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valarltdBecause no novel is complete without at least one map.
In the mid twenty-first century, driven by oil crises and increasing animosity, the United States fractured under the strain of its own size and diversity.
It formed eight new countries.
New England and the middle states to the Mississippi retained the name United States. The seat of government, insecure in Wahsington DC, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Renewing the social contract, they moved into a socialist economic system similar to Europe's. Schooling is mandatory as high as a student is capable. The US is no longer a military leader, but one of the largest producers of educated workers in the world.
The eleven states of the old Confederacy regrouped, under the leadership of Christian Reconstructionists. They settled the capital in Birmingham, Alabama. Biblical laws, Old Testament and New, are rigidly enforced. Education is private or homeschooling only. Alcohol, gambling, drugs, movies that don't meet state requirements, long hair on men, short hair or pants on women, all these are illegal. The more wealthy are starting to move out to the country on private estates. Some of the less fortunate have followed and indentured themselves, per Levitican law. (The capitalism is rapidly going feudal)
Lone Star is Texaas and Oklahoma. It is a big, raw country, being built on oil profits and cattle. It is run by pure democracy: one person, one vote. Justice is swift and sure, and going armed is mandatory. The capital of the country is in Dallas, Texas.
Heartland is the midwest, from the Mississippi to the Rockies. The capital is at Council Bluffs, Iowa. They are a comfortable, tidy little country of small, idyllic towns, having retreated into a dream of the 19th century. Most towns under 5000 people look like a remake of The Music Man. While it's run on a town council level locally, the true power rests with oligarchs who are determined to steer a course between the US and CS. Education is mandatory through eighth grade, and many of the kids go into farming. Factory farming has been made illegal, and small farmers have the real power, producing most of the food for export to the other countries.
The Tribal Lands of the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming are under rule by the local native American tribes. Many of the countries would like to get their hands on this region as it is the second most nuclear capable country in the world.
Deseret is a poor country, unfit for farming and most of the mining has long since played out. It's run by a Mormon theocracy, headquartered in Salt Lake City.
Golden Cal is an anarchist free state. Anything goes and it's wide open. Vigilantism is the rule of the day as there are no police. There is no capital as there is no government.
Pacifica is the old Pacific Northwest, with the capital in Seattle. It maintains a thriving trade with other countries. Like the US, it is socialist in the European fashion, and a representative democracy.
In the mid twenty-first century, driven by oil crises and increasing animosity, the United States fractured under the strain of its own size and diversity.
It formed eight new countries.
New England and the middle states to the Mississippi retained the name United States. The seat of government, insecure in Wahsington DC, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Renewing the social contract, they moved into a socialist economic system similar to Europe's. Schooling is mandatory as high as a student is capable. The US is no longer a military leader, but one of the largest producers of educated workers in the world.
The eleven states of the old Confederacy regrouped, under the leadership of Christian Reconstructionists. They settled the capital in Birmingham, Alabama. Biblical laws, Old Testament and New, are rigidly enforced. Education is private or homeschooling only. Alcohol, gambling, drugs, movies that don't meet state requirements, long hair on men, short hair or pants on women, all these are illegal. The more wealthy are starting to move out to the country on private estates. Some of the less fortunate have followed and indentured themselves, per Levitican law. (The capitalism is rapidly going feudal)
Lone Star is Texaas and Oklahoma. It is a big, raw country, being built on oil profits and cattle. It is run by pure democracy: one person, one vote. Justice is swift and sure, and going armed is mandatory. The capital of the country is in Dallas, Texas.
Heartland is the midwest, from the Mississippi to the Rockies. The capital is at Council Bluffs, Iowa. They are a comfortable, tidy little country of small, idyllic towns, having retreated into a dream of the 19th century. Most towns under 5000 people look like a remake of The Music Man. While it's run on a town council level locally, the true power rests with oligarchs who are determined to steer a course between the US and CS. Education is mandatory through eighth grade, and many of the kids go into farming. Factory farming has been made illegal, and small farmers have the real power, producing most of the food for export to the other countries.
The Tribal Lands of the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming are under rule by the local native American tribes. Many of the countries would like to get their hands on this region as it is the second most nuclear capable country in the world.
Deseret is a poor country, unfit for farming and most of the mining has long since played out. It's run by a Mormon theocracy, headquartered in Salt Lake City.
Golden Cal is an anarchist free state. Anything goes and it's wide open. Vigilantism is the rule of the day as there are no police. There is no capital as there is no government.
Pacifica is the old Pacific Northwest, with the capital in Seattle. It maintains a thriving trade with other countries. Like the US, it is socialist in the European fashion, and a representative democracy.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 09:58 pm (UTC)I really want to read this!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:17 pm (UTC)The rough draft and daily words are there.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:22 pm (UTC)*defects across the border into Cincinatti*
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 10:57 pm (UTC)*weeps*
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 11:15 pm (UTC)...how sad. :(
no subject
Date: 2005-11-06 11:46 pm (UTC)The wealthier areas have most of what they do now. The poorer areas have less.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:12 am (UTC)I firmly see Indiana going to the Heartland. Unless like 80% of the state's population made a run south when the new countries were being formed. They have some crazy-ass fundies there. Ohio, also is pretty evenly split in ideology now (mostly north and south split)
Just hard to make a nice split of the blue states with Ohio and Indiana blocking the way to Illinois (and it's only Chicago that makes Ill. go blue).
Also, WV? Most definitely heartland.
Heartland would make the split a little further north than the Ohio river, methinks (if the people have any say about where they want their land to go).
But yay for me being the the new sane U.S. :D
no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:26 am (UTC)Indiana just got stuck in the middle when Illinois went with USA.
I think the further west you go, the more like Heartland the US becomes. Kentucky and Indiana are disputed territory ideology-wise. Kentucky just sort of defaulted to CSA because of the river.
And Indiana wanted to go Heartland but couldn't.
Heartland is rather more liberal than CSA, but not much.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-07 12:43 am (UTC)Okay, seriously: this is really fascinating. Excellent thought behind your world!
The D-Man checks in
Date: 2005-11-08 06:14 am (UTC)Golden Cal would only exist as an anarchy for a number of years before a single gang/strong man begins consolidating power & taking over. The terrain is not rugged enough like in Afghanistan to prevent large armies from forming and easily sweeping through it. Also only a matter of time before anarchists likely begin raiding Pacifica for fun, prompting a strong military response and southern expansionism to bring order & protect national interests. Likewise only a matter of time before foreign powers in the Western Pacific & South America (China, Japan, Australia, Russia, Mexico, etc.) begin taking advantage of the existing anarchy in Golden Cal and start moving in to establish military outposts and colonies to claim the territorial wealth... And grab slaves. Who could stop them? I hear blondes still fetch a good price even today in Asian & Mexican brothels.
Didn't the fantasy role-playing game, Shadowrun, already do this map?
Interesting though. Very interesting. It shall be worth seeing what you might do with this.
Re: The D-Man checks in
Date: 2005-11-08 02:51 pm (UTC)2) Nothing west of Heartland is currently important to the story at hand, save as mention.
3) It is NOT plagarized from the Shadowrun map. Balkanized America is a staple of dystopian fiction, and this is based--loosely--on the Shadowrun map, the Map of the Knowne Worlde (SCA) and the mental landscape of Robert Heinlein's Friday.
4) It's only been fifty years since the central government collapsed. The anarchist state of Tortuga lasted almost a hundred years before Spain got testy.
5) Colorado may not be desert, but it isn't farmland... It's, you know, scenic.
Re: The D-Man checks in
Don't get me wrong. I like & I am intrigued with what you have so far, but it needs to make sense. Mexico--even today--would love to take back California, and without an organized military nor any allies to defend it, it would not take much for even the Mexican army to conquer it... Presuming the Russians, Chinese & Japanese don't beat them to it.
...And what happened to all the white folk in the proposed Tribal Lands? Their local governments just disintegrate? Did all the rednecks just forget where they put their guns when the tribes started to organize & move? The Native Americans are too much of a minority anymore to feasibly take such large territories & hold them if the dominate culture over & around them says, "I don't think so."
Re: The D-Man checks in
Date: 2005-11-08 05:29 pm (UTC)And I am still thinking it through. Just not expending a lot of thought on the parts of the world I won't be using until the sequel, if at all. Not with putting out 3000 words a day of sex, dominance and political intrigue.
Re: The D-Man checks in
Re: The D-Man checks in
Date: 2005-11-09 04:32 am (UTC)