Ⅰ. THE MORIYA OF SUWA

[Anonymous No.]

In the beginning there was only Suwa, a territory encompassing some 400 square kilometres and centred on the village of Natsuzawa. This was the heartland of the state that would later be known as Gensokyo. Situated in the midst of the dreary range that stretches from the Nagano to northern Yamanashi, the Suwa countryside has rarely attracted visitors. It possesses no distinctive landmarks. The rivers that cross it are sluggish meandering streams that lack the grandeur of the Rhine or the Danube. Monotonous forests of birch and fir covered much of its surface. The topographer Nicolaus Leuthinger, author of an early description of Suwa, wrote in 1598 of a 'flat land, wooded and for the most part swamp'. 'Sand', flatness, 'bogs' and 'uncultivated areas' were recurring topoi in all the early accounts, even the most panegyric.

The soil around much of Suwa was of poor quality. In some areas, especially around Natsuzawa, the ground was so sandy and light that trees would not grow on it. In this respect little had changed by the mid nineteenth century, when an English traveller approaching Natsuzawa from the south at the height of summer described 'vast regions of bare and burning sand; villages, few and far between, and woods of stunted firs, the ground under which is hoar with a thick carpeting of reindeer moss'.

Metternich famously remarked that Italy was a 'geographical expression'. The same could not be said of Suwa. It was landlocked and without defensive natural borders of any kind. It was a purely political entity, assembled from the lands seized from pagan Yamato during antiquity and settled by immigrants from France, the Netherlands, northern China and England, as well as the Japanese lands.

[動かない大図書館 !auJZwWsFwk No.]

am i tripfagging yet?

[test !auJZwWsFwk No.]

how about now?

[test !PacheDyniA No.]

now?

[test !IU2JOIrYhw No.]

that works, but how about this one?

[test !Ltkp3zlgtI No.]

perhaps one of these

[fail No.]

would be tripfag here, forgot the sage DISREGARD THIS I SUCK COCKS

["iluvOP !ge9bznqAsg No.]

What is going on!?

[Anonymous No.]

>That image
>Discworld Yukuri

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