Archive / Planetary Governments

Jonesboro

🌍 Dual-listed — also indexed under Planetary Governments

Type: Location — Planetary Government (City-State) Status: Canon (political classification confirmed; full profile pending ChatGPT export processing)

Overview

Jonesboro is a City-State — a Planetary Government whose capital is listed as "self" — confirmed via the Planetary Governments article. Located on the Norihing continent, ✅ confirmed bordered by ocean to the north and east, and by Peplle to the west and south (per Bel Szynod's character profile). Independently, it's also named as the home of Martin O'Gregory, winner of the largest jackpot in Helvatica Luminary history ($1.6 trillion, March 2019).

✅ CONFIRMED — founding fully documented via "Original Colonists Part Three": Jonesboro was founded by the Original Colonists, led by the Jones family, on land ceded by Peplle. See "Founding Story" below.

Government Structure

Jonesboro has two distinct, separate governing entities occupying the same location with the same geographical boundaries:

  • The "City-State" of Jonesboro — a President-Congress structure, republic-style government
  • The "City" of Jonesboro — a Mayor-City Council structure

These are genuinely distinct and separate from one another, not a simple state-vs-municipal hierarchy. ⚠️ Per the creator, this is flagged as an open development arc to be developed further later — see Open Questions.

LMT & the Jones Family — Unofficial Influence

✅ LMT "officially" has no influence over either level of Jonesboro's government — neither the City-State nor the City is directly or officially tied to LMT or the extended Jones family in any formal capacity. In practice, however, both LMT and the Jones family are extraordinarily influential in Jonesboro life and politics. Jonesboro politicians, diplomats, and city officials are often swayed by LMT and/or Jones family "lobbying," despite neither having any official, direct role in the affairs of state or city government.

Founding Story (confirmed via "Original Colonists Part Three")

✅ RESOLVED — two-stage founding confirmed by creator: The area of Jonesboro was first settled in 1893 (matching the Ark Royal's crash-landing and the Colonists' arrival). The city of Jonesboro itself was not formally founded until 1895 — a distinct, later event. This resolves the earlier-flagged "1885 vs. 1893" discrepancy; the correct figures are 1893 (settlement) and 1895 (city founding), not 1885.

Separately, this same material confirms Jonesboro's secret origin was scheduled for disclosure to the wider world in the year 2000 — a 20-year confidentiality agreement made with Whyncloss's government in the late 1970s. This coincides suspiciously with the NWMG's founding (January 1, 2000) — flagged as a likely-significant but unconfirmed connection. Jonesboro was founded on a coastal peninsula ceded by the Peplle government to the Original Colonists after their landing (see Peplle for the full negotiation). The city was named for the Jones family — a large family group of 200+ members who effectively led nearly every major activity of the Ark Royal's voyage (many had been officers or enlisted crew). Perold Jones was born into this family aboard the ship. Jonesboro was a large city from its very first day, with an initial population of just under 300,000 — nearly the Ark Royal's entire surviving complement. Over the following ~50 years, the Colonists built the city out using local materials — brick, concrete, quarried stone, timber.

In 1898 (Maf local calendar), the Jones family incorporated a new LMT Corporation on Maf, named in honor of Vee and his Earth-based LMT Corporation, which had built the Ark Royal and saved them from Earth's nuclear destruction. ✅ This resolves the earlier-unconfirmed relationship between Maf's LMT and Earth's LMT: Maf's LMT (Landfall Manufacturing & Trade) is a distinct company, deliberately named in tribute to Earth's LMT (Lion, Mass-Tech), not a literal continuation of it. See LMT (Maf) and LMT Corporation (Earth).

✅ Confirmed exact date: April 15, 1898 — the same day Jonesboro's City Council and Mayor were formally elected. See Jonesboro's Formal Incorporation, Vladimery's Alarm, and the June 1898 Fishing Dispute for the full account.

Also in 1898, Colonist engineers secretly built Jonesboro's first aircraft — flown only at night to avoid detection, since the native population had not yet developed heavier-than-air flight — equipped with radar, radio-detection gear, infrared detectors, and cameras, used to covertly map and survey the surrounding region.

Notable Institutions

  • Jonesboro Academy of Science — home institution of Dr. Roland Hardaway, who tracked the deep-space signals leading to the First Viachon War. Positioned roughly 7,000 miles from Helvatica's territory at that time — Helvatica shared confirmed scientific discoveries with Jonesboro officials despite not sharing intelligence readily otherwise.

Suspected Source of Peplle's Innovations

By the time of the events in The Discovery of Peplle's Innovations, rumors circulate among outsiders that many of Peplle's technological advances actually originate from Jonesboro — not confirmed in-story, but a strong thread tying into Jonesboro's broader secrecy.

Notable Restaurants

Several restaurants are individually indexed under Business: Restaurants, all confirmed Jonesboro-located: The Smokehouse, Chinggon Bato, Lorna's Pub, Panabo Pub, Doc Yuger's, and McGillicuddy's Bar (one of several locations).

The Jonesboro Cup

An annual wind-powered yacht race established in 1899, still run in 2020 across 4 divisions of increasingly advanced boat technology. Full detail at The Jonesboro Cup.

The Jonesboro Amendment — A Secret Earth Legacy

✅ Jonesboro proposed a later amendment to the Calendar Accord of 1888 establishing "BC"/"AD" suffixes and January–December month names as supposedly neutral conventions. In truth, both were a deliberate trick by the Jonesboroians to secretly preserve real Earth calendar terminology — at a time when no one else on Maf knew the Original Colonists' true origin. A quiet, clever continuation of Jonesboro's broader theme of hidden Earth heritage.

The First Years (1893–1898)

The founding period, including the submarine escape from the Ark Royal, the Jones family's gold-based political rise, the "First Killing," and the deep internal tensions among the Colonists (the "Quietists" vs. the Builders) is told in full at The First Years Chronicle of the Landings. Also confirmed: the Integrators and Builders maintained Earth holiday traditions (Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, July 4th), later adopted by locals as additional holidays; Protestant Christianity was the dominant religion among the Original Colonists, though most other religions were also represented. A large group of Native American colonists later broke away to found their own independent nation(s) in the 1920s, on previously-uninhabited land to the west — full detail not yet given.

Appearances

Open Questions

  • Does Jonesboro's City-State status mean LMT (Maf) effectively governs it, or are city government and LMT separate? Not yet confirmed.
  • Timeline note: area settled 1893, city formally founded 1895 (Maf local calendar); by "Maf year 2005" (War of IFTR era) this is a ~110–112 year-old settlement — helps contextualize Perold Jones's long life, see his character page.