Divided States
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| Divided States | |
|---|---|
| Culture Level | 11: Oil Age, localized 12: Information Age |
| Ecology | Full |
| Climate & Terrain | Temperate forest, hills and mountains. Warm desert, hills and mountains. Hot desert. |
| Year Formed | 622 BC (1872 AD local calendar) |
| Population | 296,148,166 |
| Races (%) | Humans (96%), Calibans (2%), Other (2%) |
| Languages | Angol*, Casian, Frankonet, Hoja, Ija, indigenous languages, many others |
| Religions | Church of the Lesser God, Marius Albius, Roman pantheon, Church of the Almighty Dollar, many others |
| Government | Anarchy, localized tyranny |
| Ruler(s) | None |
| Darklord(s) | The (Dark) One, currently a.k.a. Janie Augustus |
| Nationality | None |
| Analog | Post-apocalyptic USA[1] |
| Related Categories | |
| Locations in Divided States | |
| Transportation in Divided States | |
| Inhabitants of Divided States | |
| Former Inhabitants of Divided States | |
| Flora of Divided States | |
| Fauna of Divided States | |
| Native Monsters of Divided States | |
First mentioned in the fiction piece "A Darkness Falls" in Quoth the Raven Issue 32, the Divided States are a domain torn from the same parallel Earth as Vieuxlyons at the close of its 19th-century Civil War. Although the land is vast and has a large population, it is scarred by devastating wars and the impact of terrifying weapons of mass destruction, owing to the manipulations of its Darklord, the (Dark) One.
History
The history of the alternate Earth the Divided States originate from diverges noticeably from that of the real-world United States, dating to times well before the American Civil War.
Now-sunken Doggerland was the cradle of the world's - and by extension the Divided States' and Vieuxlyon's - magical tradition.
The Romans hijacked the emergent Christianity's rise, supplanting it with the cult of Marius Albius and driving Christianity into hiding.
Owing to the actions and schemes of the (Dark) One and its then-mate, the Other, the American Civil War lasted twice as long on the parallel Earth. The signing of the peace treaty, which was to be held at Harvard University, became the scene of the Harvard Massacre when bombs went off throughout the college. Although the peace treaty survived and was ratified thanks to the actions of the Other, ravenous zombies surged forth from the ruined college, spreading carnage and pestilence before they could be destroyed.
At this point, the Divided States had already been drawn into the Demiplane of Dread.
The States struggled to maintain cohesion in the following years, with numerous 'minor' civil wars and other disasters breaking out as the One worked to create new conflict. This came to a head in the early twenty-first century by the local calendar - 740 BC - when the One caused violence to erupt in Washington DC[2]. The vice-president shot the president, being convinced that he was saving the nation from an unworthy ruler. The president's bodyguards ran wild throughout the White House, killing with abandon. Someone got their hands on the presidential emergency satchel and placed a call; someone else was too quick to obey; a nuclear strike annihilated Washington DC, vaporizing what central authority existed in the land.
The States ripped themselves apart after this instead of establishing a new central authority. Most of the land exists in a state of anarchy, with the biggest bullies establishing local tyrannies and fiefdoms by the strength of fist, boot and bullet. Ironically, the disintegration of the States coincided with the domain's merging with the rest of the Wartorn Cluster.
Geography
Washington DC is a burning and radioactive ruin to this day, with local mutants (Calibans created due to the irradiation of locals) and madmen (cultists who venerate the last president) fighting each other over control of the wrecked city... and hunting each other as food.
Downstream, the river Potomac[3] is deadly poison, and much of the state of Virginia[4] has been abandoned.
A "New Detroit" has been mentioned, with some suggestions that the original Detroit has collapsed for unknown reasons.
Many cities are described as polluted, foul-smelling hell-holes, due to there being no more effort to enforce environmental and labour laws, and maintenance to local sewers being spotty at best. Some cities have been destroyed in riots caused by the proselytizing of the Church of the Lesser God.
Terrain
Large areas of the domain are noted to be war-scarred, with great swaths of farmland having been reduced to badlands, either due to lack of people tending it or due to having been subjected to bombing. The great roads of the Divided States' heyday still exist, connecting cities, and are the safest way to travel. Safety is completely relative, however, given that they are used by "rolling gangs", bandits who travel in motorized packs and assault both travelers and isolated communities for goods and slaves.
Frontiers
Although part of the Wartorn Cluster, the Divided States are separated from their closest neighbour - the domain of Raba to the east - by the fog-shrouded, storm-tossed Sea of Torment. Traffic between the domains is highly infrequent and hazardous, in no small part due to the (Dark) One often closing the domain's borders.
Magic
Arcane magic is known as "Sorcery" or "Magick" in the Divided States. It is constructed out of Words of Power. Words can be discovered through meditation, as members of the Society of the Wandering Eye demonstrate in "A Darkness Falls". (Other sources exist, such as written records or master-to-apprentice instruction.) Spells are composed by arranging the Words one knows in sentence-like structures, with sufficiently clever and motivated spellcasters being able to create wholly new spells out of known Words.
Divine magic is the territory of the various churches of the domain, and is not dependent on Words of Power, with whole spells being granted to people of sufficient faith. Its use is much more rare than that of arcane magic, however - and arcane magic itself is rare enough, being used mostly by the Society of the Wandering Eye, the Lotus Society, and the priesthood of Marius Albius.
