Name: United States of America
Location:
History:Okay, so first and foremost I gotta preface this by saying that, because the amount of time that passes between 2016 and the Yellowstone event, I've had to fiddle with recent events to make them work. There just wasn't enough time allotted to pull away from recent history naturally, so I didn't. This means that I've replaced Trump with a fictional character as President-Elect in 2016. It's easier that way, since I don't have to play with real world events that way. So with that in mind...
2016 saw the election of Jerry Hexad as 45th President, tech mogul and multibillioniare who funded his own campaign. His presidency was a tough one despite the popular wave that brought him into office, and he narrowly won reelection in 2020. Incidentally, it was in 2020 that scientists first issued warnings about increased geological activity at Yellowstone. The issue remained buried behind the long list of international troubles until 2022, when Scientists confirmed the caldera was highly likely to blow within a four to five year window, and recommended a methodical evacuation for much of the central-western states. The warning drew criticism as alarmist, especially for the people in the affected region, who sniffed some sort of scam in the warnings, or stupidity among academics that would hurt their lives and lifestyles. It wasn't until 2023 brought earthquakes, rocking the affected area, that any interest in an evacuation became truly serious. By then it was too late. Predating even the most dire warnings, the Yellowstone Caldera blew in 2023, and millions of unevacuated Americans died or were severely injured in the blast. America's breadbasket was wasted.
This event reverberated through the country like a shock wave. 2024 saw a severe weakening of government systems all across the board. The volcano not only damaged millions of lives and miles of property, it crashed the world economy and destroyed the American people's faith in their government. Elections were held with much difficulty. The central-western states, almost entirely devastated, wasn't in any position to participate. Other states were struck with violence at the polls, widespread electoral corruption, and election day riots. Four candidates ran an unusually close race, the partisanship that once made the two-party system drowned out in generalized rage. The confusion sent the election to congress. They chose the ticket that involved the least change: Dale Hexad, the President's son, with his sister and the President's daughter Amanda as his running mate. This almost monarchical ticket would have been unthinkable at any other time, but the stability minded congress accepted it, and a populace already enraged by everything hardly changed rhythm because of it. Dale became 46th POTUS.
Dale Hexad's first act as President was to personally visit devastated parts of the country. This attempt at unity ended tragically when Dale's plane was shot down over Colorado, and the crash was swallowed up by the grey wasteland. Amanda, his sister and Vice President, became the first female President, and the 47th POTUS.
Amanda Hexad's presidency was especially unique. She, with the help of her ex-Presidential father as Secretary of State and her younger brother Ian as Vice President, reformed the government. Constitutional government had became a farce, and she used the panicked influence the Hexad's held at that time to force a complete restructuring. Gone were term limits, and a congress and senate built of representatives from long-lost states (pushed through by exempting the current sitting Representatives and Senators, allowing them to sit out their positions for life, slowly to be replaced by new members brought in on the Hexadic Amendment.) That land still held strong by the United States was allowed to organize themselves as states, smaller and more municipally minded. The Electoral college was scrapped, replaced by Congressional review, with the vote practiced as a method of popularity polling for Congress to follow. It was a blatantly undemocratic system constructed to deal with a world that had rejected the old processes in favor of chaos.
That wasn't what ended the Hexads. Her changes were greeted as a sincere effort to save the United States. They were subject to congressional review as well, to be ended the moment a stable government was put in place over most of the old US. What ruined the Hexads and their status with their fickled people was a string of unfortunate events beyond the control of the Presidency. First came hunger and disease, brought on by the death of trade. Crime went up. Raids from the north, conducted by those sorry survivors of the great northeastern cities, further stressed the remaining parts of the United States, now merely Washington DC and Norfolk Virginia, supplemented by the surrounding countryside. The Presidency, uncertain how to handle these problems, was judged uncaring and aloof. Food riots became anti-government riots. In 2031 the break down was complete. The people stormed the Presidential motorcade, killed the President and much of her family, and dragged their bodies through the streets. It seemed for the moment that the United States was finally over, ended in infamy.
But the people did not destroy congress. With most of the Hexads dead, their anger abated. Congress asked the mob who should lead the country now, and the people chose Bishop Armilio Profano. He had created a system for feeding the poor, and had unusual success at procuring food for his program. His popularity made him the 48th President of the United States.
President Profano became the first of a new type of President. He reformed the military and combined them with the police force. He then took heavy artillery, kept in storage at Norfolk, and used boats and horses to transport it above the city, where he pushed back a wave of urban raiders from the north who had occupied Baltimore and environs. By using heavy artillery in a way that hadn't be applied in anger on this continent since Gettysburg, he created a relatively safe border zone. His war against the raiders, sometimes called "Yankees" or "Yawkas" depending on the person, consumed his presidency and eventually claimed his life. He was last seen personally leading a charge at the Battle of Slate hill, where his forces drove the Yawkas into the Susquehanna river at terrible cost. The death of President Profano, perhaps mixed into a bloody heap at the height of the battle, or perhaps himself swept up by the blood-drenched river, brought his Vice President, Ares James, into office as the 49th President of the United States.
President James spent much of his seven years in office rebuilding Washington DC. The city was undergoing an urban collapse familiar all over the country. The suburban sprawl went largely unoccupied, abandoned houses were taken up by squatters and raiders, and it became very apparent that no post-collapse power could afford the effort of policing such a large urban jungle. James took to this problem the harsh way, preserving only the center of the city anchored between U Street, Rock Creek, and the Anacostia river. The rest of the Washington Metro, that which lay outside of the prescribed area and north of the Potomac, was completely bulldozed. Buildings were methodically deconstructed. Much of the salvage was used to build a massive steel-coated wall around the preserved portions of the city. Useless junk was tossed into empty foundations and caught on fire. Black smoke marked the city for miles all around. What was left of the suburbs was crumbling asphalt and foundations full of carbonized mush. A similar process was conducted south of the River, but with less destruction and a wall that only protected the Arlington area.
President James then went on to do something that hadn't been done by a US President in a while: He died a natural death. He was followed by his Vice President, the man he had appointed to refit the navy at Norfolk, Caden Sumner, now 50th POTUS.
Sumner's presidency has thus far been defined by his interest in returning the United States Government to it's rightful hegemony. Riding on the work of his predecessors, he launched a series of reconquests, completing the subjugation of Maryland, and expanding US influence to Delaware and most of Virginia, as well as parts of West Virginia. With the United States government taking on a more aggressive tone under his control, their neighbors are certain to take notice.
Chapatrap
Timemaster
