Medieval America Mark III
- Thread starter Flashman
- Start date
That's too bad to hear. Hopefully, you can get yourself in a writing mood sooner or later. There's definitely no rush.
So I was thinking. In the crumbling United States of America there might've not been a large control over the economy because everyone was trying to stop the warlords and bandits. I began to think that the United States would have to rely on tobacco/cotton/fish as their chief exports. A lot of really big companies would form which resembled the United Fruit Company. Only this time, the main threat wasn't communism but maniacs burning down the capital for the fifth time. The United States would give them some military support or the companies could hire mercenaries to give their competitors a lesson. Eventually, they would rebel against the federal government to create their own corporatocacy dictatorships.
I feel like that gets too specific in terms of the collapse itself.
There can certainly be things like that, however- I certainly expect corporate icons from the 21st century would be represented in Medieval American.
I definitely like the idea of the descendants of corporations setting up nations that are a cross between banana republics and feudal states. Remove the direct references to the Collapse and it'd fit perfectly well in this project.
I think that there could be a hydrological state in Vegas. Why do I think that? Because the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead would still be there. It's said that the dam would last ten thousand years with no maintenance.
I made a post on just that in the old thread. I just need to clean it up at some point.
Hoover Dam, yes. It would take thousands of years for the spillways to clog according to calculations.
Most dams are probably gone, except for ones that have been actively maintained.
tehskyman
Banned
Would the dams upstream of the hoover survive? If one of them goes, then it becomes a cascade effect with the extra water causing the next one downstream to fail adding the water etc.
It handled the flow of the Colorado almost totally undamed till the 50s. And that was in our ear of a relatively wet southwest.
tehskyman
Banned
I don't think that matters all that much. The Glen Canyon Dam only has a lifespan of either 80-100 years or 5-700 depending on who you ask. Lake Powell is silting up and when it fills up whats left of Lake Powell will pour into Lake Mead and cause it to overtop the Hoover.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risks_to_the_Glen_Canyon_Dam
I think that the presence of the Hoover Dam contradicts previous posts made about the Colorado River Delta. If the delta has been restored as the post stated, then the Hoover dam and other dams like it are gone and have failed. So I personally think that without the maintenance, if the Hoover hasn't failed itself then the Glen Canyon Dam has failed and with it, every dam downstream, including the Hoover
Hoover Dam was built and functioned prior to the construction of Glen Canyon.
tehskyman
Banned
Yes but if the Glen Canyon Dam fails then it sends all the water it has been holding back downstream all at once. Which might be more than the Hoover can take. And if the failure of the Glen Canyon doesn't immediately destroy the Hoover, then that means that the Colorado will begin to silt up Lake Mead.
Well, Glen Canyon is well within the borders of New Mexico. They could've maintained it.
tehskyman
Banned
Would they be able to dredge the bottom of the lake by extracting 84 tons of silt/min? They don't do that now could they do it in the middle of the desert without the technology we have? Probably not.
Alright. Hoover Dam itself would almost certainly not collapse. It is as strong as the canyon walls themselves. But the silting of Lake Mead seems pretty inevitabl. Eventually, Lake Mead will turn into a muddy plain with the Colorado meandering through its center, and simply flowing over the top of the dam.
But here's something interesting: if we accept the BLM's estimation for Lake Powell, then until recently, Hoover Dam would still be semi-functional until 300 years before the "present" of the project. Ample time for a short-live Hydraulic Empire.
That muddy plain would be some of the most fertile land in the area, so even after the empire falls there could still be a smaller settlement in the Vegas area. And the series Life After People implies that the local groundwater would be replenished in as little as 50 years after the Collapse. Fifty years without a large city to drain it is enough for the rains to replenish the groundwater.
tehskyman
Banned
It'd be interesting to see what would happen upon the collapse of Powell-Mead Civilization. And with the water flowing over the Hoover that'd make for a spectacular waterfall, until the water ate away at the concrete. I think this would be pretty quick. Look at how fast the water was eroding the Oroville Spillway
All that'd be left in the end would be a pair of giant concrete walls (assuming the waterfall didn't eat away at their foundations) with the colorado flowing between them. A sight to behold
All that'd be left in the end would be a pair of giant concrete walls (assuming the waterfall didn't eat away at their foundations) with the colorado flowing between them. A sight to behold
I wonder what the drug trade in this new America is like. I'm imagining horse drawn carriages with pounds of coca leaves, marijuana, and poppy flowers. They would eventually have to fight off the lions and cannibal tribes before they can enter the city of Las Vegas unless escaped zoo animals aren't canon anymore. Some of the Mexicans could introduce death worship with the Santa Muerete religion which gets incorporated into the horrifying heresy religion.