Being an accounting of the recent and continuing pandemic and its various circumstances, from the perspective of an inhabitant of the regions lately called the Lost Quarter. Dates unknown.

Day Sixty Seven

It was in Sixty Seven that the governors and potentates, hierarchs and stewards, lords and magnates of the scattered territories gathered together to form themselves into a Dominion. In that time the Lost Quarter was still under the governance of the great Company that managed the vast north and western territories. All they cared for was extracting pelts and other bounty from the territories.

The territories that formed the Dominion fought bitterly amongst themselves for primacy in the Dominion and when the opportunity came to purchase the north and western territories from the Company, each saw an opportunity to create colonies in its image that could help to turn the balance of power in the greater Dominion. Those Who Left, still the predominant inhabitants of the north and western territories at that time, were to be remade and enlisted in this task, their old ways forgotten. And Those Who Came were to be carefully selected for their loyalty.

Such were the plans of the illustrious Dominion magnates. Those Who Left and Those Who Came both declined to cooperate though. Those Who Left saw no reason to let these interlopers determine their way of life and were subjugated and sent into their bitter exile as a result. Those Who Came were for a time loyal to their eastern masters, but the Dominion rulers were far away and matters on the ground were quite different and they quickly found that their interests did not align. They began to agitate to become their own stewards, equal in all matters with the eastern dominions.

This is all history now, though the past is never the past, it is the here and now as much as anything. We live in the consequences of the decisions made then. Those Who Left remain in their sorrowful exile and are now fighting to recover something of what was taken from them and to remain true to all that was lost. Those Who Came have multiplied and spread to all corners of the north and western territories, even the hinterlands of the Lost Quarter. Though the eastern dominions have long forgotten the heavy hand they placed upon the new dominions, the descendants of Those Who Came have not and they interpret every new sleight, however marginal, through that lens, much to the bafflement of the easterners.

Lately there has been talk that the western dominion, of which the Lost Quarter is but a tiny part, should leave the greater Dominion and strike its own path. The easterners have thwarted our desires for too long it is said, though how we might achieve all we seek without them is unclear. The territories joined together to form the Dominion so that they might all be stronger as one. How a lone western dominion, surrounded by its former partners could hope to be stronger on its own is left unsaid. The mere act of separating will somehow achieve the dreamed of result.

It has not escaped my notice (or many others) that talk of leaving has mostly ceased with the return of the grippe. At this moment we require the strength of the entire Dominion to stand against the dread lord, as well as to lift us all up once he has been thwarted and we can begin to rebuild our lives again.