Survivor communities outside the known world

[thegreyarea]

hello, can you link your map again? I'd very much like to see it

I would suggest a few more places in Portugal.
Valença (North, next to the border with Spain) is a small town with a lovely historical center completely walled. Inside the fortress, that is in very good shape, there are many buildings and several open areas that could be used for farming.

Óbidos (Central Portugal, just 10Km from the ocean) is a smaller town fully inside a castle. Also a good place, and not so far from the sea. They could create a cleansed area to allow fishing and farming there while living inside the castle.

Évora (Central, a bit South, closer to Spain) is my preferred. The old city center is fully enclosed by the old walls. There are just a few points where those walls were demolished to let streets pass, but those would be easily blocked. The inside is very large and could hold many thousands. The only limitation would be food. I imagine several buildings being replaced by open areas or converted in greenhouses. Oh, and it has the ruins of a roman temple (to Diana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_(mythology)) in the center, so may be a good place for a renewed worship on the roman gods...

And last but not least Sagres. That's not a town, but a fortress in the Southwest corner of Portugal. It's a promontory that advances into the sea, and the walls simply close the connecting point. Very few constructions, and a very exposed area, but what makes it promising for a story are the legends that consider it a magical place, where centuries ago people performed rituals. That large circle of stones, of unknown function, is the oldest remain found there. Some say it had astronomical meaning, others a magical one... All that, together with the spectacular setting, makes it a nice candidate.

Note 1: sorry for not finding better videos.
Note 2: it may seem like that, but this post is not sponsored by the Portuguese tourism authority...

[wavewright62]

Whoa!  Old walled cities, you have some gems.  I would have written off Portugal due to its benign climate and large population.  Reynir, have I got a spot for you...
 

[thegreyarea]

That's true, Wave! Portugal is filled with interesting places.
Here's Almeida, already mentioned. It's a nice village inside a star-shaped fortress, close to border (with Spain, because that's the only land border Portugal has   ). An excellent defensive position. It's also far from big cities and main roads, which would be good. The green areas between the outer and inner walls could be used for farming. There's one on the Spanish side, Ciudad Rodrigo, that is also star-shaped but smaller. I can imagine them both holding survivors that slowly cleansed the road until they were able to sustain regular communications (even if some danger still existed).

But there's always the problem with the mild weather. Survivors in those walled places in Portugal would never enjoy a few months of calm in the Winter like their Scandinavian counterparts...
Which takes me to the last place (for the moment):
The Azores. Like Iceland, those islands, isolated in the middle of the Atlantic, would have a good chance if they closed early all connections with mainland. (Even with COVID their numbers remain very manageable).
With 2350 Km2 they are much smaller than Iceland (103000 Km2) but the mild climate creates favourable conditions for farming. And there are a few protected ports for fishing and connections between islands.
On the magical level legend tells that those islands are what remain of Atlantis, so there's a lot of room for development. (I feel tempted just by writing this...)

It was hard to find a good video from the Azores... This one is nice, but the music is a bit irritating sometimes.
I hope you all liked this small series of suggestions, and that they may inspire a few stories.

[Róisín]

Interesting documentaries. I knew about the star forts but the Azores had not occurred to me as a potential survivor outpost. I only know about the place from telling the tale of Sir Richard Grenville’s last stand - a fine story. One of my friends was asking about the music in the documentaries - he likes it. Any idea who wrote it?

[thegreyarea]

Now I must check that tale, Róisín!

The Azores also have a NATO airbase (Lages, at "Terceira" island*) and I can see surviving fleets also converging there from many NATO countries, and, why not, a few Russian subs. I can picture the larger ports surrounded by dozens of ships, including two or three aircraft carriers...

I can try to find out about the music (always happy to help!  ) but from which documentary?

funny fact: That island is called "Terceira", which means "Third" in Portuguese, because... yes, you guessed! It's the third island when you are traveling from mainland towards West, so the third one they discovered, and someone was out of inspiration that day .
Too bad they didn't call the others "Quarta" - Fourth, "Quinta" - fifth and so on, because Geography students would have a much easier task

[LooNEY_DAC]

The Azores also have a NATO airbase (Lages, at "Terceira" island)

Huh. For some reason, I thought it was "Lajes" Field.

[thegreyarea]

Huh. For some reason, I thought it was "Lajes" Field.

You are correct. My bad!  In my defense it's a frequente mistake because both sound exactly the same and some defend that both are right in etymological terms. But officialy "lages" doesn't exist.

[Róisín]

Grey, you will probably like the tale. Grenville was outnumbered, one to fifty-three if I remember correctly, by fullon Spanish war galleons. He fought anyway. He perished, but the Spanish captains respected his courage enough that they took him onto the deck of their command ship to die, and landed the surviving crew of Grenville’s ship ‘Revenge’. A good hero tale.

Edit: from the Azores doco, but he liked them all.

[thegreyarea]

Róisín, the music is from a Greek artist/band called Zero-Project

Their site is this: https://zero-project.gr/ and has lots and lots of music. Some are very similar to the one used in the video but I couldn't find yet the exact one.
They are also on Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/0DOulvDtnlwcmqwQggwln9

I asked directly the author through Messenger. Now we will have to wait.
If you and your friend liked the video his channel on Youtube "Portugal Visto do Céu" - Portugal seen from the sky, is very good and filled with more great videos!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEeB_dH9ftCPc9IfEA50yg

I hope I helped! 

[JoB]

Too bad they didn't call the others "Quarta" - Fourth, "Quinta" - fifth and so on, because Geography students would have a much easier task

Nah, that's reserved to historians focused on the Roman Empire.
(What, you thought that "Octavian" was a perfectly normal first name?)

[thegreyarea]

Nah, that's reserved to historians focused on the Roman Empire.
(What, you thought that "Octavian" was a perfectly normal first name?)

Róisín, the author answered, but he doesn't remember the name of the music...

[thegreyarea]

I remembered another great place for a surviving community in Portugal! Peniche is a small town in the West coast, a few kilometers South of Nazaré, now famous (particularly among surfers) for having the worlds tallest waves. Peniche is on a peninsula, and there's a moat, and walls, that already cut the connection leaving just one entrance and a few bridges. It would be easy to blow the bridges and fortify that single entrance, maybe even extend the moat to effectively turn it on an island. There are large unoccupied areas that could support farming. There's evidence of roman presence in that area, so we could go roman gods here too. With all that sea and waves, why not worship Neptune?
And I promise I'll stop for a while. I hope I'm not exaggerating by posting all those videos...

 

[JoB]

Good thing she introduced herself with her first name, rather than as "Ms. Miller" ...

(Those legionaries have a somewhat outworldly appearance?)

[Maglor]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelia
There's some interesting puns one can male with it.
1. Language. Karelian language isn't so far from Suomi so we might have a situation, where Lalli is finally not the one outside the language barrier (also, when I first saw him, I thought it's her, lol).
2. Place. Republic of Karelia is bordering Finland.
3. It would hardly work with English but...
3.1. There's a bear on it's coat of arms.
3.2. In Russian Karelia and California starts from the same letter К
So "New Karelian Republic". More references for god of references!

[thegreyarea]

JoB, I'm so glad that you remembered that little guy! When I saw those legionaries it occurred to me: "Those remind me someone..." but I couldn't figure exactly who.

Maglor, Karelia seems like an interesting possibility, except for the Kareliam Isthmus, that may be too close to St. Petersburg.
Valaam monastery, on an island in the middle of lake Lagoda, and Solovetsky monastery, in the middle of the White Sea, both seem great places for surviving communities!

Also I don't remember "seeing" you in the Forum, so welcome!