IN 491, the Second Cloud Emperor came to power in St Louis, beginning the Thorvaldic dynasty continuing with the ascension of the Third Cloud Emperor in 499 and ending for good seventy-four years of protracted, virtually constant civil war in the Holy Louisiana Empire. Indeed, it is something of a miracle the whole Empire did not simply collapse sometime in the fifth century. But the Empires problems are not yet solved if they can even be solved. And at its frontiers, potential enemies amass...
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The bulk of the former East Coast of the United States never came under Imperial control, protected by the natural barrier of the Appalachians. It is now home to a myriad of tribal polities. However, a number of recent bad harvests combined with an upsurge in storms from offshore have began to drive many of these tribes - the so-called "Bretonic peoples" by the Imperial scholars - further and further west. Though the Bretonics speak a common language and often have similar customs, most of them being largely matriarchal tribal societies, there is great variety and little commonality in religious traditions.
Furthest north of these tribes is the peoples known to Imperial geographers as the Mosherites, a loosely aligned Bretonic group whose main shared characteristic is their collective cult of the Great Old Ones. Lately, one tribe, along the coast, has begun to enforce its own leadership upon the rest, becoming the most powerful in the region - perhaps the Mosherites will be one day united. To their south are the Narragansett Confederacy, a confederation of the former, non-Bretonic native tribes of New England, who have established themselves as rulers over the Bretons, the former white settlers, who today mostly reside in the cities.
To the south, in the former Hudson valley and New Jersey, lies the home of the Piscati, whose culture revolves around the worship of the cat-goddess Bast. The Piscati have been some of the worst-affected by the recent sequence of bad harvests, and slowly have begun moving west. One of the first victims was the trading city-state of Philadelphia, which fell to Piscati invasions in 489 after centuries of reaping the cross-Appalachian trade routes with the Empire. In the former Susquehanna valley lie the predominantly Jewish Sylvani people, whose confederacy's numbers have been bolstered by westward migrations and subsequent conversions to Judaism.
The region around the pre-Deluge capital is in a unique situation. The biker gangs of the old world turned to the life of the horselord when the gasoline ran dry. In the Washington DC region, these rider gangs fought for local supremacy for decades, possibly centuries. But in the 490s, one of these gangs, the Virginia Outlaws, led by one fearsome Bruce "The Hammer" Austin, was able to subjugate or push the other gangs south. Bruce has since established a Holy Washington Governorate, legitimized by the Holy Order of the Eternal President for the rulers of this region largely believe in the divinity of the Founding Fathers of the old United States. Someday, they believe, the Last President, the one who perished in the Deluge, shall return to reestablish their holy empire. Could the Hammer be that Last President?
Virginia is by and large ruled by the Leiai people, who are also venerators of the Holy Order of the Eternal President however, in their version of the story, the Last President was in fact a woman, by the name of Diana, who will make the Leiai rise again to their rightful presidency. To their south, North Carolina is under the dominance of the originally coastal Outrei. In the 470s, one chieftess unified the Outrei under a single, and began conquering the scattered inland tribes, driving them further southwest. Her daughter is the present ruler of the people, and she has since continued their offensive, unifying all of the country between the Leiai country and the Gullah Kingdom. The Outrei
Furthest south, just over the river from Georgia Parish, is home to the aforementioned Gullah peoples. It is not especially clear where they came from their skin is remarkably darker than the average Imperial or the average Breton, even for ones this far south, and their language is more like the remote Ayitibonitien than anyone else. But in any case, the very tribal Gullah Kingdom has ruled pre-Deluge South Carolina for the length of their living memory, the Savannah River serving as an unwritten solid frontier between them and the Imperials, who have never had an interest in bringing the Gullah under their rule. But the Gullah now are facing incursions at the hands of various Bretonic peoples moving in from the north, and the Gullah are finding themselves pushed increasingly southwards.
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The St Lawrence lies under the firm control of the Riviètroit Confederacy, a grouping of French-speaking cities who have reaped their fortunes on the trade between New England and the Empire. In the wake of several damaging attacks from surrounding tribes, a number of these cities have recently united under a common leadership. One of those tribes comes in the form of the burgeoning Otavai, to the southwest and upriver of the Riviètroit, who have recently united under a leader who calls himself the Second Harper - the first Harper being a pre-Deluge figure of some kind.
The bulk of western New York, east of Lakes Erie and Ontario, now lies under the control of the Albanii confederacy, a group of Bretonic tribes which migrated there during the last quarter century, united under a single warrior queen, and quickly overwhelmed the. The Albanii have even begun to make incursions into Allegheny Parish, causing clashes between them and the sparse Imperial legions garrisoning the frontier. To their west of the lakes reside the non-Bretonic Niagra people, who are not quite as united, but have managed to repulse all foreign incursions so far - just across the lake from the Imperial frontier, they could pose a grave threat in the future. The predominant religion amongst the local tribes is the strange worship of Ahura Mazda and the followings of Zoroasters teachings, which was introduced to the area by a prophet named Megan in about 350. Zoroastrian communities now exist as far south as Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and if rumors are to be believed, even St Louis itself.
Ohio is under the dominance of the Cav tribes, who believe in the divinity of a pre-Deluge hero named Leebran, born a Cav, but one who abandoned them to join a triumvirate of the Heet, lighting the Cuya River on fire in the process, and in turn lead campaigns against the Cavs, only to realize the gravity of the error of his ways and return to the Cavs to repent. The Cavs have managed to make a large incursion into besieged Allegheny Parish, driving out many of the Imperial locals and reaching the north bank Ohio River, even threatening the city of Pittsburgh itself.
The city-state of Detroit once marked the northern frontier of the Empire in the area, but that is no more. Detroit itself is independent, but in the midst of a long period of decline that does not appear to be ending any time soon, as the trade routes are cut off by the southward migration of the Sauk. These people, originally believed to be from Wisconsin but having migrated across Lake Michigan after the Imperial incursions there in the fourth century, have now moved southwards to in the 480s overrun and destroy the Kingdom of Indiana, the once-existent tributary of the Empire. The Sauk have paused at the frontier of Illinois Parish for now.
The former Upper Peninsula of Michigan is populated, as it always has been, by the Fox. This rather wealthy land had at one point been under sporadic Imperial control, after the Third Tailless Emperor's campaign in 313 reached the tip of the peninsula. But sometime during the fifth century the Fox quietly slipped from Imperial rule, and created their own country, from their capital of Green Bay. But in 476, after one particularly hated Fox king died and his two equally hated sons prepared to fight a bitter civil war for control, an assembly of Green Bay patricians or packers, is the odd direct translation of the word from the local tongue decided enough was enough. They had both sons killed and established the Fox Republic, which still rules the country today, led by a House of Packers.
And, in the far north, lie the Sasketchian tribes. These people are quite mysterious, even to the most learned of Imperial scholars. All that is known about them is that their homes one lay somewhere to the west, but they have been driven east in the last few decades to their new homes on the north shore of Lake Huron it is possible that the rise of the Maple Horde had something to do with that, but many scholars doubt this fact.
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The island of Hispaniola was only ever loosely under Imperial control, in an ultimately vain effort to control the threat of roving Caribbean pirate gangs, such as the Sea Cats and the Skeleton Rose, who were suspected to make their bases there. Nevertheless, the last of these incursions, by a rogue imperial general during a civil war in 437, provided the genesis for the highlander, creole-speaking Ayitibonitien peoples of the interior to unite. The island has since come almost completely under control of the Ayitibonitien Confederation.
The rest of the Caribbean, except for the increasingly hard-to-control Cuba Parish of the Empire, is divided between the eclectic realm of Jamaica, a kingdom which claims itself the successor to the Ethiopian Empire, a long-lost land from across the seas, and the Confederacy of the Bermuda Triangle, a mysterious collection of equally mysterious boat-people who control most of the northern and eastern islands; but as the Triangulans already have little except boats and potatoes, they do not bother their neighbours, and their neighbours do not really bother them.
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Central America's major power is the confusingly-named Kingdom of Hispanola, a caste-based elective monarchy, whose people are believed to have migrated from South America sometime in the past few centuries. The first King in their current land, Ibrahim, was forced to cede power to a council of twelve nobles. What truly sets them apart is their belief in a Prophet named Muhammad, shared with only a few sparse communities in the Caribbean and North America - truly curious, as the two regions are never believed to have had contact, post-Deluge.
To the north are the Kingdom of Itza in the former Yucatan, which is at the end of another period of conquest and expansion, and whose rulers have spent the last decades using the spoils of conquest to rebuild the great city of Chitchen Itza, and the "Kingdom" of Chiapas, Itza's main rival, a rough agglomeration of lords and towns under one ruler, who has managed to expand his influence over frontier territories seeking protection from Itza. Both of these kingdoms follow a local branch of Christianity, though Islam has begun to creep northwards.
Two somewhat powerful empires rule the space between Central America and Louisiana - the Aztec Empire in the south and the Texan Empire in the north. The former, founded by migrants from Texas after the beginning of Louisianan rule there in the third century, have forged a cobbled-together, mysticized cultural identity based on pre-Deluge texts of a much older Aztec civilization, and Imperial ethnographers have long argued that this is a fake that never did exist, but the Aztecs vehemently reject these claims. In any case, this iteration of the Aztec Empire has recently undergone a long expansion period through the fifth century, and is at something of a height in its power, and several periods in the fifth century, Tenochtitlan had more inhabitants than even St Louis.
Nearby lies the Texan Empire, ruled from the city of Dallas, which has begun to rival Tenochtitlan and St Louis itself in size and glory. Texas had been conquered by the campaigns of the Turtle Emperor in the 280s, and by 400 Texas Parish had become one of the wealthiest in the Empire. But then the civil wars came. Texas was hardly affected at all, and during the procession of Emperors that followed, the Texas parishioners found themselves growing more and more autonomous. It was in 459, when the newly crowned Quicksilver Emperor demanded tribute from the parishioner of Texas, and the latter refused, that the latter was crowned Emperor in Dallas independent from St Louis. Further violence closer to St Louis meant that Texas would never return to Imperial rule.
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The vast interior of the North American continent is dominated by nomadic prairie horselords. Perhaps the most powerful of these are the Imagi, from the vicinity of Yellowstone. Recently, some of the Imagi have begun moving downriver, into Dakota Parish, easily overwhelming the sparse legions garrisoning the region in what clashes have occurred so far. To the south are the Platti, along the frontier of Nebraska Parish, and even further south are the Tulsi, along the frontier of Kansas Parish and the Texian Empire. The dominant religion of the prairies is Santism, a somewhat pantheistic religion which bears vague resemblances to Christianity; for instances, all of the Christians' saints are portrayed as gods in this world.
The former Canadian Prairies has by and large returned to the wilds, with only a few surviving towns and large, sparse collections of scattered nomadic tribes ruling the land. Except for one great exception the red maple leaf banner has been raised again by a so-called Khan of the Maple Horde. Uniting a confederacy of local horse-borne tribes under his benevolent rule, the Khan has proceeded to mercilessly sack and burn to ashes what few cities have arisen in the region since Deluge. And now, hearing tales of this great empire to his south, he proceeds to turn his hordes in that direction.
The Navajo people formed their own state, post-Deluge, and Dine Bakeyah is its name. It is perhaps the most democratic and egalitarian state in the continent - every member has some say in selecting its leadership, the land belongs to everyone, and there are no classes to speak of. The Navajo have so far been content to remain in their lands, with little outside contact, as they have done for centuries. Not far to the north, in Utah, is the Mormon Kingdom of Jordan, preserving the Church of Latter-Day Saints well past Deluge.
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In Baja California lies the home of the Vilisti, a loosely aligned collection of nomadic tribes whose culture and religion center around a ritualized Day of the Dead. They are feared across the country, as their horselords come down upon villages to take everything. Across the sea are the two tribal states of Sonora and Sinaloa, who still hold on to their Christianity, and mostly spend their days praying to their God that the Vilisti dont get naval capacity and cross the sea.
Two warring states, the Tijuana Republic in the south and the Kingdom of the Angels controlling the coast to the north, dominate Southern California. The former is a slave-holding, highly class-divided mostly Christian republic. The latter is a kingdom, which claims itself to be the most divine land on this Earth. Stories circulate that these Angels are, in fact, fearsome stony-looking creatures that you mustnt ever blink in front of, or turn away from, or theyll get you and do
something. These are ridiculous stories, clearly, but that hasnt stopped the Angels from gaining the upper hand in their conflict.
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The former Klamath Mountains have come under the united rule of the Kingdom of Skaleth Ro, a slave-holding people with a highly sophisticated administration based on provinces much like the Empire, and a rather esoteric religion, the Cult of Dalke, that it is believed was derived from revelations through pre-Deluge texts. In any case, Skaleth Ro's main rival for a long time was the oligarchic, coastal city of Grollifrey. After a prolonged series of wars throughout the fifth century, Skaleth Ro ultimately conquered Grollifrey in 476, tragically ending the life of the Daektor VIII Makgan.
But Grollifrey is not completely lost. For a group of migrants from old Grollifrey reached the coast, to the Grollifreyan city upon site of the city once called San Francisco, whereupon they reestablishes a new Grollifrey, under a new Daektor IX Ekkleston. New Grollifrey has continued the rule of the Daektors; the current one is the Daektor XII Kapaldi. Recently, New Grollifrey, under the flourishing rule of Daektor X Tenent and Daektor XI Matthew, has expanded its rule over the neighboring towns, as far south as Monterey. To the east, the many fortified towns of the Central Valley lie under the loose rule of a Kingdom of Auron, seated in Modesto. This lush, prosperous land is named after the kingdom's mystic, long-vanished supposed founder, Luke, whom its religion also venerates.
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The far northwest is split between a pair of maritime-based kingdoms of the Cascadian culture, Oregon in the south and Washington in the north. These lands, after years of disunity after the legendary fall of a mythical realm of Numenor in the far past Imperial scholars who have gotten their hands on this data through have claimed that the Deluge are one and the same, though they hold disdain for these peoples lack of acceptance of Christ, the Church, and the Holy Emperor have once again coalesced. Coastal villages to the south, and rumors have spread as far south as Skaleth Ro of these warriors.
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The year is now 500 on the Imperial Calendar, and North America is in for one hell of a ride.