Medieval America Mark III

I just had a thought. Now I know we’re focusing on North America but about the Old World is the Suez Canal still around. That could make quite a difference in these new Middle Ages. More contact between Europe and Eastern Asia perhaps? How would trade differ?
 
I just had a thought. Now I know we’re focusing on North America but about the Old World is the Suez Canal still around. That could make quite a difference in these new Middle Ages. More contact between Europe and Eastern Asia perhaps? How would trade differ?
Outside the scope of this thread but I must imagine its almost certainly silted over. That said, probably might be possible for a particularly dedicated ruler to must resources to dredge it.
 
Without modern technology, some of the sea walls in the Netherlands, or the Three Gorges Dam in China for example might've failed, so maybe some of the Netherlands's reclaimed land was lost or China had a catastrophic flood during the Regression and it redirected rivers.
 
I had an idea of a mythologized Kennedy dynasty in the rump USA and New England, like Arthurian legend and Camelot. But I suspect if I do a detailed post, I'll just get Monty Python jokes from the rest of you.
 
It would have Joseph Kennedy Sr as Uther Pendragon, LBJ as the wise man Lyndon, Jaci as Guinevere and Bobby as Lancelot, Oswald as Mordred and Marilyn Monroe as the Lady of the Silver Lake endorsing his Presidency. They would see his last days as a literal quest into the South for the Torch of a New Generation that would unite Americans to send men to the moon until Oswald slew him.
 
Medieval America Mark III
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What is it?
Medieval America begins with an observation, and then a question: "America never experienced a 'Middle Ages.' What would and American Middle ages look like?"

Medieval America is a collaborative project which seeks to explore a world in which the United States and the world at large has regressed to Medieval levels of technology. The genesis of this project came with "The Atlas of Medieval America", a project by the amazing writer Matthew White to explore this concept himself. The project itself was rather silly and tongue-in-cheek at times, with such fun features as Scientologist Pharaohs rulings over California, an eco-maniac Pacific Northwest, and a Voodoo Louisiana - and yet, it still managed to maintain a sense of realism. Despite the tremendous amount of effort put into it, White never completed this project.

This led to this discussion on the project in 2007. In 2009, this blog emerged to try and expound upon the world (and it has done an absolutely marvelous job of just that). This was followed by the Medieval America Co-op Project. While wonderful and well worth a read, it was subject to thread drama and disorganization, prompting a reboot into the likewise wonderful Medieval America Tk II, moderated and expanded by the user jmberry, who set out a standard of rigor that ensured high quality and consistency. Unfortunately, this thread petered out after a string of disorganized and improbable entries. Thus, due to popular demand, this third (and, hopefully, final) iteration has been launched.

Guidelines
What caused the Regression?
This won't be answered. Period. Matt White doesn't go into it, Jord839 refused to let it be discussed, and that will continue for this thread. Suffice to say, it didn't involve a nuclear war or an alien invasion or some such. Rather, it was a largely gradual but somewhat chaotic regression. There are few artifacts in common circulation from the Old World. The nature of the Regression raises a lot of questions. One of the most common ones is "What happened to the steel in skyscrapers? Are old cities the new mines?' The answer is for the most part no. If we were to be realistic, there should be plenty of surviving industrial tech and society should be based on harvesting the resources of the Old World. But that's not really the point. Generally speaking, just don't think about the Regression too hard.

When was the Regression?
Matt White said the Regression occurred 'over 900 years' ago. For the record, I tend to presume the Regression occurred in 2012, and the setting itself is sometime before the dawn of the 31st century.

What is the tech level?
Based on the '900 years' comment, I've assumed the tech is roughly equivalent to the 1300s OTL - this is the High Middle Ages, just before the Renaissance proper.

What is canon?
This project has gone through so many iterations and so many ideas have been thrown out there that it can at times be confusing to figure out what's canon and what's not. Here's the simple rule: The Atlas of Medieval America is canonical in its entirety, unless someone has good grounds to challenge one of White's suppositions. Neither the blog nor the Co-op project are canonical unless a specific entry is submitted and deemed acceptable. They should be looked to only as inspiration. Only specified entries from Tk. II are canonical, as listed below.

Beyond that if you wish to submit a post, all you have to do is write it up, put a good deal of effort into it, and post it here. It will be read and discussed by the participants, who will point out strengths and weaknesses and ensure that it is consistent with pre-established lore and the tone we're trying to cultivate. Taking all of this into consideration, I'll decide whether or not to put it into the Table of Contents, thus canonizing it. It's fairly rare that a post doesn't get canonized, and if it doesn't you can always re-write it.

Required & Recommended Reading
The only truly required reading is the original site. Beyond that, before posting we would ask that you have a decent familiarity with both the current iteration and Medieval America Tk II. We also would like to very strongly recommend the Feudal America blog, which while not canon is a great source of inspiration and has a lot of great ideas for the setting. If you have the time, I would advise that you read through the original Medieval America Co-op Project - though not even a little canon and deeply flawed, it also has a lot of great content and, again, can serve as a useful source of inspiration.

Beyond these directly related projects, I would also recommend reading Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. While Miller envisions a radically different Medieval America to White, it captures a lot of the same vibe.

Table of Contents

General Information
The Plains
The Desert The Pacific Northwest The Feudal Core
Dixie
New England, Quebec & Beyond...
When are you going to add New England, Quebec, and beyond part this thread.
 
It would have Joseph Kennedy Sr as Uther Pendragon, LBJ as the wise man Lyndon, Jaci as Guinevere and Bobby as Lancelot, Oswald as Mordred and Marilyn Monroe as the Lady of the Silver Lake endorsing his Presidency. They would see his last days as a literal quest into the South for the Torch of a New Generation that would unite Americans to send men to the moon until Oswald slew him.
This would be a great idea. Go ahead!
 
The Matter of America

California has the folklore of Elron's discovery of cosmic truth and his Hollywood disciples saving the survivors of the Regression. Deseret has its tales of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in olden times. In Muscovy and Sibir and Armenia they have their tales of the Court of the Red Tsar, Stalin the Great . Most societies have a semi mythologized version of their own history, the lost golden age, not quite religion, not quite lie, but far from truth. So do the remains of the United States and the local baronies and kingdoms of New England, only occasionally under the waning suzerainty of Washington. The history of pre-Regression America has been mythologized, misunderstood and half forgotten. But many know the tales of President Kennedy and his golden age of Camelot in the olden times. There are a collection of sometimes conflicting folklore, with some traditions telling of Jack's invasion of Cuba atop San Juan Hill, others of him being the one to fly the ship Apollo to the moon, others saying he did neither but he did conquer Berlin from Tsar Stalin the Great. The tales of President Kennedy and other tales of olden America were collected by scholar Jordan of Maryland into the History of America.

"Jack Kennedy was born of the warlord Joseph Kennedy in a time when ales and spirits were banned and outlaws made great fortunes upon their trade. Joseph gained power through the distillation of moonshine and dispatch of his enemies and built a fortress in Hyannis. He had many maidens and matrons as mistresses and sired many sons, Joseph II, Jack, Robert and Ted and one daughter Rosemary who was mad and sent to a convent. He sired Jack by impersonating the husband of a local matron Igraine and wearing his armor after slaying him in battle. The President Franklin Roosevelt the Great made Kennedy a vassal and sent him to Britain but he fell into disfavor when he tried to make a traitorous pact with Roosevelt's enemy the German Emperor Hitler the Mad. As penance, Joseph agreed to send his sons to fight in the great war against Hitler the Mad and his allies in the Hermit Kingdom of Japan which had conquered Hawai'i and Alaska.

Joseph Kennedy had favored his heir, Joseph II and hoped him to become President, but his flying machine was slain in battle against Hitler the Mad. Jack lead a war galley PT 109 against the Japanese and it was sunk in battle, but he rescued the oarsmen and sailors and brought them through shark infested seas to refuge upon an isle. It is said this act of heroic bravery entitled him to become President. Upon the death of Hitler the Mad and Tojo the Coward, Jack returned to America and was made a senator of Massachusetts and betrothed to the noblewoman Jacqueline of Bouvier. Joseph was stricken with a pox and no longer fit, so Jack became head of the noble house and began to scheme for the throne behind the Resolute Desk.


download (66).jpg


Kennedy and Jacqueline of Bouvier


Roosevelt had been succeeded by his heir Truman and thence by the general Eisenhower. Eisenhower had appointed his vice president Nixon the Crook as his successor, but Jack Kennedy challenged Nixon. There was a great struggle between them whence Joseph had his knights in Chicago threaten Nixon's supporters to usher his son to power and Nixon fell ill with a pox in a jousting duel before electors, causing them to award the Presidency to Jack, and the prophetess, Marilyn, Lady of the Silver Lake, declared her love for him and endorsed his Presidency.
download (67).jpg


The Nixon Kennedy Debates


Jack entered the White House and Washington to claim the Resolute Desk at the head of a great procession with his First Lady Jacqueline of Bouvier. He assembled a Cabinet of the Round Table, with his brother Robert, the senator and warlock Lyndon of Texas, who was said to have a maiden turned by sorcery into a bird carrying out his bidding, along with the knights Sargent Schriver, Kenneth of O'Donnell and others. A golden age of enlightened rule passed over America, his Cabinet called Camelot and a New Frontier.

King_Arthur_and_the_Knights_of_the_Round_Table.jpg


Kennedy's Cabinet

The ancients had greater and more terrible weapons than we, who must battle with iron sword and arrow. They had a kind of fire that could poison the air and land for centuries after its burning to salt the earth for an enemy. So it was that the island of Cuba was invaded by the son of Tsar Stalin, Nikita the Burier so he might aim such weaponry at our forefathers and demand tribute of them. Kennedy sent a fleet of war galleys and caravels to send forth the foreign invaders and after a battle thirteen days long in a place called the Bay of Pigs, Nikita the Burier fled in cowardice, his missiles with him.

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The Battle of the Bay of Pigs, Lasting Thirteen Days


In these times however, there was a bane upon the Southern States. The Southron people we know now are mostly one color, but it is said they were once two tribes of two colors, one having enslaved the other but been forced by Lincoln the Emancipator to free them, causing the white clans to hate their black brethren. Frequent revolts blaming the Presidents and Senators occurred in the Southron States as they made the black people eat at separate tables and walk on separate roads. Kennedy sent among them Non Denominational church missionaries called Freedom Riders, but these missionaries were slain by angry mobs of peasantry and local lords.

So it was the God toldeth Kennedy he must reunite Americans with a quest for the Torch of a New Generation, which would power a flying machine called Apollo and allow Americans to conquer the moon, giving them common purpose. Kennedy and his men marched into the south to force the feuding clans to stop their warfare and hatred and locate the legendary torch so all Americans might be as one people again. But omens of doom darkened the quest as it progressed.

Kennedy had many mistresses alongside Jacqueline of Bouvier. He had lain with Marilyn Lady of the Silver Lake, and sired a bastard son, Oswald, who coveted his father's throne as President and seethed with resentment for his abandonment. So too did the warlock Lyndon covet Kennedy's power, and Nikita the Burier seethe with hate for his defeat. They made a pact amongst themselves of treachery against Kennedy and so too did the warlord Samuel of Giancanna and Nikita's vassal Fidel of Havana. Lyndon advised Kennedy to taketh the quest into the city of Dallas, where he was confronted by the combined armies of Samuel of Giancanna, Fidel of Havana, five Texas oil barons, the white clans of the South, with his bastard son Oswald at their head as general upon a grassy knoll. The battle ended in Kennedy and Oswald slaying the other in battle, and Kennedy giving his sword to his brother Robert to be returned to Marilyn of the Silver Lake. As he lay dying, Kennedy was taken to the blessed isle of Martha's Vineyard to sleep for many centuries, to reawaken and return as President of America in its hour of greatest need..."


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Oswald and Kennedy duel to the death, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, 1963.
 
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We generally ignore the topic since that apparently caused quite a bit of controversy in earlier threads. Just assume both to have had happened.
Ok seems kinda strange it would do that but thank you for letting me know. I assume that the rest of the world outside North America is in a similar state? I haven't looked in depth at everything yet but didn't see that really mentioned aside from someone asking about the suez canal.
 
The Matter of America

California has the folklore of Elron's discovery of cosmic truth and his Hollywood disciples saving the survivors of the Regression. Deseret has its tales of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in olden times. In Muscovy and Sibir and Armenia they have their tales of the Court of the Red Tsar, Stalin the Great . Most societies have a semi mythologized version of their own history, the lost golden age, not quite religion, not quite lie, but far from truth. So do the remains of the United States and the local baronies and kingdoms of New England, only occasionally under the waning suzerainty of Washington. The history of pre-Regression America has been mythologized, misunderstood and half forgotten. But many know the tales of President Kennedy and his golden age of Camelot in the olden times. There are a collection of sometimes conflicting folklore, with some traditions telling of Jack's invasion of Cuba atop San Juan Hill, others of him being the one to fly the ship Apollo to the moon, others saying he did neither but he did conquer Berlin from Tsar Stalin the Great. The tales of President Kennedy and other tales of olden America were collected by scholar Jordan of Maryland into the History of America.

"Jack Kennedy was born of the warlord Joseph Kennedy in a time when ales and spirits were banned and outlaws made great fortunes upon their trade. Joseph gained power through the distillation of moonshine and dispatch of his enemies and built a fortress in Hyannis. He had many maidens and matrons as mistresses and sired many sons, Joseph II, Jack, Robert and Ted and one daughter Rosemary who was mad and sent to a convent. He sired Jack by impersonating the husband of a local matron Igraine and wearing his armor after slaying him in battle. The President Franklin Roosevelt the Great made Kennedy a vassal and sent him to Britain but he fell into disfavor when he tried to make a traitorous pact with Roosevelt's enemy the German Emperor Hitler the Mad. As penance, Joseph agreed to send his sons to fight in the great war against Hitler the Mad and his allies in the Hermit Kingdom of Japan which had conquered Hawai'i and Alaska.

Joseph Kennedy had favored his heir, Joseph II and hoped him to become President, but his flying machine was slain in battle against Hitler the Mad. Jack lead a war galley PT 109 against the Japanese and it was sunk in battle, but he rescued the oarsmen and sailors and brought them through shark infested seas to refuge upon an isle. It is said this act of heroic bravery entitled him to become President. Upon the death of Hitler the Mad and Tojo the Coward, Jack returned to America and was made a senator of Massachusetts and betrothed to the noblewoman Jacqueline of Bouvier. Joseph was stricken with a pox and no longer fit, so Jack became head of the noble house and began to scheme for the throne behind the Resolute Desk.


View attachment 609678

Kennedy and Jacqueline of Bouvier


Roosevelt had been succeeded by his heir Truman and thence by the general Eisenhower. Eisenhower had appointed his vice president Nixon the Crook as his successor, but Jack Kennedy challenged Nixon. There was a great struggle between them whence Joseph had his knights in Chicago threaten Nixon's supporters to usher his son to power and Nixon fell ill with a pox in a jousting duel before electors, causing them to award the Presidency to Jack, and the prophetess, Marilyn, Lady of the Silver Lake, declared her love for him and endorsed his Presidency.
View attachment 609677

The Nixon Kennedy Debates


Jack entered the White House and Washington to claim the Resolute Desk at the head of a great procession with his First Lady Jacqueline of Bouvier. He assembled a Cabinet of the Round Table, with his brother Robert, the senator and warlock Lyndon of Texas, who was said to have a maiden turned by sorcery into a bird carrying out his bidding, along with the knights Sargent Schriver, Kenneth of O'Donnell and others. A golden age of enlightened rule passed over America, his Cabinet called Camelot and a New Frontier.

View attachment 609674

Kennedy's Cabinet

The ancients had greater and more terrible weapons than we, who must battle with iron sword and arrow. They had a kind of fire that could poison the air and land for centuries after its burning to salt the earth for an enemy. So it was that the island of Cuba was invaded by the son of Tsar Stalin, Nikita the Burier so he might aim such weaponry at our forefathers and demand tribute of them. Kennedy sent a fleet of war galleys and caravels to send forth the foreign invaders and after a battle thirteen days long in a place called the Bay of Pigs, Nikita the Burier fled in cowardice, his missiles with him.

View attachment 609671

The Battle of the Bay of Pigs, Lasting Thirteen Days


In these times however, there was a bane upon the Southern States. The Southron people we know now are mostly one color, but it is said they were once two tribes of two colors, one having enslaved the other but been forced by Lincoln the Emancipator to free them, causing the white clans to hate their black brethren. Frequent revolts blaming the Presidents and Senators occurred in the Southron States as they made the black people eat at separate tables and walk on separate roads. Kennedy sent among them Non Denominational church missionaries called Freedom Riders, but these missionaries were slain by angry mobs of peasantry and local lords.

So it was the God toldeth Kennedy he must reunite Americans with a quest for the Torch of a New Generation, which would power a flying machine called Apollo and allow Americans to conquer the moon, giving them common purpose. Kennedy and his men marched into the south to force the feuding clans to stop their warfare and hatred and locate the legendary torch so all Americans might be as one people again. But omens of doom darkened the quest as it progressed.

Kennedy had many mistresses alongside Jacqueline of Bouvier. He had lain with Marilyn Lady of the Silver Lake, and sired a bastard son, Oswald, who coveted his father's throne as President and seethed with resentment for his abandonment. So too did the warlock Lyndon covet Kennedy's power, and Nikita the Burier seethe with hate for his defeat. They made a pact amongst themselves of treachery against Kennedy and so too did the warlord Samuel of Giancanna and Nikita's vassal Fidel of Havana. Lyndon advised Kennedy to taketh the quest into the city of Dallas, where he was confronted by the combined armies of Samuel of Giancanna, Fidel of Havana, five Texas oil barons, the white clans of the South, with his bastard son Oswald at their head as general upon a grassy knoll. The battle ended in Kennedy and Oswald slaying the other in battle, and Kennedy giving his sword to his brother Robert to be returned to Marilyn of the Silver Lake. As he lay dying, Kennedy was taken to the blessed isle of Martha's Vineyard to sleep for many centuries, to reawaken and return as President of America in its hour of greatest need..."


View attachment 609669

Oswald and Kennedy duel to the death, Dealey Plaza, Dallas, 1963.
Hhm, seems strange to have them talk and paint just like they did in the High middle ages/early Renaissance, I know it's supposed to be middle ages in america, but it's a completely different culture that this setting sprang from compared to medieval europe. And language.
 
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