MapReflex

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ST15RM

ST15RM

Banned
SpazzReflex said:
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Question: Why is it dark green? It makes it look like you’re supreme leader.
 
You Can Run (2028)
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    This is more of a stepping stone to the rest, a rest stop on the way to an alternate future.

    2028

    The Trump Bump was quickly followed by the Trump Slump, the recession managed to progressively get worse as time went on for the US. Trump's second term was a mess, with several major incidents alongside the economic downturn; The Limerick generating station had a leak during a major storm, and the Greater Philadelphia area has seen a serious population drain (around ~2.87 million have either been evicted by the leak or left the area of their own accord, Philadelphia itself has dropped to around 770,000 souls) and the incompetence at all levels of government have led to serious disapproval from many; Around another 2.2 million folks are floating around as climate refugees, from storms on the Gulf coast, fires in the West, and the beginning of droughts across the Great Plains; The Mueller investigation, though it didn't sink the MAGA ship, has definitely been a serious blow; and of course, the Trump Slump still has no end in sight. Politics on a federal level is grim. President Beto O'Rourke has been a pretty weak executive, with Silicon Valley, The Pentagon, and AIPAC really pulling strings behind the scenes. The progressive wing of the Democratic party is still continually sidelined, with things like the Green New Deal mired in corporate deals and pork-barreling, and private interests are deeply intertwined with the Democratic Party. The Republican Party... well, the far-right kept crawling from the woodwork, and have slowly become the face of the party.

    Brexit was a disaster, which basically helped start the Trump Slump early in Europe. Ultimately, parliament torpedoed PM May's EU deal, and things fell apart quickly. With a major flight of manufacturing and financial industries, the economy retracted significantly. Scotland quickly assembled a referendum to leave and has not looked back. Food and medicine shortages returned to the island, and close to 240,000 people with high-risk medical conditions would die as a result. Emigration spiked, and has continued unabated. The Northern Ireland and Gibraltar questions required negotiations at disadvantage, and ultimately the ambiguity around Northern Ireland and economic woes would help restart Northern Irish conflict. Rearmament as economic policy has only led to international isolation, as other countries get fearful of an unstable and heavily armed England. By 2028, things are stable, but with a significantly lower standard of living and with numerous unfavorable trade deals with folks like the US, PRC, and UAE.

    Speaking of the UAE, The United Arab Emirates have started making bolder steps out of Saudi Arabia's shadow, particularly after the Omani Civil War left Iran in a much stronger position in the Middle East.


    [incoming write-up here]

    YouCanRun1.png


    1. Canadian attempts to mitigate the Trump Slump aggravated tensions in Alberta, and after a controversial referendum, Alberta began the process of leaving Canada. Petroleum companies and the Trump administration were very pleased with this decision, and were a little too quick to welcome the new country into the world. Canada has since been regarded as living on borrowed time, but anti-Americanism is a pretty good glue all things considered.

    2. Domestic terrorism has increased, particularly after the Trump Slump, the student protests in Baltimore, and the Limerick nuclear leak.

    3. Mexico is still cooperating with US migration policy, with a US funded wall on the Guatemala border.

    4. The MDES began agitating after the Le Pen election, France’s surveillance state is keeping an eye on them. Some disappearances have occurred.

    5. The FUNAI is a joke at best these days, and a new ecosocialist movement arm in arm with militant indigenous rights defenders been making trouble for the military dictatorship.

    6. Argentina has started clamoring even more about Las Malvinas after the Ireland and Gibraltar agreements.

    7. Scotland left the UK on cold terms, and though the Troubles didn’t immediately restart, terrorist activity rebounded after 2021

    8. France has backed off of nuclear energy, but nuclear weapons…

    9. Algeria is absolutely opposed to the New Partnership Framework, with armed patrols on the border crossings in the Sahara. There are at least 23,000 bodies hidden in those shifting sands of migrants forced out of the country. That we know of.

    10. Nigeria is back on its feet after the defeat of Boko Haram, and is actually opposed to the NPF on humanitarian grounds.

    11. The Democratic Alliance has watched South Africa run into the ground under the Trump Slump, and the EFF managed to form a coalition government in 2024. Malema was forced to resign after a constitutional crisis, and the ANC managed to cobble together a new coalition to rule.

    12. The French invasion of the Comoros has installed a very friendly regime which doesn’t mind the large French naval presence

    13. Iran’s theocracy has thawed significantly, and the Supreme Leader is content to let the Majilis do its own thing

    14. Uighurs fleeing the Chinese reeducation camps are still under heavy surveillance by the Chinese as they wander around the world.

    15. There are very few Rohingya left in Myanmar, but at least Malaysia and to a lesser extent Indonesia have been relatively accommodating

    16. China is becoming a very attractive place for Americans looking for economic opportunity. It's not like there's any more surveillance there than at home.

    17. The North Korean project ended with a quiet coup, a student protest, a civil war, and a referendum to join Seoul after South Korea and China made some backroom deals

    18. Japan’s decline is significantly more obvious a decade later. They’ve backslid into militaristic sabre-rattling as China has gotten more powerful.

    19. Australians have begun losing faith in their elections as both Chinese and American interests have been swaying their election, and much like in the US, the military is slowly becoming the most trusted institution.
     
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    • WWI plot
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    World War I goes slightly egg shaped. Russia capitulates in 1916, and Germany is more able to shore-up Austria-Hungary with an Italian Offensive, expanding the Western Front as British and French forces join the Italians. In 1918, An offensive push into Italy breaks both Italian and Austrian resolve to fight, and though the Austrians had a massive breakthrough, desertions have begun to plague the Austrians, with Hungarians and others fleeing back home to try and fight for their autonomy. By the end of the war, Italy, France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia have collapsed into Revolution, and Germany is starving. The War ends with a whimper, Germany negotiating with France an outrageous settlement, and Germany signing away her colonies to Great Britain in exchange for grain shipments.

    Germany falls into similar straights as OTL, with the SPD-KPD/Junker coalition. Italy goes communist, and France and Great Britain seize the colonies. Hungary goes Communist briefly, Croatia and Serbia gobble up parts of Bosnia, and Russia cobbles together a shaky coalition government of military and liberals. [TO BE CONTINUED]
     
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    • Working on something big!
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    newecordpreview(2).png

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    When the cat's away, the mice will play...

    wkt_geom id
    Polygon ((-76.74414804898019327 43.90643646987078341, -76.73023818030763721 43.90021755759077138, -76.69617367708586642 43.95882102704883465, -76.56449705290003749 43.93262544583249962, -76.60214824638340758 43.83935729548162641, -76.65870266629367791 43.81253771133925312, -76.74414804898019327 43.90643646987078341)) 1003
     
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    • A Shadow on the Sun (?)
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    ASOTSmappostDragonWars.png


    When fire rises in the West, a fire must rise in the East. The Most Pious among us will carry the banner, conceived on the shortest day, born in the harvest, and bearing the mark of the Moon.

    The Dragon Lords Victorious!

    Lord Hollovernog led a decisive victory over the Seven River's army. The King of the Seven Rivers met with the gathered Lords of the West to ratify a treaty opening the backwards nation up to trade, industry, and scientific reason, furthering prosperity and peace in the region. The Dragon of the Earth is now worshipped in the halls of Asta Gan Rathem, and drilling has resumed in Mod Haymig and Cix, providing energy to fuel the needs of the world.

    Sasmogy will Rise Again!

    By the Sun and the Moon, the war is not over! Faithful of the Seven Rivers must resist the Dragon Lords of the West with fury and fire. Asminal Roder and his army still wander Zbanali, Pemorian lives on, and Sasmogy will rise again, stronger and more powerful than previously! Our fight is one of liberty for all, and the totalitarian ways of the West will never prevail in the Land of the Free!
     
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    • The Engin Veba and East Africa's transformation: The story behind Alfredo's folly in The Royal Forgery
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    Shahraz Begum-Karim's recent take on the classic story of The Royal Forgery has sparked interest in the historical events around the narrative, particularly the Engin Veba.

    The story revolves around Dagerwal Timur, a historical horse trader, and his marital troubles. Timur and his favorite wife Fatima have been in a dryspell, and Timur blames it on the exiled Prince Aaqil Malik Khan. Timur decides to forge a letter from several Indian nobles requesting his presence to intervene against the Afghans during the waning days of the Sixty Years of Blood, in hopes Aaqil would be foolish enough to return to India and either die or be captured. Upon receiving the letter, Aaqil decides against his mother Patna's wishes to gather an army to retake his lost holdings from the Afghan Samim dynasty. Letters sent to several Indian nobles, rulers, and merchants were rarely responded to, and Aaqil looked to other sources of support. Aaqil befriends Alfredo and Ganganmeet, a cheese merchant and a disgraced scholar. They organized an ambitious scheme for funding the military expedition, of selling blocks of cheese as an aphrodisiac, buying brothels in Muscat and Omani India (and paying the prostitutes to act as if the cheese was working miracles), and using the revenue to buy mercenaries and ships. Aaqil begins his invasion, and succeeding on the skills of the mercenary leader, Kumail, conquers his way from Kandahar to Jhansi. The men's schemes immediately begin unraveling upon Aaqil's crowning. Aaqil had yet to distribute land to his supporters when he tripped on a rock and broke his neck on a hunting trip with friends. Ganganmeet uses his favor with the Sultan of Oman to get Timur banished as his horse trade falters in the chaos of Aaqil's Kingdom's collapse. Alfredo's cheese industry had grown such, that he imported cattle from Italy to Somalia in order to produce the cheeses, introducing virulent rinderpest to Subsaharan Africa. As Africa, Arabia, and India descend into financial collapse and chaos, Fatima and the actual focus of her attention, Patna escape to Constantinople writing of the events which befell them and their kin.

    The historical accuracy of the play has been debated since it's original publication in AH 1270 (AD 1853), and before in the writings of Fatima of Muscat (1197/1783). There is significant attestation to several events related to the end of the Sixty Years of Blood, including the rinderpest outbreak, or Engin Veba. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1753, quick travel between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean allowed rinderpest to travel from Europe to Africa, where in 1766 the Engin Veba began. As cattle across East Africa and large game began massive population collapses, with accompanying societal upheaval across Africa.

    [TBC]
     
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    SpazzReflex said:

    The Red Star Arisen: How the Soviet Union Returned

    Kihei, Hawaii - 7th November, 2117

    Across the world, many nations celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution which removed the Kerensky Government and saw the Bolshevik Party start the first socialist state in history-The USSR. Fireworks, drinking, and merriment can be found across the globe from Takoradi to Pevek, as socialist countries and socialists in other states remember the founding of the USSR. Regardless of one's political views, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has cast a long shadow over the history of the planet. But the history of the Soviet Union is not unbroken, and for a period of close to five decades, the light of the revolution was extinguished.

    The Interregnum of the USSR was a period spanning from 1991 to 2047 when capitalism was imposed on the Soviet space, the different peoples of the Union split away, and oligarchs and autocrats ruled. The largest state to arrive from the 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation was a key player in World War Three. However, the Interregnum is characterized as a period of general disappointment and dismay, often called 'the Tragedy of the Soviet People'. Standards of living and economic performance declined across the region, often not returning to pre-1991 levels until the tail end of the period, if at all. However, during the antebellum period, there was a triumphalism among Western observers, with proclamations of a Hegelian 'End of History' and an assumption that the Soviet Union and Marxism was dead and buried. To understand how the Soviet Union returned, historical context is needed.

    The History of the USSR, or Soviet Union, began in violence. When Vladimir Lenin led the Bolshevik Party to removing the Russian government in November of 1917, a Civil War began with intervention by the leading powers of the day. Vicious fighting raged across the continent. The Russian Empire was always a multi-ethnic state, but Russians dominated the state. The Bolshevik effort was aided by several peoples disaffected by the Imperial system, such as the Tatars. The New Economic Program and Josef Stalin's Five-Year Plans transformed a largely agrarian society into an industrial economy on par with other powers of the day. This would prove necessary when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

    The Second World War saw millions of Soviet citizens killed, a blow that would ultimately take a lifetime to resolve. In the aftermath of the War, relations cooled between the Soviet Union and their wartime allies in the United States. Nuclear Weapons had been used by the US on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first cities to be destroyed by nuclear weapons. By 1949 The USSR had nuclear weapons of their own. The global conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States, referred to as the 'Cold War' became the first era when nuclear war was a real and threatening possibility.

    The Soviet Union became a technological and economic superpower, putting humans into space before the US, making great advancements in science, such as geochemistry, neurosurgery, and the laser. The dual strike of the losses from World War Two and a demographic slowdown would eventually catch up to the Soviet Union, alongside international pressures in both their sister republics in Europe and a US dominated global economy. Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms led to internal dissatisfaction, and many outer regions sought independence. In 1991, the flag of the USSR was lowered over the Kremlin.

    The capitalist Interregnum saw significant declines in the standard of living and economic standing across the region. Former communist officials took over state infrastructure and oligarchies formed, selling off the manufacturing and industrial capabilities. Several former republics, like Ukraine and Uzbekistan would not see a return to their former economic vitality during the Interregnum, and only restored after incorporation into the resurrected USSR. Russia was the only republic to maintain significant regional influence and power, though ultimately it lacked most of the capabilities it possessed during the first Soviet era. In spite of this, and despite significant opposition from Western powers, Russia pursued an aggressive policy, with military interventions around the Russian periphery and Syria, as well as intervening in western elections. Relations tensed, and several treaties limiting nuclear proliferation disintegrated.

    Russia began decline after continued economic warfare with the United States and its global financial institutions. Putin's health and popularity declined, and as he had done previously let one of his close political allies, Alexander Galushka succeed him. Galushka initially appeared significantly less strong-willed than Putin and both internal and external opposition believed they could remove his regime. The United States attempted to support opposition led protests, many of which became violent. The United States pressured Ukraine into restarting conflict over the Crimean Peninsula, supplying logistical and material support for the effort. Russian response was an invasion of Ukraine. Global tensions raised, a Chinese led economic blockade of the United States led to war in the South China Seas. After a surprise Chinese victory in the Battle of Malacca and continued success in Ukraine, domestic unrest in the United States began threatening the political regime. The United States threatened utilizing nuclear weapons hoping to force an end in order to turn its attention to internal affairs while keeping favorable terms. It is difficult to determine accurately who launched first, a question that will vex humanity for millennia.

    The Third World War killed millions of people across Eurasia, particularly in the Old Russia. Five years of suppressed sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, radioactive fallout and the spread of disease killed millions of people.     The devastation particularly affected European Russia, with a population loss averaging close to 95%, dropping to around seven million inhabitants. Asian Russia, by contrast, though starting with a population roughly a third of the size of European Russia managed to retain seven million inhabitants as well, averaging a population loss of around 80% during the period from August 2026 to August 2031. Part of the success of the east was due to the underdevelopment which plagued the region, paradoxically meaning a certain level of self-sufficiency was present prior to WWIII, which would go a long way in keeping people fed.

    Confusion as to the succession of the government plagued the survivors of the nuclear war, and much of the surviving governmental bodies passed legislation temporarily to the highest authority they had direct access to. The most populous survivor state, located on the Black Sea and foothills of the Caucasus Mountains was based out of Salsk, and led by the Russian Armed Forces. They claimed legal succession to the Russian Federation via their appointments by the President as well as In the Far East, the Amur Oblast, Kharbarovsk Krai, and Primorsky Krai had formed their own government in Amursk. Negotiations with Sakha, Chutoka, and Sakhalin brought them under Amursk's influence.
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    I'll finish this after a nap
     
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    SpazzReflex said:
    Not really sure where I should post this, but I had some down time and banged out this beauty

    https://i.imgur.com/dok5DYE.jpg

    dok5DYE.jpg


    [EDIT: damn thing wouldn't load correctly]
    [EDIT 2: Done fucked up your flag, Australians, sorry]
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    Beats the turducken all hollow, at minimum.

    (And now I'm slightly alarmed the spell checker knows the word. It's the culinary equivalent of your spell checker knowing the names of all the Lovecraftian deities. )
     
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