Vilageidiotx — Roleplayer Guild

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.


CHARACTERS

Sumner Family

President Caden Sumner (56)
-Married to Ava Hexad Sumner (38)

-Sons
--Vice President John "Johnny" Sumner (27) (First Appearance)
--Ethan Sumner (25) (First Appearance)

-Daughters
--Isabella (15) "The Infanta" Sumner (First Appearance)
--Amelia Sumner (12) (First Appearance)
--Dolly Sumner (8) (First Appearance)

-Other relatives
--Brother: Lieutenant General Mason Sumner, Commander of the Army of New Jersey. (53) (First Appearance)

United States Military
Army of New Jersey: Lt General Mason Sumner
-1st Brigade: Brigadier General Costen James (First Appearance)
-2nd Brigade: 
--3rd Regiment: Colonel Esteban (First Appearance)

People of Richmond
-Declan Estes: Teenage member of important Estes family. Publicly gay. (First Appearance)

Presidents
-Jerry Hexad (2016-2024)
-Dale Hexad (2024-2025)
-Amanda Hexad (2025-2031)
-Armilio Profano (2031-2049)
-Ares James (2049-2056)
-Caden Sumner (2056-Present)

POST CATALOGUE
0.5:Pirates at Hog Island (Collab post with Byrd)
1:Battle of Tuckahoe
2:The Infanta attends Pirate Ship Gala

<Snipped quote by chayden13>

I'd like to point out that the usage of muskets makes little sense. Unless everyone forgot that rifling helps with accuracy, then nobody is going to produce a musket over a rifle unless they are in a situation where they don't have access to precision tools. If we have water mills or literally any other reliable way to harness kinetic energy and haven't lost all engineering knowledge from 1860 onwards, then it can be assumed that rifling machines are going to exist in some capacity. This is a practice that technically dates back to the 15th century (although nobody found it particularly useful in the 15th century).

I'd like to bring up the topic of naval vessels for a second here. It's been pointed out that there isn't any diesel or oil coming in for farm equipment, and when we factor in a lack of any large industry then that implies that shipbuilding has been knocked back to at very least the American Civil War. Unless some major steel-working industries remain then ironclads aren't even going to exist. If steam engines are in use (as I've seen multiple people mention as a possibility) then wooden steamers could be the new fleet mainstays. Depending on how much we're willing to accept, older ships could be refurbished to use steam propulsion. If we go that route, of course, any wooden ship would become all but useless in naval combat.

Honestly, this could be an extremely interesting setting. Definitely watching this one.@Keyguyperson

The only situation I would see muskets coming into use is when you have some place so deprived they have to rely on homemade guns made with basic tools. You might be able to imagine a place so cut off or remote that an unskilled population builds guns based on only a basic knowledge of how they work.

As for ironclads, steel production isn't particularly complex. It's one of those techs that required the discovery, but once discovered would require a disappearance of the knowledge to reproduce, and a lot of the advances in steel production were metalurgical and therefore reproducible up to a point with basic tools. There will be costs due to the lack of industrialized production, but those too would be shifted by the presence of so much scrap steel. I suppose the real question would be about need: what use is a large navy in a world where overseas trade is so limited? Even ironclads were pretty shit at bombarding simple forts.

If you are building a navy for pirate hunting, then wood will work. Pirates, after all, will have limited access to naval equipment and hunting them won't necessarily justify the cost of an iron fleet. For pirate hunting an iron fleet might be a worse idea, since it would cost quite a bit more fuel and would be slower than a wooden ship.

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Jacobin of All Trades

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