From Dejection to New Hope

One shiny day Gary, a fed-up resident of a run down neighborhood in the slums of Attika with revolutionary ideas and no money in his pocket decided that enough was enough and called upon all those he considered his brethren to take up the banner of independence. 

His call to arms, so to speak, was answered by people from no less than three European countries, Greece, France, the United Kingdom and a small number from the rest of Europe – the avant-garde of intellectuals at the forefront of thought as well as a band of unworthies from every conceivable part and social section of these countries. One of these was Nikos Papias, a brilliant young revolutionary from an obscure background, who was later to become non other than the president of the republic. Gary’s own son, Makis Vrykolax – his pride and joy – who unfortunately was a mental dwarf, was Nikos’ assistant and friend.

Setting the Foundations of a Nation that will Come

When the time had come these people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs converged on Preveza for the summit meeting amongst the chosen delegates of the new-thinkers as their opponents called them disparagingly. Makis Vrykolax himself undertook the (ir)responsibility to place the stamps on the letters to the delegates. The meeting was postponed for a month as all the letters were send back to sender. In the meantime branches of the new organization had been set up in different parts of the countries.  This movement came to be known as U.M.F.A.L. (United Movement of Fore-pioneers Advancing Liberty) sarcastically called the Garyan Nation by their enemies who despised them no end. It was decided that corruption in the governments was so pervasive that little could be done to change the situation. Laws were no longer effective nor were they enforced and immigration from Islamic countries had started to alter the social fiber.

In a moving speech, Denis Symperasmatikos (known as Denis Conclusionicus in the academic world)  decreed: Henceforth a new nation shall rise. We shall shape our common destiny in a nation that one day will be looked upon as a noble race that graced the history of Europe. Let our new fatherland be the humble landmass on the southern shores of the new continent.

Escape to Freedom

So it was. The travelers, leaders and acolytes, colonized the peninsula on the northernmost tip of the Anti-Nowhere continent, which was none other than the Continent of ancient Atlantis.  Certain of the travellers quickly left, under orders by Nikos, and settled in what is now Apollonia in the southernmost tip of the continent.  There they found the remains of Ancient Temples dedicated to Apollon.  Apollonia is still ruled directly by Gariston.  Two years later a resident of Apollonia, Tsiapis Tsapas, was send by Nikos to explore the islands lying off the coasts of Apollonia.  Due to his rare courage, reminiscent of Iron Antonis, Tsiapis Tsapas had the islands name after him and the honour of becoming sole and permanent governor of the islands.

The perilous voyage three weeks aboard creaky ships. This mothball fleet arrived on the shores of the new and unexplored homeland. Quickly small town were set up that would later turn to bustling cities. This was the start of a nation of what is now twenty million souls.

Unforeseen Phenomena

The residents soon became aware that in Andelevitsville, which was the first town – and later capital - that the settlers set up, odd phenomena were occurring that could be in no way explained. Professor Wobble after extensive research reached the conclusion that this are all odd, strange, bizarre, uncanny and peculiar phenomena. After being duly thanked for this very helpful explanation, and being sent to academic seclusion for a year at the top of the highest mountain as his reward, the professor decided to hold his tongue next time. Brave explorers discovered that these phenomena can be found in the entire peninsula. Extensive research revealed that living creatures in this part of the continent do not die and that all manners of life, social structure, art, machines, beliefs and so on and so forth continue to exist unchanged.

The discovery caused a great stir among the populace. Some wanted to return to Europe, others thought of moving to another region on the continent, and yet others decided to embrace this new force and continue to live in the realm of these unworldly forces. The vast majority finally decided to remain. They would of course have to decide what period of their history they would like to see perpetually reproduced and almost unanimously it was decided that it was the period of the 1970’s that they would like to live in and which would be reproduced ad infinitum.

Keeping track of time in a timeless land

In order to keep pace in the calendar with other European countries a system would have to be devised to allow for the change in European decades and the no-change in this new land. Xestravomenos Dyoptrophoros, brilliant Thermonuclear-chemist Astrophysicist, decided that each, “and every” he stressed, decade would have a letter of the alphabet in the beginning, a prefix of sorts, to separate it from the other decades. So the first decade would be A-1970 to A-1979 (when in Europe it was 1980) and in ten years, when the new land reverted back to 1970, the decade would be B-1970 (when in Europe it would be 1990). This system was monitored by an elaborately complex counting device, an abacus!

Use of the new powers by the populace

One day when a resident of the land was run over by a bulldozer but miraculously rose up, albeit much thinner than before, the people understood the full extent of these powers bestowed on them. The powers allowed them to live on and on. No accident, disease, injury, not even – very – old age could cause someone to die. So assassination attempts were very few in this land.

It was also discovered later on through ambassadors, diplomats, tradesmen and foreign correspondents that the people of this land retain their abilities for a period of roughly six months. After that period people suddenly reach the age they would have had if they had been living outside the new land all the years they were there. This came as a rude awakening to some people who stayed outside the new land for more than six months. Some people who were already very advanced in age suddenly turned to dust. For this reason ambassadors do not stay more than five months at a stretch.  

…and Let this Nation Be Known as Gariston!

On the first meeting of the newly elected congress, the representatives had to choose a name for the new country. The representatives voted on the motion set forth by Nikos Papias who had already proposed a name in his election campaign for office. Out of the 100 representatives 97 ballots were cast for the name proposed by Nikos Papias, 2 voted for “New Land” and one vote was cast for “Makis Vrykolax Land”. So it was decided that the new nation would be called Gariston, in honor of Gary, this mythical figure that changed the shape of European affairs and the lives of these people forever – literally.

Gariston’s Peculiar Institution

As the country bordering Gariston to the west is a brutal regime favoring discrimination, a number of its oppressed black citizens hatched a plan to escape by digging a tunnel to the newly-founded state of Gariston which they had reason to believe would be a freer society which would allow them to live a more respectable life and in accordance with their wishes.

Alas however, these unfortunate people, while successfully digging their way out of the land they wished to leave behind, dug too far, fueled on by fear, and only surfaced many hundreds of kilometers into Gariston and came up exact in the center of the only city in Gariston where the population is almost solely composed of racist Ku Klux Klan members who at the time where having a cross burning ceremony – white sheets and all – screaming to the top of their lungs “long live the white race”. This city is Ville B.C. and is situated in the north of Gariston opposite the island of Minotauria. The population did not allow these exhausted black people to come out of the underground and they decided to stay there in the underground and build a grand city, Ektrom, thinking that the people in the rest of Gariston are pretty much the same as the ones in Ville B.C.

 What they did not know is that the people in Ville B.C. are mentally inferior to the rest of the citizens in Gariston and their I.Q. level is of a negligible quantity. These uncouth people are very aggressive looking but are actually characterized by intense cowardice and they hate the entire population of Gariston and exhibit the same behavior towards citizens of other cities as they do to the people of Ektrom, their only pleasures in life being the Ku Klux Klan, whose political wing only they vote for, and their football team.

Ektrom has its own council and their interests are represented in the congress by Makis Vrykolax. The people find their life much better than in the country they left as conditions are favorable, they can sent delegations to the surface for supplies, have trade relations with other cities in Gariston and even have their own football team that participates in the First League of the Garistian Championship.