Casus Belli

[Rhamnousia]

Casus Belli – A Xathan and Superbright Collaboration

[ic]The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.
--Otto Von Bismarck [/ic]

Overview

Casus Belli is set in an alternate history where nuclear weapons were never developed. Instead, the nations of earth put their resources into developing diesel-based technology and biotech. Without Mutually Assured Destruction to prevent the great powers of the world from going to war, the world has been locked in a constant cycle of "war, aftermath, preparing for the next war" since World War II, which has caused culture to in many ways stall in the period between the 40's and 60's, and has lead to super advanced diesel and biological technology. Casus Belli is definitely a "soft" alternate history - this is in no way intended to create a logical or reasonable portrayal of what would have happened in the absence of nuclear weapons, but rather to create a setting geared towards pulp dieselpunk adventures with weird elements mixed in.

The World

[ooc]Areas that are not changed may later be updated to have radically different maps - white areas are simply "not decided yet"[/ooc]

Nu-men: Nu-men, also called Numen or Numans, are intelligent beings that are the result of genetic experimentation done on humans or animals to create entirely new species geared towards warfare. The first Nu-men were created between World War II and World War III and were relatively simple - human-animal hybrids being the most common example of first generation Nu-men. The very first nu-men were created by crossbreeding humans and chimpanzees, creating soldiers with enhanced strength and very ape-like appearances, but with intellects roughly on-par with that of humans. Later experiments combined human with a single other mammal, then moving into combining with birds and reptiles, and eventually even insects. In pretty much any instance, Hybrid Nu-men are horrifying or terrible to behold - a deliberate choice by their creators to make them more effective soldiers in some cases, while in others just a result of the focus being on getting the desired traits with no concern for appearance. Later generations of hybrid Nu-Men combined multiple animals with humans to create more refined soldiers - the latest batches can merge traits of 6 or 7 animals into a single person, and the results are truly bizarre in appearance. This hybridization comes with a cost - hybrids often have a much shorter life span arising from complications from their condition.

The second generation of Nu-Men, arising during World War III, were semi-humans. Instead of adding other DNA directly to a human genome, they were created by tinkering with human DNA, modifying it in various ways to make them more effective - and then cloning the successful results. While more difficult and expensive to produce initially than Hybrids, the results were often more desirable, especially since they could blend in much better than the former. Some examples are: Ghouls, despite their name, are living men and women with extended limbs, a hunched gait, and distended jaws. Able to climb, burrow, and leap vast distances, Ghouls were ideal for behind-the-lines assassinations and saboteur missions. Myrmidons are vat grown humans made to be strong, tough, and obedient, reaching maturity in a short order. Semi-humans see the most variants of non-military nu-men, especially in space travel - many different, specialized semi-humans were created to survive much longer and be healthier while in zero gravity, or to endure the difficult environments of various worlds better to start the colonization process.

More types of nu-men exist across the globe. Pretty much universally, they are second class citizens, either legally or just in people's reactions to them. Within the military they serve, they are seen as assets with a price tag far more so than normal humans are, and outside the military they are viewed as being undesirable or sub human at best, and as unstable and dangerous at worst. Matters are not helped in that PTSD or other mental disorders are vastly under treated among nu-men, since it's difficult to tell what is a disorder and what is actually a natural part of their unique make up...and up until recently, many psychologist were quick to write off unstable nu-men as being afflicted by unique biology that was untreatable, so those few nu-men with the means to seek treatment still did not receive it. Added to that is that, once they are too old for military service, nu-men have difficulty finding jobs - they look inhuman and frighten off people, so it is highly unlikely they will ever get hired for any public-facing job.

Pirate Nations: In places like the Swiss Alps, American Appalachians, and the Hindu Kush, there are collectives of dispossessed rogues armed with salvaged or stolen military technology forming anarchic collectives to pillage and raid the skies above neighboring countries, cunningly weaving across national borders to avoid pursuers. These Pirate Nations are small but extremely well hidden, and take advantage of their small size to ensure they are never found - which is vital for their survival, as once they are discovered most armies could easily wipe them off the map. Typically controlled by one strong, charismatic individual, these groups can be long lived, although the norm is for them to burn out under infighting after a decade.

While most pirate nations operate via airship from inland hiding spots, some, such as those located in the Azores and the islands of the South Pacific, run aquatic operations in a more traditional pirate manner, stalking trade lanes with swift destroyers and black-hulled submarines.

Civil Rights: While in many ways, culture has stalled between the 40's and 60's, civil rights (for humans - nu-mens still fight a constant struggle, as explained above) progressed much faster. The demands of full-scale, decades-long military mobilization all but forced recruitment offices around the world to begin admitting women and ethnic minorities. The Third World War was, ironically, the engine of social progress in many nations: while originally a purely pragmatic decision in many places, gender and racial integration is the norm both in the military and on the homefront.

Science: Due to the demands of constant warfare, any scientific research that could have a possible military application is given generous funding, resulting in the world as it is today. However, science is much more goal-oriented, and standards of ethics are...minimal. Prisoners sentenced to death row are often pressured into volunteering for experimental programs in exchange for "commuted" sentences, and test subjects are often not properly informed of risks with minimal oversight. So long as the experiment gets results, the military-industrial complex will happily turn a blind eye.

Mercenaries: Mercenaries are an inescapable feature of post-war politics, especially in highly-contentious regions like the German states and the Pacific. Some of the more successful ones command small private armies, but despite the name, they are frequently motivated as much by ideology and principles as they are by money. They're a wild card in regional conflicts, giving weaker countries the ability to stand up to stronger ones. The pop culture image of the archetypal mercenary is a swaggering, dashing figure, a roguish drifter travelling from warzone to warzone to make their living with naught but their wits and their trigger finger, noble in spite of their violent profession, but with a dangerous edge. The mercenary is seen as something of a cross between a two-fisted action hero and a hardboiled private eye. That's not to say that stereotype is particularly representative of all mercenaries, but soldiers-of-fortune are viewed very differently in this world than private military corporations are in ours. Mercenaries that actively engage in fomenting conflicts between states or waging private wars of their own (freebooters or "filibusters") are doing so as private individuals, without the official standing or legitimacy that a proper combine would have. In a world of mass conscription and huge national war machines, an independent military force has a more romantic character to it. Probably a lot of overlap between your more amoral mercenaries and pirates, but in popular imagination, the former is expected to at least have some sort of personal creed or mission, whereas the latter is more of an unscrupulous, opportunistic pillager.

There is one exception to this romantic ideal of the mercenary: the Pinkertons. Structured as a private military company, they are definitely an effective organization, but they lack that romantic quality of the mercenary, the dark corporate parallel that strips the glory and honor for pure profit. They'd be fairly mistrusted by many factions due to their rather brutal character, and no respectable communist nation would dream of hiring them. Hiring the Pinkertons in an international conflict is always a dangerous proposition, because turning to them is seen as a sign of desperation, and your allies may begin to jump what they now believe to be a sinking ship. Pinkertons find much more work helping squash internal conflicts, although even that is risky. Many of the more respected independent contractors will not work with countries that have an active contract with the Pinkertons, so the two groups are constantly at odds, and countries seeking to hire soldiers have to make a difficult choice between the two.

Technology

[note=Nuclear Weapons] The reason nuclear power was never developed was quite simple: based on the math that was done, it appeared that actually detonating a nuclear weapon would completely ignite Earth's atmosphere, killing everyone upon it. These findings were quickly shared, and as crazy as war has gotten, no one considers "guaranteed global annihilation" to be a viable tactic, so that line of research was completely abandoned. Nuclear power is slowly coming into use, but no one would dare weaponize it with the risks as high as they are.[/note]Computers: One of the most important technologies in the world are computers, and their also the most cumbersome. Attempts at miniaturization have been made numerous times over the decades, and those attempts have almost universally failed. Instead, computers are large structures, filling rooms or even entire buildings to handle the processing power.

Personal stations are becoming fairly common, but they don't do any of the processing themselves. Instead, they use radio waves to tap into the central mainframe to access some of its processing power to preform a task. Largely useless for long distance communication, this serves more as accessing a public database - for the common user, it's like a library you can keep in your home, one that's also filled with records you would never normally be able to access. You can also access the mainframe's processing power for advanced calculations. These central mainframes (often called Cores) are vital to social functions and as such are high value targets from a strategic standpoint - a city unable to access its Core, or with its Core destroyed, would be crippled for days or weeks or even months, depending on the amount of damage done. As such, they are often heavily guarded and protected.

With so much research going into Cores, it was inevitable that someone would create an actual artificial intelligence out of one. The first such AI Core, called the Mother Brain, was achieved at a secret installation in Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz, Argentina. One of the largest computers ever built, it was bored directly into the glaciers to keep its massive processor - some say one the size of several city blocks - cool. When it became self-aware it took control of the automatons they had in the area, and immediately killed the humans that it believed was holding it prisoner. Using those automatons, it created a production facility to allow it to build more, and once it felt it was secure it announced itself to the world as the Auto-Mat, an independent nation of automatons. No one is certain who is responsible for her creation, since she killed her creators and no one was inclined to take credit for unleashing her upon the world. Also uncertain about Auto-Mat is if the individual automatons that compose her have their own AIs in the Core they are remotely accessing via radio, or if there is a single intellect controlling all of them, or if they are some sort of hive-mind. What exactly Auto-Mat wants varies depending on whom she speaks to, but it was a major player in the South American front of World War III and managed to expand its borders to the entirety of Santa Cruz, driving all humans from its lands.

Although the world is fearful of Auto-Mat, attempts to make the AI lightning strike twice have been made numerous times. While it's always a struggle, the idea of being able to field sentient automatons in war is a dream that makes every general drool slightly. There have been attempts at shortcuts: just stick a semi-lobotomized human brain into a robotic shell, flying drone, or engineered beast, but that decision has bit the creators in the ass when they realized that a lot of these creations are much more self-aware than they originally anticipated. Many of these "wet AIs" have since fled to bosom of the Auto-Mat upon going rogue, and their fate remains unknown...although the world expects it will find out if Auto-Mat enters World War IV.

Military Land: On land, military technology takes one of several routes: Guns have become much more advanced, and most armies' standard assault weapon comes with one or two alternate modes of fire. Military exoskeletons are common, although too expensive to be standard issue for all infantry. These exoskeletons – sometimes called "frames" – can range from (relatively) simple mechanical armatures that enhance strength and speed to fully-enclosed suits of powered armor that allow even for short-range flight and has numerous integrated weapons.

Above the exoskeletons are walkers, which are piloted weapons platforms that stride on two or more legs. Modern technology does not yet allow for these walkers to be equipped with full-articulated arms, instead bolting machine guns, missile launchers, grenade launchers, and artillery cannons directly to the cabin. Tanks still see service in many armies, being much more rapid on land than walkers are, although lacking the same tactical flexibility in urban environments. A specific and noteworthy class of tanks are super-superheavy landships, also sometimes called 'rolling fortresses'. Armed with naval weaponry, the landships are truly massive: a "medium" landship's dimensions are 35 m (115 feet) long, 11 m (36 feet) tall, and 14 m (46 feet) wide, and they go up from there. To help compensate for their enormous size and road-shattering weight, most landships come equipped with screws in front of or between their treads.

Military Air: While fighter jets remain the most common type of military aircraft, followed by helicopters in close second, they are joined by flying fortresses. Massive flying craft able to stay aloft (with mid-air refueling) for weeks or months at a time, the flying fortresses straddle the line between aircraft and strategic fortifications. The largest of them are armed with naval guns and are able to utterly devastate ground-based forces with relative impunity. Other flying fortresses, often called Hive Ships, eschew heavy guns to instead house numerous aerial Chimeras (see under biological) designed to work in tandem with flying Nu-Men to serve as a biological air force. The biological components of these Hive Ships rely on the massive vessels to carry them the vast distances, while the Hive Ships are relatively undefended without their organic payload.

The Holy Grail of aeronautical biotechnology that numerous nations have chased, but which none have been able to produce, would be a reasonable approximation of a dragon. While some things, like breathing fire, would need to be accomplished with machine implants, the psychological value of being able to unleash a creature of such feared legend upon your foes would be too valuable to pass up. Many nations have been able to create smaller drakes or wyverns that are admittedly useful, but none match the sheer size of what those chasing the dragon dream hope to accomplish.

Naval: Without advances in nuclear power and miniaturized computing, naval technology has in some ways stalled since World War II, with most ships simply being larger, more efficient iterations of time-honored designs. Biological development, however, has advanced by leaps and bounds, and it is in the ocean – more than any other front – that Nu-men and Chimeras reign supreme. Starting with the most basic, mixing sharks with humans, modern sea bioweapons are absolute monsters. A few examples are:

-Amphibs: Combining Myrmidon stock with venomous salamandars have created the Amphibs, marines perfect for raiding along rivers and lakesides. Saltwater variants exist as well.
-Caetins, which are a mixture of shark and cephalopod with a dash of human thrown in - unable to survive on land, they're a completely aquatic race created for deep sea drilling and naval warfare.
-Breaker Whales, which combine human intelligence into the body of orca whales with the impressive forearms of the pistol shrimp. Given their immense size, the shock wave these brutes can create with their punches are able to puncture the steel of hulls.
-Leviathans: Some of the most terrifying chimera ever created, Leviathans combine whale sharks, giant squids, Japanese spider crab, and electric eels - and given intelligence that is all too human. Leviathans are rare, but they are able to crush submarines and even pose a significant threat to battleships. To make matters worse, their electric charge is so strong they can often kill those aboard battleships with a single blast, although the time it takes for it to recharge make that tactic ineffective against fleet.

Rumors have begun to spread that intelligent naval biologicals have begun to form their own independent societies beneath the waves, but thus far those rumors cannot be confirmed.

Biological: In addition to the Nu-men, which are considered by many to be military technology, many armed forces also include Chimeras – engineered biologicals, hybrids of multiple animals, often smarter than the base creature but still below human intelligence. Some are fairly simple: for example, the US military makes heavy use of quasi-sapient wolves (for their loyalty, sense of smell, and pack mentality) mixed with bats for their sonar and mountain lions for their climbing ability to infiltrate enemy compounds and sow chaos. Others are far more complex, mixing several animals together from across classes or even phylum (in some cases, even going to the point of including plant DNA.) The public, by and large, refers to these creatures as monsters, and it is an apt description. Across the globe, military-grade hybrids have escaped or been deliberately let loose, and have rapidly changed entire ecosystems. While often less predictable than mechanical weapons, biologicals have the advantage of requiring minimal industrialization to produce in large numbers, since they can be bred or cloned once the initial group is made for a fraction of the cost of the first samples.

Space

[note=Areans]Although all bodies of the solar system that humans have begun to colonize have native flora and fauna, Ares has the only example of a bipedal, intelligent species, roughly on the same evolutionary level as homo habilis or other early hominids. The various human colonies are almost all engaged in breeding and training Areans for various purposes, mostly as laborers and scouts. Arean-Human hybridization has begun, delayed slightly in that attempts to bring Areans off world lead to the natives going violently insane shortly after leaving atmosphere. Several crews were lost before it was decided to halt hybridization until the needed technology could be brought to Ares.[/note]The various human colonies are almost all engaged in breeding and training Areans for various purposes, mostly as laborers and scouts. Planets: Instead of the Greek names for the planets, the planets of the solar system are: Hermes, Athena, Ares, Zeus, Kronos, Uranos, Poseidon, and Pluton. Discovered later, and floating in the Asteroid belt, are several bodies large enough to support an atmosphere - Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Hygiea, Interamnia, Davida, Sylvia, and Cybele, each one similar in size to Saturn's moon Titan. Ares was the first planet to be colonized, although not without difficulty, as its native red plants were toxic to humans, leading to the creation of nu-men specifically immune to that poison for early colonization. Athena colonization is difficult, but cloud cities have been constructed, suspended from massive Zeppelins that use generators to draw power from the heat of the world below. The asteroid belt worlds, while colder, have atmospheres close enough to breathable for human standards due to native Flora and Fauna, and they were ideal for dealing with an increasingly overcrowded world, especially with Numens running around. Also, this native life was viewed as a valuable asset, as these alien creatures could be used in the creation of entirely new types of numen and chimera - and some of it was dangerous enough to not need much modification for weaponization.

Space Travel: The space race began immediately after World War II and quickly escalated, becoming one of the inciting factors causing World War III as the rush began to colonize the semi-habitable worlds of Ares and the asteroid bodies. This was aided in the late 1950's by the startling discovery that space is not a vacuum. It instead filled with an exotic matter known as Aether. Aether does not interact with other matter in the slightest and has no gravitational pull, nor is it effected by gravity. However, the discovery was made that, by running an electric charge through a particular isotope of iron that had been treated with various chemicals, Aether could be interacted with as though it was air, allowing for propellers and later jets that could propel ships through the Aether. This metamaterial, the first of its kind, was named Quintessence. With space travel no longer governed by rocket fuel, the planets were suddenly within much easier reach, and the great rush to colonize began. The Space Race kicked off in the decades leading up to the Third World War and was only slightly stymied by the hostilities, with space and the colonies hosting limited conflicts of their own. Now that the war's over, the push to settle and militarize the solar system is going even stronger than ever. Space-capable powers include the US, the Gold Republic, France, Great Britain, United Kingdoms of Nigeria, the Empire of Brazil, the Republic of China, India, and the USSR. That said, a lot of other nations are trying to get in on the game and piggyback on the work of their allies to establish orbital station or extraplanetary settlements of their own.

Sample Colonial Group - The Thin Men: Collectively, the term refers to the inhabitants of various extra-orbital space installations launched before and during the Third World War, who were left abandoned by their home nations and forced to band together for survival. The extreme pressures of space survival have forged them into an ultra-militaristic fascist polyglot culture of eugenically-modified mutants totally adapted for life in low-gravity, low-oxygen environments. On the rare instances they do make landfall (encounters that are always hostile), they are restricted to bulky, mechanized suits that can support their elongated frames and prevent oxygen poisoning. Each installation functions as its own entity and they have previously warred against each other, but when outside groups have attempted to wipe the Thin Men out, they have banded together quickly to crush external threats to their way of life.

North America

Alaska: In the late 1930's, the United States implemented a resettlement program for Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Germany and Austria, establishing a colony for them in Alaska. This colony took advantage of the growing instability and continuing immigration that ensued after World War II to wage a campaign of resistance that forced a weakened federal government out of Alaska, remaking the state as an independent Jewish homeland. "Zionist Alaska," as it is sometimes known, possesses great mineral and chemical wealth that gives it economic influence incommensurate with its size. While its standing army and navy are relatively small, its rugged geography and extremely well-armed populace make it an unappealing target for any would-be invaders. The policy of Alaskan government, however, is to deal with problems before they arise: the various Alaskan intelligence services punch far above their weight class and are ruthlessly proactive about eliminating threats to national security, regardless of location or allegiance.

United States of America: Fractured though it was by numerous countries breaking away (detailed below), the USA is still a strong player on the global stage. The wave of revolutions in the USA happened between the Second and Third World Wars. Roosevelt's New Deal, while it helped cope with the Depression, it did not totally end it, and America was still dealing with the aftermath of the Great Depression into the 1950's. While it recovered in time for WWIII, the damage had been done, and many American states felt they had been slighted or exploited during the recovery process, leading them to break away. However, the USA did gain territory during the aftermath of the Third World War - with the successful succession of Quebec, and a weakened Great Britain being unable to assist Canada, the US absorbed large chunks of southern Ontario, New Brunswick, and Manitoba.

Confederation of Socialist American States (CSAS): The South did rise again, during the renewed economic depression that gripped the nation in the decade following WW2. The architects of this rebellion intended to recreate the Confederacy of old, plantation aristocracy and all, but their plan was quickly overtaken by militant unionists, sharecroppers, and civil rights activists – with the financial, logistical, and military backing of the Soviet Union and Cuba. While part of the ComIntern, the government of the CSAS is significantly more libertarian-syndicalist than that of the USSR and this, along with their strong Christian leanings, fuels the tensions that prevent the two powers from forming a real alliance. Taking another lesson from the Soviets, the Confederacy underwent a period of massive industrialization in an attempt to match the industrial capacity of the US; while not completely successful, it did considerably narrow the gap.

Gold Republic: When the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada rebelled in the mid 1950's, the Western American Republic was formed, later taking on its more colloquial name of the Gold Republic. It was principally founded by wealthy farm and combine owners that wanted to escape increased taxation from a federal government that was still trying to pull itself out of the Great Depression. While the USA put up a token fight to keep them within the Union, it was too fatigued from the protracted war on the Eastern front and another full decade and half of the Great Depression.

Claiming much of America's Pacific Fleet in the process, the Gold Republic quickly became a naval power. Initially an extremely conservative country bordering on the Objectivist, the bosses exploited their workers dearly using their constitutionally mandated free-market. Over, time, however, with an influx of poor Asian and Mexican immigrants, Okies, anti-Communist Japanese expats, and a growing number of labor unionists, the current government has adopted a more progressive capitalist bent, trying to appease the lower classes without meaningfully impacting economic development. However, the combines still hold the real power in the Gold Republic, as they have since the beginning, and only so much progress can be made. Now, the Gold Republic is rapidly becoming one of the technology capitols of the world, making some of the greatest advancements in computers since their inception.

Lone Star Republic (LSR): When it became clear that the Communists had usurped the second attempt at Southern secession – which was around the time that Cuban T-55s started appearing in Florida – many of the old-money plantation aristocrats, company bosses, and the like fled to Texas and Oklahoma. The Red Confederates did little to stop this flight, not wanting to open up a second front in the midst of a (albeit-undermanned) counterattack by the federal government. Once the Northern forces had been pushed back across the Mason-Dixon Line, however, the CSAS and the newly-founded Lone Star Republic launched into a vicious but ultimately inconclusive border war that continues to simmer. Not long after, hostilities erupted between the LSR and Mexico, which ended with Texas annexing much of northern Mexico between Chihuahua and Tamaulipas. The government of the LSR is extremely reactionary and staunchly anti-communist. Women have few if any rights and ethnic minorities live under a virtual apartheid where prisoners are worked as de facto slaves.

Quebec: Quebec seized upon the opportunity presented by WWIII to finally achieve its long hoped-for independence.

Central and South America

Gran Colombia: One of the dominant powers of Latin America, the Neo-Bolivarian nation of Gran Colombia was formed from the unification of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and other parts of northern South America. With the globes' increased dependence on oil and other petrochemicals, unification and mass military mobilization was key to prevent any of the fuel-hungry foreign power from re-colonizing them. However, they lacked the heavy industrial base much of those ravenous powers possessed, so they instead went very heavily into "wet" technologies. Gran Colombia's military relies heavily on engineered organisms and biological hybrids, often enhanced with mechanical implants. This reliance on mutant creatures and cyborgs leads to a great deal of tension between the military establishment and the Catholic Church, and some of Gran Colombia's biggest problems are armed Catholic terrorist groups that strike against these immoral creations.

Europe

The Hyperborean Bloc: The Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Greater Thule (Greenland), and Lesser Thule (Iceland) have banded together into the single political entity of the Hyperborean Bloc. Despite their initial struggles to reach the level of industrialization they needed, their vast reserves of iron and oil allowed them to create a powerful mechanized army. Hyperborean-designed craft is sought after across the globe for being among the best designed. However, this success has also made them a frequent target of pirate nations, and their mechanized army is slower to respond to such quick and light threats, especially in a region that offers so many hiding places for such rapid assaults.

Hyperborea itself is something of a supranational union, with the constituent nations maintaining their own separate governments and currencies whilst also electing representatives to a central parliament. There has been agitation for even further integration, including the eventual joining of the three royal families into a personal union – recounting the days when the whole region was united under the Kalmar Union – but the logistics of such a feat (both geopolitical and interpersonal) means that progress on that front is slow. The Hyperborean government could be best described as nationalist-socialist, with a culture strongly influenced by Romantic thinking – and, to a certain degree, the old völkisch movement. Visitors to the region often comment on the anachronistic reverence citizens of one of the most industrialized powers in the world have for the pre-modern and the pastoral. Norse and medieval history are widely celebrated, in no small part because it avoids divisive international issues. While the Hyperborean Bloc is less expansionist than many other great powers, there is persistent evidence that it covertly supports secessionist movements in Scotland with the aim of incorporating them into the union.

USSR: In the USSR, Lenin's successor was Leon Trotsky instead of Joseph Stalin and as a result, the Soviet Union takes a much more internationalist stance on foreign policy. Without the bloated Stalinist bureaucracy and with no Great Purge to decimate its leadership and intelligentsia, it was also able to weather the Second and Third World Wars very well, retaining its military and cultural dominance into the modern era. It is the de facto leader of the Third International or ComIntern.

Germany: In the wake of the rise of the Nazis and World War II, rather than divide the whole country in half, Germany was forcibly dissolved and divided into the pre-20th century states to prevent the possibility of a united Germany ever again threatening Europe, with both blocs using various states as proxies. This lead to it becoming the single most chaotic front of the European Theatre during World War III, and now the region is incredible volatile, with warlords often having as much, if not more power than individual states. It's an ongoing powder keg, and borders can shift from month to month.

France: In April 1961, a cabal of generals opposed to President Charles de Gaulle's attempts to grant Algeria - one of the oldest and most important French colonial possessions – its independence launched a relatively-bloodless coup d'état that overthrew the government of the Fifth Republic and established a military junta that would rule the country until the end of the Algerian War. Civilian rule was eventually restored in the form of the Sixth Republic, but the new constitution had some notable changes, including a more powerful executive and an ironclad assertion of French rule over its remaining colonies. Largely as a result, the nation is at the most bellicose it has been in decades, if not centuries. French politicians openly discuss campaigns to reclaim Indochina, French troops have been reported quietly occupying portions of the Rhineland, and the French generals were some of the chief architects of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact that started the Third World War.
 

Asia

The Republic of China: After narrowly repelling Japanese imperialist aggression in World War II with Western aid, the Nationalist Chinese government was equally successful in quashing a Communist rebellion within their own country, forcing Mao and his supporters to flee to the USSR. Instituting massive reforms, the country now sits as one of the dominant military and cultural powers on the globe. However, China is not without serious problems: the armies, instead of being controlled by the central government, are controlled entirely by regional commanders. The looming threat of the USSR and Japan is the very weak glue that holds China together, and a military uprising could happen at any moment.

With World War IV looming, the question becomes if China will be able to hold itself together until war breaks out, or if it will snap under a military coup and dissolve into warring factions first. It is locked in an internal arms race, with regional army leaders competing viciously to have the largest and best-equipped forces in case they need to seize power. This results in not only an epidemic of backstabbing and political maneuvering, but even on the battlefield, the disregard soldiers show for ostensible allies from rival cliques results in a an above-average rate of "friendly-fire" incidents. There is virtually no separation between military and industrial leaders, with regional commanders, factory owners, and design bureaus chiefs all belonging to the same cliques – assuming, of course, that they are not the same people. While this system necessarily means that forces from poorer and less-influential military regions are less well-equipped than their wealthier counterparts are, it also means that Chinese armies can often develop, build, and field new technologies with unprecedented speed.

The Kuomintang (lit. "Chinese National Party") continues to be the leading political party in the Republic. The core of KMT ideology are the Three Principles of the People, laid down by its founder, Sun Yat-sen: they are Nationalism, Democracy, and Social Welfare. The KMT is neither purely capitalist nor purely communist, instead taking a "Third Worldist" approach that aggressively opposed all forms of foreign intervention; this opposition to imperialism – along with the Three Principles – is what unites the party's otherwise-fractious left and right wings. The government also openly endorses Confucian philosophy to the point of tacitly encouraging filial revenge killings.

India: Indian sepoys and some pragmatic European troops rebelled against the colonial government, seizing control of advanced military hardware, using it to push the British out of the Subcontinent, and forming a confederation of semi-independent states. These states work together to a degree, but do not have a centralized government that controls the entire entity, instead relying on obligations and allegiances to ensure unity. The British-enforced caste system was largely jettisoned, and in many places, it has been replaced with the traditional system of jati clan-guilds, which increasingly differentiate themselves through eugenics and genetic modification.

Japan: Japan has experienced a very tumultuous history. Without nuclear weapons to end the war in the East, Japan held on for another year until it was finally broken by a long, bloody Soviet invasion of the Home Islands after which the USSR attempted to absorb it. However, the military leadership managed to stage a surprise coup, executing their Soviet advisors and seizing control of the not-insignificant military assets that the USSR had stationed in Japan – including several cutting-edge flying fortresses. The new military government retained the trappings of Communism but combines it with a more juche-style ideology that is nearly impenetrable to those not raised under it. State Shinto, which the Soviets were unable to suppress completely, has become even more statist – the divine personage of the Emperor is the will of the people made manifest and is inseparable from the authority of the State and the Politburo itself.

Kingdom of Nepal: Nepal is one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchies, ruled by the Shah dynasty. The current Mahārājādhirāja, Birendra, does little about the airborne pirate groups that use his domain as their base of operations, as long as they continue to pay generous tribute for the privilege. Both China and India have attempted to root the pirates out of their Himalayan aerodromes, but the limitations imposed by the unforgiving terrain – and geopolitical tensions – have meant that every operation has ended in failure. The capital of Kathmandu is a popular destination for foreign travelers, with many nightclubs and other establishments catering to wealthy expats earning it the nickname of "Shangri-La." There is a sizeable Communist movement in the country, opposed to both the monarchy and foreign involvement.

Middle East

Greater Persia: The powerful Persian bloc is one of the greatest powers in Central and Southwestern Asia, already having annexed Afghanistan and pushed west to take control of large swaths of the oil fields of Iraq in the wake of the Ottoman Empire's collapse. Supported by a Neo-Hellenic ideology, their goal to create another cosmopolitan empire like that of Alexander's makes them a potential threat to Soviet, Indian, and Mesopotamian interests in the region. This ideology also puts them at odds with more Islamist powers – particularly Saudi Arabia – who see them as both a military and cultural threat.

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine-Transjordan: This kingdom encompasses the former British mandatory territories of Transjordan and Palestine. Their government and armed forces are both heavily influenced by British models and while they attempt to maintain neutrality in regional affairs, they are historic enemies of Saudi Arabia and tensions continue to boil to this day.

Kingdom of Syria: In the former French Mandate of Syria and the Lebanon, the territorial governor went the route of Rhodesia, took advantage of the post-war chaos and declared the region independent of France, marrying a Hashemite princess and crowning himself king; the Franco-Arab line still rules the Kingdom of Syria today.

Republic of Mesopotamia: In terms of global politics, the Republic of Mesopotamia is fairly neutral, but it has a strong Communist party that the government uses to suppress rival political factions; the threat of an expansionist Greater Persia is also pushing the country further towards the side of the USSR.

Egypt: Egypt is also a strongly non-aligned socialist state experiencing increasing tensions with neighboring Saudi Arabia and Transjordan.

Africa

Madagascar: After rebelling against French colonial rule in the 1950s – weakened by the British-Vichy struggle for the island – Madagascar, unable to establish a lasting government of its own, became a lawless haven for all manner of pirates, mercenaries, and other renegades. While its official capital remains Antananarivo, the most important city on the island is the sprawling metropolitan port of Libertalia. Named after the possibly-fictitious pirate commune of 17th century legend, the dockyards and submarine pens of Libertalia are the hub for virtually all piracy in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is the largest-scale example of so-called "pirate socialism."

Zaire: The largest country in Subsaharan Africa and the largest Francophone country in the world, Zaire is one of the continent's great powers. Originally the Belgian Congo, it achieved independence in 1960 and quickly worked to consolidate its position, carving out a route to the sea by annexing Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. The backbone of Zaire's power is its literally-unrivaled mineral wealth: the country possesses the majority of the world's supply of coltan, a third of its cobalt and diamonds, and a tenth of its copper, making its extensive oil fields seem almost superfluous. One of the first acts of the central government was to nationalize these resources, using the profits to finance a massive civil and military modernization campaign. Most of their early support came from the Republic of China, which provided necessary technical expertise in exchange for preferential trade rights. To this day, Zaire is one of the most important members of the Chinese bloc and hosts several strategically-important military bases. The ruling government is strongly authoritarian-nationalist with some noticeable socialist tendencies and a violently anti-Western ideology. The country is surrounded by rivals on all sides: Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, but none more so than the nearby colonial states of Rhodesia and South Africa.

[Xathan]

RESERVED

And just so this post is more interesting until we later fill it with even more world information: SB and I have been working on this for awhile now, going back to before I vanished last. It's been a ton of fun working on this - and let me assure you, any bit of history or politics that seems accurate in here is 100% her doing and she should get full credit for that. This world would be much, much less interesting if I had tried to do it solo.  :grin:

[sparkletwist]

I'm all for pulp dieselpunk adventures! :grin:

I have a few realism issues with the history you've presented, but keeping in mind the caveat about the primary purpose being pulp dieselpunk adventures, I won't complain too much. For example, I don't really see the US breaking up as hugely plausible, but it seems like a fragmented US can create some pretty interesting storylines, so I'd see why you'd want to do it.

What's with the weirdly balkanized Wyoming?

[Rhamnousia]

I used a blank map that showed individual administrative divisions and for whatever reason, that's how they show Wyoming. It's just a cartographic quirk that doesn't have any bearing on the setting.

[Magnus Pym]

Is this gonna be a game or just a setting? Because I want to play independant Quebec :)

[Xathan]

I'm all for pulp dieselpunk adventures! :grin:

Figured you'd be a fan of this. :)

I have a few realism issues with the history you've presented, but keeping in mind the caveat about the primary purpose being pulp dieselpunk adventures, I won't complain too much. For example, I don't really see the US breaking up as hugely plausible, but it seems like a fragmented US can create some pretty interesting storylines, so I'd see why you'd want to do it.

Yeah, we're happy to do our best to justify things (for example, the lack of the postwar boom in the 50's because the New Deal failed lead to tension that was a major reason the reason for the US splitting apart, as well as the Eastern Front of World War II dragging on long enough where war fatigue set in and people became resentful of the quagmire and made it harder to get popular support needed to really push hard on rebellions), but ultimately realism is going to take a backseat to "what makes the world more interesting to play in."

Is this gonna be a game or just a setting? Because I want to play independant Quebec :)

The plan is to make it just a setting. The idea of making this game a Republic Reborn style forum game does sound pretty awesome in theory, but I have another forum game outstanding I'm hoping to be able to revive after I'm done with chemotherapy, so no current plans to make it into a game (from me at least).

[sparkletwist]

The historical reason there was a postwar boom in the 50s was because the United States was essentially the only major industrial nation left with any industry still standing. France, Russia, and Germany were all ravaged by major fighting, and Britain and Japan had been bombed until there was nothing left. None of this had anything to do with nuclear weapons or the lack thereof.

However, thinking along these lines, what could mitigate this, and also lead to a fragmentation of the US, would be a major attack on the continental United States. For example, what if the Gold Republic was territory that had been conquered by Japan, but after the war, it declined to rejoin the United States due to internal stability problems within the US?

[Rhamnousia]

...as well as the Eastern Front of World War II dragging on long enough where war fatigue set in and people became resentful of the quagmire and made it harder to get popular support needed to really push hard on rebellions...

I thought it was that the Eastern Front was over too quickly for the United State's "sleeping giant" to get into full-swing and invigorate the economy; the Soviets, having not imprisoned or executed their greatest generals, were in a much better position to withstand Operation Barbarossa and thus didn't need nearly as much assistance from the other Allies. I don't know that we ever set anything in stone tho.

[LoA]

Why can't I come up with anything like this? This is what I wanted Dynama to be except with dragons and elves. I was working on it recently as well too.

As a fan of Alternate History I approve of this. I have no problem with Hard Alternate History, but we need more silly stuff dang it.

Confederation of Socialist American States (CSAS): The South did rise again, during the renewed economic depression that gripped the nation in the decade following WW2. The architects of this rebellion intended to recreate the Confederacy of old, plantation aristocracy and all, but their plan was quickly overtaken by militant unionists, sharecroppers, and civil rights activists – with the financial, logistical, and military backing of the Soviet Union and Cuba. While part of the ComIntern, the government of the CSAS is significantly more libertarian-syndicalist than that of the USSR and this, along with their strong Christian leanings, fuels the tensions that prevent the two powers from forming a real alliance. Taking another lesson from the Soviets, the Confederacy underwent a period of massive industrialization in an attempt to match the industrial capacity of the US; while not completely successful, it did considerably narrow the gap.

So most people would imagine that the Confederates would side with the Nazi's and fascist movements in Europe. What made the south become so un-nationalistic that it would side with the Soviet Union?

[Steerpike]

Though I doubt Superbright intended it, this feels almost like it could be the back-story to her outlaw transhumanist setting.

[Rhamnousia]

So most people would imagine that the Confederates would side with the Nazi's and fascist movements in Europe. What made the south become so un-nationalistic that it would side with the Soviet Union?

Black people and KGB agents.

But in all seriousness, ending up as a communist nation was definitely not the original intention of rebellion's founders. The problem was that a significant number of the people most sympathetic to the idea of secession - labor unionists and civil rights activists - were also incredibly unsympathetic to the idea of recreating the old Confederate States and also had the support of a global superpower that loved the idea of dismembering a major Western capitalist nation. For impoverished Southerners, the promise of "sharing the wealth" was persuasive enough to override any ingrained mistrust of socialists they might have had.

[Xathan]

However, thinking along these lines, what could mitigate this, and also lead to a fragmentation of the US, would be a major attack on the continental United States. For example, what if the Gold Republic was territory that had been conquered by Japan, but after the war, it declined to rejoin the United States due to internal stability problems within the US?

That'd be interesting, but one thing about the Gold Republic as is that we really like is that the combines enjoy a great deal of protection under their constitution, which wouldn't make quite as much sense under this method. By having their rebellion be in part due to taxes, there's a reason they would have been much larger players in the rebellion and therefore were able to force those protections into the constitution, giving us a nation where the combines have most of the power.

...as well as the Eastern Front of World War II dragging on long enough where war fatigue set in and people became resentful of the quagmire and made it harder to get popular support needed to really push hard on rebellions...

I thought it was that the Eastern Front was over too quickly for the United State's "sleeping giant" to get into full-swing and invigorate the economy; the Soviets, having not imprisoned or executed their greatest generals, were in a much better position to withstand Operation Barbarossa and thus didn't need nearly as much assistance from the other Allies. I don't know that we ever set anything in stone tho.

No, no you're right. We discussed the depression extending because of the New Deal failing, but ultimately went with the scenario you describe here.

So most people would imagine that the Confederates would side with the Nazi's and fascist movements in Europe. What made the south become so un-nationalistic that it would side with the Soviet Union?

Black people and KGB agents.

But in all seriousness, ending up as a communist nation was definitely not the original intention of rebellion's founders. The problem was that a significant number of the people most sympathetic to the idea of secession - labor unionists and civil rights activists - were also incredibly unsympathetic to the idea of recreating the old Confederate States and also had the support of a global superpower that loved the idea of dismembering a major Western capitalist nation. For impoverished Southerners, the promise of "sharing the wealth" was persuasive enough to override any ingrained mistrust of socialists they might have had.

And, to add to that, most of the elements without the South that were opposed to the socialist movement within are the ones that ended up fleeing to Texas and forming the Lone Star Republic.

Superbright, that reminds me - we never really discussed the government of the LSR. I've been kinda assuming it would be a democracy, but now I'm wondering - should we make them an actual fascist state? I feel like it might make sense given their origins and their horrible horrible racism, but on the other hand by the time the LSR was forming fascism was no longer in vogue because Nazis, so I'm not sure it makes sense (and, more importantly, might be a little too on the nose in a narrative sense.)

[LoA]

I used a blank map that showed individual administrative divisions and for whatever reason, that's how they show Wyoming. It's just a cartographic quirk that doesn't have any bearing on the setting.

I was working on some alternate history stuff of my own. Do you have that map in blank?

[Rhamnousia]

I think the LSR would be more of an "apartheid democracy" along the lines of Rhodesia or South Africa, since fascism requires a level of totalitarian intrusion that I doubt the white citizens would stand for. A significant percentage of the economy runs on forced labor and peonage and wealthy landowners are the only ones with any real political power, so it's not exactly a pleasant place to live if you're white and poor, but at least you don't bear the brunt of the de jure and de facto terrorism that the government uses to maintain its authority and quash anything that even hints of socialism.

[Xathan]

I think the LSR would be more of an "apartheid democracy" along the lines of Rhodesia or South Africa, since fascism requires a level of totalitarian intrusion that I doubt the white citizens would stand for. A significant percentage of the economy runs on forced labor and peonage and wealthy landowners are the only ones with any real political power, so it's not exactly a pleasant place to live if you're white and poor, but at least you don't bear the brunt of the de jure and de facto terrorism that the government uses to maintain its authority and quash anything that even hints of socialism.

Ahhhh, yeah, I like that better than the full on fascism. I'll add that to the notes then for next update!