The Hinterland Diaries of Miss Laphantasia Lavolonde
A series of entries from the diary of Laphantasia Lavolonde, published after her death in the Quiet Wars of the Second Ellypse. They detail a life in the Old Bastollan Hinterlands, full of elaborate passages that paint vivid pictures of a truly peaceful life. These enthralling accounts of pastoral beauty captivated readers and enticed waves of settlers to settle in the ever-expanding south.
Purpose
Ms. Lavolonde never existed, and these diary entries were a plot of Calvains working in the newly established field of print media that aimed to do right by the doctrine of southern expansion in whatever way they could. As a result, the waves of immigrants were driven to the frontier en mass, sowing seeds of future misfortune in overtilled soil and overly chaste communities that would bloom with the first Ill Wind to come howling at the door.
Document Structure
Publication Status
The journal entries aren't just publicly available, they are a part of the Bastollan literary canon, taught about in classrooms and still in print to this day.
Historical Details
Background
The Hinterland Diaries were written in an excitable social climate of curiosity and (for the first time in a long time) nationalist fervor.
It had been a decade or so since Father Calvas had returned from the first southern voyage. The incentive programs of the Church and Crown were finding some success in recruiting stock for the first southern colonies. However, this new frontier, or the 'Great Unknown' as it had been called back then, still held a fearful reputation in wider consciousness, one that had been reified through centuries of isolationist policy and xenophobia. And while the travels were exciting and his many sacrifices inspiring, many still found it difficult to overcome their fears of the new world. A growing class of proto-industrialists were some of the most feverish supporters of the Father's expansionist doctrine, and had grown impatient as the years dragged on. They stood to make a tidy profit from the whole process as the resultant expansion gave them access to a tremendous surplus of resources, which could then be used to fund even further expansions from there
These enterprising souls, some of whom had already founded companies which remain industrial titans to this day, devised a plan to make the expansionist doctrine of Father Calvas appealling beyond the shadow of a doubt. Something that would set people's imaginations alight with images of pristine pastoral bliss. It began with the word 'hinterland', written across a loose leaf of paper, and just a few weeks later, the words of Laphantasia Lavolonde and her picturesque New World lifestyle were flying out of the imperial printhouses and into the hands of an eager public.
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