The Fallen Continent: Nevada
The desolate wastelands of Nevada are locked in an anarchic struggle, reminiscent of the Battleborn State's frontier days.
Population: 145,000
Largest City: Elko
Home means Nevada,
Home means the hills,
Home means the sage and the pine.
Out by the Truckee's silvery rills,
Out where the sun always shines.
Introduction
Nevada is extremely sparsely populated. The vast majority of its population lived in just three cities, which were all wiped out in the initial nuclear exchange. Unlike other states, however, their postwar starvation rate was low, thanks to a lower reliance on agriculture. Most of its towns are the petty fiefdoms of sheriffs, ranch bosses, militia captains, and motorcycle gangs. Though strong frontiers are very rarely found in the wasteland, Nevada’s are especially fluid. Towns constantly change hands from faction to faction, and what could be described as “borders” are more like spheres of influence around certain towns and highways. Factions will send patrols, either on horseback or by motorcycle, throughout the state to try and secure more territory. Gunfights may ensue when encountering rival patrols, which can escalate into little brushfire wars. Out of any state, Nevada is the one which most closely resembles the popular prewar image of the Wild West.
State of Nevada
Capital: Yerington
Classification: State Legacy (State emergency government)
Most of the state government was annihilated on day one. The last surviving member of the state cabinet was the Director of the Nevada Department of Wildlife, who was at Lake Mead giving a speech on water conservation when the war broke out. He and the last surviving member of the Gaming Control Board were escorted as far as Yerington by the Nevada Highway Patrol. Stopping before the ruins of Carson City, they realized that no one was left to outrank them. The Director proclaimed himself the Acting Governor of Nevada and established a rump government in Yerington with the help of the patrolmen.
Stuck in such a precarious position, the State of Nevada has remained under a state of emergency government since the war, trying frantically to quash the nationalist rebels. After spending years in a state of effective paralysis, they have lost most of their territory, either to anarchy or to the Battleborn Army. They nervously try to ignore the Marine Corps’ encroachment upon their territory and voice their support for Oregon’s plans to establish a US government among the Pacific states.
The Lyon County area was also home to a short-lived attempt at secession in the Republic of Molossia, which briefly flourished before it was forcibly integrated into the Yerington government.
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe
Capital: Nixon
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Allegiance: State of Nevada
The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe is one of three Native American factions in Nevada that recognizes the state government in Yerington. Of the three, they have the largest non-Indian population, thanks to a small complement of refugees from Reno who settled by the lake’s shores.
Walker River Paiute Tribe
Capital: Schurz
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Allegiance: State of Nevada
The Walker River Paiute Tribe is the second of three Native American factions in Nevada that recognizes the state government in Yerington. Being so close to the state capital, they’re the most closely integrated into its governmental machinery.
Yomba Shoshone Tribe
Capital: Austin
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Allegiance: State of Nevada
The Yomba Shoshone Tribe is the third Native American faction that recognizes the State of Nevada in Yerington. They’re the most distant of the three, yet are also the most dependent on Yerington. They need State Troopers to bolster their defenses against the frequent harrying raids of the Battleborn Army.
Pissed Off Bastards
Capital: Round Mountain
Classification: Warlord (Outlaw motorcycle gang)
The Pissed Off Bastards are Nevada’s big, bad warlord faction, descending from a pre-war outlaw motorcycle gang. There are many small gangs across the state, but none of them boast more than a handful of men, or two dozen at the very largest. The Bastards are the only gang in Nevada with over 100 fighters. The nucleus of their sphere of influence is around Round Mountain, from which they launch raids throughout the state. They have a complicated relationship with the Battleborn militiamen and try to avoid fighting them if they can help it. They instead go after ranchers, Indians, and vulnerable towns at the edge of state authority.
United States Marine Corps
Capital: Bridgeport, California
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
Operating out of California, the United States Marine Corps has made headway into Nevada. They reluctantly recognize the Yerington government, viewing as the lesser evil against the Battleborn Army, but they do not cooperate with one another. Aside from wooing the 57th Wing in Tonopah, Nevada is hardly relevant to the Marine Corps’ plans for the foreseeable future.
57th Wing
Capital: Tonopah
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
Allegiance: State of Nevada
As the Tonopah Test Range managed to avoid nuclear destruction, it became a natural rallying point for the 57th Wing of the US Air Force, who were unable to land in the destroyed Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas. They were joined by retreating state troopers, who helped them secure a stretch of Highway 95 and Highway 6. They recognize the state government in Yerington and cooperate with them against the nationalists. The US Marine Corps are trying to pry them away from stagnating Yerington and get them on board with their western military government plan.
California Republic
Capital: Independence, California
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
The California Republic exerts some control over southern Nevada, around the towns of Pahrumy and Primm. This is mostly a byproduct of their southern expansion toward the Mountain Pass Mine in California, the real prize in the region. Their control over Nevadan territory is a point of contention between themselves and the Battleborn Army.
Utah Free State
Capital: St. George, Utah
Classification: Religious Faction (Theocratic dictatorship)
The Utah Free State is a fanatical republic of LDS Fundamentalists who still practice polygamy. Though most of their attention is focused on fighting the main Mormon body in Moab, they have also expanded into southern Nevada as far as Lake Mead. Their main fight is with the “Purified” Mormons in central Utah, who control the Kingdom of God in America.
Army of God (Church of God in the Desert)
Capital: Alamo
Classification: Religious Faction (Religious militia)
Nevada’s own Army of God is one of many identically-named factions that can be found throughout the country. It’s also one of the only theocratic factions west of the Rockies that actually adheres to Nicene, Trinitarian Christianity, albeit with their own unique perspective. This Army of God belongs to the Church of God in the Desert, a decentralized, individualistic church that emphasizes the extreme physical and spiritual conditions faced by the Hebrews of the Old Testament and Christ in the New Testament.
Moses’ flight from Egypt, the Hebrews’ forty years in the desert, Elijah’s exile during the years of drought, the call of John the Baptist, and Christ’s temptation in the wilderness are all central episodes that shape the religious worldview of the Church of God in the Desert. Common themes include the severity of the desert, isolation and hopelessness, and a close personal reliance on God in times of extreme want and scarcity. The Church has many followers across Nevada, southern California, and Arizona, but its non-rigid nature allows for many different interpretations and applications. In Lincoln County, the Church is entwined with the local theocratic militia.
This Army of God is more inward-focused and less expansionist than most similar factions across the country. They primarily focus on combating banditry and providing an alternative to Mormonism to the population. They have cordial relations with the Battleborn Army, which is a secular organization with a slight majority of Christian members, but are not officially allied.
Desert Rangers
Capital: Pioche
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Vigilante gang)
The Desert Rangers are a localist militia founded by ex-law enforcement and backed by prominent cattle ranchers in the Lincoln County area. They favor isolationism, trying to stay out of the nearby Mormon Wars or the coalition against the Battleborn Army. They do, however, fight back against bandits and minor warlords and are the sworn enemies of the Pissed Off Bastards in Round Mountain. The pride themselves on their self-reliance and their code of honor, but their detractors decry them as corporate lackeys and self-important vigilantes that are little better than the raiders they fight against.
Battleborn Army
Capital: Elko
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
The Battleborn Army is the most powerful faction in postwar Nevada. A confederation of various right-wing militias, they are less coldly pragmatic than the California Republic and less rigidly ideological and racialist than the NAR. The extent of their right-wing ideology for now is the circulation of gold currency, the suppression of anti-rightist elements and expulsion of what few minorities can be found, and the vague appeal to American patriotism, alongside the typical militia rule structure. The Battleborn Army is, in fact, the only faction in America that mints official gold specie as its form of currency. As there is only so much gold to go around, citizens are allowed to privately mint gold coins of various shapes and sizes, with their value based on their weight.
Unlike their far-right neighbors, the Battleborn Army are not secessionists and proclaim their loyalty to the United States of America, not specifying which USA that may be. The are reluctant to declare their own national government, and may be convinced to secede if the Northwest American Republic and California Republic are both successful enough. The Battleborn Army largely goes it alone, but does occasionally cooperate with the NVA by trading information and resisting the occasional probing attack into Nevada by the Bozeman government.
They are the most proactive and ambitious out of any Nevadan faction, with a strong desire to reunify the state under their banner. They suffer, however, from a lack of supplies and industry and are hemmed in by the other factions ganging up on them.
City of Wendover
Capital: Wendover
Classification: Local government (City-state)
Local government endured in the City of West Wendover, which united with its neighbor across the state line to create the unified City of Wendover. They do not recognize any higher government, nor have they officially determined which state they belong to. When asked for an answer, the mayor simply replies “whichever state gets to us first.” They have chilly, but non-hostile relations with the Battleborn Army and prefer to stay isolated from the wider conflicts throughout Nevada and Utah.
King of the World
Capital: Jackpot
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord dictatorship)
A relative newcomer to the Nevada free-for-all is the King of the World. The king and his warlord band originated within the fringes of the Twin Falls Exclusion Zone. They weren’t the only outcasts who tried to eke out a living within the confines of the irradiated Snake River valley. Yet the increasing presence of salvage teams from the larger northern warlords has left even the exclusion zones too crowded, forcing the tiny gangs to pack up and leave.
Straight south of Twin Falls is the gambling oasis of Jackpot, Nevada. Its previous rulers, the last remaining warlord-sized chapter of the Free Souls biker gang, were ousted by the new arrivals from Idaho, who now use it as their home base. The King of the World keeps one foot in Idaho and the other in Nevada, picking fights with similar-sized factions on both sides of the state line. He remains a thorn in the side of the Battleborn Army, as yet another source of harassment to prevent the nationalists from gaining enough momentum to conquer the entire state.
Duck Valley Indian Reservation
Capital: Owyhee
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
The Duck Valley Indian Reservation is one of two Indian factions in Nevada that does not recognize the Yerington government. They do, however, chip in for the fight against the Battleborn Army.
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe
Capital: Fort McDermitt
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Like the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe does not recognize the Yerington government. Like all other Nevada Indian tribes, however, they are enemies of the Battleborn Army.
Born in the USA
Capital: Denio
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing warlord)
Though most of their territory is in Oregon, the Born in the USA gang is headquartered in Denio, Nevada. They are not as hostile to the Battleborn Army as they are to the NVA, though skirmishes have broken out from time to time, as they occasionally launch sorties throughout the Silver State for cattle and supplies, raiding whites and Indians alike.
Index
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