Jcw3
Banned
Terra Sextus: The Coascendancy
(Map edited somewhat, I thought the legend looked a little weird, still do. Deleted it, adjusted some borders and spaces, and now it's back. (And of course I notice a spelling error right as I post it.))
A sequel to this map, set in 2015, four years after the previous map. It showcases the popularity of the Coascendancy among the leadership of the various nations of the world. Opinion among the world populace at large ranges from overwhelmingly positive to neutral, leaning negative.
Three years ago, the Coascendancy, an extradimensional empire took control of Aksum, Sudan and Yemen, three countries under despotic governments or civil wars, and set about modernizing them. They caused quite a bit of a shake up in global affairs, obviously, being more advanced and powerful than all countries on Earth combined. Within a month, any and all violent resistance to the Coascendancy had been smashed. Cures for Gehrick's disease (AIDS), cancer, and even old age were given to the people of Earth, as well as various agricultural and energy technologies.
It took a little under a year for the democratic world to realize that the Coascendancy, while undeniably paternalistic and imperialistic, was doing its best to improve the lives of the people in its newly acquired territories. Disease was eradicated. Construction robots and mages alike cooperated to build infrastructure that surpassed the wealthiest districts in Moscow or New York. Eternal youth treatments and age reversal therapy were given to the new Coascendant citizens, and by the same time a year after annexation, there was barely an old man left in the so-called Red Sea acquisitions. Industry was constructed, education was offered, and so forth. The world was stunned, cautiously optimistic, believing the Coascendancy when they said that, so long as there weren't any obscene human rights violations, they would not invade or conquer any new nations. (This inspired quite a few coups, as you might imagine.)
The status quo was upheld, despite the new intruder upon the geopolitical stage. But then, in March 2013, sixty-seven percent of Chadians, in a fair referendum, voted to coascend, as it were. This trend erupted across Africa, and from Jabooti to Bissau, the Coascendancy found new and willing members. The status quo was further broken when the Andean People's Union, having three years ago undergone a factional military coup that immediately ended the...extravagances of the prior occupation, voted by 54% to join the Coascendancy, accompanied by Paraguay, a legitimately democratic state which had long wanted to join, but was unable to due to geographical realities.
Now the Coascendancy is the third largest economy on Terra Sextus, and within two years will surpass both the USSR and USA combined. Factions are aligning against the new interlopers, and for them as well. It's October 2015, and the primaries in the United States are heating up on the Republican side, as they fight to oppose the increasingly popular Democratic incumbent, Ronald Searcy, a personal friend of Emperor Joseph of the Coascendancy, whose party leadership has, unbeknownst to the public, been given...advice from the Coascendancy, in the form of prediction engines that allow them to pick just the right issues and how to sell them to the American people. (It just so happens that those ideals are those held dear by the Coascendancy.)
Pundits bemoan that in less than thirty years, the world could very well be dominated and ruled by Emperor Joseph, a reclusive dimensional traveling mage, and his Coascendancy, a nation ruled by bureaucrats, organized by virtual intelligences, with support from the Coascendant Sorcerer's Guild, a collection of 200-300 city-block level mages with almost zealous loyalty to Joseph himself. And it's a testament to the popularity of the Coascendancy that many would be fine seeing the Unity Trifecta fly over their territories, so long as they were ruled by a government that cleanly and efficiently organized their healthcare, their education, their protection, in which corruption in the government was and is weeded out through the use of the Augury, a collection of magically enhanced bureaucrats who can understand and give the ability to speak almost any language, as well as discern any truth or lack thereof.
Pundits bemoan the fact that 26% of Americans would support joining the Coascendancy, and they're especially worried as it was only 14% last year. They worry over the fact that Coascendant media, particularly those that promote human unity and the erasure of nationalism and petty ideologies into a sapient unificationist ideology, have become increasingly popular (mostly for the special effects, but still). And most of all, they worry that the world may truly be better under the Coascendancy.
Here is a link to read Coascendancy. I don't think it's the best work I've ever done, and if I were to rewrite it, I would fix or edit quite a few things, but it's probably my favorite thing I've ever written, and I'd like to get back to writing and updating it someday. I've actually written (not published) half of the Sextus updates, and hopefully, I can build up enough of a backlog that I might be able to start writing again in the future. Hope you guys enjoyed this, and the map of Terra Sextus made beforehand. (I also hope I managed to find and edit all the finicky little islands.)
Also, keep in mind that this map takes place beyond where I once again stopped writing Coascendancy, so the present of this map is not yet included in the story proper.
I know, it's a bit of an unwieldy concept. But of all the things I've ever worked on, I think Coascendancy is one of my favorites.
