The Fallen Continent: Alaska

The second entry in the Fallen Continent series, concerning post-apocalyptic Alaska.

Population: 380,000
Largest City: Kenai

The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The Bear, the Dipper, and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
O'er land and sea a beacon bright.
Alaska's flag to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.

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Introduction

Alaska got out of the Great War relatively unharmed. Its major cities were gone, but its dispersed population endured and enjoyed good food security, thanks to hunting and fishing. The north and west of the state is dominated by the Alaskan Natives, while government remnants persist on the southern coast. The sparsely-populated hinterland is the domain of rogue authorities, warlords, and remote, anarchic communities.

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Alaska Interim Transitional Authority

Capital: Ketchikan
Classification: Military Faction (Emergency military government)

Alaska was one of the only states whose Lieutenant Governor survived the war. Although Juneau was destroyed on day one, Anchorage—where the Lieutenant Governor was visiting at the time—was destroyed towards the end of the nuclear exchange by transpolar bombers. In Anchorage’s last moments, the Lieutenant Governor and his retinue had already fled to Sitka, where they established an emergency government. His administration oversaw recovery and rationing efforts, but was plagued by infighting and struggled to project power outside the Alaska Panhandle. Its disregard for other local governments, heavy-handed policing, and poor handling of rationing programs made it incredibly unpopular, and tensions boiled over into open unrest during the Starving Time.

Riots broke out in Sitka over the government’s attempt to outlaw the Eastern Orthodox Church on the basis of pro-Russian sympathies and far-right tendencies. In truth, the organization and momentum of the anti-government Orthodox militiamen was mostly thanks to Russian funding and training received before the Great War, but they initially denied this charge. The situation became so untenable that the Lieutenant Governor abandoned the provisional capital and fled to Ketchikan. He was subsequently deposed in a bloodless coup staged by the Brigadier General of the Alaska State Defense Force. In doing so, the Brigadier General established the Alaska Interim Transitional Authority, a “temporary” military government meant to hold stewardship over the state until democracy can be safely restored.

The AITA’s rule is unpopular at the best of times and has only been maintained through selective purges and harsh crackdowns on dissenters. This has further damaged its already-weak reputation, and only Haines Borough recognizes their authority. The AITA previously recognized the Kahului government as the rightful government of the United States up until the Hawaiian Spring. It is receptive to the US Marine Corps’ plans to establish a new military government across the West Coast.

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Alaskan Empire

Capital: New Archangelsk (Sitka)
Classification: Religious Faction (Religious monarchy)

An emergency state government was formed in Sitka after the destruction of Juneau, but it was plagued by infighting and could not expand its authority beyond the Panhandle. In the period of rapid cultural change that followed the war, the Orthodox Church in America became one of the state’s strongest institutions. The state diocese was moved to Sitka after Anchorage was destroyed, and became the new seat of the entire OCA with the death of the Metropolitan of Washington. Enjoying the most potent spiritual authority of any Orthodox clergyman in the continent, the Metropolitan helped an Orthodox Christian strongman overthrow the state government and establish an Orthodox Alaskan Empire. For now, the Empire only controls Baranof Island, Chichagof Island, and a few outlying communities.

The Emperor, with an army of the faithful at his command, now attempts to consolidate his grip on the fledgling empire by converting its citizens to Orthodox Christianity and reaching out to friendly Aleutian tribes. The government is backed by a combination of plain brute force, Orthodox Church support, and cooperative prewar administrators. It bears a resemblance both to “legitimist” warlord regimes and right-wing militia governments, both of which are plentiful throughout the Lower 48. Unlike militia regimes, however, the Empire’s rhetoric is more than a mere propaganda tool to prop up the state and actually affects some policy. Due to their association with Russia and their typically right-wing beliefs, Eastern Orthodox Christians are among the most hated groups in the country (many of America and Canada’s Greek Orthodox Christians have desperately tried to shake off this reputation, with mixed success). Much of the Empire’s policy goals, therefore, consist of trying to protect its church as much as possible, by politically entrenching it and encouraging conversion.

Imperial ambassadors have reached the other side of the Bering Strait, where they are recognized internationally by the Russian Empire (Korsakov), one of the main Russian rump states. Korsakov hosts not only a claimant to the imperial throne, but a claimant to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Korsakov Patriarch recognizes the autocephaly of the OCA and its primate’s newly-elevated status as Patriarch of All America and Canada; the American Patriarch recognizes the Sakhalin-based Moscow Patriarchate in turn. The Alaskans have some trade with the Russians, who even spared the resources to supply their Orthodox brothers with weapons, instructors, and a few outdated vehicles and small ships.

Though Alaskan Native Orthodox Christians and the small Russian military presence in the San Juan Islands like them, the Alaskan Empire is generally despised by all legitimate state governments across the west coast. The democratic state government in Kenai is working alongside the Oregon state government, plotting New Archangelsk’s downfall, while Ketchikan is ever bent on their revenge. Any further successes by the Empire will depend almost entirely on whatever support the Russian Far East is willing and able to provide.

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Haines Borough

Capital: Haines
Classification: Local Government (County-level emergency government)
Allegiance: Alaska Interim Transitional Authority

At the far northern end of the Alaskan Panhandle is isolated Haines Borough, which maintains a hardy existence under a civilian emergency government. It recognizes the AITA in Ketchikan, less because they truly support the Adjutant-General’s cause and more out of fear of conquest by the Alaskan Empire.

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City and Borough of Yakutat

Capital: Yakutat
Classification: Local Government (Democratic county-level government)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

The City and Borough of Yakutat is a consolidated city-county of a few hundred people who maintain local elections and recognize the state government in Kenai.

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Promethean Energy Valdez Security Zone

Capital: Valdez
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Promethean Energy regime)

Valdez, a prominent oil town on the southern Alaskan coast, came under the control of Promethean Energy, which incorporated a handful of National Guardsmen and agents from the Department of the Interior. The Promethean Energy Valdez Security Zone remains one of America’s only corporatocratic states, though Promethean Energy’s heritage as a government institution provides some of the infrastructure that allowed it to take over in the first place.

Late in the Great 21st Century Crisis—the years of economic hardship before the Great War—the federal government made an attempt to keep energy prices down and secure resources for the military by creating the Promethean Energy Corporation. They nationalized all of America’s oil, coal, and natural gas companies and amalgamated them into a single federally-chartered statutory corporation, placed under the regulation of another newly-created federal body, the House Committee on Energy Policy and Infrastructure Protection.

The company was headquartered in Washington, D.C. and locally administered by regional offices. Some of these offices still exist throughout the country; most do not. Many factions still have Promethean Energy chapters, including the USA in Dodge City and the United States of Aztlan. In sufficiently extreme instances, Promethean Energy is the strongest remaining institution and ends up taking over the town. Promethean Energy factions can be found in Alaska, Oklahoma, and the Badlands region of the northern Great Plains: all regions heavily dependent on the oil industry.

In Valdez’ case, the Zone is a police state patrolled by PE Security, whose ranks have been swelled by ex-National Guardsmen and hired mercenaries. Their bread and butter is provided for by oil refining and offshore drilling, though Promethean Energy also engages in industrial fishing and even dabbles in piracy when they really need to make ends meet.

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State of Alaska

Capital: Kenai
Classification: Local Government (Re-founded state government)

As soon as the Great War began, the Kenai Borough was swamped with thousands of refugees fleeing south from Anchorage. The county government remained stable, however, and pledged its loyalty to the state government in Sitka. When the governor was overthrown and Sitka was renamed to New Arkhangelsk, and the Brigadier General in Ketchikan proved to be just as despotic as the Emperor he fled from and a good deal more paranoid, Kenai took matters into its own hands. Alongside Kodiak Borough, they organized their own State of Alaska in opposition to both Sitka and Ketchikan.

They are rallying other factions across the state to their cause with the aim of reclaiming the Panhandle. The Kenai government holds regular democratic elections for statewide offices; the tiny rump legislature is appointment-only for the time being. Their two constituent boroughs, Kenai and Kodiak, also hold local elections. Their democratic nature has earned them extensive recognition from local governments throughout the state and beyond; their biggest prize is aid from the State of Oregon, further south. Virtually all plans for a pan-Pacific government involve them and not the Ketchikan government.

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Bristol Bay Borough

Capital: Naknek
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue county regime)

Bristol Bay Borough is a rogue county regime established by an ambitious and dictatorial prewar official. They share mutual non-recognition with the Kenai government. Isolated and alone, they cannot project power outside of the Naknek River and have lost control of the rest of the already-tiny borough.

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Alutiiq Nation

Capital: Chignik
Classification: Native American Faction (Alaska Native Corporation)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

The Alutiiq Nation is a faction established by the remnants of the Aleut Corporation, one of the 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations that administer Alaskan Native lands. The Aleut Corporation was sundered by splitters who didn’t share Chignik’s vision of loyalty to the Alaskan government. The more independent-minded natives of Unalaska seceded as the Ounalashka Free State, while Orthodox Christian Aleuts joined the Alaskan Empire as the Principality of St. Innocent.

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Yup’iq Confederacy

Capital: Bethel
Classification: Native American Faction (Alaska Native Corporation)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

The Yup’iq Confederacy is another Alaska Native Corporation faction that swears allegiance to the Kenai government. As Kenai is not in a position to enforce anything upon them, they have little to lose by professing their nominal loyalty. Both parties in this arrangement seldom interact with each other, but Kenai hopes for the day that it can bring them all back in the fold of a unified Alaskan state. The natives hope that they can maintain their autonomy indefinitely, either through a good settlement with Kenai or even by the indefinite postponement of Alaskan reunification.

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Confederacy of the Western Inupiaq

Capital: Nome
Classification: Native American Faction (Alaska Native Corporation)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

The Western Inupiaq are the third out of four Alaska Native factions that profess loyalty to the Alaskan government.

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Confederacy of the Northern Inupiaq

Capital: Barrow
Classification: Native American Faction (Alaska Native Corporation)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

The Northern Inupiaq are the fourth Alaska Native faction that recognizes the Kenai government. They control the lucrative oilfields of the North Slope and continue to ship their product south, both by land and by sea. Due to the presence of the oil industry, the northern Confederacy contains more non-Native governmental infrastructure than other Alaska Native factions.

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Ounalashka Free State

Capital: Akutan
Classification: Native American Faction (Alaska Native Corporation)

The Ounalashka Corporation, a subsidiary of the Aleut Corporation, always possessed greater direct control over its territory than other Alaska Native Corporations. Following the Great War, it cancelled all leases held by non-Aleuts and expelled non-Aleut inhabitants from its territory before declaring independence from the United States as the Ounalashka Free State. Infighting between secular leadership and Russian-backed Orthodox militiamen led to the Free State’s banishment from Unalaska. Now they bide their time in neighboring Akutan, waiting for the right moment to return home and exact their revenge.

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Principality of St. Innocent

Capital: Unalaska
Classification: Native American Faction (Native warlord state)
Allegiance: Alaskan Empire

Following the secession of the Ounalashka Free State, the Orthodox Aleuts of the island—who received similar training and backing as their counterparts on Baranof Island—staged a coup in Unalaska. The gamble succeeded, and the Aleuts founded the Principality of Saint Innocent, named in honor of the Russian Orthodox apostle to Alaska. They recognize the leadership of the Emperor in Sitka, who affirms their leader as the rightful Prince of the Aleuts and has awarded their principality with a special charter of rights. Unalaska now serves as a stopping point on the voyage across the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska.

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Central Alaska Emergency Executive

Capital: Palmer
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue localist regime)

The Central Alaska Emergency Executive was formed by disgruntled local authorities who did not want to obey the state government’s calls to accept refugees from Anchorage. They were aided by National Guardsmen who defected to their side. Sitting in the Matanuska Valley, they are the main agricultural powerhouse of the state and can thus afford to maintain their independence. Alaskan agriculture may sound impossible, but the long summer days are excellent for growing hardy crops like squash, barley, and tubers. The increase in manpower afforded by their high yields gives them an edge over their enemies, but Kenai itself has a long term advantage with its access to the sea.

They are one of many factions that follow the “localist” ideology—which is less of a philosophy of social and political principles, and more of a practical, survival-centered system. The only uniting principle of localist regimes is that they are determined to ensure the survival of their own locality at all costs (usually only the leadership, the soldiers that maintain their rule, and their families and other dependents). This means rejecting calls for sacrificial aid from distant state governments or other authorities. Localist regimes tend to reject refugees, cynically ration food, and are typically hostile with de jure government authorities. This system is more common in western states, where government authorities often survived and remained powerful. Few localist regimes exist east of the Mississippi River because there were often no higher governments left for local authorities to disobey. In the CAEE’s case, the localist government functions as a civilian dictatorship with a highly militarized population.

The CAEE, being a staunch enemy of Kenai, is also one of the more amenable factions towards both the Alaskan Empire and the AITA. Palmer’s “Chief Executive” knows he can’t defeat Kenai on his own, so he’s playing Sitka and Ketchikan off of one another to see who can offer the better deal and earn his loyalty.

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Alaska State Troopers

Capital: Glenallen
Classification: State Legacy (State police regime)
Allegiance: State of Alaska

Further inland, the Alaska State Troopers maintain order by enforcing martial law on behalf of the Kenai government. They keep themselves busy by warding off bandits and waging the occasional skirmish with the Central Alaska Emergency Executive. Some of the towns under their control hold local elections, but State Trooper territory does not yet participate in statewide elections, due to administrative and logistical problems. These elected governments have some free reign to act on their own, but largely serve in an advisory capacity to the State Troopers.

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Tok Junction Rifle Club

Capital: Tok
Classification: Warlord (Vigilante gang)

The Tok Junction Rifle Club is a vigilante gang that controls some of the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. They administer rough justice and offer protection in exchange for basic goods like food, ammunition, alcohol, and so on. They live a mostly isolated existence, but occasionally come to blows with the State Troopers, Park Rangers, and the Dene Council.

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Dene Council

Capital: Circle City
Classification: Native American Faction (Native American warlord)

The Dene Council is a warlord regime founded by a Dene strongman who overpowered local authorities. He considers himself the rightful ruler of the Dene people and has requested recognition from Kenai, who has declined to bestow it upon him.

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National Park Service (Denali)

Capital: Healy
Classification: Federal Legacy (National Park Service)

In remote regions sufficiently starved for authority, Park Rangers can provide the organization, survival training, and equipment necessary to keep the peace. Such a case occurred with the Denali National Park, whose stewards moved south to administer the lands southwest of Fairbanks. They don’t recognize the Kenai government, for fear of provoking the wrath of the CAEE, and instead focus on quietly administering their own lands. Their chief concerns are to ward off bandits and keep poaching down to an appropriate minimum.

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Elias Family

Capital: Fort Yukon
Classification: Warlord (Criminal family)

This extended family-turned-band of outlaws rules over the town of Fort Yukon as its private fiefdom. Most of their fighters are members of the family, but some are deputized locals.

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Arctic Free State

Capital: Prudhoe Bay
Classification: Legitimist warlord (Flawed democracy)

The small Arctic Free State was established by disgruntled oil workers who were stranded in the Arctic Circle after the Great War. Many escaped on the first ship out of town, while others with nowhere to go stayed behind. The municipal government was quickly overshadowed by the ruthless Promethean Energy site manager, the real power of the town. Both were overthrown during the Starving Time by striking workers, however, who sentenced them to “death by exile” in the bitter cold of the Arctic wilderness.

The oil workers founded a crude workers’ democracy that suits their rough-and-tumble town on the Arctic Coast, though the result is little better than the old company rule. They sustain themselves by occasionally hunting and fishing, but mostly by selling oil to their southern neighbors in exchange for food and supplies.

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Index

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