The Fallen Continent: Arkansas

The curious fate of the Natural State and its monarchical successor.

Population: 630,000
Largest City: Hot Springs

Oh, we'll have a little music first and then some supper, too,
But before we have the supper we will play the music through.
You'll forget about your supper, you'll forget about your home,
You'll forget you ever started out in Arkansas to roam.

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Introduction

Arkansas is another one of the states that had a serious reversal of fortunes following the Great War; it is also one of the few states that falls under the hegemonic rule of a single faction: the Kingdom of the Ozarks. The Ozarks is an exceptionally large faction with a very different vision for the future than your average post-apocalyptic state. Like the United States of Aztlan which spans most of Texas and northern Mexico, the Ozarks are sufficiently large and complicated that it will be covered in multiple entries over the course of one exceedingly long article.¹ The first half of this article will consist of basic historical background and an overview of Ozark government. The second half of this article will examine the different regions of Arkansas one by one, starting with the Royal Domain, and go into detail about both pre-Ozark rule in this regions and how the Ozarks have transformed them.

Arkansas and the Great War

Arkansas’ state legislature was in session at the time of the Great War and unfortunately lost most of its government on day one. The result was a series of fractured, uncoordinated attempts at reconstructing the government by various factions. Daniel Byrd, the Commissioner of State Lands, was sworn in as the Acting Governor in Hot Springs, the state’s largest remaining city. He unfortunately struggled to respond to the damage caused by the war. Unlike other state governors, Acting Governor Byrd made no real attempts at triage, and lacked a coherent strategy to guide government efforts. As a result, the Hot Springs government floundered through the nuclear winter and gradually lost control of the fringes of the state.

With the government stalling while the crisis spiraled out of control, it became clear that someone else would be needed to guide the ship of state. The Acting Governor met his downfall when Lieutenant Colonel Stan Wainwright of the 871st Troop Command deposed him in a military coup and proclaimed the Emergency Government of the State of Arkansas. It wasn’t an act of pure despotism on Wainwright’s part, as his troops were close to mutiny and mass hysteria had led them to believe the nuclear winter was going to be far worse than it actually was.

Incompetent though the previous governor may have been, Wainwright’s coup was not received fondly by the rest of the state, which soon broke off on its own or even openly rose up in revolt. The EGSA’s original goal was to withdraw west of the Arkansas River and preserve order there, but the widespread defections forced them to retreat to an even smaller redoubt surrounding Hot Springs. Their greatest enemy was the mutinous Arkansas State Police, which established a rival government in El Dorado and gathered considerable support throughout southern Arkansas. While the National Guard and the State Police bled each other white in a war that had less to do with ideology and more to do with localist cliques, the rest of the state flocked around them like vultures, fighting to be the one who could pick at the carrion of Hot Springs.

While the larger, more established factions brawled in the east and south of the state, an unlikely contender emerged from the lawless, sparsely-populated² northwest: Malcolm Yates and his Ozark Transitional Government. Yates was a neo-nomadic warlord who subdued the lawless wasteland from his seasonal capital of Ozark, Arkansas. He marshaled a surprisingly large and effective army for a warlord of his means and marched east, conquering the eastern factions before turning south on the military government*. After a bloody war, General Yates—an eccentric, though very affable fellow—orchestrated the birth of a new church to support his rule and had its most senior Archbishop crown him “King of the Ozarks.” Since his crowning, the Ozark kingdom, and nigh all of Arkansas with it, have taken a drastically different path than the rest of the country.

*See the Royal Domain and other later sections of this article for a more detailed explanation of Malcolm’s rise to power and the history of pre-Ozark Arkansas in a manner similar to that of Buenaventura Hidalgo and the United States of Aztlan.

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Kingdom of the Ozarks

Capital: Hot Springs
Classification: Special Case (Semi-constitutional monarchy)

From his palace in Hot Springs rules Malcolm I, by the grace of God, King of the Ozarks, Prince of Arkansas and Ouachita, Sovereign of Oklahoma and Missouri, Earl of Franklin and Garland, Master of the Royal Domain and Protector of the Ozark Forest. The autocrat rules over nearly all of Arkansas, the better part of Missouri, and a good deal of Oklahoma, which all combine to form the third-largest and fourth-wealthiest faction in the country. Though the Kingdom of the Ozarks is the undisputed master of Arkansas today, few would have considered it a likely contender for such a position decades ago.

Like the United States of Aztlan, the Ozarks are a complicated faction in which the central ruler is upheld by a colonnade of supporting pillars. These pillars include:

1. The House of Lords, the nobility system and legislative body of the realm.

2. The princes of Malcolm’s dynasty who help him administer the realm and command the military, along with the Chief Officers of State that make up the executive cabinet.

3. The complicated legal system of the realm, with its courts and ongoing reforms, headed by the Lord Chancellor.

4. The Evangelical Church of the Ozarks, the spiritual backbone of the kingdom.

5. The integrated remnants of the previous factions who ruled over portions of Arkansas and southern Missouri.

6. The Marches, the warlike frontier realms on the Ozarks’ eastern and western borders.

7. And the Black Watch, the Ozarks’ powerful intelligence community with a life of its own.

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The House of Lords

Though Arkansas is rich in mineral wealth and fertile soil, the difference is in the people. Malcolm Yates was a capable enough soldier and administrator, but his real talent was with people. Having little else besides geographic space to isolate him from dangerous factions and the limited human capital available to him, Malcolm established a network of competent people able to handle any task too much for him tackle on his own. This, too, isn’t uncommon among warlords, and it’s how most neo-feudal regimes get started, but Malcolm developed a comprehensive system to manage it. He forged lasting ties between his own subordinates and advisors, encouraging intermarriage and rewarding the most competent with titles and honors. He wasn’t even the sole ruler of his own faction at the start of his career, but he quickly become its most important figure within the span of a decade. By the time he conquered Hot Springs, he had already fostered a class of loyal neo-aristocrats throughout northern Arkansas made up of the brightest and most capable men under his command.

When he was crowed King of the Ozarks, Malcolm went one step further and transformed that class into an actual aristocracy. The old neo-feudal web of allegiances and obligations was swept away and replaced with a codified system of nobility tied to the apparatus of state: the House of Lords. The House of Lords makes up the unicameral legislature of the Ozarks and consists of lords who hold noble titles and rule over territory as local executive leaders. Some of these lords were faithful subordinates of Malcolm from the very beginning who were later rewarded with territory; others are local leaders who were incorporated into Malcolm’s regime amicably, or were plucked out from the ranks of a defeated enemy and given clemency.

The Ozark nobility system is loosely modeled after the traditional British Peerage, prior to its reform in the 19th and 20th Centuries; indeed, many aspects of Ozark government and society are modeled after medieval and early modern England. King Malcolm, often decried as “Mad King Malcolm” by his detractors both foreign and domestic, justifies his rule by claiming to be the successor of the Anglo-American civilization. To the Ozarks, the United States of America—and the short-lived Confederate States, with them—are but conduits through which they receive their ancient traditions and heritage from medieval England and its ancient forebears. Most warlords have some kind of approach to legitimize their rule beyond brute force; this typically takes the form of some legal argument of succession, but Malcolm’s is cultural and civilizational.

There are numerous ranks of nobility within the Ozark peerage; some are more prestigious than others. At the top, of course, is the King, and immediately beneath him are the princes of the realm. There are numerous princes, all relations of the King by blood or by marriage, but the two most senior princes are the Regent Princes: Prince Michael of Oklahoma and “Bonnie Prince” Bruce of Missouri. Below the princes are the dukes of the Ozarks. Dukes are few and far between and command large territories. Most dukes are the former rulers of powerful factions that joined the Ozarks willingly, rather than allow themselves to be destroyed in a protracted war; others are the most capable and loyal officers who have served Malcolm and his father from the very beginning of their careers.

The next rank on the scale of nobility are marchers (an anglicized form of “marquess,” which was thought to be too feminine and French-sounding), a special rank of frontier lords who often find themselves in actual combat on the front lines of low-level conflicts. Marchers are organized into special march territories and usually rule over counties, often as outright little warlords, rather than mere hereditary executives. Marchers outrank earls because they are expected to regularly take up arms and fight on the frontiers. They are also somewhat isolated from the rest of the government, and are mostly governed by regional Marcher Councils. Marchers cannot vote or speak in the House of Lords, but they do have permission to sit as observers.

Below the marchers are the earls. Most earls rule over counties, but a few do not. Those who don’t are the sons of reigning dukes; they don’t have noble titles of their own yet, but receive the honorific title of earl until they can come into their own. Likewise, the sons and heirs of reigning earls have the rank of viscount. Earls are the main middle strata of the House of Lords and are closely integrated in the state machinery. Many earls were already the leaders of US counties before they were ennobled, and simply rule as if they were still the county commissioner or sheriff, although all counties also have elected or appointed sheriffs in addition to earls.

Below earls and viscounts are barons, the lowest rank that can sit in the House of Peers. They make up the rank-and-file of the nobility, and there are usually between one and three barons per county. At the very least, every county has one barony for its county seat, though that title is held by the ruling earl. Most barons are the holders of large estates, esteemed military commanders, or the hereditary rulers of small towns. Below them are the lowliest nobles, the baronets. Baronets rule over estates and villages too small to count as baronies, and they often lack the refined etiquette that (theoretically) characterizes Ozark nobility. As such, they are not allowed to wear coronets or sit in the House of Lords, much less vote on issues.

All Ozark noblemen except baronets have the right to wear coronets, small crowns that signify their rank. Barons and wear the simplest coronets, which are empty golden circlets; higher grades of nobility have more impressive coronets. Baronets are only permitted to wear a noble medallion instead. The color of their noble robes is also determined by rank. Baronets wear black, Barons wear grey, Earls wear red, Marchers wear green, Viscounts wear sky blue, Dukes wear Prussian blue, and only Princes and the King are entitled to wear royal purple robes. Although entitled to wear their noble regalia at all times, the common convention is to only wear them on holidays, for ceremonial purposes, or when sitting in the House of Lords. The Duke of Jonesboro and his vassals are unique in eschewing noble regalia for all but the grandest of occasions.

Together, these noble classes—except for the baronets—make up the kingdom’s legislative body. The head of the House of Lords is officially the Lord Chancellor, but the Chancellor has so many other responsibilities that he usually has a Lord President preside over the House for him. This speaker is officially appointed by the Lord Chancellor, but he tends to let the Lords elect a speaker for themselves. The order of precedence in the House of Lords determines who can speak first, and goes in the order of the King, followed by the Regent Princes, other Princes, the Lord Chancellor, the current Lord President, then former Lord Presidents, the Chief Officers of State, and then dukes, earls, and finally barons. Because of this long list, few earls ever get to speak, and barons practically never get to raise their voices House debates.

Like most legislative bodies throughout the former United States, the House of Lords cannot directly pass any laws, but they instead serve as an advisory body to the King. They vote on legislation, which is proposed to the King for him to sign into law. The King is the one who actually passes it into law and can refuse any legislation he likes, but he tends to respect the House’s wishes. There have been occasions, however, when King Malcolm and the Regent Princes who sometimes rule in his place have put their foot down and declined to follow the Lords’ advice.

To whom much is given, much is expected, and the Lords often fail to live up to the high standards placed on them. All lords must be practicing Christians (preferably, but not necessarily, the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks) and must maintain a certain standard of moral conduct and church attendance, lest they be stripped of their titles and privileges. They are expected to serve in the military, and together they make up the vast majority of the officer corps. They must govern their properties in accordance with the law, and they do not enjoy the same kind of legal immunities that peerages in other countries historically had. One exception is capital punishment; lords sentenced to death have the right to a clean beheading, instead of the gallows or some crueler method of execution.

Lastly, lords are expected to use their wealth and influence to contribute to the culture of the realm. To this end, they are encouraged to spend freely on cultural projects and compete with other lords. Not only are noble sons trained to be soldiers and administrators, but they are also expected to be painters, poets, and pianists. The result is a highly competitive society with a unique cultural output, though it comes with the problems that an elite stratified society brings, and some among the Church accuse the nobility of decadence and wastefulness.

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Ozark Executive Government

King Malcolm is officially the head of state and the principal executive, judicial, and legislative power of the country. In fact, legally the King IS the state, and is theoretically responsible for all its goings-on. But Malcolm is getting up in years and has largely resigned himself to a ceremonial role in his old age. With no sons to succeed him, Malcolm has handed the reins of government to his two principal heirs, Michael Wycliffe and Bruce Yates. Michael is the Prince of Oklahoma and husband of Constance, the Princess Royal and Malcolm’s eldest daughter. Bruce is the Prince of Missouri and the eldest of Malcolm’s younger brothers. Despite Bruce’s frequent protests over Malcolm’s decision, Prince Michael is the first in line to the throne and is generally considered the more popular and competent figure to succeed the reigning monarch.

The two princes jointly rule as regents, but Malcolm brokered an agreement between the two upon his unofficial retirement. Blessed with a favorable public image and administrative skills, Prince Michael rules as the main executive leader in Malcolm’s stead, and his role is not too different from all the Acting Presidents of the USA-claimants. Bonnie Prince Bruce, with his military prowess, is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Ozark military and also personally rules over the Principality of Missouri, the economic heartland of the Ozark kingdom.

In addition to the King and his Regent Princes, the executive branch includes the King’s cabinet, the Chief Council of State. It is made up of the Chief Officers of State, who can be likened to US secretaries of presidential departments. These officials are all appointed at the King’s leisure (usually on the advice of the Lords, the Church, and the military) and may be dismissed at any time for any reason. These ministers are, in order of precedence:

1. The Lord Chancellor: officially the Lord High Chancellor of the Ozarks. The most powerful statesman after the King himself. Ceremonial leader of the House of Lords and, as Keeper of the King’s Conscience, the de facto head of the Ozark judiciary.

2. The Archbishop of Hot Springs: the most senior prelate of the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks. The current Archbishop, the Most Reverend and Right Honorable Father Thomas C. Hawkins, also holds the title of Lord Chancellor. Although the Regent Princes outrank him, Hawkins’ combined titles and duties give him an even greater influence over the realm than either of them, and perhaps more than both of them combined. He is arguably more powerful than King Malcolm himself, though he lacks the King’s prodigious wealth and large estate.

3. The Lord High Steward: the manager of the King’s household. This position is held by Prince Theodore Yates, Malcolm’s youngest brother.

4. The Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal: an honorific title held by the Secretary of State, head of the foreign service.

5. The Lord High Treasurer: an honorific title for the Secretary of the Treasury.

6. The Lord Marshal: the second-in-command of the Ozark military. Although he outranks the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in theory, the current chief of staff is Prince Bruce, who outranks him by representing the King as head of the military.

7. The First Lord of the Admiralty: an honorific title that theoretically places him in charge of the Ozarks’ river fleet, which is actually under the control of the Chief of Staff of the Navy, itself subordinate to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His primary duties are to govern all river and maritime affairs, especially those concerning the lucrative Mississippi River trade.

8. The Lord High Constable: head of the national police force and prison service.

9. The Lord Chamberlain: the Secretary of Cultural Affairs. One of his primary duties is to act as a government censor and review works of art and popular media on the grounds of morality and decency. He is the primary enforcer of blasphemy and lèse-majesté laws.

10. The Attorney General of the Ozarks

11. The Lord Secretary of Agriculture

12. The Lord Secretary of Commerce

13. The Lord Secretary of Energy and Natural Resources

14. The Lord Secretary of Health

15. The Lord Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

16. The Lord Secretary of Education

17. The Director of Ozark Intelligence

18. The Lord Warden of the Royal Domain: technically just a mid-ranking official subject to the Governor-General of the Royal Domain, the area under Malcolm’s personal control. As the Warden is responsible for preserving the Ozark National Forest, however, he is also effectively the environmental minister for the entire kingdom, and this has earned him a seat on the Council.

Princess Constance also has a significant role in matters of state, despite not having any official duties beyond making public appearances and heading humanitarian organizations. She is usually present on the Council and her opinion is always considered, even if her standpoint on a given issue is not always adopted. Constance is not necessarily the power behind Prince Michael’s actions, but she is a noteworthy influence on her husband. Other Ozark princes are entitled to sit on the Chief Council of State if they wish, but most of them are concerned with other responsibilities and their own estates. Prince Lonnie, husband of Princess Catherine and a senior army officer, sometimes sits on the Council and weighs in on military matters.

The Director of Ozark Intelligence is an especially noteworthy member of the Council. He is in charge of the Black Watch, an independent intelligence agency not beholden to any department. The Director is unofficially referred to as “the Emperor” within Black Watch circles,³ and commands significant influence over the state. The Watch as a whole has a unique culture of its own, and often acts independently of the rest of the government with their own goals and motivations, especially with regards to foreign policy. Some fear that it has developed into a shadow government or is tending rapidly in that direction, though the Black Watch argues that they’re the Ozarks’ best line of defense. Their official motto is the old Scottish royal motto: In my defens God me defend. The motto of the Kingdom of the Ozarks as a whole is that of the Confederate States of America: Deo vindice.

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The Ozark Judiciary

Though it came from humble roots, the Ozark legal system is among the more robust in the country. From his earliest days in power, Malcolm Yates personally administered justice and oversaw what few formal legal procedures existed within his territory. Most lower-profile legal affairs were left for local legal structures to handle on an ad hoc basis. Sometimes this meant surviving county judges and attorneys, other times it meant inquisitorial tribunals by police-warlords or even outright lynchings. As Malcolm expanded from a small-time neo-nomadic warlord into a major power within the State of Arkansas, he overhauled the legal system to accommodate his new territories and bring a semblance of unified law to the realm. This expanded system was the Ozark Court, initially made up of five travelling judges who ventured from town to town to administer justice wherever they go.

The Ozark Court was later expanded to nine judges, and later eleven. It is now called the Flying Court in honor of its original function as a travelling court; today it functions as a kind of court of appeals and also concerns higher-profile cases that the local courts can’t handle. The local courts are still in a chaotic and mismatched state as the Ozarks continue their ongoing process of legal reforms. Right now the Ozark system is a jumbled mess of monarchical decrees, the scraps of both antebellum common law and statutory law, vassal-warlord despotism, and vigilantism. On top of all this, there is also the matter of the Marcher Courts, a parallel legal system in the Ozark Marches that is mostly disconnected with the Ozark heartland. The present goal is to reorganize the courts into a coherent system with robust laws, while providing enough local autonomy to make some kind of return to real common law.

The King remains at the top of the judiciary and has the right to decide any case he wishes or pardon any prisoner for any crime. King Malcolm does not exercise this right unless extreme circumstances compel him to, and his Regent Princes both follow his precedent. Instead, that responsibility is held in trust by the Keeper of the King’s Conscience, a position tied with the office of Lord High Chancellor. This makes the Lord Chancellor the supreme authority for most legal matters, and the ongoing legal reforms are life’s work of Fr. Hawkins. All eleven judges are appointed by the King on the advice of the Lord Chancellor, who controls all legal appointments at the national level.

For those dissatisfied with the verdict of the Flying Court, the Lord Chancellor is the highest authority they can appeal to, unless the Chancellor personally requests the King or the Regent Princes to exercise their royal responsibilities. Almost all noblemen on trial are tried by the Flying Court, and most of them appeal to the Lord Chancellor as is their right. Dukes and Princes have the privilege of personally requesting the King to try them, though the King is free to decline. Fortunately, Malcolm has not yet had to try one of his own vassals, and he hopefully never will.

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The Evangelical Church of the Ozarks

Fr. Hawkins’ third, and perhaps greatest responsibility is his position as Archbishop of Hot Springs. The Archbishopric is the most senior title in the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks, the state religion of the Kingdom of the Ozarks. Specifically, the Archbishop is the chair of the Evangelical Synod of Hot Springs, the main governing body of the Church. As the Synod chair, the Archbishop is responsible for approving ecclesiastical appointments, such as priests and bishops.

The word “Evangelical” in the Church’s title is misleading. There are Evangelicals among the Church, but it is not an explicitly Evangelical denomination in the contemporary American sense. The Church’s critics argue that it is not a church at all, but merely a political organization meant to tie Christianity to the Ozark state. Its origins are certainly tied with the rise of King Malcolm. Malcolm cooperated with schismatic Anglicans and Methodists within his realm to create a new merger church to uphold his rule, and had its primate Thomas Hawkins crown him King of the Ozarks after capturing Hot Springs.

The Ozark Church can best be described as a big tent organization that represents many different strands of Protestant Christianity. It includes the aforementioned Anglicans and Methodists, as well as Reformed Christians, Church of Christ restorationists, Moravians, and even some parishes previously belonging to the fringe Evangelical Orthodox Church. Its theology is hard to describe and allows for a good deal of interpretation, but takes more after the Wesleyan, Arminian tendencies of Methodism than any other denomination. By post-apocalyptic religious definitions, the Church of the Ozarks is fundamentalist and not millenarian. Being an openly monarchist church that publicly supports King Malcolm’s rule, it is no surprise that its social and political outlook is staunchly right-wing conservative.

The praxis of the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks varies widely within the denomination. It has a Book of Common Prayer, a calendar of saints, and two sacraments: Eucharist and Baptism. It also has five Rites, which some treat as if they were sacraments: Confession and Absolution, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Holy Unction. The Biblical apocrypha are not considered canonical, but are still used liturgically. There are both High Church and Low Church parishes that support a wide range of accepted practices.

The state tends to favor the High Church as being more compatible with monarchist pageantry and ideology, and this naturally makes the High Church the more dominant faction. Fr. Hawkins is a member of the High Church school and is determined to shape the Church into something more theologically coherent for long-term survival. He is also something of an ecumenist and is open to dialogue with other churches, which provokes much controversy throughout the denomination. By the end of the 21st Century, the Ozark Church could either be united with some other, larger denomination, kept stable and isolated in its current configuration, or torn apart into its constituent parts by disunity.

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The Royal Domain

Capital: Ozark
Classification: Special Case (Ozark royal estate)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

The Royal Domain is the political body meant to govern all territory over which King Malcolm is personally master. It consists of his home city and the initial home demesne he ruled over when he was a neo-feudal leader, and has since been expanded to include the whole of the Ozark National Forest.

Ozark (now commonly called Ozark City) is King Malcolm’s hometown, though he did not live there on the eve of the Great War. He was a recent law school graduate practicing in Fayetteville when the bombs fell, and barely escaped the city with his life on the 31st of July, 2029. He followed the refugee trail south to his hometown, whose position as a waypoint on I-40 had turned it into a magnetizing hub for tens of thousands of wayward souls cast out of their homes in Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Russellville, and yet further beyond.

Malcolm would have been just another face in the crowd—and one liable to starve to death, at that—were it not for the fortunate events that transpired shortly after his arrival. Far from being a lawyer, Malcolm’s father Arthur Yates was a trucker and had amassed a small army of truck drivers along the I-40 in the dark days of the Starving Time. Arthur’s trucker revolt started ostensibly in the name of worker’s rights as a union protest against Wainwright’s coup in Hot Springs. The labor-centric flair quickly gave way to a more generalized form of populist vigilantism and outright warlordism, and Yates’ “Arkansas Transport Guild” took on the sobriquet for which it is most commonly known: the War Rigs.

Though none of his sons were truckers, Arthur recruited all three of them into his army and gave favorable positions for each. Malcolm was a decent soldier and governor, but his greatest talent was networking and serving as the public face of the truckers’ army. He acted in a similar capacity to the travelling judges that he later appointed as ruler, and helped settle disputes, build alliances, and recruit talent for the regime throughout northwest Arkansas. His younger brother Bruce was the better warrior and spent more time out in the field fighting alongside his father. Theodore, the youngest brother, was the most skilled administrator and logistician, and stayed in Ozark year-round to govern the city.

For the longest time, it was Bruce who was expected to succeed Arthur as chieftain of the War Rigs on account of his martial prowess, even if Malcolm was the firstborn son. But Malcolm’s big break came with the rise of Reverend Hart, ruler of the My Body, My Blood cult and perhaps the basest, most bloodthirsty warlord to ever pollute American soil. Reaching the zenith of his power, Hart gave the War Rigs a seriously bloody nose at the Battle of Hawksbill Crag⁴ and badly wounded both Arthur and Bruce Yates.

Forced to take command of the remains of the army until his kinsmen convalesced, Malcolm led the War Rigs back home to lick their wounds. When Reverend Hart laid siege to the city of Eureka Springs, Malcolm came to their aid by avoiding the cultist garrison at Huntsville and wheeling around the wider Fayetteville Exclusion Zone. He smashed the blood cultist army and saved Eureka Springs in the nick of time, vanquishing the most hated man west of the Mississippi and winning the favor of all Arkansas in the process.

Arthur never recovered from his wounds. He had been struck by a crossbow bolt and died of the resulting infection. Bruce was more fortunate than his father and made a full recovery, but his defeat at Hawksbill Crag combined with Malcolm’s sudden victory cost him the succession, and Malcolm became the leader of the War Rigs.

The defeat of Reverend Hart and the collapse of his empire created a new power vacuum in northwest Arkansas. Most of the region was now under Malcolm’s direct control, indirectly depended on it for their defense, divided among Hart’s bickering lieutenants, or completely lawless. Acknowledging his new preeminent position in the region, Malcolm founded the Ozark Transitional Government and reorganized the War Rigs into the Mobile Division of its army. With this expanded scope, he set about conquering the rest of Arkansas until he became its king. All the while, the War Rigs’ original territory became the core territory directly supplying Malcolm with funds and troops, while the rest of the OTG was governed by neo-feudal vassals.

Upon ascending to the throne of the Ozarks, the vassals were incorporated into the state as the House of Lords, and Malcolm’s old demesne was transformed into the Royal Domain. Although its towns are incorporated towns and have all the rights that entails, and there are even local lords in some of the Domain’s constituent counties, this land is closely tied with the personal estate of the King. Every city and lordship within the Domain exists only by special charters granted by the King. The territory itself has some unique governmental infrastructure; as with many of the King’s personal responsibilities in the Ozarks, Malcolm does not personally concern himself with day-to-day business and has deputies do it for him. To that end, the de facto ruler of the Royal Domain is its Governor-General, appointed by King Malcolm. The current Governor-General is Prince William, the son and heir of Prince Theodore, the Lord High Steward of the Ozarks.

The Royal Forest

The entire Royal Domain is technically King Malcolm’s private property, making him the single largest private landholder in the former United States.⁵ Malcolm obviously isn’t the sole inhabitant of this vast tract of land, however, nor is he the only one reaping its bounty. The Royal Domain is divided into three classes of territory: chartered territory, leased territory, and royal forest. Chartered territory is the aforementioned cities and lordships, with special writs recognizing their existence and allowing them to hold the land in trust for the King. Leased territory makes up the Royal Domain’s rural, agricultural areas. These lands are leased out to the tenants who inhabit them, from small homesteaders to royal stewards managing vast agricultural estates. Last is the royal forest, the Ozarks’ unspoiled virgin lands, which remain perpetually under the King’s personal protection as a wildlife preserve.

The royal forest is watched over by the Lord Warden, who commands the park rangers that keep poachers out and prevent dangerous wildlife from wandering into the leased territories. The unique position of the Warden has given him a seat on the Chief Council of State, even if he is beholden to the authority of the Governor-General. In effect, he is the Ozark environmental minister and his jurisdiction in environmental affairs extends throughout the kingdom, not just within the Royal Domain. One of his chief concerns is cleaning up pollution and radioactive fallout from the state’s NEZs. The worst of these is located right in the Domain itself: the Russellville Exclusion Zone, site of Arkansas Nuclear One. Arkansas’ sole nuclear power plant was bombarded such that the reactor was outright destroyed and did not melt down. A Chernobyl-level event did not occur in the state, but the Zone continues to pollute the lower Arkansas River with radiation to this day. There’s a reason why few Arkansans live downstream of the plant, and the residents of the Royal Domain greatly fear it.

Ozark Viticulture

The Royal Domain is also home to the better half of the Ozark wine industry. Arkansas and Missouri once formed the center of the American wine industry back in the 19th Century, thanks to the favorable climate and wine culture brought over from the Rhineland by German immigrants. The industry died almost overnight in the 1920s, when World War I forced America’s German population to assimilate and Prohibition forbade the sale of wine. When viticulture returned to the United States, it was mostly confined to the west coast. The wine industry experienced a slow and steady revival in Arkansas during the 21st Century, however, and Altus—a town just east of Ozark City—served as its premiere viticultural center. There were many cold Starving Time evenings where Malcolm and his troops subsisted off of bitter wine grapes for dinner.

Since his rise to power, Malcolm has fostered the growth of Ozark viticulture. Arkansas is traditionally one of the driest states in the country, and most of its counties forbid the sale of alcohol or place heavy restrictions on its trade. Malcolm inherited this highly-regulated attitude towards alcohol and established a royal monopoly on hard beverages. This monopoly is held by the Royal Guild of Vintners and Brewers, of which the King is officially the head; the Baron of Altus serves as his deputy within the Guild through the office of Vine-Regent. Only the Guild has the right to grow grapes and ferment and sell alcohol, and all alcoholic business is regulated through this body. Farmers who wish to grow grapes or make stills must purchase a license from the Guild.

The state also places a hefty tax on the sale of alcohol, not as a protective measure but as a revenue tariff. The excises and sale of licenses provides a significant sum for the national budget, and the King’s vineyards are his primary source of personal income. Although the Ozarks export lots of materials and products, including timber, minerals, cash crops, and finished machine goods, the most enduring Ozark product in the popular American consciousness is Altus Müller-Thurgau, labelled with King Malcolm’s seal of approval.

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Principality of Arkansas

Capital: Searcy
Classification: Special Case (Ozark constituent realm)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

The Principality of Arkansas is one of the two principal components of the Ozarks’ core territory, the other being the broken-off Principality of Ouachita. King Malcolm is both Prince of Arkansas and Ouachita, and specifically created Arkansas as a smaller principality to elevate his Ozark kingship above the level of an antebellum US state. Although the Ozarks have dealt with and incorporated many different Arkansas successor states, the state in Brinkley is the only one that is explicitly recognized as the rightful successor of the antebellum State of Arkansas. Life in the Principality is much like the rest of the realm, yet it is flavored differently thanks to the unique history of the region. Like Aztlan’s State of Tejas, it is of greater interest to cover these former polities and sub-polities individually than to go into greater detail about the Principality itself.

Carroll County

Named after Charles Carroll of Carrollton who signed the Declaration of Independence, Carroll County was one of the last surviving county governments when Malcolm Yates brought them into the fold. They already had tourists to contend with after the Great War and received a hefty burden of refugees from Fayetteville. The Fayetteville refugees and tourists dramatically affected the political character of the city, which grew further strained as time progressed. Eureka Springs, “the Switzerland of the Ozarks,” is a unique city that more closely resembles Victorian England in some aspects than it does the rest of the United States. This attracts a certain kind of person, and Eureka Springs became a haven both for hippies, homosexuals, countercultural activists, and fervent, fire-eating Christian fundamentalists. This stark duality can be visualized by the prewar city’s extensive LGBT celebrations, over which continuously loomed the Christ of the Ozarks, the 66-foot tall statue of Jesus Christ that overlooks the city.

The political divide stoked division between the right-wing county militia and the left-wing municipal government. They both hated each other, but were sufficiently terrified of the My Body, My Blood cult that they set aside their differences and cooperated for the sake of survival. After Huntsville fell to Reverend Hart, they called on the Ozarks for aid⁶, and Malcolm Yates answered them with an army at his command. Caught between the Ozark troops and the Carroll County militia, Reverend Hart was trapped and killed in battle. Now dependent on the Ozarks for aid, Eureka Springs was reduced to the position of neo-feudal vassal, bound to contribute men and taxes for Malcolm’s empire.

After Archbishop Thomas crowned Malcolm King of the Ozarks, the monarch returned north to settle accounts with the city. The city government expelled the militiamen and drove them into the hills. During this period of “Babylonic rule,” as the city remembers it, pro-abortion activists unaffiliated with the government blew up the Christ of the Ozarks with dynamite. King Malcolm rendezvoused with Captain Charles Pryce and his county militia and forced the city to surrender after a three days’ battle that consisted more of positioning and light skirmishing than actual fighting. The leftist government was deposed and its supporters were driven north into Missouri; two of the iconoclast bombers were captured and handed over to the custody of Lord Van Eps and his fearsome Orange Division, who burned them at the stake.

Pryce, who had fought alongside Malcolm against Reverend Hart, was created the 1st Duke of Carroll, the hereditary ruler of the Duchy of Carroll. He fostered a religious revival in Eureka Springs and rebuilt Christ of the Ozarks. The new statue was taller and constructed in a more traditional fashion in order to avert the old statue’s criticisms that it was in bad taste and looked like “Gumby Jesus” or “a milk carton with arms.” Eureka Springs is now the seat of its own diocese and is considered to be one of the main spiritual hubs of the realm, along with Hot Springs and Brinkley. Lord Carroll is one of the most prominent members of the House of Lords and is a close political ally of the Lord High Chancellor.

My Body, My Blood

Many Americans turned to the dreaded “Donner Party Option” during the Starving Time, but few did so openly. DPO and its eastern “Jamestown Option” counterpart became the preferred euphemisms due to the unwillingness and reluctance of those taking part, who had no other options for survival in the coldest months of the nuclear winter. Those who survived buried the past and tried to forget what they had taken part in, and many have successfully blocked it out of their memory. Indeed, there are many factions that have rewritten history to exclude their own DPO practices during the Starving Time and paint themselves as moral exemplars who didn’t have to make those kinds of sacrifices to survive. Of course, there are some places that genuinely never resorted to DPO, making the question of potential cannibalism a muddy one that most people would prefer to leave unanswered.

A few people of an extremely fanatical and bloodthirsty nature openly and brazenly consumed human flesh. For them, it wasn’t DPO—it was flat-out cannibalism and the survival of the fittest. Cannibalism doesn’t appeal to the vast majority of the human race, so only the most insane, fringe warlords adopted this stance towards eating their fellow men. Their era largely came and went during the first 15 years of the post-nuclear age, and nobody exemplified this period of madness better than the My Body, My Blood cult.

My Body, My Blood was founded by Ewan David Hart,⁷ a warlord who experienced religious delusions of grandeur and turned his warlike band of followers into a cannibal cult. Known popularly as “Reverend Hart,” he employed cannibalism as a tool to strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and to instill a sense of desperate loyalty in his followers, many of whom were conscripted child soldiers. Hart boiled human blood and cooked strips of human flesh before forcing his acolytes to eat out of his hands as a form of communion. After crossing the line into cannibalism, these children had estranged themselves from the rest of the human race and could never fully integrate back into their home communities. They were now bound to Reverend Hart, the only person who accepted them after their descent into such depravity, and would stick with him through thick and thin.

Reverend Hart waged a brutal campaign of barbarism throughout north central Arkansas, employing tactics that would make Liberia’s General Butt Naked or Uganda’s Joseph Kony blush. As time progressed, Hart’s tendency for violence and sadism escalated, and the religious aspect of his regime diminished in importance. Hart began the practice of cutting out the hearts of his enemies and eating them as an act of intimidation. It’s certainly terrifying, but it’s not the healthiest of diets, and Hart contracted a laundry list of debilitating illnesses: Hepatitis B, West Nile Virus, syphilis, and malaria. His greatest stroke of ill fortune was when he captured and razed the city of Huntsville. After Arthur Yates’ defeat at the Battle of Hawksbill Crag, the people of Huntsville knew their days were numbered. Instead of just waiting for Hart to kill and eat him, the mayor of Huntsville devised a plan to preemptively get revenge. He deliberately infected himself with as many diseases as he could catch, culminating in HIV-AIDS. When Hart cut out the mayor’s heart and ate it, he contracted HIV as well.

Hart’s descent into terminal illness sent him into an enraged frenzy. His attacks grew more frequent, aggressive, and desperate. He turned on his own subordinates and attacked his subjects with the same ferocity as enemies. His madness reached its climax in the attack on Eureka Springs, in which he was trapped by Pryce’s militia and Malcolm’s army and was killed.

Hart is long dead now, but the scars of his reign of terror remain. Huntsville still hasn’t fully recovered from the sack it received, and Mountain Home and Bull Shoals are in a similarly sorry condition. Hart’s lieutenants in the east—some of whom were in open revolt against him on the eve of his death—survived a while longer, but were crushed by Malcolm and his army. His legion of child soldiers has experienced extreme difficulty in re-integrating into society, and many melted into the countryside as bandits and petty criminals. A few others have joined the Ozark military, fighting under the command of the fearsome Vess Van Eps, the most austere and infamous commander in the King’s army, who was thought to be the only one capable of disciplining them. The wayward ex-child soldier is a popular stock character in Ozark culture and is often featured in plays and stories written by Ozark citizens.

Bald Knobbers

White County was unusual in eastern Arkansas in their continued support for the the EGSA in Hot Springs after Wainwright’s coup. Although they disapproved of Wainwright’s dismissal of civilian government (a command that White County did not intend to obey), they recognized them as the rightful government of Arkansas and stressed loyalty to the authorities. They also recognized John Ingersoll’s federal government in Midland, Texas—something very few factions did. The local Republican party political machine took over the county and established the Arkansas Citizens’ Committee as the instrument of their rule.

Using “rally around the flag” center-right nationalist rhetoric, the Committee fostered a band of unionist militiamen, the Bald Knobbers, who were named after the 19th Century vigilante gang of Southern Unionists that was prevalent throughout Arkansas and southern Missouri after the American Civil War. The EGSA preferred to ignore them along with anything else that transpired on the other bank of the Arkansas River, and White County was okay with this. There was some wishful thinking on the ACC’s part that they could vanquish their foes in the east and force Hot Springs to accept them as the rightful rulers of all Arkansas. They accrued some serious momentum towards the end and punched above their weight as a single-county regime; they stood firm in the face of Reverend Hart’s campaign of terror and they nearly brought the religious right in Brinkley to its knees. But it wasn’t enough to withstand the might of Malcolm’s Ozark Transitional Government, and they were forced to surrender.

White County is a part of the Ozarks now, but remains one of the more independently-minded fiefdoms with a political culture of its own. If they had joined the Ozarks on more favorable terms, Malcolm may have rewarded them with a duchy, like the ones he bestowed on Jonesboro and Eureka Springs, but he preferred to remind them of their place.

Arkansas Salvation Alliance

The fourth significant faction to precede the Principality of Arkansas was the Arkansas Salvation Alliance. They, like the Evangelical American Republic and the American Empire, once belonged to the Regenerated United States of America in Congress Assembled: a far-right faction in Hattiesburg, Mississippi that was shaping up to be one of the most powerful in the country before it fractured. Far-rightists and Christian nationalists throughout Arkansas largely rejected Wainwright’s coup, and gave their answer by holding their own convention in Brinkley to establish their own state government and join the Regenerated Congress. Like New Tulsa and Bogalusa, Brinkley split with the Regenerated Congress after its rigged round of presidential elections that favored the rightist political establishment over the up-and-coming militias and religious right.

The ASA represented Arkansas’ extreme religious right during the period of anarchy that began during the Starving Time. They did not recognize the Evangelical American Republic in New Tulsa as the rightful national government, although they did hold dialogue and were open to unification at some point down the line, if they could ever meet up. The ASA’s immediate concerns were territorial expansion within Arkansas and subjugating the constituent parts of their domain.

Their planned southern expansion across the Arkansas River was checked by the rise of the short-lived Federated States of America, leaving them stuck in a corner against the factions of northern Arkansas. Their main enemies became the vigilantes of White County and the liberals in Jonesboro, although they had a fifth column within their own ranks.

Nearby Forrest City was the home base of the radical Army of God militia—one of many that popped up across the United States back then—led by the fanatical Methodist pastor-warlord Sylvester “Vess” Van Eps. Its ranks were made up of the most ardent Christian Nationalist militiamen in the state and swelled by refugees coming in via the Mississippi River. He lent his support to the ASA, but always emphasized his autonomy as an independent agent not directly subordinate to them. Brinkley was glad to keep him on a long leash, as they wanted plausible deniability for some of the extreme actions he took in pacifying and “purifying” the countryside.

Van Eps’ particular vision of Christian Nationalism made him well-disposed towards monarchism, and he saw in Malcolm Yates the model of a Christian sovereign. He readily defected to Malcolm’s side and forced the Arkansas Salvation Alliance to surrender. Malcolm explicitly recognized Brinkley as the legitimate State of Arkansas in the treaty in order to provide continuity with the old government and put the Ozarks on equal footing with the US federal government.

Today, the former ASA is properly integrated into the Ozark patchwork, with its own lords and traditions. The more interesting fate is that of Van Eps and the Army of God. The Army became the Ozark military’s Orange Division, a fearsome crack unit that gets sent in when all other hopes have failed. Malcolm tries to hold them back when he can, as they have a reputation for brutality and collateral damage. Bruce is less sparing with the Orange Division and employed them frequently as attack dogs in his Missourian campaigns.

Van Eps—now ennobled as the Earl of St. Francis—later became one of the most captivating figures in the Ozark realm. He was an early proponent of the merger that led to the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks. Some believe that he was the one who suggested the idea that Malcolm should be crowned King. Malcolm was already starting to entertain the idea of monarchism by the time he met Van Eps, but their relationship probably accelerated the process. Upon the merger between the Methodist and Anglican churches in Arkansas, there was speculation that Van Eps would be its most senior clergyman. He quickly resigned his pastoral post, however, and joined the Ozark Church as a layman. Van Eps was offered the position of Lord Marshal of the Ozarks, but declined that as well in favor of continuing to hold direct command over the Orange Division. The austere general is also the author of a witch-hunting manual which has been widely publicized throughout the north of the Ozarks, especially in Missouri. He is the most divisive figure in the Kingdom, even more so than Archbishop Thomas or King Malcolm. To his supporters he is the purifying Pilgrim of the Ozarks; to his detractors, he is its butcher and hangman.

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Duchy of Jonesboro

Capital: Jonesboro
Classification: Local Government (Vestigial rump government)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

Despite the threat posed by refugees from Memphis, Tennessee, government authority endured in northeast Arkansas thanks to a powerful alliance of counties centered around Jonesboro. The counties adopted a localist, yet still democratic platform of isolationism and self-defense against warlords and refugees, and cooperated little with the original Hot Springs government even before Wainwright’s coup. When the military took over Hot Springs, they responded by holding state elections amongst themselves and establishing their own state government.

The State of Arkansas (Jonesboro) was characterized by a centrist government that, compared to the rest of the state, seemed very liberal and progressive. Compared to actual leftist factions, Jonesboro was definitely moderate, but it did harbor the largest Democratic presence in the state. They put up a serious fight against the Bald Knobbers, the Arkansas Salvation Alliance, and the Forty Thieves warlord band in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. They were a serious contender for the champion of Arkansas for the longest time, with a large population and robust government. Still, the Memphis refugee crisis hindered their ability to quickly expand, and their centrist political outlook amidst a landscape of far-right factions left them diplomatically isolated. Before they knew it, Malcolm’s Ozark Transitional Government had outmatched them and was right at their doorstep.

The Jonesboro Government was defeated, but not without putting up a good enough fight to gain a conditional surrender. Malcolm installed Dean Sutton, Jonesboro’s State Treasurer and the most pro-Ozark voice in the government, as Acting Governor in order to facilitate a permanent arrangement between Jonesboro and the Ozarks. One week later, the Jonesboro government was officially dissolved and Sutton was appointed Executive Commissioner of Jonesboro. When Malcolm was crowned king, he ennobled Sutton as the Duke of Jonesboro and set his territory apart as a special duchy within the realm.

The Duchy of Jonesboro still has a special status within the Ozarks today. It maintains a lot of the old government machinery of the Jonesboro Government and has a stronger democratic tradition than the rest of the state. Jonesboro has its own special constitution that restricts the Duke’s powers to that of a hereditary governor-for-life, while putting legislative power in the hands of a bicameral local legislature. The upper house is made up of local earls and barons, and the lower house is an elected body of commoners. The characteristic pageantry of Ozark nobility is also heavily downplayed here, and the Duke likes to present himself as more of Jonesboro’s “first citizen” than a monarchical figure. Because of his more down-to-earth presentation, Lord Dean is a go-to figure to represent the Ozarks to other factions abroad and helps bridge the gap between the eccentric monarchy and the rest of the country.

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Mississippi Marches

Capital: Dumas
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal vassal realm)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

The Mississippi Delta region encompassing northwest Mississippi and southeast Arkansas experienced a serious upheaval, despite not being directly touched by the Great War. The abject poverty this region already faced, combined with the refugees, the poisoning of the Mississippi river by pollution and fallout, and all the other pressures of the Great War, drove the Delta into anarchy. Dozens of tiny warlords, rogue police cliques, and small towns fought with one another for dominance and survival throughout the course of the Starving Time.

Within the space of ten years, a victor emerged: the rogue Mississippi Highway Patrol faction based in Greenville, Mississippi. The neo-feudal conqueror justified his conquests by proclaiming the “Federated States of America,” a successor to the United States with a new constitution for a new age. That constitution was drafted such to legally codify his neo-feudal system of allowing autonomy for minor subjects in exchange for their loyalty and a tithe in taxes and soldiers. At its height, the FSA controlled most of the Mississippi Delta, southeast Arkansas, and the northeast corner of Louisiana.

Despite its lofty ambitions of national unification, the Federated States of America met its untimely end when they attempted to conquer Clarksville and its “Delta Safe Zone.” President Jim Stover and his veteran Patrolmen were blocked by the timely arrival of Ozark Highlanders and forced on the defensive. After a series of inconclusive land battles, the Ozarks embarked on a river campaign to bombard Greenville with gunboats. A lucky shot scored a direct hit on Stover’s bunker and killed him. With FSA leadership in disarray, Ozark Royal Marines stormed the city and captured it before making peace with remaining FSA authorities.

In the ensuing treaty, the Ozarks annexed all of the FSA west of the Mississippi. The FSA rump state in the east abandoned its national ambitions and reformed into the Mississippi River Associated Towns and Counties, a confederation of local warlords trying to keep their collective regimes intact after losing the central leadership that once bound them together. The Ozark territory became the Mississippi Marches, the second of the Ozarks’ three march territories.

As a Marcher realm, the Mississippi Marches are filled with local Marcher warlords, who govern themselves through the Marcher Council. Rule of law is weaker here than in the Ozark heartland and the Marchers have great liberty in ruling their fiefdoms however they wish. Despite the rugged state of this frontier territory, it’s a lucrative breadbasket of the Ozarks, rich with fertile soil for growing valuable cash crops. Rice, cotton, and sugar are all grown here for domestic use and for export.

The Mississippi Marches are also a source of controversy within the Ozarks and beyond, on account of the issue of race between the Marchers and their subjects. Although the Mississippi Highway Patrol had a relatively high proportion of black officers compared to other state police forces, it was still majority white; this tendency was even more pronounced in the FSA. The Mississippi Marcher lords are all either FSA vassals who switched sides or were Ozark officers whose service was rewarded with land and titles. Be they FSA or Ozark in origin, the Marchers are almost all white, yet they rule over a majority black region. To settle the issue of racial representation, reformist voices within the Marches are calling for a Jonesboro-type system to introduce representative government to the region. Whether or not the Ozarks adopt this proposal—or if the Marcher lords are willing to go along with it—remains to be seen.

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Principality of Ouachita

Capital: Arkadelphia
Classification: Special Case (Ozark constituent realm)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

While Arthur Yates and his successor Malcolm were busy conquering the north of Arkansas, there was the Emergency Government of the State of Arkansas in the south. After enacting his coup, Lt. Col. Wainwright spent a lot less time ruling and a lot more time putting out fires than he had hoped. Wainwright’s military government was notoriously hard-headed and uncooperative, and had great trouble finding allies or even neutral neighbors.

Other military governments like the Provisional All-American Government or Knights Templar knew to incorporate civilian bodies into their regime to lend political experience, continuity of government, and popular support to their system. Others, like the Oklahoma Emergency Military Government, may have preferred total military rule but at least kept civilian leaders in symbolic positions of authority to maintain a veneer of democratic legitimacy. Wainwright lacked the tact to make such compromises and insisted upon total, indefinite, unaided military rule. What should have resulted in a streamlined, secure government turned to a chaotic, paralyzed rump state marred by constant rebellion and internal rivalries between officer cliques.

Wainwright attempted to unify his government by focusing on a common enemy for his troops to fight. He chose the Arkansas Public Safety Commission, the state police regime in El Dorado that also presented the greatest external threat to his rule. Wainwright prosecuted a long, grinding campaign of attrition against the state police, which was disrupted by internal struggles when disloyal commanders split off to try and form their own fiefdoms or defect to other factions. Wainwright attempted to appease his commanders by rewarding them with conquered lands on the slow march towards El Dorado. In doing so, he had basically transformed his military government into a neo-feudal regime, much like the Ozark Transitional Government on his northern border. It was during this slow, fruitless war that the EGSA gave up on their hopes of reconquering the north and east anytime in the near future.

By the time it seemed like El Dorado was nearly in their hands, a wrench was thrown into their plans that ruined their chances of victory. The APSC united with the state police regime in Natchitoches, Louisiana to create the Arkansas-Louisiana Emergency Council, basically tripling the men and materiel at El Dorado’s disposal. Hot Springs saw that the war was lost and made peace with the Council, accepting the territorial gains they had already made. After years of war, it was finally time for Wainwright to rest and recover his spent strength. Unfortunately, the long-dormant north had now eclipsed him in power, and set themselves upon him with unmatched vigor.

The Arkansas National Guard was swiftly defeated in the field after a brief but bloody campaign in which the Ozarks finally wielded the combined might of all of northern Arkansas. Ozark Highlanders, Malcolm’s own Mobile Division, Eureka Springs militiamen, penitent ex-cultist child soldiers, White County Bald Knobbers, republican troopers from Jonesboro, and the fanatical Orange Division fundamentalists all contributed to the war effort, albeit more for reasons of sectionalist allegiances than out of a genuine personal loyalty to Malcolm Yates.

Wainwright retreated to his citadel at Hot Springs, and the rest of the war dragged on as a long, persistent siege. Hot Springs was mostly destroyed in the fighting and thousands perished, but the Ozarks were victorious once the dust eventually settled. Wainwright was captured and compelled to surrender, but he was magnanimously allowed to resign with dignity and was not placed on trial. After his defeat, Stan Wainwright was given an airplane and allowed to flee with his family and retainers to live as wealthy private citizens in Jackson, Tennessee. He made no attempt to establish a government in exile, and returned to visit on two separate occasions. Upon Wainwright’s death, his body was sent to Hot Springs and given a state funeral at King Malcolm’s private expense.

Ouachita under the Ozarks

With Wainwright out of the picture, southern Arkansas was now Malcolm’s to take. He subjugated the remaining National Guard commanders, who switched their allegiance to him as neo-feudal vassals with little fanfare. As far as they were concerned, nothing had changed except for the name of the recipient of their tribute. The free warlords of southwest Arkansas presented more of a challenge. Mena was host to the Mena Neighborly Association, a strong-willed vigilante gang that didn’t go down without a fight. There was no magnanimity towards them on Malcolm’s part, and the MNA wasn’t interested in receiving any. Further south was the Self-Defense League, an alliance of minor warlords who emerged from the Texarkana Exclusion Zone to fill the power vacuum caused by the Hot Springs-El Dorado War. Malcolm attempted to drive a wedge between the petty kings and play them off of each other, but their alliance remained surprisingly resilient, and they too fought to the bitter end.

With no more major rivals within Arkansas, Malcolm was left to rule the state however he wished. He was the fourth and final warlord in America to achieve a hegemonic position of unchallenged dominance over their home state.⁸ The war left behind a burned countryside, smoldering capital city, and patchwork of restless vassal warlords. With no time to waste, Malcolm and his most reliable supporters set about crafting a lasting order.

They established the Evangelical Church of the Ozarks to give spiritual legitimacy and direction to the realm and crowned Malcolm King of the Ozarks to solidify his position. The neo-feudal vassals were tamed and arranged into an organized body via the House of Lords, and the former territories of the EGSA were incorporated as the Principality of Ouachita. Ouachita was split off from Arkansas to prevent too much of the realm from coalescing into one all-dominant region, and to reflect southern Arkansas’ character as a highly militarized realm. Although the south is the less prosperous half, it’s steadily recovering from the war and has benefitted from its proximity to the royal capital of Hot Springs.

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Free City of Hot Springs

Capital: Hot Springs
Classification: Special Case (Ozark free city)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks

Hot Springs has had a long and storied history throughout its years. From 19th century spa town, to premiere baseball training center, to favored den of mobsters and federal politicians alike, and finally provisional capital of Arkansas after the destruction of Little Rock in 2029. Hot Springs was the seat of the first provisional government and the military government after it, until Malcolm captured it at the end of a protracted siege.

The battle caused considerable damage to the city itself, leaving few structures intact and creating a large homeless population. Malcolm saw the chance to reshape the city to fit his own vision and established it as his new capital right away. Calling on the brightest architectural and urban planning minds he could summon, the King endeavored to design a city in an idyllic fashion based on postwar design principles. Although Malcolm rose to power off the backs of militant truckers, a key element of the new Hot Springs was a reduced reliance on automobile traffic.⁹ Another pillar of the rebuilt city was the construction of new, grandiose bathhouses on Bathhouse Row to replace their prewar counterparts. These new bathhouses are frequented by commoners and noblemen alike, and are a popular meeting place for the Ozark elite. The ruins of the Arlington Hotel were rebuilt into Malcolm’s royal palace, which has become the most prominent landmark in the city.

In honor of Hot Springs’ special status in the realm, Malcolm gave it a special charter as the Kingdom of the Ozarks’ only Free City. The Free City of Hot Springs enjoys all the rights and autonomy of a principality, and its Lord Mayor is among the most powerful people in the realm. Here, the mercantile burgher class and its royal guilds are the main ruling power, even though they live in the shadow of the national government. Hot Springs is far from an idyllic city; there remains tension between the prewar inhabitants, the Starving Time-era refugees, and the Ozark-era newcomers, and the old elements of the city untouched by the war clash with the organized vision of the new city. Nonetheless, it is an impressive accomplishment of post-nuclear urbanism and remains the crown jewel of the Ozark Kingdom.

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Arkansas-Louisiana Emergency Council

Capital: Natchitoches, Louisiana
Classification: State Legacy (State law enforcement regime)

Hegemonic though the Ozarks may be over their wide and proud dominion, there is one corner of Arkansas they have yet to conquer. This is the Arkansas portion of the Arkansas-Louisiana Emergency Council, previously the Arkansas Public Safety Commission. The APSC started as a state police regime that raised their banner in rebellion against the Hot Springs government after Lt. Col. Wainwright excluded them from his regime and demanded they submit to the National Guard. War broke out between the two powers at once, and Hot Springs steadily gained the upper hand over a period of years. When they had just arrived at the gates of El Dorado, the state troopers called on the emergency government of northern Louisiana to come to their aid. They joined the Louisiana Emergency Council, who provided more than enough men to beat back the Arkansas National Guard and win a desperate peace.

Although Arkansas is the first name to appear in the faction’s title, Louisiana is by far the dominant partner. The police leadership in El Dorado is fine with this—they’re as much a part of the ruling class as the Louisiana State Police is—but there is nothing in the way of devolved government for Arkansas. For all intents and purposes, the area surrounding El Dorado is now a part of Louisiana.

They still claim the entirety of Arkansas, however, and of Louisiana too. After the fall of Hot Springs, the ALEC capitalized on the short period of chaos to snatch up as much territory as they could. The Ozarks initially protested, but took no action against the encroaching state troopers. Years later, after the fall of Missouri, the Ozarks came back south and demanded the return of their rightful territory. A brief war occurred between the Ozarks and the ALEC which threatened to escalate into the same kind of death spiral that consumed the old EGSA. To avoid that fate, the Ozarks signed a ceasefire that agreed upon the old boundary between the ALEC and EGSA at the end of the Hot Springs-El Dorado War.

Today, both the Ozarks and ALEC are not interested in reigniting the conflict. The Ozarks still have substantial interests in Louisiana, but are more focused on controlling the Mississippi River trade and breaking the Acadian stranglehold. Presented with the cornucopia of wealth offered by the river trade, warring over a few small towns along the state line is hardly an attractive option. The ALEC, for its part, is more concerned with matters in Louisiana and is more interested in southern Arkansas as a buffer than a region of potential expansion. If they are to expand, it’ll be to the south, into Acadia, once the time is right.

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Index

Click here to read the master post of the series, with links at the bottom of the page to all other Fallen Continent entries.

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1. Author’s Note: The Ozarks, along with Aztlan, USA-Dodge City, and nearly all of the Oklahoma factions, have a much different position within the Fallen Continent setting because they are the factions directly engaged with the events of the novel. The Kingdom of the Ozarks is the faction with which the main characters become affiliated (spoiler alert), so I pray you excuse the excruciating detail I put into in describing them in this article.

Additionally, while I want factions to be complex and multi-faceted, the Ozarks are something of a “good guy faction.” If you were to make an analogy to Fallout: New Vegas, the Kingdom of the Ozarks might be described as a more positive, less unambiguously villainous, and less austere alternative to Caesar’s Legion. To tell the truth, this project started out more than three years ago as a FNV text-based roleplaying game. I’ve mostly Ship of Theseus’d the Fallout elements out since then, but some vestigial holdouts remain. Sharp eyes will probably be able to spot some of them, not just in this article but in others.

I’ve tried to avoid outright wish-fulfillment with the Ozarks—and indeed they do many things I don’t personally agree with—but there is a degree of wishful thinking on how they’ve turned out. I like Game of Thrones, but I’m not George R.R. Martin and do not want to write a drearily grey story with no heroes. I think many of us would like to hope for a Return of the King in such a tumultuous world as the one in which we live.

2. Northwest Arkansas was not sparsely-populated before the Great War, but the destruction of the Fayetteville metropolitan area made it that way.

3. Black Watch members identify each other through tarot cards, and sometimes through playing cards for lower-ranking agents.

4. The Battle of Hawksbill Crag was not fought at Hawksbill Crag, but was located five miles south of the famous landmark. The newspapers certainly didn’t want to write about “the Battle of Glory Hole Falls” for such a solemn occasion, though, so Hawksbill Crag became the preferred name.

5. Along with King Malcolm, the top ten largest landholders in the former United States include:
Buenaventura Xavier Hidalgo: President of the United States of Aztlan.
Walter Frohman: President of Republic Enterprises, USA-Dodge City.
Jason Ashton: Governor of the State of Jefferson.
Leslie Magro: President of the Transcascadian Timber Foundation, State of Oregon.
Jesse Meryll: First Citizen of the Second American Republic, nephew and heir of Edmund Meryll.
Hannah Salomon: President of the USA-Mt. Pleasant, daughter and heir of Eli Rosenblatt.
Johan Calvyn Groenewald: President of the New Netherland Company, USA-Elizabeth City.
Adam Kazuyuki: President of the Kazuyuki Fruit Company, Republic of Hawaii.
John Parker Crowninshield: Chief of the George Washington Legion, inasmuch as he can be strictly said to own property as the chieftain of a state-spanning warrior society.

Of course, if certain people of fringe religious persuasions are to be believed, then God is the largest landholder in America, being in possession of all of it. Note that these are the largest landholders, not necessarily the richest people in America. That list would look slightly different.

6. The liberal municipal government wanted to call on the now-defunct State of Missouri in Springfield to help them, but the tourist-warlord of Branson blocked the passes south.

7. No relation to W. Oliver Hart, the author of these posts and owner of this Substack account. Reverend Hart’s name is just a pun.

8. The other three were Felix Baskerville of the Delmarva Regional Authority, Brendan Wagner of the Heartland Social Republic, and Edmund Meryll of the Second American Republic, respectively. This does not include states that always remained under the control of a successor government, such as the Republic of Hawaii, People’s Republic of Vermont, or State of New Hampshire.

9. This was more due to pragmatic reasons involving the scarcity of automobiles than any special revulsion for cars. As automobiles become more commonplace in the Ozarks, Hot Springs has started to experience problems of traffic congestion once more.