Straights

The Straights, or simply Straights, were a pre-modern seafaring civilization that controlled much of the South Pacific ocean between years 576 and 1171 AD. Having existed for roughly 500 years, the Straights' maritime empire capitalized upon the trade of Braaper parchment, which, as the name suggests, was an expensive form of paper used for fine print because of its high level of absorbance, which made smearing ink more difficult. As such, the Straights' used the wide demand for this product to build their trade influence, which resulted in the enslavement and indenturedness of most Braapers living within their colonies. Over time, however, the thin slicings of the Poletree plant required to produce large amounts of paper contributed to the plant's weakened resistance to insects, and without the shade afforded by Braaper levies, most paper-making farms were decimated by the 9th century. The decline of Braaper parchment resulted in drastic changes to the trade dymanic within the region, with the Straights and their coastal empire rapidly shrinking for a couple of centuries until the Fall of Straightion in year 1121, during which the Braapers sacked the colonial city of Straightion, located at the heart of Central Australia.

Ultimately, many historians have come to attribute the rise and fall of the Straights to the enormous surplus in profits brought by the paper trade, which, over centuries, transformed Straight society into one which instutionalized a racial hierarchy, thereby adopting the ideology that they were genetically superior to their territorial subjects. However, Straight supremacy had always been determined by the Straights' dominance of trade routes, which prioritized the exporting of paper. Straight emphasis on exports probably made their economy completely dependent upon the Braaper colonies, which further contributed to tensions between colonial settlers and the native Braapers. In the 9th century, the prophet Clyde Homobro spent years travelling to spread his "wisdoms" among his kindred people, which culminated in the Braapers' total rejection of Straight occupation within just one decade.

The Straights, who were enthralled with the pre-Zernerian ritual practices of the Xanthian religion, a duotheistic belief system. And so, they largely dismissed the cultural significance of Clyde to the Braaper colonies without considering that it would sour colonial attitudes, even for some of the Straights. For example, 10th century Straight emperor Huckslin Vagga, although buried in the Xanthian ritual, was a self-described "student of Clyde" who read the Book of Clyde on a daily basis, believing the text to contain instructional advice for the future course of the Straights. However, Vagga's only son and heir, Beg Begg Huckslin was a proponent of traditional Xanthiani and ordered his father be buried accordingly. For decades after the death of Vagga, his sympathetic nature towards Clyde was discarded from the official Straight dynastic histories.

In the modern period, the legacy of the Straights and their all-pervading way of life has greatly influenced culture all throughout the Pacific, with specific regard for Central Australia, which continues to be sparsely populated with Braaper colonies. In Braap Doh, built atop the historical city of Straightion, there is a 115-foot monument to the Braaper Uprising which depicts Clyde directing the young Braapers to push back Straight legions. In fact, this was an actual historical event in which Braaper students of the Straight colonial institutions successfully pushed approximately 10,000 Straight fraternias (legions) out of the city's walls, after which point the Second Braaper Kingdom was formally established.