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So I've finally decided to have a Write-Up for my Mass Effect Map.
It is the year 2148, a period of colonization throughout the Solar System. Humanity is split between the Assembly of Nations and the Congress of Nations nearly a century after the fall of the old United Nations. Only time will tell if this balance of power will survive the upcoming surprise that will be revealed by an anomaly investigation in Southern Mars.
Eleven of Humanity’s twelve and a half billion lives on Earth while most of the rest live in either Near-Earth Habitats, the Moon, or Mars. A few million researchers and First-Generation colonists are spread throughout the Gas Giants, with a heavy concentration on Jupiter and Saturn. Humanity has already reached Pluto, though only a few thousand people are currently stationed there researching. Though heavy space colonization has started in the 2030s with the mass production of SpaceX’s ‘Starship’ a decade before, the borders of the Moon and Mars were only formalized and defined in the 2063 Delhi Conference. Thousands of habitats litter Near-Earth Space and the Lagrange Points, though the most prominent of these habitats are the internationally controlled Islands One (rebuilt), Two, and Three.
The last eighty years have been mostly peaceful and remarkably stable, in contrast to the difficult and turbulent four decades after the Great Lockdown. Russia collapsed after the death of Vladimir Putin, resulting in a disastrous power struggle that prompted an EU and Chinese intervention. The legal successor of Russia (Mostly referred to as West Russia) eventually joined the strengthened Post-Brexit European Union while the Siberian States ended up in Chinese orbit. The end of Russia as a threat had the side-effect of the American withdrawal of troops throughout the world. Coupled with internal tensions at home, the United States entered a sort of isolation from international affairs. Another shocking event that would follow is the Lagrange Crisis in 2058 when Chinese Lunar workers hijacked a spacecraft, forcefully entered Island One (the second-largest Space Habitat at the time), and held the entire station hostage, demanding better working conditions and freedom of political prisoners in exchange for the lives of the inhabitants of Island One. China refused to give in to the demands and so a rescue operation was attempted. The attempt failed and the workers gave another deadline. However, before the second deadline, the entire station and everyone on it was fried when a Radiological bomb exploded. Since the station’s populace was of many nationalities, the effect was felt worldwide, and many pointed to China for the blame. However, China claimed that India and Europe funded the hijackers and were behind the destruction of the habitat. What followed was the exit of China and its many Client States from the United Nations. Coupled with a growing isolationism movement within its borders, the United States left the UN as well, the United Nations has lost its legitimacy as the main global organization to the eyes of humanity. Up to this day, it is still unknown how the hijackers managed to possess the bomb.
The European Union took the new world leadership role, replacing the isolationist United States while China and its clients kept to themselves. Attempting to replace the United Nations, China and its sphere created the Congress of Nations, proclaiming that this is the way for them to “free themselves from the imperialist ambitions of the West”. The European Union, with a rejoined United Kingdom, along with India, reorganized the remnants of the United Nations into the Assembly of Nations.
Both international organizations made their memberships mutually exclusive to joining the other. However, cooperation between the two factions was also observed, including the maintenance of global standards, regulations, etc. This cooperation was also observed in Africa and the Middle East, finally bringing stability to the regions. The greatest display of this willingness to work with each other, however, was the 2063 Delhi Conference when the national borders in the Moon and Mars, were finally formally drawn.
The next eighty years was stable and peaceful and is marked by the rise of Africa and Asia. However, there is one exemption to these stable years. A reunification movement in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh made the Indian subcontinent united for the first time in 150 years. This unification was not entirely peaceful however, as unlike Bangladesh, Pakistan needed the entrance of Indian troops to join the union. This united India also gained enough strength to challenge the newly federated European Union’s leadership of the Assembly of Nations. Currently, both nations hold a Codominance of sorts within the organization.
The Congress of Nations also weakened considerably within this period. The regional Chinese tributary of Brazil started acting more independently and eventually joined the Assembly, pulling away most of South America with it. East Africa finally united when Kenya was pulled out of the Congress, making unification finally possible. Mexico, Canada, and the United States also united during their isolation from the world. However, the new United States of North America remained isolationist.
Currently, China is the unquestioned hegemon of the Congress of Nations. However, its four main tributaries of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia are starting to follow Brazil’s path of pulling away from China.
Little do the inhabitants of the Solar System know that the entire political landscape will change overnight due to a prospecting team on Mars investigating a magnetic anomaly.
