The first, and simplest, is that Veruzia is a fictional nation which exists in the computer. The second, and more fun, is to try and work out where Veruzia would be, were that it existed. There are three ways I used to figure this out. I looked at climate, then history, and lastly etymology. So let us begin.
CLIMATE:
On the server, Veruzia is split between temperate and arid regions. South Verussi, the capital of the Veruzian precursor state in antiquity, was located in an arid region between a desert and a savanna. Pallidavia, the next major settlement, was on the “Verussian continent”, an island with a similar climate to South Verussi. After the Second Verussian war the population left for two regions, the mountainous New Pallidavia and a landmass split between arid and temperately forested regions which forms the majority of modern Veruzia. Even though savannas in Minecraft are modelled after a very specific biome type we will extend our definition to include any warm-climate grasslands, such as Mediterranean scrub. Geographically then Veruzia is split between mountains, temperate forests, warm grasslands, and desert. This eliminates portions of the globe covered in jungles and cold climates. The necessity to have a reasonable size and shape in the context of other states means that Veruzia is realistically found near the Eastern Mediterranean, The West coast of South America, or New Zealand. There are a few other regions which meet these criteria, but the presence of Great Power states in those regions would stretch the credibility of Veruzia’s existence in an otherwise unchanged world. The prospect of completely reimagining borders and histories rather than gently slotting in a country is somewhat daunting after all. The classical Imagi-nation exists in a limbo-state somewhere many countries are expected to be, be that Polynesia, the Balkans, or South America.
HISTORY:
I am putting off an exhaustive attempt to rejig ten years on a Minecraft server into a sensible history until a later day. However, the patterns of Veruzian history can reveal more about where it may fall. The main thrust of Veruzian history involves getting kicked out of a previous settlement by continual warfare, migrating a small distance to a new and more temperate region, getting militarily involved in a great power conflict (and being heavily damaged in the process) and then repeating the cycle. While the history of Polynesia is fascinating, it does not generally involve urban bombardments and repeated great-power interventions. But, as Valparaiso and Adrianople can attest, these events have happened in South America and the Balkans. Trying to differentiate between the two is somewhat tricky however, as both have had to contend with the British Empire (one of Veruzia’s chief antagonists) on multiple occasions, and both have had their fair share of pirates too (Pirates being another common foe).
ETYMOLOGY:
Veruzia, spelled traditionally as Verussia, is a somewhat Slavic name for a country. The Veruzian language, which exists only in scattered signage and patriotic phrases, is unmistakably romance. For example, “Crimson Guard” translates to “Krimzi’i Guardano”. From my limited understanding of the Latin tongues I can say that this leans more towards the Italian side rather than Spanish, French, or Romanian. Veruzian cities are named things like “Pallidavia”, “Charbeyliene”, and “Elysium”. This feeds into both the Slavic and Romance angles of the country, with a Greek flair, which seems to seal Veruzia’s place as a Balkan nation. But where in the Balkans? Italian influence places it along the Adriatic, but this only matches half the climates expected from the country. Certain islands South of Crete and off the coast of Libya exhibit the expected temperatures while not being too distant, so I suspect that the original Veruzian territories were in that region. Before closing out, I should bring up that the precursor state to what would become Veruzia was known as the “Polynesian Empire”. Having already discounted the actual Polynesia as a candidate, my belief is that this name is to be taken in the literal sense, meaning “Many Islands” in Greek. With Veruzia being located near Greece it makes sense that its ancient name would be in that language.
Of course, this exercise is quite nonsensical even without tying a fictional nation into real history. But therein lies the fun. It is an excuse to research real history and geography while trying to understand it through the addition of an extra nation. Next time I discuss Veruzia it will be to unravel the confusing history of the nation. It has moved capitals twice, it is a European-inspired country with a Black monarch, and it is a Balkan nation which managed to go toe-to-toe with the British empire for years at a time before collapsing. There is also a fascinating resemblance with the real-life Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which held a semi-mythical colony in India that parallels Veruzia’s own Sayri settlement.
Until next time, Viva Veruzi!
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