting the country around benevolent governance- is being rapidly exhumed from the mindsets of West Draneans, as they call themselves, in favor of new Republican ideologies ranging from national conservatism to democratic socialism. The current ruling party, the Socialist Workers Party, once preached socialism but has been radically moving torwards the center to gain the confidence of business elites and industrialists, who have fled the north and south in search of freedom. It appears that pragmatism may rule this most unusual of nations that has emerged from the split.
Perhaps the greatest loser of the 2-year-long civil conflict were the Draniano Church, more broadly, the "Draniano" elite class of Baegukese society. Dranianos were a Draniano-speaking ethnolinguistic group that had, since 5300, composed a relatively small but socioeconomically and politically incredibly powerful minority in the KGB. Of the top 1% of income earners in the KGB, 47% were Dranianos, and they benefited from close-knit exclusive circles as well as government-sponsored affirmative action. Their incredible influence and affluence, seemingly on the backs of the toiling Kyo supermajority, earned them the deadly ire of communists and revolutionaries, making every Draniano a target upon the breakout of violence. Since the Sinsu massacre, the Draniano Church have been utterly destroyed. Banned in both the North and South, a splinter faction have in emerged in Seongtaek, but the killing of the Arch-Bishop has shocked the organization as all of its assets and wealth have been seized by the communists. Bereft of significant following or ethnic compatriots, the remaining Dranianos that have not been murdered are scattered and seeking assimilation.
The nobles in Gongmangdo too, former benefactors of the Draniano class, have since turned against them as the Crown Princess' reign of "white terror" has under Eulji Gaeul too began to target and liquidate Draniano identity. The speaking of Draniano, labeled as anti-national and potentially insidious, has been punished severely as aggressive assimilation has been promoted. Even in West Dranea, whose government has not yet taken any measures towards Dranianos, the air of fear has led those of the ethnicity to begin masking as Kyo. No doubt the memory of the massacres in Sinsu has made it plain to any remaining Dranianos that it is not safe to openly practice their culture, and that assimilation may be neccessary for survival. Many fear this may be the final liquidation of the post-colonial Draniano identity, which has been steadily eroding for years against the ever-increasing tide of Kyo dominance.
No doubt the world breathes a sigh of relief as the massacres in the Dan Peninsula come to a close. Yet, as the damage done becomes apparent, Terra hangs her head and shudders with sobs.