The Imperial Ostend Company

The Imperial Ostend Company is a venerable and powerful corporation most well known for being the aether-minded wing of the Holy Roman Empire. For over two centuries they have braved the seas and skies for the profit of the Empire. Today they administer the colony of Hochhimmel on Concord Minor.

The Ostend Company was initially founded in 1722 by the then-Austrian government of the Holy Roman Empire to exploit and import resources from the more colonially minded French and British Empires. The Company remained officially neutral throughout many of the European conflicts in the following centuries, leaving its scattered and non-militarized trade bases in Africa and South Asia untouched and resulting in stable, if unextraordinary, profits for its primary shareholders, the House Von Habsburg. This arrangement became less profitable in the 1850s when cooling relations between the European superpowers resulted in intense competition. Punitive export tariffs and crippling bureaucracy resulted in the gradual decline of the Ostend company's traditional ventures in Africa and Asia, leaving the board of directors desperate for new revenue streams.

When the American Merchant expedition departed via warp gate to the colony moon they dubbed Concord Minor in 1876, the Ostend Company was already aiming to invest heavily. Unfortunately for the Merchant expedition, the initial American colonization effort encountered severe problems. Discovering that returning to Earth required the construction of yet another Warp Gate on the site of the colony, the American venture found themselves short of the capital necessary to construct it quickly. The capital-rich but income-poor Ostend company spotted an opportunity. It contributed a significant amount of resources to the speedy construction of the return gate, which eventually saved the lives of the Merchant expedition survivors.

In exchange for this substantial amount of capital, the Ostend company was granted a 100-year lease over the north-westernmost continent on the newly established colony moon. The company and its Imperial backers were overjoyed. Finally, they had their own extra-terrestrial colony, even if it did share its surface with the much larger American frontiers. This new colony was christened Hochhimmel, a name which was hoped to draw vast numbers of immigrants from across the Empire to settle there. The American interests saw this as a win-win. With the Imperial citizens founding these cities so far from Vienna and only accessible by the American warp gate, the American government had every reason to believe that these populations would eventually assimilate and be granted citizenship and statehood sometime after the planned end date of the agreement in 1976. They were shocked to learn in 1890, by Imperial decree, those Imperial citizens choosing to emigrate to the colonies could not renounce their Imperial citizenship under any circumstances. Blindsided and unable to argue in the face of their massive debts to Ostend, the American colonial administration set the issue aside for the next generation, and the colonies developed in tandem.

Having secured their new island continent, the company dispatched hundreds of surveyors, who were joined by wealthy and often aristocratic explorers who could afford the astronomical prices to book travel there through American colonial infrastructure. These surveyors quickly discovered that the Americans had reserved the most promising territories for themselves, leaving the Imperial venture with nearly 1.5 million square miles of mountainous and craggy land poor in minerals and prone to powerful thunderstorms. Julius Von Payer conducted the first expedition to map the central mountain range in 1880. Only half the expedition returned the next year, reporting to the Imperial scientific institutions that they had encountered large crystalline creatures that nested in the high peaks of the inner mountains. Julius Von Payer spent the next year trying to convince the public that these creatures were resistant to their largest weapons, capable of flight in spite of their large size and rocky appearance, and, most preposterously, breathed lightning as a defense mechanism. Initially believed to have been either insane or covering up for something, the Imperial scientific society derisively called these creatures “Von Payer’s Dragons.” By the time later expeditions confirmed their existence, the name had stuck.

The Ostend company initially had great difficulties in attracting Imperial citizens to the colony. While most were unwilling to abandon their high standard of living back in Europe, the colony attracted those seeking adventure and excitement far from home. The eerie crystalline-looking life on the moon caught the imagination of the Empire's elite, and many nobles, many would say with more money than sense, purchased expansive estates on which they constructed castles. These castles served both practical and ornamental purposes, as the further inland the settlement is placed, the more likely it is to be attacked by the territorial “dragons.” The most enterprising of these early settlers established hunting lodges in the high peaks, attracting the world's most wealthy big game hunters with the promise of dragon hunting. Julius Von Payer himself would later capture a breeding pair of dragons to present as a gift to Kaiser Franz Josef in 1890.

The current director of the Ostend company and Archduke Von Hochhimmel is Prince Maximilian Eugen Ludwig Friedrich Philipp Ignatius Josef Maria Von Habsburg, cousin of the current Kaiser Otto. The Prince-Archduke has been entrusted with the administration of the colony for over thirty years and has been ruling with a historically light touch. As long as the wealth continues to flow into Ostend, and therefore Habsburg accounts, Maximilian Eugen has been willing to defer most of the day-to-day affairs to lower company and local government officials. The heavy tax obligations and well-known importance of the colony’s revenue to the Habsburg treasury have given rise to rumors of immense vaults filled with Gold under Schloss Schneehertz, and the Prince-Archduke’s pet dragon Franz’s presence in the castle has only added to the legends.

The initial Imperial effort tended to place colonial cities on the continent’s narrow southern shores to facilitate seaborne trade with the American colonies and isolated hunting lodges and small settlements in the highlands. As some of these settlements grew into cities, the more wealthy and powerful eventually purchased large Shield Generators to ward off dragon attacks, whereas small communities must rely on the high-caliber anti-aircraft guns placed in their town squares at the expense of the Ostend company. Coastal cities such as Von Payer’s Landing and Trst grew quickly with access to the plentiful, if alien and unpalatable seafood. These and similar coastal cities have grown to populations usually averaging between one and two hundred thousand occupants, and are officially administrated by the Ostend Company, but in practice, the burger councils of these cities operate with a great deal of autonomy. Wealthy residents of these cities have been more and more frequently petitioning for increasing autonomy in pursuit of eventual independence. This movement has been led by the wealthy capitalist Andrej Zupan, the Burgomeister of Trst who is rumored to have American connections that will aid in a future rebellion.

Further inland cities sprung up either through direct Ostend company efforts, around fortified positions created by wealthy noblemen to serve as hunting lodges and residences, and more rarely through private colonization efforts. The largest of these settlements is the city of Eugenheim, founded at the bottom of a narrow gulley in the southern mountains to extract the area's plentiful rare metals. This city and others like it host the bulk of the company’s administrative apparatus and usually sport populations of under one hundred thousand. These settlements were originally populated almost exclusively by company employees working in resource extraction, but over the decades heavy industry has moved in to take advantage of cheap rates for locally obtained resources, bringing accompanying civilian-operated businesses to provide services. Colonial life in such rugged highlands and steep mountains attracted immigrants primarily from Imperial populations with similar geography. By 1938, the colony's population exploded to nearly 50 million people, nearly half of whom speak Czech, Polish, or Slovak as a first language, with the rest speaking either German or Yiddish. The colony is administrated from its largest city, Himmelstadt, with a population of nearly 3 million. Himmelstadt, developed around the site of Prince-Archduke Maximilian Eugen Von Habsburg's personal residence, is located near the center of the continent in a large valley, and now contains the largest shielded area in all of Concord Minor. The city is arranged in a spoke and wheel pattern with all roads converging on Silberhorn Berg, the solitary mountain on which the Prince-Archduke’s residence Schloss Schneehertz is built. This is also where most state institutions, such as the archbishopric, are located.

The majority of the population lives in low-density communities in the lower highlands where imported European sheep and other livestock can be raised in relative safety. The highlands are also dotted with a variety of religious institutions and host a large number of Benedictine monasteries. Religious and cultural settlement has brought great numbers of immigrants to Hochhimmel, and the rocky countryside sports many such communities. Catholic monasteries are incredibly common, with secluded cloisters drawing attention from the wider Catholic world for their impressive architecture and use of local stone. The most famous of these is Kloster Maria von den Gipfeln. The impressive structure is located on one of the continent's largest mountains and is the first structure in Hochhimmel to be constructed with the use of a Balfour drive. As such, the top floors of the monastery float effortlessly over the peak of Rotspitz Berg.

Religiously motivated settlements have drawn large numbers of immigrants seeking peace and solitude to Hochhimmel, and it is not uncommon to find ethnic and religious enclaves throughout the hinterlands. The largest such settlement is the province of Neye Galitsye. Established by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants in 1903, the province is entirely self-governed and overseen by a locally elected council responsible for its own defense, and entrusted to tax its residents in the name of the Kaiser. The province has experienced peace and relative isolation for decades, leading to a population boom and increasing urbanization in its largest cities such as Cederheim. However, as Neye Galitsyaner cities grow larger and more prosperous, Ostend company officials have begun attempting to reassert their influence over the autonomous province, causing rising tensions.

While they do still pose a threat to the unwary traveler, dragon attacks very rarely claim the lives of ordinary citizens these days. Avoiding their territory and never being more than a short trip away from the nearest town defense cannon is usually protection enough for people, but incidents of Dragons snatching sheep and other livestock from their pastures are not uncommon. Some of the initial hunting lodges even managed to hatch and raise the eggs of hunted dragons. They have a low survival rate in captivity, and most eggs taken this way never hatch at all, but recent technological developments have made it possible to incubate the eggs artificially and to raise the dragons in captivity. When raised from a hatchling, a dragon can form a bond with its trainer, eventually allowing the trainer to ride it when it gets large enough at around age 5. However, no wild dragon has ever been domesticated without being raised from an egg, and no one is sure yet exactly how long they live or when they stop growing.

The Imperial section of Concord Minor is often considered a fantastic fairy-tale land by those who do not know better. Its pristine mountain ranges, rugged highlands, and picturesque castles are frequently seen on postcards in most major cities, commonly depicted with a crystalline dragon flying overhead. Life here is much harsher than in Europe, but many citizens consider this an excellent trade for the freedom of living in a frontier and the beauty of the surroundings. While the Ostend company does levy marginal taxes on its colonial citizens, these are dramatically lower than in Imperial Europe. The company instead raised revenue from the cheap sale of land, the licensing of Dragon hunting, and the development of manufacturing centers in the colony’s urban zones in recent decades. The dividends from the staggering profits of the Ostend company are paid out to its shareholders, the largest of which remains the House Von Habsburg. These dividends have become increasingly important for the support of the Habsburg Imperial military back on Earth, whose lavish equipment and lengthy training are paid for from the family's personal coffers. This arrangement ensures an Imperial monarchy that can act independently from the legislature, and the Kaiser knows it.

All military-age civilians are also required to register at their local parish, company administration building, or equivalent in case of emergency. These registers are meant for organizing relief efforts during things like avalanches or particularly dangerous dragon attacks, but as tensions heat up back on Earth, Hochhimmel citizens may soon see their first draft, and there is no telling how the citizens of a colony known for its independence and decentralization will respond. One thing is certain: the Empire will not give up its only colonial possession easily, whether in the distant year of 1976 when the lease is set to expire, or perhaps much sooner…