TerraMount

TerraMount is a Free State of UnitedTerra that is known for it's mountainous geography, peaceful forests, and abundance of gold, iron, and copper deposits. The Free State is well known for it's highly disciplined and well-trained military that was influenced by foreign powers.

History
Previous to 1644, it is unknown if there had been any other creature who had lived in this part of UnitedTerra island. In 1644, Puffish explorers saw the land and claimed the portion for Puffle'and. They set up a small trading post on the coast known as Yarmouth, where they hoped to attract traders that were coming from the Asiapelago. In 1650, an explorer named Sir Alfred Bugley arrived at Yarmouth to host an expedition inland to see if the land had any natural resources of value. He noticed that the region seemed to remind him of the mountainous areas of southern Alemania and Osterreach, but it was not the same. When he managed to discover a cave, he discovered large amounts of gold deposits. Excited about the news, Sir Alfred returned to Puffle'and and brought back his findings. Immediately, many penguins and puffles from Puffle'and and Alemania scrambled to the region to search for gold. Yarmouth soon transformed from a small trading fortress into a decent town. A penguin who became rich from a particular finding was able to start his own settlement in the middle of the claimed area. He named the village Mount Terra, and the village also grew into a large town since it became a base for prospective miners. The region was then named TerraMount after the village Mount Terra, which was then deemed to be the capital. In 1690, the Puffish Parliament outlawed public mining in TerraMount and reserved it for the government. The King of Puffle'and decided that the land should be used to create a gold producing monopoly. Thus, the Puffish began to hire impoverished workers and their families from Zhou to work in the new government owned mines so they could mine gold, copper, and iron. Though living and working conditions were poor, the Zhouese immigrants did manage to maintain their population and slowly expand. Some Zhouese experienced cruel treatment by their bosses and they no longer wished to work for them, so many Zhouese decided to run away from the mines so that they wouldn't be deported back to the poverty that they had in Zhou. Nevertheless, some inhabitants of TerraMount had compassion on them, and many of the former Zhouese mineworker families were welcomed to live in the towns of Yarmouth and Mount Terra. However, most of those who tolerated the Zhouese were the Alemanians because they were immigrants themselves; few Puffish individuals were truly tolerant towards the Zhouese. Nevertheless, the Zhouese made TerraMount home and multiplied and mingled with the Alemanians and the few tolerant Puffish colonials. In 1869, the Puffish government abolished the Zhouese mining labor system, and the Government mines were left to be used by the general public. By 1869, Mount Terra had become a large and prosperous city and was much more bigger than Yarmouth. TerraMount's economy shifted from mining to manufacturing and agriculture, since many penguins and puffles began to grow Apple, Orange or O-Berry groves. Many of the Alemanian immigrants that lived in small mountainous villages continued their cultural tradition of puffle herding and raising. Since 1770, TerraMount also was home a military base and academy, and it was considered one of the best in all of Puffle'and's colonies. In 1906, the High Penguin Confederacy purchased TerraMount from Puffle'and for 900,000 Gold Ingots. Several High Penguins and regular penguins from the Mainland came to the island to start mining for gold, but they only stayed on the island for seven years until 1913, when Khanzem couped the HPC government. TerraMount's High Penguin Confederacy citizens fled the area and the original inhabitants resolved to finally join PreTerra.

Cuisine
The Cuisine of TerraMount is mainly borrowed from the rest of UnitedTerra's diet, though they do have a few unique regional dishes that derive from the traditional foods of immigrants. Such foods include Fish schnitzel, fried rice with vegetables, noodles, spätzle, and shepherd's pie. TerraMount focuses on healthy food types because they want to promote national awareness of staying healthy and avoiding fat. TerraMount is known for being the largest spinach producing region of the UTR.

Language
The official languages of TerraMount are English and Mounteese. English is spoken by everyone in TerraMount fluently and is the main language taught in schools. Modern Inhabitants of the Free State have the same accent that the rest of UnitedTerra. Mounteese, the secondary language of the Free State, is a Creole language. The Language was developed by Zhouese immigrants that intermingled with Alemanian puffle herders, and Mounteese was born from a Chinese pidgin of German. The Language has many loanwords from English and Chinese, but it is most similar to German. However, German speakers from Snowzerland or Alemania can not understand them.