But they can now get warm-water ports, transcontinental railways...
AND ALSACE-LORRAINE!!!
Map Thread XIV
- Thread starter MorningDew
- Start date
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But they can now get warm-water ports, transcontinental railways...
AND ALSACE-LORRAINE!!!
The precise origins of the Dactyl Rot are unknown to this day. While the leading theory is that the fungus was an isolated species, dredged up by construction on the rural Fujian coast in the early '30s, the arguments for the Northern hypothesis are still strong, and conspiracy theories abound. Regardless of how the mold was introduced to urban China, the Dactyl Rot took to the city like a duck to water. Aided by rising temperatures and sea levels, the Dactyl Rot grew rapidly on damp concrete, with finger-esque tendrils giving the mold its common name. The Chinese authorities had no idea of the threat, filing away the problem as an exaggeration. While maintenance workers complained of the mold being almost impervious to fungicide, with only the most toxic chemicals having any effect, most bureaucrats assumed that these workers were simply trying to avoid their jobs.
In 2037, the public began to feel the impact of the Rot. That summer, 54,691 children across China died of fungal meningitis. 7,425 died to fungal pneumonia.
The Dactyl Rot had reached critical mass. Its spores contaminated hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings. While an infection from the Rot could be resisted by a healthy adult, children could not effectively fight off the infection, and any effective anti-fungal agent would end up being as lethal as the disease. It was also noted that miscarriage rates skyrocketed, due to fetal infection. Panic and civil unrest swept the coastal cities, demanding that something be done to halt the crisis. The government's fact finding team's report indicated that it would be impossible to reverse the Rot's spread without causing irreparable damage and dislocating tens of millions. When the report leaked, protesters began to demand the end of the Communist government. Combined with the strains of environmental degradation and the trade war with the Pan-Oceanic Trade Pact, the Chinese public was at a breaking point. Something would have to give.
In 2039, with unrest rising and the death toll climbing into the hundreds of thousands, the Chairman of the Communist Party made a public announcement.
The Party would give.
That henceforth, the Chinese Communist Party would be dissolved.
That a interim government would carry out a country-wide referendum on a new democratic constitution and a comprehensive reclamation plan for the country.
Historians and political scientists often look back to this moment, noting that the provisional government and subsequent democratic government were composed of leading members of the CCP, and that even to this day the Chinese two-party system is dominated by the same networks as it was prior to de-communization. But in the moment, it was a new era for the People's Republic.
Nearly three decades out, China's democracy is shaky, but the nation is on the road to restoration. China is still the world's second largest economy, the world's leading military power, and the Reformed Renminbi is still the world's new reserve currency. While the old cities of the coast may be consumed by the Rot, the Linear Arcology Network has become home to more than a half billion citizens. The Chinese lead Asian-Pacific Cooperation Council is the leading example of a fair and beneficial regional union, and China's Politiclubs have influence in almost every country on earth.
In 2037, the public began to feel the impact of the Rot. That summer, 54,691 children across China died of fungal meningitis. 7,425 died to fungal pneumonia.
The Dactyl Rot had reached critical mass. Its spores contaminated hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings. While an infection from the Rot could be resisted by a healthy adult, children could not effectively fight off the infection, and any effective anti-fungal agent would end up being as lethal as the disease. It was also noted that miscarriage rates skyrocketed, due to fetal infection. Panic and civil unrest swept the coastal cities, demanding that something be done to halt the crisis. The government's fact finding team's report indicated that it would be impossible to reverse the Rot's spread without causing irreparable damage and dislocating tens of millions. When the report leaked, protesters began to demand the end of the Communist government. Combined with the strains of environmental degradation and the trade war with the Pan-Oceanic Trade Pact, the Chinese public was at a breaking point. Something would have to give.
In 2039, with unrest rising and the death toll climbing into the hundreds of thousands, the Chairman of the Communist Party made a public announcement.
The Party would give.
That henceforth, the Chinese Communist Party would be dissolved.
That a interim government would carry out a country-wide referendum on a new democratic constitution and a comprehensive reclamation plan for the country.
Historians and political scientists often look back to this moment, noting that the provisional government and subsequent democratic government were composed of leading members of the CCP, and that even to this day the Chinese two-party system is dominated by the same networks as it was prior to de-communization. But in the moment, it was a new era for the People's Republic.
Nearly three decades out, China's democracy is shaky, but the nation is on the road to restoration. China is still the world's second largest economy, the world's leading military power, and the Reformed Renminbi is still the world's new reserve currency. While the old cities of the coast may be consumed by the Rot, the Linear Arcology Network has become home to more than a half billion citizens. The Chinese lead Asian-Pacific Cooperation Council is the leading example of a fair and beneficial regional union, and China's Politiclubs have influence in almost every country on earth.
Dorozhand
Banned
No, but the popular zeitgeist took a similar form and yielded both similar and different results. There was in our own timeline a powerful labor movement among the workers of the Ontario ports and western railroads and the farmers of the Canadian West always had a mind for independence from the Laurentian metropole. In this world, Communism unified the various strains of unrest in post-war Canada, with the examples of the US, Mexico, and the Bolivian Revolution (which i will eventually get to explaining in detail) and the CWS is very much a movement from below. A sort of peasant pseudo-nationalism vaguely reminiscent of Maoism permeates a Leninist civil organization and a Zapatist military strategy. The example of Bolivia, whose revolution had begun among mine workers, held special significance to the workers of Canada and as well the revolutionaries of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
CannedTech
Banned
Eh, as Doro has said, there's plenty of fodder in the Americas for revolutionary movements.
Plus there are those of us who don't tire of such maps.
CannedTech
Banned
In this edition of my ASB Solar System I've done some work on Mercury and Pellucidar along with moving my legends closer in towards the regions where they apply to try and make the map a little more readable until I work out a superior solution.
Nice as always, couple questions though:
1. What are Cadeucus and Neith based on?
2. What is that thingy to the upper left of "standard" Earth
3. What happened to the USSR on Earth?
Cadeucus and Neith are mythological/pseudoscientific moons of Mercury and Venus, respectively. The maps are of my own design based on nothing in particular (though I did try to work in an actual cadeucus motif on Cadeucus).
Far up in the corner are the floating islands of Cockaigne and Laputa. You can find their outlines on Earth.
The USSR survived up until 2006 when Gog and Magog, demon hordes of ancient legend, rose up from the ground and ran wild on the countryside. It dissolved into separate ethnic states as the country was massacred. Those separate states are still dealing with the crisis. A rump USSR is still present on Earth's second moon Lilith, but will probably have its occupants expelled to Earth and its colonies partitioned by the remaining Comintern states.
What's the green country on Venus?In this edition of my ASB Solar System I've done some work on Mercury and Pellucidar along with moving my legends closer in towards the regions where they apply to try and make the map a little more readable until I work out a superior solution.
CannedTech
Banned
Oho, never knew there were pseudoscience moons like that, cool!
Interesting story for the USSR, what's the story of the People's Empire and the Californian island?
Thereby explaining all those violent revolts in the US and Canada since 1865.
Plus there are those of us who don't tire of such maps.
One wonders why, AMERICA HATER.
That's New Ireland, a state that the LoFN funded to spearhead the Venusian colonial program to establish different states primarily run by ethnic/religious minorities from Earth.
The People's Empire is what's left of the British Empire, now a bolshevist state that has a decent degree of 19th century racist science mixed into their politics. Unfortunately there's not much else to it yet since I'm still working extensively on its inner workings and ideology. With the Second Chinese Civil War and the collapse of the USSR they are poised to inherit Comintern, however.
California Island was a pretty normal Spanish successor state in the Americas and buddy-buddy with the US until a socialist revolution akin to our Cuban revolution overthrew the government. They're mostly used by Comintern states to rent out their ports so they can launch submarines to check out underwater ruins near R'lyeh.
That sounds like a good TLIAW, honestly.
Or a good name for a rock band. One of the two.
http://elusivexeno.deviantart.com/art/22nd-Century-The-World-626744854?ga_submit_new=10%3A1470788679&ga_type=edit&ga_changes=1
A new year has begun. The austronauts are watching the first sunrise of the year in space. Ocean breeze sweeps down the shores, children are coming back to school, and lovers are celebrating and embracing. The wind over Amazigha rushes north for Mediterranean Basin as a girl is setting up her personal caravan on a local oasis town. At the same time, another girl’s boat is floating on what used to be the old town of Venice, reimagining the past life of her Italian ancestor. Elsewhere, a Japanese maid gets scolded by her Filipina employer, an Afrophile is rewatching for the umpteenth time a romanticized Epic about late Millenial Era heroes of East Africa, and yet another band of criminals is being subdued by unauthorized power armored renegades in India. A settler farmer on Queensland is calling his friend in Sumatra to get him latest state of art android frame as he’s taking a break from tending his field. He often complains about how women of today are too assertive and demanding for his taste. Far north, another anti-south demonstration is being held yet again in Switzerland, protesting the country’s recent ascension to European Union, perceived by them as mere extension of Southern Global Hegemony. Meanwhile, a small PMC boss received call from a high ranking African client, asking his company to prevent an on going unrest in Europe from swirling out of control. He then regretfully bids farewell to this wonderful Yoruban lady he’s been seeing for the third time now. Then, he notifies his men to get ready.
The World in General : The year is 2135 and Global South dominates Earth. Long gone the days of western supremacy over the planet, and gone too the days when Asia was the center of the world. Today is when Indian Rim Community, consists of world’s largest, most developed and powerful nations, has become the economic lynch pin of the world. Some of them are older Asian powers like India and Indonesia. Africa as whole however is rising rapidly, reminiscence of China just after the end of 20th century Cold War. Africa would’ve been the sole hyper power on earth, were it not for them being simply a loosely associated collection of competing states most of the time. But when they do unite in one voice, the world knows better not to look away.
The world of 22nd century has over seen decades of relative peace and prosperity after weathering the hardships of the previous century. If one were to ask an average man of the day, he or she would likely say, we’ve done pretty well. Climate change has been brought under control and humanity is reclaiming devastated lands by inches and meters, while advances made in technology have opened new opportunities in space and under the seas. On day to day life, one would note how the food has gotten healthier, travelling and communication much easier, education more efficient, and gender equality more concrete then ever before. These notions are not unchallenged however, as not everyone is satisfied by the current arrangement of things. Under the apparent global stability the world is in constant tumult and motion, that are being met by numerous covert operations and manipulations to reign over them. But as technology advances, new cultures and religions appear and humanity’s frontier ever expanding, no one can tell what brave new future lies ahead.
Asia : The largest, most populous continent of earth remains the site of world’s largest economies and most developed infrastructure, but it could probably have been better. Asia is now dominated by the countries of India, Indonesia, Iran and Korea which divide it into their own spheres of influence. One might say that the world is currently under an Indonesian era. Indonesia, sporting proudly her world’s largest naval force, patrolling the entire Pacific Ocean as her personal lake and keeping order over international seas. Indonesia is also among the leading nations in the race to space and the forefront in the sea floor colonization. However, Indonesia has less freedom of movement compared to the past western superpowers in a world with less vacuum of power. India, while still a bit chaotic after a major revolution, remains a larger economy and industrial complex. Being the leading world police just decades prior it commands the largest army on earth as well as sizeable political and economic throw weight on the global decision making. Needless to say India and Indonesia are rivals in aeronautics, besting each other in space exploration and colonization. Between them are the lesser powers of Iran and Korea. Smaller in size they maybe but they’re forces to be reckoned with. Iran, still an Islamic Republic, is the dominant player over the resurgent “Silk Road” economic and transportation network over much of Central Asia, which has reemerged as one of the major nexuses of the global economy, in fact probably second only to Indian Ocean. To the far east, Korea is now the dominant power over northeast Asia, and currently experiencing legitimate and robust cultural revival not seen since the height of Joseon dynasty. Avowedly nationalist, socialist conservative, Korea perhaps possesses the best welfare system on earth. But it’s also infamous for its imperialism over north eastern Asia. It’s currently pursuing “Greater Korea” and has annexed former Russian Far East and is currently engineering Northeast China for assimilation and annexation. Beyond that, Korea has also constructed an economic and free movement zones designed to allow them to plant Korean settlements and profit from them. There are thus Korean city enclaves that are spread from the westernmost tip of Chugoku in Japan to the east to as far as a Korea Town just outside Almaty, Kazakhstan in the west. Both Iran and Korea are ostensibly pro-India out of similar conservative outlook, but in private they’re mostly concerned about their own irredentist projects and self-style themselves as the New Asian Superpowers. Aside of those 4 powers, there are still secondary nations and emerging powers worthy of mention. China has reemerged from the horrible civil war in the late 21st century that saw the collapse of Communist Party regime. These days China is a decentralized “transplurist” country consisting of autonomous provinces with some freedom in international relations, some more autonomous then the others like Xinjiang, essentially a fiefdom of remnants of the old PLA, while there are northern provinces who are legally participants of Korean-led economic zone, which make them Korean satelites, though not as bad as Northeast China which is under occupation in all but name. On general China is divided into two broad categories, the “maritime” southern half that’s connected to the East and South China Seas, and the rest. This however doesn’t include Tibet which is now a hardline Buddhist theocracy if with strong environmentalist commitment. This post-Communist China is rebounding really fast for the past decades almost immediately since the civil war was over. It’s a markedly a much more liberal place intellectually and culturally then the previous China, as it’s been undergoing the second New Culture Movement which strives to both embrace globalism and replenish the soul of indigenous Chinese civilization allegedly stomped by the past regime. To the east, Japan is also a post-old regime transplurist country, and nowadays friendly with China. Formerly the country of corporate industrialists, Japan is now famous for Jeffersonian Rural Globalism. Japanese are proud of their own traditional ruralism but they’re more globalist then even the Chinese, always ready to reach for the wider world and adopt the latest outside trends to combine them with their own. It’s probably a necessary trait, seeing how Japan is sandwiched between Korean expansionism and Indonesian navy. While mostly agrarian-centric nowadays, Japan still retains some of its past hi-tech capacities, and can still boast the ownership of the first space elevator ever built. On the flip side it also generates enough over population to spawn streams of immigrants to the more developed or manpower-hungry countries, chief of them the Philippines which hosts the largest population of Japanese expats and guest workers. On Philippines, it is nowadays the second most powerful Southeast Asian country after Indonesia. It is a strong economic and industrial power in its own right and act as a check to Indonesian regional hegemony. While countries of Indochina can’t quite claim over the same quality, and these days the region has become a controlled playground between Indian and Indonesian proxies jockeying to best the other. Only Cambodia is markedly more stable, and that only due to its firm attachment to Indonesia. To the west, beyond Iran lies the reformed Middle East. The region that suffered the most in 21st century has now largely recovered and has settled into Mediterranean Association for Regional Cooperation(MEARC), an organization modeled after the older incarnation of ASEAN. This includes even Israel, which has surprisingly managed to avoid driving out too many Arabs and successfully assimilate them into mainstream Israeli culture. Excluded from this are the corporate group state of The Gulf Union, the two Yemens and Oman, the current banking capital of the world.
Africa : The rising giant. Africa’s resources and breakneck development in the 21st century has given rise to some of the richest and most developed nations of Earth, but has also led its internal borders to twist and turn and many nations, except the strongest among them, to fall. Although in retrospect seen as the great winner in terms of climate change, African nations were some of the first to buckle under its pressures. In the midst of this turbulence the African Union took center stage, spreading peacekeepers, repairing infrastructure, bringing food and water, and connecting the burgeoning yet also straining economies of the continent together under first a free trade area, then a currency union, then a united bank. Collectively the African Union and African Central Bank are the largest political and economic powers on the planet, and with no doubt possesses in aggregate the greatest military force on or off-planet and more space elevators then all of Asian powers' combined. Alas, for average men on the streets the realm of states and nations is still dominant. On most days the African Union is, like most of the planet, a hodgepodge of loosely associated states and regional powers, competing and cooperating with each other. Among these states there are five stars: Congo, East Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco. Nigeria, Ethiopia and Congo are all the largest, most powerful military powers of Africa and are major contributors to overall African armed forces. But aside from military and manpower, they do lead the continent through other ways. Nigeria, along with Morocco are the African vanguards of Green ideology and are committed to environmental restoration and agrarianism. Morocco is notable for its abundant phosphate reserves which allow it to dominate the agricultural economies of Africa and beyond, while Nigeria being the center of environmental engineering. Congo is allied with East Africa and together lead the more technophile industrialist bloc of African nations. East Africa however is easily the senior of the two in regards to technological development, symbolized by being the only African country to possess two space elevators. While Congo has a hand in every energy venture in the hemisphere, and owns a massive damn which powers the third of the continent. Ethiopia on the other hand is the biggest investor in transportation infrastructures. Ethiopian corps are overseeing the rail lines on the continent and are even responsible for setting up to date rail system in Middle East and Europe. Aside from that Ethiopia also leads in weapons technology and is among the world’s biggest weapon exporters. These African powers are not without competition however. Elsewhere other regional powers are in motion. The Trans-African Community (TAC), a vast stretch of land that encompasses the nations between Angola and Mozambique was, during the 21stcentury, a magnet for adventurers and convoy cabals as the booming population could not be sated by just the rails that crisscrossed the land. Over generations a confederation of traders, convoys, mayors, and governors arose to connect the region by wheel and even as rail came they fought to maintain their influence. The TAC today is in many ways a Union of its own within the African Union and fields sizeable influence in the African Parliament. There are other such sub-unions however. Southward, a regional parliament has been brought together by South Africa, formerly the prime head of African Union that has become irrelevant in the face of the other powers and is now playing catch up. In West Africa there are two more coalitions. One is led by Ghana with the open intention to keep Nigerian influence at bay, and the other being a union of western Sahelian states as an economic bloc and common infrastructural management body. In the north there’s an Egypt-led one, which like Ghana’s is also formed to counter-balance major African power, in this case being Ethiopia. This coalition is markedly less confrontational however, and are more geared towards ensuring equal standing in bilateral cooperation. Despite of these rivalries between great powers and coalitions African Union continues to move forward and grow. With European nations joining the Union and Middle East and South America increasingly moving into the African sphere people begin to talk about the prospects of a Greater Africa, perhaps one day to become the basis of a true world government. Some day….
Europe : The poster boy for backwater region these days. The continent has fallen so low from what it used to be. Corruption and crime prevail when it’s not tyranny and xenophobia, if not all of them at once. And the encroaching foreign meddlings are being met with rising tribalism and thuggery. On the good side, it’s relatively stable these days, which allows incoming investment to fuel economic growth, though it’s still a long way ahead. In the west, the remaining countries of European Union, while faring well are little more then an appendage to Africa, and has been speculated for some time that it will eventually get absorbed into African Union in the future. Southward in Mediterranean basin two foreign organizations have made their way, that is the MEARC and African Union, with some overlapping membership between the two. In the east lies the VisegradTreatyAssociation, the eastern half of European Union that rebelled in the late 21st century out of perceived under-appreciation and rewarding by the west for their taking the heavy burden during Russian War and Occupation. While seemingly vibrant and proudly independent it’s in fact a playground for various dictatorships and oligarchies, although with notable exceptions of Bulgaria and, surprisingly enough, Serbia. Still it’s being dismissed by most of the world as an unruly club of thugs at best, racists at worst. Further east, there’s Russia. Emerging from the chaos of war followed by occupation followed by warlordism, Russia has greatly shrunken and has lost everything west of Ural provinces. These days it’s little more then an Indian satelite, and they’re still somewhat harboring animosity towards Visegrad nations. To northwest, Scandinavia forms its own exclusive bloc and basically just wants to be left alone. While further west lies the British Isles, while among the richer parts of the Europe is also the most peculiar one. Free State of England is ruled by a corporate group, a relic of past Indian occupation and the continuation of the older Indian regime, and the current capital of transhumanism. It’s in fact a giant factory and research facility dedicated to the cause of perfecting and prolifering post-humanism. While an undisputable proof of cyborgified prosperity, people still look at it and worry. The spokesperson of the executive board repeatedly ensures foreign observers that there shall never be any form of coercion in a person’s decision to transition towards post-humanity. And indeed, so far the regime seems wise enough to allow economic diversification where ordinary people has a place in it. However they do seem to be hiding something. Indeed there’s some occasional escapees from England that bring with them similar stories of subtle social manipulation and the tendency of people who noticed and pointing that out disappearing without trace. Across the Irish Sea its main rival, the regime of Society for Preservation of Enlightened Humanism which ruled over the entire Ireland, has never neglected to exploit such stories to defame the Free State(aside from propagating their own fundamentalist cosmopolitanism). The third and the most regular country of the archipelago is the Scotland National State who is very understandably nervous over these eccentric anti-root regimes south of them, and thus is understandably a member of Visegrad Club.
North America: United States, formerly the global superpower has undergone decline, stagnation and rebounding during the last one hundred years. But perhaps United States didn’t rebound soon enough. The famous New Patriots Movement and its reforms might had restored confidence in American unity in the south but not quite the case in the west, past the Rockies, where central influence has been growing fainter along with shrinking government size and military power. Western third of United States, having suffered badly from drought and desertification have become a collection of autonomous states and communities increasingly coming under foreign influences, the largest which being Mexico, braving pass the Great Western Dessert and pulling states as far north as Oregon and Mormon Country into its economic orbit. Mexico, the rising power of North America has presented itself as more reliable partner and source of aid for these Americans then their own fellow countrymen in the east that have failed to help them in facing the scourge of drought and desertification. Although the northern states of Mexico also suffered from desertification it proved to be a blessing for the great economic engine in the south, which had restarted in the 21st century, spun harder with the influx of new labor from the depopulated north. There are some worries over future war between America and Mexico as the later seeks to fully detach the western states off the union while America is recovering her strength and now look for a way to do something about the western states. Up north, Canada has been more attracted to the new opportunities presented by the warming northern frontier and Arctic Ocean. For the pass decades Canadian navy have been sailing across the northern seas to visit its new neighbors in the Siberia and Scandinavia as well as to expand territorially and hegemonically, as demonstrated by its annexation of Greenland and its economic strangling over Iceland. Far in the south the Carribean Basin, Central American Federation stands to counter balance growing Mexican hegemony and serves as the trade hub between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Including the former Dominican Republic, it borders Haiti. Once the regional basketcase it has stabilized and is more prosperous then ever. Alas, it does so under a particularly disconcerting regime of transhumanist voodoo cult that’s engaging intensely in mind controlling scheme over its own population, and thus consequently a bit of international pariah.
South America: Two countries didn’t survive the previous century. Both Peru and Venezuela imploded and fell into decades-long anarchy until their neighbors, Colombia and Bolivia moved in to fill the power vacuum. In Bolivia’s case it’s complete, restoring the Peru-Boliviana Union. Venezuela however proved to be a harder nut to crack as foreign actors moved in to complicate matters. As it is Colombia only salvaged the western half, leaving the eastern portion as playground for warlords, mercenaries and corporations, which eventually consolidated first under a corporation, then under its AI network that overthrew them, and most recently under a military commander that overthrew the previous AI regime. It has largely settled down these days and resurging. To the east lies Brazil, the largest economy in the region. Nowadays adhering a national ideology combining patriotic militarism with Green ideals similar with Nigeria. Perhaps one would say that Brazil might seem to be overenthusiastic with biotechnology. It’s also at the helmet of local Green Initiative which just so happens to overlap with Brazil’s economic sphere. To the south lies Argentina, the main challenger to Brazilian growing African-backed hegemony. Nowadays ruled by a stratocracy, it’s the primary ally of India in the region and since 21st century has been hosting Indian base in Malvinas.
Australia and Oceania : For the most part, the entire Pacific is Indonesian personal lake under the thumb of her mighty navy. Indonesian naval bases and ports are thus sprinkled all over, including in the still-de jure US State of Hawai. Doesn’t mean the region is uneventful. On the positive side the region is under the watchful Indonesian patrolling navy, deterring most smuggling and illegal overt fishing operations. Indonesia also invests in many of the still remaining island nations of Oceania in sea floor colonization scheme to prevent the said nations from disappearing. On the darker side however there’s no one to stop Indonesians from committing their own violations. After all, the law doesn’t really exist beyond the standing ground, if even that. Indonesian authority has secretly conducted numerous dubious experiments above and below the seas, as well as testing many new nasty weapons. In the southwest, Australia is under permanent Indonesian occupation and divided into three parts: the northern half openly serving as lebensraum for Indonesian settlers, the south east serving as the dumping ground for most Australian population and put under an AI governorate, and a separate Green State in the west under Indonesian vassalage. This occupation and partition of Australia has earned Indonesia a moniker as the “Israel of the East”, much to the objection from the actual Israel.
Antarctica : As the Antarctic Ice Cap retreats inland, human colonies advance to follow. There are currently seven powers setting up colonies on the continent’s shores: India, Indonesia, Iran, African Union, Brazil, and Mexico. Viewed by most of the world as simply a faraway colonial region, and not a concern for global politics, the continent is increasingly growing closer together. As the generations pass the descendants of the colonial states feel more and more a kindred to each other than to their governments far across the Southern Ocean. Eventually together they built the first continent wide mega structure, the Antarctic Rim Rail, independently of the mother countries. The rail, connecting every colony together, is quietly the symbol of growing independent Antarctican identity, so far still hasn’t come to mother countries’ attention.
Space : Decades of asteroid mining and growing orbital infrastructure have finally paved way to the first wave of settlements in space. On the moon fledging towns are growing under the environmentally regulated doms. The Lagrange points between the Earth and the Moon are also seeing the growing number of permanently manned stations, providing the launch points to reach further parts of solar system. This, combined with advancing science in space travel and engineering has led to steady growth of people migrating for space, so much that the states of Earth are making decades-long plans for colonization, and differing nations and peoples are laying claims to Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. Some mention that in the long term this prickly race to colonize various places by differing people might undermine any sense of unity and one humanity that was had on Earth, and in the longer term such settlements will mix with each other and shift under the immense distance to develop new strains of civilizations that will one day challenge Earth itself. These voices are quickly hushed as such concerns are too far off and are not popular with the public or with investors. The plans continue apace.
--------------------
Young Indonesian captain looks towards the seas as his destroyer braves the Pacific. He opens the holographic video of his family, playing cheerfully together as he remembered them to be. Elsewhere a Korean adventurer rides his hover bike through Northern China, looking for a new life for himself away from his parents in Busan. In Japanese villages great festivals are being held to celebrate January Revolution which symbolizes national liberation from decadent corporate rule. In the Free State of England the hi-tech manufactures keep turning to produce state of art industrial products while across the Irish Sea the port of Dublin again receives another yet arrival of ship carrying Australians fleeing Indonesian occupation of their homeland. A press conference is being held by African Union spokesperson announcing the incoming continent wide conference. Another inquisition campaign is on roll in Tibet, seeking to root out religious heretics and political dissidents as normal civilians hide in their homes, fearing possible visit by police raids. On the moon there begins officially the construction of a new Great Habitat Dom to anticipate booming immigration in decades to come. Off the coast of Somalia the Space Elevator is bringing home to earth a female austronaut after 3 months of duty in space. She can’t wait to finally reunite with her two beloved wives and children already waiting for her in the station. Far below in Dar-e-Salaam, a kid looks through the window towards the night sky, eagerly waits for tomorrow to come.
A new year has begun. The austronauts are watching the first sunrise of the year in space. Ocean breeze sweeps down the shores, children are coming back to school, and lovers are celebrating and embracing. The wind over Amazigha rushes north for Mediterranean Basin as a girl is setting up her personal caravan on a local oasis town. At the same time, another girl’s boat is floating on what used to be the old town of Venice, reimagining the past life of her Italian ancestor. Elsewhere, a Japanese maid gets scolded by her Filipina employer, an Afrophile is rewatching for the umpteenth time a romanticized Epic about late Millenial Era heroes of East Africa, and yet another band of criminals is being subdued by unauthorized power armored renegades in India. A settler farmer on Queensland is calling his friend in Sumatra to get him latest state of art android frame as he’s taking a break from tending his field. He often complains about how women of today are too assertive and demanding for his taste. Far north, another anti-south demonstration is being held yet again in Switzerland, protesting the country’s recent ascension to European Union, perceived by them as mere extension of Southern Global Hegemony. Meanwhile, a small PMC boss received call from a high ranking African client, asking his company to prevent an on going unrest in Europe from swirling out of control. He then regretfully bids farewell to this wonderful Yoruban lady he’s been seeing for the third time now. Then, he notifies his men to get ready.
The World in General : The year is 2135 and Global South dominates Earth. Long gone the days of western supremacy over the planet, and gone too the days when Asia was the center of the world. Today is when Indian Rim Community, consists of world’s largest, most developed and powerful nations, has become the economic lynch pin of the world. Some of them are older Asian powers like India and Indonesia. Africa as whole however is rising rapidly, reminiscence of China just after the end of 20th century Cold War. Africa would’ve been the sole hyper power on earth, were it not for them being simply a loosely associated collection of competing states most of the time. But when they do unite in one voice, the world knows better not to look away.
The world of 22nd century has over seen decades of relative peace and prosperity after weathering the hardships of the previous century. If one were to ask an average man of the day, he or she would likely say, we’ve done pretty well. Climate change has been brought under control and humanity is reclaiming devastated lands by inches and meters, while advances made in technology have opened new opportunities in space and under the seas. On day to day life, one would note how the food has gotten healthier, travelling and communication much easier, education more efficient, and gender equality more concrete then ever before. These notions are not unchallenged however, as not everyone is satisfied by the current arrangement of things. Under the apparent global stability the world is in constant tumult and motion, that are being met by numerous covert operations and manipulations to reign over them. But as technology advances, new cultures and religions appear and humanity’s frontier ever expanding, no one can tell what brave new future lies ahead.
Asia : The largest, most populous continent of earth remains the site of world’s largest economies and most developed infrastructure, but it could probably have been better. Asia is now dominated by the countries of India, Indonesia, Iran and Korea which divide it into their own spheres of influence. One might say that the world is currently under an Indonesian era. Indonesia, sporting proudly her world’s largest naval force, patrolling the entire Pacific Ocean as her personal lake and keeping order over international seas. Indonesia is also among the leading nations in the race to space and the forefront in the sea floor colonization. However, Indonesia has less freedom of movement compared to the past western superpowers in a world with less vacuum of power. India, while still a bit chaotic after a major revolution, remains a larger economy and industrial complex. Being the leading world police just decades prior it commands the largest army on earth as well as sizeable political and economic throw weight on the global decision making. Needless to say India and Indonesia are rivals in aeronautics, besting each other in space exploration and colonization. Between them are the lesser powers of Iran and Korea. Smaller in size they maybe but they’re forces to be reckoned with. Iran, still an Islamic Republic, is the dominant player over the resurgent “Silk Road” economic and transportation network over much of Central Asia, which has reemerged as one of the major nexuses of the global economy, in fact probably second only to Indian Ocean. To the far east, Korea is now the dominant power over northeast Asia, and currently experiencing legitimate and robust cultural revival not seen since the height of Joseon dynasty. Avowedly nationalist, socialist conservative, Korea perhaps possesses the best welfare system on earth. But it’s also infamous for its imperialism over north eastern Asia. It’s currently pursuing “Greater Korea” and has annexed former Russian Far East and is currently engineering Northeast China for assimilation and annexation. Beyond that, Korea has also constructed an economic and free movement zones designed to allow them to plant Korean settlements and profit from them. There are thus Korean city enclaves that are spread from the westernmost tip of Chugoku in Japan to the east to as far as a Korea Town just outside Almaty, Kazakhstan in the west. Both Iran and Korea are ostensibly pro-India out of similar conservative outlook, but in private they’re mostly concerned about their own irredentist projects and self-style themselves as the New Asian Superpowers. Aside of those 4 powers, there are still secondary nations and emerging powers worthy of mention. China has reemerged from the horrible civil war in the late 21st century that saw the collapse of Communist Party regime. These days China is a decentralized “transplurist” country consisting of autonomous provinces with some freedom in international relations, some more autonomous then the others like Xinjiang, essentially a fiefdom of remnants of the old PLA, while there are northern provinces who are legally participants of Korean-led economic zone, which make them Korean satelites, though not as bad as Northeast China which is under occupation in all but name. On general China is divided into two broad categories, the “maritime” southern half that’s connected to the East and South China Seas, and the rest. This however doesn’t include Tibet which is now a hardline Buddhist theocracy if with strong environmentalist commitment. This post-Communist China is rebounding really fast for the past decades almost immediately since the civil war was over. It’s a markedly a much more liberal place intellectually and culturally then the previous China, as it’s been undergoing the second New Culture Movement which strives to both embrace globalism and replenish the soul of indigenous Chinese civilization allegedly stomped by the past regime. To the east, Japan is also a post-old regime transplurist country, and nowadays friendly with China. Formerly the country of corporate industrialists, Japan is now famous for Jeffersonian Rural Globalism. Japanese are proud of their own traditional ruralism but they’re more globalist then even the Chinese, always ready to reach for the wider world and adopt the latest outside trends to combine them with their own. It’s probably a necessary trait, seeing how Japan is sandwiched between Korean expansionism and Indonesian navy. While mostly agrarian-centric nowadays, Japan still retains some of its past hi-tech capacities, and can still boast the ownership of the first space elevator ever built. On the flip side it also generates enough over population to spawn streams of immigrants to the more developed or manpower-hungry countries, chief of them the Philippines which hosts the largest population of Japanese expats and guest workers. On Philippines, it is nowadays the second most powerful Southeast Asian country after Indonesia. It is a strong economic and industrial power in its own right and act as a check to Indonesian regional hegemony. While countries of Indochina can’t quite claim over the same quality, and these days the region has become a controlled playground between Indian and Indonesian proxies jockeying to best the other. Only Cambodia is markedly more stable, and that only due to its firm attachment to Indonesia. To the west, beyond Iran lies the reformed Middle East. The region that suffered the most in 21st century has now largely recovered and has settled into Mediterranean Association for Regional Cooperation(MEARC), an organization modeled after the older incarnation of ASEAN. This includes even Israel, which has surprisingly managed to avoid driving out too many Arabs and successfully assimilate them into mainstream Israeli culture. Excluded from this are the corporate group state of The Gulf Union, the two Yemens and Oman, the current banking capital of the world.
Africa : The rising giant. Africa’s resources and breakneck development in the 21st century has given rise to some of the richest and most developed nations of Earth, but has also led its internal borders to twist and turn and many nations, except the strongest among them, to fall. Although in retrospect seen as the great winner in terms of climate change, African nations were some of the first to buckle under its pressures. In the midst of this turbulence the African Union took center stage, spreading peacekeepers, repairing infrastructure, bringing food and water, and connecting the burgeoning yet also straining economies of the continent together under first a free trade area, then a currency union, then a united bank. Collectively the African Union and African Central Bank are the largest political and economic powers on the planet, and with no doubt possesses in aggregate the greatest military force on or off-planet and more space elevators then all of Asian powers' combined. Alas, for average men on the streets the realm of states and nations is still dominant. On most days the African Union is, like most of the planet, a hodgepodge of loosely associated states and regional powers, competing and cooperating with each other. Among these states there are five stars: Congo, East Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco. Nigeria, Ethiopia and Congo are all the largest, most powerful military powers of Africa and are major contributors to overall African armed forces. But aside from military and manpower, they do lead the continent through other ways. Nigeria, along with Morocco are the African vanguards of Green ideology and are committed to environmental restoration and agrarianism. Morocco is notable for its abundant phosphate reserves which allow it to dominate the agricultural economies of Africa and beyond, while Nigeria being the center of environmental engineering. Congo is allied with East Africa and together lead the more technophile industrialist bloc of African nations. East Africa however is easily the senior of the two in regards to technological development, symbolized by being the only African country to possess two space elevators. While Congo has a hand in every energy venture in the hemisphere, and owns a massive damn which powers the third of the continent. Ethiopia on the other hand is the biggest investor in transportation infrastructures. Ethiopian corps are overseeing the rail lines on the continent and are even responsible for setting up to date rail system in Middle East and Europe. Aside from that Ethiopia also leads in weapons technology and is among the world’s biggest weapon exporters. These African powers are not without competition however. Elsewhere other regional powers are in motion. The Trans-African Community (TAC), a vast stretch of land that encompasses the nations between Angola and Mozambique was, during the 21stcentury, a magnet for adventurers and convoy cabals as the booming population could not be sated by just the rails that crisscrossed the land. Over generations a confederation of traders, convoys, mayors, and governors arose to connect the region by wheel and even as rail came they fought to maintain their influence. The TAC today is in many ways a Union of its own within the African Union and fields sizeable influence in the African Parliament. There are other such sub-unions however. Southward, a regional parliament has been brought together by South Africa, formerly the prime head of African Union that has become irrelevant in the face of the other powers and is now playing catch up. In West Africa there are two more coalitions. One is led by Ghana with the open intention to keep Nigerian influence at bay, and the other being a union of western Sahelian states as an economic bloc and common infrastructural management body. In the north there’s an Egypt-led one, which like Ghana’s is also formed to counter-balance major African power, in this case being Ethiopia. This coalition is markedly less confrontational however, and are more geared towards ensuring equal standing in bilateral cooperation. Despite of these rivalries between great powers and coalitions African Union continues to move forward and grow. With European nations joining the Union and Middle East and South America increasingly moving into the African sphere people begin to talk about the prospects of a Greater Africa, perhaps one day to become the basis of a true world government. Some day….
Europe : The poster boy for backwater region these days. The continent has fallen so low from what it used to be. Corruption and crime prevail when it’s not tyranny and xenophobia, if not all of them at once. And the encroaching foreign meddlings are being met with rising tribalism and thuggery. On the good side, it’s relatively stable these days, which allows incoming investment to fuel economic growth, though it’s still a long way ahead. In the west, the remaining countries of European Union, while faring well are little more then an appendage to Africa, and has been speculated for some time that it will eventually get absorbed into African Union in the future. Southward in Mediterranean basin two foreign organizations have made their way, that is the MEARC and African Union, with some overlapping membership between the two. In the east lies the VisegradTreatyAssociation, the eastern half of European Union that rebelled in the late 21st century out of perceived under-appreciation and rewarding by the west for their taking the heavy burden during Russian War and Occupation. While seemingly vibrant and proudly independent it’s in fact a playground for various dictatorships and oligarchies, although with notable exceptions of Bulgaria and, surprisingly enough, Serbia. Still it’s being dismissed by most of the world as an unruly club of thugs at best, racists at worst. Further east, there’s Russia. Emerging from the chaos of war followed by occupation followed by warlordism, Russia has greatly shrunken and has lost everything west of Ural provinces. These days it’s little more then an Indian satelite, and they’re still somewhat harboring animosity towards Visegrad nations. To northwest, Scandinavia forms its own exclusive bloc and basically just wants to be left alone. While further west lies the British Isles, while among the richer parts of the Europe is also the most peculiar one. Free State of England is ruled by a corporate group, a relic of past Indian occupation and the continuation of the older Indian regime, and the current capital of transhumanism. It’s in fact a giant factory and research facility dedicated to the cause of perfecting and prolifering post-humanism. While an undisputable proof of cyborgified prosperity, people still look at it and worry. The spokesperson of the executive board repeatedly ensures foreign observers that there shall never be any form of coercion in a person’s decision to transition towards post-humanity. And indeed, so far the regime seems wise enough to allow economic diversification where ordinary people has a place in it. However they do seem to be hiding something. Indeed there’s some occasional escapees from England that bring with them similar stories of subtle social manipulation and the tendency of people who noticed and pointing that out disappearing without trace. Across the Irish Sea its main rival, the regime of Society for Preservation of Enlightened Humanism which ruled over the entire Ireland, has never neglected to exploit such stories to defame the Free State(aside from propagating their own fundamentalist cosmopolitanism). The third and the most regular country of the archipelago is the Scotland National State who is very understandably nervous over these eccentric anti-root regimes south of them, and thus is understandably a member of Visegrad Club.
North America: United States, formerly the global superpower has undergone decline, stagnation and rebounding during the last one hundred years. But perhaps United States didn’t rebound soon enough. The famous New Patriots Movement and its reforms might had restored confidence in American unity in the south but not quite the case in the west, past the Rockies, where central influence has been growing fainter along with shrinking government size and military power. Western third of United States, having suffered badly from drought and desertification have become a collection of autonomous states and communities increasingly coming under foreign influences, the largest which being Mexico, braving pass the Great Western Dessert and pulling states as far north as Oregon and Mormon Country into its economic orbit. Mexico, the rising power of North America has presented itself as more reliable partner and source of aid for these Americans then their own fellow countrymen in the east that have failed to help them in facing the scourge of drought and desertification. Although the northern states of Mexico also suffered from desertification it proved to be a blessing for the great economic engine in the south, which had restarted in the 21st century, spun harder with the influx of new labor from the depopulated north. There are some worries over future war between America and Mexico as the later seeks to fully detach the western states off the union while America is recovering her strength and now look for a way to do something about the western states. Up north, Canada has been more attracted to the new opportunities presented by the warming northern frontier and Arctic Ocean. For the pass decades Canadian navy have been sailing across the northern seas to visit its new neighbors in the Siberia and Scandinavia as well as to expand territorially and hegemonically, as demonstrated by its annexation of Greenland and its economic strangling over Iceland. Far in the south the Carribean Basin, Central American Federation stands to counter balance growing Mexican hegemony and serves as the trade hub between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Including the former Dominican Republic, it borders Haiti. Once the regional basketcase it has stabilized and is more prosperous then ever. Alas, it does so under a particularly disconcerting regime of transhumanist voodoo cult that’s engaging intensely in mind controlling scheme over its own population, and thus consequently a bit of international pariah.
South America: Two countries didn’t survive the previous century. Both Peru and Venezuela imploded and fell into decades-long anarchy until their neighbors, Colombia and Bolivia moved in to fill the power vacuum. In Bolivia’s case it’s complete, restoring the Peru-Boliviana Union. Venezuela however proved to be a harder nut to crack as foreign actors moved in to complicate matters. As it is Colombia only salvaged the western half, leaving the eastern portion as playground for warlords, mercenaries and corporations, which eventually consolidated first under a corporation, then under its AI network that overthrew them, and most recently under a military commander that overthrew the previous AI regime. It has largely settled down these days and resurging. To the east lies Brazil, the largest economy in the region. Nowadays adhering a national ideology combining patriotic militarism with Green ideals similar with Nigeria. Perhaps one would say that Brazil might seem to be overenthusiastic with biotechnology. It’s also at the helmet of local Green Initiative which just so happens to overlap with Brazil’s economic sphere. To the south lies Argentina, the main challenger to Brazilian growing African-backed hegemony. Nowadays ruled by a stratocracy, it’s the primary ally of India in the region and since 21st century has been hosting Indian base in Malvinas.
Australia and Oceania : For the most part, the entire Pacific is Indonesian personal lake under the thumb of her mighty navy. Indonesian naval bases and ports are thus sprinkled all over, including in the still-de jure US State of Hawai. Doesn’t mean the region is uneventful. On the positive side the region is under the watchful Indonesian patrolling navy, deterring most smuggling and illegal overt fishing operations. Indonesia also invests in many of the still remaining island nations of Oceania in sea floor colonization scheme to prevent the said nations from disappearing. On the darker side however there’s no one to stop Indonesians from committing their own violations. After all, the law doesn’t really exist beyond the standing ground, if even that. Indonesian authority has secretly conducted numerous dubious experiments above and below the seas, as well as testing many new nasty weapons. In the southwest, Australia is under permanent Indonesian occupation and divided into three parts: the northern half openly serving as lebensraum for Indonesian settlers, the south east serving as the dumping ground for most Australian population and put under an AI governorate, and a separate Green State in the west under Indonesian vassalage. This occupation and partition of Australia has earned Indonesia a moniker as the “Israel of the East”, much to the objection from the actual Israel.
Antarctica : As the Antarctic Ice Cap retreats inland, human colonies advance to follow. There are currently seven powers setting up colonies on the continent’s shores: India, Indonesia, Iran, African Union, Brazil, and Mexico. Viewed by most of the world as simply a faraway colonial region, and not a concern for global politics, the continent is increasingly growing closer together. As the generations pass the descendants of the colonial states feel more and more a kindred to each other than to their governments far across the Southern Ocean. Eventually together they built the first continent wide mega structure, the Antarctic Rim Rail, independently of the mother countries. The rail, connecting every colony together, is quietly the symbol of growing independent Antarctican identity, so far still hasn’t come to mother countries’ attention.
Space : Decades of asteroid mining and growing orbital infrastructure have finally paved way to the first wave of settlements in space. On the moon fledging towns are growing under the environmentally regulated doms. The Lagrange points between the Earth and the Moon are also seeing the growing number of permanently manned stations, providing the launch points to reach further parts of solar system. This, combined with advancing science in space travel and engineering has led to steady growth of people migrating for space, so much that the states of Earth are making decades-long plans for colonization, and differing nations and peoples are laying claims to Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. Some mention that in the long term this prickly race to colonize various places by differing people might undermine any sense of unity and one humanity that was had on Earth, and in the longer term such settlements will mix with each other and shift under the immense distance to develop new strains of civilizations that will one day challenge Earth itself. These voices are quickly hushed as such concerns are too far off and are not popular with the public or with investors. The plans continue apace.
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Young Indonesian captain looks towards the seas as his destroyer braves the Pacific. He opens the holographic video of his family, playing cheerfully together as he remembered them to be. Elsewhere a Korean adventurer rides his hover bike through Northern China, looking for a new life for himself away from his parents in Busan. In Japanese villages great festivals are being held to celebrate January Revolution which symbolizes national liberation from decadent corporate rule. In the Free State of England the hi-tech manufactures keep turning to produce state of art industrial products while across the Irish Sea the port of Dublin again receives another yet arrival of ship carrying Australians fleeing Indonesian occupation of their homeland. A press conference is being held by African Union spokesperson announcing the incoming continent wide conference. Another inquisition campaign is on roll in Tibet, seeking to root out religious heretics and political dissidents as normal civilians hide in their homes, fearing possible visit by police raids. On the moon there begins officially the construction of a new Great Habitat Dom to anticipate booming immigration in decades to come. Off the coast of Somalia the Space Elevator is bringing home to earth a female austronaut after 3 months of duty in space. She can’t wait to finally reunite with her two beloved wives and children already waiting for her in the station. Far below in Dar-e-Salaam, a kid looks through the window towards the night sky, eagerly waits for tomorrow to come.
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Geez, I get all the tl;dr for you to read
More comments when I have the time to read the wall of text.
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