No ordinary venue

Zwangzug is a predominantly cold, mountainous country. The Alai Mountains formed the country's southern border (with Unkerlantum/Travda), while the Rackham Range runs north-south through west-central Zwangzug. They also feature the country's highest peak, Mount Pittan (16,384 feet). Most of the non-mountain climate is humid continental, while a small temperate rainforest is located in the country's extreme southwest.

At one point or another Zwangzug bordered Unkerlantum (later Travda) to the south, Modre to the east (across the Pinual River, or "the pin," that forked into the "relative pin" in southern Zwangzug, in contrast to the "absolute pin"), and Ferahgotopia to the west. Not so much anymore.

Zwangzug is devolved into sixty districts, and contains many cities.

Really, many many cities. Here is an enormous map of our cities!

The Ziggurat is a structure in Zwischen, the capital of Zwangzug. Constructed from leveled buildings after the catastrophic riots of the mid-sixties, the building once served as the seat of government. With the country's bureaucracy burgeoning, it is less parliamentary chamber and more symbolic location, representing progress even in dark times. This deep significance to the country's people and meaningful representation on the global level earned it a place on the World Heritage Sites & Treasures List.

The building has become so "notable", in fact, that it was parodied in a "Mammoth Compendium of World Cup Lies" by being described as "constructed entirely out of haddock heads". The first Golden Haddock award, given to Zwangzug by the Holy Empire, hangs on display in the first level.

All the levels are squares: each is smaller than the one below it. Levels three through six are rarely used nowadays, but some offices and conference rooms remain in use.
First: set up almost like a museum for visitors to learn about the country and its politics.
Second: offices for members of the parliament, surrounding their antiquated discussion chambers.
Third: Department of Education
Fourth: Department of the Environment
Fifth: Department of Social Welfare
Sixth: Miscellaneous Concerns (includes Healthcare, Social Equality, Public Transportation, Religion and Spirituality, Commerce, and various bureaucracies with provocative acronyms)
Seventh: unoccupied, often referred to as the Department of the Military. (Zwangzug utterly lacks one.) Officials in poor standing are often said to be on the "elevator to level seven".
Eighth: the ceiling and walls are transparent, allowing visitors to look out over the city.

Mean Fahrenheit temperatures for various cities:

City	Jan.	Feb.	Mar.	Apr.	May	June	July	Aug.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.
Sharag	36	38	42	47	51	53	55	58	56	48	43	37
Weegham	8	16	28	44	56	64	70	67	57	45	28	14
Bassabook	28	30	40	48	58	68	74	72	62	52	40	27
Outrive	26	32	40	49	52	64	67	65	60	49	40	30

Non-contiguous Zwangzug

The vast majority of Zwangzug's land and population consists of part of the Starways Congress continent. However, the country includes multiple archipelagos at varying distances from the mainland. Residents of non-contiguous Zwangzug are politically the equals of their mainland counterparts; the islands have no special governmental status but are part of various parliamentary districts. With the Zebra Isles' sovereignty in dispute, however, this may change in the near future.

Spread throughout the waters off the coast of Zwangzug, the Picksall Islands had little contact with the mainland until a cartographic spree gripped much of the latter. As their awareness of neighboring cities grew, so too did their knowledge of the islands beyond. Unfortunately, some of the first visitors from the mainland were horrified by the vaguely-polytheistic practices they found on many of the Picksalls. (While variations abounded throughout the many islands, the most common belief system involved the henotheistic worship of the sun, moon, or stars depending on gender or individual conversion.) As the cartographers' work allowed detailing of more and more small islands, the problems multiplied. Unusually for Zwangzug, and unprecedented for the country on its scale, a wave of Christian missionary activity was soon to follow in the hopes of "saving" the islanders. This was partially successful, as Christianity is now the islands' most common religion, but in other cases backfired when those who had lived on the Picksalls for some time eventually converted.*

The Zebra Isles are located much farther from the mainland, near Wezeltonia. They were named in an outpouring of homesickness from their original settlers, most of who had come from Zwangzug's mountain ranges through Lang. (The Isles are politically included in the district of Langport, at least for now.) More recently, however, the Wezeltonian army took control of the islands. Though the eventual demilitarization was seen as an encouraging sign, diplomatic talks meant to determine the Isles' long-term future have broken down.
The Isles are:
1. Ghos (uninhabited)
2. Iavbrat (no permanent residents, though it does contain one scientific base with rotating occupants)
3. Lonope
4. Quesy, where zebras have in fact thrived as an invasive species.
5. Nurdsont
6. Tisawa, first settled by ethnic Wezeltonians fed up with their government's policies. It eagerly embraced membership as part of Zwangzug and today tends to be particularly supportive of the Isles' inclusion within the larger state.
7. Vergy, the largest and most populous. It contains the archipelago's largest city, Jagoul.

Top ten mountains of the Rackham Range:

Name	Height (feet)	First summit	By:
Pittan	16384	1864	Bernard Eckes, Chelsea Wadsworth
Navude	15879	1831	Eldon Keiss, Percival Jurell, Vivian Hampner
Hakedis	15467	1771	Jonas Gronchi, Obed Profeta, Alasdair Hugher, Schi Strobel, Charles Tyrem
Corrent	15230	1877	Wesley Harris, Maxwell Deering, Roderick Salvessmay
Higarf	14931	1869	Murray Sato, Sophus Fliss
Emoa	14720	1871	Wesley Harris, Benjamin Fliss
Ginwaugh	14531	1804	Angela Wiegand, Tanya Mihaylova, Marilyn Schoenberg, Kwan Tai
Sherve	14276	1874	Elena Kinewski, Thaddeus Laum, Edmund Chaner, Jemima Lahti
Griess	13847	1870	Jasper Amsel, Tamir Horowitz, Theodosia Scroy
Adall	13679	1866	Rurik Conan, Daniel Pysmore

InterCity monorail trains connect the country's largest cities. InterCity system is completely run by the statewide government, unlike the Regional Express trains (where statewide and district governments work together) and those operated solely by the districts.

InterCity trains are the fastest, and tend to cover the longest distances, in the public system. InterCity Express trains are faster than regular InterCity trains, and used for more important routes.

There are 33 InterCity "lines" (pairs of cities joined by IC trains), and 23 InterCity Express Lines. Some trains, however, visit cities joined by consecutive lines to form "connecting lines". There are five such in the IC system (known as IC A through IC E, confusingly in the last case) and two among ICE trains, ICE* and ICE**.
InterCity Express Lines

Disclaimer: the relative distances should be correct relative to each other, but the actual distances between these cities is uncertain. Zwangzugian geography is not incredibly precise. The length in miles might well be 1.84 times the values displayed. Or, it might not be. Also as long as we're disclaiming, please, please stay off IC A.

The train lines. Bold=ICE, plain black=IC, red=ICE*, blue=ICE**, green=IC A, yellow=IC B, purple=IC C, pink= IC D, brown=IC E.

*...their maps to GIF rather than JPEG.