The tale of Goldfield starts on the 18th of November 1993, after 156 protesters were killed by occupying Zulu Empire forces after protesting the annexation of South Africa and the slaughter of not only the government, but the leaders of many liberation movements and political parties.
After the massacre of protesters, the surviving leadership of a collection of trade unions, political parties, business leaders and military officers formed an organisation known as Goldfield, named after the building where the leaders met in Johannesburg.
At this meeting, the Goldfield Movement was formed to combat Zulu occupation and reinstate the sovereign nation of South Africa back to its original borders. But as mass protest action had been shown to be too risky, Goldfield decided to take the war underground. The Goldfield insurgency began and undertook a campaign of sabotage against the Empire. Supply lines were bombed, key figures assassinated, weapons stolen, and insurgents planted throughout the Empire’s administration.
Goldfield made rapid gains, as the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the Cape distracted Zulu forces, allowing the Movement to grow considerably. This pressurised the Zulu Empire, culminating in the Zulu Emperor making a deal with the Izingane Zgazi vampire clan and a cabal of necromancers called Shaka’s Chosen.
Vampire assassins and undead death-squads were sent into Gauteng, slaughtering Goldfield insurgents and innocent civilians. Combined with facing Zulu sorcerers, Goldfield was losing the war.
With its agents being hunted by sorcerers and vampires, and civilians being hounded by demons, undead and other monsters, Goldfield’s council of activists, officers and leaders decided to setup two wings of the Movement: the Mage Corps and the Extermination Corps. The latter will be explained in detail in the next section.
With the role of combatting enemy mages and monsters, respectively, the two new wings helped turn the tide of the war, allowing the Movement to make huge gains and relieve pressure from the SADF.
Eventually, the State of Good Hope was founded and the SADF was disbanded and replaced by the Cape Defence Force (CDF), which cancelled its attempts to re-establish South Africa as a state. The Goldfield Movement on paper was still dedicated to a united South Africa, but the brutality of the rebellion had eliminated much of its idealism. What mattered was keeping the people of Gauteng alive while ousting the occupiers.
The years that followed were slow and violent. The Zulu Empire quashed uprisings while continuing to hunt down Goldfield agents. Vampires continued to ravage Gauteng, causing massive ghoul outbreaks that the Extermination Corps strived to end. While the Extermination Corps and Mage Corps were making huge gains in their wars, the majority of the Movement was flagging.
Seeing weakness in the Movement’s leadership, the Mage Corps took over the Goldfield Movement in 1999. While the coalition government of 1993 had rejected the Zulu King’s ultimatum, and died for it, the leaders of Goldfield now understood the power of magic. They accepted the coup without resistance.
The Goldfield Movement, in all but name, became the Magocracy – ruled by mages who believed themselves to be the only ones capable of winning freedom for their land.
To prove the effectiveness of their new leadership, the Mage Corps sent a crack team of mages and assassins to the Zulu capital in Ulundi, where the Zulu Emperor Ukuhleleka I was training with his elite bodyguard. The mage-assassins neutralised the guards and before the emperor knew he was under attack, he was decimated by a united attack made up of corruption, pyromancy, cryomancy, geomancy and bullets.
Ukuhleleka II took the throne, but his rule was weak. Taking advantage of the assassination, the CDF pushed past the Three Point Line, and the Goldfield Magocracy activated all of its rebel cells, taking the province of Gauteng and defeating its occupiers.
Split on two sides, and facing internal strife, the Zulu Emperor was unable to stop the Magocracy from not only securing Gauteng, but reaching out and taking the Free State, North-West Province and parts of the Northern Cape. When the CDF retreated in 2002, Goldfield had a secure bulwark and massive professional armed forces to sustain conflict until 2006, when the Zulu Empire recognised their sovereignty and peace was declared.
But just because the war ended didn’t mean that enmities stopped. Skirmishes still erupt between Goldfield and the Empire to this day. But the biggest conflict is within the Magocracy. There is a deep and seething resentment against the Empire and its allies, and this has manifested in pogroms against Zulus and non-human sentients.
The Magocracy maintains authority over its territory of the north of what was South Africa with the use of magic, corporatist relations and underground operations to eliminate malcontents and enemies. While life under the Magocracy isn’t overtly oppressive, it is not a democracy, and only those well-connected with the ruling mages will find any success in politics.
Life continues in the Magocracy, and it has grown since the peace of 2006. New frontiers are gained every day in the Cataclysm Badlands of Southern Africa, and the Magocracy promises peace and safety to those under its arcane authority. But is the cost worth it?
Government
The government of Goldfield is ruled by those descended from the Mages Corps of the Goldfield Movement. The government is elected by examination, with all mages being tested for their power, arcane knowledge and knowledge of state-craft.
Those without magical power or knowledge can only expect to rise to a lowly desk job in the government of the Magocracy. Magic rules here.
Sentient Race Abuse
While the Extermination Corps is officially illegal now, the Goldfield Magocracy is still not friendly to non-humans, and police abuses are still rampant against sentient non-human races. As a result, fae tend to stray far from the Magocracy cities, causing crises in their weyline purity and nature.
