America in 2022

 

NERCC-Administered United States (Omaha, NE): By the Spring of 2022, the United States has been considerably reduced in size. Federal authority extends across the extent of the Misissippi River Basin, including the Missouri and Ohio River Basins, and portions of the Florida Gulf Coast.  Civilization has receded completely from some parts of North America, especially the Northeast and the West. The high population states of the Northeast suffered terribly during the nuclear exchange and chaos that followed them, and in most places the collapse was total. In the Mountain States and West Coast, the direct damage was not as bad, but isolation, distance, and numerous separatist movements have pulled the region apart. Over the past year, NERCC authorities made some harsh decision about where to apply their efforts. The federal government essentially withdrew completely from the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic States beyond the Appalachians, and the Mountain States west of the Rockies to local and regional authorities. The population of the states under Federal control is about 40 million, based on NERCC surveys (conditions make an actual census impossible). This represents roughly a 70% casualty rate in those states under NERCC authority – casualties in areas outside federal control are thought to be much higher, but nobody really knows.

 

Civilian political authority rests in the hands of Provisional President Martin Campanella, whose decisions are generally rubber-stamped by a compliant Provisional Congress. In these regions, the power is usually on and the water still flows, but both are rationed, and subject to frequent interruptions. Food and services are occasionally scarce and expensive, but it is possible to have a stable, somewhat normal life there. Outside of the main cities, most of the cities and towns have a considerably reduced population; many smaller towns have disappeared entirely, as the populations migrate to the remaining cities.  Travel is limited through the use of checkpoints and roadblocks, and the countryside is subject to strict martial law. In game terms, NERCC-controlled areas considered "Organized", or possibly as "Cantonments" near front lines or other borders.  The US is currently divided into three main surviving regions, each with several intact major cities:

 

Great Plains/Midwest

Omaha, NE

Grand Forks, ND

Bismarck, ND

Rapid City, SD

Sioux Falls, SD

Des Moines, IA

Colorado Springs, CO

Wichita, KS

Amarillo, TX

Las Vegas, NV

Great Lakes

Duluth, WI

Green Bay, WI

Madison, WI

Springfield, MO

Springfield, IL

Champaign-Urbana, IL

Ft. Wayne, IN

Cincinnati, OH

Toledo, OH

Columbus, OH

Lexington, KY

South

Memphis, TN

Nashville, TN

Knoxville, TN

Jackson, MS

Montgomery, AL

Tallahassee, FL

Tampa, FL

Charleston, WV

 

These main cities all host a population of between 50,000 to 250,000 people; a few are larger than that. Each one is garrisoned by a sizable NERCC presence and military facilities. Each city possesses ready sources of food, water, and power. They also possess working airfields, allowing NERCC and the US military to shuttle troops and supplies around the country as necessary. Each city is responsible for governing and maintaining the regions around it – in some cases, they are the only things keeping the region in the United States at all. In 2022, the destruction of the oil infrastructure and the poor condition of the interstate highway system has hampered the ability to transport good and people over long distances, so most economies are regional in nature. The exceptions are communities along rail lines and rivers – echoing the 19th Century, the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio River systems have resumed their former importance to keeping the USA knitted together. Likewise, railroads are easily maintained by large numbers of semi-skilled laborers; this represents a major source of income for a great many US citizens. Railroads are the primary form of transportation used to connect the distant cities of the Great Plains together, bringing the food produced there to the crowded cities of the Great Lakes region. In general, the Great Plains region is the agricultural center of the USA, along with the South. The Great Lakes/Ohio River region is the new industrial center and energy production hub, attempting to compensate for the destruction of the Gulf Coast energy infrastructure. Lacking the output of the other regions, the South has become something of a backwater, and there are threats and murmurs of secession every now and then. 

 

 

California is the sole exception to the political fragmentation in the West. Separated from the rest of the NERCC-Administered United States by nearly a thousand miles of desert, mountains, and hostile states, California has been largely autonomous for over a year, but officially remains part of the union. By early 2022, NERCC-California had secured control over the entire Central Valley and the mountains that surround it. Southern California has officially been abandoned to Mexico and the various marauder armies that roam the deserts.  With the severing of the last rail link to the Great Plains in late 2021, California is now effectively alone. Director Bourne and her advisors have some hard choices to make, but for now California is still officially part of the United States. NERCC California is also responsible for maintaining a presence in Las Vegas, NV. This garrison keeps Hoover Dam in operation, supplying water and power to Nevada and Arizona as best they can. The capital is Fresno, CA. Other functioning cities include Bakersfield, Modesto, and Stockton, CA.

 

 

 

 


Separatist and Independent Regions of America

Mountain Confederacy (Boise, ID):  The Mountain Confederacy was "recognized" by the RJEB early on, but was recognized by NERCC as a part of the "Christmas Truce" of 2020. The Mountain Confederacy claims the states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. These include the agricultural towns of southern Idaho, along I-84, Western Montana between Missoula and Yellowstone Park, and most the Columbia Basin east of the Cascades. Wyoming is technically part of the Mountain Confederacy, but the communities there are too small and scattered to participate in a meaningful way. The region, still not fully recognized by Omaha as legitimate, is fully detailed in its own article.

The Mountain Confederacy

 

Deseret (Salt Lake City, UT):  On February 1st, 2022, leaders of the Latter-Day Saints Church (commonly known as “Mormons”) voted nearly unanimously to reject the authority of the NERCC government in Omaha as illegal and illegitimate. Almost simultaneously, they voted to establish the “Sovereign State of Deseret” as a republic in the pattern defined by previous church doctrine and history.  The structure and leadership of Deseret is one and the same as the structure of the LDS church – civil affairs are simply considered one more facet of church governance. Because most of the region around Great Salt Lake and the “Wasatch Front” is overwhelmingly Mormon, the move was a popular one. There are currently about a million citizens scattered around the region. The LDS has always preached preparedness, and the area is culturally cohesive, so it had a much higher civilian survival rate than other parts of the country.  Deseret is openly and unapologetically a theocracy with fairly restrictive laws and social mores, but it remains a functioning democracy with mostly intact civil rights. Residents who are not members of the LDS retain legal equality with church members, though they are definitely marginalized in culture. Deseret has rocky relations with its closest neighbor, the Mountain Confederacy – confrontations over borders, water resources, and simple cultural issues are common. Both are united in their opposition to NERCC, so it is unlikely that the conflict will turn into open war. It is a very common practice to smuggle illicit goods into Deseret; despite the religious prohibitions on drugs, alcohol, and sexual materials, demand remains high.

 

Rio Grande Republic (Brownsville, TX): With the destruction of many of Mexico’s major cities, the country collapsed into chaos. The elements of the Mexican Army which had successfully occupied and held San Antonio also controlled two of Mexico’s northern states, and most importantly, the rich Rio Grande Valley. They declared a new republic centered on the river, separate from Texas or Mexico but related to both – the Rio Grande Republic, formally known as the “Republica de Tejas Sur y Tamaulipas y Nuevo Leon”. The Rio Grande Republic is organized under the old 1824 Constitution of Mexico, a fairly enlightened document for its time. Spanish is the official language, and Roman Catholicism is the official religion.  There are relatively few Anglos remaining in the Republic – though they are not officially discriminated against, there is sufficient ethnic tension to make things difficult. Life in the Rio Grande Republic remains difficult, and most people are quite poor – but access to rich agricultural lands, ample petroleum resources, and the Gulf of Mexico allow for a measure of potential prosperity. The northern frontier is the Guadalupe River, between Austin and San Antonio, which is the largest city in the Rio Grande Republic. This border is heavily militarized, but relatively stable, being unchanged since the initial invasion. The southern border is much more porous, and poorly defined. The Rio Grande Republic has a large but irregularly equipped military, largely defensive and local in posture. As the only viable government in much of the Southwest, the Rio Grande Republic has attracted Mexican Army units from all along the occupied border, leaving a vast stretch between Laredo and Albuquerque without any military presence at all.